can a christian have, than in thinking how like he is to the Lord of Glory, not only in what he did, but even also in what he suffered.

Of Cock-Fights, and such like Sports.

THE baiting of the bear, and cock-fights, are no meet recreations. The baiting of the bull hath its use, and therefore it is 'commanded by civil authority, and so have not these: And the antipathy, and cruelty, which one beast sheweth to another, is the fruit of our rebellion against God, and should rather move us to mourn, than to rejoice.' These are the words of the most learned and godly Mr. Perkins, in that famous treatise of the Cases of Conscience, printed in quarto, A. D. -32, p. 346.

That man of God, Mr. Bolton, was of the same mind with Mr. Perkins, concerning such sports: Consider,' says he (in his excellent treatise, intituled, General Directions for a comfortable Walking with God, p. 156) that rule which divines give about recreations: We must not make God's judgments and punish· ments, either upon man or beast, the matter and object of them. Now, the best divines hold, that enmity amongst themselves was ' a fruit of our rebellion against God, and more general judgment inflicted upon the creature after the fall. Which misery coming 6 upon them by our means, should rather break our hearts, and 'make them bleed, than minister matter of glorying in our shame, ' and vexing those very vexations which our impiety hath put upon them. Alas, sinful man! what an heart hast thou, that canst 'take delight in the cruel tormenting of a dumb creature? Is it 'not too much for thee to behold, with dry eyes, that which only 'thy sin hath impressed upon it, but that thou must barbarously also press its oppressions, and make thyself merry with the bleeding miseries of that poor harmless thing, which in its kind is much more, and far better serviceable to the Creator than thyself? Yet I deny not, but that there may be another lawful use of this antipathy, for the destroying of hurtful, and the enjoying of useful creatures; so that it be without any taint or aspersion of cru6 elty on our parts, or needless tormenting of the silly beasts.'

Mr. Dod, and Mr. Cleaver (scorned by none but those whose revilings are praises) in their exposition of these words of Solomon, Prov. xii. 10, "A righteous man regardeth the life of his beast," having spoken against the hard usage of labouring beasts, as horses, &c. conclude thus: And yet, in another sort, more 'extremity than this is used against other sorts of creatures, and that is, when men make a sport of making them miserable; when it is a pleasure to put them to pain; when it is a pass-time to behold their torment and tearing. This proceedeth not of a tender heart; this is not the work of righteousness; this delight will leave no comfort behind it. Have our sins in Adam brought such 'calamities upon them, and shall we add unto them by cruelty in our own persons? Have our corruptions been a cause of that

'fierceness that is in many of them one against another, and shall we solace ourselves in seeing them execute it?'

What holy Chrysostome would have said of this sport, if he had had an occasion to treat of it, we may easily gather from these words in his twenty-ninth Homily on the Epistle to the Romans: Σφόδρα εἰσὶν αἱ τῶν ἁγίων ψυχαὶ ἡμερον, καὶ φιλάνθρωποι, καὶ περὶ τὰς οἰκείες, καὶ περὶ τοὺς ἀλλοτρίες. Καὶ μέχρι τῶν ἀλόγων αὐτῶν ταύτην ἐκτείνωσι τὸν ἡμερότη]α; δια τέτο και σοφός τις ἔλεγε· ΔίκαιΘ οἰκτείρει ψυχής κληνῶν αὐτῷ.

The souls of those, that are truly pious, are exceeding mild and gentle, not only towards relations, but strangers also. And this lenity, or softness of heart, they extend even to irrational creatures. Therefore the wise man saith, "A righteous man regardeth the life of his beast," Prov. xii. 10.

HAVING shown you what these men thought of the sport you af. fect, I shall intreat you, if you believe sin to be a matter of eternal concernment, to consider seriously what here you have read. If you are not convinced at present, that these learned and godly men were in the right, yet I doubt not but you will be in time, if you more fully consider the matter without prejudice: At least, if you are regenerate persons: For, I conceive, by the instinct of the new creature, a man may often perceive that to be a sin, whose sinfulness is not capable of any express, or verbal, demonstration, viz. apprehending it so to be merely through a sense of the antipathy it has to that in him, which he knows is born of God, whe ther or no this be but a fanatick notion; and whether or no the printing of these papers, and such like actions of mine, be indeed so foolish, and imprudent, as the world judges them to be, I will appeal only for my own satisfaction to the only wise God. Yet I shall not deny to render an account of any of my actions, in which 1 do, and must usually thwart the example of the generality of men, good and bad, to any man, whose anthority obliges him, in any respect, to demand it of me, as my lawful superior, or conscience, as my fellow christian.

PETER'S PATTERN:

OR,

THE PERFECT PATH TO WORLDLY HAPPINESS;

As it was delivered in a Funeral Sermon, preached at the Interment of
Mr. HUGH PETERS, lately deceased,

By I, C. Translator of Pineda upon Job, and one of the Triers.

Gusman. lib. I. cap. ii. vers. 4.

Amicus Plato, sed magis amica veritas.

London: Printed in the year 1659. Quarto, containing fourteen pages.

After they had sung the two first Staves of the tenth Hymn of Larner's twelve Songs of Sion, to the Tune of, The Knave of Clubs, the Parson proceeded in his Text as followeth :

Gusman, lib. II. chap. iiì, verse 26. the latter Part of the Words.

Let us, while we live, make use of our time, for a man's life is ended in a day.

BELOVED,

THE scope of this reverend divine is, in these words, to hold

forth unto us the excellency of human wit and policy in this self-seeking and deceitful world. And indeed I hope I have not made a wrong choice of my text, not knowing any one whereon I could better ground the praises of our departed brother here before us; you all knowing how great a disciple of our Author he was, being indeed the very pattern and exemplar of his godly and religious life, But now, to explain the words aright, we shall deal with them as joiners do with court cupboards, and round tables, first pull them asunder, and then put them together again: I use this comparison, that you may know me to be a man of trade, that is to say, one that trades in the word, or, if you will have it otherwise, a holder-forth, according to the last and most sanctified Institution. First, then, you have an exhortation in these words, Let us; secondly, the time given us to make use thereof, while we live; thirdly, the thing to which we are exhorted, that is, to make use of our time; and lastly, the supreme reason of this exhortation, for a man's life is ended in a day. Let us, while we live, make use of our time, for a man's life is ended in a day. First, then, of the first, that is to say, of the words, Let us: But here you must give me leave to excuse the great abu es that have been put upon these two poor innocent monosyllables. I confess they have been crummed thicker than Habakkuk's brown loaf into the porridge of the Cavaliers, commonly called the Common-Prayer Book, when they cry, Let us pray, Let us kneel but believe it, my be.

VOL. VII.

loved, I have now rebaptized them, and washed them cleaner from that profanation, than ever tripes were scow red from their filth by the nicest huswife in Field-lane. Now, being thus purified, you will find Let us to signify sometimes as much as, Hinder us not," Quixot the 12th verse 8. "Hinder me not, fair Dulcina, from the enjoyment of your sweet company;" sometimes as much as to say, suffer us;" saith the Reverend Buscon, chap. vii. verse 5, to his master in great affliction, "suffer us not to be starved to death," that is, "let us not be starved," &c. Yet it is not meant here, as in those places, by way of petition, but is a kind of rousing up of the spirits to a certain action, as when the carmen would heave a great load into their carts, they exhort one another, by crying hey boys; or as, when the coachman would have his horses to go faster than ordinary, he encourages them by saying, stir up, in which sense our learned Gusman uses this expression, Let us, in this place, as it were a word of incitement, or stirring us up to any undertaking. Some, when they use these words in this signification, do clap one another on the back, which adds a greater emphasis to them. But he goes on, Let us, saith he, while we live. And here you are to understand two things, what is meant by we, and, secondly, what is meant by the words in general, while we live. Note then, that we is a particle of distinction, which shews you that there is another sort of men to whom our dear Gusman doth deny the precious comforts held forth in this verse; for, my beloved, I would not have you think, that, when he spoke this, he had pigs in his belly, as Calvin, in his comment upon this place, .doth erroneously conjecture. By we then is meant the godly, such as I and you are, whom the Lord hath chosen to the enjoyments of this world. The other sort of men here implied are all those who profess to be our enemies, men that would cut off our ears with the paring-shovels of their malice, and whip our backs with the scourges of their fury; for, did not the word intimate this distinction, our deceased brother had not used so many pious and painful endeavours to advance some men, and destroy others, that is, to advance his own godly party, and destroy his wicked foes. Let us, saith he, while we live, that is, while we are in power, while we live in authority, or be in favour with those that govern, whether it be a single person or a commonwealth; or, if you will have it otherwise, while we are in a thriving condition, while men think us godly and faithful, and consequently trust us with preferments or prolit: I say, when the Lord shall put such opportunities and abilities into our hands, then, my brethren, Let us make use of our time; let us take hold of them, with both hands, and hold them as fast as a mastiff holds a sow by the ear; Let us make use of our time, that is, let us use all endeavours, ways, plots, means, mauners, tricks, and policies, whether lawful or unlawful, to raise and advance our own ends, whether they be only honourable, or profitable, or both. And when we have attained that which we seek, let us use the same inventions, that the ungodly man may not gain them from us, and thence take

occasion to triumph over us. The fathers of the order of Industry, at the council held at Biscar in the year 1590, made a decree, that every one should keep his own, and get what he could from another. I speak this, that I may not leave you altogether with-, out authority in the explanation of my text, but of this more anon. We shall now proceed to the reason of the words, for a man's life, is ended in a day; as much as to say, the life of man is very short;, for, whereas it was formerly above an ell and a nail long, it is now no longer than a span. How vast a while did Methuselah live to enjoy the pains and labours of his youth? But no sooner had our dear brother Mr. Peters got an estate, a little chariot, and an Onesimus or two to wait on him, thinking to comfort himself with the blessings of the creature, but he was snatched away from us, even as a boy snatches a pippin out of an apple-woman's basket. Some, in regard of the shortness thereof, have compared the life of man unto a lilly; but I am clearly of opinion, that it was a mistake; seeing that of that flower is made a precious oil that pro-. longeth the days of man by curing festered wounds, and broken pates. Others have likened it unto a rose, but with as little rea-, son; for we know that of the rose is made that excellent conserve which is good against the cough of the lungs, one of the greatest enemies to life; I therefore, rather agreeing herein with that great light of the Spanish church Lazarillo de Tornes, shall compare our beloved brother unto marigold, and his ending in a day unto the fading thereof. For as the flowers of a marigold swimming on the top of a mess of porridge, which is the food of the body, is a great ornament thereunto, so, my beloved, was he a great ornament to our religion, which is the food of the soul; and even as that closes. up at the setting of the sun, so did he end in a day, even in that day that the sun of our region was forced to withdraw himself from Whitehall. Thus much for the exposition. I shall now proceed to the doctrine that creeps out of my text, as a fox creeps out of his hole: That it is the duty of every professor, seeing that he hath but a short while to stay in this world, to make the best use of his time; the particulars of which doctrine I shall labour to make good unto you by reason and example. First, then, that there is a duty that lies upon every professor, we find evident by this, that there is in all men not only a labouring and a panting, but also a tye upon them to look after self-preservation, for, if a child. of God be in want, and woeful necessity, as many times they are, the law of nature doth oblige them to seek after maintenance, and not to destroy themselves and their family. Saith Gusman in his second book, c. 3. v. 15, Poverty is daily death;" so that he, who avoids not poverty, seeks a daily death, and is consequently a daily murtherer of himself; at least he intends it: Now, an intention to in, without repentance, is a sin as great as the act itself. This it was that urged the holy Gusman to undertake those many atchievements which he performed; for saith he in another place book the first, c. 8. v. 12, "I thought it not my duty to live in idleness:" Therefore, when necessity, the best school-mis