vidence, which governs
all the world, and hath so ordered us in the administration of his great
family. He were a strange fool that should be angry because dogs and
sheep need no shoes, and yet himself is full of care to get some. God
hath supplied those needs to them by natural provisions, and to thee by
an artificial: for he hath given thee reason to learn a trade, or some
means to make or buy them, so that it only differs in the manner of our
provision: and which had you rather want, shoes or reason? and my
patron, that hath given me a farm, is freer to me than if he gives a
loaf ready baked. But, however, all these gifts come from him, and
therefore it is fit he should dispense them as he pleases; and if we
murmur here, we may, at the next melancholy, be troubled that God did
not make us to be angels or stars. For if that which we are or have do
not content us, we may be troubled for every thing in the world which is
beside our being or our possessions.

God is the master of the scenes; we must not choose which part we shall
act; it concerns us only to be careful that we do it well, always
saying, "If this please God, let it be as it is:" and we, who pray that
God's will may be done in earth as it is in heaven, must remember that
the angels do whatsoever is commanded them, and go wherever they are
sent, and refuse no circumstances; and if their employment be crossed by
a higher decree, they sit down in peace, and rejoice in the event; and
when the angel of Judea could not prevail in behalf of the people
committed to his charge, because the angel of Persia opposed it, he only
told the story at the command of God, and was as content, and worshipped
with as great an ecstasy in his proportion, as the prevailing spirit. Do
thou so likewise: keep the station where God hath placed you, and you
shall never long for things without, but sit at home, feasting upon the
Divine Providence and thy own reason, by which we are taught that it is
necessary and reasonable to submit to God.

For is not all the world God's family? Are not we his creatures? Are we
not as clay in the hand of the potter? Do we not live upon his meat, and
move by his strength, and do our work by his light? Are we any thing but
what we are from him? And shall there be a mutiny among the flocks and
herds, because their lord or their shepherd chooses their pastures, and
suffers them not to wander into deserts and unknown ways? If we choose,
we do it so foolish