hindreth Piety ttnddgodly life. body kw by watchings and failings and other fevere exercifes of holy difcipline. But cúi bony e Do I all this at randorne? uncertain whether I ¡hall obtein any good or prevent any mifchief hereby ? No ; but I do this , as one that is fure ( H) that by fo doing I (hall attein everlafing life , and without fo doing I cannot avoid eternal! death: intimating in thefe words the common difpofition of men, which is, to labour where force proportionable good is to be gotten, or evil prevented ; otherwife to (pare their heads and hands too. Tobe imployed in fruitle fe(1)aífairs,is both a Folly and. a Mifery. I. A Folly: For de neceffarüs nepnafapiens deliberat, Noman ufeth deliberation about things nece(fary, faith the Philofopher. Andour Saviour fpealting of things above our power, Cur Os foliciti? faith he to his difciples; Matth. 6. z7. Luke i 2,2. 5)7.6. why take ye thought about filch things? Which is as much as if he had faid,It is an argument of folly in you to trouble your felves about fuch things as lic not inyour power. z. It is a Mifcry in the opinions of all men, as the fable of-Sifyphus implyeth ; Who (as the Poets feigne) is .pu. ni(hed inhell for his robberies, with the rolling ofa great flone to the top of a fteep hill, where it cannot reíl, but prefently tumblethdown again. The morall of that fable is, That it is torment, and a torment it for hell, for a man to be fet about any work that is fruitlef e and in vain. Men will rather be ex- credal in high and lard imployments that produce proporti- onable ends, then pick {trams, play with feathers, or with Domitian spend their times in flapping and killing of flies,or do any other,eafiework which endeth in nothing but aire and emptineffe, except they be fools or (elf. tormentours. And thereforewhen Balaam oncefaw that the Lord hadfully deter- x3112.24.1. mined to bleffe 1 f ael, and that ' l his forceries could not effeft the contrary, he prefently gave-over and fet no more enchant- ments. And reafon teacheth every man to do the like. If any man were_f.illy;poífeffed with a.perfwafion that his temporal! effate were determined in heaven, and that he Ihould be worth jull fo much, neither more nor leffe; he would conclude in his thoughts, that his care and pains could nothing profit him, nor his idleneffe impoverifh him:and fo wouldquickly be per- fwaded to take his eafe. And were it evident thatevery Com- mon-wealth had terminum anágnitudinis, a condition ap- pointed for it which couldnot be altered, and a fatali period whichcouldnot be avoided, then would the King call noPar- liaments; ufe no rivy Çounfellours, :.make no laws and or- , 409 4 dinances
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