Neither shall my score run on so long with God, that I shall not know my debts, or fear an audit, or despair of payment.

Faith and Reason.

THE School of God, and nature, require two contrary manners of proceeding. In the school of nature we mus conceive, and then believe: in the school of God we must first believe, and then we shall conceive. He that believes no more than he conceives, can never be a christian; nor he a philosopher that assents without reason. In nature's school we are taught to elicit the truth by logical discourse; but God cannot endure a logician. In his school, he is the best scholar that reasons least, and assents most. In divine things I will conceive what I can the rest I will believe and admire. Not a curious head, but a believing and plain heart, is accepted with God.

Our Best Friend.

*

EXTREMITY distinguishes friends. Worldly pleasures, like physicians, give us over, when once we lie a dying; and yet the deathbed has most need of comfort. Christ Jesus standeth by his in the pangs of death; and after death, at the bar of judgment; not leaving them either in their bed or grave. I will use them therefore to my best advantage, but not trust them. But for thee, oh my Lord, who in mercy and truth canst not fail me, whom I have found ever faithful and present in all extremities, Kill me, yet will I trust in thee!

The Theatre.

THE world is a stage, every man an actor, and plays his part here, either in a comedy or tragedy. The good man is a comedian; and however he begins, he ends cheerfully. The wicked man acts a tragedy, and therefore ever ends in horror. Thou seest a wicked man vaunt

himself on his stage; stay till the last act, and look to his end, as David did, and see whether that be peace. It would be a strange tragedy, with only one act. Who sees an ox grazing in a fat pasture, and thinks not that he is near to the slaughter; while the lean beast that toils under the yoke, is far enough from the shambles. The best wicked man cannot be so envied in his first shows, 'as he is pitiable in the conclusion.

Words and Deeds.

HEARING is a very comprehensive faculty, yet far more subject to deceit than seeing; not in the manner of apprehending, but in the uncertainty of the object. Words are vocal interpreters of the mind, actions real; therefore, however both should speak according to the truth of what is in the heart, yet words do more belie the heart than actions. I care not what words I hear, when I see deeds. I am sure what a man doth he thinketh; not so always when he speaketh. Though I will not be so severe a censor, that for some few evil acts I should condemn a man of false-heartedness; yet generally I cannot but believe the language of the hand, rather than of the tongue. He that says well and doth well, is without exception commendable: but if one of these must be severed from the other, I like him well that doth well, and saith nothing.

Communication of Knowledge.

THE ear and the eye are the mind's receivers; but the tongue is only busied in expending the treasure received. If therefore the revenues of the mind be uttered as fast or faster than they are received, it cannot be but that the mind must needs be kept bare, and can never lay up for purchase but if the receivers take in still with no utterance, the mind may soon grow a burden to itself, and unprofitable to others. I will not lay up too much, and utter nothing, lest I be covetous: nor spend much, and store up little, lest I be prodigal and poor.

Friendship.

THAT which is the misery of travellers, to find many hosts and few friends, is the state of christians in their pilgrimage to a better life. Good friends should not be easily forgotten, nor used as suits of apparel; which, when we have worn threadbare, we cast off, and call for new. Nothing but death or villainy shall devorce me from an old friend; but still I will follow him so far as is either possible or honest, and then I will leave him with sorrow. True friendship necessarily requires patience; for there is no man in whom there is not something to dislike, and who will not as justly dislike something in me. My friends' faults therefore, if little, I will swallow and digest; if great, I will smother them, or wink at them to others; but lovingly notice them to himself.

The Righteous and the Wicked.

A WICKED man is a coward, and afraid of every thing of God, because he is his enemy; of Satan, because he is his tormentor; of God's creatures, because they, joining with their Maker, fight against him; of himself, because he bears about him his own accuser and executioner. A godly man, on the contrary, is afraid of nothing: not of God, because he knows him to be his best friend, and therefore will not hurt him; not of Satan, because he cannot hurt him; not of afflictions, because he knows they proceed from a loving God, and end in his own good; not of the creatures, since the very stones of the field are in league with him; not of himself, since his conscience is at peace. A wicked man may be secure, because he knows not what he hath to fear; or desperate, through extremity of fear; but truly courageous he cannot be. Faithlessness cannot but be false hearted. I will ever, by my courage, make trial of my faith by how much more I fear, by so much less I

believe.

Poverty and Riches.

If I would be irreligious and unconscionable, I should make no doubt of being rich; for if a man will defraud, dissemble, oppress, make use of all men for his own turn, and make no scruple of any wicked action for his advantage, he cannot well escape wealth and preferment. But for an upright man to rise is difficult, while his conscience. restrains him from every unjust action, and will not allow him to advance himself by indirect means. Hence riches seldom come easily to a good man; seldom hardly to the unjust. Happy is the man that can be rich with truth, or poor with contentment. I will not envy the gravel in

the unjust man's throat. Of riches, let me never have more than an honest man can bear away.

ven.

Summer and Winter.

In na

GOD is the God of order, not of confusion. tural things he gradually proceeds from one extreme to another, and so also in spiritual things. The sun riseth not at once to his highest, from the darkness of midnight, but first sends forth some feeble glimmering of light in the dawning; then looks out with weak and waterish beams, and so by degrees, ascends to the midst of heaSo in the seasons of the year, we are not one day scorched with a summer heat, and on the next frozen with a sudden extremity of cold; but winter comes on softly; first by cold dews, then hoar frosts, until at last it descends to the hardest weather of all. Such are God's spiritual proceedings. He never brings any man from a state of sin to a state of glory, but through the state of grace. And as for grace, he seldom brings a man from gross wickedness to any eminence of perfection. I will be charitably jealous of those who, from notorious profligacy, leap at once into a sudden forwardness of profession. Holiness doth not, like Jonah's gourd, grow up in a night. I like better to go on soft and sure, than in a hasty fit to run myself out of wind, and after that to stand still and breathe.

Health and Sickness.

THERE is no earthly blessing so precious as health; without this, all other worldly good things are only troublesome. Nor is there any thing more difficult, than to have a good soul in a strong and vigorous body; for it is commonly seen, that the worse part draws away the better. But to have a healthful and sound soul in a weak sickly body, is no novelty; for the weakness of the body is often a help to the soul, playing the part of a perpetual monitor, to incite it to good and check it for evil. I will not be over-glad of health, nor over-fearful of sickness. I will more fear the spiritual hurt that may follow upon health, than the bodily pain that accompanies sickness.

Labour and Idleness.

NOTHING is more troublesome to a good mind than to do nothing; for besides the furtherance of our estate, the mind doth both delight and better itself with exercise. There is this difference then betwixt labour and idleness; labour is a profitable and pleasant trouble, but idleness is a trouble both unprofitable and comfortless. I will be ever doing something, either that God when he cometh, or Satan when he tempteth, may find me busied. And yet since as the old proverb says, It is better to be idle than effect nothing;' I will not more hate doing nothing, than doing something to no purpose. I shall do good but awhile; let me strive to do it while I may.

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Bearing Reproach.

It is not possible for an inferior to live at peace, unless he has learned to be contemned; for the pride of his superiors, and the malice of his equals and inferiors, will offer him continual and inevitable occasions of unquietness. As contentment is the mother of inward peace with ourselves, so humility is the mother of peace with others; for if thou be vile in thine own eyes first, it will