The works of Francis Bacon, lord chancellor of England.

MEDITATIONES SACR2E.
OF THE WORKS OF GOD AND MAN. eth these things; sustenance, defence from outward wrongs, and medicine; it was he that drew
GOD beheld all things which his hands had a multitude of fishes into the nets, that he might
made, and lo they were all passing good. But give unto men more liberal provision: He turned
when man turned him about, and took a view of water, a less worthy nourishment of man's body,
the works which his hands had made, he found into wine, a more worthy, that glads the heart of
all to be vanity and vexation of spirit: wherefore, man: He sentenced the fig-tree to wither for not
i f thou shalt work in the works of God, thy sweat doing that duty whereunto it was ordained, which
shall be as an ointment of odours, and thy rest as is, to bear fruit for men's food: He multiplied the
the sabbath of God: thou shalt travail in the scarcity of a few loaves and fishes to a sufficiency
sweat of a good conscience, and shalt keep holy to victual an host of people: He rebuked the
day in the quietness and liberty of the sweetest winds that threatened destruction to the seafaring
contemplations; but if thou shalt aspire after the men: He restored motion to the-lame, light to the
glorious acts of men, thy working shall be accom- blind, speech to the dumb, health to the sick,
panied with compunction and strife, and thy re- cleanness to the leprous, a right mind to those
membrance followed with distaste and upbraid- that were possessed, and life to the dead. No
ings; and justly doth it come to pass towards miracle of his is to be found to have been of jidgthee, 0 man, that since thou, which art God's ment or revenge, but all of goodness and mercy,
work, doest him no reason in yielding him well- and respecting man's body; for as touching riches
pleasing service, even thine own works also he did not vouchsafe to do any miracle, save one
should reward thee with the like fruit of bitterness. only, that tribute might be given to Caesar.
OF THE MIRACLES OF OUR SAVIOUR. OF THE INNOCENCY OF THE DOVE,
"He hath done all things well." AND THE WISDOM OF THE SERPENT.
A TRUE confession and applause. God when" The fool receiveth not the word of wisdom, except thou discover to him what he hath in his heart."
he created all things saw that every thing in particular and all things in general were exceeding To a man of a perverse and corrupt judgment
good; God, the Word, in the miracles which he all instruction or persuasion is fruitless and conwrought, (now every miracle is a new creation, temptible, which begins not with discovery and
and not according to the first creation,) would do laying open of the distemper and ill complexion
nothing which breathed not towards men favour of the mind which is to be recured, as a plaster is
and bounty: Moses wrought miracles, and unseasonably applied before the wound be searchscourged the Egyptians with many plagues: ed; for men of corrupt understanding, that have
Elias wrought miracles, and shut up heaven, that lost all sound discerning of good and evil, come
no rain should fall upon the earth; and again possest with this prejudicate opinion, that they
brought down from heaven the fire of God upon think all honesty and goodness proceedeth out of
the captains and their bands: Elizeus wrought a simplicity of manners, and a kind of want of
also, and called bears out of the desert to devour experience and unacquaintance with the affairs of
young children: Peter struck Ananias, the sacri- the world. Therefore, except they may perceive
legious hypocrite, with present death; and Paul, that those things which are in their hearts, that
Elymas, the sorcerer, with blindness; but no is to say, their own corrupt principles, and the
such thing did Jesus, the Spirit of God descended deepest reaches of their cunning and rottenness
down upon him in the form of a dove, of whom to be thoroughly sounded, and known to him that
he said,' "You know not of what spirit you are." goes about to persuade with them, they make but
The spirit of Jesus is the spirit of a dove; those a play of the words of wisdom. Therefore it
servants of God were as the oxen of God treading behoveth him which aspireth to a goodness (not
out the corn, and trampling the straw down under retired or particular to himself, but a fructifying
their feet; but Jesus is the Lamb of God, without and begetting goodness which should draw on
wrath or judgments; all his miracles were con- others) to know those points, which be called in
summate about man's body, as his doctrine re- the Revelation the deeps of Satan, that he may
spected the soul of man: the body of man need- speak with authority and true insinuation. Hence
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