blessings of the Gospel are quite of another complexion Blessed are you when you shall be persecuted for righteousness sake And again at the 11. verse Blessed are you when men shall revile you and persecute you and shall say all manner of evil of you for my names sake These are the blessings of the Gospel Persecution is the Ensign of Christianity The Cross in a Field of Bloud are the Arms of Christ and Afflictions are the Sables that belong to his Coat When our Saviour Christ went out of the World he left his Disciples this Legacy in his last Will and Testament In the world ye shall have Tribulation This was all the Legacy our Saviour left his Disciples he had nothing else to leave them for Joseph of Arimathea had begged his Body his Spirit he had commended into the hands of God his Father and the Souldiers cast lots for his Garments and what then could our Saviour leave them Yet he left them a Royal Legacy for he left them a Crown but it was of Thorns he left them a Scepter but it was of Reed he left them a purple Robe but it was of Derision he left them likewise the rich embroydery of his scourged Flesh the marks and wounds of his crucified Body This was our Saviour's Legacy this was his Livery and S. Paul seems to wear it daily I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus This was the state of the Church in the time of the Gospel for the Spouse of Christ is black though comely God will have it so for these reasons 1. To withdraw his Children from the love of the World It is in our very nature to love the World Adam is more seen in our Covetousness then in our Concupiscence There is a kind of Magick in the things of this life that doth so enchant the hearts of God's dearest Children that they cannot draw their affections from them Lot was a righteous Person and yet he had no mind to part from his wealth and beloved Sodom and his Wife though she went out with him yet she left her self behind she went with her feet only not with her affections and therefore she could not for her life but she must look back upon Sodom though in flames and she look'd back till she could look no more The World is our Dinah to which our soul so cleaveth that we are content to part with our Rights and Priviledges with our Religion and would be circumcised if we might but enjoy this our Dinah our new-got wealth and honour in peace But God will not have his Children live in peace in this World that they may long for a better a better World and a better Peace Should we always swim in worldly pleasures and meet with no storms and tempests in this our vast Ocean of Prosperity we should say with S. Peter It is good for us to be here let us build us Tabernacles and so think to live here for ever But God will have it otherwise and therefore he keeps his Children in this World in a vale of tears and often leads them through Aceldama a field of bloud and persecution that with Jacob they may long for their Father's house and say with S. Paul I desire to depart and to be with Christ. 2. God will have his Children in a troubled condition not only to make them long for the Kingdom of Glory but to keep them in the Kingdom of Grace The Valleys are more fruitful then the Hills and the lowest estate of a Child of God doth more abound with grace and goodness then the highest Mountain of their Prosperity The Prophet David sayes of God's own People Cum occideret eos When he slew them then they sought him early Strange that they must be slain before they seek God is a gracious God and would lead us unto himself by the hand but we will not go without a Rod. A strange dulness or rather perverseness in our nature that we must be whipt into our own happiness and beaten into heaven I find it likewise thus with Christ's own Disciples in the Gospel the first time they call'd upon him was in a storm at Sea that School of prayer when the Ship was cover'd with waves 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hidden in the Sea Then they were as loud as the Wind and as high as the Tempest in their devotion Master save us we perish And I observe in the Gospel after our Saviour began to shew himself unto the World in the Office of his Ministery the first that came to him were the Blind the Lame and the Diseased Is it not strange that the Blind should find the way to Christ and that the Lame should first come to him and that the Sick should crawl out of their Beds to him nay more bring their Beds with them Which made our Saviour say sometimes to the sick Take up thy Bed and walk It was the affliction of the Body that brought them first to Christ who when they came cured both Body and Soul For he never cured any that came to him of the Diseases of their Bodies but he forgave them their Sins and so heal'd their Souls Thy sins are forgiven thee was the very Physick that cur'd the man sick of the Palsey It is a Salve that cures all Diseases Lord forgive me my sins and then I am sure I shall be whole So then if by the infirmities of their Bodies these men gain'd the salvation of their Souls was it not happy for that man that he was born blind good for that man that he was lame and health for that man that he was sick Beloved we do not know when we are well we are most happy when we think our selves miserable rich when we are poor like the Church of Smyrna and blessed when we mourn If nothing but poverty will bring us unto Christ who would not willingly be as poor as Job If nothing but the pains of the body would bring us unto our Saviour who would not be content to be rack'd with the Gout and grownd in pieces with the Stone If sickness alone would save my Soul let me be sick as Hezekiah was even unto death so I may gain eternal life Who would not go to heaven though in a fiery chariot of a burning Fever Vse 1. Seeing then afflictions are such powerful means to draw us unto Christ whatsoever God shall lay upon us of this sad Nature let us bear it aequo animo with a quiet and even mind But that is not enough we must undergo it laeto animo with a joyful Spirit such a spirit as S. Paul had who rejoyc'd in his bonds and sang in prison and which is above the common Passions of men being inflam'd with an holy and divine Ambition 2 Cor. 11. we shall find him triumphing in his sufferings glorying in his infirmities and exalting himself in his abasement Even as Hezekiah in the
Children as to be and suffer with them we must not understand this secundùm affectum passionis according to any affection or passion which cannot be in the Divine Nature but secundùm effectum according to its effect and operation which is deliverance As a man that doth truly pity his afflicted brother doth not only grieve and suffer with him in his affections but doth ease and deliver him And this is the fruit and excellency of pity and this only is in God I will deliver him God will not leave his Children in endless miseries they may wander many years in the Wildernesse but at length he will bring them to the Land that floweth with Milk and Honey He will not have his Children always dwell in the Vale of Tears but he will bring them to the Mountains of Joy and Gladness He gives them beauty for ashes the oyl of joy for mourning and the garment of gladness for the spirit of heaviness Thus he delivered Joseph from the stocks Jeremy from the prison the common place of his despised Prophets he will bring Jacob banish'd Jacob home again to his Father's house and he shall both enjoy his Father's blessing and inheritance Neither did he return empty but brought his Sheaves with him Wives and Children Men-servants and Maid-servants Sheep and Oxen and in that abundance that he begins to wonder at himself being amazed at his own happiness and astonished at the goodness of God to him as we may guess by that expression For with my staff have I passed over this Jordan and now I am become two Bands But above all is that great example of Jonah who was cast into the Sea and swallowed up by a Whale We are wont to say at Sea when a man is drowned he is not only dead but buried and besides that he was entombed in a new Sepulchre where I believe never man lay so long before and yet behold after three days the Resurrection of Jonah Who would have thought to have seen Jonah again a Preacher of repentance in Nineveh Well cast me into the Sea yea let the Mountains fall upon me put me in any condition I will never despair when I remember Jonah And now this being the first Lord's day after my Anniversary Observation of my great deliverances at Sea give me leave as David says to give thanks unto God in the great Congregation and I shall praise him before much People I have for the testimony of a good Conscience and to preach the Gospel beyond the Seas suffered many adverse things I can say with S. Paul but I speak in all humility of soul only to the glory of God and out of thankfulness to his name for my great and many deliverances I have been in perils of Waters in perils of Robbers in perils by my own Countreymen in perils by Strangers in perils in the City in perils in the Sea in perils amongst false Brethren In weariness and painfulness in watchings often in hunger and thirst in cold and almost nakedness In prison after a strict and close manner in deaths often twice have I suffered shipwrack two nights and two days have I lain upon a Rock in the deep several times all hope of life being taken away Yet blessed be God he hath made me a Preacher of his great mercy and deliverance this day If the Lord himself had not been on our side we may well say If the Lord himself had not been on our side when the waves rose up against us they had swallowed us up quick yea the waters had drowned us and the stream had gone over our head But blessed be his name he hath brought us out of an horrible pit out of the miry clay and established our going So that I may truly say in the words of my text He was with me in my troubles he hath delivered me and I 'le add the other clause he hath honour'd me in making me the meanest of his Servants a Preacher of his Word and a Preacher unto you this day Vse Seeing then we have this assured promise let us wait with patience God's own time for our deliverance as it is said of the Prophet's vision Though it tarry wait for it because it will surely come it will not tarry Yet there is a kinde of peevishness in our nature even in the best of us if God doth not presently ease us of our pain deliver us from those that oppress us and give us all our hearts desire we are weary of our selves and of our lives and will needs dye like that good Prophet Elijah the only relique of piety in his days It is enough now Lord take away my life Thus Rachel could not endure any longer the disgrace of her Barneness Give me Children or else I die And thus Jonah though he lately drank so deep a draught out of the Sea of God's goodness and had seen so many Miracles of God's mercy unto him yet could not with patience endure the affliction of a little Sun-shine but cried out It is better for me to die then to live And thus it is with us in the extremity of any pain or affliction we call for Death and we had rather dye then live but if Death should come for us we should be loth to take him by the cold hand and go with him Like that old man in the Fable who coming from the Wood with a bundle of sticks at his back the Sun beating hot upon him he began to be weary and flung down his burthen and call'd for Death to take him away but when Death appeared to him and asked wherefore he call'd him To help me me on saith he with my burden The old man was then loth to dye It is thus with us in our extream and a verse things we call for Death and had rather dye then live but if God should send Death for us we should say to him as the old man Help us on with our burthen whether it be pain sicknesse poverty nakednesse bonds imprisonment the tortures of the Gout or grindings of the Stone any burthen rather then Death Do not therefore provoke the Lord with intemperate exclamations hopeless language of despair and foolish speeches of bitter passion but possess your souls with patience and wait God's leisure he can and will deliver thee I will be with him in trouble and I will deliver 3. And so I come now to the third thing propounded Promissum recompensationis a promise of reward and recompence I will honour him What could flesh and bloud expect more from Heaven in their troubled condition then the presence of God to assist them and the power of God to deliver them Yet all this had not been enough nor a full satisfaction to our desires had we not had the other part of the promise promissum recompensationis a promise of reward and recompence We think it much to serve God for nought and to suffer for
look upon as a Courtesie being the kindest blow that ever I received It was like a Dose of Opium to a man that hath the extremity of the Stone which makes him forget himself as well as his sorrow and so it served me for I remembred no more either good or evil But certainly the Master was a good Christian and was indulgent to me For I found my self in his own Cabin the next morning where I slept all night very well though in wet clothes But I found myself sore and lame all over I thought of the Man in the Almanack wounded in every part and member onely I really was what he seem'd to be and had some signs likewise of it on my bruised body But I rose from my Cabin very desirous to know how it fared with my Fellow-sufferers truly I found them contrary to my expectation heavy not with sleep but with sorrow I thought I should have seen joy ride in triumph in their cheerful countenance but their looks were dejected and they murmured within themselves suffering I suppose over their Shipwrack again in their sad thoughts and every man telling himself of his own misfortune But the truth was they having sav'd their Lives were now at leisure to think of the loss of their Goods And I know it was a heavy loss to some who lost much and yet a greater loss to others who lost less for they having but a little lost a great deal that little being all they had For my own part I lost more then I had for it cast me in a Debt which I have not yet waded through But the Quantity of my loss doth not so much trouble me as the Quality for besides my Goods and whole Library I lost all my Sermons Notes Observations of some years travel abroad things in themselves of no value nor much in my esteem yet they were the fruits of my many years labour and study and might have been useful to me both in my Ministerial Function and likewise in the secular and lay-part of my life But it were a shame to name any loss when God so graciously gave us our life and a sin to murmure at any damage when God so often and so miraculously snatch'd us out of the very jaws of Death It seems to me to be like calling Lazarus out of the Grave And do we think Lazarus when he was restored unto life complain'd that his Winding-sheet and Napkin were spoiled by lying four days in the Grave or that he murmured that the Ointments and Spices were spent in vain at his Funeral For sure Mary that had a Box of precious Ointment for the burial of our Saviour would be at some cost at the Funeral of her beloved Brother Lazarus But these things are not to be thought upon when our Life is given us But we are so enamour'd on the World that we cannot but look back upon things we love and lose and we would fain be comforted after our losses as Job was with twice as much as we had before But then we must remember it was at the latter end of Job and before that time God may redouble these temporal blessings upon us The next day being Tuesday it blew very fair for Norwey thither our Ship was bound and about twelve of the clock at noon we came in the view of it But Norwey being a ragged Coast full of Rocks and seeing we could not reach it whil'st it was day and afraid to come upon it in the dark we turn'd our Sails and thought to have kept off the Coast till the morning that the Sun might shew us the way thither Which done we sate down to meat some of us having taken no sustenance since we first came to Sea and truly I eat an hearty meal being the only meal I made in five days and so we were all very well refreshed and comforted And now God thought it fit we should suffer again Had it pleased the Lord before this refreshment to have brought us in some new distress we certainly being weak had perished under the weight of it and the very conceit of it would have kill'd us and a little more sorrow would have drown'd us without a wave But God will lay no more upon his Children then they can bear About ten of the clock at night when we had set our Watch and pray'd with safe and secure thoughts we laid our selves to rest some of us upon our Beds But God had appointed an harder Lodging for us such as he provided for Jacob in his journey to Padan-Aram when he took of the stones of the place and made himself a pillow and lay down in that place to sleep For this our second Ship with full Sails ran upon a Rock and gave so great a crack that it was able to awake the most dead-asleep among us I wondred I confess what the matter was but the Mariners knowing the danger better then my self cri'd out Mercy Mercy Mercy with so doleful a tone and accent that together with that hideous noise which both the Wind and Waves made in this their pitch'd Battel one against the other it seem'd to me to be the very Image and Representation of the Day of Judgement I made what haste I could out of my Cabin but was the last that came upon the Deck where meeting with our own Master with both his hands upon his eyes which yet could not stop that current of tears which ran down his cheeks he bade me pray for them pray for them for we shall certainly perish I could believe no otherwise being taught that Lesson by our Master and therefore I fell presently upon my knees and was just in the condition of a Condemned Person that expected the stroke of the Executioner the night having but a blind before mine eyes and having pray'd awhile I wondred the Waves did not come to do their office for I forgave them with all my heart having wholly resigned up my self to Death But so it pleased God that the Ship with full Sails struck it self so fast into the cleft of the Rock or rather as the Sea-men say between two sledges of Rocks with her Bow over the main Rock so that it stood as firm for the present I mean the former part of the Ship as the Rock it self So I presently rose and pull'd off my Coat with an intention to cast my self into the Sea and swim thither but was advised to the contrary by a present ensuing danger for presently there arose a high and mighty Wave one of the chief Gyants of the Sea which first knock'd against our Ship as if it would have call'd me forth and then with greater violence dash'd against the Rock and brake it self in pieces which did plainly represent unto me my future condition and foretell my fortune had I ventured to stride that great Leviathan and endeavour'd to swim to the Rock But presently our Ship like Saint Paul's Ship brake in the hinder