Hic in foro beatus effe creditur,
Imperat mulier, jubet omnia, femper litigat.
Multa adferunt illi dolorem, nihil mihi.
Ferre quam fortem patiuntur omnes

Cùm foribus apertis fit fuis miferrimus;

Nemo recufat,

beggary: but there are infinite cares; and the Judge
fits upon the Tribunal with great ceremony and often-
tation of fortune, and yet
at his house, or in his breaft
there is fomething that
caufes him to figh deeply.
Pittacus was a wife and
valiant man, but his Wife
overthrew the Table when he had invited his friends;
upon which the good man, to excufe her incivility and
his own misfortune, faid, That every man had one e-
vil, and he was most happy that had but that alone.
And if nothing else happens, yet ficknesses so often do
imbitter the fortune and content of a family, that a
Physician in a few years, and with the practice upon
a very few families, gets experience enough to ad-
minister to almoft all difeafes. And when thy little
misfortune troubles thee, remember that thou haft
known the best of Kings and the best of Men put to
death publickly by his own fubjects.

3. There are many accidents which are efteemed
great calamities; and yet we have reafon enough to
bear them well and unconcernedly; for they neither
touch our bodies nor our fouls; our health and our
vertue remains intire, our life and our reputation. It
may be Iam flighted, or I have received ill language;
but my head aks not for it, neither hath it broke my
thigh, nor taken away my vertue, unless I lofe my
charity or my patience. Inquire therefore what you
are the worse, either in your foul, or in your body,
for what hath happened: for upon this very stock
many evils will difappear, fince the body and the foul
make up the whole man.
And when the daughter of
Stilpo proved a wanton, he
faid; It was none of his fin,
and therefore there was no
reason it should be his mifery. And if an enemy hath
taken all that from a Prince whereby he was a King;
he may refresh himself by confidering all that is left
him, whereby he is a Min.

Sinatus cs, Trophime, folus omnium hàc lege,
Felicitatem hanc fi quis promifit Deus,
Irafceris jure, fi malâ is fide

Ut femper eant tibi res arbitrig run;

Et improbe egiffet.

Menan.

4. Con

4. Confider that fad accidents and a state of affliction is a School of vertue: it reduces our fpirits to fo

bernefs, and our counfels to moderation; it corrects Balm 19. levity, and interrupts the confidence of finning. It is part 10. v. 3 good for me (faid David) that I have been afflicted, for thereby I have learned thy law. And, I know (O Lord,) that thou of very faithfulness haft caufed me to be troubled. For God who in mercy and wifdom governs the World, would never have fuffered to many fad neffes, and have fent them efpecially to the moft vertuous and the wifest men, but that he intends they fhould be the feminary of comfort, the nursery of vertue, the exercise of wisdom, the tryal of patience, the venturing for a crown, and the gate of glory.

5. Confider that afflictions are oftentimes the occafions of great temporal advantages: and we must not look upon them as they fit down heavily upon us, but as they serve fome of God's ends, and the purpo fes of universal Providence. And when a Prince fights justly, and yet unprofperoufly, if he could fee all those reafons for which God hath fo ordered it, he would think it the moft reasonable thing in the World, and that it would be very ill to have it otherwife. If a man could have opened one of the pages of the Divine Counsel, and could have feen the event of Jofeph's being fold to the Merchants of Amaleck, he might with much reafon have dried up the young man's tears; and when God's purposes are opened in the events of things, as it was in the cafe of Jofeph, when he fuftained his Father's family and became Lord of Egypt, then we fee what ill judgement we made of things, and that we were paffionate as children, and tranfported with sense and mistaken intereft. The cafe of Themifocles was almoft like that of Jofeph, for, being banished into Egypt, he alfo grew in favour with the King, and told his Wife, he had been undone unless he had been undone. For God efteems it one of his glories that he brings good out of evil: and therefore it were but reafon we should truft God to govern his own World as he pleases; and that we fhould patiently wait till the change cometh, or the reafon be difcovered,

And

Sect. 6. 129 And this confideration is also of great ufe to them who envy the profperity of the wicked, and the fuccefs of perfecutors, and the baits of fishes, and the bread of dogs. God fails not to fow bleffings in the long furrows which the Plowers plow upon the back of the Church: and this fuccefs which troubles us will be a great glory to God, and a great benefit to his Saints and Servants, and a great ruine to the Perfecutors, who fhall have but the fortune of Theramenes, one of the thirty Tyrants of Athens, who efcap'd when This houfe fell upon him, and was shortly after put to death with torments by his Collegues in the tyranny.

To which alfo may be added, that the great evils which happen to the best and wifeft Men are one of the great Arguments upon the ftrength of which we can expect felicity to our Souls and the joys of another World. And certainly they are then very to lerable and eligible, when with fo great advanta ges they minifter to the faith and hope of a Chritian. But if we confider what unfpeakable tortures are provided for the wicked to all eternity, we should not be troubled to fee them profperous here, but rather wonder that their portion in this life is not bigger, and that ever they thould be fick, or croffed, or affronted, or troubled with the contradiction and difeafe of their own vices, fince if they were fortunate beyond their own ambition, it could not make them recompence for one hour's torment in Hell, which yet they fhall have for their eternal por

tion.

After all these Confiderations deriving from fence and experience, Grace end Reafon, there are twa Remedies still remaining, and they are Neceffity and Time.

6. For it is but reasonable to bear that Accident patiently which God fends, fince impatience does but intangle us like the fluttering of a Bird in a Net, but cannot at all ease our trouble, or prevent the acci- Nems recu dent; it must be run through, and therefore it were quod necef better we compose our felves to a patient, than to a ieâ pati. troubled and miferable fuffering.

fat ferre

Sect. 6. 7. But however, if you will not otherwife be ́cured, time at laft will do it alone; and then confider, do you mean to mourn always, or but for a time? If always, you are miferable and foolish. If for a time, then why will not you apply those reasons to your grief at first, with which you will cure it at laft? or if you will not cure it with reafon, fee how little of a man there is in you, that you fuffer time to do more with you than Reafon or Religion. You suffer your felves to be cured juft as a beaft or a tree is; let it alone, and the thing will heal it felf: but this is neither honourable to thy Perfon, nor of reputation to thy Religion. However be content to bear thy calamity, because thou art fure in a little time it will fit down gentle and eafie: For to a mortal man no evil is immortal. Aud here let the worst thing happen that can, it will end in death, and we commonly think that to be near enough.

8. Laftly, of those things which are reckoned amongst evils, fome are better than their contraries; and to a good man the very worst is tolerable.

Poverty, or a low Fortune.

1. Poverty is better than riches, and a mean for tune to be chosen before a great and fplendid one. It is indeed defpifed, and makes men contemptible: it expofes a man to the Infolence of evil perfons, and leaves a man defencelefs: it is always fufpected: its ftories are accounted lyes, and all its counfels follies: it puts a man from all employments? it makes a man's difcourfes tedious, and his fociety troublesome. This is the worst of it; and yet all this, and far worfe than this the Apoftles fuffered for being. Chriftians; and Christianity it felf may be esteemed an affliction as well as Poverty, if this be all that can be faid a gainst it; for the Apostles and the most eminent Chri tians were really poor, and were used contemptuously. And yet, that Poverty is difpifed may be an argument to commend it, if it be defpifed by none but perfons vicious and ignorant. However, certain it is

that

that a great fortune is a great vanity, and riches is Alta fortu na alta tras nothing but danger, trouble and temptation; like a vaglio ape garment that is too long, and bears a train; not fo porta. ufelul to one, but it is troublesome to two, to him that bears the one part upon his fhoulders, and to him that bears the other part in his hand. But Poverty is the fifter of a good mind, the parent of fober counfels, and the nurse of all vertue.

nia al acto.

For what is it that you admire in the fortune of a great King? Is it that he always goes in a great company? You may thruft your felf into the fame croud, or go often to Church, and then you have as great a company as he hath; and that may upon as good grounds please you as him, that is, juftly neither: For fo impertinent and ufelefs pomp, and the other circumstances of his diftance, are not made for him, but for his fubje&s, that they may learn to feparate him from common ufages, and be taught to be governed. Da autorita But if you look upon them as fine things in them-la ceremofelves, you may quickly alter your Opinion when you fhall confider that they cannot cure the tooth-ach, nor make one wife, or fill the belly, or give one night's fleep, (though they help to break many) not fatisfying any appetite of Nature, or Reafon, or Religion: but they are ftates of greatnefs, which only makes it poffible for a man to be made extreamly miferable. And it was long ago obferved by the Greek Tragedians,and from them by Arianus, faying, "That "all our Tragedies are of "Kings and Princes, and "rich or ambitious perfonages; but you never "fee a poor man have a

c

part, unless it be as a

Οὐδεὶς ἢ πένης τραῳδίαν συμπληρ exogeutis.

Bis fex dierum menfura confero ego agros,
Berecynthia arva.

Animufque meus fenfim ufque eveâus ad pokim
Decidit humi, & me fic videtur alle qui;
Difce haud nimis magnifacere mortalia.
Tantal. in Tragad.

"Chorus, or to fill up the Scenes, to dance or to be de-
"rided; but the Kings and the great Generals. First
"(fays he) they begin with joy, séfant dauara, crown
"the houfes: but about the third or fourth a&t they
cry out, O Citheron! why didft thou fpare my life
to referve me for this more fad Calamity? And