The waters of Iordan gaue way also to the feet of â—he Priests and were diuided till all the people went ouer vpon dry land And the same Iordan was diuided by the striking of it with Eliahs cloake both by Eliah him selfe and by Elisha But of these miracles wee may well say with the Prophet What ailed thee O thou sea that thou flâ—ddest and thou Iordan that thou wast turned back And we may answere with him The earth trembled at the presence of the Lord at the presence of the God of Iacob For all men that haue receiued power from God to worke miracles must confesse of themselues as Peter and Iohn after the curing of the cripple that lay at the gate of the Temple called Beautifull Yee men of Israâ—l why maruell ye â—t this or why looke ye so stedfastly on vs as though by our owne power or Godlinesse we had made this man goe The God of Abraham Isaac and Iacob the God of your fathers hath glorifiâ—d his sonne Iesus whom ye betrayed c. And a little after And his name hath made this man sound whom ye see and know through faith in his name And the faith which is by him hath giuen him perfect health in his whole body in the presence of you all So Paul and Barnabas vpon the like miracle wrought by them vpon another cripple at Lystra when the people and Priests would haue honoured them as Gods rent thâ—ir clothes and ran among the people crying and saying O men why doe you these things we are euen men subiect to the like passions that ye be and prâ—ach vnto you that ye should turne from these vaine things vnto thâ— liuing God which made heauen and earth the sea and all that in them are c. Now then as no man can worke any miracle but as an instrument by whose hand and ministery God worketh whatsoeuer hee pleaseth in all places so much lesse can any coniurers or sorcerers or witches or the diuell himselfe worke any miracle for though the Pharisies blasphemously charge our Sauiour Christ in his working of miracles that he casteth out diuels by the power of Beelzebub the chiefe of the diuels yet it is certaine that the diuell though he hath power to doe many things which are wonderfull to ignorant men that vnderstand not the causes of things and seeke not into the depth of his subtilties yet hee had neuer power to worke any miracle for the greatest extent of the diuels power is either in Illusions or true workes By Illusions he may dâ—ceiue the senses of men either by casting a mist before the eyes of men or by tempering or rather distempering of the humours in the eyes For true works he may moue windes and thunder not to create them but the matter being before he is able to stir them vp he is able to infect the creatures as the riuers and the fishes in it he is able to take the shape of a man being dead yea to present himselfe like an Angell of light He can corrupt the vnderstanding by taking away the seede of Gods word that is sowne out of our remembrance He can hinder the preaching of the word in Gods Ministers He can blind the mind of man by signes and lying wonders he can workâ— outragious affections in men as in Saul and in those that we reade were possessed in the Gospell as in the 18. verse of this Chapter And lastly he can bee a lying spirit in the mouthes of false prophets to deceiue wicked men to bring them to their end as in the case of Achab peâ—swading him to goe fight against Ramoth in Gilead But all this power of the diuell is confined and limited within two bounds the first that he is able to doe nothing without Gods permission and sufferance as appeareth in Iob in Saul in â—hab and in the end of this chapter that the diuels could not enter into the herd of swine vntill they had gotten leaue of our Sauiour Christ. The second is that they can doe nothing but that is agreeable to nature and therefore can worke no miracles which are aboue nature The diuels may in respect of their great knowledge in naturall things being of a spirituall nature not troubled mole corporis by any hinderance of a body corruptible to presse downe their soule and by their long experience of the causes and effects in nature they may know and foretell some naturall things to come but their knowledge is ioyned with much ignorance they vnderstood not how God did worke the saluation of his elect in the fall of Adam and in Christ they were not sure when Christ came into the world that it was hee they know not the thoughts of mens hearts but onely by their outward actions they iudge of their inward inclinations For God onely is the searcher of the heart and raines and though as Gods ape hee doe striue to imitate his miracles yet could hee neuer worke any true miracle as the raising of the dead the staying of the course of the Sunne the causing of women that are past children and barren to conceiue A Virgin to beare a sonne the preseruing of men from burning being in a hoâ—e fierie furnace or the calming of the sea from tempest as it is in this place The which argument I haue handled the more at large because of a strange opinion of many men both at sea and land concerning the power of the diuell in this matter especially of winds and tempests For ordinarily if any tempestuous weather doe arise it is presently ascribed to the diuell and men say that there are some coniurers abroad and I haue heard some trauellers auouch that in Lapland any man may for money buy what winde hee please at a witches hand to serue his turne and make vse of when he list For answere whereunto I say that I neuer finde in the Scriptures that the diuell hath any power either to create a body or destroy a body or transforme any body as of a man into a beast and therefore the windes the lightnings the thunders the tempests and all other meteors they are the creatures of God as I haue shewed before in the description of the nature of the winds and tempests so that the diuel is not the first cause of any of them but they being ingendred in the middle region of the aire and the diuell being as the Apostle saith the prince that ruleth in the aire hee can when God will vse his seruice and giues him permission hurrie those windes together and raise tempests as a secondarie meanes both at land and sea both for a iudgement and punishment of the wicked and for the triall of the faith patience hope and dependance of Gods children vpon him who know that a haire shall not fall from their heads without his
himselfe intâ— a Mountaine and sometime to the Desert and sometime to a ship at sea as his places of refuge 4 But principally as I take it he entred into a ship and sailed in it that by his example he might both giue warrant to those that haue a lawfull calling to aduenture thâ—mselues and their liues at sea depending vpon Gods protection as also to shew the necessitie that his Apostles should be tied vnto to take that course afterward when they receiued commission to goe preach the Gospell to all Naâ—ions which they could not doe especially to Islanders but by passing of the sea Here then we obserue the honour of the Art of Nauigation and of the professors and practisers thereof graced in this place by the presence and practice of our Sauiour Christ and this miracle wrought by him at sea for as we account it none of the least dignities of that honorable estate of Matrimonie that Christ adorned and beautified a Marriage with his presence and first miracle that hee wrought at Cana in Galile so must we think it a great honour to Nauigation and Nauigators that Christ himselfe vouchsafed to enter into a ship and therein to worke a greateâ— miracle and certainely the honours of Nauigators by sea are very great For â—irst howsoeuer they trade and spend the best part of their liues in another â—lement then the ordinary course of other men doe yet is that element of water nothing inferiour but rather more excellent then the earth the lowest and basest of all the rest and in the opinion of a great Philosopher this is the Element of Elements or the first matter whereof al bâ—dies were made whose opinion in the iudgement of one of the best Diuines of our age is most agreeable to the truth deliuered by Moses That the Spirit of God moued vpon the waters where the word mouâ—d being a metaphor taâ—en from birds sitting vpon egges to hatch their young doth shew that God out oâ— those waters as out of the first matter did produce all bodies as well celestiall as terrestiall for the word heauens in originall being a compound doth signifie nothing else but there water answerable to that which followeth in the historie of the Creation of the waters beneath and aboue the firmament vnto which if we shall adde for the dignitie of this element That the earth was specially cursed for the sinne of man That in the generall destruction of all liuing creatures in the deluge the fishes the inhabitants of this element escaped That our Sauiour Christ did chuse fishermen for his principall Apostles That he ordained this element as the matter of the Sacrament of baptisme and that by his owne vndertaking this Sacrament in â—his element Hee sanctified the Flood Iordan and all other waters to the mysticall washing away of sinne All these doe shew the dignitie of this element aboue the earth Secondly whereas the difference of excellencie in Trades doth best appeare in their dependance vpon Gods prouidence insomuch as the greatest argument of the Fathers against Vsury is that the Vsurer will not relie or depend vpon Gods blessing and prouidence but vpon such security as their wits can find out of Bonds Statutes Morgages and Pawnes This is the second honour of Nauigators and Merchants that of all other men they most rest and trust vpon Gods blessing and protection In which respect if we will call to mind the blessings that God hath bestowed especially vpon this our Nation in this last age of the world more then euer since the beginning of the world for the perfecting of the Art of Nauigation and for the discouery of new Nations which may in comparison be called neâ— worlds so that those cold parts of the world towards the Poles and hot Zone vnder and neere the Line which by ancients were thought to be inhabitable are now as familiarly gone vnto as from Douer to Calice we cannot but admire Gods mercie and goodnesse to reserue this honour to this last and worst age of the world that we may at last learne to crie out with the Prophet What shall I render vnto the Lord for all his benefits which he hath giuen me Thirdly whereas amongst men the degrees of honour consist in the difficulty and hardnesse of the atchiuement so that the greatest honour is the hardest to be obtained is best esteemed by hardnesse in getting it this is the third honour of Nauigators especially in great and long voyages that they purchase their honour the hardest of any other they indure and ouercome more apparant difficulties and dangers then any other men in the world and therefore their honour so deare bought to be highly preferred Fourthly whereas in all professions they are most honourable which bring most knowledge and vnderstanding because reason and the true vse of it is held the specificall difference betwixt men and beasts And among all humane learning the Mathematicall sciences haue had the precedence both for certainty because they are grounded on demonstration and also because they acquaint vs with all the courses motions proportions of the celestiall and elementarie bodies This is the fourth honour of Nauigators that they haue the most and best vse of all Mathematicall discipline Arithmeticke Geometry Astronomie and as it is set downe as a commendation of Moses that he was learned in all the wisedome of the Egyptians and therefore powerfull in words and in deeds and this wisedome of the Egyptians was in the Mathematicall sciences especially in Astronomie whereby they obserued not only the distinction of the Planets from the fixed starres but their site or place their magnitudes their coniunctions and oppositions and their influences and forces vpon bodies beneath the Moone the ingendring of all meteors the cause of the ebbing flowing and saltnesse of the sea and such like so this cannot but adde to the honour of Nauigators that they not only examine the truth of former obseruations but doe daily encrease knowledge in the world concerning these most excellent speculations Fifthly antiquitie hath euer been held a true badge of honour especially in those artes and professions which were first found out by men famous renouned in their times And this is the fifth honour of Nauigators for howsoeuer prophane historians in their histories doe ascribe both the inuention of shipping and the art of Nauigation to one of themselues one Atlas a Moore whom for his skill in Astronomie the Poets faine to beare vp the heauens with his shoulders as if he were the first inuentor and in part a perfecter of this excellent Art yet we Christians as we reade in the Scripture do hold that the first vse of shipping and the Art of Nauigation came both immediately from God himselfe and were reuealed to Noah in forme of an Arke which hee was not only commanded to make but had particular directions both for the matter whereof
seruants the prophets rising vp early and sending them saying Returne now euery man from his euill way and amend your workes c. but you would not obey mâ— Now if the obedience of the Rechabites to their father should be so great an argument to moue the Iewes to obedience vnto God how much more may the example of these rough seas and stormy tempests being calmed at the word of our Sauiour Christ only be a greater means if we truly meditate vpon it both to coÌ„sider how many words of his in the mouthes and writings of his Ministers haue bin in vaine vnto vs in former times and to put vs in mind of our duty of obedience that we be not worse then other creatures which are ready to obey and doe his will as it appeareth in this place And surely the word of God which is so powerfull in other creatures should be of as great command in man for the Apostle tels vs that the word of God is liuely and mighty in operation and sharper then any two edged sword and entreth through euen to the diuiding asunder of the soule and the spirit and of the ioynts and the marrow and is a discerner of the thoughts and of the intents of the heart And this word will produce a worke for so saith the Prophet in the person of God Surely as the raine commeth downe and the snow from heauen and returneth not thither but watereth the earth and maketh it to bring forth and bud and that it may giue seede to the sower aâ—d bread vnto him that eateth So shall my word be that goeth out of my mouth it shall not returne vnto me void but it shall accomplish that which I will and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it It is true that if we examine the working of this word in men it hath not many times that successe to be the power of God vnto saluation and the sauour of life vnto life but if it faile of that it is the sauour of death vnto death vnto them that perish for the earth saith the Apostle which drinketh in the raine that commeth oft vpon it and bringeth forth herbes meete for them by whom it is dressed receiueth blessing of God but that which beareth thornes and briers is reproued and is neere vnto cursing whose end is to be burned And to apply this vnto the text the Prophet telles vs That the wicked are like the raging sea that cannot rest whose waters casâ— vp myre and dirt There is no peace saith my God vnto the wicked That is they are continually troubled with stormes and tempests for their exorbitant passions and affections bee as violent and contrary winds distracting them on the one side to wanton lust and on the other to hatred and malice sometime feeding them with vaine hopes and sometimes renting and tearing them with desperate feares So that these and all other passions of the mind are fitly termed perturbations that corrupt the iudgement and seduce the will causing wicked men neuer to be at rest and quiet And the chiefe end of the word of God preached or read is to quiet and calme these tempests of the soule to moderate the violence of these furious passions and perturbations of the mind The vse whereof to all men but specially to Sea-men when they see stormes and tempests and their ship in danger is to consider their soules and the spirituall danger they are in by these outragious winds that sometime their ship or heart is driuen a shoare and sticks fast in the mire and dirt of lust and vncleannes which I heare hath been the wracke of many a poore soule in his trauels and sometime they are driuen into the gulfe of intemperance whereby they are swallowed vp quicke for want of calming that passion of their greedy appetite and desire sometime they are driuen vpon the rocke of desperate profanenesse swearing and cursing and blaspheming God vntil the ship of their soule be quasht in pieces and sometime on the sands of selfe-loue and selfe-conceit which passions and all other so long as they be inordinate doth driue their ship dangerously they know not whether Saint Augustine writing vpon that in the Psalme He would make haste for my deliuerance from the stormy wind and tempest sheweth both the cause and the remedie of all such tempests arising in thy heart and mind Forte nauis tua ideo turbatur quia Christus in te dormit c. Happily saith he thy ship is troubled because Christ is asleepe in thee The ship in which Christ sailed with his Disciples was sore troubled and in danger but the reason waâ— Christ was asleepe when his Disciples awaked him â—e rebuked the winds and the sea and there followed a Calme Thy heart and mind are therefore perhaps worthily troubled because Christ in whom thou hast â—eleeued â—s not awake in thee thou sufferest many perturbations because thou hast forgotten Christ his Passion and suffering for thee Recouer thy faith in him call vpon him awake him and â—e will arise and rebuke the storme and giue thee a Calme The cause then of all thy tempests in thy soule is that thou sufferest Christ to sleepe in thee the remedy against them is to awake him and call vpon him for helpe and deliuerance Doth the tentation to lust and vncleannesse seaze vpon thee as a tempest say vnto thy soule I am a Christian and haue giuen my name to Christ and am a member of his Mysticall body Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them the members of an harlot God forbid Thus doe thou rouze vp Christ by thy spirituall meditation the storme will blow ouer and a Calme follow And as in this so in all other tentations if thou repaire to Christ his word will be as powerfull to giue thee peace and quiet as it was here to appease the fury of the windes and waues Thus much shall suffice of the third generall part of the historie to wit the miracle The fourth and last followeth concerning the successe of it in the beholders consisting in two things First They maruelled Secondly They acknowledged What man is this that both the Windes and Sea obey him For the first we neede not stand long with interpreters vpon this place to enquire who they are that are that are here said to maruell and wonder Our Euangelist calleth them the men and Saint Marke and Saint Luke they among themselues and seeing Saint Marke saith There were also with him other little ships It is plaine that both the Disciples and all the rest that were the beholders marueled for the Disciples as was shewed before were yet but young beginners raw fresh water souldiers and are reproued before for their little faith and therefore they as well as the rest could not chuse but wonder The Prophet Esay speaking of the birth of Christ saith that they shall call his name