done upon the Offender and then it calmed So they took up Jonah and cast him into the Sea and it ceased from Raging 1. God doth not send such storms without a cause because he is righteous in all his proceedings judicial proceedings Though somtimes he be severe yet he is alwayes righteous The righteous Judg doth not pass sentence without notorious evidence of the fact This was the Case of Jonah he had fled from the presence of the Lord his flight evidences his guilt And so God sends this Terrible Hue and Cry after him The storm Psa 148. 8. and hail fire and vapour and snow are all said to fulfil his word viz his word of Command and his word of Threatning which is a righteous Sentence upon guilty Sinners Here consider poor Sea-men Is it not a righteous thing with God that you who have sinned in many storms by raging impatience of your Spirits by being in as great a storm of discontent and murmuring as the Sea it self You that have been delivered so many a time in storms and sinned after such deliverances you that have made so many vows to God in your storms and distresses at Sea and have broken and forgotten them all at Land is it not I say a righteous thing with God that you should at one time or other perish by such storms Is it not a righteous thing that when the guilty Malefactor hath fled and the Hue and Cry sent out after him takes him that he should be tryed condemned and executed Alas poor Sea-men you are the Malefactors God is the Judg and your extraordinary Storms are the Hue and Cry sent out to Sea after you May not you say in this case as David in that Whither shall I go from thy presence If I take the Psal 139. 8. 10. wings of the morning and dwell in the utmost parts of the Sea even there shall thy hand lead me thy right hand shall hold me viz. lay hold on me apprehend me as a Malefactor is apprehended by Hue and Cry Have not you given God cause thus to send after you when you carry guilt to Sea with you every Voyage old guilt new guilt old Vows undischarged new debts unpaid You have cause to say and your Relations have cause to say God is Righteous in all that is come upon you He is the Judge of all the earth and he will do right he is Judg at Land and he will do right there and he is Judg of the Court of Admiralty and he will do right there 2 Extraordinary storms are not sent out without Cause Because God will stop the mouth of every poor guilty sinner in the day that he deals with them Jonah here pleads guilty for I know that for my sake is this vâ—â— 12. great Tempest upon you Now he Confesses all The Law of God is so Righteous that it stops every mouth Now we know Rom. 3. â—â— 19. what things soever the Law saith it saith to them who are under the Law that every mouth may be stopped and all the world may become guilty before God As when guilty persons have the fact proved plainly before them that they have nothing to say for themselves as the Judg saies when he passes Judgment What hast thou to say for thy self that the Sentence should not now be pronounced upon thee The poor wretch hath now nothing to say for himself stands as the man that had not on the Wedding Garment Speechless Now in these extraordinary storms poor Sea-men God is dealing with you It may be at home Ministers were dealing with you and God's Ordinances dealing with you and Relations dealing with you that you would look about you for your immortal Souls But all was rejected But now God is dealing with you and Conscience is dealing with you and now your mouths will be stopt All your objections then will be silent If you say any thing in this day It will be Lord thou art Righteous If thou pass Sentence upon me now if thou sink me if thou damn me if I never see Relations more Wife and Children more O poor Seamen how will you be then condemned in your own Consciences when God is passing Sentence upon you then Iniquity will stop its mouth Third Reason Extraordinary storms are not sent out without a Cause Because they bring Souls into great distresses Now God doth not Afflict or distress the Children of men willingly Alas it is with great regret he doth it As a Father Corrects his Child He fears he will be spoyled else not that he hath any delight in whipping-work It is said of poor Sea-men in their storms Their Psal 107. 25 26 27 28. Souls are melted because of Trouble they are at their wits end Then they cry unto the Lord in their trouble and he bringeth them out of their distresses Their Soul is melted their courage faileth because of Anxiety so some read it Now God doth not without a cause bring poor creatures into distresses 1. Now poor Sea-men in their storms are distressed with their sins compassing them about Now Psal 40. 12. their iniquities takes hold upon them that they cannot look up therefore their Heart faileth them as David saies Take hold upon them as the Hue and Cry takes hold on the guilty Malefactor as hath been hinted already O is not this a great distress when death and unpardoned guilt looks a poor Sinner in the face at the same time To have all your sins before you now when Death that King of Terrors comes forth against you this is to be in great distress 2. In storms fears make distress And God would not bring Sinners into fears without Cause The Mariners now were affraid as hath been noted before Fear is such a distress that we read a promise to be delivered from the fear of Evil not only from the Evil but the Fear of it Fears of death are as terrible to some as Death it self 3. In storms Job 9. 13. they are distressed under the sense of Gods displeasure O this is a storm in his Anger and if God withdraw not his Anger all the proud helpers stoop under him all the helpers of pride as the Dutch Annotators observe They that arrogantly presume they can help themselves out of the distress Alas the Stout-hearted Mariners the most couragious Sea-men in the world will stoop under Him God is not Angry without a Cause Is not this distress To be under the sense of divine displeasure Ask David and he will tell you he had no rest in his bones because of Gods Anger 4. In storms they are distressed under Terrors of Spirit about their Eternal Conditions No such distresses as Soul-distresses If it come to this once O what will become of my immortal Soul If I die and sink in this storm do not I go to Hell now I think the Soul is in distress enough It is no wonder if the Soul be in distress when it
is to die and knows not whither it shall go but bespeaks it self as he did O poor wandring Soul whither art thou going thou must never sport it more 5. In storms they are distressed with thoughts of their dear Relations and one-while they think of their precious Souls and those thoughts cut them to the Heart Another-while they think of their dear pieces of themselves their Wives and Children and these thoughts as daggers go to their Souls And thus are they hurried and distressed in their Spirits Now God would not bring such distresses upon Sinners without a Cause 4. Because extraordinary storms are the sad effects of Gods displeasure against poor Sinners Was the Lord displeased against the Rivers Was thine Anger against the Hab. 3. 8. Rivers Was thy wrath against the Sea So may not we say of this like terrible Tempest Was not the Lords Anger against the Sea-men against their Relations against the whole Land God was Angry with Jonah when he sent this storm after him And had he not good cause 1. Did not he contradict his Commission and will a King bear it To have his Royal Commands contradicted by his Subjects nay especially Can he bear it by those that he had preferr'd to places of Eminency Jonah was a Prophet a person God had honoured to be sent out a Prophet in Israel It is no wonder if God was Angry As God is most angry when his own people sin against him so he is most angry when his Prophets do sin against him which made God complain of old He had seen folly in the Prophets of Samaria Ver. â—â— 13 14. and I have seen in the Prophets of Jerusalem an horrible thing They commit Adulâ—ery and walk in Liâ—s c. O this raised Gods anger against them Now for a Prophet to walk thus contradictory to God This must needs cause God to be angry 2. God had good cause to be angry with Jonah he is secure under his guilt and this is a great Provocation unto the Lord. If a poor Soul fall into sin and quickly be sensible of it O then God is ready to forgive But when a poor Soul sleeps on and sins on which was Jonah's case this is a great Provocation unto the Lord. He was asleep 3. God had good cause to be angry in continuing as well as sending the storm for Jonah is exceeding disingenuous with God and his Conscience What Calls had he to awake The Master Reproves him one would have thought that might have set his Conscience on work The poor Heathen Mariner's cry Every one calling upon his God one would have thought might have brought him to consider how he had offended his God The very casting out their wares might have occasioned him to think what guilt he was under to endanger all the poor innocent mens lives But you see he puts all off to the last Until he is discovered by Lot nay when he is discovered he is not yet ingenuous but stands their Examination before he confess that it was for his sake that this storm came upon them Must not this needs be a gâ—eat Provocation to the Lord 4. For Jonah God had good cause to be angry with him that he being sent upon an Embassy for Souls should refuse it This was Jonah's Calling O how forward should he have been to prove an instrument of bringing so many thousands of Souls to Repentance that lived in such a City O how he should have rejoyced in such an employment to have saved Souls from death What an occasion was this for God to be angry to be a Preacher to Souls and not a lover of Souls 5. God had good Cause to be angry with Jonah because he mattered his own name more than God's This was his Temptation as hath been hinted before What for an Ambassador to a King to stand more upon his own name than his Master's that gave him his Commission What a Provocation is this What a Preacher and have so little Regard to the Glory of God and the good of Souls To regard our Reputation more than the honour of him that sent us and the Salvation of precious Souls must not this cause God to be angry This is the case poor Sea-men in extraordinary stormes You should say Now the Lord is Angry and God is displeased with us and is he ever angry without a cause now in such storms he is saying to you as the Lord to them Thy way and thy doings have procured these things unto thee This is Jer. 4. 18 thy wickedness because it is bitter it reaches to the He art O that you would look into your Hearts and into your Lives and into your Houses and into your Shops and into the Trades you drive and tell then your own Consciences whether God hath not good cause to be angry Take a view of your Land-sins at home of your beyond-Seasins abroad of your Sea-sins and then ask your hearts the Question Hath not God cause to be Angry APPLICATION Is it so that extraordinary Storms are not sent out without Cause Then it informs us that Punishments follow Provocations sooner or later Though Sentence be not speedily Executed why should the Hearts of Sinners and Sea-men be hardned to conclude that it will never be Executed No Sinners Long forbearance is no forgiveness There will come a storm a stroak that will pay for all God will not let sin go unpunished If punishments escape you at Land they shall meet you at Sea and if they escape you at Sea they shall meet you at Land These poor Heathens had this Notion Some notorious guilt was among them that this storm came to punish And they had this Notion When the Viper came upon Pauls hand They said Vengeance followed him and would not suffer him to live Acts 28. 4. The Avengers of blood follow persons to Sea If Jonah be there the storm will follow him It was said to those that took up their Habitation beyond Jordan that if they worshipped not the God of their Fathers their Sins would find them out An Allusion to Blood-hounds that find out the Thief and fasten upon him 2. It informs us that the Lord is Soveraign at Sea He it is that commands the winds that sends them forth of his Treasury He it is can say to the storm Be calm that can say to the Raging Sea Peace and be Psal 147. 18. still That sets a bound to the proud waves and saies So far and no farther He it is that saies to his Servants the Winds Go and they go He causeth His Winds to blow and the Waters to flow When waters drown Countries Inundations break in upon us these are ordered by God When poor Seamen lie wind-bound it may be months together how should they consider they are God's Prisoners and God only can set them at liberty and instead of murmuring against God How should they look up to God for a wind 3. It informs
us that God is Righteous in his Terrible dispensations at Sea O how Righteous was God in this grievous Tempest O may not Sea-men and Land-men and all sorts say as the poor Church did Thou hast Ps 65. 5 punished us less than our Iniquities deserved How righteous is God and doth answer us with Terrible things in Rightcousness And observe what follows O God of our Salvation who art the confidence of all the ends of At old Lynn the 11 12 of September 16â—1 the Earth and of them that are far off upon the Sea When God ariseth terribly to shake the Earth or terribly to shake the Sea it is always in Righteousness Was not the late great Tempest a shaking of both when the Sea overflowed its banks broke all before it Alas sin hath broke all bounds and banks and it is a Righteous thing that the Sea should do so Great floods of sin righteously bring great Floods of wrath 4. It informs us That the Cause of Gods Judgments may be hid from us These poor Sea-men understood not the Cause therefore they take this extraordinary course to find it out They cast Lots to this end that they may know it There was a guilty Malefactor gotten aboard and they knew it not There was an Achan in the Camp and Joshua knew it not Who had gotten the accursed thing and hid it among the stuff and upon this account God refuses to go up with Israel O it is good for us all to say in our distresses both at Sea and at Land Wherefore dost thou contend with me Lord for whose sakes are these terrible Dispensations come upon us 5ly It informs us what a great evil Sin and Guilt is Guilt is that which causeth the storm This this is that which will find you out wheresoever you go This Num. 32. 23. will be the Avenger of blood if at land if at Sea this will cause storms against you If you think to flee from the presence of God it will follow you this is that will make you meditate Terror where-ever you are O poor Sea-men what a terrible thing is it to have storms threaten you with Shipwrack every moment and at that time all your unpardoned Guilt looking you in the face The iniquities of your heels compassing you about the sorrows of Hell and Death to take hold of you at the same time 2. Use If extraordinary storms be not sent forth without cause it is then a word of Counsel and Exhortation to Sea-men in a more special manner O then give not the Lord cause to enter into a controversie with you You your Wives and Relations give not the Lord cause to bring forth his extraordinary storms upon you and then do not provoke him do not stir up his wrath If his wrath be kindled but a little happy are they that put their trust in him You cannot say when he brings Tempests upon you that he breaketh you with tempest and multiplieth Job 9. 17. Ezek. 14. ult your wounds either in your Relations or Estates without a cause it was said of Jerusalem They should know what God had done he had not done it without a cause 1. O give God no cause to take up a controversie with you if he once come forth against you there is no standing before him It is said of God He casteth forth his Ice like Ps 147 17. morsels and who can stand before his cold But it may be said in this case Who can stand before his storm his Tempests of Fury and Displeasure Who will provoke one that is his Superiour that can crush him Did ever any contend with the Lord and prosper Is not this to kick against the Pricks Can your hearts endure or your hands be made strong in that day that God shall deal with you O then why should you be so fool-hardy to put the Lord to it Are not you while sinning against him setting only Bryars and Thorns before him in Battel 2. O give not God cause to take up a controversie against you poor Sea-men and your Relations While you are under Gods controversie your own Consciences will condemn you and O how sad will this be God against you and Conscience against you Jonah's own Conscience at this time you see did fly in his face for my sake is this storm come upon you We say Conscience is a thousand witnesses Now it will be a storm within and this is sad while a strom is within to have another without 3. O give not God cause to take up a controversie against you No means will prove significant or available to the end they are used if a storm upon you in God's controversie be against you You see it was here so they used all means they lighten'd the Ship as Pauls Vessel was For saith the Text they cast the Tackling over-board and the Acts 17. 19. 38. Wheat All the means were used that could be here with these poor Mariners in Jonah's Vessel and they cry to their Gods but all will not calm the storm because it came for a controversie against Jonah nay when the guilty Person was discovered they were so ingenuous to seek by all means to save his life who had brought this storm upon them but all was to no purpose For the Sea wrought still and was tempestuous O it is no ver 15. wonder now if in such cases Sea-men be at their wits end when they see all means they can use insignificant to their intended purpose O now their hearts fail them O now they begin to think This is the Lords controversie against us and our families and therefore no means used are blest As it is with sick Persons when no means no Physick is blest to them they are given over for dead So it is in this case 4. O give God no cause to take up a controversie against you for if he have a controversie with you you cannot any where be safe from his presence Jonah here would flee to Tarshish but God you see sends after him with a Witness God hath his bloud-hounds to find out where-ever you go This was that Moses told them that took up their Inheritance on the other side Jordan that Num. 32. 23. Surely their Sin should find them out Surely the punishment of your sins shall hitt you so some read it as Jonah was hitt by lot being an expression taken from finding out by lots and as Achan was hitt by lot where-ever you go God will send after you Some say it is an allusion to blood-hounds that by Scent find out the Thief David sayes Where shall I fly from thy presence c. Psal 39. 7 8. God hath Pursevants at command to send after guilty Sinners where ever they are That very Voyage that you think poor Seamen shall be the safest that very Voyage shall be the most dangerous if God have a controversy with you Nay when you come home in your own
rightoous for Ezra 9. 15 we remain yet escaped as it is this day behold we are before thee in our Trespasses for we cannot stand before thee because of this O how many poor Seamen may say we are yet escaped escaped such a storm such a fatal tempest unto others and yet we are before thee in our Trespasses and cannot stand with comfort and confidence before the Lord because they have again broken his Commandments after their eminent deliverances and salvations And that you may fall down before the Lord in humble confession consider these following Motives 1. This is usually the beginning of a kindly effectual touch of grace upon the heart The poor Prodigal upon his first return unto his Father says Father I have Luk. 15. Act. 19. 18 sinned against Heaven and before thee his first work upon his return is Confession We read of a great success the Gospel had in Paul's day and many believed and as soon as the Gospel touched kindly their Souls they confessed and shewed their deeds saith the Text viz. laying their hainous sins by way of humble confession as Ephraim did so it will be with a poor sinner As a Bullock unaccustomed to the yoke he confessed he had been Lord will the poor Soul say what a vile wretch have I been with Paul of sinners I am chief a Blasphemer a Persecuter an injurious person When Paul was humbled Oh how he confesses then what a wretch he had been 2. This puts poor Souls under a promise O now upon thy knees poor sinner while thou art confessing thy sin thou mayest put into plea and suit Gods promise and Oh what an excellent way is this of dealing with God to be bewailing your sin and at the same time be pleading Gods promise for pardon this is right Evangelical repentance to have one eye upon sin to humble you and another eye upon the promise to quicken you up to believe your pardon usually legal sorrow keeps an eye upon guilt but forgets to keep an eye upon the Promise Now poor Soul it is thy only way to confess under a Promise If we confess 1 Joh. 1. 9. our sins he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness Oh now he is engaged as a faithful God to pardon poor souls Oh Faithfulness is his name and he will not nay cannot deny his name and now he can be just in the pardoning as well as in the punishing of sin 3. Motive to Confession of sins you have comfortable presidents upon record of great sins and sinners pardoned upon confession nay upon the serious purpose of humble confession We read of Gods readiness to pardon even in a case of great guilt this we have in David I said I would confess my sin and thou forgavest me the iniquity of my sin which was a piece of guilt highly aggravated and circumstantiated Mary that was such a poor Penitent that we Luk. 7. 4. 47. read she washed the feet of Christ with her Tears and must not here be most eminent Confessions poured out with these Tears And it is said of her Her sins that are many are forgiven her for she loved much 4. Motive to Confession of sin if you deny it it will be proved against you and Oh what a folly is it for a Prisoner to deny the fact before the Judg when he knows it will be proved against him Thou hast set our iniquities before thee our secret sins in the light Psal 90. 8. of thy Countenance As it is the comfort of Gods people that he keeps a Book of Remembrance of their Sufferings So it is the terror of wicked men that he keeps a Book of Remembrance of their sins There is the Conscience of the poor sinner will be called in as Gods witness against the guilty Malefactor at the Barr that is an observable place in the Prophet We roar all like Bears and mourn sore like Doves we look Isa 59. 11 12. for Judgment but there is none for Salvation but it is far off from us For our Transgressions are multiplied before thee and our sins testifie against us They did bear Testimony against them Oh poor Seamen have not you many times in your extremities and distresses at Sea felt the terror of this Testimony have not the iniquities of your heels compassed you about 5. Motive to Confession of sin The King of Israel is a merciful King It is this merciful King thaâ— the Soul presents it self before in humble Confession This was the motive to the Servants of Benadad We have heard that the King of Israel is a merciful King and they came with Ropes about their necks Oh poor Souls if you come to this merciful King with ropes about your necks Confessing you deserve to be turned off the Ladder and to have a righteous sentence executed upon you he will meet you with a Pardon in his hand This King sits upon a Throne of Grace upon the Mercy-seat giving out his Pardon 's daily to humble Penitents Now we read that the Book of the Law which contains all in it all poor sinners Enditements it was put into the Ark and the Mercy-seat covering it was above it Oh this was shadowed out by it Mercy triumphs over Justice in the Lord Jesus Christ Oh then poor sinners bring your Confessions to the Mercy-seat Oh let all poor guilty Seamen and all other poor guilty sinners confess their sins over the head of the Lord Jesus Christ The Priest was to confess all the iniquities of Exod. 25 20 the people over the head of the Scape-Goat noting to us that we must take Christ into our Confessions all poor sinners Confessions should fall upon the head of Christ Now poor sinners and poor guilty Seamen ask your own Consciences Whether you had not better carry your Guilt before the Lord in humble Confessions than have the Lords just and righteous lot find it out either to the confusion or condemnation of your immortal precious Souls O let this Text never be forgotten by you when you come under Sea-temptations or Land-temptations Oh but the Lot fell upon Jonah FINIS Books sold by Dorman Newman at the King's Arms and Bible in the Poultry Folio THe History of King John King Henry the Second and the most Illustrious King Edward the First wherein the ancient Soveraign Dominion of the Kings of Great Britain over all persons in all causes is asserted and vindicated With an exact History of the Popes intolerable usurpation upon the Liberties of the Kings and Subjects of England and Ireland Collected out of the Ancient Records in the Tower of London By William Prinn Esq of Lincolns Inn and Keeper of his Majesties Records in the Tower of London A Description of the Four parts of the World taken from the Works of Monsieur Sanson Geographer to the French King and other eminent Travellers and Authors to which is added the Commodities Coynes