Chapter 15: The Lord Contains the Seas — He Also Holds Men and Devils in Check

The Seas within their bounds the Lord contains; He also Men and Devils holds in Chains.

OBSERVATION.

IT is a wonderful work of God, to limit and bound such a vast and furious Creature, as the Sea; which according to the judgment of many Learned Men, is higher than the Earth; and that it has a propension to overflow it, is evident, both from its nature and motion; were it not, that the great God had laid his Law upon it. And this is a work wherein the Lord glories, and will be admired, Psalm 104:9. You hast set a bound that they may not pass over, that they turn not again to cover the Earth. Which it's clear they would do, were they not thus limitted. So Job 38. 8. 10. 11. Who shut up the Seas with doors, when it breake forth, as if it had issued out of the Vvomb? I brake up for it my decreed place, and set bars and doors, and said Hitherto shalt you come, but no further; and here shall your proud Vvaves be staid.

APPLICATION.

And no less is the glorious Power and Mercy of God discovered in bridling the rage and fury of Satan and his Instruments, that they break not in upon the Inheritance of the Lord, and destroy it. Surely, the wrath of man shall praise you, and the remainder of wrath you shalt restrain, Psalm 76:10. By which it is more than hinted, that there is a World of Rage and Malice in the hearts of wicked men, which fain would, but cannot vent itself, because the Lord restrains, or as the Hebrew, Girds it up. Satan is the envious one, and his rage is great against the people of God, Revelation 12:12. But God holds him and all his Instruments in a Chain of Providence; and it is well for God's People, that it is so.

They are limited as the Sea, and so the Lord in a providential way speaks to them, Hitherto shall you go, and no further. Sometimes he ties them up so short, that they cannot touch his people, though they have the greatest opportunities and advantages, Psalm 105:12, 13, 14, 15. Vvhen they were but a few men in number, indeed, very few, and strangers in it; when they went from one Nation to another, from one Kingdom to another people: He suffered no man to do them wrong; indeed, he reproved Kings for their sakes, saying, Touch not mine Anointed, and do my Prophets no harm. And sometimes he permits them to touch and trouble his People, but then sets bounds and limits to them, beyond which they must not pass. That is a pregnant Text to this purpose, Revel. 2. 10. Behold, the Devil shall cast some of you into prison, that you may be tried, and you shall have trihulation ten days.

Here are four remarkable limitations upon Satan and his Agents, in reference to the People of God: A limitation as to the Persons, not all, but some: A limitation of the Punishment, a Prison, not a Grave, not Hell: A limitation upon them as to the end; for trial, not ruine: And lastly, as to the Duration; not as long as they please, but ten days.

REFLECTION.

O my Soul, what Marrow and Fatness, Comfort, and Consolation, maist you suck from the Breast of this Truth, in the darkest day of trouble? You see how the flowing Sea drives to over-whelm the Earth. Who has arrested it in its course, and stopt its violence! Who has confin'd it to its place? Certainly none other but the Lord. When I see it threaten the shore with its proud, furious, and insulting Waves, I wonder it does not swallow up all: but I see it no sooner touch the Sands, which God has made its bounds, but it retires, and as it were with a kind of submission, respects those limits which God has set it.

Thus the fiercest Element is represt by the feeblest things; You see also, how full of wrath and fury wicked men are, how they rage like the troubled Sea, and threaten to over-whelm you, and all the Lord's Inheritance: and then the floods of ungodly men make you afraid, yet are they restrained by an invisible gracious hand, that they cannot execute their purpose, nor perform their enterprize. How full of Devils and devillized Men, is this lower World? Yet in the midst of them all hast you hitherto been preserved. O my Soul, admire and adore that glorious power of God, by which you are kept to Salvation. Is not the preservation of a Saint in the midst of such hosts of enemies, as great a Miracle, though not so sensible, as the preservation of those three Noble Iews in the midst of the fiery Furnace, or Daniel in the Den of Lions? For there is as strong a propension in Satan, and wicked men, to destroy the Saints; as in the fire to burn, or a Lion to devour. O then let me chearfully address my self to the faithful discharge of my duty, and stand no longer in a slavish fear of creatures, who can have no power against me, but what is given them from above, John 19. 11. And no more shall be given than shall turn to the glory of God, Psalm 76:10. and the advantage of my Soul, Romans 8:28.

THE POEM.

This World's a Forrest, where from day today,

Bears, Wolves, and Lions range and seek their prey,

Amidst them all poor harmless Lambs are fed,

And by their very Dens in safety led.

They roar upon us, but are held in Chains:

Our Shepherd is their Keeper, he maintains

Our Lot. Why then should we so trembling stand?

We meet them, true, but in their Keeper's hand.

He that to ranging Seas such Bounds has put,

The mouths of ravenous Beasts can also shut.

Sleep in the Woods, poor Lambs your selves repose

Vpon his Care, whose Eyes do never close.

If unbelief in you don't loose their chain,

Fear not their strugling, that's but all in vain.

If God can check the Vvaves by smallest Sand,

A Twined Thread may hold these in his hand.

Shun Sin, keep close to Christ; for other evils

You need not fear, tho' compast round with Devils.