¥ Meditationi and Jlowes. Cent. HI. as theyare notwithout reafon joyned together in name by humane inllitution,fothey A are mo!l wifely coupled together by God in the difpofition ofthefe worldly e!lates. Chargewithout Honour,tomake it amends,would be too toilfoome,and mu!! needs difcourage and over-lay aman. Honour without charge would be too pleafant,and therefore both would be too much fought after,and mull: needs carry away themind in the enjoying it. Now many dare not be ambitious,brca11fe ofthe burden; chufi"g rather to live obfcurely and fecurely:And yeton the other fide thofe thatore under it are rcfrefhed in the Chorgewith the fwcecndfe ofHonour.Seeing they cannot befeparated,it is not the worfr e!late to want both.They whom thou enviefr for hollQUr, perhaps envy thee more forthy quiecneffe. . IJ He that taketh his owne cares upon himfelfe ,· loads himfdfe i·nvaine with aa un· B eafie burden. The feare ofwhat may come,expeaation ofwhat will come, defire of what will not come,and inability ofredreffing all thefe,mu!l need< brood him continualltorment.I will call: my cares upon God, he bath bidden ine, they cannot hurt him;he can redreffe them. r4 Our infancy is full offolly;youth,ofdiforder and toil;agt,ofinfirmity.Each time bath his burden,and that which may ju(lly work our wearineffe:yet infancy longeth afier youth;and youth, afier more age:and he thatis very old,as he is a child for fim. pliciry, fo he would be foryoers. I account oldage thelieli of rhree;partly,forthat it hath paffed thorow the folly & diforderofthe others;partly, for that theinconveniences ofthis are but bodily,witb abettered efl:ate ofthemind1and partly,for that it is c neareff to diffolution.There is nothing more miferabk; then an old man that would be young again.lt was an anfwer worthy rhe commendations, of PetrAr&h, and that which argued a mind truly philofophicallofhim, wh.o when his friend hemoned his .age appearing in his whiretemples, telling him be was forrtc to fee him looke fo old, replied:Nay,be forry rather that ever I was young,to be a ool. •5 There is not the lea(! aaion or event, (what-ever the vain Epicures have imagined) which is not over-ruled, and difpofc:d by aprovidence: which is [o far fromde. traaingm1ght from the maje!ly of God for that the things are fmall, as that there canbe no greater honour tohim, then coextend his providenGe and decree to them becaufe they are infinite. Neither doth this hold in narurall thingsonly, which are D chained oneto another bya regular orderoffucceffioo,bur even in thofethings which fall out by cafualty and imprudence:wbence that wo,..Py Father,when as his fpeech digreffed his intention to a confutation oftheerrors oftheManichees, could prefeotly gheffe, that in that unpurpofed turning ofit, God intended the converfioo of [Qme unknownAuditor1as the event proved hisconjet!ure trueeremanydaies.When ought f•lls out contrary to that I purpofed,it 01311 content me , that God purpofed it as it is fain out:fothe thing bath attained his own end, whiles it miffed mine. I know whatI would,bur God knoweth what I lhouldwill.It is enough that his will is done, though mine be crolfed. 16 It is the moll: rhankleffe office in the world,to be a mans Pandar unto fin.In other E wrongs,one man is aWoolfe to another:bur in this,a Devill.And,though at thefirfr this damnable fcrvice carry away reward, yet in conclufion it is requited with hatred and curfes. For, as the fick man extremely dilla!led with a loathfome potion, haterb the very cruze wherein it was brought him;fo dorh the confcience,once fuundly de· tefrina fin,loath themeans thatiaduced him t-ocommit it.Contrarily who wirhfrands amat:'in his profecurionofa flDnc,while he doteth upon it, beares away frowns, and heart-bumings for a time: but when the offending pattycomes to himfclfe, and right reafon, he recompencethhis former difiike with fo much more love , and fo many more rhankes,The frantick man returned eo his wits , thinks him his bell: friend that bound him,andboat himmojl.l will doe my befrro crolfc any m1n in his fins,ifl havenotthankes ofhim,yet ofmy. confcience I fhall. ; 17 God
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