Virgil calleth ignobile otium, and fuch an one as I am now lulled withal. If Alexander or Cæfar fhould have commended a 'tract of land, as fit to fight a battle upon for the empire of the world, or to build a city upon, to be the magazine and staple of all the adjacent countries; no body could justly condemn that husbandman, who, according to his own narrow art and rules, should cenfure the plains of Arbela, or Pharfalia, for being in fome places fterile; or the meadows about Alexandria, for being fometimes fubject to be overflown or could blame any thing he should fay in that kind, as being a contradiction unto the others commendations of thofe places, which are built upon higher, and larger principles.

So my Lord, I am confident I fhall not be reproached of unmannerlinefs, for putting in a demurrer unto a few little particularities in

that'

that noble difcourfe, to which your Lordship gave a general applause; and by doing fo, I have given your Lordship the best account I can of myself, as well as of your commands. You hereby fee what my entertainments are, and how I play away my time,

-Dorfet dum magnus ad altum

Fulminat Oxonium bello, victorque volentes Per populos dat jura; viamq; affectat Olympo.

May your counfels there be happy, and fuccessful in bringing about that peace, with which if we be not quickly bleffed, a general ruin threateneth the whole kingdom.

From Winchefter-house the 22d (I think I may say the 23d, for I am fure it is morning, and, I think, it is day) of December, 1642.

Your Lordships most humble and obedient fervant,

KENELM DIGBY.

THE

THE

POSTSCRIPT.

MY LORD,

L

Ooking over these loose papers

to point them, I perceive I Correct? have forgotten what I promised in y eight sheet to touch at, i. e. a word fi concerning grace: I do not con- to? ceive it to be a quality infused by God Almighty into a foul.

Such kind of discoursing fatisfieth me no more in divinity, than in philofophy. I take it to be the whole complex of fuch real motives, of which a folid account may be given, as incline a man to virtue, and piety; and are set on foot by God's particular grace and favour, to bring that work to pass. As for example: to a man plunged in fenfuality, fome great misfortune

hap

Genesis XXXI. I Say's simile of two fountains

The heard the words of

L

IP T.

PO ST happeneth, that mouldeth his heart to a tenderness, and inclineth him to much thoughtfulness: in this temper, he meeteth with a book, or a preacher, that reprefenteth, in a lively manner, to him the danger of his own condition; and giveth him hopes of greater contentment in other objects, after he shall have taken leave of his former beloved fins.

This begetteth further converfation with prudent and pious men, and experienced physicians in curing the maladies of the foul; whereby he is at last perfectly converted, and fettled in a course of folid virtue, and piety.

Now these accidents of his miffortune, the gentleness and foftness of his nature, his falling upon a good book, his encountering with a pathetick preacher, the unpremeditated chance that brought him to hear his fermon, his meeting with other worthy men, and the whole

con

concatenation of all the interveening accidents to work this good effect in him, and that were ranged, and difpofed from all eternity, by God's particular goodness and providence for his falvation; and without which he had inevitably been damned; this chain of causes, ordered by God to produce this ef fect, I understand to be grace.

Exodus XVI-14-15.

EXXVL

103.

This opmion

suppose that

FINI S. the Deity

can:

= hot operate

whom the human mind except by The agency of fuck incans a

dexplain.

we can snderstand. A very

On a

bold conclusion наврем which nobody understands. There as made dopatitis amory philosophers an amors

divine,