time; 'futura expectans præsentibus angor, whilest the grass grows the horse starves: Despair not, but hope well, ATS "Spera Batte, tibi melius lux Crastina ducet; Dum spiras spera" Chear up, I say, be not dismayd; Spes alit agricolas: "he that sowes in teares, shall reap in joy," Psal. 126. 7. "Si fortune me tormente, hope refresheth, as much as misery depresseth; hard beginnings have many times prosperous events, and that may happen at last which never was yet. "A desire accomplished delights the soul," Prov. 13. 19. "Grata superveniet quæ non sperabitur hora." Which makes m' enjoye my joys long wish'd at last, Welcome that houre shall come when hope is past: a louring morning may turne to a fair afternoone, "Nube solet pulsâ candidus ire dies." "the hope that is defer'd, is the fainting of the heart, but when the desire cometh, it is a tree of life," Prov. 13. 12. suavissimum est voti compos fieri. Many men are both wretched and miserable at first, but afterwards most happy; and oftentimes it so falls out, as Machiavel relates of Cosmos Medices, that fortunate and renowned Citizen of Europe, "that all his youth was full of perplexity, danger, and misery, till forty yeares were past, and then upon a sudden the Sun of his honour brake out as through a cloud." Hunniades was fetched out of prison, and Henry the third of Portugall out of a poor Monastry, to be crowned kings. "Multa cadunt inter calicem supremaque labra," beyond all hope and expectation many things fall out, and who knows what may happen? Nondum omnium dierum Soles occiderunt, as Philippus said, All the Sunnes are not yet set, a day may come to make amends for all. "Though my father and mother forsake me, yet the Lord will gather mee up," Psal. 27. 10. "Waite patiently on the Lord, and hope in him," Psal. 37.7. "Bee strong, hope and trust in the Lord, Seneca. ‡ Ovid. Thales. Nemo desperet meliora lapsus. *Theocritus. + Ovid. a Lib. 7. Flor. hist. Omnium fælicissimus, & locupletissimus, &c. incarceratus sæpe adolescentiam periculo mortis habuit, solicitudinis & discriminis plenam, &c. and and he will comfort thee, and give thee thine heart's desire," Psal. 27. vers. 14. Sperate & vosmet rebus servate secundis." Fret not thy self because thou art poor, contemned, or not so well for the present as thou wouldest be, not respected as thou oughtest to be, by birth, place, worth; or that which is a double corrosive, thou hast been happy, honourable and rich, art now distressed and poor, a scorn of men, a burden to the world, irksome to thy self and others, thou hast lost all: Miserum est fuisse felicem, and as Boethius cals it, Infelicissi mum genus infortunii; this made Timon halfe mad with me. lancholy, to think of his former fortunes and present misfor tunes; this alone makes many miserable wretches discontent. I confess it is a great misery to have been happy, the quintessence of infelicity, to have been honourable and rich, but yet easily to be endured: Security succeeds, and to a judicious man a far better estate. The loss of thy goods and money is no loss; "thou hast lost them, they would otherwise have lost thee." If thy mony be gone, thou art so much the lighter," and as Saint Hierome perswades Rusticus the Monke, to forsake all and follow Christ: "God and silver are too heavy metals for him to carry that seeks heaven." + Vel nos in mare proximum, Gemmas & lapides, aurum & inutile, Mittamus, scelerum si bene pœnitet." Zeno the Philosopher lost all his goods by shipwrack, he might like of it, fortune had done him a good turne: Opes à me, animum auferre non potest: She can take away my meanes, but not my minde. He set her at defiance ever after, for she could not rob him that had naught to lose: for he was able to contemn more than they could possess or desire. Alexander sent an hundred talents of gold to Phocion of Athens for a present, because he heard he was a good man: but Phocion returned his talents back again with a permitte me in posterum virum bonum esse to be a good man still; let me be as I am : "Non mî aurum posco, nec mî precium" That Theban Crates flung of his own accord his money into the Sea, abite nummi, ego vos mergam, ne mergar, à vobis, I had • Lætior successit securitas que simul cum divitiis cohabitare nescit. Camden. ⚫ecuniam perdidisti, fortassis illa te perderet manens. Seneca. Expeditior es ob pecuniarum jacturam. Fortuna opes auferre, non animum potest Seneca. + Hor. * Jubet me posthac fortuna expeditius Philosophari. rather rather drown you, then you should drown me. Can Stoicks and Epicures thus conteinn wealth, and shall not we that are Christians? It was mascula vox & præclara, a generous speech of Cotta in Salust, "Many miseries have happened unto me at home, and in the wars abroad, of which by the help of God some I have endured, some I have repelled, and by mine own valour overcome courage was never wanting to my designes, nor industry to my intents: prosperity or adversity could never alter my disposition. "A wise man's minde, as Seneca holds, tis like the state of the world above the moon, ever serene.' Come then what can come, befall what may befall, infractum invictumq; animum opponas: Rebus angustis animosus atque fortis appare. (Hor. Od. 11. lib. 2.) Hope and Patience are two soveraigne remedies for all, the surest reposals, the softest cushions to lean on in adversity; "" Durum sed levius fit patientiâ, If it cannot be helped, or amended, make the best of it; ‡ne cessitati qui se accommodat, sapit, he is wise that suits himself to the time. As at a game at tables, so do by all such inevitable accidents. "Ita vita est hominum quasi cum ludas tesseris, If thou canst not fling what thou wouldest, play thy cast as well as thou canst. Every thing saith Epictetus hath two handles, the one to be held by, the other not: 'tis in our choice to take and leave whether we will (all which Simplicius's Commentator hath illustrated by many examples) and 'tis in our power, as they say, to make or mar ourselves. Conforme thy self then to thy present fortune, and cut thy coat according to thy cloth, Ut quimus (quod aiunt) quando quod volumus no licet, "Be contented with thy losse, state and calling, whatsoever it is, and rest as well satisfied with thy present condition in this life :” *In frag. Quirites, multa mihi pericula domi, militiæ multa adversa fuere, quorum ala toleravi, alia deorum auxilio repuli & virtute mea; nunquam animus negotio defuit, nec decretis labor; nullæ res nec prosperæ nec adversæ ingenium mutabant. + Qualis mundi status supra lunam semper serenus. Bona mens nullum tristioris fortunæ recipit incursum, Val. lib. 4. c. 1. Qui nil potest sperare, desperet nihil. Equam memento rebus in arduis servare mentem. lib. 2. Od. 3. Epict. c. 18. ▾ Ter. Adel. act. 4 Sc.7. Unaquæq; res duas habet ansas, alteram quæ teneri, alteram quæ non potest; in manu nostra quam volumus accipere. And. Act. 4. sc. 6. " Hor. • Ter, "Esto "Esto quod es; quod sunt alii, sine quemlibet esse; Be as thou art; and as they are, so let a And as he that is invited to a feast, eats what is set befor him, and looks for no other, enjoy that thou hast, and aske no more of God then what he thinks fit to bestow upon thee. Non cuivis contingit adire Corinthum, we may not be all Gentlemen, all Cato's, or Lælii, as Tully telleth us, all honourable, illustrious and serene, all rich; but because mortall men want many things," Therefore," saith Theodoret, "hath God diversly distributed his gifts, wealth to one, skill to another, that rich men might encourage and set poor men a work, poor men might learn severall trades to the common good.' As a peece of Arras is composed of severall parcels, some wrought of silke, some of gold, silver, crewell of divers colours, all to serve for the exornation of the whole: Musick is made of divers discords and keyes, a totall summ of many sinal numbers, so is a Common-wealth of severall inequal trades and callings. If all should be Cræsi and Darii, all idle, all in fortunes equall, who should till the land? As Menenius Agrippa well satisfied the tnmultuous rout of Rome, in his elegant Apologue of the belly and the rest of the members: Who should build houses, make our several stuffs for raiments? We should all be starved for company, as Poverty declared at large in Aristophanes Plutus, and sue at last to be as we were at first. And therefore God hath appointed this inequality of States, orders and degrees, a subordination, as in all other things. The earth yields nourishment to vegetals, sensible creatures feed on vegetals, both are substitutes to reasonable souls, and men are subject amongst themselves, and all to higher powers, so God would have it. All things then being rightly examined and duly considered as they ought, there is no such cause of so general discontent, 'tis not in the matter it self, but in our minde, as we moderate our passions and esteem of things. Nihil aliud necessarium ut sis miser (saith Cardan) quam ut te miserum credas, Let thy fortune be what it will, 'tis thy mind alone that makes thee poor or rich, miserable or happy. Vidi ego (saith a Epictetus. Invitatus ad convivium, quæ apponuntur comedis, non quæris ultra; in mundo multa rogitas quæ dii negant. Cap. 6. de providentia. Mortales cum sint rerum omnium indigi, ideo deus aliis divitias, aliis paupertatem distribuit, ut qui opibus pollent, materiam subministrent; qui vero inopes, exercitatas artibus manus admoveant. Si sint omnes equales, necesse est sulcarct, quis sementem faceret, ¿ Lib. 3. de ut omnes fame pereant; quis aratro terram quis plantas sereret, quis vinum exprimeret DDS. ? Liv. lib. 1. divine Seneca) in villa hilari & amaná mæstos, & media solitudine occupatos; non locus sed animus facit ad tranquillitatem. I have seen men miserably dejected in a pleasant Village, and some again well occupied and at good ease in a solitary desart. 'Tis the mind not the place causeth tranquillity, and that gives true content. I will yet add a word or two for a Corollary. Many rich men, I dare boldly say it, that lye on down-beds, with delicacies pampered every day, in their well furnished houses, live at less heart's case, with more anguish, more bodily pain, and through their intemperance, more bitter hours, then many a prisoner or gally-slave; * Mæcenas in plumá, æquè vigilat ac Regulus in dolio: those poor starved Hollanders, whom Bartison their Captain left in Nova Zembla, An. 1596. or those eight miserable Englishmen that were lately left behind, to winter in a stove in Greenland in 77. deg. of lat. 1630. so pitifully forsaken, and forced to shift for themselves in a vast dark and desart place, to strive and struggle with hunger, cold, desperation, and death it self. 'Tis a patient and quiet minde (I say it again and again) gives true. peace and content. So for all other things, they are, as old Chremes told us, as we use them. "Parentes, patriam, amicos, genus, cognatos, divitias, Parents, friends, fortunes, country, birth, alliance, &c. ebbe and flow with our conceit; please or displease, as we accept and construe them, or apply them to our selves. Faber quisq; fortune sue, and in some sort I may truly say, prosperity and adversity are in our own hands. Nemo læditur nisi à seipso, and which Seneca confirms out of his judgement and experience," Every man's minde is stronger then fortune, and leads him to what side he will; a cause to himself cach one is of his good or bad life." But will we, or nill we, make the worst of it, and suppose a man in the greatest extremity, 'tis a fortune which some indefinitely prefer before prosperity; of two extremes it is the best. Luxuriant animi rebus plerumque secundis, men in prosperity forget God and themselves, they are besotted with their wealth, as birds with henbane miserable if fortune forsake them, but more miserable * Seneca. + Vide Isaacum Fontanum descript. Amsterdam, lib. 2. c. 22. Vide Ed. Pelham's book edit. 1630. Heautontim. Act. 1. Sc. 2. § Epist. 98. Omni fortuna valentior ipse animus, in utramq; partem res suas ducit, beataq; ac miseræ vitæ sibi causa est. f Fortuna quem nimium fovet stultum facit. Pub. Mimus. Seneca de beat. yit. cap. 14. miseri si descrantur ab ea, miseriores si obruantur, if |