juice of Wisdom What matter is it how vve cure our patient so vve make a perfect cure of it CHAP. XIX That publick Evils are not so great as they seem proved first by Reason That we fear the circumstance and dress of things rather than themselves MArch on then my Legion and before the rest let that cohort first advance vvith vvhich vve shall maintain that these publick evils are not grievous this shall be performed vvith the double vveapon of reason and comparison of reason First for if vve respect that all those evils which are either present or imminent are not really either great or grievous but are so only in appearance It is Opinion that heightens and aggravates our calamities and presents them to us in so tragical a garbe But if you are wise disperse this circumjected Cloud and examine things by a clearer light For instance you fear Poverty amongst these publick Evils Banishment Death All which notwithstanding if you look upon them vvith a perfect and setled Eye vvhat are they If you examine them by their own just vveights how light are they This Warr or Tyranny by multiplyed contributions vvill exhaust you vvhat then You shall be a poor Man Did not Nature it self bring you into the World so And vvill it not hurry you thence in the same manner But if the despised and infamous name of it displease you change it call your self free and delivered For Fortune if you know it not hath disburdened you and placed you in a securer station vvhere none shall exhaust you any more So that vvhat you esteemed a loss is no other than a remedy But say you I shall be an exile call it if you please a stranger If you change your affection you change your Country A vvise Man vvheresoever he is is but a sojourner a Fool is ever banished But I daily expect Death from the Tyrant As if you did not do the same from Nature But that is an infamous Death that comes by the Ax or Halter Fool nor that nor any other Death is infamous unless your life be so Recall to your thoughts all the excellent and more illustrious persons since the vvorld began and you shall find them snatched away by a violent and untimely Death Thus Lipsius you must examine for I have given you but a tast all those things vvhich have so frightfull an appearance you must look upon them naked and apart from those vizards and disguises vvhich opinion hath put upon them But alass poor creatures vve gaze only upon the vain outsides of tâ—ings Nor do vve dread the things themselves so much as we do the circumstantial dresses of them If you put to Sea and it swell high your heart fails and you tremble at such a rate as if should you suffer Shipwrack you were to swallow it all vvhen alass one or two Sextaries would be sufficient If there be a sudden Earth-quake what a cry and vvhat fears it raises You apprehend immediately that the vvhole City or house at least vvill fall upon you Not considering how sufficient any single stone is to perform the vvork of Death 'T is thus in all these calamities in vvhich it is the noise and vain image of things that chiefly affrights us See that Guard these Swords And what can that Guard or those Swords do They vvill kill And vvhat is that being kill'd 'T is only a single Death and lest that name should affright you It is the departure of the Soul from the Body All those military troops All those threatning Swords shall perform no more than vvhat one Feaver one Grapestone or one Insect can do But this is the harsher vvay of dying Rather it is much the milder for that Feaver vvhich you vvould preferr does often torture a Man for a year together but these dispatch him vvith a blow in an instant Socrates therefore said vvell vvho vvas vvont to call all these things by no other name than that of Goblins and Vizzards vvhich if you put on you will fright the children but if you take them off again and appear vvith your own face they 'l come again to you and embrace you 'T is the very same vvith these evils vvhose Vizzards if your pluck off and behold them apart from their disguises you vvill confess you vvere scared vvith a childish fear As Hail falling upon a house dashes it self in pieces So if these calamities light upon a constant Mind they do not break it but themselves CHAP. XX. A Second proof by way of Comparison But first the Calamities of the Belgians and of the Age heightned That common Opinion refuted And proved that the Nature of Man is prone to aggravate our own Afflictions I Did not expect so serious a discourse from Langius and therefore interrupting him vvhether go you said I was this it you promised I expected the sweet and delicious vvines of History and you bring me such harsh and unpleasant ones as scarce all the stores of Wisdom vvill afford their like Suppose you that you are speaking to some Thales 'T is to Lipsius a Man and that of the middle rank vvho desires remedies that are somewhat more humane than these Langius vvith a mild countenance and tone I acknowledge said he you justly blame me For vvhile I followed that pure ray of reason I perceive I am got out of the common Road and unawares again fallen into the path of Wisdom But I return now to vvalk vvith you in a vvay that is better known since the austerity of that wine doth displease you I shall quallify and allay it vvith the sweets of examples I come now to comparison and I vvill clearly shew you that in all these calamities vvhich every vvay surround us there is nothing great or grievous if you compare them with those in times past For those of old vvere greater by many degrees and more truly to be lamented I replyed vvith a gesture that discovered something of impatience Will you averre this said I and hope you to perswade Me to believe what you have said Never Langius so long as I am Master of my reason for vvhat former age if you rightly consider it vvas ever so calamitous as this of ours or vvhat after one shall be What Nation What Country ever endured So heavy miseries and manifold Grievous or to be suffered or be told As vve Belgians do at this day You see vve are involved in a Warr not in a forreign one only but a civil and that in the very bowels of us For there are not only parties amongst us but O my Country vvhat hand shall preserve thee a subdivision of those parties Add to this the Pestilence add Famine add Taxes Rapines Slaughters and the height of all the Tyranny and Oppression not of our Bodies only but our Souls too And in the rest of Europe vvhat is there Either Warr or the expectation of Warr or if there be peace it is conjoyned with a base subjection to
this Warfare of ours let us chearfully and resolvedly March after our General vvhich vvay soever 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 CHAP. XV. The Second Argument for Constancy drawn from Necessity It s force and Efficacy Necessity deriv'd from two Grounds and first from the things themselves THis Lipsius is a firme and vvell temper'd Shield against all external Evils These are those golden Armes vvith vvhich being cover'd Plato vvould have us to fight against Chance and Fortune to be subject to God to think upon him and in all kind of Events to bend this Mind of ours unto that great Mind of the World I mean Providence whose pious and fortunate forces forasmuch as I have already made sufficient proof of I shall now draw forth and lead up another Squadron vvhich marches under the Standard of necessity A valiant stout and Steel temper'd Squadron it is and such as I may not unfitly compare to that Legion vvhich the Romans call'd Fulminatrix The stubborn and unbroken force of it is such as doth conquer and subdue all things and I shall vvonder Lipsius if you should be able to resist it Thales vvhen one ask'd him vvhat vvas the strongest answered rightly necessity for that Conquers all things There is an old saying too about the same thing although not so advised that the Gods themselves cannot force necessity This necessity I annex to Providence because of its near relation to it or to speak truly because it is born of it For this necessity is from God and his decrees nor is it any other thing than as the Greek Philosopher hath defin'd it A FIR ME SANCTION AND IMMUTABLE POWER OF PROVIDENCE Now that it doth intervveave and twist it self vvith publick Evils I shall evince two vvayes from things themselves and from Fate From things themselves because it is the Nature of all created beings to hasten unto their change and fall from a certain inward proneness vvhich they have thereunto As there is a kind of fretting rust vvhich doth naturally cleave to Iron and a consuming scurffe or Worme that followes Wood In like manner both Creatures Cities and Kingdomes have their internal and proper causes vvhereby they perish Look upon things above or below great or small the vvorkes of the Hand or Mind they have perished from the first Ages and shall persist so to do unto the last And as all Rivers journey towards the Ocean vvith a prone and hasty current So all humane things slide along by this Channel as I may call it of miseries unto their utmost periods That Period is Death and destruction and thereunto Pestilence vvarr and Slaughter are as subservient instruments So that if Death is necessary to these things upon the same Ground are Calamities also That this may appear to you the more evidently by Examples I shall not refuse for a vvhile to enlarge my thoughts and travel vvith you through this great universe CHAP. XVI Instances of Necessary Mutation and Death throughout the whole VVorld The Heavens and Elements change and shall pass away The same is discernable in Cities Provinces and Kingdomes All things here are wheel'd about and nothing is stable or firme THere is an eternal Law vvhich from the beginning hath equally passed upon every thing in this vvorld that it shall be Born and Dye Rise and Set. Nor vvould the great Moderatour of things have any thing firm and stable besides himself From Age and Death only the Cods are free The rest of things under Times sickle be Cryes out the Tragical Poet. All those things vvhich you behold and vvonder at do either perish in their courses or are certainly changed Do you see that Sun He is sometimes ecclipsed The Moon She suffers in the like kind and has her vvaines The Starrs They shoot and fall and howsoever the vvit of Man may seek to palliate and excuse the matter Yet there have and vvill be such accidents amongst those celestial Bodies as may pose the skill and stagger the Minds of the ablest Mathematician I omit to speak of Commets of various Form and different Scituation and Motion concerning vvhich that they all have their Birth from and Motion in the Air is a thing vvhich Philosophy it self cannot easily perswade me to believe But behold of late there are certain new kinds of Motion and Starrs found out vvhich have cut out vvork for the Astrologers There arose a Starr in this very year vvhose increment and decreases vvere throughly observ'd and we then saw vvhat will scarcely be believ'd that in Heaven it self there may be something Born and Dye Behold even Varro in St. Augustine cryes out and asserts that the Planet Venus vvhich Plautus calls Vesperugo and Homer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hath chang'd its colour magnitude figure and motion Next to the Heavens look upon the Air it is daily changed and passes into vvinds Clouds or showres Look to the vvaters and those Rivers and springs vvhich vve call everlasting Some are lost and others have altered their course and found out new Channels The Ocean it self that great and abstruse part of Nature is sometimes swell'd vvith stormes and at others smooth'd vvith calmes and though those stormes vvere not yet it hath its own Ebbs and Flowes and to convince us that it may totally perish It doth daily increase or decrease in its parts Look now upon the Earth vvhich alone some vvould have immoveable and to stand by its own strength Behold there it totters and is shaken into a palsy fit by the struggling of those vapours that are pent up in the Bowels of it and elsewhere it is corrupted by Waters or Fires For even these are at contest vvith one another and that you may not resent it over deeply that there are vvarrs amongst Men The very Elements have theirs also How many Countryes hath a sudden Deluge or inundation of the Sea either lessen'd or intirely swallowed up Of old that great Island Atlantis for I think it no Fable afterwards Helice and Bura And that vve may not have recourse only to ancient and remote times amongst us Belgians in the Memory of our Fathers two Islands together vvith their Townes and inhabitants Even at this very day that blew Deity is forcing open to it self new creeks and daily frets and vveares away the unfaithfull shores of the Frisians and Hollanders Nor doth the Earth her self alvvayes give vvay by a Womannish sloth but doth sometimes vindicate its losses and in the midst of the Sea frames Islands for its self to the vvonder and displeasure of that hoary god Now if those great and in our imagination eternal Bodies are destined to their destruction and change vvhat shall vve think of Cities Common-wealths and Kingdomes which must
other impious contrivances They laugh I confess sometimes but it is no true laughter They rejoyce but their joyes are not genuine and kindly but it fares vvith them as vvith condemned vvretches in a prison who endeavour with Dice and Tables to shake out of their Memories the thoughts of their execution but are not able For the deep impression of their approaching punishment remains with them and the fearful Image of pale Death is continually before their Eyes Look now upon the Sicilian Tyrant vvith-dravving only the Veil of his outward happiness A drawn Sword hangs in a twine thread Over the wretches impious head Hear that Roman lamenting let the God's and Goddesses destroy me worse then I every day perceive my self to perish Hear that other thus sighing Am I then that only one vvho have neither Friend nor Enemy These Lipsius are the true torments and agonies of Souls to be in perpetual Anguish Sorrow Dread and which are incomparably beyond any Racks or other invented wayes for the torture of the Body CHAP. XV. That punishments after Death do await the wicked and that for the most part they are not acquitted from External ones is proved by examples ADde to these those Posthumous and External pains vvihch vve have learned from Divinity and which vvithout further discussion it will be sufficient only thus to mention Adde to those also external punishments which yet if they should be wanting since the former are inflicted who could reasonably blame the external Justice But they are not vvanting Nor was it ever at least very seldom but that publick oppressours and Men openly wicked do undergo publick and open punishments some sooner others later some in their own persons and others in those of their posterity You complain of Dionysius in Sicily that for many years with impunity he exercises his Lusts Rapine and Murthers Forbear awhile and you shall behold him inglorious exiled pennyless and from a Sceptre vvho would believe it reduc'd to a Ferula The King of that great Island shall teach School at Corinth being himself become the mockery of Fortune On the other side you resent it vvith passion that Pompey and his Army of Patricians should be vanquished in the Plains of Pharsalia and that the conquerour for some time doth wanton and even sport himself with Civill blood I do not wonder at you For I see here the helm of right reason wrested out of the hands of Cato himself and this faltering expression falls from him Divine things have much of obscurity in them But yet thou Lipsius thou Cato turn your eyes this way a little One sight shall reconcile you both to God See that ambitious Caesar that prov'd commander in his own opinion and in others too almost a God see him slain in the Senate house and by the hands of Senatours not falling by a single Death but secured by Three and twenty vvounds like some vvild beast weltring in his blood and vvhat vvould you more in Pompey's own Court and at the foot of Pompey's Statue falling a great Sacrifice to that great shade So methinks I pitty Brutus slain for and vvith his Country in the Fields of Philippi but vvithall I am some what satisfyed vvhen not long after I behold those victorious armies like gladiatours slaughtering one another at his Sepulchre and one of the Generalls Marcus Antonius vanquished both by Sea and land in the Company of three Women vvith that effeminate Arme of his scarce finding the Death he sought Where art thou now thou once Lord of all the East thou Butcher of the Roman armies the pursuer of Pompey and the Common-vvealth See how with thy bloody hand thou hangest in a Cord how being yet alive thou creepest into thy monument and how even in Death it self thou art unwilling to be divorc'd from her that vvas the cause of thy Death and then judge whether dying Brutus spent his last breath and vvish in vain Iove suffer not to scape from thee The cause of this Calamity No Brutus he vvas not hid neither did he escape No more did that other General vvho smarted for his youthful crimes not obscurely in his own person but most evidently in all his posterity Let him be the fortunate and great Caesar and truly Augustus but vvithall let him have a Iulia for his Daughter and another for his Grandchild Let him lose some of his Grandchildren by fraud others by force and let himself force others into exile and out of the impatience of these crosses let him attempt to dye by a four dayes abstinence but not be able To conclude let him live vvith his Livia dishonestly married and dishonestly detain'd and let him dye an unworthy Death by her on vvhom he so unworthily doted In summe saith Pliny that Diety and who I know not more vvhether he attain'd Heaven or merited it Let him dye and leave the Son of his Enemy to succeed him These and such like are to be thought of Lipsius as oft as complaints of injustice are ready to break from us and the Mind is presently to reflect upon these two things the slowness and the variety of punishments Is not that offendour punished now But he shall be Not in his Body Yet in his Conscience and Soul Not vvhile he lives Yet most certainly when he is dead Seldome slow punishments lame Feet forsake The wicked Wretch what hast soe're he make For that Divine Eye doth alwayes vvake and vvhen vve suppose him to sleep he doth but vvink Only see you entertain not any prejudice against him Nor go about rashly to judge him by whom shortly thy self is to be judged CHAP. XVI The Second Objection answered that all have deserved punishment in regard all have offended That Man cannot judge who is more or less culpable 'T is God only that clearly discerns betwixt crimes and therefore most justly punishes BUut say you there are some people punished that are guiltless and have no vvay deserved it For this is your Second complaint or rather Calumny Unadvised Young-man Are there then any punished vvho have not deserved it Where I beseech you are those innocent Nations to be found It is an excess of confidence yes absolute rashness and presumption to assert thus much concerning any one single person and shall you dare to justifie whole Nations But to small purpose this for I am satisfyed that all of us have sined and do still every day repeat it We are born in sin and so we live in it and to speak vvith the Satyrist the Magazeens of Heaven had been long since emptyed if its Thunder-bolts had alwayes fallen upon the Heads of such as deserved them For vve must not think that as Fishes though encreas'd and bred up in the Sea do yet retain nothing of its saltness so Men in the filthiness of this World should contract nothing of uncleaness If then all are in fault where are those guiltless people you speak of who have not deserved the punishments they
undergo since it is most righteous that punishment should be the inseparable companion of unrighteousness But you vvill say it is the inequality of it that displeases me For vve see them heavily scourged that have but lightly offended vvhile those that are outragiously vvicked do continue and flourish in the height of all their grandeurs Would you then vvrest the ballance out of the hands of the Heavenly Justice and poise it vvith your own vveights agreeable to your own apprehensions For vvhat else can you mean by that bold pronouncing upon the equality or inequality of crimes otherwise than God hath done before you You are therefore here Lipsius to consider of two things First that a true estimation of the crimes of others neither can nor ought to be attempted by Man For how shall he do it that not so much as observes them And vvhich vvay shall he put an exact difference betwixt those things vvhich he hath not so much as seen For you will easily grant it me that it is the Mind that sins by the Body and senses indeed as its instruments but yet so as that the main business and vveight of the crime doth in the mean time depend upon it self This is so exactly true that if it appear any one hath unwillingly sinned he is clear of the sin And if this be so how is it possible I beseech you that you should throughly discern of Sin who are not able to reach to the residence and seat of it For so farr are you from seeing into the Heart and Soul of another that you cannot attain to the knowledge of your own It is therefore a wonderful vanity and no less a temerity to pretend to the Censure and Arbitration of such things as are neither fully seen nor to be seen neither known nor to be known Consider secondly that if what you say were true there were yet neither Evil nor injustice done to them No Evil because it s done for their good who are presently punished even for smaller offences 'T is rather the love of God to them since that punishment vvhich is delayed is justly to be suspected as portending a heavier judgment is to come Neither is it unjust because as I said we have all deserved punishment Nor can the best of us pretend to so unblemished a purity but there vvill be found some such spots in it as are to be vvashed out as I may say vvith this salt water of Affliction Forbear therefore young-man this intricate pursuit of the respects and proportions of crimes And since thou art but an earthly and pedaneous judge leave it to God who from his higher tribunal vvill determine of it vvith greater equity and certainty 'T is he only that can distinguish of our deserts and 't is he alone vvho notwithstanding all artificial disguises can behold both vice and vertue in their proper countenances Who can impose upon him vvho equally searches into things internal and external that sees at once the Body and the Mind the Tongue and the Heart And to conclude those things that are open vvith those that are recluded and retyred Who doth not only most clearly behold our actions themselves but also their causes and the vvhole progress of them When Thales vvas ask'd vvhether a Man might hide his evil actions from God He answered truly no nor his evil thoughts neither Whereas on the contrary vve are here so benighted that vve do not only not see those close sins commited in the bosome and as they say vvithin the Buttons but scarcely those vvhich are open and dragged into the light For vve cannot behold the Crime it self and the vigour of it but some certain footsteps of it vvhen it is already committed and upon its departure They oftentimes are the best Men to us vvho are the worst in the sight of God as on the contrary they are reprobates in our esteem vvho are the choicest to him Forbear therefore if you are vvise to discourse or judge of persons that deserve or deserve not their punishments for such obscure causes as these are not to be decided by some light and superficial appearances CHAP. XVII The Third Objection that punishments are transferred answered That Men do the same why God doth so BUt you have cast another Cloud upon Justice vvhich I must disperse It is concerning substitutes For say you it is not so just that God should transferre punishments and 't is somewhat hard that posterity should rue the crimes of their Ancestours But vvhere is the wonder and strangeness of it I rather vvonder at these vvonderers that they can find a wonder in that which is every day done by themselves here on Earth Pray tell me do not those honours vvhich for his vertue a Prince hath conferred upon the Ancestours descend to his posterity Yes they do and so also do those mulcts and punishments vvhich are inflicted on him for his offences In attaindours for treason or rebellion it is manifest that these are guilty but others share in the punishment vvhich humane cruelty doth so farr enlarge as to make Lawes that follow the innocent Children vvith perpetual vvants such as make life a burthen and death a comfort Perverse Minds who will permit that to be lawful to a Prince or Magistrate which you forbid to God Who yet if you examine it rightly hath a juster reason for his severity For all of us in one have sinned and rebelled against this great King and through so many successive Generations that first blot hath been derived to the unhappy Children So that there is to God a continued twist and chain of Crimes For instance my Father or yours did not begin to sin but all the Fathers of our Fathers What vvonder then is it if he punish in their posterity not properly divers offences but such as by a kind of communion of seed have been still linked and coupled together and never discontinued But to omit these higher speculations and to deal with you in a more popular way of reasoning You must know this that God joynes those things vvhich vve through ignorance and unskilfulness use to sever and that he considers Families Cities and Kingdomes not as divided but as one Body and Nature The Family of the Scipio's or the Caesars is one thing to him Rome or Athens for the whole time of their duration were but one to him and so was the Roman Empire and that very justly for the Society of the same laws and priviledges is that bond vvhich unites these great bodyes and intitles them though in several ages to a communion in partaking of rewards and punishments Were then the Scipio's of old good That Heavenly judge vvill remember it to the advantage of their posterity Were they Evil It shall be hurtful to them Were the Belgians some years ago Lascivious Covetous Impious We shall suffer for it For in every external punishment God not only beholds the present but also looks back upon pass'd times and
the spacious Germany The dangerous sparks of a Civil discord were there but of late vvhich threaten to break forth afresh and if I am not deceived into a more destructive flame Do you see Brittain Warrs and slaughters are perpetually in it and that peace vvhich it now awhile enjoyes it owes to the government of the middle Sex See you France Behold and pitty it Even now the Gangrene of a bloody warr creeps into all the Joints of it Nor is it otherwise in all the rest of the World Think upon these things Lipsius and let this communion in miseries help to alleviate those of yours And as they used to place a slave behind the Triumpher who in the midst of all the joyes of the triumph vvas often to cry out to him thou art yet but a Man So let this Monitour alvvayes stand by to remember you that these are humane things For as labour in Society vvith others is more easy so is also our grief CHAP. XXVII The conclusion of the whole discourse and a short exhortation to consider seriously of it I Have drawn forth all my forces Lipsius and you have had vvhat I thought meet to say for constancy against Grief vvhich I wish may not onely be pleasant to you but healthful not only delight you but vvhich is more be helpful to you This it vvill doubtless be if you admit it not only into your Ears but into your Mind and if you suffer not vvhat you have heard to lye and vvither as seed that is cast upon the surface of the ground Lastly if you seriously digest and ruminate upon it For as fire is not forced from the flint vvith one stroke so in these cold bosomes of ours that retired and failing spark of goodness is not enkindled by a single admonition That at last it may truly flame in you not in vvords and appearance only but in reality and deed I humbly beg and beseech of that divine fire When he had thus said he rose up hastily I go Lipsius sayes he the Sun at this Noon height remembers me it is dinner time do you follow That I vvill readily and cheerfully said I justly making that acclamation vvhich they use to do in their mysteries I have the Evil fled And the Good discovered FINIS THE TABLE A. ABjectness of the Mind a Vice and whence 21 Achilles how advised 135 Affliction the touch-stone of vertue 182 The ends of it 180 Affrica a great Plague there 267 Anaxagoras his reply 65 Antonius taxes by him 269 The manner of his death 223 Antonius Caracalla his cruelty 275 Arbiter his saying 43 Aristophanes his saying 5 Aristotle his opinion of Fate 105 Atlantis drowned 91 Augustine his censure of Cicero 126 Augustus Flamens and Priests to him 281 Colonies placed by him 271 His endeavour to dye 224 Taxes imposed by him 269 270 Vnfortunate in his family 224 B. BElgia its troubles 3. 39 Bias his saying 127 Boast of Iulius Caesar 262 Of Pompey the great Ibid. Of Csato the Censour 263 Boethius his saying 191 Brutus his wish 223 C. CAius Caesar where slain 222 Calamities are good how 167 Their Original whene 80 81 82 83 Their end what 170 The force of them broken 172 Caligula his saying 217 Captivity the miseries of it 265 Cato his saying 221 Ceneus his story 162 Chance ha's no rule in the world 74 Change all things tend to it 88 89 90 Instances of it 91 92 93 94. Chastisement it avails us 186 Circumstances more feared than the things themselves 144 to 149 Cities raised at once 263 Colonies placed by Augustus 270 The strength of the Empire Ibid. Comets not all in the air 89 Complaint of Tiberius 219 Of Nero Ibid. Considia how cured 243 Constancy a remedy in the sickness of the Mind 19 Its definition Ibid. The praise of it 31 32 Opposed by what 36 Country what 47 Which the true one 61 Our obligation and love to it 55 Not from nature but custom 61 How to be assisted by us 134 Crantor his saying 283 Crates his reply to Alexander 135 Creon his story Ibid. Cruelties in times past 272 c. Custom of the Romans 216 D. DAvid the Plague in his reign 266 Death punishment after it to the wicked 223 Demetrius his saying 182 Demochares his prescription to a Lady 243 Desires some the stronger for being opposed 14 Dioclesian his retirement 143 Dyonysius his story 221 Domitianus at what hour slain 118 His blasphemous Title 281 His cruelty 282 E. EArthquakes wonderful ones 92 93 Euripides his saying 214 Evil men not punished why 208 Evils present compared with those of former times 256 c. Evils not grievous nor new 242 Evils publick and private what 36 Euclid his Apothegme 127 F. Famines in former times 268 c. Fate asserted 98 Vniversally aseended to 101 Some difference about its parts 102 How distinguished of by the ancients Ibid. Mathematical Fate what 103 Natural Fate what 104 Violent Fate how defined 106 True Fate its definition 112 How it differs from providence 114 How from the Stoicks Fate 119 It offers no violence to the will 121 It acts by second causes 131 No ground for sloth 133 G. Galba his cruelty 275 Gardens those of Langius 139 The praise of them 141 142 Kings and other excellent persons addicted to them 143 How abused by some 148 How to be used Ibid. God orders and rules all things 74 Not to be murmured at by us 81 His unchangeableness 100 Not the Authour of sin 122,123,124 Not the cause of Evil 168 Punishes most justly 229 He onely discernes the difference betwixt crimes 230 Why he transferres punishment 235 236 He joines those things we sever Ib. He loves his but severely 180 He hath appointed all things their bounds 192 Greece its calamities by war 260 c. H. Helice and Bara swallowed up by water 91 Hesiod his saying 216 237 238 Homer his advice 5 135 Honorius the famine in his reign 268 Horace his saying 64 Hunnes how many stain at once 263 I. Jewes their wonderful slaughter 257 c. Instruments why God useth the wicked as his 173 Internal punishment the most grievous 216 Inundations the mischiefs by them 91 Italy slain there in the punick war 261 Julius Caesar the manner of his death 222 Justice of God wakeful 190 Justinian the great plague in his reign 267 The famine in his time 268 K. KNowledge the desire of it a happy presage in youth 165 L. LAngius praised 2 His gardens 139 How used by him 153 Lucullus his cruelty 274 M. MAn at variance with himself 24 c. An in bred malice in him 48 Pindars account of him 97 Vnable to judge of crimes 229 He hath a will but not the power to resist God 125 Prone to aggravate his own afflictions 254 Masanissa his famous plat 142 Mercy what it is 68 How it differs from pitty Ib. Michael Ducas the great plague in his reign 267 268 Mithridates his cruelty 276 Murthers in times past 127 128 Mutations several instances of them 88 c. Mysteries the acclamation usual therein 288 N. NAture of God slow to revenge 211 Nature of Man prone to aggravate afflictions 254 Necessity what it is 85 Publick evils from it 86 Its force and power 85 86 From what grounds derived Ibid. New found world its desolations 263,264 O. OBstinacy how it differs from Constancy 20 Opinion what it is 22 It s original whence 27 c. It s power and effects Ibid. It leads to levity Ibid. Oppressions internal and external heretofore 279 280 P. PAssions whence they rise 34 Patience the mother of constancy 21 Its definition Ibid. How it differs from stupidity Ibid. Petrarch a great plague in his time 268 Polus his story 43. Pompey his boast 262 Philosophy how it workes 51 Pindar his saying 49 Pitty what it is 68 How it differs from mercy Ibid. How it may be used 70 Plagues wonderful examples of them 266 267 268 Plato his councel 84 His saying 216 Proscriptions 272 273 Providence what 77 Nothing done below but by it 80 Publick evils why they afflict us 44 Not so great as they seem 144 Punishment all have deserved it 229 Good for us 189 For the safety and ornament of the universe 193 Why unequal 202 VVhy wicked men are not punished 208 209 Deferred why Ib Transferred why 232 Divers sorts of punishments 215 Q. QUintus Catulus his saying 273 Quintus Fabius how many Gaules slain by him 263 R. RApines 270 Regulus how he dyed 183 Right Reason what it is 22 It s original whence 25 Its power and effects 28 29 It leads to constancy 26 Romans their calamities by war 261 c. S. Salvian his saying 204 Semiramis her pendulous gardens 142 Senatours of Rome how taxed 269 How many at once proscribed 272 c. Seneca his seeming errour 109 His sayings 83 200 Simulation in mens griefs 41 42. Socrates his reply to a Question propounded 11 Sloth no excuse for it from Fate 133 134 Solon his story Ibid. His prospect to his Friend 285 Sophocles his saying 205 Stoicks commended 108 The Authors of violent Fate 105 Sylla his cruelty 274 T. TAcitus his saying 218 Tarquinius why expelled Rome 117 Thales his Apothegme 85 His saying 230 Theodosius his cruelty 276 Travail helps not diseases within 8 A Symptome rather than cure 7 It removes only the lighter motions of grief 12 Rather exasperates the greater 13 Tributes examples of them in former times 269 270 Trismegistus his opinion of Fate Providence and Necessity 103 Tyranny whence 278 V. VAriety delights us 195 196 Varro the consul praised 134 Velleius Paterculus his saying 132 Venice its antiquity 94 Venus hath changed its colour magnitude and situation 90 Violent Fate how defined 106 Vertue how she is directed 21 22 Volesus Messalla his cruelty 276 W. WArres of the ancients 161,162,163 Warres in Iudea how many slain in them 157 c. Wicked Men why used by God as his instruments 173 What punishments they never escape 217 Punished after death 320 Not exempt from external punishments Ibid. Wisdom seems stern at a distance 70 An exhortation to it 161 The way to attain to Constancy 162 Not acquired by wishes Ibid. The greatest instance of it what 174 Y. YOuth advised in their studies 161 A good presage in Youth what 165 Z. ZEno how he defines fate 108