CHAP. XII.] APPENDIX TO HISTORY. 95 



God are so secret as to be absolutely unsearchable to man,* 

 yet the Divine goodness has sometimes thought fit, for the 

 confirmation of his own people, and the confutation of those 

 who are as without God in the world, to write them in such 

 capital letters, as they who run may read them. c Such are 

 the remarkable events and examples of God s judgments, 

 though late and unexpected, sudden and unhoped for delive 

 rances and blessings, Divine counsels dark and doubtful at 

 length opening and explaining themselves, &c. All which 

 have not only a power to confirm the minds of the faithful, 

 but to awaken and convince the conscience? oi the wicked. 



CHAPTER XII. 



The Appendix of History embraces the Words of Men, as the Body of 

 History includes their Exploits. Its Division into Speeches, Letters, 

 and Apophthegms. 



AND not only the actions of mankind, but also their say 

 ings, ought to be preserved, and may doubtless be sometimes 

 inserted in history, so far as they decently serve to illustrate 

 the narration of facts; but books of orations, epistles, and 

 apophthegms, are the proper repositories of human discourse. 

 The speeches of wise men upon matter of business, weighty 

 causes, or difficult points, are of great use, not only for elo 

 quence, but for the knowledge of things themselves. But 

 the letters of wise men upon serious affairs are yet more 

 serviceable in points of civil prudence, as of all human speech 

 nothing is more solid or excellent than such epistles, for 

 they contain more of natural sense than orations, and more 

 ripeness than occasional discourses : so letters of state affairs, 

 written in the order of time by those that manage them, 

 with their answers, afford the best materials for civil 

 history. 



Nor do apophthegms only serve for ornament and delight, 

 but also for action and civil use, as being the edge-tools of 

 speech, 



&quot; Secures aut mucrones verborura,&quot;* 

 which cut and penetrate the knots of business and affairs / 



k 1 Cor. ii. e Epis. to the Ephesians ii. ;md Habak. ii, 



Cicero T o Epis. Fam. ix. 



