as lyes or at the best as Conjecturall uncertainties but our faith must take into its vast comprehension Gods whole revealed will part whereof is this of the last judgement The last and dreadfull judgement will never affright us from sin if we look upon it in the devils dress of uncertainty for then we shall but sport with it and make it our play-fellow in stead of our monitor Let us therefore labour to make it by prayer and meditation to sink into our hearts Si nunc omne peccatum manifestâ plecterâ—tur poenâ nihil ultimo judicio reservari crederetur rursus si nullum peccatum nunc puni ret apertè divinitas nulla esse divina providentia putaretur Aug. de Civ Dei cap 8. and to beleeve it though never so distant from or opposite to sense taking heed lest the deferring thereof and the present impunity of sinners destroy or damp our belief of Christs coming to judgment considering that if every offender should now be openly punished men would think that nothing would be reserved to the last judgment as on the contrary if no offender should be plagued men would beleeve that there were no providence And let us beware lest we make that concealment of the last judgment to be an occasion of sin which God intends should be an incentive to repentance This briefly for the note of incitement c. Behold The description of the judgment followes Rev. 1. Jo. 5.27 and in that first of the first part The coming of the judg to judgment in these words The Lord cometh with ten thousands of his Saints EXPLICATION And here 1. the Title 2. Approach 3. Attendance of the Judg are all worthy of consideration by way of explication 1. Tune manifestè veniet judicaturus justè qui occultè venerat judicandus injustè Aug. Of the title Lord I have spoken very largely before pag. 344 c. p. 1. Of the greatness of this Lord the Judg as he is God and man I have also spoken pag. 527 528 529. The reasons also why he shal even as man judge the world I have mentioned p. 525 526 528. and how he excludes not Father and holy Ghost Nor wil it be needful here again to repeat the fitness of Christ for judicature Rev. 6.16 1 Jo. 2.28 Rev. 5.9 Rev. 19.11 Psal 45.6 2 Cor. 5.10 Rev. 1.14 1 Cor. 4.5 in respect of his advancement after his humiliation the necessity that the judicial proceeding should be visible the great horror and amazement of his enemies the comfort of the Saints the excellent qualifications of this judg in regard of his righteousnesse omniscience strength and fortitude c. 2. For the second therefore Act. 1.11.10.42.17.13 Aoristum secundum ponit pro futuro the Approach of the Judg in the word cometh Gr. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in which word Jude puts the signification of the time past for the time to come after the manner of the Prophets who are wont to speak of those things which are to come as if they were already past and this he doth for two reasons First to note the certainty of Christs coming to judgment it being as sure as if it were already Concerning this certainty of the coming of Christ to judgment I have spoken already pag. 536 Part 1. and in several pages before 2. Secondly to shew the nearness thereof Christs coming is at hand 1 Cor. 7 the time is short saith Paul its sails almost wound up The Judge stands at the doors He that shal come wil come and wil not tary If he were coming in Enochs time if in the first what is he then in the last times as these are frequently called come Lord Jesus come quickly Behold I come quickly Rev. 3.11 The Brides prayer and the Bridegrooms promise are both for speedy coming Rev. 1.7 Behold he cometh with clouds c. not shall come he is as good as come already Christ cometh to us either in spirit or in person 1. In Spirit he cometh 1. In the Ministry to win and perswade us to come unto him thus he went and preached in Noahs time to the spirits now in prison 1 Pet. 3.19 2. In some special manifestation of his presence in mercy or judgment The former when he meets us with comfort strength and increase of grace John 14.18.23 The later in testification of displeasure Rev. 2.16 John 16.8 2. In person he comes two waies 1. in carnem 2. in carne 1. Into flesh in humility in his incarnation to be judged 2. In flesh in glory at the last day to judg all flesh Where consider 1. Whence he cometh Where consider 2. Whither he cometh Where consider 3. When he cometh 1. Whence he cometh from heaven 1 Thes 4.16 The Lord himself shall descend from heaven he shall come in the clouds of heaven to heaven he ascended and from heaven wil he descend Acts 1.11 This Jesus which is taken from you into heaven shall so come as ye have seen him go into heaven And its necessary that Christ should come from heaven to judg because it is not meet that the wicked should come thither to him though to be judged for into that holy place can no unclean thing enter 2. Whither cometh he some think that the judgment seat shal be upon the earth that the sentence may be given where the faults have been committed and that in some place neer Jerusalem where the judg was formerly unjustly condemned and particularly some think it shal be in the valley of Jehoshaphat though that place Joel 3.12 contains but an allegorical or typical prophesie The Apostle seems to intimate that the place of judgment shal be in the air 1 Thes 4.17 where he mentions our being caught up to meet the Lord in the air it being probable that the judgment shall be in that place where we shall meet the judg in the clouds of the air and the Scripture saith he shall come in the clouds of heaven and then the divels shal be conquered and sentenced in the very place wherein they have ruled all this while as princes but over what place it seems to me a rashness to determine 3. When shal he come In the end of the world but the particular age day or year is not known to man or Angel Mark 13.32 this secret the Spirit revealed not to nor taught the Apostles who yet were led by him into all necessary truths and Christ must come as a thief in the night and as in the daies of Noah when men knew nothing And we are commanded to watch and to be ever prepared because we know not the houre The childish curiosity of sundry in their computation of a set year wherein the day of judgement shall be rather deserves our caution then confutation 3. The third thing to be opened in this coming of the Judg is his attendance in these words ten thousands of his Saints The words in the original are 〈◊〉
Truth and to give the glory of God reparations as it were by wiping off the blemishes cast upon it by foolish and ignorant men When we have upon grounded deliberation chosen our Love we should zealously express the love of our choice Sinners as they say of young mens thoughts of old think that Saints are foolish but Saints know that sinners are so Let not their prosecution of sin be more zealous then thy reprehension of it nor their opposition of any way of God be more hot then thy contention for it Let thy fire have more purity then theirs but let it not be inferior in its fervor The Christians Serpent must not devour his Dove How good a Master do the godly serve who requires no duty but such as he warrants in and rewards after the doing Satans servants are scepticks and he puts them upon such imployments in the doing whereof they cannot know they do well and afterward they shall know they have done ill and that to their cost 5. Corrupt affections blear and darken the judgement Observ 3. These Seducers hated the wayes of God and deilghted to oppose them and therefore they did not would not know them He who will be disobedient in heart shall soon have a dull head They who love sin will leave the Truth Lust opposeth the entrance of the Light Repentance makes men acknowledg the Truth 2 Tim. 2.25 Every one who doth evil hateth the light John 3.20 Men love not to study such Truths as will hinder them being known from going on in some gainful wickedness It s from unrighteousness that men imprison Truths They who thought the believing of the Resurrection would hinder their course in sin Prov. 28.5 taught that the Resurrection was past 2 Tim. 2.18 Lust perverts Light and makes men in stead of bringing their hearts and lives to the Scripture to bring to draw the Scripture by carnal and wittily wicked distinctions and evasions to both Knowledg is the mother of Obedience and Obedience the nurse of Knowledge 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the former breeds the latter and the latter feeds the former Of this largely before Part 1. pag. 616 617 c. Observ 6. Qui prius quam chord as exploraverit omnes simul inconcinnè percutit absonum et absurdum strepitum reddit sic judex qui singulas liâ—ga torum causas non pulsavis nec audivit stultam planè absurdam sententiam pronuntiet necesse est Petrarc 6. It s our duty to forbear speaking against any thing which we understand not He that answereth a matter saith Solomon before he heareth it it is folly and shame to him Prov. 18.13 As men are not to be commended so neither to be condemned before the knowledge of their cause As he causeth an harsh and unmusical sound who strikes and playes upon the strings of an Instrument before he hath tryed and tuned them so he must needs pass a foolish and absurd Sentence upon any cause who passeth that Sentence before he hath seriously heard and weighed the cause to which he speaks Herein Eli manifested his fault and folly 1 Sam. 1.14 rashly and weakly charging Hanna with Drunkenness Thus also David discovered his folly in giving credit to the information of flattering and false-hearted Ziba against good Mephibâ—sheth 2 Sam. 16.3 4. before he had heard what Mephibâ—sheth could alledg for himself Potiphar likewise shewed himself as unjust as his wife shewed her self unchast by an over-hasty heeding of his wives false and forged accusation against righteous Joseph Gen. 39.19 20 To these may be added the ignorant censure of those Scoffers who derided the Apostles filled with the Holy Ghost as if filled with new wine Inter triâ—icum lolium quamdâ—u herba est nondum â—uâ—mus venit ad spâ—cam grandis similitudo eft in disceruendo aut nulla aut perdifficilis distanâ—ia Praemonâ—t ergo Dominus ne uâ—i quid ambignum est cito sententiam proferamus sed Deo judici terminum reservemus Hieron Ut nobis exemplum proponat ne mâ—la hominum ante praesumamus credere quam probare Gr. Mor. l. 19. c. 23. Doubtful cases are to be exempted from our censure The wheat and courser grain saith Hierom are so like to one another when newly come up and before the stalk comes to the ear that there 's no judging between them and therefore the Lord by commanding that both should be let alone till the Harvest admonisheth as that we should not judge of doubtful things but refer them to the judgment of God Even God himselfe who clearly discernes the secrets of the heart and needs not examine any cause for his own information determines not by sentence till after examination that so he might teach us by his example the method of judging Gen. 18.21 Which is to know before we censure They who to make shew of what they have not a quick understanding and nimble apprehension will take off a speaker in the midst of his relation and make as if they knew all the rest of his speech which is to follow and others who though they will hear the whole speech out yet not clearly understanding it scorn to have it repeated again lest they might be thought slow of apprehension by their foolish and ill accommodated answers do often grosly bewray their ignorance and folly And this speaking of any thing ignorantly should principally be avoided by Magistrates and Ministers By Magistrates because their passing of a sudden and overhasty answer is accompanied with the hurt of others and withal by so much the more should they take heed of this folly because when they have once passed though a rash and unjust sentence Vid. Cartw. in Prov. 18.13 yet so great a regard must be had forsooth to their Honours by themselves already dishonoured that seldom or never will they be induced to retract or recal any unrighteous censure when once they have uttered it Which sinful distemper appeared not only in those Heathen Governours * In their censuring of John and Christ Herod and Pilate but in that holy man David in the case of Mephibosheth By Ministers likewise should this speaking ignorantly and doubtfully of anything be avoided whose work being to direct souls and that through greatest dangers to the obtaining of greatest happiness they cannot be blind Leaders and ignorant Teachers without the infinite hazard of their followers How unlike are they who will be Teachers before they themselves have been taught and Affirmers of what they understand not to him who spake only what he knew Joh. 3.11.32 and testified onely what he saw and heard Thus of the first part of this verse their malicious and unchristian ignorance They speak evil of what they know not The second followes their sensual knowledg What they know naturally as brute Beasts in those things they corrupt themselves In which words two things are mainly considerable 1. The sensuality of their
cruelty of those who embrace and follow false Doctrines The erroneous in their judgment may be left of God to apprehend so much truth and weight and worth in their errors that even that thing conscience I mean which by its light and tenderness hinders others from sin by discovering it to them and troubling them for it may being depraved by error put people upon sinful injuriousness to others and to think that they do God the best service when they are most cruel to his best servants And as it s commonly observed no feuds are so deadly no contentions so bitter as those upon which conscience puts men conscience urging more strongly then interest and as a good conscience is a thousand witnesses to comfort and excuse for what good we have done so may an erroneous conseience be a thousand weights to induce us to what evil we have not done And farther such is mans natural enmity against the way of Truth which opposeth his Lust and advanceth Gods will that if the white horse go forth the red horse will follow him at the heels and they who carry the light of the Truth shall be sure to be maligned puft at pursued Acts 19. Hence the idolatrous Ephesians cryed out with maddest rage Great is Diana And as the tide of mans inclination so likewise is the wind of all Satans endeavours set against the Truth He who is an old Serpent is also a red Dragon yea therefore a Dragon red and cruel because a Serpent false and deceitful He did not abide in nor can he abide the Truth As a Serpent he made and was the Father of Lyes as a Dragon he shields and is the Defender of Lyes To conclude The Wisdom and Power of God is in nothing more manifested then in overthrowing Error by the weight of its own cruelty and rage and in making the Professors thereof to increase by dying in making every Martyr a stone to break the teeth of those maddogs who bite them and to overcom by being overcome The professors of Tâ—ruth then have as little cause to be secure as the patrons of Error have of being cruel Never did the light shine but the wicked bark'd at it If righteous Abel was murdered when there was but one Cain what may he expect when Cains do so abound both in wrath and numbers Martyrdome came into the world early The first man that dyed dyed for Religion And how careful should Christians be that they leave not the Truth of God to avoid the wrath of men It s better to dye fighting for it then flying from it How much sorer an enemy is the great God then a silly worm And they who leave the love of Truth will soon leave their love to the Professors thereof Every Apostate is in the high way to become a Persecuter Lastly It may be a word of Comfort as well as Caution to all persecuted Abels Cains do not so much strike at them as at Truth in them and professed by them Joh. 17 14. I have given them thy Word saith Christ and the world have hated them God will vindicate his own cause Though the enemies are red with the blood of Truths Champions yet their great Captain will one day appear in garments made red with the blood of their enemies whom he will tread in the wine-press of his wrath and the blood of every Abel cryes with a loud voice for vengeance which will never give rest to the righteous Judge till all those who will not become the friends of his Truth become his footstool for rising up against it 9. Observ 9. Great is the difference between the sinning of the Godly and wicked The sin of the wicked is his way he delights proceeds is skilful in it sin is a sport to him he is a curious Artificer and cunning worker of iniquity he goes on and proceeds from one degree of wickedness to another When he performes any good duty it is not his way he rather steps into it or stumbles upon it then chuseth it walks in it Cains Sacrifice to God is not here called his way but his Sacrificing of his brother God accounts of men by the constant tenor and bent of their hearts and lives The Godly may fall into sin but he lives not rests not in sin He may like the sheep be thrown into the mire but he doth not like the Swine tumble and wallow and delightfully snort therein Of this more before p. 32 33 c. Part 2 He sins not with full consent there are some contrary votes in his soul against every sinful suggestion He sleeps but his heart wakes Holiness is his way and whensoever he is drawn out of it by some deceitful lust or by some seducing tentation he cryes out with David Psal 119.176 I have gone astray like a lost sheep seek thy servant He never leaves calling and enquiring till he hath got into the right way again and when he is so he walks more humbly watchfully evenly and mends his pace he gaines ground by his stumbling he doth not as wicked men wickedly depart from God A Saint falls 2 Sam. 22.22 and cryes I fall as a child that falls into the fire A sinner falls and loves to fall and is like a stone that falls to the center As there is much difference between the suffering so between the sinning of the good and bad As sufferings are on the Saints and not on them so sin is in them and not in them The sufferings of the Godly are on them as afflictive to sense not on them as penal for sin so as to sink and destroy them but the wrath of God abides on the wicked and falls upon them as upon its proper place to remain and dwel upon them so when the Godly sin they are not swallowed up of sin grace works them out again but the wicked lye soaking in their sin and as God speaks Lev. 26 pine away in their iniquity and if God should give them to live in the world to eternity they would live it in sin A Godly man is like a pure Fountain into which dirt is throwne though it be thick and muddy for the present yet at length it works it out whereas a sinner is like a standing water into which when dirt is thrown at the best it doth but settle and fall to the bottom and when it appears clearest the dirt is not wrought out but there abides and upon every stirring discovers it self A Saint lives not walks not in sin wickedness is not his way Whensoever he sins he looks upon himself as in his wandering not as in his way If thou wouldst try thy sincerity examine the bent of thy heart and whether sin be thy delight thy way or thy trouble thy disallowed aberration 10 Despair is the period of Presumption Observ 10. The contempt of Grace ends in the despair of Grace God graciously warned Cain he sins and despairs having sinned These
consciences and the judgments of all others 9. The empty are also unstable Observ 9. These clouds without water are by the Apostle said to be carried about of the winds The Apostle 2 Pet. 3.16 joyns the unlearned and unstable together and Heb. 13.9 he mentions the establishment of the heart with grace A heart then empty of saving knowledg and true holiness is soon unsetled and needs must it be so being not firmly united to and set into Christ by faith unbelief and distrust make a man carried up and down like a Meteor He who is not built upon the Rock can never stand if a Reed be not tyed to some stronger thing it can never be kept from bending and shaking where grace the fruit is not there Christ the root is not and where there is no root there is no stability Further where there is a total emptiness of holiness there is an emptiness of peace and contentment there is no peace to the wicked And he who wants true contentment will ever be looking out for it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 where it is not to be had without joy life is no life and if it be not gotten one way another will be tryed Who will shew us any good is the language of natural men they have still hopes to be better and like men in a Fever they toss from one side of the bad to the other in hope to finde coolness and refreshment but a soul that exerciseth it self in the ways of holiness tells every temptation You would draw me away to my lose 2 Cor. 7.32 35 Cor non tutum nisi totum Scinditur in certum studia in contraria Yet again a heart void of grace is divided in the service of God and therefore an unsetled heart t is not united to fear Gods Name it serves not the Lord without distraction all of its love fear joy runs not one way but having inclinations not wholly bestowed upon God and several ways of the hearts out-going from God being allowed its never safe and certain when the scales are even in weight they tremble and waver sometime one is up sometime another they who will serve two Masters God and the creature and are double-minded and will divide their hearts between them will often be wavering and shew themselves sometimes for Religion sometime for the world grace fixeth and weighs down the heart for God and to God and chuseth him onely Here 's the true Reason then in the general why men are so tossed and carried away from the truth of the Gospel they are empty of the truth of grace they go from us because they were never of us they are a Land-flood a Cistern onely receiving from without and void of an inward living principle and fountain 10. Observ 10. Christians should beware of unstedfastness of being carried away with any winds from their holy stedfastness in the truth Continue in the things which you have learned 2 Tim. 3.14 Be not as children tossed to and fro with every wind of doctrine To this end 1. Let the Word of Christ ballast your souls store them with the knowledg of saving Principles of Religion Empty Table-books are fit to have any thing written in them and a soul empty of the knowledg of wholsome truths is a fit receptacle for any error Do ye not err saith Christ because ye know not the Scriptures Mat. 22.29 Stones will easily be removed unless fixed upon a foundation He who buyes commodities without either weighing or measuring them may easily be deceived the Scripture is the measure and ballance of every opinion How easily may he be cheated with Errors in stead of truth who buyes onely in the dark Ignoran◠Christians are like Infants which gape and take in whatsoever the Nurse puts to their mouths 2. Labour to get your hearts fastned to the truth by love as well as your heads filled with the truth by light he who never loved truth may easily be brought to leave truth and to imbrace error He who embraced truth he knew not why will forsake it he knows not how the heart which hath continued deceitful under truth may soon be deceived by error a literal without an experimental knowledg of the truth may quickly be drawn to error from that wherein we find neither pleasure nor profit we may easily be enticed But when once we feel the truth both enlightning and delighting unloading its treasures of glory into our souls quieting our consciences quelling our lusts changing us into the Image of the Lord quickning our graces Seducers will not be able to cheat us of this Jewel because we know they can bring us nothing in exchange for which we should barter it away 3. Let there not be any one lust * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Theoph in Rom. 16. allowed within thee to loosen thee from the truth They who are not sound in the fear of God may easily become unsound in the faith of God A remisse heart will close with remiss principles The mystery of Faith must be held in a good conscience 1 Tim. 1.9 which some saith the Apostle having cast away have made shipwrack of the faith he comparing conscience to a ship and faith to a treasure therein imbarked which must needs miscarry if the ship be cast away any corrupt affection entertained the soul like an unwalled and unfenced City lies open to the rage and rapine of and ruine by any enemy If Seducers sute their bait to the unmortified lust of a sinner Prov. 25.8 he is easily made their prey Of this at large before Particularly beware of Pride the proud Christian Page 615 616 617 part 1. like a light puft bladder will easily be puft any way of Error a Bird of a very small carkass and of many Feathers is easily carried away with the wind Pride is the mother of Heresie the proud man it is who consents not to wholsome Doctrine but dotes about questions 1 Tim. 6.3 4. Humility is the best fence against Error an humble man is so small in his own eyes that the shot of Seducers cannot hit him and lies so low that all their Bullets fly over him God teacheth the humble but the proud person is Satans Scholler 2. Fence thy soul against worldly mindedness a worldly heart will be bought and sold at every rate The truth can never be safe in the closet of that heart which Error can open with a golden picklock The covetous both make merchandise of others 2 Pet. 2.13 14. and will be made merchandise by others The hook of error is easily swallowed down by a worldly heart if it be baited with though filthy lucre Take heed of being a servant of truth Fraus malitia haereticorum vel dolend a est tanquam hominum vel cavenda est tanquam haereticorum vel irridenda tanquam imperitorum Aug. for gain for if so thou wilt soon be a slave unto error for more
restraint as error No hereticks could ever patiently endure to be oppos'd whensoever ether the windes of Civil or ecclesiasticall power of sword or word have blown against the tide of heresies presently they grow rugged and boysterous These seducers spake evil of dignities Covetousness and pride which oftnest put men upon error are both impetuous lusts and impatient of resistance The thirst after gold and glory hath troubled all the world Seducers run greedily after their own gain and compasse sea and Land to make proselytes The Papists had never raged against Luther if he had not struck at the Popes Crown and the Monks bellyes And lastly the truth is when the heretical rage it s much out of cowardise for though they look highly and scornfully yet they are so conscious of the crazmess of their cause that they cannot but be angry with every adversary A sickly man cannot indure the sharp ayre nor a sickly opinion the sharpness of opposition They who are orthodox and contend for truth should hence be cautious Let them take heed of learning frowardnes of the froward God wants not our passions to promote his truth Let the fury of the blinde promote pitie in those who have eyes and let us break the rage of the waves only by being rocks of constancy resolution and zealous opposition In short let all those Magistrates who will be favourers of the erroneous consider whom they nourish and withall whether it be not the greatest imprudence to cherish their destroyers and to destroy their preservers and whether they never heard of some who in opposition to Church-Government have helpt up those that in opposition to Civil Government have puld down them 3. It is the lot of the Church to be amongst raging waves Obs 3. to be troubled and disquieted in the world The faithful on this side heaven are annoyed with the unquiet carriage of the wicked Psal 69.15 Psal 32.6 Is 59.19 Psal 32.6 The water-floods oft are ready to overflow them they are in the floods of great waters The floods of ungodly men saith David Ps 84.4 made mee afraid The people of God are oft accounted the troublers but they are indeed the troubled of Israel Ther 's no resting place for the feet of these doves in this deluge of sin and sorrow here below they are tossed up and down in their names estates bodies soules by their Enemies as by raging waves There is no more likelihood that they should be at rest upon earth than there is that a man should be quiet upon the sea nor is it indeed fit that it should be otherwise The windes of trouble and unquietness blow them profit and working waves work them much benefit Hereby they are made to long for their haven for that rest which remaines for the people of God If the world were a place of rest they would be too ready here to set up their rest and the thoughts of heaven would be troublesome and they would be ready to say and hope that they should never be removed and its good being here The world is too sweet to them now ' its so bitter they suck at its brests heartily even when the Lord rubs them over with wormwood Peregrinationes aerumnas non sentimus Oh what would they do were the world altogether sweet If they love so much to smell to it when it is full of thorns what would they do were it altogether roses The more Noahs flood increas'd the higher was the ark raised and the troubles of the world raise the thoughts and desires of the faithfull the neerer to heaven The fruitfull over-flowings of Nilus would hinder them from looking up to heaven for rain and refreshment tossings in the world make the people of God to be in the world rather patiently then delightfully Againe by the tossings of the world they are put upon that holy exercise of prayer He that would learn to pray saith the Proverb must goe to sea Raging waves make the people of God call and cry for help The Disciples call'd to Christ when they were tossed even the heathen Mariners in a storme cald every man upon his god Jonah 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 à 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The word storme in the Greek is derived from two words which signifie much sacrificing how earnestly did David and Hezekiah pray when they were upon the waves Musick we say sounds best upon the waters and so do the prayers of the Saints upon the waters of worldly troubles When he slew them then they sought him Psal 73.34 In their affliction saith God they will seek me early God oftentimes defers to deliver his people from trouble though they pray that so the praying which he so much loves may stil be continued As we use to deal with some Musicians whom we wil not presently reward for their musick because we desire more of it Again were it not for these raging waves the Saints depending upon and submissiveness to God could not be so manifested Every one will trust him in a calm it s only true faith that can rest upon him in a restless condition and see a haven through all the waves Nor doth God use to teach his people patience but by being passive tribulation saith Paul worketh patience Rom. 5.3 Trouble is esca patientiae food without which patience would starve Some say the Saints never can learn their lesson of patience but in the school of trouble And further the raging of the waves makes the people of God to magnifie their Pilot and preserver for his power wisdome love His power which keeps the Church like another Mesopotamia in the midst of the sea and preserves it from being overturned though not from being tossed and which bounds those proud waves so that they shall not overflow the Church even whâ—n the Sea of the wicked world is so much in power and policy about it His power likewise is seen in that in the floods of great waters they shall not come neere to the godly not to his soule to destroy its grace and oft not to disturb its peace it hereby appearing that even when the floods lift up their voice yet the Lord on high is mightier than the noise of many waters Psal 93.3 4. To conclude How plainly doe the wisdome and love of God discover themselves toward the faithfull when they are tossed by the waves his wisdome in making the very rage of these waves to praise him and in stead of breaking his Church onely to cleanse it and in stead of drowning it to carry it to its haven where it shal never be tossed more and so skilfully to make it saile with every winde His love in that he will not refuse to bear his people company when they go through the waters and to be their companion yea Pilot in a storm and then to give them a great calm within and in a word to assure them that they shall never be cast away