WISDOM AND INNOCENCE, OR PRUDENCE And SIMPLICITY, In the examples of The SERPENT And the DOVE, Propounded to our imitation.  
By Tho. Vane Doctor in Divinity and Physic.  
LONDON. Printed for J. Crook, and J. Baker, and are to be Sold at the sign of the Ship in St. Paul's Churchyard, 1652.   

To the Right Honourable, MILDMAY, Earl of Westmoreland, Baron Despencer and Burwash, &.  
MY LORD,  
YOu who have been my Patron, have most right to the Patronage of any thing that is mine. Hence it is, that I presume to present this unto your Lordship; both to confess my obligation, & express my gratitude. Which although it be in a small proportion, yet seeing men do not refuse their deuce, though never so little; nor courteous men slight gratitude, although offered in never so small a service; if it hold any proportion with the ability, or opportunity of the offerer; I hope that this, under these considerations, shall not be rejected by your Lordship, being tendered by him, who is,  
Your Honours, Most humble, obliged, and grateful Servant, THO. VANE.   

Of the Prudence of the Serpent, and Simplicity of the Dove.  


CHAP. I.  
OUR Saviour Jesus Christ, sending forth his Apostles to preach unto the world, and knowing well what enmity God put from the beginning betwixt the Seed of the Woman, and the Serpent, and that from thence the children of this world should persecute the children of God; like a wise Captain, discovers unto them the strength and power of their Enemies, and withal furnisheth them with arms fit for their defence. He tells them, in the 10. chapter of S. Matthews Gospel, that he came not to send peace, but the sword; that they must not look (like Samson) to be lulled asleep in the lap of Dalila, but like Jona to be cast into the sea, to appease the storm; to be swallowed up by the whales, the tyrannous monsters of the earth; to be arraigned before the seats of justice; to be chased from city to city, yea to have those in whose names are included the greatest notes of friendship, to be as far from it in exercise, as they are near it in title; and to have for a man's enemies, those of his own household. In sum, to find nothing in the world, but a world of wolf-turned men as it is in the 16. verse of the said chapter; Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves: whence followeth this instruction, Be ye therefore prudent as serpents, and simple as doves. Christ also came (as he saith) to seek and to save that which was lost; 
Luke. 19.10.  and that which was lost in Adam being the wisdom of the understanding, and the innocence of the will, he propounds unto us these two, as patterns to renew them thereby, no beast being so wise as the Serpent, 
Gen. 3.1.  as the scripture saith, who was therefore (in the brazen Serpent set up in the wilderness) a type of Christ, who is the wisdom of the father; nor any so simple and innocent as the Dove, which is therefore the Emblem of the Holy Ghost, who is the father's love.  
Be prudent, to encounter with the policies of the world; be simple, and free from pursuing the pleasures of the world. Be prudent, as serpents, to discover the world's snares; be simple, as doves, to cover their sins. Be prudent, as serpents, to decline the world's injuries; be simple, as doves, in not revenging the injuries of the world. Be not altogether as Doves, left ye fall into others dangers; be not altogether as Serpents, left ye endanger others: for as prudence joined with malice, is not more prudence than wickedness, so simplicity joined with ignorance, is not so much simplicity as folly. In simplicity therefore avoid folly, in wisdom, malice. Prudence without simplicity is the mother of evil doing; simplicity without prudence is the mother of evil suffering; but prudence & simplicity joined together, are like the two fires Castor & Pollux, whereof if one appear alone unto the seamen, it threatneth shipwreck, but both together promise a safe harbour: So prudence and simplicity joined together, do cause all the actions for which we embark ourselves, to arrive at the port of prosperous success; but parted asunder, shipwreck our souls on the rocks of malice, or the flats of folly. Therefore, as the Cherubims over the Ark had their faces towards each other, and both toward the mercy seat; so must prudence and simplicity be joined together, and both will tend unto blessedness.  
Prudence is practical wisdom, and is (in the general) of very large extent, consisting in the knowledge of what is best and fittest to be done in all emergent occasions, and in working accordingly. It hath also divers parts, and divers kinds, which I intent not to pursue; my purpose only being to speak of it so far forth and no further, than it may be attributed to some particular actions of the Serpent, wherein there is (though not a reality, which is properly the habit of a reasonable soul) yet a resemblance of spiritual wisdom, by our Saviour thought worthy our imitation. Which exhortation, though directed immediately to the Apostles only, yet is appliable to every Christian. And as our Saviour said to his auditors concerning watching; What I say unto you, I say unto all, watch: 
Luke. 13.37.  So what he saith in this case to his Apostles, he saith unto all Christians, Be prudent as serpents, and simple as doves. What therefore the cabinet of truth, grave history, hath preserved for us, concerning the wisdome-presenting qualities of the Serpent, I will unlock, and proportionate our imitating actions unto their just measure. Now the Prudence of the Serpent whereon our imitation must attend, doth emblazon itself in divers particulars, which are these that follow.   

CHAP. II.  
THE first is the renewing of his youth, with the handmaids thereof, the vigour of his senses and their operations; which he effecteth on this manner. When he feeleth the heavy plummets of age swiftly moving toward their end, the wheels of the clock of life he thus winds up again, He fasteth certain days (saith Aristotle) whereby his body is dried, and his skin loosened, then by the eating of a certain bitter herb, he doth vomit up a virulent poisonous humour, which was the cause of his infirmity: at length, that he may temper the roughness of his skin, he baths himself in water; and seeking a narrow chink or hole in some rock or other place, he wriggles himself in, and forceably drawing himself through slips off his skin; and lastly, resting in some such place, where the sun doth most favourably display his beams, he recovers a new skin, and hardens it fit for his use; and with it, investeth himself with new vigour, adding thereby cleenesse to his eyesight, strength to his body's motion, increase to his stomach's appetite and digestion: and by this means doth he renew the almost expired league between his body and his soul. This also affirmeth both Avicen and Pliny. To this line of the Serpent's example, must we apply our imitation; renewing our lives by the works of Penance. First by Fasting, whereby we shall dry up the flux of Intemperance; then by taking down into our hearts a dose of the bitter herb of of Contrition, whereby we must vomit up of the poison of sin, at our mouths by Confession; and washing ourselves in our tears, and in the river of the sanctuary the word of God, passing through the straits of a firm resolution to serve God and forsake sin, we must put off the old man with the lusts thereof; and by the heat of the sun, the love of Christ, drying up our facility and proness unto sin, we must put on the new man, 
Ephes. 4.24.  which is created according unto God in justice and holiness of truth: and so recovering new strength unto well-doeing, we shall more clearly understand spiritual things, more ardently affect God and our neighbour, and more earnestly hunger and thirst after righteousness: and thus shall we renew again the life of grace in our decayed souls.  
As abstemious John Baptist was the forerunner of the birth of Christ, so must abstinence usher the new birth of a Christian; but the devil enters into the voluptuous, as he did into the herd of swim; or as into Judas, when he had eaten the sop. Prayer, the weapon by which we overcome even God himself, is by nothing so much sharpened, as by Fasting. And therefore, in the whole current of Scripture, shall we find these two in the examples of holy men linked together, like the bells and pomegranates on the vestments of Aaron; Prayer rendering a sweet sound, Fasting a sweet smell; which is therefore compared to cinnamon and balsum, which drying up the corruption of dead bodies, keep them sweet. Cúm, 
S. Aug.  caro arescit per abstinentiam ab humore luxuriae, tunc reddit deo odorem continentiae: when the humour of luxury is dried up in our flesh by abstinence, then do we render unto God the sweet odor of continence. 
Neh. 1.4.  The Prophet Nehemia saith, When I heard these words, I sat down, and wept, and mourned many days; I fasted and prayed before the face of the God of heaven. Also the Prophet Daniel, 
Dan. 9.3.  I turned my face unto my Lord God, to ask and beseech in fasting, sackcloth, and ashes. And then did he receive an especial revelation concerning the birth and death of Christ. St. Peter, when he was fasting saw the vision in the house of Simon the tanner, Acts 10. Also Acts 13.2. As they ministered unto our Lord and fasted, the Holy Ghost said unto them, separate Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have taken them. Here we see that fasting-prayer is most pleasing unto God, even as emptie-bellied instruments, are sweetest to the ears of men. Facilius per jejunium oratio penetrat coelum, saith S. Jsodore; The darts of our prayers being headed with fasting, do more easily pierce the heavens. And as fasting-spittle, as Pliny saith, kills a serpent; so doth fasting-prayer put the devil to flight; and with him, the many troops of his temptations, wherewith he assults our disarmed senses. And therefore our Saviour buckling himself to grapple with the devil, made this one piece of his armour, as the Scripture saith, He fasted forty days and forty nights. S. August, saith, Fasting doth purge the mind, it englightens the soul, it subdues the flesh unto the spirit, and moulds in a man an humble and contrite heart. It purgeth the mind, by consuming and drying up the humour of luxury: even as the fire which came down from heaven, licked up the water about the sacrifice of Elias. It enlightens the soul, by lightning of the body, and freeing it from those clogs of flesh, to which in not a few it is a prisoner: for the bellies fullness, is mother of the minds dullness; and repletions of meat in the body, breed obstructions of vice in the soul: whence saith the Prophet David, 
Psal. 34.13.  Their iniquity hath proceeded as it were out of fatness; then immediately follows, They have thought and spoken wickedness. It subdues the flesh unto the Spirit, by striking the swelling sails of pride and incontinence, enabling us to say with S. Paul, 
1 Cor. 9.27.  I chastise my body, and bring it into servitude: and like Abraham, it casts out the bondwoman and her children, the devil with his spawn of sin, not suffering the handmaids of our affections, to advance themselves against their mistress reason. And lastly, it makes our souls humble and contrite, as the Psalmist saith, 
Psal. 72.7.  I did humble my soul with fasting. And this is the second condition required in the renewing of our lease of life.  
The Passeover was commanded to be eaten with bitter herbs; 
Exod. 12.8.  and they that will feed profitably upon Christ our Passeover, must have their hearts embittered with compunction and sorrow for their sins. Surgeons when a bone that hath been broken is set awry, are forced that they may set it right, to break it again; so the rectitude of our souls being broken by our fall in Adam, whereby we go halting all our lives after, that we may set our hearts aright, which are thus wried and crookeded by sin, we must break them again, by an humble sorrow for all our sins. Which must not continue for one assault alone, but we must multiply our strokes and break of our hard hearts, until our sorrow swim in our eyes, and furrow our faces with our tears: even as Moses by striking the rock twice, made a river of water to gush forth. And we must be sorry, that we can be no more sorry, and with the men of Israel, 
1 Kings, 30.  weep till we can weep no more. It is not enough to afflict our souls and bow down our heads for a day; or to be like the marble, which is moist only against wet weather, to weep only when the threatening storms of punishment hang over our heads, remaining still inwardly as hard as the marble: For as S. Gregory saith, He that bewaileth his sins, yet doth not forsake them, makes himself liable to so much the greater punishment, by how much he contemns that pardon which he might have attained by weeping. But if like the Israelites, we pass through the red Sea of our tears of true Contrition, we shall leave all the Egyptians, our sins, overwhelmed therein S. Aug. saith, as Grief is the companion of repentance, so Tears are the witnesses of grief; into which, if we can melt ourselves, like Niobe, through those doleful images, which sorrow imprints in our overtender hearts, for our outward losses of goods, or friends, or the like; and cannot dischannell one rivulet from the fountains of our eyes, as a tribute due for the Ocean of sorrow, which we own unto the cause of those losses, our sins; surely, we have either no sense of our sins, which is bad; or no fear of God's judgements, which is worse; or no love unto his goodness, which is worst of all. For if we had, the heat of that love would reflect so strongly on our hearts clouded with sin, that it would wholly dissolve them into tearful sorrow; even as the Sun printing hard his hot beams upon a gross thick cloud, powers it down into rain.  
The Prophet David was of a far other temper, and yet had an excuse as colourable as any one; being a man, and amongst men a soldier, and amongst soldiers one of the hardiest, whom no danger could reach to fear, no temporal damage to grieve; and yet such impression did sorrow make in his heart for sin, that he saith, I will wash my bed every night, and water my Couch with my tears. O faelices lachrymae quas beata manus conditoris absterget; saith S. Bernard; O those happy tears which the favourable hand of God shall wipe away; And O those happy eyes which have chosen rather to melt themselves into such tears, than to lift themselves up with pride, to look aside with disdain, or asquint with envy. These tears of Compunction and sorrow for our sins, do afford us the same refreshing, that taking of soil doth unto the hunted deer; who being hotly pursued by hellhounds, the Devil and his temptations, and our hearts embossed and panting under their pursuit, are wonderfully refreshed and restored to our lost strength, by washing ourselves in the bath of our relenting tears: into which who so enters, as into the troubled waters of Bethesda's pool, is assuredly healed of his sins. If then the bitter sorrow for sin, be the mother of such sweet and wished for effects, let us seal up our desires with the words of S. Aug. Let repentance, bitter repentance, be the continual companion of my days; grief, continual grief, the insatiate terror of my life; and if I be not worthy to lift up my eyes to heaven in prayer, yet at least I am worthy to put them out with weeping.   

CHAP. III.  
THe third thing required to the renewing of our lives, is Confession. The Dog, when his stomach is surcharged with any hurtful meat, by eating grass vomits it up again: so when we have burdened our consciences with ever-hurtfull sin, we must by eating the bitter herb of Contrition, disgorge our sins at our mouths by Confession. For as in a wound, so long as the iron, or steel, or any part of that which gave the wound, remains, it obstructs the healing; so do the remains of sin in the Conscience through non confession control the influence of any remedy applied thereunto; as Solomon saith, 
Prov. 28.13.  He that hideth his sins shall not be directed, but he that shall confess and forsake them, shall obtain mercy. An imposthume breaking inwardly, threatens death unto the party; but outwardly it is a means to purge and cleanse the body: So sin suppressed and smothered within our hearts, doth empoison and choke our souls; but breaking out at our mouths by Confession, it doth purge and clear the conscience, and like the breaking out of the lips in an ague, is a sign of our amendment: So as S. Paul saith, 
Rom. 10.10.  With the mouth confession is made unto salvation.  
Which Confession that it may be thus profitable, must be also general. When a man's body sweats all over (say the Physicians) it is a sign of strength of nature; but if it sweat in some parts and not in others, it is a symptom of debility and weakness: and no less testimony is it of the weakness and wickedness of the soul, if we do not purge our souls universally of all our sins. These parcel Confessors, are like the children of Israel, who cast out most of the heathen out of the land of Canaan, yet suffered the Gibeonites to remain, and made a league with them; who thereby became as nails in their eyes, 
Num. 33.55.  and spears in their sides: so the least sin that remains with us uncast out by Confession, will be a prick unto our consciences, and an instrument of our destruction. Now Confession as it must be accompanied by universality, so it must be ushered by examination; whereby looking back into the book of our consciences, wherein the names of all our sins are written, we must awaken the remembrance of all our thoughts, words, and deeds, and muster them up together, that so by Confession they may be cast forth: as a sick man, who being about to take a Purge first takes a Preparative to open the passages, that so by the purge they may be the more easily ejected.  
And that we may amongst the millions of our actions, know which of them are to be superscribed with the title of sin, we must have recourse unto the word of God, as it is expounded unto us by the Church, and the Pastors thereof; which like the Mariner's card and compass, will demonstrate unto us, how near or far off our actions are, from the  North Pole of God's commandemants. And as when the Sun shineth not into a house, the air seemeth clear; but if it once enter in at the window, it than appears full of motes and dust: so the light of God's word shining in our understandings, will discover an infinite number of sins, which before its access, we could neither perceive, nor would we believe. And as the word of God doth show us our faults, so also doth it cleanse them, like unto a basin of water, wherein a man may both see the spots in his face, and wherewith he may wash them away: as the Psalmist saith, 
Ps. 118 9  How shall a young man amend his way? by keeping of thy words. In this word of God therefore, this river of the Sanctuary, in imitation of the Serpent, must we wash ourselves; which not unlike a certain water in Macedonia, which being drank by the Sheep, maketh them white; so this received into our hearts, doth blanche our souls with the whiteness of innocence. Now where the Well of God's word is deep, and a stone rolled on the mouth thereof, that is, is hard to be understood, with Rachel, mentioned in the scripture, 
Gen. 2.9.  we must get some Jaacob to remove it; that is, some one that hath wrestled with God, as the name of Jaacob signifies, and that hath thereby obtained his assistance unto his studies and endeavours, that so he may administer unto us. But let us beware, above all things, that we do not drink down the water of God's word, with the abusive interpretation of heretics; for then contrary to the former effect of the Macedonian water, it will be like that water in the troughes, for the sheep, wherein Jaacob laid his peeled rods, which made them bring forth spotted lambs; so will this make us bring forth opinions erroneous, black and foul.  
The serpent, as I said in the beginning, after his fasting, his eating a bitter herb, his casting up a poisonous humour, and his bathing himself in water, seeks some narrow hole, through which drawing himself, he slips off his old skin; and drying his slipperiness in the sun, recovers a new one: so we, after our fasting our eating of the bitter herb of contrition, and vomiting our poisonous sins at our mouths by Confession, and having washed ourselves in the water of God's word, must (passing through the straits of a firm resolution to forsake our sins, and to serve God,) put off the old man with the lusts thereof; and by the heat of the love of Christ, drying up our proneness unto sin, put on the new man, 
Ephes. 4.24.  which is created according unto God in justice, and holiness of truth.  
Straight is the gate, 
Math. 7.14.  and narrow is the way (Saith our Saviour) which leadeth unto life; through this straight way must we resolve to pass, that so we may divest ourselves of the old-man, and invest ourselves with the new; by departing from evil, and turning unto good. Cease to do evil, 
Esay. 1.16.17.  learn to do well; saith the Prophet Esayas. Eschew evil and do good, saith the prophet David. 'Tis said, 
Psal. 36.27.  that when the Eagle groweth old, his beak is so crooked that he cannot eat his meat; he therefore goes to a rock, beats his beak against it, until he have broken it off, and then falls to his meat, and grows young again. So our hearts growing crooked toward the earth and earthy things, whereby we cannot receive the spiritual food of God's word, and Sacraments, we must strike them against the rock Christ Jesus, by considering both his precepts and example; whereby the crookedness of our beaks shall be broken; that is, our earthly affections rectified, and our souls directed unto God; whereby we shallbe enabled to feed upon Christ in his Word and Sacraments, and so renew again our youth. As it is Psal. 102.5. Who fileth thy desire with good things, and thy youth shall be renewed as the eagles. And as samuel's mother, 
1. Kings, 2.19.  (as the Scripture saith) brought him a new coat at set times, when she went up to offer the yearly sacrifice; so as often as we offer the sin-offering of a contrite heart unto God, we must, casting off the old rags of sin, cloth our-selves with the new robes of justice. For we must not think to wear this new coat with our old; to wear the linsy-wolsy garments of religion and wordlynesse together; a thing forbidden in the old law; nor yet with the Jews, to cry hail unto Christ, and yet crucify him; to make a profession of him in words, and contradict it in deeds, This is to serve God and mammon; 
Math. 9.16.17.  to put new wine into old vessels, to patch old garments with new cloth, which as our Saviour saith, is either impossible, or dangerous: therefore, as the Scripture saith, 
1. Tim. 2.19.  Whosoever nameth the name of our Lord, let him departed from iniquity.  
Moses when he went into the holy mount, put off his shoes; Elias when he ascended into heaven, cast off his mantle; and Elisha when he went to serve the Prophet, bad adieu to his father and mother: so when we enlist ourselves in the catalogue of God's servants, we must put off the shoes of our evil affections; we must cast off the cloak of our unrighteousness; and take our leaves of all those sins, which either through our proneness unto them, or their long familiarity and acquaintance with us, have so endeared themselves unto us, that we are forced to reproach ourselves with the title of their acquaintance. Moses' commanded that they that went unto the tabernacle, should go out of the Camp; and we out of our sins, if we will go unto Christ. Wherefore, as S. Paul saith, 
Heb. 13.13.  let us go out unto him without the Camp. And being once out, let us not prove retrograde in the sphere of goodness; nor with Lot's wife look back unto Sodom; nor say of any sin, as Lot did of Zoar, 
Gen. 19.20.  Is it not a little one? It is certain, the devil will be tempting of us to turn back, and say unto us, as Solomon's mother did to him; I have a small suit unto thee, 
3. Kings. 2.22.  I pray deny me not; to which if we yield, as he foresaw, so we shall find, that it will cost us no less than the loss of the kingdom, even the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, having once cast out the old Adam out of the Paradise of our souls, let us place there the Cherubin of grace with the flaming sword of the Spirit, to resist the entrance of sin: and in all the temptations of the world, the flesh, and the devil unto sin, let us answer in the words of the spouse in the Canticles, I have put off my coat, 
Cant. 5.3.  how shall I put it on? I have washed my feet, how shall I defile them? And thus if we be renewed; as the serpent, by recovering a new skin, doth with it resume new strength, sees more clearly, moves more lively, feeds more heartily; so shall we, by this means, every ourselves with the strength of well doing; we shall more clearly understand spiritual mysteries; we shall walk more uprightly in the love of God and of our neighbour; we shall more eagerly feed on and more strongly digest the spiritual food of God's word and Sacraments: by the nourishment whereof, we shall walk from grace to grace, until we come to be perfect men in Christ Jesus; from grace unto glory, until we be perfect Saints in the kingdom of heaven.   

CHAP. FOUR  
A Second property of wisdom in the serpent, worthy our imitation, is this; The serpent by reason of that enmity which it hath with mankind, to secure itself from the danger of men's invasions, creepeth away and hideth itself under bushes, and delighteth to dwell in deserts, and unfrequented places: so the children of God, mindful of that irreconcilable enmity which God hath put betwixt that old mystical serpent the devil, with his viperous brood, wicked men, and the seed of the woman, the Children of the holy Church, should shroud themselves under God's protection, who appeared unto Mayses in a bush; and with Enoch, walk with God in the desert of divine contemplation; that so they may balk the company, and the consequents thereof, the mischiefs of the wicked.  
The Poets feign of Arachne, that contending with Pallas, for the prize in workmanship, and being conquered by her, disdaining at the ill success of her enterprise, she did so swell with the poison of envy and hatred, that she turned into a Spider: so the devil in the pride of his thoughts, contending with his Maker, and by him, like lightning, being cast down from heaven, hath had his nature ever since transformed into a serpent, full of the deadly poison of envy and hatred against God, and all good men: continually assaulting them, either by battery, or undermyning; by open force, or secret fraud; by the fierceness of the lion, or subtlety of the serpent. Which enmity of the devil against God, like that which often happens betwixt the fathers of two potent families here on earth, hath devolved itself unto each others posterity; who like Jaacob and Esau, struggle in the world's womb, the earth, as if so little a room were too straight a dwelling for so great enemies. Which enmity unveiled itself in the world's infancy betwixt Cain and Abel; who (as the Poets feign) like the serpent's teeth sown by Cadmus, were no sooner grown up, but the one destroyed the other: Ishmael scoffed at his brother Jsaac; Micol laughed at her husband David, and king Ahab hated the Prophet Micaiah; and the reason was, because he told the truth. It is the godlies goodness that purchaseth them hatred for as likeness is the cause of liking so the contrariety of manners produceth contrary affections. God is light, the godly are enlightened; God is truth, the godly are true: the devil is the Prince of darkness, the wicked are darkened; the devil is the Father of lies, the wicked are liars; what communion then betwixt light and darkness, truth and falsehood, Christ and Belial, 
John. 15.19.  God and the devil? Because ye are not of the world, saith our Saviour, therefore the world hateth you.  
Now this hatred discovers itself, either against our bodies, or our souls; either (as the Scripture speaketh) like the great Bulls of Basin they encompass us on every side; or like the little foxes, they destroy God's vineyard. Thus in the dawning of the Church's day, by the tyranny of the wicked, did the Prophets and holy men of God fall like the morning dew and the seeds of grace which themselves had sown, they watered with their own blood. Thus the holy Christian Martyrs in the noontide of the Church's day, when the sun of persecution reflected on them as hotly as the noon-sun on Ionas head, did calmly bleed oil to the Apostles lamps, whose bright flames yet serve to light Posterity to heaven. Thus also these latter ages in some places, and at some times, have paid as large a tribute of patience to heaven, and sufferance in the world; as any that went before them; and have constantly kept the faith, until they lost themselves in keeping it; like Naboth, who kept his possession, with the loss of his blood. And thus in all ages have the diamonds of the world, the godly, who were made to be preciously set in the esteem of men, been brought to the extremest degree of calamity, that witty cruelty could invent, or unrelenting malice execute. And thus also did the non-such of well-doing and evil suffering, our Saviour Jesus Christ, by the malice and cruelty of the Jews, surrender up a life more spotless than innocence, unto a death most shameful and ignominious, even to the death of the Cross; the horror of whose torments, left not where to add unto it, by the wishes of his enemies. And if they do these things in the green wood, saith he himself, 
Luke 23.31.  what shall be done in the dry?  
Nor doth the malice of the devil and wicked men stint itself here, or satisfy itself with the suffering of our bodies; then were their assaults little, their victories less; seeing that the virtuous, like the palm tree, spring up by pressing; and like the Vine, spread further by pruning. The rod of persecution, like Aaron's rod that budded, doth increase the godly, both for number and goodness, making them both more and better. Therefore doth the devil lay siege unto our souls by the temptations of prosperity and pleasure also, hoping that (as it is in the fable of the Wind and Sun, striving who should make the wayfaring man put off his cloak) what foul means cannot, fair means may effect. In which his two main engines are the flesh, and the world; the flesh within us, the world without us. The flesh, he corrupteth with bliss-promising suggestions; which like a treacherous Citizen, betrayeth the fort of our will, into the hand of him our enemy; and thus a man's enemies are (as our Saviour said they should be, 
Mat. 10.36. ) those of a man's own house. But with no better success than Tarpeia the Vestal Nun betrayed the Capitol, bargaining for the bracelets on the enemy's hands; who when they were entered, did not cast their bracelets only, but their bucklers also into her lap, which with their weight pressed her to death. Even so the devil many times over-satisfying men's unlawful fleshly desires, with their sinful weight, presseth their souls into the pit of destruction.  
The world also, I mean the wicked men thereof, he sets like so many lime-twigs and snares to entrap our souls: and as fishermen do make one fish a bait to catch another, so the devil doth make a bad man, a bait to catch a good. Wicked men are most pernicious creatures, and easily pull down vengeance upon others, either by the desert of their sin, or by the infection: who, like men that have the plague, out of a malignity of disposition which attends upon their disease, desire to infect others, and to draw them, as the scripture saith, to the same confusion of luxury, 
1 Pet. 4.4.  with themselves. Vicia ad vicinos serpunt & contactu nocent, saith Seneca: Sin amongst men is like the rot amongst Sheep, of a catching and infectious quality: and he that thinks to partake the company of wicked men, and not participate of their vices, multiplies the miracles, where walkers on the water, with Peter, are not drowned; and in the fire, with the three children, are not burnt. The nature of things is such, saith S. Chrisostome, that where a good man is joined with a bad, the bad is not bettered by the good, but the good corrupted by the bad. As sickness, by accompanying the sick, is derived to the healthy, but not so health unto the sick. And as the Salamander extinguisheth the fire, and is not burnt therein; so the wicked amongst the godly, are ready to quench the heat of their virtue, and not to be inflamed thereby. Therefore saith the Apostle S. Paul Be not companions with them: Joseph by living in the Court, learned to swear by the life of Pharaoh; and Peter, when he was amongst the high Priests servants denied his master. The warmer he was by the high Priests fire, the colder he grew in love towards God. 
Psal. 105.35.  They were mingled among the Heathens, saith the Prophet David of the children of Israel, and what was the issue? They learned their works.  
Therefore, as our Saviour adviseth us, Beware of men. First of men whose cruelty no meekness can assuage; of men, whose blood-thirstiness no lives can quench; of men, from whose persecutions no place is secure; and if they persecute you in one City, fly into another; let a discreet fear give wings unto your feet, and a godly confidence steel unto your hearts. If opportunity open a way unto your flight, refuse it not; if not, let an unrebated resolution arm you for sufferance. Beware also of the company of wicked men, who like bemyred dogs defile with fawning: For howsoever fishes living in the salt water retain a fresh taste, and savour not of the brinish quality of the Sea wherein they live; and it may be true, which Solinus reports of the river Tigris in Armenia, that it passeth many miles through the lake of Arethusa, and yet mingles neither fishes nor waters with the lake, but is quite of an other colour from the same; yet, Inficitur terrae sordibus unda fluens:  
Clear running streams are infected with the neighbourhood of filthy soils; and pure men with the soul conversation of the wicked. Swallows (they say) would not build in Thebes, because the walls thereof were so often besieged; nor let good men, or those that desire to be such, hasten to the company of those, whose mind-infecting manners, do threaten their destruction. 
Apoc. 18.4.  Be not partakers of her sins, that ye receive not of her plagues, saith S. John. The reason why our Saviour would not give the Disciple, mentioned in the Gospel, leave to go back to bury his dead Father, was (say some Divines) lest his unbelieving kindred should corrupt him again; for bad men keep others from goodness, as the dead carcases did the raven from Noah's Ark. It was part of the vow of the Nazarites, not to defile themselves with dead bodies; no more should good men slain themselves with the dead conversation of the wicked.  
Run we then from these, as Moses did from his rod turned to a Serpent; for if we join ourselves to Beelphegor, 
Psal. 105.27.  we will, like the children of Israel, eat the offerings of the dead. And to decline the cruelty of some, in the destruction of our bodies, whose rage knoweth no mean; let us wisely (with the Serpent) fly into the wilderness, where we shall find Jesus the Lion of the tribe of Judah, and the brazen Serpent, which was there lifted up, who will encounter for us with that roaring Lion and subtle Serpent the devil, with his viperous generation, and either rescue us, or revenge our evils. And to avoid the contagious company of others, whose motions, although more silent, yet not less deep or dangerous than the other; yea much more, for this like lightning which melts the sword, but hurts not the scabbard, passeth through our Bodies, and empoisons our Souls with the insinuating venom of sin: let us (with the Serpent) hid ourselves in the holes of the rock, in the wounds of the rock Christ Jesus, whose blood is more Antidote, than all the sins of the Universe can be Poison: so shall we avoid both the bodily and spiritual dangers whereunto the cruelty of some and the contagion of other wicked men would expose us.   

CHAP. V.  
ANother work of prudence in the actions of the Serpent, by just title claming our imitation, is this: The Serpent if he be assaulted, his chiefest care is directed to the preservation of his Head, for which he exposeth his whole body to the danger; knowing that therein is the castle of his life; in so much that when he is in danger, he winds himself round into many rings, placing his head in the centre; and (as Pliny saith) if he have but two finger's length of his body left with his head, his life will still remain in him: in like manner should our endeavours bend themselves to hold our head Jesus Christ, and that which doth knit and cement us to Christ, true faith and charity: for the safeguard whereof, we should expose all else to hazard, and in comprison whereof, we should neglect whatsoever of profit or delight the world can add unto us; and say with S. Paul, 
Phillip 3.8.  I account all things as dung, that I may gain Christ.  
Natura est sui conservativa, saith Philosophy, it is inbred in the nature of each thing, to endeavour its own preservation; so is it in the nature of grace: now when we cannot keep ourselves from the endomagement of all parts, we must learn from the wise Serpent, that our care of preservation must chief be directed unto that, whose well-being doth chief concern us. The fountain of life in a Serpent, is in the head; and the life of a Christian is in Christ, who is the head of his Church; as S. Paul saith: 
Colos. 3.3.  your life is hid with Christ in God. If then our prosperity, wealth, honour, liberty, or aught else that we enjoy, cannot be compatible with the preservation of our head Christ Jesus, more than the ark of God in the temple of Dagon; and that a dangerous suffering of evil, must only free us from the danger of doing evil; of evil the least must fall under our election, and we must choose rather (with S. Peter and the rest of the Apostles) to leave all and follow Christ, than with Demas, to forsake Christ and follow the world. Skin for skin, 
Job 2.4.  and all that a man hath will he give for his life, said the devil, and truly, of Job▪ wealth, honour, liberty, worldly peace, wife, children, and friends, which are but skins, things slight, trivial, and superficial in comparison, must we part with, to preserve the life of our souls, by the true faith, and love of Christ; for he that doth not forsake all, if need be, for him, is not worthy of him; as he himself testifieth. And what Cicero said of his Country, which he held second to nothing in the merit of his respect, we may more truly say of Christ, and true religion; Cariola sunt parents, liberi, propinqui, amici, at omnes omnium charitates patria una complexa est; Our Parents are dear unto us, so are our children, our kindred, and acquaintance, but all the love of those, doth Religion alone comprise. If we did but justly poise the poverty of the world's great riches, and the riches of a good Christian in his greatest poverty; who holding Christ, hath with him, the treasures of wisdom, and goodness, who is the Magazine and Storehouse of them all; we would count it a piece of folly in that man, who should abandon the one, to abound in the other, below the degree of Esau's, who sold his birrh right for a mess of pottage, or of Esop's dog, who snapping at the shadow, let go the substance. O how much better is it to sit on jobs dunghill, and with him to know that our Redeemer liveth; than in Solomon's throne with the Kings of the earth, or in Moses' chair with the Scribes and Pharisees, and to bandy ourselves against Gods anointed with the one; and to say well, and not do it, with the other.  
Most true it is, that very many of the Children of God, like the ark of the testament, which was continually hurried from place to place, until it was settled in the glorious temple of Solomon; so are they, until they be settled in the more glorious kingdom of heaven. And like Noah's Dove, which found no rest until it returned to the ark; so they have their bodies worn with continual afflictions; until they be laid up in the common wardrobe of the grave. They are exposed to almost as many miseries, as they live minutes; no place being so barren of trouble, but can afford them a full-handed harvest thereof. They wander, as the Apostle saith, 
Heb. 11.27.  in sheepskins and goatskins, being in want, straitened, and afflicted: wherein though the floods of affliction lift up their waves, and are ready to overwhelm their souls; and the winds of temptation as ready to overturn them; yet if with St. Peter they can stretch forth the hands of their faith unto Christ, he will pluck their feet out of the danger that gapeth for them, and cover them with the wings of his protection, as the Mercy-Seat covered the ark. And as the Serpent, if he have but a small part of his body joined to his head, he still lives: So the afflictions of the children of God, though they take from them all that this world hath added to them, yea their bodies from their souls, if yet they keep their souls united unto Christ their head, they still preserve their lives uncouquered: when as the wicked, whom every breath of disaster driveth away, whom the satisfying of every sinful desire shall force from that power of godliness which they ought in each action to express, are dead while they live: as the Apostle S. Judas saith; 
Judas. 12.  twice dead, and plucked up by the roots.  
If therefore the unstinted malice of the devil, should leave us with job, as naked as when we came out of our mother's womb; rob us of the instruments of our earthly eternity, and our love's greatest inheritors, our children; deprive us of our lives sweetest companion, our health; and print our bodies more full of boils and sores than Dive's dogs could have licked; and which doubles all these, leave us nothing but a Wife, whose weakness he corrupteth, as he did in Paradise, to become a fellow-tempter with himself; and friends, who in the depth of of this Misery shall rather make our griefs smart more with salt upbraid▪ than any way assuage them with the oil of consolation: and that all this sharp siege be laid against us, to pluck us from our allegiance to Christ, and to cut us off from being members of his body; we must willingly banish all the but cobweb comforts of this life, to hold on the rock of comfort Christ Jesus; with the disciples, we must forsake our nets to follow him; with the Patriarch Joseph, leave our garments behind us and fly away, rather than yield to any sinful pleasure which should separate us from him; yea, divesting ourselves of all our wealth, fly away naked, with the youngman in the gospel, rather than abandon our virtue which should apparel our minds. In which loss of outward things, there is this advantage, that it is a great allay unto the devil's temptations; for as a Serpent (saith Pliny) shuns a naked man, but pursueth a clothed; so the devil doth not so easily assail a poor man with temptations, who with the possession, hath also laid aside the affection of temporal things: but he hath a great advantage of prevailing over the rich; as the Apostle saith: They that will be rich, 
1. Tim. 6.9.  fall into temptation, and a snar of the devil, and into many unprofitable and hurtful lusts, which drown men in ruin and destruction. We must therefore part with the fruit of our bodies, to preserve us from the sin of our souls; and rank our friends, health, wife, yea life and all, in the number of trifles; knowing how infinitely they are overbalanced by the proper worth of Christ, as also by the benefit which reflects upon us from him, 
Heb. 12.2.  who is the author and finisher of our faith: who for the joy that was set before him, endured the Cross, and despised the shame, and sitteth at the right hand of God.  
Very many are the examples of heathen men, who for some private good unto themselves, as the attainment of learning; or some public good unto their Country, as the safety thereof, have willingly surrendered up themselves to divers forms of outward calamity. Democritus pulled out his own eyes; Crates cast all his goods into the sea; Pythagoras banished himself from his native soil; Anaxagoras neglected all public honours, all private contentment, that he might let his thoughts lose wholly to the study of Philosophy. Ancurus the son of Midas sacrificed his life to the floods, Curtius to the flames, that they might fix their Countries in their former safety. Codrus the king of Athens, when both he and his enemies had enquired at the oracle of Apollo, who should be conquerors, and that it was answered, They whose king should fall in the battle; hence it being proclaimed through both armies, that no hands fury should direct itself against the king of the contrary side; Codrus to delude the policy of his adversaries, shrouded under the habit of a common soldier, mingled himself in the battle, and there with overdaring valour, provoked death to seize upon him, and so preserved as many by his valiant death, as he had done by his just life. And shall those heathen perform all these things, for the gaining or keeping of some such thing, as can but in the second file challenge a place in our affections; and shall not we do and suffer more, to hold Christ in our hearts by faith and love? with whom the avails of the whole world being counterpoised, prove too light; as he himself testifieth saying; What doth it profit a man, 
Math. 16.26.  if he win the whole word, and lose his own soul? But above all, matchless herein have been the examples of holy Martyrs and Saints in all ages of the Church, whose unspeakable sufferings for the love of Christ, and rather than they would believe, or do, or so much as think a thought which was not warranted by his word, were such, that though they could not win pity to their suffering, or belief to their assertions, yet by their patience and courage in suffering, they taught the highest degree of admiration to the hardest conceits. Let then these great letters in the Christ-crosse-row, make up a book for us, which running we may read, and copy out their actions for our lives imitation.  
But alas, how far are most men in these days strayed from the Serpentine prudence of our forefathers, in their care of preserving their head Christ Jesus, unassayled or at least unhurt? but rather, like Judas, who sold him for thirty pence, many of us are ready to sell him thirty times for a penny. The cruelty of the jews, was piety compared to us; that which the most of them did, was as S. Paul confesseth of himself, 
Heb. 6.6.  ignorantly through unbeleef; but we profess we know him, profess we believe in him, and yet crucify again to ourselves the Son of God. When thou contemnest or neglectest the Ordinances of God, thou spittest in thy Saviour's face; when thou disobeyest the just commandments of thy superiors, thou plattest a crown of thorns on his head; when thy hands are hands of iniquity, and thy feet are swift to shed blood, thou nailest his hands and his feet; when thou oppressest, or dost not relieve the poor, thou givest him gall and vinegar to drink; when thou dost, or consentest to any thing which endomageth his children, his Servants, thou criest out with the Jews, crucify him, crucify him. Qui in deum delinquit, eum relinquit: He that sins against God, forsakes him. Whosoever purchaseth any profit, enjoyeth any pleasure, giveth way unto any Passion, satisfieth himself in any action which Gods word hath pronounced unlawful, it is he, that contrary to the prudent serpent, hazards the loss of his head, putteth himself in danger to be separated from Christ to preserve his hands or his feet, his hair or his nails, or any thing that is of lower value; and is like unto the Jews, who cried out, not him, but Barrabas.  
Such are all covetous persons, whose greedy affections are like Pharaoh's lean kin, which when they had eaten up the fat, it could not be perceived that they had eaten it; but were still as evill-favoured as they were before: so these men, whatsoever they devour, are never satisfied, but have their desires as vast and empty as ever; and are like Apprentices Christ-masse-boxes, to take all in, but to restore none till they be broken, nor they till they be dead. Such are also the Receivers of bribes, who like Gehazi, when they receive a bribe, believe they receive a Blessing, for so he called it; but as he found it, so shall they, that a bitter Curse is couched under it: for whatsoever men get by bribery, sacrilege, oppression, ufury, cozenage, forswearing, lying or the like, is like to prove as fatal to them, as that piece of flesh which the Eagle stole from the altar, that had a coal clavae to it, which set her nest on fire. Such also are all those who do spend their means as unlawfully as these get it; who as S. Gregory saith, when the poor members of Christ are pinched with hunger and want, do profusely spend their Estates on harlots, on drink, on dice, on balls, on plays, on vain and soulkilling pleasures: or else their time in idleness, and impertinent visits; like one Vatia, on whom was made this Epitaph: Here lies Vatia, who grew old in nothing but idleness. Or else in vain, obscene, foolish, fruitless discourses, interlarding their speeches with lies, to make them more plausible; powdering them with oaths, to make them (as they think) more graceful. O what a folly is it in those men (and in whom almost is not that folly?) that when they may hold Christ, and the consequent thereof their Salvation, for denying of themselves unlawful gains or pleasures, such as perish like Ionas gourd, as soon as they be sprung up, and leave nothing behind them but repentance; when they may keep the true faith and love of Christ with the loss of their lives, by which loss they shall gain it; of their honours, of their estates, of their friends, for which they shall be recompensed, even in this life, an hundred fold; will yet notwithstanding, with Jeroboam, for the politic respect of keeping of his kingdom; with Peter, for the declining of some bodily danger; with Ananias and Saphira, for withholding back a little money; with Saul, for preserving the fattest of the Cattle; with the man of Israel, for the unchaste embraces of a harlot; with Baltazar, for carousing in the cups of the Sanctuary; yea with our first Parents, for an apple, or a piece of bread, as Solomon saith, will transgress, and suffer themselves to be separated from the fountain of life, Christ jesus, rather than say with holy Joseph, 
Gen. 39  How can I do this evil, and sin against my God? O let not, let not the least shadow of such weakness fall upon our souls, as shall make us prefer any thing before our union with Christ, but let us (as we ought) witness the truth of the Apostles, saying in ourselves; 
Mat. 19.27.  We have forsaken all, and followed thee.  
Now that which must knit and glue us unto Christ is faith; which while we hold, we shall be able to quench all the fiery darts, the temptations of the devil, as saith the Apostle. The devil and his instruments the wicked, while they rob us of our external felicities, do but as David did unto Saul, cut off the lap of our garments; but if they force us from the fortress of our faith, as he did unto Goliath, they cut off our heads. Let us therefore keep faith and a good conscience, and make no shipwreck of that precious merchandise, like Hymeneus and Alexander, reproved by S. Paul: but in all the rough tempests of this life's calamities, let us anchor our faith and hope upon Christ, who is the sure ground of our salvation. In all the Siren enchantments of sinful pleasures, with Ulysses, let us tie ourselves to the mainmast of a strong, , godly resolution; whereby whatsoever evil we suffer, or seeming good we may enjoy to rend us from the steadfastness of our faith, we may ever with such a calm, and constant indifferency give them entertainment, that neither the one nor the other may remove us: but that we may still remain like a man in an open field, who to which part of the horizon soever he sends his eye, he himself is always in the centre. And let us not like the dirty-minded Gadarens, banish Christ out of our Country, for the loss of a few swine; nor forsake our profession of him, nor swerve one hairs breadth from the line of his Commandments, to inherit whatsoever either profit, or pleasure, or aught else hath endeared to the eye of the world: seeing their purchase is care, their possession trouble, their essence vanity, and their end misery. But rather in the midst of this world's conflicts, let us engrave that triumphant motto of S. Paul on the Ensign of our Faith; 
Rom. 8.35.  Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or anguish, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or persecution, or sword? I am certain that neither death, nor life, nor Angels, nor Principalities, nor Powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor strength, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.   

CHAP. VI  
A Fourth excercise of Prudence in the Serpent, not unworthy our imitation, is this: The Serpent when he swimmeth, to avoid the danger of drowning, keepeth his head always lifted above the waters: So we while we swim through the Sea of this lives actions, must ever bear up the head of our reason, that we be not drowned in pleasure and delight. The world is a Sea, and man a ship; adversity is his ballast, prosperity his sails, passions his Sailors, and reason his Pilot, who sits at the helm to steer his course aright: adversity like ballast keeps us even and steady; but when our overbusy passions do hoist up more sails of pleasure, than our weak barks can bear, we run ourselves under water, and over-whelm our reason, and reasonable souls in the dead Sea of sin.  
Of the two grand enemies of the soul, prosperity and adversity, this is more horrid in the view, but that more dangerous in the event. A Summer's Sunshine, is the mother of more diseases, than a Winter's Frost. The one seeketh to make a conquest on our virtue by force, and that makes us (like a besieged City) fortify ourselves more strongly for resistance; the other, by the treaties of peace, by the tribute of gifts, seeks to bring our minds into servitude, and this melts our souls, our too too easy souls into yielding. The fire burns hotter by being blown on by the cold wind, but the Sun shining on it, well nigh puts it out: so virtue flames more brightly, being blown on by the cold wind of adversity, but is extinguished by the Sunshine of prosperity; like lime, which is set on fire with water, and (as they say) is quenched with oil. That prosperity doth draw more to ruin, than adversity doth drive, the Prophet David doth intimate; where he saith, 
Psal. 9.7.  a thousand shall fall besides thee, and ten thousand at thy right hand: There is ten to one, whose virtue the right hand of prosperity doth choke more than the left hand of adversity doth starve.  
Yet this is not the legitimate issue of prosperity, but a bastard; not the necessary effect thereof, but such a one, as unto which, our abuse thereof gives birth. For God gives prosperity and delights unto us, as he gave Manna to the children of Israel in the wilderness, to nourish and refresh our else-fainting souls, whilst we travail through the stony and thorny wilderness of this world's troubles and encumbrances: but it is our abuse of it beyond his prescription, which begets this evil effect; as the Israelites keeping their Manna longer than was commanded, it turned into Worms. As S. Gregory saith, non est census in crimine, sed affectus: there is no evil in prosperity itself, but in our overlove of it; which Spider-like, turns the sweetness of it to poison in ourselves. As it happened in Solomon, who abused the unparallelled riches and glory of his kingdom, unto the love of strange women, and strange Gods; which brought forth this effect also, even the renting of the greatest part of the kingdom from his successors.  
Pleasure like a snail, which creepeth from the bottom to the top of the tree, stealeth upon all, but chief on the highest; where it destroyeth the ornaments of virtue, as that devours the leaves; leaving nothing behind but a slimy tract of foul and infamous example. Of which we must therefore taste very sparingly, as Jonathan did honey, only with the top of his rod; for as honey eaten abundantly breeds much choler, so does the abundant sweetness of pleasure, the bitterness of God's wrath. The Dogs that drink at the river Nilus, do but take a lap and away, for fear the Crocodiles should come and devour them; we should but sip of the water of earthly delights, lest by our dwelling thereon, we offer our souls a prey unto the devil. Pleasure is of a bewitching and alluring nature, which advantage the devil taketh against us, covertly hiding some dangerous temptation under such a fair-seeming outside. Hannibal, to entrap his enemies, mingled their wine with Mandrake, whose operation is betwixt sleep and poison; so the devil with the wine of prosperity doth mingle the temptation of Security, which while we over-greedily suck in, we cast ourselves into the drowsy Lethargy of sin.  
It is reported of a certain beautiful woman, that had so long accustomed herself to poisons, by making them her ordinary food, that she brought her whole constitution and complexion to be of the same power that the poison was, and yet she retained so much outward sweetness, that she alured kings to her embraces; even so prosperity and pleasure hath so long pampered itself with the poison of sin, that her nature is almost become infectious; and yet doth she provoke most men to her love, by retaining an outward beauty and colour of being the same she was. It behooveth us therefore to beware of her enchantments, and not be won by the sweetness thereof, to forsake our right unto the kingdom of heaven; nor to set up our rest here in this world, like the two tribes and a half, who by the pleasantness of the land were persuaded to dwell on this side Jordan, and not to enter into the land of Canaan. Which that we may do we must (wisely imitating the Serpent) keep our heads above the water, that is, not suffer our reason to be infatuated with pleasure, nor drenched in the rivers of delight. But let us so bear her up, that she may bear us up; for while a man keeps his head above water, his head will keep him from drowning. And let our reason direct us in the due measure of pleasures that we ought to take; which holding the resemblance of physic and not of food, if we take too deep a draught thereof, it may destroy us.  
But it is a misery which deserves a further degree of sorrow than tears can express, to behold with what unstinted appetite men in these days (especially those whom the bountiful hand of God hath crowned with plenty) do pursue their pleasures; as if they were born to no other end, but to live, and to waste that life in voluptuousness: and whereas we should take moderate pleasures only to refresh us in the troubles of this life, they desire life only to enjoy their pleasures: so that it hath gained the place and credit of a proverb amongst us, to say, what's a gentleman but his pleasure? And what's their pleasure, but the pleasure of sin? who abusing the bounty of God, whereby he hath bestowed upon them the riches of this world, and their precious time, do spend them in such unlawful actions, as would startle an honest man's heart to think, and surprise him with horror to declare. Whose impious demeanour doth far surpass the wits and inventions of all libelers, in doing more wickedness, than they could imagine; and conquering the examples of all past ages with their transcendent impieties. In whom drunkenness, and gluttony, pride, vanity, and luxury, have lost the name of vices by their frequent use, and have purchased the privilege of being a man's warrantable manners: so that not to be evil, is now counted the greatest evil, and to be so, the greatest virtue; 
1. Pet. 4.4.  in so much as (as S. Peter saith) they wonder that you do not run together with them, into the same confusion of luxury, speaking evil of you.  
Seneca saith, the time shall come wherein drunkenness shall be honoured, and it shall be counted a virtue to drink stoutly. That time came long since, and still remains; wherein many are so buried in sleep and wine that that may be verified of them, which was once spoken of the Emperor Bonosus, Non ut vivat natus est, sed ut bibat; He is not born to live, but to drink; who being afterwards strangled with a halter, was thus jested at by the People; amphora pendet non homo: it is a pitcher that is hanged and not a man. And in this delight do men drown the head of their reason, and darken the eyes of their understanding and so like blind men, fall from hence into the depth of all other impieties. With Noah, they discover the nakedness of their dispositions to the derision of every beholder; & are ready in they drunkenness, with Alexander the great, to kill their dearest friends; with Marcus Antonius, to vomit on the Tribunal; with Lot, to defile their own daughters: yea what beastly evil is there amongst those, which nature herself shames to behold, to which this vice opens not a way? St. Augustine reports of a certain young man, who being drunk, ravished his mother, Stabbed his Father, and wounded two of his sisters to death. And therefore the Poets say, that Bacchus the Heathenish God of wine, was born in thunder, and is usually painted with horns, because that drunkards are always pushing and quarrelling, and their effects dangerous and dreadful. And no less dangerous are the effects of gluttony, though not so common, because more costly; and yet too too common: for do we not see, that although heathenism be banished, yet Idolatry is still maintained amongst us; and men having no other Idol, do idolise themselves; and make that dunghill covered with snow, their bellies, their God; whose altars, their tables, they make to crack with the weighty Sacrifice of their delicious viands: they impoverish sea and land to enrich their tables, and tenter their inventions with unheardof dainties, to please the witty gluttony of a meal. What hewing and squaring is there of their belly-timber, their diet? while their souls in the mean time (as the Prophet speaketh) are daubed up with untempered mortar. What cost is there? what curiosity, in despite of nature, to preserve things beyond, or to hasten them before the time that sh● hath allotted for their season? And for the better relish of these their cates, they wish (with Philox●nus) their necks as long as a crane's, that they may feel the more sweetness in their meats and drinks. Meats for the belly, and the belly for meats (saith St. Paul) but God shall destroy both it and them.  
To this do men add the excess of over-coftly apparel and perfumes, of sumptuous buildings, and rich furniture, of revel and dance, pastimes and sports; consuming therein more than would maintain an army; wearing the price of a Lordship at their eats, yea at their shoes, with Poppea the wife of Nero. They out vie the bravery of the Lilies, as much as they did solomon's, and strive to outshine the Stars in the number and lustre of their precious Stones; disdaining to let their feet touch that earth, whilst they live, which their heads shall be covered with, when they are dead: whose glory, like a flaming palace, while it shines consumes them, and in the end will bring them to ashes. Lucius Plotius, who was proscribed in the Triumvirate, and Muleasses the expulsed King of Tunis, were bound to bewail the unhappy excess of costly perfumes, who hiding themselves for fear, were betrayed to their enemies by the smell of their sweet odours. And in these and the like kinds of excesses, do men drown both their reason and their fortunes, both their souls and bodies; and are not only passive, but active in their own ruin; they do not only stand under a falling house, but pull it down upon them; and are not only executed, which implies guiltiness; but they are executioners, which implies dishonour; and executioners of themselves, which implies impiety. And when in these prodigious impieties men have melted their patrimonies, they are forced to continue their profuseness by injustice, oppression, cozenage, and all kinds both of craft and cruelty; like birds and beasts of prey, satisfying their own ravenous desires with the ruins of others; and making one sin the fuel to another; with those shames of nature, and monsters of mankind, Nero, Caligula, Domitian, and many others. But above all, the example of Cleopes a king of Egypt is most remarkable in this kind, who wanting money to finish the witness of his folly begun in the building of a Pyramid, and being barren of all other means, basely prostituted the body of his most beautiful daughter, to every slave that would bring one stone ready polished to the building thereof. And although there are but few King▪ and Em●erours, or persons so vastly rich, as to make themselves guilty of such monstrous impieties▪ according to the uttermost extension thereof; yet in the intention and vehemency of their desi●es (as their practice, according to their ability doth show) there are too many: who are the pictures of Sardanapalus, and Nero in miniature▪ and their contents bound up in a smaller volume.  
And no less than the most frequent of the former evils, doth unlawful Lust tyrannize amongst men, who consume therein their bodies and goods, their good names and their souls: which is such a shameful nature▪ that it doth fly the naming, of such fearful consequences that they exceed the naming. Who is there that (with holy Job) hath made a covenant with his eyes, not to look upon a woman to lust after her? and is not rather like unto Dinah the daughter of Jacob, who went a gadding to see the maids of the Country, until she was none herself? By whom the Stews are more boldly frequented than the Church, or at least more willingly; 
2 Pet. 2.14.  having eyes full of adultery (as saith S. Peter) and that cannot cease to sin. Such is the heat of their unlawful desires, that it cannot hid itself in their hearts but must ●eep out at their eyes, which like burning-glasses, collect the beams of beauty, which set their hearts on fire: on whom the law of Zaleucus of Locris were deservedly executed, who commanded that the eyes of the adulterer should be pulled out. Lust is an infernal fire, whose fuel is gluttony and drunkenness, whose sparks are obscene words, whose ashes are uncleanness, whose smoke is infamy, and whose end is torment. And in these and many more voluptuous courses, do millions of men ruin their souls; into whom, as into the herd of Swine, the devils do enter, and carry them headlong into the deep of eternal perdition.  
I deny not but there is a lawful use of all God's creatures; he made (as the Scripture saith) Oil to make a man have a cheerful countenance, and wine and bread to strengthen, man's heart; and there is a place allowed to silks, and gold, and precious stones, both for our use and ornament; to each one according to his ability, and dignity. They that are in King's Courts, may wear soft raiment; but it was the character of the rich glutton in the Gospel, to be clothed in purple and fine linen, and to far deliciously every day: and it was the brand of the children of Israel, that they sat down to eat and to drink, and risen up to play. We may have these things, but they must not have us; their use must follow our reason, not tread it down; we may sometimes swim in lawful pleasures, but we must never be drowned in them. But when our pleasure in these earthly things doth exceed the due measure, or our delights direct themselves unto unlawful objects; yea, when we do not only abuse our delights but delight in that abuse; when we do not only commit evil, but rejoice in evil committed; flattering and hugging ourselves in our abhorred courses, like impious Nero that laughed at the flame of that great City that himself had set on fire, yea when men proceed to such an height of wickedness (and to such a height they do proceed) that though they make the devil and his fiends glad, yet they make them wonder more, to see that man of himself is grown more exquisite in evil, than their temptations can instruct them, and make them wish their wickedness were their own: then our Reason, and Piety▪ and all good forsakes us; and we justly pull upon ourselves that curse of the Psalmist; 
Ps. 68.23.  Let their table be made a Snare unto them, a recompense, and a stumbling block; Let their eyes be darkened, that they may not see, and always bow down their backs.  
God indeed made Woman for man, Eve for Adam; yet he never said increase and multiply, until they were married; to show that he hath a curse, and not a blessing for unlawful unions. He alloweth us the use of meats and drinks, but we must take them seasonably as, Solomon saith, for strength, 
Ecc. 1●. 17.  and not for luxury. Heraclitus the Philosopher, being requested in a Sedition to declare his opinion, how the City might be brought to live in peace and concord; assoon as he was ascended the Pulpit, called for a cup of cold water, wherein he strewed a little meal, and when he had drunk it off he descended without speaking a word; but signifying thereby, after his dark manner, that so the City should be without sedition, if they would forsake their superfluous pleasures, and inure themselves, to temperance and hardness: so also shall we allay the rebellion of passions, which lead us on to the looseness of pleasure, raised against the Sovereignty of reason, if we apply a mean and moderation to all our delights. Observing the same proportion in the dedicating of ourselves, our time and means unto God's service, and our own lawful pleasures, (for unto unlawful not an atom is to be allowed) that Noah did in receiving the beasts into the ark; of which there were seven couple of clean to but two of unclean; showing us thereby, that as the seven clean couple were for the service of God, and the necessary sustenance of man; and the two unclean only for delight and recreation so our time and means spent in worldly pleasures, should be much less than that which we offer to the service of God, and our own necessity's. And as Hunters will not suffer their hounds to eat much carrion when they are to hunt because the strength thereof offends the quickness of their scent, and hinders the pursuit of their game; so should we forbear to glut ourselves with carrion-pleasures, which do so infect our minds, that they deprive us of delight in goodness, and hinder us from prosecuting our devotions to God, and our endeavours in our callings. And though men enjoy the pleasures of sin, yet they will last but for a season, as S. Paul saith; and then, as Saturn by whom the ancients did signify pleasure, who was therefore so called, à Saturando, of glutting, as Isodore saith, was always painted most sorrowful; so the short line of their pleasures will end in the period of sadness and repentance: as Boetius saith, voluptates tristes habent exitus, the pleasures of sin have bitter rivers through delicious springs: and as Saint Paul saith, 
Phil. 3.19.  whose end is destruction, whose belly is their God, and glory their shame, who mind earthly things.  
Let us therefore (as our Saviour commands us) take heed that our hearts be not oppressed with surfeiting and drunkenness, 
Luke 21.34.  nor with the cares nor pleasures of this life. And as the Apostle saith▪ Dear beloved, 
1 Pet. 2.11.  I beseech you as pilgrims and strangers, abstain from fleshly desires, which fight against the soul. That so contenting ourselves with that moderate proportion of the Manna of pleasure, which God hath allowed us while we travail through the wilderness of this world, we may at the length possess the land of Canaan, wherein all plenty of pleasures are perpetually resident: where our desires shall never want satisfaction, nor satisfaction ever breed satiety: where we shall enjoy the happy fellowship of Saints and Angels, and the most blessed vision of God himself; 
Ps. 15.11.  in whose presence is fullness of joy, and at whose right hand are pleasures for evermore.   

CHAP. VII.  
THE last work of Prudence to which the serpent's example doth invite us, is this that followeth. It was the custom of those places where serpents did most abound, to draw them out of their lurking holes with charms, and so destroy them; as the Poet saith.  
Frigidus in pratis cantando rumpitur anguis.  
The cold Serpent in the meadows is burst with charme●.  
Now the Serpent to prevent this danger, doth stop his ears; as the Psalmist saith, 
Psal. 57.6.  like the deaf adder, which stoppeth her ears, which will not hear the voice of the charmers, and of the sorcerer enchanting wisely. Which she doth (as S. Jsodore saith) by laying one ear close unto the ground, and stopping the other ear with her tail: So ought we to resist the charms, that is, the temptations of that grand Magic the devil, with his companions, the flesh and the world, by the consideration of the end, signified by the serpent's tail; and with the memory of the world's vanity, frailty, and inconstancy, as she doth by laying the other ear unto the ground.  
The brittle frailty of this world, and of the vanities thereof, unto whose fruition the devil's temptations do so importunately urge our minds, is as certainly known to all, as it is seldom seriously thought on by any. For if it were, how can we imagine, that men would be so indulgent to their crimes, and so obedient to the devil's suggestions, that a chime doth not more closely follow the stroke of the clock, than their practices his provocations; as if the devil had granted them a perpetuity of pleasure, and sealed the monopoly of sin to them, and to their heirs for ever. When as (alas) God shall quickly take their delights from them, or them from their delights: their delights from them, for as Solomon saith, Riches will take the wings of an eagle, 
Pro. 23.5.  and will fly into heaven; or them from their delights, as our Saviour saith. Thou fool, this night they take away thy soul. 
Luke. 12.20.  Moses' well remembered how short lived they were like unto that flower which Pliny speaks of which springs in the morning, is full blown at noon, and fades at night; 
Heb. 11.25.  and therefore chose rather to be afflicted with the children of God, than to enjoy the temporal pleasure of Sin: counting the reproach of Christ greater riches, than the treasures of the Egyptians.  
The world for the frailty and inconstancy thereof, is by S. John compared to a sea; as he saith in the Apocalypses; Before the throne there was a sea of glass, 
Apoc. 4.6.  like unto crystal; by which sea is meant the world, which for its frailty is glass, for its unconstancy a sea. A sea swelling with pride, blew with envy, boiling with anger, deep with averise, frothy with luxury. It is a Sea, tempestuous with controversies, stormy with afflictions, tumultuous with disorders. The sea yealds an obedient conformity to the motions of the moon, and swells highest in a joyful imitation, when she is in the springtide of her light, either towards the heavens, as in the change, or towards the earth▪ as in the full; and as she doth wax or wain, so doth he either flow into a pleurisy, or ebb into a consumption of his waters: and even thus is the world the page of fortune, whose unconstant and ever-changing motions, do hurry about, like spokes in a wheel, the condition of all mortals: as the Apostle saith; 
1. Cor. 7.31.  The fashion of this world passeth away. An hourglass doth change its posture every hour, and that part which was even now above, is now below; that which was even now full, is now empty; nor can one side be filled, but by emptying the other; such is the world, every moment turned upside down, and men are now full, now empty; Nor can they often fill themselves, without the ruin or prejudice of others, yea many times, as Laban did to Jaacob, when men have toiled in its service many years, it rewards them with loathed Leah, instead of loved Rachel. Like Jael it carrieth milk in one hand to nourish, and a hammer and a nail in the other to destroy; and as Joab did to Amasa, while it kisseth us, it killeth us. And although like the moon, it be sometimes at at the full of glory yet is it even then like her also mingled with the spots of adversity, and subject to the change of every moment. And therefore (as they say) at the consecration of the Popes, the Master of the ceremonies going before, carrieth in one hand a burning taper, in the other a stick with some flax tied on the top thereof, which he setting on fire, cryeth with a loud voice, Pater sancte, sic transit gloria mundi; Holy Father, so passeth away the glory of the world.  
The plenty of histories in this kind exceedeth our Arithmetic; every particular man's condition, almost being a volume of the world's frailty, and a constant witness of its inconstancy. Adonibezec in the first of the book of Judges, who had been the triumphant Victor over seventy Kings, and in his wanton cruelty cutting off the thumbs of their hands and feet, made them pick up crumbs under his table; enforcing the act, yet depriving them of the power, making them do that which he had disabled them to do, was ere long returned with an equal measure, which made him cry out; 
Judg. 1.7.  As I have done, so God hath rewarded me. Nabuchadonozor's unparallelled metamorphosis, who knoweth not? Who in the despite of Philosophy, proved in himself the transmigration of Species, and from a man fell into a beast, in nature now, as was in practice before; to show that when men sinne against the light of nature, they may suffer against the law of nature.  
It is reported of Demetrius, one of Alexander the great his Captains, that in the whole circle of his life, being threescore years and four, after the measure of his age had styled him man, never continued three years in one condition. Of Julius Caesar also, that great awer of the world, and tyrant over the Commonwealth, it is doubted, whether in the whole course of his life. Fortune were an indifferent arbitrer unto him of good and evil success▪ but in the misery of his death, no doubt all his lives happiness was exceedingly overbalanced; who in the Zenith, and highest erection of his glory with three and twenty wounds, the deepest whereof given by his dearest Brutus, and that in the Court of his deadly enemy Pompey, yielded up his life a sacrifice to the people's liberty.  
The like unhappy change pursued the ever-renowned, and once highly advanced Captain Belisarius; who after he had triumphed over the Persians, and reduced to the Roman obedience all Africa and Italy, which had been long possessed by the Goths and Vandals; and after he had brought one of the Kings of the Vandals to such a pass, that he begged three things; a loaf of bread a sponge to wipe his eyes, and a harp to tune his sorrow to; his wife who was given him for a help, became the only help to his destruction; whose insolent behaviour against the Empress, like winds thrown upon the Seas, raised such billows of indignation in the Emperor, that they put this good man's fortune to an utter shipwreck; who did not only lose all his goods, but the means whereby he might get more, his sight; and was forced to beg his bread with Da obolo Belisario Viator, and thus, though blind did most clearly see, the frailty of this world's felicity. Therefore Dionysius the King of Syracuse, represented the brittle felicity of his kingdom unto his Parasite Damocles (which Damocles had made to seem exceeding great, through the multiplying glass of his flattery, by seating him in a royal throne, at a sumptuous Banquet, with all the state and glory of the kingdom about him; but withal causing a naked sword to be hung over his head, which was only held up by a horse's hair, which every minute threatened his destruction. It was likewise the custom of the Romans in their triumphs, for a slave to ride behind in the Chariot with the triumpher, who did often whisper unto him to look behind him: there was likewise a whip and a bell tied to the Chariot, to admonish him, that notwithstanding the present exaltation of his honour, he might be brought to such a degree of calamity as to be scourged or put to death; of which the bell was the sign, it being the custom of the old Romans, to ring a bell before a dead Corpse, lest any by approaching too near should defile themselves thereby. Now if we would allow these and the like images of the world's frailty a place in our considerations; and remember that all the glory, beauty, and pleasures thereof, are as truly short as they are seeming sweet, and that though they be sweet in the enjoying yet they are bitter in the end; surely it would so steel our resolutions against the devil's temptations, it would so stop our ears against the voice of his charms, that fear standing at the door of our hearts, would resist the entrance of sin into our souls: and teach us to apply such a mean and moderation to all worldly endeavours, that as the Apostle saith, we should use this world as though we used it not. 
1 Cor. 7.31.   
The latter means whereby we must make deaf our ears, to the powerful charms of the devils temptations, is the meditation of our own end; like the Serpent, which stops her other ear with her tail Which meditation may justly claim the exercise of our most serious thoughts, since the devils suggestions are chief plotted for the undermining of this consideration; Who is therefore likened to a Serpent, which biteth the horses heels, that he maketh him cast his rider: man's body is this horse his soul the rider, his heel his end; the meditation whereof, if the devil do bereave us, we are overthrown both horse and man. There is no stronger bit to curb the temptations of our unbridled flesh, than to consider what a dear price we shall pay for our pleasures in our death, and at our judgement. In all thy works, remember the last things, (saith the wiseman) and thou shalt never sin. 
Eccles. 7.40.  The birds direct their passage through the air with their tails, so do the Fishes in the Sea; the rudders, motion guideth the Ship and the beasts with their tails beat away the flies: temptations are flies, whence the Devil is called Beelzebub, which signifies the God or Father of flies; all which are repelled by the mediation of our end signified by the Serpent's tail; and the course of our actions for which we embark ourselves, thereby as by a rudder rightly steered to the Port of happiness. When the devil tempteth us to pride, our flesh to lust, the world to vain delights, if we did but allow this meditation of our end a full place in our thoughts, that we must die one day, we may die this day, and that after death cometh judgement, wherein we must satisfy to the uttermost farthing the great debt of our sins, and that in such a manner and measure, as neither eloquence nor silence can express; surely I think we should not (as many do) run on in evil faster than the devil can drive them, and dare him to present them with a temptation which they dare not execute: but rather like the Peacock, who when he looks upon the blackness of his feet, let's fall his Plumes, and forgets the beauty of his train; So we casting our thoughts down upon our end should neglect all the delights that temptations promise in their sinful satisfaction. Every man when he is upon his bed of sickness; when he is counting his last sand; when death is so near him that he cannot turn his eyes from it, every one seeing it in his eyes; then how many vows and promises doth he offer up of ●esisting all temptation unto sin, unto which he hath formerly too easily consented if he may but by the return of his health, renew again the almost expired league betwixt his body and his soul. Yea even the devil himself as the old d●●●ich hath it when he wa● sick would be a Monk and a holy man.  

Aegrotat Daemon, Monachus  
tunc esse vol●bat  
Convaluit Daemon, Daemon ut  
ante fuit.   

The Devil was sick, the Devil  
a Monk would be,  
The Devil was well, the Devil  
a Monk was he.   
But if we did in our healths entertain this consideration of death, and the day of judgement; and make it as familiar and present to our minds, as the approaches thereof are near unto the sick, no doubt but it would work in us the same never failing effects.  
If we did make remembrance, our Philip's boy, to ring the knell of mortality each morning in our ears; and if with S. Jerome, there were no action of our life, in whose performance we did not think we heard the sound of the Archangels trumpet, proclaiming this convocation in our ears: Arise ye dead, and come to judgement: if we did remember these tormenting flames which God hath prepared for the devil and wicked men; 
Isay 30.33.  whose fuel is fire and much wo●d, the breath of our Lord like a torrent of brimstone enflaming it; which though it torment them, yet it shall not consume them, as though they should have a period of their pains; but like the Salamander they shall live still in the flame; and be denied, with Dives, a drop of water, more than their tears; which will be so far from assuaging their heat, that the saltness thereof shall increase their ames: and yet in the high boiling of this their heat, such conflicts of punishment shall meet in them, that through extreme cold, they shall gnash their teeth; for as our Saviour saith, there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. If I say, these meditations were in us and did abound, surely, they would strengthen us to strangle temptations in their conception, and to resist the untimely birth of sin.  
If the rich man mentioned in the Gospel, had thought that his soul should have been hurried that night to hell he would never have dreamed of building his barns bigger. Few men will steel at the gallows, or speak treason on the rack; but it is our putting the evil day far from us, that makes every day evil to us. We forget the evil of punishment, which make us commit the evil of sin. Where we may prevent our sins by remembering of the punishment than we think not on it; and when we think on it, which is not till we feel it then it is to late to prevent it. O how humbly (think you) would the fallen Angels behave themselves, if they were enthronised in their ancient glory! O how abstemiously would our first Parents have walked by the forbidden fruit, if they might have been repossessed of their earthly Paradise! And how temperately would Dives have used the pleasures of this life, if he might have been redeemed from hell's tormenting flames! Let us then be as careful not to fall into their evils, as they would be if they were risen out of them: which care, the meditation thereof will mainly strengthen; as the oil of Scorpions doth heal their sting; that while death and hell are in us by remembrance, we may never be in them by sufferance. For as 'tis said, if the Basilisk see a man first, it kills him; but if a man see that first, he kills it: So if death see and apprehend us first, being unprepared, it destroys us; but if we see it first, by meditation and preparation, we kill it, and become the death of death, and may justly take up that joyful acclamation of S. Paul; 
1 Cor. 15.55.  O death where is thy victory? O death where is thy sting.  
Yet all must die: For death's meditation though it take away the sting of death, yet it takes not away the body of death. But here's the difference; that death which is the wicked man's shipwreck, is the good man's harbour; where striking sail, and casting anchor, he returns his lading with advantage to the owner; that is, his soul fraught with good works unto God: leaving his bulk still mored in the haven, which is but unrigged to be new built again, and fitted for an eternal voyage. And as that earth in which the men of China do bury their clay, after a hundred years doth render it purified, and refined, and fit out of it to form their choicest dishes; so our graves, after many years, shall restore us again, glorified, and immortalised, and fitted vessels for the house of God.    

Of the simplicity of the Dove.  

CHAP. I.  
AS the Serpent is the wisest amongst the Beasts of the field, and is therefore propounded as the pattern of our imitation, in the virtue of wisdom; so the Dove doth fare leave behind her, the examples of all the brute creatures in the practice of simplicity. And therefore the Holy Ghost, who is the love of the Father, which love is the Fountain of Simplicity deigned above others, in the exhibition of his testimony of Christ, to invest his Deity with the form of a Dove. Whose harmless simplicity, on which our imitation must attend discovers itself (as Pliny saith) in these particulars. First, she hurts nothing with her claws. Secondly, she hurts nothing with her bill. Thirdly, she wants a gall. Fourthly, she nourisheth, and bringeth up both her own, and others young ones. Now, these several pieces of the Doves simplicity do teach us, that as she hurts nothing with her claws, no more should we throw any evil upon others by our hands or actions. Secondly, as she hurts nothing with her bill, no more ought we to prejudice any by our words. Thirdly, in that she wants a gall, it forbids us to give birth unto a thought, which shall direct itself against the good of our neighbour. The first noteth unto us the simplicity of our works; the second of our words; the third of our thoughts. Fourthly, in that she nourisheth others young-ones, we are directed not only to do no evil, but also to do good, and that not to our own alone, but also to our neighbours; yea, though they be our Enemies. These are the particulars, which shall bond this brief discourse.  
All works are intimated by the hands, as the principal instruments of working; and therefore Pilate when he would assoil himself of that impious act of Christ's condemnation, washed his hands: And the Prophet David saith; 
●sal. 25.6  I will wash my hands among the innocent. Therefore did the Pharisees wear the Commandments written about their hands, to intimate their performance. Now they who are altogether barren in good works, are like unto Jeroboam, whose right hand was dried up. And they who interline their good works with bad, are not unlike Nehemiahs' bvilders, who held a trowel in one hand to build, and a sword in the other to destroy One evil action amongst many good ones, corrupts the virtues of all the rest; like Pharaohs lean kine, that did eat up the fat: or the Coloquintida in the young Prophet's broth, which made them cry out; O thou man of God, death is in thy pot. 
4 King. 4.40.  And not only to do no wrong but even to do no hurt, though lawful, is very suitable to the Doves Simplicity. Our Saviour who gave us this precept, gave himself also for an example, who amongst all his miracles enrowled in Sacred writ, never did any that tended to destruction, but only in cursing the barren figtree.  
S. Aug. saith; all justice is comprehended in this word innocence; all injustice reprehended. To the injustice of the hands or deeds, is referred generally all actions that strike at the body or goods of our neighbour. God saith by Moses; 
Exod. 22.21, 22.  Thou shalt do no injury to a stranger, neither oppress him; ye shall not hurt the widow nor fatherless child. More particularly, to the injustice of Magistrates, of Lawyers, and public officers; who corrupted through hope, fear, hatred, or love; hope of preferment, fear of men's power, hatred of their persons, or love sometimes to their persons, but most times to their money, have renewed the ancient copies of injustice, yea and augmented them: Pleaders tongues being like the tongue of a balance, their hands the scales, into one of which if you put one pound, into the other two, the tongue will always incline to that which is the heaviest. Who is there that in the general execution of the place of Magistracy, or the particular designation to the decision of a controversy, in the giving of voices in matters of Election, or in their choice unto places of dignity which rest in their particular power, swerveth not from the rule of justice, and simplicity? measuring the merit of the person, not the quantity of the gift, or relation of kindred or acquaintance: Like Titus Manlius, who in a case of justice gave Sentence against his own Son. O no, Themystocles saying pleaseth them better, who being requested to bear himself indifferently in his censure, answered; Be it far from me not to pleasure my friends in all things.  
Prince's Courts do swarm with their flattering dependants, who either bridled with the fear of their displeasure, or spurred on with the hope of preferment, do bind themselves with the sale of the liberty, innocency, and simplicity of their consciences, to run the same course with them, in avowing all their erterprises, in obeying all their commands: like Pilate, who lest he should strike against the rock of Caesar's offence, condemned the innocent Lamb of God unto death; and Judas, who betrayed him for a piece of money.  
The example of Martinus a Cardinal is very memorable; who travelling on his way, one of his horses fell lame, which the Bishop of Florence supplied with the free gift of another: which Bishop afterwards coming to Rome, craved the Patronage of the Cardinal in a cause of his; to whom he answered, first let me redeem my liberty, and gave him another horse, and now (saith he) if your cause be just I am your Patron. I would this were the practice of all the Clergy; and that of Philoxenus of all Courtiers; who (as Plutarch reports) being demanded of Dionysius the King of Syracuse, what he thought of certain verses of his, answered (according to his opinion) that they were naught, whereat the King displeased condemned him to dig in the Quarry-pitts; but by the intercession of friends being restored Dionysius demanded again what he thought of other verses of his; but he knowing that they were naught and remembering his late punishment, answered not a word, but called to one of the Guard, to carry him again to the Quarry-pitts. And he that will not with Phyloxenus, rather suffer evil then do it, may deservedly receive the just punishment of Syamnes a certain Judge; who as Herodotus reports, being corrupted by money to give wrong Sentence, King Cambyses caused his skin to be pulled off, and nailed to the Tribunal; that they that succeeded, terrified by his example, might avoid his wickedness.  
Justice amongst the Ancients was supposed to be a Virgin, because she ought always to be pure, simple, and uncorrupt. And surely their wisdoms fail them, who think that their corruption, injustice, and injurious handling of others, can raise them to the true pitch of Greatness; seeing that like Jonathan, and his armourbearer, who climbed up to the top of a rock on their hands and feet they rear themselves hereunto by grovelling, base and sordid means: For the truth of greatness rests not in the height of worldly wealth, or honour, but of justice and simplicity. And therefore Agiselaus observing the Asians usually to crown their King of Persia, with the title of Great; wherein (saith he) is he greater than I, unless he be wiser or juster.  
Now as the simplicity commended unto us, is likened to the Doves; so many of the contrary vices, have their resemblance in the nature of other birds. There is the desperate Cock, the contentious man, whose injurious quarrelings make good the motto of Ishmael in himself, 
Gen. 16.12.  His hand against every man, and every man's hand against him. There is the Peacock, the proud man, who contrary to the children of Israel, who thought themselves grasshoppers in comparison of the Giants of Canaan, he thinks himself a giant in worth and excellency, and all others but grasshoppers in comparison of himself; when indeed he is but a swollen imposthume, casting out rotten and loathsome matter, in his words and actions. There is the Cuckoo that lays her eggs in the nests of other birds; the close adulterer, whose children sit at other men's fire, and eat at other men's tables. There is the Swan that sings sweetly, yet devours his own kind; such are flatterers and hypocrites, who as our Saviour saith, 
Math. 23.14.  Praying long prayers devour widow's houses. There is the Swallow, that stays with us in the Summer, but flies away in the Winter; such are false friends, who abide with us in our prosperity, and with it depart; showing that they were friends to it, and not to us. There is the Cormorant, the covetous man, who spares not to grind the faces of the poor, to withhold the hire of the labourer, to cozen the fatherless and widow, yea any man; yea God himself, by robbing of the Church, and with holding things consecrated with wicked Achan. Who when they have ransacked the bowels of the earth for treasure, are forced through their fears to hid them there again; like the Adders young, who being newly come out of their dams belly, run thither again for safety, if affrighted with any danger. There is also the Vulture that follows armies to prey upon dead carcases; the griping Usurer, who waits upon prodigal heirs to devour their decaying fortune; unto whom whosoever seeks for succour, is like unto a sheep which in a storm runs under a bramble for shelter, where he is sure to leave part of his fleece behind him. These, and the like, are the practices of those, who are not, as they ought to be, innocent and simple as Doves.   

CHAP. II.  
THe second part of our Dovelike simplicity, consisteth in our not prejudicing any in our words, as she hurts nothing with her bill. S. Paul's command is, 
Tit. 3.2.  to speak evil of no man; which S. James knew to be so difficult, that he saith; 
James 3.2  If any man offend not in word, that same is a perfect man, and able also to bridle the whole body. Nabals' churlishness, Shemey's railing the children's mocking the infirmity of the Prophet Elizeus, derisions and upbraid, misconstruction of our neighbour's actions, the divulging of the faults of our brethren, false accusations against them, and detracting from their just merit, these are words, which (as Solomon saith) are like the prickings of a sword; yet these are the unworthy and customary exercises of our tongues, amongst such as are not unacquainted with the language of Canaan. 
Epist. Judae. 2.  Michael the Archangel, when disputing with the devil, he contended about the body of Moses, durst not rail against him, but said, our Lord repress thee; but these men speak evil of things they know not, saith S. Judas; and by their rash and precipate judgement of other men's actions, their misconstructions, and interpreting to the evil part, let blood the good name of their brethren, even to the fainting, yea death of their dear credit; and many times in the effect thereof, to the destruction of their lives. Thus dealt the devil with Job, the Children of Ammon with David, the Jews with our Saviour. Impossible it is for a man so evenly to deport himself, that his actions can escape the unjust construction of fame-wounding tongues: such were the Pharisees in their censure of Christ, and S. John Baptist; Math. 11.18. John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say he hath a Devil: the Son of man came eating and drinking, and they say, behold a glutton, and a drinker of wine, a friend of Publicans and sinners. These are the most direct Antipodes to the simplicity of words; who, when they cannot find faults, do make them; and like corrupt stomaches, turn all the good meat they eat into corruption.  
Little less are they that wound the fame of their neighbours in tale-bearing by revealing of their sins, and slidings: like impious Cham, who discovered and derided the drunkenness of his father Noah; for which he was justly cursed. And by every ones adding thereto in their reports, making it like a Snowball, which, the further it rowls, the more it gathers. And in the mentioning of men's worth by detracting from it, or allaying it with infamous aspersions; thinking by disparaging others, to give the greater lustre to their own commendations; and to raise their own on the ruins of another man's good name. Calumniation is the infallible note, not only of an unchristian, but also of an ignoble disposition; and surely they are conscious to themselves of their own unworthiness, who need the foil of another man's fault, to set off their own virtue. Hecuba when she was with child of Paris, dreamed that she was brought to bed of a firebrand; and such indeed he afterwards proved: So these men deliver themselves of that foul-mouthed monster detraction, whose dangerous effects are able to inflame the world with mutual discords. As S. Bernard saith; There is a detractor, who speaketh but a word, and yet that word in a moment doth poison the ears, and wound the hearts of the hearers. Whose sting like that of the venomous Tarantula, bred in the kingdom o● Naples, which is not to to be cured but by music, can find no remedy but the melody of a sincere and patiented mind; prepared to endure whatsoever it can inflict, yet able to sponge out whatsoever it can object.  
The name of Devil in the Greek (from whence it is derived) signifieth a Calumniator; and calumny and detraction (with all its kindred) are devilish sins; whereby men go about like him, seeking whom they may devour: prying and listening after the demeanour of other men, obscuring and extenuating their good▪ but receiving the news of their evils with joy, and reporting and augmenting them with uncharitable cruelty, and falsehood. In which case, King Philip of Macedon his practice, is worthy our strictest imitation, who was wont to say, That he was much beholding to the Athenians, for that they speaking evil of him, were a great cause of making him a good man; for saith he, I do daily enforce myself, both by word and deed, to prove them liars.  
Ismaels' deriding his brother Isaac, is called in Scripture a persecution and though they were but Children that mocked the Prophet Elizeus, calling him bald-head, yet God severely punished them, by sending two Bears amongst them; which destroyed two and forty. To reproach any, with either their natural, or accidental infirmities, is a note of pride and insolence; whereby men triumph over others, and are inwardly tickled with delight in themselves, while they conceive themselves free from those things, they object against others. But as they deal with their brethren, so God will deal with them; who as Solomon saith, Will scorn the scorners, and give grace to the meek.  
Some there are indeed who speak fair and praise much, but it is but to deceive and hurt; like the Spider that weaveth a curious web out of her own mouth to catch poor flies entangled in her snare: and so they differ not in the end, but in the way of doing evil; like Sampsons' Foxes, who though their headsstood contrary ways, yet they were tied together by the tails. And this is more contrary to simplicity than the rest of the vices of the tongue; for simplicity signifies freedom from folds and doublings, (Simplex, quasi sine plicis, say the Grammarians;) but in such deceitful words, there is nothing but doubleness. Judas his nail master, his kiss and treason; Jaacobs' voice, and Esau's hands suit not well together it is like the practice of the Panther, who by the sweetness of his breath enticeth passengers to draw near him and when they are come within his reach, devours them: so doth a deceitful man by fair words and shows of friendship, invite men to trust him, and then deceives them. Against this practice, the Prophet David doth most bitterly exclaim, saying, 
Psal. 54.13.  If mine enemy had reproached me, I could have born it; and if he that hated me, had spoken great things against me, I could perhaps have hid myself from him; but it was thou that wert of mine own mind, my guide, and my acquaintance, who did eat pleasant meat together with me; we walked with consent in the house of God: then follows; Let death come upon them, and let them go down quick into hell; for wickedness is in their dwellings, and in the midst of them.  
I find nothing more frequently, nor more vehemently reproved in Scripture than the abuse of the tongue: from whence we may gather, both the frequency and heinousness of the fault; which is intimated by the Psalmist, where he saith, The sons of men, their teeth are weapons and darts, and their tongue a sharp sword. And again, 
Psal. 57.5  They have whetted their tongues like a sword, they have bend their bow, 
63.4.  a bitter thing, that they might shoot secretly at the spotless. And therefore he prayeth; 
119. 2.  Deliver my soul, O Lord, from unjust lips, and from a deceitful tongue, S. Jerome also affirmeth the same, saying, So great an itch towards this evil hath invaded the minds of men, that they that have forsaken all other vices, do yet (as it were into a foreign snare) fall into this. Therefore as he counselleth; Never calumniate, or detract from any one, and study rather to adorn your own life, than carp at an others. And remember the promise made by the Prophet David; 
Psal. 33.14.  What man is he that desireth life, and longeth to see good days? restrain thy tongue from evil, and thy lips that they speak no guile.   

CHAP. III.  
THe third part of our privative Simplicity, consisteth in the meekness and unconquerableness of the heart by anger, hatred, envy, desire of revenge, and the like; wherein we imitate the simplicity of the Dove, in wanting of a gall. Against wrath; hatred, and all ill will, the Church doth teach us to pray, and the Dove to practice: Whosoever is angry with his brother, 
Math. 5.22.  shall be guilty of judgement, saith our Saviour; and, he that hateth him, 
1 Joh. 3.15.  is a , saith St. john. And S. james, If you have bitter envy and strife in your hearts, 
Jam. 3.14.  boast not. Can they then be simple as Doves, whose fiery spirits, like the flint, are no sooner struck against the steel of a hard and contumelious word, but presently they sparkle fire in the eyes of him that struck it? O no, for as the Apostle saith; 
Jam. 1.20.  The wrath of man doth not work the justice of God. Yea, some there are whose least thwart in their desire doth boil up their blood to such a height, and heat of fury, that nothing but the cold hand of death can quench or allay it: as it is reported of Mathias King of Hungary, who sitting one day at dinner, accompanied with Ambassadors from the King of France, called for Figs; and receiving answer, that there were none, immediately fell into such a rage, that it drove him into an Apoplexy, who never spoke word after, but as if his Soul had been angry with his own body also, forsook it the next day, and died. And therefore surely it was wittily feigned of the Poets, that Prometheus lacking clay to finish his man, was forced to patch it up with parts taken from sundry beasts; and amongst the rest, did put the heart of a furious Lion into the breast of man.  
Or can he be simple as the Dove, whose env●ous heart withholds his eyes from looking aright upon any happy man? whose ears can bear the burden of no man's praise; who contrary to the nature of all other plagues, is plagued with others well being; making happiness, the ground of his unhappiness and good news the cause of his sorrow; whose favour none can win but by being miserable: like Porpises, which play and rejoice in a storm, but are struck with a silent sadness in fair weather. Cain envied the acceptation of his brother Abel; Rachel the fruitfulness of her sister Leah; and Saul the success of his servant David; And it is reported of Themistocles, that all sleep was banished from his eyes, through his extreme envy at the glory of Miltiades. Thus doth the envious heart work upon itself with inbred stings like the mountain Aetna, which consumes its own bowels with inward burn.  
Or can they have any interest in this Dovelike simplicity, who for some small and private injury, yea many times for the truth (for that is often the mother of hatred) do prosecute each other with such deadly cruelty, and such bloodthirsty revenge, as neither friendship, kindred, nor Religion can conquer, nor the long tract of men's lives can wear out? Thus did the private hatred betwixt Caesar and Pompey, pull down ruin on the Roman Empire. Thus Arius disdaining at his repulse in aspiring to a Bishopric, broached such an heresy as overspread the whole Christian world; yea death itself on the one party, in some, cannot destroy the hatred of the survivor: witness the Story of Pope Stephen the sixth, who caused the body of his Predecessor Formosus, to be taken up, and beheaded in the market place, and afterwards cast into Tiber. Yea death in both parties, which hath killed the men, yet hath not killed their malice; if the story of Eteocles and Polynices be true which saith, that when they had by mutual wounds, made windows for each others soul to fly out at, their bodies being burnt together, their very flames divided themselves, as hating to be united in their dead bodies, who were so divided in their living affections.  
Thus homo homini Lupus, one man is a Wolf unto another; in whose hearts, and hands, and mouths are the instruments of mischief; as the Prophet David saith, 
Psal. 13.3.  Their throat is an open Sepulchre, they dealt deceitfully with their tongues, the poison of Asps is under their lips: whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness, their feet are swift to shed blood. Sorrow and unhappiness is in their ways, and the way of peace they have not known, the fear of God is not before their eyes. I have read that a string made of Wolf's guts, laid amongst a knot of strings made of the guts of Sheep, corrupts and spoils them all: it is a strange secret in nature, and serves to insinuate the malice of these Lycant hropis, these Wolf-turned men, against the Sheep of Christ's flock: for which cause our Saviour gave us this commandment, saying, Behold I send you forth as sheep in the midst of Wolves, be ye therefore prudent as Serpents, and simple as Doves. Simple as Doves, 
1 Pet. 3.9  not returning evil for evil, nor curse for curse, but on the contrary bless, because you are called to this, to be heirs of blessing; as saith S. Peter. S. Paul also saith; 
Rom. 12.17.18.19.  Render evil for evil to no man. If it be possible, as much as in you is, have peace with all men. Avenge not yourselves, but give place unto wrath, for it is written, vengeance is mine, I will repay, saith our Lord. And as it is reported of the walls of Byzantium, that they were so smoothly and closely wrought, that they seemed to be but one stone; and of the building of salomon's temple, that there was not so much as the noise of a hammer to be heard therein: So should we have all our thoughts, our words, our deeds, so even, so smooth so polished, that they should not send forth the least noise of injury to our neighbour, or sound of disaffection.   

CHAP. FOUR  
YEt this is not enough▪ to do no evil, but we must also do good: Christ cursed the figtree, not for any hurt it did, but because it did no good, it brought forth no fruit. And this exercise of good, must not be centred in those only which either prevent or return us with an equal measure, like the Scribes and Pharisees, the Publicans and sinners; but it must expatiate and diffuse itself, like the impartial Sun to all even to our enemies. And so we shall be simple as Doves; who besides that they do no hurt to any living creature, do also indifferently nourish both their own, and others young ones. Now this practice of good, must receive its form from the former prohibitions of evil; to wit, in thought, word and deed.  
First then in thought, we must have our hearts suppled, and entendered with charity, meekness, gentleness▪ humility, and patience. It was the greatest commendation of Moses, that he was styled, 
Num. 12.3.  the meekest man upon earth: for which cause God conversed with him more familiarly than ever he did with any, as the Scripture saith, 
Exod. 33.11.  God talked with him face to face, as a man talketh to his friend: and our Saviour saith; 
Math. 11.29.  Learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and ye shall find rest unto your souls. The valleys are more fruitful than the mountains, and the weightiest ears of corn bow down their heads the lowest towards the ground; such are the riches of humility, disposing men like figures in arithmetic, where the last in place is greatest in account. Our charity likewise expecteth of us, that we should breathe forth nothing but desires of bliss unto our brethren; not suspecting evil without great ground; not believing evil without strong proof; 
1 Cor. 13.5.  for charity thinketh no evil; as saith the Apostle. And God hath propounded himself for an example unto us, to prevent our too easy taking up upon trust, a prejudicial report against our brethren, in the eighteenth of Genesis, where he saith speaking of Sodom and Gomorrha those wicked Cities, 
Gen. 18.21.  I will go down and see whether they have done according to the cry that is come up unto me, and if not so that I may know: not as if God were ignorant of the truth of any thing, but for our instruction it is thus written, to teach us (as Solomon saith) that we should not apply our hearts to all words that are spoken; 
Eccles. 7.22.  nor by too hasty belief, do that, which must be undone again.  
Our patience likewise, in which our Saviour commandeth us to possess our souls, 
Luke 21.19.  claimeth of us an unresisting sufferance of evil; though there be whole volleys of injuries discharged against us, yet must our hearts be in ury-proof, and our patience preserve us un-hurt, unprovoked to anger, hatred, desire of revenge, and their dangerous effects; for as Solomon saith, 
Eccles. 7.10.  anger resteth in the bosom of a fool. And although the Apostle bids us be angry and sin not, 
Ephes. 4.26.  yet it is but a permission, not a command; and I suppose, it is easier not to be angry at all, than to be angry and not sin at all. For anger in man's breast is like fire in an Oven, which if it be quite dammed up, is extinguished; but having but a little vent, is apt to rage's too fiercely. Wherefore the Apostle saith, 
Ephes. 4.32.  Be ye courteous one to another, and merciful, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake forgave you. Yea so far must our patience in injuries, and our charitable return to those that have injured us proceed, that we must not only cancel the debt of all their injuries, so that not so much, as in a thought may we wish them any evil, as it is evil; but also, if any adverse accident do befall them, we must be inwardly moved with a compassionate sorrow for the same. As Job declaring his own innocence, testifieth of himself; 
Job 31.29  If I have rejoiced in the ruin of him that hated me, or have exulted that evil found him out. And the Prophet David saith, speaking of his enemies, I mourned for him, as for mine own Mother's son. And thus shall we truly imitate the Dove▪ who instead of singing doth always mourn; and we shall always have cause to do so, if we consider both the spiritual, and corporal evils of our neighbours, throughout the world. To render evil for evil, is human frailty; to render evil for good, is devilish impiety; to render good for evil is god like purity: in which practice if we insist, we shall approach near unto the pattern of the holy Ghost, and to that which above all other creatures doth best express his nature, the Doves; and so we shall be simple as Doves.   

CHAP. V.  
SEcondly, to maintain the simplicity of our words, they must take upon them a mild, a gentle and charitable form; we must apparel our thoughts in the soft raiment of meek and well-filed speech, and dress our words in the supple accents of love of modesty, of courtesy, of truth. The Apostle Paul saith to Titus, 
Tit. 3.2.  Put them in remembrance, that they be modest, showing all meekness unto all men. It was the saying of Vespasian the Emperor▪ that no man ought to departed from the presence of a Prince displeased, such should be the graciousness of his words and answers; and such should be the practice of every Christian, as S. Paul saith again, 
Colos. 4.6  Let your speech be always gracious, seasoned with salt, that you may know how you ought to give an answer to every one. And in the sudden oversights of our brethren committed either in word or deed without unseasonable scoffing or derision mildly to overpasse them, not being cruel in another's faults; for as Solomon saith; It is the glory of a man to pass by unjust things. And to give the most gentle and favourable interpretation of all men's actions without the severity of a rash and bitter censure, 
1 Cor. 4.5  as the Apostle saith; judge not before the time. And if the certain notice of any evil action of our neighbour come to our knowledge, like Noah's two Sons, Sem and Japhe●, we must cover the nakedness thereof with the mantle of silence; going backward as they did that if it were possible, we m●ght hid it even from our own eyes; for what S. P●ter said of love, 
1 Pet. 4.8.  is true also of Simplicity, which is the effect of love that it covereth a multitude of sins. And let us say that surely the violence of some strong temptation drove him into it, into which we ourselves may fall if that the especial grace of God do not support us.  
Nor is this practice to be stinted only to those who wear the name of friends, but it must be extended even to our enemies; as the Apostle saith of the duty of servants to their masters, Not only to the good and courteous, but also to the froward If therefore we should be invaded by scoffing ishmael's, or railing Shemeyes, or receive any other unjust usage, we must not, (like the dog that bites the stone, but regards not the hand that threw it) turn again to tender rebuke for rebuke, but contrariwise bless, as the Apostle commandeth us: and quiet ourselves with the consideration of the Prophet David, who said concerning Sheme●, 
2 Kings 56.10.  Let him alone, that he may curse: for our Lord hath commanded him that he should curse David. I speak not here concerning Superiors, either Ecclesiastical or Civil, who have power (no doubt) to reprove those that are subject unto them; nor of notorious and heinous malefactors, such as Herod, whom our Saviour called Fox; such as Simon Magus, whom S. Peter in many words sharply reproved; and such as the heretic Martion, whom St. Polycarp called the eldest son of the Devil: for these no doubt deserved it in a most eminent manner. God reproved the high Priest Eli, for not reproving his sons more sharply; yet because we are almost all prone to bow too much on this side, it is good (like a young tree that grows somewhat awry) bow to ourselves as much the other way; that so in time we may keep the middle. And let us remember two examples of our Saviour in this kind; one in the parable of the Supper, where there was found one that had not on a wedding garment, to whom, though he were a wicked man, the Master of the feast afforded a courteous compellation, saying, Friend, 
Math. 22.12.  how camest thou in hither? The other concerning the woman taken in adultery, whom when he dismissed, it was with no worse words than these, Woman, 
John 8. 1●  go thy ways and sin no more. And surely, if there be any means to prevent the enraged hearts of men, from boiling our at their mouths in bitter words, or breaking out at their hands in hurtful deeds, it is this; as Solomon saith, 
Prov. 15.10.  a soft answer breaketh wrath, a hard word raiseth fury. Thus Abraham prevented a breach between his own, and the family of Lot, saying, 
Gen. 13.8  Let there be no wrangling, I pray thee, betwixt thee and me, nor betwixt thy sh●●pheards and my she●pheards, for we are brethren. Thus also spoke Gedeon in the book of Judges, to the incensed men of Ephraim, 
Judges 8.2, 3.  saying, Is not a cluster of grapes of Ephraim better than a vintage of Abt●zar? And the Scripture saith, that when he had thus spoken, their spirits w●re qui●ted, whereby they swollen against him. Even as the force of a bullet, spit out of the fiery entrails of a gun, is smothered in a soft pack of wool, or quenched in the yielding water, when as encountering with a resisting wall it batters it to pieces.  
This government and restraint of the tongue, is a most difficult lesson in Christianity, especially when men are highly provoked, either by injurious words or deeds: which made S. James say, Every nature of beasts, 
James 3.7, 8.  and birds, and creeping things, and other things, are tamed, and have been tamed by man, but the tongue no man can tame; it is an unquiet evil, full of deadly poison. It is reported by Eusebius, that an unlearned man called Pamlus requested a friend of his to teach him a Psalm, who when he had read unto him the first verse of the 38. Psalms, I said I will keep my ways, that I aff●●●d not with my tongue; would not suffer the next verse to be read, saying, I will first learn to practise this: and when his teacher blamed him because he had not seen him in six weeks after, he answered that he had not learned that verse: and one ask him many years after, whether he had then learned it or no; I am forty years old, saith he, and yet I have not learned to fulfil it. Which difficulty (as is usually in noble minds) should so much the more whet our endeavours, and awaken our industry, that so in the government of our tongues, we may arrive to the pitch of the example propounded to us, and be simple as Doves.   

CHAP. VI  
THirdly, it is not enough for us, like Dives dogs, only to lick men's sores with our tongues, to give them good words only, but no further helps; but in our actions also we must follow all men (so far as in us lieth) yea, and prevent them with our good turns; observing therein that order which S. Paul sets down, 
Gal. 6.10  While we have time (saith he) let us do good unto all, but especially to the household of faith: and that time that Solomon mentioneth; 
Prov. 3.28.  Say not unto thy neighbour, go and come again to morrow, and I will give thee, if thou canst give now. We should be so covetous of doing good, that we should seek, nay make occasions, rather than expect them; and that with a mind so zealous of welldoing, that the world should sooner cease to afford opportunities, than we want will to apprehend them; as S. Paul testifieth of the Churches of Macedonia, 
2 Cor. 8.3.  that to their power, yea, and beyond their power, they were willing: and as Job witnesseth of himself, 
Job 29. v. 11, 12, 15, 19  I was an eye unto the blind, and a foot unto the lame; I was father of the poor, the ear that heard did bless me, and the eye that saw gave testimony of me, because I delivered the poor man that cried, and the pupil that had no helper. And with good reason, for as St. chrysostom saith, it is much more excellent to feed hungry Christ, (that is to say his members) than to raise one from the dead in the name of Christ; for in this, Christ deserveth at thy hands, in that, thou deservest at his; for miracles thou art God's debtor, for mercy he is thine. And they that cannot contribute one sort of good works for the assistance of their brethren, let them do another; for there is scarce any so barren of power to do good, but that in something or other, either spiritual or corporal, either great or little, he may be serviceable to his neighbour; as the fable well expresseth, which saith, that when the Lion was taken in a snare, the poor weak Mouse gave him his help, to gnaw the cords in sunder. We must therefore like the taper, which burns itself out to give light unto others, spend the talon that God hath given us (next unto his glory) to the benefit of our brethren; yea, to his glory in the benefit of our brethren, as our saviour saith; Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your father which is in heaven.  
And this must be done, not only when we are hereunto invited by the counter courtesies, or inoffensive necessities of others; but even then when we receive from them the sharp encounters of contrary mischief. When we are assaulted with injuries (in humane construction) beyond the ability of sufferance, or degree of reconcilement, we must strike off the tally of all their injuries, and if their need require, repay them with good turns; 
Rom. 12. ●0.  as St. Paul saith, If thy enemy shall hunger, feed him; if thirst, give him to drink: like the Patriarch Joseph, who rewarded the merciless cruelty of his brethren, by preserving that life in them, which they would have destroyed in him. The law of requital, is a principle deeply rooted in the nature of man; whereby we deem, that if one have broken his duty unto us, by offering us an injury, we are absolved from our duty to him, and may without the imputation of wrong, requite him with an equal injury: but we must know, that the duty of man unto man, is enjoined in Scripture without condition or limitation, Do good unto all (saith St. Paul) not only if they do good unto you (for that exceedeth not the righteousness of Scribes and Pharisees, which can never enter into the kingdom of heaven) but though they do evil: as S. Paul saith again, 
Rom. 12.21.  Be not overcome of evil; but overcome evil with good. To yield unto our repentant enemies the favour of pardon, is a degree of Charity, of which there is a shadow and image even in noble beasts; for the Lion (they say) abateth his fierceness against any thing that doth prostrate itself unto it. To pardon our enemies persisting without satisfaction or submission, is a second degree of Charity, which is found in the soft and gentle natures of some men. But to pardon our persisting enemies, yea more, to deserve well of them by doing of them good, and that not out of a bravery or greatness of the mind, which delighteth in the fruit of its own virtue, but out of a heart appassionated with sorrow for his misery (if he be in any) and entendered with the love and desire of his good; this is the purest and the highest exaltation of fraternal Charity, this is a simplicity imitating the divine nature, and the hardest lesson in all Christianity.  
Whose copy we have pencild out unco us in the practice of our Saviour, who, being God, and his enemies but men, did infinitely excel them in dignity, which made their injuries infinite; and in power also, whereby he was able, either to prevent their mischiefs, or escape them; yea, to speak them all into nothing aswell as his word at first gave them a being out of nothing; did yet notwithstanding, with a love as great as their injuries were grievous, reward their reproaches with his prayers; their buffet with his balsam; their treasons with his truth. They disgracefully spit on his eyes, and he with spittle healed their eyes; they made the blood to issue out of him, and he stopped the issues of blood in them; they took away a life from him, and he restored life to many of them; yea that very life of his, which their cruelty sacrificed to their revenge, did his love sacrifice for their redemption. There was never sorrow like unto his sorrow, nor ever love like unto his love; both being byeyond all example, and propounded to all for an example; which while we make haste to imitate, 
Rom. 12.20.  we shall upon our enemy's heads heap coals of fire, (as the Aposlle speaketh) which shall either inflame them with a correspondency of affection, as heat begetteth heat; or else, for their unrelenting hearts, shall serve to augment their quenchless flames in hell. And for ourselves receive we our comfort, in the words of our Saviour; 
Mat. 5.11.12.  Blessed are ye when they shall curse you, and persecute you, and speak all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake; rejoice and be glad, for great is your reward in heaven. And thus if we order our thoughts our words, our deeds, both negatively, by thinking, speaking, doing no evil; and positively, by thinking, speaking, doing good; and this, not to our own alone, but even to our enemies; we shall reach the height of the example propounded to us, and be simple as Doves.    
FINIS.