punishments proposed to good and evil, which no free and voluntary
motion of their minds hath deserved. And that will seem most unjust
which is now judged most just, that either the wicked should be punished
or the good rewarded, since their own will leadeth them to neither, but
they are compelled by the certain necessity of that which is to come. By
which means virtues and vices shall be nothing, but rather there will
follow a mixed confusion of all deserts. And--than which there can be
nothing invented more impious--since that all order of things proceedeth
from Providence, and human counsels can do nothing, it followeth that
our vices also shall be referred to the author of goodness. Wherefore
there is no means left to hope or pray for anything, since an unflexible
course connecteth all things that can be desired! Wherefore that only
traffic betwixt God and men of hope and prayer shall be taken away: if
indeed by the price of just humility we deserve the unestimable benefit
of God's grace; for this is the only manner by which it seemeth that men
may talk with God, and by the very manner of supplication be joined to
that inaccessible light before they obtain anything; which if by the
admitting the necessity of future things, they be thought to have no
force, by what shall we be united and cleave to that Sovereign Prince of
all things? Wherefore mankind must needs (as thou saidest in thy verse a
little before), being separated and severed from its source, fail and
fall away.

[172] Hor. _Sat._ ii. 5. 59.

III.

Quaenam discors foedera rerum
Causa resoluit? Quis tanta deus
Veris statuit bella duobus,
Vt quae carptim singula constent
Eadem nolint mixta iugari? 5
An nulla est discordia ueris
Semperque sibi certa cohaerent?
Sed mens caecis obruta membris
Nequit oppressi luminis igne
Rerum tenues noscere nexus. 10
Sed cur tanto flagrat amore
Veri tectas reperire notas?
Scitne quod appetit anxia nosse?
Sed quis nota scire laborat?
At si nescit, quid caeca petit? 15
Quis enim quidquam nescius optet
Aut quis ualeat nescita sequi?
Quoue inueniat, quisque[173] repertam
Queat ignarus noscere formam?
An cum mentem cerneret altam, 20
Pariter summam et singula norat?
Nunc membrorum condita nube
No