that God will be less than his promise; let him fear, that God will cease to be himself. It was the motto of that witty and learned Doctor Donne, the late Dean of Paul's, which I have seen, more than once, written in Spanish with his own hand, "Blessed be God, that he is God:" divinely, like himself: as the being of God is the ground of all his blessed ascriptions, so of all our firmitude, safety, consolation: since the veracity and truth of God, as his other holy attributes, are no other than his eternal essence. Fear not, therefore, O thou weak soul, that the Almighty can be wanting to himself, in failing thee. He is Jehovah, and his counsels shall stand. Fear and blame thine own wretched infirmities: but, the more weak thou art in thyself, be so much the stronger in thy God: by how much more thou art tempted to distrust, cling so much the closer to the Author and Finisher of thy salvation.

Thus, if we shall hold an even course, betwixt security on the one part, and horror and distrust on the other: if the fortified and exalted eyes of our souls, Conclusion. A Recapitulabeing cleared from all inward and ambient im- tion of the pediments, shall have constantly fixed themselves Whole. upon the ever-present Majesty of God; not without a spiritual lightsomeness and irradiation, and, therewith, an awful complacency of soul in that glorious sight; and from thence, shall be cast down upon our own vileness, thoroughly apprehending how much worse than nothing we are, in and of ourselves, in the sight of God: WE SHALL BE PUT INTO A MEET And, if now,

CAPACITY OF A HOLY AND WELL MIXED FEAR.

our hearts, thus enlightened, shall be taken up with an inward adoration of the infinite power and greatness of God, manifested in the framing and ordering of this visible world; and of the infinite goodness and mercy of God, shewed in the marvellous work of man's redemption; and shall be careful to express this inward worship in all due reverence, upon all occasions, to the name, the word, the services, the house, the messengers of the Almighty withal, if our humble souls shall meekly subject and resign themselves over to the good pleasure of God, in all things; being ready to receive his fatherly corrections with patience, and his gracious directions with obedience: lastly, if we shall have settled in our hearts a serious care of being always approved to God, in whatsoever actions; and a childlike lothness and dread to give any offence unto so dear and glorious a Majesty: WE SHALL HAVE ATTAINED UNTO THIS BLESSED FEAR, which we seek for; and be happily freed from wicked indevotion and profaneness, to which the world is so much and so dangerously subject; which I beseech the God of Heaven to work out in all readers, to his glory in their salvation. Amen.

CHRISTIAN MODERATION:

IN TWO BOOKS.

BY JOSEPH EXON.

TO ALL

CHRISTIAN PEOPLE WHERESOEVER;

BUT ESPECIALLY TO THOSE OF THIS WESTERN DIOCESE;

AND THEREIN,

TO THE HONOURABLE NOBILITY, THE REVEREND AND LEARNED CLERGY, THE WORSHIPFUL GENTRY, THE HONEST AND FAITHFUL COMMONALTY, OF THE COUNTIES OF DEVON AND CORNWALL,

J. EXON

WISHETH THE CONTINUANCE AND INCREASE OF (THAT WHEREOF HE TREATS) ALL CHRISTIAN MODERATION, BOTH IN OPINION AND PRACTICE.

RECENSUI Dissertationem hanc de Moderatione Christianâ, duabus partibus absolutam, quarum altera de Moribus agit, altera de Doctrinâ; utraque et bonis moribus, et doctrinæ Ecclesiæ Anglicanæ consentanea.

Ост. 4. 1639.

IMPRIMATUR.

JO. ALSOP.

CHRISTIAN MODERATION.

THE FIRST BOOK.

ON MODERATION IN MATTER OF PRACTICE.

INTRODUCTION.

Of the Use and Necessity of Moderation, in general. I CANNOT but second and commend that great Clerk of Paris, who, as our witty countryman Bromiard reports, when King Louis of France required him to write down the best word that ever he had learnt, called for a fair skin of parchment; and, in the midst of it, wrote this one word, MEASURE; and sent it sealed up to the king. The king, opening the sheet, and finding no other inscription, thought himself mocked by his philosopher; and, calling for him, expostulated the matter: but when it was shewed him, that all virtues, and all religious and worthy actions were regulated by this one word; and that, without this, virtue itself turned vicious; he rested well satisfied. And so he well might; for it was a word, well worthy of one of the seven Sages of Greece; from whom, indeed, it was borrowed, and only put into a new coat; for, while he said of old, for his motto, "Nothing too much"," he meant no other, but to comprehend both extremes under the mention of one. Neither, in his sense, is it any paradox to say, that too little is too much for, as too much bounty is prodigality, so too much sparing is niggardliness; so as in every defect there is an excess, and both are a transgression of Measure.

Neither could ought be spoken, of more use or excellency: for, what goodness can there be in the world, without Moderation; whether in the use of God's creatures, or in our own disposition and carriage? Without this, justice is no other, than cruel rigour; mercy, unjust remissness; pleasure, brutish şen

a Brom. Sum. Prædic. πάντα μέτρια.

b Mŋdèv åyav, Nequid nimis. So Pythagoras: e Non est ergo temperantia in solis resecandis superfluis, Bern. de Consid. 1. i. c. 8.

est et in admittendis necessariis.