SERMONS. 341 



abide, and pass with honour the dreadful test that 

 follows upon my text, as being both for life 

 blameless, sober, just, holy, temperate ; and in 

 doctrine sound, holding fast the faithful word, as 

 they have been taught; notwithstanding all the 

 discouragements they have met with, from the 

 sad condition of our common mother. 



But then for the rest; I wish it were not so easy 

 a task, to find Crete in England, with all its wants 

 and all its amisses. For, to say nothing of those 

 more innocent, and less important resemblances, 

 in which we symbolize ; (both islands lying in a 

 kind of * trigon betwixt three points, or promon- 

 tories ; both styled the Happy Islands by ancient 

 writers, Ma>capor/](ro?, f and Insulce FortunatcE ,\ for 

 the temper of the air, and fertility of the soil ; 

 both denominated from those white and § chalky 

 cliffs, which bound them on one side,|| Candia a 

 Candidis, as Albion ah albis i^upibus, both famous 

 for their just laws, and ours no less to be valued, 

 than those of Rhadamanthus and Minos, (had we 

 but the wisdom to comport ourselves to the obe- 

 dience of them as we ought:) I say, to let all 

 this pass, I wish we had not too much of Crete 

 amongst us, whether morally considered, in re- 

 gard of their vices, or historically, in regard of 

 their imperfect condition. 



* MagiH. pag. 182. 38. t Solin. cap. 17. 



% Camd. Brit. pag. 3. ex Lycoph. Cassand. 



§ Creta, ab Insula Creta, ubi melior est. Isidor. lib. 16. cap. 1. 



II Magin. pag. 182. 38. 



z3 



