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After my latter meal, my thoughts are slight: only my memory may be charged with her task, of recalling what was committed to her custody in the day; and my heart is busy in examining my hands, and mouth, and all other senses, of that day's behaviour.

And, now the evening is come, no tradesman doth more carefully take in his wares, clear his shopboard, and shut his windows, than I would shut up my thoughts and clear my mind. That student shall live miserably, which, like a camel, lies down under his burden. All this done, calling together my family, we end the day with God. Thus do we rather drive away the time before us, than follow it.

I grant, neither is my practice worthy to be exemplary, neither are our callings proportionable. The lives of a nobleman, of a courtier, of a scholar, of a citizen, of a countryman, differ no less than their dispositions; yet must all conspire in honest labour. Sweat is the destiny of all trades; whether of the brows, or of the mind. God never allowed any man to do nothing. How miserable is the condition of those men, which spend the time as if it were given them, and not lent; as if hours were waste creatures, and such as should never be accounted for ;- -as if God would take this for a good bill of reckoning: "Item, spent upon my pleasures forty years"! These men shall once find, that no blood can privilege idleness; and that nothing is more precious to God, than that which they desire to cast away-Time.

Such are my common days.-But God's day calls

for another respect. The same sun rises on this day, and enlightens it: yet, because that Sun of Righteousness arose upon it, and gave a new life unto the world in it, and drew the strength of God's moral precept unto it; therefore, justly do we sing, with the Psalmist, This is the day which the Lord hath made. Now, I forget the world; and, in a sort, myself; and deal with my wonted thoughts, as great men use, who, at some times of their privacy, forbid the access of all suitors. Prayer, meditation, reading, hearing, preaching, singing, good conference, are the businesses of this day; which I dare not bestow on any work or pleasure, but heavenly. I hate superstition on the one side, and looseness on the other: but I find it hard to offend in too much devotion; easy, in profaneness. The whole week is sanctified by this day; and, according to my care of this, is my blessing on the rest.

I show your Lordship what I would do, and what I ought. I commit my desires to the imitation of the weak; my actions, to the censures of the wise and holy; my weaknesses, to the pardon and redress of my merciful God.

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THE Country Parson, as soon as he awakes on Sunday morning, presently falls to work; and seems to himself so as a market-man is, when the market-day comes; or a shopkeeper, when customers use to come in. His thoughts are full of making the best of the day, and contriving it to his best gains. To this end, besides his ordinary prayers, he makes a peculiar one for a blessing on the exercises of the day; "that nothing befall him unworthy of that Majesty, before which he is to present himself; but that all may done with reverence to His glory, and with edification to his flock; humbly beseeching his Master, that how, or whenever, he punish him, it be not in his ministry." Then he turns to request, for his people, "that the Lord would be pleased to sanctify them all; that they may come with holy hearts, and awful minds, into the congregation; and that the good God would pardon all those who come with less prepared hearts than they ought."

This done, he sets himself to the consideration of the duties of the day; and, if there be any extraordinary addition to the customary exercises, either from the time of the year, or from the State, or from God, by a child born, or dead, or any other accident, he contrives how and in what manner to induce it to the best advantage. Afterwards, when the hour calls, with his family attending him he goes to the Church; at his first entrance humbly adoring and worshipping the invisible majesty and presence of Almighty God, and blessing the people, either openly, or to himself.. Then, having read divine service twice fully, and preached in the morning, and catechized in the afternoon, he thinks he hath, in some measure, according to poor and frail man, discharged the public duties of the congregation. The rest of the day he spends either in reconciling neighbours that are at variance; or in visiting the sick; or in exhortations to some of his flock by themselves, whom his sermons cannot, or do not, reach. And every one is more awaked, when we come and say, Thou art the man. This way he finds exceeding useful, and winning: and these exhortations he calls his privy purse; even as princes have theirs, besides their public disbursements. At night, he thinks it a fit time, both suitable to the joy of the day, and without hindrance to public duties, either to entertain some of his neighbours, or to be entertained of them*: where he takes occasion to

* Let not this be abused, as giving countenance to modern "Sunday-visiting." Cottage-Lectures, if there be no public Service,

discourse of such things as are both profitable and pleasant, and to raise up their minds to apprehend God's good blessing to our Church and State; that order is kept up in the one, and peace in the other, without disturbance or interruption of public divine offices.

As he opened the day with prayer, so he closeth it; humbly beseeching the Almighty, "to pardon and accept our poor services, and to improve them, that we may grow therein; and that our feet may be like hinds' feet, ever climbing up higher and higher unto Him."

THE PARSON IN MIRTH.

THE Country Parson is generally sad, because he knows nothing but the cross of Christ; his mind being defixed on it, with those nails wherewith his Master was. Or, if he have leisure to look off from thence, he meets continually with two most sad spectacles, Sin and Misery; God dishonoured every day, and Man afflicted. Nevertheless, he sometimes refresheth

Service, would be a preferable plan for the Country Parson in these days though we need not doubt, that where the spiritually-minded George Herbert was, the repast, if any, was very simple, and the time and instruction of the servants duly regarded. Yet, after all, it savours too much of the age of James I.; and the devout Author himself, by his qualifying expressions, seems like a man conscious that he was working his way out of worse days into better.

EDITOR.

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