Page:A Discourse of Constancy in Two Books Chiefly containing Consolations Against Publick Evils.pdf/113

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92
A Diſcourſe
Book I.

and inhabitants. Even at this very day that blew Deity, is forcing open to it self new creeks; and daily frets and weares away the unfaithfull shores of the Frisians and Hollanders. Nor doth the Earth her self alwayes give way by a Womannish sloth; but doth sometimes vindicate its losses, and in the midst of the Sea frames Islands for its self; to the wonder and displeasure of that hoary god. Now if those great (and in our imagination eternal) Bodies, are destined to their destruction and change; what shall we think of Cities, Common-wealths, and Kingdomes; which must needs be as mortal as the founders of them? As particular persons have their Youth, Maturity, Old-Age, and Death: So these, they rise, grow, stand, flourish; and all these to that very purpose that they may fall. In the reign of Tiberius one single Earth-quake overthrew twelve

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