But these radiations
of favour are not always felt by the sincerest penitents. To the greater
part of those whom angels stand ready to receive, nothing is granted in
this world beyond rational hope; and with hope, founded on promise, we
may well be satisfied.'
[868] 'I do not find anything able to reconcile us to death but
extreme pain, shame or despair; for poverty, imprisonment, ill fortune,
grief, sickness and old age do generally fail.' _Swift's Works_, ed.
1803, xiv. 178.
[869] 'I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have
kept the faith: henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of
righteousness.' 2 _Timothy_, iv. 7 and 8.
[870] See _ante_, p. 154.
[871] 'Inde illud Maecenatis turpissimum votum, quo et debilitatem non
recusat, et deformitatem, et novissime acutam crucem dummodo inter haec
mala spiritus prorogetur.
"Debilem facito manu,
Debilem pede, coxa;
Tuber adstrue gibberum,
Lubricos quate dentes;
Vita dum superest, bene est;
Hanc mihi vel acuta
Si sedeam cruce sustine."'
Seneca's _Epistles_, No. 101.
Dryden makes Gonsalvo say in _The Rival Ladies_, act iv. sc. 1:--
'For men with horrour dissolution meet,
The minutes e'en of painful life are sweet.
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