to furnish the very simplest and rudest sort with such infallible axioms and precepts of sacred truth, delivered even in the very letter of the law of God, as may serve them for rules whereby to judge the better all other doctrines and instructions which

they hear. For which end and purpose I see not how the Scripture could be possibly made familiar unto all, unless far more should be read in the people's hearing than by a sermon can be opened.

19. The Litany.

On others what more easily, and yet what more fruitfully bestowed than our prayers? If we give counsel, they are the simpler only that need it; if alms, the poorer only are relieved; but by prayer we do good to all. When we are not able to do any other things for men's behoof, when through maliciousness or unkindness they vouchsafe not to accept any other good at our hands, prayer is that which we always have in our power to bestow, and they never in theirs to refuse. It is the first thing wherewith a righteous life beginneth, and the last wherewith it doth end. Prayer being a work common to the Church as well triumphant as militant, a work common unto men with angels, what should we think, but that so much of our lives is celestial and divine as we spend in the exercise of prayer? 20." From sudden death good Lord deliver us;" the objection to this petition answered.

Wisdom so far prevaileth with men as to make them desirous of slow and deliberate death against the stream of their sensual inclination, content to endure the longer grief and bodily pain, that the soul may have time to call itself to a just account of all things past, by means whereof repentance is

1 "Sensual inclination;" i. e. inclination of their senses.

perfected, there is wherein to exercise patience, the joys of the kingdom of heaven have leisure to present themselves, the pleasures of sin and this world's vanities are censured with uncorrupt judgment, charity is free to make advised choice of the soil wherein her last seed may most fruitfully be bestowed, the mind is at liberty to have due regard of that disposition of worldly things which it can never afterwards alter; and because the nearer we draw unto God, the more we are oftentimes enlightened with the shining beams of his glorious presence, as being then even almost in sight, a leisurable departure may in that case bring forth, for the good of such as are present, that which shall cause them for ever after from the bottom of their hearts to pray, O let us die the death of the righteous, and let our last end be like theirs. All which benefits and opportunities are by sudden death prevented.

21. Thanksgiving.

Special duties of thankfulness we owe to that merciful God, for whose unspeakable graces the only requital which we are able to make, is a true, hearty, and sincere acknowledgment how precious we esteem such benefits received, and how infinite in goodness the Author from whom they come.

22. Church music.

In church music curiosity and ostentation of art, wanton, or light, or unsuitable harmony, such as only pleaseth the ear, and doth not naturally serve to the very kind and degree of those impressions which the matter that goeth with it leaveth, or is apt to leave in men's minds, doth rather blemish and disgrace that we do, than add either beauty or furtherance unto it. On the other side, the faults prevented, the force and efficacy of the thing itself,

when it drowneth not utterly, but fitly suiteth with matter altogether sounding to the praise of God, is in truth most admirable, and doth much edify, if not the understanding, because it teacheth not, yet surely the affection, because therein it worketh much. They must have hearts very dry and tough, from whom the melody of the Psalms doth not sometimes draw that wherein a mind religiously affected delighteth.

23. Antiquity, nature, and effects of Church music.

A thing which all Christian Churches in the world have received; a thing which so many ages have held; a thing which the most approved councils and laws have so often ratified; a thing which was never found to have any inconvenience in it; a thing which always heretofore the best men and wisest governors of God's people did think they could never commend enough; a thing which, as Basil was persuaded, did both strengthen the meditation of those holy words which were uttered in that sort, and served also to make attentive, and to raise up the hearts of men; a thing whereunto God's people of old did resort with hope and thirst, that thereby especially their souls might be edified; a thing which filleth the mind with comfort and heavenly delight, stirreth up flagrant desires and affections correspondent unto that which the words contain; allayeth all kind of base and earthly cogitations, banisheth and driveth away those evil secret suggestions which our invisible enemy is always apt to minister, watereth the heart to the end it may fructify, maketh the virtuous in trouble full of magnanimity and courage, serveth as a most approved remedy against all doleful and heavy accidents which befal men in this present life; to conclude, so fitly accordeth with the apostle's own exhortation, Speak to yourselves in psalms and hymns, and spi

ritual songs, making melody, and singing to the your hearts.

Lord in

24. The effects of music upon the mind.

Touching musical harmony, whether by instrument or by voice, it being but of high and low in sounds a due proportionable disposition, such notwithstanding is the force thereof, and so pleasing effects it hath in that very part of man which is most divine, that some have been thereby induced to think that the soul itself by nature is, or hath in it harmony; a thing which delighteth all ages, and beseemeth all states; a thing as seasonable in grief as in joy; as decent being added unto actions of greatest weight and solemnity, as being used when men most sequester themselves from action. The reason hereof is an admirable facility which music hath to express and represent to the mind, more inwardly than any other sensible mean, the very standing, rising, and falling, the very steps and inflections every way, the turns and varieties of all passions, whereunto the mind is subject; yea, so to imitate them, that, whether it resembles unto us the same state wherein our minds already are, or a clean contrary, we are not more contentedly by the one confirmed, than changed and led away by the other. In harmony the very image and character even of virtue and vice is perceived, the mind delighted with their resemblances, and brought by having them often iterated into a love of the things themselves. For which cause there is nothing more contagious and pestilent than some kinds of harmony; than some nothing more strong and potent unto good. And that there is such a difference of one kind from another we need no proof but our own experience, inasmuch as we are at the hearing of some more inclined unto sorrow and heaviness, of some more mollified and softened in mind; one

kind apter to stay and settle us, another to move and stir our affections; there is that draweth to a marvellous grave and sober mediocrity; there is also that carrieth as it were into ecstasies, filling the mind with an heavenly joy, and for the time in a manner severing it from the body: so that, although we lay altogether aside the consideration of ditty or matter, the very harmony of sounds being framed in due sort, and carried from the ear to the spiritual faculties of our souls, is by a native puissance and efficacy greatly available to bring to a perfect temper whatsoever is there troubled, apt as well to quicken the spirits as to allay that which is too eager, sovereign against melancholy and despair, forcible to draw forth tears of devotion, if the mind be such as can yield them, able both to move and to moderate all affections.

25. Expounding the Scriptures.

We admire the goodness of God in nature, when we consider how he hath provided, that things most needful to preserve this life should be most prompt and easy for all living creatures to come by. Is it not as evident a sign of his wonderful providence over us, when the food of eternal life, upon the utter want whereof, our endless death and destruction necessarily ensueth, is prepared and always set in such a readiness, that those very means, than which nothing is more easy, may suffice to procure the same? Surely, if we perish, it is not the lack of scribes and learned expounders that can be our just excuse. The word which saveth our souls is near us; we need for knowledge but to read and live.

Because want of the knowledge of God is the cause of all iniquity amongst men, as contrariwise the ground of all our happiness, and the seed of

1 "Flagrant; "i. e. ardent,