1 Vitam quæ faciunt beatiorem, 2 I say again, thou hast, or at least maist have it, if thou wilt thy self, and that which I am sure he wants, a merry heart. Passing by a village in the territorie of Millan, saith St Austin, I saw a poor begger that had got, belike, his belly full of meat, jesting and merry. I sighed, and said to some of my friends that were then with me, what a deal of trouble, madness, pain, and grief, do we sustain and exaggerate unto our selves, to get that secure happiness which this poor begger hath prevented us of, and which we peradventure shall never have? For that which he hath now attained with the begging of some small pieces of silver, a temporall happinesse, and present hearts ease, I cannot compass with all my carefull windings, and running in and out. And surely the begger was very merry; but I was heavy: he was secure, but I was timorous. And if any man should ask me now, whether I had rather be merry, or still so solicitous and sad, I should say, merry. If he should ask me again, whether I had rather be as I am, or as this begger was, I should surely choose to be as I am, tortured still with cares and fears; but out of peevishness, and not out of truth. That which St Austin said of himself here in this place, I must say to thee: thou discontented wretch, thou covetous niggard, thou churl, thou ambitious and swelling toad, 'tis not want, but peevishness, which is the cause of thy woes: settle thine affection: thou hast enough. 4 Denique sit finis quærendi, quoque habeas plus, Make an end of scraping, purchasing this manor, this field, that house, for this and that child; thou hast enough for thy self and them; * Quod petis, hîc est, Est Ulubris, animus si te non deficit æquus: 'Tis at hand, at home already, which thou so earnestly seekest. But Martial. 1. 10. epig. 47. Read it out thyself in the author. 2 Confess. lib. 6. Transiens per vicum quemdam Mediolanensem, animadverti pauperem quemdam mendicum, jam credo saturum, jocantem atque ridentem, et ingemui, et locutus sum cum amicis qui mecum erant, &c. 3 Et certe ille lætabatur, ego anxius; securus ille, ego trepidus. Et si percontaretur me quispiam, an exsultare mallem, an metuere, responderem, exsultare: et si rursus interrogaret, an ego talis essem, an qualis nunc sum, me ipsum curis confectum eligerem; sed perversitate, non veritate. Hor. ep. lib. 1. 4 Hor. O! si angulus ille Proximus accedat, qui nunc denormat agellum ! O! that I had but that one nook of ground, that field there, that pasture! 2 O! si urnam argenti fors quà mihi monstret O! that I could but finde a pot of mony now, to purchase, &c. to build me a new house, to marry my daughter, place my son, &c. 10! if I might but live a while longer, to see all things settled, some two or three year; I would pay my debts, make all my reckonings even; but they are come and past, and thou hast more business then before. O madness! to think to settle that in thine old age, when thou hast more, which in thy youth thou canst not now compose, having but a little. Pyrrhus would first conquer Africk, and then Asia, et tum suaviter agere, and then live merrily, and take his ease; but, when Cineas the orator told him he might do that already, id jam posse fieri, rested satisfied, condemning his own folly. Si parva licet componere magnis, thou maist do the like, and therefore be composed in thy fortune. Thou hast enough; he that is wet in a bath, can be no more wet, if he be flung into Tiber, or into the ocean it self; and if thou hadst all the world, or a solid masse of gold as big as the world, thou canst not have more then enough; enjoye thyself at length, and that which thou hast; the minde is all; be content; thou art not poor, but rich, and so much the richer, as Censorinus well writ to Cerillius, quanto pauciora optas, non quo plura possides, in wishing less, not having more. I say then, non adjice opes, sed minue cupiditates ('tis Epicurus advice); adde no more wealth, but diminish thy desires; and, as Chrysostome well seconds him, si vis ditari, contemne divitias, that's true plenty, not to have, but not to want riches; non habere, sed non indigere, vera abundantia; 'tis more glory to contemne, then to possesse; et nihil egere, est Deorum. How many deaf, dumb, halt, lame, blinde, miserable persons could I reckon up, that are poor, and withall distressed, in imprisonment, banishment, gally-slaves, condemned to the mines, quarries, to gives, in dungeons, perpetuall thraldome, then all 5 10! si nunc morerer, inquit, quanta et qualia mihi imperfecta manerent: sed si mensibus decem vel octo supervixero, omnia redigam ad libellam; ab omni debito creditoque me explicabo. Prætereunt interim menses decem et octo, et cum illis anni, et adhuc restant plura quam prius. Quid igitur speras, o insane, finem, quem rebus tuis non inveneras in juventâ, in senectâ impositurum? O dementiam! quum ob curas et negotia tuo judicio sis infelix, quid putas futurum, quum plura supererint? Cardan. lib. 8. cap. 40. de rer. var. 2 Plutarch. de natali. cap. 1. 4 Apud Stobæum, ser. 17. 3 Lib. 5 Hom. 12. in 2 Cor. 6. which thou art richer, thou art more happy, to whom thou art able to give an almes, a lord, in respect, a petty prince: 'be contented then, I say; repine and mutter no more; for thou art not poor in deed, but in opinion. Yea, but this is very good counsell, and rightly applied to such as have it, and will not use it, that have a competency, that are able to work and get their living by the sweat of their browes, by their trade, that have something yet: he that hath birds, may catch birds; but what shall we do that are slaves by nature, impotent, and unable to help ourselves, meer beggers, that languish and pine away, that have no means at all, no hope of means, no trust of delivery, or of better successe? as those old Britans complained to their lords and masters the Romans, oppressed by the Picts, mare ad barbaros, barbari ad mare; the barbarians drove them to the sea, the sea drove them back to the barbarians: our present misery compels us to cry out and howl, to make our moan to rich men; they turn us back with a scornful answer to our misfortune again, and will take no pity of us; they commonly overlooke their poor friends in adversity; if they chance to meet them, they voluntarily forget and will take no notice of them; they will not, they cannot help us. Instead of comfort, they threaten us, miscall, scoffe at us, to aggravate our misery, give us bad language; or, if they do give good words, what's that to relieve us? According to that of Thales, facile est alios monere; who cannot give good counsell? 'tis cheap; it costs them nothing. It is an easie matter, when ones belly is full, to declame against feasting: 2 Qui satur est, pleno laudat jejunia ventre. Doth the wilde asse braye when he hath grasse, or loweth the oxe when he hath fodder? (Job 6. 5.) Neque enim populo Romano quidquam potest esse lætius: no man living so jocond, so merry as the people of Rome when they had plenty; but when they came to want, to be hunger-starved, neither shame, nor lawes, nor armes, nor magistrates, could keep them in obedience. Seneca pleadeth hard for poverty; and so did those lazie philosophers: but in the mean time he was rich; they had wherewithall to maintain themselves; but doth any poor man extoll 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 3 4 1 Non in paupertate, sed in paupere (Seneca): non re, sed opinione, laboras. 2 Vopiscus, in Aureliano. Sed si populus famelicus inediâ laboret, nec arma, leges, pudor, magistratus, coërcere valent. 3 One of the richest men in Rome. Serm. Quidam sunt, qui pauperes esse volunt, ita ut nihil illis desit; sic commendant, ut nullam patiantur inopiam; sunt et alii mites, quamdiu dicitur et agitur ad eorum arbitrium, &c. they list; but, if occasion be offered, how far are they from all patience? I would to God (as he said) no man should commend povertie, but he that is poor, or he that so much admires it, would relieve, help, or ease others. 1 2 Nunc, si nos audis, atque es divinus, Apollo, Dic mihi, qui nummos non habet, unde petat : But no man hears us: we are most miserably dejected, the skumme of the world. 3 Vix habet in nobis jam nova plaga locum, We can get no relief, no comfort, no succour: * Et nihil inveni quod mihi ferret opem. 5 We have tried all means, yet finde 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 battell fought, he fled away in the night, and left four thousand men sore sick and wounded in his tents, to the furie of the enemie; which when the poor men perceived, clamoribus et ululatibus omnia complérunt, they made lamentable moan, and roared down right, as lowd as Homers Mars when he was hurt, which the noise of 10000 men could not drown, and all for fear of present death. But our estate is farre more tragicall and miserable, much more to be deplored; and far greater cause have we to lament: the devil and the world persecute all good fortune hath forsaken us; we are left to the rage of beggery, cold, hunger, thirst, nastiness, sickness, irksomness, to continuall torment, labour and pain, to derision and contempt, bitter enemies all, and far worse then any death: death alone we desire, death we seek, yet cannot have it; and what shall we do? us; Quod male fers, assuesce, feres bene accustome 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 extremitie of humane adversitie: and, as a shadow leaves the bodie when the sun is gone, I am now left and lost, and quite forsaken of the world. Qui jacet in terrâ, non habet unde cadat : 1 Nemo paupertatem commendaret, nisi pauper. 2 Petronius, Catalec. 3 Ovid. 4 Ovid. Plutarch. vit. Crassi. comfort thy self 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 vertues whetstone. serpens, sitis, ardor, arenæ, Dulcia virtuti, 3 as Cato told his souldiers marching in the desarts of Libya; thirst, heat, sands, serpents, were pleasant to a valiant man; honourable enterprises are accompanied with dangers and dammages, 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 pittied then 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; yet tell me (saith Chrysostome) was Job or the devil the greater conquerour? surely Job. The devil had his goods: he sate on the muckhil, and kept his good name; he lost his children, health, friends; but he kept his innocency: he lost his mony; but he kept his confidence in God, which was better than any treasure. Do thou then as Job did, triumph as Job did, and be not molested as every fool is. Sed qua ratione potero? How shall this be done? Chrysostome answers, facile, si cœlum cogitaveris, with great facility, if thou shalt but meditate on heaven. Hanna 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 then ten sons? and she was quiet. Thou art here vexed in this world; but say to thy self, Why art thou troubled, O my soule? Is not God better to thee then all temporalities, and momentary pleasures of the world? be then pacified. And though thou beest now peradventure in extreme want, it may be it is for thy further good, to try thy patience as it did Jobs, and exercise thee in this life: trust in God, and rely upon him, and thou shalt be crowned in the 4 5 7 1 Lucan. lib. 9. 2 An quum super fimo sedit Job, an cum omnia abstulit diabolus, &c. pecuniis privatus fiduciam Deo habuit, omni thesauro pretiosiorem. 3 Hæc viventes sponte philosophemini, nec insipientum affectibus agitemur. 41 Sam. 1. 8. 5 James, 1. 2. My brethren, count it an exceeding joy, when you fall into divers temptations. 6 Afflictio dat intellectum. Quos Deus diligit, castigat. Deus optimum quemque aut malâ valetudine aut luctu afficit. Seneca. 7 Quam sordet mihi terra, quum cœlum intueor! |