that noble History of the World which is now in our hands. The Court had his youthful and freer times, the Tower his later age: the Tower reformed the Court in him, and produced those worthy monuments of art and industry, which we should have expected in vain from his freedom and jollity. It is observed that shining wood, when it is kept within doors, loses its light. It is otherwise with this and many other active wits, which had never shined so much, if it had not been for their close

ness.

SECTION 5.

Voluntary Seclusion.

THOU art close shut up :-I have seen anchorites who have sued for this as a favour, which thou esteemest a punishment; and having obtained it, they have placed merit in what thou apprehendest to be a misery. Our own history tells us of one, who when the church annexed to his cell was on fire, would not come out to live, but would die, and lie buried under the ashes of that roof where his vow had fixed him. Suppose thou dost that out of the resolution of thine own will, which thou dost out of another's necessitating, and thou shalt sit down contented with thy lot.

SECTION 6.

The causes of Imprisonment.

THOU art imprisoned :-Wise men are wont, in all actions and events, to inquire still into the causes. Wherefore dost thou suffer?

Is it for thy fault? Make thou thy gaol God's Correction-House for reforming of thy misdèeds. Remember

and imitate Manasseh, the evil son of a good father: who upon true humiliation, by his just imprisonment, found a happy expiation of his horrible idolatries, murders, witchcrafts; whose bonds brought him home to God and himself.

Is it for debt? Think not to pay those who have entrusted thee, with a lingering durance, if there be power in thy hand for a discharge: there is fraud and injustice in this. Fear thou a worse prison, if thou wilfully live and die in debt, when thou mayest be at once free and honest. Stretch thine ability to the utmost, to satisfy others with thine own impoverishing. But if the hand of God hath humbled and disabled thee, labour what thou canst to make thy peace with thy creditors. If they will be cruel, look up with patience to the hand of that God, who thinks fit to afflict thee with their unreasonableness; and make the same good use of thy sufferings, which thou wouldst do from the immediate hand of thy Creator.

If it be for a good cause, rejoice in this tribulation ; and be holily proud and glad, with the blessed apostles, that thou art counted worthy to suffer shame and bonds for the name of the Lord Jesus. Acts v. 41. Every just cause is his, neither is he less a martyr who suffers for his conscience in any of God's commandments, than he who suffers for matter of faith and religion. Remember that cordial word of thy Saviour, Blessed are they that are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

In such a prison thou shalt be sure to find good company. There thou shalt find Joseph, Micaiah, Jeremiah, John Baptist, Peter, Paul, and Silas, and all the holy Martyrs and Confessors of Jesus Christ, from the first plantation of the gospel to the present day. Repent thee, if thou canst, to be thus matched; and choose rather to violate a good conscience and be free, than to keep it under a momentary restraint.

M

SECTION 7.

The Benefit of Retirement.

THOU art a prisoner :-Make the best of thy condi tion. Close air is warmer than open air, and how commonly do we hear birds sing sweeter notes in their cage, than they would do in the wood. It shall be thine own fault, if thou be not benefited by thy retirement.

Thou art a prisoner:-so is thy soul in thy body: there, not restrained only, but fettered; yet complains not of the straitness of these clay walls or the weight of these bonds, but patiently waits for a happy gaol-delivery. So do thou attend, with all longsuffering, the good hour of the pleasure of thy God. Thy period is set, not without a regard to thy good, yea to thy best interest. He in whose hand are all times, shall find and hath determined a fit time, to free both thy body from these outward prison-walls, and thy soul from this prison of thy body; and to restore both body and soul from the bondage of corruption, to the glorious liberty of the sons of God. Rom. viii. 21.

CHAP. X.

COMFORTS AGAINST BANISHMENT.

SECTION 1.

Universality of a wise man's Country.

THOU art banished from thy country:-Beware lest, in thy complaining, thou censure thyself. A wise man's country is every where. What relation hath the place wherein thou wert born, to thy present being. What more than the time wherein thou wert born. What rea

son hast thou to be more attached to the region wherein thou fellest, than to the day of the week, or hour of the day, in which thou salutedst the light. What are times and places of our birth, but unimportant circumstances. Wherever thou farest well, thou mayest either find or make thy country.

But, thou sayest, there is a certain secret property in our native soil, that draws our affection and ties our hearts to it, with a pleasing kind of delight, of which no reason can be given. We love the place, not because it is better than others, but because it is our own.

I grant this relation hath so powerful an influence upon our hearts naturally, yet it is one that may be easily checked, with a small unkindness. How many have we known, who upon an actual but small affront, have diverted their regards from their native country; and out of a strong alienation of mind, have turned their love into hostility. We shall not need to seek far for histories, our times and memories will furnish us too well. Do we not see those who have sucked the breasts of our common mother, upon a little dislike to have spit in her face. Can we not name our late home-bred compatriots, who upon the disrelish of some displeasing laws have flown off from their country, and suborned treasons, and incited foreign princes to our invasion? Thus thou seest this natural affection is not so ardent in many, but that it may be quenched with discontent. If therefore there were no other ground of thine affliction, thy sorrow is not so deep-rooted, but that it may easily be pulled up.

SECTION 2.

The benefit of Self-Converse.

IT is not the air, or the earth thou standest upon; it is the company, thou sayest, from which it is a kind of death to part. I shall leave all acquaintance and conversation, and be cast upon strange faces, and languages

that I understand not. My best entertainment will be solitude, my ordinary, inhospitality.

Why dost thou affright thyself, my son, with these needless terrors, He is not worthy of the name of a philosopher, much less of a christian divine, that hath not attained to be absolute in himself; and which way soever he is cast, to stand upon his own bottom; and that if there were no other men left in the world, could not tell how to enjoy himself. It is that within us, by which we must live and be happy. Some additions of complacency may come from without: sociable natures, such as man's, seek and find pleasure in conversation; but if that be denied, sanctified spirits know how to converse comfortably with God and themselves.

SECTION 3.

Examples of those who have abandoned society.

How many holy ones of old have purposely withdrawn themselves from the company of men, that they might be blessed with an invisible society; have exchanged cities for deserts, houses for caves, the sight of men for beasts, that their spiritual eyes might be fixed upon those better objects, which the frequence of the world held from them. Necessity puts thee into that state which their piety desired.

Oh, but to be driven to forsake parents, kinsfolk, friends, how sad a case must it needs be! What is this but a perfect distraction. What are we but pieces of our parents; and what are friends but parts of us. What is all the world to us, without these comforts?

When thou hast said all, my son, nothing has befallen thee but what it pleased God to enjoin upon the Father of the faithful. Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, into a land that I will shew thee. Gen. xii. 1. Lo, the same God, by the command of authority, calls thee to this secession.