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descending: many stones light upon Stephen's head, in the instant, of his seeing the heavens opened, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. Lo, Jacob, resting upon that one stone, saw but the angels: Stephen, being to rest for once under those many stones, saw the Lord of the Angels. Jacob saw the Angels moving: Stephen saw Jesus standing. As Jacob therefore afterwards, according to his vow, made there an altar to God; so Stephen now in the present gathers these stones together, of which he erected a holy altar, whereon he offered up himself a blessed sacrifice unto God. And, if there be a time of gathering stones, and a time of casting them away; this was the time, wherein the Jews cast, and Stephen gathered up these stones for a monument of eternal glory. O blessed Saint, thou didst not so clearly see heaven opened, as heaven saw thee covered: thou didst not so perfectly see thy Jesus standing, as he saw thee lying patiently, courageously under that fatal heap. Do I mistake it? or are those stones, not flints and pebbles; but diamonds, and rubies, and carbuncles to set upon thy crown of glory?

cendentiumque angelorum: in caput Stephani congesti sunt lapides multi, eodem planè momento, quo cœlum vidit apertum, Jesumque ad dextram Patris consistentem. Ecce, Jacob, uni illi recumbens lapidi, angelos tantùm vidit: Stephanus verò, sub lapidibus multis illico se repositurus, angelorum Dominum conspexit. Jacob vidit angelos sùsque déque moventes: Jesum stantem conspexit Stephanus. Ut ergo Jacob, juxta quod voverat, altare illic erexit Deo postmodùm; ita et Stephanus modò congerit lapides istos, è quibus sanctum altare struit, ipse in gratissimam Deo victimam immolandus. Et, si tempus uspiam sit colligendi lapides, et tempus item dispergendi; certè, hoc ipsissimum tempus erat, quo et dispergebant Judæi, et colligebat Stephanus lapides istos, æternæ tanti martyris gloriæ futures monumento. Non ita clarè videras tu, ô Beatissime, cœlum tibi apertum, ac cœlum te coopertum conspicabatur: non ita liquidò vidisti tu Jesum tuum in cœlo stantem, ac ille te sub fatali hoc cumulo patienter, fortiterque jacentem conspexit. Fallor? aut lapides illi non fuerunt siliciæ, calculive, aut quod aliud vile genus; sed adamantes, pyropive, aut siqui alii preciosiores, coronæ illi gloriæ, quâ cingereris, immortalis decorandæ.

CXX.

On the sight of a bat and owl. THESE night-birds are glad to hide their heads all the day: and if, by some violence, they be unseasonably forced out of their secrecy, how are they followed

De bubone et respertilione. ISTÆ noctis alumnæ toto die latitare gestiunt: et si, casu quodam aut insperatâ vi, è latebris suis intempestivè propellantur, quàm insectanter illico excipi

and beaten by the birds of the untur cædunturque ab avibus qui

day!

With us men it is contrary. The sons of darkness do, with all eagerness of malice, pursue the children of the light, and drive them into corners, and make a prey of them: the opposition is alike; but the advantage lies on the worse side. Is it, for that the spiritual light is no less hateful to those children of darkness, than the natural night is to those cheerful birds of the day? or is it, for that the sons of darkness, challenging no less propriety in the world than the fowl do in the lightsome air, abhor and wonder at the conscionable, as strange and uncouth? Howsoever, as these bats and owls were made for the night, being accordingly shaped, foul and ill-favoured; so we know these vicious men, however they may please themselves, have in them a true deformity, fit to be shrouded in darkness; and, as they delight in the works of darkness, so they are justly reserved to a state of darkness.

busque luci-colis!

Longe aliter nobiscum se res habet. Filii tenebrarum qui sunt, filios lucis violentâ quâdam malitiâ persequi, fugare, deprædari ubiquè solent: par utrobique inimicitia est; viget tamen istìc prævaletque pars deterior. Numquid bine fit istud, quòd lux spiritualis non minùs tenebrarum filiis exosa sit, quàm nox naturalis alacribus illis diei clientibus esse solet? aut verò hinc forsan, quòd tenebrarum filii, haud miùs sibi jus proprietatis in sæculo hoc vendicantes, quàm alites illi in æthere claro illuminatoque faciunt, pium quemque, ut peregrinum prodigiosumque animal, horrent et insectantur? Quicquid sit, ut vespertiliones ac bubones isti, nocti quasi destinati factique videntur, atque ideo deformitatem quandam turpitudinemque præ se ferunt; ita novimus nos hosce pravos improbosque, utut sibi ipsi perplaceant, vere fædos esse, idoneosque qui tenebris usque obnubilentur; et, uti operibus tenebrarum unicè delectantur, ita et ad conditionem horroris ac tenebrarum plenam meritò reservari.

On the sight of a well-fleeced sheep. CXXI.
WHAT a warm winter-coat hath
God provided, for this quiet in-
nocent creature! As, indeed, how
wonderful is his wisdom, and
goodness, in all his purveyances!
Those creatures, which are apter
for motion and withal most fear-
ful by nature, hath he clad some-
what thinner; and hath allotted
them safe and warm burrows,
within the earth: those, that are
fit for labour and use, hath he

Viso cellere ovino.

ANIMAL verò hoc quietum innoxiumque, quàm, Dei sic providentis beneficio, vestitissimum est! Sed et in cæterorum omnium administratione, quàm stupenda est divina bonitas, et sapientia! Aptioribus motui animalibus naturâque formidolosioribus, leviorem tenuioremque tunicam induit; ac subterraneos præterea cuniculos, tutos quidem illos, paravit: quæ verò laboribus usibus

furnished with a strong hide: and, for man, whom he hath thought good to bring forth naked, tender, helpless; he hath endued his parents and himself with that noble faculty of reason, whereby he may provide all manner of helps for himself. Yet again, so bountiful is God in his provisions, that he is not lavish; so distributing his gifts, that there is no more superfluity than want: those creatures, that have beaks, have no teeth; and those, that have shells without, have no bones within: all have enough; nothing hath all. Neither is it otherwise in that one kind, of man, whom he meant for the lord of all variety of gifts is here mixed with a frugal dispensation: none hath cause to boast; none to complain: every man is as free from an absolute defect, as from perfection.

I desire not to comprehend, O Lord: teach me to do nothing, but wonder.

que humanis destinavit, crassiore ac firmiore tergore munivit: hominem, denique, quod spectat, nudum, tenellum, inopem in hanc lucem producturus; nobilem illam rationis facultatem parentibus ipsique demum -indidit, quâ omnia quibus opus foret facilè suppeditare posset. Ita, tamen, munificus cùm sit Deus, prodigus non est; dona sua sic æquâ manu spargens, ut nihil cuiquam aut desit aut verò superfluat: animalia, que rostris freta sunt, dentibus carent; testacea quæ sunt, carent ossibus: sat est omnibus; nulli nimium. Neque aliter fit homini, quem creaturarum omnium dominum esse voluit Deus: donorum varietas parcâ quâdam largitate et istic dispensatur: non est quòd glorietur quispiam ; non est quòd queratur: ita quisque ab extremà indigentiâ, ac à summâ perfectione, immunis est.

Non ausim, O Domine Deus, illud ambire ut comprehendam: doce me modò, ut mirari aliquando discam.

CXXII.

On the hearing of thunder. THERE is no grace, whereof I find so general a want in myself and others, as an awful fear of the infinite Majesty of God. Men are ready to affect and profess a kind of familiarity with God, out of a pretence of love: whereas if they knew him aright, they could not think of him without dread, nor name him without trembling. Their narrow hearts strive to conceive of him, according to the scantling of their own strait and ignorant apprehension: whereas they should only desire to have their thoughts swallowed up, with an adoring won

Audito tonitru.

NULLA cogitanti mihi virtus occurrit, cujus adeò universalem defectum in me aliisque persentisco, ac quæ tremendæ Dei Majestati debetur usque reverentiæ. Homines sæpiùs familiaritatem quandam cum Deo affectare ac profiteri, sub specie sancti amoris, nimio quàm proclives sumus: quem si rectè cognoscerent mortales, nec absque pavore cogitarent, nec absque tremore nominarent quidem. Angusta illorum corda juxta tenuem intellectûs sui, nimiùm incapacis, modulum, de Deo sentire ac imaginari solent: cùm i.lud oporteret tantùm

der of his divine incomprehensibleness. Though he thunder not always, he is always equally dreadful. There is none of his works, which doth not bewray Omnipotency. I blush at the sauciness of vain men, that will be circumscribing the powerful acts of the Almighty, within the compass of natural causes; forbearing to wonder, at what they profess to know. Nothing but ignorance can be guilty of this boldness. There is no Divinity, but in an humble fear; no philosophy, but a silent admiration.

ambire ac studere sedulò, ut, divinæ incomprehensibilitatis_stupore et adoratione, toti absorbeantur. Non semper tonat ille quidem, æquè tamen semper tremendus. Ex omnibus quotquot uspiam fiunt operibus ejus, nullum non prodit Omnipotentiam. Rubore profectò suffundor, quoties vanorum hominum audaciam cogito, qui actus Omnipotentis, intra naturalium causarum cancellos circumscribere non verentur; illud mirari nolentes, quod scire profitentur. Sola inscitia tantæ hujus audacia rea est. Una est in humillimâ quâdam reverentiâ, Theologia; una, in tacito stupore, Philosophia.

CXXIII. Conspecto erinacco, vel echino.

On the sight of a hedgehog. I MARVELLED, at the first reading, what the Greeks meant by that proverb of theirs, "The fox knows many pretty wiles, but the hedgehog knows one great one:" but, when I considered the nature and practice of this creature, I easily found the reason of that speech; grounded upon the care and shift, that it makes for its own preservation. While it is under covert, it knows how to bar the fore-door against the cold northern and eastern blasts; and to open the back-door, for quieter and calmer air. When it is pursued, it knows how to roll up itself round within those thorns, with which nature hath environed it: so as the dog, instead of a beast, finds now nothing but a ball of pricks to wound his jaws; and goes away crying from so untoothsome a prey.

MIRABAR equidem, primo intuitu, quid sibi voluerint Græci diverbio illo suo, Пoλλa μév, &c. "Multa quidem scire vulpeculam, erinaceum verò unum quiddam sed magnum:" at, cùm naturam moresque animalis hujusce perpendissem, facilè intellexi quò respexerit adagium illud; unumque illud magnum comperi, curam salutis sux callidè satis conservandæ. Quamdiu siquidem sub tectorio suo delitescit, ostium suum aquilonaris orientalisque venti flatibus rigidioribus obstruere catè novit; posticum verò aperire, ut leniore interim aurâ commodè perfruatur. Egressum foràs insequitur canis, jam modò comprehensurus, in globum illico convolvitur erinaceus, sentibusque illis quibus ipsum undique munivit natura ita totus jacet circumseptus: ut delusus hostis, vice bestiæ, quam avidè venabatur, nihil præter pilam quandam spinosam, quâ fauces ipsi miserè doleant, reperire pos

He, that sent the sluggard to school to the pismire, sends also in effect the careless and imprudent man to the hedgehog, while he saith, If thou be wise, thou shalt be wise for thyself. The main care of any creature is selfpreservation: whatsoever doth that best, is the wisest. These creatures, that are all body, have well improved the instincts of nature, if they can provide for their bodily safety: man, that is a reasonable soul, shall have done nothing, if he make not sure work for the better part.

O God, make me soul-wise: I shall never envy their craft, that pity my simplicity.

sit; jamque a prædâ tam ingratâ, non sine clamore, territus ac sauciatus aufugit.

Qui formica ignavum tradidit in disciplinam, echino itidem securum videtur improvidumque demandâsse, dum, Si sapis, ais, tibimet ipsi sapias. Animantium cuique præcipuè incumbit suæ salutis cura conatusque: quicquid verò hoc optimè omnium præstiterit, meritò audit prudentissimum. Quæ merum corpus sunt animalia, naturæ instinctui fecerunt satis, si quæ ad corporis tutelam spectant solicitè sibi prospexerint: homo autem, qui ratione insuper præditus est, nihil egisse judicabitur, nisi meliori sui parti largè tutòque providerit.

O Deus, animæ meæ fac sapiam satis: astutiæ illorum, qui simplicitatis meæ miserentur, si invidero, dispeream.

CXXIV.

On the sight of a goat. THIS creature is in an ill name. It is not for any good qualities, that God hath made choice of the goat, to resemble the wicked and reprobate soul. It is unruly, and salacious, and noisome.

I cannot see one of them, but I presently recall to my thoughts the woeful condition of those on the left-hand, whom God hath set aside to so fearful a damnation. They are here mixed with the flock: their colour differs nothing from the sheep; or if we do discern them, by their rougher coat and odious scent, we sever ourselves from them : but, the time shall come, when he shall sever them from us, who hath appointed our innocency to the fold, and their

Viso capro.

Neque

Malè audit hoc animal. quid præ se fert boni, quòd ex aliis omnibus à Deo ipso eligatur istud, quo improbe reprobæque anima conditio aptissimè exprimatur. Petulcus est ilicet, salax, fa tidus.

Quoties sanè hircum conspicio, non possum non in animum revocare horrendum eorum statum, quos ad sinistram sepositos ad gehennanı devovit justus vindex Deus. In terris quidem gregi fortè miscentur isti: nec externo colore à genuinis ovibus quicquam discrepant; quòd si quem forsan horum, hirsutâ pelle, tetro infestoque odore, dignoscere contigerit, nosmetipsos forte tantisper dum subducimus: at, veniet aliquando dies, quo à nobis illos æternam segregabit is,

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