hope will come and beare a part To hide my want of voyce my want of Art Corona Alphabeticall in imitation of the 119 Psalme AWay unhallowed spirits fleshly borne Unto the second birth these lines belong Your eyes are full of lust your hearts of scorn You cannot taste a supernatur'd song When in Gods furnace you shall prove refin'd Divinely transubstantiate from above Your Soules contrite your stony hearts calcin'd And him propound sole object of your love Then shall my inspirations finde applause And penetrate your soules as well as mine Then will you finde them both your meat and sauce And warm your spirits at such beams Divine God knows what preparations I have past Oft broken with this Plough to kill my weeds Down melted in a new mould to be cast Macerate fetter'd fitted for new seeds When his magnetique vertue draws you come Till then to what I write be blinde deaf dumb BLest Founder of this earthly Hospitall Sole daily Benefactor to mankinde Lord Paramount of Lords of Kings and all Soule of our Soules controller of the minde Transcendent Essence dazling more our sight Then Sun-beams Owles harder to comprehend Then 't is for Ants to judge and reason right Of men and know whereto their counsels tend Thou who giv'st Faith and Grace spirituall Hearts happiest Center food and notion Who truely art what falsely we doe call Instinct or Nature Father of motion Inspire my soule my spirit animate Thy working power and glory to expresse That these my lines may partly expiate My lives and pens past errors and impresse Thy stampe divine upon my readers heart Assisted by thy holy Spirits Art COntemne not Lord this humble sacrifice This Incense from the censor of my heart Heart which thy quickning Spirit mortifies To live and die to thee a true convert As in my heart so flow into my stile Untie tune cleare my soule that I may sing Thy saving grace and prove most happy while I may one sparkle to thy glory bring None but a power Almighty could create Yet greater wonder our redemption was Nor goes lesse mercy to regenerate That worke nor consummate nor Sabbath has To live fresh fishes in this briny Sea To swim by faith against strong natures streame Beyond our reason and our eyes to see And make thy soule transporting love our theame This Antedates the sweet fruition Of thy most beatifique vision DIspence O Lord that I polluted lame Presume thy power and mercies to display Thy Priest should perfect be and free from blame But thy projection workes on base allay The greatest graces thou hast summon'd all Thy creatures to thy praise their rent to pay Nor can I chuse but answer to thy call Accountable for mercies more then they But yet alas what fruite can I expect From these farre short of lines Apocryphall Since thine owne dictates finde so small effect And Isralites prov'd hypocriticall Yes thou hast wonders wrought on me and canst By thy assistance so my labours blesse Some one at least by me may be advanc'd To feele thy Spirits motion and redresse The course of sinne which flesh cannot withstand Without the succour of thy sacred hand ERect O Lord thy Trophees in my Verse Confound with shame th' Idolatrizing Muse Teach such with me thy praises to rehearse T is better write to save then to seduce Teach them thy beautie riches thou who art Riches and beauties donor cleare their eyes To admire the vertues which thou doest impart To the rich furnish'd earth and guilded skies Thou needst no strain'd conceits nor figures such As they imploy to shew wit and give grace Thou their Hyperbole's exceed'st so much They faint to see invention wants a place Oh that my Verse like Aarons rod had pow'r To overcharme what those inchanters sing And all their strong illusions to devour Or like the Brasen Serpent cure their sting Then might my Muse triumphant Lawrell weare Endu'd with grace no thunder blasts to feare FAther of beautie goodnesse power and love Vertue of vertues spring of eloquence By whom alone we are we live and move And exercise a happy confidence Whose love to us made thee evacuate Thy selfe and glory frailtie to put on Frailtie to hunger die degenerate To man in all but his corruption Oh let thy love like love in us procure And teach us to deny our selves for thee Change which to thee was losse will be our cure Thy hunger food thy death our life will bee Teach us to love and we shall learne to write In Characters of love our hearts will flow Love chafes benummed spirits to endite And ever carries light ' its flames to show Make mee Oh Lord to thee a perfect lover And love will both it selfe and thee discover No wonder else if we prove dull to write For 't is a wonder Lord to love thee right GRieve Oh my heart grieve that thou canst not grieve Grieve that thy streames flow counter to thy will Grieve that thy fraile propensions still survive And thy intemperate nature swayes thee still Shame oh my soule oh shame to see thy shame Shame that nor faith nor reason can prevaile Shame that thou knowest most savage things to came And that thy Art upon thy selfe doth faile Suffer thou doest and justly suffer too In selfe offending wilt thou still befoole Thy selfe in doing what thou should'st not doe And non-proficient prove in thy owne schoole Yes Lord it will be so except thy grace Continually prevent preside restraine In thy least absence nature will take place Nor can against it selfe it selfe containe Children from Nurses are nor safe nor quiet Without thee soule nor body can keepe diet Destroy Oh Lord what foments our annoy Or wild presumption will our health destroy HEaven wert thou no reward Hell but a tale Religion but a waking dreame begot Twixt policie and fancy to prevaile Over fraile flesh and hopes and feares besot Were conscience but a brat of Arts begetting As reall in ' its falshood as in truth A home-spun stuffe as false wrought as selfe fretting A brand impos'd upon our tender youth Yet hath it pleas'd my Lord to manifest So palpably his selfe and love to mee Were nature richer sweeter I le divest And strip my selfe of all for love of thee None more then I th'erroneous print can read Of melancholy and superstition Nor better all their subtile steps untread Distinguishing between Text and Tradition Beleeve me more hath gone me to convert Then either wit or nature can pervert HAbituate maladies are hardly cur'd Relaps proves often mortall worst in sinne To me relaps'd oft and to sinne inur'd Strange hath thy mercy Lord and patience been Insolvable I am for such great grace Yet I ambitious am to make returne What most is mine and others most embrace In gratefull sacrifice to thee I burne Obedience Temperance I here professe Worldly delights and wealth I abdicate No fetter'd votary yet ne're the lesse My selfe to thee I freely consecrate Power
Amen Amen Ianuary 29. 1637. THis house and staire resemble me no line Runs parallell nor due proportion held No Landing even by pre-engagement spil'd High low faire mean imperfect and what 's worst Anxious to fit succeeding to the first Full of crosse reason 't was our equall lot Casting our birth th'Ascendent was forgot Yet all in this are well and haply cast Leading to God and Heaven at the last The Verses above in their relations are not to bee understood but by him which knows and considers the house staire case and my fortune and condition The staire at last leads to a standing mounted for prospect which leads only to it self and Sky My Ash-wednesday Ashes No term or Metaphor can carry a more true full and lively expression then doth that of our regeneration we are in the womb of this world before our second spirituall birth such Embryons and imperfect Infants as can scarce admit to be affirmed of us that we are indued with life and sense It is more potentially then actually that we enjoy them We acquiesce in a stupid and corrupt condition we are fed and pleased in the impure nutriment of earthly and false delights we draw our nourishment by the Navill of our sensuality we are wrapped in our uncleannesse and of our selves we neither know nor affect any other being But when God of his great grace calls and urgeth us to our true and second birth in his Spirit he changeth our affections cloatheth us anew brings us to another light another Aire another condition He worketh in us a sight and feeling of our former infirmities and corruption he purifies refines and fits us for a more excellent life and knowledge He displayes unto us his farre more excellent beauties and glory we draw our nourishment by another roote more coelestiall more defecate we loathe and scorn our former being and become ravished in the joy of our change which is not without difficulty and cryes happy cryes happy distresse most gainfull change There we could not have lived ever nor ever been but blinde and miserable Our first life is vegetable sensuall common with beasts dark base cumbersome our regeneration is the only true and eternall life of the Soule There is no sincere pleasure content wisdome courage or peace without it Christ alone is the Man-midwife to bring us to such happinesse By thy grace Oh Lord am I born and without it better had I been unborn I was wildred in a Wood entangled in a dimme light amongst Bryers Thornes and wilde beasts but thou hast freed me and brought me into the faire open delightfull fields of thy grace I was engaged to a Sea of raging waves and stormes but thou hast instructed me to strike my greedy sailes to cast out my vaine lading and brought me to a most happy Port in thy most happy Climate I was an executor of the worlds trust but found the estate so entangled so subject to debts that thou hast taught me to renounce and free my self I will by thy Divine assistance avoid the Wood and be free from the Bryers the Sea and be free from Sea-sicknesse and stormes the worlds common courses and conversations and enjoy thee and my self exempt from troubles crying debts and importunate vanities The world does in Truth for the most part but magnas nugas magno conatu agere c. I have I thank God in honest sort paid every man his own and provided for my children It is not every mans case to be so disengaged I am free O God to live to thee and thee alone My Country needs me not nor doth it finde me fit for its service c. I am by Gods grace too rigid too straight a peece for such Ship-timber I grieve to see the world as it is nor can contribute ought but prayers to help it how can it be other then Cachecticall tainted with the licencious luxury of strangers intoxicate wantonnesse of Favorites dissolution of our Seminaries the Universities and Innes of Court Prevarication and corrupt example of Ecclesiastiques and sinister affections and illusions of Magistrates as one said Signa nostra sequentes prodimur nisi Christus se ipsum vindicet actum est The Church is compared to the Ark and I would it did not in some things too much resemble it It is full of various many unclean beasts and too floating and unsetled I would rather prove it a City built upon the Rock Christ Jesus firme and unchangeable he is the sole and all-sufficient fundamentall of our Salvation and whilest we confound our selves and seek for other let us take heed we lose not him and betray our selves not only to infinite uncharitable indiscreet fanaticall opinions and Schisms but even to Turcisme and Atheisme our wilde unsettled dissentions expose us too much to both Lord of thy great mercy teach thy Church and me to fix in a firmitude of thy saving Faith and Religion Banish undue policy banish will-worship and teach us to serve and honour thee in unity and truth of Spirit instruct and guide me in thy wayes and seeing thou hast made me a sociable creature and given me a working active spirit addresse me to the comfort of a sutable conversation to discourse and walk thy waies aright Thou must reveale such unto me for I finde it too hard to finde them Shall the Roman Religion afford so many and thy Truth so few who can perswade themselves to leave the world for thee If all other Company faile my desires be thou my guide be thou my comfort and I shall still happily subsist in thee and want nothing The world is a writing so full of fauks many corrections cannot mend it Una litura potest and that I have chosen Thus writing is troublesome and well nee possum vivere cumte nec sine te It is endlesse nor is it fit for me to write what I would or could May it please thee Oh God to turn to thy glory and my comfort these my weak endevours Amen Amen February 7. 1637. LIke to his joy who meets a sure guide to direct and conduct him in a faire way after he hath been long wildred and benighted in false soule and intricate wandrings such Oh Lord is my comfort in thy sweet exhibiting thy self and thy favour unto me I am now at ease I see and hate the solecismes of the times I am disentangled from a wildernesse of the worlds confused wayes and errors nor could any other guide have freed me Thy grace hath supported me in my writings in my health in my deliverance beyond expression Let vanity and sensuality delight themselves in trewand wantonnesse and wandrings but keep me Oh Lord in thy wayes and schoole and let me rather smart under the rod of thy Fatherly correction then become abandoned to an undue and licentious Liberty Perfection belongs to the one perdition to the other Accept my most humble thanks for thy infinite favours and bring me to the heavenly
contemperament and heat strength goodnesse and sweetnesse of nature and supernaturall grace excited and maintained I finde the best companions and Physitians of body and soule you are witnesse how necessary they have been of late unto me in the sorrows and troubles I have undergone I thank you for your visit and spirituall comfort you imparted to my relapsed Son hee still needeth it hee hath not wanted naturall heat and courage temper moderation and a well concocted discourse as well as a thorow digestion to some peccant humours of his body I feare he doth Time and conflict with evills have not confirmed and wrought upon him exchange of liberty health and pleasures for disease restraint and paine with an apprehensive contemplation of imminent death this mortall yeare work a melancholick dejection upon his minde and meeting with his infirmity appeare at this time his greatest danger A little ease strength and alacrity of spirits animate his naturall presumption to his harm and a little cloud overcasting him as much exanimates If God had not furnished me with as strong a resolution to flight as I have ever been apt to apprehend the worst events I had a thousand times miscarryed there is no slavery like the feare of death no bravery like the contempt of the world and fortune I have lost possessions friends brothers children but I have found God and have not lost my selfe I have sowed kindnesse and reaped dis-respect my good intentions charity resolution and the grace of God are my reward and ever-relieving cordials I seek not my self abroad nor judge my self or others by the successe others weaknesse and distempers shall not be mine it shall rather fortifie and recollect mee if my exuberance of naturall heate and fancy breed my inconvenience I can make an oyle of the same Scorpion to help me not to have too much is not to have enough Aliquid amputandum is the best constitution luxuriance of Nature is the longest laster at least if violence accident and over-bold indiscreet adventure intercept it not heat is the vehiculâ—m of vertue hot natured plants have the strongest faculties and braveliest resist the vigour and extremity of weather and Winter Thus I play the Pedler with you to you I open my pack of small wares to the world I durst but will not they would but pry and smile and scorn not buy to use to weare and make their own You finde here a great deale of trash but no trumpery many bables and toyes yet some Gloves to weare Knives to cut Linnen to adorn cover and keep warme Looking-glasses to see and order your self Pedlers are not ever unwelcome sometimes they are required at least let my good will make not unwelcome unto you this my good morrow Yet to goe a little further and end where I begun There is a happy and just use to be made of naturall heate of our selves and of Gods creatures instituted as Oyle for cheerefulnesse of countenance and Wine to rejoyce the heart of man that use to finde that to practise without declining either to excesse or fantasticall superstition and rigidity of humane Sophistry prevarication and errour is that wee ought to endevour and pray for in the discreet exercise of a good conscience which God grant us Amen November 17. 1638. THus you see Animal vigilans semper laborat some more remisse some more intense according to the activity of their spirits and occasions but my voyage is well past over and I will not spread my sayles to every winde I will be a stone to my self against the wings of my thoughts sedation shall be my affectation I will spare my fuell and rake up my fire let them make publique bonfires and ring their Bells to warme and sport the world who finde matter and joy to publish mine is inward and shall serve my self till opportunity concurre accept in good part with your wonted favour this my pastime account and register never intended for a work or piece of worth Farewell SOules must have objects strong high-relished The strongest filling fair and permanent Such is Gods love wherewith not nourished Earthly and base must be their nutriment No other love can defecate a soule From wallowing in delights base empty foule THou Lord who first didst nip me in the bud From time to time dost humble mee Lest I should sin by heighth of blood And love the world more then the love of thee I gratulate thy favour confident That so thou doest my soule preserve To bee a well-tun'd instrument To sound thy praise and thy decrees to serve Nor will I envy this mans wantonnesse His honor or the others wealth Esteeming nothing happinesse But to possesse a soule in heavenly health All other joyes infatuate the minde Feeding it with a false content Oh let me still thy favour finde To keep me thine I grudge no chastisement Moderate health and fortune are the best A little fire close set unto And heat sufficient to digest Doe the same things that more abounding doe The more wee have the more we still presume Disordred mindes good states abuse The highest spirits most consume May I have nothing more then grace to use Great Farmes are seldome duely husbanded Ranke grounds abound in noysome weeds Wolves Foxes Goates in wastes are bred He feeds more foes then Friends who many feeds THough Friends be absent conversation lost My bating Soule oft labouring in it self By winds and fortune on the black Sea tost Thou present Lord I feare nor wave nor shelf Thou Father Brother art and Friends to me Be the world whose it list so thou be mine They ne're miscarry who rely on thee Grace storms dispels more strong then they combine All thrives where thou the pruning Gardner art To thy Plants blastings frugall blessings prove Though Summer heighth and flourishing impart Winter gives strength and Timber to the Grove To thine all sufferings end in joy and rest And th' absence of a wicked world is best EAse handsomnesse nor profit 't is to tread Your shooe awry like may of vice be said T is ever best to live and walk upright Things crooked grown hardly return to right May I enjoy a faire and quiet minde Soules work like troubled Seas long after winde GOdly content and quiet of the minde Constitute happinesse resembling Heaven Where soules nor strife nor thirst of action finde Reluctancy is conquer'd all goes even Vertue it self untroubled must proceed Howe're its Acts miscarry or succeed Devotions Et quoniam Deus ora movet Sequar ora moventem Introduction DIvinest Herberts Soule daign that I joyn In Hymns accorded to the heart by thine Unto our Masters glory and admit Mee for a Rivall in thy heighth of love For though thy lofty flight bee farre above My creeping Muse in spirit verse and wit My love both may and ought thy love exceed Since greatest pardons greatest love doe breed Thus living sing we Swan-like singing dye His Panegyrick our own Elegie Others I
honour riches pleasures sensuall The Idols which the world doth most adore I flight as much and so I master all That others creepe to Nothing I implore Lord but thy grace in that more pleasure rests Then all the base delights that flesh suggests IMagination what thou canst produce By thy prolisique pregnant facultie Is a discourse as subtile as abstruse How thy owne species thou dost multiply In what great distance secret sympathy Through ayre or spirits thou act'st on things remote I cannot say with perspicuitie Nor how thy impertitions are begot Distempers and conceits doe verifie Strong fancied objects outwardly appeare Paying in opticall realitie The intromissions of the impregnat Ayre Woâ—ke then my faith by thy great energy Faith upon others warme with charitie The coldnesse of the times to fructifie By its diffusive vertuous qualitie Rise Lord and sympathetically encline To turne to thee thy enemies and mine KNowledge is sweet and bitter faire and lame A great impotor body fram'd of Ayre A chatting flattering and self-painted Dame More in conceite then reall beautie faire How justly could I raise a mutiny Against our self-deceivings till I finde Our errors are not worth the scrutiny Nor truths true subjects of a sensuall mind God found us in our losse and selfe-bred stormes And with his light his Port exhibited Us to disbryer crown'd himselfe with thornes And made us rich in wares prohibited Forbeare beleeve and love is all hee craves All other knowledge is as false as vaine Wee foole our selves and make our selves true slaves To our false dotage faith alone is gaine Thy constant love oh Lord is all my ayme All other affectations I disclaime LOrd I desire my contract to make good What e're befalls should I a loser prove How e're things passe as they are understood Wee cannot lose if wee can say wee love Though as wee feare so thou shouldest prove offended Though vitious longings satisfied would cure Though I could seise what fancy e're pretended Yet would I stoope to nothing but thy lure Charme what thou canst false world deafe is my eare Thou Lord alone canst fill my greedy heart No other object have my hopes or feare Nature adieu for I will live by Art Lord make me Master in thy Arts divine That this worlds Sophistry I may elude Could I as well demonstrate as define Solve as distinguish vice should not obtrude It selfe for vertue I would make appeare The height of pleasure is thy love and feare MY selfe converted Lord as thou hast will'd Others I would confirme and draw to thee That here more perfect though not yet fulfill'd Thy Lawes obedience and our joyes might bee My sinnes and sufferings my compassion breed To see soules not maligne bewitcht by sinne Let thy wounds Sympathy make their hearts bleed Knock hard O Lord and they will let thee in Their soules have cost thee all as deare as mine Vouchsafe that they may equall favour find Hadst thou not forc'd mee I had ne're been thine Open their eyes or they must still be blind But Lord thy will be done best time thou knowest Thy justice or thy mercies to impart Thou ever in thy favours overflowest Thy justice keepe for the malicious heart Charitie binds us to seeke others good How e're thy will and grace have firmely stood NOr Cynthia Starres nor Roses Violets Nightingales Wrens nor our heart-charming Queene Can so surpasse the vulgar delicates That shine and are in triviall beauties seene As doe thy pleasures Lord the worlds delights Which seeme to feed but leave us hungry still Suggesting false distracted appetites Which satisfied with gall and wind do fill Poore flattering fading pleasures sweet to none But groveling Palats Bubles of the minde Compar'd with them you shew how short you come By the discountenanc'd guilty shame you find As is the Galaxia in the skies A light from many hidden lights proceeding Such constant confluence of joy doth rise From Gods sweet influence of grace succeeding Lord guide me in a refluence to thee And worldly affluence my scorne shall bee OH Lord I know I may be thought to sing Triumph before full victory obtain'd But since thy pardon hath vouchsaf'd to bring Mee to thy feast of conscience unstain'd I nothing doubt mercy compleat to finde Why then my soule art thou perplexed still Stere cleare O Lord and pacifie my minde Since thee to celebrate is all my will But my extent it doth too farre exceed To tell the wonders thou hast wrought for mee Accept oh Lord endeavour for the deed My best expressions must come short of thee Then rest my soule repose in God alone Hee is thy countenance helper and thy Lord His mercy never faileth to his owne Such as beleeve and trust unto his word Yet Lord I care not so thy favour last Though Taper-like I spread my light and wast Or though I like the poore flame-courting flie Seeking thy glory singe my wings and die PRevail'd thou hast my God and made me thine A stubborne knotty peece thou hast mee prov'd Seaventy times seven at least thou didst refine And pardon mee by thy example mov'd To labour others good forgive their ill With courage and with love invincible Wee perish Lord except thou vanquish still And worke us to thy will reducible Great to thy Rebells Lord is thy compassion Which doth to us part in thy conquest yeeld In thee wee triumph over sinnes and passion And chase the strongest lusts out of the field Some live in sinne yet find thy grace at last To thee repentance never comes too late I in thy conflicts all my life have past A moment could not well mee subjugate The hardest conquest is the greatest glory 'T is not the course but end that crownes the story Advance O Lord thy conquest still in mee That I may find sweet triumph still in thee QUarrell no more my caâ—ping soule but yeeld Yeeld to thy mighty conquerer and know 'T is for thy good nature hath lost the field And that thy selfe thou to his grace dost owe. Thou hast thy selfe enrol'd into his pay Nature was false and paid thee in base coyne Oh doe not now thy selfe and him betray But fight against his enemies and thine Undisciplin'd licentious was thy course In thy first warfare natures stinging want And emptie pay led thee from bad to worse Sharking thy pleasure was thy food was scant In shiftings and in change thou didst subsist Thy purchases dissolv'd in wast and griefe Oh joy no more in doing what thou list But joy in thy well disciplining Chiefe Happy who are to his command resign'd All else is as the blind to lead the blind REckon we doe without our Host if wee Dispose Oh Lord our wayes irregulate In carnall appetites neglecting thee Sole Founder and upholder of our State As little reckon I as care to live Thou hast cross-byast me to this worlds pleasure Nature hath been as frank to me to give As unto others but another measure Hath
most approved to you who have been most present and domestique with mee through the late course of the most and best of my writings and who above others are acquainted with the inside of my heart and fortune I entrust my poore treasure of papers what ever in themselves to mee costly and possibly to an inquisitive reader of no ungratefull or unprofitable relish their unaffected nakednesse is their riches nor was Adam ever poore till hee sought for covering may they meete with no other eyes then such as yours and their ingenuitie shall bee happy at least find pardon Monkeyes have a kind of prettinesse one mans errors are anothers correction and institution promiscuous fantasticall graffings afford delight but I must runne the common fate some must like mee better some worse If honest men finde an honest spirit in me and prove indulgent to it I am satisfied they are happy fruits of my worldly misfortunes for my particular I would not have wanted my errors upon our most uncomely parts wee put most comelinesse and there are as well happy errors as unhappy prosperities I have lately found in these last ornaments and complements which I bestow upon my house wherein I have so conteined my selfe as to have forborne the satisfaction of my fancy therein since I first knew it that my workmens mistakings and abuses have produced a bettering to my designe I have been strangely favoured by the weather considering the earlinesse of the yeare unfavourable seeming circumstances where God befriends prove our advantage may the journey I am now called to prove such to our betters and our selves If God shall please to blesse mee in a good returne I hope to fall handsomely to an honest country course and play the Paterfamilias better then others have discharged themselves towards mee in my infirmitie and trust I am naturally over solicitous in what I undertake impatient and exact But God and experience I rely upon for my moderators wee all have our imperfections God hath wonderfully supported mee against my owne and others miscarriage no man owes more indulgence to frailtie then my selfe but supine wilfull fierce and malepert weaknesse or abuse deserves it not The Text that saith who is over-wise or over-just shall be left alone teacheth us a moderation in the best of our faculties and affections the square of reason often puts our reason out of square Schoole Logick instructed me that man consists of a reasonable soule and I beleeved it so farre as to thinke them senselesse Poets who represented upon the Stage most senselesse and ridiculous personall absurdities yet such and worse hath the world acquainted me with some infirmities are to bee dispensed others not I worst endure my owne the equall balance and mixture of many dispositions betwixt good and evill hope and despaire of amendment worke a perplexitie of resolution to conclude upon them how farre to goe on or where to leave them charitie teacheth to presume and hope the best it suffereth much but often too much if it begin not at home wisedome is the rule of rules and God of wisedome but it hath pleased him to call me to a practicall course and I leave to write whatsoever my Lord Bacon St. Albans pronounceth that hee who imployes his mind to small things shall not bee fit for great yet who contemneth small shall hardly or attaine or hope the greatest I will God willing so intend the greatest as not to neglect the least To him let me enjoy your prayers in him your affection as you shall mine for you and all good men Farewell March the 19. 1638. Charitie THinking this morning of worldly power and pleasure and of the pleasure of power I tooke into consideration what proportions were conducible and necessary to a happy condition and grew to state every man in a naturall and just dimension of his proper qualitie For a man to have a grant of or to assume power and pleasures beyond his capacitie and use were but supervacuous troublesome and often pernicious That clothing is best that best fits the body warme comely and easie is I confesse to be wished more is but cumbersome enough is affirmed as good as a feast what am I the better if when a pint is the uttermost my thirst requires one give me leave to drinke a Tunne If we suffer our selves to bee transported by an extravagant fancy wee shall never bee rich Reason ought to bee as well our bounds as our boast Limited wee must bee when wee have done what wee can a man is but a man if the King would give mee vast possessions and power of life and death beyond my conveniencie I should value it but an unprofitable load It is pleasure sufficient to bee out of reall paine power enough to bee safe possession enough that corresponds our just occasions what exceeds runnes more to others use then ours and serves onely to plunge us to inconvenience and swell our accounts The true advantage of power and Riches is the enabling us in meanes of beneficence To win hearts is indeed a supreame delight to all natures that participate more of God then his opposite the devills damnation grew from a sinister affectation of power to doe mischiefe rather then good our affections are devillish when they terminate not in Charitie there pitcht my thoughts thither confin'd I my discourse of power pleasure possessions and the pleasure of power which casting mee upon the 13. Chapter of the first to the Corinthians where St. Paul falls into an ecstatiquall exaltation of charitie I set upon the metrification of the beginning of the Chapter with a little close of my owne which here I subjoyne At Yorke intended for the sight of the most sacred May 7. 1639. HAd I all tongues of Angels and of men And wanted charitie what were I then More then the found of Cymbals or of brasse Had I all perfect knowledge and could passe For a great Prophet were my faith so great That I could make huge mountaines change their seat Gave I my goods to Almes body to flame Charity wanting all would prove but lame Charity is patient Charity is meek Not envious proud perverse nor doth it seek Its own advantage No dishonesty Despite or evill thinking comes it nigh Loves truth as much as it abhorreth wrong Hopes all beleeves the best and suffereth long Without it man is but a fiend to man With it a God to doe all good he can Loving and lov'd good to himself and others Is happiest life and many errors covers At my return from York GIve me leave Oh Lord that I expresse my most humble and hearty thankfulnesse for thy most gracious favour and preservation towards me in the divers accidents incumbrances and hazards of my late journey and course of life thy indulgencies and accommodations have as much exceeded my hope contrivings and present condition as my demerit Unspeakable are thy mercies to such as confide upon them let their memory never