Why should the foolish _World_ discourage Men, In just endurances? or bid them shunne Good _Actions_, 'cause they suffer now and then, For _Doing well_, as if some _Ill_ were done? Ere _Plates_ extended are, they must abide A thousand hamm’rings; And, then that which fill’d So little roome, it scarce your Hand could hide, Will serve a goodly _Monument_ to gild. So, he that hopes to winne an honest _Name_, Must many blowes of _Fortune_ undergoe, And hazard, oft, the blast of _Evill-Fame_, Before a _Good-Report_ her Trumpe will blow. A thousand _Worthies_ had unworthily Been raked up in Ashes and in Clay, Vnknowne and bury’d in _Obscurity_, If Malice had not fil’d their Rust away. But, lo; their lasting prayses now are spread, And rais’d, by _Adverse-Chance_, to such a height, That they most glorious are, now they are dead; And live in _Injuries_, and _Deaths_, despight. For, by _Afflictions_, man refined growes, And, (as the _Gold_ prepared in the _Fire_) Receiveth such a _Forme_ by wrongs and blowes, That hee becomes the _Iewell_ we desire. To thee therefore, _Oh God_! My Prayers are Not to be freed from Griefes and Troubles quite: But, that they may be such as I can beare; And, serve to make me precious in thy Sight. This please me shall, though all my Life time, I Betweene thine _Anvill_ and the _Hammer_, lie. _From thence, where =Nets= and =Snares= are layd, =Make-hast=; lest els you be betray’d._ [Illustration: MATVRA ILLVSTR. XVIII. _Book. 1._]