Doth the wild ass bray when he hath grass? or loweth the ox over his fodder?

Ver. 5. Doth the wild ass bray when he hath grass?] q.d. Sure they do not. As if these creatures, wild or tame, want necessary food, you give them leave to fill the air with their outcries; yea, you supply their wants; but for me ye will do neither, such is your tenderness and love toward me. Nay, ye condemn me for that which is naturally common to all creatures. Ye must needs think I am not without ailment that make such great lamentations, unless ye conceit that I am fallen below the stirrup of reason, nay, of sense. It is easy for you who want neither grass nor fodder, or mixed meat, as the word signifieth, who lie at rack and manger, as it were, and have all that heart can wish, or need require; it is easy, I say, for you to rest contented, and to forbear complaints. But why am I so severely censured for impatient, who am stripped of all, and have nothing left me, praeter caelum et caenum, as he said, but only air to breathe in and a dunghill to sit on; not to speak of my inward troubles.

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