The Morning exercise [at] Cri[ppleg]ate, or, Several cases of conscience practically resolved

¹1. Time your Reproofs seasonably; words spoken in season are like Apples of gold in pictures of silver. [[Greek or Hebrew]] This very point (says an ancient) is proper to a Philosopher to understand the season of all things. I may say, 'tis much more the excellency of a Christian to feel the pulse of the soul, and hit the disease in the very joint; as 'tis reported of Galen, that when Antoninus laboured under a distemper, others not being able to declare where it lay; this Physician by his expertness in the evidence of symptoms pronounced that his stomach was vexed with crudities and indigestion;² the Emperor cried out three times [[Greek or Hebrew]] That's it, that very thing is it, which thou hast spoken. As to our purposes, it is advisable, sometimes not presently and immediately to fall bluntly upon the work, lest thou thy self shouldest be in a passion. Yet stay not too long, lest thy holy zeal be cooled; and both thou and he forget or dissemble the Circumstances, whereby Reproof might be the better fixed. A seasonable time to intermeddle in these cases may be when a friend is under the holy hand of God in any affliction, particularly in a sick-bed. That time which is fit for bodily, may be much more fit for soul-physic. When thoughts of mortality, and the leaving of all outward enjoyments do prepare and meliorate the way for spiritual impressions.

¹1. Time your Reproofs seasonably; words spoken in season are like Apples of gold in pictures of silver. [〈non-Latin alphabet〉] This very point (saies an antient) is proper to a Philosopher to understand the season of all things. I may say, 'tis much more the excellency of a Christian to feel the pulse of the soul, and hit the disease in the very joynt; as 'tis reported of Galen, that when Antoninus laboured under a distemper, others not being able to declare where it lay; this Physician by his expertness in the evidence of symptomes pronounced that his stomach was vexed with crudities and indigestion;² the Emperour cried out three times [〈non-Latin alphabet〉] That's it, that very thing is it, which thou hast spoken. As to our purposes, it is adviseable, sometimes not presently and immediately to fall bluntly upon the work, lest thou thy self shouldest be in a passion. Yet stay not too long, lest thy holy zeal be cooled; and both thou and hee forget or dissemble the Circumstances, whereby Reproof might be the better fixed. A seasonable time to intermeddle in these cases may be when a friend is under the holy hand of God in any affliction, particularly in a sick-bed. That time which is fit for bodily, may be much more fit for soul-physick. When thoughts of mortality, and the leaving of all outward enjoyments do prepare and meliorate the way for spiritual impressions.