For being a Countrey at first diversly peopled it was upon the division 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 seized 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 Massinello by name snatch'd up the Reins of Government from him and had not God otherwise determined of that Kingdom by infatuating that mushrome-Mushrome-King for ought we know he might have run quite away with them so slippery are all earthly Kingdoms 3. But not to look out any longer to other Nations of Christendom 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 several and alternate days of Lordship over this Nation but yet because they did not know in those their days the things that belonged 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 Joshuah's 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 Sun of their prosperity shone here for the space of four hundred years and more yet did it then go down as to us in this Nation and Darkness here now doth lie upon Again the day of the Saxons continued five hundred years and upwards That of the Danes two hundred fifty five years or thereabouts 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 it 's 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 goes down and 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 Urns of the Dead which have been always look'd upon as Sacred Cabinets to preserve the Bodies of Gods Saints in for Eternity yet are they now broken up and their Ashes thrown about such is the unsetledness 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 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 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 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 quaerere Angliam in Anglia That we may now seek for old England in our new England and yet go without it it is so much changed 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 popular Governments Etiam summis negatum est urbibus stare din says the Moralist And to this purpose tends that of the Author to the 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 Pass ye up to Calneh and see says the Prophet Annos 6.2 and from hence go to Hemath the Great and so to Gath of the Philistins So pass 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 kind 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 Aristocratical Lords who govern'd first for term of life then decennially and after these to Democratical Rulers Next for Rome how oft hath that City been alter'd by Gauls Hunnes Goths and Vandals Yea how oft hath the Government of 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 according to the number of those Hills to so many Masters did it submit it self who had their several turns of supreme power and regiment over her as Kings Consuls Dictators Decemviri Tribunes Emperours and Popes under the last of which I do not find that 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 Aristocratical way But a little after some Grandees among the people wrested it to themselves who being tired out with continual 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 ears the third and lowest sort became Masters of it Which holding not long by reason of their mutual discords they yield themselves and the Government of their City unto Charles of France Brother to Lewis the Ninth who within a short time being invited to the Kingdom of Naples and leaving only Deputies at Florence the Florentines return to their Popular Government and renew their
to pull down the high looks of the proud And therefore when ever any flushing of pride begins to rise within thee and to bud forth as it is in Ezekiel into violence and oppression of others then think thou hearest some Monitor calling unto thee as King Philips Page did to him Memento te esse mortalem remember that thou art Mortal 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 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 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 have call'd Philip's boy in derision 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 when as he is at the top of the wheel and may lord it over those that are beneath yet not to overlook them with a scornful eye but to let down his spirit and as the Apostle exhorts us to condescend to men of low degree For one scale is not always in depression No This were dura infoelicitas a very hard and high measure of infelicity Neither is the other always in elevation This were foelicitas miseranda a happiness to be pitied But the alternate wave of the beam keeps them both in awe and especially the proud person who seems unto me as a bird tied to a string which if it fly too high the hand draws in the string and pulls 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 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 no measure in a high fortune but as a person of Honour and 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 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 Greatness Power and Glory of Ahasuerus the Persian Monarch as to the principal 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 ruff of our worldly Glory and Prosperity we seldom 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 Kingdom by the might of my power and for the honour of my majesty As the fly said in the Apologue when it was got up to the top of the wheel See what a dust I make So see what a dust makes this poor Worm what a Mying there is with him in the height of his pride nothing but my Kingdom my Power and my Majesty but as for God Ne gry quidem There is not a word of him He is not in all his thoughts And therefore how soon the house of his Kingdom 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 Kingdom is departed from thee The world then may well be compared to the Sea of glass which Saint John saw in his vision Revelat. 4.6 and there be also that from the resemblance of the one to the other interpret it thus For 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 one and the same hour it may be thou mayst see her smiling upon thy vessel and frowning too playing with it and swallowing it up Noli igitur says the Moralist tranquillitati ejus credere i.e. Do not therefore trust too much to her smooth and calm looks in hoc enim momento mare evertitur for in one moment doth she appear wrinkled vvith billovvs and turns about from a calm unto a storm Secondly It resembles also glass and that either for its brittleness because nothing is sooner broken or else for its slipperiness because he that walks upon glass can have no sure footing and therefore for any man to presume upon the steadiness of it must needs be very dangerous That as the ancient Romans used to distinguish their days into Dies albi and Dies atri white and black days 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 days Oh the madness then of wicked men vvho are alvvays plotting against the righteous and gnashing upon them vvith their teeth At ridebit Deus says David But God shall laugh at them for it and he gives this reason v. 13. because he sees that their day is coming i. e. he sees clearly that their black and dismal day is coming upon them though themselves will 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 loath that my Sun should set in a cloud The consideration of this point may serve as a good antidote against despair in an
Hills over Seas and Rocks without any hinderance 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 soaring after Principalities and Powers and spiritual 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 and straightway fearing those hopes now loving and then hating what it loved before Sic omnia mutabilitati subjacent says St. Augustine Thus do all things lie down under mutability And it amaz'd Saint Bernard 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 several Passions of our Minds do in a breath and with the turning of a hand steer divers ways 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 add unto the former the great changes that particular men are subject to in regard of their outward Estates and Fortunes For the condition of Mortals says a Heathen man hath its turns and returns both of Prosperity and Adversity That as in a Military skirmish there be some come up to discharge while others fall of So is it in the World's Militia One there is that is rais'd out of the Dust to sit among Princes whereas there is another that is flung down from the pinnacle of worldly joy and prosperity and stated as Job was upon the Dunghil And this doth the Preacher tell us 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 Kingdom and becomes ver poor as our Henry the Third was while he lived sometimes on the Churches Alms. God hath appointed us saith one well all our parts to play and hath not in their distribution been either spare-handed to the meanest nor yet partial to the greatest He gave Caius Marius at first the part of a Carpenters Son 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 play'd 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 play'd the Grand Signior in the morning but in the evening stood for Tamerlains footstool And Jane Shore Edward the Fourths Minion acts now as Mistress of a stately Palace and a little after dies in a Ditch for want of a House and as he said of Icarus so may we of 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 who says 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 and contemptible than the Dust we tread upon which the least breath of wind commands any way or than the worst of dust which is that of the Dunghil 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 2 Mac. 9.9 who was so fill'd with Pride through the rankness of his Prosperity that he thought he might command the Sea so proud was he says the Text beyond the condition of man and further that he could weigh the Mountains in a ballance and reach up to the Stars of Heaven yet by and by is his Comb cut all his Glory worm-eaten and none able to endure him for the filthiness 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 says the Text came out the hand-writing of the wall against him and then was the Kings countenance chang'd his thoughts troubled the joynts of his Loyns loosed and his Kingdom 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 was we see commonly in High-ways where one man hath seth his foot another presently follows him and treads it out again so is it usually That if one man beat out an Honour or 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 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 truth viz. That there is such a Vicissitude The next thing is the Efficient Causes of it For we never know any thing throughly says the Philosopher until we know the Causes of it Now in speaking to this I shall proceed 1. Negatively 2. Affirmatively 1. 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 thought Fortune to be the cause of them And they define it thus to be An Event of things without Reason But how unreasonable 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