rence for himself, who dares do that in his own presence, which he would be ashamed, or not dare to do before another man; and it is for want of acquaintance with ourselves, and revolving the dignity of our creation, that we are witouht that reverence. Who, that doth consider how near he is of kin to God himself, and how excellently he is qualified by him to judge aright of all the delusions and appearances of the world, if he will employ those faculties he hath adorned him with; that nobody is able to deceive him, if he doth not concur and contribute to the deceiving himself:

I

say, who can consider and weigh this, and at the same time bury all those faculties of the discerning soul in sensual pleasures, laziness, and senseless inactivity, and as much as in his power, and God knows there is too much in his power, to level himself with the beasts that perish? It is a foolish excuse we make upon all occasions for ourselves and other men, in our laboured and exalted acts of folly and madness, that we can be no wiser than God hath made us, as if the defects in our will were defects in his providence; when in truth God hath given us all that we will make ourselves capable of, that we will receive from him. He hath given us life, that is time, to make ourselves learned, to make ourselves wise, to make us discern and judge of all the mysteries of the world:

if we will bestow this time, which would supply us with wisdom and knowledge, in wine and women, which corrupt the little understanding that nature hath given us; if we will barter it away for skill in horses, dogs, and hawks; and if we will throw it away in play and gaming; it is from our own villainy that we are fools, and have rejected the effects of his providence. It is no wiser an allegation, that our time is our own, and we may use it as we please: there is nothing so much our own that we may use it as we please; we cannot use our money, which is as much, if not more, our own than any thing we have, to raise rebellion against our prince, or to hire men to do mischief to our neighbours; we cannot use our bodies, which, if any thing, are our own, in duels or any unlawful enterprize: and why should we then believe that we have so absolute and sovereign a disposal of our time, that we may chuse whether we will dispose it to any thing or no? It were to be wished that all men did be lieve, which they have all great reason to do, that the consumption and spending of our time will be the great inquisition of the last and terrible day; when there shall be a more strict enquiry how the most dissolute person, the most debauched bankrupt, spent his time, than how he spent his estate; no doubt it will then manifestly appear, that our precious time was not lent us to do nothing with,

man,

or to be spent upon that which is worse than nothing; and we shall not be more confounded with any thing, than to find that there is a perfect register kept of all that we did in that time; and that when we have scarce remembered the morrow what we did yesterday, there is a diary in which nothing we did is left out, and as much notice taken when we did nothing at all. This will be a sad animadversion when it is too late, and when probably it may appear that the very idle he who hath never employed himself, may be in a very little better condition than he who hath been worst employed; when idleness shall be declared to be a species of wickedness, and doing nothing to be the activity of a beast. There cannot therefore be too serious or too early a reflection upon the good husbandry of this precious talent, which we are entrusted with, not to be laid out in vain pleasures whereof we are ashamed as soon as we have enjoyed them, but in such profitable exchanges that there may be some record of our industry, if there be none of our getting.

The truth is, if incogitence and inadvertance, not thinking at all, not considering any thing (which is degrading ourselves as much as is in our power from being men, by renouncing the faculties of a reasonable soul) were not our mortal disease, it might be believed that the consumption of

our time proceeds only from the contempt we have of wisdom and virtue; for in order to any thing else we employ it well enough. How can we pretend that we desire to be wise, when we do no one thing that is in order to it; or that we love virtue, when we do not cultivate any one affection that would advance it, nor subdue any one passion that destroys it? We see the skill and perfection in the meanest and lowest trade is obtained by industry and instruction and observation, and that with all that application very much time is necessary to it; and can we believe that wisdom, which is the greatest perfection and highest operation of the soul, can be got without industry and labour? Can we hope to find gold upon the surface of the earth, when we dig almost to the centre of it to find lead and tin and the coarser metals? It is very wonderful, if it be not very ridiculous, to see a man take great pains to learn to dance, and not to be at leisure to learn to read; that man should set a very high esteem upon the decent motion and handsome figure of the body, and undervalue the mind so much as not to think it worth any pains or consideration to improve the faculties thereof, or to contribute to its endowments; and yet all men's experience supplies them with evidence enough, that the excellent symmetry of the body, a very bandsome outside of a man, doth too frequently

expose men to derision and notorious contempt, when so gross defects of the mind are discovered, as make the other beauty less agreeable by being more remarkable: whereas, on the contrary, the beauty of the mind doth very frequently reconcile the eyes and ears of all men to the most unpro mising countenances, and to persons nothing beholden to nature for any comeliness; yet the wisdom and gravity of their words in persuading and convincing, and the sincerity and virtue of their actions, extort an esteem and reverence from all kind of men, that no comely and graceful outside of a man could ever attain to. It is not to be wish. ed, that men took less care of their bodies than they do; they cannot be too solicitous to preserve their health, and to confirm it, by preventing those diseases which the excess and corruption of hu mours are naturally the causes of, with timely physic and seasonable application of remedies, and, above all, by strict and wholesome diet; health is so inestimable a blessing and benefit, that we cannot take too much pains, nor study too much, tơ obtain and preserve it: but the grief is, that the whole care is laid out for the body, and none at all for the mind; that we are so jealous of every alteration in our constitution, of every light indisposition of our body, that we too commonly apply cures when there are no diseases, and cause the sickness