Heraclitus, OR man's Looking-glass AND survey OF LIFE. Written in French by Peter du Moulin, and Translated into English, By Sir H. L' Estr. LONDON, Printed for Henry Seile, over against St. Dunstan's Church in Fleetstreet, 1652. To the Reader. IT is now above 40 years since I translaed this piece out of French, and laid it by in loose papers, intending to have published and exposed the same to common Test; but soon after I understood that I was prevented by another's labour that stepped into the Press before me: nevertheless, because the other is now antiquated and forgotten; and that upon my review, I may happily have phrased the author's meaning more aptly to the modern mode & acceptation of the English tongue, for Non verbum verbo curabit redaere fidus Interpres— A just translator must not strive to follow the Author word for word, but to speak his sense to the most life of the others Language; and because the moment of this subject cannot be too often inculcated (as the Great Doctor of the Gentiles says, It grieves me not to write the same things, for you it is sure) and that this book is no other than a perfect Map of Man, and anatomy of all ages; A Nosce teipsim, which is the highest Pitch, and hardest Lesson of all human Learning; An universal dial, which (though made in France) yet serves (without any astronomical reduction) for all Meridians, and shows how the minutes of man's life pass away from the first rising to the last setting thereof, and even from Solomon upon his golden Throne, to Job scraping himself with potsherds upon the ash-heap; for Statutum est omnibus mori, what man is he that shall not see death? (as David said it, and saw it) and after that comes judgement to Heaven or Hell for ever. For these reasons I have awakened these lines out of their lethargy, and caused them to speak after so long silence to a people that never more needed good counsel, and is ripe for the sharpest severity and sickle of God's judgement. Let us therefore continually watch, that neither the World, the Flesh, or the devil plunder us of the richest Jewel of our Souls (which cost the greateest price that ever was) but study daily, how and why we came hither, what we do here, whither we go, and in this minute, moment, mite, and mote of time (while it is called to day) to work out our salvation (before the evil day comes when, of all the cumber and cares of Honour, profit, and the dunghill a Comparatively. delights of this World) we shall say I have no pleasure in them, and shall fall under the fearful and final doom of eternal Sequestration both of Body and Soul. Now to quicken the appetite of Meditation herein, let us to all our thoughts, words, and actions, set this for sentinel, Vidit, Venit, Deus. God Sees and Comes. H. L'Estr. To the illustrious Princess Madamoiselle Anne de Rohan. Madam, THis Book that fights against Vanity is justly yours, because you have overcome it; we sight against it in words, you overcome it in actions; actions so much better than words, as health is better than physic, and Victory than the battle. Your name alone in the front of my Book shall give me my lesson, for if I will paint out Vices with my pen, your life is a pattern of opposite virtues: Nay to speak truly, you teach me what to write, for when I would picture out vices, I set before me the contrary of that which I behold and admire in you, To have often the word of God in your hand, but more often in your mouth; To be daily praying; To be adorned with modesty without art; To open the hand to the afflicted, and shut the ear against vices; To be freely religious without scruple (which makes Christian wisdom affected austerity) are virtues which the greatness of your family makes more remarkable, and the corruption of this age more admirable; an age wherein vices are manners, wherein profane vanity and villainy become Nature, and turn into complexion; amidst all this darkness you shine as a Candle in the night. I know well your modesty likes not this discourse, but the public utility requires it, that all may know what esteem we make of virtue, and that vices which come up of themselves, and grow without watering, may find argument from you either to amend or condemn them; this is also an honour to us, that the sacred seed which we sow falls upon so good a ground, and proves so fruitful, and that there are examples among us, showing the difference btwixt true Godliness, and that superstitious devotion which thinks to amuse God with gestures, and binds itself strictly to certain numbers of reiterated words, and reduceth Religion to the singer's end. Having now Madam so many just causes to present this book unto you, yet I durst never undertake it, had not you commanded it. I am not stuffed with ornaments according to the distasteful humour of this age; I cannot ruffle it out in swelling terms, and full-blown bubbles of words, which are for none but brave spirits; I cannot talk of Barricadoes of vices, or Scaladoes of virtues, nor call Jesus Christ the dauphin of heaven; As Father Cotton in his printed Meditations. I do not compose prayers upon a Fan or a Nosegay; I am content to speak French, and aim at nothing but to be understood, and in deciphring vices to plant in men's minds the contempt of the World, and the love of God; in low terms I discourse of high matters, and paint out light with a coal; a fault which partly may be imputed to mine own dullness, partly to my tossed and troubled condition; It is not easy to study among gunshot, nor to mount the spirits high, when a thousand things interpose and pluck them down again and stop their flight: But the same your goodness which moved you to persuade me to write, will persuade you to bear with my imperfections, considering also that at the first it was not my purpose this writing should come abroad, and therefore I bestowed less care to dress it: Now that it is come forth by your command, you shall receive it from the hand of him who prays to God for the greatness and prosperity of your thrice Noble Family (which God hath honoured with his sacred Covenant) and from him whose chief ambition is ever to obey you, and while he lives to be Your most Humble, and dutiful Servant, P. d. M. MEDITATION upon THE vanity AND misery OF man's Life. THe distracted diversity of the affairs of this World mangles our time in an hundred thousand pieces; every business snatcheth away some part of our life; No time is ours but that which we steal from ourselves, robbing some hours to examine ourselves apart, and confer with God; there is work enough to be found in these solitary Meditations: But the first work to be considered of is the vanity and misery of our life, not to perplex us for it, but to prepare us to leave it: None aspires as he ought to the life to come, but he that despiseth the present. None despiseth the present, but he that hath throughly known it; None can throughly know it, but by beholding it a far off, and by withdrawing the heart, and removing the affections aside; for worldly pleasures nigh at hand dazzle & distract the judgement. Now if we would inquire of any that hath trod this path, Solomon in the beginning of his Ecclesiastes entering into this Meditation cries out Vanity of Vanities all is Vanity This great Prince, who had riches without parallel, peace without trouble, honour without envy; who was obeyed of his Subjects, admired of his Neighbours; whose reign of 80 years gave him full scope to satisfy his mind in buildings, in multitude of horses, in all sorts of Studies and Sciences; whose Spirit trave●led through the whole course of Nature, having written of Plants from the Cedar to the hyssop; yet when he had done, considering how much these sweets were mixed with gall, how little steadfastness in all these things, how small contentment in all this travail, concludes thus of all his labours, all is Vanity and Vexation of Spirit He had learned this lesson of his Father, before he was taught by his own experience; for David in the 39 Psalm says Man walketh in a vain shadow, and disquieteth himself in vain, he heapeth up riches and cannot tell who shall gather them. Now after so excellent precedents let us enter into this Meditation, and taking the razor from their hand, let us Anatomize ourselves. There is no argument of greater moment than that which treats of Vanity, it is an high contemplation to discourse of our own business, for then man despising himself mounts above himself; this Vanity, mixed with Misery must be considered threefold. First, In the Nature of Man. Secondly, In his Actions. Thirdly, In his thoughts and desires. Vanity in the Nature of Man. First, Birth. To take Man from his beginning, the Noblest of all Men (be he the son of an Emperor) is formed betwixt the urine and Ordure, nourished with the most impure blood of all, might easily be crushed by the least fall of the Mother, or smothered with the stink of a candle snuff. His Birth is shameful, for no woman would be openly delivered; on the other side it is a glory to kill a man, and Duels bring men into reputation. Thus it is a shame to bring a Man into the world, and a glory to send him out; a plain proof that the life of a Man is an evil, since it is a shame to give it, and an honour to take it away. We see also he begins his life with tears, and when he is born he cannot help himself, but crawls for some years in his own filth, whereas other creatures as soon as they come forth fall upon their feet, and run after their food as soon as they are out of the shell, Man is born under the necessity of maintaining his life with the sweat of his brows, when all other Creatures find their cloth laid; only man hath need of clothing, He that is Lord of all the World is ashamed to be seen, and therefore clads himself in the spoil of another. Man alone is subject to more diseases than all the Beasts together; they are not hurt with Dewes, nor bleed at the Nose, though they hang it always downward to the ground, they know not what rheums mean, the Stone, Tertian, or Quotidian Agues; Man only knows these differences, and feels them: those Beasts that are more domestical, are more diseaseful than others, as infected by Contagion. Man indeed hath Reason above Beasts, but he deviseth therewith how to torment himself, and strains the uttermost of his wit about painful and pernicious Projects; to be subtle in suits of Law, to entangle himself in other men's business, when he is glutted and full, to raise up an artificial stomach, and a desire to drink, without thirst; and I know not how it comes to pass, but we are more sensible of evil than Good, and troubles fret us more than all pleasures can content us: scarce any one finds a general health, but ache in the teeth, or pain in the finger's end torments us; a drop of gall bitters a sea of sweet, and how much happiness doth one affliction countervail? Vanity of Man in his Actions. Man being born thus poor and miserable, Childhood. what a while it is before he can guide himself? how long and laborious his Instruction? what a while he trembles under the Master's awe to learn vain words, and knowledge, that will deceive him? and in the end of all this travel, who sees not a froward humour, and a despiteful perversity; and in a Child all the vices of a man, as in a seed or kernel? the only way to quiet a Child, is to beat another before him: if any touch but one of his toys, he flings away the rest for anger; the love and liking which they bear to their Babies, are plain seeds of Idolatry, and such are the Children of the best Parents. A grain of Corn, though never so clean dressed, makes straw when it springs again. He that is circumcised begets a Child with a foreskin on; thus we are driven to acknowledge, in the frowardness of our own Children, the picture of our own corruption. After Childhood comes Youth, Youth. which is a brisk humour, a rash heat, that runs into all riot, rushes headlong into dangers▪ and rejects all admonitions: Oh! what a number perish in that way? how many in this age are poisoned with sensuality, which lulls them in the lap to strangle them? treacherous Dallilah, that dallies with them, to betray them to the Devil, an enemy far worse than the Philistines; those pleasures are Golden Pills, which hide their bitter under their beauty; and like fresh Rivers that lose their pleasant relish in saltness, and drown their sweetness in the Sea. Godliness cannot live under so dainty a dominion; the knowledge of God (which comes from Heaven) will not be subject to the Belly, nor dwell in Swine; that lodging is fittest for the Devil, who (by the sufferance of our Saviour) entered into the Swine, and ran them headlong into the Sea. The Devil feeds the prodigal Children with these husks of pleasure, instead of the bread of life, which is the Word of God. This heat a little cooled with years, Manhood. and man grown ripe, now see what other Vanities follow him less boisterous, but more sullen and obstinate; Then come Cares chained together, domestical vexations, thoughts of a Family, troubles of suit, travels of a painful Trade to get maintenance for Children, who suck away all the substance, and to receive at length nothing but Reproach and Ingratitude. These Evils make men ever distaste the present, and rely upon the future; always travelling to get a good, which flies from us, and being gotten, it melts in our hands, and vanisheth away; if kept it contents us not, it helps not our fear, nor quencheth our thirst; this Evil looks many ways. There are many men who hazard their life to get their living, Covetousness. and miss the End to obtain the Means, as he that sells his Sword to buy a scabbard, or his Horse for Hay, and again, to get money, and not therewith to serve his turn, but rather to serve his money; to have Goods as one hath an Ague, which rather gets the sick Man, than he, It; or like the dog in the Manger which eats not the Hay, but grinns if another come near it: Wretched people, who live poor to die rich, who covet most when they are most in years, that is, make greatest provision when they are at the end of their journey: He that fears God to dismantle himself of so great a mischief, will consider with himself what the price & value of Riches are, and will thus reason; The Devil offers these, but he never offers Piety, or the knowledge of God; God shows what account he makes of Riches, when he gives them most abundantly to the Wicked, into whose bosom they fall, as a Purse in to a privy. Our Saviour shows what account he made of money, when he gave Judas his Purse, but to his blessed Apostles he gave his Holy Spirit; had he thought riches the true Good, sure he would have provided enough for himself; but he had not where to rest his head; he honoured poverty by his own example, and the Lord & sovereign of the World, would have nothing in the World, to teach us to contemn the World; A little wealth serves to live well, and less to die well; 1 Tim. 6. Godliness is great gain if a man be content with that he hath; Naked we came into the World, and naked we shall go out. Quiet poverty, is better than troublesome Riches, yet such is the silly nature of man, that he had rather fetch water from a raging and violent stream, with hazard and peril, than from a small Brook or rivulet with ease and safety; To get a mass of money with danger and disquiet, rather than a small sum with peace and security; and at the end, he shall be nothing the more satisfied, nay still further off, and thinks all is lost that he gets not; and this greediness is always mixed with Envy; If he happen to lose his goods (as Solomon saith, Riches taketh to her wings, and flees away) it is as much as if he lost his senses; for to rob and spoil a covetous man, is as it were to flay him; and to take away his money, is to pluck out his heart, because he sets his heart all upon his money. The Godly man when he considereth these things, will say with the Wise Man, This is Vanity & Vexation of Spirit. Amb●tion. To this Vanity we may resemble that of many persons who extremely toil themselves to get honour and greatness; In this throng of people which press to get up. Those behind would fain tread down those before; threequarters of them are enfo●ced to stay behind with anger and despite▪ those that have got to the top of honour pluck the Ladder after them, lest others should get up by it, and when they are gotten to the top, than they show their tricks, like Apes got upon an House or a Tree, making faces at those that are below, & set the people on gazing & gaping on them; for there, their weakness best appears, and their vices are most in view. Add also, that in this height they meet with more cares than before; Trees shake most at the top; pinnacles of high Towers are oftenest struck with Tempest and Lightning; we sleep worst upon the richest and embroidered Beds; we are in most danger of poison at the fullest Feasts: but you never heard of any poisoned in a wooden dish; after innocent labour, sleep is sweet upon a lock of Straw; This is also Vanity and Vexation of the Spirit. courtier's life. This Vanity, joined with a like corruption, appears especially in the Court, where prime Slavery goes under the colour of Greatness and Golden Shackles are counted a Noble Imprisonment; He that lives there, must make account to be always masked; to play twenty several parts in one hour; to have a number of Servants, but never a Friend; there, Innocence is called Silliness, and a simple Affirmation is a sign there is no such matter; Two hate one another, and both know it, yet each strives to seem to serve the other first, who shall begin, and who shall be last; and with these compliments they make an interlude: Envy is never to seek for, but ever in fashion there, either to supplant, prevent, or to nibble at one another, and no means but by slavery to avoid it; debauched tricks, and beastliness among Courtiers, become laws, and turn into complexion. One had need have more Faith than a grain of Mustard seed to keep himself there from Corruption; as Ravens build on high Trees, so the Devil nestles among great ones, and there he hatcheth and discloseth his Young, which are Vices, because there they are better seen, and show themselves with Authority; There you shall meet with some that kill one another in bravery, upon the construction of a word; a plain proof that their Life is little worth, which they set at so low a rate, but these brave lads would be soon gone if they were to suffer for God's Cause: Sure it would ask a number of those Gallants to make one true Evangelical Martyr. Alas! how wretchedly do they understand the true point of Honour: This is also an evil travel, and an extreme Vanity. To this also we may add the Vanity of the other Sex; Vanity of Women. For the greatest part of Women are vain, not only through frailty and example, but by express profession. All their study is to set up Vanity, and upon that they are in Emulation with one another; for amidst all this worldly glory and lustre, you shall see some women swallowed up of pleasures, slaves to other Fashions & Faces, who out of daintiness have almost lost the use of their Feet with mincing, who bestow a quarter of their Life to make them ready; who buy their hair, borrow their face, make Idols of their bodies, yet torture them again by a just judgement; who know nothing, yet study to speak well; who look in the Glass a thousand times a day, and call a counsel about an hair. Poor Souls! who changing the colour of their hair, and raising themselves upon their Chappins, would make Christ believe he did not well understand himself, when he said, Mar. 5. 27. 6. 36. Man cannot make an hair white or black, or add one cubit to his stature. If a man could sum up all the time that a dainty Lady bestows in dressing of herself all her life time, it would prove a dozen years; such Curiosity is next to Slavery: But who would bestow so much to any good end or purpose? How comes it to pass, that clothes (which were given because of sin) are now turned into sin? that man makes that a matter of glory, which God gave to cover his shame? that an argument of humility should now become a matter of pride? There is nothing more opposite to the zeal of God's glory, than this loose Vanity: Could a Woman that wears a pair of prodigious Chappins, fly into another Country for the cause of Religion? Could so delicate a skin endure the cold and hard Prison for the testimony of the gospel? She that cannot endure the heat of the sun, because of her painting, could she abide the faggot for God's Word? you see how we prepare for sufferings, what apprentices we are for Martyrdom? Solomon saw none of this in his time, and the Vanity of Vanities whereof he speaks, comes far short of the Vanity of our Age. But now behold another kind of Vanity wherein men toil themselves, Pleadings at Law. a-bawling, roaring and tumultuous Vanity, which is armed with stings, and covered with subtlety, which bestows the greatest part of the time in br●bbles, and pleads up and down by rote; go but into Guild-Hall, or Court of Assizes, you will wonder at the confused turmoil, and the Arts of Cozenage, such toilsome trotting up and down, The Author intends nothing of Judges. such a dusty eagerness, and you will truly say, in all this crowd of Lawyers (who sometime speak all at once) not any one once names God, unless it be in an Oath. There, while two devour one another in suit, a third man runs away with the prey, and the charges surmount the principal. What a world of people live upon the wickedness of other men? What a number should fast, if others (who worry one another) should lay their malice aside? Methinks when God looks down upon this brawling and confused throng of Lawyers, and their followers, they appear like Ants upon a molehill, which stir pell mell up and down without order or reason; This is also an evil travel, a Vanity, and Vexation of Spirit. Some will confess that these things are true, but will say, yet there are some honest studies in the World, some commendable knowledge, and many civil and Religious virtues which cannot be comprehended under this Vanity, but are worthy of praise: yet even in this, the Vanity of man principally appears; for if the best of our actions be vain, how much more the Vanities themselves. Let us begin with Arts and Sciences. Now a day's understanding consists in the Knowledge of Tongues▪ Skill of Languages. the Learned busy themselves to know what the Women of Rome spoke 2000 years since, what apparel the Romans did wear, in what ceremony stage-plays were beheld then among the people, and to new furbish over, and refine certain Latin or Greek words, which Antiquity hath long buried in darkness; this is to rake a Dunghill with a sceptre, and to make our understanding (that should command) a Drudge to a base Occupation; as if a man should make all his Meal of sauces; the knowledge of these things is good to season, but not to nourish. Some again hunt after words in their old age, when they should have the things; many learn their Grammar with Spectacles, they study to speak true Latin, and are barbarous in their own tongue, and their whole life a continual Incongruity. Philosophy and the Arts as they are somewhat higher, Arts and philosophy. so they are somewhat harder, as the Pine Apples upon the top of the Tree: many fall that climb for them, many when they have got them break their teeth with cracking; as they teach to know more, so they perplex more; He that increaseth Knowledge (saith Solomon) increaseth Sorrow. 1 Eccl. 18. Ignorance hath some commodity; and when all is done, this Knowledge goes not far: For no Man by philosophy can clearly tell the nature of a Fly, or an Herb, much less of himself; our Spirits travel everywhere, and yet we are strangers at home, we would know all, but do nothing, for (to speak properly) our study is no labour, but a curious la●iness which tires itself, and goes not forward, like squirrels in a cage, which turn up and down, and think they go apace, when they are still where they were; we learn little with great labour, and that little makes us little the better, nay, many times worse; a drop or dram of divine Knowledge is more worth than all human whatsoever. To what purpose doth an Attorney follow another man's cause, when himself is at suit with God? To what end doth a Physician undertake to judge of another's health, if he does duly observe the pulse of his own Conscience? What are we the better to know by History what was done a great while since, and know not what to do now? or by Astronomy to learn the motions and influences of the Heavens, and know not how to come thither? Others undertake long voyages, to have many Hosts and few Friends; they promise to learn much, but return more Fools than they went, as if they had dropped their Wits by the way, and having painfully trod over a great deal of ground, at length Death tumbles them into it, as Flies that are so long busy with the flame, that at last they rush in, and when they have surveyed so much ground, a handful will cover them. Those are bewitched with this Vanity, who go long Pilgrimages to some Saint to have Children, and when they are come home, they find some officious Neighbour hath eased them of the care, This is also Vanity and Vexation of the Spirit. It may be our civil Virtues have some more substance in them, Civil Virtues. but therein Vanity displays itself most, because many of those Virtues are but Vices Brats: Choler whets on Valour; cowardice makes a Man advised and wary; Ambition, Avarice, and Envy, are spurs to Study and Industry; fear of disgrace and defamation, makes many Women chaste; niggardness makes many moderate, others, necessity; friendships are contracted either for profit or pleasure; whereof the first is a Frippery, the last a Market. Religion itself is often used to serve our covetousness; many follow Christ in the Wilderness for bread, this is to make the understanding a slave to the Belly, and the Prince and Commander of all Virtues, a Servant to the basest of Vices: Nay, I know not which is worst, to forsake Christ, or to follow him for gain; to serve Christ for money, or the Devil for nothing; unless we do God less injury to forsake Christ, than to follow him to do him injury, and to make him a Servant to our Avarice. If these be our Virtues, what shall our Vices be? and what Virtues can these be that thus dance after the devil's pipe? This is also Vanity, and a vexatious Corruption. This makes some men, Solitary life. (when they consider that Vanity hath overspread all Worldly things, that Vice and Wickedness have infected all estates and conditions of men, to the intent to wind themselves out and get away) confine themselves to Deserts and a perpetual solitude, there to remain in extreme silence, and to speak with none but God and themselves; and though this solitary humour in diverse proceed from a savage disposition, in others from a weakness, and spirit not capable of the society of men; in others, from an ambitious desire to be noted for some extraordinary profession, because they could not be seen enough in the Common Crowd; in others, from anger and despite, that they have so long tired themselves in striving against the stream, and to be crossed in every thing; So I doubt not but there are some who purposely withdraw themselves, and take upon them this solitary condition, to get out of the crowd of Vices, and to serve God with more liberty; but even these are deceived, and when they think to go out of the World at one door, they come in at another: for griefs of mind, perplexed thoughts, lumpish laziness, windy hypochondriacal Melancholy, despair, presumption, and self-admiration steal insensibly into the mind under a profession of extraordinary Sanctity, which pines the spirits of the peevishly arrogant, and of peremptory devotion, which degenerates oftentimes into folly or brutishness. The Solitary Man hath none to comfort him in his heaviness, and having none to compare withal, thinks himself the most excellent: then also inordinate desires multiply upon him, for Man ever thinks that best that is furthest off. So St. Jerome in the midst of the Wilderness, In his Epto Eustoch. and in abstinent solitude, yet burnt with incontinent affections, and his mind ran most on dancing with Maids, and when the Devil followed Christ into the Wilderness, he thought that the fittest place for temptation and if the Devil set upon the son of God in the Desert, what Monk or Cloysterer thinks to go free? The safest way is to go out of the World, not with feet, but affections, and first to keep the World from nestling in our hearts or near us, lest when we go out of the World we carry it with us; for as a Man may be Worldly and Wicked, though he make a show to live out of the world, so he may leave the World and yet never come in the Wilderness, and live among a multitude as if he were alone, and even in a Court or Palace behold the evil travel of men, and have no share with them, and where the greatest talk is, there to talk with himself alone and confer with God; and to employ himself to the edifying of the Church, to direct those right that are wrong, and to bring them again into the way to Heaven, and by no means to hide the talon in the ground, and to land himself off (as an unprofitable branch) from the body of civil Society, thus the Apostles did, and all those lights who brought so great glory to the Church, and yet shine after their death. I know that Aristotle spoke true in the first of his Poli●. that he that is disposed to Solitariness is either of a divine, or a base spirit, as much as to say, He forsakes the company of men, either because his Virtues are above them, or he inferior and not worthy to come among them; But I say, that he that loves Solitude because he excels others in Virtue, or Knowledge, aught to subdue himself, and to descend (by humility and gentleness) to others' imperfections, bestowing himself every way in word and action to the good of the Church and commonwealth. For what are all our perfections, but poor shadows and obscure traces of the perfection of Christ? yet he became like unto men, and conversed among men, that he might save men: From all which I gather this conclusion, That if it be a Vanity to forsake the World, then much more to follow it, and if Vices (with all their mischiefs) nestle in the Deserts, much more in the common crowd: Surely if Vanity be thus found everywhere, we may well say, All is Vanity and Vexation of Spirit. Now, Old Age. while Man busies himself about all his vain travel, while he thrusts time forward with the Shoulders, every day begins afresh to rise up, and lie down again, to fill and empty his belly like a sponge, and goes round like a Mill-horse in the circle of of the same tedious occupations, Behold old Age comes stealing on, which yet but a few attain unto; Every one desires to come to it, and when they are at it they wish it farther off: This is as it were the sink and settlings of man's life, the worst of all to the Worldly, and the best to the Godly; then are Worldly men more wayward than ever, than they grow fearful and froward, and (to speak truly) weak in Judgement▪ for we cannot properly call that humour wisdom, which is any way irksome, nor want of power, sobriety; an old Man does not leave pleasures, but they leave him; he complains without cause, that the Fashions and Manners of Men are changed into worse; 'tis himself that is altered: when he was young, every thing pleased him, though never so had, when he is old, nothing can please him, though never so good; like a Man in a Wherry, who thinks the shore moves, when 'tis himself. It is also a fault of old age to talk much, because they can do little, therefore they think 'tis their part to teach young Men, and to tell of old matters done a great while ago; So towards the declining of a State (as of the Roman Empire) much talk but little actions. In the world's old age, many curious Disputes, but little piety and solid Religion. Old Age is covetous, and worldy cares than come a fresh, every thing grows grey and withered save only Vice. The old Man the Apostle so often speaks of, grows not old to the World, but is then in his prime; he sees Death at hand, and holds Life but like an Eel by the tail, yet he devices long-breathed plots, and gathers and heaps up riches together, as if Death were a great way off; then is Man loath to leave his Life when it is least worth, and little left but Lees: He never thinks of Death, though his Age gives him warning of it and every grey hair serves for a Summons: Nay, Death oftentimes takes an earnest of him, by the loss of an Arm, or an Eye, or a leg, to put him in mind that shortly after he will have the rest. Again, old Men are besotted with the World through long custom and acquaintance, and are loath to leave it, though they find no good in it; This is also a Vanity and Vexation of the Spirit. At the end of all this tedious and unprofitable travel Death comes, Death. which takes every man away before he knows how to live in the World, much less to leave it; most men go out of the World, before they consider why they came in; they would fain adjourn time, but Death will not listen to any composition; His feet are of wool, but his hands of Iron; he comes stealing in, but what he lays hold of he never let's go. Man makes as slow hast thither as he can. If a Ship split 100 Leagues from Land, every one swims as well as he can▪ not so much to save himself from drowning, as to set the clock a little back for some minutes, and persuade Death to give Nature a little longer time to pay the debt; this every one sees, and yet none can resolve himself; The very remembrance of Death or Funerals, or the reading of an Epitaph, makes the hair stand right up, and daunts and frights us; We picture Death stern and starved; It mingles our compassion with horror when we think of any that late glistered in gold and glory, now crawling full of Worms, and intolerably stinking, while his Heir laughs in his sleeve, and enjoys the fruit of that labour which himself never could; and in the midst of all this dust and dirt Ambition thrusts up the head, and Pride nestles in he very Coffin; for they make sumptuous Sepulchers, speaking Stones, stately styles, upon a Tomb stuck full of lies, that they which go by may say, Here lies a fair Stone and a foul Body, Surely this is a Vanity of Vanities, and an extreme Vanity. But all these are but Roses to the Thorns that follow, Hell. for the most irksome vanities and traveil of his temporal Life, are pleasant in respect of the torments of eternal death, which is the common inn and End of most men: That is the broad way that leads to damnation, few men find the narrow way to salvation. Matt●: 7. 13. Death comes to make a Press for 〈◊〉, and enrolls great and small, wise and foolish, rich and poor, and some too that go for saints, and mask under a fine cloak of hypocrisy, as if they meant to steal to Hell without any noise, or trouble by the way. Hell is all Fire, yet there is nothing but darkness, where Souls live to be always dying, but never dead; where they burn, but are never consumed; complain, but are not pitied; are afflicted, but never repent; where the torment hath neither end nor measure. There wicked Dives (who denied Lazarus a crumb of bread,) now begs but one drop of water, though all the Rivers in the World cannot quench his thirst: But if those fatherly rods wherewith God chastiseth his Children have brought some of them to the brink of the pit of Desperation, and to curse the day of their Birth (as Job, Job 3. 1. and Jeremy did) how shall his enemies endure the Flails of his Indignation? Jer. 15. 10▪ It is a fearful thing (Says the Apostle) to fall into the hands of the living God▪ Hebr. 1●. and hear also what he says in his anger, Deut. 32. If I lift up my hand to Heaven, and say I live for ever, If I whet my glittering Sword, and mine hand take hold of judgement, I will execute judgement on mine enemies, and will reward them that hate me. Blessed be God, who hath delivered us from this fierce wrath and furnace, by his son Jesus Christ, who, as S. Paul says, Gal: 3. 13. was made a curse for us, Peter 1. 2. and hath called us from darkness to his marvellous light: God grant that we may never know what that torment means, and study to learn no more than may serve to keep us in his fear, and to make us acknowledge the greatness of his savour, and the excellency of our redemption in Christ Jesus his son, blessed for ever. This precedent Discourse hath led us along through all ages and ordinary conditions of human life, God blasteth man's purposes. and in our whole travel and survey we have found nothing but Vanity and Vexation of Spirit, which more manifestly appears, if we consider the guidance & providence of God, who from the highest Heavens looks down upon our actions, not as an idle spectator, but as a sage conductor and just judge: He derides from aloft the plots of great men, he blasts their devices, he confounds the tongues and spirits of the rebuilders of Babel, bruises the mighty ones, breaks sceptres into shivers, and all to make man know that he is but dust, his wisdom ignorance, that he may learn to contemn the World, to transplant his hopes from Earth to Heaven, and having seen some of the brightest beams of earthly glory (which like a flash of lightning is soon gone) He may never say with Peter, Lu: 9 33. It is good for us to be here, let us make us Tabernacles; Blessed is he who hath seen enough of this worldly Vanity, and is drawn nearer to God, that when the storm comes he may be in the Haven, and under God's wing and protection as under a safe shelter, he may behold the downfall of the wicked, the staggering of their purposes, the silliness of their hopes, and the effects of God's judgement. Hereof the Prophet David cries out in the 92d Psalm, O Lord how glorious are thy works, and thy thoughts are very deep, An unwise man doth not well consider this, and a fool doth not understand it, when the ungodly are green as the grass, and when all the workers of wickedness do flourish, then shall they be destroyed for ever. And herein we are also to observe, that this Psalm is a Song of the Sabbathday, to teach us that this Meditation requires a settled and sequestered mind, that gets out of the crowd of worldy thoughts to enter into God's house, suitable to that in the 72d Psalm, where he professeth, That he was grieved at the prosperity of the wicked, and that it vexed him to the heart, until he went into the Sanctuary of God, than he considered the end of those men: For to know the summum bonum, and to unmask this imaginanary happiness of the World, we must not go to the philosopher's school, and less believe common judgement, but we must go into God's house, and there inquire what manner of Goods they be which God doth ordinarily bestow, and what he reserves for his own Children; how uncertain worldly happiness is, in respect of the certainties of God's promises, with what easy and insensible chains the Devil hales men into Hell; how he triumphs over those that triumph most in this World, and think they stand sure, when they are at the point of down-fall. So also he considers the vainglory of men; Vain glory of men. One glories in his strength, yet a Bull is stronger; Another of his beauty, which is but a superficial Dye that covers the bones and the brain, things in themselves loathsome and hideous to be seen, and age will spoil and mar it all, or perhaps sickness before age comes. Another glories in his Honours and Dignity, but he is ever full of pensiveness and fear, and never enjoys any quiet; and imprisoned in his own perplexities, and so tied to the top, as he can hardly come down without breaking his neck: Another glories that he is the bravest Drunkard of all his fellows, but i● his Belly hold more than theirs, an hogshead holds more than his Belly. All this is Vanity and villainy, both alike. These are general Vanity and Misery, The misery of certain conditions of men and people. common to all Men, and that's the fruit of Sin. Besides these, there are some Men examples of extreme wretchedness; what a number of Beggars lie in the streets? how many Slaves in the Galleys? what a sort of Hirelings and Mercenaries? the hundred part of Men devour the rest, and the weakest are Meat for the strongest. Among the Turks and Pagans (which are above three quarters of the world) Men are sold like Horses, he that buys them notes their countenance, looks in their mouth, tries the muscles of their arms and legs; the Great Princes have thousands of Slaves kept in Chains to work in the Sugars, or in the Mines, or in the galleys, a misery more insufferable than death. Some people have night six months together, who live in Caves through extremity of cold, and have no heat but what they get by cruelty. Others again continually scorched with the Sun upon their naked sands, which are barren of fruits, and fruitful of wild Beasts and Serpents; our climate is as nature's garden to those intemperatures; God gives us more of his blessings, and we him the least thanks; and there is nowhere so great poverty and misery, as where such abundance of blessings are so plentifully showered down, and yet so ill handled and requited. Vanity in the thoughts, desires, and judgements of Men. All that which is already said is but a rough draught, or the first traces to represent superficially the vanity and misery of our nature, and the actions of men; we will now consider their thoughts. David in the 94th. Psalm says thus, God knoweth the thoughts of man that they are but vain. If a man could at night gather together all the thoughts which have run through his fancy in the day, he would wonder and be amazed at their number and vanity, much more at their folly; Painters antic works come nothing near them. One locks himself into his study, where he resolves to study very hard, but when he is in he does nothing else but tell the quarrels of his window, Sutton. or (like Domitian) hunts after flies: Another walks up and down sad and solitary, and begins to rave in his own thoughts what he would do if he were a King; or if he had a million of Crowns how bravely he would spend them; or thinking of his domestic business, links together a chain of long hopes, and by little and little becomes exceeding rich in his own waking dream, and when he comes to himself and sees his own poverty, he flings away and bites the lip at it. Nay even in the times of preaching and prayer, when God speaks to us, or we to him, our minds wander up and down; and if our best actions be thus besmeared, and mixed with vanity, how much more our idle and unprofitable hours? These foolish thoughts accompanied with vain desires and ignorance suitable, turmoil, and toss so the spirits of Man, that he can never rest. When man is in his brown study than he gathers and heaps together all the evils that ever befell him, he frets and fumes at the present, falls to calculate what is to come, and more than ever shall happen, he changeth doubtful fears for certain miseries; Fear makes many miserable before they come at it; many die out of fear to die; every day hath affliction enough of its own; who can ever be quiet in himself, that continually sets before him all the evils past, and to come, the one by memory, the other by fear? This natural restlessness makes a man toss and tumble up and down, as a sick man is ever changing his Bed, and ever worse at last, and finds no rest but when he is weary of stirring; he carries the evil always about him, and is never the better for removing: Nay I verily believe that if God had set man betwixt good and bad to take his choice (and to cut out of the whole cloth) he would choose the bad, he is so blind in judgement; or if the good, he would make it bad, his nature is so perverse; if God sent him no evil, he would provide some for himself; if his own evil could not vex him, he would be grieved at another's good, for envy frets him more than affliction. Hence it comes that men are always coveting, but they know not what, they are hot in desire, but cold in performance, like a bird that would fly, and can flutter but with one wing, nay they are often distracted with a desire of contrarieties. One complains that his wife is dead, another that his wife will not die; one grieves for the loss of his children, another that his children are so lewd as he counts them, all lost; one tired with foreign business commends home-peace, and like Saul had rather lie hidden among the baggage than show himself abroad to preferment another that is out of public ●mployment breaks his neck in climbing for it; 1 Sam. 10. 22. every thing m●kes the best show but that which we have; nothing pleases us so much as that we cannot get; we like nothing so well as another's loss; we laugh to see another man fall, but never laugh to see him rise again. But alas in this vanity of our thoughts, Weakness and Ignorance. and variety of our affections, we show great weakness of Spirit, for the face and fashion of things move us more than the things themselves. One sees a tragedy acted which he knows to be but a fable, and nothing concerns him, yet he cries for pity, but for his own miseries never sheds a tear. Another hangs himself with despair, who at the same time would have run away as fast as he could if another had offered to run him through with a sword; the difference is this, the last comes with a horror and fear, the first is felt before 'tis seen. Opinion moves more than the things; Many eat they know not what, but find they like it, and being told what it is, straight it goes against their stomachs, and they cast it up again. Others are more afraid of Mouse or a Toad than of a Sword; sure our conceits are often moved and transported with very childish toys and fancies. Again (but I cannot give the reason of it) sometimes a man studies to cozen himself; one tells a tale which he knows to be false, yet he tells it so often, and with that assurance, that at length he believes 'tis true. Some husband knows his wife but hard-favoured and a blowse, yet when he sees her sophisticated and painted he begins to think her fair, and she herself too begins to think she is well-favoured and beautiful. What a number there are that believe a religion because they will believe it? who strive against their own knowledge, and whose Conscience tells them thus, Me thinks that seems absurd, and agrees not with Scripture, but I will have it so, and I will think it so too; this is to have Faith in a string, and not subject Will to Religion, but Religion to Will. Above all things man's judgement shows itself weakest in religion, for outward actions demonstrate what is inwardly apprehended of the service of God; in matters of news, we give more credit to one eye-witness than the report of a Country, but in religion we are carried with the common opinion, and love to follow the fashion, and to go with the crowd; when a man puts out money he will be as sure as he can to lend to honest and sufficient men, and to take good security, but in matters of Conscience he ne'er looks farther than to the priest; I will now show you some damnable trifles of reverend estimation. 1 To clad pictures of men in silk and gold, when the poor goes naked who is the picture of God. 2 To put off the hat at the name of Jesus, but never at the name of Christ. 3 To carry a flaring Cross upon the belly, when the belly is the enemy of the Cross of Christ. 4 Going to a Bawdy-house, or returning from some ill act, to rumble over the beads. 5 To kneel as well before the empty Pix, when the Priest comes from a sick man, as if it were full. 6 To adore the Host in the Pix, and not as well to adore it in the stomach of him that received it. 7 To make his Creator with a few words, and then to eat him. 8 To revel and riot one day in Shrovetide; and the next day to be very grave and reserved. 9 To employ some blessed Beads for the remission of sins. 10 When a great man dies to bestow a mourning gown upon our Lady that 〈◊〉 may bear a part of the sorrow. 11 To Whip one's self openly thereby to please God, and bring a Soul out of Purgatory. 12 In honour of Saints to burn candles at Noon. These and many more such toys man hath devised in his own brain, and God must not dislike them; Nay he goes so far as he bestows the Offices in paradise, he makes one a Patron of one Country, another a physician for one disease, another for another, as if the Ants should dispose the affairs of a Kingdom, all this (to say no worse) is a vanity and an extreme want of understanding. We who have only the word of God for our rule are not exempted, for we mingle our one folly, and vanities, with the sacred verities of God's word. In civil actions when we need advise we go to our friends, but in matters of religion we consult only with our own sense and inordinate desires, which are our domestic enemies. If a man owe us money we had rather have the money than his word; In matters concerning God it is quite otherwise: For the Gospel is the obligation whereby God promiseth salvation to us, sealed with the blood of his own Son, yet we had rather keep the obligation, than be paid the debt when we die, and then we would fain give a longer day. One tells a childish weakness in Honorius the Emperor, Zonaras. who made so much of a Hen, (which he called Roma) that when it was told him that Roma was lost, Alas! (said he with a sigh) Roma was here even now. Sir, says one to him, we talk not of a Hen, but your City Roma, taken and sacked by Alaric the Goeth; when the Emperor heard that, he was prettily cheered again, as esteeming that loss far more tolerable. Such is our weakness, we give none leave to meddle with our money, but we give any man leave to draw us to Vice, to seduce us with Error, and to poison our Souls: I will proceed, and show more of the like. None are so fond as to refuse to take physic but of a man of excellent language; Yet many refuse to hear a Preacher of the Gospel unless he be eloquent, and the Gospel is the soul's physic; were it not a brutish madness in a Malefactor to refuse a Pardon, because it is not Rhetorically penned? and why may not the Word of God please well enough, although It be not flourished over, and trimmed with the graces of art, since it is the Letters Patents of Grace and Pardon, and the doctrine of our reconciliation with God; As if we should like our father's rod best when it is tied with silk? this is a peevish vanity, and a childish humour. It is strange to observe how vain, absurd, and foolish our Judgement is of others, and in the esteem or disesteem of ourselves. If we talk of burdens, he is best, that bears most; if of injuries, he that will bear none; so we change strength and valour into weakness and impatience. In matters of Ornament, we judge not of the Blade by the beauty of the Scabbard, nor of an Horse by his fine Bridle or Saddle; why then do we esteem of a man by his good or bad clothes? If we salute a man for his apparel, we might as well compliment with the Stuff in the Shop: why are we so considerate in slight matters, and so inconsiderate in our judgement of matters of moment. We esteem well of a Merchant or Auditor, that is ready and exact in accounts, though he live so as he can give God no good account of his life; one orders his garden and grounds handsomely, and himself lies rude, wast and out of all order. We are no less vain and childish in our fears; Vain fears. for even as little Children play with fire and burn themselves, and are afraid as soon as their Father comes suddenly upon them; so men play with pleasures (because they glister and look gay) till at length they hurt themselves. As Children are afraid of their Father, when he comes to them with a vizard on, we are frighted when God comes suddenly upon us under the mask of afflictions, sickness, or death. Man also forges to himself dangerous or foolish fears; One fears that his Wife likes another better than himself, and hunts and seeks for that he would not find, and perhaps the Wife grows angry, and revenges herself, by doing as much as he feared. Another fears he shall never rise to honour, and does somewhat to bring him to the gallows, and to blot his memory with perpetual infamy. Another fears he shall never have money enough, at last he finds the way to get it, and dies before he tastes the pleasure of it. Another fears to die a bachelor, but God sends him a Wife that makes him more miserable than he was before. And when I consider the wisdom of the World, Vain Wisdom. I find it like the labour of Moles, who dig cunningly under ground, but dare not look out to the Sun; for we have many fine slights in worldly matters, sell, 〈◊〉 bargain, and to undermine one another, but let me see him that is best seen in all these things, and bring him before the sunshine of God's Word, and the Brightness of the Gospel, and then he is stark blind, and will be so still; and though he forecasts what future changes and chances shall be in the State, yet he sees not how nigh at hand his own destruction is, and though he can talk and discourse of matters of State, yet he is but the devil's slave; and this weak-sighted knowledge dares contest with God, and the folly of the children of darkness with the wisdom of the Father of lights; and man's prudence with God's providence: for the wicked cover themselves with silence, subtlety, and dissembling, like little children, who think they are hid, when they shut their eyes; and that nobody sees them, because they see nobody; but God sees them all bare and naked, better than they see themselves. God who is not only all hand (as holding and guiding all) but also all Eye, (as seeing or searching all things) he sees through the thickest substance, and darkness is light unto him, and therefore the royal Prophet Ps. 94. justly taxes this sottish wisdom, Take heed ye unwise among the people, ye fools when will you understand, he that planted the ear, shall not be hear? or he that made the eye, shall not he see? In this place the Prophet calls them unwise, not the fools that run mad up and down the streets, not the Idiots, not the gross common people, but the great Politicians, who manage all their matters so smoothly, as if they thought to hide themselves from the All-seeing wisdom of God, or to dazzle the eyes of his providence; but as those are the fiercest Fevers that have the coldest Fit at first, so that is the most desperate folly that is vizarded with wisdom and greatest discretion. Thus the Godly man must observe the actions and affections of men, and consider all the unprofitable travel of this life, and accordingly frame his Meditation. There are two sorts of people in the life of man, as there is in a Fair; Some come to buy and sell, others only to look about; He that fears God is but a looker on; he comes not to buy or sell, but only to observe the works of God, and the actions of men, that when he sees the glitter of vain curiosities, which men expose to view, he may say, Oh! what a number of things there are in this world, that I have no need of? but if (while he be thus looking about) he happen to get some hurt, or be justled, or have his purse cut, (that is, if he be troubled, or afflicted) he will presently be gone, and remembering that he is but a stranger in this world, he will set forward towards his own country, his home in the Heavens, aiming always (as the Apostle saith) towards the mark of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Phil. 3. 14. If the world contemn him, he contemns that contempt, knowing himself to be better than the world, and called to a better hope, he will esteem lightly of the promises of the World, and the business thereof base and tedious; and like Mary in the 10th of Luke, he will choose the better part, which cannot be taken from him; concluding all his Meditations of Vanity, as Solomon did in the end of his Ecclesiastes, The End of all is this, Fear God, and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of, Man. After this Meditation we must rest ourselves upon those two Maxims and Propositions which are the two Sanctuaries of Religion, the first, That to love God we must contemn the world; the second, that to contemn the world we must be think ourselves of our own worth and dignity, and the excellency of our vocation. The first maxim is taken out of the Epistle of St. John, John 16. 11. Love not the world, nor the things of the world; If any love the world, the love of God is not in him, for all that which is in the world, as the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, & the pride of life, is not of the father but is of the world, & the world passeth away, &c. Nothing drives us further from the love of God than the love of the world, for the Scripture calls the world the Kingdom of Satan; and as the Moon hath no light but by opposition to the Sun, so our Souls are in darkness but when we look unto God; So again it follows, that as the Moon hath no light in the shadow of the earth, Luke 16. 8. so our Souls lose their light (as the Scripture calls us Children of light) when they are obscured and eclipsed with the love of earthly things, Eph. 1. 8. as worldly cares and covetousness, which we ought to tread under our feet, like the Church in the Revelation, Rev. 12. which hath the Moon under her Feet, that is tramples upon all the unchangeable unsteadiness of these sublunary things. And as Christ would have the penny paid for Tribute to Caesar because it bare his Image, so we must give ourselves to God because we bear his Image; the misery is this, we often deface the Image, and batter it against the ground, bemiring ourselves with base thoughts and dirty desires. Therefore to the end we may contemn the world, and all the World can promise or do for us, we must come to the second point, which is to know the worth and excellency of Godly men; for when men by Fox-friendship and cruel subtlety would entice a godly man to do ill, and to sin against God and his own Conscience, then let him look into himself and thus Argue; I that am a child of God, of heavenly parentage, one of the first-born, whose names are written in heaven, shall I value the promises of the world any thing worth, which (if they were certain) yet they are too mean for me? Win a King's Son with apples? tempt the Son of the great Prince of Heaven with money to offend his Father? and like Esau sell his birthright for a Mess of pottage? I will never do it, God will never suffer me to be so hood-winked; He is not worthy of Christ that doth not think the world unworthy of him; was not the world made for the godlies' sake? and will not God destroy it again, and provide an house far more glorious for us, and a more beautiful heaven than that we now behold, which is indeed too mean for the dignity of God's children? thou that fearest God, and hast faith in his Son, I would have thee know, that it is thou that upholdest the world, and for whose sake the wicked are yet suffered to live; so far are God's enemies indebted to thee. And God suffers the world to continue for the Elects sake, whereof some are mixed with the wicked, others are not yet born, and (as it is in the 6th of the Revelation) God stays until the number of our Brethren be fulfilled; and that is one of the causes why our Saviour calls his disciples the Salt of the Earth, Mat. 5. 31. as a small part among men that preserves the rest, and retards the dissolution; God continuing the Bad for the Goods sake, that the bad may profit at the example of the Good, and by that means be driven to fear God, and trust in his promises; this being the excellency of God's children, they must esteem of the pleasures, riches, and glory of the world but as trifles, and like the painted Kingdoms which the devil offered Christ. When men look down from the top of the alps to the plains below them, the greatest Towns would seem no better than little Cabins, how much would they seem far less to be seen from Heaven? The Godly man must think he is in Heaven, and look down upon earth from thence▪ he will still keep his heart above, and thence beholding the Palaces of Princes they will seem to him little Ant-hills: and the tumultuous tossing up and down of Nations as the swarming of Bees, when they are disquieted, and then well observing what is most remarkable, eminent and conspicuous upon earth, he will say, Vanity of Vanities, all is Vary. This blessed magnanimity shall nothing hinder Christian humility, for we acknowledge ourselves unworthy, but are made worthy by Christ Jesus; If repentance cast us down, faith sets us up again; If of ourselves we be nothing, yet through God and his Fatherly love unto us we are made something; thus the Godly quite differ from the worldlings, the last lifts up his pharisaical eyes to heaven, but his heart is on earth, and set upon lust and covetousness, the first looks always downward in humility like the Publican who durst not look up to Heaven, Lu. 18. 31. yet by faith and hope hath his heart there, he contemns the world not for the love of himself, but for the love of God. Wickedness that now reigns. This is not all, for if we contemn the world for the love of God, it will at last make us hate the world, when (besides the misery and vanity thereof,) we see the damnable wickedness that reigns, and stands in defiance with God; when (besides the vanity that is set to open sale) we are to consider the villainy that is kept close, Treasons, Murders, Adulteries, committed in secret, and when we consider the viols of the wrath and curse of God poured out generally upon all men; For when we will enter into a due consideration of the world, we must set it before us all at once, and behold it together, and then at one glance run over all the people of the world, among which a number are Pagans, who worship the Devil, and that not in Ignorance (not knowing what they do) but in express profession: the East-Indians build him Temples, and do him all service; The West-Indians are commonly tortured and tormented with wicked Spirits; in most parts of the North they make a sport to be War wolves, and it becomes a tolerable custom; witchery is also a common profession there; there the Devil domineers without contradiction. In the flourishing country (where the Apostles so happily planted the Gospel) the Churches are turned into mosques, and Temples of Idolatry. In the West, the outward face of the Church is become an earthly monarchy, and great Money-banks are set in the place where God's house was once seated. Amongst all these so many sundry and several Nations, the Jews are scattered, who blasphemed, and persecuted Christ while he lived, and have continued to do him all wrong ever since he died. In the country from whence the Decretals come, (and which rules Religion at this day) Bawdy-houses are common, and Sodomy grown a fashion, and yet the decision of the doubts of Faith must be coined in the place of all this villainy. The other part of the world who serve God truly, are but an handful, who have much a do to live in so bad an air, who are upon earth as Fishes out of the water; the remainders of Massacres, and as scattered shivers of a broken ship. Yet for all this (even among this small number of people picked out of the rest of the world) evil increases, and spreads like a Canker or Gangrene, Quarrels, Vanity, Excess in apparel, Ambition, (which lavishly lays out) Covetousness (which idly locks up) infect a part of God's flock, God ill served in households, cold charity, neglect of God's word, to be short, a Contagion of Vices by the unwearied Industry of our Adversary, which is a step to superstition, from Vices we pass to error, and from corporal to spiritual whoredom; If then God be so ill served where he is so well known, what will he be in other parts of the world? If vices lodge in the Pulpit how much more in the Porch and in the house of the wicked? therefore Christ calls the Devil fitly the Prince of the World, and St. Peter justly cries out in the 2d. of the Acts, Save yourselves from this froward generation, for Satan lies in wait, seeking whom he may devour; this Age is infectious, vices stick fast, temptations are powerful, our enemies strong, and subtle, ourselves weak and simple, the way to heaven straight and ragged, few there are (Says Christ) that find it, and many that have found it cannot keep it, but having known the truth forsake it again, and return to their vomit, let us therefore take heed of the world, and keep ourselves from so dangerous a place, let us pass by it (as Strangers) leaving the world and leaning to God; we are never truly at rest, but when we rest wholly upon God and his promises: Heaven is in continual motion and that is the place of our rest; and on the other side the earth doth always rest, and that's the place of our agitation; dials and Clocks follow the motion of the heaven, but the faith of the Godly imitates the rest above the heavens, for that teacheth us to set our rest upupon God; Ulysses liked better the smoke of his own house than the fire of another's, yea how much more liked he his own fire than another's smoke? we are strangers here, this is none of our house, our house is in heaven, shall we then prefer the smoke of our strange habitation in another Country, and the darkness of the earth, before the fire of our own house, and the glory of our own home which is the Kingdom of Heaven? This is the Kingdom of Satan, that the Kingdom of God, this a vale of tears, that the top of all bliss, here we sow in sorrow, there we shall reap in joy; here we see the sun's light through two little holes, which we call Eyes, there we shall see God's light on all sides as if we were all Eye, Then when God shall be all in all, to whom be honour and Glory for evermore. Amen. A GLIMPSE OF THE DIVINE MAJESTY From the Cleft of the ROCK, Exod. 33. 22. 1 BEginning without beginning, End without end. 2 End of beginnings, B●ginning of all ends. 3 First Mover, never moved nor m●ving, yet all's motion. 4 Self-sufficient, All-efficient. 5 Whose fiat is fit, He spoke the word and it was done. 6 A Circle whose centre is everywhere, and Circumference nowhere. 7 To whom all things are excentrique, he concentrique, with all things. 8 Ever green, never growing, 9 Swift without motion. 10 continual without time. 11 To whom whatever was and shall be Is 12 now, What Is, was (and ever shall be) present before him. 13 Sees all, unseen of any. 14. All without parts. 15 Good without quality 16 Great without quantity. 17 Unchangeable, yet changes all. 18 A Loadstone without variation. 19 A Ship that swifter than thought sails the compass of All without any compass at all. 20 A bottomless sea, always flowing without reflux. 21 An overrunning spring emptying himself into himself 22 Filling all, and full of all. 23 A Sun that never rises nor sets, always in Meridian. 24 Whose beams are his works, whose light is his glory. 25 Is of himself, in himself, everywhere. 26 Above us, in us, beneath us, yet inaccessible. 27 Wills our best will. 28 Whose would is could, whose will is Act. 29 Day without night. 30 Learning without Letters. 31 Knowledge without defect. 32 Wealth without want. 33 Glory without envy. 34 Pleasure without pain. 35 Joy without grief. 36 Enough without choice. 37 Satiety without fullness, 38 Peace without trouble. 39 triumphs without war. 40 Is all things, yet above and besides us, 41 Known only to us, that he is only known to himself. O how amiable are thy dwellings thou Lord of Hosts. Psal. 34. 1. Immortal, Immutable, Infinite, Invisible, Invincible, Incomprehensible, Almighty, All-sufficient, merciful, Liberal, bountiful, Pure, Wise, Free, Just, Great, Good, Glorious, Gracious, Sole, Single, and the Same, or every of these not in Denomination but Abstract, and but One yet numberless. These are a part of his ways, Job. 26. 14. but how little a portion do we hear of him who held back the face of his throne, & spreads his clouds over it. The deeper that we dive in this Abyss, The more we know the less of what he is. Vaetacentibus de te quoniam Loquaces muti sunt. Woe to silence Lord of Hosts, When theyare dumb that praise thee most. FINIS.