1Neque enim populo Romano quidquam potest esse lætius, no man living so jocund, so merry as the people of Rome when they had plenty; but when they came to want, to be hunger-starved, "neither shame, nor laws, nor arms, nor magistrates, could keep them in obedience." Seneca pleadeth hard for poverty, and so did those lazy philosophers; but in the mean time 2 he was rich, they had wherewithal to maintain themselves; but doth any poor man extol it? There "are those (saith Bernard), that approve of a mean estate, but on that condition they never want themselves; and some again are meek so long as they may say or do what they but if occasion be offered, how far are they from all patience?" I would to God (as he said), 4. No man should commend poverty, but he that is poor," or he that so much admires it, would relieve, help, or ease others. list; 5" Nunc si nos audis, atque es divinus Apollo, Dic mihi, qui nummos non habet, unde petat;" "Now if thou hear'st us, and art a good man, 6 But no man hears us, we are most miserably dejected, the scum of the world. Vix habet in nobis jam nova plaga locum. We can get no relief, no comfort, no succour, Et nihil inveni quod mihi ferret opem. We have tried all means, yet find no remedy; no man living can express the anguish and bitterness of our souls, but we that endure it; we are distressed, forsaken, in torture of body and mind, in another hell; and what shall we do? When Crassus the Roman consul warred against the Parthians, after an unlucky battle fought, he fled away in the night, and left four thousand men, sore, sick, and wounded in his tents, to the fury of the enemy, which when the poor men perceived, clamoribus et 8 et alii mites, quamdiu dicitur et agitur ululatibus omnia complêrunt, they made lamentable moan, and roared downright, as loud as Homer's Mars when he was hurt, which the noise of 10,000 men could not drown, and all for fear of present death. But our estate is far more tragical and miserable, much more to be deplored, and far greater cause have we to lament; the devil and the world persecutes us all, good fortune hath forsaken us, we are left to the rage of beggary, cold, hunger, thirst, nastiness, sickness, irksomeness, to continue all torment, labour and pain, to derision, and contempt, bitter enemies all, and far worse than any death; death alone we desire, death we seek, yet cannot have it, and what shall we do? Quod malè fers, assuesce; feres bene- -accustom thyself to it, and it will be tolerable at last. Yea, but I may not, I cannot, In me consumpsit vires fortuna nocendo, I am in the extremity of human adversity; and as a shadow leaves the body when the sun is gone, I am now left and lost, and quite forsaken of the world. Qui jacet in terra, non habet unde cadat; comfort thyself with this yet, thou art at the worst, and before it be long it will either overcome thee or thou it. If it be violent, it cannot endure, aut solvetur, aut solvet; let the devil himself and all the plagues of Egypt come upon thee at once, Ne tu cede malis, sed contra audentior ito, be of good courage; misery is virtue's whetstone. 1" Serpens, sitis, ardor, arenæ, Dulcia virtuti," as Cato told his soldiers marching in the deserts of Lybia, "Thirst, heat, sands, serpents, were pleasant to a valiant man;" honourable enterprises are accompanied with dangers and damages, as experience evinceth; they will make the rest of thy life relish the better. But put case they continue; thou art not so poor as thou wast born, and as some hold, much better to be pitied than envied. But be it so thou hast lost all, poor thou art, dejected, in pain of body, grief of mind, thine enemies insult over thee, thou art as bad as Job; 1 Lucan. lib. 9. 66 yet tell me (saith Chrysostom), "was Job or the devil the greater conqueror? surely Job; the devil had his goods, he sat on the muckhill and kept his good name; he lost his children, health, friends, but he kept his innocency; he lost his money, but he kept his confidence in God, which was better than any treasure." Do thou then as Job did, triumph as Job did, 2 and be not molested as every fool is. Sed quâ ratione potero? How shall this be done? Chrysostom answers, facilè si cœlum cogitaveris, with great facility, if thou shalt but meditate on heaven. 8 Hannah wept sore, and troubled in mind, could not eat; "but why weepest thou," said Elkanah her husband," and why eatest thou not? why is thine heart troubled? am not I better to thee than ten sons?" and she was quiet. Thou art here vexed in this world; but say to thyself, "Why art thou troubled, O my soul?" Is not God better to thee than all temporalities, and momentary pleasures of the world? be then pacified. And thou beest now peradventure in extreme want, 5 it may be 'tis for thy further good, to try thy patience, as it did Job's, and exercise thee in this life; trust in God, and rely upon him, and thou shalt be crowned in the end. What's this life to eternity? The world hath forsaken thee, thy friends and fortunes all are gone; yet know this, that the very hairs of thine head are numbered, that God is a spectator of all thy miseries, he sees thy wrongs, woes, and wants. 7" "Tis his good-will and pleasure it should be so, and he knows better what is for thy good than thou thyself. His providence is over all, at all times; he hath set a guard of angels over us, and keeps us as the apple of his eye," Ps. xvii. 8. Some he doth exalt, prefer, bless with worldly riches, honours, offices, and preferments, as so many glistening stars he makes to shine above the rest; 766 1 An quum super fimo sedit Job, an cum omnia abstulit diabolus, &c., pecuniis privatus fiduciam deo habuit, omni thesauro preciosiorem. 2 Hæc videntes sponte philosophemini, nec insipientum affectibus agitemur. 3 1 Sam. i. 8. 4 James i. 2. "My brethren, count it an exceeding joy, when you fall into divers temptations." 5 Afflictio dat intellectum; quos Deus diligit, castigat. Deus optimum quemque aut mala valetudine aut luctu afficit. Seneca. 6 Quam sordet mihi terra quum coelum intueor. 7 Senec. de providentia, cap. 2. Diis ita visum, dii melius nôrunt quid sit in commodum meum. 2 1 some he doth miraculously protect from thieves, incursions, sword, fire, and all violent mischances, and as the 1 poet feigns of that Lycian Pandarus, Lycaon's son, when he shot at Menelaus the Grecian with a strong arm and deadly arrow, Pallas, as a good mother keeps flies from her child's face asleep, turned by the shaft, and made it hit on the buckle of his girdle: so some he solicitously defends, others he exposeth to danger, poverty, sickness, want, misery, he chastiseth and corrects, as to him seems best, in his deep, unsearchable and secret judgment, and all for our good. "The tyrant took the city (saith Chrysostom), God did not hinder it; led them away captives, so God would have it; he bound them, God yielded to it; flung them into the furnace, God permitted it; heat the oven hotter, it was granted; and when the tyrant had done his worst, God showed his power, and the children's patience; he freed them;" so can he thee, and can help in an instant, when it seems to him good. to him good. 4" Rejoice not against me, O my enemy; for though I fall, I shall rise; when I sit in darkness, the Lord shall lighten me." Remember all those martyrs what they have endured, the utmost that human rage and fury could invent, with what 5 patience they have borne, with what willingness embraced it. "Though he kill me," saith Job, "I will trust in him." Justus inexpugnabilis, as Chrysostom holds, a just man is impregnable, and not to be overcome. The gout may hurt his hands, lameness his feet, convulsions may torture his joints, but not rectam mentem, his soul is free. 766 nempe, pecus, rem, Lectos, argentum tollas licet; in manicis, et "Perhaps you mean My cattle, money, movables, or land; 1 Hom. Iliad. 4. 2 Hom. 9. Voluit urbem tyrannus evertere, et Deus non prohibuit; voluit captivos ducere, non impedivit voluit ligare, concessit, &c. 3 Psal. cxiii. De terra inopem, de stercore erigit pauperem. 4 Micah vii. 8. 5 Preme, preme, ego cum Pindaro, ἀβάπτιστος εἰμὶ, ὡς φελλὸς ὑπ ̓ ἅλμα, immersabilis sum sicut suber super maris septum. Lipsius. 6 Hic ure, hic seca. ut in æternum parcas, Austin. Diis fruitur iratis, superat et crescit malis. Mutium ignis, Fabricium paupertas, Regulum tormenta, Socratem venenum superare non potuit. 7 Hor. epist. 16, lib. 1. Then take them all. But, slave, if I command, 166 Take away his money, his treasure is in heaven; banish him his country, he is an inhabitant of that heavenly Jerusalem; cast him into bands, his conscience is free; kill his body, it shall rise again; he fights with a shadow that contends with an upright man;" he will not be moved. "si fractus illabatur orbis, Impavidum ferient ruinæ. Though heaven itself should fall on his head, he will not be offended. He is impenetrable, as an anvil hard, as constant as Job. was. 2"Ipse deus simul atque volet me solvet, opinor." Be thou such a one; let thy misery be what it will, what it can, with patience endure it; thou mayest be restored as he Terris proscriptus, ad cœlum propera; ab hominibus desertus, ad Deum fuge. "The poor shall not always be forgotten, the patient abiding of the meek shall not perish for ever," Psal. ix. 18; ver. 9, "The Lord will be a refuge of the oppressed, and a defence in the time of trouble." "Servus Epictetus mutilati corporis, Irus "Lame was Epictetus, and poor Irus, Yet to them both God was propitious." Lodovicus Vertomannus, that famous traveller, endured much misery, yet surely, saith Scaliger, he was vir deo charus, in that he did escape so many dangers, "God especially protected him, he was dear unto him;" Modo in egestate, tribulatione, convalle deplorationis, &c. "Thou art now in the vale of misery, in poverty, in agony, in temptation; rest, 1 Hom. 5. Auferet pecunias? at habet in cœlis patrià dejiciet, at in coelestem civitatem mittet: vincula injiciet? at habet solutam conscientiam: corpus inter 2 Leon ficiet, at iterum resurget; cum umbra |