XXXVII.

IT may be observ'd that our Saviour sometimes where the beams of his Deity have broken forth doth straight cast a cloud Page  116 over them and shut up his great and Divine miracles with, See you tell no man: He will not permit his glory to appear in it's full and unalloy'd lustre, but draw's a Curtain upon it. How far different from this is the Spirit of many we meet with, whose only desire is that they may dazle the eyes of others with their splendour; who would have all they doe taken notice of and set on Record, and e∣steem that treasure to be as good as not possess'd and en∣joy'd which is unknown: That look on a vertuous modesty only as a fine innocent qualifi∣cation, serving a little to com∣mend and set off a man under the defect of more real merits: They desire always to be on Page  117 the stage, and to be acting some part that may procure them some renowned Title: Glory is the Center to which all their actions are directed, and they care not how crooked the lines they draw and pathes they proceed in are, so they all con∣center in this. Their great aime is to gaine Admiration; and that I may so far gratify them, I will wonder at them, but it shall be only because of the folly and vanity of their hu∣mour; it were a wrong to our selves to envy them, because they are indeed below deser∣ving it, or to pity them, be∣cause they think themselves above meriting it. In truth, they are but the wonder of fooles, and the fooles of wise Page  118 men. Christian modesty tea∣cheth a prudent man, not to expose himself to the greatest advantage of view, nor to live at the highest rate of his va∣lue: Some Talents are best im∣proved when laid up: And so∣lid and true esteem and reputa∣tion grow's the more by being suppressed. Many a rich mine is enclosed in the entrails of the earth, and many a fair Pearl ly's in the Sea's womb which never came to view, or shall come.