wifedom; that is, to the making us discern, attend unto, embrace and profecute fuch things as, according to the dictates of right reafon, are truly beft for us.

I. The truth of which observation I largely declared from hence, that the faid confideration disposeth us to judge rightly about thofe goods (which ordinarily court and tempt us, viz. worldly glory and honour; riches, pleasure, knowledge; to which I might have added wit ftrength and beauty) what their juft worth and value is; and confequently to moderate our affections, our cares, our endeavours about them; for that if all those goods be uncertain and tranfitory there can be no great reason to prize them much, or to affect them vehemently, or to spend much care and pain about them.

II. I fhall next in the fame fcales weigh our temporal evils; and fay, that

that also, The confideration of our lives brevity and frailty doth avail to the paffing a true judgment of, and confequently to the governing our paffions, and ordering our behaviour in respect to all those temporal evils, which either according to the Law of our nature, or the fortuitous course of things, or the particular difpenfation of providence do befall us. Upon the declaration of which point I need not infist much, fince what was before difcourfed concerning the oppofite goods doth plainly enough infer it; more immediately indeed in regard to the mala damni, or privationis, (the evils, which conlift onely in the want, or lofs of temporal goods) but fufficiently alfo by a manifest parity of reason in respect to the mala fenfus, the real pains, croffes and inconveniences, that affail us in this life. For if worldly glory do hence appear to be no more than a tranfient blaze, a fading fhew, a hollow found, a piece of theatrical pagean

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try,

try, the want thereof cannot be very confiderable to us. Obfcurity of condition (living in a valley beneath that dangerous height, and deceitfull luftre) cannot in reason be deemed a very fad or pitifull thing; which fhould displease, or difcompofe us; if we may thence learn that abundant wealth is rather a needlefs clog, or a perillous fnare, than any great convenience to us; we cannot well esteem to be poor a great infelicity, or to undergo loffes a grievous calamity; but rather a benefit to be free from the distractions that attend it; to have little to keep for others, little to care for our felves. If these present pleasures be discerned hence to be onely wild fugitive dreams; out of which being foon roused we shall onely find bitter regrets to abide; why fhould not the wanting opportunities of enjoying them be rather accompted a happy advantage, than any part of mifery to us? If it feem, that the greatest perfection of curious knowledge (of what

what use or ornament foever) after it is hardly purchased, must foon be parted with; to be fimple or ignorant will be no great matter of lamentation; as those will appear no folid goods, fo these confequently must be onely umbræ malorum, phantafms, Sen. Ep. 89. or fhadows of evil, rather than truly or substantially fo; (evils created by fancy and fubfifting thereby; which reason fhould, and time will furely remove.) That in being impatient or difconfolate for them, we are but like children, that fret and wail for the want of petty toys. And for the more real or pofitive evils, fuch as violently affault nature, whose impreffions no reafon can fo withstand, as to distinguish all diftast or afflictive sense of them; yet this confideration will aid to abate and affwage them; affording a certain hope and profpect of approaching redrefs. It is often feen at Sea, that Men (from unacquaintance with fuch agitations, or from brackish steams arifing from the falt Water)are

heartily

or

heartily fick, and discover themfelves to be fo by apparently grievous fymptoms; yet no man hardly there doth mind or pity them because the malady is not fuppofed dangerous, and within a while will probably of it felf pass over; that however, the remedy is not far off; the fight of Land, a taft of the fresh Air will relieve them: 'Tis near our Cafe: We paffing over this troublesome Sea of life: from unexperience, joined with the tenderness of our constitution, we cannot well endure the changes and croffes of fortune; to be toffed up and down; to fuck in the sharp vapours of penury, difgrace, fickness, and the like, doth beget a qualm in our ftomachs; make us nauseate all things, and appear forely diftempered; yet is not our condition fo difmal, as it seems; we may grow hardier, and wear out our fenfe of affiction; however, the Land is not far off, and by disembarking hence, we fhall fuddenly be discharged of

all