Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n
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A14261
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Foure sea-sermons, preached at the annuall meeting of the Trinitie Companie, in the parish church of Deptford: by Henry Valentine vicar
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Valentine, Henry, d. 1643.
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1635
(1635)
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STC 24574; ESTC S103489
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42,166
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77
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up to the head and if the head dabble in wine it strikes downe to the feet so that a man may say of the drunkard as the Prophet did of the corrupt state of the Jewes From the crowne of the head to the sole of the foote there is no right part in him Salomon calls our legs the strong men of the house yet in a storme they cannot stand their ground but bow and buckle under us Men in such a case are like balls in a Tennis court tossed from one side of the ship unto the other and sometimes banded cleane over It may be said of mariners what the Jews said of Cain and Clemens Alexandr seemes to follow the tradition that wheresoever they set their foot the floore trembles under them and many times with that violence that they knock their heads one against another Now as a ship was the embleme of the Church and the Sea an embleme of the world so is a storme of persecution and in nothing more then in this that it staggers the faith and profession of so many Christians Some there are that heare the word of God and receive it with joy yet when tribulation or persecution doth arise because of the word by and by they are offended And such are compared to an house built upon the sands which cannot indure the weather for when the raine descended and the floods came and the windes blew and beat upon it it fell and the fall thereof was great Every sin is lapsus a slipping or sliding some sins are Casus a falling to the ground but the sinne of Apostacy and recidivation is Casus magnus a great fall for the latter end of that man is worse then the beginning We read of the children of Ephraim that they were harnessed and caryed bowes Psal 78.9 but when it came to bee Tempus pralii a day of battle they turned their backs even so many there are who seeme to stand as fast as mount Zion so long as the Church is becalmed with peace and plenty their profession makes as great a flourish as a city company upon a training day so that a man would thinke they would fight and die for their faith but if once it prove soul weather their lands liberties or lives be in danger God blesse their constancy and strengthen their faith that they doe not then begin to thinke that the differences of religion are but circumstantiall and that it is no wisdome to lose a substance for a circumstance and that there is a greater latitude in the way to heaven then before they dreamt of and thus staggering with the spirit of giddinesse at last fall and make shipwrack of faith and a good conscience The third and last effect is stupefaction and astonishment in these words 1 Thes 5.23 They are at their wits end Man is divided by S. Paul into three parts the soule the body and the spirit What the impression of a storme is upon the soule you heard in these words Their soules are melted in them because of the trouble and what upon the body in these They reele to and fro and stagger like a drunken man Now let us see what impression it makes upon the spirit or understanding in these words They are at their wits end and so I shall be at my workes end Some there are that read the place thus omnis substantia corum deverate est and then it is not that they are at their wits end but at their wealths end I confesse indeed much wealth hath been swallowed up by the Sea and as it is a Mine to some so is it a grave to others Some ships like Noahs Dove goe forth into the waters and returne backe againe with advantage as she did with an olive branch but some like the crow are sent out and never returne But the best reading is omnis sapientia as S. Ierom renders it all their wit and wisdome is swallowed up 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or omnis eorum peritia as Tremell all their skill and experience is at an end Or as Apollinarius They forget the art of navigation and their skill failes them And the like expressions have wee in the Poets Lucan Artis opem vicere metus nescitque magister Quam frangat cui cedat aquae May. Nil ratio et usus audet Ars cessit maelis Son in Agam. Feare conquers art the master does not know Which wave to breake which wave to yeeld unto We see then our industry and endeavour our wit and understanding cannot helpe us when God stands in our way as the Angel did in Balaams but the power and wisdome of God swallowes up the power and wisdome of the creature as Aarons rod swallowed up the rods of the Egyptians or as the crosse of Christ swallowed up the idols of the heathen or as the joy of the Holy Ghost which is glorious and unspeakable swallowes up all other delights and comforts So true is that of the Psalmist except the Lord build the house they labour in vaine that build it Except the Lord keepe the city the watchman waketh but in vaine In that storme in the Acts of the Apostles the mariners did what was possible to save themselves and the ship for the text saith they undergirded the ship and heaved their tackling and lading over board and cast anchors out of the sterne yet all was to no purpose It is said of the mariners in the Prophet Ionas 1.13 that they rowed hard to bring their ship to land but they could not because the Sea wrought and was tempestuous In the booke of Genesis we finde a Parliament and councell assembled Genes 11. many laying their heads and wits together to find out a way to secure thē frō the feare of another deluge at last it is resolved upō to build a Towre whose tops shold reach up to heaven But what will they doe for materials Their wit can furnish them thus far for by burning the earth throughly they bake it into brick and use flime for morter and now they are very busie in raising of it But God who resists the proud lookes down from heaven and confounds their language and now they have not so much understanding left them as to understand one anothers speech and their wit was at an end before their building was well begun Thus the power of God doth as it were play and sport it selfe in humane affaires Ludit in humanis divina potentia rebus and does whatsoever it pleases in heaven in earth and in all places And therefore let not the wiseman glory in his wisdome for God can infatuate it nor the strong man in his strength for he can infeeble it nor the rich man in his wealth for he can impoverish it nor the mariner in his skill for he can confound it but let us in every thing we put our hand unto implore his blessing without the influence and concurrence
FOVRE SEA-SERMONS PREACHED At the Annuall Meeting of the TRINITIE COMPANIE in the PARISH CHURCH of DEPTFORD BY HENRY VALENTINE VICAR LONDON Printed by M. Flesher for IOHN MARRIOT and are to be sold at his Shop in S. Dunstans Church-yard in Fleetstreet MDCXXXV PErlegi librum hunc cui titulus Foure Sea-Sermons in quo nihil reperio quò minùs cum utilitate publita Imprimatur Ex Aedi Fulham Sept. 8. 1634. SA BAKER R.P.D. Episc Lond. Cap. Domest TO THE RIGHT WORSHIPFVL The MASTER WARDENS and BRETHREN of the Trinity Company H. V. wisheth Grace here and Glory hereafter THese Sermons both in their preaching printing acknowledge thēselves yours For your sakes they were first made and it is not for their owne they are now made common I was put upon two evils either to print that which was bad or else by transcribing suffer it to be made worse I have chosen the lesse and God may bring good out of it Discourses of this nature are few yet great need have Sea-men of them debarred for the most part from the sweet comforts and many helpes which our Church at home affordeth Hee that considers the one will not condemne these Sermons for Wast and hee that is sensible of the other will not aske to what purpose are they Yet though others should cast dead flyes into this ointment my hope is you will approve it for bonum opus and afford it your Patronage And so I commit it to you and you to the protection of him that is able to keepe you God blessed for evermore Yours in Christ Henry Valentine PSAL. 107.23 They that goe downe into the Sea in Ships and doe their businesse in great waters AS the Power of God in the beginning laid the foundation of the world Nihil de nobis curare Deum dicunt Epicuraei Dei providentiam usq ad Lunam descend re asserit Aristot putatque Deum suis contentum esse finibus Ambros l. 1. offic cap. 13. so his Providence ever since hath borne up the pillers of it Yet the Epicureans and Aristotle himselfe as S. Ambrose witnesseth chained up God as it were and confined Him and his providence to the circle of the Heavens And as Moses was perswaded by his father in Law to Admit into his consideration none but weighty and important affaires and to transmit ordinary businesse to the deliberation of inferiour Magistrates So these foolishly perswaded themselves that God would not disquiet nor trouble himselfe with the government and administration of the world Scilicet his superis labor est ea cura quietos sollicitat sed Te nos facimus Fortuna Deum coeloque locamus Juvenal Cum turpiter flagitiose viverent ne perpetuo metu suppliciorum cruciarēuer hanc sibi consultatienem excogitare volucrunt Pet. Mart. c. 13. loc commun which is one of those Res exiguae which the Poet sayes Iupiter is not at leisure to looke after but rather that the world and all the events and passages in it are committed to Fortune But whatsoever they pretended Peter Martyr sayes well that they advanced this opinion that they might sinne with more freedome and lesse feare as the whorish woman tooke advantage from her husbands absence to admit a stranger into her bosome and to fill her selfe with dalliance till the morning But as for us we know that God is present in all places and that the golden chaine of his providence reaches unto the least and lowest of his creatures for can God bee ashamed to care for that which he was not ashamed to create No he hath made the small Wisd 6.7 and the great and careth for all alike The haires of our heads Mat. 10.29 30. Ad culicem pulicem Providentiâ mundus administratur usque ad folia volatica August conf l. 7. c. 6. the fowles of the aire the flowers of the field nay sayes S. Augustine the Gnat and Flea and the flying leaves which are tossed to and fro with the wind are all within the compasse of it And David in this Psalme tels us that the traveller meets it in the wildernesse the Captive in the prison the sick man in his bed and the Sea-man in the deepe waters for there is no place where God is not Now because I am to speake to you of the Tribe of Zebulun who are here met together to offer up your anniversary sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving I will single out the last instance and God make these Sermons as profitable to you as they are fit for you The whole frame and building stands upon foure pillers 1. The Mariners Profession 2. The danger of that profession 3. The deliverance from that danger 4. The duty after that deliverance The Mariners Profession is to goe downe to the Sea in Ships and to doe businesse in great waters Wherein we will consider these two things First that Mariners and all other men have a worke and a businesse to doe Secondly that Mariners have a worke of their owne in Ships and in the deepe waters and what that is First here is a worke and businesse to be done The Angels of what order soever have a businesse assigned them for they are all ministring spirits and are sent abroad for the good of those that shall be heires of salvation And the Scripture describes them with winges because they doe their worke which is the will of God with all readinesse and alacrity And therefore wee desire in the Lords prayer that his will may bee done in earth as it is in Heaven Man in Paradise must not be idle God imployes him and sets him a worke which was to dresse the garden And we that are the Sons and Daughters of Adam must not eate a morsell of bread till we have earnd it with the sweat either of our Browes or of our Braines He that will not worke let him not eate sayes the Apostle which Law if it was put in execution I thinke there would more die in a week of idlenesse then does in a whole yeare of all other diseases It is an old and true saying Otia dant vitia that sloth is the cause of sinne and idlenesse the fruitfull mother of wickednesse for by doing nothing we learne to doe ill Our Saviour couples them together Mat. 25.26 Thou wicked and slothfull servant And Salomon sayes that the field i.e. the soule of the sluggard is all growne over with thornes and the face thereof covered with nettles Prov. 24.31 Waters that stand still and have no current putrifie and breed venemous creatures Bodies that have no exercise grow obstructed with grosse humors Dead carcasses that have neither sense nor motion are devoured with crowes and ravens Certaine it is that when we are most lazie the devill is most busie for he watches his opportunity and sowes the tares of his Temptations when men sleepe David tarries at home and takes a nap upon his bed in the day time