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formation: both of us shall give lutarique directioni inservit. O thee praise.

On the sight of an eclipse of the sun. III. LIGHT is an ordinary and familiar blessing; yet, so dear to us, that one hour's interception of it sets all the world in a wonder. The two great luminaries of heaven, as they impart light to us, so they withdraw light from each other: the sun darkens the full moon, in casting the shadow of the earth upon her opposed face: the new moon repays this blemish to the sun, in the interposing of her dark body, betwixt our eyes and his glorious beams: the earth is troubled at both.

O God, if we be so afflicted with the obscuring of some piece of one of thy created lights, for an hour or two; what a confusion shall it be, that thou, who art the God of these lights, in comparison of whom they are mere darkness, shalt hide thy face from thy creature for ever! O thou, that art the Sun of Righteousness, if every of my sins cloud thy face; yet, let not my grievous sins eclipse thy light. Thou shinest always, though I do not see thee; but, Oh, never suffer my sins so to darken thy visage, that I cannot see thee.

On the sight of a gliding star. How easily is our sight deceived!

Domine, gloria tibi redundat tota. Da tu mihi lumen: ego aliis documentum subministrabo: utrique tibi laudem tribuemus.

Visâ eclipsi solis.

Lux quidem ordinarium est ac familiare beneficium; ita, tamen, nobis charum, ut illius, vel pro unius horula spatio, interceptio mundum totum attonitum penèque exanimem reddere soleat. Duo magna cœli luminaria, uti lumen nobis ambo impertiunt, ita et idem sibi mutuò subtrahunt: lunam obscurat sol, terræ umbram in oppositam ejus faciem projiciendo: vicem hanc rursum soli rependit luna, opaco corpore suo, inter oculos nostros et gloriosos ipsius radios, trajecto: utroque non parùm afficitur ter

ra.

O Deus, si nos ita affligimur obfuscatione tantillâ partis alicujus creatorum à te luminarium, vel brevi horulæ unius alteriusve momento; quæ tandem oborietur confiusio, ubi tu, qui horum luminarium Deus es, et præ quo meræ sunt ista tenebræ, faciem tuam à creaturâ tuâ æternùn subduxeris! O tu, qui Sol es Justitiæ, si peccatorum meorum unumquodque faciem tuam obnubilaverit; noli, tamen, sinere ut vel gravissimum delictorum meorum luminis tui deliquium mihi unquam inducat. Tu splendes semper, cum te nullus videam; noli permittere sic ut obscurent vultum tuum peccata mea, ut te videre omnino non possim.

IV.

Conspectá stella cadente. QUAM facilè decipitur visus nos

how easily doth our sight deceive us! We saw no difference betwixt this star and the rest: the light seemed alike; both while it stood, and while it fell. Now, we know it was no other, than a base klimy meteor, gilded with the sun-beams: and now our foot can tread upon that, which ere while our eye admired. Had it been a star, it had still and ever shined: now, the very fall argues it a false and elementary apparition.

Thus our charity doth and must mislead us, in our spiritual judgments. If we see men exalted in their Christian profession, fixed in the upper region of the Church, shining with appearances of grace; we may not think them other, than stars in this lower firmament: but, if they fall from their holy station, and embrace the present world, whether in judgment or practice renouncing the truth and power of godliness; now, we may boldly say, they had never any true light in them, and were no other than a glittering composition of pride and hypocrisy.

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ter! sed et quam facilè nos decipit visus! Nihil nos vidimus discriminis inter stellam hanc et reliquas: par utriusque lumen visum est; stantis, cadentisque. Nunc verò, novimus hanc nihil fuisse aliud, nisi vile quoddam limosumque meteorum, solaribus radiis parumper deauratum: jam igitur pes noster calcat, quod miratus est pridem oculus. Si stella fuisset, etiamnum et usque micuisset: nunc, vel casus iste satis arguit falsum et elementare spectamentum.

Ita et charitas nostra decipere nos et solet et fortè etiam debet, in spiritualibus rerum alienarum judiciis. Si quem videmus Christianâ professione elevatum eminentiùs, in supremâ Ecclesiæ regione fixum, specie quâdam gratiæ clarè splendentem; non alium fas est hunc judicare, quàm stellam veram in sublunari istoc firmamento conspicuam: quòd, si iste demùm à statione sanctâ penitùs exciderit, præsens seculum amplexus, sive quoad judicium sive praxin veritati renuntiaverit, virtutemque pietatis omnem abnegaverit; nunc, fidenter dicere possumus, veram hunc in se lucem parum habuisse, nihilque fuisse aliud nisi gloriosulum quiddam ex hypocrisi et superbiâ conflatum.

O Deus, si charitas me mea aliorum deceptioni exposuerit, faxis ne ego me fallam ipse. Fortassis, istarum apostaticarum stellarum aliquæ se veras arbitratæ sunt aliquando: cautum ac solicitum me reddat horum casus: internum gratiæ tuæ lumen veracitatem meam magis evincat mihiipsi, quàm externa quævis professio me aliis gloriosum representare poterit.

On a fair prospect. WHAT a pleasing variety is here of towns, rivers, hills, dales, woods, meadows; each of them striving to set forth the other, and all of them to delight the eye! So as this is no other, than a natural and real landscape, drawn by that almighty and skilful hand, in this table of the earth, for the pleasure of our view. No other creature, besides man, is capable to apprehend this beauty: I shall do wrong to him, that brought me hither; if I do not feed my eyes, and praise my Maker. It is the intermixture, and change, of these objects, that yields this contentment both to the sense and mind.

V. Viso luculento quodam prospectu.

But there is a sight, O my soul, that, without all variety, of fers thee a truer and fuller delight; even this heaven, above thee. All thy other prospects end in this. This glorious circumference bounds, and circles, and enlightens all that thine eye can see: whether thou look upward, or forward, or about thee, there thine eye alights; there let thy thoughts be fixed. One inch of this lightsome firmament hath more beauty in it, than the whole face of the earth: and yet, this is but the floor of that goodly fabric; the outward curtain of that glorious tabernacle. Couldest thou but (Oh that thou couldest!) look within that veil, how shouldest thou be ravished with that blissful sight! There, in that incomprehensible light, thou shouldest see him, whom none can see and not be blessed: thou shouldest see millions of pure and majesti

Quàm jucunda se heic exhibet varietas oppidorum, fluminum, montium, vallium, nemorum, pascuorum; quorum singula ornare sese mutuò, omnia verò oculum delectare contendunt! Ita ut istoc spectaculum non aliud quidem videatur, quàm vera ac nativa pictura chorographica, in hâc terræ tabulâ, oblectando spectatoris oculo, à dædalâ omnipotentis manu concinnata. Nulla creaturarum omnium, præter hominem solum, capax est pulchritudinis hujusce discernendæ : injurius planè ero illi, qui me huc adduxerit; nisi et oculos mihi unà pascam, et laudem Conditorem. Vicissi tudo quædam est, sed et mistura objectorum, quæ voluptate hâc tantâ sive sensum sive animum afficit.

Est tamen spectaculum quoddam, quod tibi, ô mea anima, absque omni varietate, solidiorem plenioremque delectationem offert; cœlum hoc intelligo, quod supra te cernitur. Prospectus alii omnes tui in hoc desinunt. Splendidissimus hujus ambitus continet, definit, illuminat quicquid oculus tuus poterit contemplari: sursum ne spectes, deorsumve, aut circumcirca, determinatur illo visus; sed et inibi cogitationes tuæ fixe acquiescant. Lucidissimi hujus firmamenti vel palmus unus plus in se venustatis habet, quàm tota terræ facies: et tamen, hoc totum nihil aliud est quàm pulcherrimæ illius fabricæ pavimentum imum; nitidissimi tabernaculi velum extimum. Possesne (ô si posses!) intra velum illud prospicere, quali te illico beatificâ visione illâ raptum ecstasi sentires! In illâ luce incomprehensibili, videres eum,

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quem nemo non beatus videre unquam potest: multas purissimorum potentissimorumque angelorum, sanctarumque et glorificatarum animarum myriadas aspiceres: ibique, inter innumeras Paternæ domus tuæ mansiones, tuam tibi fœliciter designatam cerneres. O vel optimam terræ partem, vilem modò et despicabilem! Noli! ô, noli descendere deinceps, animula mea, ubi semel cœlestem hanc gloriam perlustraveris; aut, si caro ista descendere te vel invitam coegerit, inquieta esto, dum soluta fueris ut liberè fruaris immortalitate.

On the frame of a globe casually broken. IT is hard to say, whether is the greater, man's art or impotence. He, that cannot make one spire of grass, or corn of sand, will yet be framing of worlds: he can imitate all things, who can make nothing. Here is a great world in a little room, by the skill of the workman; but in less room, by mis-accident. Had he seen this, who, upon the view of Plato's Book of Commonwealth eaten with mice, presaged the fatal miscarriage of the public state, he would sure have construed this casualty as ominous.

Whatever become of the material world, whose decay might seem no less to stand with Divine Providence than this microcosm of individual man, sure I am, the frame of the moral world is and must be disjointed in the last times. Men do and will fall from evil to worse. He, that hath made all times, hath told

VI.

De globi fabricá casu confractà. DICI certè vix potest, major ne sit hominis ars an impotentia. Qui ne minimum quidem graminis foliculum, aut arenæ granu lum facere potest, mundos tamen integros audacter fabricare aggreditur: qui nihil quicquam facit, omnia interim imitatur. Ecce mundi hujus magni machinam, artificio opificis, in parvum volumen contractam; casu verò, multò contractiorem. Vidisset hoc modò, qui, Platonis Rempublicam muribus corrosam cernens, fatalem illius politiæ cladem exinde hariolatus est, casum hunc proculdubio velut pessimi ominis plenum interpretatus fuisset.

Quicquid demùm de materiali hoc mundo fiat, cujus ad interitum declinatio non minùs videtur posse cum Divinâ Providentiâ consistere quam microcosmi istius humani, nimis certè constat mundi hujus moralis fabricam ultimis temporibus miserè luxatum iri. A malo ad pejus declinat passim genus humanum.

Qui

us, that the last shall be perilous. Happy is he, that can stand upright when the world declines; and can endeavour to repair the common ruin, with a constancy in goodness.

solus temporum omnium faber est, clarè prædixit pessimos fore periculosissimosque novissimos mundi dies. O illum verè fœlicem, qui, declinante quàmlibet mundo, stare rectus potest; communemque universi ruinam, constanti quâdam virtute ac bonitate, reparare contendit.

On a cloud.

WHETHER it were a natural cloud, wherewith our ascending Saviour was intercepted from the eyes of his disciples, upon Mount Olivet, I enquire not: this I am sure of, that the time now was when a cloud surpassed the sun in glory. How did the intentive eyes of those ravished beholders envy that happy meteor; and, since they could no more see that glorious body, fixed themselves upon that celestial chariot, wherewith it was carried up! The angels could tell the gazing disciples, to fetch them off from that astonishing prospect, that this Jesus should so come again as they had seen him depart. He went up in a cloud; and he shall come again, in the clouds of heaven, to his Last Judgment.

O Saviour, I cannot look upward, but I must see the sensible monuments, both of thine ascension and return. Let no cloud of worldliness or infidelity hinder me, from following thee in thine ascension, or from expecting thee in thy return.

VII.

Ad conspectum nubis. FUERITNE nubes merè naturalis, quâ Servator noster in cœlum ascendens à discipulorum suorum oculis, in Monte Oliveti interceptus fuit, non anxiè disquiro: hoc certò scio, modò fuisse tempus in quo nubes solem ipsum gloriâ exuperarit. O quàm invidebant fœlici illi meteoro intentissimi intuentium oculi; et, quandoquidem gloriosum illud corpus cernere ultrà non licuerit, figebant se firmissimis radiis in curru illo cœlesti, quo subvectum fuerat, ægrè divellendi! Angeli, quo tam avidos prospicientium oculos ab hoc tam stupendo simul ac grato spectaculo amoverent, discipulos graviter monuerunt, ita plane reversurum Jesum hunc ac illi discedentem conspicati fuissent. In nube ascendit; in nubibus cœli, mundum judicaturus, demùm

revertetur.

Non possum, ô benignissime Servator, oculos sursum tollere, quin necesse mihi fuerit clarissima tui monumenta et ascendentis et redeuntis intueri. Faxis, oro, ne qua nubes sive sæcula rium cogitationum sive infideli. tatis animum mihi intercipiat, quò minùs vel sequi te ascendentem, vel reducem expectare possim.

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