A discourse of constancy in two books chiefly containing consolations against publick evils written in Latin by Justus Lipsius, and translated into English by Nathaniel Wanley ...

CHAP. XIV.

Nothing done here below but by the Pro∣vidence of God. Calamities upon People and Cities from thence. It is not therefore piously done to complain of, or lament them. An Exhor∣tation to obey God, With whom it is vanity and rashness to contend.

WHich if you have throughly imbib'd, if you do in good earnest and from your heart believe that this Governing Power doth thus insert and insinuate it self, and (to speak vvith the Poet)

—Doth when it please Pass through all Lands and Seas:

I do not see vvhat further place there can be for your Grief or com∣plaint. For that very provident Being

vvhich daily moves and turnes about this Heaven, vvhich leads forth and recalls the Sun; vvhich discloses and shuts up all sorts of fruits: hath brought to the Birth all those chang∣es and vicissitudes vvhich you do ei∣ther repine, or vvonder at. Do you think that only pleasant or profitable things are sent to us from Heaven? Yes, those also that are sad and dis∣tasteful are from thence: Nor is there any thing at all in this grand frame of the World, vvhich is trans∣acted, discomposed or confounded (sin only excepted) vvhose cause and original proceeds not from that first cause: Pindar said vvell,

In Heaven they are that do Dispense to us below.

There is (as it vvere) a certain golden Chain let down from above (as Homer gives it us in a Fable) un∣to vvhich all these inferiour things

are fastned. That there, an opening of the Earth hath swallow'd up some Townes; it is from Providence. That the Pestilence elsevvhere hath mowed down so many thousands of Men; is from the same. And that Warre and Slaughter is amongst the Belgi∣ans; is from the very same. It is from Heaven, Heaven Lipsius, that all these Calamities are sent, and therefore they are aptly and vvisely styl'd by Euripides

—Calamities Sent by the Dieties.

Every Ebbe and Flow (I say) of humane affaires depends upon that Moon; and the Rise and Sett of Kingdomes upon that Sun. As oft therefore as you give scope to your Grief, and seem to resent it, that your Country is thus harrass'd, and overturn'd; You do not so much as consider, either vvho you are that

repine, or against vvhom your mur∣murs are directed. What are you? A Man, a shaddow, Dust. And a∣gainst vvhom do you murmur (I trem∣ble to speak it) against God himself. It vvas the fiction of Antiquity; that certain Giants did attempt to de∣throne the Gods. To omit Fables, you Complainants are those Giants. For if all these things are not only by the permission, but also by the immission of Almighty God: You vvho fret and resist, vvhat do you but (as much as in you lyes) seise his scepter, and intrench upon the pre∣rogative of his Empire? Blind Mor∣tality! The Sun, Moon, Starrs, E∣lements, and all the successive Or∣ders of Creatures, do vvillingly obey, and submit themselves to this Su∣pream Law; only the Noblest piece of the Creation, Man lifts up his heel against, and replyes upon his Cre∣ator. Had you hoisted Sailes into the jurisdiction of the Winds, you

must then go not vvhither you vvould but vvhither they list. And shall you in the Ocean of this life refuse to follow the conduct of that Spirit by vvhom the vvhole Universe is sway∣ed? In vain notwithstanding is this refusal, for either you shall vvilling∣ly follow, or be forc'd along; and those Heavenly decrees shall preserve their Efficacy, and Order, vvhether you shall comply or rebel. We should smile at that Man vvho having ty'd his Boat to some Rock, and pulling at the Cord, should rather think he pulls the Rock to him than that his boat moves to it. And is not our Folly every vvay as remarkable, vvho being chain'd to that Rock of Eternal Pro∣vidence, do yet by our struggling and resistance seem to desire that it should obey us, rather than vve it? Let us free our selves at the last from these Vanities; and (if vve are vvise) let us follow that Power vvhich attracts us from above, and think it nothing but

equal that vvhatsoever is pleasing to God, should (for that very reason) be so also to Man. The Souldier in the Camp upon Notice of a March, gets on his knap-sack; but if it sound to Armes, he layes it aside, as one vvho vvith his Mind, and Eyes, and Ears, is intent upon, and prepared for any command. Let it be thus vvith us, and in this Warfare of ours, let us chearfully and resolvedly March after our General, vvhich vvay soe∣ver he shall command us. VVe are sworn to this, saith Seneca, to endure such things as Mortality is liable to, and not to be disturbed in case some things fall out, which it is not in our power to prevent. VVe are born in a Kingdom, and to obey God is Liberty it self.