the Father c. PSAL. 107.25 For he commandeth and raiseth the stormy wind which lifteth up the waves thereof WEE have done with the Seamans Profession and now come to those Dangers which attend and accompany this profession For a victualler cannot be without sinne nor a merchant without danger Eccles 26.37 The dangers are here laid downe in their causes principall and efficient Gods commandement instrumentall and subservient the blowing of the windes and the flowing of the waves This text may bee resolved into these three Conclusions First that the commandement of God reaches and extends even to senselesse and inanimate creatures Secondly that the winde is not alwayes still but sometime stormy and the Sea not alwayes calme but sometimes tempestuous Thirdly that there is no Commotion in the ayre nor Concitation in the waters but it is the Lords doing For he commandeth For the first God is an universall Bishop all the places and parishes in the world are within his Diocesse and Iurisdiction His title is Mat. 11.25 Lord of Heaven and Earth so that all creatures from an Angel to an Ant from a starre in the Firmament to a stone in the Pavement are within his Territories and Dominions All are thy servants saith the Psalmist Psal 119.91 and it is not omnes for then it must bee restrained to Men and Angels but omnia a word of such latitude and comprehension that all things visible and invisible rationall and irrationall animate and inanimate and in a word the Kingdome of all created nature is concluded in it Psal 135.6 Whatsoever the Lord pleaseth that doth he in heaven and earth in the seas and all deepe places Psal 148.8 And fire and haile snow and vapours stormes and winde fulfill his word And the lightnings say unto him Iob 38 35. Here we are The creatures beside their naturall inclinations have an obedientiall power Etiamsi Deus contraria jusserit hîc tamen magna est obedientia Chrys Hom. in Psal 148. whence it comes to passe saith Chrysostome that though God command them things contrary to their particular natures yet they obey him David askes the question What ayled thee O Sea that thou fleddest Psal 114.5 and thou Iordan that thou wast driven backe Had the Sea or the River a tongue to speake to us as well as they have an eare when God speakes to them they would tell us that Vox Domini super aquas Psal 29.3 the voice of the Lord was upon the waters and so soone as they heard they were afraid Or as it is in another Psalme Psal 77.16 The waters saw thee O God the waters saw thee they were afraid the depths also were troubled And as the commandement of God divided the waters and controuled their course so it divides the very flames of fire Psal 29.7 It is the property of fire to shine and to burne our Saviour alludes to it when he sayes Iohn Baptist was a shining a burning light yet sometime the fire burnes and does not shine and sometimes it shines and doth not burne Flamma Dei mandato dulcissemam in se recipiens auram suavem pueris respirationem veluti sub umbra quadam tranquillo in statu constitutis praebuit Basil m. in Psal 29. and so the Lord divideth the flames of fire The fire in the fornace of Babylon shined for by the light thereof Nebuchadnezzar saw the three children another with them like the Sonne of God but as S. Chrysostome sayes it did not urere but irrorare it did not burn them but bedew them The fire in hell burnes for it is a place of extreame heat and a drop of water would be purchased at any rate yet it shines not for it is a place of utter darknesse Ipse potest Solis currus inhibere volantes Ipse velut scopulos flumina stare jubet By which instances we see that as all things were created by God so they are commanded by him for the Potter hath power over his clay and God over the workes of his owne hands Must we not here needs breake out into those words of wonderment and admiration Mat. 8.27 Quis est iste Who is this whom even the winde and the Seas obey Surely such an one besides whom there is not such another Esay 45.21 Where is the Monarch that dare set down his foot upon the shore and in the word of a King command the Sea to flow thus farre and no further Xerxes could not preserve his bridge from the fury of the Hellespont for which cause hee cōmanded it should have three hundred stripes Where is the man that in the time of drought can lift up his voice unto the clouds and wring one drop of raine out of their bottels Iob 38.34 Where is he that can binde the sweet influences of Pleiades or loose the bands of Orion or bring forth Mazzarath in his season and guide Arcturus and his sonnes Indeed Ioshua the Captaine of Israel stayed the Sun in Gibeon and the Moone in the valley of Aialon Non imperavit sed impetravit till he was avenged of his enemies but not by his command but by his confidence not by his power but by his prayer And shall we not now feare him that is the Lord of Hosts and hath the command of all the creatures He can command the fire and it shall consume us as it did Sodome and her Cities Hee can command the ayre and it shall spit upon our heads blastings mildewes pestilent defluxions and destroy us with thunder lightening or hailstones as it did the Amorites Hee can command the earth and it shall open her mouth and swallow us up quicke as it did Corah and his company He can command the water to overflow us as it did the old world Let us therefore sanctifie the Lord of Hosts Esay 8.13 Let him be our feare and let him be our dread And shall we not also in all our necessities depend upon his providence God can command the cloudes and they shall raine Quailes and Manna as they did upon the Israelites God can command the rocke and it shall give thee water God can command the Ravens and they shall feed thee God can command a stone and it shall become Bread Art thou cast upon the bed of sicknesse God can command a lumpe of figges to recover thee nay he can rebuke thy disease and it shall immediately leave thee Art thou at Sea and in danger of drowning God can rebuke the windes and waves And if he suffer thee to shipwrack he can prepare a fish to swallow thee or a planke of the ship to convey thee to shore as it fared with Paul and his company And does not the obedience of the senselesse and inanimate creatures upbraid our disobedience Non mediocris pudor est imperie Dei insensibilia elementa parere homines non obedire Ambr. Hexam c. 1. de
both of the wisdome Rom 11.33 knowledge of God! O Lord our Lord how excellent is thy name in all the earth Psal 8.1 Among the gods there is none like unto thee O Lord Psal 86.8.10 neither are there any workes like thy workes for thou art great and dost wondrous things thou art God alone O that men would therefore praise the Lord for his goodnesse and declare his wonders to the sonnes of men Little children and ignorant persons when they see a curious picture gaze upon it and please themselves in the beauty of the colours but they consider not the art and skill of that hand which limmed it so we see the wonders of God with our eyes we heare of them with our eares wee taste them with our mouthes wee feele them with our hands yet our hearts are not affected with them as they should be neither doe we consider those glorious Attributes of power wisdome goodnesse and mercy laid open in them If we did the consideration of his power would make us feare him the meditation of his goodnesse would make us love him the contemplation of his wisdome would make us praise him according to that of the Psalmist Declare his glory among the heathen Psal 96.3.4 his wōders amōg all the people for the Lord is great greatly to be praised he is to be feared above al gods Secondly if the Lord hath made such wonderfull and admirable things for us in this world which is but our cottage how excellent and admirable are those things which hee hath provided and prepared for us in heaven which is our palace If I was the sweetest singer in all Israel if I had the tongues of men and Angels I should not be able to expresse the least part of them S. Paul spoke with tongues more then all the rest of the Apostles and the Barbarians called him Mercury the god of eloquence yet these things are so admirable and transcendent that the strength of his expressions and the straines of his eloquence could not reach them And therefore he telleth us not what they are but what they are not Eye hath not seene nor eare heard 1 Cor. 2.9 neither hath it entred into the heart of man to conceive the things which God hath prepared for them that love him The eye of man sees much yet the eare heares of many things which the eye never saw I never faw Salomons Temple in its beautie nor Rome in her glory nor Christ in the flesh yet my eare hath heard much of them But if there be any thing which my eare hath not heard yet my heart is able to conceive it I never heard the thunders that were upon mount Sinai I never heard Paul in the pulpit yet I conceive how terrible was the one and how powerfull was the other But these things are so high and admirable that I can neither perceive them by the sense nor conceive them by the understanding When the Queene of Sheba came to the Court of Salomon she was ravished with the wonders she saw there when we come to heaven the Court of him that was greater then Salomon how shall we be ravished to heare the Hymnes and Hallelujahs of Angels to see the face of God the body of Christ our Saviour the beauty of the new Ierusalem and our vile bodies made like his glorious body But who is fit for these things I leave therefore these wonders which God hath provided for us in Coelo in heaven and come to those which are in Salo in the Sea for this is our third and last part That the workes and wonders of the Lord may be seene in the Sea and deep waters God who is wonderfull in all his workes 3. Part. is most wonderfully wonderfull in the Sea for it is as full of wonder as it is of water Some restraine my Text too strictly to those wonders which God shewed in the red-sea which was a Causie to the Israelites but a grave to the Egyptians Or to those which he shewed in the Sea when the Prophet Ionas was cast into it as the sodaine calme and the restitution of his Prophet from the belly of the whale But our Prospect will be more faire and delightfull if wee inlarge it in these particulars following First the situation of this Element is wonderfull I will not here dispute the question whether the Water or the Earth be higher sure I am that the elevations and swellings of the Sea are wonderfull and were it not that the Lord on high is mightier then the noise of many waters it would breake out as once it did into an universall Deluge and Inundation Job 38.8 9 10. But God hath shut up the Sea with doores he hath swadled it with darkness he hath set it bounds saying Hitherto shalt thou come but no further and here shall thy proud waves be stayed I reade of one Canutus sometimes a king of this Island that standing by the Thames at a flowing water commanded the waves to come no nearer But the River for all this kept its course and if the King had not given ground would have drowned him with which saies the story hee was so much affected that he hanged up his Crowne in Westminster and would never after weare it To command the Elements is his prerogative that made them Feare you not me Ierem. 5.22 saith the Lord Will yee not tremble at my presence which hath placed the Sand for the bound of the Sea by a perpetuall decree that it cannot passe it and though the waves thereof tosse themselves Infirmissimo emnium vilis sabuli pulvere vis maris etiam in tempestate cohibetur Ambr. Hexam c. 2. de die 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yet they cannot prevaile though they roare they cannot passe over it And Hesychius saies that the Sea is as afraid of the banke of sand as we are of thunder Secondly the Motion of the Sea is as strange and wonderfulles the former It is reported of Aristotle that great Secretary of Nature that not being able to conceive the reason of the ebbing and flowing of the Sea he threw himselfe into it using these words Because I cannot comprehend thee thou shalt comprehend mee And howsoever this hath received many subtile and curious discussions yet all confesse it a wonder and secret of Nature For suppose it be the naturall inclination of this Element which at the first covered the face of the Earth and does as it were labour to recover its ancient Inheritance Or suppose the Moone to be the cause of it as most determine for this Planet hath a regencie and dominion over moist bodies yet it is a wonder still It is as admirable that the Influence of the Moone should cause such an elevation and agitation of the waters as if God had imprinted this qualitie in the Element it selfe For my part I shall ever say with the Psalmist Thy way is in the
the faithfull It is said of the Cities of the Amorites that they were walled up to heavē Deut. 1.28 but he that would raise a wall so high must lay the foundation as low as the Center of the earth and we see in the storie of Nimrod that God would not suffer such bold undertakings Exod. 3.17 It is reported of the land of Canaan that it was a land flowing with milk and honie and yet I beleeve there were no such rivers in Paradise And it is here said that such sometimes is the violence of the windes and the elevation of the waters that ships are mounted to heaven and cast down to hell and David sayes no more then what many have said after him Tollimur in coelum curvato gurgite Virg. Aeneid 3. iidem Subductâ ad Manes imos descendimus undâ We mount to heaven or dive to hell As wanton billowes sinke or swell Me miserum quanti montes volvuntur aquarum Ovid. l. 1. Trist eleg 2. Iamjam tacturos syder a summa putes Quantae diducto subsidunt aequore valles Iamjam tacturas Tartara nigraputes Wretch that I am such hills of water rise As seeme to touch the heavens and wash the skies And in a trice such gaping gulfes appeare As if that way to hell a passage were Nubila tanguntur velis terra carina Lucan l. 5 The top-sailes touch the clouds the keele the sands Now these and the like hyperbolicall expressions are not to be understood precisely according to the sound but according to the sense and they intimate thus much that the miracles of Christ were very many that the seed of Abraham was very numerous that the walls of the Amorites were very high that the fruitfulnesse of Canaan was very much and that the dangers of the Sea are very great and indeed such a Poeticall and superlative expression was the fittest for this Argument The Poet will not be perswaded but he had an heart of oake Ille robur aes triplex circa pectus erat c. Horat. l. 1. Car. ode 3. Aut insanit aut mori cupit aut mendicus est Alex. in Stob. I nunc ventis animam committe dolato confisus ligne digitis a morte remotus quatuor aut septem si sit latissima taeda 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nam propè tam lethum quam propè cernit aquam Ovid. l. 2. de Ponto Acts 27.18 or brasse that first adventured to Sea and trusted himself in a wooden vessell with that mercilesse element And another will not beleeve but hee that goes to Sea is either a mad man or a beggar or desirous to die Anacharsis be asked whether the number of the dead or the living was the greater answered that he knew not in what number to reckon mariners and having learnt that the thicknesse of a ship was but foure fingers said there was no more distance betwixt them and death Let a ship bee built as strong as art can possibly make her let her bee laden with gold silver and the most precious commodities let her cary never so many guns let her beare the name of some dreadfull and hideous monster yet the winde playes with it as a toy and the waves tosse it as a tennis ball as S. Paul saith of the ship wherein he sailed that she was exceedingly tossed Now if the danger bee so great that you are mounted up to heaven and throwne downe againe into the depths dare any of you venture to Sea till you have mounted up to heaven on the wings of prayer that Gods power and protection would goe along with you and gone downe into the depths of your own hearts by repentance and confession of your sinnes S. Ieromes counsell is that we should not stirre abroad till we have armed our selves with prayer Egredientes de hospitio armet oratio in ep ad Eustoch for Leo in via there is a Lion in the way and danger in all places It may bee some incensed Lamech or unnaturall Cain may meet thee and kill thee It may be some loose tile or unjoynted piece of timber may fall upon thee and brain thee And if it be thus in the fields or streets of the City what is it at Sea which is as full of danger as it is of water every wave and puffe of winde threatning destruction nay though the Sea be never so calme and the winde never so still yet there is but the thicknesse of a plank betwixt you and ruine Pitty it is that when men goe to Sea they are carefull to have their number of men their provision of victuals their tire of guns and whatsoever else is necessary for their voyage yet the one thing that is necessary for the most part is least regarded The Church of Rome teaches her disciples to cary with them to Sea the relique of some Saint as an antidote and preservative against all dangers or to invocate some commentitious Patron But call upon mee sayes God and there is good reason wee should doe so for the Sea is his and he made it and he that made it can rule it be the waves thereof never so unquiet S. Paul intending a voyage to Ierusalem would not enter into the ship till he had kneeled down upon the shore and commended himselfe to Gods protection The gravell I confesse was but a hard cushion and it may be the mariners called upon him to come aboard because the tide was far spent or the winde ready to alter or else they would hoise sayles and leave him yet for all this he will pray before hee will saile and commit himselfe to God before he commit himselfe to the deepe waters and goe thou and doe likewise And prayer if it save not thy ship will save thy soule if it keepe not thy body from the water for all things happen alike to all men it will keepe thy soule from the fire which is the greater deliverance Againe are the dangers of the Sea so great and dare any of you when you are at Sea behave and demeane your selves prophanely and irreligiously S. Peter discoursing of the dissolution of the world when the heavens shall be rouled up like skins of parchment and the elements melt with fervent heat makes this inference What manner of men ought we to bee in all holy conversation and godlinesse And truly when I consider how you are sometimes mounted up to heaven where God is ready to judge you and sometimes throwne downe into the depths where hell is ready to swallow you I cannot but say What manner of men ought ye to be Doubtlesse a Seaman that is profane is as prodigious a monster as a poore man that is proud or a rich man that is a lyer or an old man that is wanton and the Lord abhorres him as well as any of the other S. Ambrose calls the Sea the schoole of temperance chastity and sobriety Secretiem temperantiae exercitium
up to the head and if the head dabble in wine it strikes downe to the feet so that a man may say of the drunkard as the Prophet did of the corrupt state of the Jewes From the crowne of the head to the sole of the foote there is no right part in him Salomon calls our legs the strong men of the house yet in a storme they cannot stand their ground but bow and buckle under us Men in such a case are like balls in a Tennis court tossed from one side of the ship unto the other and sometimes banded cleane over It may be said of mariners what the Jews said of Cain and Clemens Alexandr seemes to follow the tradition that wheresoever they set their foot the floore trembles under them and many times with that violence that they knock their heads one against another Now as a ship was the embleme of the Church and the Sea an embleme of the world so is a storme of persecution and in nothing more then in this that it staggers the faith and profession of so many Christians Some there are that heare the word of God and receive it with joy yet when tribulation or persecution doth arise because of the word by and by they are offended And such are compared to an house built upon the sands which cannot indure the weather for when the raine descended and the floods came and the windes blew and beat upon it it fell and the fall thereof was great Every sin is lapsus a slipping or sliding some sins are Casus a falling to the ground but the sinne of Apostacy and recidivation is Casus magnus a great fall for the latter end of that man is worse then the beginning We read of the children of Ephraim that they were harnessed and caryed bowes Psal 78.9 but when it came to bee Tempus pralii a day of battle they turned their backs even so many there are who seeme to stand as fast as mount Zion so long as the Church is becalmed with peace and plenty their profession makes as great a flourish as a city company upon a training day so that a man would thinke they would fight and die for their faith but if once it prove soul weather their lands liberties or lives be in danger God blesse their constancy and strengthen their faith that they doe not then begin to thinke that the differences of religion are but circumstantiall and that it is no wisdome to lose a substance for a circumstance and that there is a greater latitude in the way to heaven then before they dreamt of and thus staggering with the spirit of giddinesse at last fall and make shipwrack of faith and a good conscience The third and last effect is stupefaction and astonishment in these words 1 Thes 5.23 They are at their wits end Man is divided by S. Paul into three parts the soule the body and the spirit What the impression of a storme is upon the soule you heard in these words Their soules are melted in them because of the trouble and what upon the body in these They reele to and fro and stagger like a drunken man Now let us see what impression it makes upon the spirit or understanding in these words They are at their wits end and so I shall be at my workes end Some there are that read the place thus omnis substantia corum deverate est and then it is not that they are at their wits end but at their wealths end I confesse indeed much wealth hath been swallowed up by the Sea and as it is a Mine to some so is it a grave to others Some ships like Noahs Dove goe forth into the waters and returne backe againe with advantage as she did with an olive branch but some like the crow are sent out and never returne But the best reading is omnis sapientia as S. Ierom renders it all their wit and wisdome is swallowed up 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or omnis eorum peritia as Tremell all their skill and experience is at an end Or as Apollinarius They forget the art of navigation and their skill failes them And the like expressions have wee in the Poets Lucan Artis opem vicere metus nescitque magister Quam frangat cui cedat aquae May. Nil ratio et usus audet Ars cessit maelis Son in Agam. Feare conquers art the master does not know Which wave to breake which wave to yeeld unto We see then our industry and endeavour our wit and understanding cannot helpe us when God stands in our way as the Angel did in Balaams but the power and wisdome of God swallowes up the power and wisdome of the creature as Aarons rod swallowed up the rods of the Egyptians or as the crosse of Christ swallowed up the idols of the heathen or as the joy of the Holy Ghost which is glorious and unspeakable swallowes up all other delights and comforts So true is that of the Psalmist except the Lord build the house they labour in vaine that build it Except the Lord keepe the city the watchman waketh but in vaine In that storme in the Acts of the Apostles the mariners did what was possible to save themselves and the ship for the text saith they undergirded the ship and heaved their tackling and lading over board and cast anchors out of the sterne yet all was to no purpose It is said of the mariners in the Prophet Ionas 1.13 that they rowed hard to bring their ship to land but they could not because the Sea wrought and was tempestuous In the booke of Genesis we finde a Parliament and councell assembled Genes 11. many laying their heads and wits together to find out a way to secure thē frō the feare of another deluge at last it is resolved upō to build a Towre whose tops shold reach up to heaven But what will they doe for materials Their wit can furnish them thus far for by burning the earth throughly they bake it into brick and use flime for morter and now they are very busie in raising of it But God who resists the proud lookes down from heaven and confounds their language and now they have not so much understanding left them as to understand one anothers speech and their wit was at an end before their building was well begun Thus the power of God doth as it were play and sport it selfe in humane affaires Ludit in humanis divina potentia rebus and does whatsoever it pleases in heaven in earth and in all places And therefore let not the wiseman glory in his wisdome for God can infatuate it nor the strong man in his strength for he can infeeble it nor the rich man in his wealth for he can impoverish it nor the mariner in his skill for he can confound it but let us in every thing we put our hand unto implore his blessing without the influence and concurrence