own, and their very knowledge and honesty increase their damnation. "If thou faint in the day of adversity, thy strength is small," says Solomon, Prov. xxiv. 10. “Si desperaveris lassus," says the vulgar Latin; if being weary or faint, thou despair, thy strength is small: it shows thou hast done well out of design, and in expectation of prospering by it; and being disappointed, thou even repentest the having done thy duty: for thy strength and courage being grounded only on policy, it must needs be small; whereas, if it had been grounded on conscience and piety towards God, thou couldst never despair of his assistance and protection. Tremellius renders that text more severely, "Si remisse te geras tempore angustiæ, angusta erit virtus tua;" If thou art less vigorous in the time of trouble, thy virtue is not virtue, but a narrow slight disposition to good, never grown into a habit. "In the day of prosperity be joyful, but in the day of adversity consider," says the preacher. Tremellius renders it, "Tempore autem mali utere;" Use the time of trouble, employ it so that thou mayest be the better for it, and that others may be the better by thy deportment. It was observed in the primitive time, that there were more men con

verted to Christianity by the death of every martyr, than by all their sermons and actions of their life; and thence it was said, "Sanguis martyrum est semen ecclesiæ;" Not only that the confirmation of their doctrine with their blood persuaded many that it was'the truth for which many were so ready to pour out their blood, but that their demeanour at their death, their great courage and patience, and contempt of tortures and pain, made many believe that there was a satisfaction and pleasure and joy in those opinions, which was so much superior and above the agony and pain of death, that a mind refreshed with the one, preserve the body from the sense and feeling of the other; insomuch, as the prosecutors themselves, who could not be moved with the orations and sermons and disputations of the prisoners, were converted by beholding them at the stake. And we oftentimes see passionate and violent men, whose animosities and revenge no charity or Christian precepts could suppress and extinguish, so astonished with the brave and constant carriage of their adversaries in their afflictions, which have been unjustly brought upon them by the other, that their very reverence to their sufferings have begot a remorse in them, and a reparation of their

wrongs: nay, we often see ill men, who have justly fallen under heavy calamities, behave themselves so well under them, that all prejudice hath been thereby reconciled toward them. To conclude, wouldst thou convert thy adversary to an admiration and value and affection to thee, to a true sense of the wrong he hath done thee, there is no such way, as by letting him see by thy firm and cheerful submitting to adversity, that thou hast a peace about thee of which thou canst not be robbed by him, and of which in all his power he is not possessed. If his heart be so hardened, and his conscience seared, that thou canst this way make no impression on him toward his conversion, thou shalt however more perplex and grieve and torment his mind with envy of thy virtue, than he can thine with all his insolence and oppression,

X. OF CONTEMPT OF DEATH, AND THE BEST PROVIDING FOR IT.

Montpellier, 1669.

"O DEATH, how bitter is the remembrance of thee to a man, that liveth at rest in his possessions, and to the man that hath nothing to vex him, and that hath prosperity in all

things; yea, unto him that is yet able to receive meat: O Death, acceptable is thy sentence to the needy, and unto him whose strength faileth, that is now in the last age, and is vexed with all things, and to him that despaireth, and hath lost patience;" was the reflection of the son of Sirach, upon the several affections and humours and contingencies in the life of man. (xli. 1, 2.) But without doubt, the very prosperous man, who seems to be most at ease, and without any visible outward vexation, is as weary very frequently of life (for satiety of all things naturally produces a satiety of life itself,) as the most miserable man, whose appetite of life seems even by this observation to continue as long as his appetite of meat; for as long as he is able to receive meat, the remembrance of death is bitter to him. The philosophers who most undervalued life and most contemned death, and thought it worthy a serious meditation and recollection, "Utrum commodius sit, vel mortem transire ad nos, vel nos ad eam,' ," whether we should stay till death calls upon us, or we call upon it; and believed that it was the greatest obligation that Providence had laid upon mankind, "Quod unum introitum nobis ad vitam dedit, exitus multos;" and that it was therefore a very

foolish thing to complain of life, when they may determine it when they will: "Hoc est unum, cur quod de vitâ non possimus queri; neminem tenet;" they may choose whether they will live or no: and though men were obliged to make their lives conformable to the good examples of other men, in the manner of their death they were only to please themselves, "Optima est quæ placet;" yet there was a great difference in this point between the philosophers themselves; and many of them held it very unlawful, and a great wickedness, for any man to offer violence to himself, and to deprive himself of his own life, and "Exspectandum esse exitum quem natura decrevit:" and surely, excluding all other considerations, there seems to be more fortitude and courage in daring to live miserably, and to undergo those assaults which that life is liable to, than in preventing and redeeming himself from it by a sudden voluntary death; and the other party, which most disliked and professed against this restraint, as the contradiction of that liberty in which man was born, as very few of them in their practice parted voluntarily with their lives, so in their discourses they kept the balance equal; and as they would not have their disciples too much in love with life, to set too high and