Page:A Discourse of Constancy in Two Books Chiefly containing Consolations Against Publick Evils.pdf/202

Chap. 8. in their education; but Fathers who preserve them, by acquainting them with hardship. Now God is our Father, and therefore as he doth truly so he severely loves us. If you would be a Pilot, you must be brought up amongst stormes; if a Souldier, you must be trained up in dangers; and if you would be truly a Man, why do you start at afflictions, since there is no other way to acquire strength. Do you see those languishing and retir'd Bodies, whom the Sun seldom looks upon, the wind never assails, and the more piercing air never lights upon; the Minds of those soft and ever happy Men, are such as the least gust of an angry Fortune will overturn and dissolve. Afflictions then do strengthen us, and as trees fasten their roots the deeper by how much the more they are shaken with the Winds; so good Men become the more fixed in vertue, when attempted by the storms of adversity. Af- Rh