The INTERPRETER.

1. FOrtune and the Moon are taken for one and the same Deity; for as the Moon, so Fortune is still change∣able and unconstant; and as the Moon, so Fortune hath the command and dominion over sublunary things; and as from the Moon, so from Fortune the generation and cor∣ruption of things have their dependence. 2. Neer to Fortune stood the image of Favour, in the habit of a youth with wings, standing upon a wheele; to shew us that favour is procured by Fortune; and that this is as unstable and ready to fly from us as Fortune it selfe. 3. Amongst many other images of Fortune, there were two of speciall note; the one was called Fortuna calva, bald Fortune: Page  93 the other Fortuna vi••ea, glassie fortune; to shew that it is a difficult thing to lay hold upon Fortune being bald; so when we have caught her, shee is quickly broke being glas∣sie. 4. The Roman Emperours put more confidence in Fortune then in any other Deity; therefore they alwayes kept in their closets the golden image of Fortune, and when they travelled abroad, that was still their compani∣on. I wish wee Christians would as much esteem and honour Gods providence, and rely on it, as the Romans did on their Fortune. 5. Fortune is either an unexpe∣cted event, or else the hid cause of that event: the blinde Gentiles made her a blinde goddesse, ruling things by her will, rather then by counsell; therefore they used to raile at her, because shee favoured bad men rather then good, and called her blind, as not regarding mens worth. 6. But I think, that the wiser sort by Fortune understood Gods will or providence; which the Poet (a) calls Omnipotent, and the Historian the Ruler of all things: shee may be called fortuna, quasi fortis un•, being onely that strong Ruler of the world. She had many temples at Rome, and many names; s•ice stood upon a globe, to shew her dominion of this world; and the heaven on her head did shew, that there is her beginning; the helm and the horn of plenty in her hands are to shew, that the government of this world, and the plenty wee enjoy, is from this divine providence; and though they called her blinde, yet wee know the contrary, for shee is that eye which seeth all things, and a•ar off, and before they are, as the word Providentia signifieth; therefore they called her and her horses blinde, because they were blinde themselves, not being able to know the wonderfull wayes and secret ends of this Providence, why good men should here live in affliction and miserie, and the wicked in honour and prosperitie; whereas they should have known, as some of the wiser men did, that no Page  94 miserie could befall a good man, (a) because every hard fortune doth either exercise, amend, or punish us; he is miserable, saith Seneca, (b) that never was miserable: they are miserable who are becalmed in the Sea, not they who are driven forward to their haven by a storm: a sur∣feit is worse then hunger; but see himself speaking excel∣lently to this purpose; therefore they had no reason to rail at Fortune when shee crossed them, for to a good man all things fall out for the best: yet in good sence Gods providence may be called blinde, as Justice is blinde; for it respecteth not the excellencie of one creature above ano∣ther, but Gods generall providence exteneth it self to all alike, to the worme as well as the Angel: for as all things are equ•lly subject to God in respect of casualitie, so are they to his providence; he is the preserver of man and beast, his Sun shineth, and his rain falleth upon all alike. 7. Now the four horses that draw fortune, are the four branches of providence, whereby Gods love is communi∣cated to us: to wit, creation, preservation, gobernation, and ordinations of all things to their ends. 8. In that they called fortune the daughter of the Sea; by this they would shew her instabilitie still ebbing and flowing like the Sea; therefore they made her stand upon a wheel, and shee was called in a common by-word fortuna Euripus, (Er•s. in adag.) because of the often ebbing and flowing thereof. I grant that as one and the same effect may be cal∣led fortune and providence: fortune in respect of the par∣ticular cause, but providence in regard of the first, and generall c•use, which is God: so the same may be called instable in respect of the particular cause, but most stable in respect of God, with whom there is no variablenesse, nor shadow of turning; though contingent causes pro∣duce contingent effects, yet nothing is contingent to God, for all things come to passe which he foreseeth, and yet his for•knowledge imposeth no necessity on contingent Page  95 things; but indeed we are instable our selves and evill, and wee accuse fortune of instabilitie and evill; a good man may make his fortune good; •uisque suae est fortunae faber. 9. I have read that in some places fortune was wont to be pained like an old woman, having fire in o•e hand, and water in the other; which I thinke did signifie that providence doth still presuppose prudence, whereof old age is the Symbol, and because of the mutable and various effects of fortune, shee was presented by a woman, the Symbol of mutabilitie: but the Romans upon better con∣sideration, made her both male and female, to shew, that though the particular and secondarie causes of fortunall ef∣fects be various and unconstant like women, yet the supreme cause hath the staiednesse of a man; the fire and water shews, that our firie afflictions (which fall not without Gods providence) are so tempered with water of mer∣cy, that though they burne good men, yet they consume them not; as we are taught by Moses fierie bush, and the furnace of Babylon.