mans braine if it flow not from heaven it is odious to heaven The only way to bring comforts and to intaile a comfortable prosperity upon our Posterity is our conscionable inward obedience to God The services of our love to Gods Children are never thanklesse When wee are dead and rotten they shall live and procure blessings to those that never knew perhaps nor heard of their progenitors If we sow good workes succession shall reape them and wee shall be happy in making them so Doubtlesse that childe is happy whose progenitors are in heaven for he is left an inheritor of blessings together with estate whereas wicked Ancestors lose the thankes of a rich Patrimony by the curse that attends it A Good heart hath learned to frame it selfe unto all conditions and can change his estate without change of disposition rising and falling according to occasion whereas the worldly minde can rise easily but knowes not how to descend either with patience or safety OF all creatures Christians should have least interest in themselves but should live as given to benefit of others not caring much for what they have and nothing for what they have not seeing all worldly things though they require long labour in getting yet affoord but a short pleasure in enjoying them WIcked men that know the filthinesse of their soules dare not so much as view them but shift off all checks of their former iniquity with vaine excuses of good fellowship Whence it is that every small reprehension galls them because it calls the eyes of the soule home to it selfe making them see a glimpse of what they would not Like a foolish and timorous Patient who knowing his wound very deepe cannot endure the Surgeon should search it whereof what can ensue but a festering of the part and a danger of the whole body The old proverbe is true Oft and even reckonings make long friends Many prodigall wasters runne so far in bookes that they cannot abide to heare of a reckoning Happy is he that summes up his estate often with God he shall thereby know what he hath to expect and answer for neither shall his score run on so long that he shall not know his debts or feare an account or despaire of paiment FEw men feare to doe ill every man to suffer ill wherin if we consider right we shall finde that wee feare our best friends for Prosperity usually makes us forget our death Adversity on the other side makes us neglect our life Now if wee measure both of these by their effects forgetfulnesse of death makes us secure neglect of this life makes us carefull of a better So much therefore as neglect of life is better than forgetfulnes of death and watchfulnesse better than security so much more beneficiall should wee esteeme Adversity than Prosperity T Is a base thing to get goods only to keep them wee see that God who is only infinite rich holdeth nothing in his own hands but gives all to his Creatures But if wee wil needs lay up where should wee rather repose it than in Christs Treasury which is the poore mans hand There should all our superfluity bee hoarded up where doubtlesse it shall be safely kept and surely returned us If our money were anothers wee could but keepe it onely expending it shewes it our owne t is better to lay it out well than to keep it safely NO worldly pleasure hath any absolute delight in it but as a Bee having honey in the mouth hath a sting in the taile Why then should wee be so foolish to rest our hearts upon any of them and not rather labour to aspire to that one absolute Good in whom is nothing savouring of griefe nothing wanting to perfect happinesse EVery man acts his part upon this worlds Theatre The good man is a Comedian who however hee begins ever ends merrily but the wicked man acts a Tragedy and therefore alwaies ends in horrour Who sees an Oxe grazing in a fat and rank pasture and thinks not that hee is neere to the slaughter whereas the leane beast that toiles under the yoke is farre enough from the shambles The best wicked man cannot bee so glorious in his first shewes as hee is miserable in the conclusion THat affection which is grounded on the best and most Heavenly vertue must needs be the safest for as it unites man to God so inseparably that no temptations no torments no not all the gates of hell can sever him so it unites one Christian soule to another so firmely that no outward occurrents no imperfections in the party loved can dissolve them Hee that loves not the childe of God for his owne and his Fathers sake more than a friend for his commodity or a kinsman for bloud never received any sparke of true heavenly love IT happens to Christians in their pilgrimage to a better life as it doth to Travellers who meet with many hosts but few friends Good friends are a great happinesse and therefore should not easily bee lost nor must they bee used as suits of apparell which when wee have worne thred-bare wee cast off and call for new Nothing but death or villany should divorce us from an old friend we should still follow him so farre as possibility or honesty can guide us which if he chance to leave we should yet leave him with sorrow THere is no man so pure in whom we may not mislike somewhat and who may not as justly mislike somewhat in us Our friends faults therefore if little should bee swallowed and digested if great they should be smothered at least winked at to others yet lovingly notified to him WHy should we vexe our selves because another hath vexed us Injuries hurt not more in the receiving than in the remembrance A small injury should goe as it comes great ones may dine or sup with us but if they lodge with us we shall finde them very irksome A Friends death as it may moderately grieve us so it may another way much benefit us in recompence of his want for it should make us think more often and seriously of earth and of heaven of earth for his body which is reposed in it of heaven for his soule wch possesseth it before us of earth to put us in minde of our like frailty and mortality of heaven to make us desire and after a sort emulate his happinesse and glory and it is a true saying he which hath himselfe hath lost nothing IT is better not know than by knowledge to bee made miserable he that never tasted the pleasures of sinne longs least after those deceitfull contentments 'T is easier to deny a guest at the first than to turn him out having stayed awhile The senselesse man knowes not what joy hee loseth when he fondly lasheth into new offences While the Conscience is unspotted it can make us smile even on the Rack and in Flames but that once wounded our joyes are buried at once and wee throw a jewell from
us which is richer than the worlds wealth happy is he that desires to die unexperienced in the sweets of such sin he knowes not HE is not worthy of thanks that professeth kindnesse for his owne ends hee that loves me for my gift sake loves my gift above my selfe and if I should happen to light on Adversity I should not finde him then to appeare there being no hope of a gainefull requitall friendship won by large gifts resembles a straw fire that having matter to feede upon burnes brightly but let new fuell be neglected it dies consumes and quite goes out A Good life is a Fortresse against shame and a good mans shame is his benefit the one keepes it away the other when it comes makes it prove profitable for nothing more saddens the soule of a good man than the serious apprehension of a just shame and by how much his honesty was more noted by so much will his shame and griefe bee more because all will now bee ready to brand him with the odious and stygmaticall name of an hypocrite Wee should first strive to be voyd of the act may bring shame and next not to cast it in the dish of the penitent If our sufferings bee unjust wee shall bee sure in the end to finde them comfortable BEtweene friends it cannot be but discurtesies will appeare though not intended by a willing act yet so taken by a wrong suspect which smothered in silence increase daily to a greater distaste but once revealed in a friendly manner oft meet with that satisfaction which doth in the disclosure banish them There is not any thing eates out friendship sooner than concealed grudges Conceits of unkindnesse harboured and beleeved will worke even a steady love to hatred If a private thought of unkindnesse arise betweene my friend and my selfe I presently tell it and be reconciled If he be cleare I shall like him the better when I see his integrity if faulty confession gaines my pardon and bindes me still to love him Fire almost quencht and laid abroad dies presently put together it will burne the better a little shaking helps the trees growth every such breach as this may unite affection faster HOnour and high place upon earth can confer nothing unto us that may make our life more truly happy if it add to our joys it increaseth our feares if it augment our pleasure our trouble and care is the more great persons are like flags in the tops of Shipmasts as more high and more visible so more and ever open to the winde and stormes What a snare hath wealth proved to many that like the Sun have in the morning of their time mounted themselves to the highest pitch of perspicuity and brightnesse which when they have once attained they decline fall vanish and are gone leaving nothing behinde them but darke night black reputation The Theefe that meets with a full purse takes away it and returns a stab whilest the empty pocket makes the life secure Hee is not a compleat Christian that cannot be content with what be enjoyes we should rather settle our mindes to a quiet rest in that we finde than let her wander in a wearied solicitude after ungotten plenty we should ever esteeme that estate best which God gives us though we cannot thinke so yet doubtlesse it is so and to thinke against knowledge is a foolish suspition AS Providence is the mother of happinesse so Negligence is the parent of misery No vice so soone steales on us as the abuse of things in themselves It is good the Vine should flourish but let it alone and it ruines it selfe in superfluous branches Our pleasures are sometimes the inlivenings of a drooping soule but they easily steale away our mindes making us with a mad affection dote upon them to our destruction We should ever be most circumspect in things veiled either with goodnesse or sweetnesse for nothing steales more soules from God than lewd courses that are outwardly glorious THe formall amity of the world is confined to a face or to the possibility of a recompence languishing in disability and dying in the decease of the party affected It is true love that over-living the person of a friend will be inherited of his seed but to love the posterity of an enemy in a friend is the miracle of friendship That love was ever false that is not ever constant and the most operative when it cannot be either knowne or requited WE should not nourish the same spirits in our adverse estates that we found in our highest prosperity what use have wee made of Gods hand if we be not the lower in our fall Gods intent is we should carry our Crosse not make a fire of it to warme us by It is no bearing up of sailes in a Tempest nor is there a more certaine way to glory and advancement than a lowly dejection of our selves under Gods chastisements IT is one of the mad Principles of wickednesse That it is weaknesse to relent and rather to die than yeeld even ill Causes once undertaken must be upheld although with blood whereas the gracious heart finding its owne mistaking doth not only remit of an ungrounded displeasure but studies to bee revenged on it selfe and to give satisfaction to the offended THere can be no fitter invitation to temptation than the down-bed of idlenesse the industrious man hath no leisure to sin the idle hath neither leisure nor power to avoid sin Exercise is not more wholsome for the body than for the soule the omission whereof breeds matter of disease in both the water that hath been heated soonest freezeth and the most active spirit soonest tyreth with slacking The earth stands still and is all dregs the heavens ever move and are pure Wee have no reason to complaine of the assiduity of worke the toile of action is answered by the benefit if we did lesse we should suffer more Satan like an idle companion if he findes us busie flies back and sees it no time to entertaine vaine purposes with us We cannot please him better than by casting away of our worke to hold chat with him we can not yeeld so far be guiltless THere can bee no safety with that soule where the senses are let loose hee can never keepe his covenant with God that makes not a covenant with his eyes It is an idle presumption to thinke the outward man may be free while the inward is safe he is more than a man whose heart is not led by his eyes he is no regenerate man whose eyes are not restrained by his heart THe griefe that goes before an evill for remedy can hardly be too much but that which followes an evill past remedy can never be too little Even in the saddest accident Death we may yeeld something to Nature nothing to impatience Immoderation of sorow for losses past hope of recovery is more sullen than usefull our stomack may be bewrayed by it not our wisdome THere is
guiltinesse of deformity it hides it selfe in the brest where it is once entertained and hates the light or because the tongue is so fee'd with self-love that it is loth to be drawn to any verdict against the heart or hands Or is it out of an idle misprision of shame which whilest it should be placed in offending is mis-placed in disclosing our offence How ever sure it is that God hath need even of racks to draw out Confessions for scarse in death it selfe are we wrought to a discovery of our errors O Lord since wee have sinned why should we be niggardly of that action wherein we may at once give glory unto Thee reliefe to our soules Whatsoever the sore be never any Soule truely applied this remedy and died never any Soule escaped death that applied it not TO know evill by others and not speake it is somtimes discretion to speak evill of others and not know it is alwayes dishonesty he may bee evill himselfe that speaks good of others upon knowledge but he can never be good himselfe that speakes evill of others upon suspition To speake all we know shewes too much folly to speake more than wee know shewes too little honestie He that spends all that is his owne is an unthriftie Prodigall but he that spends more than his owne is a dishonest Vnthrift Wee may sometimes know what wee will not utter but should never utter what wee doe not know HEaven being our Home and Christ our Way wee should learne to know our Way ere wee haste to travell to our Home He that runnes hastily in a Way he knowes not may come speedily to a Home he loves not Seeing Christ is our Way and Heaven our Home wee should rather chearefully endure a painefull Walke than sadly want a perfect Rest AS it is not against reason to be passionate so wee should not be passionate against reason as wee should both grieve and joy if we have reason for it so we should not joy nor grieve above reason but so joy at our good as not to take evill by our joy so grieve at any evill as not encrease the evill by our griefe THe Widowes Mite was of more worth than the Riches of superfluitie Hee gives not best that gives most but he gives most that gives best If we cannot give bountifully yet we should give freely and what wee want in our hand supply by our heart He gives well that gives willingly HE that contemnes a small fault commits a great one Many drops make a shower and what difference is it to be wet either in the Raine or in the River if both be to the skin There is small benefit in the choice whether wee goe downe to Hell by degrees or at once THe Devill is not more black-mouth'd than a slanderer nor a slanderer lesse malicious than the Devill for to have themselves thought as good as any other they will not have any thought good that dwells neere them He is to be suspected as scarce honest that would with a slander make us to suspect another as dishonest the worst of tame beasts is the flatterer and the worst of wilde beasts is the slanderer I Admire with reverence the justice and wisdome of the Lawes but deplore with compassion the abused practice of them and resolve rather to beare with patience a haile-shower of injuries than to seek shelter at such a thicket where the brambles shall pluck off my fleece and doe me more hurt by scratching than the storme would have done by hailing That Physick is not to be chosen which makes the remedie worse than the disease TO be good is now thought too neere a way to contempt Hee that lives vertuously and piously the world commonly hates and his reputation shall be traduced by the ignominious aspersion of malevolent tongues None can scape the Lash of Censure He that is never so profuse and vicious shall be loved of some though not of the best A supposed honest man found lewd is hated as a growne Monster Privat sinnes are often punisht with publike shame for sinne is a concealed fire that even in darknesse will so worke as to bewray it selfe 'T is impossible to have every ones good word because howsoever wee carry our selves some Cynicks will barke at our courses I had rather live hated for goodnesse than be loved for vice he does better that pleaseth one good man than he that contents a thousand bad ones I care not for his friendship that affects not vertue since it must needs be partly fained for diversities breed nothing but disunion and sweet congruitie onely is the Mother of true Love VIce is an infallible forerunner of wretchednesse All our dishonest actions are but Earnests layd downe for griefe anguish or confusion Sinne on the best condition brings repentance but for sinne unrepented is provided Hell He is in the highest degree of madnesse that desires to buy his vexation We should force our selves to want that willingly which wee cannot enjoy without future distaste The Bee chuseth rather to goe to the flower of the field for Honey where shee may lade her thighes securely and with leisure than to the Apothecaries shop where shee gets more but makes her life hazardable WOrks without faith are like a fish without water in which though there may seeme to be some quick actions of life and symptomes of agilitie yet they are indeed but the fore-runners of their end and the very presages of death Faith againe without works is like a Bird without wings who though shee may hop with her companions here on Earth yet living till the worlds end shee 'l never flye to Heaven When both are joyned together then doth the soule mount up to the Hill of eternall Rest Faith is the foundation good works the structure the foundation without the walls is of slender value the building without a Basis cannot stand We should first labour for a sure foundation saving faith but equally seeke for strong walls good workes for as the house is judged by the edifice more than by the foundation so not according to his faith but according to his works shall God judge man HE lives truly after death whose pious actions are his pillars of remembrance though his flesh moulders to drosse in the grave yet is his happinesse in a perpetuall growth no day but addes some graines to his heape of glory Good works are seeds that after sowing returne us a continuall harvest A vertuous man shining in the purity of a righteous life is as a light house set by the Sea side whereby the Mariners both saile aright and avoid danger But hee that lives in noted sinnes is as a false Lanthorne which shipwrackes those that trust it or like one dying of the Plague who leaves an infection to the whole Citie Doubtlesse he runnes a wofull course that lives lewdly and dies without repentance SEcrecie is a necessarie part of policie divulged intentions seldome proceed well Things
that by a sweet communion with God sets himselfe in heaven nay maketh his heart a kind of heaven a Temple a Holy of Holies wherein Incense is offered unto God A thankfull heart to God for his Blessings is the greatest Blessing of all But were it not for a few gratious Soules what Honour should God have of the rest of the unthankfull world which should stir us up the more to be Trumpets of Gods Praises in the midst of his Enemies because this in some sort hath a Prerogative above our praising him in Heaven for there God hath no Enemies to dishonor him GOd is Salvation it self and nothing but Salvation and though our sins for a time may stop the current of His Mercy yet it being above all our sins will soone scatter that cloud remove that stop and then wee shall see and feele nothing but salvation from the Lord all his wayes are Mercy and Peace to a repentant Soule that casts it selfe upon him We should not therefore so much looke what destruction the Devill and his threaten as what salvation God promiseth Canot he that hath vouchsafed an issue in Christ from eternall death vouchsafe an issue from all temporall evills He that brought us into trouble can easily make a way out of it when he pleaseth this should be a ground of resolute and absolute obedience even in our greatest extremities considering God will either deliver us from death or by death and at length out of death CAinish hypocrites hang downe their heads when God lifts up the countenance of their brethren when the countenance of Gods children cleers up then their enemies hearts and looks are cloudy Ierusalems joy is Babylons sorrow It is with the Church and Her enemies as it is with a ballance the scales whereof when one is up the other is downe The reason why wicked men gnash their teeth at the sight of Gods gratious dealing is that they take the rise of Gods children to be a presage of their ruine Which lesson Hamans wife had learned SAlvation is Gods own work humbling and casting down is his strange Worke whereby he comes to his owne worke For when he intends to save he wil seem to destroy first whom he will revive he will kill first Grace and Goodnesse countenanced by God have a native in-bred majesty in them which maketh the face to shine and borroweth not his lustre from without which God at length will have to appeare in its own likenesse howsoever malice may cast a vaile thereon and disguise it for a time WHat comfort was it for Adam when hee was shut out of Paradise to looke upon it after he had lost it the more excellencies are in God the more our grief if we have not our part in them the very life-bloud of the Gospell lies in a speciall application of particular mercy to our selves without which we can neither entertain the Love of God nor returne Love againe whereby we lose all the comfort God intends us in his Word which of purpose was written for our solace and refreshment PRetend not thy unworthinesse and unabilitie to keep thee off from God for this is the way to keep thee so still God bids us draw neer to Him and Hee will draw neere to us Whilst we in Gods own wayes draw neere to Him and labour to entertaine good thoughts of Him He will delight to shew himselfe fauourable unto us whilest we are striving against an unbeleeving heart Hee will come in and helpe us and so fresh light will come in God alone must help us and if ever Hee helpe us it must be by casting our selves upon him for then he will reach out himselfe unto us in the promise of mercy to pardon our sin and in the promise of Grace to sanctifie our Natures SPirituall Comforts in distresse such as the world can neither give nor take away shew that God lookes upon the soules of his with another eye than he beholdeth others He sends a secret Messenger that reports his peculiar Love to their hearts He knowes their soules and feeds them with his hidden Manna the inward peace they feele is not in freedome from trouble but in freenesse with God in the midst of trouble SEchem had not sinned if Dinah had not tempted him Immodestie of behaviour makes way to Lust and gives life unto wicked hopes Lust commonly ends in loathing But Sechem would salve up his sinne with an honest satisfaction but actions ill begun are hardly salved up with late satisfaction wheras good entrances give strength to the proceedings and successe to the end Dinahs brethren pretend Religion we cannot give our sister in mariage to an uncircumcised man here God is in the mouth and Satan in the heart A smiling malice is most deadly and hatred doth most ranckle the heart when it is kept in and dissembled Iacobs sonnes think of nothing but revenge and which is worst begin their crueltie with craft and end their craft with Religion Bloudiest projects have ever wont to be thus coloured for the worse any thing is the better shew it desires to make and contrarily the better colour is set upon vice the more odious it makes it for as every simulation addes to an evill so the best addes most evill Indeed filthinesse should not have bin wrought in Israel nor should murther have been wrought by Israel Cursed be their wrath for it was fierce and their rage for it was cruell To punish above the offence is no lesse injustice than to offend and to execute rigor upon a submisse offendor is more mercilesse than just The idle curiositie of Dinah bred all this mischief what great evills arise from small beginnings Ravishment followes her wandring upon her ravishment murther and upon the murtner spoile It is holy and safe to be jealous of the first occasions of evill either done or suffered IF Thamar had not put off her widowes apparell Iudah had not taken her for a whore Immodestie of outward fashion or gesture bewraies evill desires the heart that means well will never wish to seem ill for commonly we affect to shew better than we are and it is no trusting of those which wish not to appeare good Thamars belly swells and Iudahs heart swells with rage Let her be burnt How easie is it to detest those sinnes in others which wee flatter in our selves Even in the best men nature is partiall in it selfe it is good to sentence others frailties with the remembrance of our owne Iudah no sooner sees the signals but confesseth his shame She is more righteous than I. God will find a time to bring his children upon their knees and to wring from them penitent Confessions and rather than he will not make them soundly ashamed he will make them Trumpets of their owne reproach There is nothing more thankelesse or dangerous than to stand in the way of a resolute sinner that which doth correct and oblige the Penitent makes the wilfull mind furious and
the resolution of all THe idle man is like a dumbe Iack in a Virginall while all the other dance out a winning musick this like a member out of joynt sullens the whole body with an ill disturbing lazinesse It is action only that keepes the soule both sweet and sound whilest lying still doth rot it to an ordured noysomnesse There is no creature but is busied in some action for the benefit of the restlesse world Nor is the teeming earth it selfe weary after so many thousand yeares productions Men learne to doe ill by doing what is next it nothing for while we want businesse wee are ready to drown in the mud of vice and sloathfulnesse The soule growes bright with use and negotiation and beleeve it industry is never wholly unfruitfull if it bring not joy with the in-comming profit it will banish mischiefe from thy busied gates There is a kinde of good Angel waiting upon diligence that ever carries a Laurell in his hand to crowne her but the bosomed fist beckens the approach of poverty and leaves besides the noble head ungarded while the lifted arme doth frighten want and is ever a shield to the noble director CErtainly they worke by a wrong engine that seeke to gaine their ends by constraint You may stroke the Lion into bondage but you may sooner hew him in pieces than beat him into a chaine Easie nature and free liberty will steale a man into a winy excesse when urged healths doe but shew him the way to refuse The noblest weapon wherewith man can conquer is love and gentlest curtesie Nature is more apt to be led by the soft motions of the musicall tongue than the rusticke threshings of a striking arme How many have lost their hopes while they have sought to ravish with too rude a hand Little fishes are twitched up with the violence of a sudden pull when the like action cracks the line whereon a great one hangs I have knowne denials that had never been given but for the earnestnesse of the requester Vrge a grant to some men and they are inexorable seeme carelesse and they will force the thing upon you THe best object of bounty is either necessity or desert the best motive thy own goodnesse and the limit is the safety of thy state It is for none but him that is all to give to all abundantly To live well of a little is a great deale more honour than to spend a great deale vainly It is not good to make our kindnesse to others to be cruelty to our selves and ours CErtainly if there bee any Dalilah under heaven it is in bad society it bindes us betrayes us blindes us undoes us Many a man had been good that is not if he had but kept good company Ill company is an engine wherewith the devill is ever practising to lift man out of Vertues seat It is the spirituall Whore which toyes the good man to his soules undoing Good company should be cherished as the choice of men or as Angels that are sent for Guardians but we should study to lose the society of the bad lest by keeping them we lose our selves in the end THe jollities of the villanous man stagger the religious minde They live as if they were passing through the world in state and the streame of prosperity turning it selfe to rowle with their applauded wayes when how miserable is despised vertue and how stormy is her sea Certainly for the present the good man seemes to be in the disgrace of heaven he smarts and pines and saddens his incombered soule living as it were in the frowne and nod of the traducing world so that to view the vertuous but with natures eye a man would think they were things that Nature envyed or that the whole world were deluded with a poisonous lye in making only the vertuous happy Innocence is become a staire to let others rise to our abuse and not to raise our selves to greatnesse How rare is it to finde one raised for his sober worth and vertue Iosephs goodnesse alone brought him to the stocks and irons whereas if he had coaped with his enticer it is like he might have swom in Gold and lived a lapling to the silkes and dainties Doubtlesse we may finde a soule within our soules which tels we doe unnobly while we love sin more for the pleasure of it than we doe vertue for the animall sweetnesse she yeelds in her selfe SVrely cowards have soules of a courser mixture than the common spirits of men The coward really meets with far more dangers than the valiant man Every base nature will be ready to offer injuries where they thinke they will not be repaid he will many times beat a coward that would not dare to strike him if he thought him valiant An unappalled looke doth daunt a base attempter and oftentimes if a man hath nothing but a couragious eye it protects him the brave soule knowes no trembling and indeed valour casts a kinde of honour upon God in that wee shew we beleeve his goodness when we trust our selves in danger upon his care only Wheras the coward eclipses his sufficiency by unworthy doubting that God will not bring him off so unjustly accusing either his power or his will while he would make himselfe his owne Saviour he becomes his owne confounder For it is just with God to leave Man when he distrusts him No armour can defend a fearefull heart when hee would runne away feare arrests him with a sencelesse amasement which betraies him to the pursuite of his foes I had rather have a minde confident and undaunted with some troubles than a pulse still beating feare in the flush of prosperity IT is comparison more than reality that makes men both happy and miserable Were all the world ugly Deformity would be no Monster In those Countries where all goe naked they neither shame at their being uncovered nor complaine that they are exposed to the violence of the Sun and Windes Many never finde themselves in want till they have discovered the abundance of some others and many againe doe beare their want with ease when they finde others below themselves in happinesse Our adversity is lessened by seeing our enemies in worse estate than our selves We pick our owne sorrowes out of the joyes of other men and out of their sorrowes likewise we assume our joyes When we see the poore toiling Labourer we looke upon our selves with gladnesse but when we eye the distributers of the earth in their royalty then what poore Atomes doe we count our selves compared with those huge piles of State THe proud man and the cholerick seldome arrive at any height of vertue They are sometimes borne to good parts of nature but they rarely are knowne to adde by industry It is the milde and suffering disposition that oftnest doth attaine to eminence Temper and humility are advantagious vertues for businesse and to rise by Pride and Choler make such a noise that they awake dangers which