up from a low earthly state; and so “thy foot.” Cast them all aside, cut them off, throw them
all away from thee; consent not unto them. Answer such men, as he who was advised to
give false witness answered. So do thou answer too; say to the man who saith to thee, “See,
it is in Christian times that there are such pressing troubles; that the whole world is laid
waste;” answer him, “And this Christ foretold me, before it came to pass.”
8. For wherefore art thou disturbed? Thine heart is disturbed by the pressing troubles
of the world, as that ship was, in which Christ was asleep. Lo! what is the cause, stout-hearted
man, that thy heart is disturbed? That ship in which Christ is asleep,2721 is the heart in which
faith is asleep. For what new thing, what new thing, I ask, is told thee, Christian? “In Chris-
tian times is the world laid waste, the world is failing.” Did not thy Lord tell thee, the world
shall be laid waste? Did not thy Lord tell thee, the world shall fail? Why when the promise
was made, didst thou believe, and art disturbed now, when it is being completed? So then
the tempest beats furiously against thine heart; beware of shipwreck, awake up Christ. The
Apostle says, “that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith.”2722 Christ dwelleth in thee by
faith. Present faith, is Christ present; waking faith, is Christ awake; slumbering2723 faith, is
Christ asleep. Arise and stir thyself; say, “Lord, we perish.” See what the Heathen say to us;
and what is worse, what evil Christians say! Awake up, O Lord, we perish. Let thy faith
awake, and Christ begins to speak to thee. “‘Why art thou troubled?’ I told thee beforehand
of all these things. I foretold them, that when evils came, thou mightest hope for good things,
that thou mightest not faint in the evil.” Wonderest thou that the world is failing? Wonder
that the world is grown old. It is as a man who is born, and grows up, and waxes old. There
are many complaints in old age; the cough, the rheum, the weakness of the eyes, fretfulness,
and weariness. So then as when a man is old; he is full of complaints; so is the world old;
and is full of troubles. Is it a little thing that God hath done for thee, in that in the world’s
old age, He hath sent Christ unto thee, that He may renew thee then, when all is failing?
Dost thou not know that He notified this in the seed of Abraham? “The seed of Abraham,”
says the Apostle, “which is Christ. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of One,
And to thy seed, which is Christ.”2724 Therefore was there a son born to Abraham in his
old age, because in the old age of this world was Christ to come. He came when all things
were growing old, and made them new. As a made, created, perishing thing, the world was
now declining to its fall. It could not but be that it should abound in troubles; He came both
to console thee in the midst of present troubles, and to promise thee everlasting rest. Choose
not then to cleave to this aged world, and to be unwilling to grow young in Christ, who tel-
2721 Matt. viii. 24.
2722 Eph. iii. 17.
2723 Oblita.
2724 Gal. iii. 16.
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On the words of the Gospel, Matt. xviii. 7, where we are admonished to beware…