Churches in the world who prayeth for them to write against their proceedings And he was fast asleepe What should Christ sleepe now as Lonab did when God seemeth to bee angry with all in the ship Nay but Christ holdeth forth to us by his sleeping that innocency and a good conscience can sleepe securely amidst the greatest calamities and stormes and not bee afraid This is made good by these grounds of Scripture as first God hath a chamber and a pavilion to save his owne people in so are they spoken to Esay 26. 20. Come my people enter into thy Chambers and shut thy doores about thee hide thy selfe for a little moment untill the indignation bee overpast Secondly God not onely saveth his owne from trouble but also from the feare of trouble Psal. 3. 5. I laid mee downe and slept 6. I will not bee afraid of ten thousand of the people that have set themselves against mee round about Psal. 23. 4. Yea though I walke through the valley of the shadow of death I will feare no evill Thirdly there is yet a higher degree to which a good conscience can ascend for Eliphaz saith Iob 5. 22. At destruction and famine thou shalt laugh faith is so above death that it maketh a holy sporting at death 1 Cor. 15. 55. O death where is thy sting O grave where is thy victory It is much to looke death on the face and to laugh beleeve and triumph It is true the Godly are fittest to bee souldiers and faith hath more true courage for the warre then thousands of men yet are not meanes to bee despised God will not have us to worke miracles on the warrant of our owne private spirit though God worke miracles himselfe David saith Psal. 141. 7. that the Lord covered his head in the day of battell yet hee putteth on a helmet on his head himselfe in the day of battell and was a man of warre 2 Sam 17. 10. There is reason why the Saints are secure in God in the greatest calamitie because peace with God maketh peace with bullets and swords and speares and these goe well together Psal. 149. 6. Let the high prayses of God be in their mouth and a two edged sword in their hand and faith knoweth nothing of base feare when there are stormes without to the beleever there is faire weather within faith is a grace above time as there is neither raine nor winds above the second region of the ayre therefore the Campe should bee purged of Achans Secondly unbeleefe hath a wide apprehension and is full of jealosies and feares and beleeveth every bush to bee an armed man Prov. 28. 1. The wicked feeleth when none pursueth but the righteous {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} is confident as a Lion or as a young Lion courage and animositie is vigorous and greene in the young Lion for when the beleever hath closed a covenant with death not such a one as is Esay 28. 15. but such a covenant as taketh in Christ as a party with the beleever in which hee is in Covenant with the wild beasts of the field Hos. 2. 18. and with the stones of the fields then is hee secure for if death bee the Saints servant 1 Cor. 3. 22. why but wee should have Law-suretie in Christ with our servant that death shall not hurt us 1 Cor. 15. 55. and if the grave bee our bed of rest why should not the sick man bee at peace with his owne Couch and with his owne post that conveyeth him over the water to heaven the beleevers death is a sleepe 1 Cor. 15. 6. 51. 1 Cor. 4. 14. then it must bee a sweet and sound sleepe as is the sleep of the godly whereas such as sleepe wrapped in such a winding-sheet as the sinnes of their youth Job 20. 11. cannot have a sound sleepe but as an ill conscience prophecyeth vengeance as wee see in Hamans wife Esth. 8. 13. and in Cain Gen. 4. 14. so the bones of a reprobate in the grave must in a manner prophecie hell and wrath to him Hee was fast asleepe Christ-man did but sleepe for otherwayes Psal. 121. 4. Behold hee that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleepe Yet in our trouble God is said to sleepe not that spirits farre lesse the Creator of spirits doth sleepe onely hee seemeth to sleepe i. when wee dreame that God letteth things goe at six and seven and when hee seemeth to cocke the wheeles of his providence and worketh not for us his arme seemeth to sleepe Esay 51. 9. Awake awake put on strength O arme of the Lord awake as in the ancient dayes in the generations of old now the sleeping of his arme is the sleeping of his power and hee saith Vers 5. My righteousnesse is neare my salvation is gone forth and mine armes shall judge the people his arme is his power to judge betweene his Church and his enemies Psal. 44. 23. Awake why sleepest thou O Lord Psal. 7. 6. Awake O Lord for the judgement that thou hast commanded But why should Christ sleepe when his cause requireth hee should wake Ans. Beside that this was a proofe of his humane nature united personally with his Godhead that a sleeping man was God who could command the Sea and the winds it was expedient that this storme should rise when Christ was sleeping for it might seeme to arise against his will if hee had beene waking or rather God of purpose will have extreame dangers to come on his Church and hee will seeme to sleepe and to bee farre off to waken up our sleeping faith Hence the doctrine is God will have his Church and cause to bee brought within a haire breadth of losing except the Lord arise and bee onely be a present helpe in trouble Consider that Christ-man if wee lay aside the decree of God was capable of drowning stoning or any death as well as crucifying and in this ship was carried Christ the hope of heaven and all the ends of the earth and the eleven Disciples were in the same danger they had a word of promise that they should bee his witnesses to carry the Chariot of the Gospel to all the world and to subdue the nations to Christ by the preaching of the word and were to be brought before Kings and rulers for a testimony to all nations and to bee scourged killed persecuted of all men for Christs sake here be both a promise and prophecies and all seemes to bee losed as fallen in the bottome of the Sea Christ and Apostles and the ship are within lesse then two or three fingers breadth of death The Church was at a low ebbe in Aegypt the male children must bee drowned in the River the life of the aged is toyled and worne out of them Omnipotency with nine heavy plagues cannot get the people of God freed out of the hands of a Tyrant God must step in with immediate omnipotence in the tenth plague to pull out his
in the rwo kingdomes some say it is because libertie is not given to every man to live in what Religion hee pleaseth but this is a sin that every man doe What seemeth good in his owne eyes because there is not a judge to put any to shame Judg. 18. Chap. 19. 1 2. the contrary then cannot bee the cause of the so great judgement Others say rebellion against the King is the cause but rather the not timous rising to helpe the Lord and his oppressed people against the mightie is the cause The defection of both kingdomes to altar worship imagerie idolatry Popish and Arminian Doctrine the articles of Perth Assembly followed and practised in our owne kingdome without repentance the ignorance of God people perishing for want of knowledge both under prelacy and now the not building of the house of God in this land the backsliding of many after the Covenant of God is sworne are the true causes and it is to bee feared that if Presbyteriall government bee erected in this land as wee hope it shall if this bee not taken heed to it shall continue a judgement on the Land and it is this many both preachers and professors shall conforme to the Government as they would doe to either the prelaticall or congregationall way as many time-servers doe and shall hate and persecute the power of godlinesse under the pretence of Sectaries Brownists Separatists independents and the like and retaining an Antichristian and rotten heart shall doe what in them lies under that colour to vex oppresse and banish many godly men out of the land But this is to bee considered if it were not needfull there were a Fast through both kingdomes to deale with God to find out the true causes of our fastings and these heavy judgements in which in the three kingdomes many hundreth thousands are killed I doubt if under any Prince or Emperour there bee a history can parallel the blood shed within these few yeares Job when God visited him desired to know wherefore God contended with him it is a sad thing to lye drowned under unknown and fatherlesse plagues wee being ignorant of the causes of Gods judgement so wee suffer blind crosses like the Oxe that beares the yoake and knoweth nothing of the art of husbandry or the horse killed in the battell and yet is ignorant of State-affaires and of the causes of warre and of disorders in Lawes Liberties Religion in State and Church wee are like one smitten in the dark night by a spirit or a ghost but hee seeth not who striketh Oh it were good wee would inquire as the Prophet doth Esa. 42. 24. who gave Jacob for a spoyle and Israel to robbery and wherefore is all this come on us why doth the Lord contend with us O make us know our iniquities Often the rod maketh a lying report of God and accuseth Christ in our desertions O! Christ is unkind hee is changed hee hath forsaken me wee can sooner spy a fault in Christ under desertion then in our selves and wee often reason from that which is no cause for the cause Christ seemeth changed to us and unmercifull and sleepey and carelesse First when the judgement is extreame and wee apprehend it as a fruite of the anger and vengeance of God Apprehension gives life to afflictions and casteth in many ounce weights of wrath in our cup which was never there because our conscience giveth in against us lying libells and unjust complaints such as this thou art not in Christ nor a convert nor a pardoned and justified sinner and wee first retort the lying libell upon Christ O! Christ hath forgotten to bee mercifull wee see Christ in the false glasse in our extreame suffering our sinne and apprehension joyning together Secondly Christ may sleepe and hide himselfe in a great tryall and when hee is gone and grace hath no actuall influence on our soules then wee languish and die the passes of the Clock being laid by there is no motion at all and the wheeles gather rust Should wee suppose that the Creator of nature did suspend his influence all naturall operations should cease there should bee no motion in the Sunne it should neither rise nor goe downe the raine should not fall the wind should not blow living things could not move Beasts could not walke Fowels could not fly Fishes could not swimme Roses Flowers and Hearbs could not grow c. because hee causeth all these to bee and his immediate influence addeth oyle to all wheeles and rowleth and moveth them else they could not stirre so Christ in the spheare of grace being the first mover if his influence stand still all our wheeles as wanting oyle and motion gather rust and stand still Paul cannot call Jesus Lord the Spouse runneth not for the bridegroome will not draw Can. 1. David dieth and withereth a hundreth deaths for God hides his face Hezekiah fainteth for God glowmeth Haman is downe amongst the dead in the grave Christ his life worketh not so here in trouble Christ standeth behind the mount and the poore Disciples faint and die and dreame and are all afraid in a storme because God seemeth to sleepe as if God were dead Oxthodoxe and sound apprhensions of Christ in us are not habits but acts and are in us as lightnings are in the ayre when nature actually cooperateth or as fire is in the flint not but when it is beaten out with force Thirdly distempers and feavers on faith take away the taste and the honey out of Christ the father is not a father to the child in a fit of an ague Thirdly when extreame danger is neare and the Army foyled and the enemy entering in at the ports our courage is as farre to seeke as ever was the courage of the Apostles Oh then wee are gone this is our death the cause is now losed Christ is buried hee cannot rise againe Esay 7. 2. It was told the house of David saying Syria is confederat with Ephraim and his heart was moved as the trees of the field the word {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} is to bee moved from place to place and is ascribed to Cain the vagabond Gen. 4. 12. wee feare the creature too much because hee can kill the body and wee feare the Lord of heaven and earth to little though hee have dominion over both soule and body remember what a forgetting of God it is to feare the creature in Gods cause Esay 51. 12. I even I am hee that comforteth you who art thou that shalt bee afraid of a man that shall die and of the Sonne of man that shall bee made as grasse is it so great a sinne to feare man ay the next words beare no lesse 13. and forgettest the Lord thy maker that stretched out the heaven and laid the foundation of the earth an unbeleeving people hath a feare of their owne which the people of God are not to follow Esay 8. 12. Feare yee not the
Christ weepeth and bee buried when Christ is buried when Christ rejoyceth and riseth againe wee cannot lie rotting in the grave A great Calme Matthew 8. 26. so calleth it {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} This is the other Character of God in this miracle that it is a great calme There is nothing in God not any judgement or worke of God but greatnesse is printed on it for the effect smelleth of the cause Job 36. 26. God is great Christ is great as the Churches danger in this Sea-voyage is great so is the calme great great buildings have great foundations great ships great sailes great Sea-ebbings have great flowings 2 Cor. 1. 10. God delivered us from so great a death some death is but an infant death and weake there is another death called by Bildad Job 18. 13. The first borne of death The Lord sheweth his people Psal. 71. 20. great and sore troubles and gives them teares to drinke in great measure Psal. 80. 5. and the people is in great distresse Nehem. 9. 37. and for that the Lord doth great things for them Psal. 126. 2. and worketh a great salvation for his people 1 Sam. 14. 45. and giveth great deliverances to David Psal. 18. 80. and to Davids seed the Israel of God Secondly there is greatnesse written upon all the workes of God Psal. 92. 5. O Lord how great are thy workes Psal. 111. Vers 2. The works of the Lord are great sought out of all those that have pleasure therein Thirdly there is greatnesse written on his judgements against his enemies for Zach. 7. 12. there is a great wrath from the Lord of hosts on those that pull away the shoulders and makes their heart as an Adamant stone hee fighteth against the rebellious Ier. 21. 5. in anger and in fury and in great wrath and the great day of his wrath shall come upon his enemies so that they shall not bee able to stand Fourthly and there is a great reward for the righteous Psal. 19. 11. a great reward in heaven for them Matth. 5. Vers 12. A farre more exceeding and eternall weight of glory 2 Cor. 4. 17. Then great vengeance is appointed for the enemies of God Ezek. 25. 17. and great desolation on Pharoah the great Dragon that lieth in the midst of his Rivers Ezek. 29. 3. and when these kingdomes have committed great whoredomes what wonder that great judgements bee on us and many more hundreth thousands bee slaine in the three kingdomes then histories can in our ages parallel but if Babylon bee a great whore great must bee her fall all the Kings of the earth and her Merchants shall wonder and weepe and waile at her desolation Our King saith hee will repeale Lawes made against Papists in England But it is a worke above his strength to hold up the cursed throane of the beast which God hath said hee will crush if all the Kings of the earth should make their bones pillars to hold up that throne there is such a weight of vengeance lying on that throne that their bones shall bee bruised in powder Reformation is a worke of God also Zach. 13. 23. and then it is a great worke and though there bee great mountaines in the way God doth rebuke and remove such mountaines Zach. 4. 7. faint not then bee strong in the Lord No marvell wee are to sell all and buy Christ that pearle of great price Matth. 13. 46. for none hath so neare a relation to God as hee wee seeke great things seeke great Christ Luke 8. 25. And they being afraid wondered saying one to another What manner of man is this for hee commandeth even the winds and waters and they obey him This is all the fruit wee read this miracle produced in the Seamen they fall a wondring being astonished to see a man command Sea and winds First the miracles of Christ and all the workes of God are so farre inferiour to his word that they can teach us nothing of the Trinitie nor of two natures in the one person and of our mediator Iesus Christ Secondly O how little of God doe wee see especially being voyd of his owne light even Iob saith though God bee at our elbow wee know not it is hee Chap. 23. 8. Behold I goe forward and hee is not there and backward but I cannot perceive him But is this because God was neither behind Iob nor before him no God goeth round about us every man may as it were put forth his hand and grope the Almightie Act. 17. 27. therefore Iob addeth Vers 9. he is on the left hand where hee doth worke but I cannot behold him hee hideth himselfe on the right hand that I cannot see him wee cannot trace the footsteps of his unsearchable wayes alas wee but sport our selves to behold the superfice the outside and as it were the brim of divine providence men or Angels cannot dive to the bottome of the wayes of our Lord Esay 55. hee saith himselfe Vers 9. for as the heavens are higher then the earth so are my wayes higher then your wayes and my thoughts then your thoughts Thirdly wee come but that neare Christ that wee goe at the farthest three or foure steppes to him some are convinced and wonder they say this must bee God as Luke 4. 22. when Christ preaches as Christ and like himselfe they all beare him witnesse and wonder at the gratious words that proceed out of his mouth yet they are not a step nearer to him they despise him and say Is not this Josephs sonne Some know a Prophet hath beene amongst them Ezek. 3. 5. but they are Scorpions and briars and thornes and will not heare Secondly some ate inlightned and beleeve for an houre Matth. 13. 21. a faith that liveth for an houre is a sickly dying faith Thirdly some are a step nearer they have joy in Christ Matth. 13. 20. and the word of the Prophet is Ezek. 33. 32. to them as a very lovely song of one that hath a pleasant voyce and can play well on an Instrument the Gospel is sweet to many but they come not nearer they will not heare nor obey Fourthly some tast of the good Word of God and of the powers {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} the manifold powers of the life to come Heb. 6. 5. yet come never nearer to Christ but fall off as if they were afraid to bee converted they goe not a fift step farther on to give themselves up wholly to Jesus Christ It is not the Seamens way onely but 1. Malignants and Prelats and Papists see God in this worke they wonder and yet they resist Esay 26. 11. Lord thy hand is exalted they see not they shall see and bee ashamed for their envy at the people in this worke that the Lord is working in the three kingdomes there bee sundry notes of divinitie and footsteps of God and Malignants doe but wonder as 1. when Prelats
it selfe the earth is a Sea of glasse before the Throne Revel. 4. 6. and that mingled with fire Revel. 15. 2. Of which a word 1. of the ship 2. of the Element it sayleth in 3. of the Pilot 4. of the Anchor and appurtenances 5. of the wares 6. of the passengers carried in the ship 7. of the winds and stormes 8. of the Port and Haven The ship is of its nature a tumbling and a moving creature and by its constitution and nature ordained for motion The Church triumphing is landed and above motion but the militant Church is a rolling and a tumbling thing and that first in a naturall secondly in a civill thirdly in a spirituall relation As the Church consisteth of men in a naturall consideration all are but changes and meere motions for mans condition in the wood of creatures he is borne amongst is moveable hee himselfe is a proud inch of short-living clay God hath given wheeles to time so that it playeth upon generations Eccles. 1. 4. One generation passeth away and another commeth vers. 5. The sunne also riseth and the sunne goeth downe the Moone looketh not on us two dayes with one face elements winds floods seas time as yeares dayes houres living creatures trees hearbs flowers summer harvest spring heavens starres are all tottering and reeling and if the earth and the workes that are therein must bee burnt with fire 2 Pet. 3. 12. all must bee on their journey toward change and corruption the best of them for elegancy of matter not excepted The heavens shall wax old as a garment Psal. 102. 26. 2 The Church in a civill relation is a rolling thing and that first as it is in Common-wealths and States Kingdomes and Monarchies are up and downe greene flowrishing and withering in their cadency like May flowers God doth roll Kings and Kingdomes like Bowles in an Alley pride tyranny unjustice putteth a Byas on the Bowle that it tumbleth over the mount and God with a put of his foot turneth the Bowle out of its place the glory and absolutenesse of men is a weight that cannot beare it selfe Secondly man the best of the creatures is a vaine thing Psal. 39. Every man at his best state is altogether vanitie if the Hebrew expresse it better as I humbly conceive it doth it runs thus ver. 6. surely all men are all vanitie even standing on their feet or every man is every vanitie though he stand on his tiptoes or stand straight up as a Champion or an army of Souldiers that stand fast and keepe their ground for so the word {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} signifieth as the learned observe vanitie is a light a moving and rolling thing like a Cart wheele or a feather in the ayr Thirdly the Church for one good day of ease hath ten twentie troublesome dayes of warre persecution divisions heresies plots Reade the History of the Judges and of the persecuting yea and Christian Emperours and you shall see the ups and downes of the Church they had ease yea and court and favour with godly Emperours but a very short time Thirdly in their spirituall relation the Church is a moving thing in that 1. change is a part of sufferings and suffering and the Crosse is the patrimony of the Church whereas David saith of the wicked Psal. 55. 19. Because they have not changes therefore they feare not God Meab is not moved from vessell to vessell and hath not gone to captivitie therefore his tast remained in him and his sent is not changed Jer. 48. 11. Secondly the Song of Salomon sheweth the inward and spirituall ups and downes and changes of the Church as sometime Chap. 2. it is full noone-day with the Church shee being taken into the banqueting house and Vers 4. his banner over her was love and shee is in great Court Vers 16. My well beloved is mine and I am his hee feedeth among the Lillies 17. till the day breake and the shaddowes flee away but there is a change of Court and a great revolution Chap. 3. 1. By night on my bed I sought him whom my soule loveth I sought him but I found him not Againe Chap. 4. there is a revolution Christ breaketh out in a high commendation and praise of his Church Chap. 4 Vers 16. there is a prayer of hers in sense of love and heate of faith for an union Let my beloved come into his garden and eate his pleasant fruits here the ship hath faire weather and sailes faire before the wind for Christ answereth Ch. 5. 1. I am come unto my garden my sister my spouse I have gathered my myrrhe with my spice I have eaten my honey-combe with my honey I have drunken my wine with my milke eate O friends yea drinke abundantly O beloved this is a joyfull feast betweene Christ and his Church But this world lasteth not alway shee falleth asleepe and holdeth Christ at the doore and there is mightie storme that tosseth the ship and a sad discourting of her for it is farre otherwayes Vers 6. I sought him but I could not finde him I called him but hee gave mee no answer Grace as it is in God is God gracious and is most stable and unchangeable but it is various as it is received in us who are made of changes and a difference there must bee betweene a communion of grace and a communion of glory and 2. betweene this life and that life as for the former glory is grace in everlasting action and therefore there is no desertions in heaven no hiding of Gods face no cloud no night no change nothing but a sunne in its full strength alwayes day without night a full Sunshine without a cloud or a shadow Grace in us is a habit and not alwayes in action and our stabilitie here as touching the other is Heb. 13. Vers 14. that wee have no continuing Citie here but wee seeke one to come this is a tottering life Secondly the ship sayleth in an element called a Sea of glasse all things here are fraile slippery brickle like glasse it cannot beare the ship above no more then a board of glasse can sustaine the weight of an huge ship but it should breake in a thousand peeces certainly the Church subsisteth by no worldly strength Christ sayleth with his owne wind then it it is a Sea of glasse mingled with fire Rev. 15. 2. There bee cumbustions warres tumults motions and mightie winds in this Sea that that may bee fulfilled which Christ saith to the passengers John 16. 33. in the world you shall have tribulation Thirdly all the safetie of the ship is in a good pilot now Christ who can sayle with every wind and bringeth many broken ships to land he sitteth at the helme and setteth the halfdrowned ship-broken passengers on dry land to sing on the shoare Revel. 7. 14. These are they the ship broken men who swimmed to land on Plankes and broken boards that have come
A SERMON PREACHED BEFORE THE RIGHT HONORABLE House of LORDS In the Abbey Church at Westminster Wednesday the 25. day of Iune 1645. Being the day appointed for solemne and publique Humiliation By SAMUEL RUTHERFURD Professor of Divinitie at St. Andrews Esay 8. 17. And I will wait upon the Lord that hideth his face from the house of Jacob and I will looke for him London Printed by R. C. for Andrew Crook and are to be sold at his shop at the signe of the Greene Dragon in Pauls Churchyard 1645. Die Iovis 26. Iunii 1645. IT is this day ordered by the Lords in Parliament assembled That Mr. Rutherfurd who preached yesterday before the Lords in Parliament in the Abbey Church Westminster is hereby thanked for the great paines he tooke in his said Sermon And is desired to print and publish the same which is to bee printed onely by authority under his owne hand To the Gentleman Usher or his Deputie to be delivered to the said Mr. Rutherfurd Iohn Brown Cler. Parliamentorum I appoint Andrew Crooke to print this Sermon Samuel Rutherfurd Errata PAge 17. line 27. for stope read slops p. 18. li. 4. for it read at p. 23. l. ult for feeleth r. fleeth p. 28. l. 19. for Emphesis r. Emphasis p. 29. l. 30. for end r. send p. 48. l. 15. for Chap. 4. r. Chap 24. p. 50. l. 20. for same r. sonne p. 54. l. 9. for 22 r. 42. p. 55. l. 1. for it r. unbeleefe To the godly and ingenuous READER AS the Text of the booke of divine providence worthy Reader is the Church and Spouse of Jesus Christ for every line word and letter thereof hath a necessary relation to that body whereof Christ Jesus is head so the draughts and passages of providence towards all creatures yea to devils and the haters of Zion seeme to bee but Annotations in the Margin of this great volume There bee many wonders and depths in the book and the Lord doth even before our eyes in this old age of the world create new things and miracles in Britaine 1. It is most congruous to divine wisedome to time fitly the laughing and the weeping of the children of men the triumphing of the wicked and their prosperitie The Sackcloth and teares of the prisoners of hope seeme darke and mysterious Chapters of the booke especially because wee trade by the senses and colour of things for wee see not how God hath set his enemies in slippery places and that the throne that mysticall Babylon sitteth on is made of Crystall glasse and the pillars thereof nothing but Saffes of ever-guilded earth the Sonnes of God would not exchange their teares with the joy of the wicked O that wee had grace to read to a full period and with the sense of a godhead every section of the treatisc of providence wee doe halfe both the word and the workes of God wrong reading of God in his wayes doth spoyle the true sense and scope of God in his acting The light of faith maketh legible to us that The vision at the end shall speak and not lie and that light is sowen to the righteous then the harvest must be hoped for and wee erre not a little if wee comment any otherwise on the short triumphing of the wicked and the joy of the hypocrite for a moment even when his excellency mounteth up to heaven and his head reacheth unto the clouds then that his golden heaven is not onely lined with silken troubles and woes but also that hee goeth downe to the grave and the Chambers of hell in a moment 2. This seemeth darke to us that all the heires of one inheritance do not mind and speak the same thing yet in the Apostolick Church there hath been some discord 1 Cor. 1. 10. Phil. 1. 2. Rom. 15. 5. Gal. 5. 10. more love lesse pride of opinion and judgement must either bee in these kingdomes or then wee are to feare that God must worke us to an union by the sword of the common enemy wee might have union at an easier rate 3. It is a mystery but it is also from the Lord who is wonderfull in counsell that truth must bee trailed through floods of blood 4. That a Church is greene and flowring and smelling out beautie glory and life in the flaming fire that the crueltie policie wisedome counsels of nations round about Britaine and so many bloody men within our bowels in the three kingdomes doe kill us and behold wee live troubleand us wee are not distressed perplex us and wee despaire not persecute us and we are not forsaken cast us downe and wee are not destroyed What a living death what a breathing and triumphing grave is this what a shining darkenesse what a rejoycing sorrow is here 5. Wee wonder that our warres are not at an end But Gods thoughts are not like our thoughts when God hath by the sword taken away his Jewels and his pretious ones out of these Kingdomes it is rather like the continued burning of the house then any apparent end of our miseries 6. Yet after the Lord hath made the glory of Jacob thinne and the fatnesse of his flesh to wax leane are wee not in silence and hope to beleeve that a remnant must bee saved and that yet gleaning Grapes shall bee left in the kingdomes as the shaking of an Olive tree two or three berries in the top of the uppermost bough foure or five in the outmost fruitfull branches thereof saith the Lord God of Israel Lord hasten his worke and ripen us by humiliation and turning to him who hath smitten us for the day that the Lord is bringing forth out of the wombe of his decree of peace when the light of the Moone shall bee as the light of the Snnne and the light of the Sunne shall bee seven fold as the light of seven dayes Farewell A SERMON PREACHED before the Right Honorable the House of LORDS at their Monethly Fast June 25. 1645. in the Abbey Church at Westminster Luke 8. 22. Now it came to passe on a certaine day that he went into a ship with his Disciples and he said unto them let us goe over into the other side of the Lake and they lanced forth 23. But as they sailed he fel asleep there came down a storme of wind on the lake and they were filled with water and were in jeopardie 24. And they came to him and awoke him saying Master master we perish then he arose and rebuked the wind and the raging of the water and they ceased and there was a calme 25. And he said unto them where is your faith and they being afraid wondered saying one to another What manner of man is this for he commandeth even the windes and the water and they obey him Marke 4. 38. And hee was in the hinder part of the ship asleepe on a pillow and they awake him and say unto him Master carest thou not that wee perish
Lord our redemption through Christ a treaty for everlasting peace the time of infancy and childhood slippeth over and wee know not the end of our creation youth-head and mans age like a proud meadow greene faire delightfull to day and to morrow hay casteth blossomes and flowers and with one little stride skippeth over our span-length of time and wee goe through the Exchange to buy frothy honour rotten pleasure and when the last houre is come wee scarce read our masters paper we barter one nothing-creature with another alas it is but a poore reckoning that a naturall man can make who can say no more at his death but I have eaten drunken sleeped waked dreamed and sinned for the space of sixtie or seventie yeares and that is all Time like a long swift sliding River runneth through the Citie from the creation when God first set the horologe a going to the day of Christs second comming this River slideth through our fingers wee eate drinke sleepe sport laugh buy sell speake breathe die in a moment every gaspe of ayre is a fluxe of our minuts time sliding into eternitie within a few generations there shall bee a Parliament of other faces a new generation of other men in the Cities Houses Assemblies wee are now in and wee a company of night-visions shall flie away and our places shall know us no more and though this should not bee the world is not eternall being a great body made up of corruptible peeces of little dying creatures standing upon nothing if God take the legges from them at length God shall remove the passes of the watch and time shall bee no more the wheeles of time shall bee at a stand What poore thoughts shall wee have of this poore fading ball of clay the earth when the wormes shall creepe in through face cheeks and eate our tongue and seise upon Liver and heart or imagine that our spirits once entred within the line of eternitie could but stay up beside the Moone and looke downe and behold us children sweating and running for our beloved shadowes of Lands Fields Flocks Castles Towers Crownes Scepters Gold Money hee should wonder that reason is so bleare-eyed as to hunt dreames and toyes Judge righteously give faire justice to Christ doe good while it is to day consider the afternoone of a declining Sunne within few houres wee are plunged in the bosome and wombe of eternitie and cannot returne backe againe Lord teach us to number our dayes 23. But as they sayled bee fell a sleepe and there came downe a storme of wind Matth. 8. 24. a great tempest I keepe the order laid downe before this is not an ordinary storme But is not the most skilled Seaman in heaven and earth here dare the wind blow so proudly on his face who is white and ruddy and the chiefe amongst ten thousand worlds do not the Seas know their Creator and dare they wet his face who made the Sea and the dry Land Yet from the greatnesse of this storme as was cleared before from the Text wee observe that Christ his Ship his Church and passengers have in their sayling more then ordinary stormes Lamen 1. 12. Is it nothing to all you that passe by alas Christ in his sufferings hath too many passers by Behold and see if there bee any sorrow like unto my sorrow wherewith the Lord hath afflicted mee in the day of his fierce anger Chap. 2. 13. the Prophet cannot find a comparison to equall the Churches sorrow Thy breach is great like the Sea who can beale thee The Sea is a vast body and a great Sea of troubles was like to drowne the Church Chap. 1. 9. Jerusalem came downe wonderfully {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} is admirably the word is from a root which signifieth to bee separated and hidden as things above sense or reason as Gen. 18. 14. Is there any thing hid or too hard or admirable to the Lord which hee cannot doe there is some great and admirable thing in the Sword of the Lord upon the three kingdomes above all that Irish Rebells or bloodly malignants can doe the curse and vengeance in afflictions from men comes from a higher hand then men men kill with the Sword but they cannot stampe upon killing with the Sword judgement and vengeance this onely God doth Lam. 2. 2. The Lord hath swallowed up all the inhabitants of Jacob and hath not pitied 4. He hath bent his bow like an enemie O terrible any enemy but God is tolerable the Lord stood with his right hand as an adversarie and slew all that was pleasant to the eye the sucking children are pleasant to the eye in the Tabernacle of the daughter of Zion bee poured out his fury like fire v. 20. Behold O Lord and consider to whom thou hast done this shall the women eate their fruite and children of a span long shall the Priests and the Prophets bee slaine in the Sanctuary Psal. 44. 19. Thou hast sore broken us or bruised us as in the place of Dragons and covered us as with a vaile or covering or garment Psal. 32. 1. with the shadow of death Death is a cold sad and fearefull garment cast over the Church and that when shee is bruised to dust and pouder how sore and heavy a storme was upon poore Job Chap. 16. 13. His archers compasse mee round about Gods terrors shot not at the rovers that God should misse the marke hee cleaveth my reines asunder and doth not spare hee poureth out my Gall upon the ground 14. Hee breaketh me with breach upon breach and runneth on mee as a Giant What is safe in the living man when the reines that are as inward as the mans heart are cloven asunder and when Gall and Liver are taken out of the living man and powred upon the earth See how the Lord dealeth with his owne people Hos. 13. 8. I will meet them as a Beare bereaved of her Whelpes and will rent the cawle of their heart It cannot bee an ordinary paine when the webbe of fate that compasseth about the heart is torne asunder There is a sad and a blacke booke presented unto Ezekiel Chap. 3. 10. a roll of a booke written within and without page and margin lamentation and mourning and woe how doth the afflicted Church complaine Psal. 102. 3 My dayes are consumed as smoake when yesterdayes sad life is burnt to ashes what is it and my bones are burnt as an bearth 4. My heart is smitten and withered like grasse so that I forget to eate my bread 5. By reason of the voyce of my groaning my bones cleave to my skinne These and the like borrowed expressions hold forth that the storme of afflictions was terrible and loud as if it would cleave Mountaines and Rocks and there must bee such a pressure of paine here as if you would take a living mans bones and make fewell for fire and use them as we do Faggots and not that
onely but they indured as much heat of fire as the hearth-stone that is daily under the extremitie of the fire so the Apostle speaketh of himselfe 1 Cor. 4. 8. For I thinke God hath set forth us {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} the last Apostlâ—s as it were appointed to death for we are made a spectacle to the world and to men and Angels The Apostles in regard of their great sufferings were so exposed to violent death as in the Roman Playes Bulls Dogs Lions were set forth to fight one another to death they were made worlds wonders and gazing-stacks to heaven and earth to men and Angels for their great sufferings Behold how strong the tempest was that invaded that barke that carried the witnesses of Jesus to heaven Heb. 11. 35. they were tortured stoned sawen asunder tempted slaine with the Sword The reason of the Lords so dealing is 1. God declareth himselfe more impatient of sinne in his owne children then in the wicked I meane of Gods impatience Evangelick in regard that it is a sinne of higher ingratitude to sinne against the Gospel 2. Illumination 3. And the mercy of regeneration then to sinne against the Law and common favours and gifts though Gods legall impatience in regard of revenging justice bee farre more against the sinnes of the wicked then against the sinnes of beleevers it being an act of vengeance which God cannot exercise towards beleevers and if Antinomians would acknowledge an Evangelick displeasure and anger of God against the sinnes of beleevers as the Scripture doth 1 Cor. 10. 21 22. 1 Cor. 11. 30 31. 2 Sam. 11. 27. they should not so stumble at the Gospel as they doe I say God is more displeased with the sinnes of his owne children then with the sinnes of the wicked even as the husbandman is more offended that Thristles and Thorns grow in his Garden then in his out-field Esay 1. 2. Heare O heaven hearken O earth why it is more then an ordinary defection that moveth the Lord to this I have nourished and brought up children and they rebell against me God taketh it also harder that violence and unjustice should bee in Parliaments and Assemblies then in Prelates Courts and High Commissions The Lord expecteth nothing else but sowre grapes from his enemies 2. The hell of the godly and the heart of their hell should ordinarily bee heavier then the borders and margin of the hell of the wicked the sufferings of the Saints in this life is their whole hell wicked men have here a heaven and but fore-tastings of hell which I grant in regard they want the presence and comforts of God in this life and also that their curses are in themselves heavier then the afflictions of the godly but not so in their apprehension 3. Gods deepe counsells worke under-board providence is a great mystery why these three kingdomes having a good cause and contending for Christ yet should bee put to a more bloody condition and have more of floods of blood for a while then bloody men who defend a cursed cause is wondred at by us as ignorance is the cause of admiration hee that never saw husbandry thinketh sowing losing and casting away of good Corne the end cujus gratia which seasoneth Gods workes with wisedome and grace is unseene hony is sweet but tasting onely discerneth it neither eye can see it nor eare can heare it our senses cannot reach the reason of his Counsell who will have the godly plagued every morning If it bee so that the godly the greene tree suffer such a fire it must bee more then fire that is abiding the enemies O enemies of the Gospel O Malignants and haters of the Lord and his Saints have you Castles and strong holds to runne to in the day of wrath or are your Castles judgement-proofe Cannot death and hell scale your walls and though you shut your doores climbe in at your windowes are your bulworkes and walls salvation have you strength to bide the proofe and shot of the vengeance of the Lord and the vengeance of his Temple hath not the second death long and sharpe tuskes will you indure the siege and batteries of everlasting wrath vengeance will have nothing under your pretious soules take your pleasure kill and destroy the mountaine of the Lord the feast is good ever till the reckoning come Job 28. 8. Can you drinke a Sea of vengeance and floods of gall and wormewood there is a Sword before the throne forbished that will lap and swallow up blood and never bee quenched wrath wrath creepeth on the sinners in Zion by theft without a cry or noyse of feet you heare not the ratling of your sunnes wheeles when it is setting and the night falleth on you the day of wrath is secret and uncertaine you sleep you see not hell at your heels what will you do when you shall make your prayers to the hills to cover you quick This serveth to condemne our softnesse who love a wanton and a smooth providence and Golden and silken sayling to bee carried away quickly to land without wind or storme wee desire to goe to Paradise through no other way but Paradise and a way strowed with Roses nay but wee must indure hardnesse and resolve the way cannot bee changed to flatter our softnesse it is as God hath carved it out there bee not two wayes to heaven one way strowed with blood and brimstone and deaths to Christ and another to us white faire easie heaven was not so feazable to Christ but it was to him sweating if Christ had taken the faire way and a street to heaven like Paradise and left the rough way to us wee had the more reason to complaine But it should silence us that Christ saith you have no harder usage then the Captaine of your salvation had Joh. 15. 18. when wee see wee must suffer wee would bee at a chosen Crosse and afflictions carved by our owne wit or flowred and perfumed with Diamonds and Rubies so our heart saith any judgement but warre and any warre but civill warre the hatred of the world is not much but hatred from our brethren the sonnes of our Mother O that is hard yet it is not to bee expected but the flesh will warre in the Saints against both the Spirit and the flesh in other Saints no lesse then the flesh warreth against the Spirit in one and the same Saint wee are to kisse and adore providence wee can no more change the foule and dirtie way to faire heaven then wee can remove heaven it selfe out of its place God hath drawn and moulded the topographie to heaven and set all our Guests before hee is a bad Souldier who followeth such a Captaine of salvation as Christ weeping and murmuring But what doth this ship lead us to certaine it is that it holdeth forth to us the condition of the Church of God tossed with wind and wave and the world
blessings and prayers of the good husbandman Christs Father came on the flower Psal. 133. 3. The dew of God lieth all the night upon the leaves of the flower it is alwayes greene The Church is a house that is builded up in love that raiseth the wall up to heaven Ephes. 4. 16. Secondly Christ our redeemer whose wee are being bought with a price is a masse of love hee hath a heart very hospitall to lodge all our infirmities when hee saw his people as touching the condition of their soule like sheepe without a shepheard {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} hee was bowelled with compassion toward them Esay 40. when the Prophet speaketh of his power and his ruling arme hee also prophecyeth of his meeknesse and bowels of compassion to weake ones there bee three sorts of persons in the Church that hee shall handle tenderly 1. The simple but gratious and for these Vers 11. hee shall feede his flâ—cke like a shepheard hee hath the heart of a shepheard who tendereth and careth for the flocke 2. There bee young ones babes in Christ and of these it is said hee shall gather the Lambes with his arme and carry them in his bosome two excellent sweet expressions hee shall not throw his club at the Lambs nor bee froward and cruell to them but in lieu of a club hee shall gather them with his arme 3. And as for the young and weake that have not legges he shall carry these in his bosome the bosome of Christ is a seat of love and tendernesse of bowels 4. There bee some in the Church that want not their infirmities and sinnes and have legges and a little strength yet the tendernesse of the bowels of compassion must yeeld them some Christian condescension and accommodation and they must not bee forced and driven roughly Christs Spirit is a spirit of accommodation Sir I le make you in despight of your teeth is not for these and therefore it is said hee shall gently lead those that are with young so Esay 42. 2. Jesus Christ shall not cry nor lift up nor cause his voyce to bee heard in the streets Christ hath not the art of rayling shouting and thundering against the meeke of the flock Yea Christ rideth and triumpheth in meeknesse Zach. 9. 9. his horse hee rideth on is meeknesse Psal. 45. 4. it is spoken to him Ride prosperously upon truth and meeknesse and Psal. 147. 6. This Lord lifeth up the meeke and Psal. 76. 9. bee will save all the meeke of the earth Christs heart is King Solomons Chariot the pillars of it is Cant. 3. 10. Silver the bottome thereof Gold the covering of it of purple the midst thereof beeing paved with love for the daughters of Jerusalem And Christ chooseth to dwell in a heart paved with love and meeknesse Thirdly the Spirit of the Lord is a Dove the spirit of grace is a gaul-lesse and gentle spirit Grace grace is the innocentest thing of the world there is no wild fire of sinfull wrath in grace Bitternesse rayling jeering persecution with the tongue outcries against Assemblies Presbyteries are not the tooles of the spirit of grace yea calumnies salt writings on either side are not from that spirit of Christ which hath a hand to wipe teares off the faces of the mourners in Zion To all raylings all bitter mockings against Presbyteries and Assemblies wee say wee are desirous not to bee driven off the roade way to heaven but to goe on Through honour and dishonour by evill report and good report as deceivers and yet true One inch of a good conscience is rather to bee chosen then a thousand yards of windie credit Meeke Jesus Christ and his Apostles used not such a stile of language nor is such Grammar from heaven nor smelleth it of the holy Ghosts pen Fourthly if wee bee the children of one father it might breed strange thoughts in our minds when the sonnes of one father Independents and Presbyterians spare mee necessitie not love of factions forceth mee to these tearmes shall sing one song up before the throne to him that liveth and reigneth for ever that wee cannot gather heate and warmnesse of love in one arke and in one Church here in the earth pens and tongues salted and steeped in the gall of bitternesse are not the fruits of the Spirit Shall wee kill and devoure one another all the day and lodge together in one heaven at night and can wee say one to another in heaven hast thou sound me O mine enemy shall there bee any factions any sides either religious of Presbyterian and independent in heaven or nationall of England and Scotland which yet differ not essentially I am sure but onely in the poore accidents of North and South and yet on earth wee must bee at daggers at rentings divisions are there two Christs because two nations Fiftly truth is never victorious by persecution now the Scripture speaketh of a persecution with the tongue Jer. 18. 18. Come say they let us smite Jeremiah with the tongue Job thus complayneth of his friends who never put violent hands in him Chap. 19. 22. Why doe you persecute me as God and are not satisfied with my flesh then tongue persecution is an eating of the flesh Sixtly the Gospel which wee professe is a Gospel of peace wee preach warre betweene the flesh and the spirit and warre betweene the womans Seed and the Serpent But oh should wee preach warre betweene the Saints wee have choyser golden chaines to tie us together Ephes. 4. 4. There is one body and one spirit even as yee are called in one hope of your calling 5. One Lord one faith one Baptisme 6. One God and Father of all Have wee need of Prelats and a high Commission Court and pursevants sent out to hunt us for praying together that they may reconcile us and unite us together as wee were all one within these few yeares Seventhly the more grace and mercy wee have from God our Father and from our Lord Iesus the more peace amongst our selves and the more grace the more compassion toward the weaknesse of Brethren Christ is an uniting and a congregating Saviour his blood and his spirit soweth and needleth together the hearts of the lambe and the Leopard of the Calfe and of the young Lion Esay 11. 6. Eighthly the Saints of the most High are stiled the meeke of the earth Esay 11. 4. there bee no meeke creatures on earth but the regenerate Buls and Lions fight together Lions and Woolves pursue Lambes But wee have not heard of warre betweene Lambes and Lambes Why should wee strive for wee are brethren how unseemly that one redeemed one should hate persecute and chase another redeemed one even into the gates of heaven Ninthly are wee not debtors one to another and the sum wee owe is love O what a spirit of accommodation was in that chosen vessel Paul who said 1 Cor. 9. 22. I am made all things to all men that I
unto the Sea Peace peace be still The Sea is not capable of rebukes such as are given to reasonable creatures but there is a rebuking of omnipotency that is not verball but real {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} is with words hardly to rebuke in conjugation kal cum {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} it is to destroy Mal. 2. 3. Behold I will destroy your seed Esay 54. 9. I have sworne I will not bee angry with thee neither rebuke thee 2. It is to hinder the enemies in their ill courses Zach. 3. 2. The Lord rebuke thee O Satan Mal. 3. 11. I will rebuke the devourer for your sake Psal. 68. 30. Lord rebuke the company of the Spearemen and when it is applyed to creatures voyd of reason it is by omnipotency to hinder them to hurt us and to stay their actions Psal. 106. 9. Hee rebuked the red Sea also Luke 4. 39. Jesus rebuked the seaver it holdeth forth the acts of omnipotency in Christ such as is his act of creating of an immediate faire sweet calme out of a contrary out of a boysterous and stormy Sea God hath some peeces in which is stamped so much of a legible and evident omnipotency as the worke fathereth it selfe upon God onely without a teacher so Job 26. 7. hee stretcheth out the North over the emptie place and hangeth the earth upon nothing the earth is the weightiest of any visible creature God hath made it needeth some solid resting place but the omnipotencie of the Creator doth hang it upon nothing except onely the aire round about it now the aire being so weake so yeelding an Element it were unpossible that the heavy and ponderous earth should have beene seated on the emptie and fluid aire to rest in it these five thousand yeares except omnipotency had done it for the aire of it selfe is very nothing to hold up the globe of the earth Job 38. 5. Who hath layd the measures of the earth if thou knowest or who hath stretched the line upon it 6. Whereupon are the foundations thereof fastned or who layd the corner stone thereof there bee three great questions here that few can answer but God First to take the compasse of the circumference of the globe of the earth exactly and to lay a measuring line over the Diameter and the whole body of it is a great work Secondly to know how to fasten the corner stone of the world Thirdly and how the whole weight is sustained is more then wee can tell and it is no lesse wonder Psal. 104. 2. who stretcheth out the heaven as a curtaine What a power must it bee to spread over all nations of the earth the elements and creatures in Sea and land such a large white molten webbe of Crystall glasse that hath beene spread over our head from the east end of the world to the west and north and south and there is not an hole in the webbe these five thousand yeares 2 The Sea is a fluid huge great body where can there bee a bottle to containe it 2. When it swelleth and rageth with mightie winds how is it kept from drowning the world God doth remedy these two 1. Job 38. 8. Who shut up the Sea with doores when it brake forth as if it had issued out of the wombe Vers 11. The Lord said Hitherto shalt thou come and no farther and here shall thy proud waves bee stayed God hath put an Iron doore upon the Sea and put it under an Act and Law of omnipotency that it shall not devoure and overwhelme the earth Jer. 5. 22. he hath placed the sand for the bound of the Sea by a perpetuall decree For the second when Psal. 107. 27. the Sea is all in fire and the passengers in a mightie storme reele to and fro and stagger like a drunken man and are at their wits end 29. hee maketh the storme a calme so that the waves thereof are still Esay 50. 2. Behold at my rebuke I dry up the Sea Psal. 65. 7. hee stilleth the noyse of the Seas 3. The Seas as all the rest of the creatures are by the first sinne of man broken out of the covenant of peace betweene us and them in the state of innocency and warre is denounced betweene us and them the fire should burne us the water hath Law to drowne us the aire to suffocate us the earth a Commission to swallow us up quick if Christ had not made a cessation of armes and if the Gospell were not a concluded treatie of peace and if the Lord should not rebuke the fury of the creature for some sparkes of Gods wrath yet resideth in the creature they have yet an inclination to revenge the quarrell of the treason that wee committed against their King and wee doe receive the creatures as fugitive souldiers from Gods Campe of justice and doe imploy them in warre against God as the Glutton and Drunkard imployeth meat and drinke against God the vaine persons their vaine apparell their patched faces bare breasts and shoulders as an exchange to sell the body to lust if the Lord should not rebuke our servants the creatures water fire sword and the like they would destroy us If wee looke spiritually now upon Gods dealing to these kingdomes the sword hath a charge from God to come against these lands Ezek. 21. 14. Therefore Sonne of man prophecy and smite thine hands together and let the Sword bee doubled the third time the sword of the slaine it is the sword of the great men that are slaine which entreth into their privie Chambers when God giveth the sword a commission to destroy it cannot rest Jeremiah Chap. 47. Vers 6. O thou sword of the Lord how long will it bee ere thou bee quiet put up thy selfe into thy scabbard rest and be still 7. How can it bee quiet seeing the Lord hath given it a charge against Askelon and the Sea shore there hath bee appointed it it is then a commanded and a sent sword that now rageth in these kingdomes 2. Not onely is the Sword and the pestilence sent of God by speciall commission Jer. 24. 10. but it is his sword it is not the sword of Papists and malignants but the sword of the Lord Jer. 47. 6. The Lord saith Ezek. 14. 21. that the Sword famine noysome beasts and pestilence are his foure sore judgements wee may goe thorough these souldiers wee have the Lords passe-port Esay 43. 2. for the sword is our Fathers sword The Seas wee are in are our Fathers Seas and so cannot drowne us 3. Omnipotency taketh this as peculiar to himselfe hee onely can create peace Psal. 46. 9. Hee maketh warres to cease from the ends of the earth Esay 45. 6. I am the Lord and there is none else 7. I forme the light and create darknesse I make peace and create evill then by what title hee is God and Creator by the same hee maketh peace Psal.
65. 7. He stilleth the noise of the Seas the noyse of their waves and the tumult of people these bee two troublesome creatures the raging Sea and the people up in warres The will of furious men is an unruly and wild thing there is a strong tide and mightie and loftie winds stirring in mens hearts when they are in a feaver and heat of warre it is Omnipotencies proper worke to calme the winds and put the wheeles to a stand that peace may bee in our borders 4. Hee hath promised as hee is Creator deliverance Esay 65. 18. But bee you glad and rejoyce for ever in that which I create for behold I create Jerusalem a rejoycing and her people a joy it is the word used Gen. 1. 1. when it is said God created the heaven and the earth 5. Hee hath said hee will rebuke Kings for his Churches sake Psal. 105. 14. and Esay 50. 9. of Christs enemies They all shall wax old as a garment the moth shall eate them up Esay 49. 26. And I will feede them that oppresse thee with their owne flesh and they shall hee drunken with their owne blood as with sweet wine Are wee then to doubt but the Lord will arise and rebuke these windes Christ is in the ship called the Church of God therefore the tacklings shall not bee loosed but the mast shall bee strengthned and the sailes spread out though there breake up a leake in the ship and there was a loud noyse of loftie stormes in this poore ship such as fining confining imprisoning banishing silencing of the Pastors of Jesus Christ cutting off eares ripping of noses yet Christ arose and rebuked these winds and though there were cries of reconciliation with Rome strong tides and winds of false doctrine of altar-worship imagery vaine Idols to represent the Father and the Sonne Christ massing a new reall sacrifice the body of Popery taught in Universities preached in Pulpits printed in books Christ arose and rebuked these winds and when the three kingdomes have been swimming in blood to hold up arbitrary power in the State and the Tyranny of Antichristian prelates in the Church the Lord of Hoasts hath also rebuked these winds and will calme the Sea There bee also great stormes of sad and lamentable divisions and rents alter against alter so as the one halfe of the passengers are like to cast the other over board in the Sea these are more dangerous and judgement-like winds Oh that wee could awake the Lord that hee may arise and rebuke the Sea and the winds There hath been and still is a cry of many provocations in both kingdomes so that the Lord cannot have rest in heaven for the sinnes of the land that are come up before him The breach of the Covenant of God all sort of sinnes against both Tables no knowledge of God in the land no mercy no truth but by swearing lying killing and stealing and committing adultery wee break out and blood toucheth blood yet the Lord Jesus is a Saviour not onely of persons but also a nationall redeemer hee sprinkleth many nations Esay 52. 15. with his blood he sprinkles cleane water upon nations the house of Israel and cleanseth them from all their filthinesse and idols for his names sake Ezek. 36. 22. 25. it is the omnipotency of free grace that Christ arise and rebuke these winds and Seas also Mark 4. 39. And there was a great calme There beâ— two Characters of God in this miracle One in the manner of the doing anger goes not away from either a man or the Sea in an instant when the aire is calmed and the wind removed yet in the bowels of the Sea there remaines a wind and so a raging and working in the Sea But here without delay there is a calme Secondly in the miracle there is a Character of God there was a great calme In the former wee see God worketh irresistibly and with efficacy For when hee saveth wee must bee saved When God saith that which Isaac said I have blessed him the other must follow And hee shall bee blessed Some Creatures worke necessarily without any dominion over their actions the Sun must cast out heat the fire cannot but burne the Sea cannot but flow but because God has truly an absolute Prerogative Royall hee has a Negative voice in all the actions of the world and what is to the creature necessary and a must bee to the Lord it is free though not contingent and it hath a may bee to God and not a must bee except he will To the creature the sea must ebbe and flow the Sun must give light the fire must consume the Lyon must devoure the prey but in all these to God there is a must not bee except hee adde his affirmative voice and therefore God commandeth the Sea neither to ebbe nor flow but to stand up as two stiffe walls of glasse hee covereth the Sunne with a webbe of darknesse at the crucifying of the Lord of glory hee dischargeth the fire to burn the three children and the Lyon to eat Daniel and all these must bee because God has said they shall bee Againe as God putteth his may not bee upon things necessary to the creature so hee putteth a law of necessity upon all the contingent actions of the creature an arrow shot at a venture may kill Achab and not kill Achab but some other man neare by yet there is here to the Lord no contingency no such thing as maybee and may not bee But the arrow of the Lords vengeance must bee so timed so placed as it has no motion against any but Achab onely and against no part of him but betweene the joints of his harnesse that hee may fall and die according to the word of the Lord The way and manner that Christ hath a calme Sea wee have a calme Sea and the way that Christ commeth to land and at that very time the Disciples come to land our stomacks rise much wee say What is God doing is there not a necessitie in regard of divine justice that vengeance fall upon Malignants Papists Prelates in these Kingdomes and bloody Irish cut-throats and murtherers But wee would consider these two First these sixteene hundreth yeares Christ hath beene under wrongs and vengeance to the full hath not reached his enemies as yet for 1. the enemies of Christ are not fully subdued 2. and many of them rotten in the dust are not in their bodies tormented as yet Christ suffereth injuries and you cannot you will not have patience to indure the crueltie of bloody men Secondly Christ as wee see here devideth faire weather and foule weather with his Disciples it is enough to us that if wee bee laid low wee are low with Christ it is time enough that wee have faire weather and come safe to shoare to dry our garments at that Sunne that shineth to the glorified in heaven when Christ commeth to shoare let us weepe when
and Malignants were on the top of their wheeles God from despised and contemned beginnings raised the worke to a great height 2. our adversaries were agents and would not rest but did cooperate to their owne destruction They would move the King to change Religion in Scotland against all Lawes 2. They would stirre him up to raise Armies by Sea and Land against Scotland 3. They moved the King to break the articles of peace and the word of a Prince to his Subjects after an accommodation and set him on bloody warres againe 4. After his Army was defeated and a Parliament granted in England they moved him first to come and yeeld to all that is just and right in a Parliament of Scotland but against their mind with no purpose to keepe their faith and then to raise Tragicall and bloody warres in England and in all these they were coagents and workers with a judiciall and secret providence to their owne destruction 3. They have beene searching to find out that our intentions were not to establish Religion in power and puritie and to bee freed of the bondage of arbitrary and tyrannicall domination over Church and State but to change monarchy and set up another government this they could never yet find 4. They see God against them prophanitie and wickednesse on their side and with them Papists Idolaters Irish murtherers the cruellest of men the scumme and refuse of the Churchmen yet they will not see God in this 5. They find and see their treachery popery tyranny discovered by many plots come to light by letters under the Kings hand their intentions to bring in a forraigne nation ere popery and arbitrary government bee not established and that all Treaties have beene intended not for a just peace but for this end that a peace being once patched and sowed up all things shall returne to their ancient Channels as the King speakes in his instructions to his Commissioners at Vxbridge yet they will not see God in all these passages of his deepe providence If naturall men wonder at the power and excellency of Christ in that hee with a word commands Sea and winds and they obey him should not Christ bee to us a worlds wonder should hee not bee to us altogether lovely were it possible to lay in the counter-scale of the ballance to Christ a world of Angels put in yet millions of worlds of Angels adde to them a world of Solomons with tripled wisedome put in all the delights of the sonnes of men put in yet the flowre and Rose of ten thousand possible worlds perfections they should bee under-weight to him the ballance should never downe Oh! wee glory in good armies wee rejoyce in victories and successe in a good Parliliament in godly Commanders in a good reformation all is excellent to us that hath any lustre or glimpse of created goodnesse but why doe wee not rather wonder admire and extoll excellent Jesus Christ who setteth him on high above the skies who lifts up his throne and his glory Consider but what is said of him Col. 1. 15. Who is the image of the invisible God the first borne of every creature Vers 16. For by him were all things created c. 17. And hee is before all things and in him all things consist 18. And hee is the head of the body the Church who is the beginning the first borne from the dead that in all things hee might have the preheminence see what wonders are there in Christ as first hee is Gods equall every way as high as God being the substantiall Image of God begotten of the Father and without all beginning Secondly as man the eldest of the creation of God and as God the Creator of the new world Thirdly no lesse the Creator of all then the Father wee have a head who can make and unmake all the glorious Angels in heaven the royallest of the house of heaven these principalities and powers these little Gods the eldest and supreme Courtiers the higher house of the Peeres of heaven are but peeces of dependent shadowes that fell from the fingers of our highest King when hee framed this great all and the rich Palace-Royall of this greatest body of heaven and earth and all the furniture within the bosome of the great world Fourthly the Lord Jesus hath all the created world so in the hollow of his hand as a man that holdeth a bowle of glasse in his hand in the aire should hee take his arme from under it it should fall to the earth and breake in a hundred peeces and doe no more good if Christ in whom all things consist some say as the notes of an excellent musick in a song draw in his armes of conserving providence the world should go all out of tune and the Globe of Crystall glasse should fall to a thousand meere nothings and as a man betweene his fingers may crush an Egge so hath Christ the huge created Lump of the whole creation in his hand if hee but thrust his two fingers together with a little crush all the world is dissolved like a broken Egge Fiftly hee is the head of the Church and such a head as is deaths eldest sonne and heire hee lay in deaths wombe and as the doubly blessed first-borne had the key of death with him in the inner side and opened the wombe and tooke away the ports and gates of death on his backe that now all the younger brethren might come out at the same passage also yea hee came a bridegroome from heaven to suite in marriage a bride his Church was sicke and died of love for a Princes daughter his lovely Church rose the third day from death and married her Sixtly he hath so the absolute preheminence in all things that the highest of the Angels are but his vassals and servants is now in such incomparable eminency of Glory above all creatures that when the beloved-disciple John who came that neare to him in the dayes of his flesh that hee leaned on his bosome saw him in his glory hee fell downe at his feet dead Revel. 1. 17. yea there was more of heaven in Christ then his eyes of flesh could behold FINIS Iob. 20. 5 6. 2 Cor. 6. 9. 2 Cor. 4. 8 9. Esay 17. 6. Esay 30. 26. Six parts of the Text The words opened Part I. Preachers are to converse much with Christ why {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Luc. {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} How carefully Christ husbanded time How both kingdomes faile in improving of opportunities of mercy A generall faile of all in the care lesse improvement of time Part II. Christ and his Ship have more then ordinary stormes {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Reason why the afflictions of the people of God are so extreame Evangelick legall anger in God Vse 1. Wrath untolerable to the ungodly Vse 2. We love a soft and a chosen providence of our owne carving Eight particulars considerable in the ship in which Christ and his Church is carried The Church a moveable thing as a ship {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Great change of the spirituall condition of the Church of particular Saints The Ship sayleth in a Sea of glasse mingled with fire Hope the Anchor of the Church The wares of the ship Seven sorts of passengers in the ship Why Christ took on our nature and infirmities Christ God and man and why The influence of the Godhead in Christs sufferings was active not passive Vse 1. Vse 2. It were sacriledge in the Roman Empire and Senate to give out decrees to the Churches as the Apostles and Elders did Acts 15. Innocency can sleepe sound amidst the greatest calamities How God is said to sleepe God will have his Church cause within a haires breadth of losing except he arise and helpe {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Why God saveth not while the Church be betweene the sinking and the swimming The presence of God in trouble how comfortable {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Part III. The unitie and harmony of Christs Disciples in their trouble Reasons for Christian unitie Doct. Wee put unkindnesse on Christ because wee are not presently delivered and the reasons thereof {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Et non addet bene velle ultra â— Iudgements of themselves are the occasion rather then the cause of praying Some signes that sinne not afflictions put us to fasting and praying How the rod of God must work us to humiliation ere we be delivered Grace doth not extirpate but regulate feare and other affections The faults of the Disciples feare It were good to inquire the causes of the judgement Vse 2. The causes of misapprehending of Christ What is a small or weake faith Faith and fainting may consist together in one Reasons why wee know our grace so hardly The grounds of a faith weak in action Faith and sense compared together Simile Faith from instinct of grace sometime rather then from light of discourse The speciall cause of all sinnes of infirmitie From {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} cuspis mucio and {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} captivus or {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} cuspis hastae {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Vse 1. Vse 2. Vse 3. Vse 4. How God really rebuketh the creature Gods omnipotency in creating and ruling the earth and Sea Vse This sword in Brittaine not the sword of men but of the Lord It is proper onely to omnipotency to make peace Part V. Two Characters of God in this miracle 1 That it is done in an instant and irresistibly 2 That it is great Things necessary to the Creature to the Creator have a may not be Things contingent to the Creature may have a must bee to the Creator Vse It is enough that our sea be calme when Christs is calme Greatnesse is printed on all the works of God Vse 1. Vse 2. Vse 3. Part VI Wee see little of God in his wayes Vse 1. God most visible in that hee now doth in Brittaine but Malignants will not see him Vse 2. The Lord Jesus a wonder to all