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passions into duty, and joy, and security, fear to offend God, to enter voluntarily into temptation; fear the alluring face of lust, and the smooth entertainments of intemperance; fear the anger of God when you have deserved it, and when you have recovered from the snare, then infinitely fear to return into that condition in which whosoever dwells is the heir of fear and eternal sorrow.-Sermon of Godly Fear.

6. Toleration.

'When

I END with a story which I find in the Jews' books. Abraham sat at his tent-door, according to his custom, waiting to entertain strangers; he espied an old man stooping and leaning on his staff, weary with age and travel, coming towards him, who was a hundred years of age. He received him kindly, washed his feet, provided supper, caused him to sit down; but observing that the old man eat and prayed not, nor begged for a blessing on his meat, he asked him why he did not worship the God of heaven: the old man told him that he worshipped the fire only, and acknowledged no other god; at which answer Abraham grew so zealously angry that he thrust the old man out of his tent, and exposed him to all the evils of the night and an unguarded condition. When the old man was gone, God called to Abraham, and asked him where the stranger was; he replied, "I thrust him away because he did not worship thee:" God answered him, "I have suffered him these hundred years, although he dishonoured me, and couldst not thou endure him one night when he gave thee no trouble?" Upon this' saith the story 'Abraham fetched him back again and gave him hospitable entertainment and wise instruction.' Go thou and do likewise, and thy charity will be rewarded by the God of Abraham.-Liberty of Prophesying.

7. Sickness.

Ar the first address and presence of sickness, stand still and arrest thy spirit, that it may without amazement or affright consider, that this was that thou lookedst for, and wert always certain should happen; and that now thou art to enter into the actions of a new religion, the agony of a strange constitution; but at no hand suffer thy spirits to be dispersed with fear or wildness of thought, but stay their looseness and dispersion by a serious consideration of the present and future employment. For so doth the Libyan lion, spying the fierce huntsman; first beats himself with the strokes of his tail, and curls up his spirits, making them strong with union and recollection, till, being struck with a Mauritanian spear, he rushes forth into his defence and noblest contention; and either escapes into the secrets of his own dwelling, or else dies the bravest of the forest. Every man when shot with an arrow from God's quiver, must then draw in all the auxiliaries of reason, and know that then is the time to try his strength, and to reduce the words of his religion into action, and consider, that if he behaves himself weakly and timorously, he suffers never the less of sickness; but if he returns to health, he carries along with him the mark of a coward and a fool; and if he descends into his grave, he enters into the state of the faithless and unbelievers. Let him set his heart firm upon this resolution, 'I must bear it inevitably, and I will, by God's grace, do it nobly.'

Bear in thy sickness all along the same thoughts, propositions, and discourses, concerning thy person, thy life and, death, thy soul and religion, which thou hadst in the best days of thy health, and when thou didst discourse wisely concerning things spiritual. For it is to be supposed (and

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if it be not yet done, let this rule remind thee of it, and direct thee) that thou hast cast about in thy health, and considered concerning thy change and the evil day, that thou must be sick and die, that thou must need a comforter, and that it was certain thou shouldst fall into a state in which all the cords of thy anchor should be stretched, and the very rock and foundation of faith should be attempted; and whatsoever fancies may disturb you, or whatsoever weaknesses may invade you, yet consider, when you were better able to judge and govern the accidents of your life, you concluded it necessary to trust in God, and possess your soul with patience. Think of things as they think that stand by you, and as you did when you stood by others; that it is a blessed thing to be patient; that a quietness of spirit hath a certain reward; that still there is infinite truth and reality in the promises of the gospel; that still thou art in the care of God, in the condition of a son, and working out thy salvation with labour and pain, with fear and trembling; that now the sun is under a cloud, but it still sends forth the same influence: and be sure to make no new principles upon the stock of a quick and an impatient sense, or too busy an apprehension: keep your old principles, and upon their stock discourse and practise on towards your conclusion. . . .

If thou fearest thou shalt need, observe and draw together all such things as are apt to charm thy spirit, and ease thy fancy in the sufferance. It may be thou wert moved much to see a person of honour to die untimely; or thou didst love the religion of that death-bed, and it was dressed up in circumstances fitted to thy needs, and hit thee on that part where thou wert most sensible; or some little saying in a sermon or passage of a book was chosen and singled out by a peculiar apprehension, and made consent lodge awhile

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in thy spirit, even then when thou didst place death in thy meditation, and didst view it in all its dress of fancy. Whatsoever that was which at any time did please thee in thy most passionate and fantastic part, let not that go, but bring it home at that time especially; because when thou art in thy weakness, such little things will easier move thee than a more severe discourse and a better reason. For a sick man is like a scrupulous: his case is gone beyond the cure of arguments, and it is a trouble, that can only be helped by chance, or a lucky saying. . . . I deny not but this course is most proper to weak persons; but it is a state of weakness for which we are now providing remedies and instruction: a strong man will not need it; but when our sickness hath rendered us weak in all senses, it is not good to refuse a remedy because it supposes us to be sick. But then if to the catalogue of weak persons we add all those who are ruled by fancy, we shall find that many persons in their health, and more in their sickness, are under the dominion of fancy, and apt to be helped by those little things, which themselves have found fitted to their apprehension, and which no other man can minister to their needs, unless by chance, or in a heap of other things. But therefore every man should remember by what instruments he was at any time much moved, and try them upon his spirit in the day of his calamity.-Holy Dying.

XVI.

SIR WILLIAM TEMPLE.

1628-1699.

THE family of Temple has contributed many famous names to the political history of England, but Sir William Temple is the only son of his race whose name survives in literature. He was born in London in 1628, and was the eldest child of his father, who was Master of the Rolls in Ireland. His earliest education was conducted by his maternal uncle, Dr. Hammond, the celebrated divine. At seventeen he went into residence at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, where he studied under Cudworth, whose influence may be traced in the Essays of his pupil. His career at the University was that of a young man intended for public life. His principal studies were the modern languages, especially French and Spanish; after two years of residence at Cambridge he left without taking a degree, and went abroad to complete his education by travel, having, as a professed Royalist, no prospect of public employment at home. In 1654 he married Dorothy the daughter of Sir Peter Osborn, a lady of the highest accomplishments, to whom he had been engaged for several years. It is said that she preferred Temple to Henry Cromwell, the younger son of the Protector. After his marriage he lived with his father in Ireland, occupying himself with the study of History and Philosophy, and refusing all solicitation to accept employment under Cromwell. For some time after the Restoration Sir William Temple sat in the Irish Parliament. In 1665 he was sent abroad on a mission of great importance, to negotiate a treaty with the Bishop of Munster for joining the king in a war with Holland. This was the beginning of a series of distinguished diplomatic services. The Triple Alliance, concluded at the Hague between England, Holland, and Sweden in January 1668, a treaty

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