their pleasure Shall not this set an edge upon your spirits to do your utmost in the suppressing of these intolerable evils What is become of that Heroick and Warlike spirit that in former Wars have acted in you Hark! Hark! is not the Drum beating and the Trumpet sounding Hath not God bid England sound the Trumpet and beat the Drum and prepare war against the enemies of Christ God is setting on England to break the yoak of Christs and Sions enemies and many of you are sitting down in the Nation one in one place and another in another One Commander sits down with his hundred pound per annum that hee got in the late Wars and another sits down with his two hundred and perhaps another with his four or five hundred Thus it was with Alexanders Souldiers and it is the same with many of you that when they grew rich they would follow him no longer in the Wars What one of Englands late famous Sea-Generals said of some Sea-Captains the like may bee said of the Souldier sayes hee You are grown so wealthy by being Captains three or four years that you are afraid to fight What a shame is it that now your swords rust in your Scabbards and your Pistols in your Holsters which have been formerly very valiantly in your hands in the high places of the field That I may give you one sound alarm more where ever your quarters bee in this Land of ours let me tell you that you will grow aged therefore you have need to run wel and to do all the good you can both for God the world and Christ his Son It is usual for those that run races to whip and spur hard when they come within sight of the Goal Have not many of you gray hairs upon your heads or at leastwise will have very shortly and will you not have one fling at Spain and at the gates of Rome before you dye and go to your graves 2. A word unto the Sea-men This is a time wherein the ten Kings of Europe have given their power to the Beast but they are a tumbling down and if they fall surely many will fall with them I have read concerning Joshua that valiant Souldier that when he was a young man and more in the strength of nature he was then least in vigor and valour for God and sometimes in cases of danger concealed himself but when he grew older found the strength of nature declining and decaying then he be stirred himself for God I bring but this in as an instance now to our English Souldiery that they may take notice of this rare president weigh but what God is a doing and will do When the tree is falling the Proverb is Run for the Hatchet It is an old Proverb Gentlemen and a true one Post folia cadunt lirbores After the leaves are once off the trees the trees themselves do fall at last God hath prospered you against the Spaniard hitherto keep shaking of the tree and it will fall or break at last Bee every one of you willing now when the Monarchy of Spain is staggering and tottering to contribute all the help that lyes within you against them What It is not enough that the Merchandizings of this Nation bee kept up though sufficient reason enough for it but there is far greater work in hand Therefore what Domitians Empress said unto him the Emperour when fishing and angling O noble Emperour it doth not become you said shee to fish for Trouts and Gudgeons but for Towns and Castles The same I say to you Stand to your Arms. Now I will a little touch upon the means whereby wee may in England under God bring down the Spaniard Mahumet would never enter into any City and especially the City of Damascus lest he should be ravished with the pleasures of the place and so should forget to go on with the great work he had in hand This is a president for the Souldiery of England whether great or small who ly perfuming and effeminating of themselves in London and in the Land Mary Queen of Scots that was mother to king James was wont to say That she feared Mr. Knoxes prayers more than she did an army of 10000. knocking men Plutarch in the life of Pyrrhus said of Cyneas that rare Thessalian Orator that he overcame more by sweet words speeches than Pyrrhus did by the sword So more by prayer than by strength and the Pope of Rome and these I finde to bee twofold 1. By Prayer 2. Shipping 1. By Prayer In Salem was the arrows of the Bow broke Psal 76.3 and the shield and the sword Prayers and complaints unto God are the Churches best weapons to fight their merciless enemies with all Exod. 17 11. Whilst Moses held up his hands Israel prevailed but when he let his hands go down then Amalek prevailed 1 Chron. 5.20 When some of Israel who warred with the Hagarites the sons of Ishmael in the midst of the battel cried unto God hee heard them and gave them their enemies into their hands This was that which Solomon desired after the building of the Temple 1 King 8.44 45. When thy people shall go out to battel and shall pray unto the Lord toward the house that I have built hear thou in heaven their prayers and judge their cause O admirabilem piarum precum vim quibus caelestia cedant hostes terret manus illa quae victoriae suae trophaea in ipsis Caeli orbibus figit Oh the admirable power of godly prayers to which heavenly things give place that hand terrifies the enemies which fasteneth the tokens of its victory in the celestial orbes Bucholcerus St. Augustine gave this reason why David put off Sauls Armour when hee went to fight with the Philistim Mystica ratione significavit arma Ecclesiae non esse carnalia sed spiritualia The Churches weapons are not carnal but spiritual and David was not armed with iron but with faith and prayer Prayer is the very best whole Canon that is in England Luther calls it Bombarda bellicosissima The Lord in Scripture is called a man of War and he may be taken to fight against all the Navies and Gunn'd Armadoes in the world for four Reasons 1. Because he gives victory 2. Because he fighteth the battels of his people 2 Chron. 33 7 8. 3. In respect of his prudence and policy as a wise Captain will watch all opportunities of advantage against his enemy he knows how to bring down the crafty and how to take them napping 4. He will encounter his enemy boldly though not with so sâ—eming a strength as they have Pray unto this God If that the people of God in England would but joyn in their prayers together I am confident they would bee of greater force than if wee had a thousand Canons marching in the fields of Spain Therefore what a shame is it that there is no more zeal for God and for his
8. Maintain your dignity and execution of Justice in your ships and that within her certain bounds let equity mercy and justice kiss each other It was St. Augustines censure that Illicita non prohibere consensus erroris est not to restrain evil it to maintain evil Impunitas delicti invitat homines ad malignandum sins chief encouragement is the want of punishment Commanders should boldly and heedfully crush break the neck of all quarrels and dissentions that rise amongst Sailors within board Dulce nomen pacis the very name of peace is sweet said the Orator And the Suevians thought it should be Soveraign when they had enacted that in a fray where swords were drawn if but a woman or a childe at a distance cried but Peace they were bound to end the quarrel Captains should cry aloud Peace and stamp down that Aâ—na-like sparkling and inflamed spirits otherwise you will finde the smart of it If a School-masters eye be alwayes upon his scholar to observe him if he still correct and check him for his faults it is a sign that he bears singular love and affection to him and will in time bring him to a good Genius but if he let him loyter and play and abuse his fellows never call him to an account for it it s a sign then that he little regards him It was a sweet saying of one to his friend whom he prayed hard for I have desired to live no longer dear friend than to see thee a Christian and now seeing my eyes behold that sweet day I desire to leave thee and to go unto my Saviour Should not Commanders have these yerning bowels over Sea-men and say Oh my soul even travels sory our conversion and to see you Christians before our Voyage breaks up I long to see you live lead a converted life in the world and that will be happiness enough unto me A religious Commander hath the like thoughts that John had 2. Ep. 1.4 I have no greater joy than this that my children walk in the truth I have no greater delight in the world than to see the men that are under me walking in the truth Nothing delights me more than to see my Master godly my Lieut. heavenly my Gunner religious my Boatswain pious my Carpenter conscientious and all my Sea-men well disposed under me Young men no sooner come to Sea amongst a pack of filthy fellows but they are as prone to be corrupted with them especially with your old Sailors as Fred. 3. King of Sicilia was with the bad lives of the corrupt Church of Rome which he no sooner pryed into but out of liking of it he began to doubt of the veriâ—y of the Gospel Liberty is an enemy to Law disorder to Justice faction to Peace and errour to true Religion Captains should take upon them that resolution I have met with concerning one and say unto all his men round about him Animos actusque singulorum agnoscam si quid in eis vitii invenirem statum ego castigam I will take an exact knowledge of all the men that are under my charge so as to correct and amend whatsoever is evil amongst them States Ships should bee places of Justice and good Discipline Houses of Correction and Chappels for the worship of God I wish that that Distich that is writ in Zant over the place of Judgement were writ upon all the Entring-Ladders of all the ships in England and not only writ in a good legible hand but also strictly executed and performed Hic locus Odit Amat Punit Conservat Honorat Nequitiam Pacem Crimina Jura Bonos Our Ships do Hate Love punish conserve do good Wickedness Peace Vice the Laws unto the good And I could further also wish that that Distich that was writ over King Henries Table were writ over all the Tables that bee in the great Cabbins of all the ships in England Qusquis amat dict is absentem rodere amicum Hane mensam vetitam noverit esse sibi Who speaks of the Absent one defaming word Know I forbid him coming to my board Some Captains Cabbins are little better than meer Cock-pits and Stages on which is acted nothing else in the world save their scorn derision and contempt of others for their small failings These Lads will tell you exactly how many Atoms there bee in other mens eyes but they will never tell you what Beams and Trees there bee in their own 9. Do what ever in you lyes to call Seamen off and out their vile courses and wicked practices to that end you may beget a generation of men that would bee some credit to the cause and quarrel in hand and also fitâ—seful and instrumental to carry on the glorious designs of Christ that are on foot for him against the Anti-christian powers of the world Shame as much to let men go out of your ships unreformed and unbettered by being under your Commands as a School-master will with Scholars that take not their learning or as a Physician doth to see many patients dying under his hands I know it that an honest heart will irk ill and fret and grow discontented at it if hee should see men never a whit the bettered by Command nor seasoned with grace and godliness when the Voyage breaks up but it may bee that corrupt hearts and consciences will never check nor flash in the faces of some for their negligence herein and so it is no trouble to them but good Commanders cannot so stop the mouth of conscience nor so lightly answer their God for their remisness in doing that good which they might have done in their publick advancements But to bee short my friends I have one thing more in my eye which is of very great consequence and concernment I would present unto all that either for the present or for the future shall bee in Command in any of the States ships of England And it will bee worth the while that you take a stricter a speedier course to discharge that trust which the State and Commonwealth reposes in you For my part I must needs condemn that Epidemical negligence and remisness that is amongst the Sea-Commanders because it was never my hap as yet to finde any of them so conscientious and carefull in the thing as they ought to have been All the men that ever I have been under who have bore command have lived in their ships and places more like Drones and self-seeking men than any thing else wanting extreamly a publick spirit The thing is this then Take special and circumspect heed and care over all the young men that bee in your ships in what relations soever whether as servants unto your selves to the State or unto others with you and allow not of any evil in them amongst them I will give you now good reason why you should take upon you this carefulness and vigilancy over them Reason 1. Because if you do not they will learn to
that men would praise the Lord. Psal 105.5 Remember his marvellous works that hee hath done his wonders and the judgments of his mouth A gratious heart files all the Lords dealings with his soul either at Sea or Land in his heart and steers the same course the Sea-man does in the great deeps who makes it his daily business in long Voyages to keep his Quotidian reckonings for every elevation hee makes whereby hee judges of his advancings and deviations Mens memories should bee deep boxes or store-houses to keep their pretious Sea-mercies in and not like hour-glasses which are no sooner full but are a running out Bind all your sea-deliverances and preservations as fast upon your hearts as ever the Heathen bound their Idol Gods in their Cities in the time of wars siedges and common calamities which they evermore bound fast with Iron chaines and strong guards and sentinels lest they should leap over the walls or run out of their Cities from them Ah Sirs look to those things which Satan will bee very prone to steal from you who is like unto a theef that breaks into an house but will not trouble himself with the lumber of earthen or wooden vessels A gratious heart will resolve that the Orient shall sooner shake hands with the West and the Stars decline the azured Skies than he will forget the Lords deliverances out of gloomy stormy tempestuous and heart-daunting Seas Sirs you stand in need to be called upon for your hearts are not unlike to the leads and plummets of a Clock that continually drive downwards and so stand in need of winding up but falls foul on the plate and jewels Hee does and will steal away your hearts from minding the precious jewels of your Sea-deliverances I find in Scripture that the people of God of old were very careful and heedful to preserve the memory of their mercies I wish all the States Tarpowlings were of the like temper 1. By repeating them often over in their own hearts Psal 77.5 6 11. I will remember the works of the Lord surely I will remember thy wonders of old Sea-men should say of their Sea-deliverances as Lypsius once did of the Book he took so much delight in pluris facio quum relego semper novum quum repetivi repetendum The more I read the more I am tilled on to read The more I think of what God hath done for me the more I still delight to think of it Vers 6. I call to remembrance my song in the night Paul when hee was amongst the Mariners writ down all their transactions in the time of their danger Acts 27.7 The wind not suffering us we sailed under Crete over against Salmone Vers 18. And being exceedingly tossed with a Tempest the next day they lightned the ship Vers 27. But when the fourteenth night was come as wee were driven up and down in Adria about midnight the ship-men deemed that they drew near to some Country Vers 28. And sounded and found it twenty faothms c. 2. By composing and inditing of pretious pious and melodious Psalms Remember the time of your inconsolabili dolore oppressi this was Davids practice Psal 38. which hee titles A Psalm of David to bring to remembrance Again in the 70. Psalm Wee have the very same title A Psalm of David to bring to remembrance In our late wars many had such a pretious spirit breathing in them that they have put the victories and battels of England into sweet composed meeter to the end they might bee remembred Ah Sirs call all your deliverances in this and in the other part of the world to remembrance 3. By giving names to persons times and places on purpose to remind them of Gods mercies This was Hannahs course in the 1 Sam. 1.20 And called his name Samuel saying The States ships resemble the tall Tree in Nebuchadnazzar's dream Dan. 4.20 Whose height reached unto the heaven and the sight thereof to all the earth They go into all parts in the world as much admired are they as Venus was by the Gods Who came flocking about her when shee went to heaven because I have asked him of the Lord to that very end shee might for ever perpetuate the Lords goodness towards her Abraham to keep alive the goodnesse of God towards him in the sparing of his Son would call the place where hee should have been sacrificed Jehovah-Iireth i.e. God will provide Gen. 22.14 The Jews that they might keep in remembrance the daies of their deliverance from bloody-minded Haman they titled them Purim i. e. Lots Esth 9.26 in memory of Lots cast by Haman which the Lord disappointed And very commendable is this Scriptural practice amongst us in England for I have observed it and I like it very well that our Military Grandees to perpetuate their dreadful Land and Sea-fights do give their warlike ships and battels such titles To keep alive that great and desperate engagement which our Army had with the Scots in Scotland one of their warlike ships is called the Dunbar Gentlemen Captains and Sea-men many of your Ships derive borrow their names from the stour-charged and fought Battels of the Souldiery in England to that end you may imitate their valour at Sea which they to the life performed on Land Some are called the Treddah some the Naseby and other some the Dunbar some the Plymouth some the Gainsborough and othersome the Massammore c. Be valiant Sirs the Souldiery fought apace when in those Battels To keep up the memory of Naseby great fight they have another ship which they call the Naseby To keep up the memory of Worcester fight they have a brave warlike ship which they call the Worcester To keep up the enemies defeating at Wakefield in Yorkshire they have a gallant warlike ship called the Wakefield To remember the fight at Nantwich they have a warlike ship called the Nantwich To remember their victory at Plymouth against the enemy they have a ship which they call the Plymouth To keep up the memory of that famous bout at Massammore when the three Nations lay at the stake they have a ship called the Massammore To remember that great fight that was fought at Treddah they have a warlike Vessel called the Treddah To perpetuate the memory of that great and hot dispute that was once at Selby in Yorkshire they have a famous ship they call the Selby To keep up the memory of that bout they had with the enemy at Portsmouth they have a warlike ship they call the Portsmouth To keep up the memory of their taking of Gainsborough they have a brave Prince-like ship called the Gainsborough To keep up the Memory of the dispute that they once had at Preston Bee valiant Sirs your ships have their names from valiant Exploits on Land and the States will deal as kindly with you as the Russians do by those they see behave themselves couragiously the Emperour
neither fearing God nor Man what havock will you make of their Wines Sugars Fruits c Consider with your selves that you are but hired servants for so much per Moneth and have no order nor allowance from them to drink their Wines or steal their Fruits c. you ought to be content with your Wages I would have Seamen to be of Fabritius his mind or else I will not give a button for ten thousand of them of whom it s said that one might as well turn the Sun from his course as sway him from honest and ingenuous dealing Know this one thing that Gods eye is upon you though the Merchants or the Trustees be at a vast distance from you He is said a Heathen totus Oculus all Eye this is more than thousands of Sailors will either say or believe as if a mans body were all eye to see as well backwards as forwards and forwards as backward Christ saw Nathaniel when he was under the Fig-tree when he thâ—ught that no eye was upon him Joh. 1 5â— and Gods eye is upon you in your ships in the Seas when the Merchants cannot behold you nor cannot tell what you have done Reade but these few Scriptures and consider but Gods All-seeing eye and then tell me if you can play the Thief Joh. 4.29 Psal 139.7 8 9 10 11 12. There be two things that would exceedingly adorn the Seamen of England and raise out of the dust their lost and crackt Credit and esteem with the good people of the Land could they but be found dwelling in them and they are these two 1. A working hand 2. An honest heart 1. A quick and working hand There should be a diligent and quick dispatching and expediting of their Masters businesses and commands without loytering and taking their own ease and pleasures Gen. 24.33 Abrahams servant was so conscientious in the stirring in his Masters business that he preferred it before his meat and would not eat till his errand was told them Send me away says he that I may go unto my Master I would have all the Captains and Mariners in the States service to be of that honest minde and upright spirit that Drusius Livius was of of whom it s said that this great Roman Counsellor bespoke a curious Artificer to build him an house in the City as curiously as Art could make it That I will said he and I will so contrive it that none shall ever see your coming into it or going out of it nor what you do at any time in your house God forbid says he I will have my house built so that the eyes of the whole City may run up and down every corner in it and may clearly see what I do in my house every day I up rise Tell the States that you would have them to build you such Frigots as that all the ships that sail by you in the Seas may see into your Cabins and what you do every day And this would bespeak you honest men Jacob also served Laban with all his might Gen. 31.6 night and day did he take care for his gain and profit Make the like conscience of your service and the discharge of those Trusts that are imposed in you whether in the Merchants or States service and say when you have got your sailing Orders or when your Ships are fraughted Let 's be going Send us away now whilst the wind and opportunity serves Loyter it not in Harbors 2. An honest heart You should do for your Masters as you would do for your selves Nay you should esteem of their business before and above your own Upright Jacob did thus in Labans service Gen. 30.30 And the Lord hath blessed thee since my coming as if he were a going to say I have followed thy business honestly and closely and my own have I neglected And now when shall I provide for mine own house also It s wonderful to think what Jacob endured in Labans service Gen. 31.40 41. Heat scorched him by day and frost nipt him by night besides his losse of sleep and nocturnal rest I confesse that Seamens service is full of danger hardship night-watching and day-labouring but to go through-stitch with all they do out of a good principle is the life of all that is that which makes the service venerable Put on put on Masters of Ships and Seamen for honest hearts and principles God knows you are people that are the furthest on stern of any people in the world Use all fidelity in the keeping employing and encreasing of Merchants goods for their gain and advantage that you can Purloin not nor waste them in riotous eating and drinking What care took Jacob that nothing might miscarry in his hand Gen. 31.38 39. when his Master thought that he had robbed him he could not finde a rag amongst all his stuff that was his And will not you take the like on the behalf of those that employ you 2. Vnto the State In this service there be five sorts of men that deserve sharp Reproof and they are those that go under the Notion 1. Of Captains 2. Pursers 3. Gunners 4. Boatswains 5. Carpenters 1. Of Captains The Sea Captain is a Lad that has his faults slips spots and blemishes as well as another Alexander was continent yet immoderate Sylla was valiant yet violent Galba eminent yet insolent Lucullus generous yet delicious Marcellus glorious yet ambitious Architus patient yet avaritious Is there not very many that are now employed in the Seas who are no more fit for that function than the suit of a Giant is for a short-grown Dwarf Many creep into the States service that are both a disgrace to it a dishonour unto God and a gravaminous burthen to the ships and men they go amongst Let me tell the States of England thus much That the entertaining and countenancing of heretical erroneous factious and unpeaceable persons in their ships has exceedingly hurt poisoned and infected the silly and ignorant Sailors There would not have been found those damnable Errours in the heads hearts and mindes of Seamen that be now to be seen with great confidence and boldness at this day amongst them had there but been a careful keeping out of Command all such worthless persons who leave nothing else but a stink in every ship and Countrey they breathe in In former times when there was as much Peace in England as there is now as much Piety as there is now as much Honesty as there is now nay more Honesty and Sincerity whatever any in this Age cry up and boast of none but well-bred and accomplished men both of parts and estates were put into Commands at Sea It s a true saying that Ex quolibet ligno non fit Mercurius Every log of wood will not make a Scholar and I may with as great verity say that every uncomb'd Sailor will not make a Captain every one that knows the Rigging or the navigating and carrying of a
ship up and down in the Seas from Land to Land or Port to Port is not fit to put into the place of government I remember a pretty passage of one of this sort who had got good friends to present his name and speak very well in his behalf at the Admiralty Court by whose means he got his foot into the stirrop of a Wooden Horse and rid as proudly over the waves and the bouncing billows of the Sea as any Commander in the salt waters whatsoever but wanting skill to sit this Horse and art to keep the Reins in his hand and withall which was the main a good Head-piece the Horse stumbled in the River of Thames and threw the Captain out of the Saddle Will and pleasure is the fools Card which he steers by all the Voyage and this makes so many ill-governed ill-ordered and ill-tutored ships as there be at this day in the Sea But to come unto particulars there be three things that are too apparent in Sea Captains 1. Negligence The Merchant sends to you to shelter them by Convoy from the Enemy as the Grapes in Babel did upon a time unto the Vines in Judea as the Jewish Talmud says desiring them to come and overshadow them otherwise the violence of the heat would consume them in such sort as that they should thereby never come unto any maturity But you deal by the Merchant sometimes as the Vines of Judea did by the Vines of Babel even let them perish in the Seas through negligence They that bear command should not yield to their men in their cousenage and fraudulency but say as Scipio said unto the Harlot when offered him Vellem si non Imperator I would if I were not Captain 2. Injustice 3. Vnfitness 1. Negligence Is there not many that have good ships to sail in and great Salary to live upon whose consciences serve them even to do very little service and good for it and had rather lie at an Anchor or with their Noses in a good Harbour than be out at Sea in the preserving of the Merchant and destroying of the enemy And is there not other-some that are as loth to encounter their enemies when they have opportunities for it in the Seas as the Welchman was to fight the Englishman of whom it s said that Her made the challenge and bid the Englishman take what Weapon he would and her would fight with him The battel begun the Englishman ripled her on the knee and her feeling the unkinde salutation of the Englishmans Weapon threw down her Buckler and her Sword and would fight no more What 's the matter now quoth the Englishman What said she Apploot apploot was not her Buckler broad enough but must hit her upon the knee Her will have no more of that What fair winds and opportunities do Commanders many times slip by loytering about the shores and coasts when they should be in the Seas to such let me say Ad rem Rhombum Go to your work go the Countrey maintains you not to idle Some Sea Captains are Thales like who contemplated heaven not for any devotion but to pick some gain out of it seeing by it that there would be some scarcity of Olives c. which he monopolized into his hands sold These fellows would make the world believe that they are godly men indeed this makes for the honour of Religion that these men love the name of it who cannot endure the nature of it Says many a Sea Captain If I be not seemingly religious I shall not attain to any great honour or preferment as the times go I must wear the garb of a Christian outwardly though I disown it inwardly and by this means counterfeit Religion is mads a meer stooping horse of to bring Vermin into authority Look about you do not you see how the Enemy spoils the Merchant 2. Injustice Remember that a little with right is better than great revenues without right Psal 37.16 Had I a voice of Brasse to make every Captain in the Sea to hear me I would tell them and all that use the Seas That Injustice will in time undo them and draw upon their heads the heavy severe and impatible wrath of God and throw them out of their ships and livelyhoods Jeremiah 9.19 How are we spoiled we are greatly confounded our dwellings have cast us out Unrighteous doings in the States ships will hurl Commanders out of them and make them stink in the nostrils of all that shall behold them You Captains of the Seas Look but upon your cogging now as it will appear hereafter look but upon your assigning of false and unjust Accompts now as they will appear hereafter and then tell me how you like it What shall a Boatswain a Gunner a Purser or a Carpenter intangle me to lie for them that they may pocket up the States goods God forbid What shall a Pursers maintaining of your Tables with fresh victuals The States of England values not the Sea Captain if once they find him but in some grosse insufferable error as there is righteousness in so doing 7 years service is an usual proverb amongst the Sailors is not looked on if but found in one hours displeasure So that the Sea Captain in one case is not unlike to the sumpter-horse who does good service carries the trunks all day but at night his treasure is taken from him and himself turned into a dirty foul stable Know you not the application of this engage and introduce you to give them the liberty to to be false God forbid that such doings should be found in my hand And yet where is that Great Cabbin in any or in all the Ships of England but there be these doings in it This may be for a time lucrum in crumena but in the end it will prove damna conscientiae 3. Vnfitness I would propound this question Whether or no there be not many in command that would make better Masters for navigating of ships too and again than of commanding guiding governing or fighting of them The great Salary that they have for their service is the thing they look at as to the ordering and well regulating of those many spirits that be under their command they know not what course to take in the steering of them Pro. 14.1 Solomon tells you that the wise woman looks upon it as her greatest policy to build her house and having building-materials both of wisdome understanding and instruction the building work went forward and the superstructure of it was most rare And so would you do too if you had but those brains and for want of them you bring many times an old house over your ears Seamen might be reclaimed reformed and reduced unto better carriage order and deportment than there is amongst them were there but wisdome prudence and a zeal for God in you to act and bestir your selves amongst them Your partial and ill managing of
well-known Proverb that one scabbed sheep will infect a whole flock a drop of Colloquintida will mar a whole pot of pottage and one stinking Sailor will spoil a whole ships company This was one reason why Sarah would have Ishmael turned out of doores because shee saw in him an evil disposition and lewd manners and therefore shee greatly feared lest Isaac should bee tainted Octauius Augustus observing Herennius a dissolute young man gave command that hee should stay no longer in his Camp for hee took in none but such as were civil honest and orderly The youngman being sensible of the disgrace that would come upon him intreated the Emperor not to send him home alleging that he could not tell how to answer his Father Dic me tibi displicuisse Tell him that I am displeased with thee said the Emperor I wish that that famous Decree of Theodosius were writ upon all the Entring Ladders throughout the whole Navy of England before men set their feet into the States ships Praesenti jussione mandaemus quicunque ad domum nostram vel navem nosciâ—ur pertinere c. We command by these presents that whosoever is known to belong to our houshold be not a Swearer a Drunkard an unclean person rude and deboist fellows c. for he shall serve me that obeyes good Laws and therefore I will begin with good government with those that are of my own houshold that others abroad may bee ashamed to do ill and others encouraged that do well c. and corrupted by him I would have Sea-Captains to declare themselves in a couragious manner as Caesar the Emperour was wont to do unto his Subjects and Courtiers of whom it s said that hee told them that hee would have those that lived with him and belonged to him free as well from suspition of evil as from crime Tell your Sea-men thus before you take them on board with you 2. If you have any such in your Ships make inquiry bee they warrant or unwarrant Officers and Sea-men out with them pack them out of your ships lest you pull Gods heavy judgements upon your heads whilst in the Sea's Is it not better that every ship in the States service were both disgorged and disburdened of such than burdened with them If it bee possible bee careful and wise to furnish your ships with men that have principles of honesty civility and sobriety in them then may you expect the good presence of the Lord with you in all your Sailings and Outlandish undertakings I ould wish that Sea-Captains would do by their ships as it s said of the Lord by his Vineyard Isa 5.23 that they would throw out of their ships even all your stones Our ships are full of stones of bryars brambles and thorns This was Davids resolution and shall it not bee yours Gentlemen that bear command in your ships Psal 101.6 7. Hee that worketh deceit shall not tarry in my sight Make this bold speech ever and anon in the head or hearing of your Sea-men That hee that swears shall not tarry in my ship Hee that is a Drunkard shall not abide with mee Hee that is a Lyar shall not continue with mee Dead Bees are cast out of the Hive to that very end that no putrifaction or harm may come unto the living or their Hony-combs Put on put on Sea-Captains for a Davidical principle David at his first coming to the Kingdome if my judgement fail not first sought to advance piety in his own family Psal 101.2 3 4 5. You then whom God hath favoured and betrusted with Commands in the Seas set up Religion in your respective ships lest hurling out follow not in the heels Theophrastus being asked Quidnam Rempublicam conservaret how a Commonwealth might flourish answered Praemium paena encouraging and rewarding the good and punishing of the evil And if this bee not done in the States-service what filthy and nasty ships will there bee It was a notable saying of another Fiat justitia aut mundus pereat It is as great a peece of justice in a Commander to pack out of his ship all rotten filthy and soul-infecting Sailors as in any one thing whatsoever I could wish that all the Scips in England whether small or great both in the States and Merchants service were man'd with men of my describing and characterizing I could wish that the States of England would be as curious in their pitching upon men for to bear Command in their Frigots as Theodore was of the Schoolmasters that were to teach his children of whom it s said that he would have them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as well as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It s requisite that such should be men fearing God as wel as knowing in the navigating of a ship The Lacedemonians had this Law and I wish it were in force at Whitehall that none should be so bold as to seek the Princes favour but such as were known to serve the Gods diligently I would have none in the States service to be in any office or command that is not sincerely godly I would advertise both them that are above in Authority at Whitehall and those also who are below that go Commanders in the Seas to sleight disregard and let go every swearer to seek their livelihoods and employments where they can finde them in the world and never a one of them would I have you to imploy or countenance to that very end that that common prophaneness that is amongst these men in the Seas may bee run down by the board and utterly mangered and crushed I would now beg Poplitibus curvis of the States of England that they would neither allow nor suffer any to remain and continue in their ships and service who are not both honest solid and godly and that all Captains and Commanders also in their several and respective ships under your Honours Commands would faithfully endeavour to pack the vile out of your ships and to receive none but such as these 1 Take into your ships none but such as will not bee offended at any wholesome truth though it bee never so tart untoothsome and contrary to your corrupt courses and doth ever more affect that Ministry most which layes them open by thundring against their Whoring Swearing and Drunkenness and loves to bee admonished and after warning and conviction from the word will not obstinately go on in any known evil because their principal care is how to bee saved 2 Take into your ships none but such as do impartially beleeve the whole word of God Threats Precepts and Promises and feel the power and efficacy of Gods word and Spirit perswading and ruling in their consciences and carrying them after the guidance and directions of it 3 None but such as are exceedingly inflamed with the love and estimation of God a Christ and then may you look to prosper 4 None but such as are both meek lowly and humble and not your heady high-minded
stubborn and self-willed Get such to go along with you that fear more the want of grace than confide in what they have and ever more make it their business to work out their salvation with fear and trembling not trusting in their own strength but are jealous and suspicious lest their own hearts should deceive them If the world knew but the worth of arighteous man said some Hebrew Doctors they would hedge him about with Pearl I would have Captains in every ship they go in to resemble Diana's image in Chios of whom it hath been said that it would frown upon all that were vile and wicked when ever they came into her Temple but looked blithe and smiled on them when they went out of it as rejoycing to be rid of their ill company He that is wise may quickly gather up the application 5 None but such as do highly esteem and love Gods people and that above all the people in the world and not out of any carnal or sinister respects but for their graces and the truths sake because they are born of God and such as are evermore ready to justifie them and speak in their defence when they hear them reviled and slandered 6 None but such as loathe and abhor to sit in the company of the ungodly and will have no fellowship with the workers of iniquity will not bee in league amity and friendship with Swearers Drunkards Whoremongers and Scoffers 7 None but such as make conscience of the sanctifying of the Sabbath in the Seas and will not take that liberty of prophaning of this day set apart by God for serious weighty and solemn service by vain and idle discourse as most Sea-men use to do God knows you let every one in your ships live as hee pleases on this day 8 None but such as are just and upright in their dealings and desire to pay every one his due and will not borrow without care to pay again as the wicked do Psal 37.21 Is not this the custome of many of your Sailors to build Sconces in every place they come in what should you do with such fellows as these in your ships they will but discredit your Command and bring a disgrace upon the Land where ever you go 9 None but such as are just in getting and will have a care of being too profuse in spending Some are such prodigals thaâ— they throw all their Salary as soon 〈◊〉 â—mes into their hands upon Drabs 〈◊〉 â—ts and this makes so many ragged Sailors as there bee in England 10 None but such as deny all ungodliness and worldly lusts and live soberly chastely and moderately in the Seas and whose speech is not stinking and unclean as most Sea-mens are What should you do with such Harlots in your service which calls for holiness and better principled men 11 None but such as are neither Drunkards nor Gluttons and neither will bee enticed to tarry long at wine nor strong drink as is the custome of the ungodly sort of Sea-men What should you do with such men who serve their bellies rather than do the work they come for to do I would not have Captains surprized with phanatical blindness nor carrying their eyes whilst on ship-board amongst their men in a box as the Lamiae did Mind every particular man under your Commanâ— what he is in life speech gesture and carriage that they may not remain to spoyl and poyson others for want of looking to I could wish that that brave ponderous sentence of Chilo's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Know thy self which was writ in great golden letters upon the Portal of Apollos Temple was writ upon all the Entring Ladders of all the ships in England 12 None but such whose deportment and carriage is neither to curse lye nor swear notwithstanding the many provocations that bee in ships at Sea but abhor to take the holy Name of God vainly into their mouthes and so reverently use his Titles either in Scripture talk reading or praying and not in common and carnal discourse as is the usual manner of most Sea-men What should you do with such in your ships both you and them and the ships will bee in danger every day of being either rock't shoar'd or stranded 13 None but such as â—â—e not implacable and seekers of 〈◊〉 upon those that have injured theâ—â—â—â—d sought to bury their names in the world although some have lifted up their hands against you you should shut your ears and keep down your spirits both in this and other cases lest the temptations of the Devil prevail upon you What saies Satan wilt thou suffer thy name to bee thus abused Canst thou endure to see thy credit running down to the ground in the world by such a soul-mouthed varlot as yond is Go go and kill him But would it not bee far better for thee to hold thy hands Now what should you do with bloody and quarrelling fellows in your ships Is it not a greater blessing to have them out than in Have an eye of these 14 None but such as will neither backbite others nor give ear to backbiters of others and will neither lend Satan his tongue to bee his Trumpeter nor his ears to hear nor his heart to beleeve lyes and slanders And will pardoâ— many things in others which hee will not allow of nor indure in himself If you take in a pack of lying and slandering fellows you will never have any good order or quiet in your ships 15 None but such whose vertues and goodness gains them more enemies and breeds them more danger whilst on ship-board than the open and publick vileness of the wicked does them They are more pleased that are godly that the wicked abhor them than displeased for hereby they come to know that by the worlds hating of them they are not of the world but that they hate the stinking and vile courses of the world 16 None but such who have low and mean thoughts of themselves whilst on ship-board abhorring to think But I am talking of wonders men thus qualified cannot be got well but here is no harm in wishing them of this temper I hope It would be an heaven upon earth to be amongst Seamen thus divinely principled Could I finde a ships company of men thus adorned with the graces of God I would compare them to the Skye in a clear evening bespangled with bright glistering stars or to Aarons Ephod beset with precious gems stones or else to a Garden planted with pleasant flowers beds of Roses highly of themselves and better than of others by their often comparing of themselves with them I am as good as hee is and better than thou art c. Know this one thing that God resisteth the proud and giveth grace unto the humble 17 None but such as cannot indure to hear God in ships blasphemed and dishonoured without being moved at it and trembling in the audience of all ungodly and unreverent
but if his Salary bee not enough hee swears bee will fetch it out of his stores by one sleight or other And when hee comes to make up his accompts in Arithmetick hee is notably pregnant and as dexterious hee is whilst on board all the time in substraction It is an old Proverb Tradesmen that will not lye can have no trading in this world I leave you the Application of it Gentlemen to tell you plainly I like no jugling nor no balking of you that are in the States and Commonwealths service there bee many base gross and felonious carriages not onely amongst you but the rest also in general I could wish that the States ships were well man'd and officer'd even with godly honest and conscientious men men fearing God walking uprightly and hating covetousness Look into Zach. 5.4 and 1 Cor. 6.10 God knows many Masters of ships in the Merchants service have as covetous and as greedy a disposition in them as ever Julius Caesar had of whom it is said that in his making war in Spain that he picked quarrels with divers rich Cities that he might plunder them And do not you the like by your Sea-men that you may at the Voyage end keep something back of their wages I would have all the Masters in England that go in Merchant affairs to be of that honest minde that Tyberius the Emperor was of of whom it is said that he accounted Aurum illud Adulterinum esse quod cum subjectorum lachrymis collectum esset that monies no good coyn that was levied with his subjects tears Read Lev. 19.13 Sea-men that are thus abused with their Masters may well say unto them as Carâ—â—acus one of Britains Princes said when taken prisoner and carried unto Rome and after his viewing of the stately magnificence of the City as he passed on what mean you quoth he to do that have these and such like buildings of your own to covet our small Cottages So what mean you to do with us who have enough to live well on and yet gripe and grutch us our wages But to shut up this Discourse I will adde one word more and that of Advertisement unto those that go under the notion of Masters and Boatswains of ships whether in the States or Merchants service and after I have in brief told them a little of their bad dishonest and tyrannical carriages towards poor labouring Sea-men I will then give fire to a great peece of Ordnance that all the Mariners in England may hear me into every part of the Sea whether West East North or South or where ever they are and go And if any at the hearing of the dreadful report of it should ask and inquire what the matter is that one of the Chase-guns out of the most famous and golden-gilded Nasby of England is fired I shall tell them that it is upon this account to command all the Sea-men in England for to strike and to call them off from all their vain Idle irreligious soul-damning deboyst and ungodly lives practices and conversations For the first then In the Merchants service Masters your demeanours in the ships you go in are very rotten putrid and unsound and should they either come to the light or unto the touchstone they would bee found to bee meer dross and worse than the very shingle that lyes upon the Sea side What stoppage do you make many times of your poor hired Sea-mens wages Any trivial detriment or accident that comes upon the ship in the Voyages you make must forsooth bee abstracted and squeezed out of their Indents I would advise all such Masters to look upon these doings and all their other crafty and cruel dealings with their men as they will appear hereafter and then come and tell mee how good it is to put that into your pockets which is your Sea-mens dues I will tell you how they will appear unto you one day Jam. 5.4 Behold the hire of the labourers which have reaped down your fields which is of you kept back by fraud crieth and the cries of them which have reaped are entred into the ears of the Lord of Sabboaths Behold Behold the cryes of labouring Sea-men which have carried your ships out and brought them home are both great and very many they are come into the ears of the Lord already as so many Bills of Indictment against you Woe bee unto you how will you answer the Lord in that great day of account Take in that good counsel of Christs betimes Luke 12.15 Take heed and beware of covetousness for a mans life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth 2. In the Merchants service Boatswains All is not right with you neither There bee those holes in your coats that proclaim you tyrannical and unmerciful amongst your men You are like to Pharaohs Task-masters who put the children of Israel upon making of Bricks Exod. 1.14 you make the lives of many poor Sea-men under you very bitter unto them by reason of your hard and unkinde bondage and if not in Mortar and in Brick yet in multiplicity of needless and useless service you cry as Israels-Tyrants did over them Exod. 5.13 14. Fulfil your works your daily tasks as when there was straw which if they do not perhaps their bones are broke by your unmerciful hands for their neglecting of that which they are both over-charged and burdened in many times You are in a word a jovial crew of Carmen that never leave jerking I would have all the Boat-swains in England that are in the Merchants service to walk towards the Sea-men that are under them according to this Scripture rule Levit. 25.43 Thou shalt not rule over him with rigour but shalt fear thy God and Geoing of their horses till they hale the hearts of them our I may very well say of you as it was once said of Simeon and Levi Gen. 49.7 Cursed bee their anger for it was fierce and their wrath for it was cruel 2. In the States Service Masters and Boatswains You are the two onely men for the commanding of a ship what ever a Captain pretends and keeps a stir and a busling amongst you I look upon you two for the well ordering of a ship were there but those Principles in you as much as I do upon him As to the commanding of the men you have as much to do with them as hee has I mean in things that have a tendency unto good order and decorum on shipboard I may compare the cow-heartedness that is in Masters and Boatswains of ships towards those that go under the notion of Captains in them To that foolish soul Grato in Terence of whom it is said Quicquid dicis ego dicam quicquid negis ego negam What you say Sir I will say and what you deny I will deny What you will I will and what you will not I will not Make you the Application But more pertinently to the thing in hand
sweet flowers in the Spring which are not known nor seen by the owners of the Cattel Altamen occultum referunt in lacte Saporem Virg. Georg. 4. So though no eye can behold the Merchant in a foreign Nation what hee trades in yet the benefit of his going out is evermore found at his return such ship or ships is to make report thereof by firing of Guns and if in the night by hanging out of lights and firing of Guns 9. If that the Admiral in a Fleet bee minded and resolve to anchor in the night hee makes sign thereof by hanging out perhaps his two lights in the Mizzen shrouds one above another and when anchors fires a peece of Ordinance and all the rest of the Fleet come to an anchor 3. Their business or occasions and those has respect unto two things 1. Merchandizing 2. Warring and Fighting 1. Merchandizing The Merchant-mans employment lyes wholly in traffiking from Country to Country buying and selling and selling and buying according to that in the Poet Impiger extremos currit Mercator ad Indos He goes down into the Sea to bring into the Land those costly Silks Spices Wines Sugars Stuffs Fruits c. which are in other parts very plentifully to bee had And by these wealthy and vendible commodities is both the City of London and the whole Nation besides both marvellously benefited and inriched What our Nation is destitute of it is fetcht into it out of other Countries that affords it by shipping So that England wants not for those scattered varieties that have their growth and being in other climates but hath a full and sufficient supply of every thing Now the Merchants business is various in respect that it lyes sometimes here and sometimes there sometimes in the Eastern parts of the world and sometimes in the Western sometimes in the Southern and other some times again in the Northern It s an Italian Proverb that the world is theirs that are bold Paradise theirs that are devour and Learning theirs that will but study for it The application is fair enough in view Sometimes for one commodity and other some times for another by which rare calling and imployment hee doth Angliam valde locupletari Hee goes into Countries Omnia copiarum genere abundantes that flow with all manner of varieties The Merchant-ships are continually going and coming and coming and going into England and out of England into the remote parts of the world as Bees out of an Hive in Summer time Vt in prat is ubique apes serenâ floribus infidunt variis As in Summer time every eye may behold the laborious Bee one while in the field and another while in the garden one while bringing home and another while flying out for hony so do our ships take flight upon their Canvass wings and bring home the riches and the wealth that is in other parts These are they that are like to Zebulun the Mariners Tribe who dwelt at the Haven of the Sea Josh 33.19 and sucked of the abundance of the Seas They that go too and again in the Sea may see in one part twenty sail in another forty in one fifty and in another sixty or an hundred going this way and that way Eastward Westward Northward and Southward Sicuti apes omnes circumvolitantes quod est utile domum adducunt As Bees light on every flower so some or other of the Merchants ships upon every Nation and that which is profitable and beneficial they bring with them into the Land Observation 2 That the worlds wealth is not to bee gotten without great pains and diligence whether at Sea or Land That do business in the great waters Many a perilous and rocking storm doth the Merchant-ship go thorow before shee either gets to her journies end into a forein part or from thence unto her home again What one said when hee stood admiring what pains Gentlemen take in hunting of the Hare the same I may say of the Merchant in his hunting out of forein Countries Tanto labore pro uno lepore homines valde torqueri video quos montes ascendunt quas paludes transibunt quas vepres sentesque sine sensu percurrunt modo unum lepusculum Capiant What mountains doth the Hunter climb what waters runs hee thorow and hedges breaks hee over with what toyl and sweat doth hee follow after the Hare Even the like pains takes the Merchant in climbing over the great mountains in the stormy Seas There is scarce any wind that blows but some ships are both going out and coming in or out one harbour or other in England But 2. Warring and fighting I would have our Sailors when they fight an enemy to strive as much for the wind as the Heron doth her endeavour to be above the Falcon that she may wet his wings with her excrements to that end he may flye both heavily and also that his purpose may be made ineffectual Having now spoke something of Merchandizing business it follows that I should descant a little upon that warring and fighting work and business that wee have now in this age to do Shipping business then lyes not altogether in trading but sometimes in fighting and warring upon the Seas when there bee breaches and fallings out betwixt State and State And when the quarrel is once begun betwixt two Nations there is great care taken on both sides who should run down one another by the board first So that if there were not a careful imploying of warlike Fleets both at home and abroad 1 For securing of Merchant-trade And 2. For guarding of the Nation Englands enemies are so many that they would soon put down the Merchandizing of it Ships might either stay in their harbours or otherwise if they went out to Sea without men of War they would come short of their homes How quickly would our cruel and bloody-minded enemies clip their Canvass wings from ever coming into our English Ports again Nay they would not stick to come and visit us with great and dreadful Armadoes threatning to land and break in upon us Besides wee have a cunning and subtil enemy to deal withal which plaies us as notable pranks as the Fowler doth the birds with his Larking-day-net which he spreads out in fair mornings and himself whirling about with his artificial motions thereby not onely the merry Lark and fearful Pidgeon are dazled and drawn into it out of admiration Let me say thus much unto the Hollander which Archidamus once said unto the Aeolians when he saw them intending to aid the Argives against him He writ a letter unto them the substance of which was in this Quietness is far better Take heed of aiding the Spaniard but stouter birds of prey the swift Merlin and towering Hobbie are sometimes inticed to stoop unto it which proves the loss of their lives Our Merchants that are small birds are not onely snapt and taken by the enemy now and then but
sometimes our fighting birds that are for prey The Commonwealth of England hath many small birds of prey which shee sends out of England to flye up and down in the Seas to ruine the enemy and protect the Merchant which sometimes are caught themselves viz. Falcon Hawk Merlin Drake Dove Raven Parrat c. What the Thistle in the Scotish coyn once said when feigned to speak I will say of England unto the whole world Ne◠impunc laceseit If any man meddle with me he had as good hold off his hands The poor Parrat very lately for want of good wings was taken by an Ostend Falcon. And I wish the other little birds either to fight hard in an encounter with them or else to run betimes lest they come to the same sawce the Parrat met withall Is not the Turk a great enemy unto us And is it not their faith that hee that kills a Christian shall the sooner go to heaven for it Unto the murthering of us would they go with as great alacrity as unto some play or sport And what is the French though wee have a National peace with them they are no great friends to us neither is there any great confidence to bee imposed in them or any of those that are of a Papal spirit And what is the Hollander Is hee not an Ambidexter and one that playes a game with every Nation which they call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Holds with the Hare and runs with the Hound Wee have many Nations to deal with all and the Seas lye round about England and is no other but an Island ships may come on every hand and side of her All our Historians Chronologers and universal Maps tell us that England is as it were thrust out of the world separated and at a great distance from it and the greater Continents and so stands but at the outside of it Toto divises or be Britannos Is there not then great need of looking to our selves What the Oracle told the Cirrheans I may take upon mee to tell old England Diesque belli gerendum they could not bee secure I will further say of England what one saies of a strange kinde of stone called a Pyrrhites which Teneri se vehementius non permittit ac si quando arctiore manu premitusque digitos adurit If any Nation handle England roughly it will burn their fingers Had France and England been in one Continent that there had been no Sea betwixt us and them we had had our throats cut ere this day by that Papal crew that is amongst them and other Nations unless they waged war night and day Our warlike ships under God are Englands walls Keep up your wooden walls and you will amaze the world If great and dreadful Fleets were not kept out at Sea our Nation might expect that of the Oratour for ought I know Fractam laboribus juventutem seget es proculcatas abacta pecora incensos vicos desertos agros oppugnatas urbes eversa maenia compilatas domos dissipatos liberos direpta phana tot senes orbos tot liberos Orphanos tot matronas viduas tot virgines violatas corruptos mores luctus lachrymas funera artes praeterea extinctas oppressas leges contemptam Religionem confusa humana divinaque omnia Frustra nostrorum codices frustra servantur aditus Oraeque maritimae frustra domus arcae scrinia capsulae minimam etiam nostram Rempub. jucundam amaenam cito depecularentur Gentlemen in short you might expect to have your Towns Cities and Houses that you live in to be fired about your eares such is the enmity of your Christian adversaries Nay would they not Omnia flamma ac ferro delere longe lateque vastare And will not all this stir up your spirits to wage war against them what the Roman Oratour said elegantly of their annoying enemy Carthage I will invert and use as an argument against Spain Qui sunt Qui faedera saepe ruperunt Hispanienses When there are true determinative tydings of wageing war with Holland Spain or any other forein Nation that does or may hereafter oppose us I would then have all the Sailors Sea-Captaines in England to bee of a sparkling martial spirit When it was told the house of David saying Syria is consederate with Ephraim his heart was moved the heart of his people as the trees of the wood are moved with the wind Isa 7.2 Qui sunt qui crudele bellum in Remp. Angliae gesserunt Hispanienses Qui sunt Qui Angliam deformaverunt Hispanienses Qui sunt qui sibi postulant ignosci Hispanienses videte ergo quid conveniat eos impetrare Quid hoc turpius Quid hoc faedius Quid hoc nequius That I may stir up the spirits of our Nation and of the brave fighting Souldiery and Sea-men in it Pray consider who they are that have waged cruel wars against England and have made many assaults and invasions to have dispossessed us of the Land was it not the Spaniard Pray consider who they are that are and have been so perfidious a people both to us and unto all other Nations round about them Is it not the Spaniard Pray consider who it was that has been the occasion of that expence and effusion of blood that has been lost in England and also in foreign parts of the world was it not the Spaniard Who was it that would have over-run all England with Popery was it not the Spaniard Who is it that upholds the Pope at Rome is it not the Spaniard Who is it that upholds that unjust and cursed Inquisition which cuts off men for calling their Religion into question and debate is it not the Spaniard Who is it that will not suffer England to drive a free trade as well as themselves in the West-Indies is it not the Spaniard Who has it been that hath caused so many thousand of harmless and innocent Christians to bee burned like faggots at their greedy and unsatiable pleasures was it not the Spaniard and the rest of that Papal crew Who is it that opposes England with such a concurrent and united fury is it not the Spaniard Who is it that are as blood-thirsty as ever Mahomet was who in his time was the death of 80000 men is it not the Spaniard Pray consider who it is that are as blood-thirsty as ever that goring Bull of Rome was who has for many years bore the bell for insatiableness in blood-sucking and has been long since drunk with the blood of the Saints as with new wine and in his drunken and bestiall humour has furiously spilt it and poured it out upon the face of Christendom and much of it in our remembrance is it not the Spaniard Pray consider who it is that are as avarous to have their hands imbrewed in English blood as ever Farnesius was when at his departing out of Italy hee wished hee might see his horse swim in the blood of the
do no more value ships of a thousand or sixteen hundred Tun than the wind vallues a light and unballasted feather The sporting Student for recreation bandies not his Tennis-ball with more facility from side to side yea and sometimes over the Court-wall than the Seas do both the great and small ships that they carry upon their shoulders It is true water is a very weak creature The water in the Sea far exceeds the strength of waters out of it viz. in Rivers Pools Wells and Ponds It is observed of ships in their coming up the River of Thames that they will draw a foot or two more water than they will do when in the Sea and of creatures one of the very weakest if my judgement fail not but when and where there is much of it congregated into an Alpine mountain and so carried up on the wings of the wind in a rowling manner it carries no small terrour in it The rising of a Lion out of his sandy Den or the appearance of a Greenland Leviathan looks not more grimly and gastly upon one than merciless and rowling waves in time of stormy Seas Many a one that is in the stormy Seas would wish to bee at a distance from those great rowling waves and billows that threaten to run over their heads ships and yard arms of such force are the Seas that let a ship bee great or small strong or weak if it bee her hap to fall upon sands or stick upon the bottome they will knock her all to peeces If any one would read what terrible and dreadful Majesty there is in God let him go down into the Sea a while and hee shall see so much of God in that clear water-looking glass as might be sufficient to turn him from sin to holiness from the world unto heaven and from the devil unto God all his dayes What Jerom speaks of Asella I may even say of my self after all that I have said Habebat silentium loquens whilst she spoke she was silent quicklier than if there were an hundred Carpenters set on work to do such a thing The Seas did so by the ship the Apostle Paul was in Act. 27. and they will and do so still if they take ships but once stranded The Eagle is a great bird yet is her vertue seen in a feather because it will consume all other feathers As mighty as the fire of Aetna is yet may one feel the beat of it in one spark as huge as the Sea is one may taste of its saltness in a drop and as great as the Whale is one may perceive his power at a distance So the Sea either in a little storm or quiet calm if but in it And now what shall I say the more Painters when they have used strokes of gold to make the brightest radiancy they can of the Sun wee see how weak and faint a shadow they represent of its beams and light So what I or any other would undertake to write of the Seas it is nothing comparatively what they are in themselves That the Mariners imployment in and Observation 3 upon the great water how dangerous or how perilous soever it bee is both lawful warrantable and allowable They that go down This text of Scripture which wee are at this time handling and speaking from doth naturally treat of Navigation as the vocation and occupation of some men viz. Such as have business in the great waters And have not many men affairs and commerce betwixt Nation and Nation to manage and dispatch which cannot any otherwise bee either done or performed but by this art If it were not for this art the creation could not bee travelled into nor the eminent works of God discovered nor the excellent fruits and commodities of the earth that bee in other parts of the world participated of Now this vocation hath been an antient imployment and of very long standing and continuance it hath been in use before Christs time and of use in his time and ever since Christs coming into the world Gods own people the Jews were very great Merchants and so are all the Jews generally unto this day the word Canaan signifies a Merchant denoting that they were not ordinary but of the greatest of Merchants And God hath not prohibited nor forbid men from coming upon the Seas no more than hee did in those times If that this calling had been unlawful and unwarrantable then Zebulun the Mariners Tribe would have been forbad it Deut. 33.18 And of Zebulun hee said Rejoyce Zebulun in thy going out c. vers 19. For they shall such of the abundance of the Seas and of treasures hid in the same But it is so far from being forbid that it is rather encouraged and allowed of and if it were lawful for Zebuluns Tribe it is the same for England or any other Nation in matters of trading and commerce one with another Some have their callings stations and habitations on Land some again at Sea Some are ingenious in one thing and some again in another All men have not the like equality of gifts parts and graces that othersome have and certainly one main end is that they bee helpful to one another Moses had not the voluble tongue therefore hee was beholden to Aaron to bee his prolocutor God sets men their bounds and their work and task whilst they are in this world some must go to Sea all their dayes and other some not so much as set their footupon the Salt waters But now for a little further confirmation of the Doctrine were there no Scripture to prove the lawfulness of the Mariners Calling I would then demand of any one 1. To what end the Lord did cut out all those Harbours Creeks Chanels and convenient places for ships to ride in in time of storms and to go into to fraught themselves both in this Nation of ours and in all the other Nations in the world 2. To what end were the great Rivers cut out for but to carry ships up to Cities and Towns viz. All the Sea-port Towns and Cities whether in England France Spain Holland Norway and the rest of the Nations in the world 3 To what end grows the great and tall Fir of which is made masting and yarding for all the ships that bee or shall bee built in the world These grow in great plenty both in Norway New England and divers other parts in the world Now I would not bee misunderstood I do not deny but that Fir is useful in many other things But I propound but this as a question and so leave it with you 4. To what end were Pitch Tar and Iron in such abundance as is in many parts of the world though useful in and about divers things besides if this art were not lawful 5. To what end is the use of the Loadstone discovered It is a well-known axiâ—me Deus nihil frustra fecit God never made any thing in vain but for
some use or other and also the secret vertue that is betwixt the Loadstone and the two Polar points the Artick and the Antartick which keeps the Mariners Card most firm and stable in all his Navigations and courses that hee steers and shapes if this art were not lawful I will give you now in a few particulars a Praelibamen or taste of those various uses and singular benefits that mankinde generally hath of and by the Seas 1. All the Nations of the world have this benefit by the Seas They yield them an easy quick and speedy passage or transportation to and fro by which every place or part in the world partakes of what one another enjoys Hereby are earthly blessings transmitted unto one another Esau's earthly portion or blessing was the fatness of the Earth plenty of corn wine and oyle c. Gen. 27.39 and these good things that are in the world some in one part and some in another are carried into those parts that are wanting and destitute of them Now speed is a great advantage in all businesses for quick dispatch of things What one says of the heavenly bodies I may in one sense as well say of the Art of Navigation Heavenly bodies do convey their sweet influences non qua calidae sed qua velocis motus England thou art happy that thou art an Island and at a great distance from the cruelty of the dark corners of the Earth And wee know that all Nations are carefull to keep up and maintain their Stationary post both in England France Spain Italy Turky Germany and the rest of them to that end the Nations may bee quickly informed in all secular occurrences or all assaults by the breaking in of forein powers And of the same use are the Seas upon which and through which do our shipping and the shipping in all Nations fly upon their canvas wings and are by good winds in a little time carried unto the furthest ports in the world and when fraughted if weather favour as speedily returned 2. They quell the rage of the hottest Element and are very useful and instrumental to keep sublunary mansions from being converted into cinders and ashes 3. They part Nations from one another If all the world were in one continent it is more than probable that sin which has brought in such an hurtfull Principle into the minds of men that there would bee nothing but a daily killing slaughtering and murthering of one another Now God might if hee had pleased have laid all the whole world in one continent and not separated one Nation from another as hee has done What intrudeing is there upon one anothers borders what fireing of Towns what burning of Villages what slaughtering at their pleasure is there evermore amongst those that are in one Continent would it not bee thus every where were there not a Sea betwixt them to part them from pulling one another by the throat And hee might have given commission to the great waters to have lain upon the back of the world and not in the heart of it as they doe but the Lords unsearchable and incomprehensible Wisdom has contrived all things for the good and conveniency of mankind blessed and ever blessed bee his holy name Does not the great infinite and wonderful Wisdom of God appear in this in that hee hath divided and taken the world and broken it into many pieces for one people to live in one place and another people in another of it Look but into some great continents in the world where there be several Kings Princes Dukes and Emperours and they are never at quiet but in a perpetual hostility and enmity one against the other witness France and Spain the Turk and the Persian and divers other parts in the world 4. The ebbing and flowing of the Seas are of marvellous use and benefit unto all the Haven-towns in all Nations whatsoever whether East or West North or South far or near by this ships come in with the flood and goe out with the ebbe Gen. 41.13 Zebulun that dwelt at the Haven of the Sea found the benefit of the fluxes and the re-fluxes of the Seas by which their ships came in and by which they went out How useful is the flowing What this ebbing and flowing of the Seas it as to the natural causes of it none knows the supernatural every one can tell Some fictitiously attribute it unto an Angel whose office is as it was in the Pool of Bethesda to move the waters to and fro Other some have these guesses at it that there are certain subterranean or under Sea-fires that give the Seas their motion One calls the ebbing and flowing of the Sea Arcanum naturae magnum natures great secret Contra rationem nemo sobrius Contra Scripturam nemo Christianus Contra Ecclesiam nemo pacificus They that are wise may see both reason and Scripture in the proof of the point and re-flowing of the Seas both to London in the Thames and Hull in Humber besides many other ports and places in this Land and Nation where ships are continually comming in and going out Some attribute the flowings and the re-flowings of the Seas which is a most wonderful thing to the various effects of the divers appearances of the Moon and this is not improbable not unlikely for experience teacheth us that according to the courses of the Moon tides they are both ordered and altered from whence wee may positively conclude that the waters have their attraction from the Moon And indeed it is the judgement of the best Philosophers that the Moon by her operation sets the Sea the worlds great wonder on ebbing and flowing Aristotle because hee could not find out the natural cause of the Seas flowing and ebbing told the Sea that if hee could not comprehend the reason of it the Sea should comprehend him and out of grief immediately hee threw himself into the Sea Others again think that the final cause of the Seas motion was ordained by God for the purging and preserving of the waters as the aire has its purgings by and from the winds which are as brooms and besoms to sweep away all the contagious vapours and infectious savours that climb up into it Standing waters wee know are apt to putrify corrupt and stink if it were not for sweet springs that feed them but what are small Rivulets that are extracted and strained waters through the veins of the Earth though out of all the Nations in the world to the great and wide Sea they are but as the drop of a bucket or a mole-hill to a Mountain 5. The Sea affords all mankind this great singular and publique benefit in respect it yields them such an innumerable variety of all sorts and kinds of Fish both great and small which is a great supply to many Towns Cities and Countries both in the Eastern Western Northern and Southern parts of the world And of these are killed infinitely every
business that is Observ 4 now to bee done and followed on in the Seas England thou hast argumentum Aristotelicum argumentum Basilinum on thy side Three special things desire to bee seen and enjoyed in this world 1. The fall of Babylon the destruction of Antichrist 2. The destruction of Gog and Magog the Turkish Monarchy 3. The full conversion of the Jews is to pull down the house of Austria and the Pope of Rome That do business in great waters c. Amongst the many reasons that might be deposited take these for some 1. Because the time draws on that that which is prophecied shall bee fulfilled Rev. 11.15 And the seventh Angel sounded and there were great voices in Heaven saying The Kingdoms of this world are become the Kingdoms of the Lord Jesus and hee shall reign for ever and ever St. John saw the elders casting down all their crowns before the Throne 1600 years ago what may wee not expect now then saying thou art worthy O Lord to receive glory and honour and power Apoc. 4.10 Hee that has but a seeing eye at nearer times may clearly discern What valiant spirits were they of in former times History tells us that the whole world was fought for thrice 1 Betwixt Alexander and Xerxes 2 Betwixt Caesar and Pompey 3 Betwixt Constantine and Lucinius Were they so valiant in those dayes Sailors and wil not you be as valiant in these dayes of ours that both Crowns and Kingdomes are staggering And soon after John heard every creature in heaven and in Earth and Sea saying Blessing Honour Glory and Power bee unto him that sits upon the Throne and unto the Lamb for evermore Chap. 5.13 And soon after he saw Christ with his Crown upon him going forth conquering and to conquer Chap. 6.2 And hee that hath a seeing eye may observe the approach of this day 2. Because it hath stood so many hundreds of years in the opposition of Christs and still remains and perseveres a malignant and peevish enemy unto the interest of Christ and the very life and power of godliness 3. Because God hath given the valiant Joshuahs of this age and generation a most wonderful magnanimous and undaunted courage and resolution to go on in their Sea-wars against them Yea they are admirably fitted with fighting spirits for the work Surely that universal and military spirit that is now in the fighting breasts and bosomes of the English do bee-speak the great things that God hath on foot in the world otherwise to what end is it that men should bee in these dayes so unknownly valorous and couragious if God had not some work for them to do 4. Reason may seem to bee this Englands late activeness and carefulness in building of so many famous brave What was said of Epeâ—s I wil say of England against Spain and Rome that he did Lignum facere equum in eversionem Troja England builds wooden horses that carry great Guns in their panches to ruine their enemies withall Divide the world into thirty equal parts nineteen of those thirty are Heathen six of the eleven Mahumetans five parts of the thirty Christians Of Professors of Christ most Papists few Protestants And of Protestants how few beleevers By this we may see that Christ hath but a little share in the world sumptuous warlike ships this be-speaks England ni fallor to bee an instrument in the hands of Christ to crush the Papal and Antichristian powers of the world No Nation under the whole Heavens look all the whole universe thoughout is in that gallant posture and warlike equipage by Sea that the Nation of England is in at this very day God preserve it To stir up your British blood that they would every one of them lend their helping hand to tear the scarlet Whore of Rome to peeces and those Papal powers and adherents of the world I think it convenient to press some ponderous and considerable motives For I know by experience that the Souldier prepares not to battel untill hee hear the sound of the Drum or Trumpet sounding an Horse Horse or a Stand to your Arms. Therefore to put you on brave Warriours in the Seas Nil desperandum Christo duce auspice Christo Bee not afraid Christ is your Captain and hee is resolved to have all the sinful powers and the irreligious Kings and Emperours and Princes of the world down and if you will not do it Generations after you will do Christs work for Christ will no longer bee crowded into a corner of the world but hee will have the world in his own hands Rev. 11.1 I would have Sailors to be of Themistocles metal against the Spaniard of whom Plutarch said that after he had heard once that Miltiades had got himself so much honour in the Marathonian battel he was not able to sleep because Miltiades was so far before him and he so short of him in honour 7 15. Hee will take unto himself his great power and reign c. Zach. 10.11 The pride of Assyria shall bee brought down and the Scepter of Egypt shall depart away It is usual to express the enemies of the Church by the names of old enemies as Assyria and Egypt was 1. That it is one special peece of Englands generation-work Therefore look to it and withdraw not till you have laid Babylon in the dust 2. That God is arising to recover his lost glory and honour in the world And will not you arise and bestir your selves then 3. Consider but seriously the soul-damning vassallage and infringed liberty that Southern Nations lye in and groan under What groans what cryes and what sighs bee there in Spain and yet dare not bee known in their secret disaffection to their impertinent and God-displeasing worship Gentlemen have you not fought out your own liberties in England yea fatis superque satis And why will you not now venture as deeply for Christs interest still as you have done I would have our English to overlook the greatest difficulties that are to be objected prima facie in a work of this like nature and resemble Hannibal in courage who said when upon the Alps with his Army Aut viam inveniam aut viam faciam I will either finde out a way over these cloud topping mountains or make my way through them Doth not the captived condition of forein parts call for help 4. Consider seriously that general disowning and denying of the Gospel of Christ either to bee read or preached in publick and private as it should be This is in Spain and Italy c. Will not this set your spirits on a fire against those subtil and soul-murthering adversaries of the Lord Jesus Christs 5. Consider seriously the damnable cruel and Diabolical Inquisition that they have in Spain which hath been hatched betwixt the Devil and two sophistical Spanish Jesuits By this they can take off any mans life for questioning of their Religion and that at
interest and glory in their bosomes and that they are no more pouring out of their hearts and spirits for the accomplishment of Gods promises and that Babylon may fall and rise no more God is resolved to down with it and it may be because England is not fit for such a mercy and because they pray not more earnestly constantly and vehemently for its downfall the work sticks and goes but slowly forward God is resolved to do it but hee will bee inquired of for and in the doing of it Ezek. 36.37 When God was about to do great and mighty things for Israel he tels them in plain terms totidem verbis that he would be inquired of and sought unto in the performance of them And wil not God bee sought unto more than he is for the downfall of the Pope and that incestuous and villanous house of Austria together with that cursed and tyrannical Inquisition before hee bring ruines and desolations upon you that live in your seiled houses and lye upon beds of down You that have all things at will and pleasure where are your prayers Where are your wrestlings with God you that live in the City And where are your loud cryes against the powers of darkness you that live in the Country History sayes that the Lord gave Naâ—setos victory more through zealous prayers that he used than his force and valour for he never went out into the Sea nor ever began battel or determined upon any war nor never mounted on his warlike Steed but first he went to the Temple and served God You did pray at a very high rate once and prayers issued out like a mighty stream some in the West and other some out the North some out the East and some out the South of England for your land Armies when they were ingaged in the fighting out your inbred Vipers where are they now for your water Armies For your Fleets and for that great and glorious work that is at this day on foot for God and Christ How might you help them on in those difficult and perillous undertakings and hazzards that they run How many thousands bee there that go in the Seas daily venturing of their lives in a just and lawful quarrel against one of Christs greatest enemies in the world Oh send send out your prayers for them and after them that you may hear of glorious things and remarkable and wonderfull actings from them that bee daily in the Seas Ovid begins his Metamorphosis and Cleanthes his Iambique verses with prayer Pliny in an Oration which hee made in the praise of Trajan commended the customes of the Antients in making invocations and prayers at the beginning of any great business saying That there can be no assured honest wise beginning The Lessons of Pythagoras Plato and their Disciples ever more began and ended with prayer The Brachmans among the Indians the Magi among the Persians never began any thing without praying unto God Prayer is Englands Alexipharmacum generale pretious drug against her many maladies her Cornucopiae because it brings her in many good tidings against her enemies It is her Delphicum gladium Delphian sword by which she prospers both at home and abroad or successful ending of any enterprize without the special aid and assistance of the gods For all works affairs imployments businesses and wars that wee or any Nation takes in hand are to begin with prayer and to bee daily followed with our prayers Prayer is so wonderfully advantagious that I cannot think that there is any in our late Land broils but will acknowledge the profitableness of it nay our Armies could not have done what they did nor gone thorow that which they have if they had not had the prayers of the godly in the Land and how must our Fleets prosper and do the hard and desperate work that they have to do if you give over praying for them now There bee ten sorts of people that I would gladly put upon this needful duty of prayer for the War that is begun by England against the Spaniard 1. Ministers 2. Magistrates 3. Parliament-men 4. States-men 5. Land and Sea-Generals 6. Collonels 7. Land and Sea-Captains 8. Religious sober and godly Souldiers 9. Honest and well-minded Sea-men 10. The Respublica or the Common people of England Gentlemen Do you desire the downfall of Babylon then let mee tell you that you must bee earnest with God in prayer for a speedy accomplishment of your desires Are not these feral Beasts of Rome Spain to be prayed against Pray consider Do you desire a blessing upon the Church and State in which you live Then let mee counsel you to pray hard for them that they may increase in purity piety peace and plenty Do you desire that the Pope at Rome and all that cursed rabble that is in and about that incestuous and libidinous house of Austria may stumble and stagger Longius vulnerat quam sagitta Prayer will wound an enemy further than a shot out of the longest Gun or Arrow out of the strongest bow Then let mee tell you that God will bee sought unto for this very thing ere hee do it Pray pray that that proud Romana urbs aeterna as they have formerly most lyingly stiled her may bee brought down to ruine and to shame and poverty though shee hath got up again since shee was sacked and ransacked twice by the Visigothes taken once by the Herulians surprised by the Ostrogothes destroyed and rooted up by the Vandals annoyed by the Lumbards pilled and spoyled by the Grecians and whipped and chased by many others I hope ere long that shee will receive her last blow of the indignation of the most mighty and bee thrown headlong into an everlasting and horrible desolation where shee shall never rise any more Now do you desire that your warlike Fleets may prosper against them then pray pray The Spaniard would be more afraid of our Fleets in England did we but pray more I profess bee it soberly spoken that you deal with prayer in this case as the world dealt with Christ Joseph and Mary How dealt the world with them you will aske mee I will tell you in few words the Scripture is pleased to inform us that they could provide no better lodging and entertainment than a stable for the Prince of Glory to lye in But the gallants and the rich guests of the world they had the best beds and chambers that the house afforded As unkindly deal many with prayer against the adversaries of the Lord Jesus Christ they both put it out of door and out of mind and thought God is a rising undoubtedly to cut down his great matured ripened and old gray-headed enemies When Athens was straightly besieged very stoutly assaulted so that within the walls they were hardly put to it to keep their enemy out Diogenes that before lived in his Tub tumbled it up and down the Town thinking it an
at Agincourt heard of the great warlike praeparations that the King of France made against him hee began to bee exceedingly perplexed One of his Commanders standing by made answer that if there were so many there were enough to bee killed enough to bee taken prisoners and enough to run away which resolute speech of his much cheered up the King I would not haue Sea-men to regard how many their enemies bee but where they are who by small and weak means does often times effect great and wonderfull things to that end the glory of all may bee his What the Lacedaemonians once sung of in their three dances I think it may bee sung of England The first was of Old men and they sung Wee have been young and strong and valiant heretofore Till crooked age did hold us back and bid us do no more The second of Young men who sang Wee yet are young bold strong and ready to maintain That quarrel still against all men that do on earth remain The third of Children who sang And wee do hope as well to pass you all at last And that the world shall witness bee ere many years bee past To sparkle our English spirits a little that go in the Seas against the Spaniard Look Look Sailors upon that brave Military and fighting spirit that breathed in Epaminondas who most nobly said that if all the riches of the world should be given him they should not draw him off from any the least duty and service that hee owed his Country Let me tell all the brave spirited Sailors in England that go in the wars against the Spaniard that Pulchrum est pro patria mori It is a very commendable thing for men freely and valiantly to venture and lay down their lives for the welfare safety and priviledges of the Countries they live in belong unto Look upon Reverend Mr. Calvin of whom Mr. Beza tells us that in the year 1556. when Perin had conspired against the State of Geneva that hee ran into the midst of their naked swords to appease the tumult well knowing that Nemo sibi natus that men are not born for themselves but for their Country Look upon brave spirited Cratisolea the mother of Cleomenes when hee was loth to send her for a pledge to Egypt she said unto him come come put mee into a ship and send mee whither thou wilt that this body of mine may doe some good for my Country before crooked age consume my life without profit Look upon King Edward of England whom the Chronicles of Flanders tell of when warring against Philip Valesius King of France hee couragiously sent him a challenge in his letters and offered him three Conditions 1. Either person to person 2. A thousand against a thousand 3. or Army against Army But the King of France durst admit of none of them Sailors you have to deal with an enemy that is like to Plutarchs Nightingale of whom it is said that shee sung purely and made a great busling in the woods as if shee had been some greater bird like the fly upon the Charet wheel who was heard to say Oh what a dust do I raise but when shee came once to bee handled and finding little meat on her hee raps out into discontent vox es praeterea nihil You know the applicatory part I may say of England now as a great Politician once said very well Nulla magna Civitas quiescere diu potest si foris hostem non invenit quaerit domi No Nation can long bee quiet or at peace for if it have no enemies abroad it shall and will so on find some at home I leave you to find out my meaning Gentlemen You have run valiantly upon the Swords Pikes Halberds Gun-mouthes Fire-ships and the ragged ship-sides of your enemies in former wars to purchase that peace that England is now in possession of but is your work all done now Shew your selves as hardy and as stout as ever against the enemies of Christ and following these rare Examples I have presented you with all to whet up your spirits Haec imitamini per Deos immortales qui dignitatem qui laudem qui gloriam quaeritis haec ampla sunt haec rara haec immortalia haec fama celebrantur monimentis annalium mandantur posteritati propagantur c. Vers 24. These see the works of the Lord and his wonders in the Deep IF I have trespassed in detaining you so long in the porch Let me tell you every thing that I have touched upon lay so fairly in my road that I could not otherwise chuse but let all ly by the Lee till I had sufficiently spoke with and to those things that I know stands in need of reprooving and correcting in the Seas I have done my part in speaking advertisingly unto the graceless crew that goes in the salt-waters Oh that the Lord would not bee unwilling to do his part upon them and to pitty them that have no pitty upon themselves And besides I have not onely laid them down many very good and profitable rules but I have also spoke of many other things which lay in my way My purpose is now to lead you into the Pallace where you shall have a clear and delightful view of all those various objects and scattered excellencies that lye up and down upon the face of the creation which are onely seen by those that go down into the Seas and by no other These see the works of the Lord c. in the Hebrew who see c. If the question bee demanded who sees them the answer is easily returned they that go down into the Seas in ships And who are those may the question be Answ They are Sea-men or Sailors and these bee the men that have the fullest and clearest aspect of the creation above all people under the Heavens whatsoever These see the works of the Lord c. As if David were a going to say It is not those that sit on land and travel no further than the Soil of their nativity no no but it is those that lanch off the shore into the Main to arrive in forein and far remote Countries that have the sight of those heart-ravishing varieties of Gods six days works and wonders Undoubtedly the Psalmist took great delight and pleasure in holding discourse with some of the best disposed It is worth the while to talk with Sea-men provided they be pious sober and civil for they have more admirable passages to tell you of than all the world besides What Plinie said of the Nightingale I will say of the Mariner Si quis adest auditor Philomela prius animus quam canius deficiet The Nightingale is a bird that if any one will but give her the hearing shee will sing her self sooner out of breath than out of tune and well-minded of the Mariners because this Scripture comes droppingly and admiringly from David as if he had been amongst
which will contain and hold a full gallon of any thing whether liquid or unliquid and upwards 2. Amongst the rest of the works of the Lord Eagle they have a frequent sight of that princely bird called the Eagle and where her dwelling is who is the Supream Rex of all birds and of her do all the rest stand in awe and give her the preheminence as their Soveraign It is observed of this bird that shee is attended with sharpness of sight to discover her prey with swiftness of wing to hasten unto it and with strength of body to seize upon it It is further observed of this bird that shee has many followers both great and small unto whom shee is very candid and courteous in the distribution of the prey shee seizes upon It is observed that there is this noble and magnanimous spirit in the Eagle that when shee is in want and greatly suffers hunger that shee scorns to pout and make a noise and a clamour as other birde will do but rests her self satisfied If I have it not now I shall have it hereafter but if shee toyle long in seeking of it then hunger which is her durum telum puts her upon the falling foul of her followers 3. They have a frequent sight of the fouls in Greenland every year which are aestate ibi hyeme attamen veniente avolantes there for a while in the summer but gone long before the winter When the Nocturnal time of the year draws on which is all night and tenebrousness the birds make a terrible doleful and dreadful howling as conscious or fore-seeing of that dismal time of black night's approaching they then betake themselves to their wings and fly into other Countries leaving that black-nighted part of the world unto it self and to the Involatile creatures that do inhabit in it viz. Deer Wolves Beares c. Which would if winged or able to run out of the land bee gone for they take small pleasure to stay in it but in respect they cannot pass the Seas for want of wings they are constrained to live in that uncomfortable darkness and insufferable cold Meditations 1. That the two great lights of the Sun What an uncomfortable place would England bee if it had not the light of the Sun and Moon both in in the winter and in the summer and Moon are wonderful comfortable profitable pleasurable and delightful both to man birds and beasts and very uncomfortable is their absence either unto the sick the healthful and the unhealthful Eccl. 11.7 Truly the light is sweet and a pleasant thing it is for the eyes to behold the Sun What cause have wee to bless the Lord for the light of the Moon and of the Sun that hee has not denyed us their light and that wee have not our beings in those black and benighted parts of the world that are all winter long without The light of the Sun is a sweet benefit but not prized because common and ordinary Manna was esteemed but a light kind of food because common and lightly come by without any price and mony David beholds the Sun with admiration Psal 8. and not with adoration as an Idol The Sun is a vessel into which the Lord gathered the light which till then lay scattered in the whole body of the Heavens In Hebrew the Sun is called Shemesh to serve because God has made it a servant unto and for the world 2. God might have done by England as hee has done by Greenland But blessed bee his glorious Name hee has dealt better by it and with it 3. It has laid this impression upon my spirit That as birds who by the help of their wings will not tarry in that Nocturnal Land but flye out of it into other Countries where they may have the blessed light of the Sun and of the Moon What would the poor damned and tormented in the pit of Hell give that they might come out of that dark and black excruciating Hell that they do howl and roare in to live in that lightsome and glorious pearl-sparkling and diamond-glistring Heaven where there is no need of Sun by day nor of the Moon by night Luke 16.24 is a dolefull spectacle of one crying out of the burning flames hee lives in 4. They have a frequent aspect of that lovely and amiable bird called the Stork much noted by the Holy Ghost in Scripture Stork As for the Stork the fir-tree is her house Psal 104.17 This bird uses Holland and other places and is very famous for her natural love unto her young and her young unto the aged again Storks when young and able to help their young when decayed helps the aged by feeding of them when they are not able to go abroad to gather their food Her name comes of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Greek in Latine no more but Amor. The Graecians call her Love denoting that shee is the truest emblem of Love of any creature in the world again 5. They have a vulgar aspect in the West-Indies of those various kinds of foul that bee in those parts both smal Upon Sand-hills there is to bee seen in the Summer-time say Sea-men whole bushels of egs that are both of various and wonderful speckled colours and great which are of divers colours some green some blew some red some yellow some white and other-some of a niger colour There they see the Parrat flying in great flocks and droves like to our Pidgeons and Pelicans flying in lines like to wild-geese Such an innumerable number is there of all sorts of fouls that great and broad rivers are covered over from side to side with them 6. They have a very frequent sight of that admirable bird Ostrich called the Ostrich whom some will compound to be both bird and beast because she resembles the Camel in legs and feet in the head and bill a Sparrow This creature is of such an hot digesting stomack that it will swallow great gobbets of Iron I have known some to present them with a two-penny or a three-penny naile which they have taken as greedily as a cock will pick up a barly-corn out of a dunghil Job 39.14 Shee leaves her eggs in the dust of the earth In this now this creature differs very much from all other birds who carefully sit to brood and hatch their eggs and are very desirous to bring them forth yet this creature leaves hers in the sand forgeting that the foot of the wilde beast or the Traveller may come that way and crush them Vers 15 16. Shee is hardened against her young ones as though they were not hers and is it not thus amongst many Parents towards their children Vers 3. What time shee lifteth up her self fixe scorns the horse and the rider This is to bee understood not that shee is of that strength and ability of body to contend with an horse-man in fight but in her wings legs and
flight This bird is too ponderous indeed to flye but what by the help of her wings and legs together the swiftest horse that runs will scarce fetch her up When they are brought forth shee is monstrously unnatural unto them and the reason of it is God has given other birds an instinct of love and providence to love their young which shee is both denyed and deprived of 7. They have a frequent aspect of a bird which is called by the Mariner a Fezerallo Fezerallo which is a black-coloured bird but somewhat less than a Sea Gull Such is the truculent and feral property of this bird that hee will give unkind assaults to the Gulls and the rest of the Sea-birds who take great pains in fishing till that they vomit up all that they have caught out of their bellies to feast this tyrant withall This bird will not take the paines to fish himself as the Sea Gulls and other birds do who fly up and down in the Seas day by day to feed themselves but hee will have his dyet and daily commons out of their panches or else hee will break their bones It has been matter of much wonderment unto mee in the Sea to observe this bird The Hawk chases not the Partridge with greater violence than the Fezerallo does the Gulls in the Seas till they vomit up their almost digested modioum how hee will hunt up and down in the Sea to find out the Gulls and when hee has found them hee will not leave pursueing of them one by one till they drop the fish they have taken upon the waters and when hee has stooped down to take it up he will fall fresh of another Gull and so upon the rest till hee has satisfied his hunger 1. Meditation 1. The sight of this bird presently imprinted this collection upon my spirit That there is many an idle person in the Commonwealth and more than ever both at Sea and Land that lives upon the sweat of another mans brow What was said of some Poets may well bee said of such that Homer vomitted and they licked it up 8. They have in the Indies a frequent sight of an infinite and numberless number of Cranes Cranes that dwell in that part of the world which fly and feed together in great flocks and troops It is observed of these birds When these birds flye our of Cilicia over the Mountain Taurus c. they diligently carry with them in their mouthes little pebbles lest that by their galling and gagling they should become a prey unto the Eagles that listen to all such opportunities upon the cragged rocks Uobrideled tongues bring themselves into much mischief often times and rouze the Eagles about their eares whereas in little medling is much security and tranquillity and nothing said is soon amended that where ever they light that they wil appoint one to stand Sentinel and when his time is expended there is another ordered to take his turn and after him another whilst the rest both feed and repose themselves It is also further reported that the Crane-sentinel lest hee should sleep in his watch he will hold a little pebble in his claws that if in case hee should chance to nod or slumber the fall of it will awake him It is observed of these birds that if in case there bee any jangling or disagreement amongst themselves the King and Supream over them and amongst them quickly salves it up and moderates betwixt them 9. They are frequently seeing an other sort and kind of bird which is called the Heron which are in great plenty and abundance in the Indies Heron. and elsewhere This is a foul that lives much about waters and does exceedingly abhor and dislike of rain and tempests and to avoid them they will betake themselves to their wings and flye as far on high as ever they are able into and above the cloudy region that they may bee above the winds and rains that fall upon and into the lower world 10. They are frequently seeing a sort and kind of bird which the French call an Hop-foy and these are to bee seen upon the banks in New-found Land Hop-foy and that which is admirable in them is this that they are so greedy of the livers that the Fisher-men throw out in the dressing of their fish that rather than they will forsake their desired food they will bee taken with ones hand and forfeit both lives and liberties for a worthless morsel 11. They are ever and anon seeing of those strange kind of creatures in the Indies which the Spaniards call Muscitos and these flyes will draw the blood where ever they light Muscetos though it bee upon the cloths and not upon the bare skin Insomuch that there is scarce any sitting standing lying or walking in the fields for them in the summer-time they are such a mordacious and phlebotomizing creature 12. They have a frequent sight of that strange kind of creature called a Fire-fly Fire-fly which is an uncouch and admirable light and lustre In the night it shines like the coal of a match It is observed The Indians say Sea-men do use of the Fire-flies in the night time instead of candles binding five or six of them together and by this bundle it affords them very good light in their Booths and Cottages even as well as if they had burning torches or candles to spend in their houses that this creature carries four lights about him two in the sight of his eyes sparkling like candles and two which hee shows when hee opens his wings 13. They have a sight of that sort of creature that is commonly called a flying Locust which are to bee seen in great supernumerary swarms in Barbary Locust and other of the Austral parts of the world Sometimes these creatures come in such volatile multitudes that they are observed to darken the very skies in their military marches upon the wings of the wind These if God will but give them a Commission will take wing and come and fall upon any Nation which hee pleases and eat up all the fruits of the earth the plenty the fatness the sweetness If that Proverb bee true Erucam viz pascit hortâ—s unam that the whole Country will scarce satisfie one avarous Caterpillar what will then satisfie a multitude God knows wee have a great many of these vermine Locusts and Catterpillars in England that do nothing in the world but eat up the green fâ—â—â— of God Word and the very greenness and verdancy of Nations they will devour and swallow up the grass corn and grape of Countries Psal 78.46 Psal 109.23 I am tossed up and down as a Locust David offers to our view in this Scripture that they are carried to and fro up and down at the will of the Lord upon the wings of the wind 14. They are not indigent of the sight of those strange kind of birds which are neither able
Miscelaneous Observations These stand by themselves like the Quoe genus in the Grammer being deficients or redundants not to bee brought under any rule because the Seas are a debilitating to my spirits onely give me leave to throw you in a few Miscelaneous yet I hope delightful and pleasing Observations and then I question not but that I shall have given you a taste and relish of every thing in order though not in that multiplicity that I might have done 1. They that go down to the Sea in ships Amongst the rest of that amaene bundle of novelty that they have in their travels those sundry and strange kind of sensitive creatures that be in the Indies are some in which God has kindled many kinds of living and going fire walking to and fro in the Earth some creeping under feet some flying over head viz. in the Snake Adder Cockatrice flying Serpents and other strange kind of Flies In the evening if any bee disposed to walk in the Woods Sea-men tell us that there bee great swarms of flies which will keep a very great buzzing and humming about the trees and cost such a light and lustre as if there were sparks of fire or lighted matches hanging upon the boughs which will sting and burn to death Numb 21.4 And the Lord sent fiery Serpents among the people and they bit the people and much people of Israel died 2. Amongst the rest of that eye-delighting and mind-contenting novelty that they have in their travels those great and many Woods that bee in the Indies and elsewhere are some there bee such vast and unknown wilderness-places in the world in which grow such a rankness and thickness of trees that they cannot bee travelled through nor known how great and how far they reach it is not known to the Indians themselves what is on the other side of them and who or what lives beyond them 3. Amongst the rest of that eye-delighting and mind-contenting novelty that they have in their travels the Magellan Straits is very wonderful in respect of those terrible winds that bee frequently in them and upon them which fall with such vehemency as if the very bowels of the earth would set all at liberty or as if the clouds under the Heavens were called together to muster their fury and lay on their force upon that one place the Sea in it self naturally is of a very heavy and ponderous substance History tells us that Ferdinando Megalanus was the first that compassed the world and found out this Southern passage call'd Fretum Magellanieum and after him followed Sr. F. D. yet notwithstanding in this place it is so rowld up with storms that the very roots of rocks are unbar'd so that ones eye may almost behold the bottoms of the deeps the Seas swell run and rage in such monstrous hills and mountaines sometimes there that it is no small terrour to the Mariner when hee is either under sail or at an anchor Anchors are like false friends give way and the wind is so violent as if the mountains would rend and the heavens and the earth would come together 4. Those wonderful cloud-climbing and heaven-aspiring Promontories that bee in many parts of the world many or the most of them lye in the view of the ships that go in the Seas and other some lye-upon the very skirts of the Sea These are Natures bulworks Some writers tell us that the Land of Canaan was but threescore miles in length and twelve score in breadth and that it is exceeding mountainous so the hillier mountainouser any Country is the greater it is in this little land were there 1 Chr. 21.5 A thousand thousand and an hundred thousand men that drew sword and Judah was four hundred threescore and ten thousand men that drew sword cast up as the Spaniard says at God Almighties charge and they call them heaps of rubbish or offals that were left at the Creation of the world and so remain as so many warts or pimples disfiguring the face and beauty of the earth the difficulty of their ascent is admirable the horridness of their craggs is wonderful and an uninhabited wilderness are many of them upon which and in which live nothing else but wild beast The Alpes Mount Ararat Mount Chego and Teneriffe c. are estimated to bee far higher than the clouds Upon these it is no matter of wonderment to see Snow lying all summer long although those parts have a greater heat from the Sun than wee have in England and the reason seems to bee this because that the Sun does leave its work as imperfect and has not that force and power to melt the Snows that bee upon them by reason of those chill aires that bee upon them Nay such an intollerable chilness is there upon some of their snowy and frosty tops Corpus-zant Sometimes Sea-men will aver that there will come down many of these Corpus-zants insomuch that they have seen upon evey yard-arme one as so many blazing lighted candles that they are altogether inhospitable and not to bee endured to breathe in for an hour 5. The Corpus-zant which is so called in the Spanish and Italian Language and in Latin Corpus Sancti which they say it is this is a very strange thing it seldom appears but before the ensuing of some dreadful storm It is like unto the light of a candle and is never seen but in the darkest and windiest nights upon the Sea It most commonly chuses to light upon the Truck of the Antient-staff about which the ships-colours do fly and there it will lye a long time like the light of a candle and what it is or from whence it comes or whither it goes none can well tell Sometimes Sea-men say that they will light in other parts of the ship and when they have endeavoured to touch them they would vanish away The sight of this thing did much admire mee 6. The Male-stream-well Male-stream-well which lies on the back of Norway this well draws water into it during the flood which continues for the space of six hours and twelve minutes with such an avarous indraught and force Mariners call this dreadful Gulph the Navel of the Sea that it makes a very hideous and most dreadful noise the waves tumble in with such a violence one upon the neck of another that would daunt the stoutest heart to hear it and suck up the strongest ships that should dare to come within a league of it and at the Ebb the water returns with the like violence that it went in in the Flood so that should the ponderousest thing that is bee thrown into it the strength of it is such that it would carry it up again 7. The Water-Spouts Water-spouts that bee to bee seen in the Southern parts of the world of which certainly David speaks of Psal 42.7 Deep calleth unto deep at the noise of thy Water-spouts It is observed by those
calm but intricate and desperate perils and hazards do and must they run in your affaires through the Seas to accomplish the work that you have in hand against our forein and cruel enemies That pitcher that goes long to the well comes home crackt at last But ten thousand pitties it is to and upon my spirit that any of your golden warlike boats should either perish in storms What Taxaris said to his Country-man Anacharsis when hee saw him in Athens the very same will I say unto any either in or out of England I will says hee shew thee all the wonders of Greece Viso Solone vidisti omnia So visis navibus nostris Anglicanis vidistis omnia They that see Englands warlike ships see the greatest wonders that are either in it or belonging to it or in any other accidents But alas they are not exempted from those ruines no more than others there are but few Trees that have their growth in the world that are free'd from the Thunder save the Lawrel and alas there bee very few ships but the winds and the Seas will have a bout with them Bee ever and anon looking for some sublunary and temporary accidents or other befalling of your ships they are out in the Sea where there is a million of dangers and not in the Harbour I would have you of the like resolution that Anaxagoras was of of whom it was said when news came to him that his son was dead that hee told the messenger hee knew full well that hee had begot him mortal Conclude you in the like manner that your ships the very best and strongest of them are but made up of wasting and frangible materials and ingredients and the looking for the approaching of these like contingencies now and then will in fine tend to the setlement I and to the better establishment of an Heroical spirit under them When the great Naval or the inferior rank of your ships are in their Harbours they are in the greatest safety that can bee but when out at Sea they are not onely lyable but must stand to all the hazzards that shall happen and befall them 3. You that are the great Merchants of England stand in need of cautioning to look for storms Your ships are a meer uncertainty whilst in the perilous Sea an obscurity a fallacy one while they are and by and by they are not they are like to stars which for a while appear but by and by disappear or meteors in the air or as the black dive-dappers in the salt-waters or as the flock of birds that lighted in the husband-mans field and when hee thought they had been his they took wing and flew away Yea they are not unlike to Bajazet that ball of fortune as one termed him because it was one while well with him and another while it went most sadly you live its true in the brave accomplished and best Cities and Sea-port-Towns in the Land but whilst you are on Land your great adventures are in dreadfull dangers in the Seas in one bottom it may be that you have a thousand in another four and in another twenty and truly there is small wisdom of adventuring all in one bottom I have read of one that wittily said hee never liked that wealth that hangs in ropes meaning ships because where one ship came well home twenty perished and miscarried and have you not great reason to fear and look for losses do not think that all the ships that you have either in the East or in the West in the North and in the South shall come all safely home The country Shepherd that puts his Lambs Ews to pasture upon the great and wide forrests does not think to find them all the next day some are worried with the dog some with the wolf and othersome taken away by stealth Many times your interests are seised on by storms sometimes by Pyrats and other sometimes by Rocks and Sands Qui in immenso mari navigant valde turbantur The Seas are not unlike to an hilly and mountainous country through which they that travel after they bee in the bottom of one Valley they know not what danger of way-liers may bee in the next it is the very same at Sea for it is not many leagues that one can see upon a direct line and what Pyrats may bee in those places the eye cannot reach unto is not known to the Mariner but the proverb is Sub omni lapide dormitat Australis Scorpius There is a peevish Pyrat in every corner to fetch off your ships from comming to you But to proceed My speech is unto and towards all the Sea-men again that they would make sure of one thing that I would fasten upon them were I able to drive the nail of Truth to the head in all their hearts and that is shortly this 1. That they would prepare themselves for storms Whilst Sea-men loose from the shoar of life they lanch out into the main of mortality immortality and that you may follow this sweet and blessed counsel that the Spirit of my God has put into my heart for to tell you of I will give you directions what you should do 1. Get sin pardoned to you 2. Rest not either on Sea or on Land till God bee at peace with you And when you have accomplished these two things go whither thou wilt Me thinks Sea-men do not look like those whom God will bless for the want of their putting on for these two things and the God of Heaven go along with thy poor soul then mayst thou leave the Land for many daies with a great deal of comfort 1. Get sin pardoned to you or else it would bee better for thee that thou never wentest to Sea How darest thou that art a Captain a Master a Lieutenant a Boatswain a Gunner a Carpenter a Purser or a common Sea-man be so bold to venture to Sea with thy back burthen of sin unremitted Ah how ought you to stand in fear of that God whilst you are in the Seas that is ablest to set on and to call upon the winds to destroy you and when you go with sin unpardoned may you not daily expect the roaring storms of the Lords displeasure Isa 7.18.19 And it shall come to pass in that day that the Lord shall hiss for the Flye that is in the uttermost parts of the rivers of Egypt and for the Bee that is in the Land of Assyria If it were my case now as it is yours I should verily fear every hour that I spent upon the Sea that God would hisse for the North South East or West winds to rear the vessel I were in to pieces should I venture to Sea without a pardon and an acceptation of my person with and from my God Take heed lest that the Lord do hear you swear c. If you give him occasion hee can presently hiss for the winds to overwhelm you and
of sorrow amongst the Sea-men for they are all at work now in the throwing over-board both Wines Fruits Silks and Spices even any thing that their Vessel may bee lightned they also take the course that some fishes do Lympham ore immissam per branchi as emittere let in water at their mouths but pump it out at their gills 6. Shiprest lesness Inter alia dura The Sea is like Plutarchs Moon never in one shape long vvho desired the Taylor to make her a Petricoat but before the Taylor got it made and brought it home the Moon vvas hopt into another quarter tristia amongst the many other sad and gravaminous troubles this of the Mariners inquiescentialness is none of the inferiour ones If the winds begin once to hollow and to fiddle upon the Sea if there were ten thousand sail of ships they should all of them quickly dance after the musick of it Prophane History speaks of the powerfulness of Orpheus's musick that it was so melodious and ear-charming that the beasts of the field could not stand upon their legs at the audience of it but were most admirably acted and transported beyond the nature of brute creatures to dance after that high strained musick which they heard And truly I may tell you that when ever the Southern Northern Eastern or Western Bagpipes of the world begin to play there is never a ship in the Seas excepting those that bee in their harbours but dance their Galliards and cut their Capers after it Now begins every Sea-man to stand fast to take hold with his hands If that the Wind-timbrel of the East the Vial of the North the Tabret of the South and the Harp or Pipe of the West begin but once to musick it all the ships that be in the Seaâ— have no power to stand still but after it they will dance and cut far higher Capers than ever the conjured body did of whom history tells us that he danced chamber height with the brass pot upon his head or lye flat down upon his belly in the storm or otherwise the ships rowling and bouncing will indanger the beating out of his brains And now begins the Cooks Kettle for to dance in the Cook-room and to terrifie all that come near it for their victuals I have often thought that if the stone bigd houses of the world and also that if the famous Towns and Cities thereof of reeled but as ships do in the Sea the inhabitants thereof would not bee in such deep love with them as they are and so little in love with heaven No they would not take that delight they do in their great inheritances and possessions that they have upon earth if that their earthly mansions staggered but as our wooden transporting and sailing habitations do upon the Seas But hee that puts his foot into the stirrup of a States or Merchants Woodden-horse must look for more jumping leaps and frisking capers before hee gets out of the saddle again than the wildest unbackt or untaught beast in the world can give him The Seas vaunting and out-braving trepidations together with their ascending tumors and raging murmurs have not very seldome exasperated my spirit into this like irascible It is reported that a company of Sea-men did upon a time very strictly summon in the Seas to give them an account why they vvere so restless and vvherefore they svvallovved up so many ships every year as they did and the Seas being at the bar gave them this ansvver That it vvas not in their povver to be quiet because the vvinds above did beat them up into undulating billovvs if they vvould not disturb us your passage would be both smooth and quiet enough but we are thrown into heaps that you may fear that God that is above because your are men that live without the fear of God and therefore are quiekly up in arms to sâ—â—k you and objurgatory speech unto them because they have been so unquiet and restless under us Quousque quousque tandem abutere Neptuni unda patientia nostra quamdiu nos etiam furor iste tuus cludet quem ad finem sese effraenata jactabit audacia nihil ne te quotidianum naut arum praesidium nihil eorum pericli nihil eorum timor nihil eorum maestitia nihil consensus honorum omnium nihil opulentarum navium nihil horum ora vâ—ltusque moverunt Quamdiu inhorrestes subito mare tenebrae multoties conduplicantur noctisque nimborum occaecat nignon flamma inter nubes coruscat Coelum tâ—nitru contremit grandomixta imbriâ—largistuo repante praecipitans cadit undique omnes venti erumpunt saevi existunt turbines fervet aestu pelagus perpetua mortis imago ante omnium oculos oâ—versatur 7. Trouble of conscience Many a Sailor that never knew before what the compunction of conscience meant comes to have a shreud guessing at it when the ship is like to bee lost in the storm then flyes in his face all his whoring swearing lying wronging of men all his drunkenness and his graceless unprofitable living and walking before God in the world and this storm within is ten thousand times more dreadful than the storm without From the foregoing words I would lay down this point of truth Observ 1 That the generality of Sea-men are far more fearful of being drowned in storms than they are of sin or of the second and eternal death Their soul is melted because of trouble Their sorrows and tears are spent upon the likelinesse of their losing of their lives and not for their sins and the great hazzards that their souls are in at such times 1. If our Sea-men were but as much affraid of sin as they are of dangerous sands I am confident that the good people in England would think that there were more Saints at Sea than there are on Land When I consider how I have seen the Mariner for to quake and tremble yea their faces to gather paleness their spirit even ready to run over their lips out of their bodies and their joynts to bee loosed and their very knees to knock upon one another as they did in Belshazzar I have wished that the committing of sin startled them but as much and then there were hopes that they would bee out of conceit with it 2. If our Sea-men were but as much affraid of sin as they are of those known and unknown in Sea-lying rocks that be up and down in the great Ocean wee should have them a very pretious people nay an unparalleld and matchless squadron of souls 3. If our Mariners stood but in the half of that trembling fear which they doe in stormy foggy and Euroclydon daies that come upon them in the Seas in which they are so much be darkned that they have neither the light of the Sun Moon nor Stars I am confident they would bee as much affraid of lying swearing and whoring as ever the burnt childe is of the fire or the
when all the skill wit and art that they put forth cannot help them then may they bee said to bee at their wits end That the Sea-man is very frequently Observ 1 and commonly inveigled with such difficult and horrid straights in the Seas that hee neither knows how nor what way to get himself out of them And are at their wits end Now cries the Mariner whom you could never see to cry before Psal 142.7 Bring my soul out of prison that I may praise thy name The Sea-mans condition may well bee resembled unto a prison which notes confinement and inclosure insomuch that there is as little possibility of evasion I may say of Sailors in this case as Job said of himself in another Job 30.31 My Harp is turned to mourning and my Organ into the voyce of them that weep and escape as there is for them that are in Jayls Irons and Fetters Oh the many heart-akes and affrightments that my soul hath had in the unmerciful Seas and not onely I but those that have skill and knowledge in the Seas when wee have been thrown and run upon sands our condition hath been no better than that which the Apostle was brought into Act. 27.20 And when neither Sun nor Stars in many dayes appeared and no small tempest lay on us all hope that wee should be saved was then taken away Yet in these straights the Lord never left mee nor them that were with mee comfortless but hath at one time or other when that I have thought that the ship would flye in peeces at every billow that hath come upon her when fast upon the sands supported mee bidding mee stand still and see the salvation of the Lord though no possibility of escaping was in view and sight yet hath the Lord seemed to say Fear not for you shall ere long bee delivered and after some little expence of time wee have wonderfully got off again When Ziglag was burnt with fire and the people spoke of stoning David yet found hee much comfort from the Lord in that gravaminous distress 1 Sam. 30.6 But David encouraged himself in the Lord his God That the terrible and heart-daunting Observ 2 dangers that Sea-men very frequently do meet withall in the great deeps Every unreasonable creature when put to it will make use of their horns others of their teeth some of their claws and other some of their feet the Souldier to their Guns Pikes and Swords do put them upon the setting of their wits at work to think and contrive all the wayes and means that ever they can imagine to get themselves out of them And are at their wits end Act. 27.17 They used helps undergirding the ship and fearing left they should fall into the quick sands strake sail and were so driven Vers 18. And being exceedingly tossed with the tempest the next day they lightned the ship Oh the pale faces that bee at these times amongst the Mariners Oh the many trembling joynts amongst our stoutest men Oh the witless heads and the helpless hands that bee amongst them at these times Act. 27.29 Then fearing lest wee should have fallen upon Rocks they cast four anchors out of the stern and wished for the day That the Sea-man is oftener out of his Observ 3 wits than in it And are at their wits end This is the Sailors miserable Motto Nec sine te nec tecism vivere possum I cannot live without I go to Sea and when I am there I cannot abide it The Sea-man hath but a little wit but hee is oftentimes out of it and besides it and that six several wayes 1. In a storm 2. In a fit of anger 3. In a fit of drunkenness 4. In the sin of uncleanness Prov. 6.32 5. In his graceless swearing 6. In the act of murther Mee thinks I hear the Country man saying is it thus That there are such hazzards in the Seas and that the Mariners are put to these heart-affrighting and soul-consternating dangers I would not bee solicited to go to Sea if they would give mee the choysest and cost-liest ship that is in the world for I should conclude that if those men that use the Seas bee so often at their wits end I should bee oftner at the end of mine Are they in such dangers that many times the Masts break by the board upon their heads Are they in such jeopardy that their sails tear in peeces like to white paper by the winds Do the Seas come leaping over their Poop-lanthorns and sometimes over their yard arms Are they ever and anon running upon sands And by and by upon rocks What would become of mee were I in the sight of such storms I confess there is a vast disproportion betwixt the Sea-mans and the Land-mans life because the one is tossed and tumbled in a turbulent Sea and the other is both night and day in quiet at land 1. The Sea is full of dangers whereas the Land is full of peace and safety from those perils that bee at Sea 2. The Sea is restless and unquietly raging but the land is stable and firm and quiet because it stands upon that uncontroulable Decree of the Lords 3. There is small comfort and contentment to bee had or expected in the Sea The Sea is a great Element in which both fish and fowl take great delight to live but there is none of the sons of men but take far more pleasure in being at land Englands Navy is not unlike to Davids Army 1 Sam. 22.2 Every one that was in distress every one that was in debt and every one that was discontented gathered themselves unto him It is poverty makes many go to Sea but the land affords both a multiplicity and variety of it 4. When men are at Sea they are neither amongst the living nor amongst the dead but the land affords sweet converse and good society Vers 28. Then they cry unto the Lord in their trouble and hee bringeth them out of their distresses VVHo will not say but that it is high time for men to betake themselves to prayer when they are involved in such straights as that they are at their very wits end This Scripture I conceive is partim queribundus partim precativus and partim consolatorius 1. It is expostulatory and full of complaints 2. Supplicatory and full of requests 3. Consolatory and full of hopes 1. You have the Sea-men in this Scripture expostulating their case with God and making their dolorous distresses known unto him 2. You have the Sea-man praying unto God to deliver him and all with him out of the storm and dreadful hazzards that they are in Then they cry c. 3. Here is the Sea-man partly comforting of himself with hope that the Lord in his good time will deliver him and those that are with him out of their dangers And this hope springs from the strong confidence that hee hath in God who is the great Commander of the waves and winds
out of the heavens for you Accensam lucernam nemo moleste aspicit extinctam dolent omnes When Sea-coast light-houses burn clear bright the Mariner greatly rejoyces in it but when dimly and dully he freâ—â— and curses when Land-lights have burned very deadly and dimly in black dark and blustring evenings upon the sight whereof you have judged your selves to have been at a greater distance than you were and thereby have hazzarded your ships and lives by standing in so much to the shore yet in fine some or other in the vessel have had a fight of the land thorow the thick darkness whereby you have been precautionated to alter your course Who so is wise c. 27. Minde how the Lord looks out of heaven into the deeps for you in the absence of the Moon which is oftentimes over-cast with thick clouds and foggy vapours insomuch that when you have been standing in for the shore and been nearer to it than aware of that the Lord hath caused the Moon to break out very clearly in the skies Wear not these mercies aâ— the Romans â—â—d pearls upon their shoos because of the commonness of them but put them upon the file and hang them the nearest your hearts of any thing in the world besides Alexander thought all cost too little to make a Casket to keep Homers Poems in by which means you have seen what would have been your portion if providence had not been at work for you Who so is wise c. 28. Minde what a care the Lord hath of you in black and formidable nights of wind and rain when in the wide and shelterless Sea The Seas in the night time are as difficult in some places to navigate as the Hircâ—nian Forrests are to travel through in the night Writers say that they are so intricate and difficult to get out of if a man once get into them that the skilfullest traveller that is is oftentimes put to his shifts and were it not for the flying of certain birds which afford such a bright and glistring lustre in their leasurely flight by reason of their white feathers they might take up their lodgings in them who causes the stars to afford you a glimmering light in the absence of the Moon by which means you have in your Navigations observed the frothy breaches of the Seas over the Sand-banks which places you have taken as ominous and altered your courses and thereby gone safe away and clear Who so is wise c. 29. Minde how the Lord takes care for you by giving you secret fears and hints in dark nights when you are in narrow Seas through which many ships trade and travel all the night long insomuch that when they have come within the touch of you by a speedy handling of your helm you have escaped whereas either one or both would have gone down into the bottoms if providence had not looked out for you Who so is wise c. 30. Minde what the Lord doth for you when you are in great distress as to the want of Victual Beer and fresh water when you are many hundred leagues off England how hee gives you a very fair wind which carries you on for a spurt may bee a day or half a day and then it fails you and so a contrary wind looks you in the face and puzzles you and being in many fears and doubts of starving the Lord alters that wind again and causes a gale to stand and wast you over to your desired Ports Who so is wise will c. 31. Minde what a mercy it is The Earl of Ulster endeavoured fifteen times to sail over Sea into Ireland but the wind drave him ever back Every one is not priviledged as you are Satius est claudicare in via quam currere extra viam Better to stop and sound in the Channel than run the ship on shore when in dark stormy and blowing weather you come out of the Southern parts into the channel and are at a stand not knowing where you are whether you bee nearer the French shore or the English but by sounding you distinguish your propinquity to either of them in respect that the one is a white sand and the other red and hereby your ships are preserved many a time Keep these mercies in remembrance as Alexander kept Homers Iliads pro viatico rei militaris for his fellow and companion in the Wars 32. Minde the Lords appearances for you in all your Sea-engagement-mercies when your Masts have been shot down by the board and the enemy hath lain pouring in his great and small shot upon you how seasonably some ship or other hath come in to relieve you from the mouth of the Lion Who so is wise c. 33. Minde how the Lord hath taken care for you when fire ships have been grapled to you that before those combustible materials which they are usually fraught withall have taken fire you have cleared your selves from being devoured in that unmerciful element Who so is wise c. I may write upon this deliverance In tempore veni quod omnium rerum est primum If I had not come in time you had been sent into the bo tome 34 Minde what care the Lord hath used for you in your engagements when you have been so shrewdly worsted by the enemy that you have been put to your flight to the end you might carine and stop your leaks and the enemy observing you at such a disadvantage hath made after you to sinke you down-rights which hee would have done if Providence had not set on some ship or other to prevent him Who so is wise c. If it bee thus then Vse Comfort that God hath such a special eye c. This Doctrine may serve to cheer up the honest hearts and spirits that go into the Sea that God will take care of them When one asked Alexander how hee could sleep so soundly and securely in the midst of danger hee told him that Parmenio watched and when hee watched not hee durst not sleep so soundly Go to Sea with comfort you that fear the Lord not onely Parmenio watcheth for you but the Lord. That if the Lord brought not ships out Observ 3 of storms they were never able to get out of them themselves And hee bringeth them out of their distresses That Sea-mens distresses are both infinite Observ 4 and many yet God out of his infinite mercy helps them out of all And hee brings them out of their distresses That all impossibility in mans narrow Observ 5 judgement and apprehension of being delivered hinders not God in delivering Fides in pericuâ—is secura est in securis periclitatur And hee brings them out c. Witness that wonderful deliverance that Paul and his fellow-passengers received from the cruelty of the Seas Act. 27. Because his power is an unlimited Reason 1 and an unstraitned power which is infinite and most like to
dum abiguntur iterum irruunt c. The Flyes that were sent to quarter in Egypt so pestered and plagued Pharaoh and his people that they could not take any rest they did so chase them and flye into their mouths and eyes Of the like restlesness are the Seas when once commissionated by the Lord. And also the Seas are calm and quiet when and at what time the Lord pleaseth to give out the word either to the winds or Seas Mark 4.39 Christ speaks but the word to that raging Sea that had so much disturbed his Disciples Bee still As if hee had said statim penitusque obmutesce Let us not hear any noise in you 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fraenum hee put a bridle upon the mouth of the Sea or haltered it that it might rage no more Truly if God did not halter the Sea I wonder whither that unruly beast would carry our wooden horses Hee that has a mind to go to the Sea let him expect to meet with such waves as Jude speaks of hee calls them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ☞ rageing waves the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 rageing signifies untamed wild waves roaring like the wild beasts in the Woods Forrests and wide Wildernesses of the World Some render the word fluctus maris Erasmus undae efferae maris Others Vndae maris efferatae Hee that will to Sea must look for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 rageing and boysterous waves One Poet call them Fluctus truces cruel and terrible Another calls them Latrantes undae barking waves Another calls them Rapidas aquas Observ 6 That as the Lord hath set times of chastning of those that go in the deeps with dangerous storms So has hee also his set times for comforting of them again Hee maketh the storm a calm The Lord makes them amends after a rugged storm How little should any that have this Observ 7 powerful God for theirs Quid timet hominem mare homo in finu Dei positus What needs that maâ— fear that lies under the protection of heaven bee dismayed with or in the dreadfullest Seas and stormiest weather that ever blew Hee maketh the storm a calm It was a good saying of an Heathen Since God quoth Socrates unto a sort of Heathen is so careful for you wherefore need you bee so careful for your selves Numa Pompilius put so much confidence in the Gods that one day when it was told him that his enemies were up in arms against him his answer was And I sacrifice That if God did not bridle the fury of Observ 8 the raging Sea and the Tempestuous wind neither the Mariners skill nor the strength of shipping could preserve them Vers 30. Then are they glad because they bee quiet THese words offer us two things 1. The Sea-mans cheerfulnesse Then are they glad 2. The reason of it Because they bee quiet Before every drop seemed to fight one against another but at the Lords Commandement the Seas are still as if they were of a congealed Ice and this administers matter of comfort to them that go down into the Seas Observ 1 That Gods saving and delivering mercies from the jaws of death in and upon the great and dangerous Seas are both very heart-affecting delighting glorious and wonderfull joyous to behold Then are they glad c. Now have they cause to sing Psal 126.3 The Lord hath done great things for us whereof wee are glad Observ 2 That although Sea-men bee often put to mourning and unto prayer it is but for a time the end and issue thereof frequently terminates in joy and praise Then are they glad c. When Bishop Jewel was in his banishment hee comforted himself with this Haec non durâ—bunt aetatem This will not last alwaies Observ 3 That it is no smal comfort and obligation that is put upon any soul in the Sea to have experience of Gods regarding of his Prayer and granting of his requests Then are they glad c. This was Davids resolution Oh let it bee yours souls that go in the Seas Psal 116. I will love the Lord why because hee hath heard my voice If God did not hear your cries in stormy Seas I wonder what would have become of you ere this day Observ 4 That deliverances out of Sea-perils administer matter of great joy to gratious hearts that God is pleased both to trust them and to empley them also in further service for his glory Then are they glad c. That the generality of men do affect Observ 5 quietnesse calmnesse and peaceablenesse In storms Itur ad aethereas per magna pericula sedes both at Sea and Land Then are they glad c. When England in her late wars was tossed like a ship in a storm how gladly did all the good and honest hearts of the Nation wish for peace and a good harbour for her to ride in Horat. Od. 14. lib. 1. O navis referent in mare te novi Fluctus O quid agis fortiter occupa portum c. But alas wee have a great many of male-contented incendiaries in the land that play the Pazzians parts in Florence of whom it is said that to draw and drive on a multitude to their conspiracy in the market-place they would cry Liberty Liberty when indeed and in truth they intended to bring the people into misery and thraldom It has been thus by the Anabaptists and other Schismaticks in the Land But these sort of cattel are like the Porphyrius There be many low-fortuned Pedanticks in England that would gladly be the Princes and the Governors of it May I not say of such be they in authority or out of it as one said of Ventidius Bassus when made of a Mule-driver a Consul at Rome That they had spoiled a good Mulâ—â—er and not made a good Consul which is a Serpent that is full of poyson but toothless There is a Sect of divers forlorn creatures in England that have a great deal of poyson in their bowels against the present Government and indeed all civil order but they are toothless It is a very sad sight may I speak of it to think that an Italian Traveller should say thus of England ☞ when hee had been in it some late years agoe There be a thousand villanous things to be seen in England that former ages would have blushed at and been ashamed of England deals with good government as the great Student did with his wife of whom it is said that he studied so much that he neglected her and chiding of him shee wished her self a book what book quoth he I wish thou wert an Almanack then should I have a new one every year 1. That hee saw a general contempt of the Worship Word and Ministers of God in it 2. A great deal of pride in apparrel 3. Covetousness and imperiousness in Superiours 4. Sedition and seditious practices against Magistracy 5. A general supine carelesness
Virgils Hypotoposis of a storm at Sea is their condition Tollimur in coelum curvato gurgite iidem Subducta ad manes imos descendimus undâ Consider but what a bustling the winds sometimes make and keep in a stormy day upon your Houses and Trees that are in your Orchards insomuch that many times trees are rent up by the roots and out-housing dismounted and thrown down to the very ground Now if the wind have such an influence upon all high things at Land how much more upon the tall spired Masts and shipping that go in the shelterless Seas 5. Word is unto the godly and pretious Ministry that is in great plenty in this Nation Gentlemen you are by your profession 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rowers 1 Cor. 4. And beleeve it rowing is a very hard labour The Seas are as full of dangers to them that go down into them as Pandoras box was whom the Poet reports of that Prometheus the Father of Deucalion would needs pry â—nto out of which Mille morborum malorum genera â—rumpunt A thousand evils was in it for men in the Thames go with their dublets off all day their living is got by the sweat of their brows But your labour in the Lord 's Vinyard is far greater than theirs many have killed themselves by hard working to get the world and I am sure there lies many a pretious Preacher in the grave that might have lived longer if he had not preached himself to death and prayed himself to death though an unworthy world takes no notice of it I beg of you your publick and your private prayers for those that use the Seas Wee have a great number of ships frequently going to Sea above a thousand sail every year both of Merchants and Men of War and stand not these in need of being prayed for I fear many of them perish and finde it to go harder with them than it otherwise would bee did you but pray more for them Ah they stagger it in the Sea every day more then hee that has a cask a tankard Alas the Sea-mans life is a reeling to fro Nutant nautae vacillaâ—t cerebro pedibus may be their mottâ— or an hogshead of strong liquours in the belly of him And are in daily jeopardy of their lives Good Sirs bestow pulpit prayers study prayers family prayers and field-walking prayers upon them all is little enough to prosper Zebulun's Tribe in their goings forth and commings in But I proceed That God watcheth every opportunity Observ 3 and takes all occasions to do his people good Then hee bringeth them unto their desired Haven Very gladly would God have spared Jerusalem if there had but been one man in it that executed judgement and sought after the truth Jer. 5.1 Run thee to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem c. How compassionatly did the Lord affect any opportunity to cure Babylon Mans heart-daunting extremity is Gods goldenest opportunity Acts 27.23 For there stood by mee this night the Angel of God whose I am and whom I serve They all expected to be drowned but God looked out for them to preserve them The Sea is no delightful place to carry in for it is with them that use it as it is with travellers on Land who speed their pace through fields that afford no novelties though sometimes they bait their beasts rest themselves in places that are fruitful when hee intreated her with the best argumentative Oratory that the Heavens could compose till shee said I will not bee cured Jer. 51.9 How did God watch to spare Sodom for ten mens sakes Gen. 18.32 Ah were but Sea-men godly I durst undertake their safety in their well-going out to Sea and returning back from Sea Insomuch that they might bid defiance to the Seas and say unto them as Luther said of Henry the eighth's letters Agant quicquid possunt Henrici Episcopi atque adeo Turca ipse Satan nos filii sumus Regni So Agant venti freta c. What History sets out Neptune in in a statue of gold holding the two terrours of the Seas in his hands the one called Scilla the other Charybdes I may better say of the Lord and these hee has in chains and is feigned to call out aloud to the Mariners and ships that pass that way Pergite securae perfreta nostra rates Ships securely 〈◊〉 on Through our 〈◊〉 Ocean That when ships have been long out of Observ 4 the Land in forein parts their well coming home is evermore very delightful Italiam Italiam laeto clamore salutat Virg. and inexpressable pleasant to them Then hee brings them to their desired Haven It is said of Marcus Tullius that when hee was brought out of banishment it was with him as if hee had entered into a new world and had gotten Heaven for Earth he broke out into this language I am amazed to see the beautifulness of Italy Oh how fair are the Regions thereof what goodly fields what pleasant fruits what famous Towns what sumptuous Cities what Gardens what pleasures what humanity amongst Citizens and Country people It is said of the Trojans after they had been warring a long time in the Mediterranean Seas the like shall I say of our Warriours that as soon as they spied Land they cried out with exulting joyes Oh Italy Italy It is thus with our Sea-men Abigails bottles of Wine and frayles of Raisins were not more welcome to David in the hungry Wilderness of Paran nor the shady Juniper-tree more delectable to the Prophet when in the parching Sun nor Jacobs sat Kid more acceptable to his grave Father Isaac in his sickness than the Land is to the Mariner when he hath been long out of it when been a long tract of time out at Sea in the East or West Indies Oh England England poor Travellers that have been long out of their w◠〈◊〉 the night time wandring here and 〈◊〉 and ring there in a bewildered condition upon Hills and Mountains in vast and large Forrests far from any house destitute of monies and all comfortable refreshments weather-beaten with rain and wind terrified with thunder and lamentably starved with cold and hunger wearied with labour and almost brought to despair with a multitude of miseries if this man or those Travellers should upon a sudden in the twinckling of an eye I may write Epicharmes 's saying upon the Mariners calling 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 All good things are bought with labour bee fetched and placed in some goodly large and rich Palace that is furnished with all kind of rich accommodations warm fire sweet odours dainty meat downy beds pleasant musick fine apparrel honourable and noble company and al this prepared for them Oh how would they bee transported and over-joyed As great contentment and heart-ravishment as all this is the sight of England to the Mariner after a long voyage Observ 5 That every ships sinking and miscarying in
usually sends them a peece of gold stampt with the Image of St. George upon it Who was valiant amongst you had Medals in the Dutch wars they have a brave warlike ship which they call the Preston To keep up the memory of that dreadful Sea-fight which they had with the Dutch near Portland they call one of their warlike ships the Portland To keep alive the memory of their transactions against the enemy at Yarmouth they have a gallant ship which they call the Yarmouth That their dealings with the enemy at Famouth might bee remembred and celebrated to the praise of that God whom they serve they call one of their brave warlike Vessels the Famouth To keepe alive the goodness of God in their helping them to overcome their enemies at Bristow they call one of their sumptuous ships the Bristow To keep up the memory of one sore bout they had with the enemy in Kent they call one of their ships which they built afterwards the Kent That they might not forget their dispute with the enemy at Dartmouth one of their ships is stiled the Dartmouth To remember that bout they had with the enemy at Tarrington they call another ship the Tarrington To remember the engaging of the enemy in Essex All these ships are called by the names of Englands Battels and every ship carrying the name of an English Battel upon her cannot otherwise chuse but under God be heart daunting terrible to the proudest enemy that ever strutted in the Seas What is said of the Leviathan I think I may say of our ships Job 41.9 Shall not one bee cast down even at the fight of them they call one of their ships the Essex To keep up the memory of that bout they had with the enemy at Basin-house in Hampshire they call one of their Friggots the Basin To perpetuate their engaging the enemy in Pembrokeshire they call one Friggot the Pembroke Another they call the Hamshire Another the Glocester Another the Non-such And all these besides several others as the Lime c. have been built since and after these disputes and so named Paul after his ship-wrack I find to that end hee might remember that deliverance calls it Melita and the Maltezes's at this day La scala di San Paulo St. Pauls shipwrack or arrival Sea-men have you no names for the places where you have been shipwracked what call you the places where you have been in greatest danger Call to mind the many places that you have been in and the many storms and perils that you have gone through The States of England throw not their dear and costly purchased Victories at their heels Imitate the Tartars in valour who go slightly armed into the Battel upon their Backs as scorning and abhorring ever to turn their backs whâ—n once the chief Standard of the General is let flye in the field A certain Prince would bee pictured with this Motto which I give to you that use the Seas Luctor non mergor I was much endangered but God has preserved mee Sibyllae mos erat in palmarum foliis oracula scribere in meliori metallo autem tenete naufragia vestra which they have got in their late wars but to keep them alive they put them upon their warlike Sea-boats 4. By erecting Pillars to bee standing memorials and monuments of the Lords undeserved goodness unto them Samuel set up a stone and called it Eben-Ezar 1 Sam. 7.10 12. Hitherto quoth hee when the Philistins fought against them Hath the Lord helped us The States of England to keep up the memory of their Land-deliverances layd out very costlily three thousand pound upon one ship Accipe redde Cave is a Motto that is writ upon all mercies Upon Fire is writ take heat from me Upon Apparel take warmth from me Upon bread take strength from me Upon a piece of a plank in a storm take safety from me But make a good improvement of these things or else stand cleer four thousand Pound upon another and six thousand upon another And will you lay out nothing to perpetuate the memory of your deliverances Give mee leave to hand to every soul in the Sea this short and sweet word of advice 1. Improve all your Sea-mercies for Gods glory 2. For your own good 3. For the good and benefit of others 1. For Gods glory esteem of God highly look out for higher thoughts of God than ever you have had in your souls and labour daily to beat down your own pride loftiness and haughtiness of mind otherwise you will never bee able to maintain high thoughts of God and to say of the Lord in all your Sea-preservations Exod. 15.11 Who is like unto thee O Lord amongst the Gods who is like thee glorious in holiness fearful in praises doing wonders 2 Chron. 6.14 There is no God like thee in the Heaven nor in the Earth 2. To love God more dearly that has done so much for you David's heart began to bee on a burning glow within him when hee begun to consider of the Lords hearing of his prayers Psal 116.1 2. I love the Lord because hee hath heard my voice and my supplications Ah Sirs will not you that use the Seas love your God no more than you do Good Sirs do not with your God as the Heathens did by theirs of whom it is said that they would put them off with slight Sacrifices when called for a man they brought a candle Hercules offered up a painted man instead of a living one what had been become of you ere this day if God had not heard your prayers in your calamities 3. To thank and praise God Praecepta docent at exempla movent more heartily for what hee has done for you in all your straits at Sea Psal 103.1 2. Bless the Lord oh my soul and all that is within mee bless his holy name Tully calls gratitude Maximam imo matrem omnium virtutum reliquarum the greatest and the mother of all virtues 4. To obey God more cordially Many Sailors are a meer tortile lignum Too much a kin to the Crab Nunquam recte ingrediuntur Cancri Very disobedient and crooked unto God and freely this is to render again according to the mercies and favours God did for you when in the great deeps which Hezekiah nay not onely hee but thousands of our Sailors fail in this very duty 2 Chron. 32.25 But Hezekiah rendered not again according to the benefit done unto him The Elements are obedient unto the Caelestial bodies the Orbs and Sphaeres to the moving intelligence and all the Intelligences to the chiefest of all which is the Lord loved of all Darius escaping a great danger in his return out of Scythia by the faithful counsel and assistance of Hysteus the Milesian hee was so taken with this kindness that to reward him hee sent for him to the Court to praefer him to one of his Privy Councel gave him this commendation
English page 435 Prayer how should resemble the stars about the North-pole page 460 Prayer begged at the hands of all the godly and powerful Ministry in England for poor Sea-men page 542 Pliny's expression of Rome given to men that use the Seas page 478 Pliny's judgement what the wind is page 367 Prayer how prevalent with God page 482 Perpetual life-danger of Sea-men page 420 Philostrates's life compared to Sea-men page 392 Prophane Sea-mens Motto ibid. Prayer forced is never ought page 486 Plutarchs report of men dejected what done withall page 401 Paulinus how hee bore his great trial under the savage Goths page 352 Patience an excellent vertue the heathen thought it so when page 353 Praising of God in several directions page 576 Pythagoras scholars what their custome was page 109 Plato how answered Socrates in his rashness page 25 Persons what should not bee taken in into Navy ships page 32 Physiognomer what hee said of an Emperour page 80 Plato's great desire to convert Dionysius page 61 Paul how desirous to have them saved that sailed with him page 52 Pepper-tree how it grows page 263 Pemblico a bird page 242 Q. Question fifteen page 150 R. REasons why Sea-men should bee thankful unto their God for their deliverances are five page 565 Reasons laid down are sixteen why storms arise upon the Seas page 348 Reasons two strong ones why men are so fearful in storms page 455 Righteous man of what worth page 36 Reasons five why young men should bee looked after in the Sea page 73 Roman Ambassadors what said of them page 78 Romans highly esteem of faithfulness page 84 Roman General what a command he bore page 30 Romans cannot indure any without a calling page 166 Rome how once laid down to the ground page 180 Rocks in the Sea what their language is page 322 Richard the first how travelled to the Holy Land page 124 S. SEa compared to Plutarchs Moon page 427 Sea summoned in by the Mariners why it did drown so many of them as it did page 427 Speech objurgatory to the rest less Sea ibid. Speech of Galienus the Emperour when lost all that ever hee had page 402 Sea-men how compared to all high pinacles page 409 Sea-men too confident of going to heaven page 410 Seneca's speech page 401 Sea-men in storms are nearer heaven than any in the world besides page 409 Ships when cast away may bee concluded on that it was when the Mariners were swearing page 487 Several Reasons why Sea-men are the worst people in the world page 488 Sea-mans life and conversation page 393 Sea what it saith to prophane men ibid. Sea-mens lives very uncertain page 388 Ships uncertainty of ever returning whilst at Sea page 383 Sailors Motto what page 417 Sea-mans head what compared to page 416 Ships how rest less in the Sea page 27 Sailors Motto what page 445 Seasons six in which Sea-men are evermore out of their wits page 445 Sea hath four ill things in it page 446 Sea-mans Motto in a storm page 418 Sea-mans night-watching in time of storms page 418 Ship-leak springing how terrible page 426 Sea-mans day labouring in time of storms page 417 Sea-men how seemingly good in time of danger page 484 Shark what said of him page 206 Sea-horses what said of them page 209 Sea-men compared to the Nightingale page 191 Sea-swine what said of them page 222 Sea-calf page 224 Sea-turtle ibid. Stork what said of her page 234 Strange-sheep in Cusko page 249 Sivet-cat what shee is page 251 Scorpion what page 258 Strumbilo how it burns page 273 Sea-men too like the traveller that leaves all things behinde him page 281 Sea like the Sea in Pauten page 301 Ship-masters how reproved and for what page 91 Ship-masters exhorted to imitate Tiberius in his honest minde page 90 Sabbath day how sweetly it is observed at Sea page 95 Swearing complained of and exclaimed against at Sea page 101 Subjects that should bee preached on at Sea laid down page 102 Swearing ships but unhealthful air to breathe in page 103 Sea-men if ever they would bee good and Religious must practise seven things page 111 Socrates how fearful of Alcibiades page 115 Spanish Proverb what page 116 Sea-men prophane how compared to Pharaohs seven ill-favoured Kine page 118 Sun how said to shine and would not shine were it not for the godly page 119 Sea-men must practise six things if ever they would have credit ibid. Sea-men exhorted to practise nine very singular good things page 123 Sea-men counselled in three good things page 125 Sea-men should rather dye than stain their credits ibid. Sea-men prophane too like to those in Luthers time page 126 Ships when miscarry may be said that they never sought God in their going out page 132 Ships what order they observe in their going to Sea in nine things page 133 Sea-men how valiant they should bee when they hear of an enemy page 141 Spaniard in what to bee disgusted page 141 Spaniard how massacred many English page 144 Sea or Land a controversie whether bee greater page 153 Sea-men when come out of the West-Indies how glad they are when they can once see the North star page 154 Sea-water how far it excels Land-water in strength page 156 Seas wonderful beneficial to all Countries in five things page 161 Sea-men exhorted to bee of Themistocles temper page 172 Sea separates many Nations a great mercy page 162 Sorrow and pleasure how they fell out page 598 Sea-men how wished a bottle of Nepenthe in storms page 596 States ships how said to resemble Nebuchadnezzars tree page 589 Ships how said to derive their names from the stout fought Battels in England page 290 Ships what several names they have to perpetuate the memory of Englands Battels page 591 Ships that carry the names of Englands Battels upon them are terrible page 592 Sea what manner of place it is page 4 Ship how shee commended the Pilot that steered her well in a storm page 598 Sea hath no lanes foot-paths nor high-wayes to travel by page 12 Sea-men counselled to bee of Fabritius's minde page 16 Sea-men far more on stern in matters of good than any in the world besides page 18 Scipio how of a brave spirit page 21 Sea-Captains some how compared to Thales page 22 Sin the only of Commanders being hurled out ibid. States how little they set by men at Sea whose carriages are naught page 23 Ships carry famous Titles and wherefore page 26 Sea-men too like the Cypress tree page 29 Sea-men that are prophane should bee cast out of ships page 33 Ships have good names but want of government in them page 30 States ships might prosper wonderfully had they but these men in them page 35 States ships should bee little Churches and Chappels page 42 Sea-man how defined page 46 Sea-men how backward to all good in divers particulars page 48 Sabbath day how sweetly it is observed at Sea page 55 Sea Commanders some too like Harpocrates
the Egyptian ibid. Spots soon seen in the Ermin page 64 Suspicious ships should not bee neglected to hee spoke withall page 65 Song that the poor bird sung when got out of the Fowlers hands ibid. Suevians estimation of peace page 70 Ships how they should bee governed ibid. Strong drink should bee kept out of ships page 77 Sailors that are naught too like the unsavoury Elder tree ibid. Star the Mariner sails by what page 12 Sailors prophane life like to King Eldreds Reign page 413 Sea-men how they will go forth in windy nights to see if they can espye any star in the heavens page 420 Sea-men how fearful of Rocks and Sands page 430 Sea-men how unkindly they deal with Prayer page 483 Saylors in storms how compared to the Froggs in the Country-mans Pond page 481 Saylors how resemble the Siryphian Froggs page 478 Swearing ships worse habitations than the stinking Jakes and Channels about the City of London page 490 Saylors like to the people in the time that Juvenal lived in page 489 Seas turbulent and dangerous to Passengers because of prophane men in ships page 350 Security taken napping at sea as the old World was page 364 Sea how compared to lovely Paris in Hectors eye page 376 Sea-men exhorted in their employments to imitate the Nobilities of Rome ibid. Storms as well as Calms come from the hand of God page 379 Signs of the coming of storms be fifteen page 373 Ships at sea how resemble the Owl in the Embleme page 535 Saylors imployment how compared to the picture of the naked man in the Almanack page 530 Sea-ports should resemble the Emblem of the Candle page 535 Sea-men how they sit in the Waves and upon the Flouds like him in the Emblem page 536 Sea compared to the English Colledge at Valladolid in Spain for danger page 536 Sea-port Towns if naught how they endanger and threaten the whole Land with ruine page 538 Sunk ships bespeak Sea-men to make seven good applicatory uses page 550 Ships that have fair names upon them oftentimes very foulely miscarry page 547 Sea-mans life and conversation page 548 Sea how compared to Pandora's Box for danger page 542 Ships brought to ruine by reason of sinful men that saile in them page 555 Sea-men if godly need not fear the seas page 544 Saylors life what it is page 458 Sea compared to Proteus page 454 Syracucian when in a storm to save himself threw his wife over-board page 455 Sea how compared to the river Hypanis page 438 Seas why turbulent and Winds boysterous be divers in respect of the prophane wretches that goe in them ibid. Storms how the uttering of Gods voyce in wrath against them that use the seas page 340 Sea-mens large vowes to their God when in storms page 461 Sea-men in want of fear how compared to Sigismund page 475 Sea-men how they call upon God in storms and never in calms page 476 Sea-mans employment as dangerous as the Snails going over the bridge page 533 Story of one risen from the dead page 566 Storms better not bad men page 567 Stork how she expresses her thankfulnesse page 568 Saylors of Zara what they offered to their God for a deliverance in a storm page 570 Sea-men deal with their God as Egypt with the Clouds page 572 Seas upon a time how spoke to a pack of swearing Saylors and asked them why they was not affraid page 560 Shipwrack many suffer and why page 547 Saylors compared to Bees page 452 Sea-men how should prepare for storms page 394 Storms what Gods aimes are in them page 395 Sceva how he told of all his deliverances to his friends page 573 Seamen what they should say of their deliverances page 588 Sea-men how they deal with God page 580 Ship how covered over with Celestial curtains page 318 Storms how dreadful sometimes in Egypt page 329 Sea-lights when burn dimme make the Mariners curse and rage page 509 Seas as difficult to Navigate as the Hircinian Forrests bee to travel through page 510 Sigismund Emperour what used to say of his enemy page 514 Seas in storms run as high as the mountains in Mirioneth-shire in Wales page 514 Spaniard how may be dealt withall page 182 Spanish Ambassadors proud Ambassage into England page 185 Sea-men exhorted to bee as valiant for England as the two Scipio's were page 185 Sea-men exhorted to charge the Spaniard stoutly page 187 Sea-men how they see the riches honours and beauties of Countries page 191 T. TRojans how glad after their long Warre when came within the sight of their own Country page 545 Toledo the Arch-Bishop how hee despaired of Solomon page 410 Thankfulnesse how gainful it was to Alexander page 578 Tyger what page 254 Toddy-tree what page 265 Terebinth-tree page 266 Torrid Zone how people live in it page 273 Troy how ruined when secure page 298 Torpedo what page 226 Tumbler page 441 Titus Vespasian how sweetly spoken page 517 Travellers on Land what course they take page 11 Teneriff how difficult to goe up to the top of it page 600 Tree in Pliny how delightful page 2 Theodore how careful of his Childrens education page 35 Turkycock how said to rage page 106 Thistle in the Scottish coyn what it said page 139 Trumpet sounds England stand to thine Arms. page 143 Turks how allow none to be idle page 166 Thescus how guided by Ariadnes thred page 500 Thresher what said of him page 222 Thrush how brings evil upon her self page 205 Turk what said of England when looking for it in a Map page 183 V. ULysses what said of eloquence page 45 Voluptuous Londoner how feasted his five senses page 100 Vines in India how compared page 21 Virgils observation of a storm page 542 Ulysses how sadly hee raged when like to bee drowned in a storm page 556 Venice how lived a thousand years in one form of Government page 529 Use of comfort to those that use the Seas that God is the great Commander of them and of the winds page 360 Voyages are all to bee begun in the fear and by the good leave of God page 387 Vulcan so proud that hee would dwell no longer on earth but c. page 415 Vses of Information Circumspection and Reproof page 361 Unthankfulness reproved page 576 577 W. VVInd what it doth page 36â— Wars of old what they did when they went into them page 388 Wonders the greatest in England are her famous and stately Fabricks of warlike ships page 382 White-hall how a curb both to Sea and Land page 489 Winds how overthrow Sambelicus and his Army whilst at dinner page 338 Wind-Armies bee four page 331 Walnot tree how better for beating page 504 Winds are allayed six several wayes page 522 Waves of the Sea what called by some page 524 World if travelled what to be done page 194 Whale what said of him page 212 Wilde-Ass what page 247 Water-spouts at Sea what page 271 Wilde-Cows what page 255 Wilde-Goat what page 254 Wilde-Bore what page 255 Waters of the Sea why called great page 152 Water in Sicily what page 153 War how ought to begin and bee carried on page 145 World how often it hath been fought for page 170 World divided how few Christians in it page 271 Williams valour when went to Sea page 124 West-Indies how tame Fowls are page 241 Weeping-tree page 266 X. XErxes trusting in a multitude of men how betrayed page 520 Xerxes angred at Helespont how threw Irons into it page 521 Y. YEars ago could not sail far at Sea because wanted the use of the Loadstone page 9 Z. Zebra what page 250
or Stars gave their light they crept about the Coasts of the Earth sometimes by the help of Lights hoised up in high places for their direction sometimes by the help of Towers and Trees not far from the shore and with a great deal of anxiety and perplexity of minde and great danger of shipwrack they went to and again upon the Seas but if the Heavens looked angrily upon them that they were Cloudy Sun Moon and Stars withdrawn out of sight and Tempests drawing on they knew not whither to go nor what course to take nor what way in all the Vniversal World to turn themselves unto for the best What manner of joy may we think could it not be unto the Mariners when at first whatever an unthankeful generation of men that be now in the world do think of it when this Magnetick Neptune was found out and ever since has been their never-erring and never-failing guide which does shew unto them the path that they are to trace thorow and by those innumerable Rocks Quicksands and Shallows that be in the Seas though it be or were in the darkest night and cloudiest sky that ever was this points them out the several Angles of the North South East and West so that they can now most certainly judge in what Coasts of the world in what Latitude of places they are in as also of what parts of the Earth and of what Ports they directed their course unto in sailing The first that ever found out the Loadstone that I ever read of was Nicander an Herdsman of Magnesia when feeding of his Cattel observed that the point of his Pastoral Staff and the Hobnails of his shoes did stick in a piece of ground where Loadstones were insomuch that he was very hard put to it to remove his feet from the place he stood upon and so standing admiring what secret vertue there should be in the place he stood on or in the stones that were under his feet he took it up and made report of it but none was there in all Magnesia whether far or near that knew the right use of it It has been observed that this Stone has been found some Ages ago but not the use of it both the learned and the unlearned at those times in the world have had it oftentimes in their hands and turned it to and again but could never make any thing of it And until of late the world was never sensible of its turning unto the Pole nor its use in Navigation nor in the Art of Dialling The greatest and the purest Wits and Conceptionists of the world at those times Loadstone q. Lead stone in Latine Magnes because of its great force vertue in Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Herculean because of the strength thereof among the Hebrews 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Shether à reâ—inendo because of its retaining and holding things were not able to finde it out and so it lay by the Lee as I may so say for a long time yea for divers hundreds of years in the secret Bosom of Natures Majesty and none in that time knew the use of it Some are of opinion that the use of this stone has not been known in the world save of late at the exhibiting of Christ unto the world in the year of our Lord 1300 or thereabouts and that the world has been without the knowledge of it for above 5000 years and upwards But now the Lord taking compassion on Mankind did make mortal man happy This Stone comes out of Elbe Norway Bengala China c. Now what the secret vertue is that is in this Stone none can tell Philosophers are of opinion that there is a secret and an occult quality ingendred naturally in the Loadstone by that spirit that wrought in the composing of all other stones and that is the cause Others are of opinion That there be certain incorporeal and spiritual evaporations 2nd issues which proceed out of the Loadstone and these are the causes thereof but to assign a certain positive determinative reason is impossible for Nature would have many things hid in the bosom and lap of her Majesty which she would not have the understanding of man to attain unto and so it remains unknown to this day and is more to be admired than searched into by declaring the secret Vertue of it unto Goias Melphitanus who had the revelation of the usefulness of this Instrument of the Mariners Compass by the help and benefit of which Ships do now discover the remote parts of the world that were unknown heretofore which lay hid like Aristotles Works 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and though publick to yet not made known This Stone is now become the Seamans most faithful Conductor to all their Ports and Havens whether far or neer and also unto them that travel by Land it is no lesse helpful when they cannot journey but by the Card This is another Mercury and a most certain guide in all journeys whatsoever in respect it is the most powerful Ruler of the Iron generation Now I hope it will appear by all this which I have asserted that in Ages past there was no such going down into the Seas as be in these days for how should they use the Seas when that they had neither Card nor Loadstone But that I may now passe by this rare Art we can go and talk with Spain and fill our Coffers with his West-Indy Plate and other Nations far off as well as round about us This Load-stone with a fair gale of wind will carry out our Warlike Boats unto Spain who have been the causers of all that effusion and expence of blood that has been shed both in England Scotland and Ireland and in all the other remote parts of the World in which they have massacred many English whose blood cries up to heaven for vengeance against them Rev. 6.10 By this Art we make the whole World to tremble Not a few of those Southern Kings and Princes have quaked at our Warlike Fleets when been in the Mediterranean Seas amongst them viz. Spain Portugal Italy Turky Barbary France c. Our Fleets when amongst them are Ad terrorem usque spectantium omnium an astonishment to them all and are at this day a terror still both to the Turk Spaniard and the Pope By this Art has the world 53 years before the Incarnation of Christ at Julius Caesar his coming out of France into England England worshipped Idols viz. Mars Mercury Minerva Apollo Diana c. and all the remote parts thereof been further viewed discovered courted and sailed into and about so that England wants not her traffick and intercourse with various and multitudinous Nations how far intervall'd soever nor for Knowledge neither in Theologicis rebus Humanis in Divine and Humane things of which she is admirably free of both to promulgate convey and communicate So that certainly there is something of great importance to be eyed and
considered in the Lords discovering this Artem obnubilatam difficult and intricate Mystery The Gospel of Christ came into England at the first by shipping sayes Chronicles that Joseph of Arimathea was the first bringer of it into this Land who will gainsay me in this that there has not something of Divine Providence appeared as a moving cause or the Causa Procatarctica in God to give man light and understanding in it to this end that the light of the glorious Gospel of Christ which is the great power of God unto Salvation might be transported Undoubtedly but he that filled Bezaliel Aholiah with the Spirit of wisdom for the work of the Tabernacle Exod. 31.3 has not discovered the use of the Loadstone the Art of Navigation unto mankinde meerly for bare trading withal but for some higher end and freely preached and held forth unto those multitudes of ignorant and fettered captives of Satans in those dark mansions and remote Regions of America and unto the other black-nighted parts and corners of the world also We have now by the help of shipping many Plantations up down in the western parts of the world which are and will be by Gods assistance promoters of the interest of Christ and instrumental in the pulling down the interest of the Devil We reade of the Apostles and the disciples of Christ yea of Christ himself that they made use of shipping unto all the Islands they travelled to and Continents without which how should the Gospel of Christ been made manifest It is observed that the use of the Loadstone was never known in the world till Christs coming I would infer thus much then if there be truth in History That God was fully resolved at the coming of his blessed Son into the world to give man the right use and understanding of it to that very end it might be the golden Key to open those many locks bolts bars and doors that lay upon the face of the Creation which was little known or discovered till the Art of Navigation sprung up and came into the world So that by this Key the door of every Nation is opened to let in the Gospel of Christ amongst them and God has given man that dexterity and knowledge in this Art that his love unto the world Joh. 3.33 and the Name of his Son Jesus Christ might go far and neer in all the remote parts of the world over there being no other Name neither in heaven nor upon earth by which man can be saved Act. 4.12 but by this This is an Art now which this Nation of late and several other Nations also in the world are grown wonderfully dexterous ripe and well accomplished in and some excelling one another It s said of the Turk that great Potentate the three half Moons or the Top-gallant Sail of the World that he is no great Mariner and if he had but that skill and Art that other Nations and Countries have in Navigation he would have attempted to have ranged the whole world over he would have been in Wars with Nations though never so far distant and would have striven to have had a greater part of the world than he is in possession of he would have had the Silver Mynes in Hispaniola ere this day but that he knows not how to sail his ships thither But its time now for me to lay the Fore-Topsail of this my Compendious nay I fear rather prolix Prooemium upon the Mariners Art upon the Baek-steads and so lye by the Lee. Loquuntur Nautae Loquatur Ars Is not this now a rare Art I 'll deal as kindly with you as Hezekiah did with the Babylonish Ambassadors Isa 39.2 as he shewed them the house of his precious things the silver the gold the spices and the precious ointments and all the house of his armour all that ever he had So will I set before you the great works and wonders of the Lord in the Seas by which the glorious Gospel of Christ came into this Land and by which comes in all the delicate Fruits Commodities and scattered Excellencies that lye up and down in the Creation to our very doors I will then no longer hold you in the Porch of this delightful Prologue lest you should think your expectations to be either frustrated or defrauded for there 's a better Palace of Discourse to walk in and better banquetting-stuff to feed on My Anchor then is on board if that you will put off with me a little from the shore and lanch out into the main Ocean come now for its high-water for the Frigot of my Discourse to turn out withall When that the Fore-Topsail of any Ship is once loose no surer sign than that the Cable is upon the Capstock and that the ship is a going to make sail 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nec inter vivos nec inter mortuos Neither amongst the Living nor amongst the Dead OR A Compendious Improvement of the SEA PSAL. 107. Ver. 23. They that go down to the Sea in ships that do business in great Waters FOR our Introduction into the words before us our care shall be to ballance every word and circumstance that 's either considerable or materiall in them To that end you may behold that mature and goodly fruit that grows as plentifully upon this Scripture stalk as did upon that pregnant and most fruitful Tree Pliny greatly gloried in which he saw at Tiburts Juxta Tiburtes Tulias omni genere Pomorum alio ramo nucibus alio baccis alio ficis pyris prunis malorumque generibus c. bearing all Novelties upon one bough grew divers kinds of Apples and that of divers colours some red other-some yellow c. some of one colour and some of another upon other some boughs grew several kinds of Nuts and upon other some again all sorts of Berries upon other some again Pears Plums Oranges and Lemmons c. Now who would not but take delight to have seen such a Tree as this were there but such an one in the world that bears all those varieties of fruits which the many and several Trees of the world bring forth I question not but that the handling of this Text of Scripture will afford them that have a sweet Spirit breathing in them as various and as delectable Novelties as they can desire David calls some of his Psalms Michtam which is in the Hebrew Golden ones as being full of choice treasure And what will you call this Psalm I pray I will assure you that this is neither a Silver one nor a Leaden one but a Golden Psalm which is neither empty of worth nor matter It was the usual manner of the Hebrews to say that all those things were of God which were chief and most excellent in their kinde as the Prince of God Gen. 2.23 the Mountains of God Psal 36.7 the Trees of God c. We cannot say that the new composed Psalms of this
year amounting to an unspeakable value and worth of moneys Fishers kill as many great and massy Sea-beasts every year what in one part and what in another as Butchers do of Kine and Cattel at Land But having presented you with the several benefits that are received by Sea employments which could not otherwise bee if that there were not skill in this Art I hope none will bee so absurd or irrational as to deny the legality of this calling If any will demand of mee wherein the lawfulness of this or any other calling lyes I will say in this when it is manifestly approved of in Scripture But the Sea-mans employment is approved of by Scripture Ergo it is lawful It is first profitable unto mankind Secondly It is of good report and herein lies the lawfullness of this or any other calling Ephes 4.28 Working with his hands the thing that is good Philip. 4.8 God does variously call and dispose of men some to one thing and some to another some to go down into the Seas and othersome to stay on land to follow those several callings they are trained up unto which bee for the publick good and weale of all And indeed if we look into Scripture wee shall find no plea or excuse for any to live out of lawful callings In times past no Roman durst go in the streets if he bore not his badge how hee did lives to that end it might bee known that he lived by his labour not upon the sweat of others I would it were thus in England It is more commendable to weave and un-weave with Penelope than to beidle Amongst the Turks every man must be of some trade the Grand Signeur himself not excepted Aurelianus the Emperour would never suffer any day to pass over his head wherein he exercised not himself in some hard labour or military employment or other Idleness is putvinar Diaboli the Devils cushion or pillow on which he both sits leans Fabius was called the Shield of Rome because he waited upon all opportunities Charls King of Naples was Sirnamed Cunctator because he lost all opportunities Post est occasio calva Time is bald behind The Bee goes not every day to labour but as often as the Heavens offer occasion shee goes Every mans mind is created active apt to some or other ratiocination his joynts are stirring his nerves made for helps of moving and his occasions of living call him forth to action 1. It is an ordinance of God that every one bee exercised and employed in some honest and laudable calling or other When God made man he found him out both work and employment to perform Gen. 2.15 Hee would not have him to bee swallowed up with idleness 1 Thes 4.11 And do your own business working with your hands Hee that follows not some honest employment or other either at Sea or on Land cannot bee free of grievous sining that man is a fit instrument for the Devil to take hold on 2. Every one has received some talent or other or some part of a talent at leastwise from God and to that very end which cannot warrantably bee hid nor buried without sining Matth. 25. When God gave Bezaliel and Aholiab those talents of working his glorious Temple-work it was not given them to ly by but to do the things that God had to bee done God has given many Sea-men an extraordinary dexterous faculty in their Art of Navigation to sail the Seas by now will any say that this talent is not given them for improvement 3. Idleness is abominable abhorred of God and man it is the mater and nutrix of a thousand vices but especially of sinfull and unclean thoughts and desires and many other wicked contrivements 2 Thes 3.11 For wee hear that here are some which walk among you disorderly working not at all but are busie-bodies But further for the exercising of an honest calling which either in the Seas or on Land there bee these things very necessary and convenient 1. Skil Every one that will undertake any thing is to know perfectly the things which hee takes in hand and to bee able to give good grounds and reasons thereof which properly belongs to his own vocation Prov. 14.8 The wisdom of the prudent is to understand his way but the folly of fools is deceit 2. Attention to his own affaires more than to others 2 Thes 3.11 1 Tim. 5.13 And withall they learn to bee idle wandring about from house to house 3. Diligence in going about his affaires Prov. 10.4 Hee becometh poor tht dealeth with a slack hand but the hand of the diligent maketh rich 4. Wisdom in observing taking and using all opportunities rightly Prov. 10.5 He that gathereth in Summer is a wise son but hee that sleepeth in harvest is a son that causeth shame 5. Courage and Constancy in overcoming all difficulties for what calling soever it bee that a man sets himself to I have observed that if hee want courage and boldness to manage it hee will but bungle in it Prov. 15.19 The way of the slothfull man is as an hedg of thorns Young Eagles peck at the Stars before they prey on dead carkasses Diogenes laying his mony at his head a theef was very busy to steal it from him which troubled him so much that hee could take no rest so at last rather than hee would deprive himself of his sweet sleep hee threw it to him saying Take it to thee than wretch so I may but take my rest Opportunities are headlong and must bee quickly caught as the Eccho catcheth the voice there is no use of after wit Praecipitat tempus mors atraimpendet agentes but the way of the Righteous is made plain 6. A moderation in the desire of gain and care of his wished success Some are so avarous in their gain and gettings that they care not how they come by it And many are so well versed in all the Topicks and common places of profit and gain having got in readiness all money-traps to catch it where ever it is stirring and to bee had per fas nefas Rem rem quocunque modo rem 1 Tim. 6.9 But they that will bee rich fall into temptation and a snare and into many foolish and hurtfull lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition The Indians observing that unsatiable desire of Gold in the Spaniards said that it was their God Money and the things of the world may better bee said to bee their God than the true God himself in respect of their inordinateness after them 7. A Religious sanctifying of all our labours both at Sea and Land is required or us 1 Cor. 10.31 Whether therefore yee eat or drink or whatsoever yee doe do all to the glory of God Gen. 24.12 And hee said O Lord God of my Master Abraham I pray thee send mee good speed this day and shew kindness unto my Master Abraham That the great work and