the world is right, holy, and just; and as we now acknowledge this, we must again repeat the oft-made resolution of committing ourselves to Thee in all circumstances, at all times, with quiet, confident hearts, and submitting cheerfully our will to all Thy decrees, whether they are sweet or bitter to our natural inclinations; and Thy decrees shall be dear to us for the sole reason that they come from Thee, O God! Drexelius writes that when Harpagus had unwittingly eaten some of the flesh of his own son, and the tyrant As ty ages, who had prepared the horrid banquet for him, placed the members of the son, such as the head, the arms, and the feet, before the father, and asked him whether he knew the head, and how he had liked what he had already eaten, Harpagus answered with downcast eyes: “All that the king does is well done, and is pleasing to me.” The philosopher Epictetus said that he would wish to utter sincerely and fervently these words when dying, directing them to God with an upright intention: “I willingly grew sick because Thou didst wish it; I was poor because it was Thy will; I was never in a position of authority to my great content, because Thou didst so ordain; hast Thou seen me sad on that account? Have I ever appeared before Thee with sorrowful countenance? I am ready for all that Thou wishest to lay on me or to command me. And my wish is that death may find me meditating, and writing and reading these things.”[1] O my Lord and my God, that barbarian who to please his king was satisfied to eat the flesh of his own son, that heathen who was so submissive to Thy will, how they put to shame the discontent, impatience, murmuring, and disobedience of which I have been guilty hitherto, whenever Thou didst require anything from me contrary to my inclination, although Thou hast bestowed on me so many marks of Thy favor! Ah, should I not rather therefore think and say: all that Thou, O God, dost is well done, and is pleasing to me too? Yes, so shall it be with me in future; all that Thou, O my God, wiliest I too shall desire; all that displeases Thee shall displease me too. What pleases Thee shall please me, because it is Thy will. If Thou wilt that I be poor then I wish to be poor, because it is Thy will; that I be despised and persecuted, then I wish to be so, because it is Thy will; that I lie sick and suffering, in
- ↑ Aegrotavi volens, quia tu voluisti: pauper fui, te volente: sed lætus uon imperavi, quia tu voluisti; numquid me hac de causa tristiorem vidisti? numquid unquam vultu minus hilari te accessi? paratus si quid mandes, si quid imperes. Hæc me cogitantem, hæc scribentem, hæc legentem occupet mors.—Arian. Epist. disput. 1. 3. c. 5.
