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
THE BIRTH OF A DAY BEING A Treatise Theologicall Morall and Historicall Representing as in a Scene the Vicissitudes of all Humane things with their severall Causes and sacred Uses Compos'd for the establishing mans Soul unchangeable in the Faith amidst the various Changes of the World By J. ROBINSON Mr of Arts and Preacher of Gods Word Isa 21. 11 12. He calls to me out of Seir Watchman what of the night The watchman said The morning cometh and also the night LONDON Printed by Roger Daniel and are to be sold by Thomas Johnson at the sign of the Golden Key in S. Pauls Churchyard 1655 To the RIGHT WORSHIPFULL Sr G. B. Knight SIR IN the wheeling motions of our late changes I have still observ'd you to be Homo quadratus one whose Basis hath been firmly grounded upon Religious principles and amidst the manifold Alterations of the World's Scene on which you have acted the suffering part most constant unto the Truth your Heaven-born Soul over-looking these sublunary mutations with an eye of Faith fixt upon Eternity Having therefore compos'd this Treatise The birth of a Day brought forth by the midwifery of some weeks studies I no sooner thought of seeking a Patron for it then of choosing Your self whose Experience I knew well could fully attest the Vicissitudes of all Humane things and whose Judgement did clearly discern their severall Causes as having already apply'd them home in their sacred Uses And the rather Sâ— do I make bold here to inscribe Your name that I may erect if but a small Monument of Thankfulnesse unto you for sundry Favours and let you see that I eye not Greatnesse so much as Goodnesse for the fittest Patron The former of these having much of Vicissitude in it being Aurâ fugacior more fleeting then the Air but the later of duration being Aere perennior more durable then Brass And a greater testimony of this Goodnesse cannot be given then your eminent and cheerfull suffering even the losse of All your Constancy excepted in the Orthodox Faith which hath taught you to look beyond the Instruments unto God the principall Agent in his so various and changeable dealings with you as to earthly things May these Lines then stand you in any stead though to be only as Aaron and Hur were to Moses some stay and support to Exod. 17. 12. your weak hands and feeble knees it is enough For God who is rich in mercy to those that call upon him hath a Sufficit for You and Yours and will at length make up all your losses if you faint not under them out of his own choicest treasure of happinesse which no son of violence shall be able to force from You since you have suffer'd as a Christian with undaunted Fortitude and Patience knowing in your self that you have in heaven a better and an enduring Substance And now Sir I commend your VVorthy self with your Vertuous Act. 20. 32. Lady and your hopefull as well as numerous branches unto God and the word of his Grace nothing doubting but that He who by the hand of his providence hath the turning about of this great Globe of the World will also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in his good time turn all to his Churches good and as he is able every day to build you up more and more in your Holy Faith so likewise he will do it and give You an abiding inheritance among them that are sanctified Which is the prayer of him who esteems it an Honour to be Sir Your faithfully devoted servant John Robinson To the READER by R. J. WHat says Copernicus that th' earth runs round We grant it now for never were there found Such topsey-turvey turnings as here be Where all things speak out mutability Look further yet and then within thine eye It s severall causes do presented lye Only the moving cause our sin you 'l find Moves not at all so hardned is our mind This Achan troubles us Oh! here 's our Hell And could we turn from this all would be wel For 't is not alwayes dark see where in sight Comes day-break in for to relieve the night Live then a while by faith It 's Gods decree To deal forth earthly things unsteadily Mistakes Pag. 10. line 12. for from him read from him pag. 23. l. 11. after sheepfold insert But the dunghill pag. 90. l. last for this read thus The Analysis of it setting briefly before you 1 What this Vicissitude is 2 The Demonstration of Vicâ—â—situdes in humane things by 1 Eminent places of Scripture 2 Severall instances of â—hem in 1 Politick Estates and Governments whether drawn out in length as in Monarchies or drawn up short as in Cities and their democraticall governments 2 Families or descents 3 Particular Persons considered in respect of their Minds Bodies Estates 3 The Causes of Vicissitudes which are Fictitious or supposed only as Fortune Fare True and reall and here we consider 1 Their Efficient causes which are 1 Principall God 2 Lesse principal and this is 1 Impulsive Sin 2 Instrumentall as 1 The motion and influence of the heavenly bodies 2 The will of man 2 Their Ends or Final Causes 1 In respect of God who advances his own glory by them in the manifestation of the attributes of 1 his Power 2 his Truth 3 his Wisdome and Goodness 2 In respect of us and these are 1 to confirm our faith 2 to reform our lives 4 The Uses of them and they are 1 To wean our hearts from the love of the World which is so unsetled 2 To take us off from priding it above ourbrethren when we are in a prosperous estate as if either 1 Our present greatnesse would never faile us or 2 The goodnesse of our cause or Persons were to be certainly measured by the uncertain rule of successe and prosperity in worldly things 3 To keep us from despair in an afflicted condition by exercising our faith and patience PROV 27. ver 1. and last branch of it For thou know'st not what a Day may bring forth 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
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
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 Valâ—ns 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 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 Magdâ—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 plenâ—â—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 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 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 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 â—â—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