This feems to be the import of our Lord's words, when he fays, the Father loveth the Son, and bath put all things into his bands; that is, he hath fhewed his love to him, and given a full proof of it, by committing all things to him, to be at his will and difpofal. This fenfe of the words well agrees with the context, which reprefents Chrift in his mediatorial capacity, as exalted by the Father, with this view, that in all things he might have the preeminence. 2. It is owing to the good-will of the Father to the elect, that this fulness dwells in Chrift; for it is for their fakes, and upon their account, that it is sput into the hands of Chrift. God has loved them with an everlasting love; and therefore takes everlasting care of them, and makes everlasting provision for them. They were the objects of his love and delight from everlasting; and therefore he fet up Chrift as mediator from everlasting, and poffeffed him with this fulness for them. There was good-will in God's heart towards these fons of men; and therefore it pleased him to take such a step as this, and lay up a fufficient supply for them, both for time and for eternity. 3. It pleased the Father that this fulness should dwell in Chrift; because he confidered him as the most proper person to trust with it. It is well for us, that it is not put into our own hands at once, but by degrees, as we stand in need of it; it would not have been fafe in our own keeping. It is well for us, it was not put into the hands of Adam, our first parent, our natural and federal head, where it might have been loft. It is well for us, it was not put into the hands of angels, who, as they are creatures, and fo unfit for fuch a truft, were also in their creation-state mutable creatures, as the apoftacy of many of them abundantly declare. The Father faw that none was fit for this truft but his Son, and therefore it pleafed him to commit it to him. 4. It is the will and pleasure of God that all grace fhould come to us through Chrift. If God will commune with us, it must be from off the mercy-feat, Christ Jesus. If we have any fellowship with the Father, it must be with him through the Mediator. If we have any grace from him, who is the God of all grace, it must come to us in this way; for Chrift alone is the way, the truth, and the life'; not only the way of access to God, and acceptance with him, but of the conveyance of all grace, of all the bleffings of grace unto us. Now inafmuch as it is the pleasure of the Father that all fulness of nature, grace, and glory, fhould dwell in Chrift the Mediator, this, (1.) Sets forth the glory of Chrift. One confiderable branch of Christ's glory, as Mediator, lies in his being full of grace and truth; which fouls, sensible of their own wants, behold with pleasure. It is this which makes him fairer than the children of men, because grace, the fulness of it, is poured into his lips. It is this which makes him appear to be white and ruddy, the chiefest among ten thou Sand; • John iii. 35. ↑ John xiv. 6. Sand; and look fo lovely, even altogether lovely, in the view of all that know him. It is this which makes him fo exceeding precious to, and fo highly valued and efteemed by, all them that believe. (2.) This inftructs us where to go for a supply. The Egyptians, in the feven years of famine, when they cried to Pharaoh for bread, he having fet Jofeph over his store-houses, bids them go to him, saying, Go unto Jofeph; what he faith to you, do". Chrift is by his Father made head over all things to the church. He is our antitypical Jofeph, who has our whole stock of grace in his hand: All the treafures of it are hid in him; he has the entire difpofal of it, and therefore to him should we go for whatsoever we stand in need of. And this we may be fure of, that there is nothing we want but what is in him; and nothing in him fuitable for us, but he will readily and freely communicate to us. (3.) This directs us to give all the glory of what we have to God, through Chrift: For fince he is the way of the conveyance of all grace unto us, by him therefore let us offer the facrifice of praife to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips; giving thanks unto his name. It is by the grace of God in Chrift, through him and from him, we are what we are; it is that which has made us to differ from another. We have nothing but what we have in a way of receiving, nothing but what we have received out of the fulness of Chrift; and therefore we fhould not glory, as though we had not received it: But if any of us glory, let us glory in this; that Chrift is of God made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and fanctification, and redemption ". Chrift the Saviour from the Tempest. In Commemoration of the GREAT STORM, in the Year M DCC III: Preached in Little Wild-ftreet, near Lincoln's-Inn Fields, Nov. 27, 1736. THE 1 MATT. VIII. 25. -Lord, fave us: We perish. per HESE words are a very importunate petition of the difciples of Christ unto him, when in great danger by a storm at fea. The cafe of such fons, their great distress, and earnest cries for deliverance, and the manner of it, are very elegantly and beautifully defcribed by the Pfalmift; when he says, They that go down to the sea in skips, that do business in great waters: these see the works of the Lord, and his wonders in the deep; for he commandeth, and raisetb the ftormy wind, which lifteth up the waves thereof: They mount up to the heaven, they go down again to the depths, their foul is melted because of trouble; they reel to and fro, and stagger like a drunken man, and are at their wits end: Then they cry unto the Lord in their trouble, and he bringeth them out of their distresses: He maketh the form a calm; fo that the waves thereof are ftill: Then are they glad, because they be quiet; fo be bringeth them unto their defired haven *. A late valuable writer is of opinion, that this paffage of the Pfalmift is not to be confidered as an account of what had happened, and fo might happen again to navigators in common, but as a prediction or prophecy of what should befal the disciples of Chrift, when on shipboard with him; and had its exact accomplishment in the cafe before us. He supposes, that the disciples of Christ are the perfons here described, that go down to the fea in ships, that do business in great waters; their occupation and employment, which they ufed both before and after they were called by Chrift to be his apoftles, being that of fishermen. These being in a ship with Christ, the Lord commanded, and raised the stormy wind; a great tempeft arofe in the fea, which lifted up the waves thereof, so that they feemed to mount up to the heaven; and beating into the fhip, covered and filled Pfalm cvii. 23-30% Mr Jofeph Huffey, in his Warning from the Winds, p. 21, &c. filled it, infomuch, that they were juft ready to go down to the depths; then their foul was melted because of trouble: And being at their wits end, not knowing what to do, apply to their Lord and Mafter; and as they go to him at the ftern of the fhip, through the shaking of the veffel, reeled to and fro, and staggered like drunken men; and cry unto him in their trouble, faying, Mafter, Careft thou not that we perish? Then be brought them out of their distresses, by making the storm a calm; fo that the waves thereof were still, when he rebuked the wind, and raging of the fea. And now did they fee the works of the Lord, and his wonders in the deep; and said one to another, What manner of person is this whom the winds and fea obey? Then were they glad, because the wind and fea were quiet; fo be brought them to their defired haven, when they arrived at the country of the Gadarenes, which is over-against Galilee. I cannot fay I am entirely of this writer's mind; but rather think, that this account refers to a cafe which had been, and might be again, and may be accommodated to any cafe of the like kind, and particularly to this of the difciples; for certain it is, that they were in fuch diftress and danger, did cry unto the Lord for help, and had a wonderful deliverance wrought for them. In the words now read may be observed, I. The danger and diftrefs the difciples were in, and their sense of the fame; We perifb. II. The application they made to Christ, in which they were certainly right; Lord, fane us. I. The difciples were at this time in great danger and diftrefs; which appear not only from this expreffion of theirs, We perish, but alfo from the narrative of their cafe in the context: For, 1. It is faid, behold, there arofe a great tempeft in the fea; a great tempeft, μɛjas oesoμ☺, a great concuffion, or shaking. The fame word is frequently used both in fcripture, and in other writers, for the Terre motus, or earthquake. Here it is afcribed to the fea; fuch a fhaking we read of in the prophecy of Haggai', which had now, at leaft in part, its literal accomplishment; that when the Meffiah, the defire of all nations, should come, Jehovah would shake the heavens, and the earth, and the fea, and the dry land. The ftormy wind agitated and moved the fea, and the waves thereof; and both wind and sea shook the ship, and the men that were in it; which threw them into great furprise and fear. One of the other evangelifts calls this tempeft, a form of wind; and another", a great storm of wind and both of them use the word aana, lelaps, which is a B b 2 g particular Matt. viii. 24. d Ibid. xxiv. 7. and xxviii. 2. £ Hagg. ii. 6. 1. 7. p. 446. Edit. Hanov. Mark iv. 37. g Luke viii. 23. particular kind of wind, or is rather a conflict of many winds. The Philofo. pher fays, that lelaps, as alfo ftrobilus, is wind that is fuddenly whirled, and rolled about, downwards and upwards. It is defined by a learned Grecian', to be "a ftorm, or tempeft of wind, with rain." It seems to be a whirlwind, and hurricane, in which the difciples were. All the views of it, fhew them to be in imminent danger. It is alfo faid, that this tempeft arofe. Could we give into a vulgar notion, that winds may be, and fometimes are, raised by Satan, we should be tempted to think, that this ftorm was raifed by him, with a malicious intent to destroy Chrift and his difciples at once; fince he was always feeking an opportunity to take away the life of Chrift, and put different perfons upon different methods of doing it, and at laft accomplished his end. But we fhall have occafion to obferve hereafter, in this difcourfe, that Satan has no power to raise, continue, restrain, or lay a wind. Nor did this tempeft arise by chance; it was no fortuitous event, but was ordered to be, at this very juncture, by the all-wife, and all-governing providence of that God, who commandeth, and raiseth the ftormy wind, for the trial of the faith of the difciples of Chrift; and that he might have an opportunity of giving proof of his Deity on the fea, as he had lately done in feveral inftances on the dry land. The evangelift Luke fays ", that this ftorm of wind came down: He feems to refer to the courfe and motion of the winds, which are exhalations from the earth, raised up into the middle region of the air; from whence they are repelled, by a fuperior force, to the lower region; and from thence move, in an oblique, flanting manner, downwards. So we read of a dry wind of the high places, even a full wind from thofe places, not to fan, nor to cleanfe". This violent wind came down with great force into the fea, and lifted up its waves, which beat into the fhip, and preffed it much, fo that it was in great danger of being funk by them. The place where this tempeft arofe, or into which this storm of wind came down, is here faid to be the fea. The evangelift Luke, calls it a lake; and is the fame with the lake of Genefareth, he elsewhere makes mention of. But both the evangelifts, Matthew and Mark, call it the fea; and is what is fomerimes in fcripture called the fea of Tiberias, and the fea of Galilee; agreeable to the language of the Jewish writers', when they have occafion to speak of it; and • Talmud. Babyl. Mæd. Katon fol. 18.2. and Bava Kama fol. 81. 2. Beresh. Rabba, fol. 86. z. |