THE CO NCT.VSION. 



convention with my felfe upon this important fubjeS, (which is 

 to be ftudicd for u(e, and practice ; not for fpeculat've fciencO may 

 prove advantagious unto him . if his warmed thoughts have turned 

 his (bule to fuch a key,as I am lure thefe confederations have wound 

 up mine unto. 



Tothee then my foule, I now addrefle my fpeech. For fince by 

 long debate, and toy Jefome rowing againlt the impetuous tydesof 

 ignorance, and hde apprehenfions, which overflow thy tjankes, 

 & hurry thee headlong down the ftreame, whiles thou art imprifo- 

 ned in thy clay ie maniion-,we have with much adoe arrived to ayme 

 at fome litle atome of thy vaft greatnefie ; and with the hard and 

 tough blowes of ftrift and wary reafoning, wee have ftruckenout 

 fome few fparkes of that glorious light , which invironeih and 

 fwelleth thee, or rather, which is thee.: it is high time, I fhould re- 

 tire my felfe out of the turbulent & flippery field of eager ftrife and 

 litigious difputation, to make my accounts with thee ; where no 

 outward noifemay diflra&us, nor anyway intermeddle between 

 us,excepting only thateternall verity, which by theefhineth upon 

 my faint and gloomy eyes , and in which I fee, whatioevcr doth 

 or can content thee in me. I have difcovered,that thou (my foule ) 

 wilt furvive sie : and fo furvive mee as thoa wilt alfo furvive the 

 mortality, and changes which belong to me , and which are but 

 accidentary to thee , meerely becaufe thou art in me. Then (hall 

 the viciifitude of time, and the inequality of di( petitions in thee, be 

 turned into the conftancy of immortality , and into the evennefle of 

 one being, never to end, and never to receive a change, or fuccelTion 

 to better or worle. 



When my eye of contemplation hath beene 6xed upon this 

 bright funne, as long as it is able to endure the radiant beames of 

 it ; whole redundant light veyleth the looker on, with a darkc 

 mid : let me turne it for a little fpace, upon the ftraight paiTage, 

 and narrow gullet, through which thou ftriveft ( my foule ) with 

 faint and wearie fteppcs, during thy hazardous voyage upon the 

 earth, to nuke thy felfe away : and let me examine, what compa- 

 rifbn there is, between thy two conditions ; rhe prefent one, where*. 

 in thou nowfindefl thy felfe immerfed in flefli and blood -, and the 

 future fUte that will betide thee, when thou (halt bee melted out of 

 this grofle oare, and refined from this meane alloy. Let my terme 

 of life., be of a thoufand long yeares longer then ever happened to 

 our aged forefathers, who ftored the , earth with their numerous 



orocenv. 



