greater than all the reft. There are some who have glorious opportunities of going out of the world, very well worth their coming for; and others have a greatness and nobility in their nature, not to be over-awed by death itfelf: I do not mean the courage of bullies and town fparks, who are so hardy as to rifque both body and foul upon a point of pretended honour; they are diftempered beyond the lunacy of bedlam, and should be taken care of accordingly; the evils of neceffity are numerous enough, without being multiplied by thofe of choice; I mean only that courage which is the product of religion and reason.

1059. Adultery, in refpect of the perfon, is greater in the man than the woman, because fhe is of a more easy, pliant fpirit, and has lefs understanding, and has nothing to fupply the unequal ftrength of men, but the defence of a paffive nature, and the armour of modefty, which is the natural ornament of the fex. "It is unjust that the man should demand that chastity from his wife, which himself will not observe towards her (faid the good emperor Antoninus). It is as if a man should perfuade his wife to fight against enemies that have conquered him." In respect of the effects and evil confequences, the adultery of the woman is worse, as in bringing bastards into a family, injuring the lawful children, infinite violations of peace, murders, divorces, and all the effects of rage and madness; but in refpect of the crime, as relating to God, they are equally odious, intolerable, and damnable. The church, antiently, refused to admit such to the com

munion,

munion, till they had done feven years penance, in fasting and fackcloth.

1060. Henrietta Maria, wife to King Charles the first, at the death of her father Henry the fourth was newly born; and Barberino, at that time, nuncio in France (and afterwards created Pope by the name of Urban the eighth) coming to congratulate her birth, and finding that the Queen-mother had been better pleased if she had been born a male, he told her; "Madam, I hope to see this your youngest daughter a great Queen before I die.” She answered," and I hope to fee you a Pope;" both which prophetick compliments proved true, and within

a fhort time of one another.

1061. The antient Lacedemonians were a ftrong, hardy, warlike, and enduring nation, bred up from their infancy in all manner of difficult exercifes, and hardships of every kind: their chiefeft delicacy was their black broth, made of little bits of flesh steeped in vinegar, with blood and falt, and boiled in a great deal of water: They almost always lay on the ground, or on very hard beds, and their children were not allowed light to go into them, as an indecent thing; the better to accuftom them to travel in the dark, without any fenfe of fear, or apprehenfion of danger.

1062. The holy war lafted one hundred and ninety years; the costlieft that ever was, both for time, blood, and money. No conflict fo fierce and cruel, as when religion animates the war, and makes it piety to be irreconcileable.

1063. The reason why the Gods were antiently repre

fented as fwearing by the lake Styx, is, because water was supposed to be the principle of all things; which is confonant to Mofes's account of the creation, that the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters, and 2 Pet. iii. 5.

1064. We may obferve Chrift never inveighed against idolatry, ufury, or fabbath-breaking among the Jews; not that these were not fins, but they were not practifed fo much in that age; therefore Chrift bent the drift of his preaching against spiritual pride, hypocrify, and tradition, the then predominant fins among the people.

1065. It is an unhappy thing that princes and great men, who seem to have the least need of friends, should, in truth, have the greatest difficulty of knowing them too, for want of occafions to put them to the trial. There is no proof of friendship like frequent experiment. Now princes are above the want of those common offices, that pafs for friendship betwixt man and man, as in matter of money, liberty, protection, and the like. People do not flock to court fo much for their masters fervice, as for the making of their own fortune. How shall any man diftinguish, now, betwixt a parafite and a man of honour, where they are all on the receiving hand, and where hypocrify and intereft look like duty and affection.

1066. We have very often more strength than good will to use it, but we fancy things impoffible to be done, to reconcile ourselves to our own idleness.

1067. There are few inftances found in ftory of a prince that began and atchieved any great and famous enterprize after fifty years of age; whether the decline of nature leaves not vigour enough for fuch defigns or ac

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APHORISMS and MAXIMS.

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tions; or Fortune, like her fex, have no kindness left for old men, how much soever she favoured them when they were young.

1068. Tyrants can never be fafe; for cruelty is more terrible than any danger we are expofed to, by endeavouring to avoid it.

1069. "The book of Job, fays Dr Tillotson, I take to be the most antient of all others, and much older than Mofes; and yet it is written with as lively a fenfe of the providence of God, as noble figures, and flights of eloquence, as perhaps any book extant." God, to convince Job of his ignorance in the fecrets of nature and providence, poses him with many hard questions, and this among the reft, Job xxxviii. 22, 23. Haft thou entered into the treasures of the fnow, or haft thou seen the treasures of the bail, which I have referved against the day of battle and war? The meaning of it is, that the providence of God does fometimes interpofe to determine the events of war, by governing the seasons, and the weather, and by making the fnow and rain, the wind, and ftorms to fulfil his word, and execute his pleasure. Of this we have a remarkable inftance in the defeat of Sifera's army, against whom, in the fong of Deborah, the ftars are faid to have fought in their courfes; though the expreffion be poetical, the plain meaning is, that by mighty and fudden rains, which the common opinion did afcribe to the influence of the planets, the river of Kihon, near which Sifera's army lay, was fo raised, as to drown the greatest part of that huge hoft. The flars in their courfes

(fays Deborah) fought against them, and the river of Kihon fwept them away.

1070. The facred writ is fo plentiful a fountain of all the riches and ornaments of eloquence, as to afford a proper model for every way and ftile. Ifaiab is lofty, Jeremiah pathetical, Ezekiel terrible, Daniel mild and gentle. As for the other prophets, greatnefs is their general character; nor is there any thing written with the like force by Pagan authors. Good fenfe, and true reason, were never displayed to fo much advantage in any moral treatise, as in the books of Solomon. No hiftory ever was writ with fuch a mixture of fimplicity and majesty, as that of Mofes. Nothing furely was ever compofed with more tender paffions, or with a greater delicacy of pious. and delicate strains, than the Pfalms of David. The most refined policy of worldly fages never carried its view fo far, as the books of Proverbs and Ecclefiaftes. The utmost extent and capacity of human wit was never able to furnish a subject so vast and profound, as thofe adorable mysteries of grace contained in St Paul's epiftles. But the eloquence and dignity of the new teftament, which is most emphatically the book of our religion, and to which all the prophetick writings were but a kind of preface, or introduction, is vaftly fuperior to the greatest elevation of any human ftile. What can be conceived fo great and expreffive, as that short character our Lord has given of his own words, that they are Spirit, and they are life? No human penetration can ever be fufficient to fathom the depth of those mysterious truths.

1071. Our Saviour paffed thirty years of his life in ob

fcurity