The whole Verse runs thus; ‘ Boast not of to Morrow; for thou know'st not what a Day may bring forth.’

THis verse is one of Solomons Proverbs spoken of 1 Reg. 4. 32. where we read that Solomon spake three thou­sand Proverbs, and his Songs were a thousand and five.

Now a Proverb is a speech of an Absolute and Independent nature. For which cause I shall not look back upon it as any ways Relative, but as standing by it self upon its own account.

And in this Proverb two generall things are considerable.

• 1. A Prohibition, Boast not of to morrow.
• 2. A Reason of it, For thou knowest not, &c.

And in the Reason there are three Particulars observable.

1. The Birth: And this is implied in the rela­tive Quid, which hath alwayes an Aliquid it relates unto, viz. some good or evil to be de­liver'd of.

2. The Parent that brings it forth: And this is A Day, or every particular Veritas temporis filia, Aul. Gell. Noct. Attic. lib. 12. cap. 12. day. For as Truth is the daugh­ter of Time; so also is Falshood. It is Time that brings forth [Page 2] Births that are diversly shapen, both good and evill, strait and crooked, beautifull and defor­med, perfectly membred and monstrous. Our Gazetts and Diurnals can satisfie us thus far.

3. The Persons that do ignorantly gaze after the Birth: And they are every man, Tu homo. And if it be ask'd then Who doth know it; it is answered, Only tu Domine. For secret things belong to the Lord, sayes Moses: And fu­ture [...]. 28. 28. things are those secrets that God hath kept lock'd up from us in his own Bosome; He only knowing them a parte ante, we but a parte post. For as Bildad says, so may we, Hesterni sumus, Job. 8. 9. That we are but Yesterdayes off-spring and know nothing, no, not so much as the issue of one Day, what it will produce. Thou Know'st not what a Day may bring forth.

And here I shall begin with the last of the three, viz. The persons that do ignorantly gaze after the Birth; And they are Every man; Tu homo. And the rather because it is first in the Text, and comprehensive of the rest. The sub­stance whereof I shall hold out unto you in two Propositions.

1. That no man can tell the Future Event of things, no not for a day: and this comes to passe from the great vicissitude and unconstancy of all worldly things. Or else, if I may but take in this Reason into the Proposition, then I shall run it thus;

That there is such a Vicissitude and Incon­stancy in all Sublunary things, as that a man can have no assurance of them, no not for a day. We know not what a Day may bring forth.

[Page 3] For in the great House of the World there be three Roomes; whereof the upper and lower have no change, nor shadow of change, the one being full of eternall Glory, the other of Tor­ment; only this middle-most is fill'd with no­thing but Instability.

2. That it is God alone knows all future things. For this word Thou is here put signan­ter, with an Emphasis upon it: Thou know'st not. As if he had said, Though the Knowledge of all Contingencies be hid from Man, yet are they known to God as if they were present. For which cause God hath his Name from the pre­sent, I am that I am; there being with him neither Exod. 3. 14. time past, nor time to come, but all being present.

First [...]hen for the former of the two.

Now for the orderly handling of this, that I may give some stays and rests to your memories, I shall lay before you these five things.

• 1. What this Vicissitude is.
• 2. That there is such a Vicissitude.
• 3. The Efficient Causes of it.
• 4. The Ends or Final Causes of it.
• 5. The Uses of it.

The first thing then is, Quid sit.

Where know that by Vicissitude here I do not I understand such a mutation as is the utter anni­hilation of the Creatures Essence and Being; be­cause God having made all things, doth not ut­terly destroy any thing that he hath made, ac­cording to that of S. Paul 1 Cor. 7. 31. The fashion of the world passes away, (fi­gura mundi, non natura, as Aretius Aretius in locum. glosses it;) But such a one as doth [Page 4] [...] alter it in its present estate and condition; [...] particular estate and condition of a thing [...]ing the proper object of Vicissitude. Neither [...] again every mutation of a things particular estate and condition that is the proper object of Vicissitude, but only such a mutation as is reci­procall: i. e. such a change, as hath like the Sea its Flu [...]us and Refluxus, its Ebbings and Flow­ings from one estate to another. And this too we do not understand in a Morall, but in a Na­turall way. For there may be a Morall change from good to evil, and back again from evil to good, which [...]et we cannot call by the name of Vicissitude. But the Vicissitude here spoken of is only in Naturall and Worldly things, which have such a circular motion here, and are so un­constant in it, as that there can be no Insurance made of them in this great Exchange of the World, because we know not concerning them what a day may bring forth. And so much for the first thing.

The second is the Demonstration of this [...] Truth, That there is such a Vicissitude.

And this I shall do, First, by expresse places of Scripture. Secondly, by some Instances of it.

First, by some expresse places of Scripture. And herethe Preacher hath a good saying, Eccle­siastes 7. 14. In the day of Prosperity be joyfull, but in the day of Adversi [...] consider. And the thing we are to consider of is, That God hath set the one over against the other. His meaning is, That God hath ordered things here with a great deal of change and variety; As that he hath set Pro­sperity over against Adversity, and again, Ad­versity over against Prosperity, even as Light [Page 5] and Darknesse, to succeed each [...] by a con­stant intercourse: To the end, says he, That man should find nothing after him: i. e. that so by this interchangeable dealing of God, no man should be able to find out infallibly what his after e­state shall be in this world, whether happy or else miserable. Again consult that of S. Paul 1 Cor. 7. 31. where the world Videtar bic allu­sisse ad Scenas, in quibus a [...]laea momento compli­cal a novam red­dunt faciem. Calvin. in locum, Nemo est Qui Deum credat sibi tam faven­tem, Cra­stinum ut possit sibi polli. eri. Sen. Thy­est. trag. 3 [...] and all things in it are compa­red to a Scene in a Comedy, which being changed on the suddain, some new matter is pre­sently presented to the eyes of the Spectatours. And S. James again to the same purpose cap. 4. vers. 13. & 14. Go to, &c. The speech is Ironicall, as deriding those who think all things here below to be of a standing nature: when as the wheel of all sub­lunary things is so turning, that a man cannot tell what turn shall be on the morrow. That as the Scripture sayes of Ita. 22. 18. Shebna, That God should turn and tosse Huic affine est il­lud Plautinum, Enim vero, dii nos quasi pilas, homi­nes habēt. Plaut. in Capt. Scen. 1. him like a Ball: so are all out­ward things turn'd and toss'd up and down by the Racket of Gods Power, and Providence, even as a man rackets a ball to & fro from one place to another.

Secondly, I shall demonstrate this by severall instances. And O si possemus in talem ascendero socculam, ut to­tius Orbis osten­derem ruinas. Hieron. l. 2. ad Heliod. here methinks I could wish with S. Jerom, that I were now in the top of such a Watch-tower, that I might discover unto you the ru­ines and alterations of all things [Page 6] in the world, from the beginning of the Creation to this day; and present this lively to your eyes, which I am fain to do now only to your minds and understandings; that so I might be able to say with the prophet David, Psal. 46. 8. Come and behold the works of the Lord, what desola­tions, so what changes and alterations, he hath wrought in the world! For one generation, says the Preacher, is passing away, and another comes: Ecclesiast. 1. 4. neither is there any thing here so fix'd, that it can say of it self as the false Prophets did, Erit sicut Isa. 56. last. Sic vulg. Latin. hodie, sic & cras, Tomorrow shall be with me as this day; Since no man knows what a day may bring forth. Now this I shall hold out unto you in a threefold respect, that ye may be the more affected with it.

First, in relation to Politick Estates and Go­vernments.

Secondly, to continued Families, or Races of men that are lineally successive for Name and Greatnesse.

Thirdly, to particular Persons.

In all which if I be more historicall then o­therwise I would, it must be imputed to the pre­sent Subject, which is of that nature, and re­quires it of me.

First then I shall consider it in relation to Politick Estates and Governments: whether we consider them either as drawn out in length in Monarchies; or else as drawn up short in Ci­ties, which are nothing else but Empires epito­mized, or Republicks bound up in a lesser vo­lume.

First then I shall demonstrate this unto you in Monarchies, which Bodine tells us are more du­durable Lib. 4. de cep. c. 1. [Page 7] then Popular States, because lesse sub­ject to be divided, (Unity being the great Pre­server of all things:) and yet have these had, Dies, hora, momentum e­vertendis dominationibus sufficit, quae adamanti­nis credebantur radicibus esse fundatae. Sir Walt. Rawl. preface out of Ca­saub. as the Moon, not only their increase and full light, but also their wain and changes, and this sometimes in a moment. That as in Musick you shall hear sometimes a string tun'd up to its ultimum potentiae, as high as it will bear, and presently depressed again to the lowest Key, and another elevated, yet both of them breathing but light aires and of short continuance: So may you see a Monarchy now wound up to the highest pitch of Happiness, and by and by let down a­gain into the lowest Regnorum initia, incre­me [...]eum & occasus à De [...] pendent. Phil. de Commi­nes lib. 7. depths of misery. This is the Lords doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes.

And here I shall begin with those Empires and Monarchies that were most famous among the rest.

For how soon was the Assyrian or Babylo­nian Monarchy swallow'd up by the Persian, the Persian by the Greek or Macedonian Empire, and the Greek by the Roman? which the Pro­phet Daniel presents unto us by the Gold, Silver, Brasse and Iron whereof Nebuchadnezzars I­mage consisted, Dan. 2. 32. The dissolution of one, as in naturall things, so here, being still the generation of another; and again the erection of the later being the destruction of the former.

[Page 8] And as for the Romane Monar­chy, their own Historian can tell 1. Flor. in a­ditu ad hist. us of that, how it had both its Infancy, Youth, Manhood, and Imperiorum nunc floret for­tuna, nunc se­ [...]scit, nunc in­terit, Pater [...]. hist. lib. 2. Old age as it were by turnes. As its Infancy under Kings, its Youth under Consuls, its Manhood from the first Punick warre unto the time of Augustus Caesar, and from that time its Old age under the succeeding Emperours; untill at length that solid Body was torn asunder by the struglings of her own Children, into the Eastern and Western Em­pires, whereof the former was soon eaten out by the Turks and Saracens, and the later also fell away much after a little revolution of time, by the falling off of divers Nations from her, each of which after they had pluck'd off their own feathers from the Roman Eagle, left her al­most naked; As the Franks and Burgundians in France, the Goths in Spain, the Normans and Lombards in Italy, together with the English and Scots in Britain: untill at the last cast the Roman Monarchy began a little to recall her self into Germany, where she hath held up since little more then the bare name of the Empire. So that Vicissitude you see is the great Empresse of the world, unto whose unstay'd dominion all earthly Powers and Principalities must be sub­ject, even those that are of the first Magnitude, much more others that move in a lower Orbe.

And of these I shall single out only three, which I conceive most eminent, to be instanced in for this point.

The first is Judea, whose government was [Page 9] Monarchically settled by God himself; yet how See 1 Sam. cap. 10. oft did she change her Lords and Masters, yield­ing her self as it were successively first to the Ba­bylonian, and after that to the Roman, Persian, Saracen, Christian, Aegyptian, and now to the Turkish power? That as the Ovid. Poet spake of Troy; fuit Ilium; so may we of Jerusalem, her Metropolis, fuit Hierosolyma, that Jerusa­lem was, She was great among the Nations, or Lam. 1. 1 [...] Domina Gentium, the Lady of the Nations, as the Vulgar Latin reads it. But now, Non sic ut olim, It hath not been with her for these many generations past as in former days, (to use Job's words in his twenty ninth chapter, second and third verses) when God preserv'd her, when his Candle shined upon her head, and when by that light she walk'd through darknesse; but Servants Lam. 5. 8. have ruled over her, and there was none to deli­ver her out of their hands. Which is a good le­cture of Mutability to other Kingdomes and their Mother-cities. For Jerusalem was once a holy and happy city, and had been happy still, had she but continued holy; but that failing, How Lam. 4. 1. is her Gold become dimme, how is her fine Gold chang'd into Drosse! as she complains her self.

The second Example I produce here is Na­ples, As Pertinax the Empe­rour was call'd Pila For­tunae; Nam quod Ethni­ci Fortunam, nos Christi­ani providentiam appella­mus. Aurel. Vict. Epitom. which we may well call the Ball of Provi­dence: And indeed so it was, being bandyed from one Lord to another ten severall times, before it came to lie (as now it doth) at the foot of Spain. For being a coun­trey at first diversly peopled, it was upon the di­vision [Page 10] allotted to the Eastern Emperours, but from them forc'd by the Almains, and so to the Greeks and Saracens, and then successively hur­ried about to the Normans, Germans, French, Hungarians, Arragonoys, and from them to the French again; till in the end the Spaniard seised upon it: and whether it will continue long with him or no, is very uncertain; especially if we remember how of late years a poor Fisherman, (Massionello by See Howels rela­tion of it lately printed. name) snatch'd up the reines of Government from; him & (had not God otherwise determined of that King­dome by infatuating that Mushrome King) for ought we know, he might have runne quite a­way with them, so slippery are all earthly King­domes!

3. But not to look out any longer to other nations of Christendome, (methinks) we may instance this best by reflecting upon our selves. For you all know (I suppose) how the Romans, Saxons, Danes and Normans had each of them their severall and alternate dayes of Lordship over this Nation; but yet because they did not know in those their days the things that be­long'd unto their Peace, how do we see the sha­dows of the night stretched out upon them, their Suns set with us, and their days shut in!

The longest day we read of was that in Jo­sudh's Josh. 10. 13. time, wherein though the Sun stood still in Gibeon for the space of a whole day, yet set it did at last.

The day of the Romans was long upon our Horizon, for the See our Engl. Chronicle. Sun of their prosperity shone [Page 11] here for the space of four hundred years and more; Yet did it then go down as to us in this Na­tion, and Darknesse here now doth lie upon it.

Again, the day of the Saxons continued five hundred years and up­wards; So long they tyranni­zed here, but reign'donly twenty six under Ca­nute, Harold and Hardie Canute. That of the Danes two hundred fifty five years or there abouts.

And how long the day of the Normans hath lasted every petty Almanack can tell us. I, and if none of those Suns come to rise again within our Hemisphere (when the sins of this Nation are ripe, and call for Gods sickle to cut them down) its beside his ordinary rule, which usually runs out all humane things by a changeable cir­cumference; for so Solomon tells us in his book of Ecclesiastes, That the Sun rises, and the Sun Chap. 1. vers. 5. goes down, & hasteth to the place where he arose.

Neither is this all, that the Powers and Prin­cipalities on earth are upon a daily turn, but as the Primum Mobile (you know) carries about the other Spheres; so do these carry about many other changes and alterations with them: As that of Religion, Laws, Liberties, Sciences, Cu­stoms and such like. Nay, even the Houses of God, which before to violate was held a crime inexpiable, yet are they now upon such removes broken down without scruple; and the very The beathen therefore did supe [...]cribe their Urn [...] thus, Diis manibus Sa­crum: And the Christi­ans set Deo Opt. Max. Sa­crum upon their To [...]bes and Gravestones. Urns of the Dead, which have been alwayes look'd upon as sacred Cabinets to preserve the bodies of Gods Saints in [Page 12] for Eternity, yet are they now broken up, and their Ashes thrown about (such is the unsetled­nesse of all things here below) even as the vi­lest Dust upon the face of the earth.

Beloved, it hath been ever thus upon the conversion of such great bodies, and it is so still: For never was Res Deus Ho­stras celeri cita­tas turbine ver­savit. Sen. in [...]hyest. there any conversion in this Land like to that our eyes have seen of late; That if any one should have slept but some few years last past (as the Ancients fain of Epimenides) and should Quinquaginta annos dorm [...]isse fingitur. have awaked again in these times, how would he wonder at those strange Metamorphoses that are now a­mong us, there being Nova rerum facies, A new face of things both in Church and State! Insomuch I heard Mr Har­ding say, He sought for Rome in Rome and could not find her. Juel in his A­pology, 2. part, divis. 21. (as Mr Harding spake some­times of Rome, That he did quaerere Romam in Roma, That he did seek Rome in Rome, and could not find it,) so may we say now, That we may quoerere Angliam in Anglia, That we may now seek for old England in our new England, and yet go without it, it is so much chang'd from what it was before.

And as we have seen much of this already, so who knows but we may come to see a great deal more hereafter? Since we know not what a Day may bring forth.

Secondly, Neither is this true only in Empires and Monarchies, but also in Cities and their [Page 13] popular Governments. Etiam summis negatum est urbibus stare diu, says the Moralist. And to Seneca. this purpose tends that of the Authour to the Cain therefore sayes Saint Augustine, built a city, but Abel none Civitas e­nim Sanctorum superna. Lib. 15. de Civit. Dei cap. 1. Hebrews, Heb. 13. 14. We have here no abiding city, but we look for one to come, whose founda­tion is in the heavens.

There is then no City on earth, nor any kind of Government in it that ever stood up long in one posture, none that ever was, or shall be abiding. Passeye up to Calneh and see, saies the Prophet, Amos 6. 2. and from hence go to Hemath the Great, and so to Gath of the Philistins. So passe ye up to Athens, the eye of Greece for Know­ledge and humane Literature, and see, and from thence go to Rome, the head of the Western Em­pire, and so come to Florence, the beauty of I­taly; (for I forbear to name more, Examples in this kinde being almost infinite) in all which you may read this truth at large.

And first for Athens: How many changes of Governours and Governments did she endure? putting her self off from hereditary Kings to Archons, or Aristocraticall Lords, who govern'd first for terme of life, then decennially, and af­ter these to Democraticall Rulers.

Next for Rome; how oft hath that By Brennus King of the Gauls Anno Mundi 3562; By Alaricus King of the Goths An. Christ. 410. By Gensericus King of the Vandals 447. &c. and by the Duke of Butbon An. 1527. vide plura in Bucholcer. chronol. city been alter'd by Gauls, Hunnes, Goths and Vandals?

Yea how oft hath the Government of [Page 14] it been pass'd away from one hand to ano­ther.

It is mystically represented to us Rev. 17. 3. by the Beast of seven heads, which is there in­terpreted by the seven Hills it is built upon, to be Rome: And Idèo dicta est Ro­ma urbs Septicallis, Godwin Antiq. lib. 1. cap. 1. according to the number of those Hills, to so many ma­sters did it submit it self, who had their severall turnes of su­preme power and regiment o­ver Vide Tacit. ad initium hist. her; as Kings, Consuls, Di­ctators, Decemviri, Tribunes, Emperous and Popes: under the last of which I do not find that Downh. de An­tich. lib. 1. c. 4. it was ever besieged by any that took it not; such strange ebbings hath that Sea had experience of!

Last of all for Florence. It is strange to tell what various whirlings about that hath had in point of supreme rule and power. For at first the Nobility ruled it in an Aristocraticall way. But a little after some Grandees among the peo­ple wrested it to themselves: who being tired out with continuall quarrellings one with ano­ther, (for the people were divided into three ranks) the middle sort of them took upon them the management of the State. And these also falling quickly together by the eares, the third and lowest sort became masters of it. Which holding not long by reason of their mutuall dis­cords, they yield themselves and the government of their Vide Machiavil [...] Hist. of Florence. City unto Charles of France, brother to Lewis the ninth; [Page 15] who within a short time being invited to the Kingdome of Naples, and leaving only Depu­ties at Florence, the Florentines return to their Popular Government, and renew their civill warres among themselves. For redresse where of they send for the Duke of Athens, and give up all to him. But shortly they supposing themselves to be brought in bondage, and to be despoiled of their liberty by the fear of his guard, banish him the City, and within lesse then one years space shake off his government over them. After which they come to an Aristocracie again, de­vising new Names and Officers for their Magi­strates, and changing and rechanging them so oft, that sometimes their State was no better or­der'd then if it had been committed to mad men or children without discretion, the city scarce twenty yeares together keeping the same forme of State: but as sick men in fevers (says Lib. 4. de Rep. cap. 1. Bodi­nus) desire to be remo­ved now hither, and by and by thither, or from Quid refert quod alibi fuerit oeger, cum non ali­us, locumve mutârit, cum non exuat oegritudi­nem? Lipsius de Con [...]. Quocunque oegrum trans­tuleris, secum morbum transferet. Sen. Epist. 17. one bed to another, as if the disease were in the places where they lay, and not in the intralls of their own bodies; so were the Florentines still turning their State, till they turnd it into the hands of the Medices, who now hold it. A thing almost incredible (says he) did not their own Recorder leave it recorded to posterity.

But in the second place let us descend to Families or Races of men that are li­neally [Page 16] successive for Name and Greatnesse.

And here let me ask, where are those Illustri­ous Families cried up so much in former times, and famous in their generations?

As the Cou­ragious Fami­ly of the Mac­cabees Eight Maceabean Princes and Kings swayd the sceptre of Jewry one after another: So also did eleven Ptolemies in Aegypt, till the Romans made themselves heires to it. in Jew­ry, and of the Ptolemies in Ae­gypt.

Again, where The Zelzuccian Line or Family gave way to the Oguzian or Ottoman Fa­mily that now reigns: So did the Pa­laeologi after seven successions. is the Zelzuc­cian Family in the lesser A­sia, and the Imperiall Family of the Palaeologi in Greece?

That of the There were 21 Kings of this line in France one after another descended from Meroveus; These yielded to Pip­pin the first of the second race, whose line ended in Ludovic [...]s the fifth; and then came in the Capets, the present King being the thirtieth from Hugh Capet, and of the F [...]ench bloud. M [...]rovignians in France?

Of the Plan­tagenets in Eng­land, with ma­ny The Name and Glory of the Planta­genets was swallow'd up of the Tu­dors in Henry the seventh, who mar­ried Elizabeth the Heir of the York­ish House. Hell. Geogr. more of this rank I might name, did not the narow com­passe of so small a Treatise bound me?

Tell me, is not the Name and Greatnesse of these Families long since expired, the Roots and [Page 17] Branches of them quite remov'd, and others planted in their roomes? Examples of this sort are innumerable, as Elihu saies in Job: He breaks in pieces mighty men without number; Job 34. 24. (so mighty Families without number) and sets up others in their stead.

And as for such Families as are of a lower forme, we need not go farre, since our own knowledge here will lead us to continuall chan­ges and alterations.

For thou hast seen it may be many Families heretofore in this Nation, brim full of earthly happinesse, and running over; and now upon thy second view of them behold there is no such thing, but they are much alter'd, and running very low in the world, if not clean run out.

So that prosperity (you see) was never yet so entail'd upon any Family, and the Heirs thereof, but within a little time some one or o­ther hath cut it off.

But last of all, if we look upon particu­lar persons, this will appear most evident; but especially if we consider them three wayes. In respect of their Bodies, Minds, and Estates.

Gregory Nazianzen hath an ex­cellent saying of the two former In his Ora­tion de Spi­ritu Sancto. joyntly consider'd, which is this; [...] i. e. We are not mixt creatures only, but also contra­ry both to others and our selves: not continuing truly the same no not so much as one day; but both in regard of our bodies and minds [Page 18] perpetually flowing and perpetually changing.

And we can instance this in all the stages of our life, wherein by the ordinary course of nature, we are first weak, and then strong, and after weak again. As in our Childhood we are then weak both in Body and Mind; in our Youth, strong in Body and weak in Mind; and in our Manhood strong in both; but in our Old age strong in Mind and weak in Body; and in our Decrepit, weak again in both, as we were Senes bis pueri. in our Childhood at the first.

But to leave this generall consideration of them, and to look upon them now more distinct­ly and severally by themselves. And first for the change of particular Persons in regard of their Bodies.

And here it is true of them what Seneca af­firms, In his E­pist. viz. That no man is the same to day, he was yesterday: Ego ipse (says he) dum haec lo­quor mutari, mutatus sum. Our Bodies (says he) are like a River, which keeps nothing but the bare name that was first given it; for as touching the present individuall matter which is the watry substance of it, this is alwayes transient, and other comes into its room: And so it is with the Body of man, which is alwayes receiving in new air and life, and venting the former. Which makes David professe of him­self, that he was toss'd up and down like the lo­cust; and Job compare man for his bodily sub­stance to a Flower that never continues in one stay, Job 14. 2. For now we are strong, and by and by weak; now beautifull, and present­ly deformed. A little Fit of the Feaver, Small Pox, or the like, alters us so, as if we were [Page 19] not the same men we were before; insomuch that we hear some speaking thus unto us,— Heu Ovid. quantum mutatus ab illo! Alas, how hath this fit alter'd you from what you were in your health! for how are your lips grown pallid, your cheeks discolour'd, your eyes sunck into their holes, and your face quite disfigur'd! And o­thers there be of our acquaintance that like Jobs three friends do lift up their eyes afarre off, Job 2. 12. and know us not; so much are we chang'd in respect of our Bodies!

But secondly, Let us consider it also in re­spect of mens minds.

And here (to say nothing of a morall Rebus cunctis inest qui­dam velut Orbis, ut quem­admodum temporū vices, ita & Morum vertan­tur: Tacit. Annal. lib. 3. change, which is obvi­ous every where) as on the one side we find nothing more notable Quinquennio Neronis, then the first five years of Nero's Reigne, and more excellent then his Youth; Yet afterwads having well tasted the sweet morsell of Soveraignty, he be­came Bodin. de rep. lib. 4. cap. 1. (says one) the most de­testable Tyrant that ever was: And so also of Herod the Great Philo says, that he reign'd six years as a good and just Prince, presenting the Protasis of his Reign with a large Fringe of Goodnesse about it; (as Joaz, Amazias, and Ozias did) but as for the Catastrophe of it, that was very sad and fearfull. So on the other side, we find Manas­soh and Paul soaking the forepart of their lives in blood, being no better at first then [Page 20] Nero was at the last, even a piece of clay temper'd with bloud; Lutum fanguine commixtum. S [...] ­eton. in vita. yet was their end like the end of Davids good man, The end of that man is peace. Psal. 37. 37. But to wave these, (whereof much might be said, did it not quite lye out of my road I am now in.) and to insist only upon the changea­blenesse that doth naturally adhere to the Mind of man.

Now tell me, if any thing in the world may be said to be more moveable then the Mind of man.

It is a spirituall substance, and so is alwayes moving (though insensibly) from one thing unto another, never resting, untill at last like Noah's dove it be taken into the Heavenly Ark. S. Talis est mens cum pennas acceperit. Homil. 22. ad Hebraeos. Chrysostome therefore com­pares it to a Bird which flies in a moment of time over mountains and hills, over seas and rocks, without any hindrance: for now it is upon the lowest Shrub, and presently upon the highest branch of the tallest Cedar; now upon heavenly, and within the twinkling of an eye upon earthly things; now at Dan, and in a trice at Beersheba; now at one part of the earth and then at another; for sometimes it is soring after Principalities and Powers, and spi­rituall Eph. 6. 12 Wickednesses in high places, as the A­postle speaks, then after Riches, and by and by after Pleasures; now rejoycing, and then sor­rowing; now quieted, and immediately trou­bled, and as soon pacified again; now ho­ping, [Page 21] and straightway fearing those hopes; now loving, and then hating what it loved be­fore: Sic omnia mutabilitati subjacent (saies Saint Augustine.) Thus do all things lie down In his se­cond soli­l [...]quy. under mutability! And it amazed Saint Bernard Illud supra modum stu­pendum, quod sub eodem momento contrariis affe­ctibus distrabor; Bern. de inter. dom. c. 64. ubi plura. much to consider how in the same moment of time his mind was not only diversly, but like­wise contrarily affected, and as it were pull'd a pieces betwixt love and hatred, joy and sorrow, fear and hope, having as many varieties of affections within him, as there were diversities of things in the world for them to light upon.

So that you see how the severall Passions of our Minds do in a breath, and with the turning of a hand streere divers wayes, first looking one way and then another, according as they are wheeled about with the motions of outward Contingencies.

But in the last place we shall adde unto the former the great changes that particular men are subject to in regard of their outward Estates Habet suas vices conditio mortalium, ut adversa ex secundis, ex adversis iti­dem secunda nascantur, Plin. jun. in his Pane­gyr. to Trajan. and Fortunes. For the condition of Mortals (says a heathen man) hath its turnes and re­turnes, both of Prospe­rity and Adversity.

That as in a military skirmish there be some come up to discharge, while others fall off: so is it in the World's Militia.

[Page 22]One there is that is rais'd out of the Dust to sit among Princes: whereas there is another that is slung down from the pinnacle of worldly joy and prosperity and stated, as Job was, upon the Dunghill. And this doth the Preacher tell us Ecelesi [...]st. cap. 4. ver. 14. among the rest of those changes that fell under his observation, That one comes out of Prison to reign, (as Queen Elizabeth did out of the Tow­er to the Throne) whereas also there is he that is born in his Kingdome and be­comes very poor; (as our Hen­ry [...] pag. 110. the third was, while he lived somtimes on the Churches Alms.)

God hath appointed us (saith one well) all our parts to play, Sr Walt. Rawl. in Praef. to his hist. of the world. and hath not in their distri­bution been either spare-hand­ed to the meanest, nor yet partiall to the greatest.

He gave Caius Marius at first the part of a Carpenters sonne; but afterwards the part of one that was seven times Consul. So also Agathocles the part of a Potters son at the first, but afterwards of the King of Sicily.

So also on the other side Darius playd the part one while of the greatest Emperour, and another time of the most miserable Beggar, beg­ging but a little water to quench the drought of Death. And Bajazet playd the Grand Signior in the morning, but in the evening stood for Tamerlains footstool.

And Jane Shore, Edward the fourths Minion, acts now as Mistresse of a stately Pallace, and a little after dies in a ditch for want of a house; and (as he said of Icarus) so may we of Ovid. Epist. [Page 23] her, that— Nomina fecit aquis, she gave name to the place where she died, it being call'd from her Shore-ditch to this day.

But I forbear, since there is enough recorded for our use in the sacred Scriptures to this purpose; where we find an example of the one in David, Psal. 78. 71. who sayes that God took him from following the Ewes with young, and set him upon the Throne; there to feed (as he says) Jacob his people, and Israel his inheritance. And to go lower yet, not only from the sheepfold, so he says Psal. 113. 7. and 8 verses; God takes the poor out of the Dust, and the needy out of the Dunghill: That he may set him among Princes, even with the Princes of his people: Now more vile Sterquilinio ab­jectior. Erasm. Adag. pag. 110. and contemptible then the Dust we tread upon, which the least breath of wind commands any way, or then the worst of dust which is that of the Dunghill, we cannot be; yet these are they (says the Psalmist) whom he sets among Princes, even with the Princes of his people.

An example of the other we have in Antiochus, Luxuriant animi re­bus plerumque secun­dis, Ovid. lib. 2. de Art. Amandi. 2 Mac. 9. 9. who was so fill'd with Pride through the ranknesse of his Prosperity, that he thought he might command the Sea, (so proud was he, sayes the Text, beyond the condition of man) and fur­ther, that he could weigh the Mountains in a ballance, and reach up to the starres of heaven: Yet by and by is his combe cut, all [Page 24] his Glory worm-eaten, and none able to endure him for the filthinesse of his smell.

Adde to this the example of Balthazar, Dan. 5. 5. who was now carousing in the consecrated Vessels that Nebuchadnezzar his Grandfather had plundred the Temple of and House of God at Jerusalem, as you may see 2 Kings chap. last. But in the same hour (saies the Text) came out the hand-writing of the wall against him, and then was the Kings countenance chang'd, his thoughts troubled, the joints of his loynes loos­ed, and his Kingdome given away to the Medes and Persians.

Thus are we for outward things like so many Counters, which stand one while for a pound, and another for a penny.

That as we see commonly in High-wayes, where one man hath set his foot, another pre­sently follows him and treads it out again; so is it usually, That if one man beat out an Honour or Nunc ager umbreni sub nomine, nuper O­felli Dictus, sed nulli pro­prius— [...]orat. s [...]rm. lib. 2. Satyr. 2. Estate to himself, another comes after and treads out that impression, and whose it shall be next there is no man knows. Nay Lucan, Ipsa vices natura a subit—Even the whole course of nature runs about in a circular motion; Our Bodies, Minds, and outward felicities, whatsoever we are, or what­soever we have, are all subject to change in such wise, that we can have no assurance of them, no not for a day. We know not what a Day may bring forth.

And so much for the demonstration of this [Page 25] truth, viz. That there is such a Vicissitude.

The next thing is the Efficient Causes of it. For we never know 3 any thing throughly, Scire est per causam scire, Arist. phys. 2. cap. 3. (says the Philosopher) untill we know the Cau­ses of it.

Now in speaking to this, I shall proceed f [...]irst, negatively; secondly, affirmatively.

First, Negatively, in shewing what have been thought to be the causes of all Changes and Alterations, yet are not so indeed. And here the Epicures and vulgar Heathen have S [...]rs omnia versat, Virgil. Bucolic. Eg­log. 9. thought Fortune to be the cause of them; And they define it thus, to be An Event of things without Reason.

But how unreason­able Si eventum nulla causa­rum co [...]nexione productū, casum esse definias, nihil omnino casū esse confirmo. Boët. de consol. philos. l. 5. pros. 1. it is to say that an Event of things without a Cause, should be the Cause of all Events, judge ye.

For it was only the ignorance of the true Causes that made the name of Fortune; there being nothing fortuitous in it self, but on­ly to us and our ignorance; since the power and providence of God hath the ordering and dis­posing of all things here below. And this did the wiser sort among them confesse, as the Sa­tyrist tells us.

[Page 26] Others again, as the Stoicks, make Fate or Regitur fatis mortale ge­nus, nec sibi quisquam spondere potest firm [...] ac stabile. Sen. trag. Octav. Non illa Deo vertisse li­cet quae nexa fuis currunt causis. Sen. in OEdip. Fatum Stoicum definit Senec. Necessitatem rerum omnium Deum ipsum & actiones omnes huic fato subjicientem. vid. Lips. lib. 1. de Const. cap. 17. 18. Destiny the cause of all Alterations, which they say is An Event that ne­cessarily falls out from a certain inevitable or­der and connection of naturall Causes, work­ing without the will of God, as the supreme Or­derer and Disposer of them, he being subjected to them, and not they to him: whereby they take away the very na­ture of the Godhead, which is to be a most powerfull and free Agent, that works what, and by what means it pleases; all seconda­ry causes depending upon that, and that upon none.

But enough of these; For I must remember my self, that I am now speaking to Christians, who acknowledge the Divine Providence in all things; and therefore shall speak no more of these Negative and supposed Causes, but shall now give you the true Efficient Causes of them by way of Affirmation.

And here know that Logicians tell us of two Efficient Causes; Principall, and lesse Princi­pall: And this is twofold, Impulsive and In­strumentall:

First then, the Principall Cause of all Chan­ges and Alterations is God; for so said the Heathen man, Horat. C [...]rm. 1. 1. Od [...] 34.

But why borrow I weapons from the Phili­stins forge, when as there is enough for this that may be drawn out of Gods Armory of the Scriptures? as Psal. 75. the 6. and 7. verses: Promotion, saies the Prophet, comes neither from the East, nor from the West, nor from the South; but God is the Judge, he puts down one, and sets up another. So also Job 34. vers. 29. When he gives Quietnesse, who can make Trouble? and when he hides his face, who can behold him; whether it be done (saies Elihu) against a nation, or against a particular man only? Again Amos 5. 8. He makes the Seven Starres and Orion, and turnes the shadow of Death into the morning: The Lord is his Name.

The Oratour expres­ses this well, by compa­ring Gods omnipotency U [...] hominum membra nul­la contentione mente ipsa ac voluntate moventur: Sic divino n [...]mine moven­tur ac mutantur omnia, Tully lib. 5. de natura Deorum. to the power of the soul over the members of the body, which upon the least intimation of the mind do turn and move about with all facility. Now God (saies he) is the sole mind of the Universe, and hath all parts and parcells there­of at his b [...]ck and pleasure, to be turn'd into a­ny shape or form at his disposall.

Nay, it is no dishonour for God to cast the eye of his providence upon the alteration even of the meanest things: for who is like, sayes the Psalmist, to the Lord our God, who hath his Psal. 113. ver. 5, 6. dwelling on high, and yet humbles himself to be­hold [Page 28] the things in Heaven and Earth? Not on­ly to behold the things in Heaven, which is a great condescension to him, whom the Heaven 1 Reg. 8. vers. 27. and the Heaven of Heavens cannot contain; but also the things in Earth. Now how unworthy these are of his taking notice of, you may see by those diminutive expressions of them compared with Gods greatnesse, Isa. 40. 15. where the Prophet saies, Behold, the Nations are but as the drop of a Bucket, and are counted as the small dust of the Ballance; Behold, he takes up the Isles as a very little thing. And if this be not low enough for them, he sayes further, verse 17. That all Nations before him are as nothing, and are counted to him as lesse then nothing. Now look what a wide difference there is betwixt the Sea and a Bucket of water, yea the Drop of a Bucket; or betwixt a heap of dust, and the small dust of the ballance; betwixt very great and very little; betwixt all things and nothing at all, yea lesse then nothing, (if lesse could be:) so vast is the disproportion betwixt God and all Nations, which are the greatest among all earth­ly things. And yet for all this, is God pleas'd so far [...]e to extenuate his own Greatnesse, and to take off from it, as to look after them, and run them about in their severall stages from one point unto another.

And if you would have this truth to be made out further unto you, our Saviour doth it Matt. 10. 29. by two severall instances.

The one is of two Sparrows, which are lit­tle birds and of small value; but the Greek yet runs it more diminutively, Diminutivum [...]. [...] two little sparrows; [Page 29] and so they must needs be, for they were sold both even for a Farthing, and this is price little enough. Yet the Arabick makes it lesse, and hath for it Phals, which is the least piece of mo­ney that can be; and accordingly expresses the two Mites spoken of Mark 12. 42. (which make both but one Farthing) by Phalsain in the duall number, as a late and learned Expo­sitor Dr. Hammond in locum. notes.

The other is of the Haires upon our Heads, being a kind of Excre­ment Our haires are things slighted even to a pro­verb, Ne pili facio; Erasm. Adag. sub loco commun. contemptus & vilitatis. belonging to our bodies, & no integrall or necessitous part of them, (as the Heart, Hands and Feet are;) and yet he tells us that God numbers these, and takes such a particular account of them, that not one of them falls to the ground without his dispo­sall.

In the vision of the Wheels we read of a Ezek. 1. 16. wheel within a wheel. Now the wheel with­in is the wheel of Gods Providence, that turns about the wheels of all outward things, be they never so low and mean. For as God doth not labour in doing the greatest things, so nei­ther doth he disdain, either to do or undo the least; but as he made the small and great, (saies the book of Wisdome) so also doth he care for Wisd. 6. 7. both alike. The Potter having power over his Clay, either to make of it a vessel of honour or Rom. 9. 21. dishonour, and being made, either to preserve it in that form and being he hath bestowed upon [Page 30] it, or else to deform and destroy it, since it is e­quitable that every one should do with his own as he pleases. Nay, as he saies of the gnat, that Nusquam potentior natura quam in minimis; Pliny nat. Hist. So may we say, that God doth no wayes ad­vance his Power and Wisdome more, then in ordering of the least accidents to be disposed of to his Glory, and the good of his Children. And so much for the Principall Efficient cause.

The lesse Principall follows; which (as I said) is either Impulsive or Instrumentall.

Now the Impulsive cause of all Changes and Alterations is the sinne of man. This usher'd them in at the first, and so it doth still. For be­fore Adam sinned, he injoyed a Paradise of con­stant and uninterrupted happinesse; but so soon as he sins against God, then follows a great change presently: For the Earth all fruitfull be­fore, Gen. 3. [...]6. 17. now becomes barren, himself subject to la­bour, his wife to travail and sorrow, and both to cares and troubles, to weaknesse and dis­solution. And so it is also with Nations and Kingdomes. If they be chang'd at any time, sinne is the cause of it; and the greater their sinne is, the greater usually is their change. Great sinnings are the floud-gates to let in great Alterations upon them. For it is not a bare sinning in a Nation, (from which there is none that could ever plead exemption,) but a sinning in some high measure, that is an in-let to Changes in the highest kind. Which made David say Psal. 107. 34. That a fruit­full land is turn'd into barrennesse for the wic­kednesse of those that dwell therein, which the vulgar Latine reads Propter malitiam, i. e. for [Page 31] the malicious wickednesse of those that dwell therein; which notes a sin of a high nature, viz. such a one as is persisted in both against Know­ledge & Conscience. And therefore it is a good ob­servation Musculus in locum. Hu­jusmodi mutationes terra­rum non ob id tantum fi­unt propterea quod homines peccant, (id quod fit toto terrarum orbe) sed quod malitiose. which Mu­sculus hath upon the words; ‘These strange Alterations, sayes he, of Nations and King­domes, are not for the sinning of them, (from which no Nation can be free) but for their ma­licious sinning. And this you may see further in Jerusalem, Ezek. 21.’ where we read of a ve­ry great Judgement that should befall her from the Babylonian, viz. Utter Destruction, expres­sed by the threefold Overturn wherewith God threatens her vers. 27. And vers. 24. he laies down the Impulsive cause that mov'd him to it; and this is an impudent and shamelesse sin­ning against God: for they did not commit their sinne in a corner, as those that were a­sham'd of it, but (brazen-faced Wretches as they were) they declar'd their sinne as Sodom, and discover'd it openly in the face of the sun: and this they did too not only in one or two particular acts, but generally, says the Text, in all their doings.

Now there is some hope of a modest and bashfull, but none at all of a shamelesse and obdurate Sinner. Thus the Father, when his Sonne hath done amisse, yet is he well perswaded Erubuit, salva res est. Te­rent, in Heautont. of his amendment, if he [Page 32] but see him once blush upon his reproving of him. But when like Judah, he hath once a whores forehead, and refuses to be ashamed, then doth Jer. 3. 3. he give him over as a lost child, and not to be re­cover'd.

So that from hence we see, that in what place soever we find such a Turn, such an Eversion as this, where all is turn'd upside down) there hath been without question some great A versio a Cre­atore ad Creaturam, some great sinning against God (as the Schoolmen call it.) Which was the reason that when the English were (now upon their quitting of France, in Henry the sixth's dayes) demanded of the Heilens Geogr. in descript. of France. French by way of derision, when they would make their return thi­ther; it was feelingly answered by one of our nation thus, When your sinnes are greater then ours.

It is sinne then that ruines particular Persons, that subverts Families, that periods Kingdomes, that wheels about Governments, that overturns States, that disjoints Common weales, and sayes unto them as to the proud waves, Thus farre ye shall go, and no further. Job 38. 11.

And so I have done with the Impulsive Cause, and come next to the Instrumentall cau­ses, or means which God uses in effecting his Changes here; and they are two.

The first is the Motion and Influences of the Celestiall Bodies.

And this will the better appear, if we consider their forcible workings upon the Mind of man. For though they cannot work immediately upon it, because it is immateriall; yet may [Page 33] they, and do work mediately upon it, as by the Body, which is the Instrument of the Soul to work by, and the Case wherein it is put up here for a time; and so make it either well or ill affected, according to the Bodies present temper. By which means it comes to passe many times, that not only the dispositions of particular men, but also of whole multitudes collected together in a politick body, are much alter'd and chang'd, either to Labour or Sloth, to Peace or Disquiet, to good or evill actings, according as they are inclin'd by the motions of the Heavenly Bodies.

And that these Celestiall Bodies have their energy upon all Sublunary things, is plain,

First, by Scripture; as Job 38. 33. where the Lord speaks thus to Job, Know'st thou the or­dinances of Heaven? and canst thou set the dominion thereof in the Earth? which implies,

1. That the Heavens have power and domi­nion in the Earth.

2. That this power of theirs is set them from Astra regunt bomines, sed regit Astra Deus. Gods ordinance and ap­pointment.

Secondly, by the constant Observation and Experience of all Ages. Bodinus the French In lib. 4. de Rep. cap. 2. Lawyer speaks well to this point; Many erre (sayes he) greatly, who think the influence of the Celestiall Spheres to be nothing, whenas their strength hath ever been most effectual, as in Sacred Writ is to be seen: & he cites the 38. chap. of Job before mentioned to prove the same. Ad­ding further, that many ancient Writers have no­ted the great changes in Cities & Kingdomes upon [Page 34] the conjunction of the superiour Planets, but to them only where they have been deputed of God to that end and purpose. And that they have been instrumentall towards the working of such effects, he shewes by an induction of some particular instances; As that before the translation of the Roman Soveraignty unto Cae­sar, there was a great conjunction of the su­periour Planets met together in Scorpio: which fell out again seven hundred yeares after, when the Arabian Legions receiv'd the law of Ma­homet, rebell'd against the Greek Emperours, & subdued the Eastern Asia from the Christians.

The same also came about again anno Chri­sti 1464. after which Ladamachus King of the [...]artars was by his Subjects thrust out of the chair of Soveraignty, and Friderick the third driven out of Hun­gary by Matthias Cor­vinus, Qui volet, in codem ca­pite plura legal. who from a pri­soner stept up to the Royall Throne, &c.

And Alstedius tells us, that the Conjun­ction Al [...]edius (vir undequaque doctus) ait conjunctionem Saturni & Jovis in Ariete ( [...]gn [...]ae triplicitatis signo) Anno Christi 1641. novi a­licujus imperii revolutionem portendere 3 cujus effectum verifimile est, nos in nuperis ab eo tempore mo [...]ibus & mu­ [...]ationibus in Anglia nostra, satis super (que) vidisse, necdum videmus terminari. Nunt. prophetic. pag. 34. of Saturn and Jupiter in February 1642. did foretell and portend the revoluti­tion of some new Em­pire and Government to fall out after it in Europe. The effect whereof in part (its like) we have seen in this nation alrea­dy, [Page 35] and may live (if God so dispose of us) to see further of it yet in time to come.

But to passe this, and to come to that daily and usuall course of Gods proceedings with us in the world. Here methinks there should be few, (though of ordinary capacities among us) but (if we be a little observing) may see this truth made good by the eye of our own expe­rience, which tells us that the earth is either fruitfull or barren, and the air either wholsome or infectious, suitably to that measure and manner of influence they receive from them.

And therefore when God will at any time bring about some great change in the world, it is then easy to see how usually he fits his inferiour means, according to their severall na­tures, for the orderly transacting of it in those stations wherein he hath set them. As when he will turn a fruitfull land into barrennesse, and again, a barren land into fruitfulnesse, (which he promis'd his own people, Hos. 2. 21.) there he tells them in what order he will work it; I will hear (says he) the Hea­vens, and they shall hear the Earth, and they shall hear Jezreel. For this is a sure rule, That the supreme cause of all doth not take a­way the natures and workings of secondary causes, but rather establish them: which is the reason of that speech of God to Job in the ordinary revolution of the times and seasons of the year, Job 38. 31. Canst thou bind the sweet influences of the Pleiades, and loose the bonds of Orion?

Now the Pleiades are those we commonly call the Seven Starres, that have their influence [Page 36] on the earth by producing sweet showres to the opening and refreshing of it, about the Spring of the year, and Orion is a Constellation most conspicuous in the Winter season, as having a commissionary power to bind up the earth with Frosts. Again, canst thou bring forth Mazza­roth in his season; i. e. the twelve Signes succes­sively Quid de his stellis sub [...]ili­us dicant Astronomi, non [...]st hic nostrum tractare ac­curatius: tantum dicemus id quod locus hic postulat, non ab alio quam Dev vim illam stellis pluviam & frigus generandi datam. Sanct. in Job. after one ano­ther;) or guide Arctu­rus with his Sons? (i. e. the Polar starre, as some will have it, with those ignes minores that wait upon him; or Bootes, as others. It is not then so much the Earth, as the Heavens that give us either fruit, or withhold it; they being the first ordinary means, where­by God uses to work out alterations in subluna­ry things.

The second Instrumentall cause of these strange Vicissitudes here below, is the Will of Man; For though it have not a liberty to spi­rituall, yet all grant it a liberty to externall acts, and morall goodnesse. And this Liberty of mans will doth God use as an under-wheel to turn a­bout most of those Alterations that are in the world.

It is true, that health and sicknesse, peace and warre, plenty and scarcity, riches and poverty, proceed from God as the principall Efficient cause; but yet for all this we deny not but that God makes use both of our selves and others, as to the means of bringing them about. The life [Page 37] of Joseph was checquer'd with variety of acci­dents; for he is now a Slave to the Ismaelites, and by and by a Prince in Aegypt. Now these although they proceeded from God as the Au­thour, yet was the will of his Brethren, as the will of Reuben and Judah, the instruments of Gen. c. 37. preserving his life, and the wills of his other Brethren the meanes of selling him into Ae­gypt.

Now because it is the Nature of Instruments Instrumentum nisi à prin­cipali Agente motum, non operatur, Aquin. 3. part. Summae quaest. 62. Art. 4. to be subservient to the Principall Agent, and to be determin'd by it; therefore give me leave here by the way to fasten this exhortation upon you, That in all Changes whatsoever you will look beyond the Instruments of them, unto God the Principall Agent. For so did Job in his losses, beyond the plundring Chaldeans and Sabeans, unto Dominus abstulit, The Lord hath given, and the Lord hath taken away; looking Job 1. 21. upon them as we use to do upon an Index, tan­tum in ordine ad Librum, only in order to the Book it self, et in transitu ad Deum, in his pas­sage unto God, who sets them awork, as to their naturall powers and faculties, though to the evill of them no otherwise, then by or­dering and over-ruling it to the good of his Children. And hence it is that the wicked are call'd Gods Sword, as in the 17 Psalm verse 13. Deliver my soul (saies David) from the wic­ked which is thy Sword. And so must we in all those Losses that befall us here, have in our eye not so much the Sword, as the Hand that holds [Page 38] it; which will be one means, and a good one too, to bring us to Davids calm temper in the 39. Psal. 19. who saies in the like condition, That he was dumb, and did not open his mouth, nor let fall an impatient word in it, because it was Gods doing: And therefore when Abisha [...] would have taken a way Shime [...]'s life for cursing of David, No, (sayes he) Let him alone, Juss [...] enim Dominus, for the Lord hath bidden him curse; who then 2 Sam. 16. 11. shall say, Wherefore hast thou done so? q. d. Who then dare expostulate with God, or call him to account about it, as if he were unrigh­teous in it; since evill men are but Swords in Gods hand, who, when he hath once done his work by them, will either put them up again into his Scabbard, and lay them by, or else so blunt the edge of their power, that it shall not cut, or else break them a pieces, and throw them quite away? And so much for the Efficient Causes of Vicissitudes.

Next I shall speak to the Ends, or Finall Cau­ses of them. 4

And these are either Ex parte Dei, or No­stri; In respect of God, or our selves.

First, In respect of God; and so the Princi­pall End why God rings such Changes upon all earthly things, and will have them disposed of after so various a manner, is to make them by it the more tunable to his own Glory, which by this meanes is exceedingly magnify'd, and advanc'd: but especially in the Attributes of his Power, Truth, Wisdome and Goodnesse.

1. In his Power and Omnipotency: that so he may let the world know, that the Finger of [Page 39] his Power is in all transactions; and that he can do whatsoever he will, both in heaven and earth, and yet changes not.

For why else did God work so many mira­culous Changes in Aegypt by the hand of Moses?

Why turn'd he Moses Rod into a Serpent, and the Aegyptian Waters into Bloud?

Why their Dust into Lice and Flies, and their Light into Darknesse for the space of three dayes together?

Why else created he a new generation of Frogs and Locusts among them?

Why unheard of diseases upon themselves and upon their cattell?

Why destroyed he their Herbs and Fruit-trees with Hail, and their First-born with untimely death?

In a word, Why caus'd he the Red-sea to go out of its naturall course and chanell, whereby it became a wall to the Israelites, and a grave to the Aegyptians?

Did not God all this to make known the glory of his power, in the preservation of the one and destruction of the other? Yes; For this Exod. 9. 16. cause (sayes God to Moses) I have raised thee up, to shew in thee my power, and that my name may be declared in all the earth.

2. He advances also his Glory this way, by manifesting his Truth and Faithfulness: in that those things which are accidentall in regard of us, and seem as impossible, yet are they ex­actly brought to passe in their due times and seasons. As in the bringing of the Israelites out of Aegypt, wherein God was full as good as his [Page 40] word, and kept touch with them to a day in their Deliverance; as you may see Exod. 12. 41. where we read, That it came to passe in the end of four hundred and thirty years, even the self­same day it came to passe, that all the hosts of the Lord went out of the land of Aegypt. All Pharaoh's oppositions and tergiversations could not prorogue their Bondage so much as one day beyond the time prefix'd of God, but serv'd only to fill up that Interim, or void space of time betwixt Gods Promise made to Abraham Gen. 15. 13. and his performance of it.

And if you ask by what intervalls of time the truth of this promise came about so punctu­ally, Vide nuperrimas Anno­tationes in Gen. 15. 13. Divines will tell you, That from Abra­ham's receiving of the promise, unto the birth of Isaac, were five and twenty years; sixty from thence to Jacobs birth; and to his death (which fell out presently upon their entrance into Aegypt) a hundred and thirty yeares. After which unto the death of Levi, who was Ultimus Patriarcharum, the last of the Patriarchs that survived, and in which space the Israelites were kindly entreated for Joseph's sake, were ninety four years; and a hundred and one and twenty more of cruell Bondage, untill Moses came to deliver them from it in the reign of Pharaoh Cencres.

All which particulars being gathered up to­gether, do make up the complete summe of four hundred and thirty yeares, and may serve to justify God in all his sayings, and to clear his truth in the least circumstance and pun­ctilio [Page 41] of time, when it shall come to be judged.

For when once Gods appointed time is come to introduce a change, either for better or worse, among any people, then shall eve­ry breath of wind, how crosse soever it seems to blow at the present, yet be so farre from hindering Gods work in it, as that one way or other you shall find it in the sequel, to contribute its help and assistance to it.

3. God advances also his Glory this way, in the manifestation of his Wisdome and Goodnesse; in that he makes a sweet har­mony of so many different cords and chan­ges, and frames a most admirable Order out of a seeming Disorder and Confusion.

Many and diverse are the qualities of Herbs, yet if a skilfull Simpler hath the mix­ing of them, he knows how to make of them a well-relish'd and wholsome Sallade: So, many were the interchangeable passages that happen'd to Joseph; and had we the same, it may be we should think them very confu­sed ones; but yet let the Wisdome and Good­nesse of God but lay them together, and we shall presently find, as Joseph did, the close of them all in a sweet diapason.

For though all things, as to us, are float­ing up and down, to and again, by chance as it were and accident; [...] G. Nazian. in Invect. in Julianum. sayes Gre­gory Nazianzen; yet if we look to the order and appointment of [Page 42] Gods Providence, (which doth alwayes most wisely contrive all events for the good of his Children,) they are fixt and stable, howbeit they may seem to go contrary at the present.

And of Gods dealing in this kind we have Job an eminent example; who is to day the greatest man for Wealth and Honour in all the East, (and a tablet of this his Great­nesse you may see in his nine and twentieth chapter, which I desire you to read over at your leisure,) wherein you shall find a whole series of worldly Prosperity to wait upon him;) yet to morrow he is poor, even to a by-word and proverb, As poor as Job: insomuch as he spends all the next chapter in Chap. 30. bemoaning his suddain change, beginning it with a But; which though a small monosyl­lable, yet as the Helme of a Ship turns a­bout the vessel any way, so doth this But turn about Job and all his former Honour and Prosperity, into the extremest contempt and adversity. But now, sayes he, they that are younger then I have me in derision, whose Job 30. verse 1. fathers I would have disdained to have set with the dogs of my Flock; and ending it with this dolefull accent, verse last, versa est cithara mea in luctum, & organum in vo­cem flentium; My harp is turned into mour­ning, and my organ into the voice of those that weep.

Yet all is well (we say) that ends well; and so it was with Job, which makes Saint James say by way of support unto Gods [Page 43] people in their afflictions, Ye have heard of James 5. 11. the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord; i. e. what good end God gave him in it; for the next day God brings a great deal of Light out of this Darknesse, by a wise and gracious disposing of all that e­vill to him for the best, in giving him twice Job last, verse 12. as much as he had at the first, and blessing his later end more then his beginning.

So that although for a time all those sad Changes that befell Job, seem'd even to crosse the ordinary course of Gods care and Providence to him; yet in the conclusion you see how his Wisedome and Goodnesse cut them all out, and made them serve to his greater Honour and Abundance.

And so much for the Ends or Finall Cau­ses in respect of God.

They follow now in respect of ourselves.

And these are two: first to confirm our Faith; secondly to reform our lives, and to work out by them good to his servants.

First, to confirm our Faith.

And so God brings many times great Chan­ges into the world, to try, if amidst those shakings of outward things among us, we will be shaken in our Faith, or not. That as the Apostle speakes of heresies 1 Cor. 11. 19. Oportet esse Hoereses, There must be He­resies among you, that they which are appro­ved may be made manifest; so say I, Oportet esse mutationes, There must be Changes: and these not so much in respect of the things themselves, which are in their own natures [Page 44] liable to alteration and dissolution; as in re­spect of Gods end in it, that they which are approved and sincere in the faith, may be manifested to be so, by their constancy and perseverance in it. That as there is a neces­sity of Fire to try Gold, whether it be true or else counterfeit; so also is there a neces­sity of Changes: for by these it will appear, whether we will measure our Religion by outward things, and in the losse or enjoy­ment of them be lost in our Protestant Faith, yea or no.

There is nothing, Beloved, more discovers the Hypocrite then his Ingenium versatile, (as Livy said of Cato) then his turning hu­mour in Religion: for which I do not say he shall be plagued in Plutarch seigns Thespe­sius returning from Hell, and telling (among other things he saw there infli­cted on evill men) that hypocrites were there pu­nished by turning up and down continually. Plut. Do his qui sero puniun­tur, pag. 203. Hell, by being wheel'd about there continual­ly without any relaxa­tion, (though that may seem a punishment somewhat suitable to his Weathercock-dis­position here upon earth;) no, Hoc ni­mis Ethnicum, This is too heathenish: but rather with the Prophet David, That he shall turn into Hell with all those that forget God. Psal. 9. 17. which is that portion of Hypocrites mention'd by our Saviour Mat. 24. last.

For if an Apple be rotten at the coare, it will not hold long upon the Tree, but upon the [Page 45] least Wind will fall from it. And so it is with the rotten-hearted Hypocrite; if a little crosse wind do but blow up­on him, oh how soon doth he fall off from the tree of Life, and become a wind-fall in his Religion, for the Devil that old Serpent to prey upon!

Every Cock-boat (you know) will bear up well enough in a calm sea: but that is a stout Vessell that can live in the most troubled water. And Vid. Cyprian de lapsis; & Fox Martyr. p. 1362. too too many there were in the Primitive times that, like Dr Pendleton in Queen Ma­ries dayes, boasted much of their Constancy in the Orthodox Faith during Constantines dayes, so long as God hedg'd about his Vine­yard with Peace and Prosperity; but so soon as that Hedge was broken down, and erro­neous, yea hereticall Doctrines were let in Psalm 80. 12. and 13 verses. like so many Beasts of prey to devoure, then how quickly did these prove Turncoats, and Apostates from the Faith!

But as for the true Christian, he is like a Rock— mediis immo [...]us [...] in undis: That al­though the waves are alwaies swelling against Vi [...]gil. him, yet is he the same man still in his Re­formed Religion, and wavers not: or else like that House built upon the Rock, a­gainst Mat 25. 7. which the Flouds came, and the Winds blew, but it fell not, because it was built up­on a Rock.

And such a well-built house was Saint Ba­sil, who being threatned with death by Va­l [...]ns [Page 46] if he would not advise further and turn Arrian, answer'd with this brave resolution, ‘ Sozom. bist. lib. 6. c. 16. In hoc mihi consilio non est opus: nam idem qui jam sum, cras etiam fu­turus sum. I need not any fur­ther advice then I have taken already about this matter; for to morrow I shall be the same man that I am to day therein, and no other.’

And here know that some things are of Ne­cessity, wherein we cannot but change, as in naturall, civill and morall things, and to change in these is only humane.

Others again are of Duty: and these either prohibited, or enjoyn'd.

1. Prohibited; as in evill and erroneous things: and to change here is pious and di­vine: and not to change, either Weaknesse or Obstinacy.

2. Enjoyn'd, as in sacred and religious: and to change here is impious and Dia­bolicall; and not to change, true Christian Fortitude and Constancy.

Whatsoever things we see then wheeling about in the world, as Governments, Fami­lies and the like, nay howsoever we may change our selves or be chang'd in some things of an indifferent nature, by those that have dominion over our Bodies and Estates; yet is there no man that hath dominion over our Faith: But this is Gods peculiar, and there­fore 2 Cor. 1. last. in this we must not change.

It is not with saving Truths as it is [Page 47] with Clothes, which alter every year as the fashion doth: for the fashion of the world pas­ses away (sayes Saint John;) but true Religion 1 John 2. 17. is ever in fashion with good men and al­ters not.

And herein we may justly take occasion to bewail the unsteadinesse of some in these times, who are mere Scepticks in Religion, alwayes conceiving some new Opinions in it, and alwayes in pain till they be deli­ver'd of their new conceptions, though never so monstrous and deformed.

That which was truth with them yester­day, The Magd [...]burgenses tell us Cent. 4. c. 11. that such was Eustathius Bishop of Sebaste, who was one day for the Homousian, and another for the Homoiu­sian Confession, accor­dingly as they suited best with his present turn. is no such thing to day; and what is so to day is other­wise to morrow; such Changelings there be in this last Age, who like the Moon do ne­ver appear the same two dayes together! ‘And I would to God, Atque utinam vel sic mu­tentur: Hoec enim cito ad plen [...]udinem suam redit, hi vero nec sero conver­tuntur. Ambros. Provi­riis actionibus conc. 4. in Tom. 5. sayes Saint Ambrose, that their change were no worse then that of the Moon; for she returns a­gain within a little time to her full light, but these never.’

And he is blind that sees not this among us, (namely) how some turn every day to [Page 48] Popish Superstition, but more to Anabaptisti­call Francies; some unto Socinian Blasphe­mies, but most unto Atheisticall Notions, and all into Sensuality; this being the Com­mon Sewer into which all the former run, and are ultimately resolved.

But as Saint Paul said to his Galathians, so do I to such, O foolish Galathians, who hath Galat. 3. 1. bewitch'd you that you should not obey the Go­spel? And it is a metaphor, sayes one, from Sorcerers, who use to cast a mist before the peoples eyes, that so they may not take a right view of what is presented to them: As if he had said, Who hath cast a mist before the eyes of your understandings, to make that appear unto you for truth which indeed is not? What? Are ye so foolish, that having begun in the spirit, ye will be perfected in the flesh? So, Are ye so foolish, that having begun in truth, ye will end in falshood? or can ye be so simple, as to exchange Gold for Dirt, Wheat for Chaffe, and your pretious Faith, as Saint Peter calls it, which is the substance 2 Pet. 1. 1. Heb. 11. 1. of things hoped for, for Errours of all sorts, and mere shadows of Truth? I trow not. For if Errour (as our Kingly Divine said well) have any [...], pag. 137. advantage, it consists in No­velty: or if Truth any, it consists in Con­stancy.

Was the Doctrine then of the Reformed Churches, and the Harmony of our Confes­sions grounded upon evident and pregnant [Page 49] Scriptures, maintain'd by the Orthodox and primitive Fathers, and conveyed to us by the constant tradition of the universall Church, the Faith of Christ once deliver'd to the Saints, and the Truth of God yesterday? why, so it is to day, and will be to morrow also. And therefore to day in our profession of it we must be as yesterday, and to mor­row as this day: because as God is the same Heb. 13. [...]. yesterday, to day, and for ever; so also is the Truth of God, That which was once so, Veritas Dei una semper­que sui similis: In prae­fat. ad Harm. Confes. will be so alwayes, and cannot be other­wise.

Oh that we would then be exhorted in the Apostles words, To stand fast in the Ephes. 4. 14. Faith, to quit our selves like men, and be strong: and not to be as children, toss'd to [...]. Meta­phora a rota, quae motu continuo circumacta par­tes summas & imas sem­per commutat, Pareus in locum. and fro, and carried a­bout with every wind 1 Cor. 14. 20. of Doctrine; but to be as men in understand­ing, stedfast and im­moveable; that so God may have cause to glo­ry on our behalf, as he did on Jobs, Hast thou consider'd (sayes God to Sathan) my servant Job 2. 3. Job? So, hast thou consider'd such a servant of mine? Seest thou to how many changes I have subjected him? to changes in his Chil­dren, to changes in his Estate, to changes in his Liberty, to changes in his Friends and Acquaintance? Nay, seest thou how many [Page 50] of his Brethren are chang'd of late, from a fe­brish distemper before, now into a sleepy le­chargy? Seest thou how indifferent they are for their religion round about him, and how many shaken reeds there are on every side Nec iratum colere desti­tit [...]men. Sen. ad Marc. cap. 13. of him? And yet for all this, as my ser­vant Job did, so doth he still hold his integrity. But enough of this.

Secondly, Gods end also in it is, To re­form our lives, and do us good by his so va­rious dispensations to­wards us. Hence we Huic affine est illud Amos 9. v. 9. ubi duo conside­randa; vel purgatum frumentum à sordibus, vel exagitatum à cri­brante, dum ab uno cri­bri laterc in alterum pro­pellitur. Sanct. in locum. read Isa. 30. 28. of a sieve of vanity, where­in God sayes he will sift the Nations, and shake them to and fro one after another, that so he may winnow them from that Chaffe of sinne that is within them. For why was Moab at ease from his youth? why settled he upon his lees, and held still his corrupt taste? but because he was never disquieted, nor emptied from vessel to vessel, Jer. 48. 11. Thus a sedentary life we find very subject to Diseases; and a long standing Prosperity to a Nation, is like a standing Pool, whose water doth soon puddle and putrify. And this is the reason of that speech of David Psal. 55. 19. Because they have no Changes therefore they fear not God; making by it the [Page 51] uncheckt prosperity of worldly men a great occasion of their continuance in sinne, and so an Index of Gods Wrath upon them, rather then of his speciall Favour to them.

And therefore now we have seen the An­gel of God moving the waters of this Church and State by intestine Warre, new Opinions in Religion, by Sects, divisions and the like; it will be good for us to meditate, how God hereby intends to purge us from that sinfull filth that adheres to us as our disrespect to Gods Ministers, and contempt of his Word, our Cruelty and Oppression, our Pride and Security, our Worldly-mindednesse and Hy­pocrisie.

Indeed men, who are the instruments of them, may have other ends in such Alterati­ons, as to wreak their own spleen upon their adversaries, to unhorse others, and get them­selves into the saddle either of Profit or Pre­ferment; (That as Demetrius the Silver­smith said, We get our gaines by this means; Acts 19. 25. so say they, We get our Honours and E­states by these means, for if the waters had not been troubled, we had catch'd nothing;) or else to satisfy their own corrupt wills and pleasures; as the Authour to the Hebrews sayes of earthly parents, That they chasten their children after their own pleasure, but Hebrews 12. 10. God who is the supreme Agent, he doth it for our profit, and not his own; there being no ends of gold and silver, no mere will or re­venge in his end, but only our profit, and to take away the drosse from the silver, that Prov. 25. 4. [Page 52] so he may bring forth (to use Solomon's expression) a Vas electum a chosen Vessel, Prov. 25. 4. Acts 9. 15. as S. Paul was, and fit for the Finer.

Thus the Scripture tells us of Joseph, how he was pass'd over from his bre­thren to the Ismaelites, and from them to Potiphar; and his brethren had one end in it, but God another: for they did it for evil against him, (as he tells them himself,) Gen. last, ver. 20. and to get twenty Pieces by the sale of him; but as for God, he meant it to him for good, and to save much people alive.

And so also was Christ the Antitype of Joseph, thrust (as we say) from post to pillar, viz. from Judas to Caiaphas, from him to Pilate, from Pilate to Herod, from Herod back again to Pilate, and then in­to the hands of the clamorous and unrea­sonable multitude to be crucified: and Ju­das had one end in Christ's death, but God another. The end of Judas in it was to silver his bagge with thirty Pieces, but Gods end was to satisfy his own Ju­stice, Mat 26. 9. and to save mankind by it.

So that let mens sinfull ends in these Changes and Alterations be what they will, yet is Gods end in it the gaining of glory to himself, by his taking away that sinne and corruption which he sees contracted in us by a long standing secu­rity. [Page 53] And if these changes of his be not as a gentle fire to purify us, they shall be as a consuming fire to destroy us.

And so much for the Efficient and Fi­nall causes of Vicissitudes.

The Uses follow; And they are three.

First, To take us off from our greedy desire of worldly things.

Secondly, To unpride us in a prospe­rous condition.

Thirdly, To comfort and support us in an afflicted one.

And to this purpose there is a good say­ing of Marcus Aurelius Antoninus the best of all the Heathen Emperours, which is this,

‘Meditate (sayes he) with thy self how swiftly all things that subsist are car­ried a way: for both In his Meditat. trans­lated by Merric Casau­bon lib. 5. cap. 19. the substances them­selves are in a con­tinuall flux, and all actions in a perpe­tuall change, yea the causes of them al­so subject to a thousand alterations, nei­ther is there any thing that can be said to be settled or at a stand.’

‘And from hence he draws this inference: [Page 54] Art thou not then unwise, who for these things art either distracted with cares, puff'd up too much with pride, or de­jected with troubles?’

And it may put many of us Christians to the blush, who seldome make so good use 1. use of it as this Heathen did, though we have a farre clearer light then he had to guide us to it.

First then, the consi­deration of this point, viz. The great Vi­cissitude Brevi [...] est & caduca hu­jus seculi gloria: igitur despice transitoria, ut habeas aeterna. Bern. lib. de mod. vivend. Serm. 8. and Incon­constancy of all earth­ly things, may serve to wean our hearts from the pleasing teat of this World, and to raise them up to that place where on­ly fixed good is found.

Here we are all too apt with the rich fool to set down our rests, when (God knows) we have little or no cause so to do. Nescis enim, ah nescis serus quid vesper ferat; Horat. Since we do not know what the mid­wife [...]y of this evening, nay lesse of this hour, or moment may help to bring forth.

It may be a change of our Estates in­to Beggery by Fire, Thieves, and the like; or else of our Liberty into Thraldome; or [Page 55] of our Health into Sicknesse; all these suc­cessively wheeling about, untill at last our great change come from Life to Death, and swallow up the rest, as the sea doth the waters that fall into it.

Alas! here we are subject to a thou­sand casualties; but in Heaven, there, there we shall meet with no such altera­tions; for that is a [...], A Kingdome that is not floating up and down, as earthly Kingdomes are in the sea of this world with every tem­pest. Kingdome that cannot be shaken as earthly Heb. 12. 28. Kingdomes are, either by warre, factions, all-eating time, or the like. No; but there is Peace without War, Quiet without Trou­ble, Freedome without Thraldome, Day without Night, Health without Sicknesse, and Life without Death: whereas here it is farre otherwise; for God takes away one it may be, with Hunc necat febribus, illum opprimit doloribus; hunc flammis, illum gla­dio, &c. Augustin. in 2 Soliloq. a Fever, another with the Sword, as S. Au­gustine reckons them up. Nay, he cuts off the spirits of Princes (sayes the Psalmist;) Psal. 76. ver. 12. which Junius and Tremelius translate by Vindemiat. i. e. he slips them off as a Vin­tager doth a Bunch of Grapes from a [Page 56] Tree, it is so quickly done. Even the high­est enterprizes that the greatest Magnifico's of the earth undertake, God doth but blow [...]pon them a little with the breath of his displeasure, and how soon are they bla­sted and shrink away to nothing!

An example of this we have in Xcrxes, who went against Justin. hist. lib. 2. Greece with a million of men, and as many ships as cover'd the Hell [...]spont; as if he would have sub­dued the Sea, have put a hook into her jaws, and have led her away in triumph: yet how soon was his over-bold pride dash'd in pieces by a hand­full Quem dies vidit veni­ens super bum, Hunc dies vidic fugicus jacentem. Sen. trag. in Thyest. oct. 3. full of Greeks! One and the same day saw him both happy and miserable; using him as a tender and in­dulgent Mother in the morning, but in the evening as a cruell and hard Stepdame.

Oh the folly then of those that lye al­wayes sucking at these earthly flowers, which are as various in their shapes, as ever Protens was, and constant in nothing save in their inconstancy!

It was the saying of Maximilian the second, That every year of our life was a [Page 57] climactericall year, and brought with it some great change or other.

And if every year be so changeable, what fools then are they that joyn land to land, and house to house, that they may dwell alone in the earth! yea what mean great men to pride it so much in their Babels here below, and out of a greedy desire of gain to run Quid quod ultra limites clientium salis avarus, parum locuples continen­te ripa? Horat. lib. 2. ode 18. out of their own chanels, and to call their lands by their own names? For they that do thus, declare plainly that they think themselves to en­joy a settled estate here on earth, as if Quasi aut nunquam es­sent mutabiles, aut vi­tam caelestem non expe­ctarent. Bellarm. lib. 2. de aetern. faelicit. they should never see a change, or at least did not for the pre­sent look for in hea­ven a better and more enduring substance, as the Authour to the Hebrews speaks, Heb. 12. 34.

And yet as the Prophet Isaiah com­plains, [Page 58] so may we, Quis credidit auditui nostro? who hath believed our report? or to Isa. 53. 1. whom is this truth of God revealed? For it is strange to see how few among us do believe this, that both in our persons and estates we are so changeable.

But this is their way, sayes David, this is their foolishnesse. Psal. 49. 13.

For how soon did Galba start aside from the Empire, Degu­stans Tacit. An­nal. lib. 6. Imperium, tasting it only, as Jonathan did the Honey with the end of his Spear! How soon was Haman chang'd from the Minion of the Court, to be the hang-by of the world!

Again, how soon was Nebuchadnezzar chang'd, even from a man to a Beast; and H [...]rod from the highest of men, to be meat even for the lowest of Reptiles? And the prosperity of Richard the third Sir Walt. Rawl. Pref. to the worlds hist. Ostenditur tantum, non possidetur; & dum pla­cet, transit; Sen. Epist. 110. was so short (says our incomparable histori­an) that it took end ere himself could well look over it.

[Page 59] There is not any thing then that we can call constant here on earth; which makes the Authour to the Hebrews, speaking of Abraham, say, That he look'd for a City having foundations: Bellarm. in eodem loco. Vere civitas caelestis pro­prie fundamentum ha­bet, &c. Upon which one gives us this note; That the Heavenly City can on­ly be said to have properly a Founda­tion, whereas those Cities that are on earth, do show plainly by their daily ruines that they have no sure foundation to rest upon.

Oh let this be a means to take off the wheels of our Affections from their eager pursuit after earthly things, and set them upon things above, where the moth can­not come at them, nor thieves break through M [...]. [...]. v. 19. to steal. And let us look to that charge of the Apostle, 1 Tim. 6. 17. Charge those that are rich in the world, that they trust not in uncertain Riches; or rather in riches which are Uncertainty it self in the abstract; (for so the Greek runs it, [...]. i. e. in the uncertainty of [Page 60] Riches.) And that we may in no wise doubt of this their uncertainty, the Wise man prefixes a note of certainty before this uncertainty, Certainly, (says he) Riches make themselves wings, and fly away as Prov. 23. 5. an Eagle towards heaven: as if he should have said, Certainly Riches, and all world­ly things are as uncertain as a Bird that is upon the wing: and therefore we must Psal. 62. 10. not set our hearts upon them; but our dai­ly prayer and practice must be, So to passe through things temporall, that so we do 4 Coll. post Trin. not loose those things that are eternall: or else with David let us beseech God to incline our hearts unto his Testimonies, and Psal. 119. 36. not to Covetousnesse. Now this inclining our hearts unto Gods Testimonies, is no­thing else but that holy and penitentiall change of heart and life, or else that turn­ing unto God with all our hearts, which God calls for at our hands, and expects from us in all his changes, whether per­sonall or else nationall. which if he find in us, then let what changes soever fall, they shall all work together for our good: but if not, we must then look to be as a [Page 61] rowling stone, and to have our daily turns and changes in this life from one de­gree of misery to another, untill at last we turn into Hell, as David speaks, with all those that forget God.

Secondly, The con­sideration of this point Use 2. may be a good an­tidote Nemo confidat nimi­um secundis, rotat o­ [...]ne fatum, Sen. Thyest. trag. 2. against Pride in a prosperous Conditi­on, since God hath so ordered the Web of our lives, as that Ad­versity as well as Prosperity is interwo­ven in it: For there is nothing that swels us up so much as pro­spering Heu CaeCae mentes cu­mefactaque corda se­cundis. Silius 1. here in world­ly things; and nothing again that is more effectuall to asswage this swelling in us, then to consider the brevity and mutability it is subject to.

Now it swells us up with a high opini­on either of our own Goodnesse above o­thers, or else of our own Greatnesse.

1. Our prospering in worldly things [Page 62] swels us up with a high opinion of our own Goodnesse above others; as

1. It makes us think our selves the on­ly good men in Gods eye, because we are prosperous in the worlds; whereas in­deed, this can be no certain rule to mea­sure out any such thing by, since the world and the prosperity of it is so variable and uncertain.

And therefore, when at any time God shall water us more then others with the lower springs of his earthly Blessings, we are not therefore to have an overweening conceit of our selves, and our own causes, above others, (as if God upon this ground had tyed his speciall love either to us, or them:) For you know that when God would chuse a King for Israel, he chose him not by outward and perishing excel­lencies, 1 Sam. c. 16. vers. 8. [...]. and 10. for then he would have chosen in the room of Saul, Eliab, Aminadab, or Shammah, who were the three elder bro­thers of David, and men of goodly per­sonages to look upon; yet God chose none of these, (sayes the Text) but David the youngest of them, though not so outward­ly, [Page 63] yet in wardly glorious, being a man af­ter his own heart.

It is the chief argument the Turks use at this day, to prove themselves the only Musselmen, or true believers; We thrive (say they) and prosper in the world; for how hath our Mahometanisme over-run all Asia, Africk, and the greater part of Eu­rope too! And do not they among us then reason more like Turks then Chri­stians, who speak after this manner, Come, see how we bear down all before us, and ride upon the backs of the poor in triumph! Thus, and thus do we prosper in the world, and do even what we list; and is not this an evident signe we are Gods children, and that the right end of the staff is ours? Sure, if we were other then Gods peculiar people, he would not blesse us so much as he doth.

But to these I answer, That these and such like are only Bona Scabelli, (as Di­vines distinguish well out of that place of Isaiah,) and not Bona Throni, the goods of Gods Footstool, (but earthen ware,) Isa. 66. 1 [...] [Page 64] and not the good things of his Throne, which are Grace and Glory; and therefore can set upon us only an earthly mark for men here to take notice of us, but not any heavenly cognizance for God to look upon us, as upon his dear and elect children. For else it would easily follow, That the Al­choran were better then the Bible, and the Turks fancy better then our Faith of Chri­stianity.

And were there no other signall place of Scripture for this, then that of the Pro­phet David in his 73. Psalm, (as in­deed there are very Consule Ecclesias [...]es 7. vers. 15. See Ecclesia­stes chap. 8. vers. 14. Malachy 3. vers. 13. and 15. Luke 16. 25. Remember how thou in thy life receivedst thy good things, &c. many;) this alone (methinks) were e­nough to impresse this as a truth upon us, where he speaks of some that are not in trouble like other men, but pride compas­seth them about as a chain, violence co­vers them as a garment, their eyes stand out with fatnesse, and they have more then their heart can wish; yet these [Page 65] (sayes he) vers. 12. are the ungodly who prosper in the world. And the Prophet Jeremy makes bold to question with God about it, in these words, Jer. 12. 1. and [...]. verses: Wherefore, sayes he, doth the w [...] ­ked prosper? and why are all they in wealth that rebelliously transgresse? and he rests satisfied with this, vers. 3. That God did by that prosperity of theirs fatten them as sheep to the slaughter, and pre­pare them for the day of destruction. And this is that prosperity of fools that the Wise man speaks of, which will destroy them. Prov. 1. 32.

It is not then our thriving in Tempo­ralls, but in Spiritualls, that speaks us and our Faith to be accepted of God.

For the truth of Grace or Religion, and the goodnesse of a mans cause, is not mea­sured by the Souldiers Sword, but by the Word of God, which is the Sword of the Spirit.

God Saints no man for his good­ly Ethnicus Deum sic loquen­tem inducit: Isti quos pro felicibus aspicitis, fi non qua occurrunt, sed qua la­tent videritis, vere sunt mi­seri; Intus enim omne posui bonum. Sen. lib. de Provid. cap. 6. personage, for his riches, for his [Page 66] politick head-piece of contriving, and bringing about his own worldly and sinister ends, or for his armes and conquests; for then Saul and Craesus, Ahitophel and Alexander the Great had been high in Gods book: but he va­lues men only by their spirituals, as their graces of Faith, Humility, Patience, Meek­nesse, Obedience, and the like: and where he finds these, (how unfurnished soever they are otherwise,) yet these are mine saith the Lord; and in that day when I shall make up my Jewels, I will spare Malachy 3. 17. 18. them, even as a Father doth his Sonne; and then shall ye discern between the righ­teous and the wicked, betwixt him that feareth God, and him that feareth him not.

Indeed God may sometimes permit e­vill to prosper in the world, but never ap­prove of it: for so acknowledges the Jew­ish Church, Lament. 3. 35. To turn a­side the right of a man before the face of the most High, or to subvert a man in [Page 67] his cause, the Lord approves it not. And therefore to argue from Gods permission to his approbation, is a grosse Non sequi­tur, Psal. 55. 3. nay more, a laying, our iniquity on Gods back, as if he would take it well at our hands to be made a Pack-horse at every turn to bear all our execrable bur­dens, and were (as David speaks) such Psal. 50. 21. a one as our selves, to favour evil cour­ses, or else to own them as his off­spring.

Which made Dio­nysius the elder con­clude Videtis (inquit) quam prospera navigatio à Diis immortalibus de­tur Sacrilegis. Va [...]er▪ Max. lib. 1. cap. 3. Sacriledge to be no sinne, when he had rob'd the Tem­ple at Locri, because the Gods seem'd (as it were) to smile up­on the action, in giving them fair Winds and Weather, both in their voiage thither and return back again.

But, as it was a great blasphemy (sayes one) Sr Franc. Bacon Es­say 3. for the Devill to per­sonate God, when he [Page 68] would be similts Altissimo; so is it greater to make God personate the Devil. And yet this he doth, that makes God patronize his evil, because he Prosperum scelus vir­tus voeatur. Sen. trag. in He [...]e. fur. prospers in it; for this brings in God saying, That he will be like the Prince of Darknesse, and makes the Holy Ghost to leave his Dove-like shape, and come only to us in the form of a greedy Raven or Vultur.

2. As our prospering in worldly things swells us up too high with an opinion of our own Goodnesse, and makes us think better of our selves then is meet; so also doth it on the other side lift us up too farre with thoughts of evil towards our brethren, and make us think worse of them, and the wayes of God they walk in, then we should, by char­ging them as utterly deserted of God, be­cause Adversoeres etiam ba­ [...] detrectant. Salust. we see not now the same hedge of Gods favour about them as heretofore we [Page 69] did, but the stakes that then prop'd them up, are now thrown away as uselesse and unserviceable. Whereas Afflictions on this hand are every way as temporary and transient, as Prosperity was on the other; and being so, must needs be as a broken reed, or a reed of Aegypt, wherewith we cannot exactly measure Gods Temple, nor the spirituall estate of his Children.

It was a hard stumbling-block to the Prophet David for a time, when he sayes that his feet were almost gone, and his foot­steps Psal. 7 [...], ver. 2. had well-nigh slipt, upon his sight of the wickeds prosperity; untill he went in­to the Sanctuary of Gods Word, where he learnt to settle his wavering and dis­trustfull thoughts: for there he saw that notwithstanding his outward afflictions, that God held him up under that sore temptation with his right hand, and would ver. 23. (in opposition to transitory goods, which are the proper blessings of the wicked, because they have no others but these to trust unto) guide him with that which should infi­nitely exceed them, to wit, his Counsell ere, and his Glory hereafter.

And it was the great question so much [Page 70] agitated betwixt Job and his Friends, Whether those dolefull changes that befell him were the cognizance of his insincerity to God, and of Gods disfavour to him upon it, yea or no. His Friends taking ad­vantage upon his present weaknesse and distemper, maintain it strongly against him in the affirmative, that they were: untill at length God himself steps in to the rescue of the weaker side, and makes the conclu­sion (as all logicall Conclusio sequitur de­biliorem partem. Keck. log. pag. 424. conclusions do) to fol­low the weaker part, determining it for Job against his Opponents in the negative, and telling them, that they spake not of Job, nor of his proceeding; towards him that which was right. Job last. vers. 7.

Seneca a Stoick Phi­lospher hath a set In libro de provid. cap. 4. discourse to this pur­pose, Cur bonts varis mala eveniant, why the evils of this life most commonly fall out to good men: and he concludes it thus, That temporall [Page 71] evils are no sign of Gods hatred to them. Numquid tu invisos esse Lacedemoniis suos liberos credis, quorum experiuntur indolem publice verberibus ad­motis? Non est hoc soevitia; certamen est. For, dost thou think (sayes he) that the Lacedemonians hated their Children, when as they experimented their disposition to vir­tue by stripes in publick? No. So do we think Gods children in disfavour with him, because he layes here sore blows upon their bodies and estates by evil men, as his rods So Tamerlain the Scy­thian was call'd Fla [...] gellum Dei. and scourges in it? No; for we see and feel many times (sayes an experimentall patient of our own well) the deep lines and strokes of Gods hand Sir. I. M. upon us, when as we cannot by our skill in Palmestry decipher his meaning in it, no more then the Malteses could by the viper upon Saint Pauls hand judge of his condition to God-ward. Acts 28. 4.

For God sometimes (that we may not thus judge) inverts humane order, and runs out his dealings towards us in the ordinary chanel of his universall provi­dence, [Page 72] justice and equity, by which he wa­ters here all alike.

Indeed they may seem (I grant) to go counter to our apprehended rules of com­mon right: yet are they alwaies agreeing both with Gods secret and revealed will, though (like the sunne in its sphear) not perceptible to us, because too mysterious and dazzling: however many pretend to interpret them by a blaze of fire lighted at the naturall pride of their own private spirits, and that dimme twilight of know­ledge which is in them; whenas they are altogether in the dark to the true light of Gods word and works herein.

And here take in the opinion also of Epictetus another Sto­ick Pia Epicteti sententia, Non esse omnes Deo ex­osos, qui aerumnarum varietate luctantur, sed esse arcanas causas, ad quas paucorū potest per­venire curiositas. Aul. G [...]ll. noct. Att. lib. 2. cap. 18. and Heathen man, which speaks most Christianly to this point, namely, That all are not hated of God, who do wrastle here with variety of Miseries: but that there are with God good [Page 73] causes of it, though so secret that few can reach them.

And therefore, albeit we cannot see how these actings of God may stand with his tender love to his children, and so may conceive an ill opinion of them; yet when we shall think seriously, that Gods thoughts and wayes are not as ours, it will teach Isa. 55. [...]. us to give them a more favourable inter­pretation.

For how dare hu­mane rashnesse (sayes Quomodo humana teme­ritas audet reprehendere quod comprehendere non potest! De Consid. l. 2. Saint Bernard) repre­hend that which it cannot comprehend; in giving demonstra­tive reason why world­ly prosperity should Noverca virtutis pro­speritas, P. Chrysol lib. 1. de curial. nugis. be virtues stepdame, and not her naturall mother!

But (to close up this discourse) you see here by what hath been said, that it is a great errour (howbeit now grown more then popular) to judge of persons and causes by the events, whenas all outward [Page 74] things (sayes Solomon) fall alike to all, neither can any judge of love or hatred by Ecclesiast. c. 9. ver. 1. what is before him; See also Mat. 5. 45. He makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, &c. Prosperity and Adver­sity being but separa­ble accidents to them, and no essentiall properties of them, be­cause they are grounded upon worldly things that have so loose and mouldring a foun­dation, as that a man cannot tell con­cerning them what a day may bring forth. Again

2. As worldly prosperity swels us up with a high opinion of our own Good­nesse above others, so likewise of our own Greatnesse. And this makes us slight those that are under us, and deal hardly with them, (as to temporall things,) which we would not do, if we once consider'd the mutability of it.

And therefore if at any time God shall give up unto us those we conceit our ene­mies, to be dealt with (if we will) by all harshnesse and extremity; yet are not we then to trample upon them in the pride [Page 75] of our hearts, nor to adde more load to that which God hath already laid upon them, but rather to take off from it what As the virtue of ad­versity is fortitude: so is temperance and mo­deration of prosperity. S [...]r Francis Bacon, Es­say 5. we can, and to use them with all gentle­nesse and compassion, with all mildnesse and moderation, as consi­dering our selves, that we are not here to live alwayes as Gods upon earth, the same yesterday, to day and for ever: but what is the bitter cup of their portion to day, may be ours to morrow.

It speaks out but a course and ignoble spi­rit, to crow and in­sult Faciles motus mens ge­nerosa capit. Ovid. Trict. lib. 3. eleg. 5. over those that are down. The very Hea­then thought it so, who had only the glimmering of nature to guide them; much more ought we Christi­ans, whom the Apostle exhorts, that our moderation may be known to all men. That as the Apostle will have his Corinthians Philipp. 4. 5. to use the world with a tanquam, as if they used it not; so must they among us, that 1 Cor. 7. 31. [Page 76] have wealth, power and authority, to use them, as if they used them not: that so when they shall fail us, (as they will ere long, since the wind The wind goeth towards the South, and turneth about unto the North; it whirleth about con­tinually, and the wind returnes again (sayes the Preacher) accor­ding to his circuits. Ecclesiastes 1. 6. blows not alwayes out of one and the same favourable quar­ter) we may then be able to say with com­fort, That we never missimployed those ta­lents of Gods outward favour to us unto the pressure and destruction of our bre­thren, but only to their relief and pre­servation.

The Prophet David, in his tenth Psalm, Vers. 4. 5. and 6. speaks of some, who through the pride of their countenance do not seek after God, neither is God in all their thoughts. But their wayes are alwayes grievous; they puffe at their enemies, and say in their hearts, they shall never be moved, nor be in Adversity.

And such were the Babylonians, who (besides their barbarous cruelty to the Is­raelites [Page 77] under capti­vity) added this a­bove all, that they The School-men say Irrisio is mortale pecca­tum in the Agent: Sure I a, it is mor­tale supplicium in the Patient; for Ego illam anum irridere [...]e it sinam? (sayes he in the comedy;) satius est mihi quovis exitio in­terire. Terent. in An­dria. scoff'd and jeer'd at them in their mise­ries, with Sing us now one of the songs Psal. 137. 3. of Sion. So also were the Edomites vers. 7. who cryed over Je­rusalem in the day of her visitation, Rase it, rase it even to the foundations.

And were we sure that the sun of our earthly Happinesse would alwayes stand still in this our Gibeon, it may be we might take liberty to do the like, and think we did well in it too. But when as we come to consider seriously, that there is no Solstice here upon earth, but so soon as the Sun is come to his furthest Summer-point in our Horizon, it is then presently verticall, and turning again to make Winter-weather with us, how will this asswage that swelling of pride that is within us, and make us humble?

[Page 78] To this purpose there is a memorable histo­ry of Caganus King Bucholc. Chron [...]l. pag. 669. of the Huns, unto whom Theodorus Me­dicus being sent in anembassy from Mauri­tius the Emperour, to divert those swarms of people where with Caganus at that time threatned to storm the Empire, he apply'd himself to him in these words; Audi, Caga­ne, Vid. Herodot. hist. utilem narratio­nem Sesostris, &c. Hear, sayes he to Ca­ganus, a profitable narrative of Sesostris King of Aegypt, who being lifted up too high with his great Successes against his enemies, caus'd four Kings taken prisoners to draw his triumphall Chariot, wherein one of them look'd back with smiles to the wheel of the Chariot, and being demanded his reason for it, answered; ‘That he smiled to see the speak of the wheel now at the top, to be presently at the bottome; and again that which is now at the bottome, to be and by at the top.’ The very hearing whereof did so mollifie, and keep down the haughty princes spirit, that [Page 79] it drew him a little to forbear his acts of hostility against the Emperour.

And from this to­pick also of volubility, Idem histor. lib. 1. did Croesus draw an argument to disswade Cyrus from his intended inrode into Scy­thia, For if thou didst lead (sayes he) an immortall army, then is there no need for thee to ask my advice in it; but if thou dost acknowledge thy self a man, and a leader of mortals, then think that there is a wheel of humane affairs that turns about continually, and suffers nothing here below to stand long upon the same bottom.

But this advice of Croesus took no place with Cyrus: If it had, he would have kept himself (as the Tortoise doth) intra testudinem, within his own shell, within his own dominions, and not have cause­lessely usurp'd upon the rightfull possessions of others to his own destruction; for see the issue and event of it.

Even that God who is infinite in his Wisdome, and terrible in his Power and Ju­stice, [Page 80] He that resists the proud, and looks Psal. 138. 6. upon them afarre off; He (I say) made the pride of Cyrus serve Alios in cladem meri­tam praecipitavit indig­ne aucta falicitas. Boet. de Consol. philos. l. 4. pros. 6. as a snare to take him­self in, and to work his ruine: for he was no sooner entred Scy­thia, but he found by sad experience how unconstant the world was, not looking now upon him with that smiling aspect it did before; but the wind was now in another quarter, and (as the Wise man sayes of Prov. 23. 5. Riches, that they make themselves wings and fly away,) so did his former prosperity be­take her self now to her wings, and flew a­way, his whole army Consule Justin, hist. lib. 1. being quite defeated, and himself slain by Tomyris Queen of Scythia.

A good example to make the secure wretch look about him, and to pull down the high looks of the proud.

And therefore when ever any flushing of pride begins to rise within thee, and [Page 81] to bud forth, as it is in Ezekiel, into vio­lence, Ezek. 7. 10. and oppression of others, then think thou hearest some Monitor calling unto thee, as King Philip's Page did to him, Memento te esse mortalem, remember that Q. Cur [...]. thou art mortall: so, remember that thou art changeable as well as others, and this will be an excellent means to keep it in.

For tell me, would Cyrus, think you, have invaded Scythia, had he thought so sad a fate would have attended him in it?

Or would Pharaoh have oppress'd the Is­raelites so much, had he thought that God would have tumbled him up and down so Exod. 5. chap. much as he did, from one plague to another, and at last made the sea his champion to revenge their injuries upon him?

Or would Joseph's brethren have perse­cuted him as they did, if they had thought he should afterwards have been lord over them?

Or the Gileadites have expelled Jephtha, Judg. chap. 1 [...]. had they known he would have been such a shelter against a storm, and of such use unto them against the Ammonites?

Or (to say no more) would Darius [Page 82] have call'd Alexander Philip's boy in de­ [...]ision Q. Cutt. of him, had he known that he should have been conquered by him?

No; Little do proud men think that the water which is now in the float, will pre­sently be in the ebbe; and that the spoak of the wheel which is now at the top, may quickly be at the bottome: and then he that is the greatest now among us, may come (how soon he knows not) to stand in need of the meanest creature whom he now despises.

It is wisdome then for every Christian, whenas he is at the Sapienter omnes con­ [...]rahant v [...]nto nimium secundo [...]urgida vela, Hor. carm. l. 2. od. 10. top of the wheel, and may lord it over those that are beneath, yet not to overlook them with a scornfull eye, but to let down his spirit, and (as the A­postle exhorts us) to condescend to men of Rom. [...]2. 15. low degree: For one scale is not alwayes in depression. No; This were dura infaelicit as, a very hard and high measure of infelicity. Neither is the other alwayes in elevation: This were foellcit as miseranda, a happinesse [Page 83] to be pitied. But the alternate wave of the beam keeps them both in aw, and espe­cially the proud person, who seems unto me as a bird tied to a string, which if it fly too high, the [...]and draws in the string and puls it down again. And so if we shall let out our spirits too high with pride, God hath then a line of vicissi­tude in his hand to pull us in at his plea­sure.

The Prophet David said in his prosperi­ty, Psal. 30. 6. that he should never be moved, his mountain was made so strong; yet God did but hide his face from him a little, and he was troubled.

Naturally then we are too apt to know Res secundoe non habent unquam modum. Sen. in OEdip. no measure in a high fortune; but (as a person of Honour and The Lord C. in his 74 meditat. Piety in this nation said) Although in the heat of summer we easily believe there will come after it a cold season of frost and snow: yet are we so stupid as in Prospe­rity not to consider of Adversity, though [Page 84] the one be as successive as the other. And this makes us to exalt our selves so much above all that is called God. That as it is obser­vable touching the book of Esther (which is nothing else but a Declaration of acts done in reference to the Greatnesse, Pow­er and Glory of Ahasuerus the Persian Monarch, as to the principall instrument of them) that in that whole book the name of God is not so much as mentioned at all: So doth it also commonly fall out, that while we are here in the ruffe of our worldly Glory and Prosperity, we seldome or never speak of God, and as seldome think of him, but set our selves up in his room, as Nebuchadnezzar did, who spake too big, and too much of himself, saying, Is not this great Babel that I have built for the house of my Kingdome, by the might of Dan. 4. 30. my power, and for the honour of my ma­jesty? As the fly said in the Apologue when it was got up to the Quam magnam vim pulveris excitavi! Ae­sop. fab. pag. 62. top of the wheel, See what a dust I make! So, see what a dust [Page 85] makes this poor Worm, what a Mying there is with him in the height of his pride! nothing but my Kingdome, my Power, and my Majesty: but as for God, Ne gry qui­dem, There is not a Erasm. Adag. pag. 6 [...]4. word of him; He is not in all his thoughts.

And therefore how soon the house of his Kingdome fell upon his head, yea how short-liv'd the might of his power was, and the honour of his majesty, you may see by the next verse, where it is said, That while the word was in the Kings mouth, there fell a voice from heaven say­ing, O Nebuchadnezzar, to thee be it spoken, Thy Kingdome is departed from thee.

The world then may well be compared to the sea of glasse which Saint John saw in his vision, Re­velat. 4. 6. and there be also, that from the Leo his Conc. funeb. in obit. Doctoris Featlael. resemblance of the one to the other, interpret it thus. For

[Page 86] First, It resembles the sea either for its ebbing and flowing: or else for the sud­dain change of it: for how soon is the face of the sea alter'd? In Nune strato oequore blanditur mare: nunc sluctibus inhorresc [...]. Boet. de Consolat. Phi­losph. lib. 2. pros. 2. one and the same hour (it may be) thou mayest see her smiling upon thy vessel, and frowning too; playing with it, and swal­lowing it up. Noli igitur (sayes the Mo­ralist) tranquillitati e­jus Sen, de tranquill. ani­mi. Eodem die quo libi luserant navigia, sor­ [...]entur, credere. i. e. Do not therefore trust too much to her smooth and calm looks; in hoc enim momento ma­r [...] evertitur, for in one moment doth she appear wrinkled with billowes, and turns about from a calm unto a storm.

Secondly, It resem­bles also glasse, and We say therefore of glass usually, that it stands in harms way; and some melancholy persons have conceited their bodies to be of a glassy substance, and would not let any man touch them for fear of breaking. See Burton's Melancholy. that either for its brit­tlenesse, because no­thing is sooner bro­ken: or else for its [Page 87] slipperinesse, because he that walks upon glasse can have no sure footing; and there­fore for any man to presume upon the stea­dinesse of it must needs be very dan­gerous.

That as the ancient Romans used to distin­guish their dayes into Godwin Rom. Antiq. lib. 2. §. 3. cap. 1. & Etasm. Adag. pag. 105. Dies albi and Dies a­tri, white and black dayes: so doth God, and there is no man but hath the later of these as well as the former, his black as well as his white dayes.

Oh the madnesse then of wicked men, who are alwayes plotting against the righ­teous, and gnashing upon them with their teeth! At ridebit Deus, sayes David, But Psal. 37. 12. God shall laugh at them for it: and he gives this reason vers. 13. because he s [...]es that their day is coming. i. e. he sees clearly that their black and dismall day is coming upon them, though themselves will [Page 88] not see it through the pride and security of their spirits; yea, and he knows also punctually when it will be: though we know it not, for though to day may be fair and shining, yet may to morrow be dark and tempestuous with them; Since we know not what a day may bring forth.

Last of all (because I am loth that my sun should set in a cloud;) The conside­ration Use 3. of this point may serve as a good an­tidote against despair Nemo desperet meliora lapsus—probibet Clo­tho stare fortunam, Sen. Thyest. trag. 2. in an afflicted condi­tion; or as a cordiall to stay up our spirits in the saddest and most di­stressed times, and to teach us patience and contentednesse in them: that so as in prospe­rity we should not say, we shall never be moved, so neither in adversity, that we shall never be deliver'd; when we shall consi­der, that what weight of affliction soever Non si male nunc, & [...]lim sic erit. Horat. lib. 2. ode 10. we ly under, is not of a continuant, but of a changeable nature. And to this end [Page 89] we have the sure staff of Gods promise unto his children to lean upon, as in the tenth chapter to the Hebrews, where he sayes thus, Yet a little while, or rather as it runs in the Greek, yet [...], Heb. 10. 37. how very very little while, (with a dou­ble diminutive) and he that shall come, will come, and will not tarry. And in the pre­cedent verse he tells them, they have need of patience, that they may receive this promise. And in the twelfth chapter to the Hebrews the Apostle takes up an exhor­tation to it from the Wise man, and Prov. 3. 11. makes a consolatory use of it to his He­brews, withall taking them to taske for their forgetfulnesse of it; And ye have for­gotten the exhortation which speaks unto Heb. 12. 5. you, as unto children: My sonne, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint, or be not broken in mind, Ne animo frangitor [...] sic B [...]z [...]. (as others translate it) when thou art rebuked of him. For we had (sayes he) the fa­thers of our flesh, who verily chastened us [Page 90] a few dayes after their own pleasure, and we were patient under their rod, and gave See the 9. and 10. ver­ses. them reverence, but God a few dayes only, for our profit. Shall we not then be much rather in subjection to him who is the fa­ther of spirits, and live?

Thus when Boetius, that Christian Co [...] ­sul and Martyr at Rome, was wrongfully deprived by Theodoricus of his Honours, Estate and Liberty, Philosophy brings in what we call Gods providence, comfort­ing him in these words;

I turn about my wheel continually, and delight to tumble things Rotam meam volubili orbe semper verso, in­ [...]is [...], summis­que infima mutare gau­dens. Quid igitur a­nimo contabescis, &c. Boet. de Consol. lib. 2. Pros. 2. upside down: why then doth thy heart shrink within thee, when as this changeablenesse of mine is cause e­nough for thee to hope for better things?

And so also, when many of our brethren were heretofore in exile for their Religion in Queen Marie's dayes, what (I pray) [Page 91] did that Jewell of our Church comfort them In Juelli vits. with, but only this, Haec non durabunt, aetatem These will not endure an Age? as indeed you know they did not, her reign being not full out six years time.

And with the same consideration also should we cheare up our selves now un­der that black cloud that hangs over the Church, that it will Non semper imbres nu­bibus bispid [...]s manane in agros. Hor. lib. 2. ode 9. not endure an Age, but be as Ephraim's righteousnesse was, e­ven Hos. 6. 4. like the morning cloud, or as the ear­ly dew that passes away.

To this end, it will not be amisse to note, how the afflictions of Gods people in the Scripture, are run out not by any long tract of time, as by an Age, Year, Moneth, Week or the like; but by the shortest measures that can be, as by a Day: now a Day (you know) holds not long, but is quickly gone, even as a flying bird, or a poast that runneth by. And this good [Page 92] Hezekiah calls the time of Sennacheribs rage against Judah, a Day of trouble, Isa. 37. vers. 3.

Or if this be not enough, you have them then contracted within a lesser room, and measur'd only by a Night, which is no more but the dark side of a naturall day, and therefore is a great deal shorter. And this made the Prophet David say, Psal. 30. vers. 5. That heav [...]nesse may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning. The time then that heavinesse shall endure to the Godly can be but a Night at the longest, but whether it shall be so long or no, the Prophet is very uncertain and un­satisfied, for which cause he expresses it here with a May be, Heavinesse may endure for a night.

But if this expression be not full enough to set forth the brevity of them, our Sa­viour doth it then by an Hour, which is shorter yet, and but the four and twentieth part of a naturall Day; for so he calls the time of his persecution by the High Priests and Elders of the people, Their hour, [Page 93] and the power of Darknesse. Luk. 22. 53.

Or, if this be yet too long a space to set forth the brevity of their afflictions, and to give a through Comfort to Gods peo­ple, their little continuance is then express'd by a Moment, which I am sure is short enough; so you have it Isa. 54. vers. 7. For a small moment (sayes God to his Church) have I forsaken thee, but with great mer­cy will I gather thee: And again vers. 8. In a little wrath I hid my face from thee for a moment, but with everlasting kind­nesse will I have mercy upon thee.

Or last of all, if any time can be short­er then this, it must then be the present time; yet such are the sufferings of Gods children, in Saint Pauls account, but the Sufferings of the present time, Rom. 8. 18. and a shorter time then this there cannot be. For as the French our Howell in the life of Lewis the thirteenth. neighbours are said to be for their inconsi­deratenesse, Animalia sine praeterito & futu­ro, Creatures that have respect neither to time past nor time to come: so may we say [Page 94] of the present time, That it is as short a measure as can possibly be imagined, having in it nothing either of time past or future, the first of the two being dead already, and the later of them being not yet born unto us. And yet we see here for all this that Saint Paul, when he had cast up the ac­count of all which he suffered in the cause of Christ, how he reckons and con­cludes it to be only the suffering of the present time, and not worthy to be com­pared with the glory that shall be re­vealed.

He that observes the wind (sayes Solo­mon) shall never sow, and he that observes Ecclesiast. c. 11. v. 4. the clouds shall never reap. Such are our Troubles, such our Afflictions, which al­though they blow strong against us, yet like some high and mighty wind, they will not hold; yea though they fall upon us as thick as hail, yet are they not so fix'd for ever, but a change shall come. which should make us in any temptation to despair and distrust of Gods providence, check and chide our spirits, as the prophet David did his with that objurgation, (which [Page 95] for the remarkablenesse of it is thrice re­peated, in the two and fourtieth and three and fourtieth Psalms;) Why art thou cast Psal. 42. vers. 5. and 11. Again Psal. 43. last verse. down, O my soul? and why art thou dis­quieted within me? Still hope in God; for I shall yet praise him, who is the health of my countenance and my God.

Scaliger tells us of one Palavicine an Italian, and kinsman of his, that had in one In lib. 18. subtil. night his hair metamorphosed from black to white: And I apply it thus, That al­though now Gods people may ly, as the Israelites did, among the pots, (to use the Prophets words,) and be like some Scullion Psal. 68. vers. 13. fullied and black'd with the burning coals of Affliction; yet may one day of Gods favour to us work a great alteration with us, and put such a candy of Prosperity upon us, as that we shall be, as it is there vers. 14. even as white as the snow in Salmon.

And therefore, as Jobs resolution was, to wait all the dayes of his appointed time, Job 14. ve [...]s. 14. untill his change should come; so should every good man wait upon God all the dayes that he shall be pleased to lay trou­ble [Page 96] upon him, whe­ther immediately by Accepimus peritura perituri: quid queri­mur? Ad hoc institu­ti sumus. Sen. lib. de provid. c. 6. himself, or else me­diately by the hands of evil men as his in­struments in it; as knowing that it is ap­pointed but for a little while, at the most but a biduum or a triduum, and then a change shall come, and bring him delive­rance from it.

For in mount Sion and in Jerusalem there shall be deliverance, as the Lord hath Joel 2. 32. said: neither shall the rod of the ungod­ly alwayes lye upon the back of the righ­teous: Psal. 125. 3. but after two dayes he will revive us, and the third day we shall live in his Hos. 6. 2. sight.

Wherefore seeing we are compass'd about, (as the Authour to the Hebrews speaks) with such a cloud of witnesses, let us run Heb. 12. 1. 2. and 3. on with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus the beginner and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him, endured the crosse and despi­sed the shame. Yea let us consider him that [Page 97] endured such contradictions of sinners, that so we may not be faint and weary.

And now Comfort Jerusalem (saith my Isa. 40. 1, 2. God) yea comfort her at the very heart, and tell her that her sinnes are pardoned, and her warfare is accomplished. For the Lord knows, sayes Saint Peter, how to deliver the godly out of temptation, and to 2 Pet. 2. 9. make a way for them to escape: That as the sufferings of Christ in them do abound, so hath God many wayes to make their 2 Cor. 1. 5. consolations abound also. If the Devil and his Engineers have Mille nocendi artes, a thousand wayes to hurt and destroy them, God will either find or make as many wayes to preserve them: whereof some he will have to be more secret and under ground, others again more open and ob­vious to the eyes of the world; as either by restraining the fury and malice of their persecutours, and stopping their mouthes, that they shall not hurt them, as he did the mouthes of the Lions from hurting Da­niel; or else by taking them off by his de­stroying hand of judgement in the full car­reer of their pride, as he did Pharaoh, An­tiochus, [Page 98] Herod, Agrippa, Julian the Apo­state, and many such like; or if none of these wayes, yet by ingratiating them, and giving them favour in the sight of their e­nemies, as he did the Israelites in the eyes of the Aegyptians.

And as God knows how to deliver the godly, so also when to do it; and a great deal sooner it may be then they ex­pect, even within the space and turning about of one day: Since none of us know what a day may bring forth.

Trin uni Deo Gloria.