tongues of their enemies, while they perceived they spit their malice at brazen walls and statues.

Let age, not envy, draw wrinkles on thy cheeks; be content to be envied, but envy not. Emulation may be plausible, and indignation allowable, but admit no treaty with that passion which no circumstance can make good. A displacency at the good of others, because they enjoy it although we do not want it, is an absurd depravity sticking fast unto nature, from its primitive corruption, which he that can well subdue were a Christian of the first magnitude, and for ought I know may have one foot already in heaven.

While thou so hotly disclaimest the devil, be not guilty of Diabolism. Fall not into one name with that unclean spirit, nor act his nature whom thou so much abhorrest, that is, to accuse, calumniate, backbite, whisper, detract, or sinistrously interpret others. Degenerous depravities and narrow-minded vices! not only below St Paul's noble Christian, but Aristotle's true gentleman.* Trust not with some that the Epistle of St James is apocryphal, and so read with less fear that stabbing truth that in company with this vice, "thy religion is in vain." Moses broke the tables without breaking the law, but where charity is broke the law itself is shattered, which cannot be whole without love that is "the fulfilling of it." Look humbly upon thy virtues, and though thou art rich in some, yet think thyself poor and naked without that crowning grace which "thinketh no evil, which envieth not, which beareth, believeth, hopeth, endureth all things.' With these sure graces while busy tongues are crying out for a drop of cold water, mutes may be in happiness, and sing the "Trisagium," in heaven.

* See Aristotle's Ethics, chapter Magnaminity.
† Holy, holy, holy.

Let not the sun in Capricorn* go down upon thy wrath, but write thy wrongs in water, draw the curtain of night upon injuries, shut them up in the tower of oblivion,+ and let them be as though they had not been. Forgive thine enemies totally, without any reserve of hope that however God will revenge thee

Be substantially great in thyself, and more than thou appearest unto others; and let the world be deceived in thee, as they are in the lights of heaven. Hang early plummets upon the heels of pride, and let ambition have but an epicycle 19 or narrow circuit in thee. Measure not thyself by thy morning shadow, but by the extent of thy grave; and reckon thyself above the earth, by the line thou must be contented with under it. Spread not into boundless expansions either to designs or desires. Think not that mankind liveth but for a few; and that the rest are born but to serve the ambition of those who make but flies of men, and wildernesses of whole nations. Swell not into vehement actions, which embroil and confound the earth, but be one of those violent ones that force the kingdom of heaven. If thou must needs rule, be Zeno's king, and enjoy that empire which every man gives himself: certainly the iterated injunctions of Christ unto humility, meekness, patience, and that despised train of virtues, cannot but make pathetical impression upon those who have well considered the affairs of all ages; wherein pride, ambition, and vain-glory, have led

* Even when the days are shortest.

Alluding to the tower of oblivion mentioned by Procopius, which was the name of a tower of imprisonment among the Persians; whoever was put therein was as it were buried alive, and it was death for any but to name him.

St Matt. xi.

up to the worst of actions, whereunto confusions, tragedies, and acts, denying all religion, do owe their originals.

Řest not in an ovation,* but a triumph over thy passions. Chain up the unruly legion of thy breast; behold thy trophies within thee, not without thee. Lead thine own captivity captive, and be Cæsar unto thyself.

Give no quarter unto those vices that are of thine inward family, and, having a root in thy temper, plead a right and propriety in thee. Examine well thy complexional inclinations. Rain early batteries against those strongholds built upon the rock of nature, and make this a great part of the militia of thy life. The politic nature of vice must be opposed by policy, and therefore wiser honesties project and plot against sin; wherein notwithstanding we are not to rest in generals, or the trite stratagems of art; that may succeed with one temper, which may prove successless with another. There is no community or commonwealth of virtue, every man must study his own economy and erect these rules unto the figure of himself.

Lastly, if length of days be thy portion, make it not thy expectation. Reckon not upon long life; but live always beyond thy account. He that so often surviveth his expectation lives many lives, and will scarce complain of the shortness of his days. Time past is gone like a shadow; make times to come present; conceive that near which may be far off. Approximate thy latter times by present apprehensions of them: be like a neighbour unto death, and think there is but little to come. And since there is something in us that must still live on, join both lives together, unite them *Ovation, a petty and minor kind of triumph.

in thy thoughts and actions, and live in one but for the other. He who thus ordereth the purposes of this life, will never be far from the next, and is in some manner already in it, by a happy conformity and close appre hension of it.

1. It was a proverb, "Ubi tres medici duo athei." 2. A Latinised word meaning a taunt (impropero.)

3. The synod of Dort was held in 1619 to discuss the doctrines of Arminius. It ended by condemning them.

4. Hallam, commenting on this passage, says "That Jesuit must be a disgrace to his order who would have asked more than such a concession to secure a proselyte-the right of interpreting whatever was written, and of supplying whatever was not."-Hist. England, vol. ii. p. 74.

5. See the statute of the Six Articles (31 Hen. VIII. c. 14), which declared that transubstantiation, communion in one kind, celibacy of the clergy, vows of widowhood, private masses, and curicular confession, were part of the law of England.

6. In the year 1606, when the Jesuits were expelled from Venice, Pope Paul V. threatened to excommunicate that republic. A most violent quarrel ensued, which was ultimately settled by the mediation of France.

7. Alluding to the story of Edipus solving the riddle proposed by the Sphynx.

8. The nymph Arethusa was changed by Diana into a fountain, and was said to have flowed under the sea from Elis to the fountain of Arethusa near Syracuse.-Ov. Met. lib. v. fab. 8.

9. These heretics denied the immortality of the soul, but held that it was recalled to life with the body. Origen came from Egypt to confute them, and is said to have succeeded. (See Mosh. Eccl. Hist., lib. i. c. 5. sec. 16.) Pope John XXII. afterwards adopted it.

10. A division from the Greek Sixoтoμia.

11. The brain.

12. A faint resemblance, from the Latin adumbro, to shade.

13. Alluding to the idea Sir T. Browne often expresses, that an oracle

was the utterance of the devil.

14. To fathom, from Latin profundus. 15. Beginning from the Latin efficio. 16. Galen's great work.