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wasps and vipers be our guests, no wonder if we dwell not quietly at home; and if we sit not at ease, when we carry thorns about us. Folly and concupiscence breed our misery: it is the scent and smart of our ulcerated minds that most annoyeth us. We cannot waste our peace, and have it. Pope, and all the terrible names on earth, are not so deservedly terrible to a sinner as nearest evil is the most hurtful evil. wife be such a continual dropping, some companion, as Solomon tells us, a distempered, troubled mind, and a chiding conscience? It is a pity that man should be his own afflicter, but so it is. Folly, and lust, and rashness, and passion, are sorry keepers of our peace: darkness and filth do make a dungeon, and not a delightful habitation of our hearts; God would take pleasure in them, if we kept them clean, and would walk with us in those gardens, if we kept them dressed: but if we will defile his temple, and make it unpleasing to him, he will make it unpleasing to us. Terror and trouble are the shadow of sin, that follow it, though the sun shine ever so brightly. close to God; obey his will: make sure of your reconciliation and adoption; keep clear your evidences, and grieve not the Holy Spirit, who sealeth you, and must comfort you. And then it will do you good to look into your heart, and there you shall find the most delightful company: and the Spirit that you have there entertained, will there entertain you with his joys.

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But if disorder have prevailed and made your hearts a place of trouble, yet fly not from it, and re

fuse not to converse with it: for though it be not at the present a work of pleasure, it is a work of necessity, and may tend to pleasure in the end: conversing wisely and faithfully with a disordered, troubled heart, is the way to make it a well-ordered and quiet heart.

Direct. 3. In judging of your present state and actions, let one eye be always on the end: this will both quicken you to be serious in the duty, and direct you in all particular cases to judge aright. As the approach of death doth convince almost all men of the necessity of studying themselves, and calleth them to it from all other studies; so the considerate foresight of it would do the same in better time. And it is the end that communicateth the good or evil to all things in the way: and therefore, as they have relation to the end, they must be judged of. When you peruse your actions, consider them as done by one that is entering into eternity, and as those that must all be opened in a clearer light. If we separate our actions in our considerations from their ends, they are not of the same signification, but taken to be other things than indeed they are. If the oaths, the lies, the slanders, the sensuality of impure sinners, had not relation to the loss of heaven, and to the pains of hell, they were not matters of that exceeding moment as now they are. And if the holiness, obedience, and watchfulness of believers, had no relation to the escaping of hell-fire, and the attainment of eternal life, they would be of lower value than they are. The more clearly men discern that God is present, that judgment is at hand, that they are near to heaven or hell, where millions

have already received their reward, the more seriously will they study, and the better will they know themselves.

Direct. 4. Though you must endeavour to judge yourself truly as you are, yet rather incline to think meanly than highly of yourself, and be rather too suspicious than too presumptuous. My reasons for this direction are, because man's nature is generally disposed to self-exalting; and pride and self-love are sins so common and so strong, that it is a thing of wondrous difficulty to overcome them, so far as to judge ourselves impartially, and to err as little in our own cause, as if it were another's; and because self-exalting hath far more dangerous effects than self-abasing, supposing them to exceed their bounds. Prudent humility is a quieting grace, and avoideth many storms and tempests, which trouble and shake the peace of others. It maketh men thankful for that little as undeserved, which others repine at as short of their expectations: it telleth the sufferer that God doth afflict him much less than he deserveth; and causeth him to say, "I will bear the indignaton of the Lord, because I have sinned against him." It teacheth us a cautious suspicion of our own understandings, and a just submission to those that are wiser than ourselves. Pride keepeth out wisdom, by keeping out the knowledge of our ignorance. And as Pliny tells us of some nations, where they are grey-headed in their infancy, and black-headed when they are old; so pride maketh many wise so soon, that they never come to be truly wise they think in youth that they have more than the wisdom of age, and therefore in age they have

less than what beseemeth them in youth. Every hard report or usage is ready to break a proud man's heart; when contempt doth little disquiet the humble, because they judge so meanly of themselves. The proud are frequently disturbed, because they climb into the seats of others; when humility sits quietly, and no one bids it rise, because it knoweth and keepeth its own place. Therefore it is, that true contrition having once told us of our folly to the heart, doth make us walk more circumspectly while we live; and that no man is better resolved than he that was once in doubt, and that no man standeth faster than he that hath had a fall: and no man is more safe, than he that hath had most assaults. If you love your safety, desire not either to be, or to seem too high. Be little in your own eyes, and be content to be so in the eyes of others. As for worldly greatness, affect neither the thing nor the reputation of it look up, if you please, to the tops of steeples, masts, and mountains; but stand below if you would be safe. And for spiritual endowments, desire them, and improve them; but desire not inordinately the reputation of them. seldom increaseth a man's humility to be reputed humble and though humility help you to bear applause, yet the remnants of pride are ready to take fire, and other sins to get advantage by it.

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Direct. 5. Improve your self-acquaintance to a due apprehension of what is most suitable, most profitable, and necessary for you, and what is most hurtful, unsuitable, and unnecessary. He that hath taken a just measure of himself, is the better able to judge of all things else. How suitable will

Christ and grace appear, and how unsuitable will worldly pomp appear to one that truly knows himself! How suitable will serious, fervent worship appear, and how unsuitable the ludicrous shows of hypocrites! If a man knew aright the capacity and tendency of the reasonable nature, and the evil of sin, and the necessity and distress of an unrenewed soul, what sweet, what longing thoughts would he have of God, and all that tendeth to the pleasing and enjoying of him! How little would he think himself concerned in the trivial matters of honour or dishonour, riches or poverty, favour or displeasure, further than as they help or hinder him in the things that are of more regard! Know yourself, and you what to hate; what to

will know what to love and choose and what to refuse; what to hold and what to lose; what to esteem and what to slight; what to fear, and when to be courageous and secure: the curing the dotage thus, would cure the night-walks of the dreaming, vagrant world. And they that find that music cureth not the stone or gout, would know that mirth and gallantry, and vainglory, are no preservatives from hell, nor a sufficient cure for a guilty soul: and that if an aching head must have a better remedy than a golden crown, and a diseased body a more suitable cure than a silken suit, a diseased soul doth call for more.

Direct. 6. Value not yourself by mutable accidents, but by the essence and substance of Christianity. "A man's life consisteth not in the abundance which he possesseth." Paul knew better what he said, when he accounted all but loss and dung for the knowledge and fruition of Jesus Christ, than they