of clay more than double the time, wherein thou wert pleased to sojourn upon earth: yet, I may well say, with thy holy Patriarch, Few and evil have been the days of the years of my pilgrimage; Gen. xlvii. 9: few, in number; evil, in condition.

Few, in themselves; but none at all to thee, with whom a thousand years are but as one day. But, had they been double to the age of Methuselah, could they have been so much as one minute to eternity? Yea, what were they to me, now that they are past, but as a tale that is told and forgotten?

Neither yet have they been so few, as evil. Lord, what troubles and sorrows hast thou let me see, both my own and others! what vicissitudes of sickness and health! what ebbs and flows of condition! how many successions and changes of princes, both at home and abroad! what turnings of times! what alteration of governments! what shiftings and downfals of favourites! what ruins and desolations of kingdoms! what sacking of cities! what havocks of war! what frenzies of rebellions! what underminings of treachery! what cruelties and barbarisms in revenges! what anguish in the oppressed and tormented! what agonies in temptations! what pangs in dying! These I have seen; and, in these, I have suffered. And now, Lord, how willing I am to change time, for eternity; the evils of earth, for the joys of heaven; misery, for happiness; a dying life, for immortality!

Even so, Lord Jesu: take what thou hast bought: receive my soul to thy mercy; and crown it with thy glory: Amen, Amen, Amen.

THE

GREAT MYSTERY OF GODLINESS,

LAID FORTII

BY WAY OF AFFECTUOUS AND FEELING

MEDITATION.

BY JOSEPH, BISHOP OF NORWICH.

TO ALL THEM, THAT LOVE OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST IN

SINCERITY, GRACE AND PEACE.

DEAR BRETHREN,-If I have, in a sort, taken my leave of the world already; yet not of you, whom God hath chosen out of the world, and endeared to me by a closer interest: so as ye may justly expect from me a more special valediction; which I do now, in all Christian affection, tender unto you. And, as dear friends, upon a long parting, are wont to leave behind them some tokens of remembrance, where they most affect; so have I thought good, before my setting forth on my last journey, to recommend unto you these my Two Final Meditations: than which, I suppose, nothing could be more proper for me to give, or more like to merit your acceptation; for, if we were half way in heaven already, what can be a more seasonable employment of our thoughts, than the Great Mystery of Godliness, which the angels desire to look into? And now, when our bodily eyes are glutted with the view of the things that are seen, a prospect which can afford us nothing but vanity and vexation, what can be more meet, than to feed our spiritual

with the Light of Invisible Glories? Make your use of them both to the edifying of yourselves, in your most holy faith; and aspire with me, towards that happiness, which is laid up above for all those, that love the appearance of our Lord Jesus. Withal, as the last words of friends are wont to bear the greatest weight, and to make the deepest impression; so let these lines of holy advice, wherewith, after many wellmeant discourses, I shall close up the mouth of the press, find the like respect from you.

Oh, that I might, in the first place, effectually recommend to you the full recovery of that precious legacy of our Blessed Saviour, Peace: peace with God, peace with men; next to Grace, the best of all blessings: yet, woe is me, too too long banished from the Christian world, with such animosity, as if it were the worst of enemies, and meet to be adjudged to a perpetual migration! Oh, for a fountain of tears, to bewail the slain of God's people, in all the coasts of the earth! How is Christendom become an universal Aceldama! How is the earth every where drenched with human blood; poured out, not by the hands of cruel infidels, but of brethren! Men need not go so far as Euphrates, for the execution of Turks and Pagans: Christians can make up an Armageddon, with their own mutual slaughter. Enough, my Dear Brethren, enough; yea, more than too much, hath been the effusion of that blood, for which

our Saviour hath shed his. Let us now, at the last, dry up these deadly issues, which we have made; and, with sovereign balms, bind up the wounds we have given. Let us now be, not more sparing of our tears, to wash off the memory of these our unbrotherly dimications; and to appease the anger of that God, whose offended justice hath raised war out of our own bowels. As our enmity, so our peace, begins at heaven: had we not provoked our long-suffering God, we had not thus bled; and we cannot but know and believe him that said, When a man's ways please the Lord, he maketh his enemies to be at peace with him; Prov. xvi. 7. Oh, that we could throughly reconcile ourselves to that Great and Holy God, whom we have irritated by our crying sins: how soon would he, who is the commander of all hearts, make up our breaches, and calm and compose our spirits to a happy peace and concord!

In the next place, give me leave earnestly to exhort you, that, as we have been heretofore palpably faulty in abusing the mercies of our God, for which we have soundly smarted; so that now, we should be so much the more careful to improve the judgments of God, to our effectual reformation. We have felt the heavy hand of the Almighty upon us to purpose: oh, that our amendment could be no less sensible than our sufferings! But, alas, my Brethren, are our ways any whit holier; our obedience more exact, our sins less and fewer, than before we were thus heavily afflicted? May not our God too justly take up that complaint, which he made once by his Prophet Jeremiah, Ye have transgressed against me, saith the Lord: In vain have I smitten your children, they received no correction? Jer. ii. 29, 30. Far be it from us, that, after so many sad and solemn mournings of our land, any accuser should be able to charge us, as the Prophet Hosea did his Israel, By swearing, and lying, and killing, and stealing, and committing adultery, they break out, and blood toucheth blood; Hos. iv. 2. Woe be to us, if, after so many veins opened, the blood remaining should not be the purer!

Let me have leave, in the third place, to excite you to the practice of Christian charity, in the mutual constructions of each others' persons and actions; which, I must tell you, we have heedlessly violated, in the heat of our holy intentions: while those, which have varied from us in matter of opinion, concerning some appendances of religion and outward forms of administration, we have been apt to look upon with such disregard, as if they had herein forfeited their Christian profession, and were utter aliens from the commonwealth of Israel; though, in the mean time, sound at the heart, and endeavouring to walk close with God in all their ways: whereas the Father of all Mercies allows a gracious latitude to his children, in all notforbidden paths; and in every nation and condition of men, he,

that feareth God and worketh righteousness, is accepted with him; Acts x. 35. Beware we, my Dear Brethren, lest, while we follow the chase of zeal, we outrun charity; without which, piety itself would be but unwelcome. As for matter of opinion in the differences of religion, wherewith the whole known world, not of Christians only, but of men, is woefully distracted, to the great prejudice of millions of souls, let this be our sure rule, "Whosoever he be, that holds the faith, which was once delivered to the saints, (Jude 3.) agreeing therefore with us in all fundamental truths, let him be received as a brother:" for there is but one Lord, one Faith, one Baptism; and other foundation can no man lay, than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. 1 Cor. iii. 11. Let those, which will be a devising a new creed, look for a new Saviour, and hope for another heaven: for us, we know whom we have believed. If any man be faulty in the doctrines of superstructure, let us pity and rectify his error, but not abandon his person. The Communion of Saints is not so slight, that it should be violated by weak mistakings. If any man, through ignorance or simplicity, shall strike at the foundation of faith, let us labour, by all gentle means and brotherly conviction, in the spirit of meekness, to reclaim him: if, after all powerful endeavours, he will needs remain obstinate in his evil way; let us disclaim his fellowship, and not think him worthy of a God-speed. But, if he shall not only wilfully undermine the ground-work of Christian Faith, by his own damnable opinions, but diffuse his heretical blasphemies to the infection of others; let him be cut off by spiritual censures; and so dealt with, by public authority, that the mischief of his contagion may be seasonably prevented, and himself be made sensible of his heinous crime. In all which proceedings, just distinction must be made, betwixt the seduced soul, and the pestilent seducer: the one calls for compassion; the other for severity. So then, my Brethren, let us pity and pray for all, that have erred and are deceived: let us instruct the ignorant, convince the gainsaying, avoid the obstinate, restrain the infectious, and punish the self-convicted heresiarch.

In the fourth place, let us, I beseech you, take heed of being swayed with self-interests in all our designs. These have ever been the bane of the best undertakings, as being not more plausibly insinuative, than pernicious: for that partial self-love, that naturally lodges in every man's breast, is ready to put us upon those projects, which, under fair pretences, may be extremely prejudicial to the public weal; suggesting, not how lawful or expedient they may be for the common, but how beneficial to ourselves; drawing us, by insensible degrees, to sacrifice the public welfare to our own advantage, and to underwork and cross the better counsels of more faithful patriots whereupon, many flourishing Churches, Kingdoms,