whether they should ever recover their pristine constitution and health again or no 1. Meditation It laid no less than this applicatory truth upon my spirit That it is dangerous handling touching or looking upon any of those prohibited objects the Lord hath writ a Noli me tangere upon Elisha's servant had a very good stomach to finger and digest Naaman the Assyrians silver 2 King 5.22.27 and golden wedges but no sooner were they in his hands but the Leprosie was upon his body Better is a little with right than great revenues without right Prov. 16.8 12. They have a frequent sight of that Water-beast called a Crocodile Crocodile and in respect that hee lives in the water as well as upon the land I will bring him in amongst the rest of these there bee to bee seen both in Egypt and the Indies hee is of a scaly and impenetrable substance tongue-less say some but marvellously cruel toothed It is said of this creature that hee will weep over a man when hee hath devoured him and the reason of it is not out of pity but out of an apprehension of his want of another prey to live upon from whence started that Proverb of Lachrymae Crocodili The sight of this creature did fasten 1. Meditation and fix thus much upon my spirit That it is a very common thing for desperate hasty passionate and hot-spirited men to kill Sailor Sailor Let the life of a man be pretious in thy sight God will have no murthering if thou wilt fulfill thy bloody minde in thy brutish challenges think with thy self that thy life lyes at the staâ—e to answer his whom thou gracelesly goes about to take away Thou art just then going to the Devil when thou art about such work I would all the Murtherers in the world would spend a few hours in serious consideration of these Scriptures Numb 35.30 31 32. 2 King 24.4 Whither go all Murtherers when God will not pardon them but unto the Devil and commit murther in their hot blood but when in their cold it hath cost them many a tear to get the guilt of it washed off Psal 51.14 When Murther was sound in Davids hands hee could take no rest day nor night till hee found a pardon from the hands of the Lord for it Deliver mee from blood-guiltiness O God thou God of my salvation The blood of the murthered stuck upon his stomach and the like it will be and do to every one that bathe their hands in innocent blood 13. They have sometimes a sight of that strange kinde of creature called a Meermaid q. Maris mulier and the Meerman also q. Maris vir which is very admirable Meermaid of these here bee both male and female The Sea-men have a sight of these sometimes in their Voyages into the Indies but their espying of them proves very unfortunate and ominous for when they appear they presage no good to the Mariner Storm and shipwrack often ensues those ships that gets a sight of them I have heard of the honest and soberest of men that frequent the Seas say that they have seen of these sort of creatures but presently after hath the windes rise clouds begin to drop and Seas to rage and swell to their terrour and affrightment as if all were a going to wrack and ruine 14. They have a frequent aspect of that wonderful and impenetrable sort of Beasts which the Mariners call an Alligator Alligator This creature is mostly visible in the Indies and in respect that hee lives in the water as well as upon the land I give him his entity amongst the rest This Beast is of a vast longitude and magnitude some say many yards in length in colour hee is of a dark brown which makes him the more invisible and indiscernable when hee lyes his Trapan in the waters and Sea sides as it were an old liveless tree or as one destitute of motion and his onely subtilty and policy of lying conchant is to get hold of the fat This beast hath his three tyer of teeth in his chaps and so firmly scaled and armed with coat of Male that you may as well shoot or strike upon or at a Rock and Iron at offer to wound him This beast is of a very slow pace and goes jumping leaping and gathering up of his body and had not the wisdome and goodness of God so ordered it he would soon make the Indies uninhabitable for he would kill up all the people and the varieties of Cattel and creatures that be in the Mountains and wilde Cows and Bullocks that bee in those parts in great abundance when they come down out of the woods and mountains to cool themselves in the waters but no sooner are they in the water but hee hath hold of the throat of one or other of them which hee tears to peeces Of such strength is this beast that no creature is able to make his escape from him if hee get but his chaps fastened in them This beast at his pleasure goes into the waters and again unto the land Now lest I should bee too tedious both to you and to my self in a bitter restless and uncomfortable Sea either to write or study in I will take leave of the scaly inhabitants in the salt waters which I might have asserted for indeed I have but spoken of small or very little in comparison of what Sea-men have experience of both as to their kinds and qualities but this I hope will serve for a praelibamen unto any that are either delighted in reading or taking a view of the works of the Lord in the Seas The second circumstance then comes above board to bee discoursed on and that is about Terrestrials under which term I am minded to comprehend and handle some of those creatures that are both 1. Volatile 2. Gressile 3. Reptile And these are objects which none but those that go down into the Seas either do or can behold Pelican 1. Volatile They that go down to the Sea in ships They have a very ordinary and frequent aspect of that most amiable and delectable bird called the Pelican from the Greek word I suppose 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 perfozo to beat or peirce Naturalists say that this bird to recover her young when they are upon a dye King John late King of Portugal to express his tender care and affections to his people and Subjects would bee emblemed by no other kind of creature than the Pelican and wounded by stinging and mordacious Serpents shee will tear her body to give them of her own dear blood to fetch life and health into them again The sight of this creature has not procured little wonderment from mee when I have considered her shape and form which is on this wise shee has a great bag or sachel hanging under her bil which is the likest unto a leathern pouch of any thing that I can resemble it to
in the South-West and by West c. Psal 107.43 Who so is wise will observe these things 4. And lastly The other Army lies quartered in the South and this oftentimes is very commonly the fiercest and furiousest of them all This Army may be called neque manere finet neque navigare Sometimes it will neither suffer ships to sail nor to keep the Sea insomuch that it makes the Seas run mountain-high and lye all upon a bubling froth and curded foam This Army marches one while into the South and by East South and by and by into the South-East South-East and by South c. and is very ready and attentive to carry on the Lords designs either for good or evil There is both a wonderful vertibility and also variableness in the winds one while they are here and by and by they are there Eccl. 1.6 The wind goeth towards the South and turneth about unto the North it whirleth about continually and the wind returneth again according to his circuits Oh what quick eyes hearing eares ready feet strong arms may I say has these four-wind armies to go yea run If that an Italian General could say when one of his Nobleâ— complained unto him of their want of men I can have all Italy up in arms with one stamp of my feet upon the Earth What do you think then of the Lord cannot hee have all his forces both in Heaven and Earth up in arms Land sooner than Armies of men can bee at the sound of trumpet or at the beat of drum and fly upon Gods commands What more frequent than to hear this amongst the Mariners Wee were shipwracked when the Nothern wind-army lay in the North North-West and wee lost our ship says another when the Eastern wind-army lay in the East and by South c. and wee lost our ship says another when the Southern wind-army lay in the South and by East South c. and wee lost our ship seems another to say when the Western wind-army was upon its march in the West South-West c. But to proceed I will run on in a few more particulars as God has wind-armies at command so has hee many other strange unminded and unobserved armies to march into the field against a people when hee pleases 1. God has his Angel-fighting-armies some whereof are good and other some are bad 2 Sam. 24.16 And when the Angel stretched out his hand upon Jerusalem to destroy it the Lord repented him of the evil c. 2 King 19.35 And it came to pass that night that the Angel of the Lord went out If one Angel could do thus much what could not Christs twelve Legions have done upon the wicked Jews and smote in the Camp of the Assyrians an hundred fourscore and five thousand c. 2. The Lord has his Sun Moon and Star fighting Armies and this is another sort of army that the Lord has sometimes mustred up to shew his mighty Power and these are called the Hosts of Heaven Deut. 17.3 This Host was up in Arms in Joshua's time Josh 18.12 13. But some may object and say this is something strange how should the Sun the Moon or the Stars fight I answer God may take away the use the benefit the light and the influences of them and in this sense the battel will bee found too hard to escape in 3. The Lord has his men-fighting-armies at command Exod. 12.51 By these did the Lord bring Israel out of Egypt The wicked are Gods sword and his Armies Isa 10.5 6 7. Jer. 25.9 God has Armies of men both good and bad and when hee pleases hee can presently arm them and send them upon errands of ruine and destruction against a Nation 4. The Lord has his water-fighting-armies at command Gen. 6.17 And behold I even I do bring a flood of waters upon the earth to destroy all flesh wherein is the breath of life from under heaven and every thing that is in the earth shall die 5. The Lord has his fire-fighting-armies at command Gen. 9.24 2 King 1.10 Levit. 10.2 And this Army shall bee up in arms either in ships at Sea or Houses Towns and Cities on Land to set them on burning flames 6. The Lord has his air-fighting army at command and when hee is pleased and displeased with a people hee lets flye the arrows of pestilence out of the strong bended bow of his fierce wrath and irresistable indignation He can infect the aire Numb 16.46 and this arrow shall neither flye over nor short but hit the white the person or the persons that the Lord aimes at whether they bee Towns or Cities Nations or Countries this contagious air shall lay siedge unto them and over them and the Sun shall not bee able to drive it away nor the winds to sweep it away and this stinking aire is able to stifle all whether in Towns Cities or Countries if hee do but impower it and set it on 7. The Lord has his Hail-stone-army at command this Army was up and on foot for God in Joshua's time Josh 10.11 I would all the Drunkards and Swearers Take heed Sailors how you sail to and again in the Seas with hearts full of guilt hands full of blood tongues full of lies and heads full of sinful projects and unreconciled men to God that are either in the States or Merchants Service would tremble before the Lord and bee in fear lest their pates should bee broken with hail-stones out of the Heavens 8. The Lord has his Earth-fighting-army at command Numb 16.32 And the Earth opened her mouth and swallowed them up and their houses c. Take heed Godless man how you walk on Earth lest at every step thou takest the Earth open to bury thee alive for thy drunken and swearing life 9. God has his fighting Armies at command out of the meanest and contemptiblest minutila's that are and these shall come in as good regimental and warlike order as the Souldier at the sound of trumpet or beat of drum viz. Lice Frogs Worms c. How have these adventured into Kings Palaces and who gave them that boldness These broke in at the windows ranged like rude Soldiers into every room belonging to Pharaoh's house Exod. 8.6 16.17 Acts 12.23 10. God oftentimes makes Conscience a terrible gnawing and fighting Army and this the great God of Heaven has command of to send a tormenting Hell into it who is able to stand in the face of this battel This enemy shoots through and through Job could not stand in it for hee cryed out Have pitty upon mee have pitty upon mee Oh my friends for the hand of the Lord hath touched mee But to proceed There is one phrase in the words before us that would bee a little opened and explained 1. What wee are to understand by a Stormy wind 2. What the effects of it are 1. I find that Scripture is delighted to speak of this very vapour Of that
killed in Sea-engagements death is but the day-break of eternal brightness unto them Storms are but sturdy Porters which set open the doors of Eternity a rough passage to eternal happiness Why should they fear to pass the waters of Jordan and take possession of the promised Land that have the Arke of Gods Covenant in their eye than the Mariner has in a storm to drownd I would now observe two things 1. That death is comfortable to one sort of people 2. It is dreadful and terrible unto another 1. It is comfortable to the godly that have walked before God in the Land of the living with a true sincere and upright heart in all holy and true obedience and conformity unto the will of God Such a soul may boldly triumph over and in the face of death 1 Cor. 15.55 O death where is thy sting O grave where is thy victory Death is not terrible unto such because it is no more but the running and ratling of Joseph's Chariot wheels upon the pavement of this world to waft antient Jacob's soul in the golden streets that are above this sublunary world and that caelestial Orbe into that heavenly Jerusalem Every bullet that thou hears to come singing and flying over thine head that is shot out of the Gun-mouths of Christs enemies is but a Chariot that is sent for thee to fetch thy soul to Heaven Let the seas rise up and drownd thee they are but Chariots to transport thee into future happiness If I should bee slain or drowned at Sea in the wars against the Spaniard Objection then would there bee an end of all my comforts and thereby I should leave Houses Lands Wife Children and all the good things that I have raked together in this life behind mee I would have all our Seamen all our Commanders to take off their eyes from looking upon those things and fix them upon the great and glorious designs that Christ has on foot against the Antichristian powers that are and bee in the world Bee willing Gentlemen I and bee you valiant to do Jesus Christ all the service that you can you shall have better comforts for them regard not your stuff and worldly trash Gen. 45.20 For the good of all the Land of Egypt is yours When General Zelishlaus had lost his hand in the wars of the King of Poland the King sent him a golden hand for it If thou lay out a peny for Christ against his enemies thou shalt have a pound for it You shall have it well paid again in Heaven over and over double and treble 2. It is dreadful to the wicked because that after death comes judgment How dolefull Sailors live eat drink play card dice swear whore sing rant as if they had passed over the judgment day They think not of that day that will be cumbred with distress on every side them accusing sinnes on one side revenging justice on the other a gaping hell beneath them an angry Judge above them a burning conscience within them and a flaming world without them Good Lord what will become of those wicked wretches at that day when the trumpet of the Lord shall sound mountains melt stars fall fire falling sinners fainting poor creatures cry for graves hils and mountains to hide themselves in and heavy is this summons of death this roaring storm is not for our eares but for our hearts it calls us not onely to our prayers but to our preparation Oh with what terrour does the graceless Sea-man stand in now his hand trembles whilst it is lift up to Heaven his very lips quake and quiver whilst hee is praying Lord have mercy upon mee his countenance is pale sorrowful and wan his fear is ready to execute him before the hangman is the condemned malefactor I would to God that our Sea-men had but the like horrour upon them both in calms and storms which the guilty and damned souls of men will have when they stand before that dreadful Tribunal in the day of the great Assize where there will bee the presence of an infinite God to daunt them conscience to give in its evidence against them Legions of unclean spirits to seize upon them and to torment them they would then bee more afraid of death than they are That although those that go down into Observ 7 the deeps which are fearers of the Lord have comfortable promises of Gods protecting grace and mercy yet must they not idlely expect it but wrestle tug and struggle hard with God by Prayer for it Then they cry c. Isa 43.2 When thou passest through the waters I will bee with thee Sailor Sailor Durante pugna non cessat tuba Whilst the storm lasts bee thou at prayer if thou hopest lookest that God should protect thee God will have every thing fetched out by Prayer When God had promised Israel great things Ezek. 36.37 Thus saith the Lord God I will yet for this bee enquired of by the house of Israel to do it for them If thou wouldest bee saved in stormy and tempestuous weather let God hear from thee hee will expect it if thou expectest mercy at his hands The word storm in the Greek springs of two words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signify much sacrificing importing that that should bee a time of much praying Reason 1 Because means must bee used for the obtaining of things promised Noah pitched his Arke within without The Carman cried out to Hercules in the Fable when his Cart stuck in the dirt but would not put forth a finger to help it out God himself has ordained yea commanded that it should bee so and hee that neglects the use of means in such cases tempts but Gods Providence which the Lord Jesus himself dared not to do Matth. 4.7 Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God Christ speaks this of himself and not of Satan for that unclean spirit was never so happy since the fall as to bee in a capacity of fearing and submitting unto God in any divine and sacred precept Reason 2 Because Prayer is the ordinary condition of any promise Prayer should in storms resemble the Stars about the North pole which never go down or I would say the ordinary means appointed by God for the obtaining of a promise or of what the soul desires Prayer is causa conditio sine qua non By it wee may obtain any favour from God and without it wee cannot Matth. 7.7 Ask and yee shall have c. God does not in this promise limit any one in their asking but let them bee as large as they will and in what they will and they shall have it Reason 3 Because the Lord loves to bee sued and sought unto by prayer Reason 4 Because by prayer unto God wee shew our dependency upon him in the performance of this sacred duty wee acknowledg the Lord to take care for us 1. Of Encouragement Vse
company of cowards whom I have read of of whom Comminaeus observes at that Battel that was fought at Montlehery where some lost their livings for runing away and they were given to them that ran ten miles further Should all Sea-Captains and Sailors bee thus served when cowardize is to bee found in their hands towards their enemies they would bee well rewarded Their Friggots should bee lent unto those that would fight them 8. And yet in some cases count it no discredit to yield when over matched and bore down with plain force strength and violence both of Ordinance and men 9. Evermore count it murther â—t kill any in cold blood I have me with a story of one that murthered a man in Spain and being supposed to be the man that did the act being convented before the Judge hee caused his bosome to bee opened and his heart who had done the murther was found to palpitate and tremble far more than any of the rest whose bosoms were opened in the very same manner that his was You will find as little peace in so doing as hee did Ah That I should bee forced to say of Sea-men as it was once said of and by many prophane wretches in Luther's time when a religious Reformation began some of the worst of men professed that they had rather live under the government of the Turk than in those Countries where all things were ordered by the Word The Application is within any ones reach if you once make but the tryal But to proceed There bee two great evils that I observe amongst Sailors in the Seas and I would desire them to decline them 1. That they will and are ready to place themselves in those ships they know there is the least religion and where God has the least service and also where there is not strict and severe command Here licentious and Godless men love to bee Oh what work is there amongst the Sailors to bee cleered out of this and the other ship when the Commander is a little strict and severe with them in beating down their swearing and their drunkenness Sailor Sailor Thou wouldest Hagar-like leave a good family and fall into a worse But the Angel of the Lord bid her return 2. Many Sea-mens designes are to bee where wickedness may pass free Those ships and Commands under which they can have their liberties to rant swear and bee drunk in are the best Taverns they can put their heads and noses into Good and religious command in ships is a burthen to unruly Sailors There bee four evil things also to bee seen in most Captaines carriages in the Seas 1. An heedlesness in keeping down disturbing passions When rents breaches and divisions are made in your ships salve them up again or else couragiously stamp them down It was a brave saying of Caesar that hee could with one stamp of his foot quell the mutiny of an Army One Sea-man is all fire another all water so that there is but little heat for God One is a wing and another is a weight So that there bee many hindrances amongst them to the worship of God and very poor flights for Heaven When a Commander in a ship holds forth no light amongst his men of a good conversation I may say to such an one Matth. 24.29 The Sun is darkned the Moon doth not give her light and the Stars fall from Heaven in our ships The Sun shines and the Moon appears in some Commanders but in other some not so much as a twinckling Star of any thing that it good When the Fore-horse in the traces will not draw forwards but runs this way and that way he wrongs all the rest And thus does an irreligious Commander in a ship at Sea When Bees are out of their hives in a disordered flight then is the bell or brazen morter alarm'd and struck up to quell them again Angry passions and quarrels amongst your Sailors will pull the whole ships companies in pieces and set them together by the eares 2. A neglecting of enkindling their Sea-mens affections unto that which is good and stirring of them up unto love and unity The want of which is one strong reason why Sailors are so unfit for Morning and Evening Prayer as they are every day If there bee a decay of love and unity in your ships there will bee no encouraging of one another in any zeal for God When a ship is full of discord it will bee evermore empty of all religious acts 3. A want of a Gospel Spirit in speaking often of God and for God amongst their men Captains and Sea-men should be like the two Disciples of Christ that were going to Emaus who talked and conferred of all the things that had happened them and whilst they thus communed one with the other in comes Christ amongst them 4. A want of a Praying Spirit and a speaking often to God in Prayer with their Sea-men If you have not Ministers along with you you have fair opportunities to call them unto that needful duty Were your carriages good holy solid sound and not so light you might stamp that upon their spirits that would not rub out again a good while Every Commander should bee a pair of Oars in every ship hee goes in He should row and labour till hee sweat again if it were possible to land all his men in Heaven against wind and tyde But God knows where is the Sea-Captain that has his hand upon an Oar to save his Sailors I wil tell you of enow that have their eyes and their hands upon their Salary Gentlemen and Friends I will now leave you all that I desire or all the harm I wish any of you is this if it can bee termed any even to fear God in this life and to amend what is amiss that you may see the Lord to comfort and not to astonishment in the world to come I will say unto you as Socrates said unto his Schollars If I can but provoke you to learn I have attained my end after hee had followed them with elaborate instructions If I can but do the like with you in provoking and perswading of you to walk in these good counsels prescribed I shall greatly rejoyce in it These things premised I come unto the next thing in the words before mee 2. And that in order to their posture going down Two things would bee considered and enquired into 1. What is simply and absolutely to bee understood by going down into the waters or how that sailing may be said to bee a going down 2. What positively as to their posture and ingenious order and discipline in their going down 1. For their going down Water wee know has its natural course and tendency deorsum and not sursum downwards rather than upwards How can it bee forced upwards that is contra naturam When Solomon says Eccles 1.7 That all Rivers go into the Sea his meaning is that they go down into a lower place
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
or both of those ships that do so meet goes down with all their passengers in the very bottome where they are never seen more Other sometimes again I have seen them meet and through mercy they have escaped sinking only this they have gone off with a great deal of damage as to the breaking of the ships heads Boltsprits ships Boles and strong Timbers c. These are as cunning to watch all opportunities as the little Arabian Spider who spreads out her tent for the prey how heedfully doth shee watch for the passenger as soon as ever she hears the noise of the Five a far of he hastens to look out at his door and if she come near unto him he presently weighs and stands after her and brings her at last to a most cruel end for he bindes him fast with his most subtil cords and so drags the helpless Captive into his Cave 12. Some have been taken sometimes in the West-Indies by that feral and savage kinde of people which are both of a Cannibal and Anthropophagite nature It is very common for that people in some parts of the Indies to come running out of the Woods Holes and Caves if they espie any Outlandish people coming amongst them and to kill them with their bows and arrows and many a poor man have these cut off for they are an avarous and an inordinate kinde of people as unto the flesh of man which they do love-above Duck Goose and Mallard which they have in as great plenty to go to when they please as the greatest Prince in the world hath any thing at his command And if they take any men that come in ships they will feed them with the best Venison and the fattest and finest Fowls that ever they can get and after they have got them once fat and in good liking they will kill them and eat their bodies I knew one that was a very sober-minded man that affirmed it unto mee for a truth that hee was in their hands for above a quarter of a year and lay in holes and caves with them and being begged by an Indian-woman shee kept him from being killed and living not far from the Sea side I may write upon this deliverance Non avis utiliter viscatis effugit alis hee every day had an eye upon it looking out if hee could see any ships a coming to that place and after the expence of some sad and solitary time amongst the Indians it happened that the same ship came to that very place again little expecting him to bee alive and as soon as hee saw the ship hee ran down to the Sea side unto her where they most joyfully imbraced him and the woman that kept him seeing him running away from her made after him with the greatest violence that could be ran up to the middle in the sea for him 13. Some are many and many a time thrown upon sands and rocks and yet notwithstanding those danting I may write this upon this deliverance Evasi per mille pericla demum incolumis He that will go to Sea had need to carry an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 along with him whether to drown or live and dreadful hazzards they have by and through the mighty power of Gods out-stretched Arm lyen safe and in the end got happily off them How commonly visible is this very thing that ships may be seen here and there sticking and stopping upon the sands whereas if the Lord should but give the windes commission to blow and to raise up the waves of the Seas upon them they would beat them into a thousand parcels Oh the many ships and Mariners that have been thus delivered Who deserves the praise of this mercy 14. Others oftentimes are most sadly hazzarded in stormy and tempestuous weather insomuch that when they have been busied about their Masts Yards and Sails of their Ships that both the Yards and Masts have broke and the poor men have fallen over-board into the Sea and although that the ship hath had fresh way and is long before shee can bee stopped many of them have been saved The great and wide Sea is not unlike to that Sea in Panten of which it is said that who or whatsoever falleth into it is never seen after It is like the Spanish Inquisition into which if any one come they are never heard of more God keep our poor Sailors out of it yea even such as never had the art to strike one swiming stroke have been found lying upon the water to admiration as if the Sea had no commission to hurt or drown them Oh the many Sea-men that are still living and can tell of these very deliverances bestowed upon them 15. Some oftentimes when they have been thousands of miles from any Portland or Country have been in smarting want and most miserable Certainly it is a dishonour for a parent or any special friend to hang his Picture in a dark hole in some obscure and contemptible place because it is expected thâ—â— we should make it as conspicuous as may be and so hang it up in some eminent place signifying that we do rejoyce in it as an ornament to us Let me therefore take upon me to tel all the Sailors in England that it is a great evil in them to hide obscure great and remarkable deliverances by which God should be glorified both before Men and Angels I have therefore endeavoured to hang up some of your forgotten and underfeet trodden mercies and preservations in the very view of the whole world and pinching stints and allowance and the wind hath lain in their very teeth even in the very way that they should steer homewards as if threatning to block them up and starve them in the Seas I have heard some Sailors say that they have been glad to feed upon Rats to keep themselves alive with and othersome have been forced for want of victual to kill Porpoise and other uncouth fish they could dart shoot or lay their hands upon in the salt waters You may now see that it oftentimes goes hard with the Mariner I and that the Lords own people have not alwayes the fattest Pastures to graze in Daniel lived on Pulse Elijah upon his Cake that was baked upon the Coal and Cruse of water Luther lived upon his Herring and Junius upon his one Egg a day when means was short with him by reason of the Civil wars that were in France 16. Some are oftentimes so hard put to it in the remote parts of the world in their long and prolix voyages that for want of fresh water Sailors Darius like who said in his flight when he could get no better liquor for his thirst than thick and muddy water that stood in an horse-stepping that he never drunk sweeter water in his life I will write thus much upon this hard case and condition that the Mariner is often in Qui fitiunt in Mediâ— mari non statiâ—
wilde beast betakes himself to his Den and the wounded Hart to his medicinable herb Dictamnum the pursued Malefactor to the Horns of the Altar and under the Law the chased Man-killer to the City of Refuge Sea-men are a generation of people that can carry the damnable burthen of their Oaths Drunkennesses When the destroying Angel was abroad the Israelites fled into their chambers Exâ— 12.32 A good example for Sailors in time of storms for they that use the Seas deserve little better at Gods hands than those whom the Angel cut off they may well think that when God is killing and sinking others with a vengeance that they deserve the same and so ought to lay it to heart as the Israelites did in their chambers and Adulteries in calms as easily as the Sea can bear the great and heavy loaded ships or as Sampson did the gates of Gaza upon his shoulders but in storms when grim-countenanced death stares them in the face the top-gallant sails of their high hoysed spirits are a little lowred and melted 10. To bring their hearts into better Reason 10 rellish and esteem with calms If Sea-men were to live on land any long tract of time Prov. 27.7 The full soul loatheth the hony-comb One dish too often is stalling and cloying and Sardanapulus never liked any dish twice they would as little estimate it as those that never set their foot upon the salt waters but spend and end their dayes in Lands and Countries of peace and ease it is a general rule that most things are rather valued Carendo potius quam fruendo in their want than in their enjoyment I have observed that when wee have had a week or a fortnights sweet and tranquil weather so that wee have both sailed and anchored in as much quietness and stability as if wee had been lodging in beds and houses upon land but these continued mercies have been little prized by the Mariners Calms at Sea are devoured like Acorns by the Hog at land who never looks up at the hand that beats them down and little considered of as high favours from the Lord and begot little warmth love and affection in their hearts to God again It is very just with God to take his abused and unconsidered mercies from them and give them storms and tempests rowling raging Seas that never valued the kindnesses of God in mild and lovely weather When the Mariner is ruggedly dealt withall for a fortnight or three weeks in stormy and turbulent weather then how welcome is and would the tydings of a cessation of those winds and Seas that are up in arms against them be Ah souls it is a mercy that every day is not a day of sorrow of dread and terrour to you Calms have been very sweet to my soul and have drawn out my heart very much to bless my God for them and shall they not have the like impression with you Fear then lest God take mercy from you and license his indignation to arrest you Reason 11 11. To purifie the Seas It is not the fairest and calmest day that purifies the air but thundrings lightnings and blustering storms and winds that are the airs cleansing brooms and so consequently the same unto the Sea Storms do undoubtedly refine and purifie the salsitude of the Seas and that liableness that is in them unto depravity and coruption 12. For the furtherance and increase Reason 12 of Repentance God sees it fit to lay on storms and chastisements that they may bathe themselves in tears that their Repentance may bee true 2 Chron. 7.13 If my people which are called by my name shall humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked wayes then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their Land Every storm should be as the Alarm that is struck upon a drum to call all that go in the Seas to Repentance and godly sorrow for their sins and the voice of storms seems to bee this Aut paenitendum aut pereundum I may better say that to Sea-men which holy Anselm said unto himself than that hee should speak it of himsel In his Meditations he confessed that all his life was either damnable for sin committed or unprofitable for good omitted and at last concludes Quid restat O peccator nisi ut in tota via tua deplores totam vitam tuam Oh what remains Sea-man but that thou shouldest not onely in storms but in thy whole life lament the God-provoking sins of thy life When the Lord once gets a people into fetters then does hee shew them their work and their transgressions Job 36.9 and makes their ears open to discipline good hearts when they are locked up in the stormy bolts and fetters of the Seas they then consider that it is for some sin or other and their ears are open and attentive to hear God speaking unto them Ezek. 36.31 Then shall yee remember your own evil waies and your doings that were not good and shall loath your selves in your own fight for your iniquities and for your abominations God many times sends down storms upon the Seas that hee may put that impaenitent crew that frequents them into a godly frame and compunction of heart for their sins but the Lord knows there is little reformation or amendment amongst them Non est poenitens sed irrisor qui adhuc agit unde poenitea That Sailor is but a counterfeit that makes a show of piety in a storm and wears the Devils and not Gods livery in a calm notwithstanding those dreadful dangers that they do daily converse withall this is the Lords complaint against the Sailors in England if I know any thing of the will and mind of that God whom I serve Jer. 8.6 I hearkned and heard but they spake not aright no man repented him of his wickedness saying What have I done Every one turned to his course as the horse rusheth into the battle Reason 13 13. To put them upon the searching of their hearts what sin it is that the storm has come down upon them for Aristippus told the Tarpaulings hee sailed with when they wondered why hee was not affraid in the storm as well as they that the odds was much for they feared the torments due to a wicked life hee expected the reward of a good one the Mariners did so in that storm they were in Jonah 1.7 And they said every one to his fellow Come and let us cast lots that wee may know for whose cause this evil is upon us so they cast lots and the lot fell upon Jonah There is some cause or other why such dreadful Tempests come upon you if you would but enquire them out and for my part I look upon it as a wonderful mercy that every day in the Sea is not a day of storm and a day of terrour so that you can neither sail nor take any comfort my reason
that long entity of eternity Bee perswaded upon it all you that bear command you that are Captains Boatswains Gunners Carpenters c. that it is one of the indiscreetest and desperatest cards that you can play to have the work of your peace with God at such times to do and make It may bee that in an engagement you may come to lose both leggs and arms and such dreadful and mortal wounds given you under which you may lie groaning in your ships and then what through excessiveness of pain and dolour together with the fears of death your souls will bee then taken up withall you will bee the unfittest men in the world to come into the hands of your God at death in such conditions thou wilt bee little able to pray to think of any good or to doe any thing that is good but where is the Sea-man that ever thinks of these things beforehand Nay this has and is still the very burden of my soul when I think of it that when and whilst you are chasing of an enemy for six or seven hours together all this time or part of it might well bee spent in the thoughts and meditations of your death yet notwithstanding should God give you many daies chase it would bee no otherwise with you I could never see any of you so serious as to say Gentlemen wee are going to fight and whose hap it may bee for to die I know not it may bee mine as soon as another mans I have a great many sins to get pardoned I have an Heaven to look after and an Hell to escape whilst time permits my heart shall bee taken up with these things and therefore let mee request the like care in you it will bee no blot nor badge of disparagement neither in mee nor you for so doing none can brand us for cowardize to bee careful of our dying Oh that our Sailors could bee got to meditate death and the day of Judgment If your leasurable hours in the Seas were thus spent every day what rare men would you come to bee in the end I am confident that Nihil sic revocat à peccato sicut frequens mortis meditatio I have sometimes met with a story of one that gave a young Ruffian a ring with a deaths head in it and that upon this condition that hee should one hour daily for seven daies together look and think thereupon which hee accordingly did and in the end it bred a blessed change in that mans life Oh would to God that you that go in the Seas would bee much in the thoughts of death and that you would set before your eyes the very shortness of your lives Those red and Military vestments that you hang about your ships in the times of war are no other than the black mourning burial-cloaths that lye upon the Corpses and Coffins of the dead and so should bee advertising Sermons unto you of your mortality Philostrates lived seven years in his Tomb that hee might bee acquainted with the grave before his bones were interred I am sure that there bee thousands of our Sailors that have lived five times seven in the wars Might not many men that have been slain in ships in our late Sea wars have lived longer if they had but served God better I speak of Captains and Sea-men c. It was observed of old that that man that durst be so fool-hardy to go into the Wars without his house undedicated to the Lord that he never returned off the field alive Deut. 20.5 Let him go and return unto his house left hee dye in the battel and Merchants service and that in ships which are no other and no better than slaughtering and butchering houses or meer Coffins of mortality in which lye murdering Guns mortal engines and dis-mangling bullets yet may you finde them living in them as if there were no dying time to come nor no God no heaven no hell nor no devil to bee thought on I pray God that this might not bee too suitable a Motto for thousands of poor silly Sailors when they dye Anxius vixi dubius morior nescio quo vado I toyled hard all my life time for a living but that which is the worst of all I dye despairingly and so go out of the world I know not whither Or otherwise that of Adrian the Emperours Animula Vagula Blandula c. Ah poor soul whither art thou now going It will not now bee granted thee when thou art upon thy dye that thou shalt ever have any more respite for to jest it in to sport it in nay there will bee no more time allowed to swear in to drink in and to whore it in as many of the Sailors have done I may sing this of the jovial crew of the careless Sailors Hen vivunt homines tanquam mors nulla sequatur Vita cito avolat nec potest retimeri Mors quoti die ingruit nec potest resisti Mors ubique vos expectat Aut veluti infernus fabula vana foret Sea-men do live as if they should ne'r dye And as if hell were but a foppery Me thinks I hear the Seas saying unto all the prophane Sailors in England as the heathen Priest said to the people when begun to sacrifize 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Who is there the answer returned was this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 good and honest men if not sayes hee Procul oh procul este prophani The Seas say Bee gone you Swearers Take heed left you meet not with the Lord whilst in the Sea as the Church did on land when shee said Lamen 3.10 Hee was unto mee as a Bear lying in wait and as a Lyon in secret places Doth not your wickedness in the Sea pull down storms upon you and give you to experience that in Nahum 1.6 Who can stand before his indignation and who can abide in the fierteness of his anger his fury is poured out like fire and the rocks are thrown down by him Adulterers and Drunkards come not upon us in your ships lest wee send you going to thousands of those dead that wee have drowned 2. When you go to Sea resign up all and recommend your selves your souls your bodies your friends your wives your families goods and habitations I what ever you have or desire that the Lord would keep or fear to lose into the hands of your God and you will finde him a faithful keeper of what ever you do commit unto him the Apostle Paul found him so 2 Tim. 1.12 And I am perswaded that hee is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day Psal 121.5.6 The Lord is thy keeper the Lord is thy shade upon thy right hand 3. If you would prepare for storms fill your hearts then every morning that you uprise with the fear of your God who hath the rule of the day and is also the Sovereign King and Lord over it and also of the
a Kings heart Oh praise the Lord. Sirs you usually pay people in forein parts for your Anchorage in their Harbours for your Pilotage into them for boyage in the Seas and lightage upon land and will you return nothing unto your God You are the Lords Tenants you sit on very great Rents and great Rents you have to pay surely you had need to bee stirring do what you can you will dye in Gods debt Now thankfulness stands not in words and complements if you would express your thankfulness unto God Sirs then do thus 1. Labour to come out of all your storms and Sea-dangers as Job did out of his affliction Job 23.10 When hee hath tried mee I shall come forth as gold It would bee a brave thing that every Sailor that goes into the Furnace of a fiery stormy and raging Sea Beleeve it Sirs God looks for it at your hands What is said of the statue of Juno in the holy City near to Euphrates in Assyria that it will evermore look towards one let them sit where they will in her Temple shee stares full upon them and if you go by shee follows with her eye the same shall I say of the Lord go where you will on Sea or Land the Lords eye follows you should come out of it as gold doth out of the fire when they come on land Ah who would not but take a turn at Sea then to bee purified from their dross 2. Offer unto God the ransome of your lives as the Law runs Exod. 31. leave some seal or pawn of thankfulness behinde you The Gracians paint Jupiter in their Temples with his hands full of thunderbolts Sirs be afraid of unthankfulness Heathens after a ship-wrack a storm or a fit of sickness will offer something or other to their gods for every preservation That thanksgiving is to bee suspected that lyes in nothing but words Give God your hearts hee gives you his mercies Give God your lives hee gave you them when you were in danger 3. Let God have soul-thankfulness from you if wee receive but any benefit or special kindness from our friends our hearts acknowledge it and our tongues confess it Sirs Do what you can you will dye in Gods debt and wee cannot bee at quiet till wee some way or other requite it 4. Let God also have mouth-thankfulness from you let your tongues walk apace and speak at the highest rate you can to the praise of God Psal 124.2 3. If it had not been the Lord who was on our side then had the Seas at such and such a time swallowed us up and at another time drowned us 5. Let God have life-thankfulness from you this God had of and from David in full measure Psal 145.2 Every day will I bless thee and I will praise thy name for ever and ever I have known that those that have undertaken to buy and redeem poor captives out of a Turkish bondage slavery they have vowed to bee their servants all the dayes of their lives A certain Jew when travelling over a deep River in the night where the bridge was broken down saving onely that there was one narrow plank laid over to foot it on he rid very safely over and being asked the next day how he got over he knew nothing and going back through the peoples intreaty swounded away and dyed at the consideration of his deliverance Ah Sirs will not you be Gods servants all the daies of your lives who has delivered you so often out of storms and raging Seas and inevitable dangers 6. Let mee intreat you to look back upon mercy and then tell mee if you can bee unthankful Act. 27.1 And when they were escaped then they knew that the Island was called Melita They viewed their mercy on every side 7. Compare your selves with others others have been denied to be delivered and lye ship and men in the bottome of the Sea and you and your ships are still floating and swimming whilst others are drowned 8. Are not others that have tasted of your deliverances in the Seas often and many a time blessing and thanking of God both in private and publick and will you bee unthankful 9. Bee resolute for the duty of thanksgiving unto God 10. Consider what thou hadst been and where thou hadst been if mercy had not prevented Psal 89.48 and an hand been reached out of heaven as it were to have helped thee 11. Certainly if thou wert but changed from the state of a sinner thou wouldest bee oftner in the thanking of thy God than thou art 12. Were but our Sea-men a generation of people that were much and often in godly sorrows Now if you will not bee thankful unto the Lord for all your deliverances take heed lest hee say Judg 10.13 Wherefore I will deliver you no more they would bee oftner in their thanksgivings unto the Lord. 13. Were but those that use the Seas filled with divine relishes of Gospel graces they would bee thanking of their God oftner than they are He that is the fullest of the spirit of grace is the onely fittest man to bee thankful unto God 14. Were but those that use the Seas much in minding of the mercies and deliverances of the Lord bestowed upon them they would bee a far thankfuller people than they are I have read of one that was in very great debt and yet notwithstanding that he slept as well as if hee had had the greatest estate that could bee to pay it with a great Gentleman in the Country observing it desired him that hee would bee pleased to sell him his bed Ah Sirs you are much in debt to God Psal 5.15 I will sing unto the Lord because hee hath dealt mercifully with mee 15. Did but those that use the Seas take up their joyes and delights in God they would be more thankful unto their God than they are Ah may I not say Psal 78.42 They remembred not his hand nor the day when hee delivered them from the enemy Observ 7 That the Lords creating of the Seas for the use of Navigation to that end men who can neither flye nor swim might the more facilly and commodiously commerce one with another in all and throughout all the forein parts of the world is a point of Gods great praise Oh that men would praise the Lord Heraclitus was such an admirer of the Sea that he said if wee wanted the Sun we should be in perpetual darknesse if wanted the Sea live like barbarous people God has founded the Earth upon the Seas and established it upon the floods Psal 24.2 Aristotle looked upon this as one of the greatest wonders of nature and well hee might that God should set the solid Earth upon the back of the waters for mans conveniency Psal 104.6 7. Jer. 5.22 That the saving and delivering mercies Observ 8 of God at Sea are and ought to bee carefully had and kept in a perpetual remembrance Oh
Kings and Princes of the Seas and the Conquerours of all the Armadoes in the world that shall dare to meddle with you Inter caetera providentiae divinae opera hoc quoque dignum est admiratione c. Amongst other works of a divine providence this is very admirable that the winds lye upon the Sea for the furtherance of Navigation and that they may all strike and vail to you as forein Nations once did unto the Kings and Princes that were their Conquerors of whom it is said that at what time they sent their Ambassadors to them whom they both had subdued and would have subdued to them they desired of them Terram Aquam and in token of their subjection they sent them both Water and Earth because all command is either by Sea or by Land and all possessions and riches are either gotten out of the Sea or out of the Land And now after all that I have said in the high commendations of you I pray God bestow peace on our Nation both at Sea and Land for that is far better than these dreadful and heart-amazing Wars There is small comfort in it to see Nation rising up against Nation and an imbruing of their hands in one anothers blood It is a very sad sight in these our dayes the Lord amend it to see Nations running one against another like the two Mountains in Pliny of which hee tells Montes duo inter se concurrerunt crepitu maximo assultantes recedentesque inter eos flamma fumoque in Calum exeunte that they ran continually one against the other Plin. cap. 2.83 Nat. Hist from whom nothing but smoke and fire rise up and ascended towards the heavens with a great sonorous and formidable noise they that take delight to see it I wish they may have enough of it Give mee leave to take my leave of you in a few directions which I would have you to look upon as one of the highest expressions of my love and affection that a man can possibly bear you I speak not only unto you altogether that fear the Lord but unto the other prophane crew also shall I commend a word of counsel and this Treatise is one of the greatest Legacies of my love that I either have or know how to bestow upon you and truly I could wish that every Minister that goes in your ships and in the States service would endeavour to shew something of the improvement of his time that it may stand upon record for the good of you that use the Seas and so far would I have any from carping at what I have done that I would wish them to mend it if they can or shew something of their own I had no warm study to sit in nor no place that was free of noyse and tumult when I writ it Sirs You may visibly behold the great love I bear you who hath taken all this pains in the Sea for you What would you have mee to do for you I have gone a begging to all the good Ministers in the land to pray for your preservation conversion and sanctification I have gone a begging to all the Saints and servants of God to pray for you It was somewhat a soure saying of one concerning the viler sort of Sea-men when he said if you see them not in Sea-port Towns in November December January and March which are the windiest Months in the year then you may conclude that they are all gone to Heaven or else they will never come there They mount up to Heaven c. vers 26. I have exhorted all the Sea-ports in England to pray for you and to remember you that go in the turbulent deeps and I will assure you that I will never forget you neither in Pulpit nor in private but pray hard for your prosperity in the Seas and felicity in the life to come My hearts desire is that you may bee saved in the day of the Lord. The Rules I would commend to you that travel are such as these following and I would hand them not onely to every good and honest heart that goes in the Seas but to every prophane wretch whatsoever 1. Let not the irreligion of those places you travel into whether France Spain Italy Barbary or Turky c. breed in you a neglect of divine duties or a disgustion unto the pure and most reformed Religion that is amongst us in England 2. When you meet the Host or Eucharist in the streets through which it is often born to the houses of the sick get out of the way that you kneel not to it which if a stranger neglects hee is lyable to the Inquisitors or one mischief or other 3. Go no further into the Outlandish Churches in the world than the hand of your own Religion and conscience will lead you lest you dash upon the rocks of Atheism and Idolatry 4. Pitty rather than spurn scoffe and scorn at those you see prostrate before a Crucifix or a Saint It hath been matter of pitty unto my soul many and many a time when in forein parts 5. Neglect will sooner kill an injury than revenge If you meet with injuries in forein parts prudently and patiently put them up an ill turn in those parts is far cheaped passed over than revenged the endeavour of which many times is but Gentleman usher to a greater 6. Keep your selves out of all the Mercenary Harlot houses that bee in the Italian French and Spanish Cities or in any other parts of the world you traffick to Prov. 5.8 Remove thy way far from her and come not nigh the door of her house 7. Begin all your voyages with fear and sincere and hearty prayer unto God to go along with you through and over the Seas to carry you well out to return you wel back You go very rashly upon all your designs The Israelites usually asked counsel of God first and then they went The Grecians went to their Oracles Gentlemen and Sea-men in your perusal of this Treatise you will finde me sharply striking at prophaneness in the Sea and to those that are bad I speak to and those that are honest and godly are very silly and simple if they quarrel with it thereby they will bring upon themselves an evil name for let but me hear a man speaking against it and I shall conclude him to bee some Swearer or c. the Persians to their Magi the Egyptians to their Hierophantae the Indians to their Gymnosophista the ancient Gauls and Brittains to their Druides the Romans to their Augures It was not lawful to propound any thing of weight and moment in the Senate Priusquam de coelo observatum est before they had observed from heaven whether God would shine upon their proceedings and enterprises yea or no. 8. Abhor to go to Sea out of any Sea-port Town in England in a drunken posture I would have those that are naught in the Sea to say with
of being prayed for Job 9.26 They are called in that place Ships of desire 1. When a man sees a goodly and a stately ship that is then a ship of desire 2. A Merchants longing for his ships good return home is a ship of desire 3. A ship of desire is a swift Pinnace oâ— a Pyrats Bark or Vessel that is made on purpose for the prey to out-sail all others But to proceed Let mee tell thee Good Reader before I take my leave of thee that I can say of and by my going to Sea for which I had as clear a all to as ever man had to any place in this world as a good man once said who had lyon a long time in prison in the primitive times of persecution I have quoth hee got no harm by this No more harm hath all my troubles at Sea done my inward man than a going up to the rops of those mountains hath done them that have made the trial where neither Winds Clouds nor Rain doth over-top them and such as have been upon them do affirm that there is a wonderful clear skye over head though Clouds below pour down rains and break forth in thunder and lightning to the terrour of them that are at the bottome yet at the top there is no such matter Mee thinks I have heard the Seas say unto mee Vide hic mare hic venti hic pericula disce sapere See how ready the Winds and Seas are at Gods beck and wilt not thou fear him If I may tell thee my experiences of Gods doing of my soul good in the Seas then can I tell thee thus much bee it spoken to the praise of that sweet God whom I serve and honour that I have got no harm by going to Sea but a great deal of good both to my soul and also to my understanding and intellectual parts 1. I have learned by my going to Sea to love the world less than I did before Love not the world c. 1 Joh. 2.15 2. I have learned to know men and the world far better than I did before 3. I have learned to prize a life in heaven far before a reeling and staggering life here on earth 4. I have learned to bee far more shye and wary of sin than I was before because I found my self so fearful of death and drowning many times in storms when in the Seas I have read of a young man that lay on his death-bed and all that ever hee spoke whilst hee lived was this I am so sick that I cannot live and I am so sinful that I dare not dye It is good to keep clear of sin 5. I have learned to live upon God and to put my trust in him more than ever I did before so that I can comfortably speak it Psal 7.1 O Lord my God in thee doe I put my trust c. 6. I have seen more of the Creation by my going to Sea than ever I should have done if I had stayed on Land The Lord sets men the bounds of their habitations It is said of Lypsius that he took such delight in reading of a Book I wish that thou mayest as much in this that hee said Pluris faecio quum relego semper novum quum repetivi repetendum The more I read the more I am tilled on to read 7. I have learned to fear God more and to stand in awe of that God who hath the lives of all his creatures under his feet and is able to dispose both of a mans present and also future condition even as pleaseth him than ever I did before 8. I have learned to pray better and to ply the Throne of Grace oftner with my prayers for spiritual blessings than ever I did before 9 I have so learned Christ that I made it my work and businesse all the time I was at Sea to lead my life so as in the continual presence and aspect of the Lord Meer Heathens thought God to be every where as appears by their Jovis omnia plena Quascunque accesseris oraâ— Sub Jove semper eris c. Psal 16.8 I have set the Lord alwayes before me c. and so I lived and have lived both at Sea and also at Land that I shall give both foe and friend and friend and foe their liberty to speak and observe me as much as they can 10 I have learned to love my God more than ever I did before and if I had not I should appear to be a very rebellious Child As Demetrius Phalerius deceived the calamities of his Banishment by the sweetness of his Study so I the troublesome Seas and rude society by mine I know that this poor Peece of mine has in it its 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Naâ—vi its blacks and spots its Human frailties which the good Lord remit yet in it is there truths Divine and things very profitable and worthy to be embraced in respect the Lord has done so much for me to preserve me and mercy me as hee hath done in a cruel Sea which is a place as the Poet sings Luctus ubique pavor plurima mortis imago Good Reader doest thou live in times of trouble and daies of danger then turn over this Book and thou wilt finde that there is a wise and a powerful God in the Heavens that sits at the Helm both of Sea and Land to preserve poor souls in them Wouldst thou hear of those Sights and Wonders of the Lord that those that goe down into the Seas doe see then will I commend this small Treatise to thee what delight fuller thing canst thou read than a Theam or Subject of the Sea and Sea affairs here mayest thou read and peruse this my Nec inter vivos nec inter mortuos which cost me much pains and get some good out of it When Nebuzaradan burnt the rubbish of the Temple hee kept the Gold c. Though in reading thou meetest with Creature-defects which I will assure thee was never writ upon Land but drawn up as I studied it upon water Libentèr omnibus omnes opes concesserim ut mihi liceat vi nulla interpellante isto modo in literis vivere Tully I would freely give all the good in the world that I might sit down in the world live and lead a studying life But it was the Lords will that I should travel in the great and wide Sea yet wilt thou meet with many a savoury truth if thou hast but a gracious heart in the brest of thee Accept of it My sute to you Readers is that upon your perusal of it you would seek the Lord in its behalf that it may doe good to them that use the Seas I begge the prayers of every godly and gracious Minister into whose hands peradventure it may come that he would pray that it may be instrumental to reform these People that goe in the Seas who stand in need of
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
3 4. Love set them upon the discharging of their duty Prov. 31.1 Now Solomon was a wise and an understanding childe How much more then should you take care of ignorant knotty illiterate and unhewn Sailors that have no more than a meer hilum of goodness in them 2. You should have ardent desires for God and every poore Sea-mans good Where there are holy desires in a man It is to be feared that it may be said of many a Sea-Captain that when his voyage is ended if the Quaerie should bee strictly put unto him what good hast thou done thy men all this time thou hast been in the Seas with them the answer may be this I and my men met together to multiply sin and not to do good but to serve the Devil Homer says that Ulysses said that Eloquence was like a shower of Snow which falls soft but soakes deep whereas violent rain runs off the ground before it can enter into it Use sweetness softness of speech now then to your men not alwaies passionate he will take words and speak ever and anon to his ships-company about him But some are such sots God knows that are in command that all that they mind or look for after they get their feet into a ship is the fingering of their 15 or 16. Pound per month and let the Sailors then go to the Devil if they will so they can but compass that You may live in a ship many months and years and sit many weeks and daies in some Captaines cabbins nay walk with them and talk with them about other things but not a word of God of Christ of Heaven or Hell in their mouths If you begin with them in that then they soon grow weary of your company 2. It is mainly requisite and worth the while that all Commanders should bee found in a daily performance of these two things 1. Of following of their Sea-men with sweet perswasions 2. With sharp reprehensions 1. Bee continually perswading of your Sea-men Put on for that Principle that was in Anthusam Chrysostom's mother when Basilius was seeking to seduce him to lead a Monastical life shee steps in and cries out upon him Oh my son my son for thy sake what have I suffered what dolours have I endured how often have I stroked milk into thy mouth c. Oh my son c. and thu did Solomons mother when shee feared that hee might bee carried away with the young beauties of Jerusalem Prov. 31.2 3. What my son and what the son of my womb and what the son of my vows Give not thy strength unto women nor thy waies unto that which destroyeth Kings Oh it is not to tell how you might win ground upon poor Sea-mens spirits would you but make use of your command over them and endeavour after a holy zeal for God his glory and their good If I did see evil in any of my Sea-men were I in command I would call them to a strict account about it If any man would come aske me the definition of a Sea-man I would give him this He is a small Bark or Vessel in the Sea that is wonderfully wel Rigged Sailed Masted Pitched and Tarred but wants Ballast Helm Rudder i. e. Reason And that which is the excellentest part in man they are altogether deficient in and say what one of my ships company and a Drunkard what one of my ships company and a Swearer what one of my ships company and a Lyer a Theef a Quarreller an irreligious fellow what one of my ships company and a Sabbath breaker a rotten Heretick that cannot endure any that are ought I am not able to bear these rotten and stinking carriages of yours I beseech you let me intreat you to amend these things if ever you would have my love and favour all the voyage 2. You should bee frequently in sharp reproofs Stubborn Sea-men will abide it full well you know Give them good instructions if you follow them not again and again they will shake it out of their eares as soon as ever their backs are turned upon you Sea-men are like to the weavers shuttle which if it goes forward one way it presently goes backward again as much the other way Give them never so good counsel it is one of the difficultest things in the world to beat it into the hearts and heads of them But how ever knotty wood must have the beetle and the wedge battering upon it and that is the way to bring it into parcels God was not well pleased with Eli when he was so soft with his sons that he let them do even what they would 1 Sam. 2. And will the Lord take it well at your hands who are in command think you to let your Sea-men swearâ— whore ly and theeve without punishing of them and sharp reproving of such fellows As the Lord suffered Eli to fall off the seat hee sate on and to break his neck take heed lest God give not way to storms to throw you upon Rocks or Sands to make an end of you If I were in command my conscience would admit of such like fears in the neglect of so grand and considerable a duty Give me but leave now to propound a few solid and serious questions unto you and I doubt not but that you will see the great necessity of your being counselled perswaded and reproved and that with greater regard than you are aware of 1. Are not our Sea-men towards things divinely good extreamly ignorant Are they not as the Horse and Mule without understanding Psalm 32.9 2. Are they not backward to all saving good and crosse to all good rules Are they not borne as the wild Asses colt Job 11.12 Unruly and stubborn I remember a saying of Seneca's which has oftentimes come into my thoughts amongst these men There is no living creature so wayward and froward and needs such nurturing as man and with so much wisdom to bee managed as the son of man Your Sea-men are generally more uncapable of being taught any thing that is good than Land-men are is there not need then to do what ever in you lies to reclaim them 3. Are they not exceedingly tainted and corrupted Are they not like unto the Earth after mans fall which was filled with thornes briars and thistles and must not these bee stubbed up before any good seed can bee sown or will grow in them or amongst them Therefore Commanders should bee axes and hatchets in their places to cut up whatsoever is evil amongst them 4. Are they not excessively inclined to sin and stand in great need of being put on to that which is good Are they not desperately bent to what is bad and if not instructed in what is right will they not take what is wrong It was a notable saying of one whom I have read of Whence is it says hee that at this day we suffer so many miseries but because wee see and
of Christ did Apollos 5. Admonish them of and about their faults Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thine heart Thou shalt in any wise rebuke thy neighbour and not suffer sin upon him Lev. 19.17 But seeing I am very importunate with you to reprove and carry strict command over your men in the Seas I would have our Sea-Captains of that brave noble spirit that Themistocles was of of whom it is said that when he found a chain of gold in the street he would not stoop down to foul his fingers with it but said heroically unto another Tolle tu ego sum Themistocles Sea-men take you the spoyl I will not have a farthing-worth of it Beggarliness is an uncomely thing in Captains Give mee leave also to rub you a little upon the shore for you are not without your apparent slips no more than they are but are as far over the shooes in rotten practices as others Now I will shew wherein and that in several particulars and pray amend them 1. In Prize and Plunder Is there not more than a few couzening pranks plaid by you in the defrauding of your Sea-men of that which they have most desperately hazzarded themselves for It is a true Proverb That hee that shares hony with a Bear shall have the least share of it Sailors who fight hard for what they get and you that do little or nothing in the engagement run and take it from them what justice or equity is there now in this Leave off Leave off this stinking course and carry your selves Christianly amongst your Sea-men and let them have what is their dues in such cases Have not some of you been disgracefully turned out of your places about these things 2. In the solemn observation of the Sabbath This day God pardon you is as little observed or regarded in the Seas by you that are in command as it is almost in Turky My ears have often heard to my sorrow and to the dishonour of my God whom I serve that every day was a Sabbath unto them What have such Commanders intended now in such Diabolical speeches in the ears of an hundred and fifty men but to draw them off from the keeping of it And it is to bee feared that there bee more than a few of such still in the States ships of England who are secretly prophane and licentious What ever prophane wretches think of this day I will speak thus much in the vindication of it that God is wont to sanctifie his people more on this day than on another and that more have been converted in it than on any other day besides Heathen Princes are wont in their Coronation dayes to shew themselves to their people in their Royalties and to cast about them great handfulls both of silver and of gold The Sabbath is a day wherein God appears most comfortably to those that conscienciously keep it hee shews himself to them and they shew themselves to him On this day God makes our spirits holy and heavenly and sets them in tune and order for every good work and business 3. In the clubbing down of swearing Many Sea-Captains stand in their ships like Harpocrates the Egyptian who was alwayes painted with his finger upon his mouth Their fingers are in their mouthes when they should speak for God in the reproof of sin and seldome or ever shall you hear them active in the pulling down the Devils Dialect Sea-Captains in this case are very like unto those Idols David speaks of Psal 115. That have mouths but speak not and prophaneness God pardon you How doth many of you walk up and down in the ships you have command of even day by day and though you hear swearing betwixt decks or upon deck and on every hand you yet do not you open your mouthes to crush it and to punish such vile wretches who should beat down this sin in ships but you Let a Minister open his mouth against them and they are ready to eat them up because they love not his reproving of them More may bee done by that power you have over them as to the reclaiming of them from this evil than any Minister in the world can do though hee either threw out his heart amongst them or spit up his lungs with thundering against them for it I profess I wonder how you can hear and digest with patience and silence the very Oaths and rotten speeches that bee perpetually belched out of stinking mouthes that bee in your ships Instead of being valiant for God you are meer Cowards in good causes and Traytors unto the State of Christianity Nay let mee tell you that you do think by this sinful silence to gain and purchase unto your selves the name and the applause of no Medlers in other mens matters and so are cried up for merciful men and peaceable men when alas you are rather murderers of mens souls than preservers of them Ante Vacunales stantque sedentque focos Ovid. Put on put on Sea-Captains for that brave spirit of Jeroms who said in these words Si veritas est causa discordiae mori possum tacere non To put you now upon the beating up of the Quarters of all swearers and prophane wretches in your ships and to the discountenancing of all vice let these profitable Consectaries lye warm upon your hearts and spirits 1. How knowest thou but that a seasonable reproof may by the blessing of God bee an occasion of conversion to the offender And know that hee that converteth a sinner from the errour of his wayes shall save a soul from death and shall hide a multitude of sin Reproof in your mouthes would keep Sea-men from much sin as holy Bradford kept B. Farrar whilst he was prisoner in the Kings Bench from receiving the Sacrament at Easter in one kinde which he had promised to do And B. Ridley whilst prisoner in the Tower from going to Mass which once he did but was reduced by Mr. Bradfords godly letter Jam. 5.20 It is a noble imployment yea it is one of the gloriousest works in the world to have an hand in the holy business of the saving of a soul Many of your Sea-men Gentlemen are running headlong unto hell if you can by any means stop them do take hold of any thing that you can first lay hands on and tell them that you have a strong love in your hearts for the good of their poor souls I fear it will bee inquired into one day what good you have done the men you took a charge off Come hither Sea-man will the Lord say What Captain was you under in the Seas I served Captain whom I was never bettered by all the Voyage What Captain was you under also I was under Captain whom I never heard a word of God or of Christ drop out of his lips amongst us never in all my life What Captain served you under I was under Captain who never reproved swearing nor any
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
There bee three things that are too visibly amiss in you and I would desire you all that are in these places If that our Masters Boatswains that are in the Statesships were but pious and religious their lives would have as great an influence upon their men as Hilarion's had upon Hierome It is said of Hierome that having read the godly life and Christian death of Hilarion he folded up the book said well Hilarion shall bee the Champion whom I will follow Seamen would say if they did but see good things in you the very same of you I will follow our Master our Boatswain our Captain c. I may say unto al the Masters Boatswains of ships in England that Longum iter per praecepta brevius per exemplâ— Every thing in you should bee exemplary whilst on shipboard No evil should bee seen in you left that they should learn it and take encouragement to be profane in what ships of the States of England soever to amend them It would bee more credit to you amongst men and more pleasing unto God I will promise you It would vexe a mans soul to see what loose cold lukewarm and indifferent principles there bee amongst you in the performance of your duties in these things 1. In the strict observation of the Sabbath Let mee tell you thus much in respect that there is not an heavenly zeale love and fervour in your souls to and for this day that you do much harm in the ships you go in If Sea-men observe you to bee remiss and indifferent in the keeping of it they will bee as careless as you I profess I wish from the bottom of my soul that every irreligious Master and Boatswaine throughout the whole Navy of England were turned out of their places to that end men might bee put in that have a zeale for God and a care to thunder up the careless Sea-men upon this day unto the worship of God It was never my hap to see any thing of God either in the Masters or Boatswaines that have been in command in those ships that I have gone in For if there had there would have been a greater appearance of it in the rousing up of the men that were under them To what end doest thou bear the name of Master in this or that Friggot if thou lettest and sufferest the Sailors to live masterless upon this day who should more stir up Sea-men unto the serving of God than thou because thou hast not an heat to serve God thou leavest them in this and the other corner of the ship to serve the Devil Whilst Sea-men are not called up to those publick duties that are performed in your ships they are but consulting with their own carnal hearts and carnal thoughts are their companions all the time they are absent those they dandle I may say of the Sabbath day as once Alsted of his Germans that if the Sabbath day should bee named according to the Sailors observing of it in the Sea Deâ—â—â—niacus petius quam Dominicus diceretur It should not then be called Gods day bâ—â— the Devils and are the babes and brats of their own braines which are more pleasing to them than a sin-opening and sin-convincing Sermon To what end dost thou bear the name and office of a Boatswaine in the States ships if thou givest the Sea-men the liberty to profane the Lords Day and to live as they list What a filthy shame is this that our Masters and Boatswaines have no better things in them Is this commendable for you to live like drones and sots in ships that should bee examples of good If one could but look into every ship in England what their carriages bee every day in them might not one spy here a knot of wretches spending their time in filthy discourse whilst others are at Prayer and in another corner a pack of Varlets profaneing of the Sabbath whilst others are at the Sermon and this is allowed of by our God-less and Christ-less Masters The common sort of Sailors are ladâ— that â—are not for Sabbaths but had rather pass de delitiis ad delitias è coeno ad coelum as Hierome hath it They would dance with the Devil all day and sup with Christ at night They would live in Dalilah's lap all their lives long and then go to Abraham's bosome when they die Our Masters Boatswains are of the Athenian strain of whom it was said Athenienses scire quae rectae sunt sed sacere nolle You know what is right but you have no great stomack to it and Boatswaines I will tell you what Masters and Boatswaines look for some heavy judgement to arrest you before you go out of the world Better that you anger all the Sailors in the Seas by being godly and conscientious and pressing of them unto those publick Ordinances which the States allows of for the instructing of that wilde generation of men than to have God to bee angry with you for being ungodly and careless in your places where you might advance and promote much good 2. In the crushing and discountenancing of all swearing and drunkenness in your ships You can hear God-dishonouring oaths rapping out of your Sailors mouths on every hand you and sit in their company whilst oathes flie like Gun-powder in your eares and faces and yet not open your mouths to reprove them who should now take upon them a courage for God in this case but you If you did but let them see once your dislike they would the sooner leave it but when they see that you can digest it and endure it and sit in their company they take it for granted that you see something that is good in them and hereby you do a great deal more bolster graceless fellows in their wickedness than you are aware of How knowing and privy also are you to all that swinish drunkenness that is amongst your Sailors Masters and Boatswains of ships should have as ardent desires for the good of poor Seamens souls as reverend Claviger had over his relations Of whom it is said If I may but see grace in my wife and children Satis habeo satisque mihi meae uxori filiis filiabus prospexi I shall then account them sufficiently cared for If I could but see grace in the men under me and a leaving of their swearing drinking whoring I should then think them happy men and yet it is buried wincked at unpunished and untold unto your Commanders Nay when men come on board like beasts or creatures bereaved of sense and reason and can neither go see sit nor stand but as they are carried in mens arms to their Cabbins or to their Hammocks this is but a matter of laughter with you Art thou now I will put the question to thee fit to go Boatswaine of a ship that can turn thy back on these things And art thou fit to bee a Master and a Ruler of a
there was a great stink of brimstone and his body presently afterwards taken out of it when as Mr. Luther was alive to confute it They are like to those that vilified pretious Mr. Beza slandering him with this lye that hee run away with another mans wife And brethren to those that aspersed Mr. Calvin when they said that hee was branded on the shoulder for a Rogue I have met with a dreadful story in some readings which I would present to every Sailor in England and if but well paused upon I should think that it should startle them in slandering of the godly There was a vile wretch who had most injuriously abused the godly Martyr James Abbes and after all his base usage of him hee was shortly after taken with a strange fit of phrenzie and cried out James Abbes is saved and I am damned James Abbes is saved and I am damned There is many a precious soul whom you hate and speak evil on ship-board that shall bee saved when thousands of you shall bee damned I am damned may many a Saylor say when such a good man whom I slandered and spoke evil of is saved Sailors rail on many a good man as causelesly as dogs in the street upon passengers unto whom a good man might say what have I done to this Dog that hee follows mee with this angry clamour had I rated him or shaken my staff at him or stooped down to have taken up a stone to have thrown at the head of him I had then justly drawn on this deformed noise but what need I wonder to see this unquiet disposition in a brute creature I would have Sea-Captains to follow Dominitian the Emperour then should they soon find few slanderers in their ships his stomach so riss against them that he could not indure them but banished them out of the City saying That they which do not punish slanderers encourage them Platina when it is no news with the reasonable How is innocency and merit bayed at in the Sea by the quarrelsome and envious Sailor without any just provocation or grounds in the world how do they shew their tongues their heels their teeth but let them rail so I serve but my God 4. You should not lend your ears unto the reports that are made against good and godly men Exod. 23.1 Thou shalt not raise a false report put not thy hand with the wicked to bee an unrighteous witness Prov. 11.13 5. You ought not to blaze abroad the failings and infirmities of the godly should you either hear or know of any Prov. 11.13 A tale-bearer revealeth secrets but hee that is of a faithful spirit concealeth the matter 6. You ought not to amplifie and aggravate mens failings as you do the most in the Seas of all people under the whole heavens again Act. 16.20 Una guttula conscientiae malae totum mare mundani gaudii absorbet One drop of an ill conscience wil swallow up a whole Sea of worldly joy cheerfulness Mr. Perkins mentions a good man who being ready to starve stole a Lamb and being about to eat it with his poor children as his manner was before meat and to crave a blessing durst not do it but fell into a great fear and perplexity of spirit acknowledging his fault to the owner promising payment if ever he should be able These men being Jews do exceedingly trouble our City I have now nine things more in my eye which I would present unto every Captain Master Boatswain Gunner Carpenter Purser and Sailor in any of the States ships of England And after I have lain them down in brief I will pass on in what I further intend 1. Keep daily in thy bosome a good and quiet conscience or otherwise it will when thou comest unto the trial gnaw out all the roots of valour out of thine heart It is said of the Earl of Essex that hee was never fearful of fighting any enemy in the field but when his conscience charged him with guilt for some sin or other I would have all the Sea-Captains Masters Boatswains Gunners Pursers Carpenters and Sea-men to prize a good conscience in one case as Benevolus did in another who said when offered preferment by Justina the Arrian Empress if that hee would but bee an instrument of doing vile service for her What saith hee do you promise mee an higher place for a reward of iniquity nay take this away that I have already with all my heart so that I may keep a good conscience and thereupon threw at her feet his girdle the ensign of his honour Acts and Mon. 2. Bee careful in the avoiding and renouncing of all the sins which the generality of Sea-men are incident unto 3. Evermore count the chief Magistrates and Rulers lawful commands to bee sufficient warrant to ingage and fight a forein and Commonwealths adversary 4. Esteem all hardships easie through hope of victory Julius Caesar is a worthy example for you Sailors William the 2. of England going to imbark at Sea the Master of the ship told him it was rough and there was no passing without eminent danger Tush said he set forward I never yet heard of a King that was drowned therefore fear not the waves This valour would wel become Sailors in all their peâ—illous affairs of whom it is said when forewarned of a Conspiracy that was made against him in the Senate hee boldly answered Mallem mori se quam timere I had rather dye than admit of fear 5. Look through your wages at Gods glory and your Countries good 6. Expose not your selves in a Bravado to needless and incommodious peril King Richard the first of that name who when the rest of the Princes and Gallants that were travelling with him in the Holy land where they then warred were come to the foot of an hill from whence they might clearly view Jerusalem the Holy City then possessed by Saraceus without all hopes of recovery they begun to put spurs to their horses every one in a youthful countenance saying that they would strive who should bee the first at it and have the maiden-head of that goodly prospect but the King more solid and serious than the rest pulled down his Beaver over his eyes and told them that he would not gratify them with a vain pleasure of so sad a spectacle God forbid said hee that I should behold that City or come so neer unto it now though I could which though I would I know not how to rescue The Application is cleer enough 7. There be three things that I would commend unto every Sea-Captain Master Gunner Boatswain Purser Carpenter and Sailor in England 1. To bee holy at Sea 2. Stout-hearted in a fight 3. Sparingly merry when they come on shore Chuse rather to dye ten thousand times than once to stain your credits The Lyon out of state scorns to run whilst any looks upon him I would not have our Sailors to resemble that
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
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
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
there is writ in legible characters upon the tongue of an Elephant this noble and generous sentence The Lord loveth a cheerful giver This beast is willing to let all sorts and kindes of creatures feed by him he medles not with them nor molests them in any wise in the enjoyment of their priviledges If there were as many several creatures nere to him as there were Lambs upon the Sicilian hills of whom the Poet sings he would not meddle with them Mille meae Siculis errant in montibus aguae There is none of the creatures in all the Lords Store-houses that are like unto him view examine and survey all the beasts in the world and you will finde none of them resembling of him for magnitude strength and wisdome for hee is one of the amplest demonstrations of the power and wisdome of God of any other creature throughout the whole universe that lives a sensitive life Job 40.15 Hee eateth grass as an Oxe Though this creature now is of wonderful strength and greatness yet by ordination harmless and hurtless His food is grass and not flesh even the very same that the beasts of the field do live upon and yet a far greater strength hath hee in his loyns than any of them If God had appointed this beast to have eaten flesh then would hee have killed up the poor and hurtless beasts of the field Vers 18. His bones are as strong as brass his bones are like bars of Iron There is not the like of this beast in the world that is so firmly and strongly made and boned and ribbed as hee is Those bones that are either in the Oxe or in the Horse which are the strongest creatures that are visibly amongst us are nothing comparable and so may easily bee broken but the Elephants are of greater strength Vers 19. Hee is the chief of the wayes of God hee that made him can make his sword approach unto him Hee that made him can bridle him but man is too weak an instrument either to handle him or command him Meditat. That Sin-burnt souls delight in nothing more than to fit under the shadow of Jesus Christ when God is angry with them Cant. 2.3 I sate down under his shadow with great delight and his fruit was sweet to my taste Vers 22. The shady trees cover him with their shadow the willows of the brook compass him about These beasts being gendred and bred up in hot Countries are naturally creatures of that vehement heat that they desire the coolest places and shades that they can finde to hide themselves in from the heat of the Sun and the extraordinary warmth of the day which is very scorching in those Austral parts that they do live in Vers 23. Behold hee drinketh up a River and hasteth not hee trusteth that hee can draw up Jordan into his mouth It is no small proportion of water that will satisfie that extraordinary drought that is usually in this creature for hee will continue a long time drinking in a brook or river before that his panch and thirst bee filled and quenched This creature fears no danger nor no affront whilst drinking as other beasts commonly do because they are so timorous in respect that their heads and necks are so much stretched forth and bowed down to take of the water Vers 24. Hee taketh it with his eyes This beast will tear up young trees bushes brambles and shrubs by the roots if they lye in his way in those bewildered places that he inhabits I have observed that the strength of this creature is very great in respect that he will take a man upon his Trunk and carry him on high as easily as I could carry a feather his nose pierceth thorow snares In the Margin it is will any take him in his sight as much as to say let him that will attempt any such thing be aware of that by his nose is to bee understood his Trunk with which hee makes his way against all snares gins or oppositions that bee laid against him 2. They that go down to the Sea in ships Amongst the rest of that various and manifold kinde of objects that they have to look upon is that indomable The Wilde-ass had rather have the barren lands of the world to live in together with his ease and quiet than the fattest Fastures that the labouring Horse and Oxe do enjoy and go in in any inhabited Nation in the world In the wildernesse saith he I can eat and drink and lay me down and rise up when I will and walk whither I please there is none to controle me whereas all labouring beasts are under the servitude and command of man to do this and that The Bul when wearied with the yoak cried out That it was better with him when he did inter vaccas sylvas saltusque peragrare live at ease in Pasture-grounds amongst the Cows and wilde sort of beasts called a Wilde-ass There bee many of this kinde to bee seen in the inhabitable parts of the world The sight of this creature presented that that is spoken of him in Scripture unto mee which I will take occasion to lay down before you with as much succinctness as I can Job 39.5 Who hath sent out the Wilde-ass free or who hath loosed the bands of the Wilde-ass The meaning of the words seem to bee this That there bee but very few people in the world that would grant any serviceable creature that freedome and that ease and liberty that God hath given him they would make use of them and imploy them here and there and every way but God hath given this creature this priviledge that hee is free from all servitude and bondage Vers 6. His house is the wilderness the barren land is his range This beast makes a very good shift to pick up a living in the abjectest and outcastenest soils that is in the world and in his portion hee rejoyces not a little that hee is out of the hand and sight of man where hee ows him neither homage service nor subjection as other creatures do Vers 7. Hee scorneth the multitude of the City neither regardeth hee the crying of the Driver Hee is a perfect stranger unto man and knows no obedience that is due unto him if they call and hollow after him hee scorns to take any notice of them as other Cattel will do to go and come at the cry of the Driver I have known some of these wilde creatures to bee taken and kept by the Spaniards but if they offered either to ride upon them or set them unto any work they would lye them down and dye upon the place they have stood upon rather than buckle to do any thing for man It put this Scripture into my thoughts that this creature was sent out free and being violently taken away out of its native soil it might very well resist and tell man in the best language that it could utter that it would
do nothing for him 3. Amongst the rest of that Congeries Passown and delectable novelty that they have of the works of the Lord the Passown is one of them which is a very strange kinde of creature it is observed of the female that shee hath that prodigious faculty if in case shee bee pursued to sup up her young ones into her belly and betake her self to her legs to escape them and when she gets her self both out of sight and danger shee can at her pleasure turn them out again 4. Strange Sheep They have the sight of those strange kinde of Sheep that bee to bee seen in the Province of Cusk which are of extraordinary height and length equal unto our Kine and are in strength fully answerable unto them Insomuch that two or three heavy-bodied men have been seen to ride upon them These Sheep have necks like Camels and heads bearing a reasonable resemblance unto ours in England Their wool is very fine and pure and in those parts they use them to supply the room of Horses which they have not Auroughscoun 5. They have a sight of the Auroughscoun which resembles a Badger This creature lives on trees and will leap from tree to tree like our Squirrils with us But the Squirrils in Virginia are bigger than ours for they are as large as Rabbets are with us Assapanick 6. They have a sight of the Assapanick which flies after a very strange manner by spreading out of his leggs and stretching out the largness of his skin by which hee can flye at a great distance and so often times escapes his pursuers but if hee had not this shift hee is so slow of foot hee would bee too often preyed upon Zebra 7. The Zebra which is a beast both for beauty and comliness very commendable and admirable whose form is after that exquisite shape and composure that is in the horse but not altogether like him in swiftness this beast is laid all over with party-coloured laces and gards from head to tail and there bee very great herds of these visible in Africa and other of the Austral parts of the world His name comes of Porcus and Spina because hee is a thorny hog This beast if assaulted with dogs or men will spurt out quils that hee has armed in readiness that hee will make the blood trickle down their legs and noses 8. The Porcupine of this kind there is many in the Indies in bigness hee resembles a Pig and his body is beset about with many sharp quils and prickles which are as so many halberds that Nature has armed him withall to stand up in his own defence against any opponent 9. Zibet or the Sivet-Cat Sivet-Cat which is a very admirable creature for from this beast comes all that pretious drug of Sivet which is no other but an excrement that has its growth not onely in the cod or arcane part but in a peculiar receptacle by its increasing every day unto the weight of three pence or four pence which is taken from the creature every day otherwise if it should not bee taken once a day the creature would rub it forth and lose it 10. The Muks-cat Musk-Cat which is a very comly creature not unlike to a Roe both in greatness fashion and hair from which beast comes all our Musk and the growth of it is on this wise in the navel of it lies a little bag in which that pretious drug has its residence and when it draws on to its maturity the beast is frequently troubled with a pruritiveness or a kind of itching that forces the creature to run against rocks or stones to dilate its sweet perfuming liquors and in process of time it fills up in the like manner again 11. They behold Apes Monkies Monkies and Baboons which both in shape and countenance fit verbo venia are very neer and like unto man There bee great store of these to bee seen in the Occidental parts of the world and especially where the Sugar Plantations are They are such lovers of Corn and Sugar say the best sort of Travellers that they will come in great Troops and fall upon fields of Corn or Plantations of Sugar and appoint one to stand Sentinel whilst they feed and burthen themselves and if in case they see any of the Owners approaching the watchman gives a squeeking alarm and they presently betake themselves into the woods and trees where they neither can nor will bee spoke withall to answer the trespass This pleasure they have that travel in the Woods in the Indies the trees are full of Apes and Parrats as if they bore no other fruit one chaseing of another with such noise and chattering that it is no hearing of one another in discourse and those that have young are seen to go with two or three about their necks fast claspt and if none come in the interim whilst they are plundring and stealing they will every one of them carry their burthen and that they lay up against winter Bear 12. The dancing Bear which is a creature that is well known in respect that hee dwells in divers parts of the world There bee many of this kind in Greenland Nova Zembla and those Septentrional parts of the world which are of a very large and corpulent size This beast ravens extraordinarily all Summer and kills many Deer and other sorts of beasts with which they grow very far but when the winter comes on says the Mariner they cannot walk abroad by reason of that abundance of snow frost cold and ice that falls most bitterly upon that uncomfortable side of the world and therefore hee is constrained to keep his hole and suck his pawe all the winter to keep himself alive withall 13. The Buff The Scythians were wont to use the skins of these beasts to make brest-plates of for their waâ—s who is headed and horned like an Hart and in body shaped like a Bull or Cow and in colour resembling an Asse 14. Amongst the rest of the works of the Lord they are not without this pleasant aspect that the vallies in Greenland are richly clothed and covered over in many parts with fat and goodly Herds of innumerable numbers of Deer of which the Mariner kills These are to bee seen gregatim currere quodcunque omne animal cum humanitate communicat Concolores aves pariter volare videmus and feeds on abundantly every year till his return for England When I think with my self how these creatures live in an un-inhabited Land where no man is 1. Meditation it brings into my mind that of Job 39.1 Canst thou mark when the Hinds do calve that God has an eye over all his creatures for good and that to help them when and where there is neither an hand to releeve them nor an eye to pitty them It is thought as is apparent in Psal 29.8 They how themselves
a pinte The leaves of this tree are said to bee very useful to the people in those parts where they grow to afford them coverings for their houses and for their Tents Mats besides several other things to no small admiration 6. The sweet senting Clove and perfuming Clove which in form is like to our Bay This tree brings forth blossomes first white then green afterwards red and then obdurates from whence come the Cloves 7. The goodly Cypress Cypress which is a very tall grown tree the wood of it is yellowish and of a very pleasant and delightful smell if but approached unto It is held to bee of a very durable nature and will not rot nor decay neither will it Hyeme amittere viriditatem lose its greenness in the Winter 8. The Ebone Ebone many of these have their growth in the Indies and other parts of the world This wood never yeelds so sweet a savour as when it is thrown upon the back of the Fire What think you of a childe of God when he is thrown upon the back of Afflictions Some trees are seen in the Sea-mens Travels that are of such a vast bignesse that they are seven or eight Fathome in Diameter and seventy or eighty high Of which they make Canoes and Boats of two or three hundred Tun. This wood is white on the outside but the inside of it is black 9. The Pepper tree which hath its growth on this wise it springs up at the foot of other trees climbing up like your Ivy by the help of another and grows in bunches as grapes do upon the Vines Locust 10. The Locust tree many of these trees have I seen in Italy whose fruit is very sweet and luscious and having sometimes pulled of it off from the trees in eating of it that Scripture in Matth. 3.4 sprang in upon my thoughts And his meat was Locusts and wilde-honey It is very probable that that tree Locust was that which John the Baptist did eat Ginger 11. The Ginger tree whose growth is after the very same manner that young reeds do shoot up Notwithstanding now this dreadful displeasure that is in God against all such filthinesse the Turk lives in the sin of Sodomitry as boldly as ever And to excuse himself he says he learned it of the wanton Italian and is in blossome like unto the Lilly 12. Some do assert and tell it for a very truth that have travelled into the Austral parts of the world that there is a Town above or beyond Cypress on which the ruining hand of the Lord fell most bitterly certainly to give the world a warning insomuch that not onely all the trees that grew in it or near unto it are turned into flint both bole bough and fruit on which there did grow both Lemon Orange Apple Pears c. And though they have the very colour of fruit yet are they through Gods severe anger perfect stone and in the fruit there is to bee seen ingraven in visible Characters as if God were resolved to let the world know wherefore and what was the cause of that unheard-of judgement men buggering Boyes and Asses c. And the men and women also of that place standing and turned into perfect stone save only that they do still bear the shape of men and women 13. The Cynamond tree Cynamond which is very like to the Olive for greatness and bears leaves like the Bay with us and the fruit of it is not much unlike to the Olives and of the inner rinde of this tree is that Cynamond that comes into England 14. The tall and lofty Cedar Cedar These are called The trees of the Lord. The Cedars of Lebanon 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for excellency sake These trees are streight their leaves are thick and very sweet sented This tree is never without fruit come at what time of the year you will you shall not finde it fruitless as the Fig tree was that our Saviour cursed The fruit of this tree is much like unto that which the Pine bears 15. The Toddy Toddy which is of as great height and tallness almost as the Fir without any branches upon the bole till you come unto the top up which notwithstanding the nimble Indian will go with his Calabasse upon his back for that sweet jucy liquor that it affords out of that teat that grows near unto the top this liquor is as strong and as nourishing as Sack They to get this liquor take a sharp pointed knife and cuts into the teat and it will distill and drop out of the cicatrized place into the vessel which they hang upon the tree to fill Arbor Triste 16. That strange kinde of Tree which they call the Arbor triste this is a sad a sorrowful or a melancholy kinde of tree the leaves of which tree will shut up at the rising of the Sun and open at its down setting Great is the wisdome of the Lord yea it is unsearchable and past finding out It was upon my heart to conceive when I was in Norway where I did see some of the trees to run and sweat with their Turpentine liquors in the very height of the Summer that if these trees had their growth in the Southern parts of the world which are extraordinary hot and scorching the Sun would either cause their oyly liquors to run down upon the ground or otherwise set them on a blazing fire Now the Lord to prevent that hath given them their growth in the coldest soils of the world 17. The Terebinth or Turpentine both this and the Pitch drop their liquors These have their growth in Norway Russia c. which are very cold Climates 18. That strange kinde of tree which they call the Weeping-tree Weeping-tree It is observed of this tree that it is a very great distiller of water which drops out of the leaves of it in such abundance that in those hot parts where the wisdome of the Lord hath set its growth they are destitute of Springs and Wells and instead thereof though they want water and seldome or never have rain yet this tree supplies them and serves an Island of many thousands of people besides Cattel c. It is observed that there lyes a Mist continually over the tree 19. They have a frequent sight of that strange kind of Tree that grows in the Northern Islands of Orchades in Scotland which they call a Barnacle Barnacle upon which grows the Shel-fish which is of a very white colour in which lye little living creatures in the form and shape of birds and in process of time come to their maturity and perfection the shell opening by little and little as they grow in it and in fine they will drop into the water and become lively swiming and flying foul but those that fall upon the land never come unto any accomplishment I will not instance any further in this circumstance
that use the Seas that these Water-Spouts come down from heaven in the form of a cloud and at the one end it is in the form and likeness of a funnel which will descend upon the surface of the water and suck till it bee full out of the Ocean and so returns ascending up again into the heavens These are daunting and dreadful unto the ships that pass on in the Seas for if the cloud rends then down falls that infinite massy weight of water into the Sea again which will make the Sea to flash and froth at a great distance but if it come directly upon any of the ships it will endanger to sink them and to break down their decks masts and boltsprits Many ships have come to sad losses and woful hazzards by the fall of Water-Spouts Certainly after this manner does the Lord call and send for the waters of and in the Seas to pour out upon the face of the Earth The Ordinances of the Heavens are not seen nor known by and to every one Job 38.33 But to such as go down to the Sea These water-carrying Tankards come out of the Heaven to fetch water out of the Seas at Gods appointment to distil in silver showers upon the face of the whole Earth even upon the face of every Nation and Country that is in the World Amos 5.8 Now these Water-Spouts are not seen to any but ships that sail in the Seas 8. That various view that they have of the several sorts and kinds of People that bee in the world how they differ one from another in form habit speech gesture and deportment The Indians are wont to paint themselves with divers and sundry colours some with white and othersome with red some with the characters of the Moon in white and othersome with the Sun in black upon their bodies c. 9. That burning Island Fogo Burning Fogo These are the lads now that do Ultimas Provincias terras peragere in Remotissimas mundi partes navigare which is of an unspeakable heat and in height computed to bee twenty miles and upwards At the top of this Mountain there is a burning fire that shews it self four times in an hour most terribly to all the ships that sail in the Seas neer unto it It flyes up in horrid flames as if the fire of it would not stay until it reached the heavens after this like manner I have seen burning Strumbilo very vehement which lies in the Austral parts of the world 10. The People in the Torrid zone is another sight that they have who are afflicted most sadly with the scorching heat of the Sun It is observed that if there were not all the day long in those scorching parts of the world as the Indies c. a cool breeze which blows for the greatest part of the day to moderate that excessive roasting heat that is there it were impossible almost either for man or beast to live there they are so tormented and rosted with the beams of the Sun that they curse the up-rising of the Sun every morning they get out of their beds yet notwithstanding this vehement heat they have these accommodations to allay the intemperateness of the Zone many sweet springs of cool water to refresh themselves in and goodly rivers to bathe in many great and pleasant trees for shade which yeeld them both meat and drinks and besides they want not for Spices Sugars Lemons Oranges and juyces to quench their thirst withall and cool their bodies c. 11. A sight of those many Orange Olive and Lemon besides many other trees which they see growing where none inhabit Job 38.26 27. even their boughs ready to break with plenty of fruit and no hand nigh to take them in their maturity before they fall to the ground and perish In these parts lies the Lords store-houses of Snow Hail and Ice Job 37.9 Out of the North comes forth cold 12. The Northern parts of the world into which parts they adventure sometimes as far as they can for extreamity of cold but there is such an intolerable frigidity in some parts under the Poles as that they cannot bee discovered nor approached unto Job 38.18 Hast thou perceived the breadth of the Earth declare if thou knowest it all Many will make great cracks and brags that the world is so many thousand in rotundity and so many thousand in breadth but it is none of my judgement to beleeve any such trifling assertions or computations Nova-zembla 13. Those Septentrional Zones that bee in Greenland and Nova Zembla c. which onely in Summer-time may bee spoke with but not in the Hybernal insomuch that many parts under the Poles are inhospitable by reason of that excessiveness of cold frost snow and ice that lyes in those parts which would kill people to live there Those Sunless Starless and Moonless nights and days that bee in the Winter-time in those parts have fetcht in that in Matth. 25.30 to my thoughts And cast yee the unprofitable Servant into utter darkness there shall bee weeping and gnashing of teeth If a man were in those parts hee would find nothing else but darkness weeping Meditate the torments of hell Sea-man when thou goest Norward Thou durst as soon eat thy fingers as go into the Northern parts of the world as Greenland c. if thou thoughtest not that thou hadst a good ship under thee to bring thee back again Thou knowest full well that the cold in that place would kill thee and gnashing of teeth and with ten thousand times that hee were in England or in any part of the world than in that uncomfortable part and side of the world 14. Lapland A sight of that People which live in Finmark and Lapland c. who to avoid that extreamity of Winter-cold that commonly falls upon those parts turn Troglodites they delve themselves warm holes and caves in the Earth to shelter themselves from the rage of that brumale tempus that breaks out upon them in that bitterness 15. A sight of those huge Icy Mountains that bee in those Northern Zones which make such a dashing and crashing one against another making such hideous noises as if it were the very roarings of hell or those ear-deafing Cataracts that are to bee heard and seen in Egypt 16. This is one that is as remarkable as any thing that has been spoken of That in Island Greenland and in divers other Northern parts of the world that are destitute of wood scarce having one stick growing yet notwithstanding they are most miraculously provided for every year and though they have not vessels nor ships to fetch wood withall yet does the Lord supply them on this wise Many great trees and billets are carried unto them upon the waves and billows of the Seas both out of Norway and elsewhere which come and lie in their creeks It is no small wonderment to mee to think how prodigiously
is both Rocks and Sands on every hand them and a strong current under them to throw them upon them for the Sea being far beyond Cable length in depth there hath been no anchoring for them insomuch that if the Lord had not appeared in granting them gales and breezes to deliver them they had assuredly perished Oh the many experiences that those that frequent the Seas have of these like deliverances 22. Others when they have been most greedily chased by the Turks and other Pyrats from the dawn or break of the morning unto the going down of the Sun and the enemy hath got very near upon them to escape him their wits have been set on work and by this poor quirk and fallacious stratagem they have beguiled their chasing Enemy by throwing out of an empty Cask into the Sea in the evening time into which they have put a light and the Enemy taking that light to bee the ship hath followed it and the chased hath steered quite the contrary way and run his Enemy out of sight 23. Others have sometimes been chased by the Turks I will write thus much upon this stout bout and miraculous deliverance Non minor est virtus quam quaerere parta tueri and when the Pyrat hath come up close with them they have most valiantly let flye their broad sides at each other and in the dispute the English Merchant by loading of his Ordnance with bar-shot hath mown down his Enemies shrowds and Rigging insomuch that the Pyrat hath been left uncapable either of fighting working or sailing of his Vessel and by this prospered and succeeded endeavour they have escaped the ferity of those hands that would have made them their perpetual bondslaves 24. Amongst the rest of those many remarkable deliverances that wee have been telling of May I not write upon this escape out of the hands of their enemies Job 5.12 Hee disappointeth the devices of the crafty so that their hands cannot perform their enterprise this is one that when the Turk and divers other Pyrats have pursued our Merchants in the Seas and come within a very little of their desired prize Providence hath so admirably disappointed them that they have fallen on stern and never come nearer by reason of the Fore-top-mast or the Main-top-mast yard breaking then have they been disinabled to run with that speed and celerity which they did before when they were whole I cannot but look upon this and upon the rest of those deliverances that I have spoken of to bee from God what ever carnal eyes will say It is dangerous playing the part of the foolish fish in the Poet at such an exigent as this of whom he sings Occultum visus decurrere piscis ad hamum 24. Others are often and many a time deceived by Sea Pyrats in respect that they take them at a distance for friends when alas they prove their mortal and deadly enemies for their policy is such that they will hang out false colours to the end they may imbolden the Merchant to suffer them to speak with him and hereby if they do many a time make a prey of them yet some escape when others are taken in such like Nautical stratagems 25. Amongst the rest of their deliverances they meet with the Pyrat that plays them this cunning and sophistical pranck and project to the end hee may crouch and steal in upon them Hee goes in the Sea with all his Ordnance haled in and kept close betwxit his decks insomuch that hee is often adjudged and taken for a Merchant I may write upon this wonderful deliverance and notable subtilty Qui aucupantur aves plumatis utuntur tunicis They that will go a birding must put on the fallacious feathered coat The Cat when shee could get no Mice had a trick to disguise her self and to tell them Quod fueram non sum frater caput aspice tonsum And hereby shee drew the Mice out of their holes but the next time they grew so wise that they told her Cor tibi restat idem vix tibi praesto fidem but when hee comes up with a ship where hee thinks there is both prize and booty out goes his guns and into them does hee pour his broad-side and notwithstanding all this the poor Merchant being thus betrayed and at a disadvantage and unreadiness both to fire and to repulse his enemy hee has either in the end taken the Pyrat by desperate fighting or gone clear of him by the good Providence of the Lord. 26. Amongst the rest of their deliverances this is one I may write upon this project Nulla merx difficilior cognitu quam homo No ware harder to be known than a Pyrat in the Sea which I cannot but speak of The enemy is so cunning that to the end hee may take prize and spoil rich fraughted ships hee will venture to Sea in small boats and Vessels with one or two pieces of Ordnance and hereby hee takes many a ship that mistakes him and miskens him for some Fisher-man when alas hee is full of armed men to man the prizes that they take and to bord the ships that they do assault and whereas many ships have been thus betrayed and taken others have escaped I may say of these men of War En bella gerunt Scarabaei Behold Behold Beetles make War 27. Others have sometimes been taken with an enemy who has made it matter of sport and of delight to set their poor prisoners upon an uninhabitable Island where there has been neither man beast nor foul upon it nor any manner of food to keep them alive withall I may write upon this considerable mercy Multa eveniunt quae non volumus The Sailor is like that Scholar that got a knock upon his head and fell in oblivionem literarum Or he that fell upon his mouth and so fell in Oblivionem Sermonis when he had been at the Sermon they forget all their mercies and being left in this forlorn and highest sort of misery that men could bee plunged into God has looked down upon them and put it into the hearts of some ships or other to touch at that place for firing or one thing or other and hereby they have been most miraculously delivered from being killed by those two cruel enemies of mans life famine and hunger 28. Amongst the rest of their deliverances when chased and pursued by their enemy this has been one of their shifts to put out a Vanting Flag upon the main-top-mast head which has been such a danting defiance unto the Pyrat that hee has not had the heart to come up with them I will write upon this fortunate deliverance Cum pellis Leonina non sufficit vulpina assumenda est If one shift or project will not do study out another to get out of the hands of thine enemy fearing that they were of greater force and strength than himself whereas if hee had but adventured and
impower and commissionate for services of the bloodiest severity that may be as one of the worlds great wonders but it could not bee such was the fury of the fire and the rage of the Souldiers both of them undoubtedly set on by God so that the fire would not bee extinguished when they threw in both water and the blood of the slain into it Josephus tells us that Herod the King had for eight years together before the ruine of it imployed ten thousand men at work to beautifie it This was a very glorious thing yet how quickly brought down for the sinfulness of a people 1 Cor. 10.11 Now if these things came upon them for sin and security my application is this in short to you that use the Seas Take heed that your sins bring not storms shipwracks and fires upon you when you are in the Seas far from any land If you ask the reason why such a famous City was destroyed the answer is easily returned It was for sin And if you ask what is the reason of such and such Towns and Cities in the world have been fired the answer will bee That sin was the cause of it and so consequently of the ruine of all your ships 2. Because God will shew his power Reason 2 and let nothing-man know what a bubble a flower a helpless creature man is in the hands of his Maker Matth. 8.24 And behold there arose a great tempest in the Sea insomuch that the ship was covered with the waves but hee was asleep and his Disciples came to him and awoke him saying Lord save us wee perish Proud man is very prone to ascribe that to himself which is absolutely and properly due unto the Lord Proud man is oftentimes priding of himself with high thoughts of himself what he is in point of wisdome parts art and skill but when God puts him to the trial hee is a meer nothing Bulla vitrum glacies flos fabula faeuum Vmbra Cinis punctum vo◠sonus aura nihil and therefore God would undoubtedly teach man thus much in storms that there is no wisdome art skill or strength can carry him out of his dangers but it must be God alone that must do it for them But many Sea-men are like to Aprogis that Egyptian Tyrant in many of their storms and dangers of whom it is said that hee was grown to such an height of pride and impiety and contempt of God that hee professed that hee held his Kingdome so safe Ut à nemine Deorum aut hominum sibi eripi possit Behold what a weakling the Sailor is in a storm Isa 33.23 Thy tacklings are loosed they could not well strengthen their Mast they could not spread the sail that neither God nor men could take it from him but hath not God let you see an end of your vain thoughts and imaginations many and many a time and have you not run upon sands when you have purposed to come well home and have you not at other times run on rocks and gone into the very bottome amongst the dead when you have both confidently thought and said you would come safely to your Ports God oftentimes sufficiently convinces you what you are in your own strength and wisdome without him But to proceed 3. Because God would have some Reason 3 humbled God was forced to send a storm after Jonah before hee could get him to buckle to his work Jon. 2.1 Then Jonah prayed unto the Lord his God out of the Fishes belly Nulli rei natus es nauta nisi paenitentiae Sailor thou and every one is born for no other thing but for repenrance and the Lord knows there is none in the world or under the whole heavens that repents less than thou doest Rugged storms will both dissolve men and cause their eyes to run down in rivulets of tears yea it is an argument of a good heart to bee afraid of Gods righteous judgements when the stormy winds are out upon the Seas Good people look upon them as no other but the sword of the Lord that is drawn out of the Scabberd of his indignation which hee waves to and again over and upon the face of the great deeps which puts them upon begging and praying upon the bended knees of their hearts that God would put it up again 4. Because God would have some Reason 4 converted It is very probable and apparent Jonah 1.16 that that storm that came down upon the Mariners proved their conversion Then the men feared the Lord exceedingly and offered a sacrifice unto the Lord and made vows Now they feared God whom they never owned knew nor feared before Storms have been the first converting Sermons that many a man ever met withall Yea God hath met with them in a storm Truly God is forced to do and deal with Sea-men many times as Land-men do with unruly Jades and unbacked horses when they have a minde to take them they must drive them up against some hedge gate or bank where they can neither get forwards nor backwards or else they can never halter them If God do not send down rowsing storms upon the Sailors heads that even threaten to rend both heaven and earth I fear they wil I never return nor come home to God whom a Sermon out of the Pulpit could never take nor reach I many have been caught in a storm that have stood at as great a distance and in as much opposition to God and his word as Ataliba that Indian Prince once did to Fryar Vincents book which hee presented to him withall telling him that it was a small Treatise of all the mysteries of salvation heaven and hell hee looked upon it and told the Gentleman that hee saw no such thing in it asking him withall how hee knew it Many who have heard the word and have said in effect they saw no such matter in it as the Preacher tells them of have been taken napping in a storm God sometimes takes here one and there one napping in a storm that could never bee catched in a calm The word converts but few at Sea but a dreadful storm may fetch in them whom a Sermon could not reach All ground is not alike some must have a shower some a clodding neither is all wood to be used alike some will plain and other some must be taken in the head with wedge and beetle Truly one would think that one of those fearful and most dreadful storms that fall now and then upon the Seas were and should bee sufficient to turn the heathenest Sailor that is in them into a very good and gracious Christian Quaedam fulmina aes ac ferrum liquefaciunt Some Thunders will soften both Brass and Iron and that is an hard heart surely that is not melted and converted before the Lord in those loud thundring claps of storm and tempest Reason 5 5. Because Sinners Swearers and Drunkards are in ships It is nothing but the
infinite mercy goodness and undeserved kindness of the Lord that every day in the Seas is not a stormy Sailors the Seas are turbulent because of you the winds above thunder and roar more over our heads every day than they would the skies are cloudy thick and foggy because of you and the Sun doth not give his light unto the Sea we take not our enemies in our chases because of you neither do wee nor can we bring them down with that violency as we might if you were but good and gracious a gloomy and a dreadful day as long as our ships are full of Diagoras's and drunken Zeno's c. I am confident there is more danger in going to Sea amongst the unsavoury crew that is in ships in England whether Merchant or Men of War than there was for Lot to stay in a stinking Sodome and yet in very deed he had been burnt if the two Angels had not come down from heaven to give him warning and to usher him out of the City whilst fire-balls were making in heaven Gen. 19. The Mariners that carried Jonah had like to have lost their lives what then may one expect in going amongst Sailors that are as full of sin and filthiness as a Dog is full of hairs and fleas 6. To put faith on work Christ was Reason 6 resolved to try Peter Matth. 14.29 30. But when hee saw the wind boysterous hee was afraid and beginning to sinke hee cried saying Lord save mee The German drinks down his sorrows the Spaniard weeps it away the French man sings it away and the Italian sleeps it away all these are but sorry shifts but if thou hast faith in God in stormy times this will make thee sweeter melody in thy foul than all the fidling jigs of Musik in the world Christ soon saw the weakness of his faith It is a strong faith that God delights in and indeed the greater the strength and boldness of it is in God the more it makes for Gods honour declaring him to bee All-sufficient in the worst and greatest of dangers Hee that is faith-proof may go with comfort to Sea whether to the East or to the West to the North or to the South nay such an one ma adventure to imbrace the Artick an Antartick Poles when as a faithless person is but like a Souldier without hi arms Get this grace of faith and thou wilt then see that all thy safety is in God that hee is thy only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Resson 7 7. That patience may bee set on work What a rare speech was that of Paulinus when under that great trial when the savage Goths had invaded the City Nola and ransacked it and taken from him all his richest goods out of his house and coffers hee yeelded not unto the stream of sorrow which might have carried him down into the gulf of despair When Cato's Souldiers were discouraged in their march through the Desart of Lybia because of thirst heat â—â—d and â—â—â—nts he 〈◊〉 this 〈◊〉 unto 〈◊〉 Come 〈◊〉 friends and â—â—at my â—â—uldiers impâ— nt and d câ—uraged these are all pleaâ—â— to a valiant man and to all the storms hazzards and dangers that Sailors meet with all to them that are both valiant and patient but striving against it hee lift up his hands to heaven after this manner Domine ne excrucier propter aurum argentum ubi enim omnia sunt mea tu scis Lord sayes hee let not the loss of these things vexe mee for thou knowest that my treasure is not in this world here was patience exercised The grace of patience is evermore in this world both at Sea and Land upon the trial and sanctified trials both do and will evermore leave in the soul a tranquil calm and quietness Heb. 12.11 Now no chastening for the present seemeth to bee joyous but grievous nevertheless afterward it yeeldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby This is Patiences language Plura sunt tolleranda there be harder storms to bee undergone Job 13.15 Though hee slay mee yet will I trust in him as if hee should have said Should an harder storm come upon mee I would bear it without murmuring Patience will bear every thing quietly and sit as mute in the Sea in time of storms as that Egyptian's goddess whom they call Constancy which they paint upon a rock standing in the Sea where the waves come dashing and roaring upon her with this Motto Semper eadem Storms shall not move mee Certainly all repining comes from an unmortified and an unsanctified spirit the fault lyes not in any condition how desperate soever but in the heart because the heart stoops not to it 8. To set prayer on work If fire bee Reason 8 in straw it will not long lye hid Bias the great Philosopher sailing over some small arm of the Sea amongst the Mariners at that very time there fell a most dreadful storm amongst them insomuch that the ship he was in was greatly endangered of being cast away and the Mariners falling to their strange and confused kinde of prayer and worship the poor Philosopher could not indure it but calls to them and intreats them to hold their peace lest the gods should hear them and he should thereby fare the worse for them if grace bee in the heart it will appear in time of storms and this is the method that God uses many times to put Seamen upon prayer Isa 26.16 Lord in trouble have they visited thee they powred out a prayer when thy chastening was upon them Isa 33.2 O Lord bee gracious unto us wee have waited for thee he thou our arm every morning our salvation also in the time of trouble Storms are like the tolling of a Bell in a ship and when they are dreadful and violent they call all that are in the Seas at those times to prayer and fasting The dumb Son of Craesus could then speak when hee saw the knife at his fathers throat Storms will open those mens mouthes at Sea that never opened them to God in prayer in all their lives The Sea-mans devotion is up in a storm but dead and down in a calm Hee is religious whilst the judgements of the Lord are roaring upon the face of the great deeps but as great a Swearer Drunkard and Adulterer is hee after they are over as ever hee was Reason 9 9. To urge them to seek unto God for pardon of sin There is none under the whole heavens that are more in debt to God than the Sea-man is yet is hee as little sensible of it and as little affected with it as the insensiblest thing in the world either is or can bee But gracious and penitent souls are much troubled for their sins in time of storms looking upon them as the products of their misery and so cannot sleep upon the pillow of worldly enjoyments without a pardon in their hands and hearts The hunted
and the rest of our feral and remote Antagonists 4. It is of wonderful use to the purifying of the air off and from its many infections and contagions the winds are the cleansing engines of the world or the airs sweeping-brooms by which the air is kept both sweet and salubrious and this they do by their oblique and ubiquitary motion which would otherwise corrupt and stench as standing pools Job 37.11 But the wind passeth and cleanseth them Jer. 4.11 This benefit every Land and Country hath of the winds both to fan and sweep the foul corners of the air that are amongst them 5. It is of wonderful use as to the scattering of the clouds here and there in this and in the other Country How are the clouds seen sometimes in a very pendulous manner to hang over the very heads of parched Countries as if unwilling to dilate and part with their watry liquor because of the sinfulness of those Countries Clouds fly and hang over them yet drop no fatness God allows all Countries excepting Egypt which is supplied in a wonderful manner by the River Nilus the benefit of the clouds and of the Heavens hee misses not the smallest of those many Islands that he has lying here and there up and down in the world but remembers them all yea the uninhabitablest place that is in the world both procul prope for the use and benefit and accommodement of mankind by these are the Lords water-pots or cloudy water-bowls of the Heavens shaked and poured down upon the dry and thirsty places of the Earth All Gardens Orchards Corn-fields valleys hils and desarts that bee in the world are watered by them Job 37 11. Hee scattereth his bright cloud The winds are of very considerable and important use as to the conducting and convoying of the aquatical clouds of the Heavens to water the many Islands Territories and Countries of the Lords that bee in and throughout the world It seems that God has a special care of every Country and corner in the world that none of his Gardens and Orchards should parch for want of water and therefore hee has cloudy tankards in the Heavens which flye upon the wings of the wind to fall upon what place hee pleases to supply them 6. It is of wonderful use in its various vertibility and instability Non ita Carpathiae variant Aquilonibus undae The wind is a very varying and turning thing in respect that all parts in the world are served by it one while it serves to carry some Mariners into the North some out of the East into the West and other some again out of the West into the South It stays not long in one quarter but is a meer Camelaeâ—nce mutabilior Eccl. 1.6 The wind goeth toward the South and turneth about unto the North it whirleth about continually and the wind returneth again according to his circuits And hereby is it the more commodious because if it should have its abode any long time either in the Eastern Southern Northern or Western parts of the world then the opposit parts would bee greatly obstructed in their sailing into those parts from whence the wind should blow Great is the Wisdom of our infinite and good God who has ordered and created all things for the good of man in that hee has thus appointed and disposed of the winds to bee one while in one place and another while in another both to fetch Mariners that are far from home and also to carry them out that are desirous and have busines and occupation to do from home 7. It is of wonderful use to alter Seasons it cannot bee gainsaled that the winds have not an altering influence in all Seasons because they bring in our heat and by and by comes in our cold Job 37.17 How thy garments are warm when hee quieteth the Earth by the South wind When the wind comes out of the South how is every one warm and cheerful both in City and in Country although but in a thin and Summers garment but when it comes out of the blustering North or the frigid and mordacious Oriental of the world how is every one then cold within doores and without doors I even in the thickest habit that they can put on Job 37.9 Out of the North cometh forth the cold Now undoubtedly that cold comes upon the wings of the winds out of and from under the Artick and also heat in the same manner from the Antartick of the world When the wind comes out of the North or out of the East how quickly is the heat of the Earth cooled and taken away but as soon as ever it comes out of the South how is the Earth warmed and all the Animals of the world revived Psal 107.43 Who so is wise will observe these things 8. It is of wonderful use to dry up the wetness and dirtiness that is upon the face of the Earth how are all foot-paths and all horse-rodes shoveled and cleansed by the winds It is wonderful to think how an Easterly wind will sweep all the beaten paths and corners that are in the world this wind is called in Scripture a supping wind Hab. 1.9 because it drinks up the moystures that have been laid upon the Earth by the clouds Psal 107.43 Who so is wise will observe these things 9. It is of wonderful use to clear the Heavens for us and to feed us with the light of those glorious lamps and luminaries that are hung up in the Heavens to make the world comfortable to us how would the Sun the Moon the Stars and the face of Heaven bee absconded over-shaddowed and obumbrated to us with clouds fogs mists and ascending vapours that are as so many curtains drawn over those great and glorious Lanterns of the Heavens if the winds did not sweep them and reduce them to an annihilation 10. It is of a wonderfull and most dreadful use in the hand of the Lord to break and ruine the greatest and the strongest ship or ships that ever crossed the salt-waters 2 Chron. 20.37 The ships were broken that they were not able to go to Tarshish And the great Spanish Armado that came against us to invade our Land were broken and scattered by the winds so that they were frustrated in their Dice-games and carried into the bottoms when that they thought they should have had the full possession and enjoyment of this English Island 7. Vse A word of Exhortation and that unto all you that go in the Seas Is it thus indeed that all perilous storms and ship-wracking Tempests are both of the Lords raising sending and impowering give mee leave then to commit three sweet words unto you and I will pray hard both in private and publick that they may be a heart-wining and an heart-perswading word but before I hand them unto you I will lay down a few of those natural symptomes prognosticks and common observations of the approaching of winds and storms only as
flye upon a ragged one Sea-men Sea-men look for storms it is your usual saying that Pallida luna pluit rubicunda flat alba serenat The Moon looks red and tells us that wee shall have winds You have just occasions many times to look for winds and storms therefore give mee leave to say Delicatus nauta est qui fortunae rabiosas novercantis procellas non expectat that hee is too little a right bred Sea-man that neither would nor doth look for storms the best sort of Sea-men dare not trust the smiling countenance of any one day or night though never so fawning and proffering If he comes to an anchor he sits down and casts about and considers how and what the harbour is and how the winds may turn and change Minus etiam quam luscinia dormit the pleasant Nightingale sleeps more than hee doth because hee is burdened with many cares about his fore-casting of all things for the best It is a great folly for any to think that they may go to Sea and not meet with brushing storms and that man that desires to go to Sea for recreation and not for imployment save onely to see the Seas and sail here and there a little upon them would wish with all his heart that hee was back again when hee sees a storm a coming Alas the Sea is a place where the greatest storms are laid on that ever befell any element whatsoever there are not those gusts and storms to bee found on land that bee upon the Seas neither are the great deeps like the smooth-faced fontes fluvia stagna and lacus's of a land that lyes with never a wrinckle upon their frontlets but they lye in raging froth and fome and by their restlesness give all that come upon them a bitter cup of a plus aloes quam mellis telling them that they shall have more storms than calms 2. Storms as well as calms come from the hands of God For hee commandeth the stormy winds Matth. 8.25 The stormy wind was up for a while in which the Disciples of Christ were most dreadfully rocked and tossed in but afterwards it was rebuked and stilled this is a comfort Nullum violentum est perpetuum things that are violent are not long lasting I would have all Sea-men to bee of that heavenly temper that Job was of when they are in and under perilous storms Job 2.10 What shall wee receive good at the hands of God and shall wee not receive evil It seems evil as well as good happens sometimes for a peoples trial 3. Dayes are evermore seen for to travel with Gods decrees Fair Sun-shine mornings have I seen and known to end in sad and dismal evenings the Proverb is Nescis quid serus vesper vebat Thou knowst not what is in the womb of a big-bellied day The Willow would never bee good if it were not lopt and cut cutting of it makes it spring the better at the root and bear the fairer head The Sailors will never bee ought till they bee cut to peeces I mean laid low upon the bark of affliction if hee say they shall be stormy who can let it and if hee give command that they shall bee tranquil and calm they shall bee so Prov. 27. Boast not thy self of to morrow for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth It may bring forth sickness as well as health storms as well as calms and death as well as life 4. God will humble and correct you and stand you not in very great need of being humbled and corrected Where is the Sailor in the Sea that is so good as may not look for a brushing The Sun is more resplendent after an ecclipse the Sea more calm after a storm and the air much brighter after a shower which made a great Statesman of out Nation to say that storms and tempests contribute to the cleerness of the heavens and the smoothness of the Seas 5. Where there is a looking for smooth and calm Seas the sudden alteration thereof Art thou going to Sea my friend make much of this short word of counsel there is multum in parvo nè quare mollia nè tibi contingant dura wouldst thou have i◠Englished Sailor then this it is Expect not too much favour from the Sea Jactantur oequora ventis He that will sail the great and wide Sea must look for many a roaring gust both hath and doth prove a sad and bitter disappointment to many a mans expectations when Christs Disciples were out at Sea they looked for smooth and calm water and meeting with a rugged and boysterous storm and tempest where they saw themselves greatly endangered they could not bear it Matth. 8.25 Lord save us wee perish Jer. 8.15 Wee looked for peace but no good came and for a time of health and behold trouble They that will go down to the Sea must not look for to have all calms and no storms but oftner storms than calms They that will travel upon the Sea to this and that far and remote Country in the world they must expect to meet with many a sore rub and brushing storm before they shall or can bee transported to them 2. I would have all those that are Grandees and Statesmen of our land to look for storms also my reason is this in respect that your Honours have many brave Golden-stern'd and Golden-headed Sea-boats going to and fro and up and down in the great waters where all the other ships do go and much work you have now in hand for them to do which lies both far and near and I think that it is my judgment that there never was an Age or people called on so much as the English now are both to do and carry on that work and those glorious designs that God has on foot against the Anti-Evangelical and Antichristian powers of the world it is clear to mee that the Lord Jesus Christ who both will and shall rule all Nations with a rod of Iron and in whom is all power and through whom is the guidance of all the affairs that are on foot upon the face of the Earth that you are acted by him against them but that which I aim at is this Right Honourable your gallant ships are now and then rocking and staggering in the waves as well as others and are now and then most dreadfully spending of their Masts and Yards by the board and some again most dangerously are hazarded in their running upon the ground the winds favour them no more than they do the other ships that use the Seas but fall upon them belluino impetu with as much violence as they do upon others The winds take no more notice of the golden gildedst ship than they do of the coarsest Nunc pluit claro nunc Juppiter aethere fulget meanest and plainest stern-painted that goes in the Salt-waters You cannot expect it that the Seas should bee alwaies of a gentile and silver-glistering
Haec non durabunt aetatem This will not alwayes indure 2. Bear all your storms and Sea-imbitterments with faith and confidence in God for his general and particular presence with you that sweet promise hath quieted my heart within when wee have had nothing but horrour without in the great and wide Sea Isa 43.2 When thou passest thorow the waters I will bee with thee and thorow the rivers they shall not overflow thee when thou walkest thorow the fire thou shalt not bee burnt neither shall the flame kindle upon thee 3. Beg every day at the hands of your God for a submissive frame of heart that you may resign and give up your selves and all that is of worth and value in your eyes to Gods will It was a sweet frame that a Stoick was in I would all our Sailors were of that temper when hee said Quid vult volo quid non vult nolo vult ut vivam vivam vult ut moriar moriar It is good to be of this temper in storms to bee contented either to live or dye svvim or drovvn for his disposal even as hee shall will and please to that end you may bee in a capacity to yeeld to whatsoever God shall do though it bee never so cross and contrary to your own carnal wills and in all your storms and dangers say Fiat voluntas sua the Lords will bee done One of King Cyrus's Courtiers having but little state and being about to marry his daughter one asked him how he vvould do for to give her a portion his ansvver was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cyrus is my friend and thus he casts his care and confidence upon the King and vvill not you do thus in storms 4. Cast all your fears cares and troubles that you meet withall in the Seas upon the Lord and hee will take care of you and for you you have it under hand and seal for so doing if you have but faith to lay hold on the promise Psal 55.22 Cast thy burden upon the Lord and hee shall sustain thee hee shall never suffer the righteous to bee moved The burden of a dreadful storm is too heavy for thee to bear thou hast sufficient warrant and commandement to unload thy self and cast it upon thy God there is many a man and woman in the world might go a great deal lighter both at Sea and Land if they had but the art of laying their cares upon their God hath not many a man had his back broke I and his heart broke because hee evermore bore his burden and had not the wisdome to run to God to desire him for to bear it for him Sailors lay those dreadful burdens that you meet with all in a stormy Sea upon the Lord and hee will bear them I and carry you out safe and alive from them But to proceed 2. It will not bee out of the road if I present this advertising word unto those that sit at the stern with the helm of our Republick in their hands It vvas a brave temper that Cato vvas of of vvhom it vvas said that he bore things so stoutly that no man ever saw him to be changed and though he lived in a time when the Common-wealth was often changing he was a semper idem in every condition even to bear storms stoutly I mean as to the effects of them which oftentimes end in the ruining of many a goodly sail and if so bee that ships bee cast away that are in your employments which are of vast worth cost and charge it cannot bee helped such casualties will bee coming and falling upon them now and then the Seas have a Million of dangers in them 3. I would hand this word unto the Merchants of our Land also that they would bear storms stoutly I have seen people in the world when unexpected losses Our Merchants of late resemble too much the mourning Nightingale of whom it is said that when her young ones are taken from her that shee will tell every bird of it maestis late loca questibus implere fill the woods with her complaints And so you the States eares with your losses and crosses have come upon them fall a weeping and wringing of their hands and cursing with their tongues in the greatest impatiency that ever was seen as if they were utterly undone now there is none that can be or is undone until they bee damned then they are undone indeed and then they may howl and weep where weeping and gnashing of teeth is in course but whilst in the world and in fair hopes for Heaven temporal accidents should not have that impression to breed that disturbance It is a notable speech of Seneca Suppose says hee that a man who having a very fair and goodly House to dwell in and fair Orchards and Gardens planted and plotted round about it with divers other fruitful trees for ornament and profit Plutarch reports of a certain people that to manifest their disliking and disdaining of men over-much dejected by any affliction they condemned them in token of disgrace to wear womens apparel because they so much unmanned themselves what an indiscreet part were it for that man to murmur and repine because the winds rise and blow down some of the leaves of it when as they hang fuller of fruit than leaves God has given your ships many a prosperous voyage and murmur not at it if you lose one or two now and then it is nothing but mercy that you have any left to trade and trafick withall I and moreover it is a great deal more than you deserve Chrysostom when speaking to the people of Antioch like himself who was a man of an invincible spirit against the tyrants of his time delivered himself thus In this should a gratious man differ from thc Godless hee should bear his crosses couragiously and as it were with the wings of Faith out-soar the hight of all humane miseries hee should bee like a Rock incorporated into Jesus Christ inexpugnable and unshaken with the most furious incursions of the waves and storms of the world It was a gallant speech of Galienus the Emperour when tidings came unto him that all Egypt was lost What then quoth the Emperour cannot I live without the flax of Egypt And by and by came tidings to him that the greatest part of his dominions in Asia were gone also What then quoth the Emperour cannot I live without the delicacies of Asia This is a rare example for Merchants when they lose rich-fraughted ships in the Seas either by storm or Pyrat What It was a gallant spirit that Habakkuk was of when he said Chap. 3.17 Although the fig-tree shall not blossom nor fruit upon the Vines nor Herds in the stalls yet will I rejoyce in the Lord I will joy in the God of my salvation Grant now the worst suppose you had not one ship in the Harbour nor one to come safely home is there not
a good and a merciful God for you to rejoyce in that is better than ten thousand Sail cannot I live without that ship that I have lost There is a pretty story in Esop of the Goose that laid the poor man her Master every day a golden egg and finding such a benefit by her hee thought that his best course was to kill her and then hee should find them all and upon that conceit hee did but finding himself frustrated Ansere Aesopico invento vacuo stupebat miser ac plangebat rem spem periisse hee fell a weeping for the loss of his golden eggs because hee had taken away her life which if had been preserved would have laid him more Thus the Merchant mourns when he loses his goodly ships that brought him in his riches and upon the consideration of their ruine hee laments to think what accommodement they were unto him But I will let pass this discourse and hasten unto another Proposition that I will lay down and it is shortly this 3. That God threatens before he strikes Observ 3 For hee commandeth the stormy wind How cleer and undeniable is this point unto every ordinary capacity that goeth in the Sea where is the Mariner that is bet up to storms and Tempests but knows beforehand when a storm is coming in the Heavens Every Sailor is as perfect a scholar in the great volume of that over-head canopy of the skies I and knows as well by the Physiognomy of the skye out of what part the storm will come as the childe can tell you his A. B C. when posed in it Before the Lord sends out his stormy wind hee usually gives men that are in that employment notice of it Supra civitatem Hierosolymae stâ—tit sydus simile gladio perannum perseveravit When God was about to strike Jerusalem hee gave them warning by a Star that hung in the form of a sword in a perpendicular manner over their heads which dreadful sign hung over the City for a year together either by the strange flying of the clouds or otherwise clothing of the skies with the black thick and sable curtains of a nocturnal darkness or otherwise by laying upon the airy region a condensation of fogg and mist which are usually forerunners and contemporaneous messengers of what the Lord is above preparing to lay upon that Element and besides these they have many other familiar signs and observations to tell them that the storm is a hastening upon them When the Cormorants leave the Seas and betake themselves to the shore or any of the other Sea-foul that ship that is in the Sea would bee very happy if shee were but in the Harbour But to lay down the ground of this point 1. Because hee is not willing to execute judgment Alexander the Great when ever hee laid siege to any City he hanged up three flags 1. white 2. red 3. black if they compounded and surrendered not before the black flag was set up there was no mercy for them Take heed that God do not so with you Sailors if either threatning or fair means would but serve the turn The loving Father is very loth to lay the rod upon the childs back if admonition would but serve the turn And good Physicians that bear tender love to their Patients when upon the dye will shed tears when they will not take their potions prescribed for their health Luke 19.41 And when hee was come near hee beheld the City and wept over it Gen. 18.32 And hee said I will not destroy it for tens sake God takes little pleasure in the cutting off of souls hee is loth to destroy you Sailors but that you wrest judgments out of his hands to sink you 2. Because hee would let the world know that hee is full of patience Omnis minatio amica monitio Every threatning is a gratious warning Psal 103.8 The Lord is merciful and gratious slow to anger and plentious in mercy 3. The Jews when ever they see the Rain-bow in the clouds they will not stand gazing upon it but presently go forth and confess their sins acknowledging that they are worthy of being deluged and drowned with a second flood They are perswaded that that holy Name of Jehovah is written upon the Bow and therefore do they celebrate his Name at those times Oh that Sailors were in this posture to confess their sins to God when they see storms appearing by the heavens To that end men may bee left without all excuse does not the School-masters warning take off the Scholars excuse when hee comes to whipping A people proudly standing at defiance with their enemy when hee sends them in his summons and tenders of peace for a surrender may thank themselves and not blame the enemy when their streets run down with blood blame not God if hee split your ships in a thousand pieces upon the Seas so that your masts swim one way the rudder another and the broken parcels round about you God shewed you his wrath before it came in the face of the skies but you took no notice of it neither prepared you your selves to meet your God Vers 26. They mount up to the Heaven they go down again to the depths their soul is melted because of trouble FOr the division of the words you have three things that are very remarkable in them 1. Their ascension in these words They mount up to the Heaven 2. Their descension in these words they go down again into the depths 3. Their perturbations in these words their soul is melted because of trouble I will begin with the first and give you a brief explication of their ascending and mounting up The word comes of Mons a Mountain shewing that the Seas are oftentimes conglomerated or accumulated into great and dreadful pyramidical hills and mountains They mount up to the Heaven This phrase in the extent of it is but metaphorical and not really and absolutely so that any ship or ships should rise so high in the violentest storm that is but it is to shew that their elevation is exceedingly raised beyond their ordinary altitude usque ad sedem Hyperbole beatorum Olympicam far above and beyond that hight that calm Seas are of for when the Seas are of a virgin-like smoothness and clearness then are all the ships that go upon them at quiet there is no mounting then nor no going up nor no going down but when the ever-moving Ocean that is lyable to continual agitation and subject to every storm and blast is once raised and stirred up by the winds Storms are like to Ovids Chaos when hee sung that there was Tanta est discordia rerum There is an omnium rerum permixtio in them it flyes in rowling billows and raging surges upon the backs of which the great and weighty ships are tossed up as the ball that is jetted to and fro upon the racket In a troubled Sea ships may
bee compared to a man that runs up an high ladder and as soon as ever hee is got up to the highest stave of it down hee goes till hee comes unto the lowest and by and by hee returns unto the highest Solomon tels us Prov. 23.5 that the Eagle taketh wing and flyeth towards heaven but hee does not say that shee flies so high but it denotes that shee is one of the highest flying birds of any of the fouls under the Heavens Christ tels us also Matth. 11.23 that Capernaum was exalted unto Heaven when alas it was not so nor so because it was but an hyperbolical but rather an Ironical expression for Capernaum was so far from Heaven that her feet was rather upon the very threshold of Hell than Heaven as appears by the poynt shee steered by But this elegant Hyperbole of the Psalmists is to set forth the Sea-mans high soaring sursums and his down-falling deorsums They mount up almost as high as that caelestial 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is feigned to be Elemenci quarti nomen how that hee is one while carried upwards upon the swelling billows of the Seas even ad aulam astriferam as high as the starry mansions and bespangled roofs of Heaven and then by and by they are returned down again 2. They go down again to break up this word unto you there is nothing difficult in it onely wee may take notice that their descension in storms is not gradatim or pedetentim but rather in the violentest manner that can bee even as a stone that is hurled up in the air it will not tarry there any longer than the strength of the hand is upon it and then it will down again because it covets to bee at its Center So the weightier any thing is the speedier is and will bee the descent of it I am confident it would produce many a gallon of salt tears from the eyes of the godly that are on Land if there were but a possibility of their seeing of ships how they labour rock and reel ascend and descend in the restless Seas in time of storms for by and by they are to bee seen anon they are not to bee seen but as if they were covered all over in the Seas That Sea-men are the nearest Heaven Observation 1 of any people in the world when they are once got up upon the back of an high-rising water-billow They mount up to Heaven c. These are the onely cloud-climbing lads of the world Sea men are like to the pinnacles that are praefixed upon all high battlements which point upwards to Heaven but poyse downwards to their center Exod. 8.15 Whilst the judgments of God were upon Pharaoh he was some thing conformable but when the storm was over he was as vile as ever and none go so near or are so fair for Heaven as Sea-men are seems the Psalmist to say but let mee add this pray God they ever come there my prayers shall bee for them 1 Sam. 12.23 Moreover as for mee God forbid that I should sin against the Lord in ceasing to pray for you but I will teach you the good and right way Vers 24. Onely fear the Lord and serve him in truth with all your heart for consider how great things hee hath done for you For I fear that many an hundred Sea-man when hee is got up to the top of an high water promontory in the Sea that hee is as near Heaven as ever hee will bee It was once said of one that preached well and lived ill upon a time when in the pulpit some importunate messenger or other came for him to come out of the Church but one of his auditors made answer Oh let him alone for hee is as near Heaven as ever hee will bee So I may say it is a thousand pitties that ever some Sea-men should come off and down from the high-towering waves of the Seas because they are in those stormy times peradventure nearer Heaven than ever they will bee when they come on Land again Observation 2 That all Sea-men generally without all exception whether they bee young or whether they bee old both do and shall assuredly go to heaven They mount up to the heaven Me thinks the Sea-man likes mee well in the laying down of this proposition and the godly on the other hand look very strangely upon it and so consequently conclude I knovv Sea-men are as confident of going to Heaven the Lord help them as the Turks either are or can bee of that lock vvhich they keep upon the top of their crownes that they shall bee dravvn up into Paradise by Pray God Sea-men vvould once forsake their confidence and then there vvould bee some hopes of them that I have no warrant nor ground in Scripture to build it upon To clear up the point unto you I would have you to observe that there are two parts in it 1. That they do go to Heaven 2. That they shall all go thither For the first of these that they do go thither I would have you to understand mee rightly without any misconstruction I will have nothing to doe with their Salvation in this point for that is as doubtful to mee as Solomon's was to Toledo the Arch-Bishop who weighing that much-disputed controversie whether Solomon was saved or damned and not being satisfied with their arguments caused Solomon to bee pictured upon the walls of his Chapel the one half in hell and the other half in heaven There be three Heavens 1. Coelum Aerium 2. Coelum Astriferum 3. Coelum Beatorum It is not the latter novv they go to in storms but the tvvo former But to the point in hand that you may understand my meaning in it take notice that it is stormy and tempestuous weather that Sea-men go to Heaven in even then when the winds lift up the waves of the Seas by which and upon which thay are in this sense transported unto Heaven what they do or whither they go when dead I have nothing to do to judge and therefore whilst they are living wee need not credit that they go into Heaven Sailors are like to Grashoppers in goodness vvho make faint essayes to fly up to Heaven and then presently fall dovvn to the Earth again Sea-men that have their feet as it vvere in stormy vveather upon the battlements of Heaven should look dovvn upon all earthly happiness in the world as both base abject slight and slender waterish and worthless The great Cities of Campaniae seem but small cottages to them that stand on the tops of the Alps. for I never knew any of them so holy Enoch indeed Gen. 5.24 Walked with God and hee was not for God took him There is a vast difference betwixt going to Heaven and into Heaven the Eagle that Solomon speaks of flew towards Heaven but hee doth not say that shee went into it There is a vast disproportion betwixt a mans going to a place and
back-biters haters of God despightful proud boasters inventers of evil things disobedient to Parents without understanding covenant-breakers without natural affection implacable unmerciful and Merchants Service that cannot allow Prayer any room amongst them I speak not of ships that have Chaplins in them but of the Sea-men in general they cannot be got to take up prayer in those very ships that they have Chaplins in What was once said of Solomon's building I may even say of most ships that go in the salt-waters 1 King 6.7 There was neither hammer nor ax nor any tool of Iron heard in the house while it was in building There is no noise of prayer amongst them or to be heard of you would think that all the Sailors were rather dead than living May I not most lamentably speak it as it was once said of Egypt Exod. 12.30 And there was a great cry in Egypt for there was not an house where there was not one dead Is there one ship in the Sea that is either in the States or Merchants Service but there is the greatest part the better half I and I fear even all indeed but are dead men I mean as to prayer or any thing that is good but grant there be is it not a dead Religion and a dead kind of prayer that they live in this is the state condition that Sailors live in excepting a few I question not that is amongst them whom God has otherwise taught principled and quickned To stir you up to take up the duty of Prayer consider of your danger by your neglect of it 1. You are in danger of being overcome by your enemies Exod. 17.12 And it came to pass when Moses held up his hand that Israel prevailed and when hee let down his hand Amalek prevailed If you take up the work of prayer you will engage the Lord to stand by you in the dreadfullest disputes that your enemies can assault you withall Zach. 2.5 For I saith the Lord will bee unto her a wall of fire round about and will bee the glory in the midst of her I and you will engage him to help you when you are at your wits end in time of storms If you will but good Sailors take up prayer-work I will engage in this for you against the proudest enemy that ever strutted in the salt-waters and it is that of Pope Pius the second which hee writ in a letter to that great Zamzummim of the World the Grand-Turk Niteris incassum Christi submergere navem I shall say of that ship where all the men use prayer in her as one said of Troy Victa tamen vinces eversaque Troja resurges Obrint hostiles illa ruma domos Fluctuat ac nunquam mergitur illa ratis Let both Sea and Out-landish enemies do their worst a godly ship was never known to bee overcome or drowned 2. You are in danger of being overcome and over-run with sin for want of prayer Sin is both Master Captain Boatswain and Yeoman in every ship and every man is at sins command amongst you for want of prayer how reigns sin in the Captain of the ship in the Master Gunner Boatswain Sin sits as a King in his Court in your ships who rules by immediate commands whereas the power Ships like bottles may dip and not drown may be filled with waves and yet â—ise again The Palm tree in the emblem had many weights upon the top of it and as many snakes at the very root of it yet could it say Nec premor nec perimor Ships in the Sea that use prayer in them are not unlike to the Artick Pole of which it is said Semper versatur nunquam mergitur and the voyce of prayer breaks the very head and insolency and dominion of sin your ships might bee wonderfully healed of all that filthiness that is amongst them would they but practise prayer It is no wonder though there bee such an hellish voyce of swearing lying idle talking and all manner of filthiness crawling in every mans tongue heart hands and eyes in the Seas as there is the main reason of it is because there is no prayer used by any of them 3. You are in danger of being overcome with Satan whereas fervent prayer would drive the Devil over-board and where no prayer is the Devil will bee sure there to take up his abode I am confident of it that the Devil hath not better entertainment in all the world again than hee hath in ships amongst the Sailors my reason is this they are such vassals and slaves to that unclean spirit even to rend and tear that sacred Name of God in their mouths besides that infinite mass of wickedness that they commit Matth. 17.21 Howbeit this kinde goeth not out but by prayer and fasting If any one would ask me at what sign the Devil dwells in the world or where the Devils dwelling is I would tell them that it is at the sign of a prayerless family that lives either on Sea or Land The Devils Iune called by the name of an Empty house Mat. 12.44 Every Sea-man that is a prayerless man is one of the Devils lodging houses and the Devil is the Landlord of all such houses Empty houses viz. empty of grace and prayer Prayer and the Devil it seems cannot set their horses together dwell together no more than sweet Spices and Tygers can accord together who will at the smell thereof betake themselves to their legs The Devil could no more indure powerful prayer in ships were it but there than the Tyger can indure the melodious sound of the Trumpet or skipping Squirrel the blowing of the Horn. 4. You are in danger of the wrath of Gods great and sore displeasure when in perilous and boysterous storms that this is a truth consult Jer. 10.25 Pour out thy fury upon the heathen that know thee not and upon the families that call not upon thy Name If you would bee preserved in the Seas let not God finde you prayerless men Prayer is the best cable that is in the Hould or about the ship I and it is the best tackling and the best Anchor that is in any of your ships Prayerless men are open to the judgements of God in the Seas and are liable every hour whilst they are in them to be swallowed up by the mountainous waves Helericus King of the Goths after his conquest proclaimed by sound of Trumpet that none should molest or hurt those that were fled into the Temple of Peter and Paul to pray and worship God God will do thus for you in the Seas his Herauld shall go before you and declare unto the winds that they shall not hurt you than the Seas shall not drown you Rocks split you nor sands take hold of you Prayer is thus priviledged Never was there a ship cast away in the Seas I dare bee bold to say it if there were but some in it godly or grant they
down alive ships and all into the very bottoms When the Idol Apis of Egypt had a mind that Germanicus should bee ruined shee would not take meat from his hand This was the answer that the stormy-wind gave when demanded what was the reason that it had shipwracked so many goodly Vessels at such a time Si precantes eos ventus invenisset nihil contra eos efficere potuisset If I had but found them praying I could not have ruined them So God prayers from your hands That is is not for nought that the Lord Observ 22 sends down such calamitous and perilous storms as hee doth upon those that use the Seas Then they cry c. It was a great dispute betwixt Doctor Philomusus and Learned Philosophus what might bee the reason that Sea-men out-strip all people in rudeness deboystness wildness and ungodliness Philosophus Worthy Sir to answer you exactly ratione causae it cannot otherwise be but they should be a wild a brutish sort of people in respect they live so much out of the Land if they lived on land amongst good people there were some hopes of their reformation and amendment but living amongst vain idle and ungodly men they become like a drop that falls out of the clouds even one and the same with the Ocean Fowls that live on the waters are never known to bee tame viz. your Duck Mallard Goose and Seagul these are all wilde and not like unto your Land Fowl 2. They must needs bee wilde because they never tarried so long on land as to get good nurtriture literature and breeding but their parents pack them out to Sea from small children to seek and work for their living As it is with the Lapwings young so is it with the Sailors Naturalists observe of this Bird that if the shell doth but once crack and break they are of that running mettle that they will force their way out and run with the shells upon their heads The generality of Sea-men run to the Sea before they bee seven eight nine or ten years of age and therefore this is one main reason why they are so rude contemptible and absurd in their manners 3. Their ignorance and brutishness together with their audacious gracelesness arises from their early and timely running out of the land on to the water before they are able to give any account of Faith Scripture and the Ten Commandements 4. The main reason why Sea-men are such notorious and nefarious swearers rises either from their nesciency of that Commandement of the Lords Exod. 20.7 Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain There would be a greater number of Swearers Drunkards and Adulterers amongst the Sailors did not White-Hall keep them down and in awe Surely that is a dreadful house whose lofty Turrets keeps both Sea and Land in subjection I may say of Sailors what Juvenal once said of a people in the times he lived in Non habent ulterius quod nostris moribus addat posteritas Our Sailors flow with those sins in the Seas which former ages were ashamed of and which following posterities will never be able to adde or commit Or otherwise from a want of the fear of God 5. The main reason why Sea-men generally are such filthy and immoderate Drunkards is their want of principles to fortifie themselves against it or otherwise being kept out so long at Sea when they come on land they pour down their cups as Swine do their swill which are of such an avarous gurmundizing nature that they think they can never have enough 6. The main reason why the generality of Sea-men are such extravagant and irregular liars is their deficiency in Scripture-knowledge and also in the strong converting work of Gods grace upon their hearts were that once wrought in them the running issue of their foul-tongues would soon take up and cease Philomusus Worthy Sir you have very fully and pregnantly satisfied mee as to the question I propounded to you for which I thank you should I yet press you to tell mee more of them I know that you could do it but the time not permitting I will not move in this case any further To cast up all shortly Sailors you may conclude that God will one day reckon with you for your unparalleld prophaneness and that storms come not upon you for nought neither are any of you cast away in your ships but by reason of your ungodliness May I not objurgatorily speak it that there goes many ships in the Sea which if they were deeply loaded with the filthiest excrements that lye in the stinkingest Jakes Channels and Boghouses about the City of London would bee far sweeter receptacles for gracious hearts to breathe and walk in than they either are or ever will bee because of that voyce of swearing lying and prophaneness that is amongst them I have met with this passage concerning an Hermite that was taken away in the evening by the conduct of an Angel through a great City to contemplate the great wickedness that was daily and hourly done in it and meeting in the street a Cart that was full laden with the excrements of men the man stopt his nostrils and betook himself to the other side of the street hastening from the sowr carriage all hee could but the Angel kept on his way seeming no whit offended with the ill savour of it and the man much wondring at it followed after him and presently they met a woman gorgeously apparelled perfumed and richly attired well attended on with Torches and Coaches not a few to convey her to an house of Baudry Surely our States Captains and the Merchants Ship-masters have good noses and also good stomachs that can live so contentedly in ships which are meer Hell-houses of swearing and prophaneness If I were a Commander I would either run out of the stinke of swearing or make them to run out of the ship that should take that boldness to make such a filthy funke in it the good Hermite seeing this begun something to bee revived with the fair sight and sweet smell thereof and so begun to stand and gaze upon them but the Angel stopt his nose and hastened away beckning to his companion to retreat from the stench of the Coach telling him withal that that brave Courtezan laden with sin was a far fouler stench and savour to him and before God and his holy Angels than that beastly and stinking Dung-cart hee fled from which was laden with excrements They that are wise will make the Application Observ 23 That great is that stupidity and benummedness that is in Sea-men when they cannot nor will not bee awakened to seek unto God before and until storm and danger comes upon them Then they cry c. And he bringeth them out of their distresses This phrase is joyned to the other by a copulative particle And is
18. Minde well Gods dreadful dealings with others in the Seas how hee lets the winds fall upon them It is reported of a Cable that it spoke on this wise when it broke in a grievous storm and let the ship run upon the sands both to the fatal loss of the ship and all the passengers that were in her Grande peccatorum intus onus me extra fregit The grievous burden of sin within board layd a greater stress upon mee than the storm without did and therefore I was not able any longer to hold the ship and the wicked that were in her from perishing but the Lord bid mee break and let them go for they were not worthy the holding and preserving from the jawes of death You are wise and know how to apply this and the Seas seize upon them insomuch that both ship and men go down into the uninhabited bottoms Is not the news coming to your ears very often that such and such a sail is cast away such and such a ship was split to peeces in the occidental or oriental parts of the Seas Cast up the sad sorrows that others taste of and consider what God hath done for you in sparing you with your lives in those many storms that you have been in and in those many voyages that you have made Who so is wise c. 19. Minde how God hath disposed of the winds and granted unto them a very varying and altering motion insomuch that they blow not alwayes one way The Sea-man makes no doubt of it but if hee have wind to carry him into forein Countries hee shall have a wind to bring him back again which hee might have so ordered and decreed if but been pleased but his providential care for the good of man hath made them changeable whereby they blow one while out of the East and another while out of the West one while out of the North and another while out of the South by which ships are carried out of all parts in the world and so again returned Who so is wise c. 20. Minde how the Lord hath had a tender eye over you in stormy and blowing weather when Pilots have undertaken to carry you into forein harbors promising and protesting to you that there hath been a competent and sufficient profundity of water to swim your ships in Mee thinks this mercy should bee sufficient to make a Sailor melt if hee were composed of marble whose very Physiognomy hath a Magnetick force to ravish souls with the goodness of God and when come to the trial your ships have been run on ground where you have lyen beating for two hours together as if the ship would flye into shivers at every billow that hath rushed upon her and heaved her up and thrown her down yet after some expenditure of time the flood hath heightned and carried you off clear both with ship and lives Who so is wise c. 21. Minde how the Lord hath taken a fatherly care of you when your ships have unexpectly been on fire that it hath entred into the heart of some one or other to go down into the Hold not dreaming of any thing have espied the very initials of fire burning upon the cordage and timber of the ship Ah that I should say of Sea-men as the Rabbins say of the Jews who throw the book of Hester upon the ground before they read it because the name of God is not in it Sailors throw their precious deliverances at their heels by which means it hath been extinguished and the ship and your lives miraculously preserved Who so is wise c. 22. Minde how the Lord undertakes for you when you are come to an Anchor either in France Holland Italy Could I tell of more of your mercies I would for as the Apostle saith I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ I shall say unto you and unto the world that I am not ashamed to tell of the mercies that the Lord bestows upon you in the deeps c. when the wind hath come fair off the land you have taken the greater boldness to anchor under it thinking your selves secure enough but in a little time the wind hath wheeled about and been upon your backs and yet through an over-ruling providence hath favoured you till you have got up your Anchors and freed your selves from the shore by turning it up into the Sea and then the storm hath grown on amain which would have hazzarded your lives if you were in that place at an anchor again Who so is wise c. 23. Minde how the Lord hath favoured you when been coming to an appointed port or station where there hath been a very intricate sailing by reason of those many sand banks that have lain on every hand you steering and holding in stormy weather a direct course upon them and the ships you have been sent too to anchor by considering your danger This inquiry now that I have made of the Lords appearances for you in the great deeps is but small and I have but played the part of the skilful Mathematician who takes special notice of the many parts of the world and is able exactly and distinctly to set them out to any one as they lye in this and the other climate but yet when hee hath done all hee leaves a great space for a terra incognita and that unknown World for ought I knovv may be five times bigger than all the knovvn World Your deliverances are far more than I can tell of have fired some peeces of Ordnance one towards you and another from you which is the usual sign of danger you have thereby altered your course and been delivered Who so is wise c. 24. Minde how the Lord hath troubled some of you that are and have been in command in your sleep by dreams when sailing in the night how that the ship hath been near to land insomuch that you have started out of your beds and gone and looked over the ships head out of fear What was once said of Henry the third King of France that he had not the ingenuity to discern his friends from his foes may bee said of the Mariner in dark nights at Sea had hee not the Lord to direct him and presently got a sight of it whereas both the ship and your lives had been at the stake if the Lord had not looked out for land for you Who so is wise c. 25. Minde how the Lord hath and doth still very frequently help you when in dark and heart-danting evenings how doth hee establish your hearts when there are great and hot disputes amongst your selves about the lights that are upon the Sea-coasts both in this and other Countries insomuch that you have gone on in a great deal of boldness upon such a point and preter-navigated all rocks sands and dangers Who so is wise will c. 26. Minde how the Lord hath looked down
his glorious Majesty hee is able to do all things that are works of power might and strength and are not things against his own nature or things that imply contradiction Reason 2 Because when things are impossible in mans eye then is it the fittest time for the Lord to appear in It is a common saying and a true one That mans extreamity is Gods opportunity Observ 6 That God in his Judgments upon the Seas often times remembers mercy And hee bringeth them c. God is slow to wrath I wish I may not say of the Lords indulgency to profane wretches in the Sea what Sigismund the Emperour used to say of his enemies Is inimicum occidit qui inimico parcit I am affraid Deus non nunquam parcendo saevit That the Lords long sparing will end in rageing and may I so speak hee is seen walking towards sinners in the shooes of Asher which were of ponderous brass Deut. 33.24 25. Observ 7 That the greatest dangers of the Seas and the proudest waves that ever elevated are and should bee no plea for unbelief And hee brings them c. Matth. 14.30 31. When Peter saw the wind boysterous his heart begun to fail him but was hee not reproved for his distrusting of the Lord Poop-lantern ship-covering and yard-arm-rising waves should not daunt and discourage faith in God Were the Seas in a storm as high as the mountains of Merionethshire in Wales whose hanging and kissing tops come so close together that the shepherds sitting on their several mountains may very audibly stand and discourse together but if they would go to one another they must take the pains to travel many miles Sailors should not bee apalled and terrified Dangers are faiths Element and in them it lives and thrives best Such was the high-raised valour of Luther that when hee was to go to the City of Worms they told him of strange things Faith like the Ivie the Hop the Woodbine which have a natural instinct in them to cling lay hold upon the stronger Trees laies hold on God in time of danger as many will doe fresh-water travellers at Sea but quoth Luther if all the Tiles that bee upon every House in the Town were devils they should not scare mee Sailors should have the like courage in storms which one had when in a great straight Certa mihi spes est quod vitam qui dedit idem Et velit possit suppeditare cibum Good hearts may say to the Sea when in a storm what Luther said to his enemies Impellere possunt sed totum prosternere non possunt crudeliter me tractare possunt sed non extirpare Haec est fides credere quod non vides dentes nudare sed non devorare occidere me possunt sed in totum me perdere non possunt Faith will put your heads into Heaven and your ships into an Harbour when in a storm it will set you on the top of Pisgab with Moses and descry the promised Land when you may come to bee denied the sight of Land in storms 1. Great Faith is seen in this as much as any one thing whatsoever that it both can and will beleeve in God as a man may say with reverence whether God will or no it will beleeve in an angry God in a killing God and in a drowning God Job 15.10 Great Faith is not easily shaken 2. Great Faith is never clearer seen than when in the midst of souzing storms and dangers there is great confidence and strength of heart in the soul at such times Observ 8 That God will have every thing wrested from him by prayer And hee bringeth c. Good Sea-men should play the part of Daedalus Templum Cybelis Deorum matris non manibâ—es sed precibus solummodo aperiebatur The gates of Cybeles Temples could not bee opened by hands but prayer quickly threw them open who when hee could not escape by way upon Earth went by way of Heaven and that is the way of prayer Five Motives to put Sea-men upon Prayer 1. Solemnly consider that in the creature there is nothing but emptiness and helplesness 2. Solemnly consider that you cannot have any hopes of winning ought from God but by prayer The Champions could not wring an apple out of Milo's hand by strong hand but a fair maid by fair means got it presently 3. Solemnly consider of God what hee is whom you serve naturally no other but goodness it self Nothing animated Benhadad so much as this that the Kings of Israel were merciful Kings It was said of Charles the great I would to God I could say so of every Tarpowling that goes in the Salt-waters that hee delighted so much in prayer that Carolus plus cum Deo quam cum hominibus loquitur That hee spake more and oftner to and with God than hee did with men Flectitur iratus voce rogante Deus And nothing encouraged Titus Vespatian the Emperour's Subjects so much as this that hee did nunquam dimittere tristem never send any away sorrowful 4. Solemnly consider how many in the Seas go upon the very same errand that you go on to him and mind how they speed and are carried securely out of all their distresses 5. Solemnly consider what Prayer is to God hee loves it Let mee hear thy voice for it is comly 6. Call to mind your former experiences did you ever pray in a storm but you fared the better by it Consider what cases you have been heard in That servent Prayer will prevail with Observ 9 God in the greatest storms I would all the States Tarpowlings were of James the Just's principle of whom Eusebius tells us Genua ejus in morem cameli obditrata sensum contactus amiserunt That his knees were hardned like the Camels by his frequent kneeling to Prayer Prayer is Optimus dermientium cuslos certissima navigautium salus tutissimum viatoribus scutum The slâ—epers best keeper the Sailors surest safety the Travellers protecting Shield And hee brings them out c. Witness the Mariners calm Jonah 1. and witness Christs disciples deliverance in the storm Impartial fire that comes from above has been often times seen to spare yeelding objects and to melt resisting metal to pass by lower roofs and to strike upon all high-Towered pinnacles I wish that our Sailors were as much given to Prayer as Anna the daughter of Phannel of whom it was said that shee never departed out of the Temple but served God night and day in prayer and fasting I wish it were the resolution of them that use the Seas to do as Ambrose the Bishop of Millain did when news came to him that Justina the mother of Valentinian intended to banish him hee told them that hee would never run away but if they had any purpose to kill him they should at any time find him in the Church praying for himself and for his people 1. Vse of Comfort For
all that fear the Lord that when they cry they have a God to hear them when they call they have a God to answer them when they need they have a God to help when they mourn they have a God to pitty them when ready to bee overwhelmed with the great waves of the Sea they have a God to defend them So that I may say of such that go in the Seas blessed are the people that bee in such a case yea happy are all they that have the Lord for their God Psal 144.15 who is easily prevailed withall by Prayer That in tempestuous and ship-hazzarding Observ 10 storms it is every mans duty to stand still Charles the fifth gave the Emblem Vlterius stand noâ— still but go on further But in this case us amplius procedas and look up to God for life and for Salvation And hee bringeth c. If the Lord must bring ships out of their distresses then let Sea-men look up unto the Lord for deliverance and trust not too much to their own art and skill Vicount Hugo de Millains motto was on a ship without tackling to stay it with In filâ—ntio spe fortitudinem My strength is in silence and in hope Haedera undemis invenit quo se alliget 〈◊〉 Ivie being weak upon a time looked upon the Elme and spoke on this wise I am not able to stand of my self pray let mee lean on you Sailors you are not able to save your selves in storms lean upon your God That God is the great Saviour and deliverer Observ 11 of mankind Sailors are evermore hurling out of their mouths the demiculverin shot of their own praises Decempedalia sesquipedalia verba You shall seldom hear them say that God ever delivered them out of a storm in and out of all their storms and Tempests And hee bringeth c. The sweet singer of Israel quickly spies out the Sea-mans deliverer But this is more than many a beetle-headed Sailor can do Every eie observes not the stupendious and astonishing mercies of the Lord. Dextra mihi Deus est said a profane man my right-hand was my God or else I had lain my bones in the danger I was surrounded with Another said Haec ego feci non fortuna but never prospered after Wee see that Nebuchadnezzar trusted in his princely City Babel and that Babel became a Babel of confusion to him Xerxes trusted in his multitude of men and his multitude incumbered him Darius trusted to his wealth and his wealth sold him Eumenes in the valour of his Regiment called the Silver-shields and his Silver-shields sold him and delivered him up to Autigonus Roboam in his young Counsellors and his young Counsellors lost him the ten Tribes Caesar in his old Senatours and the Senate conspired against him Domitian in his Guard and his Guard betrayed him Adrian in his Physicians and his Physicians poysoned him so that the proverb ran Multitudo Medicorum perdidit Adrianum Imperatorem Observ 12 That although men at Sea in their dangerous storms seem as it were both forgotten and forsaken yet does the Lord at last very frequently make it evident unto them and to the world that hee does not forget them And hee brings c. Observ 13 That the evil and unworthy deservings of men at Sea does not alwaies interrupt the course of Gods goodnesse towards them And hee brings c. Vers 29. Hee maketh the storm a calm So that the waves therof are still THe words offer unto us two things to bee considered of 1. The Agent 2. The Act or the Effect 1. The Agent that is the Lord in these words Hee maketh the storm a calm 2. The Act or the Effect So that the waves thereof are still That the cessation of all storms and Observ 1 Tempests is by through and from an irresistable and an uncontroulable omnipotentiary power that is in God Hee maketh the storm a calm c. Xerxes finding Helespont to be a little unsmooth would needs throw Irons into it to fetter it so impatient Or if you will take the point thus That God is the great allayer and principal calmer of the raging winds and Seas Philosophers tell us that the winds are allayed several waies 1. When the air is over-burdened troubled and softned by vapours contracting themselves into rain 2. When vapours are dispersed and subtilized whereby they are mixed with the air and agree fairly with it and they live quietly then is the wind allayed 3. When Vapours or Fogs are exalted and carried up on high so that they cause no disturbance until they be thrown down from the middle Region of the air or do penetrate it 4. When vapours gathered into clouds are carried away into other Countries by high-blowing winds so that for them there is peace in those Countries which they fly beyond 5. When the winds blowing from their nurseries languish through their long travels finding no new matter to feed on then does their vehemency abate and expire 6. Rain oftentimes and for the most part does allay winds especially those which are very stormy Observ 2 That the insensiblest of creatures have an ear unto their makers speech It is said of Caesar that hee could with one word quel the discontentedest motion that ever rise in his Army What is the Lords power then in the stilling of the winds and do out of an obediential subjection yeeld to his will to carry on his purposes and designs whether of good or evil of preservation or of destruction towards a people He maketh the storm a calm c. If the Lord speak unto the winds they have an ear to hear him if to the Sea the Sea is attentive to listen to his divine pleasure and bee it good or bee it evil they are both of them loyal and fiducial Souldiers under Heavens Flag or Standard to execute his pleasure Jonah 1.4 Observ 3 That God can when hee sees it fit preserve a people from ruine in and after an incredible unlikely unexpected and miraculous manner Hee maketh c. Acts 27.20 When all hopes of being saved failed the Mariners then began the Lord to stir for them The Lord oftentimes keeps his hand for a dead lift That the great waters stilness and Observ 4 peaceableness at any time is by and from Gods calling off the flying and Sea-disturbing winds Hee maketh c. That it is the Lord that makes changes Observ 5 of conditions in the Sea and gives calmness out of his indulgent kindness and by and by storms for the abuse of the mercies of his calms Hee maketh c. The Seas are quickly alarm'd and beat up into dreadful waves even in all quarters at the commands of the Lord and shall puzzle and torment wicked men as much as those Ciniphes that bred in terra Egypti de fimo muscae quaedam sunt minutissimae inquietissimae inordinatè volitantes in oculos irruentes non permittentes homines quiescere
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
they have seen their fellow creatures to fal and miscarry in and to avoid building those places which they formerly built in both in Towns and Cities in the time of pestilent and contagious years When you hear of ship-wracks bee affraid and bethink with your selves why may not our turn bee the next if our lives bee not amended whilst storms are a brewing in the skies and are at hand to come upon you it is a special piece of wisdom to send out an Embassie of prayer for conditions of peace in a way of sincere turning unto the Lord. The sins and punishments of others should bee your instructions your afflictions your admonitions their woes should bee your warnings ther 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 should bee your 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 their sufferings your Schoolmasters and remembrancers 4. Look upon the shipwrack of others with an impartial and speedy enquiry and examination into your own hearts whether such upon whom the severe vengeance of the Lord did so heavily fall upon What was Jeroms observation of the wicked upon Land is mine upon the Sea Bonus est Deus domos ergo eorum qui erant defixi in fecibus suis destruit nec eos in leprosis domibus habitaere permittit God being God cannot but destroy the dwellings of them that are bad were greater sinners than your selves ask your consciences that question which the Prophet once propounded and put forth unto the Israelites Are there not with mee even with mee the same sins against the Lord Ransack your hearts and you will quickly finde out the Jonah for which storms came down upon you therefore hide not your transgressions and abominations from the Lord which puts him I am confident upon the ruining and making so many publick examples as there bee and are to bee seen at this day A seeing eye may soon spell out the language of God in the casting away of ships Jer. 32.31 For this City bath been to mee a provocation of mine anger c. So the ships I have cast away This is the language of a sunk ship Oh man thou seest what I now am thou knowest what I have been I know those that use the Seas are as apt to say that to themselves which the Prophet complains of as Israel was to themselves Isa 28.15 Wee have made a Covenant with death and with hell are wee at an agreement when the over-flowing scourge shall pass through it shall not come unto us how many voyages I have gone in safety hitherto over the Seas now think with thy self what thou mayest come to bee 5. Look upon the ships you both know to bee cast away in such and such storms and also upon those whose Top-masts you see at this day standing in the Seas above the waters with an humble thankfulness not as rejoycing in those publick miseries but as blessing the unwearied patience and undeserved sparing and prolonging mercies of the Lord towards you Ah Sirs What an hard-heartedness is there amongst many of you for though you see wracks of ships upon sands and the Masts of sunk ships standing some in the East some in the West some in the North and other some in the South you can sail by them and over the graves of the dead in the Seas and never bee affected with them nor as much as say the Lord bee thanked that I was not in that Vessel or that it fell not so out with mee in those many voyages that I have made What was writ upon the Tomb of that great Assyrian Monarch punished by God for his impieties the same may well be writ upon every sunk ship in the Seas 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Look upon mee and learn to bee godlier What a mercy is it that you that equallize those in penalty of drowning whom you have far out-stripped and exceeded in sinning should bee preserved from day to day 6. Give your assent and faith to the truth of Gods judgements upon the ships that are broke in storms What is said in Exod. 15.10 may be well writ upon all cast away ships Thou didst blow with thy wind the Sea covered them they sank as lead in the mighty waters bee sure that you make this construction of every ruined ship that it was for some deserved sin or other It is and ever hath been the Devils policy and subtil contrivancy both in this and indeed in all ages to strike out the credulity of this truth out of the mindes of men I have read of Porphyry in what Authour I cannot for the present well tell one of Satans fine spun Sophisters and cunning agents that to overturn the miraculousness of the Israelites passage through the Red Sea would say that Moses took the advantage of the low ebbing water and so went thorow safely which the Egyptians not understanding came in with the flood and were drowned by the exuberancy of the waters Strabo also undertakes to weaken Gods raining down Hell out of Heaven upon Sodome and Gomorrah by saying that those Cities were situated on sulphurious soils which were full of holes out of which fire breaking forth consumed them and thus hee attributes the destruction of these Cities to natural causes It is a special act of mercy that God lets not all the Devils out of hell upon those that use the Seas as is supposed some of them were by Origen when the four corners of Jobs house in which his children was was thrown down to the ground It is a wonder that one Devil runs not up into the Main top another into the Fore-top another to the Helm one into the Mizon-top and another on to the Boltsprit and other some into the Howld to pull the Ships you sail in into a thousand peeces for your wickednesse And thus do many Sea-men their lost ships unto the cause of this and that Commonwealths and Kingdomes have their falls and periods let Athens Sparta Babylon Nineveh and Carthage bee witnesses who have at this day no other fences but Paper-walls to keep up their memories Now what have been the causes of these subversions most men are ignorant the Epicure will ascribe it to Fortune the Stoick to Destiny Plato Pythagoras and Bodin to Number Aristotle to an asymmetry and disproportion in the members Copernicus to the motion of the Center of excentrick Circles Cardanus and the major part of Astrologers to Stars and Planets but the Oracles of the Lord speak in other language that sin is the grand cause both of ships States and Commonwealths ruines You are apt to lay the blame of your miscarrying in the Seas upon the Pilot What one sayes of a Cities overthrow the same will I say of cast-away ships Civitatis eversio est morum non murorum casus A Cities overthrow is sooner wrought by lewd lives than weak walls upon the Master upon the Commander of the ship and not upon that abominable weight of sin that is in ships It is every way
people naked and being asked the reason why hee said hee could not tell vvhat apparrel to put upon them You are thankless to your God for your Sea mercies I must bee forced to do as the Musitioner who evermore strikes most and oftenest upon the sweetest note in his song the Paven or Galliard brevity is the Card I must sail by in the Sea unless I were in some warm study upon Land to write and expatiate my self in The uses are two 1. Of Reproof 2. Of Exhortation 1. Of Reproof Is it thus then that your great and many mercies do cal for thanksulness at your hands then let me tell you that this point looks sourely upon you even as Diana's image in Chios did upon all those that came into her Temple with a lowring and contracted countenance but looked blithe and smiled on them when they went forth Ah Sirs consider what you do you with-hold Gods right from him Will any Land-lord bear with his Tennant that shuffels him off from year to year Mariners like the fish Borchora of vvhom it is said that shee does devour many fish one after another but at last is met vvith taken so do they their Sea-mercies but God vvill meet vvith them if they repent not of it and pays him never a farthing Gentlemen consider this God will not alwaies bear with your ingratitude Pharaoh escaped many plagues and judgments as you do ship-wracks storms and Tempests which the rest of the Egyptians smarted under and so may you many storms whilst others perish and are denied to bee saved either by planks or boats but what was Pharaoh kept for was hee not reserved for the Sea to bee made a prey on in the great deeps so may you even thousands of you for ought I know out of all your deliverances out of storms bee reserved for the next to bee swallowed up in The Sodomites were rescued out of the hands of Chedorlaomer but were after consumed with fire from heaven and thus the wicked have many deliverances which they had in a manner as good bee without for they turn into curses and not blessings when they are not sanctified Will not the Lord say to you when you come into distresses Jer. 22.21 I spake unto thee in thy prosperity but thou saidst I will not hear this hath been thy manner from thy youth that thou obeyedst not my voyce I will deliver you no more for you have been unthankfull under all 2. Of Exhortation What I speak to you good people I speak to my own soul and the Lord speak it to us all let mee beg of you who have been delivered even out of a little Million of perils by Sea to express your thankfulness to that God that hath delivered you even to his praise in all societies that you either go amongst or converse with Ah how near drowning have you been at such a time how near killing at another time how near being lost Your condition hath been many and many a time like the tree the Poet fingâ— of which bore golden boughs Quaquantum vertice ad auras Aethereas tantum radice in tartara tendit Virg. whose root was just so much beneath the earth as the top was in height above it Your ships were hard by drowning and of never being heard of more many a time and is not all this worthy of thanks to that God from whence you had his care over you to protect you Observ 2 That there is no duty that man is more dull and backward to and in than in the praysing Si ingratum dixeris omnia dixeris let me but hear of a man accused for unthankfulness and you need say no more Senec. and celebrating of the Name of the Lord. Oh that men would praise the Lord c. Mee thinks there is a great deal of dead-heartedness upon the Sea amongst men as to the performance of this very duty Masters are dead Captains are dead Lieutenants Boatswains Gunners Carpenters Sea-men Tarpowlings and all that use the Seas are not so much affected with their deliverances as they should bee He deserves to lose his Garden that will not afford his Landlord a flower I have read of the heathen that when they had escaped shipwracks at any time they would hang up their votivas tabulas to Neptune as a testimony of their thankfulness What will you do Sirs for your God Sirs If you would praise God take these ensuing Directions along with you In some tenures people do not refuse to do their homage though it be but the rendring of a Red rose or a Pepper-corn 1. Labour for humility of heart Gen. 32.10 I am not worthy of the least of all thy mercies and of all the truth which thou hast shewed unto thy servant A proud spirit cannot bee thankful unto God a haughty minde is never thankful unto God for any mercy bestowed 2. Labour for a due consideration of the greatness of the blessing Will a Picture continue that is drawn upon an Ice will it not fade and melt away when the Ice upon which it is drawn thaws 3. Take all advantages of praising God Jam. 5.13 when you are upon the merry pin then praise the Lord I mean cheerful Praise God in publick Many of you are as unthankful for your Sea-mercies as Bajazet the great Turk was for his being made so great a Monarch who when asked if ever hee had thanked God for it he said that he never so much as once thought of it in all his life time then but just you should smart for it quoth Tamerlain and praise him in private 4. Strive against all hindrances whatsoever bee it sluggishness backwardness or whatsoever 5. If you would praise the Lord do it speedily 6. Do it sincerely 7. Largely 8. Freely 9. For the least mercy 10. Constantly not like the new Moon which shines all the beginning part of the night and then leaves all the hinder part in darkness Motives to praise God are these 1. Hereby you will honour God much 2. It is a gainful kinde of trading with God the husbandman delights to sow his seed in and upon fruitful soils where hee knows his increase will yeeld sixty or an hundred fold There be seven sorts of people that I would put upon the praising of God for Sea-mens deliverances 1. Their Wives 2. Their Parents 3. Their Friends 4. Their Brethren 5. Their Sisters 6. Their Acquaintance 7. Gods people The meeting of Friends after a long Voyage at Sea should bee like that of Joseph Gen. 46. And hee fell on his neck and wept c. They are not lost praises that are given unto God 3. It is a most noble act of Religion to praise God 4. Giving of thanks to God is more than to pray 5. If you will bee much in the praising of the Lord you will bee under much joy and comfort Observ 3 That the praysing of the Name of the great and
most high God for delivering mercies is not onely a very acceptable duty with God but also the readiest way to obtain mercy in the like exigency and necessity again Oh that men would praise the Lord Psal 50.23 Who so offereth praise glorifieth mee and then it follows Hee that orders his conversation aright to him will I shew the salvation of God Munera crede mihi placant hominesque Deosq This Scripture now proves it to bee an acceptable performance in the sight of God and that such as give God the most and best of praises they shall have the greatest and the sweetest salvations Improve Neptunum accusat iterum qui naufragium fecit Hee is very injurious to Neptune that complains of being shipwracked when unthankfulness is the cause Alexander the Great by burning Frankincense frankly and freely to the gods gained by conquest the whole Kingdome of Arabia where all the sweet Aromatick trees do grow Ah Sirs you do not know how you might prosper at Sea would you but bee liberal in your praisings of God and thanksgivings to him The people in the Low Countries by giving the Stork leave to build and nest it in their houses to requite the house-keepers shee comes every year at her appointed time Wee read of small or no rain that falls many times in divers parts of Africa and the grand cause is supposed to bee the sandy nature of the soil from whence the Sun can draw no vapours or exhalations which ascending from other parts in great abundance resolve themselves into kinde benign showers refreshing and helping of the earth that yeeldeth none and this is the reason many times why God poures not down his blessings and benefits in such an abundance as sometimes hee hath been wont to do because your hearts are as dry and barren as the barren grounds and sands of Africa for if vapours of melting prayers tears prayses and thanksgivings go not up to heaven mercies will soon bee stopt in their passage down If Sea-men were not so much behinde hand with God in the tribute of praise and good life God would soon lay a charge upon all his creatures both in heaven and in earth that they should pay their tribute unto man the Sun his heat Ah Sirs I am afraid that many in the Sea do vitam gentilem agere sub nomine Christiano live even Turks under the name of Christians The Sailor sometimes is like a Rubrick or Sunday letter very zealously red and all the week after you may write his deeds and his unthankfulness unto his God for Sea deliverances in black the Sea his calmness the Winds their gentleness the Moon her light the Stars their influences the Clouds their moysture the Sea and Rivers their Fish the Land her Fruits the Mines their Treasures c. And when neglected God shuts up the windows of heaven and locks up the treasuries of his bounty and so lets Winds and Seas rage and roar and the creatures gnash and grin their teeth at a people for their ingratitude Ingratitude is a sin supposed to taint the very influences of the Stars it dries up the Clouds infects the very Air makes Winds terrible and boysterous blasts the very fruits of the earth Cyprian attributes the great dearth in his time to the want of thankfulness and truly I shal attribute the many ships that are cast away unto their unthankfulness unto their God for had they been more thankful more holy and humble for those storms God delivered them out of they had never gone so sadly to the pot as they have done Here is quoth Cyprian a very great and general sterility or barrenness of the fruits of the earth and what is the reason of it because there is such a sterility of righteousness and purity Men complain now a dayes that springs are not full Sea-men deal with God as the Heathen who would when they had served their torns upon their gods as Prometheus c. put them off with beasts skins stuffed with straw If they get but out of the storm they never look behinde them who sate upon the floods all the time to deliver them themselves not so healthfull nor the Seas so calm as formerly they have been nor the Winds so quiet and peaceable nor the showers so frequent the earth so fruitful nor the heavens so obsequious unto them as they have been to serve their pleasure and natural profit to God the creatures are obedient and on his errands they go Deu. 28.38 Thou shalt carry much seed out into the field and shalt gather but little in for the locust shall consume it It is sin that makes the Sea so dangerous and so dreadful sin that makes the heavens as iron over head and the earth to grow so full of thorns and brambles But to proceed I shall not adventure pluribus morari but rather bee tanquam Canis ad Nilum in a restless Sea where I can neither hold my pen in my hand nor keep my paper and ink upon board scarce The Arguments why Sea-men should praise God are briefly these 1. Because God had such a special Reason 1 eye and provident care over you in the preserving of you in all the unlikeliest and irrecoverablest dangers and calamities that you have been exercised withall in the Seas 2. Because God did so much for Reason 2 you which hee would not do for others That when God hath delivered men out Observ 4 of their Sea-streights and calamities Sceva told all his friends that at the siege of Dyrrachium where he so long resisted Pompeys Army that he had two hundred and twenty Darts sticking in his Shield Densamque tulit in pectore Sylvam Ah set your deliverances before people it is their duty not onely to praise God for his goodnesses towards them but also to set the fruit of those mercies before others to taste of Oh that men would praise the Lord c. Vers 37. Let them exalt him in the Congregation Portus Olympiaca vocem acceptam septies reddit If any knock or speak at the Gate or Portal of Olympus it returns a sevenfold Eccho of the knock or speech Your mercies should make you speak Sirs Observ 5 That although a man hath nothing to speak of Gods wonderful deliverances in the Seas but what is known unto others as well as to himself yet is it a part of Gods praise and of his thankfulness to make Gods works known and the continual matter of his talk and discourse Oh that men would praise the Lord Psal 105.2 Talk yee of all his wonderful works Talk not of one or two of some of them but of all of them which you have seen and known done and wrought for you in the Seas Observ 6 That freedome from perils in the Seas and injoyment of life are two mercies that call for many thanks at the hands of those that go down into them He that hath but a subjects purse may have
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
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
instruction and I fear perish for want of it and also of knowledge I took the pains the Lord knows my heart upon no other account but to doe the Souls of those good that goe down into the Seas and it shall bee my prayer perpetually that God would prosper this poor and imbecil Peece to every one of their Souls certainly that God that put me upon the dressing of this wholsom and savoury Dish for them will blesse it to them Which that it may be shall be the hearty and constant prayer of mee for you and them that the ever-living all powerful and most gracious God would fire and enflame your hearts and theirs in all the duties of holinesse that both you that sit on Land and they that goe to Sea may find his favour and such acceptance as may sweeten your Souls and theirs in the saddest seasons So prayeth he that is Yours willing to serve you in Soul affairs DANIEL PELL Study at my Lady Hungarfords in Hungarford House upon the Strand London May 4. 1659 Reader IT is impossible that any Book should come from the Press void of Errata's provided thou knowest what belongs to Printing therefore what thou findest amiss in much meekness correct for it is neither the fault of the Author nor the minde of the Printer THE PROOEMIUM I Question not but that the gallant Englishmans rare Navigating Art and deserving Science is an Art out-stripping Arts. Who will deny but Ignoramus's that this Art carries the Poop-lanthorn or the high-hoised Maintop-light and many others for their inferiority and indignity come on Stern If any will go about to set up their own what would such do but Splendente Sole lucernam accendere light up dim burning Torches or Candles in the shining Sun Who will say that this pre-excelling Art is not an Art of exquisite Excellency Rarity Mirability and Ingenuity Who will say that this Art brings not in fair Engleterra's Wealth her Silks her Wines her Sugars Spices Stuffs her Silver and her Gold besides many other innumerable and unreckonable Commodities Whence came Solomon to and by all his Gold Precious Stones Silver Ivory Apes Peacocks Almug-trees was it not by shipping He built himself a Fleet of Ships 1 King 9.26 27 28. which were employed and sent about to that very end and purpose to fetch unto Jerusalem the Gold of Ophir and those other Barbary Commodities And how should we come by the Silver Mynes in Hispaniola and those inestimable Riches that lye in great abundance in those remote Occidental and Oriental parts of the World if we built not Ships and sent them out unto them The Riches that are in other Nations and Countries will not come to as we must go down to Sea to them and for them if we would have them These Lads are Masters oâ— the Seas and the greatest Princes that ever crossed the salt waters They beat their enemies in the Seas make them run as fast before them as ever the Bezar ran or runs before the dogs of whom it s said Cupiens evadere damno Testiculorum adeo medicatum intelligit inguen rather than lose his life he bites them off his stones when an enemy is pursued out of fear goes overboard his Cask next his Chests and then his Boat or any thing that may but lighten his vessel to escape his hungry followers Who will say that this Art under God is not Englands safety from Forinsical Invasions If not let that Octogesimus Octavus Mirabilis Annus speak in which was that desperate attempt that the Spaniard made against this Nation under God that little shipping that was then at that time in England was wonderfully instrumental to scatter and break to pieces their long hatched and contrived purposes Oh England England write this and all thy other deliverances from those dreadful fulminations of Rome in aereis memoriae tuae foliis in the brassy leaves of a never-dying memory write them down I 'll say again with the Pen of a Diamond What would have become of England if we look but into nearer times viz. in our late Wars with Holland and the French if we had not had warlike Ships out at Sea both to have boxed them and broke their bones Under God this shipping that is in England has been instrumental to keep the Inhabitants of our Nation in their Possessions Houses Lands and Livings which otherwise would have been most miserably hazarded and prey'd upon ere this day by a multitude of truculent and unmerciful Wretches It s said of Constantinople that it is sufficiently fortified with three sorts of Bulwarks 1. With Wood 2. With Stones 3. With Bones By Wood is meant their warlike Ships which they keep out at Sea in the defence of the City and their Sea-Port Towne By Stones is meant their thick and impenetrable Walls which is round about the City And by Bones is understood an invincible Number of stout Sword-handling men to fight any Enemy that shall or dare oppose them Such a threefold Bulwark as this is the onely way to keep up England in a flourishing estate and posture and that in despight both of the Devil and all its Adversaries Our warlike Ships are the best Walls and Sea-Port Castles that be about the whole Nation of England keep but them up and bid a button for the World Our warlike Ships at Sea are to us in England what those Canes Allatrantes sive Stridentes Anseres were to the Romans which kept their Capitol by whose barking and galling if any attempted those Treasury-Houses Give but chase unto one of these Coast-creeping Pirats and alas he is but a Virfugiens hand moratur lyrae strepitum he will not stay to dance after the Musick of a lower Tyre of our Ordnance but runs from us like the frantick Satyr who had no sooner blown his horn but ran away amazed in the sound of it the Citizens were presently up in Arms. Englands safety lies in keeping out their Gun-barking and Gun-fighting Ships upon the Seas which scare our Enemies more than if the Devil were amongst them Nay they are as much terrified at the sight of one of our Warlike Frigots as ever Brutus was with that Malus Genius that disquieted him the night before he died Nay they are as fearful of them as ever the Burgundians were of every Thistle they did see which they thought was a Lance and every Tree a Man and every Man a Devil Every great Ship the Pirate sees in the Sea he takes for a Statesman of War Non ita Bovem Argus Argus never kept his transformed Io nor that watchful Dragon the Golden-fleece nor Cerberus the coming in of Hell so narrowly as our vigilant and watchful warlike Frigots do the Coasts and Shipping of this Land and Nation And indeed there is great necessity that they should act and bestir themselves with a Juno's-like jealousie a Danae's custody and an Argus's vigilancy for had they as many hands as Bryareus