of vanityP; what is it other than an universal dissimulation?
We profess that we know God, but by works we deny him.
For beatitude doth not consist in the knowledge of divine
things, but in a divine life; for the devils know them better
than men.
Beatitudo non est divinorum cognitio, sed vita
divina. And certainly there is nothing more to be admired,
and more to be lamented, than the private contention, the
passionate dispute, the personal hatred, and the perpetual
war, massacres, and murders, for religion among Christians;
the discourse whereof hath so occupied the world, as it hath
well-near driven the practice thereof out of the world. Who
would not soon resolve, that took knowledge but of the re-
ligious disputations among men, and not of their lives which
dispute, that there were no other thing in their desires, than
the purchase of heaven; and that the world itself were but
used as it ought, and as an inn or place wherein to repose
ourselves in passing on towards our celestial habitation?
When, on the contrary, besides the discourse and outward
profession, the soul hath nothing but hypocrisy. We are
all (in effect) become comedians in religion; and while we
act in gesture and voice divine virtues, in all the course of
our lives we renounce our persons and the parts we play.
For charity, justice, and truth, have but their being in
terms, like the philosopher's materia prima.

Neither is it that wisdom which Salomon defineth to be the schoolmistress of the knowledge of God, that hath valuation in the world: it is enough that we give it our good word; but the same which is altogether exercised in the service of the world, as the gathering of riches chiefly, by which we purchase and obtain honour, with the many respects which attend it.

P Paul to Titus, i. 10.

These indeed be the marks which (when we have bent our consciences to the highest) we all shoot at. For the obtaining whereof it is true that the care is our own; the care our own in this life, the peril our own in the future: and yet when we have gathered the greatest abundance, we ourselves enjoy no more thereof than so much as belongs to one man. For the rest, he that had the greatest wisdom and the greatest ability that ever man had, hath told us that this is the use: 4 When goods increase, saith Salomon, they also increase that eat them: and what good cometh to the owners, but the beholding thereof with their eyes? As for those that devour the rest, and follow us in fair weather; they again forsake us in the first tempest of misfortune, and steer away before the sea and wind, leaving us to the malice of our destinies. Of these, among a thousand examples, I will take but one out of master Dannet, and use his own words: "Whilst the emperor Charles the Fifth, after the resigna"tion of his estates, stayed at Flushing for wind to carry "him his last journey into Spain, he conferred on a time "with Seldius, his brother Ferdinand's ambassador, till the "deep of the night. And when Seldius should depart, the emperor calling for some of his servants, and nobody an"swering him, (for those that attended upon him were

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some gone to their lodgings, and all the rest asleep,) the "emperor took up the candle himself, and went before Sel"dius to light him down the stairs; and so did, notwith"standing all the resistance that Seldius could make. And "when he was come to the stairs foot, he said thus unto "him: "Seldius, remember this of Charles the emperor, when "he shall be dead and gone, that him, whom thou hast "known in thy time environed with so many mighty armies.

"and guards of soldiers, thou hast also seen alone, aban"doned and forsaken, yea even of his own domestical ser"vants, &c. I acknowledge this change of fortune to pro"ceed from the mighty hand of God; which I will by no about to withstand.""

means go

But you will say that there are some things else, and of greater regard than the former. The first is, the reverend respect that is held of great men, and the honour done unto them by all sorts of people. And it is true indeed; provided that an inward love for their justice and piety accompany the outward worship given to their places and power; without which what is the applause of the multitude, but as the outcry of an herd of animals, who, without the knowledge of any true cause, please themselves with the noise they make? For seeing it is a thing exceeding rare to distinguish virtue and fortune; the most impious, if prosperous, have ever been applauded; the most virtuous, if unprosperous, have ever been despised. For as fortune's man rides the horse, so fortune herself rides the man: who, when he is descended and on foot, the man taken from his beast, and fortune from the man, a base groom beats the one, and a bitter contempt spurns the other with equal liberty.

The second is the greatening of our posterity, and the contemplation of their glory whom we leave behind us. Certainly, of those which conceive that their souls departed take any comfort therein, it may truly be said of them which Lactantius spake of certain heathen philosophers, • Quod sapientes sunt in re stulta. For when our spirits immortal shall be once separate from our mortal bodies, and disposed by God, there remaineth in them no other joy of

r Lact. de falsa Sap. 3. c. 29.

their posterity which succeed, than there doth of pride in that stone which sleepeth in the wall of a king's palace; nor any other sorrow for their poverty, than there doth of shame in that which beareth up a beggar's cottage. Nesciunt mortui, etiam sancti, quid agunt vivi, etiam eorum filii ; quia animæ mortuorum rebus viventium non intersunt. "The dead, though holy, know nothing of the living, no "not of their own children; for the souls of those departed 66 are not conversant with their affairs that remain." And if we doubt of St. Augustine, we cannot of Job; who tells us, That we know not if our sons shall be honourable; neither

t

> shall we understand concerning them, whether they shall be of low degree. Which Ecclesiastes also confirmeth: " Man walketh in a shadow, and disquieteth himself in vain: he heapeth up riches, and cannot tell who shall gather them. The living, saith he, know that they shall die, but the dead know nothing at all. For who can shew unto man what shall be after him under the sun? He therefore accounted

it

among the rest of worldly vanities, to labour and travail in the world, not knowing after death whether a fool or a wise man should enjoy the fruits thereof: which made me, saith he, endeavour even to abhor mine own labour. And what can other men hope, whose blessed or sorrowful estates after death God hath reserved? man's knowledge lying but in his hope; seeing the prophet Esay confesseth of the elect, that * Abraham is ignorant of us, and Israel knows us not. But hereof we are assured, that the long and dark night of death, of whose following day we shall never behold the dawn, (till his return that hath triumphed over it,) shall cover us over, till the world be no more. After which, and when x we shall again receive organs glorified and incorruptible, the

S. Aug. de cura pro mort. t Job, c. I. v. 14, 12.

u Eccles. c. 9. v. 5. and c. 1. y. 2.

X

Isaiah, c. 63. v. 16.

seats of angelical affections, in so great admiration shall the souls of the blessed be exercised, as they cannot admit the mixture of any second or less joy, nor any return of foregone and mortal affection towards friends, kindred, or children. Of whom, whether we shall retain any particular knowledge, or in any sort distinguish them, no man can assure us, and the wisest men doubt. But on the contrary, if a divine life retain any of those faculties which the soul exercised in a mortal body, we shall not at that time so divide the joys of heaven, as to cast any part thereof on the memory of their felicities which remain in the world. No; be their estates greater than ever the world gave, we shall (by the difference known unto us) even detest their consideration. And whatsoever comfort shall remain of all forepast, the same will consist in the charity which we exercised living; and in that piety, justice, and firm faith, for which it pleased the infinite mercy of God to accept of us and receive us. Shall we therefore value honour and riches. at nothing, and neglect them, as unnecessary and vain? Certainly no for that infinite wisdom of God, which hath distinguished his angels by degrees; which hath given greater and less light and beauty to heavenly bodies; which hath made differences between beasts and birds; created the eagle and the fly, the cedar and the shrub; and among stones, given the fairest tincture to the ruby, and the quickest light to the diamond; hath also ordained kings, dukes, or leaders of the people, magistrates, judges, and other degrees among men. And as honour is left to posterity for a mark and ensign of the virtue and understanding of their ancestors; so, seeing y Siracides preferreth death before beggary; and that titles, without proportionable estates, fall under the

y Sirac. c. 40. v. 28.