over thee, thou art as bad as Job; yet tell me (saith Chrysostom) “was Job or the devil the greater conqueror? surely Job; the [3792]devil had his goods, he sat on the muck-hill and kept his good name; he lost his children, health, friends, but he kept his innocency; he lost his money, but he kept his confidence in God, which was better than any treasure.”  Do thou then as Job did, triumph as Job did, [3793]and be not molested as every fool is. Sed qua ratione potero?  How shall this be done?  Chrysostom answers, facile si coelum cogitaveris, with great facility, if thou shalt but meditate on heaven. [3794]Hannah wept sore, and troubled in mind, could not eat; “but why weepest thou,” said Elkanah her husband, “and why eatest thou not? why is thine heart troubled? am not I better to thee than ten sons?” and she was quiet.  Thou art here [3795]vexed in this world; but say to thyself, “Why art thou troubled, O my soul?” Is not God better to thee than all temporalities, and momentary pleasures of the world? be then pacified.  And though thou beest now peradventure in extreme want, [3796]it may be ’tis for thy further good, to try thy patience, as it did Job’s, and exercise thee in this life:  trust in God, and rely upon him, and thou shalt be [3797]crowned in the end.  What’s this life to eternity?  The world hath forsaken thee, thy friends and fortunes all are gone:  yet know this, that the very hairs of thine head are numbered, that God is a spectator of all thy miseries, he sees thy wrongs, woes, and wants. [3798]"’Tis his goodwill and pleasure it should be so, and he knows better what is for thy good than thou thyself.  His providence is over all, at all times; he hath set a guard of angels over us, and keeps us as the apple of his eye,” Ps. xvii. 8.  Some he doth exalt, prefer, bless with worldly riches, honours, offices, and preferments, as so many glistering stars he makes to shine above the rest:  some he doth miraculously protect from thieves, incursions, sword, fire, and all violent mischances, and as the [3799]poet feigns of that Lycian Pandarus, Lycaon’s son, when he shot at Menelaus the Grecian with a strong arm, and deadly arrow, Pallas, as a good mother keeps flies from her child’s face asleep, turned by the shaft, and made it hit on the buckle of his girdle; so some he solicitously defends, others he exposeth to danger, poverty, sickness, want, misery, he chastiseth and corrects, as to him seems best, in his deep, unsearchable and secret judgment, and all for our good.  “The tyrant took the city” (saith [3800]Chrysostom), “God did not hinder it; led them away captives, so God would have it; he bound them, God yielded to it:  flung them into the furnace, God permitted it:  heat the oven hotter, it was granted:  and when the tyrant had done his worst, God showed his power, and the children’s patience; he freed them:”  so can he thee, and can [3801]help in an instant, when it seems to him good. [3802] “Rejoice not against me, O my enemy; for though I fall, I shall