An exposition with practical observations continued upon the eighth, ninth and tenth chapters of…An exposition with practicall observations continued upon the eighth, ninth and tenth chapters of…

That the sea in its highest rage is at the beck, and under the treadings of God.

When the waves are most stirring and raging, he speaks them quiet, Psal. 89.9. Thou rulest the raging of the sea, when the waves thereof arise thou stillest them. As to walk upon the sea, is an argument of a divine power; so to command the sea. When Christ (Mat. 8.26.) rebuked the sea, and said, as another Gospel hath it (Mark 4.38.) Peace and be still, as if one should hush a child; The men marvelled, saying, What manner of man is this, that even the ⟨p. 205⟩winds and the sea obey him? Winds and waves seem the most disobedient, stubborn and unteachable creatures in the world, yet a word from God calms the one, and smooths the other.¹ When the old Egyptians would by their Hieroglyphics express an impossibility, they did it by the picture of a man treading upon the waves; as if they should say, this is as impossible as for a man to walk upon the waves. The Heathen Poets describe Neptune their Sea-god, swimming, not walking upon, or treading the waters. To tread upon the waters is so much above man, that mere Naturalists thought it too much for God. Man shows his pride and arrogancy to the height, when he pretends to lord it over the waves of the sea. When the Hellespont a strait of the sea, by a sudden storm rising upon it, broke the bridge of Boats, which Xerxes had made to pass into Greece, and so opposed the project of that Persian Monarch, he cast fetters into it, as if he would teach it to know it's Lord, and caused it to be beaten with 300. stripes, to chasten its former disobedience. It is recorded in the history of this Nation, concerning Canute an ancient Danish King, that when a mighty storm of flattery rose upon him, he appeased it by showing he could not appease the storms of the sea. One of his Courtiers told him in his progress, as he rode near the sea side, that he was Lord not only of the land, but of the sea, and that all those seas which he saw, were at his command. Well, saith he, we shall see that by and by, and so walketh down to the shore, and pulling off his upper garment, wraps it together, and sits upon it near the flowing of the waves, and with a loud voice speaks thus, O ye seas and waves come no further, Touch not my feet, &c. But the sea came up, notwithstanding his charge, and confuted that flattery. God only hath this Prerogative, He treadeth upon the high waves of the sea.