in his bosom, that crowed louder than this; whose shrill accent, conjoined with this, astonished the guilty disciple. The weary labourer, when he is awakened from his sweet sleep by this natural clock of the household, is not so angry at this troublesome bird, nor so vexed at the hearing of that unseasonable sound, as Peter was, when this fowl awakened his sleeping conscience, and called him to a timely repentance. This cock did but crow, like others; neither made or knew any difference of this tone and the rest: there was a Divine hand, that ordered this morning's note, to be a summons of penitence. He, that foretold it, had fore-appointed it: that bird could not but crow then; and all the noise in the High Priest's hall could not keep that sound from Peter's ear.

But, O Saviour, couldest thou find leisure, when thou stoodest at the bar of that unjust and cruel judgment, amidst all that bloody rabble of enemies, in the sense of all their fury and the expectation of thine own death, to listen unto this monitor of Peter's repentance; and, upon the hearing of it, to cast back thine eyes upon thy denying, cursing, abjuring disciple? O mercy without measure, and beyond all the possibility of our admiration; to neglect thyself, for a sinner! to attend the repentance of one, when thou wert about to lay down thy life for all!

O God, thou art still equally merciful. Every elect soul is no less dear unto thee. Let the sound of thy faithful monitors smite my ears; and let the beams of thy merciful eyes wound my heart so as I may go forth, and weep bitterly.

XCI. On the variety of thoughts.

WHEN I bethink myself, how eternity depends upon this moment of life, I wonder how I can think of any thing, but heaven: but, when I see the distractions of my thoughts, and the aberrations of my life, I wonder, how I can be so bewitched, as, while I believe a heaven, so to forget it. All that I can do, is, to be angry at mine own vanity. My thoughts would not be so many, if they were all right. There are ten thousand by-ways, for one direct. As there is but one heaven, so there is but one way to it; that living way, wherein I walk by faith, by obedience. All things, the more perfect they are, the more do they reduce themselves towards that unity, which is the centre of all perfection.

O thou, who art one and infinite, draw in my heart, from all these straggling and unprofitable cogitations; and confine it to thy heaven, and to thyself who art the heaven of that heaven. Let me have no life, but in thee; no care, but to enjoy thee; no ambition, but thy glory. Oh, make me thus imperfectly

gestabat alium in pectore, magis sonorum; cujus canori accentus, cum hisce conjuncti, conscium malè discipulum penè exanimârant. Fessus labore agricola, cum à dulci somno, primo mane, à familiari hoc nativoque horologio excitatur, non ita succenset molestæ huic avi, neque adeò vexatur intempestivo hoc sono, ac Petrus fuit, ubi volucris istæc expergefecit illum ab alto sopore conscientiæ, et ad tempestivam resipiscentiam revocavit. Non aliter cecinit gallus iste, quàm alii solent; neque discrimen notarum suarum ullum sensit: Divina manus fuit, quæ matutinos hosce accentus ordinaverat, summonendæ pœnitentiæ. Qui prædixerat hoc, et prædeterminaverat itidem: non potuit non tunc canere ales ille; omnis, quantumvis confusus, strepitus, in Pontificis Maximi aulâ non potuit sonum hunc ab aure Petri intercipere ac detinere.

At, O Servator, supereratnè tibi hoc otii, dum pro tribunali stabas injusti illius crudelisque judicii, inter sanguinolentam inimicorum turbam, dum furorem ipsorum sentires tuamque expectares mortem, ut aurem dares Petrinæ resipiscentiæ monitori; auditoque hoc semel, retorqueres oculos in renegantem, execrantem, abjurantemque discipulum? O misericordiam sine modo, supraque omnem nostræ admirationis potentiam; temetipsum negligere, præ peccatore! unius advertere ac irritare pœnitentiam, cùm jam vitam tuam pro omnibus depositurus modò esses!

O Deus, æquè tu semper misericors es. Equè tibi chara est electa quævis anima. Fidelium monitorum tuorum sonus aurem meam usque feriat; et misericordium oculorum tuorum radii saucient cor meum: sic ego exibo, et flebo amarissimè.

XCI. De cogitationum varietate.

UBI Cogito, quàm ab hoc vitæ momento pendet æternitas, miror posse me quid aliud, præter cœlum, meditari: ubi video cogitationum mearum distractiones varias, vitæque meæ aberrationes, miror rursum, quomodo ita possim fascinari, ut colum hoc, quod credo, adeò obliviscar. Quod unum modò facere illud est, vanitati meæ succensere. Non ita variæ possum, essent cogitationes meæ, si recta forent omnes. Pro uno directo tramite, mille sunt devia. Ut unum tantùm cœlum est, ita una est, quæ eò ducit, via; viva illa nempe via, in quâ, fide et obedientiâ ambulo. Quo perfectiora sunt omnia, eo se magis ad unitatem illam, quæ perfectionis omnis centrum est, reducunt.

O tu, qui unus es idemque infinitus, retrahe cor meum, ab omnibus vagis inutilibusque cogitationibus; affigeque me tuo cœlo, tibique ipsi qui cœli illius cœlum es. Nulla mihi, nisi in te, vita sit; nulla cura, nisi te fruendi; nulla, nisi gloriæ tuæ, ambitio. Fac me sic, ante tempus, imperfectè fœlicem; ut,

happy, before my time; that, when my time shall be no more, I may be perfectly happy with thee in all eternity.

XCII. On the sight of a harlot carted.

WITH What noise, and tumult, and zeal of solemn justice, is this sin punished! The streets are not more full of beholders, than clamours. Every one strives to express his detestation of the fact, by some token of revenge: one casts mire, another water, another rotten eggs, upon the miserable offender. Neither, indeed, is she worthy of less: but, in the mean time, no man looks home to himself. It is no uncharity to say, That too many insult in this just punishment, who have deserved

more.

Alas, we men value sins, by the outward scandal; but the wise and holy God, against whom only our sins are done, esteems them, according to the intrinsical iniquity of them, and according to the secret violation of his will and justice: thus, those sins, which are slight to us, are to him heinous. We, ignorants, would have rung David's adultery with basons; but as for his numbering of the people, we should have past it over as venial: the wise justice of the Almighty found more wickedness in this, which we should scarce have accused. Doubtless, there is more mischief in a secret infidelity, which the world either cannot know or cares not to censure, than in the foulest adultery. Public sins have more shame; private may have more guilt. If the world cannot charge me of those, it is enough, that I can charge my soul of worse. Let others rejoice, in these public executions: let me pity the sins of others, and be humbled under the sense of my own.

SMELLING, is one of the meanest, and least useful of the senses yet there is none of the five, that receives or gives so exquisite a contentment as it. Methinks, there is no earthly thing, that yields so perfect a pleasure to any sense, as the odour of the first rose doth to the scent.

It is the wisdom and bounty of the Creator, so to order it, that those senses, which have more affinity with the body, and with that earth whereof it is made, should receive their delight and contentation by those things, which are bred of the earth; but those, which are more sprightful, and have more affinity with the soul, should be reserved for the perfection of their pleasure, to another world. There, and then only, shall my sight make my soul eternally blessed.

ubi tempus non erit amplius, perfectè beatus esse possim per omnem æternitatem.

XCII. Ad conspectum meretricis plaustro exceptæ publicisque contumeliis expositæ.

QUANTO cum strepitu, ac tumultu, zeloque publicæ justitiæ, punitur peccatum hoc! Neque pleniores sunt plateæ spectantium oculis, quàm clamoribus insectantium. Contendit unusquisque odium facti, aliquo vindictæ symbolo, testari: cœnum hic, ille aquam, alius quis ova putrida, in miseram conjicit meretricem. Nec quo, certè, minore supplicio digna illa est: at nemo, interea, domum reflectit oculos, ut se videat. Nullus in charitatem peccaverim, si dixero, Multos justæ huic pœnæ insultare acriùs, qui meruerint graviorem.

Nos homines, externo quidem scandalo, peccata metimur; sed Deus ille sapientissimus sanctissimusque, cui soli peccamus, ad intrinsecæ iniquitatis modum, secretamque voluntatis et justitiæ suæ violationem, ea solet æstimare: atque ita, quæ nobis leviuscula, gravia illi delicta videri solent. Nos, fatui, Davidis adulterium plaustro ac tympanis probrosè excipiendum censuissemus; numerationem autem populi, vix culpæ quidem loco habuissemus: sapientissima verò Dei Omnipotentis justitia multum in hoc comperit criminis, quod nos ne accusâssemus quidem. Proculdubio, plus est in secreto quodam atheismo, quem mundus censurâ notare aut nescit aut parùm curat, flagitii, quàm in adulterio quovis turpissimo. Publica peccata plus habent pudoris; privata plus fortè habere possunt reatûs. Si illorum insimulare me nequeat mundus, sat est, posse me animam meam incusare graviorum. Gestiant alii, quantum volunt, in publicis hisce suppliciis: misereat me peccati aliorum, sensuque mei humilier.

XCIII. Ad rosa odorem.

ODORATUS, unus quidem est ex sensibus infimis, et qui minimo omnium inserviat usui: ex iis tamen quinque nullus est, qui æquè exquisitam voluptatem recipit redditve. Nihil quidem terrenum, ut mihi videri solet, tam perfectè sensum ullum delectat, quàm rosæ primæ odor olfactum.

Ita ordinavit sapientia et benignitas Creatoris, ut sensus ii, qui magis affines sunt corpori, terræque illi ex quâ corpus fit, suavissimè afficerentur illis rebus, quæ ex terrâ genitæ sunt; ii autem, qui magis spirituales sunt, plusque cum animâ affinitatis. habent, voluptatis suæ perfectionem, velut seculo illi alteri servatam, aliundè expectarent. Tunc, et ibi solùm, visus meus animam meam præstabit æternùm fœlicem.

XCIV. On a cancelled bond.

WHILE this obligation was in force, I was in servitude to my parchment: my bond was double; to a payment, to'a penalty: now, that is discharged, what is it better than a waste scroll; regarded for nothing, but the witness of its own voidance and nullity?

Out

No otherwise is it with the severe law of my Creator. of Christ, it stands in full force: and binds me over, either to perfect obedience, which I cannot possibly perform; or to exquisite torment and eternal death, which I am never able to endure. But now, that my Saviour hath fastened it cancelled to his Cross, in respect of the rigour and malediction of it, I look upon it, as the monument of my past danger and bondage: I know, by it, how much was owed by me; how much was paid for me. The direction of it is everlasting: the obligation by it unto death is frustrate. I am free from curse, who never can be free from obedience.

O Saviour, take thou glory; and give me peace.

XCV. On the report of a great loss by sea.

THE earth and the water, are both of them great givers, and both great takers: as they give matter and sustentation to all sublunary creatures, so they take all back again; insatiably devouring, at last, the fruits of their own wombs. Yet of the two, the earth is both more beneficial, and less cruel: for, as that yields us the most general maintenance, and wealth, and supportation; so it doth not lightly take ought from us, but that which we resign over to it, and which naturally falls back unto it. Whereas the water, as it affords but a small part of our livelihood, and some few knacks of ornament; so it is apt violently to snatch away both us and ours; and to bereave that, which it never gave: it yields us no precious metals; and yet, in an instant, fetches away millions. And yet, notwithstanding all the hard measure we receive from it, how many do we daily see, that might have firm ground under them, who yet will be trusting to the mercy of the sea! Yea, how many, that have hardly crawled out from a desperate shipwreck, will yet be trying the fidelity of that unsure and untrusty element !

O God, how venturous we are, where we have reason to distrust! how incredulously fearful, where we have cause to be confident! Who ever relied upon thy gracious providence and sure promises, O Lord, and hath miscarried? Yet here, we pull in our faith, and make excuses for our diffidence. And if Peter have tried those waves to be no other than solid pavement under his feet, while his soul trod confidently; yet when