Page:A Discourse of Constancy in Two Books Chiefly containing Consolations Against Publick Evils.pdf/257

136236 [sic] so; why do we refuse the burdens, and punishments?

Sings the Roman Poet, and truly; had he not added undeservedly. For 'tis most deservedly, since our ancestours did deserve it. But the Poet could only see the effect: He ascended not to the cause; but as in one and the same Man, we justly punish in his old age, that offence, which he committed in his youth: So doth God the elder crimes of Empires and Kingdomes, because in respect of their outward communion, they are to him but one conjoyned thing. These intervalls of time do not divide us with him who comprehends all eternity in Rh