correction. [3595]"An expert seaman is tried in a tempest, a runner in a race, a captain in a battle, a valiant man in adversity, a Christian in tentation and misery.” Basil, hom. 8. We are sent as so many soldiers into this world, to strive with it, the flesh, the devil; our life is a warfare, and who knows it not? [3596]_Non est ad astra mollis e terris via_:  [3597]"and therefore peradventure this world here is made troublesome unto us,” that, as Gregory notes, “we should not be delighted by the way, and forget whither we are going.”

[3598] “Ite nunc fortes, ubi celsa magni
        Ducit exempli via, cur inertis
        Terga nudatis? superata tellus
                Sidera donat.”

Go on then merrily to heaven.  If the way be troublesome, and you in misery, in many grievances:  on the other side you have many pleasant sports, objects, sweet smells, delightsome tastes, music, meats, herbs, flowers, &c. to recreate your senses.  Or put case thou art now forsaken of the world, dejected, contemned, yet comfort thyself, as it was said to Agar in the wilderness, [3599]"God sees thee, he takes notice of thee:”  there is a God above that can vindicate thy cause, that can relieve thee.  And surely [3600]Seneca thinks he takes delight in seeing thee.  “The gods are well pleased when they see great men contending with adversity,” as we are to see men fight, or a man with a beast.  But these are toys in respect, [3601] “Behold,” saith he, “a spectacle worthy of God; a good man contented with his estate.”  A tyrant is the best sacrifice to Jupiter, as the ancients held, and his best object “a contented mind.”  For thy part then rest satisfied, “cast all thy care on him, thy burthen on him,” [3602]"rely on him, trust on him, and he shall nourish thee, care for thee, give thee thine heart’s desire;” say with David, “God is our hope and strength, in troubles ready to be found,” Psal. xlvi. 1. “for they that trust in the Lord shall be as Mount Zion, which cannot be removed,” Psal. cxxiv. 1. 2. “as the mountains are about Jerusalem, so is the Lord about his people, from henceforth and for ever.”

MEMB.  II.
Deformity of body, sickness, baseness of birth, peculiar discontents.

Particular discontents and grievances, are either of body, mind, or fortune, which as they wound the soul of man, produce this melancholy, and many great inconveniences, by that antidote of good counsel and persuasion may be eased or expelled.  Deformities and imperfections of our bodies, as lameness, crookedness, deafness, blindness, be they innate or accidental, torture many men:  yet this may comfort them, that those imperfections of the body do not a whit blemish the soul, or hinder the operations of it, but rather help and much increase it.  Thou art lame of body, deformed to the eye, yet this hinders not but that thou mayst be a good, a wise, upright, honest man. [3603]"Seldom,” saith Plutarch, “honesty and beauty dwell together,” and oftentimes under