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doth not think himself as free as thou art: no pro portion of liberty will permit thee to be uncharitable, much less to apply it to satisfy thy ambition, or any other unlawful affection. Of all kind of affectation of liberty, to which the soul of man lets itself loose, there is none ought to be more carefully watched, and more strictly examined, than that which is so passionately pretended to, and so furiously embraced, liberty of conscience: other liberties which nature inclines and disposes us unto, how unwarrantable soever, may with more excuse, if not with more innocence, be indulged to, than that liberty which seems to take its rise from conscience: which in truth, if it be legitimate, is the dictate of God himself; and therefore men ought to tremble in imputing any thing to result from Him, that leads them to the direct breach of any of his commandments, indeed that doth not restrain them from it. It is a very severe limitation by St James, "So speak ye, and so do, as they that shall be judged by the law of liberty," (James ii. 12.) That liberty that will not be judged by the law, is an unlawful liberty; and men will find, if they are dili gent in seeking, that the law of Christ, which is the judge of Christian liberty, doth oblige all his followers to submit to the laws of their lawful sovereigns which are not directly, and to their knowledge, contradictory to his own. Conscience

is so pure a fountain, that no polluted water can be drawn from thence; and therefore St Peter pronounces a judgment upon those, who, upon their being free, use their liberty for a cloak of maliciousness, cover their wicked designs under the liberty of conscience, and so make God acces sary to the iniquity he abhors.

OF INDUSTRY.

Montpellier, 1670.

INDUSTRY is the cordial that nature hath provided to cure all its own infirmities and diseases, and to supply all its defects; the weapon to preserve and defend us against all the strokes and assaults of fortune; it is that only that conducts us through any noble enterprize to a noble end: what we obtain without it is by chance; what we obtain with it is by virtue. It is very great pity that so powerful an instrument should be put into the hands of wicked men, who thereby gain such infinite advantages; yet it cannot be denied but that it is a virtue which ill men make use of to very ill purposes. It was the first foundation of Jeroboam's greatness: "And Solomon seeing the young man that he was industrious, he made him ruler over all the charge of the house of Joseph," (1 Kings xi. 28.)

by which he got credit and authority to deprive his son of the greatest part of his dominions. There is no art or science that is too difficult for industry to attain to; it is the gift of tongues, and makes a man understood and valued in all countries, and by all nations; it is the philosopher's stone, that turns all metals, and even stones, into gold, and suffers no want to break into its dwellings; it is the northwest passage, that brings the merchant's ships as soon to him as he can desire: in a word, it conquers all enemies, and makes fortune itself pay contribution. If this omnipotent engine were applied to all virtuous and worthy purposes, it would root out all vice from the world; for the industry of honest men is much more powerful than the industry of the wicked, which prevails not so much by its own activity, as by the remissness and supine laziness of their unwary enemies. The beauty and the brightness of it appear most powerfully to our observation, by the view of the contempt and deformity of that which is most opposite to it, idleness; which enfeebles and enervates the strength of the soundest constitutions, shrinks and stupifies the faculties of the most vigorous mind, and gives all the destroying diseases to body and mind, without the contribution from any other vice. Idleness is the sin and the punishment of beggars, and should

be detested by all noble persons, as a disease pestilential to their fortune and their honour.

I know not how it comes to pass, but the world pays dear for the folly of it, that this transcendent qualification of industry is looked upon only as an assistant fit for vulgar spirits, to which nature hath not been bountiful in the distribution of her store; as the refuge for dull and heavy men, who have neither their conceptions or apprehensions within any distance, nor can arrive at any ordinary design without much labour and toil, and many unnecessary revolvings, which men of sharp and pregnant parts stand in no need of, whose rich fancy presents to them in a moment the view of all contingencies, and all that occurs to formal and elaborate men after all their sweat; that they view and survey and judge and execute, whilst the others are tormenting thmselves with imaginations of difficulty, till all opportunities are lost; that it is an affront to the liberality of nature, and to the excellent qualities she hath bestowed upon them, to take pains to find what they have about them, and to doubt that which is most evident to them, because men who have more dim sights cannot discern so far as they and by this haughty childishness they quickly deprive themselves of the plentiful supplies which nature hath given them, for want of nourishment and recruits. If diligent and in

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dustrious men raise themselves, with very ordinary assistance from nature, to a great and deserved height of reputation and honour, by their solid acquired wisdom and confessed judgment, what noble flights would such men make with equal industry who are likewise liberally endowed with the advantages of nature? And without that assistance, experience makes it manifest unto us, that those early buddings, how vigorous soever they appear, if they are neglected and uncultivated by serious labour, they wither and fade away without producing any thing that is notable. Tully's rule to his orator is as true in all conditions of life, Quantum detraxit ex studio, tantum amisit ex gloria.

OF SICKNESS.

Montpellier, 1670.

"HEALTH and a good estate of body are above all gold, and a strong body above infinite wealth," says the son of Sirach, (Ecc. xxx. 15.) and the greatest benefit of health is, that whilst it lasts, the mind enjoys its full vigour; whereas sickness, by the distemper of the body, discomposes the mind as much, and deprives its faculties of all their lustre. Sickness and pain, which is always attended with want of sleep, disturb, if not confound, the thoughts, and

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