and his care the exercise of charity.  He is more conversant with the divine prophets than the world’s profits, and makes the joy of his soul in the tidings of his salvation.  He is wise in the best wit, and wealthy in the richest treasure.  His hope is but the comfort of mercy, and his fear but the hurt of sin.  Pride is the hate of his soul, and patience the worker of his peace.  His guide is the wisdom of grace, and his travel but to the Heavenly Jerusalem.  In sum, he is the elect of God, the blessing of grace, the seed of love, and the fruit of life.

AN ATHEIST OR MOST BAD MAN.

An atheist is a figure of desperation, who dare do anything even to his soul’s damnation.  He is in nature a dog, in wit an ass, in passion a bedlam, and in action a devil.  He makes sin a jest, grace a humour, truth a fable, and peace a cowardice.  His horse is his pride, his sword is his castle, his apparel his riches, and his punk his paradise.  He makes robbery his purchase, lechery his solace, mirth his exercise, and drunkenness his glory.  He is the danger of society, the love of vanity, the hate of charity, and the shame of humanity.  He is God’s enemy, his parents’ grief, his country’s plague, and his own confusion.  He spoils that is necessary and spends that is needless.  He spits at the gracious and spurns the godly.  The tavern is his palace and his belly is his god; a whore is his mistress and the devil is his master.  Oaths are his graces, wounds his badges, shifts are his practices, and beggary his payments.  He knows not God, nor thinks of heaven, but walks through the world as a devil towards hell.  Virtue knows him not, honesty finds him not, wisdom loves him not, and honour regards him not.  He is but the cutler’s friend and the chirurgeon’s agent, the thief’s companion and the hangman’s benefactor.  He was begotten untimely and born unhappily, lives ungraciously and dies unchristianly.  He is of no religion nor good fashion; hardly good complexion, and most vile in condition.  In sum, he is a monster among men, a Jew among Christians, a fool among wise men, and a devil among saints.

A WISE MAN.

A wise man is a clock that never strikes but at his home, or rather like a dial that, being set right with the sun, keeps his true course in his compass.  So the heart of a wise man, set in the course of virtue by the spirit of grace, runs the course of life in the compass of eternal comfort.  He measureth time and tempereth nature, employeth reason and commandeth sense.  He hath a deaf ear to the charmer, a close mouth to the slanderer, an open hand to charity, and an humble mind to piety.  Observation and experience are his reason’s labours, and patience with conscience are the lines of his love’s measure; contemplation and meditation are his spirit’s exercise, and God and His Word are the joy of his soul.  He knows not the pride of prosperity nor