As no day of the year is of the same continuance or length as to light, so very few are of the same complexion or temper as to heat and cold, fair or fowl weather, storms or calms. Now if there be such a vicissitude in natural things, then do not wonder that there is a vicissitude in civil things, or in the affairs and conditions of men in this wo•ld. If after the fair weather of health and peace, the fowl weather of sickness and trouble come upon us, if after calms we meet with storms, let us not be troubled. A heathen Poet said,1 We should not be diffident in a stormy day, that we shall never have quietness, nor should we be confident in a quiet day, that we shall never have a storm. David, a holy man, was once exceedingly out in both; in his adversity he said, I shall never be established; that was the sense of his saying, when in his haste he said, all men are liars (Psal. 116.11.) In his prosperity he said, I shall never be moved. The Lords favour had made his mountain stand st•ong, and he began not only to think but conclude it would always stand in the same strength, till his experience confuted that fancy, Thou didst hide thy face, and I was troubled ⟨p. 565⟩(Psal. 30.6, 7.) 'Tis good for us to be in expectation of, and preparation for all sorts of changes, seeing all things here below are changeable. That great Monarch said (Dan. 4.4.) I Nebuchadnezzar was at rest in mine house, and flourishing in my palace, yet presently he saw in a dream, that all his flourishing prosperity was but like a dream that passeth away; and while those boasts of an earthly greatness and settlement were in his mouth (vers. 30.) Is not this great Babylon that I have built for the house of the Kingdom, &c. There fell a voice from Heaven (vers. 31.) saying, O King Nebuchadnezzar, to thou it is spoken, the Kingdom is departed from thee. All sublunary things, the surest and best settled estates, not only of the men of this world, or of worldly men, but of all men, even of good men, in this world, are as subject to changes, as the Moon is, or as the wind and weather.
As no day of the year is of the same continuance or length as to light, so very few are of the same complexion or tem•er as to heat and cold, fair or fowl weather, stormes or calmes. Now if there be such a vicissitude in natu•al things, then do not wonder that there is a vicissitude in civil things, or in the affaires and condi•ions of men in this wo•ld. If after the faire weather of health and peace, the fowl weather of s•ckness and trouble come upon us, if after calmes we meet with stormes, let us not be troubled. A heathen Poet said,1 We should not be diffident in a stormy day, that we shall never have quietness, nor should we be confident in a quiet day, that we shall never have a storm. David, a holy man, was once exceedingly out in both; in his adversity he said, I shall never be established; that was the sence of his saying, when in his haste he said, all men are liars (Psal. 116.11.) In his prosperity he said, I shall never be moved. The Lords favour had made his mountain stand st•ong, and he began not only to think but conclude it would alwayes stand in the same strength, till his experience consuted that fancy, Thou didst hide thy face, and I was troubled ⟨p. 565⟩(Psal. 30.6, 7.) 'Tis good for us to be in expectation of, and preparation for all sorts of changes, seeing all things here below are changable. That great Monarch said (Dan. 4.4.) I Nebuchadnezzar was at rest in mine house, and flourishing in my pallace, yet presently he saw in a dream, that all his flourishing prosperity was but like a dream that passeth away; and while those boasts of an earthly greatness and settlement were in his mouth (vers. 30.) Is not this great Babylon that I have built for the house of the Kingdome, &c. There fell a voyce from Heaven (vers. 31.) saying, O King Nebucadnezar, to thou it is spoken, the Kingdome is departed from thee. All sublunary things, the surest and best setled estates, not only of the men of this world, or of worldly men, but of all men, even of good men, in this world, are as subject to changes, as the Moon is, or as the wind and weather.
- 1Nemo confidat nimium secundis, nemo desperet meliora lapsis: Res Deus nostras celeri rotatas turbine versat. Sen. in Thyesle.
