in it so much philosophy as to think any thing evil as long as we can endure it, they grow up to ulcers, and pestilential evils; they destroy the soul by their abode, who at their first entry might have been killed with the pressure of a little finger.

He that hath past many stages of a good life, to prevent his being tempted to a single sin, must be very careful that he never entertain his spirit with the remembrances of his past sin, nor amuse it with the fantastic apprehensions of the present. When the Israelites fancied the sapidness and relish of the flesh-pots, they longed to taste and to return.

So when a Libyan tiger drawn from his wilder foragings is shut up and taught to eat civil meat, and suffer the authority of a man, he sits down tamely in his prison, and pays to his keeper fear and reverence for his meat: but if he chance to come again, and taste a draught of warm blood, he presently leaps into his natural cruelty.

Admonitæque tument gustato sanguine fauces:
Fervet, et à trepido vix abstinet ira magistro.

He scarce abstains from eating those hands that brought him discipline and food. So is the nature of a man made tame and gentle by the grace of God, and reduced to reason, and kept in awe by religion and laws, and by an awful virtue is taught

to forget those alluring and sottish relishes of sin; but if he diverts from his path, and snatches handfuls from the wanton vineyards, and remembers the lasciviousness of his unwholesome food that pleased his childish palate; then he grows sick again, and hungry after unwholesome diet, and longs for the apples of Sodom.

The Pannonian bears, when they have clasped a dart in the region of their liver, wheel themselves upon the wound, and with anger and malicious revenge strike the deadly barb deeper, and cannot be quit from that fatal steel, but in flying bear along that which themselves make the instrument of a more hasty death: so is every vicious person struck with a deadly wound, and his own hands force it into the entertainments of the heart; and because it is painful to draw it forth by a sharp and salutary repentance, he still rolls and turns upon his wound, and carries his death in his bowels, where it first entered by choice, and then dwelt by love, and at last shall finish the tragedy by divine judgments and an unalterable decree.*

THE GOLDEN CALF.

FORMIDABLE is the state of an intemperate man, whose sin begins with sensuality and grows

* Of Growth in Sin; Serm. xvii. part. 2.

compute his months, not by the course of the sun, but the zodiac and circle of his virtues: because these are such things which fools and children, and bird, and beasts, cannot have: these are therefore the actions of life, because they are the seeds of immortality. That day in which we have done some excellent thing, we may as truly reckon to be added to our life, as were the fifteen years to the days of Hezekiah.*

*Holy Dying, ch. 1.

I add the following extract from Seneca's Epistles :I have applied myself to liberal studies, though both the poverty of my condition, and my own reason, might rather have put me upon the making of my fortune. I have given proof that all minds are capable of goodness; and I have illustrated the obscurity of my family by the eminency of my virtue. I have preserved my faith in all extremities, and I have ventured my life for it. I have never spoken one word contrary to my conscience, and I have been more solicitous for my friend, than for myself: I never made any base submission to any man; and I have never done any thing unworthy of a resolute and of an honest man. My mind is raised so much above all dangers, that I have mastered all hazards; and I bless myself in the providence which gave me that experiment of my virtue: for it was not fit, methought, that so great glory should come cheap. Nay, I did not so much as deliberate, whether good faith should suffer for me, or I for it. I stood my ground, without laying violent hands

HUMAN RESOLUTIONS.*

I HAVE seen a fair structure begun with art and care, and raised to half its stature, and then it stood still by the misfortune or negligence of the owner; and the rain descended and dwelt in its joints, and supplanted the contexture of its pillars, and, having stood awhile, like the antiquated temple of a deceased oracle, it fell into a hasty age, and sunk upon its own knees, and so descended into ruin: so is the imperfect, unfinished spirit of man; it lays the foundation of a holy resolution, and strengthens it with vows and arts of prosecution; it raises up the walls, sacraments, and prayers, reading, and holy ordinances; and holy actions begin with a slow motion, and

upon myself, to escape the rage of the powerful; though under Caligula I saw cruelties, to such a degree, that to be killed outright, was accounted a mercy. And yet I persisted in my honesty, to shew that I was ready to do more than die for it. My mind was never corrupted with gifts; and when the humour of avarice was at the height, I never laid my hand upon any unlawful gain: I have been temperate in my diet; modest in my discourse; courteous and affable to my inferiors; and have ever paid a respect, and reverence to my betters.

* Sermon on Lukewarmness and Zeal; Serm. xiii. part 2.

F

the building stays, and the spirit is weary, and the soul is naked and exposed to temptation, and in the days of storm takes in every thing that can do it mischief; and it is faint and sick, listless and tired, and it stands till its own weight wearies the foundation, and then declines to death and sad disorder.

PLEASURES OF UNDERSTANDING.*

Ir is not the eye that sees the beauties of the heaven, nor the ear that hears the sweetness of music, or the glad tidings of a prosperous accident, but the soul that perceives all the relishes of sensual and intellectual perfections; and the more noble and excellent the soul is, the greater and more savory are its perceptions. And if a child beholds the rich ermine, or the diamonds of a starry night, or the order of the world, or hears the discourses of an apostle he makes no reflex acts upon himself.

It is a great disreputation to the understanding of a man, to be so cozened and deceived, as to choose money before a moral virtue; to please that which is common to him and beasts, rather than that part which is a communication of the

* See note (C) at the end.