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TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE, MY VERY GOOD LORD, JAMES LORD VISCOUNT DONCASTER.

RIGHT HONOURABLE:

FINDING these papers, amongst others, lying aside in my father's Study, whereof I conceived good use might be made, in regard of that spiritual advantage, which they promised; I obtained of him good leave to send them abroad: whereto he professed himself the more easily induced, for that his continual and weighty employments in this large and busy Diocese will not yet afford him leisure, to dispatch those his other fixed Meditations on the History of the New Testament. In the mean time, the expressions of these voluntary and sudden thoughts of his shall testify, how fruitfully he is wont to improve those short ends of time, which are stolen from his more important avocations; and, unless my hopes fail me, the pattern of them may prove not a little beneficial to others.

Holy minds have been ever wont to look through these bodily objects, at spiritual and heavenly. So Sulpitius reports of St. Martin, that, seeing a sheep newly shorn, he could say, "Lo, here is one, that hath performed that command in the Gospel; having two coats, she hath given away one:" and, seeing a hogherd freezing in a thin suit of skins, Lo," said he, "there is Adam cast out of paradise :” and seeing a meadow part rooted up; part whole, but eaten down;

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part flourishing; he said, "The first was the state of fornication, the second of marriage, the third of virginity." But what do I seek any other author, than the Lord of Life himself? who, upon the drawing of water from the well of Shilo on the day of the great Hosanna, took occasion to speak of those living waters, which should flow from every true believer; John vii. 38: and, upon occasion of a bodily feast, Luke xiv. entered into that divine discourse of God's gracious invitation of us to those spiritual viands of grace and glory.

Thus, methinks, we should still be climbing up in our thoughts, from earth to heaven; and suffer no object to cross us in our way, without some spiritual use and application. Thus it pleased my Reve rend Father, sometimes to recreate himself: whose manner it hath been, when any of these meditations have unsought offered themselves unto him, presently to set them down; a course, which I wish had been also taken in many more, which might no doubt have been very profitable.

These, as they are, I send forth under your Honourable Name; out of those many respects, which are, in an hereditary right, due to your Lordship, as being apparent heir to those two singular patrons of my justly-Reverenced Father: the eminent virtue of which your noble parents, in a gracious succession yields to your Lordship a happy example, which to follow is the only way to true honour. For the daily increase whereof here, and the everlasting crown of it hereafter, his prayers to God shall not be wanting, who desires to be accounted

Your Lordship's devoted,

in all humble observance, ROBERT HALL.

INCLYTO HEROI:

Do. JACOBO, COMITI CARLEOLENSI;

REGIÆ MATI. AB INTIMIORE ET CONSILIO, ET CUBICULO:

FAUSTA QUÆQUE.

QUE Anglicè pridem edita, sub auspiciis nobilissimi Doncastrii tui lucem salutárunt, quin modò Latina tuum, Illustris Heros, ambire ament patrocinium? Juris illa publici fecerat, me parùm refragante, filius: ista non erubesco me patrem vocent. Nimirùm, hóc ætatis, ubi plærique senum non immeritò, veterum studiorum, desuetæque diu linguæ, oblivionem causari solemus; nemo mihi vitio verterit rejuvenescere quodammodò jam serò animum, Romæque ac Athenarum etiamnum velle recèns meminisse.

Illud verò cumprimis mihi cordi est, linguas exteras, mea qualiacunque in suos traduxisse idiotismos: nempe, quò meis fruuntur plures, eò me ditiorem felicioremque sentio. Siquid mihi exciderit boni, omnium esto. Gratulor idcirco mihi, D. Jacomoti, aliorumque fidorum interpretum, calamos benevolos. Fas tamen sit dicere, et Latinè et Gallicè ab aliis aliquibus versa quædam mea, non nimiùm mihi placuisse: qui nativo quidem villo mea prodire mavelim incuriosiùs; quàm serico alterius haud benè interim concinnato, malè induta.

Ne fortè queri possit hoc idem ista senii mei propages, eò magis chara quò sera magis, ipse Latio donare volui familiares hasce non inuti lium cogitationum minutias; jussique tuo nomine, exteris quibusque jam diu celeberrimo, superbire. Tu, pro eá, quâ omnes exuperare soles, mirá comitate suavitateque morum, serenus excipies hanc officii mei observantiæque strenam qualemcunque.

Quidni verò hoc mihi ausim fidenter polliceri? Diu est, ex quo novit orbis hic noster, quàm ego me totum tibi soceroque tuo præclarissimo, Heróum corculo, Comiti Norvicensi, ab ineunte juventute, debuerim voverimque.

Idem utrique vestrúm splendidissimæque utriusque familiæ, quàmlibet loco dissitissimus, et affectu intimus, et officiis quibusque divinctissimus usque permansero

E Palatio nostro Exoniensi;
Novemb. 29, 1634.

JOS. EXON.

106

THE PROEM.

I HAVE heedlessly lost, I confess, many good thoughts: these few my paper hath preserved from vanishing; the example whereof may, perhaps, be more useful than the matter.

Our active soul can no more forbear to think, than the eye can chuse but see when it is open. Would we but keep our wholesome notions together, mankind would be too rich. To do well, no object should pass us, without use. Every thing, that we see, reads us new lectures of wisdom and piety. It is a shame for a man, to be ignorant or godless, under so many tutors.

For me, I would not wish to live longer, than I shall be better for my eyes and have thought it thankworthy, thus to teach weak minds, how to improve their thoughts, upon all like occasions. And, if ever these lines shall come to the public view, I desire and charge my reader, whosoever he be, to make me and himself so happy, as to take out my lesson; and to learn how to read God's great book, by mine.

PROLOQUIUM AD LECTOREM.

OCCURRERUNT mihi ultrò meditatiuncula istæ: ego illas non solicitavi importuniùs; imò, ne accersivi quidem: sponte oblatas admisi non illibenter, nec morosiùs repuli; admissas excepi familiariter; exceptas, denique, permisi prodire in vulgus, non curâ et studio comptas, non ornatas elegantiùs, sed nativâ simplicitate indutas, procul et sordibus et fastu.

Mille mihi, fateor, hujusmodi cogitationes, quæ mea fuit incuria, neglecta exciderunt evanueruntque: istas chartulæ meæ ego servandas dedi, ne itidem perirent. Meo priùs idiomate editas donavi Latinitate, ut pluribus prodesse possint, quæ meis placuissent. Quarum fortè exemplum, re fuerit ipsâ utilius.

Agilis quippe est hæc anima humana; neque minùs possibile est ut non cogitet, quàm ut nihil quicquam videat oculus apertus. Si curæ nobis foret notiones quasque salutares adservare studiosiùs, nimis profectò ditesceret genus humanum. Nobis certè si probè consultum voluerimus, nullum quamlibet exile subitumve objectum prætervolaverit, absque suo et usu et beneficio. Quicquid uspiam videmus prælegit nobis nova et prudentiæ documenta et pietatis. Turpe est homini, ut, sub tot præceptoribus, parùm sapiat.

Quod ad me, nollem equidem superesse diutiùs, quàm me oculi mei aliquid doceant: jam verò cura pretium duxi, exemplo præire aliis, ut infirmiores, si qui sint, animi, inde discant cogitationibus quibusque obviis meliorescere. Lectorem igitur meum, quisquis fuerit, exoratum volo, ut, hâc ratione, et me et seipsum beare velit; perdiscatque, ex hoc meo libellulo, magnum Dei volumen (mundum intelligo) utiliter perlegere.

OCCASIONAL MEDITATIONS.

On the sight of the heavens moving. I.

I CAN see nothing stand still, but the earth: all other things are in motion. Even the water, which makes up one globe with the earth, is ever stirring in ebbs and flowings; the clouds, over my head; the heavens, above the clouds: these, as they are most conspicuous, so are they the greatest patterns of perpetual action.

What should we rather imitate, than this glorious frame? O God, when we pray, that thy will may be done in earth as it is in heaven, though we mean chiefly the inhabitants of that place; yet we do not exclude the very place of those blessed inhabitants, from being an example of our obedience. The motion of this thy heaven is perpetual; so let me ever be acting somewhat of thy will: the motion of thy heaven is regular, never swerving from the due points; so let me ever walk steadily in the ways of thy will, without all diversions or variations from the line of thy Law. In the motion of thy heaven, though some stars have their own peculiar and contrary courses; yet all yield themselves to the sway of the main circumvolution of that first mover: so, though I have a will of mine own; yet let me give myself over, to be ruled and ordered by thy Spirit, in all my ways. Man is a little world: my soul is heaven; my body is earth: if this earth be dull and

Conspecto cali motu. NIHIL quicquam præter terram quiescere video: cætera quæque motu perpetuo agitantur. Etiam et aqua illa, quæ unum cum terrâ globum constituit, continuo fluxu et refluxu reciprocatur: nubes, supra caput volitantes; supra nubes, cœlum ac sydera; sic aguntur perpetim: hæc, uti præ cæteris eminent conspicua, ita nobis exempla præferunt perpetuæ activitatis.

Quid tandem æmulemur nos æquè, ac speciosam hanc mundi machinam? O Deus, quoties precamur supplices, ut fiat voluntas tua in terris sicut in cœlo, tametsi præcipuè intelligamus loci illius incolas beatissimos; non tamen excludimus locum ipsum cælitum illorum receptaculum, quo minùs exemplo nobis sit veræ perfectæque obedientiæ. Circumvolutio cœli tui perpetua est et perennis; itidem faxis, ô Deus, ut nunquam non in aliquid ferar voluntati tuæ consentaneum: motus cœli tui regularis est, nunquam à constitutis sibi terminis, vel minimum divaricans; ita faxis, in viâ præceptionum tuarum, absque omni diversione aberra tioneve à lineà Legis tuæ, constanter usque obambulem. hoc cœlestium motu, quamvis stellæ quædam peculiares sibi quosdam et contrarios motus sortiantur; singulæ tamen rapidæ circumgyrationi primi motoris se ultrò subjiciunt: itidem et ego, tametsi voluntatem habeo propriam liberamque; faxis tamen,

In

fixed; yet, O God, let my heaven, like unto thine, move perpetually, regularly, and in a constant subjection to thy Holy Ghost.

ut in omnibus vitæ viis, me totum dedam à Spiritu tuo dirigendum gubernandumque. Homo microcosmus est: anima cœlum; corpus terra est: si hæc terra mea fixa maneat inersque; faxis tamen, ô Deus, ut cœlum hoc meum, sicut et tuum, jugiter atque ordinatè moveatur, Spirituique tuo, velut primo motori, intelligentiæve sapientissimæ potentissimæque, perpetuò subjicia

tur.

On the sight of a dial.

If the sun did not shine upon this dial, nobody would look at it: in a cloudy day, it stands like an useless post, unheeded, unregarded; but, when once those beams break forth, every passenger runs to it, and gazes on it.

O God, while thou hidest thy countenance from me, methinks, all thy creatures pass by me with a willing neglect. Indeed, what am I without thee? And if thou have drawn in me some lines and notes of able endowments; yet, if I be not actuated by thy grace, all is, in respect of use, no better than nothing: but, when thou renewest the light of thy loving countenance upon me, I find a sensible and happy change of condition: methinks all things look upon me with such cheer and observance, as if they meant to make good that word of thine, Those, that honour me, I will honour: now, every line and figure, which it hath pleased thee to work in me, serve for useful and profitable direction. O Lord, all the glory is thine. Give thou me light: I shall give others in

II.

Ad conspectum horarii scioterici. Si sol radiis suis non illustraret horarium istud, nemo illud profectò intueretur: nubilum ubi cœlum est, negligitur hoc planè, statque velut inutilis aridusque truncus; ubi, verò, radii illi paulò clariùs emicuerint, accurrit viator omnis, oculosque illò conjicit intentiùs.

O Deus, quando tu vultum à me tuum absconderis, creaturæ tuæ omnes, ut mihi quidem videtur, prætereundo me lubenter negligunt. Certè verò, quid sum ego sine te? Si tu lineolas in me quasdam duxeris, insculpserisque mihi quædam non contemnendarum facultatum specimina; si, tamen, efficaci gratiâ tuâ, ista parùm in actum redigantur, omnia hæc, quoad usum utilitatemque, vix quid, sanè nihilo meliora sunt: ubi, verò, lumen benignissimi vultûs tui mihi tandem reddere dignatus fueris, certam fœlicemque conditionis meæ vicissitudinem illico persentisco: omnia me nunc ità alacriter officiosèque contuentur, quasi propositum iis foret adserere verbum illud tuum, Honorantes me honorabo: nunc, linea omnis ac figura, quam mihi inscribere volueris, utili alicui sa

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