HOLY MEDITATIONS Upon Seven Penitential and seven Consolatory Psalms of the Kingly Prophet David. Written by the noble and learned G. D. V.  
Imprinted at London for Thomas Thorp 1612.   

TO SIR PETER Manwood, Knight of the Honourable order of the Bath.  
SIR,  
NEITHER Seas nor Mountains are so impassable a division in human society, as diversity of language: they separate our bodies only, these our minds, making us absent even in presence, while though our bodies meet together, yet we, (I mean our diviner parts) cannot: If any one could open the back door of the Indies, and let us in a nearer way, how would fame dwell on his memory, and posterity gratify his labour. A sincere clear Translator doth more, for he conducts our understandings the next safest way to the richest intellectual mines that are. How many after a long travail, bring forth only some foreign deformity, their example making deeper impressions than their precepts, where as these Bees bring us home the honey, leaving the poison in the weed, save us the labour of travail, by transporting other countries to us, and not exiling us to them, making remotest kingdoms as domestic and cheap as maps, greatest Princes as familiar as books, and our farthest journey but to Paul's Churchyard. For they reconcile and new tune jarring mankind, bringing back the harmony of speech from discord to unisone. For as original writers are the spring-heads of knowledge, so are these the conduit pipes bringing us home what we have not strength or leisure to fetch abroad. The unhappy difference is, that all waters are cleared and purified by long conveyance, writings corrupted and thickened. How so nice and delicate an apprehension will relish these, event will tell me. The Author can protect himself (who is yet living, and famous for his singular learning and eloquence) and you me, not by patronizing mine errors, but in correcting them. Some hours of melancholy I have bestowed on these Holy Meditations, with much satisfaction to myself, if so to you I will think it a very fortunate idleness, and strive hereafter to present you with matter of some other subject. Thus wishing you whatsoever may become your own virtues or my desires. I submit myself to your favourable censure, and rest  
Yours ever to be commanded, W. SHUTE.   

Meditations on the Penitential Psalms of David.  

Domine ne in furore. Psalm. vi.  
Lay not upon me o Lord the arm of thy severe judgement: It would throw me like a torrent into the depth of death and eternal damnation. It would devour me like fire, and the remander of my body would fly away into ashes: what eye is able to endure, without perrishing for fear, the only look of thine angry countenance, when casting thine eye upon us, thou percest the very bottom of our hearts, and discoverest the secrets of our impure consciences? our abominable sins will draw down thy just anger upon our heads, and thy inkindeled wrath will throw us headlong at once into the gulf of pain, torments and misery. Before than that thy fury doth arise against me, and that thou comest with a just disdain to overthrow & destroy me, hearken unto the humble groaning which my heart, possessed with fear, doth present unto thee, and receive this weak and panting voice which with tears, crieth thus unto thee.  
2. Mercy, mercy o Lord, alas my God what dost thou? wilt thou make proof of thy strength on my weakness? dost thou think that I present myself before thee to wrestle against thy power? it is thy clemency o Lord which I run unto. I place myself under thy wing to the end it may defend me from the rigour of the condemnation which I have to much deserved. Look then upon me with a milder countenance, and seeing that I have in a time convenient called upon thy goodness, help me, & deliver me from so many evils which besiege me: for behold, my body doth languish: & it seemeth unto me that all my bones are bruised and broken.  
3. And my poor body is not only thus cruelly afflicted, but likewise my miserable soul is wholly dipped in sorrow: this soul, o Lord, which did determine with her voice to glorify the author of her life, is beaten down, and desolate, without strength, and courage; and as the fearful Dove hideth herself at the voice of thunder in some little hollow place, even so she perceiving thy fearful indignation doth seek out the most obscure darkness for retreat. But until when my God, shall thine anger last?  
4 Come, come o my God, and turn upon me that look of pity wherewith thou canst blot out, not only my sins, but those of the whole world. I feel my soul to stick fast in a foul and deep bog of iniquity: she sinketh, she stretcheth out her hand unto thee o Lord: alas draw her forth of it, & bring her into the way of salvation. Save her o Lord, for she conjures thee by thine infinite goodness and unspeakable mercy. It is most true that she deserves it not, and ought not to hope for help from him, whom she hath so carelessly forsaken, against whose honour she hath so wickedly conspired: The reward of her offence ought not to be mercy, but torment and eternal death.  
5. But o Lord who is it that in the midst of hell; in the bottomlese pit of death, shall sing thy praises, and sound forth thy name? there is the dwelling place of sorrow, there is nothing heard but howl, there is nothing seen but torments, and thy praise on the contrary consisteth in the publication of thy infinite meekness, goodness and mercy.  
6. And thenbehold on the one side humble penitence which intercedeth for me, and which hath sworn not to leave me until it hath reconciled me unto thee. And on the other, humble prayer which importunes thee for me, and hath sworn not to let thee rest till it hath reconciled me unto thee. Alas o Lord, thou hast so oftentimes seen my tears, and heard my lamentations. That I do daily at the remembrance of mine offences wash my face with my tears, I cause my bed to swim in the water with streameth from mine eyes: what is it which commandeth me to do so? is it not o Lord penitence which I religiously observe?  
7. I look downward, and tremble with fear at the aspect of thine angry countenance. I do patiently endure the rebukes of mine enemies, and take their reproaches in good worth, as the just punishment of their offences. I walk in their sight with sackcloth, with ashes on my head, and confession in my mouth, I prostrate myself at the feet of thine Altars; I make lean with scourges of affliction the flesh which delivered over my body unto sin: but my torments serve for matter of laughter unto those that hate me, who swarm about me to traduce me by scoffs and derision.  
8. But now that thou dost show mercy unto me, I will bid them stand back, stand back o ye children of iniquity, ye shall no more laugh at my misery: the Lord hath heard my prayer, my tears have overcome his wrath, and lo I enjoy the fruit of his holy favour. The brightness of his goodness hath shined upon me, and behold, the mists wherein my head was wrapped are on a sudden scattered and vanished away.  
9 I had scarce opened my lips to invoke his aid; my heart did scarcely dispose itself to crave his pardon, when as I felt his grace to be shed upon me, to comfort and quicken my languishing soul, even as an hot bath doth the members of a poor Pilgrim tired with travel: oh incredible clemency! how comes it to pass O Lord that thou art so ready to forgive? I ran on to offend thee, and thou came'st flying to give me pardon. I have employed all the days of my life to seek both by sea and land matter for my ambition, avarice, and licentiousness; and after that I had engulphed and lost myself in mine own pleasures, thou pearced'st in a moment the heavens, and clouds, and cam'st to deliver me. So as now I triumph over my sin, which follows the trophies of my penitency, the which hath found favour in thy fight. And in this manner my hope (which mine offences had almost smothered) is revived more than before, & doth promise me not only the Empires of the world, which hover where the Lord inclineth them, but openeth the highest heavens unto me, and assureth me after an happy life in this world, the enjoying of divine immortality. What shall then mine enemies do now, when they shall see such felicity heaped upon me? They shall blush for shame, and shall by greatly troubled in their minds: they shall retire themselves all confounded and astonished: For he whom they thought to destroy, is raised higher than ever he was. Alas they mocked mine ashes, they jested at my fasts, they flouted my tears, and whilst by abstinence I tamed my flesh, the true enemy to my soul, they did swim in worldly delights: but lo, the arm of God was ready to thunder on their insolency. o my God, give them leisure to perceive the extreme danger wherein they are, and to beg from an high the only remedy for their disease, and as for me, who feel myself purified from those filthinesses which compassed me about, which feel my soul inflamed with the fire of thy charity, teach my lips to set forth thy praises, address my voice to resound thy mercy, and direct mine affection to love thee sincerely, and to establish her chief happiness, and highest felicity in the knowledge of thy truth.   

Beati quorum, Psalm, 31.  
HOw happy my God are those, whose offences thou hast pardoned, and whose sins thou hast buried in a tomb of forgetfulness. For, alas! what can become of him whom thou causest to endure the just punishment for his sins? an army of miseries environs him, poverty assails him, sickness afflicts him, famine oppresseth him, and death itself, which he thinketh to be the haven of this tempestuous navigation, is the bottomless pit to draw him into eternal torments.  
2. Thrice and four times happy than are they of whom God demandeth none account of their actions, but is satisfied so that they humble themselves before him, acknowledging their infirmity, and opening unto him the depths of their hearts: For his mercy is to be called upon by true confession, and sincerity of conscience: he that will be heard, must humble himself before him. As he which goeth to a fountain, puts down the mouth of his vessel before he can fill it with liquor, in like manner it behoveth him to cast himself down before his creator, which will draw and taste of the water of this sacred fountain, from whence distilleth the humour, which alone can cleanse and purge our consciences.  
3. I did think sometimes, oh my God, to hide my faults from thee, & have said unto myself; How can he tell, or not, what I have done? In this manner my sin waxed old in my bones, and like the sores of a sick man, who is ashamed and dares not show his disease to the surgeon; they do increase and wax worse, till the whole body perish: in like manner the sins which I have hidden from thee, have wholly infected me.  
4. But at the last thou hast in such sort, day and night, laid thy heavy hand upon me, and hast caused me to taste so many kinds of misfortunes, betwixt which my soul liveth without rest, quelled with a continual pricking in my conscience which pierceth the very bottom of my heart, as I have acknowledged my fault, the which I now carry in my hand. Take notice of it o my GOD, but not in thine anger: for the streaming tears which have quenched with weeping the light of mine eyes, ought likewise also to have extinguished the heat of thy just indignation. And then, am I not the work of thine hands, and that which is more, the lively image of thy divinity? who is he so transported with choler, which will break in pieces the workmanship which he hath so much delighted to polish and bring to perfection, because it is a little foul and slubbered? This image is laden with filthiness I confess, but is it not much better to cleanse & burnish it then to destroy it and tread it under foot?  
5. Teach me then my God, what satisfaction I am to make, for I have now discovered unto thee all those faults which before I did conceal. The fear which possessed me then, when I hid myself from thee, now when I lay myself open unto thee, is turned into hope of favour and pardon. And now I cast myself into thine arms, as my surest refuge, with the self same countenance, as the poor patient, who showing his wound to the Surgeon, looks attentively upon him, and manfully endureth the search and lancing, for the desire and hope which he hath to be healed. But that which giveth me most hope of health, is, that those vices wherein I delighted heretofore, do now make me afraid to behold them, as the meats wherewith a man is stuffed in health do afterwards make him sick at the heart. That which made me fierce, doth now make me ashamed, when I consider the danger of death, whereunto my pride had exposed my poor soul. I thank that day which first gave me the light to acknowledge my fault. I did on that day, my GOD, receive a singular testimony of thy goodness towards me, let it please thee then, that the pleasure which I have received in displeasing myself, may continue with me as long as that which I took in my vices: For if I can take as great contentment in my penitency, as I have taken in my sin, my happiness shall be equal to that of thine Angels, and by my humiliation before thee, I shall see myself exalted to the highest top of thy favour.  
6. Who doubteth o Lord that thou wilt not receive me to mercy? thou whose meekness and benignity, is not only unspeakable but incomprehensible? I did no sooner think of returning unto thee, but thou didst meet me. I did no sooner say that I would confess my misdeeds; but thou didst grant me pardon. I did no sooner know what punishment belonged to my sin, but thou forgavest it. I took the rods in hand to chastise my flesh, and thou tookest them from me. To be short, I thought that thou wouldst have proclaimed war against me, and thou offeredst me a charitable reconciliation. Oh how much more rather o Lord dost thou pardon then punish? Can a good Father more lovingly receive his Child which beggeth his pardon, than thou hast received me, when I did cast myself at thy feet? Mine heart also leapeth for joy, and boileth with an holy heat to praise thy name; it rejoiceth in the favour which thou hast showed it, accusing none but itself for what is past, and crieth out, it is I which willed it, it is I which have done it, it is I which took pleasure therein: but my God was merciful unto me,  
7. How could he have refused me his mercy, seeing Christ jesus is my Advocate, and thy Saints, whose prayer is so dear unto him, have prayed, do pray, and will continually pray unto him for me? They are those who make intercession for me; who procure his favour for me; who implore his goodness, for in those prayers which they power out for thy universal Church I hope to have my part? They have need alas to intercede for me, seeing that the impiety of my heart hath in such sort blinded mine understanding by her evil thoughts, as my soul could not look up towards heaven, to lift up her hand to him, who only can and will save it: what remained for me more, but that those whom thou drawest near to thyself, and whom thou hast received into the sacred consistory of thine eternity, should beseech thee to have pity upon me? Upon me, who (a chief enemy to myself) have never, could, nor would have prayed unto thee for mine offence. I do now then comfort myself, for that thou hast opened mine eyes to see the loathsomeness of my conscience, for that thou hast mollified my heart to make true contrition to lodge therein. If it hath not been so soon as it should, it hath not at the leastwise been so late, but thou hast vouchsafed to receive me as thou art wont to do those who let slip no time of repentance.  
8. For those which make haste to sin, and do willingly neglect repentance, when they perceive their faults, and have means to do it, deferring till their lives end, to crave thy mercy & loving kindness, and to make a deluge of their eyes, they are in great danger of deceiving themselves, and true repentance cannot afterwards enter into their hardened hearts; their sorrow will be like that of desperate people, and thy mercy prove deaf to their too late repentance.  
9 But I run in time to thee as unto the refuge and end of my hopes, to my comfort in tribulation which hath environed me in the same manner as the fear of death sezeth upon him that is appointed to some shameful punishment. Cause me then now to taste the pleasure which that man feeleth in his heart who is freed from Irons, delivered out of prison, and defended from the punishment, wherein his enemy hath a long time held him captive. And on the contrary, let the enemy of my soul blush for shame when he shall perceive me so devoutly to crave the assistance of my God, who with the only twinkling of his eye, can deliver me from the voluntary bondage which I vowed to damnable voluptuousness, at such time as I drank the sweet honey of delicious pleasures which it presented unto me with a deceitful hand in the loathsome cup of this world.  
10. Alas! when I call to mind the time that thou didst thus return unto me, and when with that eye of mercy thou madest a sign unto me of pardon mercy, and salvation, it seemeth unto me that I do verily behold a clear sunshine to arise amidst the storms and tempests of the sea, who by little and little perceiving the clouds bringeth back a clear and calm season, and uniteth the raging waves of the water. Every hour I seem to understand that sweet and gracious word, when thou didst say; Fear no more, for behold my spirit shall direct thy paths, and shall not lose the sight of thee, thou shalt walk now under his conduct, who bringeth in pure & clean souls into my glorious kingdom. So soon as I heard this word, I fixed mine eyes on my guide, like the attentive Pilot on the shining star that directeth the course of his Navigation. O God how sweet shall that rest be which I shall enjoy, after that I have walked in those ways which thou hast taught me; I which went astray out of the path which leadeth to thy holy Tabernacle? I was already entered into the thick forest of this world, where such do easily lose themselves, who to enjoy though pleasure and sweetness of the shades, do fly from though light of the day, which should direct them in their journey: for soon doth the fearful face of night affright them, and delivers them for a prey unto wild beasts that cruelly tear & devour them. I did already wander in this Labyrinth, and I was hopeless to get forth of it, but that thou didst put the thread into my hand, which brought me out of this dangerous prison.  
Be hold I am now at liberty, to do homage and service unto that GOD which did deliver me, to present unto him his image pure and undefiled, and to acknowledge all those favours, which it hath pleased him to bestow on me, to proceed from his only goodness. He hath not only heard me above his other creatures, giving me the use of divine reason, but he hath likewise among men lifted me up into a throne of honour and magnificence, so that there was nothing left to perfect my happiness, but only to be able to know it: and after that I had forgotten myself he did enlighten me by his holy light, and gave me time and will to bewail my life past, and to amend in time to come.  
11. Do then like me that are my friends, and have recourse in time to his mercy, for he himself calleth you into the way of salvation: and be not like to the stubborn Mule which kicketh against the spur, he wanteth reason, knowledge and judgement.  
12. For a bit is put into his mouth, and he doth continually feel the spur in his side. In like manner, if at the first warning, which the Lord gives you, to return into his ways, you do not obey his will, he will rain upon you showers of calamities, which will make you more miserable than misery itself.  
13. You see the stars which twinkle in the firmament, the sand which lieth on the Sea shore, but neither hath the sea so much sand, nor the heavens so many stars, as there are punishments prepared for the obstinate. Their misery hangs over their head, misfortunes follow them at every step, until they have thrown them headlong into that gulf, the only thought whereof is fearful to all those which do remember it, whose easiest places of retreat are full of cries, groan, and lamentations: Where pain is without end, grief without remedy, repentance without mercy, where death is immortal, the body living but to die, and the soul to suffer; where the soul feels nothing but her sin, and the body but his punishment. On the contrary, those which cover themselves with the Lords favour, which make his mercy their buckler, who have no other hope but in his goodness, who follow his commandments and are jealous of his will and pleasure, what felicity is there but they may attain to? what precious thing is there in heaven, but shall be opened unto them? They shall sit side by side with their God, and being environed with glory, so much happiness shall be heaped upon them, as the soul of man is not able to conceive the least part thereof, much less can my barren tongue express it.  
14. I will then rejoice o my God in the hope of such and so many benefits as thou reservest in heaven to crown the just withal. Unto this joy I invite you all which trust to the words of our Saviour, which love justice and righteousness, there doth the reward of your labours attend you, there you shall be placed in honour and glory, there shall you exchange the sharp thorns of this world, for flourishing Lilies of all eternity; Oh then shall the sweat of your afflictions find most sweet rest. Gold comes not forth of the flames in the Furnace more pure and shining to be stamped with the Image of a great Prince, and then to serve for the adornment of some rich cabinet, as the heart of that man which loveth his God shall be drawn pure and clean from the miseries of this world, to be environed with splendour and glory. What day can now displease me in this world? who shall hinder and stay me from entering into the house of the Lord, for to live in his service? upon what day of my life shall I cease from bewailing those sins which kept me forth of his favour? unite then in me, o my God these two contrary passions, joy and repentance, to the end that like as the pilgrim, who hath lost his way in a desert, rejoiceth when he beholds the dawning of the day, and yet for all that cannot forget the obscure darkness out of the which he is yet scarce come, nor lay aside his fear of so troublesome a night: even so have I always abhorred my sins past, and have nevertheless a certain and lively hope to enjoy that eternal happiness which thou hast purchased for us by the price of the blood of thy dear Son jesus Christ. Alas! how great is this love, when the Master spareth not the life of his child to redeem his servant? Being then form by thy hand, redeemed by thy blood, and purified by thy mercy, I offer myself unto thee for a sacrifice of obedience; reject me not o my God.   

Domine ne in furore. Psalm 37.  
O Lord I must needs return again unto thee, and begin a new to implore thy mercy, for thine anger seemeth to be newly kindled against me. Alas! my God, wilt thou punish me in thy wrath, and cause me to feel the violence of thy just fury, which my sins have stirred up against me? the torch consumed by fire falleth into ashes, and I being devoured by the heat of thine indignation, shall vanish away, and nothing will be left of me but only smoke.  
2. For I see o my God that thou hast let fly the sharpest arrows of thy vengeance upon me: thou hast touched me with thine hand, and thou takest it not of from me. I feel remorse and terror in my conscience, which do astonish and bruise me like flashes of lightning, and claps of thunder miseries come unto me by heaps, and one mishap brings on another, war is no sooner ended but the plague assaileth me, and d●ath at the last bereaves me of the dearest pledges which I have in this world: In what then o my GOD shall I take comfort? shall it be in myself?  
3 Alas there is no whole member about me, the disease hath pierced even to the marrow of my bones: there is no part about me, but doth reproach me for my sins, and endures the punishment thereof. I languish in my sorrow and no man comforts me: mine eyes serve me for none other purpose but to behold my misery, and my soul but to acknowledge my misfortune.  
4. I look round about me, and as much as the eyes of my body and soul can discern of the time past, I see nothing above, beneath, nor on each side of me, but sin which compasseth me about, and mine iniquities which crush and press me down: they are heaped upon my head like an heavy burden, and behold, they smother me.  
5. How shall I resist them? what strength have I to defend myself, seeing that my body falleth in pieces? corruption runs from it on every side: mysoares are no sooner shut, but they open again, and if my body be ill, my soul is much worse, it is all confounded and trembleth for fear.  
6. And as sickness undermines my body, which is ready to die, even so doth sorrow my soul, and steals away the strength thereof, and as a sharp cold doth freeze and wither the tender new bud in the blossom, even so doth the finger of the Lord, which hath touched my soul discourage it, and make it to languish.  
7. But Alas my God what courage can I have, when I behold myself covered with wounds, and that there is no part of my body free from grief, and that besides my disease, my licentious pleasures present themselves before me, which reproach my sin, and deride my vanity? I say to myself, must I needs dip my life in the honey of so many delights, to steep it afterwards in the gall of such bitter anguish: where art thou now o deceitful voluptuousness, which didst melt my soul in the sweere liquor of thy pleasures? o what a draft dost thou now leave me.  
8 Now o Lord, have I not endured enough? hath not my humility sufficiently chastised my pride? if I have sinned thorough foolish presumption, I have since then fallen upon the ground and covered mine head with ashes; with mine own arm I have prevented my punishment. I have cleft my heart with cries, and melted mine eyes into tears, and yet thy wrath continewes.  
9 It may be o Lord that thou hast not perceived my laments; thou who in the twinkling of an eye lookest thorough heaven and earth, whose sight pierceth the very bottom of our hearts; o LORD thou hast read my thoughts, and knowest mine intents what have I craved but thy mercy? wherein did I hope but in thy goodness? wherefore have I made a public profession of repentance, but to condemn myself? if my tongue hath not lively expressed my desire, alas Lord! thou knowest what we would have before we have thought thereon. It is sufficient to lift up our hearts unto thee, and forthwith thou grantest our petitions.  
10. But wherefore o Lord dost thou delay to give me the holy comfort which thou hast promised me? alas, I am able to do no more, my heart faileth me, my senses are troubled my strength forsaketh me, my sight waxeth dim, and my run away soul, is already upon the brinks of my lips.  
11. All my friends stand about me, and do already bewail my death, they have no hope of my health, they take care for my burial, and question with themselves, where is the help he expected from his God? where is the favour which he promised to himself from him?  
12. Flatterers are departed from me, they did think to divide my spoils, they would have prevented my fatal hour, so troublesome am I to the whole world in the state wherein I stand.  
13. They rounded one another in the ear, and made a thousand tales of me: they did daily invent new practices against me, and thought on nothing so much as to betray me: he is (said they) upon his death bed, he will never rise up again, what do we fear? will the shadow of his bones bite us?  
14 And I, as if I had been deaf, made as though I heard nothing, and like a dumb man I answered not a word, my patience was my buckler, and my constancy my rampire.  
15 Every one that saw me so patient in mine adversity, did say, this man for a certain is dumb, when he is taunted he replies not, could he endure all these indignities if any feeling of courage or reputation were left him? He must needs be guilty, for innocence is ever bold in her own defence, yet all this did not move me.  
16. Wherefore I trusted in my God, and am assured that he will help me. Let the world bend itself against me, let heaven and earth conspire my downfall, so long as I have his aid, I shall always conquer. By the breath of his mouth he created all things, and by his breath, if he please, he can destroy them: I will fight under his banner and I am assured of victory.  
17 I have oftentimes said unto them, rejoice not at my misery, though I am tormented and afflicted, brave me not, for the Lord is long enough to reach you: trust not to his long patience, for though he hath feet of will, his arms be of Iron. If he once lift them over your heads, o ye impenitent souls, he will crush you in such sort, as there shallbe no more remembrance of you.  
18. As for myself, I have handled the rod, I have imprinted upon my shoulders the condemnation of my sin, I have O Lord, appeared before thee with tears in mine eyes, repentance in my mouth, and sorrow in my heart, I have fought with myself, for fear lest mine enemies should triumph over me.  
19 I have openly confessed my fault, I made my sin manifest in time, I took care to run unto thy mercy in due season.  
20. But the more I humble myself before thee, to draw of this running water out of the fountain of thy grace, which streameth from thy goodness, the more do mine enemies oppress me, their number doth daily increase, they strengthen themselves on every side, and foresee not the tempest which will crush them in pieces. They kindle by their pride the furnace of thy wrath; they despite thy power, which to their destruction they shall soon make proof of. In a word, they being secured against heaven and earth, do wallow in their filthy pleasures and raze out, as much as in them is, the mark of divinity which thou hast imprinted in their souls, and shut their eyes at the hope of salvation, which shineth on them out of thy word.  
21. I do not cease o my God to admonish them, but they pay me evil for good, and turn into laughter all that which I do to please thee, and to give them good example: they do slanderously traduce me up and down the streets, and lay a thousand wickednesses to my charge: I confess o Lord that I begin to lose my patience.  
22 But my God, strengthen mine infirmity, and forsake me not by any means: otherwise I should fall like a little child into the first pit I come at. Increase strength and courage in me o Lord, as much as thou hast afflicted me, giving me firm constancy as often as I shall stand in need thereof, no less than a charitable mother, who so soon as she heareth her child cry, doth strait ways give it the dug.  
23. Nourish me then o Lord with the milk of thine holy charity, to the end that being in some sort strengthened, I may day and night run on in thy paths, to attain salvation, the hope whereof shineth in thy promises. And if sin come and stand in my way, I will open the flood-gates of mine eyes, and will not close them again, till I have drowned it in my tears.   

Miserere mei Deus. Psalm 50.  
Have pity upon me o my GOD, according to the greatness of thy loving kindness, and by thine immense mercy pardon the punishment which I most justly have deserved. For if thou expectest that my fasts, watchings, and prayers should make satisfaction for my sins, alas! o Lord, that will never be. Mine offence being measured by the compass of heaven and earth, surpasseth the greatness of the whole world, who then can environ and wholly blot it out, but only thy holy mercy, which is by so much greater, as thy righteousness exceedeth ours? It is thy mercy o Lord which cricleth the whole universe, which keepeth fast together the parts of the world which shake and are ready to fall upon our heads, to bury with us in their ruin the memory of our sins, to turn away thy sight from our ingrateful, disloyal and disobedient generation, which disadvoweth her birth, creation, and conservation from thee. Let then this merciful goodness which shineth in thy divinity, above all thy other virtues, spread itself now upon me, not in a sparing manner, but prodigally and without measure. And as thou didst once cause the waters to overrun the tops of the highest mountains, for to smother and overwhelm the wicked, cause in like manner a torrent of mercy to ouer-flowe me, not O Lord to drown, but to bathe and purify me.  
2. And be not satisfied with once cleansing me: do not tell me that thou hast regenerated and washed me in the blood of the chaste and innocent lamb, for notwithstanding my pureness then, thou shalt now find me foul and deformed. I did plunge myself in a deep filthy vault, and am so dirty and disfigured, as thou wilt no more know me. I do sometimes question with myself, whether I am he whom thou didst create with thine own hands, or no, but my heart being confounded and ashamed dares make me none answer. O my God thou hast created me of dirt and clay, and lo, I am now such an one as I was before thou tookest me in hand, I have put off my beauty and comeliness, and put on dirt and filthiness. But my God, wherefore dost thou not new make me? is thine arm waxed short? dost thou want will to do good to thy creature? alas! thou art Almighty, all good, wherefore then doest thou tarry? Thy workmanship o Lord grew obstinate against thee, and took pleasure in diffiguring and deforming itself: be thou obstinate against thine handiwork, and make it fair and perfect, yea, even in despite of it: but my God, I will be no more stubborn, hold me, take me in hand, turn me as thou pleasest, repair this dirt, renew it, refresh it with new colours, it is ready to obey thy will. But o Lord, when as thou shalt have wholly renewed it, forsake it not for all that, put a bridle in his mouth, which by abstinence may keep it from gluttony whereunto it is prone: by chastity it may quench the impudent heats of voluptuousness which warmeth it, by humility it may beat down pride, which biting envy raiseth up in her, let pitiful charity drive hatred and the hunger of covetousness far from it, let the care to serve and honour thee be a continual spur in the sides of her slothful and blockish negligence.  
3. For otherwise my God, I have made too great proof of these vices which environ me; they will in such sort tear and dismember thy workmanship, as at thy coming, thou shalt find nothing but the fragments thereof all bruised and broken. I have had such experience of them, it is they who have brought me into the state wherein now I am; and I now perceive them standing round about me, to reproach me with those blots where with they themselves did defile me, and to make me guilty of the wrongs which they have done to me. How hast thou sinned, say they? how foul and deformed art thou become?  
4. Indeed, I have sinned, I confess it my God, behold, I offer the bottom of my heart unto thee, take notice of my whole life. I have sinned before heaven and earth, and the whole world is witness of my misdeeds. But if I had not sinned, unto whom wouldst thou show mercy? how wouldst thou discharge thyself of the promises of grace, which thou hast so long declared by thy Prophets? when thou shalt come to sit upon the eternal throne of thy justice, if we were all just, who would stand in fear of thee? But, to the end thy greatness may be known, it behoveth us when we shall be summoned before thee, humbly to fall down upon our faces, and to cry out; Be middle o Lord, for we come not to excuse ourselves before thee, our fault is notorious, but lo, our pardon stands ready, thou thyself hast given it us, behold it signed with thy blood, sealed with thine image, which for our redemption was imprinted in the weakness of the flesh.  
5. Didst thou expect O my God, that when I should present myself before thee, I would make a rampire of mine innocency, or that I was so blind of understanding to go about to justify myself in thy presence? Alas! o Lord, I know that I was nothing but sin before I was borne, my mother thought to bring forth a child, and she was delivered of sin, it had been much better for her, if so prodigious a burden had proved abortive, which shameth the tree which bore it, the earth which nourished, and heaven which ripened it. I was fed with sin in my mother's womb, I sucked it with her milk, and lo, it grew up in such sort with me, as it over-shaddoweth mine head, and blindeth mine eyes.  
6. But when I perceive the eyes of my body to be dazzled, I then open the eyes of my mind, and begin to discern a far off the beam of thine infallible truth, and to acknowledge the wonderful secrets of thy wisdom which thou hast revealed unto me. Then my soul, abandoning the impurity of my body, liftteth herself up unto heaven, and pierceth thorough his incredible light, and lookking upon the book of Eternity, she therein readeth the treaty of the new alliance which thou wilt make with mankind, then returning into her wretched body, she filleth it with hope and joy, and promiseth it an assured victory over his sin.  
7. For she learned in heaven how thou wouldst take the branch of odoriferous Hisope in hand, and sprinkle upon me the water of purification: thou wilt wash me, and I shall become whiter than snow, there shall no one spot of sin be seen on me. What manner of washing-lye will that be o LORD, which shallbe made with the ashes of my sins, consumed by the fire of thy charity, with the water of tears which my repentance shall distill from my heart, and in the sunshine of thy grace our laments shallbe dried up, which shall cause new spiritual joy to grow up in us, and at the last will make us so white in the purity of righteousness, as we shall one day shine brighter than the stars in the firmament.  
8. We shall then hear the delectable sound of the trumpet of salvation, which will proclaim grace and mercy unto all those who will receive it. We shall then see rotten and consumed bones, to rise up out of their graves, to be partaker of this universal joy, whereunto thou hast invited the whole world.  
9 Now to the end I may at that time appear before thee in such honourable equipage as so noble a magnificence doth deserve, put all my offences o my God under thy feet, bury them in the centre of the earth, to the end that no eye may behold them, separate me for ever from mine iniquity, from henceforth I renounce it, and swear an irreconcilable divorcement from her.  
10, Behold my soul which I offer unto thee, make it pure and clean, power a new spirit into mine heart, which may conceive nothing but holiness and righteousness. Establish therein o Lord God, the mansion house of thy holy spirit, to the end that henceforth, I may think, wish, nor breathe any thing, but thy praises: let thy will be always imprinted in my mind, and thy glory written in my lips.  
11. When thou shalt have thus clothed & decked me with piety and integrity, I shall then be assured, that nothing shall be able to separate me from thy presence, and then as the true bred Eagle looketh directly upon the Sun, even so will I fix mine eye upon the face of thine Eternity, and will behold in thy wonderful countenance, all those perfections which now I can not conceive: thine holy spirit shall never more depart out of mine heart: it shall carry me on the wings of zealous charity into thy bosom, there to make me an associate of that celestial joy.  
12. Let me then quickly taste the sweetness of this immortal life, save me suddenly from the rocks of this world, which on every side threaten shipwreck to my soul: and as the sailor when he is arrived in the haven crowns the masts of his ship with garlands of flowers, in token that he is in safety, even so crown me o my God, with the precious gifts of thine holy spirit, for pledges of the eternal blessedness which thou promisest me. I say, of thy spirit, which reigneth in thy faithful ones, which distributes faith to thine elect, charity to thy beloved, and hope to those whom thou hast predestinated.  
13. Now whilst my soul continues in this exile, looking every day when thou wilt call it to thy ●elfe, I will teach sinners the way they ought to follow for to please thee I will direct them, left that in the darkness of this world they stumble upon the blocks which shall he presented to them: they will believe me, and they shall return to thee o father of light, turn to thee o Father of light, they shall with all their hearts embrace thy law, and walk in thine obedience.  
14. I know o Lord that there be some who will stop their ears at my words, and will grow stubborn in their sins; they will plot my death, and willingly would die their barbarous cruelty with my blood. Deliver me my GOD forth of their hands, and preserve me that I may declare thy righteousness, and pronounce their condemnation. I will foretell them of their miseries, and so soon as my speech is ended thine hand shall strike them, and so soon as thine hand hath stricken them, behold they shall be for ever crushed in pieces and confounded.  
15. And then thou shalt open my lips, and my mouth shall declare thy victory, the air will be clear, the winds will be appeased, and the floods will stand still, to hear me sound forth the wonders of the eternal God. For thy praise o LORD shallbe the sacrifice which I continually will offer up unto thee, which at all times will be pleasing unto thee.  
16. I would willingly have bloodied thine Altars, with the slaughter of much cattle: I would willingly have sacrificed a thousand Oxen and as many sheep in thine honour, but blood stinks before thee, and their flesh thou acceptest not, the smoke of such offerings consumes itself in the air like wind, and it can not ascend where thou art, the only voice of a just man, mounteth higher than the heavens, and thine Angels present it unto thee.  
17. O how acceptable unto thee is the sacrifice of an heart pierced thorough with repentance, an heart that is humbled in the knowledge of his sin? such an one wilt thou never reject: he that will go up unto thee must descend down into himself, the way to touch heaven to lie groveling upon earth: he that will be heard of thee must hold his peace, and he that will be crowned in thy kingdom must be beaten and scourged in this world. These are the sacrifices which can reconcile us unto thee, and enter us into the alliance which thou hast made with us.  
18. If thou wilt have us, o Lord, to offer up unto thee bulls and oxen, and that we shall make thine Altar's smoke with the blood of Beasts, if thou wilt have us by the death of an innocent oblation, to represent before thee the death & innocency of him whom thou hast destined for the redemption of our souls, if the figure of that which shall come to pass in the person of the Immaculate Lamb be pleasing unto thee in the slaughter of sheep and rams, pitifully then behold thy poor people, comfort desolate Zion, encourage her poor inhabitants, to the end that they may repair the walls of thine holy city, and re-edify thy temple, not in equal measure to thy deserts o Lord, but according to the riches and industry that the world can attain unto.  
19 Thither from all parts shall thy faithful people come in heaps to offer sacrifice unto thee, there only shalt thou accept the expiation for their sins. But my God, neither the blood nor death of beasts can wash out their filthiness: the expiation of their sin and disobedience is prepared before all eternity. It is an inestimable sacrifice, an immaculate burnt-offering, that must draw away the vail, dissipate the darkness, and break down the partition-wall for to make us behold the truth of our salvation face to face, which must cause the beams of the divine mercy to shine upon us, and reassociate us to the communion of the eternal blessedness which we have willingly renounced. O must pitiful God, which hast cleared the eyes of mine understanding & made me to see the mystery of my salvation, cause me o Lord to taste the excellent fruit, which budding on the tree of the cross, shall quicken with his juice our mortified souls, shall for ever keep and preserve us from the ruin and calamity, which hath so miserably attainted mankind, & hath spread itself all over them, by their own disobedience.   

Domine exaudi. Psalm, 110.  
O Lord, how long have I cried out for thy mercy, yet I am still expecting thine aid. The air is filled with my lamentations, the winds have carried the voice of my complaint to the farthest parts of the earth, and thine ear which understandeth what is done in the deepest bottom of hell, harkens not unto my prayer, which pierceth the very heavens. Thou art only deaf o Lord in my respect, and the whole world will sooner than thyself give ear to my laments. No, no, my God thou hast too long stretched out thine arm unto me, to reject me now when I come unto thee for refuge.  
2. Now that I feel a thousand, and a thousand griefs, and that evils assail me on every side, turn not thy face away from me o Lord. Alas! I have placed all my comfort in the mild aspect of thy countenance, I have left the world, and retired myself unto thee, I have forsaken the children of the earth, to the end to ally myself to the master of heaven, canst thou now cast me of? do not so o Lord, but all the days of my life help my infirmity.  
3. So soon as my voice shall cry out unto thee o my God, so soon let me feel thee, let thy grace come down as swiftly upon me, as an Eagle to the succour of her young ones. For if thou assist me not, what combat can I wage against the enemies of my soul?  
4. My strength and my life doth continually vanish away like to a light smoke, which in flying abroad looseth itself: that eye which sees it come forth of the fire, doth as quickly see it dispersed, and accompanieth it in a moment from his original to his end: and they that ask what is become of it, cannot so much as discern the trace thereof. Who hath seen pieces of wood lie drying in the sun, lose both their vigour and verdure, let them behold my poor bones which are become dry and withered, and crave nothing but a grave: A grave in deed, too happy for me, if so small a pit may be able to stay the violent course of mine extreme misery.  
5. He that hath seen the mowed grass, to turn colour and wither in the field, let him look upon my pale and lean visage, which seemeth to make death itself afraid. Mine heart waxeth dry in the midst of my entrails, & my blood withereth within my veins; for I no more remember to give bread to my mouth, and every day I forget to eat meat.  
6. My mouth serveth me for none other use but to cry out and lament, and the usual voice of my sorrow is of such force, as it carries away with it all the remainder of my strength, so as my sorrowful body doth by little and little consume itself, and my bones do already pierce my skin: why then should I be careful to pamper this wretched body, which is the subject of my miseries? wherefore should I study to preserve this life, which wrestleth with so many discontents, and is tormented with so many afflictions? were it not better for me, by ending my life, to give an end to my miseries?  
7. The Pelican which in the most solitary deserts of Egypt torments herself for killing her young ones, and baths them with her blood to restore them to life which she bearest them of, is she more sorrowful than I? doth she feel more grief than myself? hath not my sin procured the death of that child whom I loved better than myself? and now that all my tears are drawn dry, blood will gush forth of mine eyes, for fear that weeping should fail me in such a lamentable misfortune. But the Pelican with the price of her blood redeems the life of her young ones, and my wretched self shall for ever be deprived of that child whom I so dearly loved. Therefore will I abandon the light of the day, and will confine myself in the thick darkness, like unto the fatal Owl which stirreth not forth of some hollow place, until the night hath spread his obscure mantle over the earth.  
8. I am continually awake, always raving upon my mishap, and seeking to hide myself from the misery which follows me apace: I seek nothing so much as some corner to bestow myself in, like to the wild Sparrow, who beaten with the wind and rain, searcheth out some place of covert to keep her from the storm.  
9 Mine enemies seeing me in this plight, have derided me, they have reproached me with my misery: and those which were wont highly to esteem me, in steed of bewailing mine affliction, have conspired against me. Of what worth then are the goods of this world, if friends be the most precious richesses that a man can purchase, and if they prove treacherous and disloyal, and make so small account of violating their faith?  
10. My strength is indeed diminished, the flower of my complexion is withered, for I have strewed my bread with ashes, I have tempered my drink with tears: but therefore shall this unbelieving race make me the argument of their laughter?  
11. It is true that I met with thine angry countenance in the day of thy wrath: thou hast laid on me the arm of thy vengeance, it hath crushed me to pieces: I was glorious among men, and behold I am now cast down to the ground. O vain presumption! unto what height hast thou raised me, to give me so terrible a downfall? Alas! what matter could I find in myself, that might beget such a self-conceit in me?  
12. Even as we see the shadow of a body to decrease by little and little, when as the sun stands right over it, and at last becometh a small point; in like manner, so soon as thy wrath did ascend over me o Lord, my life, my wealth, and my greatness did consume away by little and little: in such sort as I seem like to the withered hay, without sap and beauty, it is gathered for the fodder of cattle, and so many fair, sweet, and odoriferous flowers are made up in bottles among weeds and thistles.  
13. But shall I therefore despair? not so, my God, for thy power is infinite, and lasteth for ever, thy mercy is immense, which spreads itself over all those which trust in thee. Age's shall pass away one after an other, but the memory of thy goodness shall never have end: for ever, one generation shall succeed an other, and they shall continually set forth thy praise and loving kindness.  
14. Thou wilt one day awake, o my God, and show favour unto Zion, for the time of mercy is at hand. It is already come, behold I see it. The rivers send not so many clear waters into the large bosom of the Ocean, as thy goodness shall shed forth favours and mercies upon the earth. Open your hearts oh ye people, open your hearts, for the liberal hand of my GOD will fill them with an holy heat, which shall cleanse and purify them more than gold is in the furnace.  
15. Now the building of Zion, is o Lord, the refuge which thy servants wait for: that it may become the dwelling place of eternal life, the seat of salvation, the treasury of grace, and the temple of eternity.  
16. Then my God shall the nations be astonished, and all the Kings of the earth shall tremble at the brightness of thy glory. What remotest corner is there in the world, but shall resound thy happy coming? what people are there under the sun so confined in darkness, but will open their eyes to behold the glistering brightness of salvation which shall shine upon them? Heaven itself shall increase the number of his torches, to give light to this thine entry into the world, and Kings shall run from all parts to do homage to the King of Kings, and to the Lord of Heaven and Earth.  
17. For in Zion hath he erected his royal throne in magnificent and sumptuous manner: there shall men behold him all environed with glory, darkening the Sun and Moon with the brightness of his countenance.  
18. But what is the cause o Lord that thou hast so highly exalted the throne of thy glory? Is it because thou wilt contemn the humble prayers of thy faithful servants, and neglect the whole world, which is nothing in comparison of this thy greatness? Alas! not so my God: Thou hast lifted up thyself in an eminent place, to the end that all the inhabitants of the earth may see and acknowledge thee; to have recourse to thy grace & mercy, for thou wilt be always ready to come at the humble summons of thy servants, and thou wilt never scorn their pitiful requests. Behold they are all set in order like poor galley slaves condemned to the chain, which wait for the arrival of some King to set them at liberty on the day of his coronation. In this manner o Lord doest thou deliver those, which have given themselves over to the bondage of sin: at the only twinkling of thine eye their Irons shall fall from off their hands.  
19 Then shall they all be heard to sing a song of glory to the victorious King, their voice shall be heard in all the parts of the earth, and the memory of thy singular goodness and infinite mercy, shall be engraved in men's minds, to pass from age to age, even to their last posterity: when the earth shall be consumed, the waters dried up, the firmament vanished away, and the heavens come to an end, even than shall men sing forth the glory of the eternal God.  
20. The eternal GOD who hath vouchsafed from the highest heavens to cast his eyes down to the depths of the earth, to take notice of the torments of poor captives detained in the prisons of hell, who hath heard their groanings, and made haste to unbind and deliver these poor wretched prisoners, and their whole posterity. Death had overcome them with the weapons of sin, and confined them in his dark prisons, but the God of life hath vanquished death, and set them all at liberty.  
21. To the end o Lord that they may declare thy praise in Zion, and preach thy mercy in jerusalem. But though every one of them had an hundred mouths, and a voice as strong as thy thunder, they should never be able to attain to the greatness of thy glory. All the parts of the world do conspire together, but to represent in their motion some part of thy power and infinite goodness, and yet they shall miss the mark; for they are bottomless pits, and more than bottomless pits, which have neither bank nor bottom, and which must only be looked upon a far off.  
22. Be pleased then o my God, that thy people assembled together, and reunited in body and mind, do devoutly offer unto thee the holy desire and will which they have to honour thee, for the effect itself can in no sort draw near to thy desert. Take it in good worth o Lord, that the Kings of the earth do come and humble themselves before thee, to pay the homage and service which is due unto thee, as to their sovereign Lord. They shall lay their sceptres on the ground, and their crowns at their feet, and shall present thee with a sacrifice of humble devotion, and an innocent conscience. I will be the first o my God that will prostrate myself before thee, to adore and serve thee with my whole heart: I will settle my thoughts on thee only, unto thee alone will I consecrate my spirit: Quicken it o Lord, to the end that it being purified, by the holy heat of thy charity, it may receive into itself, (like a well-pollished looking-glass) the Image of thine incomprehensible beauty and perfection, and that it may feel the reflection of thy sincere affection, so as thine infinite goodness may make it one of the number of thine elect, to be a coheir with them of eternal life.  
23. I do now already feel o my God, that thou hast enlightened my soul by thy grace, and hast showed me the mercy which thou wilt offer to all the children of the earth, my spirit hath already seen from a far off how readily thou walkest to deliver the world, which was in danger of death before thine arrival, that was the cause why thou heardest it cry out unto thee, saying, tell me o Lord the number of my years, and what time thou wilt give an end to my days.  
24. Cut not of the thread of my life o Lord at the first or second turn of the wheel; shorten it not in the midst of his course; stay, my God, till the time be come; when as thou wilt open the treasures of thy graces, to give a largesse of salvation unto men: or if at the least thou hast determined of mine end, and that my life cannot be so far stretched out, yet remember my posterity, and cause him to be borne of my stock, who by his coming shall sanctify the world.  
25. In very deed o Lord I know, that in the beginning thou didst make heaven and earth, and all that excellence which we see in this world, is the workmanship of thy hands.  
26. But all that, shall wear away, like an overworn garment, men shall seek after and inquire what is become of it, but it shall be no more found: it hath been made, and it shallbe undone, it had a beginning, and must needs have an end; but thou alone o Lord which art from all eternity shalt remain for ever at one stay. Age, and time which consumes all things, do but confirm thine essence, and publish thy divinity, and it seemeth unto me that men are borne upon the earth to none other end, but to behold on the one side thine incomprehensible greatness, and their own weakness on the other.  
27. Men shift not shirts so often as one self-same land doth oftentimes change her inhabitants, the one pusheth on another, and all is renewed in a moment. But thou art yet my God to day, the same that thou wert at the beginning. Every Province of the earth, makes mention of a great number of Kings which have commanded therein one after another, but heaven and earth do continually sing unto us, that thou hast always been alone, ever like thyself, and that neither the time past nor that which is to come can in any sort change thee.  
28. Yet notwithstanding o Lord, that we must part hence, I do not lose my hope to taste one day of the sweet fruit which will heal us of this contagious disease, which our first parents have communicated to us by eating of the fruit of sin and death. For our children shall succeed us, and thou wilt do us this favour, o Lord to continue our posterity from age to age, until that all of us together do appear in thy presence, not to receive a rigorous judgement, but to enter by the merits and intercession of thy well-beloved Son our Saviour into the inheritance of eternal blessedness, which shallbe purchased for all thy faithful ones by the adoption of thy son, in the house of thy servant David.   

De profundis. Psalm 129.  
FRom the bottom of the deeps I have cried unto thee oh my God, being buried and lost in the most fearful caverns of the earth: I have called upon thy name, listen to my voice, and give ear unto my prayer: for all hope of aid was taken from me, I saw nothing round about me but fear and trembling, and yet notwithstanding I was not discourraged, but have expected from thee that which thou hast promised to all those which shall live in the fear of thy name, and in the obedience of thy commandments.  
2. Lend then a favourable ear o Lord unto my prayer: if sin have set itself betwixt thee and me, to whet thee on against mine iniquity, and to make thee an enemy to my request, chase it away from the aspect of thine eye of mercy, or else o Lord, shut for a while the eye of thy justice, until that thine ear of clemency hath received my confession, and the humble petition for favour, which I present unto thee. For I come not into thy presence to boast of mine own righteousness, but of thy mercy and loving kindness.  
3. If thou shouldest keep a register of our offences, and shouldest call us to an account, who were able o my God to endure the rigour of thy justice? What day of my life is there, but would deserve an age of torment? Thou mayest in a manner inflict all the pains of hell upon me, and yet the greatest part of mine offences will remain unpunished.  
4. But notwithstanding that men do offend thee, yet thou lettest not to receive the sinner which comes unto thee with confession in his mouth, and contrition in his heart. He hath no sooner looked towards thy mercy, but he feels it to work in him, to break● and dissolve sin, which had frozen his heart with fear and horror. The punishment which did hang over his head, runs backward from him, and carries away with it this wretched carefulness which tormenteth the consciences inflicted with sin. This is the reason o Lord why I would never forsake thy law, but have always weighted, till it might please thee to show mercy upon me. For he who ill advised, doth despair in his sin, and abandons his soul as lost, does like the abominable usurer, who because he hath sustained some loss in his goods, doth therefore deprive himself of life.  
5. My soul hath not done so; for so soon as she hath felt thy heavy hand upon me, which exacted a part of the punishment which my sins had merited, she did still for all that keep whole the hope which she had in thy promise. Even when thy blows fell heavy on my back, I cried out unto thee, Lord God thy will be done, yet give me as much strength as affliction. Measure my punishment by my strength, and, my torments increasing, augment my courage, thou hast o Lord, done so.  
6. Let all Israel then from the day break until dark night, hope in his God, let them expect succour from him alone. For his help is ready unto those which call upon him in integrity of conscience, and purity of heart. It matters not how great and fearful the misery is, for so soon as the Lord hath understood the cry of his servants, even so soon do they feel themselves delivered.  
7. For he aboundeth in mercy: he is infinitely good to those which have recourse unto him. For if our sins surpass all measure, his mercy exceeds all thoughts. We have deserved a long and grievous captivity; lo, he delivers us, and sets us at liberty. We have blinded the eyes of our understanding, behold, he comes and enlightens them.  
O Israel, thou hast offended the Lord, thou hast derided his law, thou hast played with his commandments, thou hast forgotten his benefits which he hath bestowed upon thee. He hath drawn thee forth of a miserable bondage, he hath fed thee with the bread of heaven, he hath caused fountains of water to gush forth of the barren rocks, only to give thee drink; he chose the most delicious garden of the earth for thy dwelling place, he made his covenant with thee, he gave thee his will in keeping and thou hast conspired against his honour, committed whoredom with strange Gods, trodden his law under thy feet, thou hast in a word deserved more punishments than hell can afford. And he nevertheless offereth himself favourably unto thee: he will redeem thee from the bondage of sin, whereunto thou wert willingly bound, with the price of his own blood. Behold, he himself pays their ransom which did betray him, and takes upon himself the punishment for our sins, and pays the forfeiture of our offences. With what words shall we give thee thanks? Open then my lips, my God, my Creator, my Redeemer, to the end that my voice may be spent, and mine heart inflamed with a burning affection to praise and thank thee: and cast me down in the knowledge of myself, to the end to exalt me in the knowledge of that holy mystery, whereby we are reincorporated into thee, and re-integrated into thy alliance, for to enter into this blessed society of glory, in the which all those shall triumph, which shall be partakers in the merit of the passion of thy well beloved Son, the true and only Saviour of the world.   

Domine exaudi vocem meam. Psalm 142.  
MAn o Lord is at the last weary of all things: continual running puts him out of breath, too much looking upon a thing dazzles the eyes, a thundering noise, troubles the hearing: but the more my voice crieth unto thee, the stronger it is, my courage is the more increased, and my prayer is the more pleasing unto me. Therefore do I every day begin a fresh to cry out, o Lord hearken unto my prayer, and give ear to my supplication, for all my comfort consisteth in praying unto thee o my God. It is my prayer o Lord, which conjures thy clemency to expiate my sins, not by the rigour of the punishment, but by the effect of grace which thou hast granted us, by the which thou abollishest, by thy sovereign and absolute power, the memory of our offences.  
2. Enter not then into judgement with thy servant o Lord, give him not over to the rigour of the law: for of all living creatures which shall appear before the face of thy rigorous judgement, not one shall be justified, none shall escape that fearful condemnation, whose pain is not only terrible but eternal in his terror. Alas! o Lord, who is able to save himself in thy presence? It is thou who art offended, it is thou who wilt accuse us, thou hast seen our offence, and canst witness against them, it is thou which shalt judge us. When the accuser shall be the witness, and the witness shall be the judge, what shall become of the offendor? what excuse can serve to justify him? But o Lord, I will not trust to that, I will shield myself under thy favour, and oppose it to thy justice. Thy favour is obtained by the acknowledgement of our offences, by the humiliation of our minds, lo, I prostrate myself before thee, laying open my sin, o Lord have pity upon me.  
3. My sin o my COD, the chief enemy to my soul, hath in such sort hurried and beaten me down, as I now grovel upon the earth, not daring to look up unto heaven: for so soon as I lift up mine eyes, I see the light which presenteth to the day such and so many faults, which do accuse my conscience. I also do suddenly feel shame in my guilty countenance, which makes me hold down my face to the ground; my face unworthy to look up to heaven, the Lord whereof it hath so grievously offended; my face, which is not valiant enough to cast up his eyes towards those places, which have so many lightning flashes prepared to root out guilty offenders.  
4. My spirit then hath conducted me into darkness, and hath buried me like a dead man in the cave of obscurity. My soul is highly grieved within me, and mine heart is astonished; like unto his who walking with an erected countenance, is by misfortune fallen into the bottom of some pit; his senses are forthwith troubled, he forthwith loseth his reason and torments himself, he knows not what to will or do, till calling his wits together, he takes notice of the place where he is, and the manner how he fell down: for than he begins by little and little to get up again, and to climb with great labour from the place whereinto he easily fell.  
5. Even so, I having called to memory from far, the remembrance of things past, and representing to myself in a deep meditation the works of thine hands, and considering exactly the things which thou hast wrought: namely remembering the state wherein thou didst create us, and then calling to mind that wherein I find myself now as it were crushed down in the ruins of sin, I curse the hour wherein my mother conceived me: I detest the day which first opened mine eyelids to cause me to look upon heaven and earth, the witnesses of my weakness; and at last finding nothing in this world which can comfort me in this distress, I come again unto thee.  
6. I fall down on my knees before thee, I lift up unto thee mine arms and hands, and my soul thirsteth after thy grace, with as great a desire, as the earth gaping with heat, waiteth for a pleasing shower of rain in the hottest time of summer.  
7. Run then hastily unto me o my God, for I am already out of breath, my courage faileth, and lo I fall fainting down, wilt thou tarry till I am dead? I am so already if thou make not the more haste, for my senses fail by little and little, my soul slideth sweetly out of my body, leaving it without motion, and I am like unto him who is let blood in his foot in hot water, whose life runs out with his blood, not feeling the cause of his death.  
8. Now o Lord, if thou keepest thyself far from me turning thy countenance away, I shall become like unto those who go down into the bottom of the grave; pale death will discolour my visage and benumb my senses: and that which is worse, spiritual death o my God will kill my soul; will fill it with fear and horror and bereave it of the knowledge of thy singular goodness and the hope of grace which shineth in thy wonders, like a glistering star in an obscure night.  
9 Cause me then betimes to understand and feel the effects of thy mercy, and in the morning, when the sun shall arise upon the earth, let thy clemency rise upon me, to enlighten mine ignorance, and to direct me in the way of thy, commandments: But let it not do o Lord like thy Sun who, at the end of his race, plungeth itself in the sea, hiding his light for a time from poor mortals: but let it perpetually assist me; let it be no more separated from me than my soul from my body: for thy mercy is far more the soul of my soul, than my soul is the life of my body.  
10. Let it not then leave me; let the brightness thereof still direct my paths in thy ways, let it still guide me in the way which I must walk to come unto thee. For my spirit which hath thrown itself into the midst of the briars of this world, which hath gone astray amongst her thickest bushes, can no more find out her right way, but walking at all adventures, loseth both her way and her labour, going still backwards from the place whether she thought to arrive. But my GOD I still wait for thy help, I hope for succour from an high.  
11. I am prisoner in the hands of the cruelest enemies of my life; make haste o Lord to deliver me: thou art my refuge, receive me into thy protection, teach me what thou wouldst have me to do, for thou art my God, unto whom only I now resolve myself to do service. Away, far, far from me deceitful pleasure, which hereto fore didst bewitch my soul, and poison my mind: thou hast by thy liquorish delights inveigled me, and with a little honey thou hast made me swallow a most bitter and deadly pill; which spreading itself thorough my members, hath in such sort mortified and made me giddy, as there is small difference betwixt me and a dead person; and my body is not only thus mortified, but my soul likewise, wherein consisteth the original of my life present and to come.  
12. It behoveth then thine holy spirit to come unto me, to warm again my dying soul, to take it by the hand to lead it into safety, and to quicken it, imprinting in it the image of thy righteousness, which may defend it against the temptation, which on everyside doth besiege it and threaten her ruin.  
13. Thou wilt come then, and at thine arrival thou shalt draw my soul out of trouble, and in showing mercy unto me, thou shalt destroy all those which have conspired against me. Then shall my grief have an end, and theirs begin: it shallbe a beginning of their sorrow which shall never end: but as rivers rising out of their springs run on still bigger & bigger until they fall into the bosom of the sea, which hath no bottom; even so shall their miseries increase, and at the last shall heap upon them extreme torments and infinite distress.  
In this manner shall all those perish which vex my soul: for, o GOD, I am thy faithful servant, whom thou hast remembered, and thou wilt not forget those who in disdain of my Lord have so shamefully abused me: they laughed at my misery, but the time draws on when they shall bewail their own. Thy vengeance begins to be kind: be against them, and they shall wither like leaves upon the trees at the approach of winter. O GOD what glory shall I give unto thy name, and how shall I begin to declare thy praise? shall I publish thy goodness in the creation of so many wonderful works which are underneath the sun? thy wisdom in thy preservation of them? shall I preach thy justice in the condemnation and punishment of the pride of the Angels, and disobedience of men? Shall I sing of thy mercy in the redemption of those who offending thy law, had thrown themselves headlong into the bondage of eternal death? to what part of thy praises may the humble sound of my voice attain? and though my voice were able, what ears are capable to receive it? All things fail me o Lord in this business, except courage and will, which full of fervent affection do cry out unto thee. Aid with thy grace their weak strength, and seeing the tears of my penitence have washed away the filth of sin, wherewith my soul was heavily laden, give it now the wings of faith and hope, which may carry it with a swift flight into thine arms, to reunite it to her first original, without ever nourishing any other thought then that which shall tend to the honour of thy sevice, and advancement of thy glory.   
FINIS.   

Meditations on seven consolatory Psalms of David.  

Dominus illuminatio mea. Psalm 26.  
AFter that I had a long time bathed my heart in my tears, and sighed forth a thousand sorrows in bewailing my sins: I thought o Lord, that I had appeased thy wrath, and that my miseries should forthwith end. But alas! as I walk on in the world, and determine with innocency of life to converse amongst men, I perceive their envy to be turned against me, and all their envy to be turned against me, and all their endeavours bend to do me hurt. So as I begin to doubt, whether I am yet reconciled unto thee, and whether that this my penitence have satisfied th● or no, But when casting mine eyes on every side, I perceive that this affliction is common to me with all honest people, when I behold every where what practices are used against them, how that their constancy is continually put to the trial, and on the contrary, how that the wicked do abound in delight, pleasure, and all manner of wealth, I stand all amazed and confounded. For on the one side I call to mind, how thou art a great and a righteous GOD, whose allseeing eye pierceth the profoundest deeps, whose almighty hand stretcheth itself forth to the farthest parts of the world. And on the other, I perceive how those that lift up their heads against thee, and oppress thy poor and innocent servants, do prosper in thy sight, and wax proud every day for thy happy success of their impiety. I confess o Lord, that in this contemplation I remain as though I were dull and blind, not being able to pierce thorough this thick mist, which did dazzle the eyes of mine understanding. But at the last o Father of light, thou hast opened mine eye lids, and enlightening me with the beams of thy wisdom, thou hast made me to understand the reason thereof: and freeing me from the travail and doubt wherein I was, thou hast filled me with assurance of my salvation, and given me a most certain consolation: so as now, I not only neglect the threats of the wicked, and despise their insolency, but being armed with an admirable constancy and greatness of courage, I of myself, do undertake the combat, and cry out with a loud voice: Happen what will, I now fear nothing. For although God for a while do exercise his faithful servants, yet he forsakes them not at their need, but doth in such sort mix their adversity with their strength, as they ever remain victorious in this encounter. And indeed, so long as I shall put my trust and assurance in his mercy; what occasion shall I ever have to fear?  
He hath now taken my life into his protection, and covereth me on all sides with the wings of his power, who is able to enforce him to forsake me? what shall I fear, if he defend me, whom all the world stands in fear and awe of: his forces are not armies of men, but legions of Angels, Princes and Captains, are not his ministers, but lightnings and tempests: his displeasures, are not strokes and wounds, but earthquakes, swallowing up of Cities, inundations of Countries: Thou hast already o Lord, taken all these weapons in hand, and art ready to thunder upon the pride of the wicked, who have conspired the destruction of good men. But because o my God thy mercy doth for a while hold back the arm of thy divine vengeance, thou comfortest me in the mean time with a firm hope, that thou wilt never forsake me: And I seem daily to hear thee, speaking thus unto me, Tarry yet a little while, the hour which I have appointed is not yet come, and build thou in the mean time on my promise, and what affliction soever is prepared for thee, assure thyself, I will make thee to overcome it. My courage o LORD increaseth, when I feel thee thus to second me; and this thine exhortation doth more animate me to patience, then thee applauds of the people do the wrestler in the midst of his game. Nothing doth now any more astonish me, all these practices and conspiracies against my life and honour seem like the tempestuous waves of the raging Sea, who roaring a far off, come and break themselves against the foot of some rock, they are scattered at the first shock, and the blow yields nothing but a vain sound, which is the end of these great menaces: It is certain, that the conscience of an innocent person, builded upon thy favour, is stronger than the greatest rocks, and no furious assault is able to shake it.  
3. What shall I now fear any more? a sort of wicked people who compass me about, seeking means to surprise me? they invent sundry means to entrap me. Behold how they look at one side, how they bend their brows and grind their teeth at me, I do verily believe that their chiefest desire is to tear me in pieces with their teeth, to glut themselves with my flesh, to gnaw my bones, and to drink my blood. O cruel beasts, how can ye thus change your natures, how can ye thus abjure all humanity? Do you think that because ye have forgotten GOD, that GOD hath forgotten his servants? Do ye think that his servants are as far separated from him, as yourselves are from righteousness?  
4. And though like cruel Tigers ye have shed your poison upon me, ye have disquieted me with your fearful cries, and torn me in pieces with your teeth and talents, yet your strokes have none otherwise lighted on me then on burnished steel, they would not pierce me, mine innocence is invulnerable, and at the last being tired and spent, ye are constrained to make retreat, and lying flat on your bellies; ye bark and grin in despite, but ye have no more power, and ye have none other weapons left, but only the will to do evil. But because your voice is abomination before God, and that by your threatenings ye blaspheme him, he will wholly root ye out, and throw down those hills upon you which your ambition and avarice have heaped one upon an other, thinking thereby to scale his throne, and to rob him of his glory.  
5. O Lord! what sight hast thou presented to mine eyes? I am now so assured of thy mercy, so comforted by the care which I perceive thou hast of thy faithful servants, as albeit I should see never so great an army of men, yet I would not fear them. Let them bring against me an Army composed of all the nations of the earth, let them place Scithyans' on the right wing of the battle, Aethiopians on the left, the East Indies and America in the rearward, and place the rest of the world for the battle in the midst, add thereunto what soever the art of kill men is able to invent, so as my GOD conduct me, I will without fear pass thorough the midst of them. And if he being angry with the world, please to use my hands to revenge him on their impiety, I will cut them all in pieces, so as not one of them shall remain alive.  
6. No, I do now rejoice, when I hear tell that the wicked bend themselves against me, and assure myself that it is GOD who prepares matter for my glory: for o my Lord, be thou only near unto me, and the victory is mine one, bless my weapons, and mine enemies are confounded. But what weapons? breath only upon them, and they shallbe scattered abroad like the dust driven by a great wind: yet for all that o Lord I beseech thee, blow not yet upon them the breath of thy vengeance, let it please thee to tarry a while, to see if thy long suffering will amend them. As for myself, albeit I am covered with their wounds and defamed by their wrongs, yet I had rather have them to be the subject of thy mercy then of thy justice, and I desire, if thou so please, that their unrighteousness may rather serve for my confirmation, then for their own damnation.  
7. Thou knowest o Lord my wishes, thou readest in my heart, how I never requested vengeance at thy hands, my vows do conjure thy mercy; my thoughts tend only unto peace: wilt thou understand the sum of my desires and the end of all my prayers? it is o LORD, that I may spend my days in thy faithful service, that thou wilt make thine holy house my dwelling place, and that so long as I shall be separated from thee and from thine Heavenly Tabernacle, being staked down to the earth by the counterpoise of my flesh, all my thoughts may be united unto thee, and myself made wholly conformable to thy will. O blessed dwelling place, which art able to cover us from worldly passions, from concupiscence of the flesh, and in a word from the assaults of the Devil. For there o Lord thou art present with us, and as much as thou canst thou drawest thyself down from Heaven to remain amongst us, thou fillest us with thyself to cleanse us from sin, and changest our carnal will into a quickening spirit, to make us to feel thy wonders, to comprehend thy mercies, and to conceive thy power.  
8. Grant then o my God, that being incorporated into thee, as much as mine infirmity, and thine infiniteness will permit, I may be illuminated with the beams of thy wisdom, to the end that shining in mine understanding, it may cause me to know thy will. For it is the thread o Lord which is able to guide me safely thorough the by-ways of this worldly labyrinth, it is the passport whereby we attain to his eternal life, the which we daily sigh for. Reveal then unto me this thy will and lay it up in my soul, to the end I may carefully keep it, and that in the midst of thy Church I may build an Altar for it with my mouth, in offering it up daily unto thee, under the sacred vail of thy holy word.  
9 For o Lord seeing that thou hast shut me into thine holy tabernacle, showing me the sacred mysteries of thy divinity: and that in the hardest time of mine adversity, thou hast received, hidden, and retired me under thine Altar, and not content therewith, hast caused me to enter into the holy of holies, and into the secretest place of thy Tabernacle, where thou art wont to reveal thy most secret commandments; cause me to conceive them so directly, as I may be able faithfully to deliver them to thy faithful servants.  
10. For seeing thou hast lifted me up on so eminent a place and set me on an high pillar for all the world to look on, & hast honoured me above mine enemies, grant that the foundation of my faith may be as firm and solid as a rock, & that the favour which thou showest unto me may be a testimony of thy righteousness, making me worthy and capable of those good things which it pleaseth thee to bestow upon me.  
11. As for myself o Lord, I will endeavour reverently to handle the ministry which thou hast committed to my charge, thou knowest how I have carried myself therein; I have turned on all sides to know what might please thee, I would willingly have sacrificed sheep and calves unto thee, I would willingly have bathed thine altars with blood, but such an oblation is to small for thee. I have o Lord slain my heart, dedicated mine affection, and vowed my thoughts unto thee: and drawing them from the bottom of my stomach, I have presented them unto thee in my voice, whereby thou hast understood all that which my soul desireth; which is, only to please thee in all mine actions. My cry then was mine offering, the which thou didst accept, opening the Heavens to entertain and receive it. I will then o LORD all the days of my life sing thy praise, and rehearse the hymn of thy glory.  
12. Give ear o pitiful God unto my songs, and take in good part the voice, which witnesseth thy goodness, and publisheth thy mercy. Increase in me both strength and courage, to lift up my cries and spirits unto thee. And seeing that thy mercy is never deaf to those that call upon thee sincerely, send it down upon me for all manner of felicity attends it: send it down o Lord, for thou hast promised it to all such as shall invoke it.  
13. How often hast thou heard my heart, I say my heart, I speak not of my mouth, for I only unto thee with my heart, crying out unto thee, saying, what o Lord? I have sought thee with so much carefulness day and night, in peace and war, in rest and torment. I have desired nothing so much in this world, as to behold thy face, not o Lord the face of thy divinity wherein that fearful majesty is imprinted, which shineth like lightning, and which humane eyes are not able to bear, but at the least wise that face covered and veiled with thy works, the which albeit we can behold it but behind, and that very obscurely, doth seem most admirable unto me, and doth wholly ravish and draw me forth of myself. If then o Lord, thou art this uncreated word which hath created all things, thy word which is a part of thy will, and thy will a part of the whole, doth it not represent thy countenance unto me, wherein I behold many excellent marks of divinity, which brightly shine on every side? o Lord I am amorous of this rare beauty, I have none other care or thought, but how to enjoy this thy presence, which shows itself in thy word, as in the mirror of thy divinity.  
14. Seeing that thou perceivest the sanctity and sincerity of my love, deprive me not of this sacred object, which blesseth and sanctifieth my thoughts: if thou dost abhor my sin and if the deformity thereof do displease thee, enter not into fury against me, neither turn away from me this fair and admirable face of thine: Thy warth o Lord, is only upon such as glory in their sin, and wax stubborn in their iniquity. But I thy servant do humble myself before thee, and do acknowledge, that being an unworthy sinner as I am, I durst not appear in thy presence, but that thy clemency brings me before thee. Thou shalt not then reject me, for thou must forthwith then reject thy mercy whereunto I am so strictly bound and tied, that as it is not to be separated from thee, even so can it not be seavered from my penitence.  
15. If it please thee, than thou shalt dwell with me, and seeing it hath pleased thee to avouch me for thy servant, and to put me to this combat, thou shalt not forsake me therein, otherwise my destruction would turn to thy shame, whereas my victory will redound to thy glory. Now o Lord cause this aid to be continually with me. For, as mine own infirmity doth ordinarily fight against me, even so is it needful that my succour should ever be at hand. If thou estrange thyself from me never so little, my soul will vanish away, in the same manner as would my body, by the loss of my soul: For thou o Lord art more the soul of my soul, than my soul is the life of my body. I do very well know, that in me thou shalt find a dwelling place, in no sort worthy thy divine Majesty, yet for all that, disdain not to enter into me; where thou comest, all magnificence abounds, and where thou art, there is always honour enough: Thou dost not o Lord honour thyself by visiting me, but thou thereby dost honour unto me thy poor servant, wherefore shouldest thou leave the brightness of the heavens, and the glistering of the stars, to come down here on earth to so dishonourable a subject? But as I think thou doest it to give warning to thine Angels not to grow proud in their magnificence, in regard they are thy creatures, and that thou art able to make the basest dweller upon earth as glorious as they. That is the reason why thou descendest from heaven, to show mercy upon us, and bearing a part in our misery, thou comest to re-establish us in our ancient perfection. And because we, as much as in us was, have defaced the image of the divinity, which thou hadst imprinted in us, thou of thine especial grace comest to renew those beauties and sparks of our first nature. It is thou then which art not only content to be our Creator, but our redeemer likewise, and as thou art our father, in like manner it pleaseth thee to be our protector and defender. When all the world forsook us, thou stretchedst out thine arms unto us, and didst receive us under the wings of thy clemency.  
16. I stood in great need thereof, for I knew no more whether to go. My father and mother had forsaken me, that father I say, who had tenderly fed and brought me up did abhor me, when he perceived that I delighted wholly in thee, and that I had left the vanities of this world. They beheld me with sorrow, and accounted me for a lost child. The kind embraces of my brethren were converted into disdain, the sweet friendship of my sisters changed to contempt, and the loving welcomes of my friends turned into derision. Whether now should I make retreat? If my dearest friends use me in this manner, what will mine enemies do, whose mouth is all bitterness and tongue poison, whose actions and ordinary exercises, are wrongs and reproaches? But when I am most of all forsaken, than art thou nearest unto me, than dost thou most favourably embrace me, and most liberally pourest upon mine head the treasures of thy mercy.  
17. Now seeing it pleaseth thee in this abundant manner to bestow thy grace upon me, to the end I may be able to keep it, teach me how I ought to serve thee. Learn me thy law, and how to direct my paths, to walk always aright in this narrow thorny way, which should conduct me to the haven of health. For o Lord, I have left long since that easy beaten way strewed with earthly pleasures, and which leadeth those that follow it to destruction and damnation. Show me then my God, thy way, for under such a guide I shall never go astray, show it I say, unto me o Lord, for if I stray never so little, I am undone, mine enemies watch to surprise me, and to find matter to dishonour me, and thyself likewise, because they know I serve thee truly and faithfully.  
18. Give me not over then into their hands, to do with me after their hearts desire, for they would soon deprive me both of life and honour. They have already laid their plot, invented a thousand accusations, practised a world of witnesses, but their lies return upon themselves, and bear witness against them. Falsehood cannot be hidden, she lieth open, and truth pierceth it thorough on all sides. It is compounded of pieces ill joined together, which fall a sunder at the first blow they receive, and being opposed against innocency, it melts away like Snow before the sun.  
19 But if as they desire, they should heap slanders upon me, and smother me under the burden of their wrongs, I would not for all that be discouraged. I have not put my trust o Lord in the richesse and honours of this world, they are commonly the portion of the wicked, they are for the most part the rewards of their perfidious wickedness and deceits: this merchandise is commonly bought with none other money. All my trust and hope o Lord is in thee, the world is not able to contain it, the fruit of my labours doth not grow in the land of the dead, it is in the land of the living that I wait to gather them, there do I hope to see my wealth, nay rather thine, o my God. Other men look for the fruit after the blossom, but I expect it after the fall of the leaf. After that the leaf of my body shall be fallen, I hope that my soul shall flourish with new fruit, and shall be clothed with the eternal verdure of immortality.  
20. Be patient then my soul, and bear thyself valiantly, redouble thy courage, and wait till my GOD come towards thee. Be not astonished at the prosperity of the wicked, fear thou not though they do oppress good men: And because thou seest o Lord, that I am not strong enough of myself, assist and underprop me, lest that the affections of the wicked cause me to remove forth of the place where thou didst set me; second my fervent zeal, to the end that having fought valiantly in the assault which the wicked make upon me, I may stand ready when thou shalt open the gate, and being entered in triumph with thee, I may sit at thy feet at such time, when thou shalt judge the quick and the dead. Then we shall see the great difference betwixt their lives and ours, and what reward attends them: they have had their wealth in this world, it shall be said unto them, Depart hence, for you stand indebted in a great sum, think upon yielding an account of the goods which were committed to your keeping, and pay the arrearage for the mis-spending of them. Your dwelling is prepared for you where you deserve, among eternal pains and torments, the rigour whereof hath been often denounced unto you, and yet it could never draw you from your ungodly life, ye shall now feel it, because than ye did not fear it. But as for those o LORD which have been patient in thy name, and suffered in thine honour the fury of the wicked, thou wilt say unto them. Come ye blessed children of my Father, enter into the Tabernacle of glory, to judge with him the quick and the dead. Comfort thyself then my soul, & wait for this time, hope in GOD, GOD almighty and most merciful, who hath never forsaken the just man in his adversity, nor never stopped his ear against the innocent which was oppressed.   

Benedicam Domino in omni tempore. Psalm 34.  
BLessed be thy name o Lord, which hast comforted me in my sorrow, blessed be it for ever which hast succoured me in mine affliction. All things have their appointed hour, and all the actions of men are disposed by times and seasons, change serveth for rest, and rest refresheth the ordinary labour of living creatures: nothing can continue at one stay without relaxation: yet for all that, herein this rule faileth, for I o my God, do and will continually bless thy name: the sun rising shall find me praising thy name; the sun setting shall leave me praising thy name, I will thereby begin the months and the years, and thereby I will finish them: o eternity, I have no feeling of thee in this world, but only in this will of mine, which is ever ready perpetually to praise and glorify thy name o my God. My body consumeth with age, and my strength fades away, but my soul, obstinate against eorruptible humanity, doth not only last, but increaseth daily in this holy affection. If I think to take my rest, my heart giveth spurs to my thoughts. If I think to be silent, my soul breaks forth betwixt my lips, and by main force formeth a voice which prononnceth the glory of my LORD. What makes thee o my soul so fervent in the praises of my God? I see well that thou knowest, that thou hast drawn thine essence from him, and waitest by him to be glorified, what usury dost thou offer him? Thou presentest him with a parcel of his praises, and thou in the mean time expectest to be made partaker of the riches of his glory. For from him only thou art to hope for all honour. The heavens shall pass away, & shall wear like an old garment, & it shall be changed, but God shall remain to triumph over the ruins of the world. Peaceable and meek people shall be on every side about him; they shall hear the triumphant hymns which shall be sung to his victory, and filled with joy, they shall accord their voices to the trumpets of the Angels.  
2. Let us begin then betimes to learn the songs of his glory, let us magnify him and exalt his name as high as our voices will stretch, let us reinforce our cries, to the end they may ascend as high at the least as we can discern them, that the air filled with our songs, may carry them on the wings of the wind to the very farthermost parts of the earth to the end that all people may be wakened with the sound of our tunes, and rejoice when they shall in this manner hear the name of the Lord of heaven and earth to be exalted, the lord, who is the trusty & assured refuge of all those which call upon him.  
3. I sought him and he forthwith heard me. I no more knew whether to go, and after that I had cast mine eyes on every fide, finding nothing able to succour me, the whole world forsaking me, I returned towards myself, and bewailing my calmity beheld myself: And on a sudden he at once filled me with strength and courage, and causing my soul to rebound out of the gulf of sorrow and tribulation which had swallowed me up, he said unto me, trust in me for I am here, than I cried out o Lord where art thou? make haste and quickly help me, and forthwith his spirit came down upon me and as a strong wind driveth away the clouds, even so did it drive from me all manner of grief and afflictions.  
4. Come then and run unto him, come, the way is easy, it is open on overy side, he shows himself every where, in what place so ever we be he calls us unto him. He is so much afraid lest we should go astray, as he comes down from heaven to carry the torch before us to give light unto our feet. For he is the Father of light, and gives a purer light to our souls then to our bodies, it dissipates and scatters of itself, all that which may hurt and offend us. Come then and draw near unto it, for so long as it shall shine upon you, you shall walk with an erected brow, and nothing shall be able to offend you, your strength shall be renewed within you, and nothing shall be able to confound you: if your sin offers to show itself, it will drive it away: if your enemies come towards you it will overthrow them.  
5. Will ye behold an excellent proof of his help and singular mercy. Look upon this poor miserable wretch, who was accounted the masterpiece of misfortune, who was supposed to have lost all that he had, yea, very hope itself, the only comfort of the miserable, yet he no sooner cried unto God, but he forthwith heard him and delivered him from the misery wherein he was, he hath brought him to the haven and set him in a place of safety.  
6. He sends his Angels to the aid of his servants, who compass them about like a strong guard, and stir not from them till they have delivered them out of all danger. For as he is great, so are his ministers mighty: and albeit of himself he is able to do all things yet in regard of his greatness, he executeth his will & pleasure, by the means of his creatures governing the small ones by the mean, the mean ones by the highest, and the highest by himself.  
7. Taste then a little how sweet his mercy and goodness is, how happy is he which putteth his trust in him. The swallow is very careful of her young ones & yet she often lets them cry out for hunger, mixing their sweet with bitterness: but our God comes at the first cry, at the first sign, at our first wish, and so soon as he perceives that we thirst after his succour, he puts into our mouths the fertile dugs of his goodness, and sheds betwixt our lips the sweet milk of his grace, which quencheth the thirst of our infirmity, and the heat which our sin like a rotten ulcer hath in gendered in our consciences.  
8. Now seeing he is so good unto us, & denies us nothing that we ask him, take heed I pray ye unto yourselves, I speak unto you on whom he hath bestowed so many benefits, whom he hath sanctified with his holy blessings, whom he hath set apart to be his chosen, and to be partakers of his love. Take heed lest ye offend him by your unthankfulness, and make yourselves unworthy of his benefits by a distrust and unbelief of his goodness. For those which fear him never want any thing, in fearing him they hope in him, also they fear him with a loving fear, with a fear, not that he will hurt them, but with a fear to offend him, or rather with a fatherly reverence, which makes him by so much the more the ready to do us good, as we are respective to demand it. For he of himself knows what is necessary for us, he forthwith prevents our desires if they are not agreeable to his will, and makes us rich in the midst of our poverty, and valiant in the midst of our weakness.  
9 On the contrary, he doth not so to the rich worldlings, whose wealth he hath not blessed, for those men are needy in their riches, starved in their abundance, their wealth melts into poverty, their magnificence vanisheth away into smoke, and becomes like to a river whose springhead is damned up, his channel remains dry, his banks lose their greenness, and the trees planted thereon wither and fade. But those which have recourse unto God and do not forsake him, who refer all to his honour, shall never want any good thing, because the fountain of all goodness, which is the love of GOD, springeth in the midst of their souls, and sheds itself abroad through all the parts of their body.  
10. Now in regard you see how much profit there is in fearing God, how his fear is that which reconciles us unto him, this reconciliation doth purchase us his favour, doth increase our felicity, come unto me and I will teach you to fear him, who like a good and merciful father, doth never deny his mercy unto him which acknowledgeth his sin, and is willing to return into the way of well doing.  
11. Do you desire to please him, by that means to live in his favour which is as much to say as to live happily, and to pass your days in tranquillity of spirit, and plenty of all things necessary for this mortal life, and moreover to walk apace in the way of this immortal life, which tarrieth for us after our departure hence: In a word do ye desire his blessing, which is as much to say as a firm and certain prosperity, which begetteth in us a spiritual joy, which will keep your hearts always open to breathe his honour, and to use, with contentation, the wealth which he lends you in this world? In a few words I will show ye the way. For I know wherein he delighteth and which of our actions do please him.  
12. The first thing that ye shall do, bridle your tongue, that it utter no words which may offend God's honour, nor use sharp and bitter speeches. Do you see this little member, how nice and tender it is? yet nevertheless it is the helm of our life, which steereth and turneth our minds on the same side as itself is turned. For so soon once as it is filled with naughty and vicious speeches, it carrieth the passions of our heart, where they are conceived, unto the depth of our understanding, and doth water it in such sort, as it forthwith looseth the form and figure of reason which God hath inspired into it, do you not see how a little spark of fire burns down a whole building? even so the tongue gives sin entry into us, brings him in deafely and spreading his fire abroad in our soul, consumes in us all matter of goodness. Let us then command our lips to receive nothing but the bare and simple truth, and let lies and deceit before ever banished from us. For if we shut up the evil cogitations which may arise in our hearts, not giving them any vent, they will in the end smother themselves, like to a fire which hath no air.  
13. Let us first of all than put far from us all deceit and lying, for the true praise which God expecteth from us, is, that we imitate him as much as our nature will permit. Now he is the God of truth and righteousness, who can neither love nor cherish us, so long as lying, which is his contrary, shall dwell in us. Secondly we must fly from all sin whatsoever; to avoid evil, is the beginning of well doing, and if God find us empty of evil meaning, he will fill us with good, and will teach us what we ought to wish and procure. He learneth us that which we ought chiefly to desire. It is peace which he will have us to wish for, with all our hearts. Peace first with him, which is the heap of all goodness, the which we cannot have, unless we yield him that obedience which we owe him. Peace afterward amongst ourselves, without which we cannot obtain his. For he hath commanded us to love our neighbours as ourselves, but if we, instead thereof, breath forth nothing but blood and rapine, what peace can we have with him, whose laws and commandments we break? For war and discord are the roots of unrighteousness, and are abominable before God.  
14. His eye, which is this good and merciful eye, doth not look but upon the just: his light shines only on them, his wonders are wrought in their behalf; his ears are only open to their prayers: and we may properly say, that his justice stands at his side which examineth the lives of such as present themselves before him and doth recommend unto him the prayers of those that are of an upright heart.  
15. As for those who take delight in doing evil, he doth look upon them, but it is with an eye kindled with fury, whose beams are like arrows of pain and misery, which he shooteth into their souls, filling them with fear and amazement, with a thousand other mischeefs which he sends unto them, as the earnest of eternal torment which attends them. He thinks not on them but only how to root out their memory from the face of the earth, and by his justice to wash out the spots of their pollution: for he hath a long time known their impenitent heart, which hath insolently neglected his holy mercy.  
16. The Just have not done so, for they returned unto God in time, and crying after his clemency, they did at the last obtain it, they now enjoy it as their portion, he hath drawn them forth of all the troubles wherein they were plunged, & hath covered them with his favour as under a brazen wall, so as no violent evil whatsoever is able to pierce through it.  
17. Truly god is good & favourable he is always near to the afflicted which call upon him, he forsakes him not, neither day nor night, so soon as sorrow hath humbled us, and caused us to know what need we have of him, behold he is at hand to save us.  
18. The righteous indeed are afflicted with strange calamities, and we may in a manner say, that they are the subject of misery, so many evils do at once seem to overwhelm them. But it is only to make the mercy of God the more illustrious & notable in their behalf: For the greater that their tribulation is, the brighter doth Gods pity and compassion shine in their conservation.  
19 He preserveth the least of their bones, yea, namely not an hair of their heads shall perish or be plucked off, but by his express will, and he never wills it, but for their good and salvation. Moreover a! their wealth and store is under his protection, and when he pleaseth he will multiply their riches, he will make his blessings to flourish in their houses, and he will increase their wealth and possessions above all envy.  
20. On the contrary the life of the wicked shallbe miserable. If at the leastwise for to try them, & to invite them to return unto him, he doth lend them some wealth in this life, hard and lamentable shall be their death. Death, which shall turn them over to eternal torments; Death which shall plung them in the bottomless pit of fires unquenchable, there to be devoured and never consumed, there to be ever languishing and never dead, such shall be the end of the wicked and of him which persecuteth the just man.  
21. And thy poor servants in the mean time, whom thou hast so dearly redeemed out of the hands of death and sin, shall enjoy in all happiness the salvation which thou hast purchased for them, and holding death and sin in bands under their feet in the chains of thy mercy, they shall trust in thee so long as they shall remain in this worldly exile, & after that they are come forth of it, they shall enjoy that eternal blessedness which thou hast promised them, beholding in thy countenance, that fountain of brightness, goodness and beauty, wherewith thou didst create heaven, earth and all therein contained.   

Noli Ae●ulari. Psalm 36.  
IN regard that God's providence which governeth the world, oweth a recompense to every man according as he hath deserved; I am sometimes amazed to see how those whose only study is to do evil, do receive so many favours in this life, and do bathe themselves in so many kinds of pleasures. But as my heart begins to swell and to be despited in itself, I feel (as it seemeth unto me) the spirit of God which comes and toucheth me, and plucking me by the ear, it saith unto me, soft and fair, soft and fair, thou poor wretch, thou losest thyself in this over-deepe and dangerous discourse: comfort thou thyself in me, and envy not the good of the wicked, be not jealous of those which work iniquity.  
2. For that which thou thinkest to be their felicity, is but a vain shadow, a false and deceitful image, which will be lost betwixt their hands, & will fly away when they shall think to hold it fast. As the hay, which is mown down, fades & withers in a moment, even so in a moment shall the magnificence of the wicked lose his colour & brightness. The herbs in a garden are not so soon withered, as thou shalt perceive the riches of the wicked to fall away and perish. Hast thou not beheld the flower Emerocall, true beauty of a day, which flourisheth with a crimson dye in the morning, keepeth his colour all day long, and in the evening becomes so pale and withered, as though it had been bitten with the frozen teeth of winter? The happiness of the wicked, if a deceitful smile of an apparent felicity, may be termed a happiness, doth properly resemble that flower, for it is withered so suddenly, is changed in so short a time, and is transformed in such diverse manner, as it is a wonder to behold it.  
3. Put then thy trust in God, and believe it, the insolence of the wicked shall never continue, so long as the divine justice shall bear rule, and be likewise assured, that the just man shall never be forsaken, what affliction so ever he be in. Discourage not thyself, but continue in well doing, for he which persevers unto the end shall be saved. Dwell in the land which thy God hath given thee, content thyself with the graces which he hath given thee, and enter not into judgement with him; For thou shalt find in the end that the riches of the wicked are but given them to keep.  
4. Rejoice thou in the hope which thou hast in thy God, & lay aside the melancholy which thou hatchest in thy soul, which like rust eats & consumes thy heart. For when thy mind shall be once purified, and thy thoughts lifted up to thy Lord; he will accomplish all thy wishes, & will cause thee to enjoy all that which thou art able to desire.  
5. But do not present thyself before him with wavering, go not unto him with diffidence, do not hide thy thoughts, open the very bottom of thy heart before him, & discover thy thoughts. For it is impossible to deceive him, and it is dangerous to go about it. He seeth and noteth all things, chiefly a double and unbelieving heart, the which above all things else he detesteth: but he receiveth and embraceth the poor man that is humbled, he hearkeneth to his prayer, and gives him before hand that which he meant to ask.  
6. Nothing is wanting, neither wealth, nor honour unto him which hath his favour: if thou please him once, he will cause the glory of thy righteousness to shine brighter than the day light, and the equity of thy judgements to glister like the midday's sun. For people on all sides shall be seen to come from thee, blessing thy house for a temple of justice, praising thy word for an oracle, and reverencing thee as the cause of their rest and liberty. Every one shall exalt thine integrity, as the protector of good men, and sure defence of the afflicted. But the more honour and glory that thou receivest, humble thyself so much the more under the hand of thy GOD, and acknowledge this good to come from him, and yield him homage. The homage which he demands of thee besides thy heart, is but thy mouth and hands, thy mouth to set forth his praise, thy hands to serve him according to his commandments.  
7. Lo, this is that which the spirit of God told me, I communicate it to you my friends, and make yeepertakers of these holy advertisements, to the end that if hereafter you see any one to prosper in his affairs, and yet to blaspheme in his life, ye should not be offended thereat, nor be angry in yourselves, though he which worketh iniquity, do abound in all manner of wealth.  
8. Be quiet then in your minds, sweeten the sharpness which pricks and vexes you, and never go about to hurt him because of that. For the recompense of good men is nor only good for good, but good for evil.  
9 And those, who carried away with a fiery impatience, do procure the hurt of others, & who in stead of leaving vengeance to God unto whom it belongs, will usurp it from him, they shall be rooted out for ever: & like insolent servants which enterprise upon their masters authority, they shall be sharply and shamefully punished. But he which possesseth his soul in patience, and constantly waiteth for God's judgement, God will praise and bless his obedience, and after that he hath punished the wicked for their mischief, he will confiscate their possessions, and make him master and owner thereof.  
10. Tarry yet a little, and ye shall see the sport, He whom ye did see so magnificent, which made so great profit by his sin; who by his naughty practises had gathered together so much wealth, as he thought thereby to have purchased an immortal name: he shall glide a way like a wave, where the water flowed with great surges, there shall be seen nothing but mud and dirt: there shall not remain so much as any sign of the place where he stood; he shall be no more remembered than the wind which blew a twelvemonth past.  
11. And on the contrary, a good and righteous man, shall possess his room, shall be successor of his riches, and shall reign in safety on the earth, leaving his wealth in succession to his children, peace shall pass on to his by inheritance. Peace, a rich and wealthy in heritance, which giveth taste to all other benefits, without which all the other is but torment and affliction. Peace, more sweet than the sweetest oil and milk which hatcheth all kind of pleasures in thy bosom, which causeth virtue to bud and flourish, and which no wrisheth, and ripeneth her holy fruits.  
12. Now this peace is the gift of God, and nothing can bestow it upon us but his goodness and nothing can procure his goodness, but the reformation of our wicked lives: for so so long as war shall remain in us, and that sin, which is the sin of discord shall lodge with us, we cannot hope for peace and rest amongst ourselves. But on the contrary, if we can make peace with God, we shall forth with have it with men, and we shall live in a firm and quiet rest.  
13. I know well that there will always be wicked people found, whose evill-will, will not cease till they die; I know very well that they will always lie in wait to surprise good men & to practise against them, they will grind their teeth at them, & gromble like roaring Lions, for their hatred is so extreme against the good, as when they see them they know not how to look, and resemble beasts rather than men.  
14. But God almighty who hath appointed that which hath been, which shallbe, and is, whose ordonances are immovable, doth mock such practices, & laugheth at the vain doings of those false miserable wretches, which beat the air and skirmish with the wind: he sees their end to come on fair and softly which shall bear them hence like a great whirlwind.  
15. For when they think themselves to be master & to have all in their own power, even then shall they be in most danger. You shall see these miserable sinners with naked swords in hand to bend their bows and to take their aim, to hit the innocent. They will band themselves together, they will put their people in order, place their ambush, give the watchword, and joyful in their hearts they will say: we hold him, he cannot escape us.  
16. They will come to slay the poor, needy and innocent person, and will make account to root out all those whose hearts and souls are upright. For against such men they denounce war, because they hinder the execution of their purposes, and for that their innocence is a continual reproach unto them.  
17. They had already set their knife to the throat of the innocent, they were fetching their stroke, they had shot off their arrows, but lo! by a wonderful accident, the point of their sword was turned upon their own breasts, their arrows fell upon themselves, their bows broke betwixt their fingers; And at last they slew one another, with their own weapons. Thou hast rightly said o Lord, that always evil councils overthrow the authors thereof, thou hast foretold that the wicked are taken in their own snares, and that at the last they shall suffer the punishment which they prepared for others.  
18. It is not then o Lord, power, greatness, and worldly authority, which make men happy, troops and armies of men make them not safe and conquerors. For the small store which thou givest unto the just man, who by his sincerity is reconciled to thy favour, is of more worth, than all the plenty and a fluence of the wicked: the little which a just man hath, riseth like the leaven in the dough, his strength flourisheth like the branches of the Palm tree, for his vigour takes root in thee who art the depth of all strength and power.  
19 But on the contrary the arm of the sinner, how strong soever it be, shall be, broken, and his strength shall be trodden under foot: for it is but a vain show which swelleth like to the glass in the furnace; it waxeth great by the breath of the workman, but the more it increaseth and shines, the more weak and brittle it becomes, so as a small knock breaks it all to pieces. But the just man is like to the diamond, the more it is hammered, the brighter it is: Affliction takes only from the innocent man his uppermost filth and excrement, and the nakeder he is, the fairer and purer he appears.  
20. In a word whatsoever God sends, to good men, all is for their good. He knoweth the life and days of all such people as are pure and clean, and giveth them that which is needful for them. Their happiness is prepared from all eternity, and they shall eternally possess it, not an earthly inheritance, but a heavenly, whose wealth is infinite and eternal, an inheritance, which divided amongst his children, shall nevertheless remain whole & entire, whose parts shall be as great as the whole. For it is this inheritance of glory, which enritching so many people, doth fill them all with eternal blessedness, and remaineth ever one, and always infinite.  
21. Now albeit that the hope of God's servants is not fixed on earth, yet nevertheless so long as they shall remain in this world he will not suffer them to want that which is necessary for the maintenance of this life. For when the evil time shall come, when as vengeance shall be poured upon men, when the waters shall overflow their banks, when tempests shall bear sway, and the heavens reign down fire, the just shall be then at rest in the midst of the tempests, stand dryfoot in the time of shipwreck, and shall be safe in the midst of the flames. And namely when a fearful famine shall come to devour nations, Manna shall fall from heaven to feed them. For the wrath of God is only upon the wicked, his anger is only kindled against them: As for the just the nearer they seem to danger, the nearer they are to safety.  
22. They are not like to God's enemies, who are highly honoured and exalted, to make their dounfal the more grievous and shameful; for nothing hath a great fall but that which is highly exalted. The ruins of towers shiver themselves in pieces and fall to dust, the wicked do worse, for when they once fetch their leap, they do not only fall away to dust but vanish into smoke, and evaporate to nothing. Behold the clouds which comes forth of the thundering throat of a great Cannon; what a thick vapour it casteth forth, how it seems to fill the emptiness of the vast air, and to must the sun: but they are no sooner ascended, but they grow lesser, and so at the last consume away, so as not any token there of is at all to be seen.  
Such is the greatness of the wicked, which hath no matter but their sin, no motion but their vanity; it increaseth in an instant, and in a moment perrisheth. And all the labour they bestow in preserving it, serveth to no use or purpose at all.  
23. They borrow and pay not again, all that they catch is their own, and they leave nothing for other men to carry away, nevertheless all his profits them nothing, for as the abundance of meat doth not fatten him that is in a consumption, because the radical humour of his life is spent, even so the blessing of God which is the root of all prosperity, declines from the wicked. The just man on the contrary who is full of mercy and compassion, giveth largely of his goods, and distributes his money, and like a current of springing water never waxeth dry.  
24. It is a blessing promised to those which bless the name of God, that they shall inherit the earth, that is, they shall hold the earth, as an inheritance by good title: albeit they are molested, yet they shall never be overthrown; For they are Gods children, whom he hath created, and therefore they have sufficient authority to hold it. But those which blaspheme his name, are disinherited of his favour, and like ungrateful children, are deprived of their father's inheritance, so, as bearing his curse they must of force perish.  
25. For there is none other salvation in the world but to trust in God, and to commit one's self to his keeping. He directeth the ways of the just man, and governs his actions, so as they need not to be amended. He stirs up his will to godliness, and turns a way his eyes from the baits of sin, he will bring him back from the lanes and bywayes of pleasure, into the road way of virtue, and cause him to walk in the paths of his commandments.  
26. It is a fair plain way where there are no stumblingblocks, all is smooth and even. And if the wicked, or father of lies, holds out their legs to give the just man a fall, thou o Lord art near unto him to raise him up again, and not to suffer him to be broken in pieces. And with thy hand of mercy, that most soft and tender hand, thou liftest him up again on his feet.  
27. I have been young and now am old, yet to my remembrance, I never saw the just man wholly forsaken of God, nor his children brought to beg their bread. It may be that sometimes some cross may light on him for a trial of his constancy, and for a proof of his virtue, yet it does no more but pass by and shake him, not being of force to throw him down.  
18. I have seen such an one who all day long did nothing but give and lend, so as a man would have thought that he took delight in wasting his goods, and yet nevertheless he did still abound in substance more than before, he much resembled the Pipe of a Pump, which draweth up water in casting it forth: the full in him could not endure the empty. The just man giveth, good doth forthwith fill him, his posterity is never the poorer for his bounty, for the blessing of God causeth riches to spring in him, as the sun doth the fruits of the earth, & multiplies them a hundred for one.  
29. Seeing then that God is so good and bountiful, if ye love his favour, take care to please him, the way is, to turn away from evil, and to do good. God loves him which imitates him, for love proceeds from resemblance, his actions are to do good, it is his chiefest occupation; He began this work when he made the world, and is never weary of it. Let us then do like him, and so long as we shall dwell in this world, where he hath given us means to serve to his glory, and the profit of our neighbour, let us not neglect this occasion to discharge our duties one to another, and by that means obtain his favour, which is the richest treasure we can purchase.  
30. Nothing doth please him so much as justice, for thereby, as much as in us lieth, we preserve his workmanship and allow his wise council, in giving to every one that which is his own, and distributed by the universal law of the world, which we call nature, and we must think, that when we judge other men, we administer his power, and that such judgement as we give, the like will he give us, when he shall sit in his throne to judge the world: not that he can judge amiss like us, but he will make us feel by his judgement the smart which we have procured to other men by ours. For he will never forsake his Saints, he will at the last gather them together, and will shield them from the injustice of men; he will of purpose sit down in his seat to judge those which do oppress them.  
31. There will he pronounce a rigorous judgement against the unjust, and he will destroy the wicked. They shall be confined in infernal torment, they shall be heard to howl in the midst of their torture, and their punishment shall overrun their heads, even unto their posterity; and their children shall bear the sins of their fathers, and shall endure part of their misery.  
32. And at the same time the grace of God shall shed itself abundantly on the just, to the end that their prosperity may be a second punishment to the wicked, filling their hearts with envy, which shall continually gnaw them: for they shall behold good men to pos●sse their lands in peace's, their posterity to reign in quiet, and to flourish like the tree planted by a sweet rivers side, which spreads forth her branches in the air, flourisheth in beauty, aboundeth in leaves, and brings forth most excellent fruit.  
33. But what shall be the fruits of the just man? shall they be the wealth which he hath gathered together, the castles which he hath builded? o fruits unworthy such a tree! fruits which whither at the first feeling of frost, fruits which fall off with the first wind! not so, it shall be the go●d and savoury fruits which grow in the fair and plentiful arbours of the divine wisdom. They are holy and religious thoughts, they are meditations full of zeal and devotion, by which he will join his spirit to God; then opening his soul, he will receive the beams of the holy Ghost, which will animate him to a thousand goodly virtuous actions, as the fruit of his life. Holiness passing from his heart to his lips, will cause him to utter none other speeches but of equity and righteousness.  
34. For he will always have the saw of God imprinted in his soul, as a just and certain rule, whereby he will encompass his speech, and he need not fear ever to go astray out of the right way, nor that his foot will in any sort slide, for the foundation thereof is too surely laid, and the path too much beaten. The law of God is more firm and solid than Iron or Steel. It is an in flexible rule, an immovable rock. It is a place of safety, where a man is not only conducted in righteousness, but safely preserved as betwixt two brazen walls.  
35. For, behold the wicked, how long he hath lain in ambush to surprise the innocent? behold what means he hath used to take away his honour and life, see whether he have forgotten any thing or no?  
36. But God forsaketh not the just man, into what danger soever he falls, he gives him not over to the sacrilegious hands of these cruel murderers, nor to their bloody impostures, and impudent slanders; For he is judge, and the power resides in him, but he is likewise a witness, and the knowledge of truth is in him, seeing then that he knoweth the truth, and that he can and will judge the innocent, shall he not be justified by his sentence?  
37. Wait then on him o ye just, for his help is certain, be not weary of staying for him, for he knows better what ye need then yourselves: sometimes he tarries to try your patience, sometimes to glorify you: walk then in his ways, & observe them carfully: Plant strong hedges round about his ways, stick your labours with thorns, and your tribulations with briars, for fear least voluptuousness enter in, and pleasure break and spoil your way. Persever in your course until ye sweat water and blood, to the end that ye may arrive at the haven of rest, where God will exalt ye above this visible world; ye namely above his glorified Angels. He will cause ye to lead sinners in triumph, and will make ye to see the earth purged from their iniquity, to be assigned for a portion to good men.  
38. I have been sometimes amazed to see the wicked man raised up to all sorts of honours, and to hold the earth, in a manner, subject under his feet. The Cedar of Libanus looks not more fair and strait, at such time as he puts on his green livery, and spreads forth his new blossoms, as the wicked seemed in the strength of his magnificence.  
39 But returning by the place where I left him, I did greatly wonder what was become of him, I beheld the seat of his greatness, which was turned into solitude, I did ask what is become of him that was so brave, and so much feared? no man made me answer. I sought up and down every where, to see if I could meet him, but I could hear no tidings at all. All melted away with him, there remained not so much as a mention of him, and it seemed that the fire had eaten all up.  
40. We must then by the example of their misery learn to eschew sin, and following another life, merit another end. Preserve yourselves then o ye innocent people, study righteousness, love equity and justice: For the peaceable man loveth rest in his family, and is new borne in his posterity.  
41. They are not like to the reprobate, whose memory is lost in a moment, and no man remains afterward to name them, unless it be with curses. Their posterity is lost at once, the first stroke that striketh them doth wholly overthrow them, for they had no help but in their own selves, & God had forsaken them long since.  
42. He succoureth only the just that trust in him: they have waited on him, and it is reason that they should find comfort in him: he likewise supporteth them in the day of their affliction. They shall retire themselves under his wings, like to poor chickens pursued by the Kite, they shall there be covered, defended and comforted.  
43. He will help them in the midst of the bickering, and then they shall be environed on every side, he will miraculously by his power come and deliver them. He will break into the throng, & will draw the just forth of the hands of the wicked. Wherefore, o Lord dost thou support the just with such affection? Because they have trusted in thee, and not placed their confidence in the frail and corruptible goods of this world, but on thine infinite goodness and mercy, which never faileth those which call upon thine holy name? Seeing them o father of justice and mercy, that it pleaseth thee for a time to permit the wicked to enjoy the goods and honours of this world, and to set their feet on the necks of good men, and with their evil artificial practices to torment thy good and faithful servants: compose in such sort our affections, as we may not be offended with their good hap, nor envy their decetfull riches, but grant that we may courageously bear what affliction so ever it shall please thee to lay upon us, waiting with patience till thou comest to judge their conscience, to inquire out the depth of their councils, and with the severity of thy justice to imprint on their foreheads the shame they have deserved, razing their infamous memory from the face of the earth, which is appointed for the service of thy glory. And in the mean time, contain our hearts in such sort that we have none other hope, but in thee, and make account of nothing else in this world, or to set our love upon, but on thine only grace and blessing.   

judica me domine Psalm. 42.  
Be my judge o Lord, take notice of my cause, and judge the slanders wherewith the wicked do accuse me, deliver me ō Lord out of the ungodly, and from deceitful lips. For they are gathered together to conspire against me, and they have practised my destruction. They would cloak their theft with justice, and under show of law they would overthrow and defame me. But o divine justice! which with an allseeing eye dost scatter the clouds of slander, and givest light to innocency, shine a little upon me, and make them know that truth pierceth throw their deceits, and makes way to appear before thee, who art a severe and uncorrupted judge, and the only comforter of the afflicted.  
2. Thou art my strength and defence, on thee alone doth mine innocency repose. I was prepared to encounter the impostures of those which assailed me. I had devised a thousand arguments to convince them, & made account to gain the cause. But when I did consider that thou tookest upon thee the knowledge of my cause, like my God, my keeper & my protector: I said unto myself, to what purpose are all these goodly syllogisms? for my judge knows the truth of the matter, and is acquainted with the equity of my cause. What can be hidden from him, before whom all things are present? what can be showed unto him which is justice itself, who hath established laws, and unto whom the interpretation of them doth belong? I throw myself then into thine arms my God, my strength and refuge. judge my cause and deliver me from the slanders of the wicked. But wherefore dost thou reject me o my God? I have a long time called upon thee and yet thou comest not. Mine enemies in the mean time oppress me, and I am able to hold out no longer. o Lord I am almost in despair, why dost thou forsake me? But soft and fair my soul, why art thou so desolate? although God doth for a while defer to come to thine aid, whilst the wicked do afflict thee, why art thou thus discouraged, and givest thyself over to grief and sorrow? That which is deferred is not lost, he will come, seeing he hath promised it.  
3. Come then o my God, my Lord, and display the beams of thy divine light upon me, and seeing thou art the father of truth, leave not this thy poor daughter captive to the iniquity and injustice of these accusers. If thou lovest innocency, deliver it from the bands of these false accusations; now o Lord malice lies hid in the midst of darkness, if thou putst it to the light of the day, she is overcome, If it be known it is undone: Let then thy light & thy truth o my God, assist me in my justice: For all my life time I have loved them, from my youth I have made much of them and sought them out: They are they o Lord which first of all brought me before thee, and presented me unto thee upon thine holy hill, seated in the midst of thy Tabernacle, they brought me into thy Church, and gave me a place of honour in thy house.  
4. It is there o Lord where I have chosen my dwelling place, mine habitation is with thee, in thee o Lord is my rest, all my glory hath been to serve thee. Being then assured of thine aid, hoping in thy grace, I will present myself before thee, which knowest my conscience, and knowing judgest it, in judging thou esteemest it, in esteeming it, confound the common enemies of mine honour & thy service. I will come unto the Altar that I have built unto thee to bless and sanctify thy name, & I will call on thee o my God, which fillest my youth with joy, warmest my heart with the sacred flames of thy holy will, and heapest pleasure and gladness upon me.  
5. Taking my Harp in hand, I will play the confession of thy magnificence, and with my voice I will tune the sweet accents of thy praise, I will now sing of thy mighty power; by & by of thine immense goodness, than thine infinite clemency: but I will end with this admirable justice, which hath defended me from the oppression of the wicked, and hath caused the shame of their naughty practices to light upon themselves: wherefore then my soul art thou thus sorrowful? why doest thou thus trouble me, and fret thyself at the indignities of the wicked, as though their venomous tongues were able to prevail against an innocent conscience? no, no, a burning torch thrust into the water is not so quickly put out, as is slander which is thrown upon an innocent life.  
6. Hope in God then o my soul, and rejoice in his favour, for I perceive that he is pleased with his praises in my mouth. All my life long I will praise and confess myself unto the God of truth, the God of justice, God the defender of the innocent, the father of salvation, God mine only defence. I will always fix mine eyes and countenance on him, for I have found no salvation but in him only. O God, who from the beginning of the world dost stretch forth thine arms to the afflicted, protectest the oppressed, and comfortest the just man unjustly tormented, give me o Lord comfort and courage, to the end that recollecting my spirits, half dulled with affliction, I may glorify thee with my whole strength, and drown with the vigour of my voice the blasphemies of the wicked, who defame thine honour, who being not able to reach unto thyself, do furiously assail good men that serve thee faithfully.   

Audite haec omnes gentes. Psalm 48.  
COme unto me, o ye strangest nations, draw near unto me o ye people the most remote, come from all parts, to hear that which no where else ye can hear, cross the seas and mountains, overcome boldly all difficulty of the long way. For the reward of your navigation shall be greater than his which saileth from the East to the West, laden with Pearls and Diamonds. The recompense of your travails shall be more precious than the trophies of those which subdue the nations of the earth. Bend then your ear and listen attentively to that which I will now declare unto you, Oh! how gladly would I wish, that all the rest of your senses were turned into hearing, to the end ye might purely conceive, that which I will pronounce unto you.  
2. Come, come, all ye, which call yourselves children of the earth, and think that ye owe your original and being to the earth, and your birth only to your parents, and acknowledge in this world nothing older than they, nor nothing greater than yourselves. In deed, ye may be rightly called the children of the earth, ye are insensible like it, and ye have no more understanding than Images made of clay, which art baked in the furnace: Come and open your ears, to the end that I may open your minds, shut the eyes of your body, that I may cause your souls to see clearly, forsake the earth, this goodly mother-in-law, to the end I may make you to know your heavenly father: come then every one, both rich and poor, for ye are all alike unworthy of the benefits which I will liberally bestow upon you.  
3. Come, for I will open unto you the treasures of eternal wisdom. And opening my mouth, inspired with the grace of God Almighty, I will declare in my words the wonders of his wisdom. I have a long time held my soul in a profound meditation, and after much deliberation, I did at last conceive a strange discourse of the divine wisdom, whereby I have in all things acknowledged the goodness and mercy of God, and the folly, misery, and infirmity of men.  
4. That is the reason why being wholly confounded in the admiration of his greatness, and compassion of our own weakness, I thought good forthwith to listen unto that which my soul taught me, and to take careful heed of those things, the knowledge and truth whereof it showed me covertly, and under a disguised form. And after I had carefully understood and examined it, I took my Harp in hand, and framing my voice to the sweet tunes thereof, I prepared myself to commit my conceits to the air, and to cause my meditations to be heard of all those which would give ear unto them, to the end they might be pleasing unto God, the author of such holy thoughts, and serve for a wholesome instruction to the favourable hearer of my discourse.  
5. If ye would then know what I said unto myself, it was thus, what should I fear in the hardest time of my life? whereof should I be afraid, though death did lay his hand upon me and took me out of this world? Alas death is a strange piece of work, I know not any one but would sear him, seeing no man can defend himself from him. How can I shield myself from his darts? what rampiar can I make against his assaults, which undermines and overthrows houses, castles, Cities, Kingdoms, Empires, which thretens the destruction of the world, and will at the last give end unto himself? no armour will prevail but innocency: Thereof will I make a strong shield of steel. For unless I look well to myself, the traitor sin, death's hired soldier, will dog me at the heels, he will lodge in my concupiscence, and will turn me over at the time of the fight into the hands of damnation.  
6. O dear and precious innocency, thou art only our safety; under thy trust we constantly wait for all that which may happen unto us, and we know thee to be strong enough to defend us from death. o foolish mad men, which forsaking this trusty protection, do strengthen themselves in their power and greatness, and highly account of their riches and magnificence! They reckon up the nations which are under their government, they number the treasure which they have under lock and key, but how can all this defend them from death?  
7. If the brother cannot redeem his brother with the price of his own life, if being willing to die for him, inexorable death will not accept thereof: what shall man then give unto death for his own ransom? shall he give those goods which are not his own, or the empires which die with him? nothing less, God will by no means be appeased, after he hath pronounced his judgement against mortal men. He will compound with no man, man is his creature, the clay of his earth, from whom when he pleaseth he will draw that spirit which he breathed into him: man hath nothing to say against it, nor must not dispute with him.  
8. Let us I pray you a little rate the price of man's soul, let us see what he will offer unto God to redeem it from him, let him labour all his life time, let him go to the corners of the earth, let him thrust his hands into the bowels of the mines, let him draw dry the golden dugs of both the Indies, let him spoil the East of her pearls, and having heaped all this together, let him come and traffic with God for the prolonging of his life. It is even as though a prisoner should make offer to leave his irons, if he might have his liberty. Poor wretch, that which thou thinkest to be thy safety, is the window whereat death enters. Death comes of sin, sin from thy concupiscence, thy concupiscence is nourished, inflamed and increased by those trumperies. God will talk with thee when thou art stark naked as he sent thee into this world, before he will capitulate with thee he will have thee to render that which thou hast stolen from him, his goods which thou hast misspent; then thou mayest consider whether thou hast any thing of thine own to pay the double, yea the fourefould for the punishment of thy evil life.  
Alas poor mad creature, if thou comest once to that point, what wilt thou say to death, seeing that the wisest men have bended their necks under his yoke? Thou who never madest account of any thing but of thy corruptible and perrishing riches, dost thou think to be preserved from corruption, and the wise man who, as much as in him lay, did immortalize himself in this life, and conversed with the Angels, could not shield himself from it? thou seest him come to his end and yet thou hopest to be immortal! no, no, the wise and the foolish dye both together, yet for all that in a diverse fashion, for the wise man's death is but a passage, at his return he shall find his Talent infinitely multiplied, the glory which he sewed shall grow up in abundance, and shall shadow the generation of his children.  
10. But these poor blinded people, who have ever their eyes fixed on the ground, their mind shut in their purse, who have no more understanding, but to love those things which love nothing, who neglect the Sun and Moon, the chief works of nature, to admire stones, marble, gold and silver, the excrements of the earth, shall leave the wealth which they so much loved, and for which they hated all the rest. You shall see them strive with death, they would gladly draw their wealth with them to the grave, but death will strike them over their fingers, and make them leave off their hold. Being half dead, they shall open their eye lids, to behold with half an eye their treasures, but at the last they must march away, they must forsake all this trash, a stronger power hales them away.  
But unto whom shall they leave this store? Perhaps, an unknown stranger shall bathe himself in the sweat of this poor wretched creature, unto whom for a portion shall be allotted a grave of fifteen or twenty foot at the most, that must be his house, let him dwell there if he will.  
〈◊〉. And what is now become of those goodly palaces? where are those guilded roofs, those gallant ranks of carved Pillars, those marbles so bravely polished, those emblems engraven in brass, and all his other miracles of vanity? is there nothing left for him? He purchased lands to continue from generation to generation, he gave names to his houses, truly he was a great Lord.  
12. Alas, the poor man when he was in honour had not the wit to know it, and now he is like to the beasts, and resembleth the horse and ass which have no reason nor understanding: For what greater honour could he desire, then to have been cast in the mould of the divinity, and to be placed amongst the works of God to command over them as his Lieutenant? He was little inferior to the Angels, and had a soul able to comprehend the greatest wonders of the divinity, but eschewing the daylight of knowledge, he went groping up and down in the dens and caves of ignorance and blockishness, and remained therein all his lifetime; hatching this miserable riches, and at the last is become like to a bruit beast. For as a beast ●eigheth after his provender, and takes no care but how to feed, even so this man, would not stir but for the necessities of the body, nay, he would scarcely use that wealth, which he had so much coveted, being herein much worse than all other beasts, whose unbridled appetite, is satisfied by the use of those things which they desire.  
13. O how scandalous and infamous is the life of such people! what share have they in this world, or in the next? but only shame in this, and pain and torment in the other. Let them now please themselves in their own discourse, let them grow proud in their wealth, let them now a little call to mind the speeches they were wont to use, when they esteemed no man but themselves and their money, and held all other men in contempt.  
14. Behold they are haled into hell like sheep to the slaughter, death hath devoured them, and there is nothing left but their bare bones, which rot in their graves.  
15. The just man, who with patience endured their pride, his turn is now come: lo, his time is to reign, and he is now at his ease. He riseth up by the break of day, and after he hath given thanks unto God, he goes to behold the place where one of those miserable wretches dwelled, the place where he was wont to brave and tyrannize over the world, and says softly to himself, praised be God, who hath cleansed the earth from this filth, and hath given place unto those which bless his name. This wretch is rotten and his glory with him. He is now in torment, and no man helps him, let him remain so hardly, for death unto him is a going on, but not a coming back.  
16. As for myself o Lord. I know very well that I must die, the sin of our first parent hath bound us to this debt, it is the reward of his disobedience, we must return into the earth from whence we came. Yet for all that o Lord thou shalt redeem me from death, and deliver me from the hands of hell, when it would seize on me. Thou wilt not suffer me to go down so low, thou wilt set me at liberty at the entry of the door, and wilt be satisfied, that I should know without suffering, the punishment of my deserved bondage and captivity. But what shall be the price of my redemption? shall it be the goods of the earth the abundance of gold and silver? Not so o Lord. Thou thyself shalt be the price of my redemption, thou shalt give up thine own body to death, to the end to deliver my soul from hell, thou shalt put on the sorrows of the grave, to the end to clothe me with the joys of immortality. I will then, henceforward, o my God, have none other wealth but thou, possessing thee I shall enjoy the whole world: loving thee, I shall be in thee, and thou in me, and being so, thou wilt bring thither all the wealth of the world, all the strength, all the glory of the world, and wilt fill me with an other manner of wealth then that of these poor wretches: they know thee not, their riches is but the fruit of their sin, which with their sin shall perish.  
17. We must not be amazed to see them suddenly wax rich, nor account them happy for that: if they do abound in false honour which they hunt after, and that they are laden with this vain and fleeting glory, which is nothing but a show, we must not wonder at it, & much less envy them for it.  
18. For so soon as they shall kiss the earth, and be clothed with their winding sheet, they shall carry away nothing with them but the cloth that covers them, nothing shall follow them but their shadow. Nay, I believe that will leave them also, for the light which causeth the shadow will fail them, & instead of these magnificent shows, & pompous solemnities, wherewith they scared little children, grief, sorrow, anguish, poverty, misery, shall wrap them about, and cast them into the lake of Brimstone.  
19 And, not without cause, they took their pleasure in this life, their happiness was in this world, they obtained what they wished for, wealth came to them by heaps, greatness and felicity was a burden to them, they loved none but such as enriched them, they made much of none but those which increased their revenues, they are dead, & have nothing left them in the next world, for they made no provision of the wealth that is currant there: they satisfied themselves to have sufficient riches for this earthly life, that is now ended, and they are in poverty. They desired honour, but it was vain and fleeting, which depended only on the opinion of fools, they had it, but they could not well tell how to keep it. They would needs sit on the top of the wheel, it turned round, and threw them headlong down. Happy are they which can sit at the foot thereof constant and unmoved, and behold in safety how it turns about.  
20. But these miserable wretches did not so, they willingly mounted the top from whence they fell into hell, they are now of the number of their fathers, they found their Ancestors there, from whom they drew their birth and manners; they imitated their vices, and after death they partake their punishment. They learn, but too late, and when repentance is unprofitable, what it is to lift themselves up against God, and to resist his glory. They learn what it is to afflict the just, to oppress the poor, to deride the afflicted. They are confined in darkness, and the light shineth no more before their eyes. They hear nothing but horror and gnashing of teeth, they breathe out nothing but sighs & groans they do not move up and down, but in fear and ttembling.  
21. When these wretched madmen were in honour, they knew not what it was, and became like beasts without understanding. But alas, this is no true comparison, for when beasts die, death takes away their feeling of sorrow, as well as that of pleasure: but these wretches, which would not know wherein their happiness consisted, who would not look upon eternal light, who stopped their ears at the spiritual word, their feeling shall remain for the subject of their torments, & their soul shall live perpetually to conceive their misery and they shall for ever languish.   

Quam bonus Israel Deus. Psalm 72.  
HOw great is the goodness of our God, how certain is his help to those which wait on him? to those I say, who never turned away their thoughts from his mercy, & who holding the eye of their soul, fixed on his providence, have never let slip the hope which they ought to have in his favour, How happy are they, whom the sundry encounters of this world could never shake in their assurance of the divine justice? how great and praiseworthy is the constancy of such people?  
12. For to speak truth, my foot did oftentimes slip in this way, I did often slide, and almost fell to the ground; Like unto those who ascend a sharp and thorny passage, when they feel themselves pricked with some thorn or briar, do presently with the pain let go their hold, whereby they went up, and forth with tumble down, unless they be soon stayed, even so o my God, whilst I take upon me to judge of thy works, and to behold how thou disposest thy graces, being pricked & grieved at the prosperity of the wicked, I fetch many false steps, and am ready to fall headlong down, and to judge amiss of thy wisdom and justice.  
13. How comes it to pass say I, that people which know not God, but to blaspheme him, who think they have hired him to serve their libidinous and perverse affections, who care not otherwise for him, but only to have him serve for a colour to their wickedness, and for a mask to their iniquities, that they should nevertheless reap the fruit of his favour, and possess in peace and quiet the very cream of his blessings? I confess it o my GOD, that I am jealous of their prosperity, and I envy it, and it seemeth unto me that it is altogether against reason.  
4. What man that beholds them will say that they should ever die? who is it but would think that they had purchased of thee, at a price, immortality in this world, and parted stakes with thee of an eternal continuance in all felicity? In other matters of this world some change is seen, which showeth that of necessety an end must follow, but in their happiness is such firmness discerned, as it seemeth, that they still increasing as they do, will at last attain thy infiniteness, and seat themselves in thine Heavenly throne: for there is no manner of likelihood to imagine that any thing should hurt them, nor that the least misfortune should once draw near the lustre of such magnificence. It is a matter incredible to think that any evil should hurt their precious bodies environed with such numbers of excellent riches.  
5. Other men wax crooked with travail: labour is their trade of life, they are borne in tears, and grow up in sighs, they wax old in lamentations; the sea is oftener free from wind, than their life from torment: so many arrows stick not about a white as miseries and afflictions are seen to encompass other men: But these men only are free and safe; and with a firm and smooth course of life, they bathe themselves with ease in the pleasures of this world, and make the calamities of honest people and such as fear God their only sport and pastime. Who hath seen a tyrant from a theatre, to behold his slaves fight with Tigers & Lions; and to feed his cruel eyes and heart with the inhuman sight of those poor dismembered creatures? in the self same manner do these vile wretches feed their wishes, with the sight of the afflictions which scourge the innocent.  
7. Oh how proud and arrogant it makes them! they think that the earth was made only for them; and that it is not big enough to hold them. As for the other sort, they behold them at one side, and it seemeth that they envy that they live, and they scornfully mutter these words, shall we never be rid of these rascals? will they still be in our sight? Then they say among themselves, what is this fellow but a varlet? that man but a fool? So in love are they with themselves, that they account nothing in this world goodlier than themselves, they adore themselves like Gods, they serve their own lusts, reverence their own passions, so as they are covered over head and ears, with pride, rapine, and injustice.  
7. They are fat only with mischief, their bodies are not so larded with fat, as their souls with sins. All manner of villainy and abomination dwells in their consciences, all their thoughts and wishes tend to filthiness, they fix their eyes only thereupon, their finger's itch at it, they have none other mind, nor affection: and malice doth animate and give motion to their bodies.  
8. Ye shall see them so soon as they have a long time thought on their sin chewed their evil plots, and executed some wicked enterprise, how they will glory in them, brave the world, and talk as though they had authority for whatsoever they did. If there were any shame in them, they would at leastwise satisfy themselves with their licentious outrages, exercised upon men, and not thus villainously blaspheme and curse the sacred name of God.  
9 But what? o my God they have listed up their heads against Heaven, they have scornfully beheld the seat of thy greatness, as if they should say: what is there to be compared unto us? To us, who do what we list in this world, who have abundance of all things: As for the earth, they vouchsafe not to look on it, or if in pity they cast their eyes on it, they say, what is this earth, but that which cloys us with her abundance & wearies us with her fruitfulness?  
10. This is truly the reason o Lord why all the people being amazed come together in heaps to view this prodigy, and run from all parts to behold this spectacle, and they are mute to see this wonder: they are there fixed, and look one upon another.  
11. At the last they wax impatient, and begin to murmur: What, doth not God who seeth all things perceive this? Is it not he which hath this great allseeing eye, who bath beheld things before they were created, sees them in their being, and force-sees their end? Is not his providence said to be as great in the government of the world as his goodness was wonderful in the creation thereof? If he hath disposed all things in order, if he hath created by measure, if his justice be present in the government of the world, what doth he at this time? where doth he now sleep?  
12. Behold the wicked have seized on his benefits, and possess the wealth of the world: a man would think that all was made for them, riches rains down upon them, honours enters their houses in heaps, happiness lays hold on them perforce, they desire and have, they wish and obtain.  
13. And at the last I myself have likewise said, my God how comes this to pass? I have in vain justified mine heart, and ruled mine actions, according to thy commandments. I have despoiled myself of all affections, for to love nothing but thee: I have circumcised my heart from all evil desires, I have fettered my will in thy law, to the end it might only serve thy glory & eschew sin and sinners. I kept company with the innocent, and have lifted up my hands with them: not only the hands of my body o my God, but those of my soul which are my affections, the which I have washed and purified in the torrent of my tears.  
14. I have done penance, and have all day long scourged myself, beating my heart with continual sighs, piercing it with sharp contrition, and have driven away by force of my bloody tears that viscuous humour which had overflowed my will with very bitter gall. Every morning when I arose, I cried thee mercy for my sins, and I have detested mine offences. I did every day awake with this purpose, and with it I began my days work.  
15. I said to myself, lo this is all I can say, those which fear God and serve him are afflicted, those which blaspheme him are at their ease. And thereupon I began to detest the condition of those which glory o Lord in being thy children, thy chosen, and went forward and said. Are these they who are called the children of the Almighty God? surely they are reprobate children, seeing that others possess the inheritance of their father, and they in the mean time are in extreme poverty. The other who overflow in wealth and unto whom God is so favourable and indulgent are his children, this name belongs unto them, because they enjoy his benefits, and are next him masters over his works.  
16. As for myself, to speak truly, I thought that the matter went thus. I could not choose but vex and torment myself and said, alas my God how comes this to pass? can it be, thus, seeing thou hast pronounced threatenings against the wicked, and prepared punishment for them? in a word, I was in extreme perplexity.  
17. But at the last I perceived what thy purpose was; and I pierced to the bottom of thy sanctuary, I entered as I thought into thy holy consistory, and there learned thy meaning herein. For after that I had resolved myself to wait the end which thou hast prepared for such people, I knew forth with that thy justice never lies, & though it be sometimes long ere it come it recompenseth her slowness by the rigour of the punishment. I then steadfastly determined to behold what would become of these people.  
18. Truly at the last thou diddest pay them home; thou diddest give them the reward of their mischief and deceit. For when they thought themselves to be at the top of their greatness, lo, thou madest them leap down into the pit of misery. All their pomp and magnificence, all their riches, were in the end like to an high and lofty scaffold which they ascended to give them the more shameful downfall.  
19 Good God, what discomfort, what desolation? there is nothing at all round about them but lamentations, all their officers and ushers, run up and down beating, their breasts, and always hanging down their heads, like unto a flower which is much beaten with the rain, and is also pitied of those men who were wont to envy them. They do pitifully behold the ruins of their Idol, and perceive how mad they were to make a wretched mortal man their God, who was but smoke and wind. For if a man consider their end, he may see how in a moment they are vanished: there is nothing so short, as the way from their greatness to their ruin, the change was so sudden, as sight could not comprehend it. They were here, they were there, they were, and are no more, their footsteps can hardly be perceived, to this pass hath their fin brought them, it laid snares a long time for them, & lo, at the last they are fallen into it. Whilst it undermined the foundation of their house, they went up to the top thereof to the end their fall might be the higher. They still went upwards, and thought all beneath them to be their own, but at the last they went up so high, as they lost themselves in the air, before they could come down to the ground, and so vanished like the wind.  
20. They became like unto dreams from which we awake, for as men say when they awake, I did but dream this or that: even so, when such men are gone, the people will say. The greatness of these men was but a dream, it was a mere vanity and folly which had nothing in it sure and certain. For thou wilt in such sort abolish their memory, as no man shall think of them, but to deride their pride, and to condemn their insolency. It shall be said, lo, these are the ruins of their houses, these places belonged to these proud sirs, who cared neither for God nor men, who took delight in all manner of evil and filthiness, who built them so many houses with the bones of poor people, and cemented their palaces with the blood of the needy: behold there remains nothing of what they have heretofore been, but the marks of their shame, lightning fell upon them, and consumed them to nothing.  
21. We must not o Lord judge rashly of thy providence, he that will consider rightly, thereof must with patience attend the end, must be directed by thy spirit, and invoke it for his guide and comfort. For whilst my heart boiled with anger, and that for very sp●te I fetched great sighs from the bottom thereof, and that all the parts of my body were in a sweat, I had almost lost myself, and yet nevertheless it was to no purpose at all, for after all this vexation I was as wise and well resolved as before.  
22. I was so troubled as I could not tell whether I were a beast or a man: nay verily, I was like a beast, and I could comprehend no more, then if I had wholly lost mine understanding. But nevertheless I still held fast my hope in thee: and the more I perceived my sense and judgement to fail, the faster did I run unto thee, and humbly besought thee to open my mind, and to cause me to understand thy will.  
23. Thou didst take me by the hand, and gently set me in the right way of thy will: thou didst acquaint me with thy purpose. Thou hast done more than that, for as I think, thou didst open mine eyes and heaven at one instant, where I did see the fullness of thy glory. I say o Lord, that thou didst cause me to see it, for it is a thing that without thee no mortal man can attain unto.  
24. For, alas, what should such a poor and weak creature as I am seek in heaven, that cannot well see that which is under my feet, nor perceive but with much a do, that which is before me on earth? my bodily eyes are very dim, but those of my soul are much more. The cogitations of men are full of weakness and uncertainty, for the earthly and corruptible body doth dull our spirits, and staketh our senses to the ground. So as without thee I can hope for nothing in this base world, nor promise to myself certain knowledge of any thing. How can I being on earth judge without thy help, and unless it please thee to enlighten my mind, of those things which thou hast ordaided in heaven in the seat of thine eternity? Yet o Lord, thou hast supplied that defect, and hast led me by the hand to see the secrets of thine eternal wisdom, thou hast in a manner ravished me, and taken my soul out of my body, to make it capable of the divine light of thy wise purposes.  
25. In very deed when I enter into the consideration of these wonders, my heart fainted, and I fell into a swoon, what is this o my God? my God what hast thou made me to see? God of my heart, God of my thoughts, God of my hope, God whom I account all my wealth, to love whom I have henceforward destined all my affections. I know now o Lord what thou art, how just, how mighty, and I will never more be astonished to see strange matters in this world, the reason whereof I am not able to comprehend. For thy councils are wondrous high, this wisdom is marvelous deep. But in the end o LORD whatsoever thou disposest in this world endeth in justice.  
26. For all those who forsake thine obedience, and leave thy favour, shall most miserably perish, all those which violate the faith of the alliance which they have sworn unto, and yet serve their own concupiscences, and commit whoredom with the earth and their fleshly affections, all those which pollute their consciences, and prostitute their souls to wickedness and impious cogitations, shallbe rooted out, and pass through the fury of thy revenging hands.  
27 But as for me o my God, I will never depart from thee, I will never hope for any other good but to be first joined to thy sides. I will fix mine eyes upon thee to the end to observe thy beck, and to conform myself to whatsoever thou desirest of me, and I will follow step by step all that which thou shalt command me. I mean to put all my trust in thee, and seeing that I know thee to be all good and almighty, as I steadfastly believe that thou lovest me, I will likewise firmly believe that thou wilt aid me and give me whatsoever shallbe necessary for me. o how goodly and certain is the hope which is builded on the promise of almighty God, who hath given me so many earnest pence of his bounty, so many pawns of his liberality, and all to make me believe, that the recompense which he hath promised me for serving him faithfully, is most certain and sure.  
Wherefore o my GOD dost thou thus prodigally load me with blessings? why dost thou promise me such abundance of them, seeing there is in me nothing but sin and infirmity?  
28. I know very well o Lord, that it is because I shall have matter enough to spread abroad every where of thine immense mercy, and unspeakable goodness, to the end I may publish thy praise, in all the gates in all the streets of thy holy Zion, that going up into thine holy hill, in the midst of those whom thou hast gathered together in thy Church, to receive thy blessings, and to serve to thy glory, I may acquaint them with the secrets of thy wisdom, which thou hast pleased to reveal unto me. And that directing my voice by the style which thy holy spirit hath framed, I may be able to unfold the sacred mysteries of thine incomprehensible wisdom, to the end that as many as shall hear me to discourse of the knowledge, wherein thou hast instructed me, may admire, not me which am but an hoarse instrument of thy glory, but the wonderful effects of thy quickening spirit, which shall animate me to this godly, holy, and worthy work. And after o Lord, that thou hast a while kept us at this stay in this earthly Zion, lift up our eyes towards the holy Zion, encourage us to aspire to this blessed dwelling place, and teach us who they are, unto whom thou hast promised it, and how we ought to carry ourselves to become worthy of so fair, so holy, and so glorious an habitation.   

Domine quis habitabit in Tabernaculo. Psalm 15.  
IT is thy pleasure then o Lord that this world to us should be a wearisome Pilgrimage. All day long we walk up & down in it, and at night we can find no rest for our tired members. If we think to lay down our heads on our pillows, to give slumber to our eyelids, afflictions like so many flies disquiet us, and the very passions which are engendered in our flesh like dangerous scorpions do waken, and poison us, and at the last kill us, unless we kill them on the wound. What may we hope for, seeing that as strength decreaseth, our evils do increase? seeing that on what side so ever we turn ourselves, we walk in the midst of this world, and this world is every where full of miseries?  
Where shall we then expect rest? not in this miserable life, where we are sent like champions to the game, to encounter with all manner of adversities, but only o Lord in thy Tabernacle, in the sacred dwelling place of thy divinity, where our travails are to be crowned. O happy! yea thrice happy he, for whom thou hast prepared this goodly and delectable place of retreat, which will sweeten and comfort our passed griefs in the bosom of thy grace, and refresh us in the arms of thy mercy. But who are they who shall one day dwell with thee, as beholders of thy felicity and glory? for to hear so much as is spoken thereof, that place is not accessible to all the world, it is a place of fearful height, of infinite largeness, decked with incredible magnificence. I can no otherways describe it, then that it is a very high hill, on the top whereof a marvelous goodly garden is to be seen, set with all sorts of flowers, hedged in with an infinite number of fruit-trees, watered with clear and running fountains, it is verily an hill, for to mount it, it behooves us to climb upon all sides on tribulations a hundred times harder than flint or rocks: And in ascending it, we must go still farther and farther from the centre of the earth, that is to say from the love thereof, and to put all sensual and earthly affections under foot. It is indeed like a flourishing garden: for there groweth seeds and causes of all things, which do daily flourish with infinite fair effects, and excellent workmanship, it hath for compartments the goodly disposing of the world's parts, so justly measured as nothing more, the fruits are the sweet and savoury contemplations of wisdom, wherewith it nourisheth and filleth those souls that dwell there: it hath for fountains the springs gushing foorrh of the eternal goodness, which pours itself from on high into all the parts of the world, & doth continnually bathe and refresh them. O fair and holy hill! who shall ascend thy top? who shall rest in the very bosom of so goodly and so delectable a mansion?  
2. He who purified in the sacred flames of an holy and devout heat, hath purged his soul from the filth of the world, and hath nothing to hinder him in his course nor to hold him back in his journey. For when the desire of our soul is stark naked, it aimeth directly towards the mark of her wishes, towards the seat of her felicity. It is then, when despoiling itself of the love of herself, the true seducer of our understanding, she judgeth rightly of all things, and yieldeth the due to every on which nature commandeth, preserving peace by justice, maintaining all things in the state of their creation, and directing them to the end why they were produced. And to speak truly, the just man is none other, than nature's defender, which maintaineth her rights, and fighteth for her conservation, which keeps in rest that which was created by wisdom. o justice, mother of peace, thou art then next to innocency the first step whereby we ascend this hill to eternal blessedness.  
3. Next followeth Truth, hich is carried up and down every where in a strong and lasting chariot, against which the cloud of slander and detraction do strike themselves, though to no purpose, for they are dispersed at the first shock. Truth, which shows itself as the second station, thorough which we enter into this blessed lodging. For o fair and holy truth: when any man loves thee, and sets his mind on thee, thou dwellest in his heart, from thence passest to his lips, and deckest him with singular beauty. And to speak truly, beauty is none other thing, then eternal truth which shineth in the workmanship of the divine word which hath created all things from the beginning. He then shall ascend the top of this hill which hath embraced this pure truth, is united to her in thought, hath builded it an Altar on his lips hath driven deceit and lies far from him, and hath rooted them out of his heart & mouth. For lying is none other thing then the mortal poison of the soul, it is a clammy and viscuous humour, which distilling into the eye of the understanding, doth there engender a film which bereaves it of sight and judgement.  
4. It behoveth him that will ascend this hill to be void of all vanity and lies: he must also be purged from this venomous malice, which is ever ready to hurt his neighbour, the true poison of human society. For seeing it pleaseth thee o Lord, that men living together should like thy other works be instruments in the ministry of thy glory, that man which cutteth goodwill asunder, which like a strong band knitteth them altogether, doth he not violate thy law, and offend thine honour? what shall become then of him who not content to have smothered the fire of charity in his heart, doth by all means strive to dishonour his neighbour, and to take away his good name.  
5. He o Lord that will go up unto thee, and give thee his hand to take him into this blessed habitation will ever abhor such monsters, who full of bloody malice thinks on nothing but other men's harms, takes no pleasure but in displeasing others: behold their countenance, if they weep their neighbours are happy, if they laugh, they are afflicted: no, no, their immaginary greatness, their pride builded on their rapine and deceit, will not get them estimation amongst good men, for they are but painted sepulchres whose filthiness and infection will be laid open, when it shall please thee o my God. But would ye know who they are whom a good man makes account of, those o LORD which fear and serve thee in meekness of manners and simplicity of heart.  
6. Of him I say, who thinking thee always present, not only at his actions, but in his most secret thoughts doth inviolably keep his faith, whose word is a most certain pledge of truth, on whose promise his friend relies, and holds for already done that which he hath promised him. For such a man o Lord believeth, that his salvation depends on the promise which thou hast made him of thy grace and favour, and that he should not be worthy to reeeave the effect of thy holy promise, unless he gave his neighbour an assured effect of his own. He will not hear usury spoken of, and abhorreth that cursed theft which ransometh another man's necessity sets a price on the aid which a man owes to his neighbours, selleth times, days, months and years. And much less doth he suffer himself to be corrupted to condemn the innocent, to sell an other man's goods, by unjust judgement, and to pollute the sanctuary of justice by filthy sale: but keeping his eyes ever open to discern the truth, doth not incline to any side, but to that Whither right bendeth him. Covetousness shakes not his hand, nor favour lifts up his arms, but remains ever like himself in all things, giving by his wisdom authority to his judgement.  
7. He that shall live in this manner, shall certainly ascend the top of that holy hill, the Angels shall carry him in their arms, keep his feet from stumbling, and at the least shall set him before the eternal truth where he shall perpetually enjoy the sweet dwelling of this blessed mountain lifted above the heavens, to be the mansion house of glorified innocency, and shall be reunited to the beginning of his essence with this eternal divinity, this divine eternity. All things here below have an end and shall be consumed: but he whose virtue shall have advanced him to his celestial happiness, shall continue in the state of glory, conqueror of times and ages. Strengthen then o Lord our courage, and comfort our worldly afflictions. And because it pleaseth thee that good men should pass through this way, in the midst of the injuries of the wicked, strengthen their hope shaken by their afflictions, and by the prosperity of the wicked; and give them constancy to wait for the end, where they shall behold the reward of the elect and the reprobate.   
FINIS.