with the intention to forsake it Whereas it is a true and an habitual change of the soul and the whole man, an effectual forsaking of sin, and an effectual and constant practice of Christian holiness, and an universal obedience to the law of Christ. The scripture assures us expressly, that without the knowledge of God's will revealed to us by Jesus Christ, without effectual forsaking and mortifying our sins, and without the effectual practice of Christian virtues, such as may truly denominate us new creatures and holy men, without true mortification and sanctification, briefly," without holiness, no man shall see God." This being so, it is easy to judge, that it is morally impossible for our miserable delinquents ordinarily to be so qualified with true repentance, as to be in the state of salvation, experience showing, that few of them are truly mortified and sanctified men. And indeed the course now taken, as it gives them not means, so it allows them not time between their imprisonment and execution necessary for the effecting of this great work in themselves, which yet God is willing to grant them; and therefore it cannot be excused from a most bloody and horrible uncharitableness, and a base esteem of men's souls, if we allow them not all possible means to effect this great work in themselves, and all that time and space, even to a minute, which God in his mercy is pleased to allow them. Whereas we take from them that time, and inflict on them a punishment, the consequents whereof, though we intend it not, are infinitely more grievous than the punishments which we inflict, too frequently destroying the delinquents, both body and soul. Sermons. P. 50, 1. 2. Habitual change. That is to say, a change of the habit-the -of the soul. Usage has somewhat obscured this. SIR THOMAS BROWNE. Sir Thomas Browne was born in London in 1605, and died at Norwich, where he practised as a physician, in 1682. In his Vulgar Errors he is chiefly learned and quaint, tempering strong sense with humour. But in passages there, and in most part of his Christian Morals, Urn Burial, and Religio Medici, he is Jeremy Taylor's rival, and sometimes his superior in the use of ornate and cadenced prose. BONES OF THE DEAD. WOW since these dead bones have already outlasted the living walls of clay, out-worn all the strong and spacious buildings above it, and quietly rested under the drums and tramplings of three conquests, what prince can promise such diuturnity unto his relics, or might not gladly say Sic ego componi versus in ossa velim? Time, which antiquates antiquities, and hath an art to make dust of all things, hath yet spared these minor monuments. In vain we hope to be known by open and visible conservatories, when to be unknown was the means of their continuation, and obscurity their protection. If they died by violent hands, and were thrust into their urns, these bones become considerable, and some old philosophers would honour them, whose souls they conceived most pure, which were thus snatched from their bodies, and to retain a stronger propension unto them: whereas they weariedly left a languishing corpse, and with faint desires of reunion. If they fell by long and aged decay, yet wrapt up in the bundle of time, they fall into indistinction, and make but one blot with infants. If we begin to die when we live, and long life be but a prolongation of death, our life is a sad composition; we live with death, and die not in a moment. How many pulses made up the life of Methuselah, were work for Archimedes: common counters sum up the life of Moses's man. Our days become considerable like petty sums by minute accumulations; where numerous fractions make up but small round numbers; and our days of a span long make not one little finger. If the nearness of our last necessity, brought a nearer conformity unto it, there were a happiness in hoary hairs, and no calamity in half senses. But the long habit of living indisposeth us for dying; when avarice makes us the sport of death, when even David grew politically cruel, and Solomon could hardly be said to be the wisest of men. But many are too early old, and before the date of age. Adversity stretcheth our days, misery makes Alcmena's nights, and time hath no wings unto it. But the most tedious being is that which can unwish itself, content to be nothing, or never to have been, which was beyond the malcontent of Job, who cursed not the day of his life, but his nativity. Content to have so far been, as to have a title to future being ; although he had lived here but in an hidden state of life, and, as it were, an abortion. Hydriotaphia or Urn Burial. CONSCIENCE. PAINT not the sepulchre of thyself, and strive not to beautify thy corruption. Be not an advocate for thy vices, nor call for many hour-glasses to justify thy imperfections. Think not that always good which thou thinkest thou canst always make good, nor that concealed which the sun doth not behold: that which the sun doth not now see, will be visible when the sun is out, and the stars are fallen from heaven. Meanwhile there is no darkness unto conscience; which can see without light, and in the deepest obscurity give a clear draught of things, which the cloud of dissimulation hath concealed from all eyes. There is a natural standing court within us, examining, acquitting, and condemning at the tribunal of ourselves; wherein iniquities have their natural thetas and no nocent is absolved by the verdict of himself. And therefore although our transgressions shall be tried at the last bar, the process need not be long for the judge of all knoweth all, and every man will nakedly know himself; and when so few are like to plead not guilty, the assize must soon have an end. Christian Morals. SELF OPINION. COMPLY with some humours, bear with others, but serve none. Civil complacency consists with decent honesty: Flattery is a juggler, and no kin unto sincerity. But while thou maintainest the plain path, and scornest to flatter others, fall not into selfadulation, and become not thine own parasite. Be deaf unto thyself, and be not betrayed at home. Self-credulity, pride, and levity, lead unto self-idolatry. There is no Damocles like unto self-opinion, nor any siren to our own fawning conceptions. To magnify our minor things, or hug ourselves in our apparitions ; to afford a credulous ear unto the clawing suggestions of fancy; to pass our days in painted mistakes of ourselves; and though we behold our own blood, to think ourselves the sons of Jupiter; are blandishments of self-love, worse than outward delusion. By this imposture wise men sometimes are mistaken in their elevation, and look above themselves. And fools, which are antipodes unto the wise, conceive themselves to be but their Periceci, and in the same parallel with them. P. 51, L. 1. Christian Morals. These dead bones. Some funeral urns had been discovered in Norfolk. They formed the subject of Hydriotaphia or Urn Burial. P. 51, 1. 10. Conservatories, literally, i.e. places of conservation. P. 51, To retain, construed with “they conceived." One little finger, which, in the language of signs, denotes a hundred. P. 52, l. 17. N THOMAS FULLER. Thomas Fuller was born in 1608 at Aldwinkle, was educated at Cambridge, held various benefices, and, though a Royalist, was not wholly deprived under the Commonwealth. He died in 1661. His Worthies did not appear till after his death. He had written much else, while he was also celebrated as a preacher. For quaintness which is not buffoonery Fuller has no rival in English. ON SURGEONS. ECESSARY and ancient their profession, ever since man's body was subject to enmity and casualty. For that promise, "A bone of him shall not be broken," is peculiar to Christ. As for the other, "To keep them in all their ways, that they dash not their foot against a stone," though it be extended to all Christians, yet it admitteth, as other temporal promises, of many exceptions, according to God's will and pleasure. It seemeth by the parable of the good Samaritan, who "bound up" the passenger's "wounds, pouring in oil and wine," that, in that age, ordinary persons had a general insight in chirurgery, for their own and others' use. And it is reported, to the just praise of the Scotch nobility, that anciently they all were very dexterous thereat; particularly it is written of James, the fourth king of Scotland, quod vulnera scientissime tractaret, "he was most skilful at the handling of wounds." But we speak of chirurgery, as it is a particular mystery, professed by such as make a vocation thereof. Of whom we have inserted some (eminent for their writings or otherwise), amongst physicians, and that, as we hope, without any offence, seeing the healing of |