And as he said of that Marian Oke, now cut down and dead, nullius Agricolæ manu culta stirps tam diuturna, quam quæ poetæ versu seminari potest, no plant can grow so long as that which is ingenio sata, set and manured by those ever-living wits.

Allon Backuth that weeping Oke, under which Deborah, Rebecchaes nurse died, and was buried, may not survive the memory of such everlasting monuments. Vainglory and emulation (as to most men) was the cause efficient, and to be a trumpeter of his own fame, Cosmus sole intent to do good, that all the world might take notice of it.

Such for the most part is the charity of our times, such our Benefactors, Mæcenates and Patrons. Shew me amongst so many myriads, a truly devout, a right, honest, upright, meek, humble, a patient, innocuous, innocent, a mercifull, a loving, a charitable man! Probus quis nobiscum vivit? Shew me a Caleb or a Joshua!

Dic mihi Musa virum ——

shew a vertuous woman, a constant wife, a good neighbour, a trusty servant, an obedient child, a true friend, &c. Crows in Africk are not so scant.

He that shall examine this iron age wherein we live, where love is cold, & jam terras Astræa reliquit, Justice fled with her assistants, vertue expelled,

—— Justitiæ soror, Incorrupta fides, nudaque veritas, ——

all goodness gone, where vice abounds, the Divel is loose, & see one man vilify and insult over his brother, as if he were an innocent, or a block, oppress, tyrannise, prey upon, torture him, vex, gaule, torment and crucify him, starve him, where is charity?

He that shall see men swear and forswear, lye and bear false witness, to advantage themselves, prejudice others, hazard goods, lives, fortunes, credit, all, to be revenged on their enemies, men so unspeakable in their lusts, unnaturall in malice, such bloudy designements, Italian blaspheming, Spanish renouncing, &c. may well aske where is charity?

He that shall observe so many law-suits, such endless contentions, such plotting, undermining, so much mony spent with such eagerness and fury, every man for himself, his own ends, the Divel for all: so many distressed souls, such lamentable complaints, so many factions, conspiracies, seditions, oppressions, abuses, injuries, such grudging, repining, discontents, so much emulation, envy, so many brawles, quarrels, monomachies, &c. may well require what is become of charity?

when we see and read of such cruel wars, tumults, uproares, bloudy battels, so many men slain, so many cities ruinated, &c. (for what else is the subject of all our stories almost, but Bills, Bowes, and Gunns!) so many murders and massacres, &c. where is Charity?

Or see men wholly devote to God, Churchmen, professed Divines, holy men, to make the trumpet of the Gospel the trumpet of war, a company of Hell-born Jesuits, and fiery-spirited Friers, facem præferre to all seditions; as so many firebrands set all the world by the ears

(I say nothing of their contentious and rayling books, whole ages spent in writing one against another, and that with such virulency and bitterness, Bionæis sermonibus & sale nigro) and by their bloudy inquisitions that in thirty years, Bale saith, consumed 39 Princes, 148 Earls, 235 Barons, 14755 Commons; worse then those ten persecutions, may justly doubt where is Charity?

Obsecro vos quales hi demum Christiani! Are these Christians? I beseech you tell me: He that shall observe and see these things, may say to them as Cato to Cæsar, credo quæ de inferis dicuntur falsa existimas, sure I think thou art of opinion there is neither Heaven, nor Hell.

Let them pretend religion, zeal, make what shewes they will, give almes, peace-makers, frequent sermons, if we may guess at the tree by the fruit, they are no better then Hypocrites, Epicures, Atheists, with the fool in their hearts they say there is no God.

’Tis no marvel then if being so uncharitable, hard-hearted as we are, we have so frequent and so many discontents, such melancholy fits, so many bitter pangs, mutuall discords, all in a combustion, often complaints, so common grievances, generall mischiefes, si tantæ in terris tragœdiæ, quibus labefactatur & miserè laceratur humanum genus, so many pestilences, wars, uproares, losses, deluges, fires, inundations, Gods vengeance and the plagues of Egypt, come not upon us, since we are so currish one towards another, so respectless of God, and our neighbours, and by our crying sinnes pull these miseries upon our own heads.

Nay more, tis justly to be feared, which Josephus once said of his Countrymen Jewes, If the Romans had not come when they did to sack their City, surely it had been swallowed up with some earthquake, deluge, or fired from Heaven as Sodom and Gomorrah: their desperate malice, wickedness and peevishness was such.

’Tis to be suspected, if we continue these wretched waies, we may look for the like heavy visitations to come upon us: If we had any sense or feeling of these things, surely we should not go on as we do, in such irregular courses, practise all manner of impieties; our whole carriage would not be so averse from God.

If a man would but consider, when he is in the midst and full career of such prodigious and uncharitable actions, how displeasing they are in Gods sight, how noxious to himself, as Salomon told Joab, 1 King. 2. The Lord shall bring this bloud upon their heads, Prov. 1. 27. sudden desolation and destruction shall come like a whirlwinde upon them: affliction, anguish, the reward of his hand shall be given him, Isa. 3. 11. &c. they shall fall into the pit they have digged for others, and when they are scraping, tyrannizing, getting, wallowing in their wealth, This night, O fool, I will take away thy soul, what a severe account they must make;

and how gracious on the other side a charitable man is in Gods eys, haurit sibi gratiam. Matth. 5. 7. Blessed are the mercifull, for they shall obtain mercy: He that lendeth to the poor, gives to God; and how it shall be restored to them again, how by their patience and long suffering they shall heap coals on their enemies heads, Rom. 12. and he that followeth after righteousness and mercy, shall finde righteousness and glory;

surely they would check their desires, curb their unnaturall, inordinate affections, agree amongst themselves, abstain from doing evill, amend their lives and learn to do well. Behold how comely and good a thing it is for brethren to live together in union: it is like the pretious ointment, &c. How odious to contend one with the other!

Miseri quid luctatiunculis hisce volumus? ecce mors supra caput est, & supremum illud tribunal, ubi & dicta & facta nostra examinanda sunt: Sapiamus!

Why do we contend and vex one another? behold death is over our heads, and we must shortly give an account of all our uncharitable words and actions: think upon it: and be wise.