city as Constantinople; yet, for me to take my oath thereon were a kind of perjury, because I hold no infallible warrant from my own sense to confirm me in the certainty thereof. And truly, though many pretend to an absolute certainty of their salvation, yet, when an humble soul shall contemplate her own unworthiness, she shall meet with many doubts, and suddenly find how little we stand in need of the precept of St. Paul, "work out your salvation with fear and trembling." That which is the cause of my election, I hold to be the cause of my salvation, which was the mercy and beneplacit of God, before I was, or the foundation of the world. "Before Abraham was, I am," is the saying of Christ, yet is it true in some sense if I say it of myself; for I was not only before myself but Adam, that is, in the idea of God, and the decree of that synod held from all eternity. And in this sense, I say, the world was before the creation, and at an end before it had a beginning. And thus was I dead before I was alive; though my grave be England, my dying place was Paradise; and Eve miscarried of me, before she conceived of Cain." SECT. LX.-Insolent zeals, that do decry good works and rely only upon faith, take not away merit: for, depending upon the efficacy of their faith, they enforce the condition of God, and in a more sophistical way do seem to challenge heaven. It was decreed by God that only those that lapped in the water, like dogs, should have the honour to destroy the Midianites; yet could none of those justly challenge, or imagine he deserved, that honour thereupon. I do not deny but that true faith, and such as God requires, is not only a mark or token, but also a means, of our salvation; but, where to find this, is as obscure to me as my last end. And if our Saviour could object, unto his own disciples and favourites, a faith that, to 4 pretend to] MS. W. 2 reads, believe. -Ed. 5 little] Edts. 1642 read, much; and the French and Dutch translations follow this reading. All the MSS. and the English and Latin editions read, little; which, though it presents a less obvious meaning, was probably intended by the author, who meant to observe that it is impossible for "a humble soul to contemplate her own unworthiness," without "fear and trembling;" so that St. Paul needed not to have enjoined those feelings.-Ed. 6 in some sense] Omitted in all the MSS. and Edts. 1642-Ed. 7 And thus, &c.] This clause is not in the MSS., nor Edts. 1642.-Ed. 8 sophistical] MSS. R. reads, syllogistical.-Ed. 9 object,] This seems to be used in the sense of presenting or proposing as an object.-Ed. the quantity of a grain of mustard seed, is able to remove mountains; surely that which we boast of is not any thing, or, at the most, but a remove from nothing. This is the tenour of my belief; wherein, though there be many things singular, and to the humour of my irregular self, yet, if they square not with maturer judgements, I disclaim them, and do no further favour1 them than the learned and best judgements shall authorize them. PART THE SECOND. SECT. I.-Now, for that other virtue of charity, without which faith is a mere notion and of no existence, I have ever endeavoured to nourish the merciful disposition and humane inclination I borrowed from my parents, and regulate it to the written and prescribed laws of charity. And, if I hold the true anatomy of myself, I am delineated and naturally framed to such a piece of virtue,3-for I am of a constitution so general that it consorts and sympathizeth with all things; I have no antipathy, or rather idiosyncrasy, in diet, humour, air, any thing. I wonder not at the French for their dishes of frogs, snails, and toadstools, nor at the Jews for locusts and grasshoppers; but, being amongst them, make them my common viands; and I find they agree with my stomach as well as theirs. I could digest a salad gathered in a church-yard as well as in a garden. I cannot start at the presence of a serpent, scorpion, lizard, or salamander; at the sight of a toad 1 favour] All the MSS. and Edts. 1642 read, father.-Ed. 2 written and] Not in MSS. or Edts. 1642.-Ed. 3 of virtue,] Not in MS. R.-Ed. 4 the Jews for locusts and grasshoppers;] Pliny relates that, in some parts of Ethiopia, the inhabitants lived upon nothing but locusts salted, and that the Parthians also accounted them a pleasant article of food. The modern Arabs catch great quantities of locusts, of which they prepare a dish by boiling them with salt, and mixing a little oil, butter, and fat; sometimes they toast them before a fire, or soak them in warm water, and without any other culinary process, devour almost every part except the wings. They are also said to be sometimes pickled in vinegar. The locusts which formed part of John the Baptist's food (Mark i, 6,) were these insects, and not the fruit of the locust tree. T. H. Horne's Introduction, &c. iii, p. 71.-Ed. 5 presence] Edt. 1642 C. reads, present.-Ed. or viper, I find in me no desire to take up a stone to destroy them. I feel not in myself those common antipathies that I can discover in others: those national repugnances do not touch me, nor do I behold with prejudice the French, Italian, Spaniard, or Dutch; but, where I find their actions in balance with my countrymen's, I honour, love, and embrace them, in some degree. I was born in the eighth climate, but seem to be framed and constellated unto all. I am no plant that will not prosper out of a garden. All places, all airs,9 make unto me one country; I am in England every where, and under any meridian. I have been shipwrecked, yet am not enemy with the sea or winds; I can study, play, or sleep, in a tempest. In brief I am averse from nothing: my conscience would give me the lie if I should say I absolutely detest or hate any essence, but the devil; or so at least abhor any thing, but that we might come to composition. If there be any among those common objects of hatred I do contemn and laugh at, it is that great enemy of reason, virtue, and religion, the multitude; that numerous piece of monstrosity, which, taken asunder, seem men, and the reasonable creatures of God, but, confused together, make but one great beast, and a monstrosity more prodigious than Hydra. It is no breach of charity to call these fools; it is the style all holy writers have afforded them, set down by Solomon in canonical scripture, and a point of our faith to believe so. Neither in the name of multitude do I only include the base and minor sort of people: 6 national repugnances] Sic Angli in publicis plateis Londini non abstinent prætereuntem more gallico vestitum appellare Frenche Dogge. Odium inter Hispanos ac Gallos, inter Schotos atque Anglos, inter Danos ac Suecos, inter Turcas atque Ungaros notum est.-M. 7 French,] MS. W. & Edts. 1642 read, Flemish.-Ed. 8 seem to be framed] MSS. W. & R. and Edts. 1642 read, seemed forty beframed; Edt. 1643 reads, seem for to be framed.-Ed. 9 airs,] Edts. 1642 read, ages.-Ed. 1 yet am not enemy with the sea or winds;] So said not Cato!—whose three causes of regret are thus enumerated by Plutarch:-1. if he had intrusted a woman with a secret:-2. if he had gone by sea 3 hate any essence, but the devil, &c.] All the MSS. and Edts. 1642 read, "hate the devil; or so at least abhor him but that we may come to composition."Ed. 4 enemy] All the MSS. and Edts. 1642 read, inquiry.—Ed. men, and] Not in MS. W. and the Edts. 1642.-Ed. 6 canonical] MS. W. and Edts. 1642 read, holy.-Ed. there is a rabble even amongst the gentry; a sort of plebeian heads, whose fancy moves with the same wheel as those; men in the same level with mechanicks, though their fortunes do somewhat gild their infirmities, and their purses compound for their follies. But, as in casting account three or four men together come short in account of one man placed by himself below them, so neither are a troop of these ignorant Doradoes9 of that true esteem and value as many a forlorn person, whose condition doth place him1 below their feet. Let us speak like politicians; there is a nobility without heraldry, a natural dignity, whereby one man is ranked with another, another filed before him, according to the quality of his desert, and preeminence of his good parts. Though the corruption of these times, and the bias of present practice, wheel another way, thus it was in the first and primitive commonwealths, and is yet in the integrity and cradle of well ordered polities:3 till corruption getteth ground;-ruder desires labouring after that which wiser considerations contemn;-every one having a liberty to amass and heap up riches, and they a licence or faculty to do or purchase any thing. SECT. II. This general and indifferent temper of mine doth more nearly dispose me to this noble virtue. It is a happiness to be born and framed unto virtue, and to grow up from the seeds of nature, rather than the inoculations and forced grafts 7 a rabble even amongst the gentry;] Optime Socrates dixit: "Neque frumentum optimum judicamus, quod in pulcherrimo agro natum est, sed quod commode nutrit, neque virum bonum et studiosum, aut amicum benevolum, qui genere clarus, sed qui moribus egregiis fuerit. Vid. Stobæum serm. 84, ex vers. Gesner.-M. 8 their fortunes do somewhat gild, &c.] "Et genus et formam regina pecunia donat." Hor. Epist. 1. i. 6.—M. 9 Doradoes] From the Spanish, Dorado, a gilt-head, gilt-poll.-J. W. The epithet is evidently in allusion to the preceding sentence: "Though their fortunes do somewhat gild their infirmities, &c."-Ed. Diogenes, qui ne pouvait souffrir ces gens-là devant ses yeux, voyant une fois un de ces fanfarons, ou de ces galands, avec un habit tout chamarré d'or et d'argent, et se moquant de lui à gorge déployée, dit à ceux qui étoient à l'entour de lui, "et je vous prie voyez un peu cette masse de terre dorée, qui a eté cuite au soleil."-Fr. Tr. 1 him] So in Edts. 1642 and 1686all the MSS. and all the other Edts. read, them.-Ed. 2 another] All the MSS. and Edts. 1642 read, and.-Ed. 3 in the integrity and cradle of well ordered polities:] "In those well ordered polities whose entireness was yet unbroken, and their freshness unimpaired.” Sir Thomas uses integrity in the same sense in the following passage ;—" who go with healthful prayers unto the last scene of their lives, and in the integrity of their faculties return their spirit unto God that gave it." Christian Morals p. i, § 4.-Ed. of education: yet, if we are directed only by our particular natures, and regulate our inclinations by no higher rule than that of our reasons, we are but moralists; divinity will still call us heathens. Therefore this great work of charity must have other motives, ends, and impulsions. I give no alms to satisfy the hunger of my brother, but to fulfil and accomplish the will and command of my God; I draw not my purse for his sake that demands it, but his that enjoined it; I relieve no man upon the rhetorick of his miseries, nor to content mine own commiserating disposition; for this is still but moral charity, and an act that oweth more to passion than reason. He that relieves another upon the bare suggestion and bowels of pity doth not this so much for his sake as for his own: for by compassion we make another's misery our own; and so, by relieving them, we relieve ourselves also. It is as erroneous a conceit to redress other men's misfortunes upon the common considerations of merciful natures, that it may be one day our own case; for this is a sinister and politick kind of charity, whereby we seem to bespeak the pities of men in the like occasions. And truly I have observed that those professed eleemosynaries, though in a crowd or multitude, do yet direct and5 place their petitions on a few and selected persons; there is surely a physiognomy, which those experienced and master mendicants observe, whereby they instantly discover a merciful aspect, and will single out a face, wherein they spy the signatures and marks of mercy. For there are mystically in our faces certain characters which carry in them the motto of our souls, wherein he that can read A B C may read our natures. I hold, moreover, that there is a phytognomy, or physiognomy, not only of men, but of plants and vegetables; and in every one of them some outward figures which hang as signs or bushes of their inward forms. The finger of God hath left an 4 passion] In the sense of suffering, sympathy.-Ed. 5 direct and] Omitted in all the MSS. and Edts. 1642.-Ed. 6 can] MSS. W. & R. read, cannot.-Ed. 7 hang as signs or bushes, &c.] In the epilogue to Shakspeare's As you like it, occurs the following passage:— "If it be true that good wine needs no bush, 't is true that a good play needs no epilogue, &c." To which passage we find in Boswell's Edition of Malone's Shakspeare the following note: "It appears formerly to have been the custom to hang a tuft of ivy at the door of a vintner. I suppose ivy was rather chosen than any other plant, as it has |