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A Selection From the Writings of Joseph Hall
A Selection From the Writings of Joseph Hall Author:Joseph Hall Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: HOLY OBSERVATIONS. As there is nothing sooner dry than a tear, so there is nothing sooner out of season than worldly sorrow: which if it be fresh and still bl... more »eeding, finds some to comfort and pity it; if stale and skinned over with time, is rather entertained with smiles than commiseration. But the sorrow of repentance conies never out of time. All times are alike unto that eternity, whereto we make our spiritual moans :—that which is past, that which is future, are both present with him. It is neither weak nor uncomely, for an old man to weep for the sins of his youth. Those tears can never be shed either too soon or too late. Some men live to be their own executors for their good name, which they see—not honestly—buried, before themselves die. Some other, of great place and ill desert, part with their good name and breath at once. There is scarce a vicious man whose name is not rotten before his carcass. Contrarily, the good man's name is ofttimes heir to his life ; either born after the death ofthe parent,—for that envy would not suffer it to come forth before,—or, perhaps, so well grown up in his lifetime, that the hope thereof is the staff of his age and joy of his death. A wicked man's name may be feared awhile ; soon after, it is either forgotten or cursed. The good man either sleepeth, with his body, in peace, or wa- keth—as his soul—in glory. Ofttimes those which show much valor while there is equal possibility of life, when they see a present necessity of death, are found most shamefully timorous. Their courage was before grounded upon hope ; that cut off, leaves them at once desperate and cowardly : whereas men of feebler spirits meet more cheerfully with death; because though their courage be less, yet their expectation was more. I have seldom seen the son ...« less