love. He hates to pay private wrongs with the advantage of his office;
and if ever he be partial, it is to his enemy. He is not more sage in
his gown than valorous in arms, and increaseth in the rigour of
discipline as the times in danger. His sword hath neither rusted for
want of use, nor surfeiteth of blood; but after many threats is
unsheathed, as the dreadful instrument of divine revenge. He is the
guard of good laws, the refuge of innocence, the comet of the guilty,
the paymaster of good deserts, the champion of justice, the patron of
peace, the tutor of the Church, the father of his country, and as it
were another God upon earth.



OF THE PENITENT.

He has a wounded heart and a sad face, yet not so much for fear as for
unkindness. The wrong of his sin troubles him more than the danger. None
but he is the better for his sorrow; neither is any passion more hurtful
to others than this is gainful to him: the more he seeks to hide his
grief, the less it will be hid; every man may read it not only in his
eyes, but in his bones. Whilst he is in charity with all others, he is
so fallen out with himself that none but God can reconcile him. He hath
sued himself in all courts, accuseth, arraigneth, sentenceth, punisheth
himself impartially, and sooner may find mercy at any hand than at his
own. He only hath pulled off the fair visor of sin; so as that which
appears not but masked unto others, is seen of him barefaced, and
bewrays that fearful ugliness, which none can conceive but he that hath
viewed it. He hath looked into the depth of the bottomless pit, and hath
seen his own offence tormented in others, and the same brands shaken at
him. He hath seen the change of faces in that cool one, as a tempter, as