than of money. One offered on his death-bed a world of wealth, for an inch of time; and another, with great earnestness, cried out, when she lay a dying, Call time again! Call time again! This I heard, says a worthy minister, and I think the sound of it will be in my ears so long as I live.

II. It hath had with me a fascinating property; I have been bewitched by it; when I have begun, I have not had the power to give over. Though a thing be never so lawful, yet I ought not to suffer myself to be brought under the power of it. I will not use it till I find I can refuse it. Reason and religion shall order my recreation.

III. It hath not done with me, when I have done with it. It hath followed me into my study, into my pulpit; when I have been praying or preaching, I have (in my thoughts) been playing at chess; then I have had, as it were, a chess-board before my eyes; then I have been thinking how I might have obtained the stratagems of my antagonist, or make such and such motions to his disadvantage; nay, I have heard of one who was playing at chess in his thoughts (as appeared by his words) when he lay a dying.

IV. It hath caused me to break many solemn resolutions, nay, vows and promises. Sometimes I have obliged myself, in the most solemn manner, to play but so many mates at a time, or with any one person, and anon I have broken these obligations and promises, and after vows of that kind I have made enquiry how I might evade them; and have sinfully prevaricated in that matter; and that not once only but often.

V. It hath wounded my conscience, and broken my peace. I have had sad reflexions upon it, when I have been most serious. I find, if I were now to die, the remembrance of this game would greatly trouble me, and stare me in the face. I have read in the life of the famous John Huss, how he was greatly troubled,. for his using of this game, a little before his death.

VI. My using of it hath been scandalous and offensive to others. Some godly friends (as I have understood) have been grieved by it; and others (as I have reason to fear) have been hardened by it. Great inconveniences have arisen from the places where, and the persons with whom I have used this game.

VII. My using of it hath occasioned much sin, as passion, strife, idle (if not lying) words, in myself or my antagonist, or both. It hath caused the neglect of many duties both to God and man.

VIII. My using of it doth evince, I have little self-denial in me. If I cannot deny myself in a foolish game, how can I think I either do or shall deny myself in greater matters? How shall I forsake all for Christ, when I cannot forsake a recreation for him?

As

IX. My using it is altogether needless and unnecessary to me. it hinders my soul's health, so it doth not further my bodily health. Such is my constitution (being corpulent and phlegmatick) that, if I need any exercise, it is that, which is stirring and labouring. Í can

* Being a minister of the gospel, and charged with the care of souls.

not propound any end to myself in the use of it, but the pleasing of my flesh.

X. My using of it hath occasioned (at times) some little expence of money. This is the least, and therefore I mention it last. I should think much to give that to relieve others wants, that I have wasted this way at several times upon my own wantonness.

as

I conclude with the passage of Mr. Baxter, in his Christian Direction, p. 464. Thus he writes: 'I know not one person of an hundred, or of many hundreds, that needeth any game at all, there are such variety of better exercises at hand to recreate them. And it is a sin to idle away any time, which we can better improve. I confess, < my own nature was as much addicted to playfulness as most, and my judgment alloweth so much recreation as is needful to my health and labour, and no more; but for all that, I find no need of any " game to recreate me. When my mind wants recreation, I have variety of recreating books, and friends, and business to do; that, when my body needeth not it, the hardest labour, that I can bear, is my best recreation; walking is instead of games and sports, profitable to my body, and more to my mind. If I am alone, I may improve that time in meditation; if with others, I may improve it in profitable chearful conference. I condemn not all sports and games in others, but I find none of them all to be best for myself. And when I observe how far the temper and life of Christ, and his best servants, was from such recreations, I avoid them with the more suspicion. And I see but few but distaste it in ministers (even shooting, bowling, and such more healthful games, to say nothing of these and such others as fit not the end of recrea tion) therefore, there is somewhat in it that nature itself hath 6 some suspicion of. That student, that needeth chess or cards to please his mind, I doubt hath a carnal empty mind; if God, and 'all his books, and all his friends, &c. cannot suffice for this, there is some disease in it that should rather be cured than pleased. And for the body, it is another kind of exercise that profits it.'

THE

CHARACTER OF AN ILL COURT-FAVOURITE:

Representing the mischiefs that flow from Ministers of State, when they are more great than good;

THE ARTS THEY USE TO SEDUCE THEIR MASTERS, AND THE UNHAPPINESS OF PRINCES,

THAT ARE CURSED WITH SUCH DESTRUCTIVE SERVANTS.

Translated out of French.

Quarto, containing twenty-two pages. London, printed in the reign of King Charles the Second.

HE

E that stands by, and observes the simple addresses and sedulous applications of courtiers; how greedily men, reputed to be wise, sell their liberties, and sacrifice their time; with what patience they undergo attendance, more grievous than the toil of Algier galley-slaves, or popish pilgrims, will be ready to imagine, that it must needs be some wonderous mystery, which deserves such superstition; nor can expect less than the philosopher's stone, where he sees so many furnaces set on work, and so rare alchymists engaged.

If he cast but a superficial eye on the lofty flights of the favourites of princes, how, in effect, they manage all the reins of the commonwealth, though their masters sit in the saddle; how they give laws to the people, by recommending judges; nay, bias religion itself, by bestowing ecclesiastical dignities, and the fattest benefices, and make the bravest swordmen kiss their feet, since they can neither get, nor hold any command of honour and profit, but through their good graces.

He, I say, that remarks all this, and also how their seeming virtues, and, perhaps, but imaginary abilities, are magnified and multiplied, and even their errors, with veneration, concealed, extenuated, or justified; with what ease they trample upon their adversaries, and prefer their dependants, how can he refrain from drawing at so tempting a lottery, or escape those delicious charms, which would almost delude a Stoick to mistake such a fortune for his summum bonum?

But, alas, these are only outsides, to amuse the ignorant; these stately escutcheons serve but to hide a dead corpse, and these excellent odours to perfume a sepulchre: the factions wherewith every court and state is perpetually pregnant; the envy and emulation, which, though not so loud, is yet, perhaps, fiercer than open war; the spies which (like eunuchs in Turky) are there set upon all men's actions, and the

slippery paths on which they walk; the keen and pestilent slanders against which innocency itself is scarce armour of proof. These, and a thousand other inconveniencies, are not presently discovered; and, indeed, it is, perhaps, fit they should be concealed, lest, otherwise, men of sense and integrity avoid courts as persons in debt do prisons, and dread greatness like infection.

Which would yet be more apprehended, if they could have either the prudence or leisure to reflect, how many persons, that, in a private station, were honest, just, and resolute patriots, when once preferred to the misfortune of being great, have abandoned all thoughts of the publick weal: their integrity retired to give place to their fortune, too rank preferment stifled their honesty, and thenceforward they aimed only to advance their own narrow interest, and blow short-lived sparks, to warm their private fingers, out of the publick ashes of their ruined country.

Their innocency lasts scarce so long at court, as the first man's did in the terrestrial paradise. Though they were not wicked before, yet they believe they ought to become so; and, therefore, as the foolish wise man of old flung all his goods into the sea, that he might more freely philosophise they resolve to rid themselves of their consciences, that, with less incumbrance, they may manage the affairs of state. They conceit pride necessary to support their dignity, and that, should they not swell, and look big, their condition would be nothing changed; that civility would reduce them to that equality, whence they had forced themselves with so much trouble; to avoid contempt, not being able to render themselves respected, they study to make themselves feared. They esteem, that there is no way left to blot out the memory of their former quality, but by the present objects of their tyranny; and, that they shall not hinder the people from laughing at their infirmities, but by employing them to weep for their own miseries, and complain of their cruelties.

One would think it bedlam-folly, that men, not unacquainted with history, and sufficiently warned by experiences of their own times, should adventure on the very same precipices, on which all, that went before, broke their necks; but, we must remember, that ambition is as blind as love: they (like the famous fond philosopher) are gazing at stars, till they tumble into the ditch their eyes are always fixed on the glittering vanities above, suggested by a deluded imagination, so they never look down on the wrecks and shattered fortunes, and dismembered bodies and forfeited heads, and infamous memories of their predecessors. For few have the wisdom to foresee, how hard it is, in greatness, to pursue honest and safe maxims, what resolution is required for the po. tent to be innocent, what sordid interests they are forced to espouse, and by what insensible degrees they are brought at last to swallow those actions and compliances without reluctancy, which, at first, they looked upon with detestation: what, long since, was observed of Sejanus, holds true of many latter tympanies of grandeur, that their favour is not to be purchased without some notable crime: you must part with your honour, nay, your soul, if you expect promotion from such spirits. If this were sufficiently weighed, we may justly presume, such, as have a strict regard to honesty, would not precipitate themselves into publick

affairs, and stand gaping, like greedy camelions, to be puffed up with the tainted air of haughty and luxurious courts, where interest can scarcely be preserved (unless by miracle) without a shipwreck of conscience.

But (to make our approaches a little nearer) if it be so ticklish a thing for even a good man to abide long in honour, without becoming like the beast that perisheth, and acting dishonourable things, what then shall we say of those portentous meteors, that sometimes blaze in that superior orb, noxious exhalations drawn up by the wanton beams of favour, from the slime and filth of the world, and which presage more calamities, than a comet, to those nations in which they appear? insolent giants! that combate, with displayed colours, the authority of the fundamental laws, and all methods of justice, who, in the government of a state, produce a design formed for its ruin, who grow fat and burley from the juice and substance of exhausted provinces, who build their own houses with the wreck and dissipation of a whole kingdom. Princes and great men would be happy, if, without dying by proxy, they could live in person; they are born oftentimes with excellent qualities, and are calm seas, filled with riches and power, that might do good to all the world, if the winds would but let them flow gently, according to their

own nature.

But, as extraordinary beauties are courted by variety of lovers, so such exalted conditions rarely want a swarm of flatterers, meer insects, bred out of putrefaction, by the warmth of royal sunshine, that, under the umbrage of adorers, make themselves masters, and, by a colour of service, exercise an empire, even over those that think they command the universe; whose sacred names, in such a case, become but a passport to mischiefs; their authority, a sanctuary of crimes; their revenues, but tinder to debauchery, and supplies for riot; their power, an instrument of revenge, and a scourge and plague to those very people whom it ought to cherish and protect.

What shall we say of these insufferable grandees, who wreck their private spleens, with the hands and arms of their master? Who declare all those guilty of high treason, who do not fall prostrate before them? Who, by fatal wars, and dishonourable treaties of peace, by abandoning the true interest of their country, and playing the mountebanks with the body politick, till they cast it at once into a fever and consumption, endeavour all they can to bring the people into despair, and would gladly reduce the bonester sort of men to so miserable a condition, as to be unable to save themselves, but in a revolt; that so they may palliate their own villanies, by others forced disobedience, and trip off with the spoils of a nation, in a general combustion of their own kindling?

Observe them in ancient history (for meddle not with our times) they first ruin the people, and then, if not themselves, their masters, and many times bring destruction on all three. Their courses are all violent and domineering, they own no laws but will and pleasure, their pace is always full speed, they whip and slash like masters of a bride-well, rather than persons intrusted with the governance of free-men. All to them is plunder, all is prey: they cannot feed but on dead bodies; they first rifle the ship they sail in, and then wilfully strand her, to conceal