The Julian Ship Or Pauls Transportation to Rome Who Shall Seprateus Roms Repent And Believ The Gospel Were J a Julius J ' de Chuse a Wrack with Paul Rather Then Cesars ' Seat Or Crown Jmperiall F.H. 〈…〉 The Explanation of the Frontispiece THE Ship 's the Popish Crew which would Transport the Realm Paul's the Church Reform'd Aristarch his Royal Friend at Helm Julius the Roman Captain Proud Nero's Minister Luke Paul's Evangelist and Historiographer The Ship may Split with Plots The Wind 's Conspire her Doom To Paul and to his Faithful Friends no harm no loss not of an hair shall come Mirmah Maromah Maroum Three Discourses by the same Author concerning Romish and Protestant Witnesses peculiarly in Relation to the Popish Plot discover'd Anno 1678. and containing a New and certain Discovery of the Pope's being the Anti-Christ whose Number of his Name is 666. And of the Destruction of Rome To be sold by Ben. Billingsley at the Printing-Press in Cornhil THE Julian SHIP OR Paul's Transportation TO ROME A Discourse on ACTS 27.15 Made on March 20 1681 80 the Sunday before the Last Parliament's Meeting at Oxford By WIL. RAMSAY Esq B. D. And then Lecturer in Isleworth in Middlesex Printed because of false Breviat's spread about in CITY and COUNTRY to Traduce the Author as FANATICALL but who as a Preacher of PEACE did alwayes Commend and Improve these following Texts Rom. 12.9 Let Love be without Dissimulation Ver. 16. Be of the same Mind one towards another Gal. 5.15 If ye bite and devour One-another take heed that ye be not consumed One of another 1 Pet. 2.17 Honour all Men. Love the Brotherhood Fear God Honour the King LONDON Printed for Benj. Billingsley at the Printing-Press in the Piazza of the Royal Exchange in Cornhil 1681. TO THE GENTRY AND CLERGY Gentlemen and Brethren I Have a Necessity and assume the Liberty to salute you both under One Title and in One Epistle assuring my self that I shall find no less measure of Candour and Love than of Censure and Judgment from you both I cannot fear but the English Nation however debauch'd the Age may be affords a glorious Host of right Spirited Men who keep their Ancient station of true Honour and Piety and are alwayes ready with Courage and Cheer to defend the Rights of both against that vile Scum of the boyling times men who seek gain from Infamy from Infamy inherent in themselves and from spots of infamy which they itch to rub upon others especially on such whose integrity is vital and has an active Influence and renders every base thing Odious I willingly take my refuge to you that the world may know how much I abhor the baseness of a false Spirit This I must do not for my private right only but for the right of my Name whereof I am chief in England and I think it no whit degraded by my Ministry or by any Sufferings for it which was never stain'd with the least spot of Disloyalty or Dishonour and shall never be spoâ—ted by any Degeneracy of mine It has been signaliz'd with most Royal marks of Honour witness the Right hand in my Scutcheon with this Motto Hac dextra Vindex Principis Patriae for which I have the Broad Seal of England In Our late Soveraign's Warrs My Father spent a considerable Estate in raising forces for the Royal Aid and the Remainder was so engaged that I now suffer a total loss of it yet I repent not but readily spend my self in his Majesty's Service in which I am most unworthily mis-represented by some I hazarded my life in three sharp engagements in Ship with the Earl of Ossory who honour'd me with his favour ever after and Letters and Title of his Chaplain and by his Lordships commendation I was placed in a very beneficial portion of the Church in the Island of Barbadoes where I labour'd in the Indian Fires four years planted Conformity silenced the Quakers after many publick Combats and bodily dangers reduced hundreds to the Church and return'd not till forced for want of health resigning freely a living of three hundred per annum For all which I have the Testimony of Sir Jonathan Atkins his Majesty's most Worthy Governour there and his ever most Loyal and approved Martialist whose Chaplain I went Since my return finding two Enemies of Church and State Popery and Dissention I have most heartily and laboriously oppos'd both and that as I am perswaded with the most proper means and if any man of whatsoever side can inform me better I shall instantly embrace his instruction I could never perswade my self that railing against Mr. Calvin or against Geneva or blowing out anger and Passion and sounding forth persecution against Dissenters was or can ever be a proper means to do any good On the Contrary I have found by certain Trial and by many Experiments of ten years time that Apostolical Moderation and Peaceable Perswasion with those Arguments of peace which the Gospel most abundantly affords is an effectual way to reduce the most to Vnity And having followed this way more strictly above two years in Thistleworth Parish I found no small number of Dissenting and Dis-satisfied Souls won to a hearty and frequent Communion even at the Table of Love But this very thing that many Fanaticks as they spake followed me became as a Crime and some busie Sycophants turn'd Informers at Court and Cathedral that I led a Faction and made the Church a Meeting-House and they carried on this Calumny so close and clandestinely that I could not suspect it till I found my self supplanted and scarce then could I beat out the business I therefore now declare to the Whole Church that I never used any unlawful means or perswasion nor the least Disloyal motive to make a Congregation or to gain the favour of any person much less of a party I Conform'd entirely to the Church of England in all things especially in the Doctrine of the 39 Articles I used no means to gain applause of any but Christian Moderation as becomes a Preacher of the Gospel And I dare confer above 200 Sermons which I Preach'd in Isleworth Church for as Practical and Seasonable and Loyal Discourses as any other man has Preach'd or as the times required The only Sermons which are objected against me are this present and three more already printed and I was constrain'd to print this of St. Paul's Voyage for some had spred in City and Country most false and scandalous Breviates which were not taken from my mouth as themselves confess but were made in Company afterwards from weak Memories and Vnsound Heads and with what ingredient of Prejudice and Malice I leave to God and others to Judge I therefore desire to be excus'd as Printing it altogether upon constraint to avoid or avert or at least to allay a greater evil of Mis-reputation I also intreat that my design in Preaching that Sermon may be understood which appears from the
final drift of it which was to move the People to most earnest Prayer that God would Vnite Our King and his Parliament contrary to the manifest endeavours of the Papists For I alwayes esteem'd it the most dangerous and chief part of the Popish Plot to disturb the close Vnion and sweet Agreement of the King and his Parliament without which neither Our Church nor our State can Flourish or Prosper And without doubt this is One of his Majesty's greatest Griefs as his most gracious Declaration does intimate that he was constrain'd to make so many Dissolutions and so short Sessions As for the Reasons or Political Causes of these I alwayes thought them above the Sphere of a private Man But as our Enemies rejoyce in these things I think we ought all to mourn and to beg of God with publick and private Prayers and most unanimous Supplications that he will please in due season to unite and strengthen the States of the Realm As to my other three Sermons of Mirmah Maromah and Maroum the matter of them being wholly new though the assertion Ancient and Orthodox I judg'd it necessary to print them to prevent the strange Accounts which many gave of them The Assertion is this That the Popish Principles and Practices maketh Witnesses of the late Plot most Credible that the Evidence of things has been so great that we ought to believe the Matter of Fact if not with a Divine Faith at least with all the Assurance of a Humane and Moral Faith That the Pope is the Antichrist that very Apocalyptical Beast the Number of whose Name is 666. That the next thing to be fulfilled in the Apocalyptical Order of the seven Vials is the fiery destruction of Rome that the time is very near and in most probable account to be fulfilled in this Generation or Century These things as to the Assertion are agreeable to all Reform'd Divines of Note especially the Ancient Divines and Bishops of England and of King James his time Yet I wonder to hear some Murmur as if now Divines were better inform'd of the Pope and cannot think him a Beast or the Antichrist if any Divine be so perswaded My Sermons are the more necessary for his sake As for the matter in which I handle and prove these assertions which is the Name of Maroum and that singular Prophecy of Isaiah chap. 24.21 I think that matter was never touched before to the same purpose and I think the Name of Antichrist to which that Number belongs was never discover'd before though thousands of brains have been busie in search of it and I think the discovery I made is the Divine truth and that Wisdom of God which St. John commends to every man that hath understanding Rev. 13.18 which ought not to be kept hid Wherefore I again commend those Discourses to the Whole Church of God as being of great Consequence and of comfortable Vse especially in these times And I do this again with the more earnest heart because I have found of a Truth that the discovery is sound and effectual and triumphs over all contradiction and dispute Neither let any man despise it for my Person for God did wonderfully call me from mine infancy to this profession the first of my Family that was of it and I have spent above thirty years in the Study of Languages and Sciences but chiefly of the holy Scriptures which I have known from a Child and to which as the chief means I ascribe next to the Grace of Jesus Christ my Faith and Knowledge of Salvation In fine I desire the Favour and Civility of all ingenuous men not to suffer the abuses of idle and empty Talkers much less the injuries of busie pragmatical Sycophants to lessen that Just Reputation of Godly Sincerity and Loyalty which as all my Name before me I pursue and hope to possess by due and proper means as being with cordial Affection and unshaken Constancy Gentlemen and Brethren Your faithful Brother and Servant in Christ Jesus W. Ramsay Thistleworth Nov. 14 Anno Christi 1681. ACT. 27.15 And when the Ship was caught and could not bear up into the Wind we let her drive THE Trope is frequent in Scripture that the Church is Typed by a Ship As by Noah's Ark Gen. 6. By the Ship in the midst of the Sea Mat. 8.23 and 14.24 and Rev. 8.9 Churches are called Ships And the body of every Church is call'd its Nave So the now-Now-Church of England seems to be aptly represented by this Ship of St. Paul in the Text which being caught with a Tempestuous Wind called Euroclydon could not bear up into Wind but was driven at the mercy of the Master of the Winds This will appear by all the Circumstances related of this Ship in this present Chapter Only I must first premise That the now-Now-Church of England may be taken First In a Common sense as it includes all called Protestants Or Secondly In a select sense as it includes only true Protestants Thirdly In a Malignant sense as it includes only Papists or Popishly affected Ones Or Fourthly In a National sense as it includes all English Subjects We shall use it sometimes in One sometimes in another sense as the Circumstances require The Circumstances are principally five 1. What Persons aboard 2. Whither bound 3. What Built 4. What Course 5. What Wind 1. The Persons Aboard are of three sorts 1. We find Paul and Luke and Aristarchus ver 1 2. Paul was the great Apostle and Doctor of the Nations Luke was the great Evangelist and Scribe of the Holy Gospel Aristarchus was a Noble Macedonian and a Zealous Christian of Thessalonica who Travell'd with St. Paul and St. Luke to defray their Temporal Charges to guard them from Injuries and to help them in all things for the Gospels sake These three Persons represent unto us the Now-Church of England in the select sense Apostolical and Evangelical Aristarchus interpreted signifies a most Excellent Prince as is our Most Gracious and Soveraign Defender of the Faith whom God preserve and by him and with him Our Paul and our Luke Aristarchus may also represent unto us whatsoever Wise and Christian Statesman or Patriot who for his Faithfulness to his Country is as a Noble Macedonian and for his Zeal in Religion and Aid to the Protestant Ministry is as a Pious Thessalonian Also Thessalonica was the Metropolis of Macedonia and had its Name from its Victories so it may represent our Great and Victorious City of London whose Victory now shines over and out of the Fires of her Enemies In fine every Protestant Citizen and Country-man is a Religions Macedonian or Thessalonian in the ship of St. Paul Guarding and Attending Our Paul Our Luke Our Aristarchus Our Church Our Gospel Our Government A second sort of Persons we find ver 1. and 42. Julius a Centurion the Commander of the ship with his Souldiers of Augustus's band to which we may joyn the Pilot and Master of the
Ship with the Sailers and Mariners and the whole Ships Crew ver 11. and 30. These represent the Church of England in the Malignant sense that is the Popish Church or Romish Party among us For Julius was the Minister of the Roman Emperour who then was the Cruel Nero and together with the other Pagan Emperours is by St. John called The Red Dragon because made Red with the Bloud of Christians Which Red Dragon gave his Power and Seat and great Authority to the Beast the Pope Rev. 13.1 2. Then Julius the Centurion aptly represents every Popish Power or Civil Romish Minister among us and his Souldiers the Popish Laity Hirelings or Pensioners or whatsover Popish instruments or helps The Pilot and Master and Ships-Crew represent more properly the Popish Clergy with their Adherents and all that are Popishly affected In Relation to the present great Popish Plot Julius imports the Chief Civil-Agent therein the Pilot and Master the Chief-spiritual Ones Only mark This Julius was no Caesar and we pray God avert such a Judgement from us that ever any Caesar should be such a Julius There was a third sort of persons in the Ship There were with Paul certain other Prisoners ver 1. These joyn'd with St. Paul and his Company may represent the Church of England in the Common sense as it includes all that are called Protestants But if we take all these sorts of persons together that is all that are Aboard the ship they represent the Church of England in the National sense that is the whole English Nation So much for the first Circumstance who are Aboard The second Circumstance is Whither bound We need not hale them For we may read afar off as it were in their Fore-Castle in the greatest Characters ver 1. It was determin'd that we should sail into Italy It was determin'd that the Whole Nation of us The now-Now-Church of England in the largest sense should go to Rome Julius the Commander of the Ship had receiv'd Commission for this which he durst not neglect or disobey for he could not answer such a default before his Lord Augustus Nero. It was determin'd the Chap. before by Porcius Festus by King Agrippa and by Bernice that we should all sail into Italy to Rome that we should all be shipt together and transported to Popery The French Agrippa and the Pompous Berenice were thus kind unto us And what was Father le Cheese Agrippa's Consessor but a well fed Porcius Festus And was not Coleman at least their most humble Julius Have we not the Letters of his Commission taken from his own hands and confest with his own Mouth in which it was fully determin'd that we should all sail into Italy That the whole Nation of us should serve Augustus Nero or the Beast in his stead That the beast should receive his power again over us which alass he has lost so long That we should worship him with a new Zeal and that for his sake we should set up his Image over us that is a Popish power in which we need fear nothing but two things An Arbitrary Rule to destroy our bodies that is our Lives and Liberties at Pleasure and an Antichristian Religion to destroy our Souls of Necessity This is the second circumstance It was determin'd we should sail into Italy The third Circumstance is of What built the Ship or whence the Ship We find it ver 2. First we entered into a ship of Adramyttium The Original Word is Chadermouth which the Greeks mollifying pronounce Adramuttion It 's compounded of Chader a Conclave or privy Room and Mouth Death So that the ships name was the Conclave of Death as if we would call it Portmouth the Port of Death Mouth signifying Death in the Hebrew Therefore this ship of St. Paul doth rightly represent unto us that ship of the Plot which was built in the Jesuits Conclave or which is all One in the Conclave of Rome to us the Conclave of Death For there we were all shipt for death both Bodily and Spiritual Temporal and Eternal Our Enemies had made themselves sure of us Their ship was so well built their plot was so well laid that they counted us as much their Prisoners having got us into their Chadermouth as Julius accounted Paul and his Fellows his Prisoners when he had put them into this ship of Adramyttium I dare engage my Life for a Sacrifice says Coleman to Porcius Festus if we succeed not c. And his Word was made true but not to his own Mind But mind now whom had they ship't in this ship of Death Not only Paul and Luke but also Aristarchus our Soverain Lord the best of Princes and with him every Noble Macedonian every faithful Patriot every Christian Thessalonian every zealous Citizen and Protestant Thessalonica it self they devoted to the Flames They succeeded in that they burnt our fairest Protestant City but she coming victorious with double Glory out of the midst of the Popish Furnace she prov'd her self a Thessalonica indeed In a word the Whole Nation was put into this ship their Chadermouth to be transported to Rome or Death or Hell yet Paul and Luke and Aristarchus that is only Our chief and best Ones were markt out for presents to Nero for sacrifices to his holy power And we shall see wonders in their Rescue For see we The fourth Circumstance what course the ship steers Not what course the Commander had devised or the Sailers For then we had all been undone and carried to Rome before this For ver 2. They meant to sail by the Coasts of Asia in which coasts was Built that Adramyttion that Portsmouth that door of death which was prepared for us there they had chalkt out an infallible way of destruction for us all But God regarded his servants in this Ship and for his Church and Gospels-sake he steer'd his Paul and his Luke another way He brought them first to Sidon to Agrippa's Confederates and gave Paul favour even in the eyes of Julius and no few friends in Sidon ver 3. So God rais'd us up friends to help us from amidst our Death-plotting Enemies From Sidon Julius thought to sail straight to Myra he mistook it for a Roman word and thought to work wonders in a moment But the God of Paul countermanded the Winds and steer'd them under Cyprus and over the Sea of Cilicia and Pamphylia ver 4 5 led them a way which they thought not of for the way of the wicked the Lord turned upside down Psal 146.9 at length by his permission they came to Myra in Lycia where this first ship having serv'd Paul more than Julius finished its course So has our God made the Popish Plotters to serve most wonderfully the Gospel's turn even while they sought to destroy it The Parallel of this first ship seems to reach as far as the matter of Toleration procured by Our English Julian's by which they doubted not to Hobgoble us all to ship