The world is a sea in many respects and assimilations. It is a sea, as it is subject to storms, and tempests; every man (and every man is a world) feels that. And then, it is never the shallower for the calmness, the sea is as deep, there is as much water in the sea, in a calm, as in a storm; we may be drowned in a calm and flattering fortune, in prosperity, as irrecoverably, as in a wrought sea, in adversity; so the world is a sea. It is a sea, as it is bottomless to any line, which we can sound it with, and endless to any discovery that we can make of it. The purposes of the world, the ways of the world, exceed our consideration; but yet we are sure the sea hath a bottom, and sure that it hath limits, that it cannot overpass; the power of the greatest in the world, the life of the happiest in the world, cannot exceed those bounds, which God hath placed for them; so the world is a sea. It is a sea, as it hath ebbs and floods, and no man knows the true reason of those floods and those ebbs. All men have changes and vicissitudes in their bodies, (they fall sick) and in their estates, (they grow poor) and in their minds, (they become sad) at which changes, (sickness, poverty, sadness) themselves wonder, and the cause is wrapped up in the purpose and judgment of God only, and hid even from them that have them; and so the world is a sea. It is a sea, as the sea affords water enough for all the world to drink, but such water as will not quench the thirst. The world affords conveniences enow to satisfy nature, but these increase our thirst with drinking, and our desire grows and enlarges itself with our abundance, and though we sail in a full sea, yet we lack water; so the world is a sea. It is a sea, if we consider the inhabitants. In the sea, the greater fish devour the less; and so do the men of this world too. And as fish, when they mud themselves, have no hands to make themselves clean, but the current of the waters must work that; so have the men of this world no means to cleanse themselves from those sins which they have contracted in the world, of themselves, till a new flood, waters of repentance, drawn up, and sanctified by the Holy Ghost, work that blessed effect in them.

All these ways the world is a sea, but especially it is a sea in this respect, that the sea is no place of habitation, but a passage

to our habitations. So the apostle expresses the world, Here we have no continuing city, but we seek one to come"; we seek it not here, but we seek it whilst we are here, else we shall never find it. Those are the two great works which we are to do in this world; first to know, that this world is not our home, and then to provide us another home, whilst we are in this world. Therefore the prophet says, Arise, and depart, for this is not your rest. Worldly men, that have no farther prospect, promise themselves some rest in this world, (Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years, take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry", says the rich man) but this is not your rest; indeed no rest; at least not yours. You must depart, depart by death, before ye come to that rest; but then you must arise, before you depart; for except ye have a resurrection to grace here, before you depart, you shall have no resurrection to glory in the life to come, when you are departed.

Now, in this sea, every ship that sails must necessarily have some part of the ship under water; every man that lives in this world, must necessarily have some of his life, some of his thoughts, some of his labours spent upon this world; but that part of the ship, by which he sails, is above water; those meditations, and those endeavours which must bring us to heaven, are removed from this world, and fixed entirely upon God. And in this sea, are we made fishers of men; of men in general; not of rich men, to profit by them, nor of poor men, to pierce them the more sharply, because affliction hath opened a way into them; not of learned men, to be over-glad of their approbation of our labours, nor of ignorant men, to affect them with an astonishment, or admiration of our gifts: but we are fishers of men, of all men, of that which makes them men, their souls. And for this fishing in this sea, this Gospel is our net.

Eloquence is not our net; traditions of men are not our nets; only the Gospel is. The devil angles with hooks and baits; he deceives, and he wounds in the catching; for every sin hath his sting. The Gospel of Christ Jesus is a net; it hath leads and corks; it hath leads, that is, the denouncing of God's judgments,

57 Heb. xiii. 14.

58 Micah ii. 10.

59 Luke xii. 19.

and a power to sink down, and lay flat any stubborn and rebellious heart, and it hath corks, that is, the power of absolution, and application of the mercies of God, that swim above all his works, means to erect an humble and contrite spirit, above all the waters of tribulation, and affliction. A net is res nodosa, a knotty thing; and so is the Scripture, full of knots, of scruple, and perplexity, and anxiety, and vexation, if thou wilt go about to entangle 'thyself in those things, which appertain not to thy salvation; but knots of a fast union, and inseparable alliance of thy soul to God, and to the fellowship of his saints, if thou take the Scriptures, as they were intended for thee, that is, if thou beest content to rest in those places, which are clear, and evident in things necessary. A net is a large thing, past thy fathoming, if thou cast it from thee, but if thou draw it to thee, it will lie upon thine arm. The Scriptures will be out of thy reach, and out of thy use, if thou cast and scatter them upon reason, upon philosophy, upon morality, to try how the Scriptures will fit all them, and believe them but so far as they agree with thy reason; but draw the Scripture to thine own heart, and to thine own actions, and thou shalt find it made for that; all the promises of the Old Testament made, and all accomplished in the New Testament, for the salvation of thy soul hereafter, and for thy consolation in the present application of them.

Now this that Christ promises here, is not here promised in the nature of wages due to our labour, and our fishing. There is no merit in all that we can do. The wages of sin is death; death is due to sin, the proper reward of sin; but the apostle does not say there, that eternal life is the wages of any good work of ours. (The wages of sin is death, but eternal life is the gift of God, through Jesus Christ our Lord.) Through Jesus Christ, that is, as we are considered in him; and in him, who is a Saviour, a Redeemer, we are not considered but as sinners. So that God's purpose works no otherwise upon us, but as we are sinners; neither did God mean ill to any man, till that man was, in his sight, a sinner. God shuts no man out of heaven, by a lock on the inside, except that man have clapped the door after him, and never knocked to have it opened again, that is, except he have

60 Rom. vi. 23.

sinned, and never repented. Christ does not say in our text, Follow me, for I will prefer you; he will not have that the reason, the cause. If I would not serve God, except I might be saved for serving him, I shall not be saved though I serve him; my first end in serving God, must not be myself, but he and his glory. It is but an addition from his own goodness, et faciam, follow me, and I will do this; but yet it is as certain, and infallible as a debt, or as an effect upon a natural cause; those propositions in nature are not so certain; the earth is at such a time just between the sun, and the moon, therefore the moon must be eclipsed, the moon is at such time just between the earth and the sun, therefore the sun must be eclipsed; for upon the sun, and those other bodies, God can, and hath sometimes wrought miraculously, and changed the natural courses of them; (the sun stood still in Joshua, and there was an unnatural eclipse at the death of Christ) but God cannot by any miracle so work upon himself, as to make himself not himself, unmerciful, or unjust; and out of his mercy he makes this promise, (Do this, and thus it shall be with you) and then, of his justice he performs that promise, which was made merely, and only out of mercy, if we do it, (though not because we do it) we shall have eternal life.

Therefore did Andrew, and Peter faithfully believe, such a net should be put into their hands. Christ had vouchsafed to fish for them, and caught them with that net, and they believed that he that made them fishers of men, would also enable them to catch others with that net. And that is truly the comfort that refreshes us in all our lucubrations, and night-studies, through the course of our lives, that that God that sets us to sea, will prosper our voyage, that whether he fix us upon our own, or sends us to other congregations, he will open the hearts of those congregations to us, and bless our labours to them. For as St. Paul's va si non, lies upon us wheresoever we are, (woe be unto us if we do not preach) so, (as St. Paul says too) we were of all men the most miserable, if we preached without hope of doing good. With this net St. Peter caught three thousand souls in one day, at one sermon1, and five thousand in another 2. With this net St. Paul fished all the Mediterranean Sea, and caused the gospel of Christ

Jesus to abound from Jerusalem round about to Illyricum 63. This is the net, with which if ye be willing to be caught, that is, to lay down all your hopes and affiances in the gracious promises of his gospel, then you are fishes reserved for that great marriagefeast, which is the kingdom of heaven; where, whosoever is a dish, is a guest too; whosoever is served in at the table, sits at the table; whosoever is caught by this net, is called to this feast; and there souls shall be satisfied as with marrow, your and with fatness, in an infallible assurance, of an everlasting and undeterminable term, in inexpressible joy and glory. Amen.

SERMON LXXIII.

PREACHED to the KING IN MY ORDINARY WAITING AT WHITEHALL, 18тн APRIL, 1626.

JOHN xiv. 2.

In my Father's house are many mansions; if it were not so,
I would have told you.

THERE are occasions of controversies of all kinds in this one verse; and one is, whether this be one verse or no; for as there are doctrinal controversies, out of the sense and interpretation of the words, so are there grammatical differences about the distinction, and interpunction of them: some translations differing therein from the original, (as the original copies are distinguished, and interpuncted now) and some differing from one another. The first translation that was, that into Syriac, as it is expressed by Tremellius, renders these words absolutely, precisely, as our two translations do; and, as our two translations do, applies the second clause and proposition, Si quo minus, If it were not so, I would have told you, as in affirmation, and confirmation of the former, In domo patris, in my father's house there are many mansions, for, if it were not so, I would have told you. But then, as

63 Rom. xv. 19.