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
than to hear this out of Scripture Psal 7.11 That God is angry with the wicked every day If God bee angry with the wicked every day then I will pawn my salvation upon it that hee is not pleased with you every day But Sea-men to fasten this truth upon your spirits and to drive it into your heads pray consider what a dreadful storm the Lord sent out after Jonah when hee sinned against him and provoked him to anger Jonah 1.4 But the Lord sent out a great wind into the Sea and there was a mighty Tempest in the Sea so that the ship was like to bee broken Did not Jonah now and those Heathen that hee sailed amongst acknowledge that that storm came upon them for their sins This was more than ever I heard English Sailor say or confess in all my life during that too long time I have spent amongst them where is the Sailor that wil say when the masts are a going down by the board in a storm or the ship is a going to bee cast away upon the Rocks or upon the Sands and shore what is the Lords design now Some iniquity or other is amongst us some carnal filthiness some stinking and abominable impurity that wee have not been humbled for nor turned from that has brought this misery upon us now are our lives jeoparded and at the very stake by reason of that swearing drinking and audacious gracelesness that is amongst us I dare bee bold to say it that the ungraciousness of that generation of People that goes down into the Sea and is amongst them does put the Lord many and many a time to rouse up his wind-Lyons Seems not this to bee the language of all storms Isa 1.24 Ah I will ease mee of mine adversaries and avange mee of mine enemies or wind-Eagles to flye about their eares with a raging austerity and heart-daunting cruelty yet notwithstanding this generation cannot bee got to abate in swearing reform in drinking and return from their filthy doings Sailors if ever you would travel the Seas with safety and freedom from storm and Tempest follow the Example of the wild-geese that fly over Caucasus where the Eagles roost lest they should bee heard in their gagling they will not take any such flight or voyage before their mouthes bee well crammed with pebbles and then they know that they are far enough out of danger If you would not now have God to send down storms upon you let him not see you drunk nor let him not see you profaning of his holy Name yea bee sure of this that you never let him hear you swearing I am confident were you but an humble and a godly sort of people neither beasts of the field the Seas you swim in and the winds that are above you would never hurt you so much as they do and so you should find more peace more quiet and less dread and terrour than now you do What is it that sin will not do it will batter down Cities I have read a notable passage of some Heathens who when at Sea and in a very dangerous storm where they were all like to bee cast away began every one apart to examine themselves what was or should bee the reason of so dreadful a storm and after they had cast up all by quaerying with themselves what have I done and what have I done said another that his occasioned this storm it amounted to this they remembred that they had Diagoras the Atheist on board and rather than they would perish they took him by the heels and hurled him over board and then the storm ceased and the Seas were at quiet with them If any one would ask mee now what is the reason that the State-ships meet with such hard storms and so many Sands and dangers I should tell them this it is because they are so full of filthy Swearers Drunkards and Atheistical Adulterers These have made my heart for to tremble more than all the dreadful storms that ever I have been in in all my life Nations Towns and Countries and lay them level with the ground and therefore well may your sins bring many ships to ruine Hos 4. vers 2 3. It is that profaneness that is amongst you that puts the Lord upon suffering of your ships to blow up and to fall upon Rocks and Sands c. Think not that the strongest ship or ships in the world are able to keep you from drowning when there is nothing but swearing and carnal filthiness amongst you It was but a foul mistake and also a carnal conceit that Dionysius was of that great Sicilian Tyrant when hee said that his Kingdome was bound to him with chains of Adamant for time soon confuted him Is there not now as strong a conceit in you about your valour and the strength of your ships Alas one sturdy storm will make them rock and tremble I and carry them unto the bottome or throw them upon the shoar if but licensed and impowred by God The strongest walled Cities in the world cannot keep judgement out if sin bee but within neither are they sufficient Canon-proof against the Arrows and Canon-bullets of an heavenly vengeance the height of a Cities proud-daring and out-braving Turrets may for a time keep the earth in awe but they cannot threaten heaven nor stand it out against the Lord the sinfuller a City a Nation a Country a Ship or Family is the weaker are they and the more do they lye open to Gods dreadful thundring and lightning upon them Isa 40.15 I will tell you of a story that will make your ears to tingle when you have heard it and it is of that famous City of Jerusalem which was the glory and beauty of the whole earth It thought it self so strongly fortified and manned within that there were an impossibility of ever being stormed and ruined but alas sin being in its full weight within set open the sluces and flood-gates of Gods displeasure and so let in the raging surges of cruel and intestine wars and brought it unto a heap of stones and to an uninhabitable place After Titus Vespasianus Souldiers had set the Temple on fire it was observed all the industry and skill that ever could bee used imagined or thought on could not quench it Titus sayes the history would gladly have preserved it What is it that God cannot do who is able to marshal and draw into a body even all the scattered forces that lye upon the face of the Creation together and draw forth their vigour vertue and so arm them and that which is more set on every degree of that vigour force that is in the creature according to the strength of his own powerful Arm Gods anger is able to change and alter the very nature of all creatures yea the smallest and the weakest and feeblest of them shall not onely go but run upon Arrands of Destruction in obedience to their chief Generalissimo who can
Miscelaneous Observations These stand by themselves like the Quoe genus in the Grammer being deficients or redundants not to bee brought under any rule because the Seas are a debilitating to my spirits onely give me leave to throw you in a few Miscelaneous yet I hope delightful and pleasing Observations and then I question not but that I shall have given you a taste and relish of every thing in order though not in that multiplicity that I might have done 1. They that go down to the Sea in ships Amongst the rest of that amaene bundle of novelty that they have in their travels those sundry and strange kind of sensitive creatures that be in the Indies are some in which God has kindled many kinds of living and going fire walking to and fro in the Earth some creeping under feet some flying over head viz. in the Snake Adder Cockatrice flying Serpents and other strange kind of Flies In the evening if any bee disposed to walk in the Woods Sea-men tell us that there bee great swarms of flies which will keep a very great buzzing and humming about the trees and cost such a light and lustre as if there were sparks of fire or lighted matches hanging upon the boughs which will sting and burn to death Numb 21.4 And the Lord sent fiery Serpents among the people and they bit the people and much people of Israel died 2. Amongst the rest of that eye-delighting and mind-contenting novelty that they have in their travels those great and many Woods that bee in the Indies and elsewhere are some there bee such vast and unknown wilderness-places in the world in which grow such a rankness and thickness of trees that they cannot bee travelled through nor known how great and how far they reach it is not known to the Indians themselves what is on the other side of them and who or what lives beyond them 3. Amongst the rest of that eye-delighting and mind-contenting novelty that they have in their travels the Magellan Straits is very wonderful in respect of those terrible winds that bee frequently in them and upon them which fall with such vehemency as if the very bowels of the earth would set all at liberty or as if the clouds under the Heavens were called together to muster their fury and lay on their force upon that one place the Sea in it self naturally is of a very heavy and ponderous substance History tells us that Ferdinando Megalanus was the first that compassed the world and found out this Southern passage call'd Fretum Magellanieum and after him followed Sr. F. D. yet notwithstanding in this place it is so rowld up with storms that the very roots of rocks are unbar'd so that ones eye may almost behold the bottoms of the deeps the Seas swell run and rage in such monstrous hills and mountaines sometimes there that it is no small terrour to the Mariner when hee is either under sail or at an anchor Anchors are like false friends give way and the wind is so violent as if the mountains would rend and the heavens and the earth would come together 4. Those wonderful cloud-climbing and heaven-aspiring Promontories that bee in many parts of the world many or the most of them lye in the view of the ships that go in the Seas and other some lye-upon the very skirts of the Sea These are Natures bulworks Some writers tell us that the Land of Canaan was but threescore miles in length and twelve score in breadth and that it is exceeding mountainous so the hillier mountainouser any Country is the greater it is in this little land were there 1 Chr. 21.5 A thousand thousand and an hundred thousand men that drew sword and Judah was four hundred threescore and ten thousand men that drew sword cast up as the Spaniard says at God Almighties charge and they call them heaps of rubbish or offals that were left at the Creation of the world and so remain as so many warts or pimples disfiguring the face and beauty of the earth the difficulty of their ascent is admirable the horridness of their craggs is wonderful and an uninhabited wilderness are many of them upon which and in which live nothing else but wild beast The Alpes Mount Ararat Mount Chego and Teneriffe c. are estimated to bee far higher than the clouds Upon these it is no matter of wonderment to see Snow lying all summer long although those parts have a greater heat from the Sun than wee have in England and the reason seems to bee this because that the Sun does leave its work as imperfect and has not that force and power to melt the Snows that bee upon them by reason of those chill aires that bee upon them Nay such an intollerable chilness is there upon some of their snowy and frosty tops Corpus-zant Sometimes Sea-men will aver that there will come down many of these Corpus-zants insomuch that they have seen upon evey yard-arme one as so many blazing lighted candles that they are altogether inhospitable and not to bee endured to breathe in for an hour 5. The Corpus-zant which is so called in the Spanish and Italian Language and in Latin Corpus Sancti which they say it is this is a very strange thing it seldom appears but before the ensuing of some dreadful storm It is like unto the light of a candle and is never seen but in the darkest and windiest nights upon the Sea It most commonly chuses to light upon the Truck of the Antient-staff about which the ships-colours do fly and there it will lye a long time like the light of a candle and what it is or from whence it comes or whither it goes none can well tell Sometimes Sea-men say that they will light in other parts of the ship and when they have endeavoured to touch them they would vanish away The sight of this thing did much admire mee 6. The Male-stream-well Male-stream-well which lies on the back of Norway this well draws water into it during the flood which continues for the space of six hours and twelve minutes with such an avarous indraught and force Mariners call this dreadful Gulph the Navel of the Sea that it makes a very hideous and most dreadful noise the waves tumble in with such a violence one upon the neck of another that would daunt the stoutest heart to hear it and suck up the strongest ships that should dare to come within a league of it and at the Ebb the water returns with the like violence that it went in in the Flood so that should the ponderousest thing that is bee thrown into it the strength of it is such that it would carry it up again 7. The Water-Spouts Water-spouts that bee to bee seen in the Southern parts of the world of which certainly David speaks of Psal 42.7 Deep calleth unto deep at the noise of thy Water-spouts It is observed by those
that use the Seas that these Water-Spouts come down from heaven in the form of a cloud and at the one end it is in the form and likeness of a funnel which will descend upon the surface of the water and suck till it bee full out of the Ocean and so returns ascending up again into the heavens These are daunting and dreadful unto the ships that pass on in the Seas for if the cloud rends then down falls that infinite massy weight of water into the Sea again which will make the Sea to flash and froth at a great distance but if it come directly upon any of the ships it will endanger to sink them and to break down their decks masts and boltsprits Many ships have come to sad losses and woful hazzards by the fall of Water-Spouts Certainly after this manner does the Lord call and send for the waters of and in the Seas to pour out upon the face of the Earth The Ordinances of the Heavens are not seen nor known by and to every one Job 38.33 But to such as go down to the Sea These water-carrying Tankards come out of the Heaven to fetch water out of the Seas at Gods appointment to distil in silver showers upon the face of the whole Earth even upon the face of every Nation and Country that is in the World Amos 5.8 Now these Water-Spouts are not seen to any but ships that sail in the Seas 8. That various view that they have of the several sorts and kinds of People that bee in the world how they differ one from another in form habit speech gesture and deportment The Indians are wont to paint themselves with divers and sundry colours some with white and othersome with red some with the characters of the Moon in white and othersome with the Sun in black upon their bodies c. 9. That burning Island Fogo Burning Fogo These are the lads now that do Ultimas Provincias terras peragere in Remotissimas mundi partes navigare which is of an unspeakable heat and in height computed to bee twenty miles and upwards At the top of this Mountain there is a burning fire that shews it self four times in an hour most terribly to all the ships that sail in the Seas neer unto it It flyes up in horrid flames as if the fire of it would not stay until it reached the heavens after this like manner I have seen burning Strumbilo very vehement which lies in the Austral parts of the world 10. The People in the Torrid zone is another sight that they have who are afflicted most sadly with the scorching heat of the Sun It is observed that if there were not all the day long in those scorching parts of the world as the Indies c. a cool breeze which blows for the greatest part of the day to moderate that excessive roasting heat that is there it were impossible almost either for man or beast to live there they are so tormented and rosted with the beams of the Sun that they curse the up-rising of the Sun every morning they get out of their beds yet notwithstanding this vehement heat they have these accommodations to allay the intemperateness of the Zone many sweet springs of cool water to refresh themselves in and goodly rivers to bathe in many great and pleasant trees for shade which yeeld them both meat and drinks and besides they want not for Spices Sugars Lemons Oranges and juyces to quench their thirst withall and cool their bodies c. 11. A sight of those many Orange Olive and Lemon besides many other trees which they see growing where none inhabit Job 38.26 27. even their boughs ready to break with plenty of fruit and no hand nigh to take them in their maturity before they fall to the ground and perish In these parts lies the Lords store-houses of Snow Hail and Ice Job 37.9 Out of the North comes forth cold 12. The Northern parts of the world into which parts they adventure sometimes as far as they can for extreamity of cold but there is such an intolerable frigidity in some parts under the Poles as that they cannot bee discovered nor approached unto Job 38.18 Hast thou perceived the breadth of the Earth declare if thou knowest it all Many will make great cracks and brags that the world is so many thousand in rotundity and so many thousand in breadth but it is none of my judgement to beleeve any such trifling assertions or computations Nova-zembla 13. Those Septentrional Zones that bee in Greenland and Nova Zembla c. which onely in Summer-time may bee spoke with but not in the Hybernal insomuch that many parts under the Poles are inhospitable by reason of that excessiveness of cold frost snow and ice that lyes in those parts which would kill people to live there Those Sunless Starless and Moonless nights and days that bee in the Winter-time in those parts have fetcht in that in Matth. 25.30 to my thoughts And cast yee the unprofitable Servant into utter darkness there shall bee weeping and gnashing of teeth If a man were in those parts hee would find nothing else but darkness weeping Meditate the torments of hell Sea-man when thou goest Norward Thou durst as soon eat thy fingers as go into the Northern parts of the world as Greenland c. if thou thoughtest not that thou hadst a good ship under thee to bring thee back again Thou knowest full well that the cold in that place would kill thee and gnashing of teeth and with ten thousand times that hee were in England or in any part of the world than in that uncomfortable part and side of the world 14. Lapland A sight of that People which live in Finmark and Lapland c. who to avoid that extreamity of Winter-cold that commonly falls upon those parts turn Troglodites they delve themselves warm holes and caves in the Earth to shelter themselves from the rage of that brumale tempus that breaks out upon them in that bitterness 15. A sight of those huge Icy Mountains that bee in those Northern Zones which make such a dashing and crashing one against another making such hideous noises as if it were the very roarings of hell or those ear-deafing Cataracts that are to bee heard and seen in Egypt 16. This is one that is as remarkable as any thing that has been spoken of That in Island Greenland and in divers other Northern parts of the world that are destitute of wood scarce having one stick growing yet notwithstanding they are most miraculously provided for every year and though they have not vessels nor ships to fetch wood withall yet does the Lord supply them on this wise Many great trees and billets are carried unto them upon the waves and billows of the Seas both out of Norway and elsewhere which come and lie in their creeks It is no small wonderment to mee to think how prodigiously
infinite mercy goodness and undeserved kindness of the Lord that every day in the Seas is not a stormy Sailors the Seas are turbulent because of you the winds above thunder and roar more over our heads every day than they would the skies are cloudy thick and foggy because of you and the Sun doth not give his light unto the Sea we take not our enemies in our chases because of you neither do wee nor can we bring them down with that violency as we might if you were but good and gracious a gloomy and a dreadful day as long as our ships are full of Diagoras's and drunken Zeno's c. I am confident there is more danger in going to Sea amongst the unsavoury crew that is in ships in England whether Merchant or Men of War than there was for Lot to stay in a stinking Sodome and yet in very deed he had been burnt if the two Angels had not come down from heaven to give him warning and to usher him out of the City whilst fire-balls were making in heaven Gen. 19. The Mariners that carried Jonah had like to have lost their lives what then may one expect in going amongst Sailors that are as full of sin and filthiness as a Dog is full of hairs and fleas 6. To put faith on work Christ was Reason 6 resolved to try Peter Matth. 14.29 30. But when hee saw the wind boysterous hee was afraid and beginning to sinke hee cried saying Lord save mee The German drinks down his sorrows the Spaniard weeps it away the French man sings it away and the Italian sleeps it away all these are but sorry shifts but if thou hast faith in God in stormy times this will make thee sweeter melody in thy foul than all the fidling jigs of Musik in the world Christ soon saw the weakness of his faith It is a strong faith that God delights in and indeed the greater the strength and boldness of it is in God the more it makes for Gods honour declaring him to bee All-sufficient in the worst and greatest of dangers Hee that is faith-proof may go with comfort to Sea whether to the East or to the West to the North or to the South nay such an one ma adventure to imbrace the Artick an Antartick Poles when as a faithless person is but like a Souldier without hi arms Get this grace of faith and thou wilt then see that all thy safety is in God that hee is thy only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Resson 7 7. That patience may bee set on work What a rare speech was that of Paulinus when under that great trial when the savage Goths had invaded the City Nola and ransacked it and taken from him all his richest goods out of his house and coffers hee yeelded not unto the stream of sorrow which might have carried him down into the gulf of despair When Cato's Souldiers were discouraged in their march through the Desart of Lybia because of thirst heat â—â—d and â—â—â—nts he 〈◊〉 this 〈◊〉 unto 〈◊〉 Come 〈◊〉 friends and â—â—at my â—â—uldiers impâ— nt and d câ—uraged these are all pleaâ—â— to a valiant man and to all the storms hazzards and dangers that Sailors meet with all to them that are both valiant and patient but striving against it hee lift up his hands to heaven after this manner Domine ne excrucier propter aurum argentum ubi enim omnia sunt mea tu scis Lord sayes hee let not the loss of these things vexe mee for thou knowest that my treasure is not in this world here was patience exercised The grace of patience is evermore in this world both at Sea and Land upon the trial and sanctified trials both do and will evermore leave in the soul a tranquil calm and quietness Heb. 12.11 Now no chastening for the present seemeth to bee joyous but grievous nevertheless afterward it yeeldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby This is Patiences language Plura sunt tolleranda there be harder storms to bee undergone Job 13.15 Though hee slay mee yet will I trust in him as if hee should have said Should an harder storm come upon mee I would bear it without murmuring Patience will bear every thing quietly and sit as mute in the Sea in time of storms as that Egyptian's goddess whom they call Constancy which they paint upon a rock standing in the Sea where the waves come dashing and roaring upon her with this Motto Semper eadem Storms shall not move mee Certainly all repining comes from an unmortified and an unsanctified spirit the fault lyes not in any condition how desperate soever but in the heart because the heart stoops not to it 8. To set prayer on work If fire bee Reason 8 in straw it will not long lye hid Bias the great Philosopher sailing over some small arm of the Sea amongst the Mariners at that very time there fell a most dreadful storm amongst them insomuch that the ship he was in was greatly endangered of being cast away and the Mariners falling to their strange and confused kinde of prayer and worship the poor Philosopher could not indure it but calls to them and intreats them to hold their peace lest the gods should hear them and he should thereby fare the worse for them if grace bee in the heart it will appear in time of storms and this is the method that God uses many times to put Seamen upon prayer Isa 26.16 Lord in trouble have they visited thee they powred out a prayer when thy chastening was upon them Isa 33.2 O Lord bee gracious unto us wee have waited for thee he thou our arm every morning our salvation also in the time of trouble Storms are like the tolling of a Bell in a ship and when they are dreadful and violent they call all that are in the Seas at those times to prayer and fasting The dumb Son of Craesus could then speak when hee saw the knife at his fathers throat Storms will open those mens mouthes at Sea that never opened them to God in prayer in all their lives The Sea-mans devotion is up in a storm but dead and down in a calm Hee is religious whilst the judgements of the Lord are roaring upon the face of the great deeps but as great a Swearer Drunkard and Adulterer is hee after they are over as ever hee was Reason 9 9. To urge them to seek unto God for pardon of sin There is none under the whole heavens that are more in debt to God than the Sea-man is yet is hee as little sensible of it and as little affected with it as the insensiblest thing in the world either is or can bee But gracious and penitent souls are much troubled for their sins in time of storms looking upon them as the products of their misery and so cannot sleep upon the pillow of worldly enjoyments without a pardon in their hands and hearts The hunted
and the rest of our feral and remote Antagonists 4. It is of wonderful use to the purifying of the air off and from its many infections and contagions the winds are the cleansing engines of the world or the airs sweeping-brooms by which the air is kept both sweet and salubrious and this they do by their oblique and ubiquitary motion which would otherwise corrupt and stench as standing pools Job 37.11 But the wind passeth and cleanseth them Jer. 4.11 This benefit every Land and Country hath of the winds both to fan and sweep the foul corners of the air that are amongst them 5. It is of wonderful use as to the scattering of the clouds here and there in this and in the other Country How are the clouds seen sometimes in a very pendulous manner to hang over the very heads of parched Countries as if unwilling to dilate and part with their watry liquor because of the sinfulness of those Countries Clouds fly and hang over them yet drop no fatness God allows all Countries excepting Egypt which is supplied in a wonderful manner by the River Nilus the benefit of the clouds and of the Heavens hee misses not the smallest of those many Islands that he has lying here and there up and down in the world but remembers them all yea the uninhabitablest place that is in the world both procul prope for the use and benefit and accommodement of mankind by these are the Lords water-pots or cloudy water-bowls of the Heavens shaked and poured down upon the dry and thirsty places of the Earth All Gardens Orchards Corn-fields valleys hils and desarts that bee in the world are watered by them Job 37 11. Hee scattereth his bright cloud The winds are of very considerable and important use as to the conducting and convoying of the aquatical clouds of the Heavens to water the many Islands Territories and Countries of the Lords that bee in and throughout the world It seems that God has a special care of every Country and corner in the world that none of his Gardens and Orchards should parch for want of water and therefore hee has cloudy tankards in the Heavens which flye upon the wings of the wind to fall upon what place hee pleases to supply them 6. It is of wonderful use in its various vertibility and instability Non ita Carpathiae variant Aquilonibus undae The wind is a very varying and turning thing in respect that all parts in the world are served by it one while it serves to carry some Mariners into the North some out of the East into the West and other some again out of the West into the South It stays not long in one quarter but is a meer Camelaeâ—nce mutabilior Eccl. 1.6 The wind goeth toward the South and turneth about unto the North it whirleth about continually and the wind returneth again according to his circuits And hereby is it the more commodious because if it should have its abode any long time either in the Eastern Southern Northern or Western parts of the world then the opposit parts would bee greatly obstructed in their sailing into those parts from whence the wind should blow Great is the Wisdom of our infinite and good God who has ordered and created all things for the good of man in that hee has thus appointed and disposed of the winds to bee one while in one place and another while in another both to fetch Mariners that are far from home and also to carry them out that are desirous and have busines and occupation to do from home 7. It is of wonderful use to alter Seasons it cannot bee gainsaled that the winds have not an altering influence in all Seasons because they bring in our heat and by and by comes in our cold Job 37.17 How thy garments are warm when hee quieteth the Earth by the South wind When the wind comes out of the South how is every one warm and cheerful both in City and in Country although but in a thin and Summers garment but when it comes out of the blustering North or the frigid and mordacious Oriental of the world how is every one then cold within doores and without doors I even in the thickest habit that they can put on Job 37.9 Out of the North cometh forth the cold Now undoubtedly that cold comes upon the wings of the winds out of and from under the Artick and also heat in the same manner from the Antartick of the world When the wind comes out of the North or out of the East how quickly is the heat of the Earth cooled and taken away but as soon as ever it comes out of the South how is the Earth warmed and all the Animals of the world revived Psal 107.43 Who so is wise will observe these things 8. It is of wonderful use to dry up the wetness and dirtiness that is upon the face of the Earth how are all foot-paths and all horse-rodes shoveled and cleansed by the winds It is wonderful to think how an Easterly wind will sweep all the beaten paths and corners that are in the world this wind is called in Scripture a supping wind Hab. 1.9 because it drinks up the moystures that have been laid upon the Earth by the clouds Psal 107.43 Who so is wise will observe these things 9. It is of wonderful use to clear the Heavens for us and to feed us with the light of those glorious lamps and luminaries that are hung up in the Heavens to make the world comfortable to us how would the Sun the Moon the Stars and the face of Heaven bee absconded over-shaddowed and obumbrated to us with clouds fogs mists and ascending vapours that are as so many curtains drawn over those great and glorious Lanterns of the Heavens if the winds did not sweep them and reduce them to an annihilation 10. It is of a wonderfull and most dreadful use in the hand of the Lord to break and ruine the greatest and the strongest ship or ships that ever crossed the salt-waters 2 Chron. 20.37 The ships were broken that they were not able to go to Tarshish And the great Spanish Armado that came against us to invade our Land were broken and scattered by the winds so that they were frustrated in their Dice-games and carried into the bottoms when that they thought they should have had the full possession and enjoyment of this English Island 7. Vse A word of Exhortation and that unto all you that go in the Seas Is it thus indeed that all perilous storms and ship-wracking Tempests are both of the Lords raising sending and impowering give mee leave then to commit three sweet words unto you and I will pray hard both in private and publick that they may be a heart-wining and an heart-perswading word but before I hand them unto you I will lay down a few of those natural symptomes prognosticks and common observations of the approaching of winds and storms only as
bee compared to a man that runs up an high ladder and as soon as ever hee is got up to the highest stave of it down hee goes till hee comes unto the lowest and by and by hee returns unto the highest Solomon tels us Prov. 23.5 that the Eagle taketh wing and flyeth towards heaven but hee does not say that shee flies so high but it denotes that shee is one of the highest flying birds of any of the fouls under the Heavens Christ tels us also Matth. 11.23 that Capernaum was exalted unto Heaven when alas it was not so nor so because it was but an hyperbolical but rather an Ironical expression for Capernaum was so far from Heaven that her feet was rather upon the very threshold of Hell than Heaven as appears by the poynt shee steered by But this elegant Hyperbole of the Psalmists is to set forth the Sea-mans high soaring sursums and his down-falling deorsums They mount up almost as high as that caelestial 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is feigned to be Elemenci quarti nomen how that hee is one while carried upwards upon the swelling billows of the Seas even ad aulam astriferam as high as the starry mansions and bespangled roofs of Heaven and then by and by they are returned down again 2. They go down again to break up this word unto you there is nothing difficult in it onely wee may take notice that their descension in storms is not gradatim or pedetentim but rather in the violentest manner that can bee even as a stone that is hurled up in the air it will not tarry there any longer than the strength of the hand is upon it and then it will down again because it covets to bee at its Center So the weightier any thing is the speedier is and will bee the descent of it I am confident it would produce many a gallon of salt tears from the eyes of the godly that are on Land if there were but a possibility of their seeing of ships how they labour rock and reel ascend and descend in the restless Seas in time of storms for by and by they are to bee seen anon they are not to bee seen but as if they were covered all over in the Seas That Sea-men are the nearest Heaven Observation 1 of any people in the world when they are once got up upon the back of an high-rising water-billow They mount up to Heaven c. These are the onely cloud-climbing lads of the world Sea men are like to the pinnacles that are praefixed upon all high battlements which point upwards to Heaven but poyse downwards to their center Exod. 8.15 Whilst the judgments of God were upon Pharaoh he was some thing conformable but when the storm was over he was as vile as ever and none go so near or are so fair for Heaven as Sea-men are seems the Psalmist to say but let mee add this pray God they ever come there my prayers shall bee for them 1 Sam. 12.23 Moreover as for mee God forbid that I should sin against the Lord in ceasing to pray for you but I will teach you the good and right way Vers 24. Onely fear the Lord and serve him in truth with all your heart for consider how great things hee hath done for you For I fear that many an hundred Sea-man when hee is got up to the top of an high water promontory in the Sea that hee is as near Heaven as ever hee will bee It was once said of one that preached well and lived ill upon a time when in the pulpit some importunate messenger or other came for him to come out of the Church but one of his auditors made answer Oh let him alone for hee is as near Heaven as ever hee will bee So I may say it is a thousand pitties that ever some Sea-men should come off and down from the high-towering waves of the Seas because they are in those stormy times peradventure nearer Heaven than ever they will bee when they come on Land again Observation 2 That all Sea-men generally without all exception whether they bee young or whether they bee old both do and shall assuredly go to heaven They mount up to the heaven Me thinks the Sea-man likes mee well in the laying down of this proposition and the godly on the other hand look very strangely upon it and so consequently conclude I knovv Sea-men are as confident of going to Heaven the Lord help them as the Turks either are or can bee of that lock vvhich they keep upon the top of their crownes that they shall bee dravvn up into Paradise by Pray God Sea-men vvould once forsake their confidence and then there vvould bee some hopes of them that I have no warrant nor ground in Scripture to build it upon To clear up the point unto you I would have you to observe that there are two parts in it 1. That they do go to Heaven 2. That they shall all go thither For the first of these that they do go thither I would have you to understand mee rightly without any misconstruction I will have nothing to doe with their Salvation in this point for that is as doubtful to mee as Solomon's was to Toledo the Arch-Bishop who weighing that much-disputed controversie whether Solomon was saved or damned and not being satisfied with their arguments caused Solomon to bee pictured upon the walls of his Chapel the one half in hell and the other half in heaven There be three Heavens 1. Coelum Aerium 2. Coelum Astriferum 3. Coelum Beatorum It is not the latter novv they go to in storms but the tvvo former But to the point in hand that you may understand my meaning in it take notice that it is stormy and tempestuous weather that Sea-men go to Heaven in even then when the winds lift up the waves of the Seas by which and upon which thay are in this sense transported unto Heaven what they do or whither they go when dead I have nothing to do to judge and therefore whilst they are living wee need not credit that they go into Heaven Sailors are like to Grashoppers in goodness vvho make faint essayes to fly up to Heaven and then presently fall dovvn to the Earth again Sea-men that have their feet as it vvere in stormy vveather upon the battlements of Heaven should look dovvn upon all earthly happiness in the world as both base abject slight and slender waterish and worthless The great Cities of Campaniae seem but small cottages to them that stand on the tops of the Alps. for I never knew any of them so holy Enoch indeed Gen. 5.24 Walked with God and hee was not for God took him There is a vast difference betwixt going to Heaven and into Heaven the Eagle that Solomon speaks of flew towards Heaven but hee doth not say that shee went into it There is a vast disproportion betwixt a mans going to a place and
They who â—oe really call upon the Name of the Lord in dreadful storms and dangers do acknowledge him to be omniscient one who knows best of all their wants and necessities 2. They acknowledge God to bee Omnipotent and one who is able to supply all their wants in their greatest straights that ever they are surrounded with 3. They acknowledge him to bee an all-good and one who is very merciful and bountiful and upon these considerations any one may take encouragment to pray That the Sea-man commonly makes the Observ 8 Lord many serious and solemn vows and protestations in the time of calamity I have read of some Mariners that vowed wonderful largely when their ship lives were at the stake what they would do for their God whom they served they told him if ever they got to shoar alive they would sacrifice a Candle to him that should have as much tallow in it as the main-mast was in length and substance but when got safe to Land they forgot their vow and one of them being more religious than the rest begun to tell them of it and to prompt them to itâ— push quoth the Sailors we are now at Land and onâ— small candle of eight in the pound will serve the turn which afterwards hee never performs Then they cry c. As if David should have said in time of danger they will both protest and vow nay and almost swear too that they will turn gratious and pretious souls but when the storm is over their vows are all forgotten and they are at their swearing again Jonah 1.16 Then the men feared the Lord exceedingly and offered a Sacrifice unto the Lord and made vows It seems that this is a very common thing amongst them Plato had perswaded Alcibiades to live justly and honestly in the world during the whole course of his life and when hee protested and vowed to him that he would do so I pray God said Socrates that hee would once begin So our Sailors make large vows in dreadful storms when the ship is upon Sands or when shee is leaky and half full of water and they tell God very largely what paenitents and what religious people they will bee if hee will but graunt them their lives but I may say unto them pray God they would once begin there is not a people under the heavens that are slower to good and that have a less skill in good than they are they are couzen Germans to Seneca's Semper victuri and I pray God that they hit on it before they dye Sailors are like Nebucadnezzar's image in storms whose head was all of pure gold the arms of silver the thighs of brass the legs of earth and clay They are gold and silver in storms but at Land and in calms meer dross and brass It is with Sailors in storms as it was with Israel at that dreadful time of Gods descending out of the heavens upon Mount Sinai Deut. 5.27 Go thou near and hear all that the Lord our God shall say and speak thou unto us all and wee will hear it and do it Here was a large protestation you will say Well vers 29. carries sad tidings in it Oh that there were such an heart in them that they would fear mee and keep all my Commandments alwaies that it might bee well with them and with their children for ever The Sea-mans large promise to his God in a storm is like to false fire to a great Peece which dischargeth a rich expectation with a bad report Siquidem vovens non solvens quid nisi pejero Bern. Hee that vows in storms and does not perform his vows when delivered out of them forswears himself before the Lord. If there were but such an heart in Sailors as they pretend to have when in storms I am confident that no people under the heavens would outstrip them in piety That the Sea-man never takes up the Observ 9 duty of Prayer but when hee sees himself involved in an unlikely estate and condition of his ever recovery Then they cry This was an unsavory saying of one of the Sailors to the rest of his companions when labouring under a most dolorous storm My lads bee of good cheer I will go take a turn at prayer both for you and for my self for I am very confident that the Lord will hear mee because I am nâ— common beggar I used prayer as little as any man in the world I have observed it that at such times when wee have been thrown on Sands and when our sails have been rent in pieces by the violence of storm even as one would tear careless paper and linnen that then they have prayed Jonah 1.5 Then the Mariners were affraid and cryed every man unto his God You should never have heard those Sailors at Prayer that Jonah was amongst if that their lives had not been in that dreadful jeopardy It was a graceless saying of one Sailor when in a most inevitable danger that hee had never used any prayer for seaven years together but hee was now fallen into that distress that hee must bee forced to do that which hee neither liked nor never used to do Sailors are not unlike to Agrippa's Dormouse that would not nor could not bee awaked till shee was thrown into the boyling Copper and then the kettle rang with her dolorous Sonnets Ego uror Ego uror Alass I burn I burn It is danger makes many in the Sea go to prayer and not grace conscience or the fear of God The Sailors life is not unlike to Herman Biswick's of whom it is said that it was his judgment that the world was eternal and that there was neither Angels nor Devils Heaven nor Hell nor future life but that the souls of men perished with their bodies And if our Sea-men hold but of this strain they may live as they please But grant they doe not their prayerless lives tell us that the thoughts of Hell and the thoughts of God and of another world is not in their minds they have not another place in their eye but only this present world One of the sadest things that my soul has mourned for and at whilst in the Sea was my serious consideration of the many Vessels that go in the great deeps that neither do nor never did and I fear never will take up the work of prayer Prayer at Sea is like to a poor Beggar or Traveller on Land who goes from Town to Town and from Country to Country but is never invited in or taken notice of by any strangers and travellers we usually say meet but with cold entertainment Oh the many ships both in the States Ah that I should be forced to say that of the ships that go in the Seas which the Lord complained of once in the sons daughters of men Rom. 1.29 Being filled with all unrighteousness wickedness covetousness maliciousness full of envy murther debate deceit malignity whisperers
that men would praise the Lord. Psal 105.5 Remember his marvellous works that hee hath done his wonders and the judgments of his mouth A gratious heart files all the Lords dealings with his soul either at Sea or Land in his heart and steers the same course the Sea-man does in the great deeps who makes it his daily business in long Voyages to keep his Quotidian reckonings for every elevation hee makes whereby hee judges of his advancings and deviations Mens memories should bee deep boxes or store-houses to keep their pretious Sea-mercies in and not like hour-glasses which are no sooner full but are a running out Bind all your sea-deliverances and preservations as fast upon your hearts as ever the Heathen bound their Idol Gods in their Cities in the time of wars siedges and common calamities which they evermore bound fast with Iron chaines and strong guards and sentinels lest they should leap over the walls or run out of their Cities from them Ah Sirs look to those things which Satan will bee very prone to steal from you who is like unto a theef that breaks into an house but will not trouble himself with the lumber of earthen or wooden vessels A gratious heart will resolve that the Orient shall sooner shake hands with the West and the Stars decline the azured Skies than he will forget the Lords deliverances out of gloomy stormy tempestuous and heart-daunting Seas Sirs you stand in need to be called upon for your hearts are not unlike to the leads and plummets of a Clock that continually drive downwards and so stand in need of winding up but falls foul on the plate and jewels Hee does and will steal away your hearts from minding the precious jewels of your Sea-deliverances I find in Scripture that the people of God of old were very careful and heedful to preserve the memory of their mercies I wish all the States Tarpowlings were of the like temper 1. By repeating them often over in their own hearts Psal 77.5 6 11. I will remember the works of the Lord surely I will remember thy wonders of old Sea-men should say of their Sea-deliverances as Lypsius once did of the Book he took so much delight in pluris facio quum relego semper novum quum repetivi repetendum The more I read the more I am tilled on to read The more I think of what God hath done for me the more I still delight to think of it Vers 6. I call to remembrance my song in the night Paul when hee was amongst the Mariners writ down all their transactions in the time of their danger Acts 27.7 The wind not suffering us we sailed under Crete over against Salmone Vers 18. And being exceedingly tossed with a Tempest the next day they lightned the ship Vers 27. But when the fourteenth night was come as wee were driven up and down in Adria about midnight the ship-men deemed that they drew near to some Country Vers 28. And sounded and found it twenty faothms c. 2. By composing and inditing of pretious pious and melodious Psalms Remember the time of your inconsolabili dolore oppressi this was Davids practice Psal 38. which hee titles A Psalm of David to bring to remembrance Again in the 70. Psalm Wee have the very same title A Psalm of David to bring to remembrance In our late wars many had such a pretious spirit breathing in them that they have put the victories and battels of England into sweet composed meeter to the end they might bee remembred Ah Sirs call all your deliverances in this and in the other part of the world to remembrance 3. By giving names to persons times and places on purpose to remind them of Gods mercies This was Hannahs course in the 1 Sam. 1.20 And called his name Samuel saying The States ships resemble the tall Tree in Nebuchadnazzar's dream Dan. 4.20 Whose height reached unto the heaven and the sight thereof to all the earth They go into all parts in the world as much admired are they as Venus was by the Gods Who came flocking about her when shee went to heaven because I have asked him of the Lord to that very end shee might for ever perpetuate the Lords goodness towards her Abraham to keep alive the goodnesse of God towards him in the sparing of his Son would call the place where hee should have been sacrificed Jehovah-Iireth i.e. God will provide Gen. 22.14 The Jews that they might keep in remembrance the daies of their deliverance from bloody-minded Haman they titled them Purim i. e. Lots Esth 9.26 in memory of Lots cast by Haman which the Lord disappointed And very commendable is this Scriptural practice amongst us in England for I have observed it and I like it very well that our Military Grandees to perpetuate their dreadful Land and Sea-fights do give their warlike ships and battels such titles To keep alive that great and desperate engagement which our Army had with the Scots in Scotland one of their warlike ships is called the Dunbar Gentlemen Captains and Sea-men many of your Ships derive borrow their names from the stour-charged and fought Battels of the Souldiery in England to that end you may imitate their valour at Sea which they to the life performed on Land Some are called the Treddah some the Naseby and other some the Dunbar some the Plymouth some the Gainsborough and othersome the Massammore c. Be valiant Sirs the Souldiery fought apace when in those Battels To keep up the memory of Naseby great fight they have another ship which they call the Naseby To keep up the memory of Worcester fight they have a brave warlike ship which they call the Worcester To keep up the enemies defeating at Wakefield in Yorkshire they have a gallant warlike ship called the Wakefield To remember the fight at Nantwich they have a warlike ship called the Nantwich To remember their victory at Plymouth against the enemy they have a ship which they call the Plymouth To keep up the memory of that famous bout at Massammore when the three Nations lay at the stake they have a ship called the Massammore To remember that great fight that was fought at Treddah they have a warlike Vessel called the Treddah To perpetuate the memory of that great and hot dispute that was once at Selby in Yorkshire they have a famous ship they call the Selby To keep up the memory of that bout they had with the enemy at Portsmouth they have a warlike ship they call the Portsmouth To keep up the memory of their taking of Gainsborough they have a brave Prince-like ship called the Gainsborough To keep up the Memory of the dispute that they once had at Preston Bee valiant Sirs your ships have their names from valiant Exploits on Land and the States will deal as kindly with you as the Russians do by those they see behave themselves couragiously the Emperour
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
or Stars gave their light they crept about the Coasts of the Earth sometimes by the help of Lights hoised up in high places for their direction sometimes by the help of Towers and Trees not far from the shore and with a great deal of anxiety and perplexity of minde and great danger of shipwrack they went to and again upon the Seas but if the Heavens looked angrily upon them that they were Cloudy Sun Moon and Stars withdrawn out of sight and Tempests drawing on they knew not whither to go nor what course to take nor what way in all the Vniversal World to turn themselves unto for the best What manner of joy may we think could it not be unto the Mariners when at first whatever an unthankeful generation of men that be now in the world do think of it when this Magnetick Neptune was found out and ever since has been their never-erring and never-failing guide which does shew unto them the path that they are to trace thorow and by those innumerable Rocks Quicksands and Shallows that be in the Seas though it be or were in the darkest night and cloudiest sky that ever was this points them out the several Angles of the North South East and West so that they can now most certainly judge in what Coasts of the world in what Latitude of places they are in as also of what parts of the Earth and of what Ports they directed their course unto in sailing The first that ever found out the Loadstone that I ever read of was Nicander an Herdsman of Magnesia when feeding of his Cattel observed that the point of his Pastoral Staff and the Hobnails of his shoes did stick in a piece of ground where Loadstones were insomuch that he was very hard put to it to remove his feet from the place he stood upon and so standing admiring what secret vertue there should be in the place he stood on or in the stones that were under his feet he took it up and made report of it but none was there in all Magnesia whether far or near that knew the right use of it It has been observed that this Stone has been found some Ages ago but not the use of it both the learned and the unlearned at those times in the world have had it oftentimes in their hands and turned it to and again but could never make any thing of it And until of late the world was never sensible of its turning unto the Pole nor its use in Navigation nor in the Art of Dialling The greatest and the purest Wits and Conceptionists of the world at those times Loadstone q. Lead stone in Latine Magnes because of its great force vertue in Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Herculean because of the strength thereof among the Hebrews 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Shether à reâ—inendo because of its retaining and holding things were not able to finde it out and so it lay by the Lee as I may so say for a long time yea for divers hundreds of years in the secret Bosom of Natures Majesty and none in that time knew the use of it Some are of opinion that the use of this stone has not been known in the world save of late at the exhibiting of Christ unto the world in the year of our Lord 1300 or thereabouts and that the world has been without the knowledge of it for above 5000 years and upwards But now the Lord taking compassion on Mankind did make mortal man happy This Stone comes out of Elbe Norway Bengala China c. Now what the secret vertue is that is in this Stone none can tell Philosophers are of opinion that there is a secret and an occult quality ingendred naturally in the Loadstone by that spirit that wrought in the composing of all other stones and that is the cause Others are of opinion That there be certain incorporeal and spiritual evaporations 2nd issues which proceed out of the Loadstone and these are the causes thereof but to assign a certain positive determinative reason is impossible for Nature would have many things hid in the bosom and lap of her Majesty which she would not have the understanding of man to attain unto and so it remains unknown to this day and is more to be admired than searched into by declaring the secret Vertue of it unto Goias Melphitanus who had the revelation of the usefulness of this Instrument of the Mariners Compass by the help and benefit of which Ships do now discover the remote parts of the world that were unknown heretofore which lay hid like Aristotles Works 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and though publick to yet not made known This Stone is now become the Seamans most faithful Conductor to all their Ports and Havens whether far or neer and also unto them that travel by Land it is no lesse helpful when they cannot journey but by the Card This is another Mercury and a most certain guide in all journeys whatsoever in respect it is the most powerful Ruler of the Iron generation Now I hope it will appear by all this which I have asserted that in Ages past there was no such going down into the Seas as be in these days for how should they use the Seas when that they had neither Card nor Loadstone But that I may now passe by this rare Art we can go and talk with Spain and fill our Coffers with his West-Indy Plate and other Nations far off as well as round about us This Load-stone with a fair gale of wind will carry out our Warlike Boats unto Spain who have been the causers of all that effusion and expence of blood that has been shed both in England Scotland and Ireland and in all the other remote parts of the World in which they have massacred many English whose blood cries up to heaven for vengeance against them Rev. 6.10 By this Art we make the whole World to tremble Not a few of those Southern Kings and Princes have quaked at our Warlike Fleets when been in the Mediterranean Seas amongst them viz. Spain Portugal Italy Turky Barbary France c. Our Fleets when amongst them are Ad terrorem usque spectantium omnium an astonishment to them all and are at this day a terror still both to the Turk Spaniard and the Pope By this Art has the world 53 years before the Incarnation of Christ at Julius Caesar his coming out of France into England England worshipped Idols viz. Mars Mercury Minerva Apollo Diana c. and all the remote parts thereof been further viewed discovered courted and sailed into and about so that England wants not her traffick and intercourse with various and multitudinous Nations how far intervall'd soever nor for Knowledge neither in Theologicis rebus Humanis in Divine and Humane things of which she is admirably free of both to promulgate convey and communicate So that certainly there is something of great importance to be eyed and
considered in the Lords discovering this Artem obnubilatam difficult and intricate Mystery The Gospel of Christ came into England at the first by shipping sayes Chronicles that Joseph of Arimathea was the first bringer of it into this Land who will gainsay me in this that there has not something of Divine Providence appeared as a moving cause or the Causa Procatarctica in God to give man light and understanding in it to this end that the light of the glorious Gospel of Christ which is the great power of God unto Salvation might be transported Undoubtedly but he that filled Bezaliel Aholiah with the Spirit of wisdom for the work of the Tabernacle Exod. 31.3 has not discovered the use of the Loadstone the Art of Navigation unto mankinde meerly for bare trading withal but for some higher end and freely preached and held forth unto those multitudes of ignorant and fettered captives of Satans in those dark mansions and remote Regions of America and unto the other black-nighted parts and corners of the world also We have now by the help of shipping many Plantations up down in the western parts of the world which are and will be by Gods assistance promoters of the interest of Christ and instrumental in the pulling down the interest of the Devil We reade of the Apostles and the disciples of Christ yea of Christ himself that they made use of shipping unto all the Islands they travelled to and Continents without which how should the Gospel of Christ been made manifest It is observed that the use of the Loadstone was never known in the world till Christs coming I would infer thus much then if there be truth in History That God was fully resolved at the coming of his blessed Son into the world to give man the right use and understanding of it to that very end it might be the golden Key to open those many locks bolts bars and doors that lay upon the face of the Creation which was little known or discovered till the Art of Navigation sprung up and came into the world So that by this Key the door of every Nation is opened to let in the Gospel of Christ amongst them and God has given man that dexterity and knowledge in this Art that his love unto the world Joh. 3.33 and the Name of his Son Jesus Christ might go far and neer in all the remote parts of the world over there being no other Name neither in heaven nor upon earth by which man can be saved Act. 4.12 but by this This is an Art now which this Nation of late and several other Nations also in the world are grown wonderfully dexterous ripe and well accomplished in and some excelling one another It s said of the Turk that great Potentate the three half Moons or the Top-gallant Sail of the World that he is no great Mariner and if he had but that skill and Art that other Nations and Countries have in Navigation he would have attempted to have ranged the whole world over he would have been in Wars with Nations though never so far distant and would have striven to have had a greater part of the world than he is in possession of he would have had the Silver Mynes in Hispaniola ere this day but that he knows not how to sail his ships thither But its time now for me to lay the Fore-Topsail of this my Compendious nay I fear rather prolix Prooemium upon the Mariners Art upon the Baek-steads and so lye by the Lee. Loquuntur Nautae Loquatur Ars Is not this now a rare Art I 'll deal as kindly with you as Hezekiah did with the Babylonish Ambassadors Isa 39.2 as he shewed them the house of his precious things the silver the gold the spices and the precious ointments and all the house of his armour all that ever he had So will I set before you the great works and wonders of the Lord in the Seas by which the glorious Gospel of Christ came into this Land and by which comes in all the delicate Fruits Commodities and scattered Excellencies that lye up and down in the Creation to our very doors I will then no longer hold you in the Porch of this delightful Prologue lest you should think your expectations to be either frustrated or defrauded for there 's a better Palace of Discourse to walk in and better banquetting-stuff to feed on My Anchor then is on board if that you will put off with me a little from the shore and lanch out into the main Ocean come now for its high-water for the Frigot of my Discourse to turn out withall When that the Fore-Topsail of any Ship is once loose no surer sign than that the Cable is upon the Capstock and that the ship is a going to make sail 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nec inter vivos nec inter mortuos Neither amongst the Living nor amongst the Dead OR A Compendious Improvement of the SEA PSAL. 107. Ver. 23. They that go down to the Sea in ships that do business in great Waters FOR our Introduction into the words before us our care shall be to ballance every word and circumstance that 's either considerable or materiall in them To that end you may behold that mature and goodly fruit that grows as plentifully upon this Scripture stalk as did upon that pregnant and most fruitful Tree Pliny greatly gloried in which he saw at Tiburts Juxta Tiburtes Tulias omni genere Pomorum alio ramo nucibus alio baccis alio ficis pyris prunis malorumque generibus c. bearing all Novelties upon one bough grew divers kinds of Apples and that of divers colours some red other-some yellow c. some of one colour and some of another upon other some boughs grew several kinds of Nuts and upon other some again all sorts of Berries upon other some again Pears Plums Oranges and Lemmons c. Now who would not but take delight to have seen such a Tree as this were there but such an one in the world that bears all those varieties of fruits which the many and several Trees of the world bring forth I question not but that the handling of this Text of Scripture will afford them that have a sweet Spirit breathing in them as various and as delectable Novelties as they can desire David calls some of his Psalms Michtam which is in the Hebrew Golden ones as being full of choice treasure And what will you call this Psalm I pray I will assure you that this is neither a Silver one nor a Leaden one but a Golden Psalm which is neither empty of worth nor matter It was the usual manner of the Hebrews to say that all those things were of God which were chief and most excellent in their kinde as the Prince of God Gen. 2.23 the Mountains of God Psal 36.7 the Trees of God c. We cannot say that the new composed Psalms of this
Age are infallibly Divine but I dare conclude it that this Psalm is and proceeded from God into Davids heart and herein is and lies the excellency and dignity of it For the Division of the words there be four things presenting and offering themselves unto our consideration 1. The Persons in this word They. 2. Their Posture in these words going down 3. Their Business or Occasions in these words that do business 4. and lastly Great waters in these words In the great waters The Persons they are to be considered under a threefold respect and denomination as they are most commonly 1. Juveniles 2. Cognoscentes 3. Servi These Lads are ad instar Halcyonis contra ventum like that bird Naturalists write of which evermore brests her self against the wind These are they that can live Fame frigore illuvie squalore inter saxa rupesque membraque saepe torrida gelu habent Juveniles They are then young men that use the Seas such as are robore nati full of manhood resolution strength and valour men that are of rugged and undaunted Spirits and dispositions Sea-headed Sea-brain'd Storm-proof hardy and stout to act and perform their hard and laborious Water-service even in all weathers that blows whatsoever And is there not a necessity now that they should be of this Tarpowling and Brass-pot-like metal who have perpetually the Freta indignantia froth-foming and hill-swelling Seas to ride over in their unruly and uncommandable wooden Chariots By these dangers are despised difficulties adventured on terrors contemned fears laughed at cowardize vanquished generosity and manhood is the onely thing that is in repute and esteem with them And is there not a necessity that it should be so and that every one that will take upon him to go to Sea should be a Ludibria rerum humanarum fortiter contemnens ac aleam fortunae novercantis ridens one that can pluck up a good heart in the midst of the stormiest Seas or proudest Waves that ever elevated Youth now is the prime time for the Sea because the body is in its best abilities to endure the Cradle-rocking Waves of restless Amphitrite 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Old Age cannot brook the unkindness of the bouncing and rowling billows of the Seas for it makes their bones both to crack and ake and it s very frequently seen that when men that have used the Seas long The Sea is Navigandi locus ac tamen commorandi non It s good for navigation but bad for habitation and are come into yeers once that they betake themselves to their heels and bid farewell unto it as Gulls and Cormorants will hasten to banks or sheltring places when they see a storm a coming upon the Sea They can endure it no longer Let this word then ring in the ears of those many thousands of young and stout valiant and hardy pieces that go both in the Merchant and the States Service of England Had I but that faculty that Pericles that famous and learned Athenian Orator had I question not but it would take place of whom it s said that when ever he came up before the people ere he left them he did in animis Auditorum aculeos relinquere leave an itching upon their spirits I have read of Alphonsus King of Spain how that he was petitioned to succour a decaid Knight but inquiring into the reason of his poverty said Had he young spent his estate in my service I would supplied him when old It s well if God say not of you at last who forget God that you served the States the Merchant and the Devil and now when you come to dye you would have heaven and pardon of sin Go get you to hell So of Hermanius in the Bohemian History that that great Courtier when he came to die cried out most bitterly that he had spent more time in the Palace than in the Temple This will be the cry of Sailors one day that they have spent more time in the Seas and in the States and Merchants service than ever they spent in Gods Remember young men that as you are in your prime for States Common-wealths or Merchant Service that you are also in the same plight and equipage for Gods though you be now in your warm blood yet there is a time of infirmities a coming on wherein your fiery spirits will be cooled and your blood-shedding hands exceedingly weakned The time is coming when you shall say Eccl. 12.1 We have no pleasure in the gallant Ships that sail the Seas We take no delight in seeing the brave Gallies that go with Oars nor in the thundring and firing of Guns or in the sound of that ear-pleasing noise of Trumpets that play their Warlike Levets upon the gilded Poops of the State of Englands Ships Some there be though God knows very few amongst you which do both serve and really and sincerely fear and love the Lord and God will remember them and all their obedience Jer. 2.2 I remember thee the kindness of thy youth God is a great observer and notice-taker of the kindness of those that serve him in their youth and he takes notice also of the hard-heartedness of those that neither fear him nor obey him Isa 1.2 3 4. Hear O Heavens and give ear O Earth The Heavens and the Earth blush at the graceless lives that you live and lead in the Seas Lay it to heart I beseech you and consider how flexible and how obedient some young men are unto God and how vile stubborn rebellious and obstinate you are against him Serve God with as much vigour strength heartiness and cheerfulness as you serve the States or the Merchant you will hazard and venture your lives over and over for them what will you do for God then Will you throw out of doors all Religion and the worship and fear of God Will you do the hard Service of the Common-wealth of England and will you not do the sweet blessed and easie Service of the Lord which will in the end bring you greater Salary than they can give you Live then in Prayer Reading Meditating and all the good means that you may in time have that carnal part that 's in you killed and sacrificed unto God 2. Cognoscentes As none will say but that the Sea requires the yong mans Service What a learned man in one case said of the unlearned people of the world I may say of the unlearned unskilful Mariner 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To be destitute of learning is to dance in the dark To go to sea without Nautical accomplishments is the only way to throw the ships upon the Rocks So I think none will deny but that it calls for judicious knowing and understanding men to be employed in it And such as have good skill in the Mathematicks and in the use of those many Navigating Instruments which Mariners take to Sea with them viz. Square Cube Astrolaby c. and in all
ship up and down in the Seas from Land to Land or Port to Port is not fit to put into the place of government I remember a pretty passage of one of this sort who had got good friends to present his name and speak very well in his behalf at the Admiralty Court by whose means he got his foot into the stirrop of a Wooden Horse and rid as proudly over the waves and the bouncing billows of the Sea as any Commander in the salt waters whatsoever but wanting skill to sit this Horse and art to keep the Reins in his hand and withall which was the main a good Head-piece the Horse stumbled in the River of Thames and threw the Captain out of the Saddle Will and pleasure is the fools Card which he steers by all the Voyage and this makes so many ill-governed ill-ordered and ill-tutored ships as there be at this day in the Sea But to come unto particulars there be three things that are too apparent in Sea Captains 1. Negligence The Merchant sends to you to shelter them by Convoy from the Enemy as the Grapes in Babel did upon a time unto the Vines in Judea as the Jewish Talmud says desiring them to come and overshadow them otherwise the violence of the heat would consume them in such sort as that they should thereby never come unto any maturity But you deal by the Merchant sometimes as the Vines of Judea did by the Vines of Babel even let them perish in the Seas through negligence They that bear command should not yield to their men in their cousenage and fraudulency but say as Scipio said unto the Harlot when offered him Vellem si non Imperator I would if I were not Captain 2. Injustice 3. Vnfitness 1. Negligence Is there not many that have good ships to sail in and great Salary to live upon whose consciences serve them even to do very little service and good for it and had rather lie at an Anchor or with their Noses in a good Harbour than be out at Sea in the preserving of the Merchant and destroying of the enemy And is there not other-some that are as loth to encounter their enemies when they have opportunities for it in the Seas as the Welchman was to fight the Englishman of whom it s said that Her made the challenge and bid the Englishman take what Weapon he would and her would fight with him The battel begun the Englishman ripled her on the knee and her feeling the unkinde salutation of the Englishmans Weapon threw down her Buckler and her Sword and would fight no more What 's the matter now quoth the Englishman What said she Apploot apploot was not her Buckler broad enough but must hit her upon the knee Her will have no more of that What fair winds and opportunities do Commanders many times slip by loytering about the shores and coasts when they should be in the Seas to such let me say Ad rem Rhombum Go to your work go the Countrey maintains you not to idle Some Sea Captains are Thales like who contemplated heaven not for any devotion but to pick some gain out of it seeing by it that there would be some scarcity of Olives c. which he monopolized into his hands sold These fellows would make the world believe that they are godly men indeed this makes for the honour of Religion that these men love the name of it who cannot endure the nature of it Says many a Sea Captain If I be not seemingly religious I shall not attain to any great honour or preferment as the times go I must wear the garb of a Christian outwardly though I disown it inwardly and by this means counterfeit Religion is mads a meer stooping horse of to bring Vermin into authority Look about you do not you see how the Enemy spoils the Merchant 2. Injustice Remember that a little with right is better than great revenues without right Psal 37.16 Had I a voice of Brasse to make every Captain in the Sea to hear me I would tell them and all that use the Seas That Injustice will in time undo them and draw upon their heads the heavy severe and impatible wrath of God and throw them out of their ships and livelyhoods Jeremiah 9.19 How are we spoiled we are greatly confounded our dwellings have cast us out Unrighteous doings in the States ships will hurl Commanders out of them and make them stink in the nostrils of all that shall behold them You Captains of the Seas Look but upon your cogging now as it will appear hereafter look but upon your assigning of false and unjust Accompts now as they will appear hereafter and then tell me how you like it What shall a Boatswain a Gunner a Purser or a Carpenter intangle me to lie for them that they may pocket up the States goods God forbid What shall a Pursers maintaining of your Tables with fresh victuals The States of England values not the Sea Captain if once they find him but in some grosse insufferable error as there is righteousness in so doing 7 years service is an usual proverb amongst the Sailors is not looked on if but found in one hours displeasure So that the Sea Captain in one case is not unlike to the sumpter-horse who does good service carries the trunks all day but at night his treasure is taken from him and himself turned into a dirty foul stable Know you not the application of this engage and introduce you to give them the liberty to to be false God forbid that such doings should be found in my hand And yet where is that Great Cabbin in any or in all the Ships of England but there be these doings in it This may be for a time lucrum in crumena but in the end it will prove damna conscientiae 3. Vnfitness I would propound this question Whether or no there be not many in command that would make better Masters for navigating of ships too and again than of commanding guiding governing or fighting of them The great Salary that they have for their service is the thing they look at as to the ordering and well regulating of those many spirits that be under their command they know not what course to take in the steering of them Pro. 14.1 Solomon tells you that the wise woman looks upon it as her greatest policy to build her house and having building-materials both of wisdome understanding and instruction the building work went forward and the superstructure of it was most rare And so would you do too if you had but those brains and for want of them you bring many times an old house over your ears Seamen might be reclaimed reformed and reduced unto better carriage order and deportment than there is amongst them were there but wisdome prudence and a zeal for God in you to act and bestir your selves amongst them Your partial and ill managing of
whole world gathered together into one Auditory and had some high Mountain for his Pulpit c. I shal say the like in another Were all the whole Navy of England gathered together that a Chaplains Pulpit were or could be placed in the Maintop of some goodly ship that he might have a prospect of all the ships in his view and were furnished with a heart of brass and a voyce as loud as a trumpet of an Archangel that all the whole Navy might hear him I would either choose for him or for my self these two texts of Scripture Jam. 4.12 But above all things my brethren swear not at all Isa 5.11 Wo to the Drunkards of Ephraim c. This is Dâ—vinity enough to be preached unto Sea-men and my reason is this that they that will not leave off swearing and drunkenness they will practise nothing in the whole book of God To scoure you of this rotten distemper let me prescribe you this soul-healing medicine which lyes in the sacred word of God and if you can but digest it I dare promise you that you will neither swear more nor affect it in others when you hear it Look then into Jam. 5.12 But above all things my brethren swear not at all c. Why so seems many a prophane wretch to say I will tell thee wherefore the reason is ready at hand â—xod 20.7 God is tender of his Name It is said of the Jews that they were so tender of the Name of God that one should never hear them presume to pronounce that dreadful name of Jehovah in the Law but read Adonai unless it were by the High-priest once a year Augustus as Suetonius reporteth would not have his name obsolefieri worn thred-bare What think you of the Lords holy Name then Sailors which you wear and tear in your mouths day by day The name of Mercurius Trismegistus was not commonly pronounced because of great reverence to him 1. Swearing is a grievous sin if thou consider but well the object about which its conversant and that is the Lord. 2. It is a grievous sin if thou consider the occasion and that is none at all God knows It is with the major part of the Sailors in England as it was with a great swearer in the dayes of King Edward the sixth to whom when that godly Minister Mr. Haines replied when hearing of a brave Gallant rapping out most horrid oaths told him that hee should one day give an account thereof the young Spark ill-mannerly answered him Take no care for mee but prepare for your winding sheet Well said the good Minister Amend for death gives no warning At which counsel hee still broke into a far â—â—her rage and strain of swearing till such times that he came to a bridge which passed over an arm of the Sea and putting the spurs to his horse the metalness of the beast took the wall and down went the horse and the great swearer into the depths and his last words were when hee saw no recovery but death Here is horse and man going now full speed unto the Devil I pray God it may not bee said both of some men and ships when they sink in the Seas That there is a ship and all the swearing Sea-men in her the other day or the last week gone to the Devil My reason is this the preaching of the word and the telling them of the danger of this sin would never take nor prevail with them and therefore what other end can such expect at their death than a meer going unto the Devil Our English Sailors are too like and too near a kin unto that desperate Boy of Tubing in Germany of whom it is said that hee was a most damnable Swearer and inventer of new Oaths even of such as were neither common nor ever heard of before A swearing ship is an ill air for holy zeal to breathe in a good heart will soon be weary of such an abode and say Wo is me that I dwel in Meshek and that I sojourn in the Tents of Kedar But what became of this blasphemous wretch may some say I answer and what the Lord did by him I pray you Sailors take notice lest God do not so by you for your swearing God sent a canker or some worse disease that did eat out his tongue which was the instrument hee blasphemed with I have read also of another and his usual oath was By Gods Arms shortly after this mans arm was hurt with a knife but nothing in all the world could ever cure it again but it wrankled festered and rotted off his body and through anguish and pain thereof hee dyed most miserably Is it not just with God think you to rot your arms legs and tongues off and out of your mouthes for you are worse swearers than any of these that I have presented unto you out of history as arguments to deter you from the practice of it This sin of swearing or any other sin indeed if it bee but born withall a while will not know it self to bee sin at all but plead innocency to bee no iniquity Consuetudo delinquendi pro lege est said Tertullian Custome is for a Law and so will bee accounted good if a man use himself but to this or any other sin a while hee will never take notice of it nor know when hee doth evil And truly after sin once becomes customary Citius finienda vita quam vitia Life may sooner end than they will part with their vices Most Sea-men are got into such a garb and habit of swearing that I may take up the words of the Prophet Jer. 23.13 and tell them that the Aethiopian cannot change his skin nor the Leopard his spots Woe bee unto you if this sin and your lives end together 3. Lying I know no people under the whole Heavens again given and addicted so much unto this evil as our Sailors are should inquiry bee made into all the Kingdomes Provinces Continents or Territories of the world their accounts would bee at last that they had none such amongst them as bee and go in the Seas A Tale-bearer or a Tale-carrier in the Hebrew Tongue is compared to a Pedlar who will when hee hath furnished himself and filled his pack with variety of pedling and petty stuffs of several colours of Ribbanding and Inkling trot up and down from Town to Town where hee can finde best custome and trading After this manner doth the pedling Sea-man carry upon his back his paltry pack of lyes and opens it on board every ship hee comes into I would Commanders would do by lyars in their ships as Artaxerxes did by one of his Souldiers when finding him in a lye caused his tongue to be thrust through with three needles This is a good course to discourage lying or every house and Town hee goes into hee matters not the truth of any thing hee speaks but out goes his rotten wares to impoyson all
no intimate or delightful converse with the wicked which are professed enemies unto God and Christ no they dare not doe it therefore blame them not when they look shily upon swearing Sailors and care not for comming amongst them They have the sacred Word and all the reason in the world on their sides and therefore let this stop every Bedlamite Sailors mouth 1. They dare not come into wicked mens company for fear of the infection of sin 2. Out of a fear of an infliction of punishment Hee that would keep himself unspotted in the Sea let him resemble the River Alphaeus of Elis in Arcadia Mocum est quicquid mihi nocere potest I finde that in me said Bernard that is apt to take fire How much more in Sailors Than shun prophane men as thou wouldst shun the devil orone that hath the plague running upon him I have often seen a parcel of ground once a fair Garden of flowers over run with stinking weeds so good men turned bad by stinking company These Sea-men are like Pharaohs seven ill favoured kine if they see but any amongst them that have grace and heavenly mindedness in them yhey will be sure to set their teeth in them They desire to eat up the wel-favoured which runs thorow the Sea but will not mingle with it Hee that will not take this counsel and resolvedly begin to shake off all prophane societies hee shall never be able to live or lead a godly life this is the first step to heaven Sailor and if thou hast not this resolution in thee let mee tell thee thus much thy foot is in the way to hell Now after this sweet word of Advertisement which I hope may prove profitable if the Lord set but in with it let mee tell you thus much that it is a very hard thing to live religiously at Sea and therefore evermore look for these two things 1. Wicked men will assault you and make onsets and invasions to shake you out of your profession and to fetter you in the same loosness of life they live in Set your eyes upon these sons of Belial and resist them with courage There bee many thousands of godless Sailors that bee too like that bird Pliny writes of which Naturalists call the Vulture that when shee beholds her young to thrive and feather and wax lively and strong that shee will clap them and beat them with her wings till they look lean and languish again It is thus at Sea you will meet with the like cruelty amongst them and finde Sea-men discouraging of you in the good wayes of holiness but bear up couragiously against all the storms and oppositions of good that ever you shall meet withall in the world 2. Wicked men are so far from God and his wayes themselves that instead of taking delight in you for that good that is in you you will finde hatred from them It was a divine saying of Seneca That no man did set a better rate upon vertue than hee that loseth a good name to keep a good conscience In die praelii naufragii tempestatis mortis plus valebat Conscientia pura quam Marsupia plena Boldly say unto all the wicked ones in the Sea as David said Psal 119.115 Depart from mee yee evil doers If it were not for the godly ones that be in the world the Sun would not shine long upon you the heavens would fall upon the wicked the earth would open her mouth to swallow them up and all the creatures of God would arm themselves against them and yet these are cruel haters of them by whom they are gainers for I will keep the Commandements of my God Bestow thy affections upon the godly whom thou shalt live for ever with in the Kingdome of heaven and not upon those whom thou shalt never see more in the world to come and never bee the better for in this life but an hundred times the worse There is yet a further word of Advertisement in my eye and I would gladly press it home upon all the Sailors in England if that I did not behold these things which I am now going to speak of amiss in them I would not trouble my self to take the pains in an uncomfortable Sea to write them down The first then is this You ought to love and tender godly men in their names and when ever occasion is offered you should willingly make report of that good that is in them and not throw dirt upon them 3 Joh. 12. Demetrius hath good report of all men and of the truth it self yea and wee also bear record and yee know that our record is true There is many a precious soul that is of great worth I would have men that are godly at Sea not to be daunted discouraged or disheartned from well-doing but to do as the Moon doth who follows her continual course task and labour though many Dogs Curs bark and leap at her En peragit cursus surda Diana suos credit repute and account amongst the godly on land that must not have a good word nor a good look from such wicked men as many of you are that go in the Seas 2. If you hear the godly that are or have been amongst you falsely charged with any thing and evilly spoken of you should stand up in their defence and bee contented to hazzard some part of your own credit to vindicate theirs 1 Sam. 20.32 And Jonathan answered Saul his Father and said unto him wherefore shall hee bee slain what hath hee done 3. Take heed of raising and laying slanders upon the godly Miriam did so by Moses I would have all the Captains in the Seas to do by their men when they find them slandering good men as Vespatian and Titus did to all the detractors and slanderers they heard of when ever any were taken that were guilty thereof they caused them to be whipt about the City that others thereby might be deterred from the like practices but consider Gods just judgement against her Numb 12.1 9 10. Miriam became leprous as white as snow Take heed Sailors of medling with the godly that shame you in this world by their innocency of life and conversation and wil rise up in judgement to condemn you in the life to come You are prone to fasten your fangs in the reputation of those that would scorn to bee like you nay think every hour that the Devil would come and fetch them alive out of the word should they but be in that degree of wickedness that is to be found in your hands Most of our English Sailors are too like those wee finde to bee reproved in Scripture Jer. 18.18 Come let us devise devices against him Psal 35.11 They laid to my charge things that I knew not of They are kindred to those that aspersed godly Mr. Luther of whom their lying tongues and graceless hearts would needs say that hee dyed despairingly and that in his grave
is not onely all neither but hereby where such are either at Sea or Land there may the sooner bee a looking for a curse than a blessing in all their undertakings And again a war that is undertaken upon just and good grounds It is not unlawfull to use the help of those who fight out of a bad intention either out of hatred violence ambition honour or desire of plunder for their bad intention does not violate the righteousness of the cause Is there not many Sea-Captains that fight for nothing in the world but their 10 pound and 15 pound per moneth I may say of Sailors what one said of Law Logick Switsers They may bee hired to fight for any one Sea man Sea-man get better principle And is there not thousands of Sea-men that fight for their 18. shillings per moneth Nay may I not say that they would fight for the Devil would hee but give them better wages than the States do How many thousands bee there of them that are now fighting day by day in one part or other of the world and they know not what they fight for save onely this Saile ship and come pay-day They look not upon the glory of God nor the cause that is in hand against the proud opposers of Christ and his glorious and everlasting Gospel And now I will not deny but that these will serve to goe on in the wars to do Christs work in the world withall though hee hurl the rod into the fire after all is done It is well known in all Histories that the trash and trumpery of the world have evermore gone in the wars and indeed they are the fittest men to lose their lives for the godly and well-minded people in the world cannot well bee spared and should they bee slain the world would sustain great loss in their deaths But now what shall I say of all the wars that are on foot in the world whether in the North or in the East in the South or in the West May I not say that sin has made a man a very hurtful and harmful creature man is not now become hurtful to beasts and beasts to man but one man unto another and one Nation with and to another And this has been so of old and is no new thing still but likely to bee so as long as there is so much of the first Adam in the world both acting and ruling in the sons of men as long as Pride shall bee seen exalted above the grace of Humility Covetousness above Contentedness Lust above Chastity and Enmity above Love and Charity never look for better in the world Man till sinfull was never thus hurtfull Before hee sinned was hee not naked and neither feared nor offered wrong and will not his sinless estate ever bee known by the state of innocency When that lost Image of God comes once to bee recovered again in all men generally and when the Kingdoms of the Earth shall become the Kingdoms of the Lord Jesus Christ then shall there bee peace and quietness in the Earth that one may walk up and down in the world at pleasure but not till then When mankind shall become a lamb then will it bee a glorious age and never till then It is observed that all other creatures save the lamb are armed by natures providence but the lamb is sent into the world naked and un-armed comes into it with neither offensive nor defensive weapons When mankind comes once to receive the glorious Image of the Lord then will there bee no longer this fighting and contentious principle that is in the hearts of most men but they will bee as meek and harmeless as the Dove who in the Greek is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sine cornibus non feriens cornibus An hornless creature Phil. 2.15 But now Dii boni what indignities what affronts what pushing with the ten horns and with the little horn spoken of in Scripture When that you see once the Lyons Bears ravening Wolves and Tygers of the world to bee turned into Lambs and their wolvish and Lion-like natures changed and metamorphosed into a Dove-like meekness then may it be said that there is then new Heavens and new Earth and in the interim never look for a cessation of war in the world till there bee some great Gospel-work wrought in the Earth But fourthly That which now follows in order is the consideration of this word Great waters The Spirit of the Lord here takes great delight to put this distinguishing accent upon them and indeed it is a very famous and glorious title that God is pleased to set upon their heads Great waters calling them great in opposition to small Rivulets which the eyes of Inland dwellers are upon It is a well known axiom in Philosophy Set but contraries in the presence of each other Opposita juxta se posita magis elucescunt and the difference is quickly made Therefore in our speaking of the Great waters pray what are the Aquae Stagnantes in a Land and what are the Fontaneae Scaturigines sive Torrentes sive Fluvii maximi What are the great Rivers or the standing pools and running torrents of a Land in comparison to the great and wide Ocean As vast a disproportion and dissimilitude is there betwixt them as there is betwixt the shining Sun and a twinckling star or betwixt the massy Elephant and the little bodied Mouse The Spirit of the Lord titles them Great waters and to speak re vera Legere non intelligere est negligere in re tamen seria really they are so as I shall by and by declare upon several accompts They who have never seen the Seas nor ever sailed in them and upon them they cannot credit their magnitude latitude and longitude and when they read over that 1 Chap. Gen. 9. where God said Let the waters under the Heaven bee gathered together unto one place and let the dry land appear and it was so it is but transiently inconsiderately and at the best unponderingly for there is but few that mind or apprehend what they read Why These are waters indeed in respect they are little less in spatiousness nay if not greater than the whole Earth joyn all the small Ex pede Hereulem wee say The skilful Geometrician finding the length of Hercules foot upon the hill Olympus made the portracture of his whole body by it You may judge of the Seas though you never saw them and great Islands and Continents that be either in the East and West North and South together they are not so vast and large as the Seas bee Now I know that many are very prone to deem this assertion as a thing not credible because of the weakness of their judgements but that I may bring those into a beleef of it that may call what is laid down here into question I will tell them what they shall do to put the thing out of
business that is Observ 4 now to bee done and followed on in the Seas England thou hast argumentum Aristotelicum argumentum Basilinum on thy side Three special things desire to bee seen and enjoyed in this world 1. The fall of Babylon the destruction of Antichrist 2. The destruction of Gog and Magog the Turkish Monarchy 3. The full conversion of the Jews is to pull down the house of Austria and the Pope of Rome That do business in great waters c. Amongst the many reasons that might be deposited take these for some 1. Because the time draws on that that which is prophecied shall bee fulfilled Rev. 11.15 And the seventh Angel sounded and there were great voices in Heaven saying The Kingdoms of this world are become the Kingdoms of the Lord Jesus and hee shall reign for ever and ever St. John saw the elders casting down all their crowns before the Throne 1600 years ago what may wee not expect now then saying thou art worthy O Lord to receive glory and honour and power Apoc. 4.10 Hee that has but a seeing eye at nearer times may clearly discern What valiant spirits were they of in former times History tells us that the whole world was fought for thrice 1 Betwixt Alexander and Xerxes 2 Betwixt Caesar and Pompey 3 Betwixt Constantine and Lucinius Were they so valiant in those dayes Sailors and wil not you be as valiant in these dayes of ours that both Crowns and Kingdomes are staggering And soon after John heard every creature in heaven and in Earth and Sea saying Blessing Honour Glory and Power bee unto him that sits upon the Throne and unto the Lamb for evermore Chap. 5.13 And soon after he saw Christ with his Crown upon him going forth conquering and to conquer Chap. 6.2 And hee that hath a seeing eye may observe the approach of this day 2. Because it hath stood so many hundreds of years in the opposition of Christs and still remains and perseveres a malignant and peevish enemy unto the interest of Christ and the very life and power of godliness 3. Because God hath given the valiant Joshuahs of this age and generation a most wonderful magnanimous and undaunted courage and resolution to go on in their Sea-wars against them Yea they are admirably fitted with fighting spirits for the work Surely that universal and military spirit that is now in the fighting breasts and bosomes of the English do bee-speak the great things that God hath on foot in the world otherwise to what end is it that men should bee in these dayes so unknownly valorous and couragious if God had not some work for them to do 4. Reason may seem to bee this Englands late activeness and carefulness in building of so many famous brave What was said of Epeâ—s I wil say of England against Spain and Rome that he did Lignum facere equum in eversionem Troja England builds wooden horses that carry great Guns in their panches to ruine their enemies withall Divide the world into thirty equal parts nineteen of those thirty are Heathen six of the eleven Mahumetans five parts of the thirty Christians Of Professors of Christ most Papists few Protestants And of Protestants how few beleevers By this we may see that Christ hath but a little share in the world sumptuous warlike ships this be-speaks England ni fallor to bee an instrument in the hands of Christ to crush the Papal and Antichristian powers of the world No Nation under the whole Heavens look all the whole universe thoughout is in that gallant posture and warlike equipage by Sea that the Nation of England is in at this very day God preserve it To stir up your British blood that they would every one of them lend their helping hand to tear the scarlet Whore of Rome to peeces and those Papal powers and adherents of the world I think it convenient to press some ponderous and considerable motives For I know by experience that the Souldier prepares not to battel untill hee hear the sound of the Drum or Trumpet sounding an Horse Horse or a Stand to your Arms. Therefore to put you on brave Warriours in the Seas Nil desperandum Christo duce auspice Christo Bee not afraid Christ is your Captain and hee is resolved to have all the sinful powers and the irreligious Kings and Emperours and Princes of the world down and if you will not do it Generations after you will do Christs work for Christ will no longer bee crowded into a corner of the world but hee will have the world in his own hands Rev. 11.1 I would have Sailors to be of Themistocles metal against the Spaniard of whom Plutarch said that after he had heard once that Miltiades had got himself so much honour in the Marathonian battel he was not able to sleep because Miltiades was so far before him and he so short of him in honour 7 15. Hee will take unto himself his great power and reign c. Zach. 10.11 The pride of Assyria shall bee brought down and the Scepter of Egypt shall depart away It is usual to express the enemies of the Church by the names of old enemies as Assyria and Egypt was 1. That it is one special peece of Englands generation-work Therefore look to it and withdraw not till you have laid Babylon in the dust 2. That God is arising to recover his lost glory and honour in the world And will not you arise and bestir your selves then 3. Consider but seriously the soul-damning vassallage and infringed liberty that Southern Nations lye in and groan under What groans what cryes and what sighs bee there in Spain and yet dare not bee known in their secret disaffection to their impertinent and God-displeasing worship Gentlemen have you not fought out your own liberties in England yea fatis superque satis And why will you not now venture as deeply for Christs interest still as you have done I would have our English to overlook the greatest difficulties that are to be objected prima facie in a work of this like nature and resemble Hannibal in courage who said when upon the Alps with his Army Aut viam inveniam aut viam faciam I will either finde out a way over these cloud topping mountains or make my way through them Doth not the captived condition of forein parts call for help 4. Consider seriously that general disowning and denying of the Gospel of Christ either to bee read or preached in publick and private as it should be This is in Spain and Italy c. Will not this set your spirits on a fire against those subtil and soul-murthering adversaries of the Lord Jesus Christs 5. Consider seriously the damnable cruel and Diabolical Inquisition that they have in Spain which hath been hatched betwixt the Devil and two sophistical Spanish Jesuits By this they can take off any mans life for questioning of their Religion and that at
which will contain and hold a full gallon of any thing whether liquid or unliquid and upwards 2. Amongst the rest of the works of the Lord Eagle they have a frequent sight of that princely bird called the Eagle and where her dwelling is who is the Supream Rex of all birds and of her do all the rest stand in awe and give her the preheminence as their Soveraign It is observed of this bird that shee is attended with sharpness of sight to discover her prey with swiftness of wing to hasten unto it and with strength of body to seize upon it It is further observed of this bird that shee has many followers both great and small unto whom shee is very candid and courteous in the distribution of the prey shee seizes upon It is observed that there is this noble and magnanimous spirit in the Eagle that when shee is in want and greatly suffers hunger that shee scorns to pout and make a noise and a clamour as other birde will do but rests her self satisfied If I have it not now I shall have it hereafter but if shee toyle long in seeking of it then hunger which is her durum telum puts her upon the falling foul of her followers 3. They have a frequent sight of the fouls in Greenland every year which are aestate ibi hyeme attamen veniente avolantes there for a while in the summer but gone long before the winter When the Nocturnal time of the year draws on which is all night and tenebrousness the birds make a terrible doleful and dreadful howling as conscious or fore-seeing of that dismal time of black night's approaching they then betake themselves to their wings and fly into other Countries leaving that black-nighted part of the world unto it self and to the Involatile creatures that do inhabit in it viz. Deer Wolves Beares c. Which would if winged or able to run out of the land bee gone for they take small pleasure to stay in it but in respect they cannot pass the Seas for want of wings they are constrained to live in that uncomfortable darkness and insufferable cold Meditations 1. That the two great lights of the Sun What an uncomfortable place would England bee if it had not the light of the Sun and Moon both in in the winter and in the summer and Moon are wonderful comfortable profitable pleasurable and delightful both to man birds and beasts and very uncomfortable is their absence either unto the sick the healthful and the unhealthful Eccl. 11.7 Truly the light is sweet and a pleasant thing it is for the eyes to behold the Sun What cause have wee to bless the Lord for the light of the Moon and of the Sun that hee has not denyed us their light and that wee have not our beings in those black and benighted parts of the world that are all winter long without The light of the Sun is a sweet benefit but not prized because common and ordinary Manna was esteemed but a light kind of food because common and lightly come by without any price and mony David beholds the Sun with admiration Psal 8. and not with adoration as an Idol The Sun is a vessel into which the Lord gathered the light which till then lay scattered in the whole body of the Heavens In Hebrew the Sun is called Shemesh to serve because God has made it a servant unto and for the world 2. God might have done by England as hee has done by Greenland But blessed bee his glorious Name hee has dealt better by it and with it 3. It has laid this impression upon my spirit That as birds who by the help of their wings will not tarry in that Nocturnal Land but flye out of it into other Countries where they may have the blessed light of the Sun and of the Moon What would the poor damned and tormented in the pit of Hell give that they might come out of that dark and black excruciating Hell that they do howl and roare in to live in that lightsome and glorious pearl-sparkling and diamond-glistring Heaven where there is no need of Sun by day nor of the Moon by night Luke 16.24 is a dolefull spectacle of one crying out of the burning flames hee lives in 4. They have a frequent aspect of that lovely and amiable bird called the Stork much noted by the Holy Ghost in Scripture Stork As for the Stork the fir-tree is her house Psal 104.17 This bird uses Holland and other places and is very famous for her natural love unto her young and her young unto the aged again Storks when young and able to help their young when decayed helps the aged by feeding of them when they are not able to go abroad to gather their food Her name comes of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Greek in Latine no more but Amor. The Graecians call her Love denoting that shee is the truest emblem of Love of any creature in the world again 5. They have a vulgar aspect in the West-Indies of those various kinds of foul that bee in those parts both smal Upon Sand-hills there is to bee seen in the Summer-time say Sea-men whole bushels of egs that are both of various and wonderful speckled colours and great which are of divers colours some green some blew some red some yellow some white and other-some of a niger colour There they see the Parrat flying in great flocks and droves like to our Pidgeons and Pelicans flying in lines like to wild-geese Such an innumerable number is there of all sorts of fouls that great and broad rivers are covered over from side to side with them 6. They have a very frequent sight of that admirable bird Ostrich called the Ostrich whom some will compound to be both bird and beast because she resembles the Camel in legs and feet in the head and bill a Sparrow This creature is of such an hot digesting stomack that it will swallow great gobbets of Iron I have known some to present them with a two-penny or a three-penny naile which they have taken as greedily as a cock will pick up a barly-corn out of a dunghil Job 39.14 Shee leaves her eggs in the dust of the earth In this now this creature differs very much from all other birds who carefully sit to brood and hatch their eggs and are very desirous to bring them forth yet this creature leaves hers in the sand forgeting that the foot of the wilde beast or the Traveller may come that way and crush them Vers 15 16. Shee is hardened against her young ones as though they were not hers and is it not thus amongst many Parents towards their children Vers 3. What time shee lifteth up her self fixe scorns the horse and the rider This is to bee understood not that shee is of that strength and ability of body to contend with an horse-man in fight but in her wings legs and
they bring forth their young That God does for the good of those creatures that live in desarts Wildernesses and uninhabited places in the world send out of the Heavens a dreadful thundring which is heard running and ecchoing up and down from one side of the Porrests and Wildernesses unto another that thereby the ligaments of those creatures that are with young are loosned and by this voyce of the Lord the travels of all the wild beasts in the world are facilitated The voice of the Lord makes the Hinds to calve i. e. Surely that they may not wrong they young or off-spring of which they are so careful that they seem to strain and dilate themselves for the speedier passage of their deliverance and this is their natural midwifery Psal 50.10 11. Every beast of the forrest and the cattel upon a thousand hills is the Lords and hee knows all the fouls of the mountains and the wild-beasts of the desart Wild-Goat 15. The Rock-climing Wild Goat which is undoubtedly the surest footed beast of any other in the world for they will go up unto the top of the inaccessiblest Crag that ever yet was seen without any staggering haesitancy or stumbling and when dogs are in chase of them they will flye to the Rocks where they do know themselves to bee both safe and out of the reach both of dogs and man I have not a little admired the nimbleness of this creature when I have seen of them both in Norway and other places how they will climb places that one would think they would bee praecipitated by coming upon them This Scripture has come into my thoughts Job 39.1 Knowest thou when the wild Goats of the Rock bring forth I learn thus much from thence that the eyes of God are in every secret part and corner of the earth where man has neither being nor dominion and that all the various actions that bee amongst his creatures are daily viewed by him 16. The Tyger Tyger which is of beasts the furiousest and cruelest he out-strips them all in matter of truculency and unmercifulness his abode is usually in the hottest Countries because it is supposed that their generation does require much heat This beast is of an incredible swiftness and fierceness especially in the time of his lust or when hee has his young to bring up and though many of the Mariners bee frequently skirmishing with him yet notwithstanding all their fire-locks and staffs does hee tear some of them to peeces and makes his escape 17. The Lyon Lyon who is indeed the Kingliest and Princeliest beast of them all This creature is of that stately prowess and most noble spirit that hee will not seek his prey himself but sends his Caterer or Jack-call to run about to seek it him which very much resembles a dog and this creature waits upon the Lyon and at his pleasure searches him the bushes and thickets in the wilderness and when hee finds any beast worthy preying upon hee makes report thereof to his Lord and Master Latrante voce with a barking mouth welk welk and the majestick Lyon answers him again with a teering mouth as if it were the crack of a great Gun Bou Bou and as soon as hee comes up to the creature which has no power to escape the Lyon after it hears his heart-daunting mouth hee seizes upon it and when the Lyon is well fed his servant Jack-call goes to dinner and not till then but stands at a distance from him Wild-Cows 18. The Wild-Cows and Wild-Oxen that be to be seen in the Indies there be thousands of these that run wild upon the Mountains that are very tall goodly fat and broad-headed beasts that know no homage unto man nor will not own him but if they see him walking at a distance they will leave their pasturing and follow him This dictares thus much unto mee that when God at the first became an enemy unto man because of his falling from him all the creatures did and are also become his enemy in the world every one of them ready to fall upon him let him go where hee will with as great violence to kill him as any other feral creature in the world will do Wild-bore 19. The Wild-boar of this sort and kind of Wild-Swine there bee without number that live in the Indies ranging upon every hill and Mountain these creatures are very fierce and furious for if they set but an eye upon any man that is walking to and again neer unto them It is observed of the Wild-Swine in the Indies that they will at some certain time every year once especially when there falls much rain come running down off the mountains creep into holes to hide themselves for they can endure neither rain nor wind at this time they will come into the Indian towns and out of the windows they will kill them they will pursue him with the greatest ferity that can bee with their bristles raund and their mouths wide open which are beset on each side with long great and dreadfull tusks But to avoid them they betake themselves into trees out of which they will shoot and kill many of them I may now take up the words of the Apostle in his Epistle unto the Hebrews 11.32 and tell you And what shall I more say for the time would fail mee to tell of Gideon and of Barak and of Sampson and of Jeptha c. So truely the time would fail mee I and it would bee too hard and too tedious an undertaking for mee to go about in an uncomfortable Sea to tell you of the many more things May it not now bee said in the praise of the Sea-man that hee is a lad that walks with Apollo per Xanthi fluenta and with Diana per Eurotae ripas perjuga Cynthi in suburbanis agris hortis irriguis ubi multiplex arborum genus florum varietas pomorum ubertas fluviorum cursus parietum vestitus avicularum melos vallium amaeâ—itas stagna omnis generis piscibus abundantia Juga florea dican Creationis errantque ripas that Sea-men do behold in their travails who are far more able to give you an accompt thereof themselves than I am What has been presented is but small in comparison of what is seen and to bee seen and read of in the great volume in the Creation yet I hope sufficient to demonstrate and prove the foregoing proposition That the most or the greatest part of the works of the Lord are seen by Sea-men The third circumstance then that offers to our view is of those creatures that are of a creeping crawling and reptile nature I will take the pains to run over a few of them and come unto the prosecution of that which is more material 1. Reptile They that go down to the Sea in ships Amongst the rest of those delightful and heart-taking objects that they have that venemous creature called a
they are provided for that are without fuel in Island and elsewhere In this Island there is another very remarkable passage that there bee several waters in it which are of such a vehement ardency that they will boyl both fish foul and beef in And in these waters the people both dress and cook all their victuals and bays which the people take up and reserve for winter Certainly hee that guided the Kine which bare the Ark 1 Sam. 6.12 guides and orders that these parcels of wood faggots or fuel should come unto those that would bee starved if they were not thus helped every year and besides if there were not a visible hand of providence appearing for this people that live in a Country where doubtless wood will not grow or otherwise for firing it has been destroyed these peeces that swim upon the floods of the Seas might go from them and into the middle of the Sea rather than unto them if not directed c. 17. Their aspect of the Sea which is sometimes of such an ignifluous lustre as if it were full of Starrs insomuch that if a peece of wood or any other ponderous thing should be thrown into it at such times in the night it will show it self as if it were full of firesparkles Whence that Proverb As true as the Sea burns 18. The sight of those two burning Islands Hecla and Helga is another these are often times covered over with Snow yet burn within and belch out very terrible and vehement sparks of fire 19. Their viewing and walking up and down in the goodly sumptuous princely and stately Cities that bee in the world viz. Constantinople Grand-Cair Genoa Venice Naples Rome c. 20. A sight of those fearful and unusual Lightnings and Thunderings that bee sometimes in the Occidental and Austral parts of the world which are with such vehemency and dreadfulness that one would think that the Heavens and the Earth would come together I have heard the honestest and godliest of men that use the Seas say that when they have been in the Indies if they did but see a cloud appearing in the bigness of ones hand they need no other warning but that a most dreadful storm would ensue Insomuch that they have been forced to make all the haste they could to get sails furl'd yards peak'd and their ships fitted to endure it as well as they could The Observation was this That the most or the greatest part of Gods glorious and wonderful works are seen by Sea-men The point then will afford us these two uses 1. Of Reproof And 2. Of Exhortation 1. Vse Reproof 1. Is it thus then that you that are Sailors and Sea-men do see most of the Lords works yea more than all the people in the world besides Platonists by the sight of Nature see more yea and will shame thousands of our Sailors for they could say that all that pulchtitude and beauty that shines in the creature was but Splendor quidam summi illius boni pulchrum coelum pulchra terra sed pulchrior qui fecit illa Surely this point looks with a sour look upon you that make no improvement nor application of things unto your selves for better amendment than you do I may say unto you in the words of Job 35.11 who teacheth us more than the beasts of the earth and maketh us wiser than the fowls of heaven that God hath taught us more than the beasts of the field and hath made man wiser than the fowls of heaven therefore God looks for another manner of glory and understanding from you that are men than hee doth from them and more from those that are Christians than from natural and carnal men It is a notable saying of Mr. Calvins Diabolica ist aec scientia said hee quae in natura contemplatione nos retinens a Deo avertit That is a Devillish kinde of knowledge that in the contemplation of nature keeps men in nature and holds them back from God After this manner may I speak unto you that it is a devillish kinde of knowledge that you have of the Seas and of the Creation if that all you see know and hear of keep you still in nature what better art thou than a beast for all thy travel Give mee leave to tell you thus much 1. That there is a seeing eye in the world an eye that is much in Quaelibet herba Deum stella creaturaque and upon Gods works Isa 40.26 Job 26.8 Hee bindeth up the waters in his thick clouds and the cloud is not rent under them A seeing eye looks on nothing that is either in Sea or Land but thinks of God in it I have read of one that was so spiritual and heavenly-minded that when hee was in the world where hee had a full view of many wonderful things hee said there was nothing that ever hee did behold but hee saw God in it When I cast mine eyes upon the Earth I saw that God was every where When I looked upon the Heavens I considered with my self that that was his Throne When I looked into the depths of the Sea I beheld the power and wisdome of God in the creating of them And when I looked upon the many creeping things that were in it they told mee that God was there I looked also into the breathing air with all the inhabitants of it and it told mee that God was there whose proper Attribute is to bee every where I looked up into the Starry sphere and spangled roof of heaven which glisters with innumerable stars from whence I learned that that is a Christians Country who is in Christ and from thence do I look for my Saviour and the longer I do look upon those glorious and burning and shining Tapers of the heavens which are estimated the very least of them to bee bigger than the whole earth I consider that God hath undoubtedly great and just expectations from man that hee will do some work and service for his Maker Most Masters will not allow their servants to sport and idle whilst their candles are burning but if they finde them so doing they will blow them forth Certainly Sea-men you may conclude that God looks for great things from you who see so much of the Creation that others see not Will it not bee tollerabler for the ignorant Indian c. and the miserable heathen that is in the world than it will bee for you who have no other light but the light of nature to walk by I may compare the generality of Sea-men unto a Traveller who doth in his vagaries leave all things behind him in his way he passes by stately Towers and comely Turrets brave buildings both of Marble Brick and hewn stone goodly Cities Towns and Countries comely and beautiful people and other some both black and tawny and these hee beholds for a while and admires them and passeth on and leaveth them afterwards he goes thorow the â—ields
in the South-West and by West c. Psal 107.43 Who so is wise will observe these things 4. And lastly The other Army lies quartered in the South and this oftentimes is very commonly the fiercest and furiousest of them all This Army may be called neque manere finet neque navigare Sometimes it will neither suffer ships to sail nor to keep the Sea insomuch that it makes the Seas run mountain-high and lye all upon a bubling froth and curded foam This Army marches one while into the South and by East South and by and by into the South-East South-East and by South c. and is very ready and attentive to carry on the Lords designs either for good or evil There is both a wonderful vertibility and also variableness in the winds one while they are here and by and by they are there Eccl. 1.6 The wind goeth towards the South and turneth about unto the North it whirleth about continually and the wind returneth again according to his circuits Oh what quick eyes hearing eares ready feet strong arms may I say has these four-wind armies to go yea run If that an Italian General could say when one of his Nobleâ— complained unto him of their want of men I can have all Italy up in arms with one stamp of my feet upon the Earth What do you think then of the Lord cannot hee have all his forces both in Heaven and Earth up in arms Land sooner than Armies of men can bee at the sound of trumpet or at the beat of drum and fly upon Gods commands What more frequent than to hear this amongst the Mariners Wee were shipwracked when the Nothern wind-army lay in the North North-West and wee lost our ship says another when the Eastern wind-army lay in the East and by South c. and wee lost our ship says another when the Southern wind-army lay in the South and by East South c. and wee lost our ship seems another to say when the Western wind-army was upon its march in the West South-West c. But to proceed I will run on in a few more particulars as God has wind-armies at command so has hee many other strange unminded and unobserved armies to march into the field against a people when hee pleases 1. God has his Angel-fighting-armies some whereof are good and other some are bad 2 Sam. 24.16 And when the Angel stretched out his hand upon Jerusalem to destroy it the Lord repented him of the evil c. 2 King 19.35 And it came to pass that night that the Angel of the Lord went out If one Angel could do thus much what could not Christs twelve Legions have done upon the wicked Jews and smote in the Camp of the Assyrians an hundred fourscore and five thousand c. 2. The Lord has his Sun Moon and Star fighting Armies and this is another sort of army that the Lord has sometimes mustred up to shew his mighty Power and these are called the Hosts of Heaven Deut. 17.3 This Host was up in Arms in Joshua's time Josh 18.12 13. But some may object and say this is something strange how should the Sun the Moon or the Stars fight I answer God may take away the use the benefit the light and the influences of them and in this sense the battel will bee found too hard to escape in 3. The Lord has his men-fighting-armies at command Exod. 12.51 By these did the Lord bring Israel out of Egypt The wicked are Gods sword and his Armies Isa 10.5 6 7. Jer. 25.9 God has Armies of men both good and bad and when hee pleases hee can presently arm them and send them upon errands of ruine and destruction against a Nation 4. The Lord has his water-fighting-armies at command Gen. 6.17 And behold I even I do bring a flood of waters upon the earth to destroy all flesh wherein is the breath of life from under heaven and every thing that is in the earth shall die 5. The Lord has his fire-fighting-armies at command Gen. 9.24 2 King 1.10 Levit. 10.2 And this Army shall bee up in arms either in ships at Sea or Houses Towns and Cities on Land to set them on burning flames 6. The Lord has his air-fighting army at command and when hee is pleased and displeased with a people hee lets flye the arrows of pestilence out of the strong bended bow of his fierce wrath and irresistable indignation He can infect the aire Numb 16.46 and this arrow shall neither flye over nor short but hit the white the person or the persons that the Lord aimes at whether they bee Towns or Cities Nations or Countries this contagious air shall lay siedge unto them and over them and the Sun shall not bee able to drive it away nor the winds to sweep it away and this stinking aire is able to stifle all whether in Towns Cities or Countries if hee do but impower it and set it on 7. The Lord has his Hail-stone-army at command this Army was up and on foot for God in Joshua's time Josh 10.11 I would all the Drunkards and Swearers Take heed Sailors how you sail to and again in the Seas with hearts full of guilt hands full of blood tongues full of lies and heads full of sinful projects and unreconciled men to God that are either in the States or Merchants Service would tremble before the Lord and bee in fear lest their pates should bee broken with hail-stones out of the Heavens 8. The Lord has his Earth-fighting-army at command Numb 16.32 And the Earth opened her mouth and swallowed them up and their houses c. Take heed Godless man how you walk on Earth lest at every step thou takest the Earth open to bury thee alive for thy drunken and swearing life 9. God has his fighting Armies at command out of the meanest and contemptiblest minutila's that are and these shall come in as good regimental and warlike order as the Souldier at the sound of trumpet or beat of drum viz. Lice Frogs Worms c. How have these adventured into Kings Palaces and who gave them that boldness These broke in at the windows ranged like rude Soldiers into every room belonging to Pharaoh's house Exod. 8.6 16.17 Acts 12.23 10. God oftentimes makes Conscience a terrible gnawing and fighting Army and this the great God of Heaven has command of to send a tormenting Hell into it who is able to stand in the face of this battel This enemy shoots through and through Job could not stand in it for hee cryed out Have pitty upon mee have pitty upon mee Oh my friends for the hand of the Lord hath touched mee But to proceed There is one phrase in the words before us that would bee a little opened and explained 1. What wee are to understand by a Stormy wind 2. What the effects of it are 1. I find that Scripture is delighted to speak of this very vapour Of that
force some storms are known to bee of that they will overturn houses on Land and â—â—nd up trees by the roots 1 King 19.11 Sambelicus sets out the strength the force and the power of the winds when hee tells us how whilst Cambyses and his Army sate down to dinner in a sandy desart a dreadful storm arose and beat up the sandy mountains about their eats and became as so many Sextons to delve the graves of the greatest part of his Army for them This vapour sets forth the great power of God let those therefore that go upon the Seas learn to fear the Lord lest hee bury them in the deep Psal 148.8 The stormy wind fulfilling his word The fierceness of this creature is little known and as little understood supposed and imagined to bee so terrible as it is I mean to those that live on Land and are far from the view of the dreadful and military force and power that is in it but it is too well known to those that live in sailing and floting houses upon the Seas The word Stormy wind comes from a borrowed metaphor from the Soldiary and Land-Armies who will when they do assault and storm either Forts Towns Castles or Cities even lay on their greatest force of Men and Ordnance and then is there the greatest frowns in their faces and palpitations in their hearts It is called here a Stormy wind in opposition to smooth gentle and benign gales and winds as the Sea was but ev'n now in a fair temperate and moderate calm so that the smalest boat might have rowed to and again in the Seas now cannot scarce the greatest and strongest ships live in them but are in perpetual jeopardy of being drowned 2. What the effects of a stormy wind are and these are twofold 1. Lifters up of the waters 2. Sinkers or ruiners of ships 1. The word lifting up has its countenance the clear demonstration of this like borrowed Metaphor as it is with and amongst men that are proud high and haughty and of an Elephantinum hominis genus who wil lift up themselves strut look big speak loftily and magnify themselves or else from those Strapados which they have in the Austral parts of the world by which they will hoyst up their malefactors many fadoms high and then lower them down again with the greatest violence that their weighty bodies can descend withall After this manner are the ships lifted up in storms that use the Seas and as violently thrown down again As the potentest military power is seen to put his enemy unto flight as great So dreadful are the downfals that are made in storms that they seem to outstrip the deepest Vallies that sit under the cloud-topping and cloud-imbraceingest mountaines that bee in the world I and greater disorder doe the Seas run in and flye before the stromy winds 2. Ships are oftentimes cast away by them Acts 27.41 And falling into a place where two Seas met they ran the ship a ground and the fore-part stuck fast and remained unmovable but the hinder-part was broken with the violence of the waves And again storms end in the debilitating and disinabling of ships That all perilous storms and ship-wracking Observ 2 Tempests are both of the Lords raising and sending What are storms but the uttering of Gods voice in wrath and judgement upon the Seas If the winds blow harder at some times than their ordinary course is which is most useful profitable unto the Mariner it is no other but a curse a judgment and a token of the Lords displeasure But where is the Sea-man that beleeveth this for hee commandeth c. If this point stand in need of proving I will make it out both pregnantly and sufficiently that the Lord lays claim to it and challenges his propriety in it and so consequently that it is his act and none but his therefore that I may not put you off with words I will throw you in these inlightning and doctrine-confirming Scriptures Psal 147.18 Hee causeth his wind to blow and the waters flow Psal 148.8 Stormy wind fulfilling his word That word of his that God has and will fulfill many times may bee sinking and perishing for ought I know as well as floting and keeping above water The Lord has the winds at command to bee his executioners and administratours either of destruction or preservation hee it is and hee alone that finds them with employment 2 Chron. 20.37 And the ships were broken that they were not able to go to Tarshish May bee many of them were hurled into the bottom of the Sea and others of them thrown upon the Rocks and Sands But to speak shortly now and yet exactly unto the interest of this praegoing point I would then have all the Sailors in the world to conclude upon this ground of truth that all stormy and tempestuous winds are of the Lords raising and sending and that hee is to bee acknowledged in them and herein I would have you to soare far higher than the natural causes of things Hee that drove man out of Paradise both doth and can drive graceless wretches out of the Seas and hurl them upon Rocks Sands and Shore The Rocks the Sands and the Winds I may fitly resemble unto the Cherubins and the flaming sword that was placed at the East end of the Garden of Eden Gen. 3.24 Which turned every way these are ready at the Lords command to break ships in the East in the North and in the South or in the West It is said of the Earth that it is given by God unto the children of men Psal 115.16 But the winds the Lord keeps in his own hands to move and flye to and again this way and that way in the Heavens even as it pleaseth him best to do this and to do that and their dependency is in the heavens no creature has them at command but God solely and properly for every Tempest that comes has as it were an express command from the Lord and that under both hand and seal and if the winds should bee questioned and summoned in to give an accompt of the sad perils they throw the Mariners into and the many shipwracks and great and innumerable losses they put them to year by year they would tell such as should demand an answer of them that they had order from above for so doing and that sin which abounds in ships was the onely cause of those fatal and ominous ruins and desolations But that I may give you the grounds of this Proposition you will in the end I question not bee fully satisfied about the Lords proceedings in this manner 1. Because God would shew his Divine Reason 1 displeasure and indignation against that sinful and ungodly generation of people that go in the Seas Seamen you may conclude it that there is never a storm that comes down upon the Seas to endanger you but God is exceedingly angry with you what more frequent
going into a place many a Sea-man may bee sent out to Spain and France and do business there by proxie and yet not go into France nor into Spain and on this wise would I bee understood of the Sailors going to Heaven for it is my judgment 1. That none can enter into the kingdom of heaven but they for whom it is prepared now it is not prepared for filthy and unclean swearers cursers adulterers and drunkards 1 Cor. 9.10 All such shall not inherit the Kingdom of God Matth. 20.23 But it shall bee given to them for whom it is prepared of my Father Charon in Lucian requested Mercurius to shew him Jupiters palace above how quoth Mercurius would such a Catiff as thou whose conversation hath been in hell and altogether with black shades and impure ghosts thinkest thou to set thy foul feet in that pure palace Ah what a dishonour would it bee to Heaven that thou shouldest ever come there 2. None can enter into the Kingdom of Heaven but such as are prepared for it Now all villanous deboyst and graceless wretches are not prepared for it therefore they shall never come there 3. None can ever come to Heaven but such to whom it is promised now Heaven is not promised to the wicked and abominable James 2.5 but to the godly 4. None can come to Heaven but the friends of God now I fear that God has few friends amongst the Sailors because they like not his wayes nor cannot endure his Word therefore unlike to come to Heaven 5. None shall enter into Heaven but such as are born again this is a sad word may some say I but it is a true one Then I may conclude that there bee hundreds if not thousands of Sailors that never were born again and therefore they shall never enter into the Kingdom of Heaven till they bee born again John 3.3 Except a man bee born again he cannot see the Kingdom of God What will become of you poor Sailors that have no hand-writing of the work of Grace and of the Image of God stampt upon you as yet for to shew for Heaven 6. None shall ever come to Heaven but holy ones whither shall such swearers as our Sailors go then whither shall such drunkards as our Sailors are go then Now the Sailors life is like King Eldred's reign prava in principio pejor in medio pessima in ultimo Nought in the beginning worse in the middest and worst of all in the end and therefore I fear unlike to come to Heaven whither shall that irreligious crew that goes in the Seas go surely to Hell Heb. 12.14 and holiness without which no man shall see the Lord. 2. That they shall go to Heaven my meaning is if any will use the Seas they shall nolenti volenti climb the great water-mountains that are in it which are made by the stormy winds which will in David's sense mount them up to Heaven but neither hee nor I do say that they shall go into Heaven I will not take upon mee neither dare I flatter wicked wretches and therefore I have cleered up the proposition and yet again on the other hand I pitty them when I consider how much those that use the Seas are without the grace and fear of God Observation 3 That all Sea-men generally go to heaven against their wills They mount up to the heaven I would they were as unwilling to go to Hell as they are to go to Heaven in a storm I should then have great hopes that none of them would ever come there and David tells us that their souls are melted because of trouble from whence this point arises and is also firmly grounded that it is small pleasure for them to go to Heaven in a storm And as they have no mind to bee jetted up to the Heavens in a storm I fear that they have as little stomack to go to that Heaven in which God Christ Saints and his holy Angels live in I mean as to walk in that way that leads thither but truly it were the greatest piece of wisdom for all our Sailors let the wind bee never so cross and contrary to strive to get thither if they can by any means although they make a thousand yea a million or the greatest number of boardings that can bee reckoned up it will bee worth the pains so to do Observation 4 That when Sea-men are near to heaven they find no entrance or admission but are sent back again after a violent praecipitant and disrespected manner Sailers are like to Belerephon who got upon the back of his winged horse Pegasus and when thinking to ride in horse all at the gates of Heaven Jupiter looks out throws him down to the Earth again insomuch that hee had like to have broken both their bones They go down again to the depths c. I would I could or were able to perswade every soul in the Sea to look seriously into one text of Scripture which will tell them that Christ will disown and reject many that have strong hopes I and as good thoughts as any of you have of their Salvation Matth. 7.21 Not every one that saith unto me Lord Lord shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven but hee that doth the will of my Father which is in heaven Then I fear that ther will be the fewest Sailors of any people under the Heavens that will come thither my reason is they do not Gods will but their own and the Devils I fear wee shall see but few Sailors saved at the day of Judgment Seaman call thy condition into question and debate the case with thy self and say what shall not I enter into Heaven Captain ask thy own heart this question Master say thou unto thy self shall not I enter into Heaven Boatswain Gunner Carpenter Vulcan left the Earth out of a dislike and went to Heaven but says the Poet the clown was no sooner there but Jupiter grew to be displeased with him and thereupon threw him down and before hee got unto the Earth a whole summers-day was run out from Sun to Sun and in Lemnos Isle he broke his leg I leave you to find out my meaning move this question ever and anone Christ says that every one shall not why mayest not thou doubt that thou shalt bee one of them Thou mayest justly fear it if thy life bee naught That Sea-men had need to have good Observation 5 heads and innocent hearts in respect that they are by the stormy Charriots of the winds so often times tossed and transported to the heavens They mount up to heaven c. It is not every head or brain that can brook and endure to soar into the volatile region of the air The Sea-man stands in much need to have such an head as Polyphemus had of whom it is said that hee was so tall that hee rubbed the hair of his skul off upon the Heavens A good head
Crocodile is of the Safron or the Tyger of the Trumpet 4. If our Sailors trembled but as much at their committing of sin as they both do and will when a leak springs and breaks in upon them in their ships I would wish my self to bee amongst them for there would bee no fear of sinking of winds or seas ever to have any power over them for to drown them 5. If our Sailors were but as much affraid of oathing of it and of liveing that vain vile If our Sailors were but as fearful of letting God-dishonouring oaths fly out of their mouths and of doing and commiting that filthiness which they do even as the three famous children were of sining against their God in bowing unto the Kings great Idol Dan. 3.13 Who was resolved rather to burn than do it I would put the meanest of them into my bosom and cry them up as fast for Saints as I doe decry them down for notorious sinners and soul-damning life that they lead as they are of the roaring broad-sides that their enemies pour into them then you should not hear one oath nor lye in the mouths of them 6. It that our Sailors feared but God as much and stood but in the like fear of committing sin swearing drinking and prophaning of the holy name of God as they do of sparks of fire when lyeable to fall amongst their barrels of powder I dare then bee bold to say that there would not bee that braze-face of voicing oaths that there is amongst them both in the States and Merchants service 7. If our Sailors trembled but as much for sin and at the allowing of sin in their souls Ah that I should say of the generality of Sailors what Salvian said once of many in those ill times that hee lived in that they objected and said that Religion was but the stain the blur and blemish of honour whereas nothing in the world ignobles men more than the want of godliness as I have seen them tremble at an Anchor when the wind has come suddenly upon them and endangered them of being cast away those men would be far fitter for Heaven than for the world 8. If our Sailors were but as much affraid of offending God and damning of their poor immortal souls as they are in stormy weather of meeting one another when under sail stem for stem I dare conclude it that no people in the world would have that fear upon them either of sining against their God or losing of their souls 9. If our Sailors stood but in the quarter of that fear of hell and of eternal death that they do of perishing in the Seas when that the Rudder of their ship is broken off I dare bee bold to say it you should not at the day of Judgement see one of them to go to hell with the Devil and the damned 10. If our Sailors were but as much affraid of losing the favour of God as they are of losing life when the Cable breaks in a storm I dare speak it that they would bee a people as high in the favour of God as any under the Heavens bee what they will I find four very ill things in the Seas amongst the Sailors 1. A very slight apprehension of sin I once very sharply reproved a wicked wretch for his audacious open swearing when wee were run most dangerously under much sail upon a Sand and that which troubled mee most was his most lamentable want of the fear of God as appears in the answer he returned me Is it any more or any worse to swear now quoth hee than it is at another time What delight is there to bee taken amongst these filthy spirits and that it is too hard and too difficult a task for any man let him preach his heart out amongst them to make them beleeve that sin is so criminal and so damning as it is And this I conceive arises from that commonness of profaneness that is amongst them 2. A strong connaturalness in them unto the sinfullest courses that possibly they can follow Tell them of their wickedness and they are apt to say as a graceless Sea-man once said when reproved for his leud life What would you have Sea-men Saints I never knew any Saints of our profession in all my life and for my part you shall not perswade mee to bee one yet 3. That they are very fully and strongly bent with an inward resolution to cleave to sin even as it is said of Ahab that hee was sold to doe wickedness I may say the same of them I may write Solomon's words upon the Sailors Eccl. 8.11 The heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil I profess unto you Sea-men Nil nisi peccatum timeo I never feared any thing in the Sea but sin I was never so much affraid of Storms Rocks Sands or engaging with an enemy as I have been of that filthiness that is amongst you Eccl. 9.3 Madness is in their heart while they live and after they go to the dead 4. That they are apt to reject and disesteem of all Scriptural counsel and exhortation as if preaching and speaking in sound words were but wind and so consequently that all such wind will shake no corn Vers 27. They reel to and fro and stagger like a drunken man and are at their wits end TO speak shortly and yet pregnantly to the interest of this Scripture Sea-reeling and Sea-staggering then is very well known to those that go down into the deeps but those that have their abode on Land I do confess are altogether ignorant in it and therefore upon that accompt I will bee a little the larger in this my rerum gestarum narratio The waves seem as if it were a matter of sport and pastime to them to throw the greatest of ships from billow to billow Ut levi Zephyro graciles vibrantur aristae As full ears of Corn do fall and rise and rise fall by the strength of winds even so do the greatest and the very strongest of ships that go in the Seas and that with such violency that one would think that it were impossible for either Wood or Iron for to hold in those tempestuous seasons One while they are thrown upon one side by and by they are thrown upon the other Sometimes they are tossed up with the waves as if the Seas intended to shew spectators their very keels and bottoms Sometimes their masts lye in the Sea as the glorious morning Titan of the world dips in his golden locks into the Sea at his rising But to follow the Metaphor a little it is borrowed from a filthy Drunkard that has poured in more strong liquor than the Vessel would carry by which means it has sometimes been overset Wee know when a man has over-drunk himself and that his heels are tript up with it that all runs round with him in the house hee lives in It seems David
in this verse as the Taches and Loops were amongst the Curtains of the Tabernacle The Taches put into the Loops did couple the Curtains of the Tent and sew the Tent together that it might be one Exod. 26.10 11. So doth this very particle couple with the other phrase In the words you have these two things 1. An act of mercy 2. An object of misery And hee brings them out of their distresses Here is transcendent mercy shewed to them that are oftentimes drowned and plunged into irrecoverable misery There is nothing difficult in the words but the view of them is very obvious unto the meanest capacity that is Observ 1 That God loves not to give deliverance till it bee welcome Then they cry unto the Lord in their trouble and he bringeth them out of distresses When the ship is upon the sand rapping and knocking as if at every blow shee takes upon the ground would make her flye into a thousand peeces then and not till then comes deliverance Act. 27.44 And the rest some on boards and some on broken peeces of the ship and so it came to pass that they escaped all safe to land When the ship is half full of water with dangerous leaks then and not till then doth the Lord many times appear for them by sending some ship or other into their sight unto which they will make and thereby miraculously they are delivered from drowning by flying out of theirs into that When the ship that Christ and his Disciples were imbarked in was covered all over with waves then and not till then did Christ appear to abate and asswage the storm even but then when there was in the very eye of reason little or no possibility of being saved When Israels Bricks were doubled then and not till then was Moses sent and this is Gods usual time and method to deliver when there is no visible helps or hopes within sight for deliverance 1. Because mercy will not be valued if men should not be thus dreadfully put to it The sound man cryes puff Reasons a fig for the Physitian the Souldier a rush for his enemy when in a strong hold and so the Mariner a straw for storms when in a good harbor but when in the hazards of their lives the mercy then is highly prized 2. Because God would have the glory of his power wisdome and free goodness clearly beheld Act. 27.30 31. And as the ship-men were about to flee out of the ship when they had let down the boat into the Sea under colour as though they would have cast Anchors out of the fore-ship Paul said to the Centurion and to the Souldiers Except these abide in the ship yee cannot bee saved God is tender of his glory power wisdome and honor he would have it seen by the eyes of men 3. Because hee will have the tribute of praise out of every salvation and this is one reason why mercy and deliverance is so oftentimes delayed in the Seas Observ 2 That God in his providence hath a special hand a seeing eye and a prudent care in and over all his creatures for good And hee bringeth them out of their distresses Psal 104.10.21 Psal 107.6 Beasts of the field Fowls of the air Fish in the Sea and all crawling and creeping things upon the face of the earth are preserved and cared for by him If God stept not out of heaven may I so speak to fetch poor souls out of the griping talons of the stormy Seas where no succour and relief can come unto them from the land except it come out of heaven When God would express the tenderness of his love and care to to his people he makes it out by naming the very tenderest part that is in the body Zach. 2.8 Every little thing you know will offend the eye that which wee call the eyes Apple Philosophers call the Chrystalline humour Isbon in Hebrew Ish in Latine Pupilla of pupa because within there is the pretty resemblance of man or otherwise because man is prized and preferred before and above all the creatures besides Heb. 13.5 the Seas and the winds would tear them and their ships to peeces They would soon take down the proudest high decked ships that ever came upon the Seas if God watched not over them both by night and by day How soon would the Sea drink them up even as that great water-drinking Behemoth in Job 33. who drinks up a River I could abundantly inlarge my self in and upon this point but it is such tedious writing in the Sea that I shall bee short and give you in a few inductions to the bargain 1. I would have Sea-men to minde how undeservedly God is with them in their distresses even many wayes A gracious soul spoke on this wise when in a storm and tempestuous night Surely I shall not perish there be so many stars eyes of providence over my head because it was a bright and clear night one while strengthening of you and another while comforting of you Act. 27.22 And now I exhort you to bee of good cheer for there shall bee no loss of any mans life among you but of the ship This was the Apostles experience This was Davids experience Psal 23.4 Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil for thou art with mee thy rod and thy staffe they comfort mee 2. Minde how God doth deliver you out of storms and also the manner and means thereof and the very nick of time that God appears for you and works it in All which circumstances well heeded and observed will make your Sea-deliverances the more wonderfully Sea-men may well say of their deliverances as Moses said of the burning Bush Exod. 3.3 I will now turn aside and see this great sight Ah turn about souls and look with a thankful eye upon all your preservations and the more marvellously glorious in your eyes Paul was a great observer of the deliverance that hee and those that sailed with him partaked oâ— Act. 27.44 And the rest some on boards and some on broken peeces of the ship and so it came to pass that they escaped all safe to land Call to minde the times when you were shipwracked in Italy Spain or France c. and observe the manner of your deliverances 3. Minde how God delayes and defers sometimes to abate violent storms and to deliver you till that your wills bee conquered into a conformable contentment and obedience unto Gods will to bee delivered or not delivered This was Peters experience Matth. 14.30 31. that Christ reached him not his hand till he was a sinking And immediately Jesus stretched forth his hand and caught him This was Abrahams experience Gen. 22.12 13 14. That God was not seen but in the Mount and Isaac was not delivered from being made a sacrifice of till the knife was at his throat Have you not found it many times that
his glorious Majesty hee is able to do all things that are works of power might and strength and are not things against his own nature or things that imply contradiction Reason 2 Because when things are impossible in mans eye then is it the fittest time for the Lord to appear in It is a common saying and a true one That mans extreamity is Gods opportunity Observ 6 That God in his Judgments upon the Seas often times remembers mercy And hee bringeth them c. God is slow to wrath I wish I may not say of the Lords indulgency to profane wretches in the Sea what Sigismund the Emperour used to say of his enemies Is inimicum occidit qui inimico parcit I am affraid Deus non nunquam parcendo saevit That the Lords long sparing will end in rageing and may I so speak hee is seen walking towards sinners in the shooes of Asher which were of ponderous brass Deut. 33.24 25. Observ 7 That the greatest dangers of the Seas and the proudest waves that ever elevated are and should bee no plea for unbelief And hee brings them c. Matth. 14.30 31. When Peter saw the wind boysterous his heart begun to fail him but was hee not reproved for his distrusting of the Lord Poop-lantern ship-covering and yard-arm-rising waves should not daunt and discourage faith in God Were the Seas in a storm as high as the mountains of Merionethshire in Wales whose hanging and kissing tops come so close together that the shepherds sitting on their several mountains may very audibly stand and discourse together but if they would go to one another they must take the pains to travel many miles Sailors should not bee apalled and terrified Dangers are faiths Element and in them it lives and thrives best Such was the high-raised valour of Luther that when hee was to go to the City of Worms they told him of strange things Faith like the Ivie the Hop the Woodbine which have a natural instinct in them to cling lay hold upon the stronger Trees laies hold on God in time of danger as many will doe fresh-water travellers at Sea but quoth Luther if all the Tiles that bee upon every House in the Town were devils they should not scare mee Sailors should have the like courage in storms which one had when in a great straight Certa mihi spes est quod vitam qui dedit idem Et velit possit suppeditare cibum Good hearts may say to the Sea when in a storm what Luther said to his enemies Impellere possunt sed totum prosternere non possunt crudeliter me tractare possunt sed non extirpare Haec est fides credere quod non vides dentes nudare sed non devorare occidere me possunt sed in totum me perdere non possunt Faith will put your heads into Heaven and your ships into an Harbour when in a storm it will set you on the top of Pisgab with Moses and descry the promised Land when you may come to bee denied the sight of Land in storms 1. Great Faith is seen in this as much as any one thing whatsoever that it both can and will beleeve in God as a man may say with reverence whether God will or no it will beleeve in an angry God in a killing God and in a drowning God Job 15.10 Great Faith is not easily shaken 2. Great Faith is never clearer seen than when in the midst of souzing storms and dangers there is great confidence and strength of heart in the soul at such times Observ 8 That God will have every thing wrested from him by prayer And hee bringeth c. Good Sea-men should play the part of Daedalus Templum Cybelis Deorum matris non manibâ—es sed precibus solummodo aperiebatur The gates of Cybeles Temples could not bee opened by hands but prayer quickly threw them open who when hee could not escape by way upon Earth went by way of Heaven and that is the way of prayer Five Motives to put Sea-men upon Prayer 1. Solemnly consider that in the creature there is nothing but emptiness and helplesness 2. Solemnly consider that you cannot have any hopes of winning ought from God but by prayer The Champions could not wring an apple out of Milo's hand by strong hand but a fair maid by fair means got it presently 3. Solemnly consider of God what hee is whom you serve naturally no other but goodness it self Nothing animated Benhadad so much as this that the Kings of Israel were merciful Kings It was said of Charles the great I would to God I could say so of every Tarpowling that goes in the Salt-waters that hee delighted so much in prayer that Carolus plus cum Deo quam cum hominibus loquitur That hee spake more and oftner to and with God than hee did with men Flectitur iratus voce rogante Deus And nothing encouraged Titus Vespatian the Emperour's Subjects so much as this that hee did nunquam dimittere tristem never send any away sorrowful 4. Solemnly consider how many in the Seas go upon the very same errand that you go on to him and mind how they speed and are carried securely out of all their distresses 5. Solemnly consider what Prayer is to God hee loves it Let mee hear thy voice for it is comly 6. Call to mind your former experiences did you ever pray in a storm but you fared the better by it Consider what cases you have been heard in That servent Prayer will prevail with Observ 9 God in the greatest storms I would all the States Tarpowlings were of James the Just's principle of whom Eusebius tells us Genua ejus in morem cameli obditrata sensum contactus amiserunt That his knees were hardned like the Camels by his frequent kneeling to Prayer Prayer is Optimus dermientium cuslos certissima navigautium salus tutissimum viatoribus scutum The slâ—epers best keeper the Sailors surest safety the Travellers protecting Shield And hee brings them out c. Witness the Mariners calm Jonah 1. and witness Christs disciples deliverance in the storm Impartial fire that comes from above has been often times seen to spare yeelding objects and to melt resisting metal to pass by lower roofs and to strike upon all high-Towered pinnacles I wish that our Sailors were as much given to Prayer as Anna the daughter of Phannel of whom it was said that shee never departed out of the Temple but served God night and day in prayer and fasting I wish it were the resolution of them that use the Seas to do as Ambrose the Bishop of Millain did when news came to him that Justina the mother of Valentinian intended to banish him hee told them that hee would never run away but if they had any purpose to kill him they should at any time find him in the Church praying for himself and for his people 1. Vse of Comfort For
their desired Haven Gods people upon the Sea even the very meanest of them may say I never stir out nor sail in the great deeps but my life-guard goes along with mee and if they want for preservation there is never a creature in heaven or earth Sea or land but both will and shall take their parts What man is able to finde out a danger in which God could not or the time when God did not help them Ah Sirs never distrust God Was it dangerous to bee shut out of the Ark when the waters increased upon the old world or to bee shut out of the City of Refuge when the Avenger of blood pursued or to want blood upon the door posts when the Angel was destroying and is it not as dangerous to those that go to Sea without the fear of God Consider but that What hath been said and recorded of Troys Palladium that whilst that image remained there the City was impregnable had not the Greeks found out the stratagem to steal their Idol away they could never have conquered the City I will say of the godly and religious that go in the Seas whilst they walk close with their God It is reported that the Seas on a time being very rough and tempestuous great waves and billows flying mountain high a great Vessel was sailing upon them and every wave threatning to drown her the wicked wretches that were in her scared not the Seas the Waves asked them how it happened that they were no more fearful quoth the Mariners Nos Nautae We are Mariners How much more may the godly say in time of storms Nos Christiani et Deum Omnipotentem habemus the waves shall never hurt them 2 Chron. 15.2 The Lord is with you while you bee with him and if you seek him hee will bee found of you but if you forsake him hee will forsake you That the Lords merciful dealings with Observ 7 the sons of men in the Seas gives the world a convincing evidence of his gracious nature willingness and readiness to do good and to shew favour unto all Hee brings them to their desired Haven That when God will deliver a people out Observ 8 of storms in a shelterless Sea then no opposition shall nor can oppose or hinder him Hee brings them to their desired Haven No powers in Heaven Sea or Land that God cannot over-top and make vail and strike sail to him when hee pleases Psal 114.3 4 5 6 7. What ailed thee Oh thou Sea that thou fleddest thou Jordan that thou wast driven back Proud-vanting This was Davids experience of Gods readinesse to help him when in distresse Psal 18.10 And hee rode upon a Cherub and did flye yea hee did flye upon the wings of the wind The Lord is continually upon one Cherubs back or other over and upon the great deeps one while in the North and another while in the South c. for your deliverance and billow-bouncing Seas soon lower their top-sails at Gods rebuke Vers 31. Oh that men would praise the Lord for his goodness and for his wonderful works to the children of men IN the words wee may soon espye two remarkable things 1. A vehement desire Oh that men would praise the Lord. 2. A duplicatory reason of this desire 1 For his goodness 2. For his wonderful works to the children of men If the heavens were parchment the Seas Iâ—ke and every pile of grasse in the world a pen all would be too little to set forth the high praises of the Lord by This Verse seems to include the ardent earnestness of the Psalmists spirit that Sea-men would bee much in thankfulness and much and frequent in praising of the Lord their deliverer out of all their distresses Oh seems hee to say that I could put men upon this duty it would bee more comfortable to mee seems the Psalmist to say to finde such a principle in the hearts of those that are imployed in the great waters Ah Sirs you let the fresh running floods of Jordan I mean your Sea-deliverances fall into the mare mortuum of your forgetfulnesse than any one thing in the world again whatsoever Oh is but a little word consisting of two letters but no word that ever a man utters with his tongue comes with that force and affection from the heart as this doth Oh is a word of the highest expression a word when a man can say no more This Interjection oftentimes starts out of the heart upon a sudden from some unexpected conception or admiration or other In the composure of these words wee have two things onely considerable 1. The manner of it 2. The matter of it Oh that men would praise the Lord. But to open the words a little Oh that men would praise the Lord c. Heb. That they would confess it to the Lord both in secret and in society this is all the rent that God requires hee is contented that those that use the Seas should have the comfort of his blessings so hee may have the honour of them this was all the fee Christ looked for for his cures Go and tell what God hath done for thee words seem to bee a poor and slight compensation but Christ saith Nazianzen calls himself the Word That deliverances at Sea out of storms Observ 1 and Tempests call upon all the sharers therein and the receivers thereof to bee evermore thankfully praising and magnifying the wonderful goodness Lucan reports that the Elephants that come out of the Nabathaean Woods to wash themselves in the floods near unto them as if to purifie will fall down to adore the Moon or otherwise their Creator and return into the woods again And will nor you that use the Seas to your God that delivers you and undeserved kindness of the Lord vouchsafed unto them Oh that men would praise the Lord. Shall I prove the poynt I profess if Scripture were silent no man I should think should bee so audaciously impudent as to deny the verity thereof 1 Thes 5.18 In every thing give thanks for that is the will of God If in every thing then surely in and for Sea-preservations Men must take heed that they bee not thankless in this thing lest the Heavens blush at their ingratitude Psal 119.62 At midnight will I rise to give thanks to thee Ah that our Sea-men were as forward as they lie in their Cabbins and Hammocks Ah Sirs how many voyages make you to and again upon the Seas one while into the East-Indies So affected were the inthralled Greeks with their liberty procured by Flaminius the Roman Generael that out of thankfulness to him they would oftentimes lift up their voices in such shrill acclamations crying Soter Soter Saviour Saviour that the very birds would fall down from the heavens astonished and amazed And will not you Gentlemen be affected with your Sea deliverances and another while into the West one while into the North and another while
into the South but where are your thanksgivings all this time to God for your safe goings our and returnings home Go but to the Planets and they will tell you that they will not deal so with the Sun as you deal with your God wee say they receive much light from the Sun and for a testimony of our thankfulness wee do not detain it but reflect it back again upon the Sun Go to the Earth Sailors and shee will tell you that shee will not deal so with the Heavens as you do with your God shee will tell you that shee receives much rain from the Heavens and out of a testimony of much thankfulness shee detains it not but returns it back in Vapor again and after this manner may you hear her speaking Cessat decursus donorum si cesset recursus gratiarum Mercies from above would soon cease If my thanksgivings and returnings from below went not up It is said of the Lark that shee praises the Lord seven times a day with sweet melodious ditties Atque suum tiriletiriletiriletiriletirile cantat Alauda Isa 20. The beast of the field shall honour mee the Dragons and the Owls because I give waters in the Wilderness and rivers in the Desart to give drink to my people my chosen 1. Reason Because your lives were at the stake as Isaac's was upon the Altar's when the knife was at his throat yet did the Lord call and look forth very seasonably The Romans used to stick and bedeck the bosom of their great God Jupiter with Laurel as if they had glad tidings of fresh victories and that out of a testimony of their thankfulness for what they had out of the Heavens for you and spake to the winds when they were up in a rampant kind of hostility and rebellion against you and bid them be quiet and do you no harm otherwise you had perished in many a storm ere this day and is not this worthy a great many thanks Who can bee too thankful to that God that has been so careful and tender-hearted over you when in the Seas where there was no eye to pitty you 2. Reason Because in that storm if God had given it commission thou hadst been shortly after either in Hell I have met with a story of one when being risen from the dead therefore you that live ungodlily in the Seas think of it he was asked in what condition he was in when he was there he made answer No man will beleeve no man will beleeve no man will beleeve They asked him what hee meant by that he told them no man will beleeve how exactly God examines how strictly God judges and how severely hee punishes or Heaven or may I not leave Heaven out and thou hadst been in Hell where the Devils would have fallen upon thee to tear thee to peeces Ah Sirs your lives hang but upon small wyers and what would become of you if God should not spare you Bee affected with this mercy 3. Reason Because had the storm but had licence to have destroyed you and the ships you sailed in which the Lord would not suffer you had never come home with your rich lading nor never had that mercy granted you of ever seeing or enjoying of your loving friends wives children houses lands and acquaintance again and shall not all this move you unto thankfulness If this will not I know nothing in the world that will prevail with you I pray God that Sea-men do not with their deliverances at Sea as Pharaoh did with the miracles that were done before his face Exod. 7.23 Of whom it is said That hee would not set his heart to the miracle 4 Reason Because you have now at the present a still quiet and peaceable Sea to sail in and upon which in the storm you had not such was the proud vantingness of it that you durst not loose a knot of sail nor keep your Top-masts unlowred and un-peaked and the waves run mountain-high rageing and rowling on every hand you in such a miserable manner It seems strange to mee that Sea-men are not bettered by all the storms they meet with by all the calms God bestows upon them Iron is never cleaner than when it comes out of the furnace nor brighter than when it has been under the sharp file the Sun never shines clearer than when it comes from under a Cloud the Coale that has been covered with ashes is thereby the hotter the quicker every thing brightens betters but the rusty Sailor Gods mercies judgments in the Seas do not scour him as that you were at your wits-end but Oh what sweet peace and tranquil weather have you now insomuch that your Vessels go now upright without that nodding staggering and reeling which they were put to before How still are the waves how clear above bee the skies and Heavens how well escaped are you from the shore the Rocks and sands which you were so near to in the storm Are you not affected with this mercy The Lord soften your hard hearts then Give mee leave to present you with a few motives unto this duty of thankfulness 1. Consider Soul what an unspeakable mercy it is that God should hear thy Prayers in a storm when thou wast almost overwhelmed that God should hear prayers nay prating and babling rather than praying which is but an abomination unto the Lord that God should hear the prayers of the righteous that is nothing strange because hee hears them alwaies but that God should hear your prayers Sirs which are most sorry and sinful prayers The Stork is said to leave one of her young ones where shee hatched them The Elephant to turn up the first sprig towards Heaven when he comes to feed and both out of an instinct of gratitude to their Creator Sailors let not brute creatures excel you for whatsoever is not of Faith is sin this is wonderful Ah will not you bee thankful unto the Lord Sirs I have red of a Lyon that had but got a thorn in his foot as hee was walking and ranging in the Forrest for and after his prey and being exceedingly pained with it hee made after a foot-Traveller which hee spied in the Forrest making signs to him that hee was in distress which the Traveller seeing and apprehending that his case was dangerous if hee ran hee stood still to know the Lyons pleasure to whom the Lyon declared himself and the poor man pulled it forth and the Lyon to requite him followed him as guarding of him from all wrongs by other wild-beasts quite through the Forrest Ah Sirs will not you express your thankfulness to your good God 2. Consider the particular dealings of God with you he deals not so with every one Do you not see God in the winds Mercavab Velohaâ—ocheb how is hee to bee seen in the Chariot which he rides in though not the Rider says a Rabbi some goes down into the bottoms amongst the dead
most high God for delivering mercies is not onely a very acceptable duty with God but also the readiest way to obtain mercy in the like exigency and necessity again Oh that men would praise the Lord Psal 50.23 Who so offereth praise glorifieth mee and then it follows Hee that orders his conversation aright to him will I shew the salvation of God Munera crede mihi placant hominesque Deosq This Scripture now proves it to bee an acceptable performance in the sight of God and that such as give God the most and best of praises they shall have the greatest and the sweetest salvations Improve Neptunum accusat iterum qui naufragium fecit Hee is very injurious to Neptune that complains of being shipwracked when unthankfulness is the cause Alexander the Great by burning Frankincense frankly and freely to the gods gained by conquest the whole Kingdome of Arabia where all the sweet Aromatick trees do grow Ah Sirs you do not know how you might prosper at Sea would you but bee liberal in your praisings of God and thanksgivings to him The people in the Low Countries by giving the Stork leave to build and nest it in their houses to requite the house-keepers shee comes every year at her appointed time Wee read of small or no rain that falls many times in divers parts of Africa and the grand cause is supposed to bee the sandy nature of the soil from whence the Sun can draw no vapours or exhalations which ascending from other parts in great abundance resolve themselves into kinde benign showers refreshing and helping of the earth that yeeldeth none and this is the reason many times why God poures not down his blessings and benefits in such an abundance as sometimes hee hath been wont to do because your hearts are as dry and barren as the barren grounds and sands of Africa for if vapours of melting prayers tears prayses and thanksgivings go not up to heaven mercies will soon bee stopt in their passage down If Sea-men were not so much behinde hand with God in the tribute of praise and good life God would soon lay a charge upon all his creatures both in heaven and in earth that they should pay their tribute unto man the Sun his heat Ah Sirs I am afraid that many in the Sea do vitam gentilem agere sub nomine Christiano live even Turks under the name of Christians The Sailor sometimes is like a Rubrick or Sunday letter very zealously red and all the week after you may write his deeds and his unthankfulness unto his God for Sea deliverances in black the Sea his calmness the Winds their gentleness the Moon her light the Stars their influences the Clouds their moysture the Sea and Rivers their Fish the Land her Fruits the Mines their Treasures c. And when neglected God shuts up the windows of heaven and locks up the treasuries of his bounty and so lets Winds and Seas rage and roar and the creatures gnash and grin their teeth at a people for their ingratitude Ingratitude is a sin supposed to taint the very influences of the Stars it dries up the Clouds infects the very Air makes Winds terrible and boysterous blasts the very fruits of the earth Cyprian attributes the great dearth in his time to the want of thankfulness and truly I shal attribute the many ships that are cast away unto their unthankfulness unto their God for had they been more thankful more holy and humble for those storms God delivered them out of they had never gone so sadly to the pot as they have done Here is quoth Cyprian a very great and general sterility or barrenness of the fruits of the earth and what is the reason of it because there is such a sterility of righteousness and purity Men complain now a dayes that springs are not full Sea-men deal with God as the Heathen who would when they had served their torns upon their gods as Prometheus c. put them off with beasts skins stuffed with straw If they get but out of the storm they never look behinde them who sate upon the floods all the time to deliver them themselves not so healthfull nor the Seas so calm as formerly they have been nor the Winds so quiet and peaceable nor the showers so frequent the earth so fruitful nor the heavens so obsequious unto them as they have been to serve their pleasure and natural profit to God the creatures are obedient and on his errands they go Deu. 28.38 Thou shalt carry much seed out into the field and shalt gather but little in for the locust shall consume it It is sin that makes the Sea so dangerous and so dreadful sin that makes the heavens as iron over head and the earth to grow so full of thorns and brambles But to proceed I shall not adventure pluribus morari but rather bee tanquam Canis ad Nilum in a restless Sea where I can neither hold my pen in my hand nor keep my paper and ink upon board scarce The Arguments why Sea-men should praise God are briefly these 1. Because God had such a special Reason 1 eye and provident care over you in the preserving of you in all the unlikeliest and irrecoverablest dangers and calamities that you have been exercised withall in the Seas 2. Because God did so much for Reason 2 you which hee would not do for others That when God hath delivered men out Observ 4 of their Sea-streights and calamities Sceva told all his friends that at the siege of Dyrrachium where he so long resisted Pompeys Army that he had two hundred and twenty Darts sticking in his Shield Densamque tulit in pectore Sylvam Ah set your deliverances before people it is their duty not onely to praise God for his goodnesses towards them but also to set the fruit of those mercies before others to taste of Oh that men would praise the Lord c. Vers 37. Let them exalt him in the Congregation Portus Olympiaca vocem acceptam septies reddit If any knock or speak at the Gate or Portal of Olympus it returns a sevenfold Eccho of the knock or speech Your mercies should make you speak Sirs Observ 5 That although a man hath nothing to speak of Gods wonderful deliverances in the Seas but what is known unto others as well as to himself yet is it a part of Gods praise and of his thankfulness to make Gods works known and the continual matter of his talk and discourse Oh that men would praise the Lord Psal 105.2 Talk yee of all his wonderful works Talk not of one or two of some of them but of all of them which you have seen and known done and wrought for you in the Seas Observ 6 That freedome from perils in the Seas and injoyment of life are two mercies that call for many thanks at the hands of those that go down into them He that hath but a subjects purse may have
English page 435 Prayer how should resemble the stars about the North-pole page 460 Prayer begged at the hands of all the godly and powerful Ministry in England for poor Sea-men page 542 Pliny's expression of Rome given to men that use the Seas page 478 Pliny's judgement what the wind is page 367 Prayer how prevalent with God page 482 Perpetual life-danger of Sea-men page 420 Philostrates's life compared to Sea-men page 392 Prophane Sea-mens Motto ibid. Prayer forced is never ought page 486 Plutarchs report of men dejected what done withall page 401 Paulinus how hee bore his great trial under the savage Goths page 352 Patience an excellent vertue the heathen thought it so when page 353 Praising of God in several directions page 576 Pythagoras scholars what their custome was page 109 Plato how answered Socrates in his rashness page 25 Persons what should not bee taken in into Navy ships page 32 Physiognomer what hee said of an Emperour page 80 Plato's great desire to convert Dionysius page 61 Paul how desirous to have them saved that sailed with him page 52 Pepper-tree how it grows page 263 Pemblico a bird page 242 Q. Question fifteen page 150 R. REasons why Sea-men should bee thankful unto their God for their deliverances are five page 565 Reasons laid down are sixteen why storms arise upon the Seas page 348 Reasons two strong ones why men are so fearful in storms page 455 Righteous man of what worth page 36 Reasons five why young men should bee looked after in the Sea page 73 Roman Ambassadors what said of them page 78 Romans highly esteem of faithfulness page 84 Roman General what a command he bore page 30 Romans cannot indure any without a calling page 166 Rome how once laid down to the ground page 180 Rocks in the Sea what their language is page 322 Richard the first how travelled to the Holy Land page 124 S. SEa compared to Plutarchs Moon page 427 Sea summoned in by the Mariners why it did drown so many of them as it did page 427 Speech objurgatory to the rest less Sea ibid. Speech of Galienus the Emperour when lost all that ever hee had page 402 Sea-men how compared to all high pinacles page 409 Sea-men too confident of going to heaven page 410 Seneca's speech page 401 Sea-men in storms are nearer heaven than any in the world besides page 409 Ships when cast away may bee concluded on that it was when the Mariners were swearing page 487 Several Reasons why Sea-men are the worst people in the world page 488 Sea-mans life and conversation page 393 Sea what it saith to prophane men ibid. Sea-mens lives very uncertain page 388 Ships uncertainty of ever returning whilst at Sea page 383 Sailors Motto what page 417 Sea-mans head what compared to page 416 Ships how rest less in the Sea page 27 Sailors Motto what page 445 Seasons six in which Sea-men are evermore out of their wits page 445 Sea hath four ill things in it page 446 Sea-mans Motto in a storm page 418 Sea-mans night-watching in time of storms page 418 Ship-leak springing how terrible page 426 Sea-mans day labouring in time of storms page 417 Sea-men how seemingly good in time of danger page 484 Shark what said of him page 206 Sea-horses what said of them page 209 Sea-men compared to the Nightingale page 191 Sea-swine what said of them page 222 Sea-calf page 224 Sea-turtle ibid. Stork what said of her page 234 Strange-sheep in Cusko page 249 Sivet-cat what shee is page 251 Scorpion what page 258 Strumbilo how it burns page 273 Sea-men too like the traveller that leaves all things behinde him page 281 Sea like the Sea in Pauten page 301 Ship-masters how reproved and for what page 91 Ship-masters exhorted to imitate Tiberius in his honest minde page 90 Sabbath day how sweetly it is observed at Sea page 95 Swearing complained of and exclaimed against at Sea page 101 Subjects that should bee preached on at Sea laid down page 102 Swearing ships but unhealthful air to breathe in page 103 Sea-men if ever they would bee good and Religious must practise seven things page 111 Socrates how fearful of Alcibiades page 115 Spanish Proverb what page 116 Sea-men prophane how compared to Pharaohs seven ill-favoured Kine page 118 Sun how said to shine and would not shine were it not for the godly page 119 Sea-men must practise six things if ever they would have credit ibid. Sea-men exhorted to practise nine very singular good things page 123 Sea-men counselled in three good things page 125 Sea-men should rather dye than stain their credits ibid. Sea-men prophane too like to those in Luthers time page 126 Ships when miscarry may be said that they never sought God in their going out page 132 Ships what order they observe in their going to Sea in nine things page 133 Sea-men how valiant they should bee when they hear of an enemy page 141 Spaniard in what to bee disgusted page 141 Spaniard how massacred many English page 144 Sea or Land a controversie whether bee greater page 153 Sea-men when come out of the West-Indies how glad they are when they can once see the North star page 154 Sea-water how far it excels Land-water in strength page 156 Seas wonderful beneficial to all Countries in five things page 161 Sea-men exhorted to bee of Themistocles temper page 172 Sea separates many Nations a great mercy page 162 Sorrow and pleasure how they fell out page 598 Sea-men how wished a bottle of Nepenthe in storms page 596 States ships how said to resemble Nebuchadnezzars tree page 589 Ships how said to derive their names from the stout fought Battels in England page 290 Ships what several names they have to perpetuate the memory of Englands Battels page 591 Ships that carry the names of Englands Battels upon them are terrible page 592 Sea what manner of place it is page 4 Ship how shee commended the Pilot that steered her well in a storm page 598 Sea hath no lanes foot-paths nor high-wayes to travel by page 12 Sea-men counselled to bee of Fabritius's minde page 16 Sea-men far more on stern in matters of good than any in the world besides page 18 Scipio how of a brave spirit page 21 Sea-Captains some how compared to Thales page 22 Sin the only of Commanders being hurled out ibid. States how little they set by men at Sea whose carriages are naught page 23 Ships carry famous Titles and wherefore page 26 Sea-men too like the Cypress tree page 29 Sea-men that are prophane should bee cast out of ships page 33 Ships have good names but want of government in them page 30 States ships might prosper wonderfully had they but these men in them page 35 States ships should bee little Churches and Chappels page 42 Sea-man how defined page 46 Sea-men how backward to all good in divers particulars page 48 Sabbath day how sweetly it is observed at Sea page 55 Sea Commanders some too like Harpocrates