English words being more then dissillables the other generally having their antepenultimaes A competent estate and that which is far greater are not differenced as to the content of the enjoyer for though this may ruffle more and the pomp may be greater yet it signifies the same to the owner He that hath an horse to ease his insirmity is as well supplyed in that for which an horse is usefull as he that must stay till four or five servants be ready to accompany him and he as well stored that hath an honest entertainment wherewith to bid his friend welcome and can shake hands with him in token 't is hearty as he that with a numerous service and solicitous ceremony must complement his Guest to a Non-plus 2 They say That he who will find an Hare sitting or Partridge lying must alwayes keep in his mind the Idea of those creatures as they are in that posture which the fancy being prepossessed with will presently apprehend them or any like them When the mind is forestalled with prejudice either against persons or things it soon beleeveth what it pre-conceiveth and will either find crimes or make them 3 I had a Bullock so swollen with wind that it break his Diaphragma and the poor creature dyed in great torture yet I considered it fared better with it then with a man afflicted with the Gout or Stone because wanting reason its miseries were not aggravated by a reflexion of the mind upon the pains suffered It is not the least of the happinesses of a man having grace that he is able to discern those gifts and to behold himself like the Kings Daughter all glorious within so shall it be no small addition to the infelicities of the damned that they shall have the exercises of their reason which they have so much abused to consider the goodnesse of that God of whom they are deprived and the greatnesse of those miseries by which they are punished 4 Two Goats meeting together on a long narrow Bridge the straitnesse of which was such that neither could go by other nor turn about to go back one of them lay down flat while the other went over him and so there became easie passage for both When the interest of dissenting parties meet in such narrownesses as are hard to be accommodated how much would the submission of one part to the present necessity conduce to the advantage of both 5 Being to confer the going of my Watch with a San-Diall which was to be set by the Compasse and finding it not to agree therewith my unwillingnesse to have my Watch convicted of error made me ready rather to set the Dial by my Watch then my Watch by the Dial. Lord how many times hath my self-love induced me by false interpretations and glosses to bring the strait rules of thy Word to a complyance with my irregular affections then by an holy submission to make my affections comply with the rules of thy Word 6 I saw a Kitling practising the way to mouse with active motions and ingenuous turns gaining an aptness to prey in all postures and I observe other creatures by a natural instinct are prompt to those functions which are proper to their species but man knows nothing except to cry but what he is taught Lord as my great desire is that those whom thou hast given me may not be as they were born fools so give me to care chiefly that they may be spiritually wise 7 Being abroad one day my Horse got loose and run away from me and would not be recovered till he came to the Stable Dore I followed after him full of anger and purposes of punishing till I thus considered Lord am I thus angry that a creature by thee subjected to my Dominion doth thus shake off the yoke and retract his serviceableness when I a Subject to thy Soveraignty by an originall and every way unlimitted right so often have with drawn my service from thee Oh let me with more diligence and universality approve my obedience to thee and with more patience suffer neglect from them 8 The motion of the Primum mobile not only hurryes about the inferiour Orbs but even the Comets also seated in the aire are whirl'd about with the same Circulation Not only those of the same gang are turned about by the vertigo of Faction but many times also well meaning souls of different Principles and designs are transported by their vicinity with the same passions 9 Thunder is rare with us in the winter and prodigious in that season according to that saying Winters thunder is Englands wonder because those hot and dry vapors of which Thunder is generated are not exhaled from a rigid and congealed earth as ours then for the most part is Lord when my heart was frozen in that Winter of impenitency and unbelief the thunder of conscience was not frequent that inconsiderate estate seldome producing any such apprehensions but since my soul hath been brought out of that Prison conscience hath been londer and its checks are more often O let conscience every day have lesse cause to speak but let it every day be more quick of speech 10 The return of the Sun is no less certainly expected in Green-land where the night is of some moneths then with us in the Summer Solstice when day is never quite shut in Lord that eternall glory which thou hast promised and I by faith have apprehended how far off so ever is no lesse certainly expected then that daily bread wherewith I am by thee so frequently supplyed nor let me more despair of the Sun-shine of thy favour in the long night of trouble then in those perplexities which endure but for a very little season 11 Passing with a Candle from one room to another I saw they were only enlightned as I brought the Candle in successively one after another but as soon as the Sun arose they were altogether and at once enlightned Lord the knowledge which I have of my heart is only by degrees as I view the affections and actions of it one after another but thou beholdest them at one view those that are past present and to come Oh do thou who art so perfect an Anatomist and so exactly knowest my frame what it is straiten what is irregular cure what is corrupt and supply what ever defect thou findest there 12 I took a Plumb-stone and would have crackt it but could not I would have cleft it with a knife but it was not penetrable I set it in the ground and after a few dayes I found the kernel had shot out a tender sprout which had split the shell and â—ade its passage through Lord the hamnser of assliction breaks not this stony heart the sharp sword of thy threatnings pierce it not but let the sweet efficacies of thy mercies quicken the infused principle of thy grace that it may cleave all obstacles and send forth shâ—â—ts bearing fruit to thee abundantly 13 Being in London and
for War but prompt to all sedition Lord we are then ready to dispute thy Commands when we are unwilling to do them and we are then ready to charge thy wayes as full of difficulty when we are full of sloth We thinke this will excuse our neglect to say That we do what we can when indeed we do but what we will measuring our ability not by our strength but lazinesse yea we quarrel with discipline and find many faults with the rigour or equity of it 't is not because the rule is not straight but we are crooked and it is irksome to comply with it 127 'T is said of Galba that He could not so well be accounted virtuous as without vices 'T is not seldome that civility is mistaken for grace and we please our selves that we are not as others are then that we are what we should be Peter speaking of those that may apostatize expresseth them not by their actings of grace but Their escaping of the pollutions of the world The sinfullnesse of some sins may be discovered and through the light of conscience there may be an abhorring against them where yet there is no hearty closing with good not affectionate application to the wayes of Righteousnesse Lord let therefore the new creature be formed in me whereby I may not onely Be purged from dead workes but purified to serve the living God 128 Thomas Haukes going to the fire was requested to give them a signe whether the paine of burning were such as might be with patience endured which he promised to do by lifting his hands over his head so being in the fire and now to all mens apprehensions past moving the holy man remembred his promise and lifting his armes aloft clapped his burnt stumps together three times and then sunk down without any further appearance of life That the torment of fire should be tollerable to the body is past imagination unlesse it had first lost the sence of feeling but God that made the Bush burne but not burne up and torments bodies in Hell with fire without consumption can make fire consume the body but not torment Yea if men can make their consciences naturally tender past feeling by custome in sin is it much that God should make the body past feeling that is dedicated to his service and so cause a bed of fire to become a bed of doune Lord if such an exigence by thy Providence befall me let me not be solicitous what the suffering is but for thy assistance to beare it 129 In the contest between Vitellius and Vespatiau for the Empire of Rome there were overtures made to Vitellius of agreement to which he enervated by sloth and luxury was willing to hearken consulting what place of preferment to Condition for being contented himselfe to forge he had been Emperour if others would not have remembred it It often falleth out that they who have led the formost ranks in Religious designes while godlinesse hath been prosperous when it hath met with smart opposition have so far degenerated as by a shamefull apostasie to side with the adversary glad of any poor advantages that may be had thence not ashamed to forget they were professors but when they observe others remember their former profession 130 A Schoolemaster walking with one of his Scholers by a neighbours Orchard the Lad pluckt a Fig that hung over the Pale which the Master seeing rebuked him sharply and tooke it from him but presently eate it up himselfe Oh the very many who have greedily devoured those things which they counted a crime for others to look upon and have declaimed that as sacriledge wherewith they have filled their own Purses having weather-cock judgements turned about with the wind of their own conveniences and can tell you as Ployden by the Hogs That the case is altered 131 Protogenes that famous Limner was seaven yeares in drawing the Picture of Jalisus which when Apelles saw he said That the grace of the work was much but allayed by the length of the time I have heard such Sermons as have been Elephantis partus the workes of those who have thought a Sermon cannot well be conceived under a yeare or some moneths at least But I could never meet with any answering the expectations of so tedious a birth but they have been outdone as to the ends of a Sermon which is to informe the judgment and stir the affections by those who have brought forth such issues two or three times in a weeke at least 132 Pyrrus being admitted by the Athenians into their Castle Pyrra at his departure advised them Never more to admit any Prince upon the like account againe for it was too great a temptation for an ordinary fidelity to avoid Time was when I gave my soule that liberty to discourse with temptation that it was not my strength but thy mercy Lord brought me off let not that successe make me more adventurous but the sense of my danger for the time to come more circumspect and wary 133 In the fields about the City Narvi in Italy drought causeth dirt and rainy weather makes it dusty How strangly contrary are the effects of the meanes of grace on the disobedient the bright rayes of divine truth giving occasion to corrupt reason to resist it more strongly and the gentle showers of the word raise the dust of vile affections and passions by a certaine Antiperistasis like Salt in a Pot of Snow conducing to their farther obduration that of their own nature would mollifie and soften 134 Some travellers in Ethiopia finding some trees in a valley convenient for their repose alighted there to ease themselves ad cattell which while they were doing one among them observing a black cloud behind him advised them to a speedy departure from that place which they had scarcely done but so great a torrent of waters came downe there where before was nothing but dry ground driving all before it so as had certainly been their ruine if they had not complyed with that advice I observe by those clouds of unruly passions arising in my heart upon the presentation of some objects that my soul will he mightily endangered if those occasions of sin be not avoided Oh that my retreat may be therefore as speedy as my danger is certaine 135 A motion being made in the Senate for the restoring of some Achaians to their countrey ☜ who had been long banished thence which being much argued too and fro in the Senate Cato stands up and tells them It seemes they were not busie that could attend so long dispute whether Rome or Greece should bury those decrepit Achaians If we compare our ambitious thoughts and emulous animosities with our haftning to our graves we shall find our funeralls deserve our care more then our designs for while we contrive how to supplant one another death playes the Jacob with us and supplants us all 136 The Embassadors of the late King or Sweden having been over with us
desirous to know the time of the day I viewed the Clocks and by the first I saw it was past eleven by the next but half an hour after ten the third was as much in the other extream and the fourth dissented from the other three then I applyed my self to the Dials but I found them as the Clocks onely agreeing in disagreeing from one another hence I concluded there could be no dependance on them who concurred so little with themselves I therefore turned my selfe to observe the setting of the Sun which though not alwayes the same yet hath a motion ever regular and agreeable to it self and to dispose of my affairs by that The variety of opinions among learned men manifesteth That there can be no certainty where there is so much dissent therefore in the conduct of my life Lord give me Nullius jurare in verba Magistri and to respect not so much what men say who can and do erre as what thy Word saith which is alwayes consonant to its selfe and erreth not but as misapprehended or mis-reported by us 14 Two persons being in competition for a place of honour a third engageth vigorously for one of them against the other the obliged person soon forgetteth those civilities done him having obtained his ends and grows shy of his Benefactor being confident that his merits call'd for that requitall which he meant not but the dis-obliged person graves the opposition of that third person on his mind with the pen of a Diamond and catcheth at the next opportunity to shew his animosity by a smart Animadversion Vespatians Captains relieved not the Citizen of Taracene in the miseries which for their interest they suffered when they of Capua are by them severely punished for the injuries which they had offered Lord who would displease thee to please men when our services are rewarded by thee not according to their merit but thy goodness and our dis-services through thy Son are both forgiven and forgotten The businesse of Vriah is then past over with silence when Davids uprightnesse after many Generations hath a frequent and honourable memoriall 15 Being abroad one day and without a Dinner a Comrade who had forethought the worm would bite had provided a piece of powdered Beef of which he was willing to communicate which though it were dry of it self and not a drop of drink to wash it down yet I eat it up very savourily and as Darius by his puddle-water gave it great commendation Lord how many of thy mercies through our fullnesse are nauseated by us which want would make more relishing and our necessities render precious 16 Having a design to plant a nursery with Crab-stocks I found many in Hedgrows and other places which I had many times before past by and not observed Lord fix the aim of my soul on thy glory and my affections on things above then those opportunities tending to spiritual advantage will be with promptnesse embraced which before were neglected or not observed 17 Upon the Rode to London I met a Team at a stand and neither skill of the Driver nor strength of the Horses could move the Cart out of the slough till another Team came which joyned with the former drew it out presently The cryes of particular Christians have not removed those evils wherewith they have been pressed when the united supplications of the Church have been heard so well pleased is the Lord with the unity of his people that what they agree of on earth he hath promised shall be done for them in Heaven 18 I fell one time into company where he was counted of the best wit that could devise the shortest Grace and most stomacks there were too squeamish to digest a Thanksgiving that did descend to express particulars But surely such wit will be of no use in the Kingdome of Heaven and those affections will no wise agree with that place where praise shall be the only imployment of glorified spirits 19 Walking in the streets I met a Cart that came neer the wall so I stept aside to avoid it into a place where I was secure enough but being desirous to be out of all possibility of danger I got off further Lord sin is that great evill of which thou complainest that thou art pressed as a Cart is pressed how can it then but bruise me to powder Oh let me therefore think my self never sufficiently secured from its danger nor the occasions of it far enough avoided 20 I met a Coffin made of such sweet wood adorned with such curious hinges deckt with such stately appurtenances as seemed to give ornament to death it self and make a grave desireable which yet in a few hours was to be covered with dust How is the life of man imployed about and intent upon matter of ostentation and how much of a vain shew is used in death it self that so fully discovers that all is but a vain shew 21 Being in company with some persons one among them undertook to relate a story which he had but begun as the rest fell to other discourse among themselves so as that he was fain to beg their attention by many Parenthesis of commendation that it was a very pretty story How vain is it to prostitute words to those that either think they have too much wit of their own to value the conceits of others or that have too little to apprehend them 22 Horsemen say that ill-bred Mares usually bring the fattest and well-favouredst Colts which yet afterwards prove unhandsome Jades whereas those of a good strain are meager and unsightly for the first yeer but after are of rare shapes and proof The freest and fattest promises are usually of the leanest performances whereas they that engage slowly performe surely 23 On the Rode to Guildford I passed by a Chalk-pit neer the way the top of which was railed about I observed it was not for fence but caution for the avoiding the stupendious precipice whereby the unwary traveller might be endangered Lord if thou hast set us bounds in thy word 't is not out of envy or ill will unto us as the Devil suggested to our first parents but where-ever we are by thee limitted it is for our advantage and security not our detriment 24 Viewing one night a bon-fire made upon an hill a great way off and comparing it with the evening star it seemed bigger brighter then that but after I had looked upon it a while I perceived it to decay in greatnesse and light till at last it was not to be discerned but the star retained still the same quantity beauty though now and then a Cloud for a time did obscure it Many have appeared like burning and shining lights while the fuel of worldly advantages hath lasted but when that faileth they disappear when those Lamps lighted with the Celestial fire of divine grace though the clouds of crosse occurrences or mist of temptation may sometimes hinder their appearing so glorious