Justus Lipsius, On Constancy 1.13

The former impediments or lets being removed, we come in good earnest to the extenuating or taking away of public evils; which is assayed by four principal arguments. First here is spoke of Providence, which is proved to be in and over all human affairs. 

"I come now from skirmishes to handgrips, and from light bickerings to the main battle. I will lead forth all my soldiers in order under their ensigns, dividing them into four troops. 

"First I will prove that these public evils are imposed upon us by God himself. 

"Secondly, that they be necessary and by destiny. 

"Thirdly, that they are profitable for us. 

"Finally, that they are neither grievous nor strange. 

"To these troops, if they discharge their parts each one in his place, can the whole army of your sorrow make any resistance, or once open the mouth against me? No truly, I must have the victory. In token whereof sound the trumpets and strike up the drums. 

"Whereas, Lipsius, all affections that do disturb man's life proceed from a mind distempered and void of reason: yet none of them more in my conceit than that sorrow which is conceived for the commonwealth's sake. 

"For all others have some final cause and scope where to they tend: as the lover to enjoy his desire, the angry man to be avenged, the covetous churl to get, and so forth. Only this has no end proposed unto it. 

"And to restrain my talk unto some certainty, you, Lipsius, bewail the state of your country decaying. Tell me to what effect? Or what hope you to obtain thereby? To amend that which is amiss? To preserve that which is about to perish? Or by weeping to take away the plague or punishment that hangs over your country? 

"None of all these, but only that you may say with the common sort, 'I am sorry.' In all other respects your mourning is in vain and to no purpose. For that thing which is past, God himself would not have to be undone again. 

"Neither is this weeping of yours vain only, but also wicked and ungodly, if it be rightly considered. For you know well that there is an eternal spirit, whom we call God, which rules, guides, and governs the rolling spheres of heaven, the manifold courses of the stars and planets, the successive alterations of the elements, finally, all things whatsoever in heaven and earth. 

"Do you think that chance or fortune bears any sway in this excellent frame of the world? Or that the affairs of mortal men are carried headlong by chance medley? I know well you do not think not so, nor any man else that has either wisdom or wit in his head. It is the voice of nature itself, and which way soever we turn our eyes or minds, all things both mortal and immortal, heavenly and earthly, sensible and insensible do with open mouth cry out and affirm, that there is somewhat far above us that created and formed these so many wonderful works, which also continually governs and preserves the same. 

"This is God, to whose absolute perfection nothing is more agreeable than to be both able and willing to take the care and charge of his own workmanship. And why should he not be willing, seeing that he is the best of all? Why should he not be able, seeing he is the mightiest of all? Insofar as there is no strength above him, nor any but that proceeds from him, neither is he letted or troubled with the greatness or variety of all these things. 

"For this eternal light casts forth his bright beams everywhere, and in a moment pierces even into the bosom and bottom of the heavens, earth, and sea. It is not only president over all things, but present in them. And no marvel. What a great part of the world does the Sun lighten at once? What a mass of matter can our mind comprehend at once? O fools: cannot he that made this sun and this mind perceive and conceive far more things than they?  

"Well and divinely spoke one that had small skill in divinity: as is the pilot in a ship, the driver to his wagon, the cantor in a choir, the law in a commonwealth, and the general in an army, so is God in the world. Herein only is the difference, that their charge is to them laborsome, grievous, and painful. But God rules without all pain and labor or bodily striving. 

"Wherefore, Lipsius, there is in God a watchful and continual care, yet without anxiety, whereby he beholds, searches, and knows all things; and knowing them, disposes and orders the same by an immutable course to us unknown. 

"And this is it which here I call Providence, whereof some man through infirmity may grudge or complain, but not doubt, except he is benumbed of his senses, and besotted against nature."