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agreeing with me that, from which within a few days I should dissent my self. I have no genius to disputes in religion, and have often thought it wisdom to decline them, especially upon a disadvantage, or when the cause of truth might suffer in the weakness of my patronage: where we desire to be informed, 'tis good to contest with men above ourselves: but to confirm and establish our opinions, 'tis best to argue with judgments below our own, that the frequent spoils and victories over their reasons may settle in our selves an esteem, and confirmed opinion of our own. Every man is not a proper champion for truth, nor fit to take up the gauntlet in the cause of verity: many, from the ignorance of these maximes, and an inconsiderate zeal unto truth, have too rashly charged the troops of error, and remain as trophies unto the enemies of truth: a man, may be in as just possession of truth as of a city, and yet be forced to surrender; 'tis therefore far better to enjoy her with peace than to hazzard her on a battle.-(Religio Medici).

EDWARD HYDE, EARL OF CLARENDON,
b. 1608, d. 1673.

But 1 must here take leave a little longer to discontinue this narration and if the celebrating the memory of eminent and extraordinary persons, and transmitting their great virtues, for the imitation of posterity, be one of the principal ends and duties of history, it will not be thought impertinent, in this place, to remember a loss which no time will suffer to be forgotten, and no success or good fortune could repair. In this unhappy battle was slain the Lord Viscount Falkland; a person of such prodigious parts of learning and knowledge, of that inimitable sweetness and delight in conversation, of so flowing and obliging a humanity and goodness to mankind, and of that primitive simplicity and integrity of life, that if there were no other brand upon this odious and accursed civil war, than that single loss, it must be most infamous, and execrable to all posterity.

He was a great cherisher of wit, and fancy, and good parts, in any man; and, if he found them clouded with poverty or want, a most liberal and bountiful patron towards them, even above his fortune; of which, in those administrations, he was such a dispenser, as if he had been trusted with it to such uses, and if there had been the least of vice in his expence, he might have been thought too prodigal. He was constant and pertinacious in whatsoever he resolv'd to do, and not to be wearied by any pains that were necessary to that end. And therefore having once resolv'd not to see London, which he loved above all places, till he had perfectly learned the Greek tongue, he went to his own house in the country, and pursued it with that indefatigable industry, that it will not be believed in how short time he was master of it, and accurately read all the Greek historians.

In this time, his house being within little more than ten miles of Oxford, he contracted familiarity and friendship with the most polite and accurate men of that university; who found such an immenseness of wit, and such a solidity of judgment in him, so infinite a fancy, bound in him by a most logical ratiocination, such a vast knowledge, that he was not ignorant of any thing, yet such an excessive humility, as if he had known nothing, that they frequently resorted, and dwelt with him, as in a college situated in a purer air; so that his house was a university in a less volume; whither they came not so much for repose as study, and to examine and refine those grosser propositions, which laziness and consent made current in vulgar conversation.-(The History of the Rebellion and Civil Wars in England.)

JOHN MILTON,

b. 1608, d. 1674.

When a city shall be as it were besieg'd and blockt about, her navigable river infested, inrodes and incursions round, defiance and battell oft rumour'd to be marching up ev'n to her walls, and suburb trenches, that then the people, or the greater part, more than at other times, wholly tak'n up with the study of highest and most important matters to be reform'd, should be disputing, reasoning, reading, inventing, discoursing, ev'n to a rarity and admiration, things not before discourst or writt'n of, argues first a singular good will, contentednesse, and confidence in your prudent foresight, and safe government, Lords and Commons; and from thence derives it self to a gallant bravery, and well grounded contempt of their enemies, as if there were no small number of as great spirits among us, as his was who, when Rome was nigh besieg'd by Hanibal, being in the city, bought that peece of ground, at no cheap rate, whereon Hanibal himself encampt his own regiment. Next it is a lively and cherfull presage of our happy successe and victory. For as in a body, when the blood is fresh, the spirits pure and vigorous, not only to vital, but to rationall faculties, and those in the acutest and the pertest operations of wit and suttlety, it argues in what good plight and constitution the body is; so when the cheerfulnesse of the people is so sprightly up, as that it has not only wherewith to guard well its own freedom and safety, but to spare, and to bestow upon the solidest and sublimest points of controversie and new invention, it betok'ns us not degenerated, nor drooping to a fatall decay, but casting off the old and wrincl'd skin of corruption, to outlive these pangs, and wax young again, entring the glorious waies of truth and prosperous vertue, destin'd to become great and honourable in these latter ages. Methinks I see in my mind a noble and puissant nation rousing herself like a strong man after sleep, and shaking her invincible locks: methinks I see her as an eagl muing her mighty youth, and kindling her undazl'd eyes at the full midday beam; purging and unscaling her long abused sight at the

fountain it self of heav'nly radiance; while the whole noise of timorous and flocking birds, with those also that love the twilight, flutter about, amaz'd at what she means, and in their envious gabble would prognosticat a year of sects and schisms.-(Areopagitica; a Speech of Mr. John Milton for the Liberty of unlicenc'd Printing, to the Parliament of England.)

sorrow.

JEREMY TAYLOR,

BISHOP OF DOWN AND CONNOR,

b. 1613, d. 1667.

Man having destroyed that which God delighted in, that is, the beauty of his soul, fell into an evil portion, and being seized on by the divine justice, grew miserable, and condemned to an incurable Poor Adam, being banished and undone, went and lived a sad life in the mountains of India and turned his face and his prayers towards Paradise; thither he sent his sighs, to that place he directed his devotions, there was his heart now, where his felicity sometimes had been: but he knew not how to return thither, for God was his enemy, and by many of his attributes, opposed himself against him. God's power was armed against him; and poor man, whom a fly or a fish could kill, was assaulted and beaten with a sword of fire in the hand of a cherubim. God's eye watched him, His omniscience was man's accuser, His severity was his judge, His justice the executioner. It was a mighty calamity that man was to undergo, when He that made him armed Himself against His creature, which would have died or turned to nothing, if He had but withdrawn the miracles and the almightiness of His power; if God had taken His arm from under him, man had perished. But it was, therefore, a greater evil when God laid His arm on him, and against him, and seemed to support him that He might be longer killing him. In the midst of these sadnesses God remembered His own creature, and pitied it; and, by His mercy, rescued him from the hands of His power, and the sword of His justice, and the guilt of his punishment, and the disorder of his sin; and placed him in that order of good things where he ought to have stood. It was mercy that preserved the noblest of God's creatures here below; he who stood condemned and undone under all the other attributes of God was saved and rescued by His mercy; that it may be evident that God's mercy is above all His works, and above all ours, greater than the creation, and greater than our sins.-(God's Mercy.)

ABRAHAM COWLEY,

b. 1618, d. 1667.

The first minister of state has not so much business in publick, as a wise man has in private: if the one have little leisure to be

alone, the other has less leisure to be in company; the one has but part of the affairs of one nation, the other all the works of God and nature under his consideration. There is no saying shocks me so much as that which I hear very often, That a man does not know how to pass his time. Twould have been but ill spoken by Methusalem in the nine hundred and sixty ninth year of his life; so far it is from us, who have not time enough to attain to the utmost perfection of any part of any science, to have cause to complain that we are forced to be idle for want of work. But this, you'll say, is work only for the learned; others are not capable either of the employments, or divertisements, that arise from letters. I know they are not; and therefore cannot much recommend solitude to a man totally illiterate. But if any man be so unlearned as to want entertainment of the little intervals of accidental solitude, which frequently occur in almost all conditions (except the very meanest of the people, who have business enough in the necessary provisions for life) it is truly a great shame both to his parents and himself; for a very small portion of any ingenius art will stop up all those gaps of our time; either musick, or painting, or designing, or chymistry, or history or gardening, or twenty other things will de it usefully and pleasantly; and if he happen to set his affections upon poetry (which I do not advise him to immoderately) that will overdo it; no wood will be thick enough to hide him from the importunities of company or business, which would abstract him from his beloved. (Several Discourses by way of Essays in Verse and Prose.)

JOHN BUNYAN,

b. 1628, d. 1688.

INTERPRETER. Then said the Interpreter, Come in: I will show thee that which will be profitable to thee. So he commanded his man to light the candle, and bid Christian follow him; so he had him into a private room, and bid his man open a door; the which when he had done, Christian saw the picture of a very grave person hung up against the wall; and this was the fashion of it: he had his eyes lifted up to Heaven, the best of books in his hand, the law of truth was written upon his lips, the world was behind his back; he stood as if he pleaded with men, and a crown of gold did hang over his head.

CHRISTIAN. Then said Christian, What meaneth this?

INTERPRETER. The Man whose picture this is, is one of a thousand; he (1 Cor. iv. 15.) can beget children (Gal. iv. 19.), travail in birth with children, and nurse them himself, when they are born. And whereas thou seest him with his eyes lifted to Heaven, the best of books in his hand, and the law of truth written on his lips: it is to show thee, that his work is, to know and unfold dark things to sinners; even as also thou seeth him stand as if he pleaded with men; and whereas thou seest the world as cast behind him, and

that a crown hangs over his head; that is to show thee, that slighting and despising the things that are present, for the love that he ath for his master's service, he is sure in the world that comes next to have glory for his reward. Now, said the Interpreter, I have showed thee this picture first, because the man whose picture this is, is the only man whom the Lord of the place whither thou art going hath authorized to be thy guide in all the difficult places thou mayest meet with in the way: wherefore take good heed to what I have showed thee, and bear well in thy mind what thou hast seen; lest in thy journey thou meet with some that pretend to lead thee right, but their way goes down to death.

Then he took him by the hand, and led him into a very large parlour that was full of dust, because never swept; the which after he had reviewed a little while, the Interpreter called for a man to sweep. Now, when he began to sweep, the dust began abundantly to fly about, that Christian had almost therewith been choked. Then said the Interpreter to a damsel that stood by, Bring hither the water, and sprinkle the room: which when she had done, it was swept and cleansed with pleasure.

CHRISTIAN. Then said Christian, What means this?

INTERPRETER. The Interpreter answered, this parlour is the heart of a man that was never sanctified by the sweet grace of the gospel; the dust is original sin and inward corruptions that have defiled the whole man. He that began to sweep at first, is the law; but she that brought water, and did sprinkle it, is the gospel. Now whereas thou sawest, that as soon as the first began to sweep, the dust did fly about, that the room by him could not be cleansed, but that thou wast almost choked therewith; this is to show thee, that the law, instead of cleansing the heart, by its working from sin (Rom. vii. 6.), doth revive, put (Cor. xv. 56.) strength into, and (Rom. v. 20.) increase in the soul, even as it doth discover and forbid it, for it doth not give power to subdue it.

Again, as thou sawest the damsel sprinkle the room with water, upon which it was cleansed with pleasure; this is to show thee, that when the gospel comes in the sweet and precious influences thereof to the heart, then, I say, even as thou sawest the damsel lay the dust by sprinkling the floor with water, so is sin vanquished and subdued, and the soul made clean, through faith of it, and consequently (John xv. 3. Rom. xvi. 25, 26. John xv. 13. Eph. v. 26. Acts xv. 9.) fit for the King of Glory to inhabit.—(Pilgrim's Progress.

SIR WILLIAM TEMPLE, BART.,

b. 1628, d. 1700.

The safety and firmness of any frame of government may be best judged by the rules of architecture, which teach us that the pyramid is of all figures the firmest, and least subject to be shaken or overthrown by any concussious or accidents from the earth or

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