a plantane why the apple bears his seed in his heart and wheat bears it in his head; let him tell why a graft taking nourishment from a crabstock shall have a fruit more noble than its nurse and parent: let him say why the best of oil is at the top, the best of wine in the middle, and the best of honey at the bottom. But these things are not such as please busy-bodies; they must feed upon tragedies, and stories of misfortunes and crimes.*

* There is (for life is too short to be wasted on fruitless speculations) scarcely any subject of more importance than idle curiosity; or, to speak more correctly, (as all knowledge contains something good, all dross some pure metal), curiosity in things of little use. "Be not curious," says the preacher, "in unnecessary matters, for more things are shewed unto thee than men understand." "We spend our days," says the philosopher, "in unprofitable questions and disputations, intricate subtleties, de lana caprina, about moonshine in the water."

Truths, that the learn'd pursue with eager thought,
Are not important always as dear bought,
Proving at last, though told in pompous strains,
A childish waste of philosophic pains;

But truths, on which depend our main concern,
That 'tis our shame and mis'ry not to learn,
Shine by the side of ev'ry path we tread,
With such a lustre, he that runs may read.

See the conclusion of this note, in note II. at the end of the volume.

ON MERCY.

IF you do but see a maiden carried to her grave a little before her intended marriage, or an infant die before the birth of reason, nature hath taught us to pay a tributary tear. Alas! your eyes will behold the ruin of many families, which though they sadly have deserved, yet mercy is not delighted with the spectacle; and therefore God places a watery cloud in the eye, that when the light of heaven shines upon it, it may produce a rainbow to be a sacrament and a memorial that God and the sons of God do not love to see a man perish.*

As contrary as cruelty is to mercy, as tyranny to charity, so is war and bloodshed to the meekness and gentleness of Christian religion: and, however, there are some exterminating spirits who think God to delight in human sacrifices, as if that Oracle-Καὶ κεφαλὰς ἄδη καὶ τῷ πάτρι πέμπετε φῶτα, had come from the Father of Spirit, yet if they were capable of cool and tame homilies, or would hear men of other opinions give a quiet account without invincible resolutions never to alter their persuasions, I am very much persuaded it would not be very hard to dispute such men into mercies and compliances, and tolerations mutual, such I say, who are zealous for Jesus Christ, than whose doctrine

Sermon at the Opening of the Parliament.

never was any thing more merciful and humane, whose lessons were softer than nard, or the juice of the Candian olive.

CONCLUSION.

I HAVE followed the design of scripture, and have given milk for babes, and for stronger men stronger meat; and in all I have despised my own reputation, by so striving to make it useful, that I was less careful to make it strict in retired senses, and embossed with unnecessary but graceful ornaments. I pray God this may go forth into a blessing to all that shall use it, and reflect blessings upon me all the way, that my spark may grow greater by kindling my brother's taper, and God may be glorified in us both.+

* Query inlaid.

+ Preface to Life of Christ.

SECTION II.

BISHOP LATIMER.

My father was a yeoman, and had no lands of his own, only he had a farm of three or four pounds by the year at the utmost, and hereupon he tilled so much as kept half a dozen men. He had walk for a hundred sheep; and my mother milked thirty kine. He was able, and did find the king a harness, with himself and his horse, whilst he came to the place that he should receive the king's wages. I can remember that I buckled his harness when he went to Blackheath field. He kept me to school, or else I had not been able to have preached before the king's majesty now.

Sermon preached before the King, vol. i. 79.

HASTY JUDGMENT.

HERE I have occasion to tell you a story which happened at Cambridge. Master Bilney, or rather Saint Bilney, that suffered death for God's word sake, the same Bilney was the instrument whereby God called me to knowledge, for I may thank him, next to God, for that knowledge that I have in the word of God. For I was as obstinate a papist as any was in England, insomuch that when I should be made Bachelor of Divinity, my whole oration went against Philip Melancthon and against his opinions. Bilney heard me at that time and per

ceived that I was zealous without knowledge; he came to me afterward in my study and desired me for God's sake to hear his confession: I did so, and, to say the very truth, by his confession I learned more than before in many years; so from that time forward I began to smell the word of God, and forsook the school-doctors and such fooleries.

Now after I had been acquainted with him, I went with him to visit the prisoners in the tower at Cambridge, for he was ever visiting prisoners and sick folk. So we went together, and exhorted them as well as we were able to do; minding them to patience, and to acknowledge their faults. Among other prisoners, there was a woman which was accused that she had killed her child, which act she plainly and steadfastly denied, and could not be brought to confess the act; which denying gave us occasion to search for the matter, and so we did, and at length we found that her husband loved her not, and therefore he sought means to make her out of the way. The matter was thus:

A child of hers had been sick by the space of a year, and so decayed as it were in a consumption. At length it died in harvest time; she went to her neighbours and other friends to desire their help to prepare the child for burial; but there was nobody at home, every man was in the field. The woman, in a heaviness and trouble of spirit, went, and being herself alone, prepared the child for burial. Her husband coming home,