Sheldon Mayor Curia specialis tent ' die Lunae 31 die Januarii 1675. Annoque Regni Regis CAROLI Secundi Angliae c. xxviii THis COURT doth desire Mr. Sharpe to Print his Sermon Preached yesterday morning before the Lord Mayor and Aldermen at Bow-Church with what he had further prepared to deliver at that time Wagstaffe Imprimatur Geo. Hooper Rev. D o. Archiep. Cant. Ã Sac. Domest Feb. 7. 1675 6. A SERMON Preached before the RIGHT HONOURABLE THE Lord Mayor AND ALDERMEN of LONDON AT BOW-CHURCH By JOHN SHARPE Chaplain to the Right Honourable Heneage Lord Finch Lord High Chancellor of ENGLAND LONDON Printed by Andrew Clark for Walter Kettilby at the Bishops Head in St. Paul's Church-Yard 1676. 1 TIM iv 8. Godliness is profitable unto all things having a promise of the life that now is and of that which is to come THese words are the enforcement of an exhortation which St. Paul had made to Timothy in the Verse before going which was that he should Avoid prophane and Old-wives Fables meaning those Impious and superstitious Doctrines and the carnal and unchristian Observances that were grounded upon them some of which he had mentioned in the beginning of this Chapter which some at that time did endeavour to introduce into Christianity and instead of applying his mind to these that he should rather Exercise himself unto true Godliness This was the Exhortation The Arguments wherewith he enforceth it are Two First The Unprofitableness of these Carnal and Superstitious Doctrines and Practices Bodily exercise saith he profiteth little Secondly The real usefulness of solid Vertue and Godliness to all the Purposes of life Godliness is profitable to all things having a promise of this Life as well as of that which is to come I shall not here meddle at all with the former part of the Apostles Exhortation or the Argument that hath relation to it but shall apply my self wholly to the latter craving leave most plainly and affectionately to press upon you the Exercise of Godliness upon those Grounds and Considerations on which the Apostle here recommendeth it Indeed to a man that considers well it will appear the most unaccountable thing in the world that among all those several Exercises that Mankind busie themselves about this of Godliness should be in so great a measure neglected that men should be so diligent so industrious so unwearied some in getting Estates others in Purveying for Pleasures others in learning Arts and Trades All in something or other relating to this sensible World and so few should study to acquaint themselves with God and the Concernments of their souls to learn the Arts of Virtue and Religious Conversation Certain it is this Piece of Skill is not more above our reach than many of those other things we so industriously pursue nay I am apt to think it is more within our power than most of them For in our other Labours we cannot always promise to our selves certain success A thousand things may intervene which we know not of that may defeat all our plots and designs though never so carefully laid but no man ever seriously undertook the Business of Religion but he accomplished it Nay further As we can with greater certainty so can we with less pains and difficulty promise to our selves success in this affair than we can hope to compass most of our worldly designs which so much take up our thoughts I doubt not in the least but that less labour less trouble less solicitude will serve to make a man a good Christian than to get an Estate or to attain a competent skill in Humane Arts and Sciences And then for other Motives to oblige us to the study of Religion we have incomparably more and greater than we can have for the pursuit of any other thing It is certainly the greatest Concernment we have in the world It is the very thing God sent us into the world about It is the very thing that his Son came down from Heaven to instruct us in It is the very thing by which we shall be concluded everlastingly happy or everlastingly miserable after this life is ended These things well considered we may justly I say stand amazed that men should be so prodigiously supine and negligent in an Affair of this nature and importance as we see they generally are If there can any account be given of this matter I suppose it must be some such as this That the things of this World upon which we bestow our Care our Time our Courtship are present to us We see them every day before our eyes we taste we feel the sweetness of them we are sensible that their enjoyment is absolutely necessary to our present well-being But as for spiritual matters they lie under a great disadvantage They appear to us as at a great distance We do not apprehend any present need we have of them Nor do we fancy any sweetness or relish in them Nay on the contrary we form the most frightful and dismal Images of them that can be We look upon them not only as flat and unsavoury but as things which if we trouble our heads too much about will certainly ruine all our designs in this World We think Religion good for nothing but to spoil good Company to make us melancholy and mopish to distract us in our Business and Employments and to put so many Restraints upon us that we can neither with that freedom nor success pursue our Temporal Concernments which we think necessary to our happiness in this World But let us suppose things to be thus with Religion as we have fancied yet cannot this be any reasonable Excuse for our carelesness about it What though there were no visible Benefit by a religious life in this world What though the rewards of our pains about it were only in reversion Yet since a time will come when it will be our greatest Interest to have been heartily Religious is it not a madness now to neglect it What though Religion be a course of life difficult and unpleasant a way strewed with Briers and Thorns a way which if we follow we are certainly lost as to our hopes of any thing here Yet since a Time will certainly come when we shall wish that we had been good Christians though we had lost our right eyes and our right hands upon the condition when we shall wish that we had purchased Virtue though at the rate of the loss of the whole World For Gods sake why should we not be of the same mind now Who but Fools and Children but will look upon that which shall certainly and unavoidably be with the same regard as if it was now present But indeed this is not the Case of Religion This Business of Piety is not so formidable as we often represent it It is no such Enemy to our Temporal designs It is a very innocent thing and will do us no harm though we look no further than this
present World It will hinder none of our delights or pleasures but will allow us to gratifie every Appetite that God and Nature hath put into us And if any man doubt this let him name that Natural desire which the Christian Religion doth forbid or any way hinder the innocent satisfaction of I am confident he shall be able to name none Since this is the Case then how much more Childish than Children shall we appear if we make so little reckoning of it How inexcusably Foolish shall we be if we will not be at some pains to possess our selves of that which will be no manner of Hinderance to us in our affairs in this World and will infallibly make us everlastingly happy in that which is to come But further What if it be certain that a Life of strict virtue is not only no Hinderance to our Temporal designs but a great furtherance of them What if it can be Proved that besides the influence it has on our Happiness in the next Life it is also the best thing in the World to serve our turns in this And that nothing can so much contribute to the bringing about our Worldly Aims no such ready way to attain to what our very Flesh and Bloud most desires most delights in as to be sincerely Pious What imaginable pretence can we then have for our contempt of God and Virtue If this can be made to appear sure all our Objections will be fully answered all our scruples satisfied all our prejudices against Religion wholly removed and every one that is not abandoned of his Fortune and his Senses as well as his Reason must think himself concerned to become a Votary to it since he can have no Temptation or Motive to Vice which will not more powerfully draw him to Virtue and all the ends that the one can pretend to serve will much more effectually be served by the other and he escapes an Eternity of Misery and gets everlasting Life into the Bargain I think it therefore worth the while to spend the time now allotted me in making good this Point and discovering something at least of that universal Profitableness of Godliness to the purposes of Human Life that St. Paul in my Text assures us of But because the Studies of men are so infinitely various and the Ends of Life to be served so many that it will be impossible to speak particularly of them it will be needful to pitch upon some general Heads such as if they do not comprehend all may yet take in most of those things to which the Labours and Endeavours of men are directed and in the acquisition of which they have compassed their Designs and to shew the serviceableness of Religion above all other means for the attaining of them And I think I cannot pitch better than upon those three noted Idols of the World Wealth and Honour and Pleasure these being the Goods which have always been accounted to divide Mankind among them and into the service of some one or all of which All that set up for a happy life in this world do list themselves how different and disagreeing soever they be from one another as to their particular Employments and ways of Living I shall therefore make it appear that Godliness and Religion is a very great furtherance to the acquisition of all these and that no man can take a more ready way either to improve his Fortune or to purchase a Name and Reputation among men or to live comfortably and pleasantly in this world than heartily to serve God and to live in the practice of every Virtue And in the First place I begin with the Conduciveness of Religion and Godliness to improve our outward Fortunes the Advantages of it for the getting or encreasing an Estate For this is the thing to which our Thoughts are commonly first directed as looking upon it as the Foundation of a happy Life in this world But here I desire not to be mistaken I would not be thought to deal with you as one of our ordinary Empiricks that promises many brave feats in his Bill which are indeed beyond the power of his Art I do not pretend that Wealth and Opulency is necessarily entailed upon Religion so that whoever is good shall presently be inabled to make Purchases and to leave Lands and Livings to his Children Riches are one of those things that are not so perfectly in our power that all men may hope for an equal share of them The having more or less depends oftentimes not so much upon our selves as upon that condition and quality in which we were born the way and course of Life into which our Friends put us and a hundred accidental circumstances to which we our selves contribute nothing But this I say supposing the vertuous man in equal circumstances with others supposing him to stand upon the same level and to enjoy the same fortuitous hits and external concurrences that they do and he shall by many odds have the advantage of them for thriving and improving in the world in any condition of life whatsoever So that so far as the getting of Riches depends upon Humane endeavours so far as it is an Art and falls under Precepts and Directions no man alive can propose a better expedient in order thereto than a serious practise of Religion To make this good let it be considered that as to the means that do in a more direct and immediate manner influence upon the getting or improving an Estate I speak of General means such as are of use in all conditions of life for to meddle with the Mysteries of any Particular Art or Trade is not my purpose as indeed it is beyond my skill as to such means as these I say none can prescribe more effectual than these four 1. Prudence in administring our Affairs 2. Diligence in that Vocation wherein God hath placed us 3. Thrift and good Husbandry 4. Keeping a good Correspondence with those in whose power it is to hinder or promote our Affairs If now it do appear that Godliness doth highly improve a man in all these four respects if it can be shewed that all these Fruits naturally grow and thrive better in a Religious Soil then any other it will evidently follow that supposing these above-named means do indeed contribute to the making of a Fortune and if they do not no man knows what doth and we strangely abuse our Friends and our Children when upon that account we recommend them to them it follows I say that a life of Godliness is a mighty advantage to a man for the purposes I am speaking of And first of all it will be easie to shew that Godliness doth above all things tend to make a man wise and prudent skilful and dexterous in the management of his Affairs of what nature soever for it doth very much clear and improve a mans understanding not only by a certain natural efficacy it hath as I shall shew hereafter
almost continually charged The Modesty of it cloaths us at a small rate and its Temperance spreads for us though a neat yet a frugal Table The attendance it requires on our Business will not allow us to embezel our money in Drinking or Gaming nor will that Purity which is inseparable from it ever let us know what the vast and sinking expences of lewdness and uncleanness are In a word it is Vice only that is the chargeable thing it is only Shame and Repentance that men buy at such costly rates Godliness is saving and full of good Husbandry nor has it any known or unknown ways of spending except it be those of Charity which indeed in proper speaking are not so much expence as Usury for money so laid out doth always even in this life return to us with Advantage The fourth and last means I mentioned of Thriving in the world was the keeping a good Correspondence with all those in whose power it is to hinder or promote our Affairs This every body knows to be a prime point in Policy and indeed it is of a large extent and of continual use No man can be supposed so independent on others but that as he is some way beholden to them for all that he has so he stands in need of their help and concurrence for all that he hopes for Men do not make their fortunes of themselves nor grow rich by having Treasures dropped in their Laps but they do it by the benefit of Humane Society by the mutual assistances and good offices that one man performs for another So that whoever intends to thrive in the world it above all things imports him so to carry himself towards all that he hath any commerce with so far to secure their favour and good will that they may be obliged not to deny him any of those assistances which the exigency of his Affairs calls for at their hands But now how this should be done any otherwise than by being truly Just and Honest by abstaining from Violence and Injury by being True to our Trusts and Faithful in performing our Contracts and in a word by doing all those good Offices to others which we expect they should do unto us which as our Saviour tells us is the sum of Religion is a very hard thing to conceive The usefulness or rather the necessity of such a Behaviour as this in order to the gaining the good Opinion of others and so serving our own ends by them is so universally acknowledged that even those that make no real Conscience of these things are yet nevertheless in all their dealings forced to pretend to them Open and Bare-fac'd Knavery rarely serves a mans turn in this world but it is under the mask of Virtue and Honesty that it usually performs those Feats it doth which is no less than a Demonstration of the conduciveness of those things to promote our Temporal Interests for if the meer Pretence to them be a great advantage to us for this purpose it cannot be imagined but that the Reality of them will be a greater Certainly the Power of Godliness will be able to do more than the Form alone and that if it was upon no other account than this that no man that is but a meer Pretender to Honesty can long hope to keep his credit among men It is impossible to act a Part for any long time let him carry it never so cunningly his Vizor will some time or other be thrown off and he will appear in his true colours and to what a world of mischiefs and inconveniences he will then be exposed every one that knows how hated how detested how abandon'd by every one a Knave and a Villain is may easily determine I hope I need say no more to convince you that Religion is the best Policy and that the more hearty and consciencious any man is in the practice of it the more likely he is to Thrive and Improve in the world So that I may now proceed to the second general point to be spoken to which is the Profitableness of Religion for the attaining a good Name and Reputation How very much it conduceth to this purpose will appear from these two considerations First it lays the surest Grounds and Foundations for a good Name and Reputation Secondly Men are generally so just to it that it rarely misses of a good Name and Reputation The first is an argument from Reason the second from Experience First of all Godliness layeth the truest Foundations for a fair Reputation in the world There are but two things that can give a man a title to the good Opinion and Respects of men the inward Worth and Dignity of his Person and his Usefulness and Serviceableness to others The first of these challengeth mens Esteem the other their Love Now both these Qualities Religion and Virtue do eminently possess us of For first the Religious man is certainly the most Worthy and Excellent Person for he of all others lives most up to the great End for which he was designed which is the natural measure of the Goodness and Worth of Things What ever external Advantages a man may have yet if he be not endowed with virtuous Qualities he is far from having any True Worth or Excellence and consequently cannot be a fit object of our Praise and Esteem because he wants that which should make him Perfect and Good in his Kind For it is not a comely Personage or a long Race of Famous Ancestors or a large Revenue or a multitude of Servants or many swelling Titles or any other thing without a man that speaks him a Compleat Man or makes him to be what he should be but the right use of his Reason the employing his Liberty and Choice to the best purposes the Exercising his Powers and Faculties about the fittest Objects and in the most due measures These are the Things that make him Excellent Now none can be said to do this but only he that is Virtuous Secondly Religion also is that which makes a man most Useful and Profitable to others for it effectually secures his performance of all those Duties whereby both the security and welfare of the Publick and also the Good and Advantage of particular Persons is most attained It makes men Lovers of their Country Loyal to their Prince Obedient to Laws it is the surest Bond and Preservative of Society in the world it obliges us to live peaceably and to submit our selves to our Rulers not only for wrath but also for Conscience sake It renders us modest and governable in Prosperity and resolute and couragious to suffer bravely in a good cause in the worst of times It teacheth us to endeavour as much as in us lies to promote the good of every particular Member of the Community to be inflexibly upright to do hurt to none but good offices to all to be charitable to the Bodies and Souls of men to do all manner of kindnesses that
this was a peculiar and extraordinary case and could but last for a certain time now that Christianity hath obtained in the world and is adopted into the Laws of Kingdoms as God be thanked it is among us at this day so far need we be from fearing that the practice of it will draw upon us any Persecution or such other Inconveniences as are mentioned in the fore-cited places that there is no doubt but that we may Rationally expect from it all those External Benefits and Advantages which as we have seen it is in its own nature apt to produce and which God hath indeed made over to it by Promise in several Passages of the Scripture especially of the Old Testament For that I may mention this by the By I do not conceive that those Promises of Long Life Good Days and all manner of worldly Prosperity with which the Practice of Godliness is so frequently enforced in the Old Testament were so appropriated to the Jewish Religion as to be antiquated or disannulled by the Introduction of the Christian but rather that they are still in force to all the Purposes they were then For that the coming of Christ into the world did add many great Blessings and Priviledges to the People of God which before they had not we are certain of but that it took away from them any that before they had this we no where read nor indeed is it probable But I hasten to the third and last General Head I am to speak to which is the Excellent Ministeries of Religion above all other things to the Pleasures of Humane Life which point if it be clearly made out I do not see what can be further wanting to recommend it unto us as the most effectual Instrument for the serving all our turns in this World Now that Godliness doth indeed make the most excellent Provisions for all sorts of Pleasures will appear by these four Considerations First That it eminently ministreth to Health which is a necessary Foundation for all Pleasures Secondly It doth much increase the Relish and Sweetness of all our other Pleasures Thirdly It secures us from all those Inquietudes and Disturbances which are apt to embitter our Pleasures and make our Lives uncomfortable Fourthly It adds to Humane Life a world of Pleasures of its own which those that are not possessed of it are utterly unacquainted with First of all Godliness doth very much conduce to Health which is so necessary to our enjoyment of any sensible Good that without it neither Riches nor Honours nor any thing that we esteem most gratifying to our Senses will signifie any thing at all to us Now that a Sound and Healthful Constitution doth exceedingly much depend upon a discreet government and moderation of our Appetites and Passions upon a sober and temperate use of all Gods Creatures which is an essential Part of True Religion is a thing so evident that I need make no words about it What are most of our Diseases and Infirmities that make us miserable and unpittied while we live and cut us off in the midst of our days and transmit Weakness and Rottenness to our Posterity but the effects of our Excesses and Debauches our Wantonness and Luxury Certainly if we would observe those Measures in our Diet and in our Labours in our Passions and in our Pleasures which Religion has bound us up to we might to such a degree Preserve our Bodies as to render the greatest Part of Physick perfectly superfluous But these things are too well known to need to be insisted on I therefore pass on to the next thing Secondly A Life of Religion doth very much increase the relish and sweetness of all our sensible Enjoyments So far is it from abridging us of any of our earthly delights as its enemies slanderously represent it that it abundantly heightens them It doth not only indulge to us the free Use of all those good Creatures of God which he hath made for the Support and Comfort of Mankind while they are in these Earthly Bodies but also makes them more exquisitely gratifying and delightful than without it they could possibly be And this it doth in part by the means of that never sufficiently commended Temperance and Moderation I before spoke of for hereby it comes to pass that our Senses which are the Instruments of our Pleasures are always preserved in that due Purity and Quickness that is absolutely necessary for the right performing of their Offices and the rendering our Perceptions of any thing grateful and agreeable Whereas the Sensual and Voluptuous man defeats his own designs and whilst he thinks to enjoy a greater share of Pleasures than other men really enjoys a less For his Dissoluteness and giving up the reins to his Appetites only serves to dull and stupifie them Nor doth he reap any other Benefit from his continual hankering after Bodily Pleasures but that his Sensations of them are hereby made altogether Flat and Unaffecting Neither is his Meat half so favoury nor his Recreations so diverting nor his Sleep so sweet nor the Company he keeps so agreeable as Theirs are that by following the measures of Nature and Reason come to them with truer and more unforc'd Appetites But besides this there is a certain Lightsomness and Chearfulness of mind which is in a manner peculiar to the truly Religious Soul that above all things sets off our Pleasures and makes all the Actions and Perceptions of Humane Life Sweet and Delightful True Piety is the best Cure of Melancholy in the world nothing comparable to it for dispelling that Lumpishness and Inactivity that renders the Soul of a Man uncapable of enjoying either it self or any thing else It fills the Soul with perpetual Light and Vigour infuseth a strange kind of Alacrity and Gayety of Humour into us And this it doth not only by removing those things that Hinder our Mirth and make us languish in the midst of our Festivities such as are the Pangs of an Evil Conscience and the storms of unmortified Passions of which I shall speak in the following particular but even by a more Physical Efficiency It hath really a mighty Power to Correct and Exalt a mans Natural Temper Those Ardent Breathings and Workings wherewith the Pious Soul is continually carried out after God and Virtue are to the Body like so much Fresh Air and Wholsom Exercise they Fan the Blood and keep it from Settling they Clarifie the Spirits and purge them from those grosser Feculencies which would otherwise Cloud our Understandings and make us dull and listless And to these effects of Religion doth Solomon seem to Allude when he tells us that Wisdom maketh a mans face to shine Eccles. 8. 1. Where he seems to intimate that that Purity and Exaltation into which the Blood and Spirits of a man are wrought by the Exercise of Virtue and Devotion doth diffuse it self even to his Outward Visage making the Countenance clear and serene and filling the
so secret yet he cannot be confident they will always continue so and the very Apprehension of this makes him feel all the Shame and Amazement of a present Discovery But put the case he hath had the good luck to sin so closely or in such a nature that he need fear nothing from Men yet he knows there is an Offended God to whom he hath a sad and a fearful Reckoning to make a God too Just to be Bribed too Mighty to be Over-awed too Wise to be Imposed upon And is not the man think you under such Reflections as these likely to live a very Comfortable life Ah none knows the Bitterness of them but himself that feels them To the Judgment of others he perhaps appears a very happy man he hath the world at his beck all things seem to conspire to make him a great Example of Prosperity we admire we applaud his Condition But ah we know not how sad a heart he often carries under this fair Out-side we know not with what sudden Damps his spirit is often struck even in the heighth of his Revellings We know not how unquiet how broken his sleeps are how oft he starts and looks pale when the Wife that lies by his side understands not what the matter is with him He doth indeed endeavour all he can to stifle his Cares and to stop the mouth of his Conscience He thinks to divert it with Business or to flatter it with little Sophistries or to drown it with rivers of Wine or to calm it with soft and gentle Airs And he is indeed sometimes so successful in these Arts as for a while to lay it asleep But alas this is no lasting peace the least thing awakens it even the sound of a Passing-Bell or a clap of Thunder nay a Frightful Dream or a Melancholy Story hath the power to do it and then the poor man returns to his Torment And now judge you whether the Honest and Virtuous Man that is free from all these Agonies that is at Peace with God and at Peace with his own Conscience that apprehends nothing terrible from the one nor feels any thing troublesome from the other but is safe from Himself and from all the world in his own Innocence Judge I say whether such a one hath not laid to himself better and surer Foundations for Pleasures and a happy Life than the man that by indulging his Lusts and Vices only breeds up a Snake in his Bosom which will not cease to Sting and Gall him beyond what a Tongue is able to express or a witty Cruelty to Invent. Fourthly and lastly besides the benefits of Religion for removing the hinderances of our Pleasures it also adds to Humane Life a world of pleasures of its own which vicious men are utterly unacquainted with And these are of so excellent a kind so delicious so enravishing that the highest gratifications of sense are not comparable to them Never till we come to be heartily Religious do we understand what true Pleasure is That which ariseth from the grateful motions that are made in our outward senses is but a faint shadow a meer dream of it Then do we begin to enjoy true Pleasures indeed when our Highest and Divinest Faculties which were wholly laid asleep while we lived the life of sense begin to be awakened and to exercise themselves upon their proper objects when we become acquainted with God and the Infinite Abyss of Good that is in him when our hearts are made sensible of the great Love and good will he bears us and in that sense are powerfully carried out in Joy and Love and desire after him when we feel the Divine Nature daily more and more displayed in our souls shewing forth it self in the blessed Fruits of Charity and Peaceableness and Meekness and Humility and Purity and Devotion and all the other Graces of the Holy Spirit It is not possible but that such a Life as this must needs be a Fountain of inexpressible joy to him that leads it and fill the Soul with transcendently greater content than any thing upon earth can possibly do for this is the Life of God this is the Life of the Blessed Angels above this is the Life that is most of all agreeable to our own natures While we live thus things are with us as they should be our Souls are in their natural Posture in that state they were framed and designed to live in whereas the Life of Sin is a state of Disorder and Confusion a perpetual violence and force upon our Natures While we live thus we enjoy the Pleasures of men whereas before when we were governed by sense we could pretend to no other satisfactions but what the Brutes have as well as we In this state of life we gratifie our Highest and Noblest Powers the intellectual Appetites of our Souls which as they are infinitely capacious so have they an infinite good to fill them whereas in the sensual Life the meanest the dullest and the most contracted Faculties of our Souls were only provided for But what need I carry you out into these Speculations when your own sense and experience will ascertain you in this matter above a thousand Arguments Do but seriously set your selves to serve God if you have yet never done it do but once try what it is to live up to the Precepts of Reason and Virtue and Religion and I dare confidently pronounce that you will in one month find more Joy more Peace more Content to arise in your spirits from the sense that you have resisted the Temptations of Evil and done what was your duty to do than in many years spent in Vanity and a Licentious course of living I doubt not in the least but that after you have once seen and tasted how gracious the Lord is how good all his ways are but you will proclaim to all the world that One day spent in his Courts is better than a thousand Nay you will be ready to cry out with the Roman Orator if it be lawful to quote the Testimony of a Heathen after that of the Divine Psalmist that One day lived according to the Precepts of Virtue is to be preferred before an Immortality of Sin You will then alter all your sentiments of things and wonder that you should have been so strangely abused by false representations of Virtue and Vice You will then see that Religion is quite another thing than it appeared to you before you became acquainted with it Instead of that grim sowr unpleasant Countenance in which you heretofore painted her to your self you will then discover nothing in her but what is infinitely Lovely and Charming Those very Actions of Religion which you now cannot think upon with Patience they seem so harsh and unpleasant you will then find to be accompanied with a wonderful Delight You will not then complain of the narrowness of the Bounds or the scantiness of the Measures that it hath confined your desires