MEDITATIONS and vows,  
divine and moral:  
A third Century.  
By joseph HALL.  
AT LONDON Imprinted by humphrey Lownes, for John Porter.  
1606.   

TO THE RIGHT worshipful Sir edmund BACON, Knight, increase of honor, strength of body, perfection of virtue.  
SIR, There is no wise man would give his thoughts for all the world: Which as they are the most pleasing, and noble business of man, being the natural and immediate issue of that reason, whereby he is severed from brute creatures: So they are in their use most beneficial to ourselves, and others. For, by the means hereof, we enjoy both God and ourselves; and hereby wee make others partners of those rich excellencies, which God hath hide in the mind. And though it be most easy and safe, for a man, with the Psalmist, to commune with his own heart in silence; yet is it more behoveful to the common good, for which( both as men and Christians) we are ordained, that those thoughts, which our experience hath found comfortable and fruitful to ourselves, should( with neglect of all censures) be communicated to others. The concealment whereof( me thinks) can proceed from no other ground, but either timorousness, or envy. Which consideration hath induced me to cloth these naked thoughts in plain and simplo words, and to adventure them into the light, after their fellowes: Consecrating them the rather to your name for that( besides all other respects of duty) they are part of those Meditations, which in my late peregrination with you, took me up under the solitary hills of Ardenna; wanting as thē the opportunity of other employment. I offer them to you, not for that yourself is not stored with choice of better; but as poor men use to bring presents to the rich: If they may carry acceptation from you, and bring profit unto any soul, it shall abundantly satisfy me; who should think it honour enough, if I might bee vouchsafed to bring but one pin towards the decking of the spouse of Christ; whiles others, out of their abundance, adorn her with costly robes, and rich medals. I commend their success to God, their patronage to you, their use to the world. That God multiply his rare favours vpon you, and your worthy lady; and go you on to favour  
Your Worships humbly devoted, IOS. HALL.   

MEDITATIONS and vows.  

1  
GOod men are placed by God, as so many stars in this lower firmament of the world. As they must imitate those heavenly bodies, in their light and influence; so also in their motion: and therefore, as the Planets haue a course proper to themselves, against the sway of the heaven that carries them about; so must each good man haue a motion out of his own iudgement, contrary to the customs and opinions of the vulgar; finishing his own course with the least show of resistance. I will never affect singularity, except it bee among those that are vicious. It is better to do, or think well alone, then to follow a multitude in evil.   

2  
What strange variety of actions doth the eye of GOD see at once round about the compass of the earth, and within it. Some building houses; some deluing for metals; some marching in troops, or encamping one against another; some bargaining in the market; some traveling on their way; some praying in their closerts; others quaffing at the tavern; some rowing in the Galleys, others dallying in their chambers;& in short, as many different actions as persons: yet all haue one common intention of good to themselves, true in some, but in the most, imaginary. The glorified Spirits haue but one uniform work, wherein they all join; the praise of their Creator. This is one difference betwixt the Saints above, and below; They above are free both from businesses and distraction: these below, are free( though not absolutely) from distraction, not at all from business. Paul could think of his cloak that he left at Troas; and of the shaping of his skins for his tents: yet, through these he look't still at heaven. This world is made for business: my actions must vary according to occasions: my end shall bee but one, and the same now on earth, that it must bee one day in heaven.   

3  
To see how the Martyrs of God died, and the life of their persecutors, would make a man out of love with life, and out of al fear of death. They were flesh and blood, as well as wee; life was as sweet to them, as to us; their bodies were as sensible of pain as ours; we go to the same heaven with them. How comes it then, that they were so courageous in abiding such torments in their death, as the very mention strikes horror into any reader; and we are so cowardly in encountering a faire and natural death? If this valour had been of themselves, I would never haue looked after them in hope of imitation. Now, I know it was he for whom they suffered,& that suffered in thē, which sustained them: They were of themselves as weak as I; and God can be as strong im me, as he was in thē. O Lord thou art not more unable to give me this grace; but I am more unworthy to receive it: and yet thou regardest not worthiness, but mercy. give me their stength, and what end thou wilt.   

4  
Our first age is all in hope: When we are in the womb, who knows whether we shall haue our right shape& proportion of body, being neither monstrous nor deformed? When we are born, who knows whether with the due features of a man, we shall haue the faculties of reason and understanding? when yet our progress in yeeres discovereth wit or folly; who knows, whether with the power of reason wee shall haue the grace of faith to be christians? and when wee begin to profess well, whether it be a temporary, and seeming, or a true& saving faith? Our middle age is half in hope for the future, and half in proof for that is past: Our old age is out of hope, and altogether in proof. In our last times therefore wee know, both what wee haue been, and what to expect. It is good for youth to look forward, and still to propound the best things unto itself; for an old man to look backward, and to repent him of that wherein he hath failed, and to recollect himself for the present: But in my middle age, I will look both backward and forward; comparing my hopes with my proof; redeeming the time ere it bee all spent, that my recovery may prevent my repentance. It is both a folly& misery to say, This I might haue done.   

5  
It is the wonderful mercy of God, both to forgive us our debts to him in our sins, and to make himself a debtor to us in his promises: So that now both ways the soul may be sure; since he neither calleth for those debts which he hath once forgiven; nor withdraweth those favours, and that heaven which he hath promised: But as he is a merciful creditor to forgive, so is he a true debtor to pay whatsoever he hath undertaken: whence it is come to pass, that the penitent sinner owes nothing to God but love and obedience; and God owes still much and all to him: for he owes as much as he hath promised; and what he owes by virtue of his blessed promise, we may challenge. O infinite mercy! he that lent us all that wee haue, and in whose debt-bookes we run hourly forward till the sum be endless; yet owes us more, and bids us look for payment. I cannot deserve the least favour he can give; yet I will as confidently challenge the greatest, as if I deserved it: Promise indebteth no less then loan or desert.   

6  
It is no small commendation to manage a little well: He is a good wagoner, that can turn in a narrow room. To live well in abundance, is the praise of the estate, not of the person. I will study more how to give a good account of my little, then how to make it more.   

7  
Many Christians do greatly wrong themselves with a dull and heavy kind of sullenness; who, not suffering themselves to delight in any worldly thing, are thereupon oft times so heartless, that they delight in nothing: These men, like to careless guests, when they are invited to an excellent banquet, lose their dainties, for want of a stomach; and lose their stomach for want of exercise A good conscience keeps always good cheer, he cannot choose but fare well that hath it, unless he lose his appetite with neglect and slothfulness. It is a shane for us Christians not to find as much ioy in God, as worldlings do in their forced merriments; and lewd wretches in the practise of their sins.   

8  
A wise Christian hath no enemies. Many hate and wrong him: but he loues all men,& all pleasure him. Those that profess love to him, pleasure him with the comfort of their society, and the mutual reflection of friendship; those that profess hatred, make him more wary of his ways; show him faults in himself, which his friends would either not haue espied, or not censured; sand him the more willingly to seek favour above: And as the worst do bestead him, though against their wills; so he again doth voluntary good to them. To do evil for evil, as joab to Abner, is a sinful weakness: To do good for good, as Ahasuerus to Mordecai, is but natural iustice: To do evil for good, as Iudas to Christ, is unthankfulness and villainy: Only to do good for evil, agrees with Christian profession. And what greater work of friendship then to do good? If men will not bee my friends in love, I will perforce make them my friends in a good use of their hatred. I will bee their friend, that are mine, and would not be.   

9  
All temporal things are troublesone: For if we haue good things, it is a trouble to foregoe them; and when we see they must be partend from, either we wish they had not been so good, or that wee never had enjoyed thē. Yea, it is more trouble to lose them, than it was before ioy to possess them. If contrarily, wee haue evil things, their very presence is troublesone; and still we wish that they were good, or that we were disburdened of them: So good things are troublesone in event, evil things in their use. They in the future, these in present: they, because they shall come to an end, these because they do continue. Tell me, thy wife, or thy child lies dying, and now makes up a loving and dutiful life, with a kind and heavenly parture; whether hadst thou rather, for thy own part, she had been so good, or worse? would it haue cost thee so many hearty sighs and tears, if shee had been perverse and disobedient? Yet, if in her life time I put thee to this choice, thou thinkest it no choice at all, in such inequality. It is more torment( sayest thou) to live one unquiet month, then it is pleasure to live an age in love. Or if thy life be yet dearer: Thou hast lived to graye hairs, not hastened with cares, but bred with late succession of yeeres. Thy table was ever covered with variety of dishes: Thy back softly and richly clad. Thou never gavest denial to either skin or stomach; Thou ever fauouredst thyself, and health, thee. Now death is at thy threshold, and unpartially knocks at thy door, dost thou not wish thou hadst lived with crusts, and been clothed with rags? Wouldest thou not haue given a better welcome to death, if he had found thee, lying vpon a pallet of straw, and supping of water gruell; after many painful nights, and many sides changed in vain? Yet this beggarly estate thou detestest in health, and pitiest in others as truly miserable: The sum is; A beggar wisheth he might be a Monarch while he lives; and the great Potentate wisheth he had lived a beggar, when he comes to die;&, if beggary be to haue nothing, he shall be so in death, though he wished it not. Nothing, therefore, but eternity can make a man truly happy; as nothing can make perfect misery but eternity: for as temporal good things afflict us in their ending, so temporal sorrows afford us ioy in the hope of their end: What folly is this in us to seek for our trouble, to neglect our happiness? I can be but well; and this that I was well, shall one day bee grievous: Nothing shall please me, but that once I shall bee happy forever.   

10  
The eldest of our forefathers lived not so much as a day to God; to whom a thousand yeeres is as no more; we live but as an hour to the day of our forefathers; for if nine hundreth and sixty were but their day, our fourscore is but as the twelfth part of it: and yet of this our hour we live scarce a minute to God: For, take away all that time that is consumed in sleeping, dressing, feeding, talking, sporting; of that little time there can remain not much more than nothing: yet the most seek pas-times to hasten it: Those which seek to mend the pace of Time, spur a running horse. I had more need to redeem it with double care and labour, then to seek how to sell it for nothing.   

11  
Each day is a new life, and an abbridgement of the whole. I will so live as if I accounted every day my first, and my last: as if I began to live but then, and should live no more afterwards.   

12  
It was not in vain, that the ancient founders of languages used the same word in many tongues, to signify both Honor and charge; meaning therein to teach us the inseparable connexion of these two. For there scarce ever was any charge without some opinion of honour: neither ever was there honour without a charge; which two, as they are not without reason joined together in name by human institution, so they are most wisely coupled together by God in the disposition of these worldly estates: Charge without honor, to make it amends, would be too toilsome, and must needs discourage and whereby a man. Honour without charge would bee too pleasant, and therfore both would bee too much sought after, and must needs carry away the mind in the enjoying it. Now many dare not bee ambitious, because of the burden; choosing rather to live obscurely& securely: And yet on the other side those that are under it, are refreshed in the charge with the sweetness of honour: seeing they cannot bee separated; it is not the worst estate to want both: They whom thou enuyest for honour, perhaps envy thee more for thy quietness.   

13  
he that taketh his own cares vpon himself, loads himself in vain with an uneasy burden. The fear of what may come, expectation of what will come, desire of what will not come, and inability of redressing all these, must needs breed him continual torment. I will cast my cares vpon GOD, he hath bidden me; they cannot hurt him; he can redress them.   

14  
Our infancy is full of folly; youth, of disorder and toil; age, of infirmity: Each time hath his burden, and that which may justly work our weariness: yet infancy longeth after youth; and youth, after more age; and he that is very old, as he is a child for simplicity, so he would be for yeeres. I account old age the best of three; partly, for that it hath passed thorough the folly and disorder of the other; partly, for that the inconveniences of this are but bodily, with a bettered estate of the mind; and partly, for that it is nearest to dissolution. There is nothing more miserable then an old man that would bee young again. It was an answer worthy the commendations, of Petrarch, and that which argued a mind truly philosophical of him, who when his friend bemoned his age appearing in his white temples, telling him he was sorry to see him look so old, replied: Nay, be sorry rather that ever I was young to be a fool.   

15  
There is not the least action or event( whatever the vain Epicures haue imagined) which is not overruled, and disposed by a providence, which is so far from detracting ought from the majesty of God, for that the things are small, as that ther can be no greater honor to him then to extend his providence& decree to them because they are infinite: Neither doth this hold in natural things onely, which are chained one to another by a regular order of succession; but even in those things which fall out by casualty& imprudence: whence that worthy father, when as his speech digressed beside his intention to a confutation of the errors of the Manichees, could presently guess, that in that vnpurposed turning of it, God intended the conversion of some unknown auditor; as the event proved his conjecture true ere many daies; when ought fals out contrary to that I purposed, it shall content me, that GOD purposed it as it is fallen out: So the thing hath attained his own end, whiles it missed mine. I know what I would, but GOD knoweth what I should will. It is enough that his will is done, though mine be crossed.   

16  
It is the most thankless office in the world, to be a mans Pandar unto sin. In other wrongs, one man is a wolf to another; but in this, a devil. And, though at the first this damnable service carry away reward, yet in conclusion, it is requited with hatred and curses. For, as the sick man extremely distasted with a loathsome potion, hateth the very cruse wherein it was brought him; so doth the conscience once soundly detesting sin, loath the means that induced him to commit it. Contrarily, who withstands a man in his prosecution of a sin, while he doteth vpon it, bears away frowns, and hart-burnings for a time: but when the offending party comes to himself, and right reason, he recompenseth his former dislike with so much more love, and so many more thankes. The frantic man returned to his wits, thinks him his best friend, that bound him,& beate him most. I will do my best to cross any man in his sins: If I haue not thankes of him; yet of my conscience I shall.   

17  
God must be magnified in his very judgements: he looks for praise, not onely for heaven, but for hell also: His iustice is himself, as well as his mercy. As heaven then is for the praise of his mercy; so hell for the glory of his iustice. We must therefore bee so affencted to judgements as the author of them is, who delighteth not in blood as it makes his creature miserable, but as it makes his iustice glorious. every true Christian then must learn to sing that compound ditty of the Psalmist: Of mercy and iudgment. It shal not only ioy me to see God gracious and bountiful in his mercies,& deliverances of his own; but also to see him terrible in vengeance to his enemies. It is no cruelty to rejoice in iustice. The foolish mercy of men is cruelty to God.   

18  
rareness causeth wonder; and more then that, incredulity, in those things which in themselves are not more admirable, than the ordinary proceedings of nature If a blazing star be seen in the sky, every man goes forth to gaze, and spends every evening, some time in wondering at the beams of it. That any foul should bee bread of corrupted wood resolved into worms, or that the chameleon should ever change his colours, and live by air; that the Ostrich should digest iron; that the Phoenix should burn herself to ashes, and from thence breed a successor; wee wonder, and can scarce credite: Other things more usual, no less miraculous, wee know, and neglect. That there should bee a bird that knoweth, and noteth the houres of day and night, as certainly as any Astronomer by the course of heaven; if we know not, who would beleeue? Or that the load-stone should by his secret virtue so draw iron to itself, as that a whole chain of needles should all hang by insensible points at each other, onely by the influence that it sends down from the first, if it were not ordinary, would seem incredible; who would beleeue when he sees a foul mounted as high as his sight can descry it, that there were an engine to be framed, which could fetch it down into his fist? Yea, to omit infinite examples, that a little despised creature should wave nets out of her own entrails, and in her platforms of building should observe as just proportions as the best Geometrician, we would suspect for an untruth, if we saw it not daily practised in our own windows. If the Sun should arise but once to the earth, I doubt every man would be a Persian, and fall down and worship it: whereas now it riseth and declineth without regard. Extraordinary euents each man can wonder at: The frequency of Gods best works causeth neglect; not that they are ever the worse for commonness; but because we are soon cloyed with the same conceit, and haue contempt bread in us through familiarity. I will learn to note Gods power and wisdom, and to give him praise of both in his ordinary works: so those things which are but trivial to the most ignorant, shall be wonders to me; and that not for nine dayes, but for ever.   

19  
Those that affect to tell novelties and wonders fall into many absurdities, both in busy enquiry after matters impertinent, and in a light credulity, to whatever they hear; and in fictions of their own, and additions of circumstances to make their reports the more admired. I haue noted these men, not so much wondered at for their strange stories, while they are telling, as derided afterwards, when the event hath wrought their disproof& shane. I will deal with rumors, as grave men do by strange fashions, take them up when they are grown into common use before; I may beleeue, but I will not relate them but under the name of my author; who shall either warrant me with defence, if it be true; or if false, bear my shane.   

20  
It was a witty and true speech of that obscure Heraclitus, that all men awaking are in one common world, but when we sleep, each man goes into a several world by himself; which though it bee but a world of fancies, yet is the true image of that little world, which is in every mans heart. For the imaginations of our sleep, show us what our dispositon is awaking. And as many in their dreams reveal those their secrets to others, which they would never haue done awake: so all may and do disclose to themselves in their sleep those secret inclinations, which after much searching, they could not haue found out waking. I doubt not therefore, but as God heretofore hath taught future things in dreams( which kind of revelation is now ceased) so still he teacheth the present estate of the heart this way. Some dreams are from ourselves, vain and idle like ourselves: Others are divine, which teach us good, or move us to good;& others devilish, which solicit us to evil. Such answer commonly shal I give to any temptation in the day as I do by night. I will not lightly pass over my very dreams: They shal teach me somewhat; so neither night nor day shalbe spent unprofitably; the night shal teach me what I am; the day what I should be.   

21  
Men make difference betwixt seruants friends, and sons: Seruants, though near us in place, yet for their inferiority, are not familiar. Friends, though by reason of their equality, and our love, they are familiar; yet still wee conceive of them as others from our selves: But children wee think of, affectionately, as the divided pieces of our own bodies: But all these are one to God; his seruants are his friends, his friends are his sons; his sons, his seruants. many claim kindred of GOD, and profess friendship to him( because these are privileges without difficulty, and not without honor) all the trial is in service. The other are most in affection, and therefore secret, and so may be dissembled; this consisting in action must needs show itself to the eyes of others. Ye are my friends if ye do whatsoever I command you: friendship with God is in service, and this service is in action. Many wear Gods cloth, that know not their Master, that never did good char in his service: so that God hath many retainers that wear his livery, for a countenance, never wait on him; whom he will never own for seruants either by favour, or wages; few seruants, and therfore few sons. It is great favour in God, and great honour to me, that he will vouchsafe to make me the lowest drudge in his family; which place if I had not, and were a Monarch of men, I were accursed. I desire no more but to serve; yet, Lord, thou givest me more, to bee thy son: I hear david say, Seemeth it a small matter to you, to bee the son in lawe to a King? What is it then, oh what is it, to be the true adopted son of the King of glory? Let me not now say as david of Saul, but as Sauls grandchild to david; Oh, what is thy seruant, that thou shouldst look vpon such a dead dog as I am?   

22  
I am a stranger here below, my home is above; yet I can think too well of these foreign vanities, and can not think enough of my home. Surely, that is not so far above my head, as my thoughts; neither doth so far pass me in distance, as in comprehension: and yet I would not stand so much vpon conceiving, if I could admire it enough: but my strait heart is filled with a little wonder; and hath no room for the greatest part of glory that remaineth. Oh God what happiness hast thou prepared for thy chosen? What a purchase was this, worthy of the blood of such a saviour? As yet I do but look towards it afar off: But it is easy to see by the outside how goodly it is within. Although as thine house on earth; so that above hath more glory within than can bee bewrayed by the outer appearance. The outer part of thy Tabernacle here below is but an earthly and base substance; but within it is furnished with a living, spiritual, and heavenly guest: so the outer heauens, though they be as gold to all other material creatures; yet they are but dross to thee: Yet how are even the outmost walls of that house of thine beautified with glorious lights, whereof every one is a world forbignes, and as an heaven for goodlines: Oh teach me by this to long after, and wonder at the inner part, before thou letst me come in to behold it.   

23  
Riches or beauty, or whatever worldly good that hath been, doth but grieve us; that which is, doth not satisfy us; that which shall be, is uncertain. What folly is it to trust to any of them?   

24  
security makes worldlings merry: and therefore are they secure, because they are ignorant. That is onely solid ioy, which ariseth from a resolution; when the hart hath cast up a full account of all causes of disquietness, and findeth the causes of his ioy more forcible: thereupon settling itself in a stayed course of rejoicing: For the other, so soon as sorrow makes itself to be seen, especially in an unexpected form, is swallowed up in despair; whereas this can meet with no occurrence, which it hath not prevented in thought: security& ignorance may scatter some refuse morsels of ioy, sauced with much bitterness; or may be like some boasting housekeeper, which keepeth open doors for one day with much cheer,& lives staruedly al the year after. There is no good ordinary but in a good conscience. I pity that vnfound ioy in others,& will seek for this sound ioy in myself. I had rather weep vpon a just cause, than rejoice unjustly.   

25  
As love keeps the whole law, so love onely is the breaker of it; being the ground, as of all obedience, so of all sin; for whereas sin hath been commonly accounted to haue two roots, love, and fear; it is plain, that fear hath his original from love, for no man fears to lose ought but what he loues. Here is sin and righteousness brought both into a short sum, depending both vpon one poor affection: It shall be my onely care therefore to bestow my love well; both for object, and measure. All that is good I may love, but in several degrees; what is simply good, absolutely; what is good by circumstance onely with limitation. There bee these three things that I may love without exception, God, my neighbour, my soul; yet so as each haue their due places: My body, goods, famed, &c. as seruants to the former. All other things I will either not care for, or hate.   

26  
One would not think, that pride, and base mindedness should so well agree; yea, that they love so together, that they never go asunder. That envy ever proceeds from a base mind, is granted of all: Now the proud man, as he fain would bee envied of others, so he envieth all men. His betters he envies, because he is not so good as they: He envies his inferiors, because he fears they should prove as good as he: His equals, because they are as good as he. So under a big looks, he bears a base mind, resembling some Cardinals mule, which to make up the train bears a costly portemantle, stuffed with trash. On the contrary, who is more proud than the basest( The cynic tramples on Platoes pride, but with a worse) especially if he bee but a little exalted; wherein we see base men so much more haughty, as they haue had less before what they might bee proud of. It is just with God, as the proud man is base in himself, so to make him basely esteemed in the eyes of others; and at last to make him base without pride. I will contemn a proud man because he is base, and pity him because he is proud.   

27  
Let me but haue time to my thoughts; but leisure to think of heaven,& grace to my leisure,& I can be happy in spite of the world: Nothing, but God that gives it, can bereave me of grace; and he will not, for his gifts are without repentance. Nothing but death can abbridge me of time; and when I begin to want time to think of heaven, I shall haue eternal leisure to enjoy it. I shall bee both ways happy, not from any virtue of apprehension in me( which haue no peer in unworthiness) but from the glory of that I apprehended; wherein the act and object are from the author of happiness. he gives me this glory, let me give him the glory of his gift. His glory is my happiness, let my glory be his.   

28  
God bestows favours vpon some in anger; as he strikes other some in love. The Israelites had better haue wanted their quails, then to haue eaten thē with such sauce. And sometimes at our instancy removing a lesser punishment, leaves a greater, though insensible, in the room of it. I will not so much strive against affliction, as displeasure. Let me rather be afflicted in love, than prosper without it.   

29  
It is strange that wee men, having so continual use of God, and being so perpetually beholding to him, should bee so strange to him, and so little acquainted with him since wee account it a perverse nature in any man, that being provoked with many kind offices, refuies the familiarity of a worthy friend, which doth still seek it, and hath deserved it. Whence it comes that wee are so loathe to think of our dissolution and going to God: for naturally where wee are not acquainted, wee list not to hazard our welcome; choosing rather to spend our money at a simplo inn, then to turn in for a free lodging to an unknown Host, whom wee haue onely heard of, never had friendship with; whereas to an entire friend, whose nature and welcome wee know,& whom we haue elsewhere familiarly conuersed withall, we go as boldly and willingly as to our home, knowing that no hour can bee unseasonable to such a one. Whiles on the other side wee scrape acquaintance with the world, that never did us good, even after many repulses. I will not live with God, and in God, without his acquaintance, knowing it my happiness to haue such a friend. I will not let one day pass without some act of renewing my familiarity with him, not giuing over till I haue given him some restimony of my love to him, and ioy in him; and till he hath left behind him some pledge of his continued favour to me.   

30  
Men, for the most part, would neither die nor be old. When we see an aged man that hath ouerliued all the teeth of his gums, the hair of his head, the sight of his eyes, the taste of his palate, wee profess, wee would not live till such a cumbersome age, wherein wee prove burdens to our dearest friends, and ourselves: Yet if it bee put to our choice what year we would die, we ever shift it off till the next; and want not excuses for this prorogation, rather than fail alleging wee would live to amend; when yet we do but add more to the heap of our sins by continuance. Nature hath nothing to plead for this folly; but, that Life is sweet: Wherein wee give occasion of renewing that ancient check, or one not unlike to it; whereby that primitive vision taxed the timerousnes of the shrinking Confessors; ye would neither live to be old, nor die ere your age: what should I do with you? The Christian must not think it enough to endure the thought of death with patience, when it is obtruded vpon him by necessity; but must voluntarily call it into his mind with ioy; not only abiding it should come, but wishing that it might come. I will not leave till I can resolve, If I might die to day, not to live till to morrow.   

31  
As a true friend is the sweetest contentment in the world: so in his qualities, he well resembleth honey, the sweetest of all liquours: Nothing is more sweet to the taste, nothing more sharp and cleansing, when it meets with an exulcerate sore. For myself, I know I must haue faults; and therefore I care not for that friend, that I shal never smart by: For my friends, I know they can not bee faultless: and therefore as they shall find me sweet in their praises and encouragements, so sharp also in their censure. Either let them abide me no friend to their faults, or no friend to themselves.   

32  
In all other things we are lead by profit; but in the main matter of all, wee show ourselves utterly vnthriftie;& whiles wee are wise in making good markets in these base commodities, wee show ourselves foolish in the great match of our souls. God and the world come both to one shop, and make proffers for our souls. The world like a frank chapman, says, All these will I give thee, showing us his bags, and promotions, and thrusting them into our hands. God offers a crown of glory, which yet he tells us wee must give him day to perform, and haue nothing in present, but our hope, and some small earnest of the bargain. Though we know there is no comparison betwixt these two in value; finding these earthly things vain, and unable to give any contentment; and those other of invaluable worth and benefit: Yet wee had rather take these in hand, than trust GOD on his word for the future; While yet in the same kind we choose rather to take some rich Lordships in reversion, after the long expectation of three lives expired, than a present sum much under foot: As contrarily, when God& the world are sellers, and we come to the Mart, The world offers fine painted wears, but will not part with thē under the price of our torment: God proclaims, Come ye that want, buy for nought. Now we thrifty men, that try all shops for the cheapest pennyworth, refuse GOD, proffering his precious commodities for nothing& pay an hard price for that which is worse than nothing, painful. Surely, wee are wise for any thing but our souls: and not so wise for the body as foolish for them. O Lord, thy payment is sure, and who knows how present? Take the soul that thou hast both made, and bought: And let me rather give my life for thy favour, than take the offers of the world for nothing.   

33  
There was never age that more bragged of knowledge, and yet never any that had less soundness. he that knows not God, knoweth nothing; and he that loues not God, knows him not: For he is so sweet, and infinitely full of delight, that whoeuer knows him, cannot choose but affect him. The little love of God then argues the great ignorance even of those that profess knowledge. I will nor suffer my affections to run before my knowledge: for then I shall love fashionably onely, because I hear God is worthy of love, and so bee subject to relapses: But I will ever lay knowledge as the ground of my love. So, as I grow in divine knowledge, I shal still profit in an heavenly zeal.   

34  
Those that travell in long pilgrimages to the holy Land, what a number of weary paces they measure? what a number of hard lodgings, and known dangers they pass? and at last when they are come within view of their journeys end, what a large tribute pay they at the Pisan castle, to the Turkes? And when they are come thither, what see they but the bare Sepulchre wherein their saviour lay? and the earth that he trode vpon, to the increase of a carnal devotion? What labour should I willingly undertake in my journey to the true Land of promise, the celestial jerusalem; where I shall see and enjoy my saviour himself? What tribute of pain or death should I refuse to pay for my entrance, not into his Sepulchre, but his palace of glory; and that not to look vpon, but to possess it.   

35  
Those that are all in exhortation, no whit in doctrine, are like to them that snuff the candle, but power not in oil. again, those that are all in doctrine, nothing in exhortation, drown the wike in oil, but light it not; making it fit for use, if it had fire put to it; but as it is, rather capable of good, than profitable in present: Doctrine, without exhortation, makes men all brain, no heart. Exhortation, without doctrine, makes the heart full, leaves the brain empty. Both together make a man: One makes a man wise; the other good. One serves that wee may know our duty, the other that wee may perform it. I will labour in both: but I know not in whether more. Men cannot practise, unless they know; and they know in vain, if they practise not. There be two things in every good work; Honour and profit. The later God bestows vpon us, the former he keeps to himself. The profit of our works redoundeth not to God. My well-doing extendeth not to thee. The honour of our work may not be allowed vs. My glory I will not give to another. I will not abridge God of his part, that he may not bereave me of mine.   

37  
The proud man hath no God; the envious man hath no neighbour; the angry man hath not himself. What can that man haue, that wants himself? What is a man better, if he haue himself, want all others? What is he the nearer, if he haue himself, and others, and yet want God? What good is it then to bee a man, if he bee either wrathful, proud, or envious?   

38  
Man that was once the sovereign Lord of all creatures, whom they seruiceablie attended at all turns; is now sent to the very basest of al creatures to learn good qualities, go to the Pismire, &c. And sees the most contemptible creatures preferred before him: The ass knoweth his owner; wherein we, like the miserable heir of some great Peer, whose house is decayed through the treason of our progenitors, hear and see what Honours and Lordships we should haue had; but now find ourselves below many of the vulgar: wee haue not so much cause of exaltation, that we are men, and not beasts; as we haue of humiliation, in thinking how much wee were once better then we are; and that now in many dueties we are men inferior to beasts: so as those whom wee contemn, if they had our reason, might more justly contemn us; and as they are, may teach us by their example, and do condemn us by their practise.   

39  
The idle man is the divels cushion, on which he taketh his free ease: who as he is uncapable of any good, so he is fitly disposed for all evil motions. The standing water soon stinketh; whereas the current ever keeps clear and cleanly: conveying down all noisome matter that might infect it, by the force of his stream. If I do but little good to others by my endeavours, yet this is great good to me, that by my labour I keep myself from hurt.   

40  
There can bee no nearer coniunction in nature, than is betwixt the body and the soul; yet these two are of so contrary disposition, that as it fals out in an ill matched man and wife, those seruants which the one likes best, are most dispraised of the other; so here, one still takes part against the other in their choice: What benefits the one, is the hurt of the other. The glutting of the body pines the soul; and the soul thrives best when the body is pinched. Who can wonder, that there is such faction amongst others, that sees so much in his very self? True wisdom is to take, not with the stronger, as the fashion of the world is, but with the better: following herein, not usurped power, but iustice. It is not hard to discern, whose the right is; whether the servant should rule or the mistress. I will labour to make& keep the peace, by giuing each part his own indifferently: but if more be affencted with an ambitious contention, I will rather beate Hagar out of doors, than shee shall overrule her mistress.   

41  
I see iron first heated read hote in the fire, and after beaten and hardened with cold water. Thus will I deal with an offending friend: first heat him with deserved praise of his virtue, and then beat vpon him, and cool him with reprehension: so good nurses when their children are fallen, first take them up and speak them faire, chide them afterwards: Gentle speech is a good preparative for rigor; He shall see that I love him, by my approbation; and that I love not his faults, by my reproof. If he love himself, he will love those that mislike his vices; and if he love not himself, it matters not whether he love me.   

42  
The liker we are to God, which is the best& only good, the better& happier we must needs be. All sins make us unlike him, as being contrary to his perfect holinesse: but some show more direct contrariety: such is envy; For, whereas God bringeth good out of evil; the envious man fetcheth evil out of good: wherein also his sin proves a kind of punishment; for whereas to good men even evil things work together to their good; contrarily, to the envious, good things work together to their evil. The evil, in any man, though never so prosperous, I will not envy, but pity: The good graces, I will not repined at, but holily emulate; rejoicing that they are so good: but grieving that I am no better.   

43  
The covetous man is like a Spider, as in this that he doth nothing but lay his nets to catch every fly, gaping onely for a booty of gain; so yet more, in that whiles he makes nets for these flies, he consumeth his own bowels: so that which is his life is his death. If there bee any creature miserable, it is he; and yet he is least to bee pitied, because he makes himself miserable; such as he is I will account him; and will therefore sweep down his webs and hate his poison.   

44  
In heaven there is all life, and no dying; in hell is all death and no life; In earth there is both living and dying; which, as it is betwixt both, so it prepares for both. So that he which here below dies to sin, doth after live in heaven; and contrarily he that lives in sin vpon earth dies in hell afterwards. What if I haue no part of ioy here below, but still succession of afflictions? The wicked haue no part in heaven, and yet they enjoy the earth with pleasure: I would not change portions with them. I rejoice, that seeing I cannot haue both, yet I haue the better. O Lord, let me pass both my deaths here vpon earth. I care not how I live or die, so I may haue nothing but life to look for in another world.   

45  
The conceit of propriety hardens a man against many inconveniences, and addeth much to our pleasure: The mother abides many unquiet nights, many painful throws, and unpleasant savours of her child, vpon this thought, It is my own. The indulgent father magnifies that in his own son, which he would scarce like in a stranger. The want of this to God-ward makes us so subject to discontentment,& cooleth our delight in him, because we think of him aloof, as one in whom we are not interested: If wee could think, It is my God that cheereth me with his presence, and blessings, while I prosper; that afflicteth me in love, when I am dejected; my saviour is at Gods right hand: my Angels stand in his presence, It could not be but Gods favour would bee sweeter, his chastisements more easy, his benefits more effectual. I am not my own, while God is not mine: and while he is mine, since I do possess him, I will enjoy him.   

46  
Nature is of her own inclination froward, importunately longing after that which is denied her; and scornful of what she may haue. If it were appointed that we should live always vpon earth, how extremely would wee exclaim of weariness, and wish rather that wee were not? Now it is appointed we shal live here but a while, and then give room to our successors, each one affects a kind of eternity vpon earth. I will labour to tame this peevish and sullen humour of nature,& will like that best that must be.   

47  
All true earthly pleasure forsook man when he forsook his creator; what honest and holy delight he before took in the dutiful services of the obsequious creatures; in the contemplation of that admirable variety, and strangeness of their properties; in seeing their sweet accordance with each other, and all with himself? now most of our pleasure is to set one creature together by the ears with another; sporting ourselves onely with that deformity, which was bread through our own fault. Yea, there haue been, that haue delighted to see one man spill anothers blood vpon the sand; and haue shouted for ioy at the sight of that slaughter, which hath fallen out vpon no other quarrel but the pleasure of the beholders: I doubt not but as wee solace ourselves in the discord of the inferior creatures; so the evil spirits sport themselves in our dissensions. There are better qualities of the creature, which we pass over without pleasure. In recreations I will choose those which are of best example and best use; seeking those by which I may not onely bee the merryer, but the better.   

48  
There is no want for which a man may not find a remedy in himself. do I want riches? he that desires but little, cannot want much. do I want friends? If I love God enough,& myself but enough, it matters not. Do I want health? If I want it but a little,& recover. I shall esteem it the more, because I wanted. If I be long sick and vnrecouerably, I shal be the fitter and willinger to die;& my pain is so much less sharp, by how much more it lingereth. do I want maintenance? A little and course will content nature. Let my mind bee no more ambitious then my back and belly. I can hardly complain of too little. do I want sleep? I am going whither there is no use of sleep: where all rest, and sleep not. do I want children? Many that haue them, wish they wanted: It is better to be childless, than crossed with their miscarriage. do I want learning? he hath none, that saith he hath enough. The next way to get more, is to find thou wantest. There is remedy for all wants in ourselves, saving onely for want of grace: and that a man cannot so much as see and complain that he wants, but from above.   

49  
every virtuous action( like the sun eclipsed) hath a double shadow; according to the diuers aspects of the beholders: One of glory, the other of envy. glory follows vpon good deserts; envy vpon glory. he that is envy may think himself well: for he that envies him, thinks him more then well: I know no 'vice in another whereof a man may make so good and comfortable use to himself. There would bee no shadow, if there were no light.   

50  
In meddling with the faults of friends, I haue observed many wrongful courses; what for fear, or self-love, or indiscretion: some I haue seen, like unmerciful and covetous chirurgeons, keep the wound raw, which they might haue seasonably remedied, for their own gain: Others that haue laid healing plasters to skin it aloft, when there hath been more need of corasiues to eat out the dead flesh within: Others, that haue galled and drawn when there hath been nothing but solid flesh, that hath wanted onely filling up. Others that haue healed the fore, but left an vnsightly scar of discredit behind them: He that would do good this way must haue fidelity, courage, discretion, patience. Fidelity, not to bear with; courage, to reprove them; discretion, to reprove them well; patience, to abide the leisure of amendment; making much of good beginnings, and putting up many repulses, bearing with many weaknesses; still hoping; still soliciting; as knowing that those who haue been long used to fetters cannot but halt a while, when they are taken off.   

51  
God hath made al the world, and yet what a little part of it is his? divide the world into four parts; but one, and the least containeth all that is worthy the name of christendom? The rest overwhelmed with antinomianism, and paganism: And of this least part, the greater half yet holding aright concerning God and their saviour in some common principles, overthrow the truth in their conclusions; and so leave the lesser part of the least part for God. Yet lower; of those that hold aright concerning Christ, how few are there, that do otherwise then fashionably profess him? And of those that do seriously profess him, howe few are there that in their lives deny him not, living worthy of so glorious a calling? Wherein I do not pity God, who will haue glory even of those that are not his: I pity miserable men that do reject their Creator and Redeemer, and themselves in him. And I envy Satan, that he ruleth so large. Since God hath so few, I will bee more thankful that he hath vouchsafed me one of his; and be the more zealous of glorifying him, because wee haue but a few fellowes.   

52  
As those that haue tasted of some delicate dish, find other plain dishes but unpleasant; so it fareth with those which haue once tasted of heavenly things, they cannot but comtemne the best worldly pleasures: As therefore some dainty guest knowing there is so pleasant fare to come, I will reserve my appetite for it, and not suffer myself cloyed with the course diet of the world.   

53  
I find many places where God hath used the hand of good Angels for the punishment of the wicked; but never could yet find one wherein he employed; an evil Angel in any direct good to his children. Indirect I find many, if not all, through the power of him that brings light out of darkness, and turns their evil to our good: In this choice GOD would and must be imitated. From an evil spirit I dare not receive ought, if never so good; I will receive as little as I may from a wicked man. If he were as perfectly evil as the other, I durst receive nothing; I had rather hunger then wilfully dip my hand in a wicked mans dish.   

54  
We are ready to condemn others for that which is as eminently faulty in ourselves. If one blind man rush vpon another in the way; either complains of others blindness, neither of his own. I haue heard those which haue had most corrupt lungs complain of the vnsauory breath of others. The reason is because the mind casteth altogether outward, and reflecteth not into itself. Yet it is more shameful to be either ignorant of, or favourable to our own imperfections. I will censure others vices fearfully, my own confidently, because I know thē; and those I know not I will suspect.   

55  
he is a very humble man that thinks not himself better then some others; and he is very mean, whom some others do not account better than themselves: so that vessel that seemed very small vpon the main, seems a tall ship vpon the Thames. As there are many better for estate then myself; so there are some worse; and if I were yet worse, yet would there be some lower: and if I were so low that I accounted myself the worst of all; yet some would account themselves in worse case. A mans opinion is in others; his being is in himself. Let me know myself, let others guess at me. Let others either envy or pity me. I care not so long as I enjoy myself.   

56  
He can never wonder enough at Gods workmanship, that knows not the frame of the world: for he can never else conceive of the hugenes,& strange proportion of the creatures. And he that knows this can never wonder more, at any thing else. I will learn to know, that I may admire; and by that little I know, I will more wonder at that I know not.   

57  
There is nothing he low, but toiling, grieving, wishing, hoping, seuring; and weariness in all these. What fools are wee to bee besotted with the love of our own trouble, and to hate our liberty and rest. The love of misery is much worse than misery itself. We must first pray that God would make us wise, before wee can wish he would make us happy.   

58  
If a man refer all things to himself, nothing seems enough: If all things to GOD, any measure will content him of earthly things; but in grace he is infatiable: worldlings serve themselves altogether in GOD, making Religion but to serve their turns as a colour of their ambition, and covetousness: The Christian seeks GOD onely in seeking himself, using all other things but as subordinately to him; not caring whether himself win or lose, so that God may win glory in both. I will not suffer mine eyes and mind to be bounded with these visible things; but will look through all these matters, at GOD which is the utmost scope of them: Accounting them onely as a thoroughfare to pass by, not as an habitation to rest in.   

59  
He is wealthy enough that wanteth not: He is great enough that is his own master: He is happy enough, that lives to die well. Other things I will not care for; nor too much for these, save onely for the last which alone can admit of no immoderation.   

60  
A man of extraordinary parts makes himself by strange and singular behaviour more admired; which if a man of but common faculty do imitate, he makes himself ridiculous: for that which is construed as natural to the one, is descried to be affencted in the other. And there is nothing forced by affectation can be comely. I will ever strive to go in the common road: so while I am not notable, I shall not bee notorious.   

61  
Gold is the best metal,& for the purity not subject to rust, as all others; and yet the best gold hath somedrosse. I esteem not that man that hath no faults; I like him well that hath but a few, and those not great.   

62  
Many a man mars a good estate, for want of skill to proportion his carriage answerably to his ability. A little sail to a large vessel riddes no way, though the wind bee faire; A large sail to a little bark drowns it; A topsaile to a ship of mean burden in a rough weather is daungerous; A low fail in an easy gale yields little advantage: This disproportion causeth some to live miserable in a good estate; and some to make a good estate miserable. I will first know what I may do for safety, and then I will try what I can do for speed.   

63  
The rich man hath many friends; although in truth riches haue thē, and not the man: As the ass, that carried the Egyptian Goddesse, had many bowed knees, yet not to the beast, but to the burden. For, separate the riches from the person, and thou shalt see friendship leave the man,& follow that which was ever her object: while he may command, and can either give, or control, he hath attendance, and proffer of love at all hands; but which of these da●es aclowledge him, when he is going to prison for debt? Then these wasps, that made such music about this Gallypot, show plainly that they came onely for the hony that was in it. This is the misery of the wealthy, that they cannot know their friends: Whereas those that love the poor man, love him for himself. he that would choose a true friend, must search out one that is neither covetous nor ambitious; for such a one loues but himself in thee. And if it be rare to find any not infected with these qualities, the best is to entertain all, and trust few.   

64  
That which the French proverb hath of sicknesses, is true of all e●●ls, that they come on horseback, and go away on foot: We haue oft seen a sudden fall, or one meales surfet hath stuck by many to their graues: whereas pleasures come like oxen, slow and heavily; and go away like posthorses, vpon the spur. sorrows, because they are lingering guests, I will entertain but moderately; knowing that the more they are made of, the longer they will continue: And for pleasures, because they stay not, and do but call to drink at my door, I will use them as passengers, with slight respect. He is his own best friend, that makes least of both of them.   

65  
It is indeed more commendable to give good example, than to take it; yet imitation, how-euer in civil matters it be condemned of servility, in Christian practise hath his due praise; and though it be more natural for beginners at their first imitation, that cannot swim without bladders; yet the best proficient shal see ever some higher steps of those that haue gone to heaven before him, worthy of his tracing: wherein much caution must be had, that wee follow good men, and in good: Good men, for if wee propound imperfect patterns to ourselves, wee shall be constrained first to vnlearne those ill habits we haue got by their imitation, before we can be capable of good: so besides the loss of labour, we are further off from our end: In good; for, that a man should be so wedded to any mans person that he can make no separation from his infirmities, is both absurdly servile and vnchristian. He therefore that would follow well, must know to distinguish well, betwixt good men& evil, betwixt good men and better, betwixt good qualities and infirmities. Why hath God given me education not in a desert alone, but in the company of good& virtuous men; but that by the sight of their good carriage I should better my own? Why should we haue interest in the vices of men and not in their virtues? And although precepts be surer, yet a good mans action is according to precept, yea, is a precept itself. The Psalmist compares the law of God to a lantern; good example bears it. It is safe following him that carries the light. If he walk without the light, he shall walk without me.   

66  
As there is one common end to all good men, salvation; and one author of it, Christ: So there is but one way to it, doing well, and suffering evil. Doing well( me thinks) is like the zodiac in the heaven, the hie-way of the Sun, through which it daily passeth; suffering evil is like the ecliptic line that goes through the midst of it. The rule of doing well, the law of God, is uniform and eternal; and the copies of suffering evil in all times agree with the original; No man can either do well, or suffer ill without an example: Are we sawen in pieces? so was Esay; Are we headed? so John Baptist; Crucified? so Peter; thrown to wild beasts? so Daniel; Into the furnace? so the three children; Stoned? so steven; Banished? so the beloved disciple; Burnt? so millions of Martyrs; Defamed and flandered? what good man ever was not? It were easy to bee endless both in torments and sufferers: whereof each hath begun to other, all to vs. I may not hope to speed better than the best Christians; I cannot fear to fare worse. It is no matter which way I go, so I come to heaven.   

67  
There is nothing beside life of this nature, that it is diminished by addition: every moment wee live longer then other, and each moment that we live longer is so much taken out of our life. It increaseth and diminisheth onely by minutes; and therefore is not perceived: The shorter steps it taketh, the more slily it passeth. Time shall not so steal vpon me that I shall not discern it, and catch it by the fore-lockes; nor so steal from me, that it shall carry with it no witness of his passage in my proficiency.   

68  
The prodigal man, while he spendeth, is magnified; when he is spent is pitied: and that is all his recompense for his lauisht patrimony. The covetous man is grudged while he lives, and his death is reioyced at: for, when he ends, his riches begin to bee goods. he that wisely keeps the mean between both, liveth well, and hears well; neither repined at by the needy, nor pitied by greater men. I would so manage these worldly commodities, as accounting them mine to dispose, others to partake of.   

69  
A good name( if any earthly thing) is worth seeking, worth striving for; yet to affect a bare name, when we deserve either ill, or nothing, is but a proud hypocrisy: And to be puffed up with the wrongful estimation of others mis-taking our worth, is an idle and ridiculous pride. Thou art well spoken of vpon no desert: what then? Thou hast deceived thy neighbours, they one another;& al of thē haue deceived thee: for thou madest thē think of thee otherwise than thou art; and they haue made thee think of thyself as thou art accounted: The deceit came from thee the shane will end in thee. I will account no wrong greater, than for a man to esteem and report me above that I am; not rejoicing in that I am well thought of, but in that I am such as I am esteemed.   

70  
It was a speech worthy, the commendation,& frequent remembrance of so divine a Bishop as Augustine, which is reported of an aged father in his time, who when his friends comforted him on his sick bed, and  told him, they hoped he should recover, answered; If I shall not die at all, well: but if ever, why not now? Surely, it is folly what we must do to do unwillingly. I will never think my soul in good case, so long as I am loth to think of dying; and will make this my comfort; Not, I shall yet live longer, but I shall yet do more good.   

71  
Excesses are never alone: Commonly those that haue excellent parts, haue some extremely vicious qualities: great wits haue great errors;& great estates haue great cares: whereas mediocrity of gifts or of estate, hath usually but easy inconneniences: Else the excellent would not know themselves, and the mean would bee too much dejected. Now those whom we admire for their saculties, wee pity for their infirmities; and those which find themselves but of the ordinary pitch, ioy that as their virtues so their vices are not eminent. So the highest haue a blemished glory, and the mean are contentedly secure. I will magnify the highest, but affect the mean.   

72  
The body is the case, or sheathe of the mind: yet as naturally it hideth it; so it doth also many times discover it: For although the forehead, eyes, and frame of the countenance do some times bely the disposition of the heart, yet most commonly they give true general verdicts. An angry mans brows are bent together,& his eyes sparkle with rage, which when he is well pleased, look smooth& cheerfully. envy hath one look; desire another; sorrow yet another; contentment, a fourth, different from all the rest. To show no passion is too Stoical, to show all is impotent; to show other than we feel, hypocritical. The face& gesture do but writ, and make commentaries vpon the heart. I will first endeavour so to frame and order that, as not to entertain any passion, but what I need not care to haue laid open to the world: and therefore will first see that the Text be good; then that the gloss bee true; and lastly that it be sparing. To what end hath God so walled in the heart, if I should let every mans eyes into it by my countenance?   

73  
There is no public action which the world is not ready to scan; there is no action so private, which the evil spirits are not witnesses of: I will endeavour so to live, a● knowing that I am ever in the eyes of mine enemies.   

74  
When we ourselves, and all other vices are old, then covetousness alone is young, and at his best age. This 'vice loues to dwell in an old ruinous cottage: Yet that age can haue no such honest colour for niggardlines& insatiable desire. A young man might pled the uncertainty of his estate& doubt of his future need; but an old man sees his set period before him. Since this humour is so necessary annexed to this age, I will turn it the right way, and nourish it in myself. The older I grow, the more covetous I will be; but of the riches, not of the world that I am leaving, but of the world I am entering into. It is good coveting what I may haue, and cannot leave behind me.   

75  
There is a mutual hatred betwixt a Christian, and the world: for on the one side, the love of the world is enmity with God; and Gods children cannot but take their fathers part. On the other, The world hates you because it hated me first. But the hatred of the good man to the wicked is not so extreme, as that wherewith he is hated. For the Christian hates ever with commiseration and love of that good he sees in the worst; knowing that the essence of the very divels is good& that the lewdest man hath some excellent parts of nature, or common graces of the Spirit of God, which he warily singleth out in his affection. But the wicked man hates him for goodness, and therefore finds nothing in himself to moderate his detestation. There can be no better music in my ear, than the discord of the wicked. If he like me. I am afraid he spies some quality in me like to his own; If he saw nothing but goodness, he could not love me, and be bad himself. It was a just doubt of photion, who when the people praised him, asked, What evil haue I done? I will strive to deserve ill of none: but not deserving ill, it shall not grieve me to hear ill of those that are evil. I know no greater argument of goodness, than the hatred of a wicked man.   

76  
A man that comes hungry to his meal, feeds hearty on the meate set before him, not regarding the metal, or form of the platter, wherein it is served; who afterwards when his stomach is satisfied, begins to play with the dish, or to red sentences on his trencher. Those auditors which can find nothing to do, but note elegant words& phrases, or rhetorical colours, or perhaps an il grace of gesture in a pithy and material speech, argue themselves full ere they came to the feast: and therefore go away with a little pleasure, no profit. In hearing others, my onely intention shall be to feed my mind with solid matter: if my ear can get ought by the way, I will not grudge it, but I will not intend it.   

77  
The ioy of a Christian in these worldly things is limited, and ever awed with fear of excess, but recompensed abundantly with his spiritual mirth: whereas the worldling gives the reigns to his mind, and powers himself out into pleasure, fearing only that he shall not ioy enough. He that is but half a Christian, lives most miserable; for he neither enjoyeth God, nor the world. Not God, because he hath not grace enogh to make him his own: Not the world, because he hath some taste of grace; enough to show him the vanity and sin of his pleasures. So the sound Christian hath his heaven above, the worldling here below; the unsettled Christian no where.   

78  
Good deeds are very fruitful;& not so much of their nature, as of Gods blessing multipliable: We think ten in the hundred extreme and biting usury; God gives us more then an hundred for ten: Yea, above the increase of the grain which wee commend most for multiplication. For out of one good action of ours, God produceth a thousand; the harvest whereof is perpetual: even the faithful actions of the old Patriarkes, the constant sufferings of ancient Martyrs live still, and still do good to all successions of ages by their example. For public actions of virtue, besides that they are presently comfortable to the doers, are also exemplary to others:& as they are more beneficial to others, so are more crwoned in vs. If good deeds were utterly barren& incommodious, I would seek after them for the conscience of their own goodness: how much more shall I now bee encouraged to perform them, for that they are so profitable both to myself, and to others, and to me in others? My principal care shall be, that while my soul lives in glory in heaven, my good actions may live vpon earth; and that they may be put into the bank and multiply, while my body lies in the grave and consumeth.   

79  
A Christian for the sweet fruit he bears to God and men, is compared to the noblest of all plants, the Vine. Now as the most generous Vine if it bee not pruned, runs out into many superfluous stems,& grows at last weak& fruitless: so doth the best man if he be not cut short of his desires, and pruned with afflictions. If it be painful to bleed, it is worse to whither. Let me be pruned that I may grow, rather than cut up to burn.   

80  
Those, that do but superficially taste of divine knowledge, find little sweetness in it; and are ready for the unpleasant relish to abhor it: whereas if they would dive deep into this sea, they should find fresh water near to the bottom: That it savours not well at the first, is the fault not of it, but of the distempered palate that tastes it. Good metals& minerals are not found close under the skin of the earth, but below in the bowels of it: No good Miner casts away his mattock because he finds a vein of tough day, or a shelf of ston; but still delueth lower,& passing through many changes of soil, at last comes to his rich treasure. Wee are too soon discouraged in our spiritual gains. I will still persevere to seek; hardening myself against all difficulty. There is comfort even in seeking, hope;& ther is ioy in hoping, good success;& in that success, is happiness.   

81  
He that hath any experience in spiritual matters, knows that Satan is ever more violent at the last; then raging most furiously, when he knows he shall rage but a while. Hence of the persecutions of the first Church, the tenth and last under Dioclesian, and Maximinian, and those other five tyrants was the bloodiest Hence this age is the most dissolute, because nearest the conclusion. And as this is his course in the universal assaults of the whole Church: so it is the same in his conflicts with every Christian soul. Like a subtle orator he reserves his strongest force till the shutting up: And therefore miserable is the folly of those men who defer their repentance till then; when their onset shall be most sharp, and they through pain of body, and perplexednesse of mind, shall bee least able to resist. Those that haue long furnished themselves with spiritual munition, find work enough in this extreme brunt of tentation; how then should the careless man, that with the help of al opportunities could not find grace to repent, hope to achieve it at the last gasp, against greater force, with less means, more distraction, no leisure? Wise princes use to prepare ten yeeres before, for a field of one day: I will every day lay up somewhat for my last. If I win that skirmish, I haue enough. The first& second blow begins the battle, but the last onely wins it.   

82  
I observe three seasons wherein a wise man differs not from a fool; In his infancy, in sleep, and in silence: For in the two former wee are all fools, and in silence all are wise. In the two former yet, there may bee concealment of folly; but the tongue is a blabbe: there cannot bee any kind of folly, either simplo, or wicked, in the heart, but the tongue will bewray it. he cannot bee wise that speaks much, or without sense, or out of season: nor he known for a fool that says nothing. It is a great misery to bee a fool: but this is yet greater, that a man cannot bee a fool, but he must show it. It were well for such a one, if he could be taught to keep close his foolishness: but then there should be no fools. I haue heard some which haue scorned the opinion of folly in themselves, for a speech wherein they haue hoped to show most wit censured of folly, by him that hath thought himself wiser: and another, hearing his sentence again, hath condemned him for want of wit in censuring. Surely he is not a fool that hath unwise thoughts, but he that utters them. even concealed folly is wisdom; and sometimes wisdom uttered is folly. While others care how to speak, my care shall be how to hold my peace.   

83  
A work is then onely good and acceptable, when the action, meaning, and maner are all good: For, to do good with an ill meaning( as Iudas saluted Christ to betray him) is so much more sinful, by how much the action is better; which being good in the kind is abused to an ill purpose: To do ill in a good meaning( as Vzza in staying the ark) is so much amiss, that the good intention cannot bear out the unlawful act: which although it may seem some excuse, why it should not be so ill, yet is no warrant to justify it. To mean well, and do a good action, in an ill manner( as the Pharisee made a good prayer, but arrogantly) is so offensive, that the ill manner depraueth both the other. So a thing may bee evil vpon one circumstance, it cannot be good but vpon all. In what ever business I go about, I will inquire What I do for the substance, Howe for the manner, Why for the intention: For the two first I will consult with God, for the last with my own heart.   

84  
I can do nothing without a million of witnesses: The conscience is as a thousand witnesses; and GOD is as a thousand consciences. I will therefore so deal with men, as knowing that God sees me; and so with God, as if the world saw me; so with myself, and both of them, as knowing that my conscience seeth me: and so with them all, as knowing I am always ouerlooked by my accuser, by my judge.   

85  
Earthly inheritances are divided oft times with much inequality: The privilege of primogeniture stretcheth larger in many places now, than it did among the ancient Iewes. The younger many times serves the elder; and while the eldest aboundeth, all the later issue is pinched. In heaven it is not so: All the sons of God are heires, none underlings; and not heires under wardship, and hope, but inheritors; and not inheritors of any little pittance of land, but of a kingdom; Nor of an earthly kingdom, subject to danger of loss, or alteration, but one glorious and everlasting. It shall content me here, that having right to all things, yet I haue possession of nothing but sorrow. Since I shall haue possession above, of all that, whereto I haue right below, I will serve willingly, that I may reign; serve for a while, that I may reign for ever.   

86  
even the best things ill used become evils; and contrarily, the worst things used well prove good: A good tongue, used to deceit; a good wit, used to defend error; a strong arm, to murder; authority, to oppress; a good profession, to dissemble; are all evil: Yea, Gods own word is the sword of the spirit; which if it kill not our vices, kills our souls. Contrariwise( as poisons are used to wholesome medicine) afflictions and sins, by a good use, prove so gainful, as nothing more. words are as they are taken: and things are as they are used. There are even cursed blessings: O Lord, rather give me no fanours, than not grace to use them. If I want them, thou requirest not what thou dost not give; but if I haue them, and want their use; thy mercy proves my iudgement.   

86  
Man is the best of al these inferior creatures; yet lives in more sorrow and discontentment, then the worst of them: whiles that reason wherein he excels them, and by which he might make advantage of his life, he abuses to a susspicious distrust. How many hast thou found of the fowls of the air, lying dead in thy way for want of provision? They eat, and rest, and sing, and want nothing. Man, which hath better means to live comfortably, toileth, and careth,& wanteth; whom yet his reason alone might teach, that he which careth for these lower creatures made onely for man, will much more provide for man, to whose use they were made. There is an holy carelessness, free from idleness, free from distrust. In these earthly things, I will so depend on my maker, that my trust in him may not exclude my labour; and yet so labour( vpon my confidence on him) as my endeavour may be void of perplexity.   

87  
The precepts,& practise of those with whom we live, avail much on either part. For a man not to bee ill where he hath no provocations to evil, is less commendable; but for a man to live continently in Asia( as he said) where he sees nothing but allurements to uncleanness; for Lot to bee a good man in the midst of Sodom; to be abstemious in Germany,& in Italy chased; this is truly praise-worthy. To sequester ourselves from the company of the world, that we may depart from their vices, proceeds from a base and distrusting mind: as if wee would so force goodness vpon ourselves, that therfore only we would bee good, because wee cannot bee ill. But for a man so to bee personally, and locally in the throng of the world, as to withdraw his affections from it, to use it, and yet to contemn it at once, to compel it to his service without any infection, becomes well the noble courage of a Christian. The world shall bee mine, I will not be his; and yet so mine, that his evil shall be still his own.   

88  
He that lives in God, cannot bee weary of his life, because he ever finds both somewhat to do, and somewhat to solace himself with; cannot bee ouerloath to part with it, because he shall enter into a nearer life and society with that God in whom he delighteth: Whereas he that lives without him, lives many times vncomfortably here, because partly he knows not any cause of ioy in himself; and partly he finds not any worthy employment to while himself withall; Dyes miserable, because he either knows not whither he goes, or knows he goes to torment. There is no true life, but the life of faith. O Lord let me live out of the world with thee( if thou wilt) but let me not live in the world without thee.   

89  
sin is both evil in itself, and the effect of a former evil, and the cause of sin following; a cause of punishment, and lastly a punishment itself. It is damnable iniquity in man, to multiply one sin vpon another; but to punish one sin by another, in GOD is a iudgement both most just, and most fearful: So as all the storehouse of God hath not a greater vengeance: with other punishments the body smarteth, the soul with this. I care not how God offends me with punishments, so he punish me not with offending him.   

90  
I haue seen some afflict their bodies with wilful famine, and scourges of their own making; God spares me that labour; For he whips me daily with the scourge of a weak body; and sometimes with ill tongues. he holds me short many times of the feeling of his comfortable presence, which is in truth so much more miserable an hunger then that of the body, by how much the soul is more tender, and the food denied more excellent. He is my father; infinitely wise to proportion out my correction according to my estate; and infinitely loving in fitting me with a due measure. he is a presumptuous child that will make choice of his own rod. Let me learn to make a right use of his corrections, and I shall not need to correct myself. And if it should please GOD to remit his hand a little; I will govern my body, as a master, not as a tyrant.   

91  
If God had not said, Blessed are those that hunger; I know not what could keep weak Christians from sinking in despair: Many times all I can do, is to find and complain that I want him; and wish to recover him: Now this is my stay, that he in mercy esteems us not onely by having, but by desiring also; and after a sort accounts us to haue that which we want, and desire to haue: and my soul assuming, tells me I do vnfainedly wish him, and long after that grace I miss. Let me desire still more, and I know I shall not desire always. There was never soul miscarried with longing after grace. O blessed hunger that ends always in fullness. I am sorry that I can but hunger; and yet I would not bee full; for the blessing is promised to the hungry: give me more, Lord, but so as I may hunger more. Let me hunger more,& I know I shall be satisfied.   

92  
There is more in the Christian than thou seeest. For he is both an entire body of himself, and he is a limb of another more excellent; even that glorious mystical body of his saviour; to whom he is so united, that the actions of either are reciprocally referred to each other. For, on the one side, the Christian lives in Christ, dyes in Christ, in Christ fulfils the Law, possesseth heaven: on the other, Christ is persecuted by Paul in his members, and is persecuted in Paul afterwards by others: he suffers in us, he lives in us, he works in and by us: So thou canst not do either good or harm to a Christian, but thou dost it to his redeemer; to whom he is invisibly united. Thou seest him as a man, and therefore worthy of favour for humanities sake: Thou seest him not as a Christian, worthy of honor for his secret and yet true union with his saviour. I will love every Christian, for that I see; honour him, for that I shall see.   

93  
Hell itself is scarce a more obscure dungeon in comparison of the earth, than earth is in respect of heaven. here, the most see nothing, and the best see little: here, half our life is night; and our very day is darkness, in respect of GOD. The true light of the world, and the Father of lights dwelleth above: There is the light of knowledge to inform us, and the light of ioy to comfort us; without all change of darkness. There was never any captive loved his dungeon, and complained when he must be brought out to light,& liberty: Whence then is this natural madness in us men, that wee delight so much in this unclean, noisome, dark and comfortless prison of earth? and think not of our release to that lightsome and glorious Paradise above us, without grief and repining? Wee are sure that wee are not perfectly well here: If wee could bee as sure, that wee should bee better above, wee would not fear changing. Certainly our sense tells us, wee haue some pleasure here; and wee haue not faith to assure us of more pleasure above, and hence wee settle ourselves to the present, with neglect of the future, though infinitely more excellent: The heart follows the eyes: and unknown good is vncared for; O Lord, do thou break through this darkness of ignorance, and faithlesnesse, wherewith I am compassed. Let me but see my heaven, and I know I shall desire it.   

94  
To bee carried away with an affectation of famed is so vain, and absurd, that I wonder it can bee incident to any wise man: For what a mole-hill of earth is it, to which his name can extend, when it is furthest carried by the wings of report? And how short a while doth it continue where it is once spread? Time( the devourer of his own brood) consumes both us and our memories; not brass, nor marble, can bear age. How many flattering Poets haue promised immortality of name to their Princes, who now together are butted long since in forgetfulness. Those names and actions, that are once on the file of heaven, are past the danger of defacing: I will not care whether I bee known, or remembered, or forgotten amongst men, if my name and good actions may live with God in the records of eternity.   

95  
There is no man, nor no place free from spirits, although they testify their presence by visible effects but in few. every man is an host to entertain angels, though not in visible shapes as Abraham and Lot. The evil ones do nothing but provoke us to sin;& plot mischief against us; by casting into our way daungerous objects, by suggesting sinful motions to our mindes, stirring up enemies against us amongst men, by frighting us with terrors in our selves, by accusing us to God. On the contrary, The good Angels are ever removing our hindrances from good, and our occasions of evil, mitigating our temptations; helping us against our enemies; delivering us from dangers; conforting us in sorrows; furthering our good purposes; and at last carrying up our souls to heaven. It would affright a weak Christian that knows the power and malice of wicked spirits, to consider their presence, and number; but when, with the eyes of Elishaes seruant, he sees those on his side as present, as diligent, more powerful, he cannot but take heart again: Especially, if he consider, that neither of them is without God, limiting the one the bounds of their tentation, directing the other in the safeguard of his children. Whereupon it is comn to pass, that though there be many legions of divels, and every one more strong than many legions of men, and more malicious than strong, yet the little flock of Gods Church liveth and prospereth: I haue ever with me invisible friends, and enemies: The consideration of mine enemies shall keep me from security, and make me fearful of doing ought to advantage them. The consideration of my spiritual friends shall comfort me against the terror of the other; shall remedy my solitariness; shall make me wary of doing ought indecently; grieving me rather, that I haue ever heretofore made them turn away their eyes, for shane of that whereof I haue not been asnamed; that I haue no more enjoyed their society; that I haue been no more affencted with their presence. What though I see them not? I beleeue them. I were no Christian, if my faith were not as sure as my sense.   

96  
There is no word or action, but may be taken with two hands; either with the right hand of charitable construction, or the finister interpretation of malice, and suspicion: and all things do so succeed, as they are taken. I haue noted, evil actions well taken, pass currant for either indifferent, or commendable: Contrarily, a good speech or action ill taken, scarce allowed for indifferent; an indifferent one, censured for evil; an evil one for notorious: So favor makes virtues of vices; and suspicion makes virtues, faults; and faults, crimes. Of the two I had rather my right hand should offend: It is always safer offending on the better part. To construe an evil act well, is but a pleasing and profitable deceit of myself: But to misconstrue a good thing is a triple wrong; to myself, the action, the author. If no good sense can be made of a dead, or speech, let the blame light vpon the author: If a good interpretation may bee given and I choose a worse, let me bee as much censured of others, as that misconceit is punishment to myself.   

97  
I know not how it comes to pass, that the mind of man doth naturally both ouer-prize his own in comparison of others, and yet contemn and neglect his own in comparison of what he wants. The remedy of this later evil is to compare the good things we haue, with the evils which we haue not, and others groan under: Thou art in health and regardest it not; look on the misery of those which on their bed of sickness, through extremity of pain& anguish, entreat death to release them. Thou hast clear eye-sight, sound lims, use of reason; and passest these over with slight respect: think how many there are, which in their uncomfortable blindness, would give all the world for but one glimpse of light. How many that deformedly crawl on all four, after the maner of the most loathsome creatures; how many that in mad frenzies are worse than blutish, worse than dead: thus thou mightest be, and art not. If I be not happy for the good that I haue, I am yet happy for the evils that I might haue had, and haue escaped: I haue deserved the greatest evil; every evil that I miss, is a new mercy.   

98  
Earth, which is the basest element, is both our mother that brought us forth, our stage that bears us alive, and our grave where in at last we are entombed; giuing to us both our original, our harbour, our sepulchre: Shee hath yielded her back to bear thousands of generations; and at last opened her womb to receive them; so swallowing them up, that she still both beareth more, and looks for more; not bewraying any change in herself, while shee so oft hath changed her brood, and her burden. It is a wonder we can be proud of our parentage, or of ourselves, while wee see both the baseness, and stability of the earth, whence we came. What difference is there? living earth treads vpon the dead earth, which afterwards descends into the grave, as senseless and dead, as the earth that receives it. Not many are proud of their souls; and none but fools can bee proud of their bodies. While we walk and look vpon the earth, we cannot but aclowledge sensible admonitions of humility; and while we remember them, we cannot forget ourselves. It is a mother-like favour of the earth, that she bears and nourishes me, and at the last entertains my dead carcase: but it is a greater pleasure, that she teacheth me my vileness by her own, and sends me to heaven, for what she wants.   

99  
The wicked man carrieth every day a brand to his hell, till his heap be comne to the height: then he ceaseth sinning, and begins his torment. Whereas the repentant, in every fit of holy sorrow, carries away a whole faggot from the flamme, and quencheth the coals that remain, with his tears. There is no torment for the penitent; no redemption for the obstinate. Safety consisteth not in not sinning, but in repenting: neither is it sin that condemns; but impenitence. O Lord I cannot be righteous? let me be repentant.   

100  
The estate of he auenly and earthly things is plainly represented to us, by the two lights of heaven, which are appointed to rule the night and the day. Earthly things are rightly resembled by the moon, which being nearest to the region of mortality, is ever in changes, and never looks vpon us twice with the same face, and when it is at the full, is blemished with some dark blots, not capable of any illumination: heavenly things are figured by the Sun, whose great& glorious light is both natural to itself, and ever constant. That other fickle and dim star is fit enough for the night of misery, wherein we live here below. And this firm and beautiful light is but good enough for that day of glory, which the Saints live in. If it bee good living here, where our sorrows are changed with joys; what is it to live above, where our joys change not? I cannot look vpon the body of the sun: and yet I cannot see at all without the light of it. I cannot behold the glory of thy Saints, O Lord; yet without the knowledge of it, I am blind. If thy creature be so glorious to us here below; how glorious shall thy self be to us, when wee are above this Sun? This sun shal not shine upward; where thy glory shineth: the greater light extinguisheth the lesser. O thou sun of righteousness( which shalt only shine to me, when I am glorified) do thou heat, enlighten, comfort me with the beams of thy presence, till I be glorified.  
Amen.  
FINIS.