ce for sin there,
and through the gospel, and made it, and thy Spirit in it, a witness of
thy Son's baptism there, so carry it, and the qualities of it, home to
my soul, and imprint there that simplicity, that mildness, that
harmlessness, which thou hast imprinted by nature in this creature. That
so all vapours of all disobedience to thee, being subdued under my
feet, I may, in the power and triumph of thy Son, tread victoriously
upon my grave, and trample upon the lion and dragon[182] that lie under
it to devour me. Thou, O Lord, by the prophet, callest the dove the
_dove of the valleys_, but promisest that the _dove of the valleys shall
be upon the mountain_.[183] As thou hast laid me low in this valley of
sickness, so low as that I am made fit for that question asked in the
field of bones, _Son of man, can these bones live?_[184] so, in thy good
time, carry me up to these mountains of which even in this valley thou
affordest me a prospect, the mountain where thou dwellest, the holy
hill, unto which none can ascend _but he that hath clean hands_, which
none can have but by that one and that strong way of making them clean,
in the blood of thy Son Christ Jesus. Amen.

FOOTNOTES:

[169] Coma, latro. in Val. Max.

[170] Ardoinus.

[171] James, iv. 14.

[172] Gen. ii. 6.

[173] Lev. xvi. 13.

[174] Ezek. viii. 11.

[175] Wisd. vii. 25.

[176] Wisd. xi. 18.

[177] Joel, ii. 30.

[178] Acts, ii. 19.

[179] Psalm xviii. 8.

[180] Isaiah, vi. 4.

[181] Rev. ix. 2.

XIII. INGENIUMQUE MALUM, NUMEROSO STIGMATE, FASSUS PELLITUR AD PECTUS,
MORBIQUE SUBURBIA, MORBUS.

_The sickness declares the infection and malignity thereof by spots._

XIII. MEDITATION.

We say that the world is made of sea and land, as though they were
equal; but we know that there is more sea in the Western than in the
Eastern hemisphere. We say that the firmament is full of stars, as
though it were equally full; but we know that there are more stars under
the Northern than under the Southern pole. We say the elements of man
are misery and happiness, as though he had an equal proportion of both,
and the days of man vicissitudinary, as though he had as many good days
as ill, and that he lived under a perpetual equinoctial, night and day
equal, good and ill fortune in the same measure. But it is far from
that; he drinks misery, and he tastes happiness; he mows misery, and he
gleans happiness; he journeys in misery, he does but w