ON PRAYER


I cannot contentedly frame a prayer for myself in particular, without a
catalogue for my friends; nor request a happiness wherein my sociable
disposition doth not desire the fellowship of my neighbour. I never
heard the toll of a passing-bell, though in my mirth, without my prayers
and best wishes for the departing spirit. I cannot go to cure the body
of my patient, but I forget my profession, and call unto God for his
soul. I cannot see one say his prayers, but instead of imitating him, I
fall into a supplication for him, who, perhaps, is no more to me than a
common nature; and if God hath vouchsafed an ear to my supplications,
there are surely many happy that never saw me, and enjoy the blessing of
my unknown devotions. To pray for enemies, that is, for their salvation,
is no harsh precept, but the practice of our daily and ordinary
devotions.



ON CHARITY


The vulgarity of those judgments that wrap the Church of God in Strabo's
cloak, and restrain it unto Europe, seem to me as bad geographers as
Alexander, who thought he had conquered all the world, when he had not
subdued the half of any part thereof. For we cannot deny the Church of
God both in Asia and Africa, if we do not forget the peregrinations of