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the brute creatures. As amongst us men, there are thieves by land, and pirates by sea, that live by spoil and blood: so is there in every kind amongst them variety of natural sharkers; the hawk, in the air; the pike, in the river; the whale, in the sea; the lion, and tiger, and wolf, in the desert; the wasp, in the hive; the spider, in our window.

Amongst the rest, see how cunningly this little Arabian hath spread out his tent for a prey; how heedfully he watches for a passenger. So soon as ever he hears the noise of a fly afar off, how he hastens to his door! and if that silly heedless traveller do but touch upon the verge of that unsuspected walk, how suddenly doth he seize upon the miserable booty; and, after some strife, binding him fast with those subtle cords, drags the helpless captive after him into his cave!

What is this, but an emblem of those spiritual freebooters, that lie in wait for our souls? They are the spiders; we, the flies: they have spread their nets of sin; if we be once caught, they bind us fast, and hale us in to hell.

O Lord, deliver thou my soul from their crafty ambushes: their poison is greater; their webs both more strong and more insensibly woven. Either teach me to avoid temptation; or make me to break through it, by repentance: oh, let ine not be a prey to those fiends, that lie in wait for my destruction.

gia in brutis animalibus reperiri non possit. Ut inter nos, suos habet terra latrones, mare piratas, qui spoliis vivunt ac sanguine: ita et nullum non genus animalium nativos quosdam habet speciei suæ grassatores; in aere, accipiter est; lupus piscis, in fluvio; in oceano, cete; leo, tigris, lupus, in deserto; in apum præsepibus, vespa; aranea, in fenestris.

Inter reliqua, vide mihi ut pusillus iste Arabs subdolè tentorium suum extendit prædæque inhiat; quàm studiosè insidiatur viatori. Quam primùm audit à longè vel minimum advolantis musca sonitum, quàm festinat illico ad antri sui ostiolum, curiosè speculaturus! quòd si incautus ille hospes vel extimum tenuissimæ tela ambitum semel tetigerit, quàm subitò accurrit insilitque miserrimo captivo; et, post quandam lucta speciem, arctè illum vinciens subtilioribus suis funiculis, misellam post se prædam in antrum trahit!

Quid hoc aliud est, nisi emblema latronum illorum spiritualium, qui perpetuas animis nostris insidias struunt? Illi araneæ sunt; nos, musca: illi peccatorum retia nobis capiendis quàm latissimè extenderunt; in quæ ubi semel inciderimus, ligamur illico, et in gehennam rapimur. Libera animam meam, ô Deus, ab astutis secretisque istorum machinationibus: nempe et horum venenum longè magis mortiferum est; et tele robustiores textæque subtilis. Aut doce me, quæso, tentionem evadere; aut, vi pœnitentiæ, laqueos iniquitatum perrumpere: faxisque, ne prædæ sim malis illis spiritibus, qui animæ meæ perniciem insidiosè moliuntur.

On the sight of a rain, in the sun- XVI. shine.

SUCH is my best condition in this life. If the sun of God's countenance shine upon me, I may well be content to be wet with some rain of affliction, How oft have I seen the heaven overcast with clouds and tempest; no sun appearing to comfort me! yet even those gloomy and stormy seasons have I rid out patiently, only with the help of the common light of the day at last, those beams have broken forth happily, and cheered my soul. It is well for my ordinary state, if, through the mists of mine own dulness and Satan's temptations, I can descry some glimpse of heavenly comfort let me never hope, while I am in this vale, to see the clear face of that sun, without a shower. Such happiness is reserved for above: that upper region of glory is free from these doubtful and miserable vicissitudes.

There, O God, we shall see as we are seen. Light is sown for the righteous, and joy for the upright in heart.

On the length of the way. How far off is yonder great mountain! My very eye is weary with the foresight of so great a distance; yet time and patience shall overcome it: this night we shall hope to lodge beyond it. Some things are more tedious in their expectation, than in their

Ad conspectum pluviæ, sole interim splendente.

TALIS est vel optima vitæ hujus conditio, Si sol divini vultûs mi, hi tantillùm affulserit, non est quòd ægrè mihi fuerit afflictionum pluviis interea madefieri. Quoties vidi ego cœli faciem nubibus et tempestatibus obvolutam; nullo interim splendescente sole! tristia tamen illa et nebulosa tempora patienter evici, solo fretus communis lucis solatio: tandem verò, radii illi fœliciter emicuerunt, animamque mihi exhilarârunt. Benè mecum actum erit, si, quoad ordinarium vitæ statum, licuerit mihi, per innatæ cujusdam tristitia nebulas Satanææque tentationes, vel minimo cœlestis consolationis obtutu frui: non est quòd sperem, dum in hâc valle sum, claram solis faciem, absque omni sive imbre sive nubeculâ, contueri. Uni cœlo reservatur hæc tanta beatitudo: suprema illa regio gloriæ ab his dubiis miserisque vicissitudinum turbis immunis

est.

Ibi, ô Deus, videbimus uti vi, demur ipsi. Lux sata est justis, et rectis corde gaudium.

XVII.

De via longitudine. HEU, quantum distat mons ille, quem à longè conspicor! Ipse mihi oculus tantæ intercapedinis merâ prævisione fatigatur; tempus tamen et patientia intervallum illud facilè superabunt: hâc nocte sperabo fore ut nos ultra fastigia illa pernoctemur, Sunt

performance. The comfort is, that every step I take sets me nearer to my end: when I once come there, I shall both forget how long it now seems, and please myself to look back upon the way that I have measured.

It is thus in our passage to heaven. My weak nature is ready to faint, under the very conceit of the length and difficulty of this journey: my eye doth not more guide than discourage me. Many steps of grace and true obedience shall bring me insensibly thither. Only, let me move, and hope: and God's good leisure shall perfect my salvation,

O Lord, give me to possess my soul with patience; and not so much to regard speed, as certainty. When I come to the top of thy holy hill, all these weary paces and deep sloughs, shall either be forgotten, or contribute to my happiness in their remembrance.

quædam quorum expectatio plus in se tædii habet, quàm executio. Illud me solatur interim, nullum posse vestigium metiri quo non accedam propiùs ad viæ terminum: quem ubi semel fuero assecutus, facilè quidem et itineris longitudinem obliviscar, et refocillabo mihi animum retrospectando in immensum hunc terræ tractum, quem ita tempestivè licuit pedibus commensurari.

Non aliter se habet in nostro cœlum versus itinere. Natura hæc, imbecillitatis suæ conscia, merà et longitudinis et difficultatis præcogitatione languere incipit: oculus non magis ducit, quàm dejicit mihi animum. Multa gratiæ et veræ obedientiæ vestigia illò me sensim perducent. Tantùm, movere mihi fas sit, et sperare: divina bonitas opportunè tandem salutem meam perficiet.

Da mihi interea, ô Deus, animum meum constanti quâdam patientiâ possidere; et non tam celeritatem respicere, quàm certitudinem. Ubi ad summitatem sancti montis tui adspiraverim, omnes hi molesti gressus viæque sive cœnosæ paludes sive ardua præcipitia, vel prorsùs oblivioni dabuntur, vel certè memoriâ sui ad fælicitatis meæ cumulum haud parùm adjicient.

XVIII. Ad conspectum pluvia et aquarum. Quàm certam ipsique sensui obnoxiam vicissitudinem constituit natura, inter unionem ac divisionem! Vapores multi, è mari exorti, in unam conveniunt nubem: decidit illa nubes in plurimas guttas divisa: concurrunt hæ

On the rain and waters. WHAT a sensible interchange there is in nature, betwixt union and division! Many vapours, rising from the sea, meet together in one cloud: that cloud falls down divided into several drops: those drops run toge

ther; and, in many rills of water, meet in the same channels: those channels run into the brook, those brooks into the rivers, those rivers into the sea. One receptacle is for all, though a large one: and all make back to their first and main original.

So it either is, or should be, with spiritual gifts. O God, thou distillest thy graces upon us, not for our reservation, but conveyance. Those manifold faculties, thou lettest fall upon several men, thou wouldest not have drenched up where they light; but wouldest have derived, through the channels of their special vocations, into the common streams of public use, for Church, or Commonwealth.Take back, O Lord, those few drops, thou hast rained upon my soul; and return them into that great ocean of the glory of thine own bounty, from whence they had their beginning.

gutta illico; et, per multa stillicidia, in eundem canalem desinunt: canales illi in rivulos, rivuli in flumina, flumina in mare confluunt. Receptaculum unum, vastum illud quidem capaxque, omnia hæc suo sinu complectitur: istuc nempe velut ad primum ac originale principium refluunt ac recurrunt omnia.

Pari modo se habet, aut habere saltem debet, cum donis spiritualibus ac divinis. Tu, ô Deus, charismata super nos tua ubertim diffundis, non servanda nobis ilicet, sed aliis derivanda. Multijuges illæ facultates, quas in varium hominum genus depluere tibi placuit, non eo abs te animo dimissæ sunt ut eo ipso in loco absorberentur in quo decidunt; sed, ut per diversarum vocationum canales, in fluenta communia, universali sive Ecclesiæ sive Reipublicæ bono, deducerentur. Recipe à me, Domine, pauculas illas guttulas, quibus animam meam irrigare voluisti; faxisque redeant affatim in immensum illud gloriosæ gratiæ tuæ oceanum, unde ori. ginem sumpserunt.

XIX.

On the same subject. Many drops fill the channels; and many channels swell up the brooks; and many brooks raise the rivers over the banks. The brooks are not out, till the channels be empty the rivers rise not, while the small brooks are full: but, when the little rivulets have once voided themselves into the main streams, then all is overflown. Great matters arise from small beginnings: many littles make up a large bulk.

Ad eundem, rursus. Guttæ multæ canaliculos implent; canaliculi multi, rivulos: rivulorum multorum incursu turgescunt flumina. Haud excedere solent ripas suas rivuli, donec se evacuaverint canaliculi: neque intumescunt flumina, dum pleni sunt rivuli: sed, ubi semel Aluvioli se in amnes exoneraverint, tota vallis subitâ exundatione operitur. Ex parvis initiis oriuntur magna: è multis minimis larga concrescit moles. Mundus

Yea what is the world, but a composition of atoms?

We have seen it thus in civil estates: the empairing of the commons hath oft been the raising of the great: their streams have run low, till they have been heightened by the confluence of many private inlets: many a mean channel hath been emptied to make up their inundation.

Neither is it otherwise, in my whether outward or spiritual condition: O God, thou hast multiplied my drops into streams: as, out of many minutes, thou hast made up my age; so, out of many lessons, thou hast made up my competency of knowledge thou hast drained many beneficent friends, to make me competently rich: by many holy motions, thou hast wrought me to some measure of grace. Oh, teach me wisely and moderately to enjoy thy bounty; and to reduce thy streams into thy drops, and thy drops into thy clouds: humbly and thankfully acknowledging whence and how I have all that I have, all that I am,

On occasion of the lights brought in. WHAT a change there is in the room, since the light came in! yea, in ourselves! All things seem to have a new form, a new life: yea, we are not the same we were. How goodly a creature is light! how pleasing, how agreeable to the spirits of man! no visible thing comes so near to the resembling of the nature of the soul; yea, of the God,

iste, quid tandem est nisi quiddam ex atomis conflatum?

Etiam in rebus civilibus ita factum vidimus: imæ plebis diminuta supellex potentiorum opes haud parùm auxit: quibus nempe satis angusta res fuit, donec privatorum quorundam inAluxuum accessione crevisset: quot evacuatis canalibus debent isti tantam potentiæ inundationem!

Neque aliter se mecum habet, in quâcunque sive externâ sive spirituali conditione: O Deus, tu guttas meas in undas multiplicasti: ut, ex plurimis temporis momentis, ætatem meam conflasti; ita, ex multis documentis, hunc mihi quantillum cognitionis modulum complere voluisti: ex multorum amicorum beneficâ largitione, quantillas opes congessisti: multis denique Spiritûs tui sanctis motibus influxibusque, ad aliquam saltem gratiæ mensuram me suaviter perduxisti. Doce me, ô Deus, sapienter moderatèque bonitate tuâ frui; daque ut quas impertiisti mihi undas in guttas tuas reducam, guttas verò tuas in nubes: adeoque unde et quomodo quicquid habeo, quicquid sum, humili gratoque animo agnoscam.

XX.

Lucerna introductá.

QUANTUM verò mutatus, ex quo lumen introiit, videtur locus iste! imò, et nos ipsi! Omnia profectò novam formam, et vitam quasi novam induisse visa sunt: neque nos ipsi iidem sumus. Quàm pulchra res lux est! quàm jucunda, quàm spiritibus humanis apprime congrua! nec qua rerum visibilium uspiam est, quæ ita propè accedit ad naturam animæ.

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