Fables of Æsop and Other Eminent Mythologists/Fable CLXXIX
Fab. CLXXIX.
A Crow and a Dog.
A Crow Invited a Dog to Joyn in a Sacrifice to Minerva. That will be to no Purpose (says the Dog) for the Goddess has such an Aversion to ye, that you are Particularly Excluded out of all Auguries. Ay, says the Crow, but I'll Sacrifice the rather to her for That, to try if I can make her my Friend.
The MORAL.
REFLEXION.
THIS Pagan Fable will bear a Christian Moral, for more People Worship for Fear, and for Tnterest, then for Love and Devotion. As the Indians do the Devils, That they may not Hurt ‘em. It Teaches us farther, that we are not to take Pet, or Despond, under any Cross or Calamity that the Almighty is pleased to lay upon us. The Judgments of Heaven are Just, and let them fall never so Heavy, they are yet less then we deserve. The Devil Himself, when he was let loose upon Job, could not Transport That Patient, Good Man beyond his Temper, or make him Quit his Hold. Resignation and Perseverance are All that a Man has to Trust to in This Extremity. There's no Good to be done by Struggling, nor any way left us to make our Peace with, but to try by Faith, Prayer, a New Life, if we can make our Offended Master Once again our Friend. So that upon the Upshot, Afflictions are but the Methods of a Merciful Providence, to Force us upon the only Means of setting Matters Right, betwixt Divine Justice and Humane Frailty.