XXXVII. RECEDE A TITTLE.

I SAW two ride a race for a silver cup; he who won it outran the post many paces: indeed, he could not stop his horse in his full career, and therefore was fain to run beyond the post, or else he had never come soon enough unto it.

But presently after when he had won the wager, he reined his horse back again, and softly returned to the post, where from the judges of the match he received the cup, the reward of his victory.

Surely many moderate men designed a good mark to themselves, and propounded pious ends and aims in their intentions. But query whether, in pursuance thereof, in our late civil destruction, they were not violented to outrun 225the mark, (so impossible it is to stop a soul in the full speed thereof,) and whether they did not in some things overdo and exceed what they intended.

If so, it is neither sin nor shame, but honourable and profitable, for such persons (sensible of their over-activity) even fairly to go back to the post which they have outrun, and now calmly to demonstrate to the whole world that this only is the true and full measure of their judgments, whilst the rest was but the superfluity of their passions.