for his goodnesse and declare the wonders that he doth for the children of men And now I have waded thorow the three generall parts of the Text thus much onely for the literall signification the tropologicall is briefly this The Church of God is this ship tossed upon the Ocean tumbled upon the unconstant billows of this troublesome world labouring with the boysterous windes of opposition opposed with the enemies of Gods grace and her peace packt and poasted from haven to haven from countrey to countrey Sometimes she is carried downe to the deepe and nethermost Hell as in the times of Nero Maximilian Domitian and other Romane Emperours as also in the dayes of Queene Mary in England Sometimes againe she is lifted up into the heaven by an happy and blessed tranquillity as in the daies and times wherein we live and the Gospell flourisheth The holy Bible is her armorie and place of defence and t is like the Tower of David Cant. 4.4 In which are weapons shields and targets for a thousand I for ten thousand thousand valiant men The Law as her fore-castle to them that went before wherein was placed the chase-pieces and thundering Cannons of legall austerities discharged by her cunning marks-men the Prophets and Patriarks against the bulwarks of heresie and Babels of sinne in all ages The Gospell is now our armory and place of defence and herein also are variety of weapons which are not carnall but spirituall and mighty through God to throw downe strong holds 2 Cor. 10.4.5 Here is the Helmet of salvation the shield of faith and Breast plate of righteousnesse the Sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God Eph. 6.13 which will quench the fiery darts of the devill that like a roaring Lyon goes about seeking whom he may devoure In this shippe of our English Church sits the soveraigne Majestie of our Lord and King as supreame head and governour his Nobles Lords Iudges Councellors as representative pieces of his owne Majestie sit in the steerage of estate and to them is committed the helme of government His reverend Clergie of all degrees are each of them another Palenurus or all Pilots guiding you in the right and perfect way informing your judgements reforming your lives according to the card and compasse of Gods holy Word The many promises of mercy patternes of mercy precepts of mercy presidents of mercy are as so many favourable gales and windes to further us till we come to the end of our faith the salvation of our soules All men are embarked in this ship of the Church whose pretended voyage is to the Land of Canaan but not all alike Some as passengers receive neither wages nor content in this tedious and troublesome voyage who desire a quicke and speedy passage thorow this Baca of feares this Bochim of teares and with Saint Paul to be dissolved and to be with Christ which is best of all Others as Marriners in their owne proper element know of no other happinesse ayme at no other felicity than what the sea of this world affordeth them The longer they stay the greater their pay they have their portion here in this life and in the other they receive onely the wages which is due unto them it were better they were without it for the wages of sinne due to the servants of sinne is death both of body and soule when the former receive onely the gift of God which is eternall life I had rather stand to his courtesie than engage him to payment Before we can arrive at our Canaan of felicity our Port and haven of heaven wee must all passe through the straits of the last judgement For wee must all appeare before his iudgment sent 2. Cor. 5.10 to stand to our triall at the universall inquisition and then arrive at our desired haven where for ever we shall spend our dayes in praysing the Lord for his goodnesse and in declaring his wonders to us the children of men Angels shall meet us with our Palmes our Robes our Crownes Arch-angels with triumphs and Carols of Coelestiall blisse and while we are thus singing of our praises to the King of glory the whole host and Quire of heaven shall say Amen But so much for the literall and historicall meaning of the words Pardon my willing errour of tediousnesse Polulogie is the common fault of travellers my desire was this day to pay my vows where I am most obliged and to whom and before whom and to erect this Sermon as a Pillar of thankfulnesse and an Altar of praise that like the Prayers and Almes of Cornelius might reach up to heaven I should be sorry it should proove a Babel to breede confusion eyther in your patience or your memory About this pillar are written these three things Dangers to draw us to awfulnes Mercies to draw us to thanfulnesse Duties to draw us to obedience And but three as being most portable for your memory easie for your judgement ready for your use Neyther is this Pillar of Prayse dedicated as was that Athenian Altar Acts 17.23 with this inscription Ignoto Deo to an unknowne God or Lord but to a Lord of mercy wisedome and power who knowes best when where and how to succour and relieve us Let this serve both for present use and future memory Thus if wee blesse God hee will blesse us Blessed therefore be the Lord God of Israel for hee hath visited and redeemed us his people Let them whom the Lord hath redeemed from the hand of the enemy praise the Lord Let them that are daily spectators of his wonders in the deepe praise the Lord when they are brought to the haven where they would be Let the house of Israel and the house of Aaron accord in these holy and religious services to publish his prayses And what ever others doe or doe not My soule praise thou the Lord and forget not all his benefits which saveth thy life from destruction and crowneth thee with mercy and loving kindnesse The Lords holy name be blessed and praised from the rising of the Sunne to the going downe of the same and let all the people present say Amen So be it FINIS Errata Pag. 4. lin 24. reade lest 5. 16. Countries 7 20. praise and thankfulnesse 8. 21. my first 9. 2. what 11. 4. and. ibid. 6. aires 12. 3. if 13. 10. after danger reade Scilla and Charibdis little injured by the Poets in expression of it's danger 14. 17. spouts 16. 15. so should they 35. 10. the seas ibid. 24. this 41. 10. us to 42. 3. such ibid. 5. their ibid. 18. called 45. 17. the. 47. 19. the. ibid. 11. walking 48. 12. Those that ibid. 18. Caleb ibid. 23. best relish the. 50. 5. both 53. 15. that 55. 7. at 56. 15. beene vertuous LONDON Printed by Thomas Harper 1634.
Ionah that must bee throwne ouer boord if ever we meane that the tempests of vengeance shall cease or be bettered by calmes of mercy You that love your sinnes as Iudah loved Tamar Ge. 38.15 to enjoy your pleasures by them as Saul loved David to get honour by them Ge. 30.36 as Iacob loued Laban to get wealth and riches by them You must part with all in all or none at all One legge in the stocks will hold fast the whole body one sinne in the soule will hold fast both body and soule In vaine shall you praise God for his goodnesse if you displease him with the continuance and increase of sinne and wickednesse To what purpose will you offer to sing Psalmes of praise and thanksgiuing if the noyse of your sinnes drowne the noyse of your Psalmes as Drummes in the sacrifice of Molech did drowne the cry of the burning and tormented Infants or as the ringing of the Bels doth drowne the noyse of the clocke How dare ye professe a subjection and loyaltie to the King and Crowne of heauen if we nourish sinne in our bosomes and hearts a traytor both to him and us Eccles 5.1 Or offer the sacrifice of praise to please him when we offer the sacrifice of fooles to provoke him This is the high way to enrage him by whose power we are created by whose providence we are preserued to send worse judgements upon us then we have escaped Iud. 16.19 Such as with Sampson will sleepe in sinne as in the lappe of Dalilah let them beware their locks Iudg. 5.26 Such as with Siserah will short in this Iael's tent let them beware their liues If you will boyse sayle in all weathers who can deplore your shipwracke If you will runne from Niniveh to Tarshish Iona. 1.3 who will pitty you though you meet with a worse storme in your teeth than what you seeke to avoid Dâ—str Tr. So did Polydamas that sonne of Antenor to auoid a storme runne under a ruinous rocke that crusht him and killed him So did the wise of Lot escape the vengeance of Sodome Ge. 19.26 yet continuing in her sinne procured a worse and more peculiar to be turned into a pillar of salt And so shall all such as are not seasoned by her example but will wilfully split themselues upon the Rocke of their owne sinnes they are unworthy of my farther reproofe or your farther attention Such as will avoid both the sinne and danger must praise the Lord for his goodnesse And such as will give unto their heavenly Caesar his tributary due of praise must do it Mat. 22.21 by acknowledging him to bee a Lord So said Ieptha to the men of Gilead Iudg. 11.9 If I fight for you against the children of Ammon shall I not be your head As I say to all of you whose faces seeme to congratulate this day whose attentions seeme to entertaine this doctrine If he fight for us against our enemies and deliuer us shall not he be our Lord Yes Le ts first acknowledge him and secondly le ts apply him all the merits of his active and passiue obedience must be laid claime to by a peculiar and particular application so did Thomas who seemed to haue engrossed him to himselfe Ioh. 20.28 My Lord and my God Thirdly by obeying him as a Lord in mercy for feare we finde him to be a Lord in justice Those mine enemies that will not I shall rule over them Lu. 19.27 bring them hither that I may slay them Heb. 10 31. It s a fearfull thing to fall into the hands of the liuing Lord. Fourthly le ts praise him as the onely Lord of heaven and earth without a riuall For his glory hee will not giue unto another nor his praise to grauen Images God in the frontispiece of his royall Law provokes perswades his people Israel to haue or serue no other Gods but him because he and no other God but he Exod 20.1.2 had brought them out of the Land of Aegypt out of the house of bondage So let all such as the Lord hath redeemed out of the hands of the enemie praise him alone as their soveraigne Lord He that hath more than one God or one Lord hath neither God nor Lord. Alexander told Darius King of Persia Quin. Cur. offering to him halfe his kingdome that the Heaven had not two Sunnes neither should the Earth have two soveraignes One Alexander was enough for a world Val. Max. one Phoenix enough for an age Duos Alcibiades neque Attica neque Graecia tulit Nor Greece nor Athens brought forth two Alcibiades Sparta brought not forth two Lysanders nor the world two such Lords Let those fishermen that know no better sacrifice unto their nets or Neptune those husbandmen unto their dunghill or to Ceres for their corne others to Bacchus for their wines to Pallas for their oyles to Apollo for their wisedome to Minerva for their peace Let the Turks thank their Mahomet for protection the Persians go to their god Nergal for defence the Hamathensians to Asima for strength the Babylonians to Succobenoth for deliverance Ier. 1â— 13 For according to the number of their countries are the number of their gods Let them and all Atheists go to their false and foolish Dieties all Papists to their Saints but let us go unto the Lord our God Oh that men would therefore praise the Lord. Oh that they would either cease to bee men or being men would never cease to praise the Lord. Or yet if our tongues could be weary of the publication of his praises yet let them be employed in the proclamation of his wonders Text. And declare the wonders that he doth for c. We men are put upon the labour and taske of Angels To publish his praises and proclaime his wonders is the office and theame of the Hyerarchy of heaven who are ever singing their divine Carols of praise â—â—d rejoycing in the expression of his wonders Had I the tongue of men and Angels you the eares and wings of Cherubins wee could neither well enough nor soone enough extoll his praises or expresse his wonders Of both I may say as the Psalmist said before me Who can expresse the noble acts of the Lord Psal 106.2 or shew forth all his praise Yet since the royall hand of heaven vouchsafe not onely to require but requite our weake performances with acceptance As we have begun with his praises so let us go on a little also to declare the wonders that he doth for the children of men Duhartas 1. day The world 's a booke in Folio written all with Gods great works in letters capitall This world is a booke in Folio wherein are written the workes and wonders of Gods omnipotent hand the acts and monuments of our maker and preserver in his owne proper characters Not as Christ wrote when hee wrote in the dust that spirituall paradox Ioh. 8
of Samaria should rise up in judgement against mee who said amongst themselves 2 King 7.9 This is a day of good tidings wee doe not well to hold our peace If we tarry till the morning light some mischiefe will befall us now therefore come that wee may goe and tell the Kings houshold It were a piece of impardonable sacriledge to monopolize or ingrosse the divine Elixar of my Masters and my Makers mercies and miracles workes and wonders that I have had experience of in forraigne and farre distant Climats Counties Kingdomes Ilands Provinces Nations People Languages Since then that God the Father requires no more of me than God the Sonne did of the dispossessed Demoniacke Mark 5.19 Goe and tell what great things the Lord hath done for thee I were unworthy of my tongue if I should not speake to you of your eares if you should not heare what shall be delivered May the God of heaven therefore open my lips Mark 1.17.34 and my mouth shall shew forth his praise say Ephphata to your eares and they shall be opened for the wonders of the King of glory to enter in In these words that I have read and you have heard there is an exact mixture and accurate composure of Dangers Mercies and Duties these three are woven and platted in the Text and are the three Tabernacles of my meditation here I build one for God another for you a third for my selfe and such else as it doth concerne Here is dangers of such as goe downe into the deepe Mercies of him that made the Sea and all that therein is Duties for such as have received these mercies and escapt these dangers and are brought to the haven where they would be Heaven earth and waters rowle and tumble up the billowes of the Text the woofe and warpe whereof is spun both of course and fine threed Exra 8.16 Exod. 36.1 1 Cor 3.16 It would require the skill of Iarib and Elnathan men of understanding the hand and loome of some Aholiab and Bezaleel to make it fit worke for the Tabernacle of the Lord for the Temple of God which Temple yee are that while you heare of these dangers ye may be brought to feare and awfulnesse of these mercies yee may be drawne to practise thankfulnesse of these duties ye may be woed to service and obedience It wants not what skill I could bestow upon it according to my talant and ability and my time and present opportunity of which I may say as Philip of the five loaves and two fishes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Alas what are these amongst so many Alas what are these my meditations these water-works not able to expresse the shadows of that divine Majestie they do adore and to which they are dedicated Yet they should be seasonable they have crossed many brinish billows and waves of salt water and to you they should be acceptable For as amongst you I preached my Vale and long farewel so now by divine providence am I brought againe once more upon this holy mount The Communion day to salute you with my primum salve first salutation what you can conceive not to be seasonable in regard of your time and meeting You may freely correct it t' will shew part of your judgement which I conceive to be sutable in respect of my time and arrivall you may favourably accept it as part of my love Incline therefore your eares to the tenor of the following Embassie the arrant is Gods the task is mine the use is yours Let your pious acceptance and patient attention be as Midwives to assist me in the delivery of these three dangers mercies duties that struggle in the wombe of my text like the quarrelling twinnes that descended from the loynes of Isaac from the bowels of Rebeckah Gen. 25.22 The rough and hairie Esau comes first to view I le first speake of the dangers Ioh. 2.9 reserving the other as the Bridegroom did his best wine untill the last They that go downe into the sea expose themselves unto a danger that like the mace of Neptune is three-forked Danger threefold All voyagers are lyable to a triple danger of the Sea of the enemies in the Sea of the enemies on the shore after their arrivall In any or all these three kindes was there never more danger than now since Noahs Dove was pilot unto Noahs Arke Gen. 8.8 or since Saturne the King of Greete did first finde out the Art of Navigation The way of a ship in the Sea is one of those foure things that prou'd a paradox to puzsle and non-plus the wise and great King Solomon Pro. 30.9 and thousands more since his dissolution He that commits himselfe to the custody of a three incht plank for there 's no more betweene death and us had need to say with David Psalme 108.1 My heart is ready O Lord my heart is ready He had need to be ready for prosperitie ready for adversity ready for libertie ready for slavery ready for the stormes tempests of vengeance ready for the calmes and favourable aire of mercy He must look to be a sharer in the first Phil 4.11 he may hope to be partaker of the last They that go downe into the deepe shall see a Sea whose billows bellow whose surges swell raging with tempests roaring with whirlwinds and be at once terrified with fearefull thunder-claps dazled with terrible lightenings amazed with ayerie fires and apparitions astonished with eruptions and evaporations from the furnaces of heaven with the clouds those bottles of heaven that sometimes emptie themselues in such violence as if they threatned another deluge With those windes that come from the treasuries and hollow concaves of the earth which as is let loose for vengeance like some accursed bandogge are more fierce for former cohibitions These besides many other sad apparences are they lyable to that go downe into the deepe which oftentimes affright them worse then the ghost of Brutus did him in his dismall and nocturnall vision Plutarch Cher. Now such as are humbled with these judgements amazed with these wonders astonished with these terrours affrighted with these apparitions can never disrellish the offers of mercy in such deliverances they cannot but praise the Lord for his goodnesse and declare his wonders that he doth for the children of men I lived to see which now I live to declare and memorate all the foure elements in a combustion Psa 118 17 uproare and confusion as if they had beene to have beene reduced to their former chaos Frigida pugnabant calidis Ovid. lib. 1◠Met humentia siccis Mollia cum duris sine pondere habentia pondus Having passed the dangerous and strait gulph of the danger Incidit in Scyllam qui vult vitare Charybdim Ovid. in Loc. Not farre distant from the Trinacrian or Sicilian shore we sayled neare an Island that burnes like mount Sinai Earth yet not consumed
vaine doctrine Eph. 4 14â— They wander so farre till Dinah like they loose their spirituall chastity and virginity Gen. 34.1 2. Quint. Curtius Did they but with Alexander change their habit onely in every Country who when he was in Persia was cloathed as a Persian in Parthia a Parthian in Greece a Grecian we could and would allow them the liberty of the ancient Distick Si fueris Romae Romano vivito more Si fueris alibi vivito more loci But too many turne Romans in heart as well as in habit Luke 22.55 and while they are in the high Priests Hall warming their hands pretending to make themselves fit and serviceable agents for their King and Country they then coole their hearts and sucke in the filthy dregs of forraigne opinions split their soules upon those shelues of errour enter into the house of Rimmon 2 Kin. 5.18 Rom. 11.4 2 King 23.13 bow and bend the knees of their deuotion and affection to Baal runne after their new inuented Gods and Goddesses as once offending Salomon who bowed his knees to Ashta roth the Goddesse of the Zidonians and ran after Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites Worse than Alexander they change their habit worse than Scipio and Sertorius Val. Max. 2 Tim. 4.10 Luk. 22.57 They that turne Turkes they counterfeit their religion and which is worst of all like Peter they deny forsweare forsake their Saviour There 's some aliue yet to be happy if they could imitate him in his teares as in his apostasie in the reluctancy of his sorrow as in the precipitancy of his zeale who like Zeno the Athenian Philosopher Dixit se nunquam foeliciori venio navigasse quam cum navis eius submersafuit quia tempestas ida suae tranquilli tatis existet causa Plut in Iâ—a Psal 120.5 Gen 9.27 pretend both happinesse and content in their shipwracke both of their faith and conscience these are worthy of other mens teares that have none of their owne to wash away their woes while they are not constrained but content to dwell in Mesech and to haue their habitations in the Tents of Kedar God perswade every such Iapheth to returne to the Tents of Sem from whence they are revolted Are Abana and Pharphar 2 King 5.8 Rivers of Damascus better than Iordan No let the curse of your death-beds light upon mee if I preferre not the streames of our Iordan the free and liberall use of the Gospell in peace and tranquility before the Abana or Pharphar of their religion or inquisition and which is more Iudg 8.2 as Gideon said to the Ephramites I preferre the gleanings of our Ephraim before the vintage of their Abiezar and far before it too as Vlysses did preferre the smoake of Ithaca before the immortality of the Gods often wishing for the enjoyment of this our native freedome with as great a desire as ever David could wish for to drinke of the waters of the Well of Bethlem 2 Sam 23.15 Oh that one would give me to drink of the waters c. And heartily saluting the sight of our English ground with as much ioy as Achates and his confederates did their Italian Humilem que videmus Virg Italiam Italiam primus conclamat Achates Italiam Laeto socij clamore salutant He that hath escapt these triple and triple crownd dangers of the Sea enemies in the Sea enemies a shore must needs bee glad because hee is at rest Text. and brought to the haven where hee would bee c. I and my floating Parishioners are not now to learne experience in any or all of these three dangers yet the stormes of our Sea are blowne over the danger of our enemy is already past the share of the cunning Fowlers Ps 24.7 who catch nothing but blinde Bats and Owles is also broken and we are delivered and brought to the haven where we would be Now wee live to praise our God for his goodnesse and to declare his wonders to the children of men And in doing both to pay our vowes of thankfulnesse in the midst of our Ierusalem Ps 116 16. in the midst of thy Church and congregation which stands as in the midst of Sion of which I have often said and prayd as Lot did of Zoar Gen. 19.20 Oh let my soule escape thither Is it not a little one and my soule shall live The mercies that provoke us to thankfulnesse But so much of our danger that must bring us to awfulnesse now followes the mercy that must bring us to thankfulnesse After the stormes of displeasure succeede the calmes of mercy the smooth issue of rough progenitors For a moment doth hee hide his face from us but with everlasting mercy hee doth embrace us Looke we to the present Text it reduces Gods mercy to two heads that like Tanais and Volga water the residue of our meditations He makes the stormes to cease and bringeth them to the haven where they would be two favours that include all other favours in them If brevity may bee any whet-stone to sharpen your attention or as holy water to sprinckle on your face and awaken your devotion I 'le put them both in one and exemplifie both these mercies to us by examples and ample testifications of his mercyes to others in the like miseries which are the best expression of our owne sorrows or his fauours Have you reade of Noah floating in his Arke without thought or feare of danger Gen. 7.17 Gen. 7.21 when heauen and earth the Sea and all that therein is was in an uprore when thousands perished in that common innundation of euils The case was ours the mercy Gods that wee also were deliuered from those surges wherein many perish and are brought to the Ararat of our desires to the hauen where we would be O that men would c. Exod. 2.3 Have you read of Moses crawling and sprawling in his Arke and Barke of Bul-rushes when the waves could not drowne him nor Egyptian damage him Exod. 2.5.6 We have beene as helpelesse as Moses and God as mercifull to us as unto him he was to us instead of Pharaohs daughter ready to challenge our custody and protection For by his mercy wee are brought to the haven where wee would be O that men c. Exod. 14. â—â— 28. Have you read of Israels safe convoy through those seas wherin thousands after perished the case is yet ours wee have past those 〈◊〉 that cost many thousands both life and liberty and are brought in safety to the Caâ—…an of felicity to the haven where we would be He was our Pillar and Cloud O that men would therefore c. Have you read of Daniels security amongst those Lyons that afterward devoured his accusers Dan. 6.23.24 their wives and children we have beene also even in the jawes of those Lyons that have devoured many Turks Psal 57 4. Psal 3.7 yet are