egg, is not rare; children possessing, as the bodily diseases, so the vices of their parents. Virtue is not propagated; vice is, even in them who have it not reigning in themselves. The grain is sown pure, but comes up with chaff and husk. Hast thou a good son? he is God's, not thine. Is he evil? nothing but his sin is thine. Help by thy prayers and endeavours, to take away that which thou hast given him, and to obtain from God that which thou hast, and canst not give; else thou mayest name him a possession, but thou shalt find him a loss.

V. These things be comely and pleasant to see, and worthy of honour from the beholder, a young saint, an old martyr, a religious soldier, a conscionable statesman, a great man courteous, a learned man humble, a silent woman, a child understanding the eye of his parent, a merry companion without vanity, a friend not changed with honour, a sick man cheerful, a soul departing with comfort and assurance.

VI. I have oft observed in merry meetings solemnly made, that somewhat hath fallen out cross, either in the time or immediately upon it; to season, as I think, our immoderation in desiring or enjoying our friends and, again, events suspected have proved ever best, God herein blessing our awful submission with good success. In all these human things, indifferency is safe. Let thy doubts be ever equal to thy desires; so thy disappointment shall not be grievous, because thy expectation was not peremptory.

VII. You shall rarely find a man eminent in sundry faculties of mind, or sundry manuary trades. If his memory be excellent, his fantasy is but dull; if his fancy be busy and quick, his judgment is but shallow; if his judgment be deep, his utterance his harsh. Which also holds no less in the activities of the hand: and if it happen, that one man be qualified with skill of divers trades and practise this variety, you shall seldom find such one thriving in his estate. With spiritual gifts it is otherwise; which are so chained together, that who excels in one, hath some eminency in more, yea, in all. Look upon faith: she is attended with a bevy of graces: he that believes, cannot but have hope; if hope, patience; he that believes and hopes, must needs find joy in God; if joy, love of

XCVIII. I know not how it comes to pass, that the mind of man doth naturally both overprize his own in comparison of others, and yet contemn and neglect his own in comparison of what he wants. The remedy of this latter evil is, to compare the good things we have, with the evils which we have not and others groan under. Thou art in health, and regardest it not; look on the misery of those who, on their bed of sickness, through extremity of pain and anguish, entreat death to release them. Thou hast clear eye-sight, sound limbs, use of reason, and passest these over with slight respect; think how many there are, who, 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 manner of the most loathsome creatures; how many, that in mad phrensies are worse than brutish, worse than dead: thus thou mightest be, and art not. If I be not happy for the good that I have, I am yet happy for the evils that I might have had and have escaped. I have deserved the greatest evil; every evil that I miss is a new mercy.

XCIX. Earth, which is the basest element, is both our mother that brought us forth, our stage that bears us alive, and our grave wherein, at last, we are entombed; giving to us both our original, our harbour, our sepulchre. She hath yielded her back to bear thousands of generations, and, at last, opened her mouth to receive them; so swallowing them up, that she still both beareth more and looketh for more; not bewraying any change in herself, while she so oft hath changed her brood and her burden. It is a wonder we can be proud of our parentage or of ourselves, while we see both the baseness and stability of the earth, whence we came. What difference is there? Living earth treads upon 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 be proud of their bodies. While we walk and look upon the earth, we cannot but acknowledge 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.

C. The wicked man carrieth every day a brand to his hell, till his heap be come 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 flame, 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.

*

CI.* The estate of heavenly and earthly things is plainly represented to ns, 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 upon 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 and 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 be good living here, where our sorrows are changed with joys, what is it to live above, where our joys change not? I cannot look upon 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 thyself be to us, when we are above the sun! This sun shall 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.

HOLY OBSERVATIONS.

I. As there is nothing sooner dry, than a tear; so there is nothing sooner out of season, than worldly sorrow; which, if it be fresh and still bleeding, finds some to comfort and pity it; if stale and skinned over with time, is rather entertained with smiles than commisseration. But the sorrow of repentance comes never out of time. All times are alike unto that eternity, whereto we make our spiritual moans: that which is past, that which is future, are both present with him. It is neither weak nor uncomely for an old man to weep for the sins of his youth. Those tears can never be shed either too soon or too late.

II. Some men live to be their own executors for their good name, which they see (not honestly) buried before themselves die some other, of great place and ill desert, part with their good name and breath at once: there is scarcely a vicious man whose name is not rotten before his carcase. Contrarily, the good man's name is ofttimes heir to his life; either born after the death of the parent, for that would not suffer it to come forth before; or perenvy haps so well grown up in his life-time, that the hope thereof is the staff of his age and joy of his death. A wicked man's name may be feared a while; soon after, it is either forgotten or cursed. The good man either sleepeth with his body in peace, or waketh, as his soul, in glory.

III. Ofttimes those who shew much valour while there is equal possibility of life, when they see a present necessity of death, are found most shamefully timorous. Their courage was before grounded upon hope; that, cut off, leaves them at once desperate and cowardly: whereas men of feebler spirits meet more cheerfully with death, because, though their courage be less, yet their expectation was more.

IV. I have seldom seen the son of an excellent and famous man, excellent; but that an ill bird hath an ill

egg, is not rare; children possessing, as the bodily diseases, so the vices of their parents. Virtue is not propagated; vice is, even in them who have it not reigning in themselves. The grain The grain is sown pure, but comes up with chaff and husk. Hast thou a good son? he is God's, not thine. Is he evil? nothing but his sin is thine. Help by thy prayers and endeavours, to take away that which thou hast given him, and to obtain from God that which thou hast, and canst not give; else thou mayest name him a possession, but thou shalt find him a loss.

V. These things be comely and pleasant to see, and worthy of honour from the beholder, a young saint, an old martyr, a religious soldier, a conscionable statesman, a great man courteous, a learned man humble, a silent woman, a child understanding the eye of his parent, a merry companion without vanity, a friend not changed with honour, a sick man cheerful, a soul departing with comfort and assurance.

VI. I have oft observed in merry meetings solemnly made, that somewhat hath fallen out cross, either in the time or immediately upon it; to season, as I think, our immoderation in desiring or enjoying our friends: and, again, events suspected have proved ever best, God herein blessing our awful submission with good success. In all these human things, indifferency is safe. Let thy doubts be ever equal to thy desires; so thy disappointment shall not be grievous, because thy expectation was not peremptory.

VII. You shall rarely find a man eminent in sundry faculties of mind, or sundry manuary trades. If his memory be excellent, his fantasy is but dull; if his fancy be busy and quick, his judgment is but shallow; if his judgment be deep, his utterance his harsh. Which also holds no less in the activities of the hand: and if it happen, that one man be qualified with skill of divers trades and practise this variety, you shall seldom find such one thriving in his estate. With spiritual gifts it is otherwise; which are so chained together, that who excels in one, hath some eminency in more, yea, in all. Look she is attended with a bevy of graces: he that believes, faith: upon cannot but have hope; if hope, patience; he that believes and hopes, must needs find joy in God; if joy, love of