round about him Now if these Tongue-libelling-lads in the Sea would look into Rev. 21.8 and pause a while upon that Scripture they would finde such sharp tart and sowre sawce that they would never love lying more I dare say there bee thousands that have been of your imployment that are now roaring as so many damned miscreants in hell that feel the verity of this Scripture which they would never beleeve nor credit when they were alive in the world as you now are Let God Christ and Scripture then bear and carry the highest and strictest rule and command over you in your hearts and consciences and not the Devil Eph. 4.25 Putting away lying speak every man the truth with his neighbour c. Woe bee unto you if this sin and your lives end together What one sayes of the Pea and Turky-cock I will say of the Sailor Quodvis rubrum gallo-pavos animat Every thing that is red inrageth the Peacock Make the application Sailors are much what of Lysanders moral the Lacedemonian of whom it s said that he was of such an implacable disposition that nothing could appease his malice but the death of the person with whom he was angry whereupon grew the Proverb That Greece could not bear two Lysanders And truly I would have Captains to say that our ships shal harbour no such Sailors 4. Choler passion and anger If I had a desire or that I did know of any that were desirous to see these three feral passions in their proper raging and predominating colours I would either go or send them unto the Sea amongst the Mariners and there they should bee sure in two or three hours expence of time on board with them to behold them both in their faces tongues and hands as so many sparks of fire in barrels of Gun-powder These are the three Faggots or ingredients that a Sea-man is made of There is scarce one in ten thousand of them but hee hath fire and powder in the mouth of him and the sight of this drives all good people away from holding any society or converse with them and makes it an intolerable penance to bee near them or within the smoak of their Chymnies God pitty you and in his good time bestow another manner of heart and spirit upon you than is to bee seen amongst you Therâ— is the greatest weakness of spirit and unmanliness of minde to bee seen amongst the Sailors of all the people under the heavens again What argues the disgrace and inferiority of the understanding part more which is the noblest power of the soul than passion Prov. 17.27 A man of understanding is of an excellent spirit In the Hebrew he is of a cool spirit The lowest men of parts are oftentimes the passionatest men But that now this unclean spirit may bee clubd down and kicked over-board out of all the Navy ships in England I would present all the Sailors in the Seas with these ensuing Consectaries and I dare promise them that the practising of them will procure them much peace comfort quietness whilst and in what ships soever they sail in The main reason why Sailors are so contentious and quarrelsome one with another is because they are either ignorant of their carriage and behaviour one towards another or else in respect of trivial and frivolous provocations that arise amongst themselves which wisdome would soon hurl out of doors and dash out of countenance 1. Sailor Sailor Immensae virtutis est non sentire â—e esse percussum It will vvell become thee if thou meerest vvith vvrong on shipbâ—â—â— to take notice of them If you would then live peaceably and comfortably on board your ships Trample under foot all delicate niceness of bearing wrongs If thou wilt not do thus go not to Sea for thou wilt meet with them Where there is an impetuous impatiency and an effeminate facility in men they will be moved at every trifle It is a special peece of manly wisdome to be able to pass by many petty provocations to wrath and anger without notice taking And it is no less also to digest the witless brawlings and clamours of silly foolish irrational and head-strong men with the same patience that Chirurgions will the injuries and blows of mad and frantick men When an inconsiderate fellow had stricken Cato in the bath and afterwards cried him mercy he replied I remember not that thou didst strike me Tu linguae ego aurium Dominus said one to another that railed on him I cannot be master of thy tongue but I will be master of mine own ears S. Paul Act. 2.8 shook off the affronts injuries offered unto him with as much ease as once he did the Viper One having made a long â—…ous discourse to Aristotle at last pleaded his prolixity to whom Aristotle replyed that he was not tedious unto him because he gave no heed to any thing he said 2. If you would live peaceably and comfortably on board your ships Trample under foot all credulity and lightness in beleeving whatsoever comes first to hand and ear If thou wilt not do thus never look to live quietly on board any ship thou shalt set thy foot into To beleeve every word tale and tattle thou hearest is the onely way to set thee on a fire Tale-bearers whisperers and Tongue-slanderers are the Devils bellows 3. If thou wouldest live peaceably and comfortably on board any ship Out a doors with all curiosity itching humour and needless inquisitiveness to know and hear of every thing that is done or said My reason is this If a man bee thus disposed hee shall finde matter enough to fill his gall and set his Irascible part on a burning fire That man shall never want wrath and woe that lets the doors of his ears stand wide open to listen to every one I have read of Antigonus a most famous Prince how that hee did when hee heard two unworthy subjects of his speaking ill of him in the night near his Tent door willed them to go further off lest the King should hear them That man that is of this temper is the best to pass let him bee at Sea or on Land 4. If thou wouldest live peaceably and comfortably on ship-board Out of doors with all timerousness of being wronged or contemned by others in word deed or countenance Let not the Sun go down upon your wrath Eph. 4.28 but many Sea-men suffer the Sun to go down rise again upon their anger yea again and again before they will part with it But let that man know that lets the Sun go down upon his wrath he takes the Devil to bed with him I have observed it that many men do needlesly fret and perplex themselves when they see but two talking or smiling and now and then casting an eye upon them they presently conceit within themselves that they are their discourse and the object of their scornful observation This argues great weakness and folly
is this there is such swearing cursing and profaning of the holy Name of the Lord amongst you that a gracious heart that goes in ships with you would think that he were rather in an hell conversing with Devils than Men and Christians How ought all our Sailors in the time of storms to say with the Church unto their God Lam. 3.40 Let us search and try our waies and turn again to the Lord. Jonah was searched out in the storm and Achan when the Camp was troubled no better way or course to pacify an angry God than to seek for all that filthiness that is upon and in your hearts and spirits and so to throw it over board and take out the new and sacred lesson of piety and uprightness of heart and spirit 14. To put the godly upon the growth Reason 14 in holiness and make their hearts the better Storms are gods pruning-knives Corrupt blood must be drawn out before the Leech falls off and all carnal filthiness parted with before the storm end Boysterous storms are Gods people's kitchin-scullions to scour off their rust their dross canker to let Sea-men bleed withall for they have a great deal of corrupt blood in their veins and though they carry Chirurgions with them at Sea yet God is their best Physician This course God takes that they may bring forth more fruit Joh. 15.2 And every branch that beareth fruit hee purgeth it that it may bring forth more fruit Flowers have a sweeter savour after a shower than ever they had before so a gracious soul a brokener heart after a storm than in a calm Wheat under the flail parts with its chaff Gold when put in the fire loses it dross Reason 15 15. To put people into a greater fear of sinning and offending that have smarted so much for sin It is a common Proverb That the burnt child dreads the fire It was Job's resolution Chap. 34.32 If I have done iniquity I will do no more I think it would bee the Sea-mans greatest wisdom not onely to say so but to have a care of offending God who is able to hurl the Seas into dreadful waves and raging surges about his ears Reason 16 16. To keep people from back-sliding If you should alwaies have fair weather at Sea The game hunting dogs of Cicily lose their sport oftentimes by reason of the sent and sweet smel of flowers And so thoughts of God and Heaven if all calms and no storm and every thing as you would have it that were the onely way to have you to forget your God Israel soon cast God out of their thoughts and hearts when they got into Canaan but oftner in their thoughts when in a pinching and hard-faring Wilderness The Bee is quickly drowned if shee fall but into the pot of hony and a good heart is soon over-run with weeds and corrupted if not under imbitterments and afflictions Reason 17 17. To wean people from the world and all the earthly comforts and merchandizings of it Whilst there is sweetness to bee sucked out of the dugs of worldly comforts they will not care for the relinquishing of them but when God laies wormwood upon them then they will grow weary of them and even bee ad instar canis ad Nilum as the dog at the river Nilus that dare not stay to take his full draught for fear of the Crocodile The Uses of this doctrine are various but especially they are these five 1. Information 2. Circumspection 3. Meditation 4. Reprehension 5. Consolation 1. Vse This doctrine may inform you and let you see that every boysterous Storm and Tempest that breaks out upon the face of the great deeps is no other but an arrow shot out of the bended bow of Gods displeasure against you or one of the lower tier of his indignation that is fired upon you Nahum 1.3 The Lord hath his way in the whirl-wind and in the storm and the clouds are the dust of his feet If shiphazarding storms fall upon you you may conclude that the Lord is in them and not far from you I and that hee is not well pleased with you 2. Vse This doctrine may serve to put you upon a serious meditation and deliberative ponderating upon the Power and terrible Majesty of God who has the whole universe at his command to wage war against whom hee pleases but especially in these three things 1. What is the cause or occasion of immoderate storms 2. What is his end in the sending of them upon you 3. And lastly what improvement you should make of them 3. Vse This doctrine may serve for a word of advice to startle you and to tell you that you have great need to look about you if so bee that all perilous and ship-wracking storms and Tempests are of the Lords commissionating and raising I mean not onely to make the best provisions that you can to prevent dangers for common reason prompts you to that but my advice is this that you would live every day preparedly seeing your lives are the deepliest engaged and in the greatest hazzards of any under the whole Heavens if a man were to go over some narrow bridge under which hee knew that there was deep water how gingerly and how carefully would hee tread I and if there were no way else to go but that what prayers would hee put up that hee might go safely over and if not that God would cancel all his scores my thinks it should bee thus with you who are in greater dangers in the raging Seas 1. Sin less swear less and drink less than you do if you would have God to preserve you in time of storms 2. Please God more if you desire favour and preservation in the day of calamity and irremediable adversity 3. Make it your business to get sin daily pardoned or otherwise you may look for nothing but an open hostility from the winds and Seas 4. Vse This doctrine may serve to reprove and to lash that bold profaneness and atheisticalness that is amongst the generality of Sea-men and Sailors who never have it in their thoughts when the greatest storm that ever blew is from the Lord but a thing in course or common and ordinary and so never acknowledge the hand of God in those dreadfull judgments that hee lays upon the Seas and those affrighting and heart-melting sorrows that they are often plunged into There be four things that I would reprove you for 1. Ignorance 2. Carelesness 3. Want of the fear of God 4. Negligence 1. Ignorance This is an Epidemical distemper that all or the greatest part of Sea-men are aegrotant off or in Suffer this doctrine to reprove you and I am sure it will tell you to the full that it is the Lord that sends out his stormy wind fulfilling his Word upon you I and also condemn you for your infidelity and paganism in this very particular 2. Carelesness Who more loose who more prophane and who more secure
inter vivos nec inter mortuos which was writ upon the cradel-rocking waves and surges of Neptune's restless and turbulent Ocean which was and is a place that is not for study or any other weighty undertaking of this nature I hope you will look for no extraordinary strains of wit and fancy from it because it is an impossible thing that the head should bring forth any extraordinary conceptions in such a confused and head-disturbing and brain-perplexing employment where the winds roar it over head Sailors rant it within board and guns roar it and thunder it without board and the Seas run on hills and mountains before the winds where there is nothing but reeling and staggering and staggering and reeling every day one uprises If there had not been an unwithstanding providence leading mee and stirring of me up dayly to the work Many are the Symbols and Emblems of true thankfulness and grateful acknowledgment In the Sun-dyal with all the hours thereon by distinct figures the motto is in umbra desino to the Sun onely I owe my motion and being The shel full of Pearl lying open to the Sun and the dew of Heaven with this word Rore divinâ— The Olive growing amidst the craggy clifts without rooting or moysture with this motto or wreath coming out of it A Coelo All these examples prompt me to express my thankfulness to you whom I shall live and dye admiring to that end I might do that generation of people some good that go in the Seas whom I find to have nothing writ too in any Subject I ever saw extant I should never a gone about such a work in such a placâ— which is onely for transportation and not for commoration and body-tyring lucubrations Worthy Sir I freely bestow upon you this my Nec inter vivos nec inter mortuos and withall I give you the highest interest in it that is possible for a man in the Dedication of a Book to bestow upon a person that it is dedicated to I humbly beg your acceptance of it and I will not doubt but that you will find some thing in it that will bee worth your perusal there is a great part I will assure you though not all of the sweet experiences that my soul has tasted of when in the Seas Such was the excellent condescending frame of Artaxerxes's spirit King of Persia that hee thought it as well becoming a Royal mind to accept of small things from others as to give great things unto them Worthy Sir your name is sweet fragrant savory and famous in our Israel and with and amongst the people of God and the Lord has bestowed a publick frame of heart and spirit upon you to do all the good you can in your generation both to Church and Commonwealth which is a thing I much bless God for in my spirit and admire My prayers shall bee for you and yours that God would blesse both you and them with the dews of heaven in this life and crown you and yours in the life to come In the interim my prayer shall bee that you may live and dye Adinstar Isabellae Arragoniae Reginae quae habuit duos flosculos unus vocabatur Scelenitropos i.e. Flos Lunae Alter Heliotropos i. e. Flos Solis cum lemmate sequor aeternum specto So prayeth he who resteth Sir Your worships devoted to serve you in the service of Christ DANIEL PELL From my Study at my Lady Hungarfords in Hungarford House upon the Strand London May 4. 1659. To the much Honoured Vertuous and most worthy Lady the Lady MARGARET HUNGARFORD Wife to the Right Worshipful Sr. EDWARD HUNGARFORD Now deceased Daniel Pell wisheth increase of all true Honour and Happinesse Madam I Take the boldness to present you with this small Treatise of my experience travel and hard pains I took during the time I was at Sea which is the very first printed fruits of my weak endeavours as induced to think that the goodness candor and dulce of your nature is such that you will bee pleased to accept of so small a present as a little monument of that great respect I oblidgedly and deservedly bear you Artaxerxes a Persian Prince was so humbly minded that hee thought it as well becoming a Royal mind to accept of small things from others as to give great things unto them I hope that your Ladyship will bee so minded too I wish this piece may prove as delightful to you in the reading and perusing as Orpheus's Musick was to the stones and beasts of the field to their hearing of whom History says that they were not able to stay in their center nor continue in their stations but start up and dance after it Historians relate how stones followed Amphion to the Theban walls That lofty Ossa and high Panchaia danced when they over-heard the Odrissian Lyre and Dolphins grew tame at the melody of Arions Harp couching their scaly backs to bear him out of Neptunes foaming surges Madam if I tell your Ladyship that I see these good things in you since I came into your family to whom I am much obliged and shall ever acknowledge you as an instrument of much good to mee God reward you let it not bee thought by you nor by the world that I am of that temper either to give you or the world flattering and daubing titles for that is very much inconsistent with my constitution Your motto may bee that of Solomons Prov. 31.26 Shee openeth her mouth with wisdom and in her tongue is the law of kindness and my Principle 1. I have observed that you are a very great follower countenancer and encourager of a holy good powerful and godly Ministry which these sad and black-nighted times of the world do so much undervalue Mee thinks I wonder why people are so sotitsh now a days I hear neither any in the City nor the Country say that they are weary of the Sun for its shining of the air in which they breath of their food from whence they have their nourishment nor of their rayment and apparrel which keeps off the cold from them why then of the Word What wrong has the Gospel done them or the painful and Godly Ministry in this Land who preach themselves to their graves for the good of soules certainly were the Gospel down as our English Atheists could wish it wee should long for it as much again as those people do for the Sun of whom Procopius reports that near to the Pole where the night continues many moneths together the Inhabitants in the end of such a long night when the Sun draws near to make its appearance to them will get up into the tops of all high trees and Mountains striving who should have the first sight of that glorious lampe and caelestial luminary that is set in the Heavens for the comfort of the world and no sooner do they see it but they dress themselves in their best apparrel as rejoycing
at its appearance filling the air with many loud acclamations 2. That there is a tenderness of heart and spirit in you mourning for and under sin which renders you Elect holy and beloved amongst the Saints that know you I would all the new upstarts in England were of this good old sin-mourning temper Rom. 7.24 Oh wretched man that I am who Acts 24.16 Herein do I exercise my self 3. That you make it your constant care and business to look to your life and conversation and I do know it that it is the desire of you soul that it should bee such and in such a way of holiness as does become the Gospel of Christ Philip. 1.21 4. That it is the great care and desire of your soul that all under you should bee engaged in the daily worship and service of God Joshua 24.15 But as for mee and my house wee will serve the Lord. 5. That you are a discourager of what you apprehend to bee evil in your family Psal 101.2 3 4 5 6 7. Hee that telleth lies shall not tarry in my sight Were all Families so ordered it would bee better both in the City Country and the whole Land than it is at this day Prov. 14.1 Every wise woman buildeth her house 6. That you are exemplary in your Family and truly it is good so to bee if the Mountains overflow with waters the Valleys are the better for it and if the head bee full of ill humours the whole body fares the worse for it Give mee leave now my much Honoured Lady to present a few things to you which may tarry with you when Providence may call mee from you 1. Think of your dying day It is said that there stands a Globe of the world at the one end of the Library in Dublin and a Skeleton of a man at the other it seems they that go into that Library need not stand long to study out a good lesson What if a man were Lord or Lady King or Queen of all the known parts of the world yet must hee dye I like not the Proverb I no more thought of it than I did of my dying day It is written of the Philosophers called Brachmani that they were so much given to think of their latter end that they had their graves alwaies open before their gates that both going out and coming in they might bee mindful of their death There was once a discourse betwixt a Citizen and a Mariner my Ancestours said the Mariner were all Sea-men and all of them died at Sea my Father my grand Father and my great grand Father were all buried in the Sea then sayes the Citizen what great cause have you when you set out to Sea to remember your death I but says the Mariner to the Citizen where I pray did your Father and your grand Father die why saies hee they died all of them in their beds truly then saies the Mariner to the Citizen what a care had you need to have every night when you go to bed to think of your bed as a grave and the clothes that cover you as the earth that must one day bee thrown upon you You are wise and know how to apply it 2. Lay up treasure in Heaven God has done much for you in the bestowing the riches honours dignities and great things of this life upon you by making you taller by the head and shoulders than thousands both in City and Country are Matth. 6.19 20. Is a Scripture I would commend to your leasurable considerations 3. Take heed of the bewitching honors entertainments and the deluding and heart-insinuating great things of this world It was a good saying of Luther I hope your Ladyship will make it yours when offered great things that hee protested to the Lord hee would not bee put off with the things of this life for his portion Psal 17.14 Men of the world have their portion in this life That is all it seems that ever they are like to have The Rubenites Numb 23. having taken a liking of the Country which was first conquered because it was commodious for the feeding of their Cattel though it was far from the Temple where they might have fed their souls to enjoy it they renounced all interests in the Land of Promise It is said of the Locusts that came out of the bottomless pit that they were like unto Horses and on their heads were as it were Crowns of gold and their faces were as the faces of men their hairs as the hair of women their teeth as it were the teeth of Lyons c. Rev. 9.7 8. in which Scripture wee have quasi Horses quasi Crowns quasi faces quasi teeth and quasi hairs of men In part such are all the honours and comforts of this life 4. Bee much in prayer hard and private wrestling with God in your closer for Heaven and Salavation If a man were assured that there were a great purchase in Spain Turkey Italy c. or some other remote parts would hee not run ride sail and adventure the dangers and hazzards of the Sea and of his enemies also if need were that hee might come to the enjoyment and possession thereof Heaven is better than Earth and a life in glory than a life in this sinful World and that you may prefer that above this in this lower world and may also live and bee with the Father and the Lamb in the highest glory when this life is ended for ever more shall bee the hearty prayer of him Madam Who is your Ladyships most humbly devoted DANIEL PELL From my Study in your own most Honourable House and Family London May 6. 1659. To the Right Worshipful Mr. HENRY HUNGARFORD Esquire And one of the Members of the Honourable House of Parliament D. P. Wisheth the grace mercy peace and love of God the Father in this life and eternal bliss and glory in the life to come Reverend and Right Honourable Sir Uno non possum quantum te diligo versu Dicere si satis est distichon ecce duos If I cannot in one verse my mind declare If two will serve the turn lo here they are SO great an honourer and admirer am I of you and the House and Family that you are descended of and belong unto that I cannot praetermit you without the presenting of this small Tract and Treatise which is of no great worth or value but onely an act or an expression of that superlative respect and service I bear you Certainly if I should I should then bee an Adinstar Niciae cujusdam Pictoris of whom it was said tantam in pingendo diligentiam adhibuit ut saepe numero intentus arti cibum sumere oblivisceretur è famulo quaereret LAVINE pransus ne sum a very forgetful person I question not but that you will find some thing in it worth your reading although you have travelled all or the greatest part of all the known parts of the
neither canst thou ever perform what thou hast vowed to whom hee replied in the storm Vers 26. Their soul is meltâ—d because of trouble They are even ready to dye at this time Junius understands it of extreme vomiting as if they that used the Seas were casting up their very hearts many times Anacharses for this very cause doubted whether hee should reckon Mariners amongst the living or amongst the dead And another said that any man will go to Sea at first I wonder not but to go a second time thither is little better than madness very softly and silently lest St. Christopher should hear him Hold thy peace thou fool dost thou think that I ever meant it if ever I recover shore the Devil take mee if ever hee gets as much as a small tallow candle of mee or the pairing of my nails Make you the Application 20. Beleeve that all storms that come upon you are of the Lords raising and commissionating I have met with this passage which was found sayes history in a Council above a thousand years ago Si quis credit quod Diabolus tonitrua fulgura tempestates sua authoritate sicut Priscillianus dixit Anathema This Canon was made against such as did simply attribute storms tempests thundrings and lightnings c. to the Devil and not to God as if so be that he should be the causer and the procurer of them whosoever beleeves this said the Council as Priscillianus hath done let him bee an Anathema But without any further wording of it to you I freely bestow this peece of my Nec inter vivos Nec inter mortuos upon you all that use the Seas and beg your acceptance of it The God of Heaven grant it may do you good read it heed it yee need it pray for mee and I shall not bee wanting in my prayers for you that God would bless and prosper you in your imployments and thus hee that takes his ultimum vale of you and the Sea rests Gentlemen Yours to serve you in the service of Christ DANIEL PELL From my Study at my Lady Hungarfords in Hungarford House upon the Strand London May 4. 1659. THE EPISTLE TO THE Christian Readers Whether at Sea or on Land Good Readers I Would very freely invite you had I but that chear that I judge you deservedly worthy of Let this Epistle bee thy Janisary or Pole-star to the perusal of this book The stars that do attend the Artick-pole are the greater and lesser Bear and the least star in the lesser Bears tail is called the Pole-star by reason of its nearness to it and this is the guide of the Mariners as Ovid in his Epistle sings it You great and lesser Bears whose stars do guide Sydonian and Grecian ships that glyde Even you whose Poles do view this c. if you therefore will come to such Fare as hath been provided dished cooked and prepared upon the Sea for you you shall bee freely and heartily welcome and in your coming take this Advertisement along with you or else you had better let it alone Guests that are invited unto some Grandee King Lord or Prince 1. Respect with great desire the hour of his feast and so give their diligent attendance that they may come in a decent seemly and orderly manner 2. That nothing pleaseth the Prince better than to see them feed soundly on the meat dished and prepared for them 3. They are cautelous that they do not speak any thing that may bee in the least offensive to the person that invited them 4. They do not statim by and by depart but stay and sit a while and interchange familiar conference with the Prince 5. At their departure they yeeld a great deal of reverence returning him a thousand humble thanks for the favour vouchsafed them offering themselves ready at his service I question not your wisdome in the applying of what is before you The strongest Arguments that I can lay you down that did put mee upon this laborious business in a restless unquiet and disconsolatory Sea were such as these 1. It was the good pleasure of the Lord to draw and hale mee to undertake it by a strong and an unwithstanding impulsiveness that lay every day upon my heart and spirit till I went about it 2. To reprove that spirit of machless and unknown prophaneness that is amongst many thousands that use the Seas 3. To that end they might bee healed in their souls amended and reformed in their lives and practices 4. Because I never saw any thing writ unto them as suitable to and for their imployment the want of which did the more affectionately lead mee on for the good of their souls 5. Because I bear an extraordinary strong love to the souls of those that go down into the Seas and would as gladly have them saved in the day of the Lord as I would my self 6. Because I would have the world to know a little what perils and hazzards those that use the Seas do run thorow and meet with all in their imployments 7. What Ulysses's commendation was by Homer I shall say of them that use the Seas 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hee knew the Cities and manners of many people They see many brave Cities and Countries that could not bee seen were it not for shipping Our Gentry travel both Sea and Land with much bodily hazzard and with great expence of state and all but to get a little more knowledge of fashions and a gentile behaviour To let the world know what works and wonders of the Lord those do see that go into the Seas and beyond them 8. To that end the world might know what great preservations and deliverances the Lord bestows upon them in their affairs 9. To that end the world might know I made some improvement of my time when at Sea for I never affected the mis-spending of one day all the time I was in it but lived though amongst men as if not amongst them Mihi musis knowing that time is precious and tarries not Vpon a Dialpeece of a Clock in the Colledge Church of Glocester are portrayed four Angels each of them seeming to say something to those that look up to observe the hour of the day which is made up of two old Latine verses 1. An labor an requies 2. Sic transit gloria mundi 3. Praeterit iste dies 4. Nescitur origo secundi Englished Whether you rest or labour work or play The world and glory of it passes away This day is past or near its period grown The next succeeding is to us unknown 10. And lastly To that end all the Lords people would bee mindful of those that use the Seas They are like to a direct North-Dial that hath but morning and evening hours on it They are far from good means on land pray for them and not forget them in their most serious and solemn addresses unto their God They stand in need
suffer our housholds to bee prophane Is not the Sailor as wel conceited that a bare Lord bee mercifull unto him will take off all his guilt and bring him in the pardon and remission of all his sins As the Turks are by reason of the poole Zunzun at Mecca before which they will not stick to commit all manner of lewdness when they have done wash themselves in it every one uttering these words Tobah allah Tobah allah pardon Lord pardon And being once washed they return to their vile courses again strongly imagining that they are washed from all sin whatsoever and do not instruct them in better and command them to break off of all villanous courses Now if Commanders in the Seas would aske mee what is the reason that they are so often in danger of being fired rockt and stranded in the Seas I would return them this answer it is because they cut not down the graceless swearers and drunkards that bee amongst them I mean the exuberancy of evil 5. Are not these men far from God And do not they grow worse and worse in their sinfull estates as a dead man the longer hee lies above ground the more hee senteth and savoureth 2 Tim. 3.13 6. Are they not without feeling living in all the filthy lusts of their flesh without any trouble of mind or compunction of spirit and neither Satan nor conscience affrighting of them nor accusing of them for their ungodly courses These like dead men above ground that sent and savour so strong as none are able to abide or endure yet feels it not themselves These are neither sensible of sin nor grieved for it 7. Are they not men that neither seek nor will bee perswaded to come out of their carnal and unregenerate estates Are they not like to dead men who can neither stir hand nor foot nor becken with the finger unto any to come and help them up and give them life 8. Are they not unprofitable under all the means of grace that bee tendered them both on bord and on shore at Sea and on Land 9. Are they not men that will not bee counselled to nourish in their hearts the fear of God that they might hereby please him and never offend him 10. Are they not men that never sorrow for all their offendings dishonourings and blasphemings of the holy name of God I never yet saw a weeping eye for sin in the Sea amongst those thousands of men I have seen saving two 11. Are not these men that secretly wish in their inward thoughts that God were not to that end they might live as they list and bee far enough out the gun-shot of his Justice 12. Are they not men that look wrathfully on God and his waies as contrary to them gainsaying their wills and minds in every thing 13. Are they not men that cannot endure to seek unto God for knowledge when as they stand in great need of eye-salve 14. Are they not men that are the least acquainted with God his Word and his Love of all people under the Heavens again 15. Sailers are like to the Philosopher that lay beaking of himself in the Sun and said with a great sigh Obutinam hoc esset Philosophari Would to God my studying were as easy So would to God my good wishes would get me after this life to heaven for whilst I am living I cannot endure to set my foot in the way Was it not a lamentable question that Solomon propounded when he said Prov. 31.10 Who can find a vertuous woman intimating that one might sooner light on a thousand vitious ones than one vertuous And I may mourningly say who can find a vertuous Sailor Bring him to me and I will value him above Rubies How desirous was the Apostle Paul Acts 27. That all those that saild with him in the same ship should come safe to shore If Commanders had but these desires in them they would stir them up to move mightily for the good and welfare of all under them Rom. 11.14 If by any means I might provoke them of my flesh to follow that I might save some of them If you can but save one Sailor in a ship lose him not for want of good counsel Are they not men that cannot endure to have their hearts bound to the peace and good behaviour and to bee willing to take in any truths that are proclaimed and revealed from God and Heaven unto them 16. Are they not men that are walking in the nine easy waies to Heaven which if they hold but one in them they will never come there 1. In the common broad way of liberty of life 2. In the way af evil education As wolves being young are soon trained up to the ravin and prey 3. In Balaams way of wishes As the foolish traveller that thinks to come to his journies end without legs 4. In the way of formality Here you may find thousands of them at an anchor and will not bee got to weigh if you would threaten them with Hell and the dreadfullest curses that bee in the sacred Word of God 5. In the way of sloth Prov. 20.4 The sluggard will not plow by reason of the cold therefore shall hee beg in harvest and have nothing No more stomack to serve the Lord than the Devil had to obey Christ depart from the herd of Swine 6. In the way of indifferency Josh 24.15 They are to seek in the choice of their Religion 7. In the way of self-love 1 Tim. 1.20 God pitty you I might now propound a great many more questions and Arguments to enlighten you about the miserableness of the generality of your Sailors but it is both tedious unto mee and unpleasant to set my pen upon too much work in a restless and turbulent Sea Therefore to bee brief let me now beg thus much tenderness at the hands of every one that is a Commander in the Seas and I will assure you that it will well become you 1. Mourn and bee sorry for your Seamens sins 2. Pray for them that God would give them hearts full of grace Is there any vertue gon from Chirst as yet to make any of their dark minds seeing their stubborn judgements yielding their proud hearts stooping and relenting their filthy hearts breaking and cleansing their carnal affections heavenly their sinful souls to be holy Ah souls bee much in prayer for them 3. Labour to draw Sea-men unto Christ As one candle lights another or one piece of match in your Linstocks lights a great many So light them 4. Bring them forward unto and in all good As a man that plyes a lamp with oyle lest that it should go forth Heb. 10.24 And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works As in a great family where there bee many children the elder will help to carry and bear the younger Act. 18.27 Help you and put on Sailors in things that bee good as the Disciples
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
kinde of evil amongst us but gave us our liberty to do what wee thought good And what Captain served you at Sea I have served Captain this three years but hee neither ever prayed amongst us nor instructed us in any thing that was good What a dreadful reckoning will there bee here to bee made many Captains think that they do not stand charged with the care of souls but one day you will finde it when God shall bid you go to hell for the neglect of your duties 2. Suppose a Captains reproof have not such success upon their souls as hee could desire yet may it bee that hee may thereby tame and take down their high hoised insolency by seasonable contradiction as that they shall not bee able to carry it away in a vaunting Bravado You may cool and confound their swearing and swaggering humors that they glory not in it by bringing them unto shame and condign punishment for it If Sea-men will swear I would then stand up and tell them that all this while they fight against God damn their own souls and please none else but the Devil and wicked men and that they shall assuredly burn everlastingly in hell if they hold on in their cursed humors without timely repentance and reformation 3. Suppose that reproof after reproof will not prevail know thus much that it is not in vain for hereby you shall the more increase and aggravate their inexcusableness clear your selves and glorifie the Tribunal of Gods justice which shall one day smoak against them 2. In all sinful cases you are bound to speak 1. Because silence at such times when you hear swearing lying and behold drunkenness in your ships and amongst your Sea-men will greatly bewray either your Cowardliness in the cause of God or hypocrisie in your professions Will it not seem strange think you that you that pretend to stand on the Lords side shall hear the glorious Name of God prophaned in a base sordid and blasphemous manner and yet never open your mouthes at all in his behalf against them who will not but say Captain Thou art an Hypocrite and Captain Thou art another dissembling Hypocrite also 2. If your consciences Gentlemen bee either inlightned wakened tender or rightly informed I will appeal to any of you whether or no they do not and will not smite check and quarrel with you for the omission of your reproving duty by your cowardly and unseasonable silence Hereby you do but intangle your selves in their guiltiness and pull upon your own heads an accountableness for that swearing and villany which you are privy unto who would not then but reprove and slash the roots of sin 3. How knowest thou but that by thy speaking in such cases thou maist lay and charm down the spirit of profaneness that walks up and down the ships thou art in so that it shall not bee able to rage and break out in others as otherwise it would do Who would then but ever and anon be speaking 4. Hereby you will exceedingly comfort and cheer up the hearts of the godly amongst you from being grieved and cast down by a company or crew of Sathans swaggerers Revellers I am confident of it that if our Sea-Commanders were but as carefull to put out the fire of swearing of lying that is in ships every day as they are to pass the word every evening fore aft put out your candles alow there There would not be so many ships lost and cast away as there bee and Ranters Good people they mourn to hear the swearing and the profaneness that is in your ships both betwixt decks and in every corner they walk into or sit themselves down in Their villany is a meer dagger and burthen to their hearts and spirits I profess that that bad order that is in the Sea and that toleration of swearing and profaneness makes many an honest heart take his leave of the States service and bid farewel Sea who would otherwise have continued in it longer than they have done I have known some that have striven to be cleered upon an account of a great internal fear lest God should fire the ships from heaven which they have gone in or otherwise in stormes throw them upon Rocks or sands because of that filthiness abominable wickedness they have observed amongst them I remember once that when wee were comming out of the Sea from France into England that we saild neer to one of our Sea-port towns and upon an occasion a piece of Ordinance was fired the smoke of which fell into our main-sail and represented the ship on a fire to those that were on shore and great running forth there was and weeping and wailing by those that had friends in our ship for fear of the loss of our lives but blessed bee the Lord there was no such danger though it was a great town-talk When I came to hear of it I returned my God thanks Chrysostome speaking of youth says it is difficilem jactabilem fallibitem vehementissimisque egentem fraenis hard to be ruled easy to bee drawn away apt to bee deceived standing in need of very violent reins Seamen stand in need of tutoring and looking to that the swearing that was within board set us not on a blasing fire in the sight of our own Country The Objections now that seem to arise against the putting what has been said into practice are some such invalid arguments as these 1. Objection I love not to medle and I have Scripture commands for it Jam. 3.1 Bee not many masters Answ Not medling in this case is a kind of soul murthering what sayest thou to this now wilt you lye under the guilt of murther 2. Object It is a thankless office Answ Not with the wise Prov. 9.8 I have read concerning the sweating sickness when it was in England that those whom they carefully kept waking escaped but the sickness seized mortally on them that were suffered to sleep Oh keep your Sea-men waking if it bee possible that they sleep not unto death and though it bee an unpleasing work on both sides yet shall you have thanks for it one day 3. Object I shall lose my labour Answ Venture that thou hast lost many a worse Job 6.25 How forcible are right words 3. Object Plato went thrice to Sicily to convert Dionysius and lost his labour Polemo a great Drunkard by hearing Xenocrates became a sober man a very learned Philosopher I shall hereby lose the love of all my Sea-men Answ It may bee not but say thou shouldest thou shalt find a better thing than ever their good word or well likeing of thee will ever avail thee I will present thee with one Scripture that wil when thou readest it sparkle thy spirits and draw thee on to bee more for thy God than ever thou hast been Peruse it then Mark 10.29 30. A man had better offend all the Sailors in the Seas and all the people in the
taking with the Fowler but did not all this time fadom her subtilty The 2. Note shee sung was this Give not credit to things beyond probability The 3. Note was Grieve not for things which are past all remedy These lessons hee liked well and not knowing the worth of the bird he let her fly Who no sooner saw her self at liberty and out of his reach shee sung him this sweet and melodious Madrigall upon the branch of a tree Qui non ante cavet post dolebit Hee that will not when hee may when he would he shall have nay If a man shut to his windows we think they do not well who will seek for chinks to peep in into us Take heed Sailors will play you these prancks Felix quem faciunt aliena pericula cautum They are wise men that look to their feet when they see others stumble Hadst thou known the wealth I had Thou would st â—ere have let me gon For it would have made thee glad To enjoyed so rich an one In my bladder there 's a stone Of more value and more worth Than ever the earth did bring forth You may gather up the Application and so perceive what I aim at 6. Take heed of too much intimateness and familiarity with Sea-men Many Commanders have had their heels tript up by this indiscreet carriage and fallen most shreudly upon their noses in so much that they have never been able to rise up any more I will tell you what Gentlemen ill nurtured unbred and false-hearted Sailors are not men for you to unrip your bosoms to I for my part never trusted any of them nor never should were I to go a Methusalems age amongst them If our Saviour Christ would not trust the Jews take you heed of trusting Sailors John 2.24 25. But Jesus did not commit himself unto them because hee knew all men And needed not that any should testify of man for hee knew what was in man Captains should in one sence live in their ships as the Sun in the firmament which though it work upon all the inferiour bodies cheering them with its light and influences yet is not moved nor wrought on by them again but keeps its own lustre distance Nimia familiaritas contemptum parit If thou wilt bee familiar with Sailors look for contempt It is one of the wisest safest and securest courses that you can steer to keep your selves close and to have no further to do with them than the bounds of your Commands will limit you Ther 's no small wisdom in the Owl who hides her head all the day long in an Ivy-bush and at night when all the other birds are at rest shee comes forth and takes her recreation and her sporting flying here and flying there and delivering her self in her harsh and nocturnal notes Be sure you learn thus much wisdom to hide your heads and to keep your tongues from babling amongst Sea-men in your ships I know not the reason why the Antients of old have consecrated this bird to wisdom except it bee for her discreet closeness and singular perspicacity that when other domestical and airie volatiles are blind shee onely has inward light to discern the smallest objects for her own advantage Surely thus much wit is taught us and to bee learned from her that he is the wisest man that will have least to do with the multitude and that no life is so safe as the obscure retiredness if it have least comfort in it yet it is evermore accompanied with the least danger and vexation Should this fowl now but come out in the day time how would all the little birds flock about her to see her uncouth visage and nocturnall dress shee goes in Captains If you would live wisely securely amongst your men Let an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a wolfs skin be your clothing othervvise your Sailors are such notable painters that they vvill make candida de nigris de candentibus atra Captains must not live in ships as fire that is smothered in the â—mbers and so casts no shine nor as the Sun obscured in a caliginous cloud but must shevv themselves for God amongst their Sea-men When Cato vvas present vvho vvas vir rigidae innocentiae a stern severe censor of the manners of men vvho durst call for the obscaene spectacles of the Floralia If Commanders had but a conscientious faculty in them to discountenance that which is evil in their Sea-men they would sooner be brought into the love of that which is good than otherwise they ever will be and above all to hear her untuned notes If you open your mouths and speak the very secrets of your hearts amongst Sea-men as some have done you will make but bird-lime for your feet to bee fetterd in 7. Put on for two rare things which will exceedingly grace you advance your names and bring you into greater esteem 1. Bee Positive 2. Oppositive 1. Bee Positive Take up a full resolution and determination of will to serve God This God knows many of your are short of 2. Bee Oppositive Sea-men are apt to set upon sinful and irreligious courses and care not for Sabbaths nor Ordinances and if you will not pluck up good hearts and spirits to your selves in opposing withstanding and reclaiming of them God will bee exceedingly dishonoured by them in your ships You must use constraint with them if that intreaties and perswasions will not serve the turn Let it bee the serious and fixed purpose and resolution of every Commander in the Seas what ever the practices of others bee in the salt-waters to engage all under your Commands in the daily worship and service of the Lord and this is the only way to prosper where ever you go I fear that many a Commander is so taken up with the brave ship hee goes in or otherwise with an innumerable crowd of anxious thoughts how hee may get his feet into one that there is little Religion minded or set up amongst them Are not some so taken up with the Great-gilded-first second and third Rates the sumptuous and gilded Cabbins Lanthorus and great Salaries which they have that they minde little else It s well if these bee not the gods that many worship Hezekiah was asked by the Prophet what hee had shewed the Ambassadors from Babylon his answer was Even all that was in his house nothing was there of his Treasuries but they had a sight of it but not one word of the things of the Temple and of Gods worship named all this time but his Treasuries and his Riches Are not many Captains so taken up with the goodly and stately ships that they are in that when their friends come on board and visit them they carry them into their gilded Cabbins and shew them their brave warlike ships and how on every side stands their roaring Ordinance and in every corner their Complement of men but not a word of God all this time
5. If Sea-men would live peaceably and comfortably on ship-board when occasions of anger and discontentments are given them I would have them to follow these Rules 1. Contain your bodies in quiet and your tongues in silence because the stirring and agitation of the body and stamping and flinging about Plutarch writeth that it was the custome of Pythagoras his Scholars however that they had been at odds jarring jangling in their disputations yet before the Sun set would kiss shake hands as they departed out of the School I would all our Sailors in the States ships were of this temper sets the blood and humours on a fire The walking of the tongue will keep in that passionate heat that usually starts up in the heart which otherwise would evaporate its self and dye Silence is an admirable cooler to all indignities and affronts Would Sea-men take this advice there would not be such wording of it as oftentimes there is amongst themselves 2. If Sea-men would live comfortably on ship-board and seek the peace of the ships they go in let them then alwayes give reason leave to interpose and debate It was very good advice that was given to Augustus the Emperour when the object and occasions of choler were in his eye Angry fools in former times were counselled to look themselves in a glass If Sea-men did but see their faces when they are angry they would be ashamed of them when they are calm and quiet Prov. 16.32 Latius regnes avidum domande Spiritum quam si Lybiam remouis Gadibus jungas Horat. Od. l. 2. The Hebrews call anger Aph because therein the nose riseth the colour changeth the tongue stammereth the teeth gnash and the hands clap the feet stamp the pulse beats the heart pants the whole man swells like a Toad and glares like the Devil that hee should not bee moved before hee had pronounced over the letters of the Alphabet When Sea-men give the reigns unto their passions it beats out of doors and out of their brains both all reason and judgement 3. If Sea-men would live comfortably on shipboard and seek the peace and welfare of the ships they sail in then would I have them to set their hearts and stomacks against all the feral passions and bodily distempers they see in other men What heating of the blood and the vital spirits bee there in many Sailors How are they transported with fieriness of the eyes inflamations of the face furiousness in their looks extraordinary panting of the heart beating of the pulse swelling of the veins stammering of the tongue gnashing of the teeth bad language and many other uncomly behaviours Abhor these devillish gestures that are in thousands of your pedling Sailors bend your minds and spirits against them and consider what a sweet loveliness and amiable vertue there is in a milde gentle and unpassionate spirit It is the very finew of all delightfull society the flower of humanity and the very sweetness of civil converse it both draws love from others and also keeps the heart in a perpetual calmness If Sea-men love nothing but frowardness and hastiness you that are wise will never take any delight in their company It is storied of Earl Elzearus that hee was much given to immoderate anger and the means hee used to cure this disordered affection was by studying of Christ and of his patience and this meditation hee would never let pass from him before hee found his heart transformed and conformed into that heavenly pattern But further I have one word more and that unto all the young Sea-men in England It hath been my observation that many thousands of them are apt to bee spoiled and corrupted with that Soul-poysoning society they daily are in company of in the ships they sail in and could I now or were I able to rescue them out of the hands of the Devil and to fetch them off from under the nose or command of hell and all the black powers of darkness and also out of a dislike unto all ungodly wretches I should then think my self extreamly happy To worke this effect amongst them I will give them a whole broad-side of Arguments and if they will not doe nothing in the world will prevail upon them I may even then do as a Physician who hath striven long with his patient and sees no hopes gives him up at last I shall give you up for lost men 1. Take heed of holding any intimate compliance and correspondency with men that are publickly profane It is a very hard thing for a man to live amongst corrupt fellows without corruption it is easier to walk upon burning coales or to carry fire in ones bosome than to bee amongst such not bee tainted with them Prov. 6.27 Admit said Isidore that a man were made of iron yet if hee stood continually before some great fire he is in danger of growing supple soft as wax Though a man greatly like not the sin yet company with a sinner may work him to it Et quos vitium non potuit vincere familiaritas vincit Whom vice cannot overcome familiarity will and wicked My reason is this There evermore steals in upon that man that does not a very secret insensible and undiscernable dislike of his own former pious sober and commendable courses Such a man in time wil begin to shake off his former strictness of piety and innocency of life and conversation and boldly say I was but too straight laced before I will now have my youthfull liberty and I am sure that will bring mee in more pleasure and contentment in an hour than my other life did in a whole year It may bee thou wert a very civil serious and sober-minded man before thou camest to Sea but since it has been thy hap to fall in amongst a pack of rude Sailors as a drop that falls out of the clouds into the Ocean thou hast become one of them The sweetest apples are soonest corrupted and best natures are quickly depraved Sailor Sailor live in all the ships thou goest in as fish in the Sea who are both born and bred in it yet have no taste at all of the salt-waters in them Bee sure thou live at Sea as not to have any taste of a stinking Sailor in thee and take up none of their stinking rotten and unsavoury speeches and phrases And as thou wentest on shipboard well educated so come out again without any tang or smell of their ill-bredness 2. He that has not a care of himself herein it is no wonder though there slily insinuates into that mans heart a pleasing approbation and delightful assenting and consenting unto the sinfull practices sensual courses and wanton pleasures and dalliances of such men God knows many young men are utterly undone and led away into much soul-damning evil by keeping company and following the counsel of rotten companions Laus tribuenda Murenae non quod Asiam viderat sed quod in Asia
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
come through the Seas out of an ambitious and aspiring nature to compare and try whether they or the ships should swim or sail the fastest This is not unlikely for to my experience I have seen them accompanying of us for a longtime together both in the Mediterranean and elsewhere some swimming on head some on stern some on the Starbord-side of us and othersome on the Larbord like so many Sea-pages or Harbingers runing before our wooden horses as if they were resolved by the best language that fish could give us to welcome us into and through the waters and telling us that they would go along with us And notwithstanding all this wonderfull kindness of theirs to us which I have oftentimes much delighted in it has ended very tragically unto their sorrow For it is the Sea-mans custom to take al opportunities of killing those fish that are good and mandable and thereupon they have got their fisgigs or other instruments in readiness and upon and by reason of their propinquity and neerness have oftentimes most sadly wounded and killed of them Meditations 1. I have hereby learned thus much wisdom that it is dangerous fawning upon strangers and that all acquaintance and intimateness with carnal natural and unregenerate men who are and have no more in them than a natural principle and are in possession of no higher excellencies that their friendship will suddenly turn into enmity and hatred ruining both a mans good name estate and liberty Our Saviour Christ who was so well accomplished and imbued with all spiritual wisdom would not commit himself unto man John 2.24 25. Because he knew right well what was in man They that disclose their secrets to plausible and carnal men they play the Thrashes part to halter themselves I◠is said of this bird Turdus sibi malum cacat Shee leaves her doing in the trees and the Fowler makes Bird-lime of it to take her withall Wisdom will apply it Is it not then great folly in people to lay open themselves to men whom they know not 2. That Gods righteous and holy children who are both harmeless and innocent doves even as quiet and peaceable in the world as domable or indomable doves are that sit upon their Columbaries or other birds that perk themselves upon the highest or lowest branches or as Dolphins in the Sea which intend the Mariner no hurt nor harm yet cannot the godly and the upright live at quiet for them in the world for their arrows are dayly notched and upon their strings that they may privily shoot at the upright in heart Psal 11.2 It is an infallible argument that the spirit of the Devil is in those that have no love unto the godly for they tarry but here for a while till death the Saints transporting charriot comes to waft them out of it of whom the world is not worthy Heb. 11.38 and then they will bee gone from that unclean impure and soul-vexing rabble that they doe live near and amongst 3. That the wiseman foresees a danger and therefore hides himself whilst the foolish run on and are punished Prov. 22.3 4. They have in the Salt-waters a frequent aspect of the ravenous feral and preying sort of fish called a Shark Shark of whom the Mariner is more afraid than of all the fish in the Sea besides Some have observed of this fish that they have not stuck to clammer up upon their ship sides out of a greediness to feed upon the Sailors in their ships This Pickroon if hee can but take any of them bathing themselves in it in the Summer-time hee will tear them limb from limb so great a lover hee is of the flesh of man To describe you this creature I must tell you that he is of very great bulk and of a double or treble set or gang of teeth which are as sharp as needles but God out of his infinite wisdom considering the fierceness and violence of the creature has so ordered him that hee is forced to turn himself upon his back before hee can have any power over his prey or otherwise nothing would escape him This fish has dismembered many a poor Sea-man and also taken away the life of many a man before ever they could bee rescued out of their cruelty Meditations 1. The sight of this creature imprinted no less than this in and upon my spirit That sin has not onely brought a curse upon the earth and upon and into many of the creatures that are upon the Land Psal 8.6 The foul of the aire and the fish of the sea and whatsoever passeth through the paths of the sea Not so now Fallen man has lost Imperium suum Imperium sui the command of himself the command of the creatures but also into and upon those that bee and now are also in the Seas Insomuch that there is both great danger in walking amongst them and sailing upon the Seas Sin has exceedingly dishonoured man in respect that the creatures have such ferity and audacity in them to disown him and to rise up in arms against him whom at the first they owned as their Supream All the creatures when they came before Adam subjected themselves but now not so for that was in the time or state of mans innocency and integrity in which if he had permained and continued hee might still have expected the same or a more willing obedience and subjection from them than either now is or can bee had since the fall Certainly they should then have carried man and not have groaned under their burthen as now they do The Greek word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and it imports thus much that all the creatures stand upon tip to listning hearkning for the day of their deliverance Rom. 8.21 Look upon all the creatures and tell me what hearts they have to serve sinful man It is true God gave man at first dominion over all the creatures Gen. 1.26 And this prerogative being given to man the question may bee to what man and in what condition not to sinfull man but to man after Gods own Image and likeness to man made upright Eccles 7.29 Not to the ungodly man so that the prime end of all the creatures service was directed to righteous man man after Gods own Image and likeness but for the creatures to serve wicked ungodly and unrighteous men is both beyond and besides the prime end and therefore according to their nature they groan because they obtain not their first end that is they are not pleased Indeed they are not intelligent and in that respect they know it not but yet it is against the first law of their creation that they should bee servants unto wicked men they were not created for that end If the Horse the Oxe c. knew but thus much it would greatly displease them but it is not fitting nor convenient that they should know it because it would bee great
e quovis bibunt fonte Jejunus stomachus raro vulgaria temnit Lapsana called of the Arabians Wilde Colewort and of Physicians Cera with the roots of this herb lived the host of Cesar a long time when far off any refreshments and this was at Dyrrachium from whence came that Proverb Lapsana vivere to live wretchedly and hardly which they cannot come to by reason of their great distance from any land or harbour they are constrained out of an impulsive necessity to lay their lips unto the same water the ship swims in now the water of the Sea wee all know is inutilis potui though good alere pisces servire navigantibus the drinking of which water throws many of them into irrecoverable sicknesses and diseases Again it is the special care of Mariners in these long voyages when grown short of water to hang out all the sail that ever they have that it may bee in readiness to receive all the showers of rain that falls upon the ship and this they will wring out of the Canvass to quench their thirst withall And this is sweet water in their mouthes although it run down the Tarry shrouds and Roaps about the ship which doth exceedingly imbitter it Against Rain Sailors are like Spiders in providence who hang their Nets in windows where they know Flyes do most resort and work most in warm weather because Flyes are then most abroad buzzing and stirring in every corner Prov. 27.7 To the hungry soul every bitter thing is sweet 17. Others are oftentimes most sadly endangered in rugged and violent storms I will write thus much upon this remarkable deliverance Ps 142.4 I looked on my right hand and beheld but there was no man that would know me refuge failed me no man cared for my soâ—â— insomuch that the Rudder is forced off its bands by their being thrown upon ground or sands and then is their case to the eye of reason so impossible of being remedied that they have no more command of the ship than the driver hath of the wilde Ass spoken of in Job 39.7 Who scorneth the multitude of the City c. Now will not neither can the ship bee got to go by the Card at this and that Point as formerly shee would I have known some that have been many dayes in this condition driving too and again upon the Seas Vers 5. I cried unto thee O Lord I said thou art my refuge and my portion in the land of the living not able to help themselves and though they have made great and vast recompencing promises unto ships that have seen them and comm'd by them in this distress yet would they not take them in a tow nor afford them any relief and yet notwithstanding when they have been thus forsaken in all their hopes and no eye hath pittied them nor no help from man hath come unto them yet hath the Lord looked out of the heavens upon their sorrows and beat down the waves of the Seas and the raging winds over their heads and then by weak and poor means they have got themselves safe to land Oh the many Sea-men that are yet living and can tell of this very mercy I may write thus much upon this deliverance In communi rerum acervo plurima videmus saepe inter Scyllam Charydim pofita I may further say of this memorable mercy Psal 34.18 The Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart and saveth such us be of a contrite spirit Vers 15. The eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous and his ears are open unto their cry 18. Some are many times by and through the violence of storm and tempest exceedingly hazzarded in their being overset insomuch that the ships Masts have been seen to lye in the very Sea and the ships decks covered all over with water which is one of the dreadfullest and heart-bleedingest conditions that can bee seen They that fall into this predicament of misery there is small hopes of their recovery or rising up again because when a vessel is or comes once to bee foundered there is no possibility of her being helped up insomuch that where one recovers five goes to the bottome 19. Many times when they are riding at an Anchor they are very dolorously hazzarded by violent gusts and stormy blasts of wind insomuch that Cables oftentimes break and their Anchors give way and so are most dreadfully put upon the drift and that which is the saddest circumstance in this unparalleld misery is the propinquity and nearness of sands upon which they are many times likely to perish I may write upon this remarkable deliverance Tria talia poma quadrante cara sunt Three other such Apples are too dear of a farthing I leave the Application It is with Mariners in this case as it was with the Egyptians when they had the Israelites amongst them Exod. 12 3â— Wee bee all dead men I may say of Sailors as the Spirit of the Lord saith of the Church Lamentat 5.9 Wee get our bread with the peril of our lives if there were not a singular providence stepping betwixt and to prevent the fatal stroak of such like stormy consequences Many through the undeserved kindness of the Lord have escaped when their Cables have broke in storms and others have gone to the bottome Is not this a mercy worth perpetual boxing and recording in the heart 20. It falls out oftentimes in rugged and blustering weather that they are forced both when they are at an Anchor and also when under sail to lay violent hands upon their masting and yarding and cut down all by the Board for the safe-guarding of their lives and vessel Being once in this condition when upon the coast of Norway I observed that there was not a little terrour and affrightment of being cast away among the Sailors for the wind failed us and the current heavâ—d us into the shore and the Rocks lay round about us and the Sea was so deep that there was no anchoring for us so that all hopes of being saved was taken away yet casting our selves upon our God he provided deliverance and sent out his breezes some from the Land and some out of the Sea some on Head and some on Stern making all the haste that ever they could as if they had been resolved to tell us that they strave who should bee the first at us to fill our sails and carry us back from dying upon the Rocks and oftentimes before they can take the leasure to hew them down the strongness of the winds breaks them down now in this most dreadful and heart-affrighting and soul-amazing weather when the Seas run Mountain-high as if resolved to swallow them up alive the Lord doth wonderfully preserve them they live in this hard stormy time and others perish in it 21. Others are oftentimes becalmed in the Seas when that they are in the dangerousest and perillousest of places and when that there
preserve them and to carry them away from the fire for it is a common thing amongst the Mariners in such cases to run away with the boat and leave all the rest to the mercy of the fire yet notwithstanding boats have been sent off from shore with all speed and their lives have been saved 49. Others have been delivered after this miraculous manner when the ship hath sprung a dangerous and an incurable leak which could in no manner art Now have the Sea-men trembled within themselves and their inward desires have been like those of Moses Deut. 3.25 I pray thee let me go over and see the good Land that is beyond Jordan that goodly Mountain and Lebanon The Lord has given them leave to come safe on Land when that they thought that they should have drowned in the Sea and skil bee stopped their lives being greatly hazarded the Lord has sent unto them a fish that has gone into the leak and made it up with its own body as firm and as tite as ever the ship was before to the admiration of all that were in the Vessel insomuch that when they have brought the ship on shore they have found the fish lying in the leak as fast as any planck about the Vessel 50. Others for want of victuals in their long voyages in the Seas have been forced to put into strange and uninhabited places into which they have come thinking to find relief yet could they not see with their eyes neither man beast nor foul yet in some time tarriance there the Lord has to admiration provided for them insomuch that great flocks of fouls have been seen to come out of other parts I may say of this wonderful preservation as it is said of Israels manna Joshua 5.12 Neither had the children of Israel manna any more but they did eat of the fruit of the Land of Canaan that year and light in those inhospitable places where the poor people were like to starve and lay them eggs in great abundance and thus they did for many daies till at such times they got supplies and then the fouls went away and left them but not till then 51. Others have been no less wonderfully delivered when sprung great and dangerous leaks in time of dreadful storms they have been thrown upon the sands and when thinking themselves past all hopes of being saved God has turned all for good by calming of the Seas and winds The sight of this truth appeared to bee no small mercy in my eye Seems not this to be the language of those many Sands that ly up and down in the Seas that sin has filled the great deeps with them and many other unequal shallows by which ships are most dreadfully perplexed and ruined many and many a time If mankind had not sinned nothing should have lain in his way to harm him in the Seas As that curse at mans unhappy fall fell upon the whole world Gen. 3.18 to this day all grounds are cumbred with Thorns and Thistles and so the Sea with thousands of Rocks and Sands and also stoping of the leak and to boot besides both their ship and lives again 52. Others again have wonderfully been preserved when in boats that have been towing at a Friggots stern the ships way being so furious and violent through the Seas the boats bows has been pulled out and all the men thrown into the naked Sea some lying here and some lying there in a most dreadfull condition insomuch that hee that is a spectator of these lamentable accidents would think that never a one of them should bee saved and besides it is a long time ere a ship can bee put upon the stayes when shee has her freshest way 53. Others again have been most wonderfully preserved when storms have come down upon them in the dreadfullest rage that ever was seen or heard insomuch that their cables break and are thereby forced from their anchors and that which ponderates and proves the greatest inconveniency in the circumstance is their propinquity unto Sands being thus put to it in a Moonless and Starless evening This seems also to be the language of all the in-Sea-lying Rocks We know that the Mariner would have us to depart the deeps and lye in the bowels of the Earth with the rest of our fraternity but truly here we are ordered for to lye and to be a trouble unto mankind that he might not have all the sweetnesse safety and security in his trading it is something terrible in respect that they are thrown upon them and at every held the ship has laid her very hatches in the water and the poor men looking at every rowl that the Vessel should overset upon them I have known some in this condition that have lived and got off again both with ship and lives 54. Others have been very admirably preserved when sailing in the Seas without any mistrust or jealousy of Sands or runing on ground yet has it pleased the Lord to put into the hearts of some or other in the ship and given them secret hints to sound the Sea and no sooner have they fadomed their depth but the ship has struck and by a speedy handling of the Helm through the blessing of the Lord they have very narrowly escaped 55. Others again have been wonderfully preserved in this respect when they have unawars come on ground or upon a Sand-bank it has but been upon a smal point of it I cannot look upon any of these prementioned deliverances but my soul tels me that there is the visible finger of the Lord in them Psal 92.6 A brutish man knoweth not neither doth a fool understand this whereas had the ship run directly upon it shee had been lost without all recovery The often sight of this pretious deliverance I hope will lye warm upon my heart as long as I live But to break off what shall I now say of all and after all these remarkable and notable deliverances My thinks I cannot pass by the point that was laid down without one short word or two of use 1. Of Reprehension 2. Of Exhortation Use 1. Of Reprehension If it bee thus That the Sea-man of all the men under the whole heavens none excepted is one that is both a partaker and a seer of the greatest and remarkablest of temporal deliverances How are such to bee checked that out of blinde eyes hard hearts and sottish spirits never look upon these pre-mentioned mercies and deliverances as either mercies or deliverances but hurl them at their heels and value them no more than they do their old shooes The end of my gathering up these your mercies and deliverances is only to stir up your hearts unto thankfulness and to let the people that live on land both see and know what God doth for you in the deeps the truth of it is these are buried mercies that I have been telling of and such mercies as have lyen in the
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
calm but intricate and desperate perils and hazards do and must they run in your affaires through the Seas to accomplish the work that you have in hand against our forein and cruel enemies That pitcher that goes long to the well comes home crackt at last But ten thousand pitties it is to and upon my spirit that any of your golden warlike boats should either perish in storms What Taxaris said to his Country-man Anacharsis when hee saw him in Athens the very same will I say unto any either in or out of England I will says hee shew thee all the wonders of Greece Viso Solone vidisti omnia So visis navibus nostris Anglicanis vidistis omnia They that see Englands warlike ships see the greatest wonders that are either in it or belonging to it or in any other accidents But alas they are not exempted from those ruines no more than others there are but few Trees that have their growth in the world that are free'd from the Thunder save the Lawrel and alas there bee very few ships but the winds and the Seas will have a bout with them Bee ever and anon looking for some sublunary and temporary accidents or other befalling of your ships they are out in the Sea where there is a million of dangers and not in the Harbour I would have you of the like resolution that Anaxagoras was of of whom it was said when news came to him that his son was dead that hee told the messenger hee knew full well that hee had begot him mortal Conclude you in the like manner that your ships the very best and strongest of them are but made up of wasting and frangible materials and ingredients and the looking for the approaching of these like contingencies now and then will in fine tend to the setlement I and to the better establishment of an Heroical spirit under them When the great Naval or the inferior rank of your ships are in their Harbours they are in the greatest safety that can bee but when out at Sea they are not onely lyable but must stand to all the hazzards that shall happen and befall them 3. You that are the great Merchants of England stand in need of cautioning to look for storms Your ships are a meer uncertainty whilst in the perilous Sea an obscurity a fallacy one while they are and by and by they are not they are like to stars which for a while appear but by and by disappear or meteors in the air or as the black dive-dappers in the salt-waters or as the flock of birds that lighted in the husband-mans field and when hee thought they had been his they took wing and flew away Yea they are not unlike to Bajazet that ball of fortune as one termed him because it was one while well with him and another while it went most sadly you live its true in the brave accomplished and best Cities and Sea-port-Towns in the Land but whilst you are on Land your great adventures are in dreadfull dangers in the Seas in one bottom it may be that you have a thousand in another four and in another twenty and truly there is small wisdom of adventuring all in one bottom I have read of one that wittily said hee never liked that wealth that hangs in ropes meaning ships because where one ship came well home twenty perished and miscarried and have you not great reason to fear and look for losses do not think that all the ships that you have either in the East or in the West in the North and in the South shall come all safely home The country Shepherd that puts his Lambs Ews to pasture upon the great and wide forrests does not think to find them all the next day some are worried with the dog some with the wolf and othersome taken away by stealth Many times your interests are seised on by storms sometimes by Pyrats and other sometimes by Rocks and Sands Qui in immenso mari navigant valde turbantur The Seas are not unlike to an hilly and mountainous country through which they that travel after they bee in the bottom of one Valley they know not what danger of way-liers may bee in the next it is the very same at Sea for it is not many leagues that one can see upon a direct line and what Pyrats may bee in those places the eye cannot reach unto is not known to the Mariner but the proverb is Sub omni lapide dormitat Australis Scorpius There is a peevish Pyrat in every corner to fetch off your ships from comming to you But to proceed My speech is unto and towards all the Sea-men again that they would make sure of one thing that I would fasten upon them were I able to drive the nail of Truth to the head in all their hearts and that is shortly this 1. That they would prepare themselves for storms Whilst Sea-men loose from the shoar of life they lanch out into the main of mortality immortality and that you may follow this sweet and blessed counsel that the Spirit of my God has put into my heart for to tell you of I will give you directions what you should do 1. Get sin pardoned to you 2. Rest not either on Sea or on Land till God bee at peace with you And when you have accomplished these two things go whither thou wilt Me thinks Sea-men do not look like those whom God will bless for the want of their putting on for these two things and the God of Heaven go along with thy poor soul then mayst thou leave the Land for many daies with a great deal of comfort 1. Get sin pardoned to you or else it would bee better for thee that thou never wentest to Sea How darest thou that art a Captain a Master a Lieutenant a Boatswain a Gunner a Carpenter a Purser or a common Sea-man be so bold to venture to Sea with thy back burthen of sin unremitted Ah how ought you to stand in fear of that God whilst you are in the Seas that is ablest to set on and to call upon the winds to destroy you and when you go with sin unpardoned may you not daily expect the roaring storms of the Lords displeasure Isa 7.18.19 And it shall come to pass in that day that the Lord shall hiss for the Flye that is in the uttermost parts of the rivers of Egypt and for the Bee that is in the Land of Assyria If it were my case now as it is yours I should verily fear every hour that I spent upon the Sea that God would hisse for the North South East or West winds to rear the vessel I were in to pieces should I venture to Sea without a pardon and an acceptation of my person with and from my God Take heed lest that the Lord do hear you swear c. If you give him occasion hee can presently hiss for the winds to overwhelm you and
night and so consequently is able at his pleasure to make it stormy or calm comfortable or dreadful It is the counsel of the Wise man and I present it to you for I know none stand more need of it than your selves Prov. 23.17 Bee thou in the fear of the Lord all the day long None knows what may happen unto them before the Sun goes down 4. If you would prepare for storms take fast hold on God by the hand of faith before they come and also when they come Job 13.15 Though hee stay mee yet will I trust in him Though hee should bring tempest after tempest upon thee let not thy hold go but take as fast hold of him as ever wrestling Jacob did upon his God and thou wilt finde both safety and comfort enough 5. Would you know now Sailors why the Lord sends many storms upon you And would you know also what Gods ends and aims are in storms I will give you in a few grounds to those preceding ones that I presented unto you and the first will bee this 1. That Gods aim in stormy winds is not alwayes for destruction but sometimes for trial Matth. 8.25 Gold is often thrown into the fire but what is the Goldsmiths end in so doing not that it should bee consumed but fined 2. God sits by his blowing blasts I know not whether it would bee worse or no that the heavens should alwayes look upon us with one face or ever varying for as continuall change of weather causes uncertainty of health so a permanent settledness of one season causeth the certainty of distempers perpetual moysture dissolves us perpetual heat evaporates or inflames us cold stupifies us and drought obstructs and withers us and stormy winds that are sent out upon the Seas you sit not more carefully by to hand in your Top-gallant Sails or Top-sails when winds blow high and fresh than hee doth sit by the winds to keep them from destroying of you The Goldsmith sits not more carefully by that precious metal to watch its first melting than hee doth by the winds lest that they should wrong your vessels This God doth for those that fear him in the Seas 3. Storms come for improvement God would have the grace of faith and of patience exercised Matth. 8.25 2. It will not bee amiss if that you that are the Great Statesmen of our land prepare for storms It is true you are out of the wind-blowing Sea blasts whilst on land but your gallant and sumptuous warlike Sea-boats are in them oftentimes at Sea Well all that I shall say unto your Honours is this Prepare to meet ill news and sad and dismal accidents to befall them now and then that comes in an hour that usually falls not out in an hundred And grant that ships bee cast away It was a brave minde that Antisthenes was of when hee desired nothing else in all the world to make his life either comfortable or happy with but the spirit of Socrates which was of that temper that it could cheerfully bear the saddest tydings that ever came or the greatest evills that ever befell man or that any other fatal Omen do befall them hee that trusteth in the Lord shall not bee moved at it Psal 112.7 Hee shall not bee afraid of evil tydings his heart is fixed trusting in the Lord. 3. It will not bee out of my way to give the great Merchants of our land the same advertisement to prepare for storms Gentlemen It is with your ships at Sea if but without Convoyes as it was with Aesops Geese and Cranes that were feeding in one Pasture altogether Venatoribus autem visis understand Pyrats the Cranes being light bodied volatiles betook themselves to their wings and would not stay to answer the reckoning but the Geese that were heavy bodied Sailors capti fuerunt were taken and knocked in the head by the Hunters The best Sailor escapes when the slowest falls into the Pyrats hands Great losses come upon you many times and how will you take and entertain the sad news that shall and oftentimes doth come to your ears of one ship lost in the North another in the South may bee one in the East and another in the West if you bee not prepared for this news it will bee too heavy a triall for you to bear When you send out your ships prepare for the worst and expect not alwayes the best and I will assure you that what ever contingencies befall you they will bee the more comportable for your spirits I have great ventures at Sea some in one bottome and some in another some in the Eastern parts of the world other some in the Western some in the Northern and some in the Southern and if the Lord will bee pleased to return them in safety I shall bee very thankful unto my God and if not I will pray for patience and strength to submit to his will As soon as ever the Souldier hath intelligence of the enemies advancing towards him hee prepares for the battel at the sound of Trumpet and the beat of Drum and on goes his best arms and armour for his defence and safeguard and the like provisions should you make in my apprehensions for the ships that you have out in perilous Seas But to proceed to the next words of counsel that I would present unto our Sea-men it will bee shortly this 3. And lastly Bear storms stoutly when dangerous and perilous sinking and shipwracking storms and tempests are upon you bear them couragiously with patience silence and without all murmuring or repining and without all passion choler distemper or any other unquietness of spirit or thinking hardly of the Lord. When David was under affliction wee hear no more of him but this Psal 39.9 I was dumb I opened not my mouth because thou didst it Plutarch in a consolatory Epistle to his good wife on the death of a child amongst many other arguments sent her this Wee must alwayes think well of what the gods do And will not you Sea-men think well of the Lord when it goes either ill or well with you at any time Vlysses encouraged his companions thus when in a raging storm upon the Sea 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Sirs saith he Wee are not now to learn what sorrows are When ill news came to Eli how did he bear it 1 Sam. 3.18 And hee said It is the Lord let him do what seemeth him good Paul and Silas were so far from murmuring and repining that they were very cheerful when in the Dungeon and Philpot and his fellows when in the Cole-house and the many Martyrs when in the flames It was a gallant speech of Stilpo that great Philosopher when King Demetrius had sacked that famous City of Megaera to the very foundation hee asked the Philosopher what losses hee had sustained none at all quoth hee for war can make no spoyl of vertue Jewel when banished comforted himself with this
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
out of the heavens for you Accensam lucernam nemo moleste aspicit extinctam dolent omnes When Sea-coast light-houses burn clear bright the Mariner greatly rejoyces in it but when dimly and dully he freâ—â— and curses when Land-lights have burned very deadly and dimly in black dark and blustring evenings upon the sight whereof you have judged your selves to have been at a greater distance than you were and thereby have hazzarded your ships and lives by standing in so much to the shore yet in fine some or other in the vessel have had a fight of the land thorow the thick darkness whereby you have been precautionated to alter your course Who so is wise c. 27. Minde how the Lord looks out of heaven into the deeps for you in the absence of the Moon which is oftentimes over-cast with thick clouds and foggy vapours insomuch that when you have been standing in for the shore and been nearer to it than aware of that the Lord hath caused the Moon to break out very clearly in the skies Wear not these mercies aâ— the Romans â—â—d pearls upon their shoos because of the commonness of them but put them upon the file and hang them the nearest your hearts of any thing in the world besides Alexander thought all cost too little to make a Casket to keep Homers Poems in by which means you have seen what would have been your portion if providence had not been at work for you Who so is wise c. 28. Minde what a care the Lord hath of you in black and formidable nights of wind and rain when in the wide and shelterless Sea The Seas in the night time are as difficult in some places to navigate as the Hircâ—nian Forrests are to travel through in the night Writers say that they are so intricate and difficult to get out of if a man once get into them that the skilfullest traveller that is is oftentimes put to his shifts and were it not for the flying of certain birds which afford such a bright and glistring lustre in their leasurely flight by reason of their white feathers they might take up their lodgings in them who causes the stars to afford you a glimmering light in the absence of the Moon by which means you have in your Navigations observed the frothy breaches of the Seas over the Sand-banks which places you have taken as ominous and altered your courses and thereby gone safe away and clear Who so is wise c. 29. Minde how the Lord takes care for you by giving you secret fears and hints in dark nights when you are in narrow Seas through which many ships trade and travel all the night long insomuch that when they have come within the touch of you by a speedy handling of your helm you have escaped whereas either one or both would have gone down into the bottoms if providence had not looked out for you Who so is wise c. 30. Minde what the Lord doth for you when you are in great distress as to the want of Victual Beer and fresh water when you are many hundred leagues off England how hee gives you a very fair wind which carries you on for a spurt may bee a day or half a day and then it fails you and so a contrary wind looks you in the face and puzzles you and being in many fears and doubts of starving the Lord alters that wind again and causes a gale to stand and wast you over to your desired Ports Who so is wise will c. 31. Minde what a mercy it is The Earl of Ulster endeavoured fifteen times to sail over Sea into Ireland but the wind drave him ever back Every one is not priviledged as you are Satius est claudicare in via quam currere extra viam Better to stop and sound in the Channel than run the ship on shore when in dark stormy and blowing weather you come out of the Southern parts into the channel and are at a stand not knowing where you are whether you bee nearer the French shore or the English but by sounding you distinguish your propinquity to either of them in respect that the one is a white sand and the other red and hereby your ships are preserved many a time Keep these mercies in remembrance as Alexander kept Homers Iliads pro viatico rei militaris for his fellow and companion in the Wars 32. Minde the Lords appearances for you in all your Sea-engagement-mercies when your Masts have been shot down by the board and the enemy hath lain pouring in his great and small shot upon you how seasonably some ship or other hath come in to relieve you from the mouth of the Lion Who so is wise c. 33. Minde how the Lord hath taken care for you when fire ships have been grapled to you that before those combustible materials which they are usually fraught withall have taken fire you have cleared your selves from being devoured in that unmerciful element Who so is wise c. I may write upon this deliverance In tempore veni quod omnium rerum est primum If I had not come in time you had been sent into the bo tome 34 Minde what care the Lord hath used for you in your engagements when you have been so shrewdly worsted by the enemy that you have been put to your flight to the end you might carine and stop your leaks and the enemy observing you at such a disadvantage hath made after you to sinke you down-rights which hee would have done if Providence had not set on some ship or other to prevent him Who so is wise c. If it bee thus then Vse Comfort that God hath such a special eye c. This Doctrine may serve to cheer up the honest hearts and spirits that go into the Sea that God will take care of them When one asked Alexander how hee could sleep so soundly and securely in the midst of danger hee told him that Parmenio watched and when hee watched not hee durst not sleep so soundly Go to Sea with comfort you that fear the Lord not onely Parmenio watcheth for you but the Lord. That if the Lord brought not ships out Observ 3 of storms they were never able to get out of them themselves And hee bringeth them out of their distresses That Sea-mens distresses are both infinite Observ 4 and many yet God out of his infinite mercy helps them out of all And hee brings them out of their distresses That all impossibility in mans narrow Observ 5 judgement and apprehension of being delivered hinders not God in delivering Fides in pericuâ—is secura est in securis periclitatur And hee brings them out c. Witness that wonderful deliverance that Paul and his fellow-passengers received from the cruelty of the Seas Act. 27. Because his power is an unlimited Reason 1 and an unstraitned power which is infinite and most like to
the sea Storms are the Lords surly Sergeants whom hee claps upon mens backs in the Seas to arrest them which say unto them that go in the Seas as Greg did to the Emperour Anastatius whom he took by the sleeve and told him Sir this silken cassock and this scarlet coâ—t you shall not carry hence with you This ship says a storm shall never go to her Harbour is by of and from the Divine permission and appointment of the Lord. God out of wrath and displeasure suffers some to go to the pot and perish Many ships have gone out with very famous names upon them some called the Swallow some the Antelope some the Lawrel and some again the Bonadventure some the Meer-maid some the Swift-sure and other some the Triumph and one Rock Sand Storm or casualty or other has in a short time given them the new name of a Non-such It is reported of a ship that had been a very long time out at Sea and having made a very good voyage of it shee was hard by and very fair for her Port but before shee could get into it a storm arose and drave her back and she mourningly said Per ware per procellas tutissime huc usque navigavi ac portum juxta infelicissime mergor I have hitherto gone clear and escaped all seas and storms and now my greatest misery is this I must perish in the sight of my harbour The Use that I would have all that go in the Seas to make of this Truth praedelivered will bee this Vse Nauf agium ad paucos ut mâ—tus ad omnes perveniat some suffer shipwrack that fear and terrour may strike upon the rest 1. Look upon the shipwrack of others with deep solid serious and not with flying and transient consultations that they may sink into your hearts and spirits fix your eyes upon such steep your thoughts in their sorrows ponder them in their certainty causes severity it is not possible that posting passengers can ever bee any serious or curious observers of homeward or forein Countries Ah Sirs dwell upon the Sea-monuments of Divine Justice transient thoughts does not become such dreadful and permanent judgements Quot vulnera tot ora Other mens harms should bee our warnings and Sea-standing spectacles Misericordia Judicium sunt duo pedes Domini are the two feet on which the Lord is oftentimes found walking upon with those that use the Seas I may say unto you that use the Seas as the Prophet said unto Israel in another case Isa 42.23 24. Who among you will give ear to this Who will hearken and hear for the time to come 2. Behold Gods Judgments in storms with particular application Many or indeed the major part of Sea-men hearing of the Judgments of God upon the Seas say within themselves and to the ships they are in as Peter once said to Christ These things shall not bee to us or as proud Babylon said of her self Ah Sirs mee thinks many of your calling run riot swagger swear drink and whore as if hell were broke loose God had dispensed with Justice and Judgement and granted you a general indulgence Your destruction in the Seas is never neerer than when you put it furthest from you Baltazar was tiplâ—ng but he was surprized in his bowels Dan. â— Ah! you live as if you had passed the day of Judgment over and the very torments of Hell Isa 47.8 I am and none else besides me I shall not sit as a widdow c. and though shee put destruction far from her yet was shee laid in the dust there cry the Ostriches and there dance the Satyres Isa 13.21 Few places have such prerogatives as Nineveh had so much state had that famous City says Volateran that it was eight years in building and all that time no less than ten thousand workmen upon it and Diodorus Siculus says that the height of the walls were an hundred foot the bredth able to receive three Carts in a brest it had one thousand five hundred Turrets and yet none of these have any other than paper walls to preserve their memories by Sin turned the seven Churches of Asia Nice Ephesus and Chalcedon who were famous for General Councils into rubbish and ruines pastures for Oxen and Sheep Sea-men In the Emblem there is a naked sword an halter about it Discite Justitiam laqueus monet illud et ensis Sirs you should learn goodness out of storms you are doing that your selves which you may see God punishing in others if you will but if God bee somewhat slack and loth to punish you as hee hath done others by sending them into the bottom of the Seas his patience should lead you to repentance Rom. 2.4 Make you better and not the worse Marke But Gods severity towards others and the same God that pays other men their deserved punishment will shortly pay you without speedy and sound repentance What ever you see God punishing in others in the Seas bee sure you beware of that in your selves if God punish a sinning Cain by setting a brand upon him it is to teach others to keep their hands from blood if God throw a Dives into Hell it is to teach others that they keep cleer of the sin of covetousness if hee set a fire on the Gates of Jerusalem for breaking the Sabbath it is to teach others to keep it holy Plurimae intrant pauciores perambulant paucissimae recedunt may bee the Motto of the Lords dealings with many ships that justly for their wretched unsavoury lives If hee hurl ships and Sea-men into the bottoms of the great deeps it is to teach others to take heed of swearing and the graceless lives that they lived and led whilst above water When the Epitamizer of Trogus had to the full described and set forth King Ptolomie's riot as the chief and principal cause of his ruine and destruction hee adds this Tympanum Tripudium It was when hee was fidling and danceing So should any ask mee when ships or wherefore such and such ships were cast away I should say it was when and because they were swearing 3. Behold Gods Judgments in storms with an eye of prudent anticipation and prevention Were such and such swearers and drunkards cast away in the last storm I may say of such ships as are cast away as one said of the fallen Angels 2 Pet. 2.4 5 6. God hanged them up in Gibbets that others might hear see and fear and do no more so wickedly So the Lord cast so many sail away in a stormy night or in a stormy day that you might take warning to live after another manner than they did Ah souls flye you then from that wrath which you are at such times warned of is it not easier to keep out of the Sea than to get out of it I have often times observed that both birds and beasts will avoid those places where
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
but it is an abiding and a staying upon them and turning of mercy upside down and looking first upon the one side and then upon the other that affects the heart 2. Take notice of the freeness of Gods dealings with you in the Seas if you would bee thankful to your God it is out of meer mercy and goodness without any merit or desert in you and though there bee much sinfulness amongst you swearing by the highest in Heaven and by the vilest in Hell Ah Sirs I wish I could get you to minde what God doth for you and that I could work upon you in what I have writ to you as Antonius de Padua once did upon the hearts of a people whom he once preached to he thundred so out of the holy Law of God that they would go one in the streets smiting of their breasts tears drilling down their eyes crying out Misericordia domine Misericordia Mercy Lord Mercy and all the abominable oaths that you cast forth in storms which is like to the mire and dirt the Sea casts up as the Prophet sayes yet doth God appear for you in them David was wonderfully affected with Gods dealings with him Gen. 32.10 2 Sam. 7.18 19. 3. Eye the seasonableness of all your Sea-deliverances God doth and ever did take the fittest time to accomplish every thing in Eccl. 3.1 To every thing there is a season Eccl. 3.1 And God makes every thing beautiful in his time vers 11. The season of the mercy puts a beauty and lustre upon it even as the Sun puts its beauty upon the Rainbow Was it not a seasonable mercy to the man that went from Jerusalem to Jericho and falling among Theeves had all that ever hee had taken from him I and more than that wounded and left for dead upon the ground and in that very juncture and extremity of time the good Samaritan comes providentially by and takes compassion of him Luke 10.33 That King Ahasuerus could not sleep in the night 1 King 17.18 19. before Mordecai should have been hanged of all the nights in the year besides and that a book should bee brought him and instead of other books which were his exercise the book of the Chronicles and of all places and passages in it that should bee turned to which had relation to Mordecaie's good service in discovering the Treason of the two Chamberlains which moved the King to save him from the Gallows Ah Sirs I would have you to say to your God what Luther once said before he was better informed to the Pope Leo 10 An. 1518. Prostratum pedibus me tibi offero cum omnibus quae sum habeo vocem tuam vocem Christi in te praefidentis loquentis agnoscam I humbly prostrate my self with all that I have and am at thy feet That when Peter was sinking Christ should then put forth his hand and still the waves Ah Sirs eye the seasonableness of all Gods mercies with you Mee thinks I hear many a gracious Sea-man say Ah wee had been drowned at such and such a time and cast away at such a time if God in his mercy had not prevented it 4. Minde the unexpectedness of delivering mercies at Sea I profess for my part when wee have been in storms and run upon sands I have thought it an impossible and a very unlikely thing to escape insomuch that I have had occasion to say as Sarah did to Abraham who would have thought it Gen. 21.7 Mercies come crouding in many times upon you that use the Seas unlooked for 5. Eye the mercies of God towards you in all those places that you either do or have traded into in the world how many Voyages thou hast made through and over the dangerous deeps and how God hath blessed thee prospered thee and delivered thee abroad gon out with thee and come home with thee Moses takes special notice of what God had done for Israel in bringing them out of Egypt and also of their journey through the wilderness of Canaan and so sets them all down in a local method in the Red Sea they passed through it on dry land Pharaoh and his host was drowned therein and in Rhephidim God gave them water out of the Rock Exod. 17. and victory over Amalek in the Wilderness of Sin At night and at morn they had flesh and Manna In Sinai God gave them his holy Law Exod. 16. Paul in a local method mindes the converting grace of God as to the place bestowed upon him at Damascus They that will go into the Elysian fields saies the Poet must over Acharon and Phlegeton and the several other Rivers of Hell before they can come into those pleasurable and delightful rich and flowery Meadows and so through many storms over the Seas before they can come at the beautiful and wealthy Countries in the forein parts of the world Vbi definit humanum auxilium ibi incupit divinum and his deliverance afterwards when hee was let down through the windows in a basket at Lystra Derbe and Iconium Act. 14. at Philippi Chap. 16. at Thessalonica Chap. 17. at Corinth Chap. 18. at Ephesus Chap. 19. c. But I proceed to a word of Application 1. Of Exhortation 2. Of Reproof Vse 1 1. Of Exhortation Is it thus then that God hath done all these things for you Ah Sirs bee exhorted to lay up all your Sea-deliverances let them lye the nearest your hearts of any thing in the whole world besides and let all your new mercies bee as goads in your sides and as spurs to a better life Vse 2 2. Of Reproof unto those that go down into the Seas and forget all their mercies and let them lye loose upon their hearts and spirits Sirs the Lord complains of you as hee did of Israel Jer. 3.8 When your condition was as Lyricus said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 one wave after another passing over your heads then did the Lord appear for you but you have not come off like men with God in thankfulness Amos 4.6 to the 12. Thus and thus did I for you but you returned not to mee What shall not your escapes work upon you and shall not the ruines of others startle you how many Vessels bee there sunk in the Seas and you notwithstanding have come safe home out of them Ezek. 16.56 Thy sister Sodome was not mentioned c. the Chalde Paraphrast sayes was not for instruction the word in the Hebrew was not in thy mouth they had quite forgot the destruction of Sodome insomuch that it was neither in their thoughts nor mouthes The ruines of others is little thought of by you and your Sea-deliverances are forgot by you That miraculous eminent and remarkable Observ 9 Sea-mercies and deliverances benefit not hard flinty stony and impure hearts in the Seas Oh that men would praise the Lord. As if the Psalmist should say they have the greatest mercies of any people in the world bestowed