prophecie of Ionas our wares our goods our vessell our liberties yea our liues let vs keepe our faith It is the most dangerous shipwrack that this naufragous world can giue vs the shipwracke of faith They write of the serpent that he exposeth al his body to the blow of the smiter that hee may saue his head So lose wee our riches our houses lands liberties liues but keepe we Faith in our Head Iesus Christ. Though we liue in the world let vs not loue the world saith S. Iohn Not fashion our selues to it saith S. Paul hate the vices the villanies the vanities of it Thinke it easier for that to peruert thee then for thee to conuert that Water will sooner quench fire then fire can warme water A little wormewood embitters a good deale of honey but much honey cannot sweeten a little wormewood Call we then on our God to preserue vs that the euill of the world infect vs nor Aristotle saith if a man take a vessell of earth new and raw close vp the mouth thereof throw it into the salt sea letting it lye there a day or two when he takes it vp he shall finde fresh water in it Though wee bee sowsd in this Ocean world yet if the Spirit of grace seale vs vp the brinish waters of sinne shall not enter vs but we shall be vessels of grace here heereafter of glory Amen THE Spirituall Nauigator BOVND For the Holy Land Reuel Chap. 4. ver 6. Before the Throne there was a Sea of Glasse like vnto Chrystall IF I haue beene somewhat long on the Sea you will excuse me It is a great and vaste Element to trauell ouer in so short a time Some Obseruations I haue giuen you that I might not crosse the World without some fruite of my voyage Onely what I haue spoken of the waters let it not be drown'd in the waters as the prouerbe saith not perish in your memories without some fruite in your liues The next circumstance giues the world not only for a Sea but Mare vitreum a Sea of glasse You see I must carry you further on this Element and yet at last leaue many coasts vnuisited much smotherd in silence Let not all be via nauis as the Wise man speaketh the way of a Ship on the sea leauing no tracke or print in your meditations This glassy attribute shall giue vs obseruable three properties in the world 1. Colour 2. Slipperinesse 3. Brittlenesse As certainely as you finde these qualities in Glasse expect them in the world Colour There is a Glassy colour congruent to the Sea So Virgil insinuates describing the Nereades certaine marine Nymphs Milesia vellera Nymphae Carpebant Hyali saturo fucata colore And not farre remou'd Vitreisque sedilibus omnes Obstupuere VVhich is spoken not in respect of the matter but of the Colour and perspicuity So Ouid in an Epistle Est nitidus vitreoque magis perlucidus amne Fons sacer All the beauty of Glasse consists in the Colour and what in the world that is of the world is commendable praeter Colorem besides the Colour A Cottage would serue to sleepe in as well as a sumptuous Pallace but for the colour Russets bee as warme as silkes but for the glistering Colour The Egyptian bondwoman giue as much content as Queene Vashti but for the colour The beauty of the fairest woman is but skin-deep which if nature denies arte helpes them to lay on colours And when they are most artificially complexion'd they are but walking and speaking pictures It is the colour of gold that bewitcheth the auarous the colours of lewels that make the Ladies proud If you say these are precious and comfortable in themselues then feed on them and try if those mettals can without meate keepe your life and soule together The truth is mans corporall eye sees nothing but colour It is the sole indefinite obiect of our sight whither soeuer we direct it We see but the lay-part of things with these opticke organs It is the vnderstanding the soules interiour eye that conceiues and perceiues the latent vertues All that we outwardly behold is but the fashion of the world and S. Paul saith The fashion of the world perisheth The colour fades and the splendor of things is decayed That if the world like aged and wrinckled Helen should contemplate her own face in a glasse she would wonder that for her beauties sake Troy should be sack'd and burn'd mans soule endanger'd to eternall fire Oh how is the splendor and glory of the world bated empair'd since the originall creation The skye lookes dusky the Sunne puts forth a drowsie head as if he were no longer as Dauid once described him like a Bride-groome comming out of his chāber or a strong man reioycing to runne his race The Moone lookes pale as if she were sicke with age and the starres do but twinckle as if they were dim and look'd vpon the earth with spectacles The Colours of the Rain-bow are not so radiant the whole earth shewes but like a garment often dy'd destitute of the natiue hew It is but colour that delights you ye worldlings Esau lusts for the pottage because they looke redde and the drunkard loues the wine because it lookes redde and sparkles in the cup. Prou. 23. Looke not thou vpon the wine when it is redde when it giueth his colour in the cup when it moueth it selfe aright VVhat babes are we to bee taken with these colours that onely please the eye or the sensuall part of man harme the soule like children that play with Glasse till they cut their fingers Auicen saith that glasse among stones is as a foole amongst men For it takes all paint and followes precious stones in colour not in vertue So does this world giue colours to her riches as if there were some worth and vertue in them till wee are cosen'd of heauenly and substantiall treasures by ouer prizing them No matter saith Isiodore is more apt to make mirrors or to receiue painting then Glasse So men de◅ke the world as the Israelites did their Calfe and then superstiously dote vpon it as Pigmalion on his carued Stone But can colour satisfie Is mans imaginatiue power so dull and thicke as to be thus pleased Shall a man toyle to dig a pit and laboriously draw vp the water and then must he sitte by and not drink or drinke and not haue his thirst quenched Yes Thus do we long after earthly things which obtained giue vs no full content thus disregard spirituall and heauenly whereof but once rafting we go away highly satisfied Say then with Bernard Oh bone Iesu fons indeficiens Humana corda reficiens Ad te curro te solum sitiens Tu mihi salus sufficiens Oh Iesus fountaine euer flowing Thy graces on mans soule bestowing To thee I runne with thirsty heart And none shall want though I haue part For others it shall be said Loe
gouernance  A Sea The World is not a materiall but a Mysticall Sea Time was that the whole world was a Sea Gen. 7. The waters preuailed exceedingly vpon the earth and all the high hils that were vnder the whole Heauen were couered Fifteene Cubites vpward did the waters preuaile and the Mountaines were couered As a Poet according with the Scripture Omnia Pontus erant deerant quoque littora Ponto All was a Sea and that sea had no shores The Deluge of sin is no lesse now then was theÌ„ the deluge of Waters The floud of wickednesse brought that floud of vengeance If their soules had not bene first drowned their bodies had not bene ouerwhelmed The same ouer-flowing of iniquity shall at last drowne the world in fire The World may be very fitly compared to the Sea in many concurrences 1. The Sea is an vnquiet Element a fuming foming beast which none but the Makers hand can bridle Math. 8. What manner of man is this that euen the Winds and the Sea obey him The world is in full measure as vnruly It is the Lord that stilleth the noise of the Seas the roaring of their waues and the tumult of the people Where the Psalmist matcheth roaring waues and roaring men the raging of the Sea with the madnesse of the world And yet God is able to stil them both The Prophet calles the Sea a raging creature and therein yoakes it with the wicked The wicked are like the troubled Sea when it cannot rest whose waters cast vp mire and dirt Vnà Eurusque Notusque ruunt creberque procellis Affricus et vastos tollunt ad littora fluctus Yet the Lord gathereth the waters of the sea together as an heape and layeth vp the depth in store-houses Heare God himselfe speake to this boystrous Element Iob. 38. Hitherto shalt thou come but no further and here shall thy proud waues be stayed Let me say truely of God what Pliny of Nature in this Element Hîc ipsa se Natura vincit numerosis modis God who is maruellous in all his wayes wonderfull in all his workes is in the Sea most wonderfully wonderfull It is called Aequor quasi minimè aequum so I thinke the World mundus quasi minimè mundus Sometime Fretum à fremitu of a boysterous and troublesome nature The VVorld is full of molesting vexations no lesse then the Sea 1. Sometimes it swels with Pride as the Sea with waues which Dauid saith mount vp to heauen Behold that Babilonian Lucifer saying I will exalt my throne aboue the stars of God I will ascend aboue the heights of the Clouds I will be like the most High Pride is haughty and walks with a stretched out neck and with an eleuated head as if at euery steppe it could knocke out a starre in heauen Especially the proud man like the Sea swels if the Moone inclines if his Mistris grace him 2. Vaineglory is the winde that raiseth vp the billowes of this Sea The off spring of the reuiued world are erecting a turret whose battlements were meant to threaten heauen Did they it in an holy ambition of such neighbourhood No they loued not heauen so well Did they it for security vpon earth Neither for Feriunt summos fulgura montes the nearer to heauen the more subiect to thunder lightning and those higher inflammations of heauen VVheras Procul a loue procul a fulmine was the old saying Far from Iupiter far from his thunder Their purpose was onely glory in this world And as the Psalmist saith that the winde raiseth the billows of the sea He commandeth raiseth the stormy wind which lifteth vp the waues thereof So Ambition was the wind that reared those waues and wals of pride 3. The World like the sea is blew with enuy liuid with malice It is the nature of worldlings to ouer-vexe themselues at the succesfull fortunes of others God must do nothing for another man but his euill eye thinkes himselfe wrong'd He repines at that shower which fals not on his owne ground The pretions balmes distill'd from heauen on neighbours breake the malicious mans head Hee hath in him no honesty but especially wants an honest eye He wounds himselfe to see others healed Neyther are the blowes he giues his owne soule transient flashes or lashes that leaue no impression behind them but markes that he carries with him to his graue a leane macilent affamished body a soule selfe beaten blacke and blew 4. Sometimes it boyles with wrath and herein the world and the sea are very semblable A mad impatient element it is how vnfit to figure man Yeâ—… such is his indignation if in the rage and fury of the sea there be not more mercy There is a time when the sea ceaseth from her raging but the turbulent perturbations of this passion in the world continue without remission or interruption The angry man is compared to a Ship sent into the sea quae Daemonem habet gubernatorâ—…m which hath the Deuill for the Pilot. Ira mortalium debet esse mortalis The anger of mortal man should be mortall like himselfe But we say of many as Vaâ—…er Max. of Sylla It is a question whether they or their anger dye first or whether death preuents them both together If you looke into this troubled Sea of anger and desire to see the Image of a man behold you finde fiery eyes a faltring tong gnashing teeth a heart boyling in brine and drying vp the moysture of the flesh till there be scarse any part lest of his right composition The tumultuous rage of the world so reekes with these passions that the company of those men is as ominous and full of euill bodings as the foming Sea 5. The Sea is not more deepe then the World A bottomlesse subtlety is in mens hearts and an honest man wants a plummet to sound it Pollicy and Piety haue parted company and it is to be feared they will hardly euer meete againe He is counted a shallow fellow that is as the Scripture commends Iacob a plaine man dwelling in tents New deuices trickes plots and stratagoms are only in request Doe you not know the reason hereof The world is a Sea and in this Sea is plaine-dealing drown'd 6. There is foming luxury in this Sea a corrupt and stinking froth which the world casts vp The steame of lust in this mare mortuum fumes perpetually poysons the ayre we breathe and like a thicke fogge riseth vp to heauen as if it would exhale vengeance from aboue the clouds This spumy fome is on the surface of the world and runnes like a white leprosie ouer the body of it Commend the world ye affecters and affected of it there is a fome that spoiles the beauty Praise it no further then Naaman was 2. King 5. He was Captaine of the hoast of the King of Syria a great man with his maister and honourable because
dangers of the sea of the world the fifth circumstance of this Comparison 6. In the sea there be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fishes that eate vp fishes so in the world 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 men that eate vp men Psal. 14. Haue all the workers of iniquity no knowledge who eate vp my people as they eate bread Hab. 1. The wicked man deuoureth the righteous Thou makest men as the fishes of the Sea The labours of the poore euen his whole heritage is worne vpon the proud mans backe or swallowed downe into his belly He racks rents wrings out fines extorteth inhaunceth improueth impouerisheth oppresseth till the poore Tenant his wife and children cry out for bread behold all buyes him scarse a sute of clothes he eates and drinkes it at one feast Oh the shrill cry of our Land for this sinne and the loud noise it makes in the eares of the Lord of Hoasts The Father is dead that kept good hospitality in the Country and the Gallant his sonne must liue in London where if he want the least superfluity that his proud heart desireth and how can he but want in the infinite pride of that City He coÌ„mits all to a hard Steward who must wrings the last droppe of bloud from the Tenants hearts before the Land-Lord must want the least cuppe to his drunkennes the least toy to his wardrobe If this be not to eate swallow deuoure men bloud and bones then the fishes in the sea forbeare it Heare this ye oppressers Bee mercifull you will one day be glad of mercy The yellings of the poore in the Country are as loud as your rorings in the City The Cups you drinke are full of those teares that drop from affamished eyes though you perceiue it not You laugh when they lament you feast when they fast you deuoure them that do your seruice God will one day set these things in order before you 7. The sea is full of Monsters Innumerable and almost incredible are the relations of Trauellers in this punctuall demonstration As of Estaurus a fish chewing the cudde like a beast of the Manate headed like an Oxe and of certaine flying fishes c. And are there not in this world Men-monsters I doe not say of Gods making but of their owne marring You would thinke it prodigious to see a man with two faces Alasse how many of these walke daily in our streetes They haue one face for the Gospell another for the masse-booke a brow of allegiance for the King and a brow of apostacy of treason for the Pope whensoeuer he shall call for it You would thinke it a strange defect in nature to see a man borne without a head why there are innumerable of these head-lesse men among vs who like brute beasts haue no vnderstanding but are led by the precipitation of their feet follow their owne mad affections Others redundantly haue two tongues dissemblers hypocrites the one to blesse God the other to cursse man made after his Image They haue one to sing in a church another to blaspheme and rore in a Tauerne Some haue their faces in their feete whereas God Os homini sublime dedit caelumque tueri iuss it gaue man an vpright countenance and framed him to looke vpwards these look not to heauen whence they did drop but to hell whether they will drop Insatiable earth-scrapers couetous wretches that would dig to the Center to exhale riches Others haue swords in their lips a strange kind of people but common raylers and reuilers euery word they speake is a wounding gash to their neighbours VVeigh it seriously Are not these monsters 8 On the Sea men do not walke but are borne in vessels vnles like our Sauiour Christ they could worke miracles In the world men doe not so much trauell of themselues as they are carried by the streame of their owne concupiscence So saith S. Chrysost. Hîc homines non ambulant sed feruntur quia Diabolus cum delectatione compellit illos in mala Here men doe not walke but are carried for the Deuill beares them vpon his backe and whiles he labours them to hell winde and tide are on his side VVhen he hath them in Profundis Abyssi vpon that bottomles depth he striues to exonerate his shoulders and doth what he can to let them fall sinke into the infernall lake So â—…aul saith that temptations and snares foolish and hurtfull lusts do no lesse then drowne men in perdition You thinke your selues on dry and firme ground ye presumptuous wantons Alasse you are on the sea an inconstant sea Digitis a morte remoti Quatuor aut septem si sit latissima taeda Soone ouer-boord The windes will rise the surges will beate you will be ready to sinke cry faithfully and in time with the Apostles Lord saue vs or we perish 9. Lastly the Sea is that great Cesterne that sends waters ouer all the earth conueying it thorow the veines the springs till those dispersed waters become Riuers then those Riuers run back againe into the Sea This vast world scattereth abroad her riches driues deriues them by certain passages as by Cunduit pipes vnto many men The rich man shall haue many springs to feed him with wealth the east west windes shal blow him profite industry policy fraud lucke shall contend to giue his dition the addition of more wealth At length when these springs haue made a brooke and these brookes a riuer this riuer runnes againe into the Sea VVhen the rich man hath sucked the world long at last absorbetur a mundo hee is sucked vp of the world VVhatsoeuer it gaue him at many times it takes away at once VVarre exile prison displeasure of greatnesse sutes of law death emptie that Riuer in one moment that was so many yeares a filling Mans wealth is like his life long a breeding soon extinct Man is born into the world with much paine nursed with much tendernes kept in childehood with much care in youth with much cost All this time is spent in expectation At last beeing now vpon the point a man the pricke of a sword kils him Euen so is our wealth piled so spoyled the world like some politick Tyrant suffering vs to scrape together aboundant riches that it may surprise vs and them at once Innumerable other relations would the World and the Sea affoorde vs. I desire not to say all but enough and enough I haue saide if the affections of any soule present shall hereby distaste the world and grow heauenly Oh what is in this Sea worth our dotage what not worthy our detestation The sinnes of the world offend our God the vanities hurt our selues onely the good blessings serue for our godly vse and to helpe vs in our iourney But we know that we are of God and the whole world lyeth in wickednesse Pray we that this Sea infect vs not especially drowne vs not Though wee lose like the Mariners in the
out of this ill That supreme and infinite goodnesse deswades his Children from affecting it by their experienced tartnesse of it So the Nurse embitters the dugge when she would weane the Infant How easily had Solomon bene drowned in this Sea had hee not perceiued the distastfulnesse when his vnderstanding sense concludes All is vexations his affections must needs begin to abhorre it Gods lets his looke into the world as some go to Sea to be Sea-sicke that finding by experience what they would not credit by relation they may loath this troublesom world and long to be in the Land of Promise He that once throughly feeles the turbulencie of the Sea wil loue the ◅ry land the better whiles he liues Our better spirituall health is not seldome wrought by being first Sea-sicke disquieted with the worlds vexations Salt water hath sometimes done as much good as sweet hard things as soft as stones as well as cotten are good casting for a hawke The crudities of sin in Dauids soule were vomited vp by a draught of this bitter water That profuse Sonne would haue beene a longer stranger to his Fathers house if the World had not put him to a Hogges dyet Peter no sooner sees the billow but he eiaculates to Christ a short but substantiall prayer Lord saue me For this cause is the world made to vs so full of afflictions Christ promiseth to giue a reward but not to take away persecutions Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousnes sake for theirs is the Kingdome of heauen He doth not subtract all suffering but addes a recompence God doth so mingle and compound and make them both of one indifferency and rellish that wee can scarse distinguish which is the meat and which the sawce both together norishing our spiritual health You see the alike distastfulnes of the world and sea This is the second resemblance 3. The sea doth cast forth her dead fishes as if it labourd to purge it selfe of that which annoyes it giuing onely contentfull solace and nutriment to those that naturally liue in it So does the world cōtending to spew out those that are dead to it 1. Cor. 4. We are made as the filth of the world the off-scouring of all things vnto this day No maruel if she pukes when we lye on her stomack A body inured to poisons growes sicke queasie at the receit of wholesome nourishment Ioh. 15. If ye were of the world the world would loue his owne But because you are not of the world but I haue chosen you out of the world therefore the world hates you Not a piece of the world but all the world Math. 10. You shall be hated of all men for my name sake The godly are indeed the very health of the world The Family thriues the better that Ioseph but serues in The City is forborne so long as Lot is in it The whole world stands for the Elects sake And if their number were accomplished it should bee deliuered to the fire Yet oh strange Eliah is said to trouble Israel and the Apostles are thrust out of Cities for turbulent fellowes But saith Ambros. Turbatur illa nauis in qua Iudas fuit The Shippe was troubled wherein Iudas was Christ was in a Ship with the other Apostles without Iudas behold the winds are still the sea is calme the Ship safe Christ was in a Ship with Iudas amongst the rest and Turbatur illa nauis the winde blusters the waues rore and a tempest endangers the vessell to ruine Benefit multis ex societate boni One goodman doth much good to many He is not only as manacles to the hands of God to hold them from the defulmination of iudgements but is also a happy preuention of sin He keepes God from being angry he calmes him when he is angry A godly man is like Dauids Harpe he chaseth away the euill spirit from the company and he doth as it were coniure the Deuill For in his presence as if he could worke miracles Impudence growes ashamed ribaldry appeares chast drunkenesse is sober blasphemers haue their lips seal'd vp and the mouth of all wickednesse is stopp'd This good comes by the good Yet because they are dead to the world it casts them out So the Gergesites did cast Christ out of their borders Math. 8. So the Pharises did cast the Conuert that was born blind out of their Synagogue Ioh. 9. So the Antiochians did cast Paul and Barnabas out of their coasts Act. 12. Like Confectioners that throw away the iuyce of the Orenges and preserue onely the rindes or as certaine Chymists that cast all good extractions to the ground and onely make much of the poison But if you will not bee picked vp of the world you must adhere close to it and with alimental congruence please his stomack Wil you go to the Court you must be proud or you shal be despised Wil you to the city you must be subtle or you shall be cheated Will you to the Country you must partake of their ignorant and blinde dotage and ioyne in their vicious customes or you shall bee reiected If you liue in the world and not as the world this Sea will spew you vp as too holy for their company But let 'hem For God forbid that I should glory saue in the Crosse of our Lord Iesus Christ by whom the world is crucified vnto me and I vnto the world 4. The Sea is no place to continue in No man sailes there to saile there but as he propounds to his purpose a voyage so to his hopes a returne You hold him a prisoner that is shut vp in close wals the doore of egresse barred against him He is no lesse a Prisoner though his Iaile bee as large as the Sea that must not set his foot on drye ground The banks and shores be his prison walls although he hath roome enough for his body he is narrow'd vp in his desires He findes bondage in liberty the one halfe of the earth is but his prison and he would change his walk for some little Iland The world in like sort is no place to dwell in for euer Selfe-flattering fooles that so esteeme it Psal. 49. Their inward thought is that their houses shall continue for euer and their dwelling places to all generations therefore they call their lands after their owne names As if the Sea were for mansion not for transition It was a glorious piece of the world which rauished Peter desir'd to build Tabernacles on Math. 17. yet it was perishable earth and it might not be granted Heauen onely hath mansions Ioh. 14. In my Fathers house there are many mansions all the world else is but of tottering Tabernacles And immobile regnum Heb. 12. a kingdome that cannot be shaken when all the kingdomes and Principalities of the earth shall be ouerturned This world then onely is for waftage There is one Sea to all