L. To my Lord G. D.
My Lord,
THer be two weighty sayings in Seneca, Nihil est infaelicius •…•…o, cui nil unquam contigit adversi: Ther is nothing more unhappy than he, who never felt any adversity: The other is, Nullum est ma∣jus malum, quàm non posse ferre malum: Ther is no greater cross, than not to be able to bear a cross. Touching the first, I am not capable of that kind of unhappiness; for I have had my share of adversity, I have bin hammer'd, and dilated upon the Anvill, as our Countrey∣man Breakspear (Adrian the fourth) said of himself; I have b•…•…n strain'd through the limbic of affliction. Touching the second, I am also free of that cross; for, I thank God for it, I have that portion of Grace, and so much Philosophy, as to be able to endure, and confront any misery: Tis not so tedious to me, as to others to be thus immur'd, because I have bin inur'd, and habituated to trou∣bles. That which sinks deepest into me, is the sense I have of the common calamities of this Nation; ther is a strange Spirit hath got in amongst us, which makes the Idaea of holines, the formality of good, and the very facultie of reason to be quite differing from what it was. I remember to have read a tale of the Ape in Paris, who having got a child out of the cradle, & carried him up to the top of the tiles, and there sat with him upon the ridg; The parents behol∣ding this ruthfull spectacle, gave the Ape fair and smooth language, so he gently brought the child down again, and replac'd him in the cradle. Our Countrey is in the same case this child was in, and I hope ther will be sweet and gentle means us'd to preserve it from precipitation.
The City of London sticks constantly to the Parlement, and the Common-Councell swayes much, insomuch, that I beleeve, if the Lord Chancelor Egerton were now living, he would not be so plea∣sant with them, as he was once to a new Recorder of London, whom