shall go no deeper than the knee and tongue, in forms, or ceremonies, or a dissembled affection and profession. But to be devoted absolutely to God, in self-resignation, obedience, and love, how rare is it, even in them who cannot deny, but the law of nature itself doth primarily and undeniably oblige them to it. Their religion is but self-condemnation, while their tongues condemn their hearts and lives. 1

It is a sensual, brutish world, and seemeth to have hired out their reason to the service of their appetites and lusts; gluttony, and excess of drink, and sports, and plays, and gaming, with pride, and wantonness, and fornication, and uncleanness, and worldly pomp, and the covetous gathering of provision for the flesh, to satisfy these lusts, is the business and pleasure of their lives; and if you tell them of reason, or the law of God, to take them off, you may almost as well think to reason a hungry dog from his carrion, or a lustful boar to forbear his lust. m

And it is a selfish world, where every man is as an idol to himself, and affected to himself and his own interest, as if he were all the world; drawing all that he can from others, to fill his own insatiable desires; loving all men, and honouring, and esteeming, and praising them, according to the measure of their esteem of him, or their agreeableness to his opinions, ways, or interest. Self love, self-conceit, self-esteem, self-will, and selfseeking, is the soul and business of the world; and, therefore, no wonder that it is a divided and contentious world, when it hath as many ends as men, and every man is for himself, and draweth his own way. No wonder that there is such variety of apprehensions, that no two men are in all things of a mind and that the world is like a company of drunken men together by the ears, or of blind men fighting with they know not whom, and for they know not what; and that ignorant sects, and contentious wranglers, and furious fighters, are the bulky parts of it; and that striving who shall rule, or be greatest, or have his will, is the world's employment.

It is a dreaming and distracted world, that spend their days and cares for nothing; and are as serious in following a feather,

;

He that will peruse that notable description of the state of morals, and of souls in flesh, which Arnobius hath, ('Adv. Gentes,' lib. 2. pp. 18, 19. Annot. Bib. Pat.) (too long to be transcribed) shall see the vanity and shame of this corrupted world expressed to the life.

m Nostri tantum qui Christiani vocamur nulla vobis cura est; sinitis enim nos qui nihil mali patramus, immo omnium piissimè justissimeque cum erga Deum tum imperium vestrum nos gerimus, exagitari, rapi, fugari, nomen duntaxat nostrum plerisque impugnantibus. Athenagor. Apolog, p. 1.

and in the pursuit of that which they confess is vanity, and dying in their hands, as if, indeed, they knew it to be true felicity. They are like children, busy in hunting butterflies; or like boys at foot-ball, as eager in the pursuit, and in overturning one another, as if it were for their lives, or for some great, desirable prize; or more like to a heap of ants, that gad about as busily, and make as much ado for sticks and dust, as if they were about some magnificent work. Thus doth the vain, deceived world lay out their thoughts and time upon impertinencies, and talk and walk like so many noctambulos in their sleep they study, and care, and weep, and laugh, and labour, and fight, as men in a dream; and will hardly be persuaded but it is reality which they pursue, till death come and awake them. Like a stage-play, or a puppet-play, where all things seem to be what they are not, and all parties seem to do what they do not, and then depart, and are all disrobed and unmasked; such is the life of the most of this world, who spend their days in a serious jesting, and in a busy doing of nothing.

It is a malignant world, that hath an inbred, radicated enmity to all that virtue and goodness which they want; they are so captivated by their fleshly pleasures and worldly interests, that the first sight, approach, or motion, of reason, holiness, mortification, and self-denial, is met by them with heart-rising, indignation, and opposition; in which their fury beareth down all argument, and neither giveth them leave considerately to use their own reason, or hearken to another's. There are few that are truly wise, and good, and heavenly, that escape their hatred and beastly rage; and when countries have thought to remedy this plague, by changing their forms of government, experience hath told them, that the vice and root of their calamity lieth in the blindness and wickedness of corrupted nature, which no form of government will cure; and that the doves, that are governed by hawks and kites, must be their prey, whether it be one, or many, that hath the sovereignty. "

n

Yea, it is an unthankful world, that, in the exercise of this malignant cruelty, will begin with those that deserve best at their hands. He that would instruct them, and stop them in

" O ingratum et impium seculum! O in privatam perniciem incredibili pectoris obstinatione pronum ! si aliquis ad vos medicus ex summotis venisset, et incognitis regionibus, medicamen pollicens, certatim blanditiis, &c. Quænam est hæc feritas, quæ libido tam carnifex, inexpiabile bellum indicere nihil de te merito? Dilacerare si detur velle eum per viscera, qui non modo uullum intulerit malum nulli, sed benignus hostibus, &c.—Arnob. 1. 1, in fine.

their sin, and save their souls, doth ordinarily make himself a prey and they are not content to take away their lives, but they will, among their credulous rabble, take away the reputation of their honesty; and no wisdom or learning was ever so great, no innocency so unspotted, no honesty, justice, or charity so untainted, no holiness so venerable, that could ever privilege the owners from their rage, or make the possessors to escape their malice. " Even Jesus Christ, that never committed sin, and that came into the world with the most matchless love, and to do them the greatest good, was yet prosecuted furiously to a shameful death; and not only so, but, in his humiliation, his judgment was taken away, and he was condemned as an evil doer, who was the greatest enemy to sin that ever was born into the world he was accused of blasphemy, for calling himself the Son of God: of impiety, for talking of destroying the temple; and of treason, for saying he was a king. And his apostles, that went about the world to save men's souls, and proclaim to them the joyful tidings of salvation, had little better entertainment; wherever they came, bonds and afflictions did abide them; and if they had not been taught to rejoice in tribulations, they could have expected little joy on earth. And it was not only Christians that were thus used, but honesty in the heathens as usually met with opposition and reproach, as Seneca himself doth often complain: yea, how few have there been that have been famous for any excellency of wit or learning, or any addition to the world's understanding, but their reward hath been reproach, imprisonment, or death. Did Socrates die in his bed, or was he not murdered by the rage of wicked hypocrites? Plato durst not speak his mind, for fear of his master's reward. Aristippus left Athens, ne his peccarent in philosophiam. Not only Solon, but most benefactors to any commonwealth, have suffered for their beneficence. Demosthenes, Cato, Cicero, Seneca, could none of them save their lives from fury, by their great learning or honesty. Yea, among nominal Christians, he that told them of an antipodes, was excommunicated by the papal authority for an heretic;

• Prosperum ac fælix scelus virtus vocatur. Quis nomen unquam sceleris errori dedit? sæpe error ingens sceleris obtinuit locum.-Sen. Herc. fur.

P Anaxarchum Democritium a Cyprio tyranno excarnificatum accepimus: Zenonem Eleatem in tormentis necatum: quid dicam de Socrate, cujus morti illachrymari soleo Platonem legens. Many more such instances hath Cotta in Cicero, (De Nat. Deor. 1. 3. pp. 107, 108.) Primusque de vitæ ratione disseruit Socrates, primusque Philosophorum damnatus moritur.-Laert in Socrat.

and a Savonarola, Arnoldus de Villa Nova, Paulus, Scaliger, &c., could not be wiser than their neighbours, but to their cost: No; nor Arias Montanus himself. Campanella was fain, in prison, to compile his 'New Philosophy;' and with the pleasure of his inventions, to bear the torments which were their sour sauce. Even Galilæus, that discovered so many new orbs, and taught this world the way of clearer acquaintance with its neighbours, could not escape the reverend justice of the papalists, but must lie ir a prison, as if O sapientia had been written on his doors; as the old woman cried out to Thales, when he fell into a ditch, while he was by his instrument taking the height of a star. And Sir Walter Raleigh could not save his head by his learned History of the World,' but must be one part of its history himself; nor yet by his great observation, how Antipater is taken for a bloody tyrant for killing Demosthenes, and how arts and learning have power to disgrace any man that doth evil to the famous masters of them. Ramus, who had done so much in philosophy for the learned world, was requited by a butcherly, barbarous murder, being one of the thirty or forty thousand that were so used in the French massacre; and many a holy person perished in the two hundred thousand murdered by the Irish. It were endless to instance the ungrateful cruelties of the world, and what entertainment it hath given to wise and godly men: even those whom it superstitiously adoreth, when it hath murdered them.

Peter

And in all this wickedness, it is wilful, and stupid, and incorrigible; and ordinary means do little to the cure. Thus is it a sinful, evil world.

II. And it is a tempting world, that would make all bad as it is itself. Wherever the sanctifying truth of God doth come to illuminate and reform men, the world is presently up in arms against it; and fighting against that which would save men's souls, as if it were a plague or enemy that would destroy them. Princes think it is against their interest, and the people find that it is against their lusts; and so the sin of tyranny keepeth the Gospel out of the greatest part of the world, and popular fury resisteth it where it cometh. The empires of the Turks, and Tartarian, and China, are sad instances of the success of

Campanella telleth us himself of his thirty years' cruel persecution and torments in the inquisition.

* Hist. part 1. 1. 4. c. 3. sect. 6.

* Judices non tam quid commiserit reus aliquis nostrum inquirunt, quam ipsi nomini tanquam certo sceleri illudunt.-Athenagor. ub. supr.

tyranny against the means of men's salvation; and the empire of Japan hath given the world an instance of such unparallelled cruelty to that end, as maketh the persecutions of Nero and Dioclesian, and even the popish inquisition, and almost the massacres of Piedmont, France, and Ireland, seem very merciful acts of charity. What rage, what inhuman fury hath been showed through all the world, to keep out knowledge, and keep the nations in their darkness and misery, and forbid relief! but for error and deceit, idolatry and superstition, how industriously are they propagated! Empire and arts, power and learning, are employed to deceive and undo the world; and though empire be God's ordinance, and arts his gifts, they are turned against him in the far greatest part of the earth, and Satan is served by them as if they had been ordained by him: almost every country hath its proper opinions, and a religion fitted to resist religion. He that is an idolater, or a Mahometan, or infidel, would make more; and they that are against all serious religion, are as eager to make others of their mind as if they were a work of charity or commodity; and he that is endeavouring to undo souls, is as vehement in it as he that is endeavouring to save them. He that hath any passion or corrupt affection, is as inclinable to convey it to another as fire is to kindle fire, or one that hath the plague to infect his neighbour. Covetousness, ambition, voluptuousness, lust, and wrath and revenge, are all contagious. Rioters think it strange if we run not with them into all excess. The very noise of their impertinent talk and business, and the great ado that they make in doing nothing, is a great diverter of those that are about them, from serious business and sober consideration. They keep men so busy about their vanities, that they can find no leisure to remember that they are men, or to think what business they have in the world, nor where it is that they must dwell for ever; and when their folly and selfishness hath set them altogether by the ears, they must needs draw or drive others into the fire of contention with them. They cry, Who is on my side! who!' And he that will not be of one party or other, but will keep his peace, shall lose it by the enmity of all; and no man shall be taken for orthodox or honest that will not be of that faction whose commendation he desireth; and when he hath humoured them, he shall go for a knave or a reproached person, with all the rest. A peaceable man shall hardly find the peace which he desireth to himself; but it is ten to one but he loseth his labour, if he would make peace between