OUR SAVIOUR'S JOURNEY TO the Gadarens: OR The love of Christ unto man..  
Written by I. JONES Bachelor in Divinity, and Parson of S. Nicholas Acons, London.  PSAL. 8.4. 
Lord what is man, that thou art so mindful of him or the son of man that thou so visitest him.  
LONDON, Printed by Nicholas Okes, for Henry Bel, and are to be sold at his Shop hard without Bishopsgate. 1615.   

TO THE WORSHIPFUL THE TWO EQVALL SISTERS, Mris R. Io. and Mris I. Vass. john jones their son, wisheth increase of grace in this world and eternal salvation in the world to come.  
MOST dear and loving Mothers, the Preachers note in the 12 of his Ecclesiastes, and the 12 verse, against the scribbling Age wherein we live, That there is no end of making of Books, had once made me vow my life to obscurity: yet such you see, hath been the efficacy of your entreaties, that (for your sakes) that which I meant most private unto myself, I have now communicated to the world. Your entreaties have prevailed with me, and at the last you have what long you have desired. It is part of my prayers, that now you have it, it may satisfy the least part of your expectations. The abundance of your loves (I confess) at the first made you both to wish well unto me; and the desire of seeing somewhat for your money, hath made you more importunate upon me: but thus far I have been wary to myself, though that imitating of the prodigal Gallants of these our times, I have taken up of you good large sums, and do pay you here again with ink and paper: this is the only coin you are like to receive of me for your manifold charges bestowed upon me. Accept it then (I beseech you) kindly, and cast a look upon it now and then: so perhaps you may think at the last, that though your son hath misspent much, yet he hath not utterly lost all his time. It is yours now: for I have sealed & delivered it up for your uses; and sooner you should have had it, but that some men's fingers, who have delighted in theft, by chance, have stolen Divinity from the Printer to make them good. If they make that use of it, I am glad they have it: if to make use of other men's labours they stole it from him, this Copy will witness the work is none of theirs: and I would have them know, He seldom proves good that is grown old in theft and wickedness. But you to whom it doth belong, take it, and use it as your own, and command me, who doth desire to be employed by you, in all offices of love and duty. The God of love, who gives to all abundantly, and upbraideth none, fill you both full of all spiritual blessings; that as lovingly you have lived here, and have been beloved, so above, when this life shall leave you both, you may live with the fountain of love. Amen. London this 9th of March. 1615.  
Your very loving and obedient son, J. jones.   

TO THE WORSHIPFUL THE PARISHIONERS OF S. Nicholas Acons, I. jones wisheth all happiness in this life, and in the life to come.  
Worshipful and beloved my parishioners, having found out Godmothers for this infant of mine, it remains now, that I entreat you all at once to play the Godfathers part for the naming of it. And so much the rather I entreat you, and hope you will be willing, above others, to perform this duty, because you, best of all others, know the birth of it, being conceived and brought forth especially for your sakes: the original being Sermons which I preached here amongst you; and you I hope somewhat have profited by them. The law provides, that where the child is borne, there (be it never so base) it should be kept, and you must foster what is hatched amongst you. Accept then kindly what is kindly meant towards you, and continue to love him whose prayer is for you all to love one another. Almighty God increase his love towards you, and cause you, that as you are joined together in friendly neighbourhood, so you may be joined in hearty affection one unto the other: so that when this life shall have end, as you have lived and loved together here, so you may all join with the rest of the heavenly choir in singing lovely hymns unto the God of love. And in that confidence I take my leave, and commit you all to his protection, who for his power is able, and for his exceeding love, will keep you all in the bond of love. Farewell. From my house in S. Nicholas lane, this ninth of March. 1615.  
Your very loving and kind Friend: I. jones.   

CHRIST'S LOVE TO man..  LUKE. 8.22.23.24. 
22. Now it came to pass on a certain day, that he went into a ship, with his Disciples: and he said unto them, Let us go over unto the other side of the Lake, and they launched forth.  
23. But as they sailed, he fell asleep, and there came down a storm of wind on the lake, and they were filled with water, & were in jeopardy.  
24. And they came to him, and awoke him, saying; Master, Master, we perish. Then he arose and rebuked the wind, and the raging of the water: and they ceased, and there was a calm.  
THese words (beloved) of the Evangelist, now read unto you, contain in them, the journey of our Saviour unto the Gadarens, and in the journey a mighty miracle; he went unto the Gadarens, an ignorant people, the Epitome and Compendium of all mankind; men, that were more inly touched with the loss of their hogs, then with the sins of their souls, the true picture of covetous man, who so conforms himself unto his wealth, as that he accounts his life, his soul, his bliss, his good: tell him of his soul, and the torments of hell, he stands and stars you in the face, and knows not what your speech doth mean; touch but his hog, and the whole Country of the Gadarens will suddenly be up in Arms together against you: yet thither he goes, that so they themselves, might be witnesses against themselves, of their own deserved and wilful destruction.  
But in this journey there falls out a miracle; a miracle, I say, both to the astonishment and the confirmation of his Disciples: to the astonishment; for they mutter amongst themselves, what manner of man is this, for he commandeth both the winds and the water, and they obey him: to their confirmation also, that by confirming all his several doctrines with sundry miracles, they might believe that he was the true and only Messiah, that was sent into the world, to be the salvation and rdemption of it.  
So then in these words, we have three parts to be inquired into, according unto the three several verses here, every verse hath his particular part. The preparation for the journey, the manner of the journey, the miracle in the journey.  

1 The preparation in the first verse.  
2 The manner in the next verse.  
3 The miracle in the last verse.   
And every part hath his particular branches: there are four in the first verse.  

1 The time.  
2 The means.  
3 His exhortation.  
4 Their obedience.   
The time; Now it came to pass on a certain day:  
The means; That he went into a ship with his Disciples.  
His exhortation; And he said unto them, Let us go over unto the other side of the lake.  
Their obedience: And they lunched forth.  
In the second verse there are four things also.  
The manner of their travel, and the accidents that fell out in their journey, which be in number three.  
The manner of their travel, they sailed: But as they sailed.  
The accidents they be three.  

1 He fell asleep.  
2 And there came down a storm of wind on the lake.  
3 And they were filled with water, and were in jeopardy.   
In the third verse there are two things; the fear of the Disciples, the power and authority of the Master.  
The fear of the Disciples.  
1 And they came to him and awaked him, saying, Master, master, we perish. The power & authority of the Master:  
2 Then he arose, and rebuked the winds, and the raging of the waters: and they ceased, and there was a calm.  
Now it came to pass on a certain day, etc.  
This word here, Now, it does not point us out unto any certain time, as in many other places of the Scripture it does, as in Exod. 6. Nunc videbis, quae facturus sum. The Lord intending for to work his wonders in the land of Egypt, he says to Moses, 
Exod. 6.1  Now thou shalt see what I will do to Pharaoh. So Balac the King of Moab, desirous for to rid himself of his dangerous neighbours the Israelites, in Numb. 22. he sends for Balaam the Soothsayer, to come in all haste unto him, Nunc igitur veni & maledic, 
Num. 22.6  Come now therefore, I pray thee, come, and curse me this people, for they are too mighty and too strong for me. So old Simeon desirous to be dissolved, & to be with the Lord, he joyfully sings his Nunc dimittis unto the world: 
Luk. 2.29.  Lord now lettest thou thy servant departed in peace, etc. So our Saviour feeling of his death approaching, he cries unto his Father, Nunc ad to vento, now I come unto thee: But here this word Now it is not, as in those places, an adverb of time, but a Conjunction copulative, and signifies as much as Et, or autem, and so the Latin Translation reads it: Factum est autem, in una dierum, Now it came to pass on a certain day, that is, and it came to pass on a certain day.  
The time is set down in the following words; Now it came to pass on a certain day, there is the time set down; but what day that day was of the week, perhaps might be thought to be, both curious to inquire, and over-difficult also to be found out: he was sent forth into the world to do his father's business, and so earnest was he, in this Calling of his, that as the Tragedian speaks in another sense; Finis unius gradus est futurs, the end of one business, was but the beginning of another; and as the mathematician said, of the practice of that Art, Nulla dies sine linea, no day should pass over his head, without the drawing of a line more: so we may safely say of our Saviour, that no day passed over his head, in which he did not make profession of the Gospel unto the people: for he professeth this of himself, that in it, he took his sole delight, joh. 4. My meat (says he) is to do the will of him that sent me, 
john 4.34.  and to finish his work. And so having finished what business was convenient, amongst his own people, the next day after peradventure, set forward for this intended journey of his, without so much as mentioning of the day at all, and so It came to pass on a certain day.  
To keep a Diary of every days work of his, it had been a labour infinite, so many, so divers were the miracles, that were wrought by him daily, that Saint john testifies of him in his 21 chapter, it had been endless: For (says he) there are many other things, which jesus did, 
joh. 21.25.  the which if they should be written, every one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written; and therefore no Register being kept of them, they are posted over unto certain days. Now it came to pass on a certain day.  
Yet some probable conjecture might be given of the day, though no definitive sentence, to conclude it absolute: The Latin and the Greek translations they give us a little glimmering light of this same day, for they both read it the self same way, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 says the Greek text; and the Latin text, Factum est autem in una dierum, and it came to pass in one of the days: Now both the Greek and the Latin tongue, do often reckon One for First, as likewise many times does our English Dialect, one, two, three, that is, first, second, third, etc. And the Hebrues, they have no other word, to express their meaning in: and therefore whereas we read it in our English Translation, in Gen. 1. and the evening and the morning were the first day, 
Gen. 1.5.  the Hebrew Translation reads it; 
Haggi. 1.1  the evening and the morning were one day. So likewise in Haggai 1. where we read it, in the first day of the month, came the word of the Lord: they say, in the one day of the month, came the word of the Lord, having no other word to express their meaning. And the Latin, and the Greek, following of the Hebrew phrase, for the First say one, as in Mark. 16. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, 
Mark. 16.2  una Sabbathorum, where our Translation reads it, and very early in the morning, the first day of the week, they came unto the Sepulchre, etc. So here it is set down, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, one day, which day, may very well signify, the first day, and that is this day.  
But if it were this day, how comes it then to pass (it may well be demanded) that our Saviour is guilty of the breach of that commandment, Remember that thou keep holy the Sabbath day, etc. And in it, thou shalt do no manner of work, etc. which was so strictly observed amongst the jews, as that in the 12. of Matthew the Disciples are reprehended by the Pharisees, for but plucking of the ears of Corn on the Sabbath day; 
Math. 12.2  Behold thy Disciples, they do that which is not lawful to do on the Sabbath day. If it were not lawful for them to pluck a few ears of Corn on the Sabbath day, then surely, much less was it lawful for them to take their journey on the Sabbath day.  
Yes verily, even on the Sabbath day, it was lawful for them to travel, though not to make any long journey on the Sabbath day, and therefore in the Acts. 1, 
Acts. 1.12.  Mount Olivet is said to be from jerusalem a Sabbath days journey: which Sabbath days journey contained in it, as the writers do agree upon it, two miles in distance, the which it was lawful for them to walk on the Sabbath day; and therefore in the place before cited, in the 12. of Matthew, 
Mat. 12.1.  the Disciples were not found fault with, by the Pharisees, for that they traveled on the Sabbath day, but for that they plucked the ears of corn on the Sabbath day. But yet it may be demanded further (for we are fallen into a labyrinth of questions) how comes this permission of a Sabbath days journey, seeing all journeying, in the law, is expressly forbidden. See, 
Exo. 16.29  says Moses in Exod. 16. See, says he, for that the Lord hath given you the Sabbath, therefore he giveth you on the sixth day, the bread of two days, abide ye therefore every man in his place, let no no man go out of his place on the seventh day. If every man were commanded to abide in his place, on the seventh day, how then comes in this Sabbath days journey?  
Why certainly, I can give no other reason for it, but what Oecumenius and Lorinus do give, and that is, that in the time of joshua, he commanded it to be proclaimed, that the Ark going before, there should be a distance left between it & the camp, of two thousand cubits, by measure, as as it is Ios. 3. 
Josh. 3.3.  which was the just distance of two miles, whither it was lawful for the people for to go, to visit the Ark, even on the Sabbath day, and so may come in our Sabbath days journey.  
But yet we are not thus quite of our question though, for still it may be urged further, that this was more than a Sabbath days journey, for it was above two miles that he was to travel: 
Mat. 4.18. Luke 5.1. Josh. 6.1.  Saint Matthew calls it in his 4 chap. the sea of Galilee: S. Luke in his 5. chapped. the lake of Genesareth: S. john in his 6. chapped. the sea of Tiberias: a broad and large place, so that howsoever, he was still without the compass of two thousand cubits, his Sabbath days journey: how may this be?  
For this we say, that our Saviour Christ he did not journey on the Sabbath day, for the jews Sabbath, it was our Saturday, and that was the seventh day: but this was the first day, afterwards changed by the Apostles, in memory of our saviours most glorious resurrection, who died upon the Friday, and rose again the third day, which was Sunday, and therefore by Saint john in his first of his Apoc. is called Dies Dominicus, 
Apoc. 1.10.  the Lords day: I was (saith he) in the spirit on the Lord's day; that part then of the Commandment the Sabbath day, it was but Ceremonial, not Moral; for had it been Moral, it had bound us, perpetually, to the observation of it; but we see it was altered, and continues altered unto this day; and so we have a guess of the time, which is here set down indefinitely, a certain day, though no definitue sentence to conclude it peremptory: Now it came to pass on a certain day.  
It came to pass; Hear have our licentious Epicures, and our upstart Atheists, a ground & foundation (as they think) to build up their Chance-medley doctrine in the world; that things they come by chance and fortune, not by the determinate, and deliberate providence and disposing of the Almighty, For what greater argument of chance, can there be, say they, then that Christ himself, should in his own business, admit of a casualty, for the Text is plain: Now it came to pass, or it chanced, on a certain day.  
But their foundation, it is laid but on a sandy ground, for Aristotle, long since, though but a Heathen Philosopher, yet he could say, by the twilight of nature, that ignorantia causarum, the ignorance of man was that, that made blind fortune a goddess amongst men: for when they saw no reason for many things that came to pass amongst them, they did not conceive, that there might be a reason which they themselves did not see, but strait way they deified Fortune, & made her the author and bestower of them all upon the world, her that is so brittle a goddess, quae cum spendet frangitur, which is dashed in pieces by the least accident; whereas our Saviour Christ's rule is quite contrary, for he teacheth us another doctrine in the tenth of Saint Mathewes Gospel, 
Mat. 10.29  for he makes Providence reach unto the smallest matters, even unto the falling of a Sparrow upon the ground: Are there not (saith he) two Sparrows sold for a farthing, and yet one of them shall not fall on the ground, without the will of your heavenly Father: Then much more the weightiest matters, such as the Preaching of the Gospel is, which is the salvation of the soul of man, that shall not be done, but by a particular providence indeed, and that journey resolved on with mature deliberation.  
Fortune (as the world esteems it) it is but an Idol, made for foolish man to worship and adore, and he that will worship any thing, even the meanest of creatures, will not neglect it, wherein he thinks he sees some show, but as it is indeed in it own nature, it is Ordinaria potestas Dei, the ordinary providence, and direction of Almighty God himself, by which he brings to pass, what himself intendeth.  
This journey here of our saviours, it is undertaken with a singular resolution to do good unto all, even those that were most wicked and profane: So is it God's goodness for to superabound, where the sin of man seems for to abound. The heart of man for his wickedness it is termed in Scripture Abyssus, a bottomless pit, according to that of Ezechiel in the 17. of his Prophecy. 
Eze. 17.9.  Prawm est cor hominis & inscrutabile, & quis cognoscet: The heart of man it is unsearchable, and who shall know it? yet the mercy and goodness of God, it is far deeper than that, that is so deep, as that Saint Paul in the 11. to the Romans is feign to cry out: O altitudo divitiarum; 
Rom. 11.33  Oh the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God: And in regard of his mercies, he is termed by the Apostle 1. Cor. 3. Pater misericor diarum, 
1. Cor. 3.2  the Father, not of one or two, but of many mercies, and the God of all consolation; he is called the Father of mercies, to pardon all the sins that man shall commit against him, and the Apostle in the Ephesians tells us, 
Ephe. 2.7.  that when we shall need them, he has, abundantet divitia: gratia, exceeding riches of his grace, in store for us, if we ourselves will but willingly accept, what he shall kindly offer unto us.  
He does not take this journey here upon him, upon a giddy humour, but a discreet deliberation, to go unto them; and because he did go, therefore here it is said; it came to pass: Factum est, says the Latin Text, it was done, so it came to pass. Now it came to pass on a certain day.  
The second thing follows, the means, he went into a Ship with his Disciples: Now it came to pass on a certain day, that he entered into a Ship with his Disciples.  

1. Mac. 4.9.  It is the speech of judas Maeccabaeus, 1. Mac. 4. that when he was to encourage his Army against Gorgias his soldiers, he wills them not to fear their multitude, nor to be afraid of their assault: mementate, says he, qualiter facti sunt salui patres nostri, Remember says he, how our fathers were saved in the red Sea, when Pharaoh pursued them with an Army; if ever we should be mindful of any thing, than this particular we should not forget.  
Hear we have an example in this same Story of our forefathers, the Apostles, how they, and we in them, were saved, from the danger of a tempest. After that our Evangelist had showed what miracles our Saviour had acted on the the Land, he sets down now, as great a miracle as any of the rest, that he did upon the Sea, that so both earth and Sea might witness with him, the power and truth of the doctrine that he Preached to the people.  
Now it came to pass, on a certain day, that he went into a Ship, with his Disciples. He went into a Ship: Why what need now had he more of a Ship, then at any time else we read he had? Was not he the Lord and God of the water, as well as of the Land, and could he not command the one as well as the other? Was not this he, that for his people's sake, dried up the red sea, and made them to go through as upon dry land? Exod. 14, 
Ex. 14.22.  Is not this the same, that when it pleased him, walked upon the water as upon firm ground, 
Mat. 14.29.  and made his Disciple Peter tread there also? Mat. 14. Why then but for the passage over of a little Lake, would he have a Ship for to ferry him over? could he go upon the Sea when it was boisterous and rough, and must he be passed over a Lake, when it is calm and quiet? what means this passage of his that he went into a Ship?  
Yes (Beloved) he could have done it as well without a Ship as within the Ship, had it pleased him, but he saw it more convenient for him for to do it otherwise: He could have either dried the Lake with his word, as he did the red Sea, or have walked upon it at pleasure, as at other times he did, but here he would neither of these, he would choose rather, to go as a passenger, then as a Lord and Commander of what was his own.  
To dry the Sea with his word, or walk upon it at his pleasure, were arguments and tokens of his Divinity, but here he would be known to be a natural man, he came into the world to take upon him our infirmities, and to cure us by those, who long before were wounded unto death, be was our Physician and we all his Patients; now a Physician that cannot skill of his Patient's infirmities, shall hardly be able to cure those diseases, and how shall he be better skilled in our wants, then by feeling of them himself? he would feel our wants in this, as well as bear our infirmities in other matters: the Prophet Esay tells us what he hath done for us in other matters, in the 53 of his Prophecy, where he says: 
Esay 53.4.  Surely he hath borne of our griefs, and carried our sorrows; he was wounded for our transgressions, and by his stripes, were we healed: So here he would know our wants, in being passenger in a Fisher's Catch.  
Had our Saviour remained God alone, as he was at the first, what comfort on benefit had that been unto 〈◊〉 and or if he had taken human flesh upon him, and not taken our infirmities withal, he could not have been seen so well in man's miseries as he was; but therefore he took them that he might be well skilled in them, and being skilled in them, he might compassionate them, and compassionating of them he might thoroughly cure & heal them all.  
In this one journey then of our saviours, he did such things as might truly show he was truly man, and withal he might demonstrate himself to be the Son of the everliving God. He went into a ship & slept, that by both he might instruct us of the want of necessaries, that be in our nature, he rebuked the wind and appeased the Sea, that so he might show us the power of his Divinity. He went into a Ship: but not into the warspite, no man of war to do mischief withal, for though himself were come as himself professes, 
Luk. 12.49.  in Luke 12. I am come to send fire upon the earth, and what is my desire but that it were already kindled; yet he would not, as our Pirates now adays do, fetch his fire from hell to blow men quick up into heaven, that he hath left for those devilish hellhounds, without their greater repentance, that as they have served others, so they themselves at the last should be served, blown up with fire here, and perpetually afterwards be burnt in everlasting fire: But he went into a poor Fisher's ship, a ship of trade and labour, that so all things might answer in proportion both his birth, life, and death, all should be proportionable one unto the other.  
His birth it was poor and needy, a Village for the place, an Inn for his house, a Stable for his chamber, a cratch for his bed: what poor beggar amongst men, more miserably borne? jerusalem in Scripture is proclaimed to be the City of the great King, & what King greater than this King of ours, who hath both on his vesture & on his thigh a name written, Rex regum & Dominus dominantium, King of Kings and Lord of Lords: yet this great Lord will choose rather to honour with his birth, little Bethlem the least amongst the thousands of judah, then famous jerusalem the Metropolis of the world, little Bethlen I say, shall be honoured by his birth, when famous jerusalem shall dishonour herself, by his death & passion.  
In this small village of Bethlem, he neither commands Princely Palaces, nor great man's house, but contents himself to be borne, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Greg. Naz. speaks, in a base, and a common Inn, a place made for the receipt of the meanest company, and in that Inn he takes up a Stable for his Nursery, and a Cratch for his chair of Estate, a poor Carpenter and his wife for his privy counsellors, an Ox and an Ass for his common Courtiers, thus the mighty God, whose Seat is in heaven, and the earth is his Footstool, must be contented with the vilest place that vain man can find out for him, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, says Na●. Thus he that makes all other men rich, himself must be borne like a beggar in some out room; and he that is full of all spiritual blessings, must be as one who were void of all.  
His life is proportionable unto his birth, he is driven into banishment so soon as he is borne, and afterwards, above the course of nature, he is forced to fast forty days and forty nights, heb is scoffed at by his kindred, reviled by the Governors, cursed by the Doctors; called conjuror by the Commons, betrayed by his servants, scorned by the Courtiers, mocked by the Soldiers, railed at by the Malefactors, his whole life was nothing else but a map of miseries; wandering up and down he goes, not having where to repose his wearied limbs. Math. 8. The Foxes have holes, 
Mat. 8.20.  & the Birds have nests, but the Son of man hath not whereon to rest his head: The wilderness is feign to be his Couch, and a few poor Fishermen his guard to attend upon him; his provision is five barley loaves, and two small fishes, and what are they amongst so many? Ferried over here, he is, in a poor fisherman's boat, the vilest and most contemptible of all other Trades. But his coming it was in humility, and therefore he contents himself with the basest things; he, Whose the sea is, 
Psal. 95.5.  and whose hands prepared the dry lands, Psal. 95. He (I say) is mad passenger in a Catch, in a poor Fisher-boate, ferried over to the other side.  
He went into a ship, but he went not alone, he was accompanied with his Disciples, He went into a ship (says my Text) with his Disciples, he went with his Disciples, that so he might prove their faith upon the sea, as well as upon the  and dry land, every way he would try them, that so he might harden them against the time of affliction. Almighty God, though he knew Abraham thoroughly, yet he would try him in the weightiest matter, to see whether he would remain constant unto the end; 
Gen. 22.2.  as you may read at large in the twenty two Chapter of Genesis: Go offer up thy son Isaac upon one of the Mountains that I shall tell thee of, who holding of God's promise unto him, certain and sure, that in his seed all the Nations of the earth should be blessed, would rather trust in what he hoped for, then in what he saw before his eyes; before his eyes he saw nothing but certain death, and yet above hope, he hoped for nothing but everlasting life. Non haesitabat (says Saint Augustine) quod sibi reddi poterat immolatus, qui dari poterat non speratus, he no more doubted that his son should be restored unto him, after he was sacrificed, than he doubted he should have him before he had him.  
So our Saviour here, he would thoroughly try his Apostles in their constancy, in the nearest matters, not in the death of their children and sons, but in the death of their own selves, he exposes all their lives at once to a manifest danger, he carries them to sea: he goes into a ship, and his Disciples with him.  
Wherein they show themselves true friends indeed, and faithful servants unto their Master, who will not only accompany him in his labours, but even in imminent and manifest dangers, will not forsake him: so that our Saviour might well give that testimony of them, 
Luk. 22.28  that he does in the 22. of Luke, vos estis, ye are they which have continued with me in my temptations.  
And to digress a little from them, and turn the dial unto ourselves, we all know that Christ our Lord is much sooner found in affliction & tribulation, than he is in mirth & jollity: Christ, he is the Lily; but as it is said of the Lily in the Canticles: He is growing amongst the thorns, 
Cant. 2.2. Mat. 27.29  nay he is crowned with a crown of thorns, Math. 27. sooner found in the house of mourning, then in the courts of joy and gladness. Moses in the 3. 
Exod. 3.2.  of Exod. found him in the bramble-bush, 
1. King. 19.4.  when all the Egyptians miss him in their court. Elias in 1. King. enjoyed him under the juniper tree, a tree full of pricks, when Ahab could not entreat him in his seeled palaces.  
But yet the world is in a contrary vein, quite from this, they will follow Christ, in prosperity, but in adversity they will give him leave to be alone: upon the land he shall have followers enough, why he hath whole multitudes attending on him, Ecce totus mundus, says S. john, 
joh. 12.19.  Behold the whole world runs after him, but upon the sea, his train hath left him, only his Apostles they keep him company; He went into a ship with his Disciples.  
Whilst God rewards men with his gifts, for the service they have done him, so long he shall have followers enough, but if once their profession begin to draw blood, than Demas will revolt, & make shipwreck of all that before he hath professed: there are but a few that can endure this Baptismus sanguinis, to die their colours in grain, that so they may be known to be his Disciples.  
These kind of men I cannot more fitly resemble, then unto the usurers of these our days, who will willingly lend their money unto our merchants, but upon this condition, that howsoever the world go with the poor merchant-aduenturer, the usurer still will be sure to be a gainer by him; so these they will follow Christ in his glory, where they may reap their private advantage, but by any means they will not endure to hear of him in his cross and passion: otherwise, far otherwise was it with his Disciples here, both in prosperity & or adversity, they will be sure to be partakers with him, if their Lord will to 〈◊〉, than they will alongst with him; He went into a ship with his Disciples.  
I might here enter into a large discourse of our human baseness, and our degenerate nature, how ready all of us are to deny our Lord and Master; but I list not show that in words, which every one of us do daily act in our doings: we follow Christ unto the wedding, we acknowledge him our Master in the breaking of bread, and we honour him highly in the acting of miracles; but in perils, and in dangers, in losses, and in death, we do detest him: In every one of these, we set up this for our Mott, Vos autem non sic; far, oh as far as may be, let the least of all these be from us, let them not once approach the place, where we shall dwell. For we are like unto the Israelites in the 15 of Exodus, 
Exod. 15.1  who when they saw their cruel enemies, the Egyptians, drowned before their faces, and they themselves masters of the field, without so much as striking of one stroke for it, they burst out presently into cheerful songs, Cantemus Domino, let us sing unto the Lord, for he hath triumphed gloriously, the Horse and his Rider hath he thrown into the Sea: but presently after their provision failing them, in the very next chapter, 
Exod. 16.3  Exod. 16. they murmur against Moses, and mutter against the Lord, and feign they would return, to their Bricke-making in Egypt: so we, whilst he bestows wealth, and riches, and glory, & honour, and the like upon us, all that while, we think we have gotten all with a song, we cease not to say with David in the 81 Psalm, Cantemus Domino, 
Psal. 81. ●  sing we merrily unto God our strength, make a cheerful noise unto the God of jacob, all is well, and as we would have it; but if he once try us with the touchstone of adversity, if he make us to go through fire and water, we suddenly change the copy of our countenance, and in stead of giving thanks, we say with job in the third of that Book, 
job. 3.3.  Pereat dies in quae natus sum, & nox in quae dictum est, conceptus est homo, Let the day perish wherein I was borne, and the night when it was said, a Man child is conceived, let them follow that list, for we for our own parts have enough of the service of the Lord.  
Christ our Saviour, he hath far more followers of his resurrection, then of his passion, of his glory then of his troubles; but his Disciples yet above all his followers, they remained firm with him, and would not forsake him: He went into a ship with his Disciples. And so S. Paul tells them what they are to look for in recompense again, 
2. Cor. 1.7.  in 2. Cor. If they shall be partakers of his sufferings, they shall be partakers also of the consolation.  
Our Saviour here, he carries his disciples unto the sea, that so he might try them, in all kinds, before he sent them forth, to harden them against all storms of affliction that should blow, and to teach them to contemn the vanities of this world. In the world there are sudden alterations, & he would have them altered with none, he would have them to be men of courage, and bear adversity as well as prosperity.  
Will you see the changes of the world? I will only give you one instance Act. 14. Paul and 〈◊〉, 
Acts 14.11  at their first en●●●●e into Listra, they have much a do to contain the people from doing sacrifice unto them, as Gods; ●he Gods, say they, are come down to us in the likeness of men: whereas at the 19 verse again of the same chapter, for the good that Paul did amongst them, 
vers. 19  they stone him with stones, and throw him out of their City, a sudden alteration: As great an alteration is this here, with the Disciples; Our Saviour he honours them with his company, he gives them power over unclean spirits; but here he tries them with the peril of their lives. He went into a ship with his Disciples.  
He went first, his Disciples followed after: the Master he must be the first, that must show example unto the Scholar, and what he would have his Scholar learn, that he must teach him by example, as well as by precept. It is reported of Abimelech, a Prince and leader of Israel in judg. 9 
judg. 9.48.  that intending to burn Sichem, he took an Axe in his hand, and cut down a bough from a tree, and laid it upon his own shoulders, saying unto his soldiers, Quod me vidistis fucere, 〈◊〉 facite, what you have seen me do, make haste and do the like, teaching them by example to do what he would have done; and certainly the disciple will do it much more willingly, when he sees his Master do the same before his face: and if there be a master in mischief, he shall be able to do more hurt by his only example, than a number of others by all the wholesome precepts that they can read: therefore if we be wise, let us with Mary choose the better part, and so we shall be sure to be profitable indeed.  
The third thing follows: his exhortation; Let us go over to the other side of the lake.  
The power of our Saviour, as he was the Creator unto his disciples, and they his creatures, it was very great, what might he not have commanded them to do? he created them by his word, and therefore might have commanded them by his word also, to him executed and fulfilled the utmost of his will: the Potter he may do as he list with his clay, & no man to control him, and God dispose as it pleaseth him of man, and none to ask the question, why he doth so▪ he might have said unto his Disciples, get you over unto the other side of the lake, or follow me unto the otherside of the lake, and they were to obey: for he was their Lord, and they his servants, he to command, and they to do him service; and in equity and justice this he might have done, without any prejudice at all unto any one of them at all, even the chiefest and best beloved.  
But yet such is the love of God unto those that be his, and appertain unto him, as that he will do, he will evermore do in love and amity: he will not stiffly command, but kindly entreat at their hands; Let us go over unto the other side of the lake.  
Ecclesia Dei, vinea Dei, grandis nimis, says Saint Bernard, the Church of God says he, it is God's vineyard, great and high in the account of the Lord; and great reason indeed, is it (if we consider it thoroughly as we ought) that so it should be; great, yea very great in his estimate, who hath bestowed such cost & care continually about it, his own right hand hath planted it, his dear heart blood hath redeemed it, he hath watered it with his word, he hath caused it to shoot forth by his grace, he hath made it plentiful and abundant by his spirit, and can we think that all this cost of his, will not make him to have a regard unto it?  
Yes surely he hath both had, and at this day hath, so great a care over it, as that in the abundance of his love, he hath married himself unto his Church, he now is our husband, and the Church is his spouse, and thinking with himself, that, that unity is too little for it, he hath moulded us all into his own body, so that now as S. Paul speaks, 
Eph. 5.30.  Eph. 5. we are the members of his body, of his flesh & of his bones, and therefore must needs love us with an exceeding love: for it is the same S. Paul's note, in the same chapter, vers. 29. that yet it was never heard, that ever any man hated his own body, but nourished and cherished it, and therefore can do no less than speak kind unto it. Let us go over, etc.  
Hence forward then, when we hear of God's presence, let us not like our Grandfather Adam in Paradise, fly from the sight of him, for it is his love which makes him draw near to us, Noli fugero Adam, says S. Cyprian, do not says he, oh man, fly from thy maker, he is nothing else but God with us, be not afraid or terrified at the news of him: for he is with us in the flesh, he is with us also in the unity of the spirit, so that he cannot choose but love us eternally.  
Let not the sight of our sins so utterly dismay us, as that we shall think there is no more place left for grace to remain: for as S. Paul tells us, that where sin abounds, 
Rom. 5.20  there grace abounds much more, Rom. 5. and Saint Barnard shows us the means, how Christ and the sinner do meet in one; Cor, says he, est in peccatore, anima in cord, mens in anima, fi 〈◊〉 in monte, Christus in fide. In every sinner there is a heart, in the heart there is a soul, in the soul there is a mind, in the mind there is faith, in faith there is Christ; and this is that, says he, that the Apostle shows, when he says, that Christ dwells in your hearts by faith. 
Eph. 3.17.  Ephes. 3.  
When our saviours to furious Disciples, james and john would have had fire from heaven to consume the company, Luk. 9 Lord, wilt thou that we command fire from heaven to consume them there, 
Luke 9.54.  as Elias did? What was his answer? Ye know not of what spirit ye be; they cost him more than so, to confound them all in an instant, & he had much rather bring them home unto him in love, then destroy them in his anger: our Saviour is of a more mild and quiet spirit then his Disciples are of: for they sought the destruction of their neighbours, but God he seeks the conversion of sinners.  
When God showed himself unto Elias in the mount, there passed before him thunder and lightning, and storm and wind, but God was in none of them all, but in the still voice, he delights to be merciful, and is loath to take revenge, even of those that are his enemies: he is slow to take his bow in hand, more loath to bend it, loather yet to draw it, loather of all to let fly at his enemies: Esay 1. Ah, 
Esay 1.24.  I will ease me of mine enemies, and avenge me of mine adversaries, as though he were so loath to do it, as that it should not be done, if the controversy by any other means could be decided. If he be then so kind unto his enemies, no marvel at all if he speak friendly unto such as are his friends: Let us go over to the other side of the lake.  
But yet he is not more ready to ask, than they are ready for to obey, which is our fourth part, their Obedience, they launched forth; Let us go over unto the other side of the lake, and they launched forth.  
In the 11. of Saint john's Gospel, 
joh. 11.11.  when our Saviour puts up his request unto his Disciples, to go and raise his friend Lazarus from the dead, they refuse to go with him, Lord if he sleep he shall do well, say they; but then they had not learned their obedience fully: but now they were like unto the Centurion's servant, in the 8. of Matthew, he can no sooner say go, 
Math. 8.9.  but they go; come, but they come; do this, but they do it: no sooner in the ship, and says unto them, let us go over to the other side, but presently in all obedience, they launch forth the vessel; And they launched forth.  
This obedience of theirs is a triple twisted cord made of these three strands, humility in the heart, patience in the mouth, and perseverance in all good actions, and of such a cord the wise man says, Funiculus triplex, etc. a threefold cord is hardly broken: and every particular of these they learned of their Lord and master: for, for the first, humility in the heart, 
Mat. 11.29  it is his own speech, in Math. 11. Discite à me quia mitis sum, learn, says he, of me, because I am meek and humble in heart, and ye shall find rest unto your souls; for the second, patience in the mouth, it is the Prophet Esayes speech of him in his 53 Chapter: 
Esay 53.7.  Sicut ovis ad occisionem, he was brought as a Lamb unto the slaughter, and as a sheep before his shearer, so he opened not his mouth; and for the third, perseverance in goodness, 
Phil. 2.8.  it is the Apostles speech, Phil. 2. Obediens fuit usque ad mortem, he became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross: who could desire more than he hath performed?  
And this obedience, as he had it here of his Apostles, so doth he expect it also at the hands of every one of us that do profess ourselves retainers unto him, Humility, Patience, Perseverance, this is the best sacrifice, and the most acceptable, which we can perform unto him; let us all then study and endeavour ourselves in the fear of the Lord, to learn this one lesson, & so, if not in this world, yet in the world to come, we are sure we shall have our reward, a reward I say, which shall continue with us unto all eternity; the which God grant us all, Amen. And so we have finished the first verse here, the second follows. But as they sailed, etc.  
In which, as I told you, there is set down the manner of the journey, and the accidents that befell them: the manner of the journey, they sailed, But as they sailed, etc.  
The manner of the journey, I shall not need to stand long upon it, it is known unto all, they sailed, and besides their sailing, they have little other help to drive forward their movable houses.  
The profane Historians, in their Histories, do ascribe both the invention of shipping, and the Art of Navigation, unto one of themselves, to Atlas Maurus, and make him both the inventor, & part perfecter of that secret Art; but we which are Christians, we rather depend upon the Scripture, and say, that the use of shipping, and the Art of Navigation, they came both immediately from God himself, & was first revealed unto Noah, in the form of the Ark, Gen. 6. as likewise the use of the Loadstone, 
Gen. 6.13.  in these our later times, hath been by God's especial providence, revealed amongst us, without which the whole Ocean, as daily now it is, could not be made navigable either unto us, or any other people.  
The benefit of it is great, as we see daily, by daily experience the transportati-of goods, the commutation of merchandise, with other nations, the which is so necessary amongst men, that Baldus the great Lawyer, did not stick to affirm, the world would quickly be at an end, if merchandising once should decay amongst us, and in merchandising, the chiefest Trade we know is by shipping, and in shipping, says Seneca, this one thing is none of the smallest matters in the Divine Providence; Quod natura dederit ventos, incitatores navigationit, ut commoda cuiusque regionis, fierent communia: This is worthy of admiration indeed, that God should cause the winds to be furtherers of navigation, by which the commodities of all nations, are made known and common unto one.  
This same sailing in ships, it is called by the Psalmist in the 107. Psalm, 
Ps. 107.23.  Descensus in mare, a going down into the Sea, for so he saith, those that go down into the Sea in ships, they see the great wonders of the Lord; but this descent it is termed foe in respect of the shore only, where the Banks seem higher than the waters do, which are set as bars for it by Almighty God himself, which they shall not pass, as that holy man job speaks, in the 38 chap. of that book; 
job. 38.11.  where he saith; Hitherto hath he said shalt thou come but no further, and here shall thy proud waves be stayed: which bar is set for the safety of man, for else naturally the height of the water is higher than the highest hill, as may plainly appear in the seventh of Genesis, 
Gen. 7.20.  when the fountains of the great deep were broken up, than 15 cubits upwards did the waters prevail, and the Mountains were covered, so that the natural place of the water, is fifteen cubits at the lest higher than the earth: & the heathen Philosopher, by the twilight of nature, he could see so much, that Vicit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, that it was God's goodness only that caused the water to restrain itself, or else not on jot of the earth should be seen above.  
The earth it is the heaviest element, and therefore must needs sink down the lowest, and those that be lighter must float aloft naturally, but God for the good of man, hath altered the course of nature, and of the water and the earth hath made one globe, and hath caused that globe by man to be compassed about; and so much of the manner of their journey, they sailed, But as they sailed. I come unto the Accidents, the first whereof is, our saviours sleep, He fell asleep: The security of the just and righteous is very much: The righteous, saith Solomon, is bold as a Lion, and what ever befall his body here, yet his soul is like unto the heavens, above the Moon, that is always clear and quiet: so that as Livy speaks of Scipio, we may safely say of him, Is est cuius animum, nec prospera fortuna; flatu suo efferret, nec adversa infringet; He is the man whom neither prosperity can puff up, nor yet adversity can any whit deject: An example hereof, we have in our Saviour Christ here, who both upon the Land, and upon the waters, is Semper idem, one and the self-same party still; upon the Land he fears not the threats of the envious Scribes and Pharisees, upon the Seas he contemns the rage and fury of the violent tempest, no sooner is he in the ship, but presently he betakes himself unto his rest, he falls a sleep, But as they sailed he fell asleep.  
But then this place, gives leave to move a question of import; Was it I pray you (may some men say) with our Saviour here in this place, as it was with jonas in his tempest there, 
jona. 1.5.  jon. 1. no sooner afloat, but presently in his cabin, and scarce in his cabin before he was fast? How comes this to pass? and how shall we be able to reconcile the Psalmist and our Evangelist together? the Evangelist here saith, But as they sailed he fell asleep; the Psalmist again, 
Psal. 121.4.  in the 121 Psalm, speaking of the same party to, says: Non dormitabat, neque dormiet; He that keepeth Israel, saith he, shall neither slumber nor sleep: How may those two agree in one, or what is the matter that now he is said to be so heavy as to fall asleep? does he sleep in the Evangelist, and watch for ever in the Psalmist over his?  
Indeed if a man do well observe the course of the world, the felicity and happiness of the ungodly, the miseries and afflictions that the righteous are put unto, he may happily think, that our Saviour does not only slumber, as in this place, but indeed does nothing else but sleep out right, nay he doth altum dormire, nothing else but mind his rest; to see weary Samson grinding all day in the Mill, while the Philistimes are mocking him in their drunken sacrifices▪ 
judg. 16.25  jud. 16. To see the weakened Israelites, mourning by the waters of Babylon, whilst their faithless enemies, are bitterly scoffing and insulting over their miseries: Sing us now one of your merry songs of Zion; 
Psa. 137.3.  Psalm 137. To see the pampered Glutton, faring deliciously every day, and the righteous Lazarus starved with hunger at his very gate, Luke 16. This would make a man think our Saviour not in a deep, 
Luk. 16.21  but a dead sleep indeed, so that he might either say with David's fool, 
Psal. 14.1.  in the 14. Psalm, Non est Deus; that there is no God at all, to control them in their doings; or if there be a God, yet as Eliphaz says unto job, in the 22 of that book, Nubes latibulum eius, 
job. 22.14.  & circa cardines coeli perambulat, neque nostra considerate; That he hath enough to do to look to that which is above, and never consider what is done upon the face of the earth, all things go so preposterously, and out of order.  
For our Saviour to take a nap and away, had not been so much, but to be drowned in so deep a sleep, as with our Grandfather Adam to have a rib taken out of his side, and never to feel it; to have john the Baptist, the voice of a Crier, beheaded at the request, and entreaty of a whore, and yet to be silent for all that to; to be in a storm, and the ship ready to founder with water under him, and yet securely sleeping upon his pillow, might argue at the first sight, that he was overcome with sleep: He fell asleep.  
In many things, I say, we may think our Saviour is a sleep; for as he that is a sleep is still the same man, whether you commend any virtue in him, or discommend any vicious quality he is tainted with all, he is no more moved with your extraordinary praises, than he is abashed at your bitter invectives. So God oftentimes, he lets the wicked to shoot up and prosper, to flourish like unto a green Bay three, and enjoy the world, according unto his own will and pleasure, and the righteous again like a poor Palm tree, he is overladen and pressed down with the insolency of others, and yet God seems to be affected neither with the one, nor the others doings, he is fast a sleep and will not be awaked; in which regard the Prophet David, as weary of his long sufferings, & willing to be relieved in his distress, he is feign to cry aloud, and earnestly, as it were, to wake him out of the sleep that he is in, to come unto his succour. 
Psal. 44.23.  For thy sake are we killed all the day long, we are counted at sheep for the slaughter, therefore awake, why sleepest thou o Lord? Arise, etc. An earnest admonisher we see, and one that will not be silent, he doubles, and trebles his speech, Awake, sleeepe not, arise; that if he were fast indeed, yet his earnestness at the last would cause him to awake: and to speak truth, God for the most part seemeth for to sleep, that so he might be awaked by our earnest entreaties; for God, as Saint Augustine notes, amet nimium vehementes, is so delighted with our prayers, as that many times he does deny us our suits, that he might hear us continue earnest in our prayers. And again, if he should upon every motion that we make unto him grant us our requests, his benefits at the last would come to be contemned of us; we know it here an ordinary practice among men, cito data cito vilescunt, we account it scarce worth the taking, that is not twice worth the ask; therefore before he grant us, he would have us be earnest with him in deed to awake him with our prayers, if perchance he should seem to be a sleep. But when we have awaked him what then, is there any redress to be had at his hand? Why yes furely, even the same party that we mentioned even now, he found it at his hands, he was delivered out of his distress: Saul the persecutor, falls deadly upon his own sword, both to the destruction of soul and body, and David the distressed enjoys the Kingdom: Daniel is made protector of the Kingdom, and his accusers and enemies thrown into the lions den: though he sleep here for a time amongst us, yet one day he will awake again; and whereas all the time of his sleep he hath played the Lamb, & been patiented in his revenge, yet when he shall awake, he shall rouse himself like a Lion for to right himself of all his enemies, which if it be not in this world yet in the world to come we know it shall be to their greater condemnation.  
Noah we know, he slept a while, and suffered the scoffs and abuses of his wicked son Cham, but when he awaked, what then? then Maledictus Canaan, than he pronounces a fearful curse upon him for his lewdness: 
Gen. 9.25.  Cursed be Canaan, servant of servants shall he be: so, I say, if not in this world, yet at the end of the world, our Saviour he shall curse his enemies with a terrible curse, a curse of curses: Ite mal dicti, 
Mat. 25.41  Go ye cursed of my Father, into everlasting fire, a terrible and a fearful curse, from which God keep us all. But yet so he slept not here, in this place, his sleep now it was a voluntary natural sleep: But as they sailed he fell a sleep. The reason of sleep in natural men it is yielded by the Heathen Philosophers, and chief by Aristotle, the eldest son of nature; there are two causes, saith he, of sleep in man, Fumus ascendens in cerebellum, the ascending of the fumes and vapours up out of our stomach into our head, and so surprising of the brain, or else Corporalis, naturae fatigatio, the overwearying of our body with labour and travel, both which were truly in our Saviour, and yet neither the cause of this sleep of his, he had them both truly in him, because in deed he was truly man; but here in this place, as the Divines teach, he slept voluntary, as being Lord and Commander of his human Nature: As he is then the Keeper of Israel, the Creator, and Preserver of mankind, he cannot sleep, but as he is a Man, and himself made a creature, sleep was requisite, and necessary for him.  
But yet here, I say, he slept voluntary, he slept because he would sleep, he was Lord of his Nature, and might command it, which is not in us; for many of us, oftentimes would sleep, but cannot, and sometimes again, when we would willingly watch, our eyes are most heavy and overcharged with sleep: Illam noctem, rex duxit in somnem, saith the Text, Ester. 6. 
Ester 6.1.  That night the King would feign have slept, but could not; And again, the Disciples in the 26 of Matthew, 
Mat. 26.43  they could not refrain from sleeping, when they would have watched; and he came and found them asleep again, for their eyes were heavy; But in Christ our Saviour, there was no such natural imperfection; in the Wilderness, as long as he fasted, so long it may be credibily thought, that he watched also, both which we know, to be above the course of ordinary nature, and in the sixth of Luke, 
Luke 6.12.  he continued a whole night in prayer unto his Father, and yet we do not read, that he was overcharged with heaviness in the morning; he could sleep when he list, and he could watch as long as he list, and yet no impediment unto his body, but here he sleeps voluntary, that so he might give way unto a miracle: But as they sailed he fell a sleep.  

Mark. 4.38  Saint Mark recording of this same Story, tells us that he did sleep, In puppi, super ceruicale, He was, saith he, in the hinder part of the Ship, a sleep upon a pillow: after his pains taking of Preaching the Gospel upon the Land, he takes his reasonable rest in the ship upon the water; he rested his head upon a pillow, not stretched himself out at length upon the Epicures bed of ease, but only laid himself down, that so he might be up again upon all occasions; he was like in this business unto himself, poor and wanting, not having so much as a bolster of his own to lay under his head, but is feign to borrow the Mariners pillow, so are his birth, his life, and death, the one proportionable unto the other, and so much for this first Accident here in the journey, He fell a sleep.  
The second follows, And there came down a storm of wind on the Lake. What? a storm of wind come down on the Lake, and Christ our Saviour in the midst of it? Credendumne est, ea, ventos fuisse audacia? and is it possible, that the wind should be so audicious as to disturb, either the Sea, or the Ship, in which the Lord, both of heaven and earth, was carried in? that they should come violently rushing on, and ask no leave of their Lord and Master.  
Oh no, but rather as it was in the tempest that jonas was tossed in: 
jona 1.4.  The Lord (saith the Text there) sent out a great wind into the Sea, and there was a mighty tempest in the Sea, so that the Ship was like to be broken: So in this tempest here, though perhaps it was not sent of the Lord, yet by the permission of the Lord we know it came, that so he might show his power and authority unto his Disciples: There came down a storm.  
Where first we observe an alteration, & surely it is worthy our observation to, to mark that where our Saviour comes, what alterations he always makes amongst men; no sooner is he come into the world, but Herod, and his bloody Council, lay trains to entrap his life, and cast about with themselves, for the compassing of their devilish plot, 
Math. 2.3.  Math. 2. a sudden and unexpected alteration amongst the Courtiers: No sooner is he entered into jerusalem, but the whole City is strait in an uproar about him, saying, 
Mat. 21.10.  Who is this? as sudden and unexpected an alteration amongst the Citizens; no sooner is he come into the heart of Mary Magdalen, 
Luke 8.2.  but presently she is quit of seven devils at once, as strange an alteration as any of the former: No sooner is he come into Saul, 
Acts 9.4.  who breathed out threatenings & slaughters against the Disciples, but of a violent persecutor, he is become as vehement a Preacher, the greatest alteration amongst the rest; no sooner here upon the Sea, which before was calm and quiet, but suddenly a storm and gust of wind; And there came down a storm of wind upon the Lake, etc. A storm of wind upon the Sea, and in the presence of the Lord to? Why, how every place is subject unto danger, there is no security any where left for man, no not the presence and company of the Almighty: Nusquam est securitas, neque in coelo, neque in Paradiso, multo minus in hoc mundo, There is no place left for security (saith S. Ber.) neither heaven above, nor blissful Paradise, much less this troublesome and tempestuous Sea of this present world wherein we live: Lucifer one of the greatest Angels fell in heaven, in the presence of the Divinity; Adam in Paradise, a place of pleasure; judas in the world in the school of our Saviour; let no man then presume, for that is a rock that will dash us into pieces; neither yet again let any man despair, for that is a whirlpit, that will swallow us up quick, both are high ways to eternal perdition both of body and of soul. We must not despair, for therefore God took upon him our own nature; we must not presume, for therefore is that Man jesus Christ, become God to punish our offences: we must not despair, For as I live, 
Eze. 18.32. Rom 6.23. 1. Tim. 1.15  I will not the death of a sinner: we must not presume, for the wages of sin is death, saith S. Paul; we must not despair, for Christ came into the world is save sinners: We must not presume, for he came not to call the righteous but sinners to repentance; we must not despair, 
Eze. 18.21  for at what time soever a sinner doth repent him of his sins from the bottom of his heart, I will blot out his iniquity out of my remembrance, saith the Lord: We must not presume, for what art thou o man, that boasts thyself against thy Maker? And what hast thou that thou hast not received? 
1. Cor. 4.7.  we must not despair, for where sin aboundeth, 
Rom. 5.20  there grace aboundeth much more: We must not presume, for shall we sin that grace may abound? God forbidden: but as near as we can, keep an even path, between despair of God's mercies, 
Mat. 23.12  & the pride of our own merits; For he that exalteth himself shall be brought low, and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted. Let us strive then with the Apostle to make our calling & election sure, for he that doth these things shall never fall, but let us still withal, work as the same Apostle doth advise us; Cum timore & tremore, 
2. Cor. 7.15  with fear and trembling; and as often as desperation shall offer for to fear any of us, let us in the fear of God, with holy Bernard, Recolligera summum Dei misericordiam, call into our remembrances, and apprehend it withal, the infinite mercies of Almighty God, such as he hath in store, for all those that call upon his name; and when presumption again shall be at our elbows, ready for to puff us up, let us also with the same S. Bernard, Recolligere i●stitiam, domini exercituum, think upon his justice, who spared not his highest Angels.  
There came down a storm of wind upon the lake. etc. The world is the lake, upon which the Apostles, and all we that do now live, do every hour float; afflictions & troubles they are the storms that are sent down upon us, to the trial of our faith, and the perfecting of our obedience, & at the first they are bitter unto us, and we ourselves are fainthearted in them: when the least storm of affliction doth but approach us, then suddenly, with the children of the Prophets, in 2. King. 4. we cry unto the man of God, O vir dei mors in olla, 
2. King. 4.40.  we are undone, for there is nothing but death & despair before our eyes, but our deliverance again from our troubles, that is like the Prophet's meal, in the same place to sweeten the pot again, and to restore ourselves unto ourselves.  
And if he be fainthearted in his troubles, he need not much for to wonder at it neither, for he knows well, both what he is, and whereof he was made: our Saviour in the second of Canticles likens him unto a Lily, 
Cant. 2.2.  a tender flower; As the Lily amongst the thorns, so is my love amongst the daughters: the Lily, says S. Bernard, nec vel le●issimam, spinae, sustinet punctionem, floris teneritudo, sed mox ut modice premitur, perforatur, it will not endure the least touch of a thorn, but so soon as it is pricked, so soon it is run through withal: so is it with man, the least affliction is ready to make him to sink under the burden of it.  
And yet very necessary it is for him, that some persecution he should endure, that so he may be known unto whom he doth belong: Non dedignandum in servo, quod praecessit in domino, saith S. Augustine: let not the servant, says he, think scorn to suffer that which he sees his master hath suffered before his face: for the servant is not greater than his master, if the head were crowned with a crown of thorns for the safeguard of the body, why then let not the foot think much to catch a thorn in defence of the head again, it is his duty for to hazard all.  
And necessary also it is for him, to be kept under in a second regard: for man, as Clem. Alex. speaks, is like unto a vine: now a vine, as he there speaks, and we all know, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, unless it be pruned, it will strait way grow wild; so man, if he have not some affliction laid upon him, to keep him under, he will forget himself, and be ready to spurn against his maker, which makes S. Augustine so violently to cry out, Hic vre domine, hic seca, punish me here O Lord in this life, and so in the life to come I shall be sure thou wilt forgive me.  
Be it then a loss of our goods which we suffer here, why says Saint Ambrose, Deus nos dispensatores, reliquit, non haredes: God, says he, he makes us his stewards here, not his heirs, he may call for an account particularly of every one of us, whensoever it pleaseth him, either now at this instant, or else at any other time when it shall seem better unto his majesty; and God grant that we may all be ready to give up a just and a true account unto him.  
This same dropsy and thirst after riches which the world hath gotten, is not natural, but a corruption of our nature, Nescit natura divites, quae omnes, ex aequo pauperes generat, says S. Ambrose: Nature says he, doth acknowledge no rich man, who of equal condition hath made all poor: for naturally, one is provided of no more, then is another, but all of us as we came into the world, so we shall go again, and how we came and must go, holy job doth declare, job. 1.21. Naked came we out of our mother's womb, 
job. 1.21.  and naked must we return again, the Lord giveth, and the Lord taketh away, and blessed for all be the Name of the Lord.  
Man, for a time, may have the use of God's good creatures here, some more, some less, as it pleaseth him; but none, not the least of them, shall he be able to carry away with him, when he shall departed this present life. It is re-por-ted of the mighty Saradine, the Prince and governor of eleven Nations, that when he felt death begin to approach, he commanded his winding sheet to be spread in his Camp, with this Proclamation, Hear is all, of all the riches, that great Saradine shall carry away with him: And yet, if he had cast his cards right, he should have found he should not have had that: for that should carry him away, not he that, and therefore in vain was that Proclamation.  
But yet in this affliction of goods, it is not the usual wont of Almighty God, when he calls men to account, to bereave them of all that they have, and leave them just nothing, and so departed from them: he will leave them his grace at the least, to appease & quiet their souls within them; but yet he will restore them temporal goods to, when he shall see good, as we may read in the story of job, he took much from that holy man, hundreds of Oxen, 
job. 1.3.  thousands of Camels, job. 1. but yet he took not so much from him though, but that he returned him twice as much again, 
job. 42.10.  job. 42. Whereupon saith Saint Origen, Vide quid est amittere aliquid pro Deo, hoc est, multiplicata recipere tibi. See, says he, what it is to lose any thing for the Lords sake: it is to receive it augmented, and multiplied again into our bosoms: and we know all, what our saviours promise in this kind is, in the tenth of Mark, There is none, says he, that hath left house, or brethren, 
Mark. 10.30.  or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife or children, or lands, for my name sake, and the Gospels, but he shall receive an hundred fold now in this time, houses, and brethren, and sisters, and mothers, and children, and lands: I but how shall he receive all this, the next words following shall make all plain, cum persecutione, with persecution and trouble he shall receive them all, to teach him not to set his mind too much upon them, but to expect his reward indeed in a better life, the iife come.  
Be it again a sickness of the body, or a grief & sorrow of the mind, which we do sustain, Certamen est non faenitia, says Seneca the Philosopher, it is but a trial of our patience, no outrageous tyranny; and the more we shall be exercised in this kind, the more able we shall be to endure the misery of it, and withal it is an argument of his love, and kindness unto us, so the Apostle tells us, Heb. 12. 
Heb. 12.7.  Whom the Lord loveth he chastiseth, saith he, and scourgeth every son that he receiveth: we are not without fault, we know, that we should deserve no correction, and he again when he striketh us, he doth it not out of any hatred unto us: for as S. Cyprian speaks, he doth it for no other end & purpose, but only to amend us, and what is his intent in amending us, but eternally to save us? & then what great hurt is there in whatsoever he doth unto us?  
Should he intend our destruction, why he might, if it pleased him, once for all, take revenge upon us for all our offences, with the breath of his nostrils he might consume us quite (for what are we but Crickets and Grasshoppers in comparison of him?) and so might quickly confound all the strength we have: but God he delighteth more in mercy, to be pitiful, then in justice to take revenge upon mankind, Misericordia, supra omnia opera mannum ipsius, his mercy is over all his works, and God in his fury does not forget his mercy, but in it remembers to be pitiful, even unto his enemies.  
He meant to plague the Egyptians, when he showed his power so strange amongst them, yet the very choice of his weapons did show his love & kindness unto them, he might have brought upon them, an Army of Bears, Wolves, Tigers, or Lions, Beasts that know no mercy, but live altogether upon the spoil; but he refused them all, and a more mild revenge he would make to serve his turn, a poor Caterpillar, and a weak Grasshopper, shall be the scourge of his mighty power.  
And if he then deal so kindly with his enemies, yea, even with those, where yet he purposes to get himself a name, as he himself professes unto Moses: Exod. 14. then surely, 
Exod. 14.4  he will be much more kind and merciful unto his own children, such as he professes himself to have a care over. A mild rod indeed shall serve his turn amongst them, the rod of the root of jesse, 
Num. 17.10.  which flowered amongst the other rods: that so the sweetness of the flower might mitigate the severity and sharpness of the rod; a lingering ague, or a pining consumption shall bring us home gently unto our father.  
Be it persecution unto death, why unto salomon's throne, there is purpureus ascensus, Cant. 3. there is a purple ascent, 
Cant. 3.10  and all is still unto the beauty and perfection of the Church. The perfectest beauty, we all know, it is the perfectest mixture of red and white; in the former part, the sickness of the body, there was whiteness, as the lilley; and here in martyrdom, there is redness, as the rose: the Church it has both her lilies, and her roses to adorn her beauty.  
Martyrdom, it is termed by the ancient Fathers, a fire, which God suffers to be kindled here upon the earth, to the trial of man, and so S. Aug. calls it: where speaking of Martyrdom, he says, Inventus est ignis, qui unum ditet, alterum damnificet, ambos probet: behold, says he, here is a fire found out, which shall enrich the one, and damnify the other, but yet prove both: the godly and the righteous it shall enrich, with eternal happiness, but the wicked and the reprobate, it shall consume to dust and ashes; it shall try both thoroughly, what metal they be made of. But in the trial, this shall be the comfort of the godly man, that he shall not be left desolate in this furious flame: visitat deus & in carcere suos, & ibi plus est auxilij, ubi semper plui est periculi, saith S. Amb. God he will not forsake, but come to visit his, when they lie in the dungeon, as he did his servant joseph, and still, where there is most danger, there still he will be sure to afford most aid and comfort: and the reason of it we need not much wonder at, 
Mat. 25.43  when as in the 25. of Math. he does profess it himself, that he himself it is, that is so handled in his members: in carcere eram & visitastis me, I was in prison, says he, and ye came unto me: if then he will be with them in their torments in prison, then surely at the stake he will not be absent, but there he will assist with all means needful: I, there he has been known to have been present indeed, with many of our land, and many yet at this day are left alive, which can testify, the sweetness that the Martyrs felt, in the midst of these flames, how joyfully they embraced that death of theirs.  
And no marvel neither, though they died with undaunted courage, when the sense of pain was taken quite from them, Nil crus sentit in neruo, cum manus est in coelo, says Tertull. the sinews, saith he, of the hand can feel but little pain, I trow, in the flame, when the whole hand, before, is in the bosom of the Lord: then so many wounds, they are but so many open mouths, to carol out the praises of a merciful God: and so much for this second Accident, there came down a storm of wind upon the lake, etc.  
The 3d. and last Accident follows, and they were filled with water and were in jeopardy. Hitherto we have heard, as our Saviour Christ speaks himself, in the 13. of Mar. a rumour of war, 
Mar. 13.7.  but thanks be to God, we have felt no war: we have heard a noise of the wind, but now we are come to the trouble of the water. The Apostles here, they were not, as sometimes their forefathers were, 
Exod. 14.  in the 14. of Exod. in the red sea, but now they are come in marimortuo, they are overwhelmed in the dead sea: their lives are called in question. They were filled with water, says the text, and they were in jeopardy.  
To be in a storm, and gust of wind, there is no great matter of moment in that: many a poor soul amongst us, has endured many of them, and done well after them all too; and many daily, we hear, do endure their rigour: but when their ship is foundered with water under them, when life and soul are ready to shake hands, and departed this present world, than it is high time, to cry out for help unto the Lord: Serua nos domine, perimus: help master or else we all perish. They were here in a great extremity, they were filled with water and they were in jeopardy.  
Saint Peter, in the 12. of the Acts, 
Acts 12.4.  he heard a loud storm, and a terrible blustering wind, when in prison he was clapped up by Herod, at the request of the jews, & his life was threatened too: but Saint Stephen in the 7. of the Acts, 
Acts 7 58.  he was in the shower, when such a shower of stones were reigned upon him, that even in the first moment he gave up the ghost. The noise then here of the water, it is the tumult of the people: for (beloved) there is a great affinity between these two, the water, and the people: and to show how near the one comes unto the other, the Psalmist, 
Psal. 65.7.  in the Psal. 65. in one verse there, he joins them both together, which stillest, says he, the raging of the sea, and the noise of his waves, and the madness of the people. Their tumult, it is so great, as that he can liken them, to nothing else but to the sea, in his rage, which bears down all that does withstand it.  

Acts 14.5.  Paul and Barnabas, they were in a tempest, in the 14. of the Acts, when they were so despitefully used by the jews at Iconium, as that they looked every minute to have their lives taken away from them: but Saint james, he was wet with the shower, when his head was taken off by Herod, and his body wallowed in his own bloody gore, Acts 12. 
Acts 12.2.   
The Devil he is the author of these gusts and storms, for he sends them down from his airy mansion, where he rules and domineers, 
Ephes. 2 2  Ephes. 2. and by his boisterous blasts still seeks to cross the proceed of the Lord: we may even see it in Christ our Saviour, how he seeks to thwart and hinder his courses. Has God, says he, anointed him with the oil of gladness above his fellows? I will see if I can anoint him again with the oil of sadness above his fellows; has he been baptized with water and the holy Ghost? I will provide for him another baptism, namely of fire; has God sent down the holy ghost, in likeness of a Dove, and caused it to light upon his head? then I will cause tribulation, and a crown of thorns, to crown his temples as well as it; has there a voice come from heaven, saying, this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased? then I likewise will provide a voice for him, from the foot of the ladder, which shall say, if thou be the son of God, come down from the cross, and save thyself. Thus still he is contrary unto God, in his courses, & raises his storms to the hindrance of the Gospel: and if he have done thus in Christ our Saviour, then what may we expect, which be his members? surely the utmost of perils that his wit can invent.  
Yet this may be our comfort, in our troubles, that howsoever our afflictions be, yet the Devil has not the rod, in his own hands: but the holy ghost, to order and direct them still, as may best serve both for his glory, and our good. And as for the Devil, he has bound him fast, so that would he never so feign, he can stir but to the length of the chain he is linked in.  
Yet if our danger be such, as that he seeks to stop our breaths, and sink us right down with the multitude of his waves, then let this teach us this lesson with the Apostles here in this place, to stick close unto our Saviour, & not forsake him, the rock of our defence: & then we shall not need to fear, though the winds blow, & the seas beat, and the waves rage, yet we shall be secure, and at the last arrive where we all hope for to come one day at our wished-for haven in heaven; which God grant. And so much for this 3d accident, and this 2d verse.  
The 3d verse follows, in which is contained the miracle in the journey, his calming of the wind, and appeasing of the waters, the which of itself, without any other help, will win our attentions to the hearing of it: for no man is so serious, but that he will be at leisure for the acting of a miracle, how ever busied in other affairs. In which there are 2 points to be considered of us; the fear of the Apostles, the power and authority of our Saviour: the fear of the Apostles, than they came to him, and awaked him, saying, Master, master, we perish: Of that first.  
Man, he is not a mere block, or stone, without sense or apprehension, so that he cannot be moved, either with his passion, or with his affection, (for that conceit of the Stoics was hissed out of the schools many a day since) he hath them both truly and naturally within himself: he hath, I say, both his affections, and his passions, engrafted into his nature, and every one of them, they have their several voices, per quas etiam cum nolunt, se produnt, saith Saint Ber. through which either willingly, or many times against their wills, they betray themselves to the standers by. joy, it hath a cheerful voice; grief, it hath a doleful voice; & fear, it hath a timorous voice; which passion of fear is none of the least, but does possess man as much as any other, & makes him to utter such an uncouth noise, as is heard here amongst the Disciples, Master, Master, we perish. The inward fear wherewith the Apostles were possessed in this place, was that which made them make this lamentable cry unto our Saviour for help and protection in their greatest extremity.  
They came unto him quia timuerunt, says Saint Aug. because they were afraid; and great reason had they, (if we shall consider it well) to fear indeed: a loud storm of wind, whistling over their heads above, a raging and grown sea beneath under feet, nothing but death before their eyes: and death will make the stoutest courage for to quail.  
Death, says Aristotle, it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, the most terrible of all things, that seem terrible unto us: it will make us set our throats upon the taynter-hookes, and lift up our voices like trumpets, and therefore, well said the Devil in the second of job, 
job 2.4.  pellempro pelle, skin, for skin, says he, and all that ever a man has will he give for his life, so that he may enjoy that, if it be but even for a moment longer; and therefore they had great reason to be afraid, when both the elements, the air and water, the wind and seas, had conspired against them.  
They had reason to fear, as all men have: they knew what they were, or if they were to learn, Saint Gregory could instruct them that they are fragili corpore, mente sterili, of a weak and frail body, of a barren & foolish understanding: & both these the Scriptures teach them, for the first homo vanitati similis factus est, 
Psal. 144.4  says the Psalmist, Psal. 144. man is like a thing of nought, there is for the perverseness and barrenness of his soul; and for the second, inhabitat domos luteas, 
job. 4.19.  says that holy man job. in the fourth of that book, he dwells in a house of clay, there is for the weakness, and frailty of his body also: so that he may justly fear, in regard of either.  
And yet besides both these, there is a worse matter too, he is not of himself; for he is, as Saint Amb. speaks, civitas obsessa, a besieged City; besieged, and that by divers enemies; besieged by himself; besieged by the world; besieged by the Devil, the common adversary unto mankind. Besieged by himself, he is not at peace within himself, but his own flesh it is a continual adversary against him, Gestamus laqueum nostrum, saith Saint Bernard, inimicum, carnem, we carry about us, saith he, our own flesh, a sworn enemy unto us all, borne of sin, nourished in iniquity, corrupted in our first beginning, but much more depraved by our wicked and ungodly custom of sinning here. A great peril, and a dangerous combatto fight against a homebred enemy, especially if we shall consider, that we ourselves, we are but strangers here, and that It is in his native Country, and therefore hath many advantages which we cannot get.  
And that which is worst of all, this dangerous enemy we must not destroy neither, so S. Amb, tells us, Hunc inimicum sustentare cogimur, non perimere: we are, saith he, bound to maintain, forbidden for to kill▪ our souls & bodies they are married together by God himself, and those that God hath joined together, let no man be so bold as once to dare to separate asunder; Cogimur diligere ut sponsus sponsam, Adam Euam, saith S. Ber. we must be so far from hating of our flesh, as that we are commanded for to cherish it and love it entirely, to love it as the husband ought to love his wife, Adam his Eue. Hinc illae lachrymae, hence grows that fearful danger, a life of danger, a world of danger, it is like the remnant of the jebusites, in the City of jerusalem, 2. Sam. 5. we may employ it in labour but we must not slay it, 
2. Sam. 5.  and the more we shall employ it, the less dangerous or hurtful it will prove unto us: but yet it is fearful though, to have so treacherous a companion about us, an enemy that shall continually sleep in our bosoms. The company of such an one, for the most part, is contagious.  
He is besieged again by the world, a subtle enemy, and one that makes a show of a faithful friend, such an one as cunning jael was unto fearful Sisera, in the fourth of judges, 
judg. 4.18.  who perceiving of him flying, cries from her Tent door, turn in my Lord, turn in to me and fear not: and when she hath him within, she gins to make much of him, she gives him milk to lull him asleep, and she covers him that he take no cold, but no sooner is he fast, but that she puts her hand unto the nail, and her right hand to the workman's hammer, so the world it begins with milk, but it ends with a hammer, they all shall find it that list to prove it.  
The best way that I know to be rid of this enemy, is not to have at all to do with it, to sequester ourselves, as much as we can, from the affairs of this world, and to place our hearts there, where one day we may safely enjoy them again: let our souls like Eagles mount aloft, fly above the Clouds, and seat themselves in the highest heavens, and there we are sure they shall be most safe. To meddle with this worldly muck, it is but to ensnare ourselves with foolish vanities: The bird that often stoops in her flight, at one time or other she is entrapped, before she be aware of it; either she is caught with a lime-twig, by the wing at unawares, or else she is fast by the feet in the net, or one way or other, she is betrayed to her overthrow; so the soul that looks downward upon every bait, at the length it is ensnared, before it is aware, and subjecteth unto the vanities of this world. The best way therefore to rid us of it, is not to have to do with it, but keep ourselves aloft, whither it cannot ascend: Sursum cor, qui sursum habes caput, saith Saint Aug. As our eyes were frame at the first to look up into heaven, so let our hearts learn to seat themselves there, and then we shall be sure to be quite of this enemy.  
He is a third way besieged by the devil, a sworn enemy unto all Mankind, and he is the most dangerous of all other enemies. For where as all other enemies have but one only way to entrap us in, viz. craft and subtlety, this adversary he hath many, he is both Callidus and Potens, both a subtle and a sly insinuator of himself in into us, and withal he is a mighty and a potent adversary against us.  
For the first, his craft and subtlety, it is Greg. Naz. his note of him, that he is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, an admirable Counsellor, deep and politic in his devices, and every course that he shall persuade us to, it shall seem like unto Achitophel's counsel, 
2. Sam. 16.23.  2. Sam. 16. as if a man had enquited at the Oracle of God: and to further his devices that they may not seem to be without success, he will, as in ancient time unto King Saul, appear unto us under samuel's mantel, 
1. Sam. 28.14.  that we shall not think it to be he, but rather God himself that speaks unto us.  
But we must learn to beware of his close treacheries: and that we may be the more sure of him, and not lull ourselves asleep in careless security, but be as vigilant to prevent, as he is diligent to overthrow: Naz. tells us in another place, that we must be sure to keep a privy watch about us continually, for that he is, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, a night-thiefe, as well as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, a noonday devil, and will come craftily stealing on upon us, before we be aware of him; nay, when as we are most secure, then is he most busily casting about, and plotting against us: so that day and night, both in our labour, and in our quiet, we must be sure to have a vigilant eye to him wards.  
And for the second, his Might and Power, it is very great: we must fight, saith Saint Paul, Ephes. 2. 
Eph. 2.12.  adversus principatus & potestates, against Principalities and Powers; nay, against the Prince and God of this world: 
joh. 12.31.  for so Saint john styles him in his 12 Chapter and 31 verse, where he saith, Now is the Prince of this world cast out: he hath whole Nations his attendants and followers, as we may see, job. 1. 
job. 1.17.  the Sabaeans and Chaldaeans, and to speak truth, what nation is there upon the earth, wherein his power and might is not acknowledged? So that we may safely say, that which the jews in the 12. 
joh. 12.19.  of S. john's Gospel said of our Saviour, Ecce totus mundus, behold the world indeed doth nothing else but run after him: so that worthily he may be feared, for his puissant Army, besides his own invincible courage, 
Psal. 22.14  which the Psalmist in the 22 Psalm. likens unto a ramping and roaring Lion, terrible and fearful, for the assault itself.  
So that there must be great heed and diligence used against this enemy indeed, he being in the first, as Nazian. teacheth, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a crafty Sophister, and teacheth men what himself never learned. And in the second, saith S. Basil, he is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, an over powerful adversary: in both kinds fearful, in the one for his slights, in the other for his force.  
And as he is both thus subtle and strong, so is he also of a working temper; his nature it is proportionable unto his name. Beelzebub, Muscarum Deus, is his name in Scripture, the God of Flies; who, though you flap him away never so often, yet he will fly to the same place again: he will never leave us so long as we be here, if his storm will not quell us, yet he will try what the raging of the water may effect upon us: he is restless in his plots, and if one temptation will not hurt us, yet another shall be sure to assail us; 
Esa. 42.3.  and the quenching of the smoking Flax, and the breaking of the bruised Reed, is still the mark that he levels at, Esa. 42. Si avaritia prostrata est exurgit libido, saith S. Bernard, if greedy covetousness will not seize us, yet he will try what itching lust may effect upon us: is lust repelled? yet ambition may chance to strike a great stroke with us: is ambition quenched? yet anger (perhaps) may put us out of our Bias: is wrath appeased? yet envy shall trouble us: is envy forgotten? yet jealousy shall affright us. And thus restless, he follows us with all his inventions, so that no marvel, if the Disciples were so fearful, when such traitors were within them, such enemies without them, such weakness on all sides, for to hold out long; such storms of wind above, such raging seas beneath, that then they came unto him.  
They came unto him, even at the last gasp, when the winds blue, and the seas beat, when their ship was ready to founder under them, and they as ready to take their oaths all, to be deaths true servants, than they came unto him, saith my Text.  
The Heathen, they were somewhat strange in their resolutions, and when hope seemed desperate, then scorned they any longer to hope for it; and it was one of their chief wishes, and a great ease (as they thought) unto their miseries, to be swallowed up quick, and devoured of death, as the Apostles here were like to be: from which kind of death we do in our liturgy, earnestly pray to be delivered; that as God would deliver us all from unprepared death, so he would deliver us likewise from sudden and unexpected death, because that commonly sudden death, and unprepared death, they go both together: we cannot live so warily here, not the best of us all, but if God should take us upon the present, we might have many things objected against us, which we would be all willing should be concealed in that great and general day of judgement. God grant us all time of repentance here, & he grant us also, that we do not misspend that time that he gives us, but in it hearty repent us of our sins, that so in the last and final day of judgement, we may all have that blessing pronounced upon us, that the Prophet David pronounceth upon all the righteous, Psal. 32. Beatiquorum remissae sunt iniquitates, 
Psal. 32.1.  blessed is the man whose unrighteousness is forgiven, and whose sin is covered. Then blessed shall they be unto whom the Lord will impute no sin. And as for those who, think they live so warily, as that they are always prepared for death, let them stand upon their own innocency, and have no part in this prayer of ours.  
The heathen (I say) they thought it a happiness to have a sudden death to light upon them: and so Pliny in his seventh Book, and 53. Cpapter wisheth, that that might be his lot; and the Poet is not far behind him when he saith: 
Mitius ille perit, subita qui mergitur unda:  
Quam sua qui liquidis brachia lassat aquis.   
He dies easier (saith he) who at the first dop doth lose his life, than he that in swimming doth struggle to draw breath. But we that are Christians. we must resolve ourselves on the contrary opinion, their ignorance it was that caused them to wish for it: but we, we know beside the manner of death, we know (I say) of a great account, which every one of us is to make, when this life shall be ended; a matter that the Heathen scarce ever dreamt of, where we must make answer, not only for those sins of old age, which the Prophet in the 38 of Esay, 
Esa. 38.15.  calls annos, sins of years, sins of great standing; but as the Psalmist speaks in the 25 Psal. Delicta inventutis, 
Psal. 25 7.  sins of wanton and reckless youth; and not only those neither, but in the 19 Psalm, 
Psal. 19.12  for secret sins, that is (saith S. Augustine in his Confessions) for the sins we have committed in our nonage, before we knew either good or evil: that we may have the fewer inditements preferred against us, in that great and general day of judgement: therefore we desire respite for repentance here in this world, which God grant us all. Amen.  
They came unto him: but how? Non passibus, sed precibus, saith S. Augustine, not so much by their earthly paces, (though we must conceive, that even in those they hasted unto him) as by their winged prayers they posted towards him, they prayed unto him: for had they not humbly supplicated, as well as run unto him, they might all very well have perished in the furious tempest.  
To pray, it is natural for Man: and so much Aristotle, by the purblind eye of nature could see; Natura, sairh he, inseruit homini ut sacrificet, Man by nature, saith he, is made a continual Beadsman unto his maker, always to have recourse unto him; and this property of nature, grace hath confirmed from time to time in the righteous man, to have recourse unto his Maker: so David in his distress, in the 68 Psalm, 
Psal. 68.16  when he is engird, and compassed in about with his many enemies, he turns himself unto the Lord, Exaudi me Domive, hear me, O Lord, saith he, for thy loving kindness is good, turn unto me, according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies, and hide not thy face from thy servant: for I am in trouble: hear me speedily, and draw nigh unto my soul, and redeem it, deliver me because of mine enemies, etc. So good jehosophat in 2. 
2. Chron. 20.13.  Chron. 20. he saith, cum ignoremus quid agere debeamus, when we know not, O Lord, saith he, what to do, than our eyes they are upon thee. And so S. Peter wishes that they always should be, 1. Pet. 5. Cast all your care upon him, for he careth for you: and if at any time they should have recourse unto God, then most especially in their troubles and adversities: when men's souls are brought low unto hell, than they should call upon his name hearty indeed, and then above other times, he expects to be called upon, Psal. 50. 
Psa. 50.15.  Call upon me, saith God, in the day of trouble, and I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me: whereupon Saint Augustine notes, that it is God's Memorandum unto men to call upon him, Voce te, saith he, ut invoces me: behold, O man, saith he, I put thee in mind of it, if thou have forgotten, that then above all other times, thou have recourse unto me. Nay many times Almighty God doth lay afflictions and troubles here upon men, that they might bethink themselves of their Prayers, and fly unto him in their sore distress. We may easily see the course of it: By adversity God brings men first into a doubt and fear, and then by fear into an acknowledgement of their own necessity and weakness; and so consequently into a despair of succour in themselves, and by despairing in their own means, to think of means that may be profitable unto them, and so at the last, to the consideration of God's unspeakable love and kindness to them-wards.  
And out of this again, considering that his mercy is great, and his goodness from everlasting, he raiseth us up again to an assured trust and confidence in his mercies, and out of this confidence, we are bold to make our Prayers and Petitions unto our Father. And therefore if either voluptuousness, or anger, or pride, or any other sin shall be ready to attempt us, our refuge only must be to pray against them with David in the 44 Psalm, 
Psal. 44.23  Exurge Domine, awake, why sleepest thou, O Lord, arise, and cast us not off for ever; wherefore hidest thou thy face, and forgettest our affliction and our trouble? And in our prayers I make no question, but we shall find comfort, if not deliverance speedily. If then any perish, it is as God himself speaks in the 13 of Ose. Perditio tua ex te o Israel, 
Ose. 13.14  his destruction it is from himself, because he hath neglected his duty unto the Lord, in calling upon him to be merciful unto him.  
They came unto him, and good reason too: for if we would any thing with the Lord, it is all the reason that may be, that we come unto him, we have need of him, not he of us; then we must call, nay we must cry unto the Lord: 
Psalm. 3.4.  Clamavi ad Dominum, saith the Prophet David. I cried unto the Lord with my whole voice, and he heard me out of his holy Hill: we must come and pray unto him, Then they came unto him. etc. What the Apostles here did in their persons, that we must do if we want any thing, in our own; nay, whether we want any thing, or no, it is our duty for to do it; and the prayers of the righteous, they are of no small force or efficacy with God, to obtain a blessing from him; every one of them is as a forcible Engine to open Heaven gates, and to draw down a blessing upon the head of him that sent it up. So S. Bernard tells us out of that place of the Gospel. Luk. 18. concerning the poor Publican. Dum non auderet oculos ad Coelos elevare, 
Luk. 18.10.  ipsum Coelum potuit ad se inclinare, saith he: Whilst the Publican durst not lift up his eyes in his prayers, unto heaven, such was the force of his prayers with God above, as that he bowed the heavens, and made them descend down unto his prayers. But yet by the way it were not amiss for to ask the question, What prayers are these, that are of such power & efficacy with the Lord? it is not every one that is forged in his name, 
Math. 7.21  so our Saviour Christ himself tells us, Math. 7. Non omnis qui dicit, Domine, Domine, not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the Kingdom of heaven, much less every time that he saith it, shall have his request. But before our prayers we must prepare ourselves to pray by serious meditation, Meditatio docet quid desit, oratio ne desit obtinet, saith Saint Bernard: by meditation we learn to know what is wanting unto us, and by prayer we obtain that it shall not be wanting. That shows which is the right way that we must walk, this teacheth us how to walk when we have found the path. By meditation we know the dangers and the perils that hang over our heads, and by prayer we avoid them all, and escape away scotfree.  
And yet before we can come to meditate aright, our heart it must be framed aright for it, and that must be by an earnest and hearty repentance for our sins, which is Magna spongia, as Saint Augustine calls it, the great Sponge that wipes them all away out of the fight of the Lord. And herein lies an especial duty of the Priest, if he shall be required thereunto, to know how dangerous the sin is that a man is tainted withal; not to flatter his patiented in his sin, but to let him know the true weight and danger of it, that so he may thoroughly repent him of his sin, and learn to return to God again. For as S. Cyprian speaks, Imperitus est medicus, etc. he is an unskilful Physician, saith he, and a worse Surgeon a great deal, who seeing of a putrefied sore will handle it gently, and suffer the corruption to remain in it still; and so by his foolish pity overthrows his patient, whilst he is afraid to apply either his cauteries, or his searing medicines. Aperiendum est vulnus & secandum, saith he, the wound must be searched & lanced, and the bottom of it felt: let the patiented in the mean time rage and rosre; yet when he is recovered, he will give him thanks for his cruel love.  
Those that sow pillows under men's elbows, and take away repentance for their sins, make men believe their sins are but motes; when the weight is so great, that God himself is forced to groan under the burden of them, Amos 2. they do as much as in them lies, shut up the gate of all true repentance: so that whilst with the false Prophets, they cry, Pax, pax, & non est pax, peace, peace, when there is nothing less than peace to be expected: whilst they promise a false peace unto the sinner, the hope of eternal peace is utterly lost from them.  
But in this case there are many unskilful, even of the great ones amongst us, who know not what to answer to a distressed wight, that shall crave their advise and help: but the fault, for the most part, it lies in themselves. Nemo nos interrogat, so few there are that crave the advice of their Teacher, as that the case of Conscience lies quite neglected: some one or two (perhaps) when they lie in a cold sweat, they send for a Preacher, and then he must give them a little Opiate Divinity, that may skin, but not heal or help the fore a whit.  
Let us repent ourselves whilst we are lusty and strong, and then we shall feel the fruit of it when we lie sick and weak upon our beds. And for this same late repentance, is S. Augustine's note, Poenitentiaquae à moriente tantum petitur, timeo ne ipsa moriatur: he is afraid it will be dead as soon, if not sooner, than the party that lies sick.  
But true repentance it is the means to right meditation, and right meditation to hearty prayer; and without hearty prayer it is but in vain to come unto the Lord: and yet again it is but in vain for us to repent, unless withal we proceed to fervency of prayer. Cain sorrowed for his sins, when he confessed his sins were so great, as God could not forgive them. And judas, when he cried out, I have sinned in betraying the innocent blood; but yet they had neither of them grace to ask forgiveness for their sins; which had they done hearty, and as they ought, I am fully persuaded they should have found pardon for their great offences.  
Repentance it is the Supersedeas that dischargeth all bonds of sin; and Prayer, it is the bucket by which we draw grace from the everlasting fountain. Let us continue drawing then, till we may assure ourselves we have a good measure of grace within us, and never leave him, who is able to add more to him, that hath the greatest abundance of it in him. Let us fly unto the Lord by prayer: and since our many sins, like so many fierce Samsons, have not sticked to murder the Lion of the Tribe of judah; let our repentant tears, and humble prayers, like so many Bees, come and suck the honey at the flowers of his passion: let them ascend up early in the morning, like incense into his nostrils, and close the afternoon again like an evening sacrifice: then shall we truly come unto the Lord, and as we ought to do; then shall they awaken him, though he be fast asleep, and obtain a blessing for us that offered them up. Then they came unto him and awaked him, saying, Master, Master,  
This Title of Master, here, will deserve a little pause: you call me Lord and Master, saith our Saviour in the thirteenth of Saint john's Gospel; 
joh. 13.13.  and you do well, for so I am. Is not he Master of them, who is Lord and Master of Nature itself? unto whom all things both in heaven above, and in earth beneath, do willingly obey? He is Master of them, for he made them all, Dixit & facta sunt, saith the Psalmist, he spoke but the word, and all things were made, he commanded and they stood all fast: he did but speak the word, let the earth bring forth her increase, and also the waters, and presently both earth and sea, they were replenished with all manner of variety. Brevis sermo, sed valde vehement, saith Saint Ambrose: a short speech it was indeed, saith he, that God spoke; but yet withal it was a speech, that was full of power, the efficacy of that speech, it brought forth the greatest as well as the least creatures, and in the same time too: for in the same time the whole was made, that he was making of a Frog; Non laborat in maximis Deus, non fastidit in minimis, saith Saint Ambrose, God (saith he) did not labour in the making of the greatest things, nor yet contemn the making of the meanest: he made all things by his power, and therefore worthily is Master of all.  
Was he not worthy to be Master of Man, as well as of other Creatures, when he made such divers and contrary Elements for to meet together in one and the self same body, and accord in one, Fire and Water, air and Earth, Heat and Cold, and all in one and the self same place, and yet hath so tempered them together, as that one is the defence and maintenance of the other? Nay more than this, saith Saint Bernard, Mirabilis societas: In man he hath made a wonderful society: for in him Heaven and Earth, Majesty and Baseness, Excellency and Poverty, he hath matched together. What is higher than the spirit of life? What is base than the slime of the earth? his soul it was infused into him, the spirit of life: his body it was made of the dust of the earth. This was that that made Gregory Nazianzen to break into that same exclamation of himself, what great and wonderful miracle was within himself, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, etc. I am little, and yet I am great; I am humbled, and yet I am exalted; I am mortal, and yet I am immortal; I am earthly, and yet I am heavenly: little in body, but great in soul; humble, as being earth, but yet exalted above the earth; mortal, as he that must die; immortal, as he that shall rise again; earthly, as whose body was taken from the earth; heavenly, as whose soul was breathed from above. And will not all this then make him well deserve the Name and Title of Master amongst us?  
Yes: But here he hath a double Title, Master, Master. What of that? Why he hath a double Mastership: he was their Master, jure creationis, by the right of their creation, but much more Master, jure redemptionis, by right and title of their redemption: when man had lost himself, and defaced that glorious image that God at the first had left within him, than came our Saviour Christ jesus in, a merciful Redeemer, and reconciled his Father and Man together again. Henceforth let us not repine at the fall of our Grandfather: for Christ our Saviour hath made satisfaction for it. Was he cast away for the price of an Apple? Why yet he is redeemed for a great deal less, he was redeemed in mere love and pity.  
The sixth day of the week, as it is thought, Adam fell (for it is thought that he fell the same day that he was made) the sixth day of the week again Adam and his posterity were redeemed from death. The same day that he fell he was redeemed. And as God in the beginning rested on the seventh day, so Christ our Saviour, saith Saint Augustine, sabbatizanit in monumento, kept holy the Sabbath even in the grave, to teach us to make more account of that day, than the world usually doth in these our times. For, for all that belonged unto the salvation of man, he finished that upon the cross, before his departure hence, when he cried, Consummatum est, all is finished. 
joh. 19.30.  john. 19 Then all was performed that was requisite for us; and having finished his work, he rested as securely in his grave, as the most secure man of us all doth rest in his bed.  
And in this redemption which he so kindly performed for us, there are two things especially to be considered of us, Modus and Fructus, the manner and the fruit of our redemption.  
The Manner, it was wonderful, Exinanitio Dei, saith the Apostle, the emptying of God, the fullness of all things. The emptying of him (I say) and that in three regards: First, into the flesh. Secondly, unto the death. Thirdly & lastly, unto the death of the cross. O who can worthily esteem these three as he ought to do, his worth, his humility, his love unto mankind? That the God of all Majesty should be clothed with the garment of human flesh. That he should consent to die, and that he should die so miserable and cursed a death. Here speech must fail us, and our safest eloquence must be admiration.  
Let us sometimes in the fear of God call ourselves to account for these things, and think what great things the Lord hath done for every one of our souls: and then let us be ashamed at our own unthankfulness again, that he being Lord of all, became obedient and servant for the very worst of us; Of being rich in all things, became poor and miserable in most that were necessary; That of the word he became flesh; Of the son of God that he should become the son of base and mortal man. Let us remember, that though at the first we were made of nothing, yet that afterwards we were not redeemed of nothing. In six days at the first, God made heaven and earth, and all things that in them were contained: but in the redemption of Man, our Saviour was three and thirty years and upwards, a working of it upon the earth.  
O how much in that time, did he suffer for our sakes? The necessities of the flesh, the contempt and scorn of the world, the temptations both of the Devil and of mankind. Can we think that poverty in all that time did not oppress him? nor shame did not touch him? nor yet the wrath and anger of his Father any whit amaze him? Certainly, certainly (beloved) the least of all these did touch him near; and the greatest (that was the fury of his Father) did make him make that lamentable cry upon the Cross, the like whereof was never heard in Ages before, nor ever shall be heard again, unto the ending of the world, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Yet thus, O Lord, didst thou work the salvation of Man, and wonderfully towards him hath been thy love. Let us think of these things seriously, let us think of them often; and then I make no question but we shall think we have great reason to think him a double Master unto us. And they came unto him and awaked him, saying, Master, Master.  
But yet the cause of his double Appellation here in this place, it was the fear of the Apostles that infused itself into them, and the earnest desire that they had to be delivered from their imminent danger, was that that made them double their speeches unto him, Master, Master. What we hearty wish for, we often repeat. Help, Help, we cry in time of danger, Rescue, Rescue, in time of distress. So is it here with our Apostles in this place, in this time of fear, when the storm raged, and the seas went high. Volvuntur ut aequora montes, as the Poet speaks: one billow tossed them up as high as heaven, and another suddenly drenched them in the bottom of the deep. When life almost had quite forsaken them, and death was ready to seize upon them, than they cry unto him, Master, Master.  
Qui nescit orare, discat navigare, saith the Latin Proverb: if there be any so pampered here upon the land, as I am afraid many thousands there are, that have forgot their duties unto the Lord, never think of him, but when they borrow his name to swear by: let them go to sea, and if they be not past grace quite, so that they have not, as the Apostle speaks, Cauteriatam conscientiam, a seared conscience, that can feel no touch of remorse, he shall be taught once a day at the least, to call upon the name of the lord And they came unto him, and awaked him, saying, Master, Master, we perish.  
Our life, though it be in a dangerous place, as Saint Ambrose tells, Quam diu in salo isto, tam diu inter naufragia: so long as we live in the sea of this world, so long also we are in continual danger of shipwreck, to be spoiled, and we ourselves do continually so overcharge our souls and bodies both, with sin, as that every day we press deeper and deeper towards the bottomless pit of hell. Yet such is the friendship that is contracted between the body and the soul, by the long familiarity and acquaintance each of other, as that they are loath to part and leave each others company: They desire to continue longer together, if longer it might be, and they care not what shifts they use for the enjoying their desire. That made Saint Peter to deny his Master, because he thought it would call his life in question: And all the Disciples, for fear of death, withdrew themselves from our saviours company, because they saw those friends must part, that had lived so long combined together. Terrible and fearful it is unto man, to think of the dissolution of soul and body, Anima absoluitur, corpus resoluitur, as Saint Ambrose speaks; where the soul is freed, and set at liberty, the body again resolved into the first principles. This is that which the natural man cannot endure to hear of; and therefore upon the very thought of it, he is ready with the Apostles to cry out for help, Master, Master, we perish indeed.  
But yet this was not the only cause though of their crying out in this place, though that might help to set an accent upon it: for they knew that there was a necessity by nature laid upon them, once for to die. Intrasti ut cocires was a condition annexed to our creation. We must make room for others, as well as others before have done for us. And so much the Heathen Poet could say, Omnes una manet nox, & calcanda semel via lethi: they must not think much to undergo that which all are enjoined necessarily unto. Equality is the chief groundwork of equity; and who can complain to be comprehended where all are contained? especially when they shall consider the extraordinary benefit that death shall bring with it, viz. the taking away of sinning any further.  
Death, it was once laid upon man, as a punishment for sinning, quo die comederis, etc. what day soever thou shalt eat of the forbidden fruit, thou shalt certainly die. Death there is appointed as the punishment to sin, but now it is given as a benefit and remedy unto man, to keep him from sinning any further. Morere ne pecces, die soon that thou mayst not sin more against thy maker. Quod tunc timendum fuit, ut non peccaretur, nunc suscipiendum est, ne peccetur, saith S. Aug. what was once feared, is now a benefit unto mankind.  
But the fear of eternal death was that that did amaze them more than any of the other particulars spoken of before. To perish both in body and in soul, and that eternally too; this is that that would make them awake him quickly. To perish when they were but Semi-christiani, half Christians, like Agrippa in the 26 of the Acts: 
Act. 26.28  thou persuadest me almost (saith he to Paul) to be a Christian: to perish when they were but newly initiated into the School of Christ, before they knew the mysteries belonging to their salvation necessarily, was that that made them cry out aloud. They were ignorant in the fundamental points: for the Holy Ghost doth testify of them in divers places, That they knew not the Scriptures, that they understood not that saying of his, that they knew him not yet to be the Messiah, and then how fearful a matter it was for them to die unresolved, you yourselves by yourselves, may easily judge. This fear here of eternal perishing, made them cry so earnestly to be delivered from the fear of death: Master, Master, we perish: in our bodies; but which is fearful to be thought upon also, we perish everlastingly in our souls in hell.  
In our bodily conflicts here upon the earth, either the sense of pain is quite taken away by death; or else if our nature be strong and lusty, it soon in wrestling overcomes the pains of death; but in this second death the death of the soul, the grief remains for evermore, that so our nature might be afflicted without any end, and our nature endures also, that for ever it might be punished in the endless flames, for transgressing against so infinite a God: neither shall fail, neither nature nor pain, that so both may be eternal unto the wicked. The first death doth separate the unwilling soul from the body; but the second death keeps the soul, though much unwillingly, for ever in pain together with the body; from which pain God for his Christ jesus sake, keep us all, Amen. And so we are come to the final conclusion of these same words. Then he arose and rebuked the wind, and the raging of the water, and they ceased, and there was a calm.  
Hitherto our Saviour hath been patiented in these troubles, and rested himself quietly in these stormy gusts both of wind and water: but now he gins to be a Master indeed, and takes upon him both the bridling of the one, and of the other: he rebukes the wind, and appeases the raging of the troubled water; and at his rebuke they both cease, and there is a calm.  
But before we come to the appeasing of this raging storm, this first word Then will make us stay a while by the way. Then he arose, etc.  
Then. When was that, may some man say? Why when, but when the rage was greatest, in the midst of the gust, when the winds whistled loud, and the sea went high: when their ship was full of water, and Mariners and passengers were all at their wit's end: Then he arose and rebuked the wind, and the raging of the water, etc.  
A dangerous time (beloved) when cunning had left them, and the merciless waves must have mercy upon them: than it was high time for him to awake out of sleep. The loudness of the winds, and the raging of the waters, they might both togethet seem to be S. jeromas bell, that always he thought he heard ringing in his ears, Surgite mortui, & venite ad judicium: arise, and come forth straight way unto judgement.  
A terrible and fearful sound for us, whose lives are nothing else, but as S. Aug. speaks, splendida peccata, glorious sins, sins all over, whose whole lives have been subject to the law of sinning: and so S. Paul calls it in the seventh to the Romans: 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, 
Rom. 7.23  because we have so enured ourselves to sinning, even from our cradles, and do so continually endeavour ourselves for to commit sin, as though we were bound by law to the performance of it. We have been past shame in sinning. And as Absolom in 2. Sam. 16. committed his folly in the sight of Israel: 
2. Sam. 16.22.  so we have not sticked to commit our abominations, at high noon, in the market-places of our streets, as though we did desire to make God a liar, who calls all sins in general, opera tenebrarum, deeds of darkness, because they spring and come from the Prince of darkness, and are rewarded in hell, a place of utter darkness. We (I say) by committing of them in the fight of the Sun, do as much as in us lies, make them Opera lucis, daily sins; and therefore unto us, this account were very fearful.  
Man (saith S. Cyprian) is grown audacious in his sinning, and hath steeled his forehead in committing of them, so that he knows not how to blush when he is reproved for them. Nullus delinquendi pudor, saith he, & sic peccatur, quasi magis per ipsa peccata placeatur: we are passed all shame, saith he, in our finning, and so we do strive with ourselves for the committing of them daily, as though Almighty God were not offended with us for them, but rather highly pleased and delighted with them.  
But from this kind of sin good Lord for his mercy sake deliver us all, to sin so greedily, as that forthwith we should take a delight and pleasure in our sinning: for commonly these kind of sins, they have annexed unto them, duritiem cordis, a hardness of heart: so that if God will reclaim such a kind of sinner, he must, as it is said in the Gospel, 
Math. 3.9.  work it out of the very Flint, Math. 3. Ex lapidibus suscitare filios Abrahae, out of stones he must raise up children unto Abraham: and this condition there is none but will grant is very dangerous.  
To die in this case will draw a severe judgement indeed upon man: for they shall be judged with a fearful judgement, whose lives have been free from a judgement here. Those, I say, that have lived here ill upon the earth, and not made their peace with their heavenly father before they have gone hence, all those shall the great judgement oppress, and cast out into utter darkness, where shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.  
But this, though it might affright us, as who are guilty of many transgressions, yet it could no way daunt our Saviour at all: for he was not guilty of the least thought of sin; neither original sin, nor actual sin could once fasten upon him, his conception and birth being without all stain, as being conceived by the Holy Ghost: his whole life it was a satisfaction for actual transgressions, and therefore though both wind and seas should rage's never so terribly, yet he might sleep as secure in the midst of the storm, as any one of us in the greatest calm and quiet that may be.  
Neither yet were the raging of the winds, or the roaring of the waters, of sufficient authority to have awaked him, had it not been the cry of the Disciples that had moved him to pity. Master, Master, we perish, was the Trumpet that moved him to rouse himself, and take compassion of his forlorn company.  
Their imminent danger made them pray heartily unto their Saviour, & their fear of perishing made them not wax weary in their prayers, but pray until they awaked him to their rescue. God he loves an earnest admonisher, and is delighted especially with an importunate suitor; and therefore many times doth deny men their requests at the first, that he might hear them more constant and fervent unto him in their prayers afterwards: constant, as the Apostles here, who continue their entreaty even unto death, Master, Master, we perish.  
And this same duty of prayer it is so natural, as that even the un-reasonable creatures do not omit it, but pray in their kinds, Psa. 104. 
Psa. 104.21.  The lions suffering hunger, saith the Psalmist, they pray unto the Lord, they seek their meat at God. And so the young Ravens, in the 147. Psalm, the Lord indeed, saith the Prophet feeds them, but first they call upon his name: for so he saith, 
Psa. 147.9.  Who feedest the young Ravens that call upon thee. And that all excuse may be taken away from man in this kind, so that ignorance might not be pretended by him, it is S. Cyprians note, that qui fecit te, docait te etiam & orare: that he that at the first made man, and fashioned him in his mother's womb, he hath taught him also to call upon his name: he hath framed a prayer for him himself, if perhaps he should be so dull of understanding, as not to be able to conceive prayer of himself, and commanded him to use it also. When you pray (saith he) say, Our Father, etc.  
I marvel what some hot spirits in the world will say to this same speech of our saviours here, who would not have his prayer used amongst men, but that they should pray altogether as the spirit gives them utterance. Here I am sure we have Christ's Dicite, for their ne dicite, his command against their prohibition. But I follow my Text.  

Math. 7.7.  Our Saviour in the seventh Chapter of Saint Matthewes Gospel, in three words, sets down the whole duty of man in this kind, Pet●, Quare, Pulsa: Ask, saith he, seek, knock. First we must humbly ask those things that are necessary for us, and yet are wanting unto us: for he withholds them to make us more earnest in the desiring of them. Deus non dat, nisi petenti, ne dee non cupienti, saith Saint Augustine, God (saith he) will not give us any thing, unless at the first we hearty beg them at our father's hands, lest he should seem to give such things as we do not esteem and care for, and those that we shall ask of him, he will give us in the greatest abundance. Let us ask of him therefore, and be not tongue-tied; and ask confidently also, as those that are sure to receive at his hands. And in this kind it was a good speech of Seneca the Philosopher, who wills us in our prayers to be confident and assured. Audacter, saith he, Deum roga nil illum de alieno rogaturus: Ask boldly, saith he, of God what thou standest in need of, and wouldst have granted from his Majesty, assuring thyself of this, that whatsoever thou wantest, he hath of his own, and shall be beholding unto no other for the gratifying of thee in thy request. So then let us ask of him.  
But yet that is not all: for if he do not grant us at the first moving of our suit, yet we must not wax weary, but continue on in our course of prayer. And besides our ask, a further pains is required at our hands, we must be contented to seek a blessing for ourselves. We must not only pray, but we must labour also, and so Saint Augustine teacheth us when he saith, Pro quibus orandum, proijs etiam & laborandum est: For those things that we would pray unto God for, for the same things we must earnestly labour: For God will not take all the pains himself, and leave us idle in the mean time, to depend on him: and therefore it is the Apostles counsel in the twelfth of the Hebrews, 
Heb. 12.12  to pull up our weak hands, that hang heavy down, and to bow our feeble knees, which are not accustomed to bear our body's weight in the service and worship of the Lord our Maker.  
Nor yet are we at an end so, but having taken pains for to seek, and by our search having found out the right way, there remains a door whereby we must enter, and that door stands not open to all comers, come they that come will; but there we must bestow our third pains, which is to knock, that so we may get entrance at the last. We may see what pains our Saviour CHRIST JESUS doth take for us here: First, he entreats, and begs of us that we would be good unto ourselves. Secondly, when we list not to hearken unto his voice, but continuing in our old course of sinning, we have quite lost both the right way, and ourselves also, he seeks up, and brings us out of that Labyrinth, which we of ourselves were never able to get out of: and when he hath found us, he stands and knocks at the door of every one of our hearts, and doth desire to be let in by us.  
Considering then what our Saviour doth unto us for our behoof, let us bethink what he again requires at our hands: to ask fervently, to seek earnestly, to knock forcibly at the door of his mercy, that so we may be let in to his everlasting kingdom.  
If God then hears us not, at the first knock, we must not presently be like unto King Saul, who because God answered him not either by urim or Thummin, 
1. Sam. 28.7.  went straightways from him, and asked counsel of a Witch: We must not limit God his time to come and help us, but that must make us knock more violently. Importunity is a chief means to obtain our desires: and an example of it, our Saviour hath left us in the Gospel, of the unjust judge, who though he neither feared God, 
Luk. 18.5.  nor reverenced Man, yet because he was importuned, he would do justice.  
Nay, since we are entered in thus far, we will go a little further with holy Augustine, for (saith he) Deus non permittit solum, ut potas, sed minatur etiam, si non petas: God he does not only permit us for to beg those things that are necessary for us, but he doth severely threaten us also, if we shall not ask of his Majesty. Nay, ask of him, and ask of him only, or else he will be angry with whosoever shall not ask of him; as he was with the King of Israel, who left him, and went to inquire of Beel-zebub, for the recovery of his health again. 
2. King. 1.3  Is it not because there is not a God in Israel that ye go to inquire of Beel-zebub the God of Eckron, now therefore, thus saith the Lord, thou shalt not come down from that bed on which thou art gone up, but shalt surely die.  
And our Saviour in the 16 of Saint john's Gospel, 
joh. 16.24.  he was offended with his Disciples for not ask of him: Hitherto, saith our Saviour, ye have asked me nothing: It seems therefore that he would have us ask, and when we do ask we must not cease our suits, but say with jacob, Non dimittamte, 
Gen. 32.26  I will not let thee go, before thou hast bestowed a blessing upon me: We must be instant upon him as the Ca●anitish woman was for the recovery of her beloved daughter, 
Mat. 15.28.  who would not be put off, by any answer our Saviour could give, until she had gotten a release for her child: We must be earnest with him, as he to borrow bread at midnight of his friend, 
Luke 11.8.  who would take no nay. We must be importunate, as the Widow with the unjust judge, that we may seem to weary him with our importunity, 
Luke 18.5.  Luke 18. And then we shall be sure to receive a good blessing from him. A good measure well shaked and heaped, and thrust together, which God grant. Amen.  
He arose, But when? Why when the Disciples had done their uttermost, when they had showed their humility in ask, perseverance in seeking, importunity in knocking. Humility in Master, they were his servants, and he their liege, Lord and Master: Perseverance in coming unto him, They came unto him: Importunity, we perish: And they came unto him saying, Master Master we perish, and by this importunity of theirs, they obtained their request, Then he arose, etc.  
We do not read in this same Story, nor in any other of the Evangelists that do record it, that either the Apostles, or Disciples of our Saviour, took any other course, for the safeguard of themselves and of their lives (though most of them were Fishermen, and therefore knew better how to bestir themselves in a storm then Land men do) but only prayer; no labour is mentioned, save only their pains of coming unto him, and the reason of it is plain: Art is past, when Nature is let lose, when both winds and seas have broken their bounds, than they knew their best recourse was to their prayers for human labour was all but vain.  
And hearty prayer, we know, was always reckoned the first and the last help of the godly man: 
Psal. 33.21  so David in their persons, saith, In nomine sancto eius, speranimus, we have trusted in his holy name, and God hath been their great deliverer.  
But yet so far forth we must rely upon the Lord, as we ourselves withal be not wanting unto ourselves, while hope remains. For, for to set ourselves down, and lay all upon the Divine Providence, is just the lazy knave in Isidor, who when his Cart was overthrown, would needs have his God Hercules to come down from heaven, and raise it up again, whilst he himself would be a spectator of it, and sit by and give aim. Whilst there is means left we must be content, together with our prayers, for to use them lawfully, and when all earthly lawful means fail, and forsake us, than we must fly wholly unto God's protection.  
Reason teacheth us thus much, that when we may hope to find a spring than we must also bestow our pains in digging for it: And when the soil will bear corn, than we must use our skill and labour in tilling of it. When Elisha was in a little Village, not able to defend him from the Assyrians power, he had horses and Chariots of fire round about him, to defend him from their force, 2. Kings 6. but when he was in Samaria a Town of Garrison, 
2. King. 6.17.  then when the King of Israel sent to fetch his head, he said to those that were with him, shut the door, as it is in the same chapter, 32. verse. So our Saviour Christ in the wilderness miraculously fed whole multitudes, that came unto him: But when he was in the City again, he sent his Disciples forth for to buy their necessary provision. 
john 4.8.  So we must all labour whilst there is any hope, and when human help faileth, then fly unto the protection of the Almighty: So we see prayer it is the first and the last help of the righteous man, to begin with God and to end in him.  
The wicked sinner, he would gladly be the righteous man's Ape, and imitate him in this duty of his, but that shall not be at the first entrance into his business, but at the last gasp of his life, when they lie howling upon their beds, saith the Prophet Hos. in his 7. chapter, 
Hos. 7.14.  and yet all is but in apish imitation neither, for their heart, even then, is far from the Lord, as it is in the same Verse of the same Chapter: They have not cried unto me, saith the Lord, with their hearts, when they howled upon their beds, and therefore as their hearts in their extremities, were far from God, so was he far also from their deliverance. These here with the Prophet David they cried, De profundis, out of the deep unto him, out of the deep of the waters, but more especially▪ out of the deep and bottom of their hearts, and therefore obtained pardon for all their lives.  
The mouth, here perhaps amongst men, may make a show of Religion, and the hand glory in ostentation of the gifts that it hath given, but yet the heart is the jewel which the Lord looks after. There may be hypocrisy in the mouth that speaks, and vainglory in the hand that gives, but if the heart be upright and entire, that is an acceptable sacrifice unto the Lord: And therefore the Lord, by Solomon, asketh neither the mouth nor the hand, but the heart; 
Pro. 23.26.  Fili da mihi cor: My son give me thy heart. As thou givest as much as the Lord requireth, if thou give him thy heart; so if thou givest all that thou hast, and keepest thy heart back from him, thou givest nothing at all, that he desires, or will vouchsafe to accept from thee. The Apostles cry here, it came from the heart, from the bottom of the heart, Master, Master we perish, and by that they obtained pardon for their company: then he arose, etc.  
Then he arose: He could have risen sooner; had it pleased him, but he would not, he would first have them to supplicate unto him, and then he would arise. Diogenes Laertius tells us of some mighty men, that are much in this vain, they have aures in pedibus, their ears in the soles of their feet; can hear none speak but such as he suppliant at their foot for mercy; but that is out of their pride and arrogancy, who will be known to be in place and authority over their brethren. Those they are of Cain's generation, who built him a City,  Dominaretur in ea; that he might domineer in it, so these they get them aloft that the Golden Calf may be adored: But this of our saviours here, it was far otherwise, it was their duties all to fall prostrate, before his Majesty, and then he knew, it was his part to help them Then he arose, etc.  
His sleep as it was voluntary unto him, in this place, as heretofore I have told you, he could sleep when he list, and watch as long as he list, and yet no prejudice unto his nature: So he could rise also when himself pleased from sleep again. As his death was voluntary, & from himself, oblatus est quia voluit, he was offered up unto death, because himself would die; and so much he professeth of himself in the tenth of john, 
joh. 10.18.  No man (saith he) taketh my life from me, but I lay it down of myself: So here, dorminit quia voluit: he slept because he would sleep, and when it pleased him he could awake again.  
This than it may be a lesson for headstrong man, not to be his own carver in his business, and appoint God his time, when to rouse himself: for he knows his time better than man can appoint it to him; but with patience he must possess his soul, and when he sees what is convenient for him, than he will rouse himself to his delivery. Indeed the ship in the mean time may labour & roll, the wind storm and blow, the seas rage and swell; yet without God's good will and pleasure, not any one hair of their heads shall perish. Noah's Ark, we make no question, was tumbled and tossed in those mighty waters, but we do not read that either it was sunk or overthrown. 
Gen. 25.22.  Rebecca she was pulled and pained, and even rend in sunder, by the contention of her babes within her womb, but yet she suffered no abortion. 
Mat. 7.24.  The house founded upon a Rock it suffered both the violence of the storm, and the rage of the waters, and yet it was not overthrown. The Woman in Apoc. 12. 
Apoc. 1.22  she was persecuted by the red Dragon, and followed by him from place to place, but she was not devoured of her fearful adversary. So we, if we shall rest ourselves in patience, and refer all to the government of God, He in His good time will deliver us out of all our troubles, he will as he did here unto the Apostles, raise himself up to our defence, Then he arose, etc.  
And rebuked the wind and the raging of the water, and they ceased, and there was a calm. Now are we come to the evident demonstration of our saviours Divinity.  
In the former parts of the Text, we saw him as a mere natural Man, meek and gentle, not striving for superiority, or desirous to command: He enters into a Ship with his Disciples, and being entered lays himself down, for his rest and quiet; He opens not his mouth, either to control his own company, or any other that were in the ship.  
So was His whole life, meek and gentle; in his birth, saith S. Ber. parva laus, quia parvi laus, there was but little praise, because it was but the praise of a little One, 
Esay 9.6.  Unto us a child is born; there his Majesty is not extolled, but yet his humility is above all we are able to speak, to be commended.  
Exceedingly to be commended indeed of us, especially if we shall consider Him as he hath deserved of every one of us. For Him that S. Paul saw in his own nature, the knowledge and wisdom of God himself: Him for our sakes, the Prophet David saw lessened below the Angels: Him that Daniel saw sitting on the Throne, and thousand thousands ministering before Him: Him the Prophet jeremy saw again conversing upon earth with wretched man: Him that Ezekiel saw the Lord of Hosts: Him the Prophet Esay saw in shape like a Leper, meek and humble, and all for our benefit, and therefore above all to be commended of us.  
And in this gentle fashion, not being provoked by us, who hath deserved so much good at our hands, He comes nearest unto his own Divine Nature and Essence; For God in his own Nature and Essence is mild and gentle, and if he be not overmuch provoked, will not break forth into rage and fury. The Disciples that were of a fiery Spirit, they were most unlike, and contrary to their Master, for he does not delight in sending down hurtful fires: He is called the Daystar, to enlighten, 
2. Pet. 1.19. G●n. 3.8.  not the Dog-star to scorch and burn. And God is said for to have walked in the Cool of the day, not in the Heat of the day; and as it were also, to have fetched many turns, thereby to cool himself, before he would call his adversary to account: And when he would speak unto Eliah, He showed himself neither in the strong wind, 
2. Kings 19.12.  nor in the earthquake, nor yet in the fire, but in a small still voice: And all this to teach men what their duty is to do, to be kind and merciful as their heavenly Father of Himself is merciful; and so the Saints in former times have professed of themselves. David says of himself that he was like unto a weaned child: jacob compares himself unto a worm: Our Saviour, his Disciples unto little Children: Saint Paul would have his Corinthians meek and gentle, forgiving each other, as God for Christ's sake had forgiven them. In a word, as God himself forgiving our iniquities, and pardoning all our sins; He hitherto was meek and gentle, but now Increpavit ventis, He rebuked the wind and the raging of the waters, etc.  
He rebuked the wind: Why the wind we all know is a lawless creature, and will not be kept under, and so our Saviour Christ speaks of it, where he saith, spiritus spirat ubi vult, 
joh. 3.8.  The wind bloweth where it listeth, and who is he that shall control it? True indeed, who is he that can control it, if he be but only man: but if the wind shall be overbold and saucy with his Lord and Maker, and exceed the bounds and limits that he hath appointed it, it shall have his due check as well as any other of his creatures, He rebuked the winds.  
But how did he rebuke them, may some man ask? What, did he send his letters of defiance unto the winds, as Xerxes did when they crossed his intendments? Or did he cause fetters and shackles to be cast into the water, as the same Xerxes did, and make it take the Bastinado, when the angry Hellespont would not grant him passage for himself and Soldiers? How did he rebuke them? Why, how should he rebuke them but by his Word? For He that made the winds, and sent them out by his Word, by his Word also was able to countermand them, when it pleased him.  
The Heathen Poets fancied to themselves a God of the winds, Aeolus, who in a Cave kept them all together, and as he was either pleased, or displeased with Mankind, so he let them out and called them in again, either for their profit, or to wreak his anger and displeasure on them: But Christ the only true Aeolus, does not let them out to range at their own pleasure, but when they are forth he rules them as he lists: so the Prophet David tells us Ps. 104. Who layeth the beams of his Chambers in the waters, 
Psal. 104.3.  and maketh the Clouds his Chariot, and walketh upon the wings of the wind: Both winds and waters then, are at his command, and as it pleaseth him he forces them forwards or keeps them back, for the benefit of his.  
The company of the righteous, they are Gods especial care that he looks after, & so much the Poet doth reveal: Cura Deûm dî sunt & qui coluere, colantur, and therefore rather than they shall take any harm, he will be present to work a miracle for their relief: he will rebuke both the winds and the waters, & make them calm, & all for their sakes. To work miracles, now adays amongst us, though it may seem strange unto us, because it is a commanding of the creatures against the course of nature, as to cause the wind to cease with a word, & to quiet the Seas only with a beck, be beyond human conceit, yet with God for his Elect sake, they are as Philo Iud● speaks, but judicra, mere toys, and trifles; nay, he will do greater matters than these for such as be his: he will divide the Sea for his servants to go through, and drown his enemies that follow after: He will rain down bread and flesh from heaven for them, in a time of dearth, when the earth will not afford it them: He will bring water out of the hard Rock, when they shall be in a barren and dry ground, where no water is; Out of very stones, to raise up children unto Abraham, is easy and at hand with him to do.  
And if any man shall ask me the reason of these so great and miraculous works of his, I answer suddenly again with S. August. Bonitas & gratia Dei, the mercy and love of God, wherewith from all eternity he hath loved his Elect, hath provoked him to do them all.  
Let us then all, as many as profess ourselves to belong to him, magnify this great God for this extraordinary goodness of his: and as we wear the badges of Christ jesus on our foreheads, so let us faithfully adore him in our hearts; and then though dangers threaten, and storms arise, yet there shall appear at the last a quiet calm, a calm and quietness of conscience here, and an eternal calm in the world to come. The which quietness both here and there, that we all may be partakers of, He grant us that here caused this calm to his Apostles, Christ jesus the righteous, to whom with the Father and the holy Spirit, three Persons, and one Eternal, Almighty, and everliving God, be all Praise, Honour, and Glory, this day and for ever. Amen.   

Errata.  
PAg. 2. line 9 for good, read God, p. 16 l. 24. mementate r. mementote: p. 22. l. 15. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. p. 29. l. 20. quae r. qua: l. ead. quae r. qua. p. 35. l. 3. fugero r. fugere: p. ead. l. 27. to r. two: p. 36. l. 24. loather r. loathest: p. 57 s. 2. summum r. summam: p. 59 l. 14. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. p. 63. l. 2. iife r. life to. p. 97. l. 26. whole r. whale.  
FINIS.