I know not; but these are tranfitory Bleffings, and Servants that are condemned to change their Mafters; what was my own before, is my own ftill: Some have loft their Estates; others their dear-bought Miftreffes; their Commiffions and Offices; the Uferers have loft the Bonds and Securities; but, Demetrius, for my part I have faved all and do not imagine, after all this, either that Demetrius is a Conqueror, or that, Stilpa is overcomer 'tis only thy Fortune has been too hard for mine. Aleander took Babylon, Scipio took Carthage; the Capitol was burnt: But, there's no Fire, or Violence that can difcompofe a generous Mind. And let us not take this Character neither for a Chimera; for all Ages af ford fome Inftances of this elevated Virtue. A good Man does his Duty, let it be never fo hazardous, or never fo great a Lofs to him; and it is not all the Money, the Power, and the Pleafure in the World; no not any Force or Neceflity, that can make him wicked; He' confiders what he is to do, not what he is to fuffer, and will keep on his Courfe, tho there fhould be nothing but Gibbets and Torments in the way. And in this Inftance of Stilpo; who when he had loft his Country, his Wife, his Children, the Town on Fire over his Head, himself 'fcaping very hardly, and naked out of the Flames; I have faved all my Goods (fays he) my Juftice, my Courage, my Temperance, my Prudence; accounting nothing his own, or valuable; and fhewing how much eafier it was to overcome a Nation than one wife Man. It is a certain Mark of a brave Mind, not to be moved by any Accidents. The upper Region of the Air admits neither Clouds, nor Tempefts; the Thunder, Storms, and Meteors are formed below; and this is a difference betwixt a mean and an exalted Mind: the former is rude and tumultuary; the latter is modeft, venerable, compofed, and always quiet in its Station. In brief, it is the Confcience that pronounces upon the Man, whether he be happy, or miferable. But, though Sacrilege and Adultery be generally condemned, how many are there fill that do not fo much as blush at the one, and in truth, that take a Glory in the other? For nothing is more common than for great Thieves to ride in Triumph, when the little ones are punished. But let Wic

Chap. VIII. lednefs fcape, as it may, at the Bar, it never fails of doing Juftice upon itfelf; for, every guilty Perfon is his own Hangman.

din CHA P. VIII.

The due Contemplation of divine Providence is the certain Cure of all Misfortunes.

W it, will and all the Motions of it to be only

7HOEVER obferves the World," and the Order

Viciffitude of Falling and Rifing: Nothing extinguifh'd, and even thofe things which feem to us to perifh, are in truth but changed. The Seafons go, and return; Day and Night follow in their Courfes; the Heavens roll, and Nature goes on with her Work. All things fucceed in their turns, Storms and Calms; the Law of Nature will have it fo, which we must follow and obey, accounting all things that are done, to be well done: So that what we cannot mend, we must fuffer, and wait upon Providence without repining: It is the Part of a cowardly Soldier to follow his Commander, groaning; but a generous Man delivers himself up to God without ftruggling; and it is only for a narrow Mind to condemn the Order of the World; and to propound rather the mending of Nature than himfelf. No Man has any Caufe of Complaint against Providence, if that which is right pleafes him. Thofe Glories that appear fair to the Eye, their Luftre is but falfe and fuperficial; and they only Vanity and Delusion: They are rather the Goods of a Dream, than a substantial Poffeffion; they may cozen at a Distance, but bring them once to the Touch, they are rotten and counterfeit. There are no greater Wretches in the World, than many of those which the People take to be happy; thofe are the only true and incorruptible Comforts, that will abide all Trials; and the more we turn, and examine them, the more valuable we find them; and the greatest Felicity of all is, not to ftand in need of any. What's Poverty? No Man lives fo poor as he was born. What's Pain? It will either have an

end itself, or make an end of us. In fhort, Fortune has no Weapon that reaches the Mind; but the Bounties of Providence are certain and permanent Bleffings; and they are the greater and the better, the longer we confider them: That is to fay, The Power of contemning Things terrible, and defpifing what, the common People covet. In the very Methods of Nature, we cannot but obferve the Regard that Providence had to the Good of Mankind, even in the Difpofition of the World, in providing fo amply for our Maintenance and Satisfaction. It is not poffible for us to comprehend what the Power is, which has made all Things. Some few Sparks of that Divinity are difcovered, but infinitely the greater Part of it lies hid. We are all of us however thus far agreed; first in the Acknowledgment and Belief of that Almighty Being; and, fecondly, that we are to afcribe to it all Majefty and Goodness.

How comes it that good Men are afflicted in this World, and wicked Men profper?

IF there be a Providence, fays fome, How comes it to pafs, that good Men labour under Affliction and Adverfity, and wicked Men enjoy themselves in Eafe and Plenty ? My Answer is, that God deals by us as a good Father does by his Children; he tries us, he hardens us, and fits us for himself. He keeps a ftrict Hand over those that he loves, and by the rest he does as we do by our Slaves; he lets them go on in Licence and Boldnefs. As the Mafter gives his most hopeful Scholars the hardeft Leffons, fo does God deal with the most generous Spirits; and the crofs Encounters of Fortune, we are not to look upon as a Cruelty, but as a Contest: The Familiarity of Dangers brings us to the Contempt of them, and that Part is ftrongest which is most exercifed; the Seaman's Hand is callous, the Soldier's Arm is ftrong, and the Tree that is most exposed to the Wind takes the best Root. There are People that live in a perpetual Winter, in Extremity of Frolt and Penury, where a Cave, or Lock of Straw, or a few Leaves is all their Covering, and wild Beafts their Nourishment, All this by Cuftom is not only made.tolerable, but when once it is taken up upon Neceffity, by little and little it becomes pleasant to them. Why should

we then count that Condition of Life a Calamity, which is the Lot of many Nations? There is no State of Life fo miferable, but that there are in it Remiffions, Diverfions, nay, and Delights too; fuch is the Benignity of Nature toward us, even in the fevereft Accidents of human Life. There were no way of living, if Adverfity fhould hold on as it begins, and keep up the Force of the first Impreffion. We are apt to murmur at many Things as great Evils, that have nothing at all of Evil in them befide the Complaint, which we fhould more reasonably take up against ourselves. If I be fick, 'tis part of my Fate; and for other Calamities, they are ufual things; they ought to be, nay, which is more, they mult be, for they come by divine Appointment. So that we should not only fubmit to God, but affent to him, and obey him out of Duty, even if there were no Neceffity: All thofe terrible Appearances that make us groan and tremble, are but the Tribute of Life; we are neither to wifh, nor to afk, nor to hope to escape them, for 'tis a kind of Difho nefty to pay a Tribute unwillingly. Am I troubled with the Stone; or afflicted with continual Loffes? Nay, is my Body in danger? all this is no more than what I pray. ed for, when I prayed for old Age: All these things are as familiar in long Life, as Duft and Dirt in a long Way. Life is a Warfare; and what brave Man would not rather chufe to be in a Tent than in a Shambles? Fortune does like a Swordfman, she scorns to encounter a fearful Man: There is no Honour in the Victory, where there's no Danger in the way to't; fhe tries Mucius by. Fire, Rutilius by Exile; Socrates by Poifon; Cato by Death. 'Tis only in adverfe Fortune, and in bad times, that we find great Examples. Mucius thought himself happier with his Hand in the Flame, than if he had been in the Bofom of his Miftrefs, Fabricius took more Pleafure in eating the Roots of his own planting, than in all the Delicacies of Luxury and Expence. Shall we call Rutilius miferable, whom his very Enemies have ador ed? Who upon a glorious, and a public Principle, chofe rather to lose his Country, than to return from Banishment? The only Man that deny'd any thing to Sylla the Dictator, who recalled him. Nor did he only refuse to come, but drew himself farther off: Let them, fays

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he, that think Banishment a Misfortune, live Slaves at Rome, under the imperial Cruelties of Sylla. He that fets a Price upon the Heads of Senators, and after a Law of his own Inftitution against Cut-throats, became the greateft himself. Is it not better for a Man to live an Exile abroad, than to be miffacred at home. In fuffering for Virtue, 'tis not the Torment but the Cause that we are to confider; and the more Pain, the more Renown, When any Hardship befals us, we must look upon it as an Act of Providence, which many times fuffers Particulars to be wounded for the Confervation of the whole: Befide that, God chaftifes fome People under an Appearance of blefling them, turning their Profperity to their Ruin, as a Punifhment for abufing his Goodnefs. And we are farther to confider, that many a good Man is afflicted, only to teach others to fuffer? for we are born for Example: And likewife, that where Men are contumacious and refractory, it pleafes God manytimes to turn our Miferies to cure greater Evils by lefs, and our Advvantage.

Providence

How many Cafualties and Diffi-t culties are there, that we dread, as draws Good out infupportable Mischiefs, which upon of Evil. farther Thoughts, we find to be Mer

cies and Benefits? As Banifhment, Poverty, Lofs of Relations, Sickness, Difgrace? Some are cured by the Lance; by Fire, Hunger, Thirft; taking out of Bones, lopping off Limbs, and the like: Nor do we only fear things that are many times beneficial to us ; but on the other fide, we hanker after, and purfue things that are deadly and pernicious: We are poifon'd in the very Pleafures of our Luxury; and betrayed to a thoufand Diseases, by the indulging of our Palate. To lofe a Child, or a Limb, is only to part with what we have received, and Nature may do what the pleases with her own. We are frail ourselves, and we have received things tranfitory: that which is given us, may be taken away; Calamity tries Virtue as the Fire does Gold; nay, he that lives most at eafe, is only delay'd, not difmifs'd, and his Portion is to come. When we are vifited with Sickness, or other Afflictions, we are not to murmur as if we wereill used; it is a Mark of a General's Esteem, when he