DUring my stay at Home, whilst every Body this Cur chanc’t to meet, made so much of their Landlord’s Spaniel, that they seem’d to have added to Oracles that Proverb of Love me, love my Dogg, the cajoll’d Cur would never keep at home; but being welcom’d to so many places abroad, made me few Visits, that cost me not the trouble of sending for him. But now, that we are in a place, where he sees not more Men than Strangers, he stirrs not from my Heels, and waits so close, and carefully, that it were now more difficult to lose him, than it was formerly to keep him from wandring. Thus doth it generally fare with us; whilst we are Environed with numerous outward Objects, which, smiling on us, give our Gaddings to them, the Temptation of an inviting welcome; how inclin’d are we to forget and wander from our great Master: But when we are depriv’d of those Enveigling Courters, our Maker too is freed from those seducing Rivals, and our undistracted Affections are brought to settle on their noblest Object, by the removal, and the displacing, as well as they would be by the Knowledge and the Undervaluation, of inferiour ones. Lord! when I lose a Friend, or any outward Idol of my Fondness, teach me to reduce him to leave thee his Heir, by taking that loss for a Summons, to transfer and settle my whole Love on Thee; and if Thou but vouchsafe to make me so happy, I shall think my self enough so, not to Envy him, to whom the loss of his Asses prov’d an occasion of his finding a Crown; and shall not so much Regret what thy Dispensations shall have taken from me, as Gratulate to my self their having reduc’d me unto Thee.
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