Let him that bears a heavy heart for his ill-deeds turn
him to better, but not mourn as though the sun were taken out of
the sky. What says the song?--nay, 'tis as good balm for the soul
as many a hymn:
A merry heart goes all the day,
Your sad one tires in a mile-a!
He that made the world made man to take delight in it; even as thou
saw'st me joyful with the shepherds--ay, with godly Mr. Richard
Hooker, "he being then tending his small allotment of sheep in a
common field," as I recount in a brief life of a good man. As to
what awaits me on the other side of that River, I do expect it with
a peaceful heart, and in humble hope that a man may reach the City
with a cheerful countenance, no less than through groans and sighs
and fears. For we have not a tyrant over us, but a Father, that
loveth a cheerful liver no less than a cheerful giver.
Nevertheless, I thank thee for thy kind thought of one that is not
of thy company, nor no Nonconformist, but a peaceful Protestant.
And, lest thou be troubled with apparitions of hobgoblins and evil
spirits, read that comfortable sermon of Mr. Hooker's to weak
believers, on the CERTAINTY OF ADHERENCE, though they want the
inward testimony of it.
But now falls there a sweet shower, "a singing shower" saith old
George Chapman, and methinks I shall have sport; for I do note that
the mayfly is up; and, seeing all these beautiful creatures playing
in the air and water, I feel my own heart play within me; and I
must out and dape under yonder sycamore tree.
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