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 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 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 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 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 immoâ—usâ— in undis That although the waves are alwaies swelling against Viâ—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
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 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 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 â—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 〈…〉 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 Fluâ—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 â—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 Adversiâ—â— 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 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 aâ—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 3â— 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 habeÌ„t 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 in the
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 farâ—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 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 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. â—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 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 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 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 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 â—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 Alâ—â—edius vir undequaque doctus ait conjunctionem Saturni Jovis in Ariete â—gnâ—ae triplicitatis signo Anno Christi 1641. novi alicujus imperii revolutionem portendere 3 cujus effectum verifimile est nos in nuperis ab eo tempore moâ—ibus muâ—ationibus in Anglia nostra satis superque 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 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 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 subâ—ilius dicant Astronomi non â—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
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 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 Silver-smith 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. 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 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 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 Breviâ— 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 midwifeâ—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 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 Tree it is so quickly done Even the highest enterprizes
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 7â— 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 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 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 Flaâ— 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 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 paucoruÌ„ potest pervenire curiositas Aul. Gâ—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 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 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 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 Sâ—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
erit Horat. lib. 2. ode 10. we ly under is not of a continuant but of a changeable nature And to this end 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 Bâ—zâ— as others translate it when thou art rebuked of him For we had sayes he the fathers of our flesh who verily chastened us 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 Coâ—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 inâ—â—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 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 bispidâ—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 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 heavâ—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 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 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 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