Rejoyce not against me, O my enemy; for though I fall, I shall rise: when I sit in darkness, the Lord shall lighten me. Remember all those Martyrs what they have endured, the utmost that humane rage and fury could invent, with what patience they have born, with what willingness embraced it. Though he kill me, saith Job, I will trust in him. Justus inexpugnabilis, as Chrysostome holds, a just man is impregnable, and not to be overcome. The gout may hurt his hands, lameness his feet, convulsions may torture his joynts, but not rectam mentem, his soule is free.

—— nempe pecus, rem, Lectos, argentum tollas licet; in manicis & Compedibus sævo teneas custode ——

Take away his mony, his treasure is in heaven; banish him his country, he is an inhabitant of that heavenly Jerusalem; cast him into bands, his conscience is free; kill his body, it shall rise again; he fights with a shadow that contends with an upright man: He will not be moved.

—— si fractus illabatur orbis, Impavidum ferient ruinæ,

Though heaven it self should fall on his head, he will not be offended. He is impenetrable, as an anvile hard, as constant as Job.

Ipse deus simulatque volet me solvet opinor.

Be thou such a one, let thy misery be what it will, what it can, with patience endure it; thou mayst be restored as he was. Terris proscriptus, ad cœlum propera; ab hominibus desertus, ad deum fuge. The poor shall not alwayes be forgotten, the patient abiding of the meek shall not perish for ever, Psal. 10.18. ver. 9. The Lord will be a refuge of the oppressed, & a defence in the time of trouble.

Servus Epictetus, mutilati corporis, Irus Pauper: at hæc inter charus erat superis,

Lame was Epictetus, and poor Irus, Yet to them both God was propitious:

Lodovicus Vertomannus that famous traveller, indured much misery, yet surely saith Scaliger, he was vir deo charus, in that he did escape so many dangers, God especially protected him, he was dear unto him: Modo in egestate, tribulatione, convalle deplorationis &c. Thou art now in the vale of misery, in poverty, in agony, in temptation; rest, eternity, happiness, immortality shall be thy reward, as Chrysostome pleads, if thou trust in God, and keep thine innocency. Non si malè nunc, & olim sic erit semper; a good houre may come upon a sudden; expect a little.

Yea, but this expectation is it which tortures me in the mean time; futura expectans præsentibus angor, whilest the grass grows the horse starves; Despair not, but hope well,

Spera Batte, tibi melius lux Crastina ducet; Dum spiras spera ——

Chear up, I say, be not dismayd; Spes alit agricolas; he that sowes in teares, shall reap in joy, Psal. 126.7.

Si fortune me tormente, Esperance me contente.

hope refresheth, as much as misery depresseth; hard beginnings have many times prosperous events, and that may happen at last which never was yet. A desire accomplished delights the soul, Prov. 13.19.

Grata superveniet quæ non sperabitur hora.

Which makes m’ enjoye my joys long wish’d at last, Welcome that houre shall come when hope is past:

a louring morning may turne to a fair afternoone,

Nube solet pulsâ candidus ire dies.

the hope that is defer’d, is the fainting of the heart, but when the desire commeth, it is a tree of life, Prov. 13.12. suavissimum est voti compos fieri. Many men are both wretched and miserable at first, but afterwards most happy; and oftentimes it so falls out, as Machiavel relates of Cosmos Medices, that fortunate and renowned Citizen of Europe, that all his youth was full of perplexity, danger and misery till forty yeares were past, and then upon a sudden the Sun of his honour brake out as through a cloud. Hunniades was fetched out of prison, and Henry the third of Portugall out of a poor Monastery, to be crowned kings.

Multa cadunt inter calicem supremaque labra,

beyond all hope and expectation many things fall out, and who knows what may happen? Nondum omnium dierum Soles occiderunt, as Philippus said, All the Sunnes are not yet set, a day may come to make amends for all. Though my father and mother forsake me, yet the Lord will gather mee up, Psal. 27.10. Waite patiently on the Lord, and hope in him, Psal. 37.7. Bee strong, hope and trust in the Lord, and he will comfort thee, and give thee thine hearts desire, Psal. 27. vers. 14.

Sperate & vosmet rebus servate secundis.

Fret not thy self because thou art poor, contemned, or not so well for the present as thou wouldest be, not respected as thou oughtest to be, by birth, place, worth; or that which is a double corrosive, thou hast been happy, honourable and rich, art now distressed and poor, a scorn of men, a burden to the world, irksome to thy self and others, thou hast lost all:

Miserum est fuisse felicem, and as Boethius cals it, Infelicissimum genus infortunii; this made Timon halfe mad with melancholy, to think of his former fortunes and present misfortunes; this alone makes many miserable wretches discontent. I confess it is a great misery to have been happy, the quintessence of infelicity, to have been honourable and rich, but yet easily to be endured:

Security succeeds, and to a judicious man a far better estate. The loss of thy goods and money is no loss; thou hast lost them, they would otherwise have lost thee. If thy mony be gone, thou art so much the lighter, and as Saint Hierome perswades Rusticus the Monke, to forsake all and follow Christ: Gold and silver are too heavy metals for him to carry that seeks heaven.