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
of being prayed for Job 9.26 They are called in that place Ships of desire 1. When a man sees a goodly and a stately ship that is then a ship of desire 2. A Merchants longing for his ships good return home is a ship of desire 3. A ship of desire is a swift Pinnace oâ— a Pyrats Bark or Vessel that is made on purpose for the prey to out-sail all others But to proceed Let mee tell thee Good Reader before I take my leave of thee that I can say of and by my going to Sea for which I had as clear a all to as ever man had to any place in this world as a good man once said who had lyon a long time in prison in the primitive times of persecution I have quoth hee got no harm by this No more harm hath all my troubles at Sea done my inward man than a going up to the rops of those mountains hath done them that have made the trial where neither Winds Clouds nor Rain doth over-top them and such as have been upon them do affirm that there is a wonderful clear skye over head though Clouds below pour down rains and break forth in thunder and lightning to the terrour of them that are at the bottome yet at the top there is no such matter Mee thinks I have heard the Seas say unto mee Vide hic mare hic venti hic pericula disce sapere See how ready the Winds and Seas are at Gods beck and wilt not thou fear him If I may tell thee my experiences of Gods doing of my soul good in the Seas then can I tell thee thus much bee it spoken to the praise of that sweet God whom I serve and honour that I have got no harm by going to Sea but a great deal of good both to my soul and also to my understanding and intellectual parts 1. I have learned by my going to Sea to love the world less than I did before Love not the world c. 1 Joh. 2.15 2. I have learned to know men and the world far better than I did before 3. I have learned to prize a life in heaven far before a reeling and staggering life here on earth 4. I have learned to bee far more shye and wary of sin than I was before because I found my self so fearful of death and drowning many times in storms when in the Seas I have read of a young man that lay on his death-bed and all that ever hee spoke whilst hee lived was this I am so sick that I cannot live and I am so sinful that I dare not dye It is good to keep clear of sin 5. I have learned to live upon God and to put my trust in him more than ever I did before so that I can comfortably speak it Psal 7.1 O Lord my God in thee doe I put my trust c. 6. I have seen more of the Creation by my going to Sea than ever I should have done if I had stayed on Land The Lord sets men the bounds of their habitations It is said of Lypsius that he took such delight in reading of a Book I wish that thou mayest as much in this that hee said Pluris faecio quum relego semper novum quum repetivi repetendum The more I read the more I am tilled on to read 7. I have learned to fear God more and to stand in awe of that God who hath the lives of all his creatures under his feet and is able to dispose both of a mans present and also future condition even as pleaseth him than ever I did before 8. I have learned to pray better and to ply the Throne of Grace oftner with my prayers for spiritual blessings than ever I did before 9 I have so learned Christ that I made it my work and businesse all the time I was at Sea to lead my life so as in the continual presence and aspect of the Lord Meer Heathens thought God to be every where as appears by their Jovis omnia plena Quascunque accesseris oraâ— Sub Jove semper eris c. Psal 16.8 I have set the Lord alwayes before me c. and so I lived and have lived both at Sea and also at Land that I shall give both foe and friend and friend and foe their liberty to speak and observe me as much as they can 10 I have learned to love my God more than ever I did before and if I had not I should appear to be a very rebellious Child As Demetrius Phalerius deceived the calamities of his Banishment by the sweetness of his Study so I the troublesome Seas and rude society by mine I know that this poor Peece of mine has in it its 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Naâ—vi its blacks and spots its Human frailties which the good Lord remit yet in it is there truths Divine and things very profitable and worthy to be embraced in respect the Lord has done so much for me to preserve me and mercy me as hee hath done in a cruel Sea which is a place as the Poet sings Luctus ubique pavor plurima mortis imago Good Reader doest thou live in times of trouble and daies of danger then turn over this Book and thou wilt finde that there is a wise and a powerful God in the Heavens that sits at the Helm both of Sea and Land to preserve poor souls in them Wouldst thou hear of those Sights and Wonders of the Lord that those that goe down into the Seas doe see then will I commend this small Treatise to thee what delight fuller thing canst thou read than a Theam or Subject of the Sea and Sea affairs here mayest thou read and peruse this my Nec inter vivos nec inter mortuos which cost me much pains and get some good out of it When Nebuzaradan burnt the rubbish of the Temple hee kept the Gold c. Though in reading thou meetest with Creature-defects which I will assure thee was never writ upon Land but drawn up as I studied it upon water Libentèr omnibus omnes opes concesserim ut mihi liceat vi nulla interpellante isto modo in literis vivere Tully I would freely give all the good in the world that I might sit down in the world live and lead a studying life But it was the Lords will that I should travel in the great and wide Sea yet wilt thou meet with many a savoury truth if thou hast but a gracious heart in the brest of thee Accept of it My sute to you Readers is that upon your perusal of it you would seek the Lord in its behalf that it may doe good to them that use the Seas I begge the prayers of every godly and gracious Minister into whose hands peradventure it may come that he would pray that it may be instrumental to reform these People that goe in the Seas who stand in need of
at Agincourt heard of the great warlike praeparations that the King of France made against him hee began to bee exceedingly perplexed One of his Commanders standing by made answer that if there were so many there were enough to bee killed enough to bee taken prisoners and enough to run away which resolute speech of his much cheered up the King I would not haue Sea-men to regard how many their enemies bee but where they are who by small and weak means does often times effect great and wonderfull things to that end the glory of all may bee his What the Lacedaemonians once sung of in their three dances I think it may bee sung of England The first was of Old men and they sung Wee have been young and strong and valiant heretofore Till crooked age did hold us back and bid us do no more The second of Young men who sang Wee yet are young bold strong and ready to maintain That quarrel still against all men that do on earth remain The third of Children who sang And wee do hope as well to pass you all at last And that the world shall witness bee ere many years bee past To sparkle our English spirits a little that go in the Seas against the Spaniard Look Look Sailors upon that brave Military and fighting spirit that breathed in Epaminondas who most nobly said that if all the riches of the world should be given him they should not draw him off from any the least duty and service that hee owed his Country Let me tell all the brave spirited Sailors in England that go in the wars against the Spaniard that Pulchrum est pro patria mori It is a very commendable thing for men freely and valiantly to venture and lay down their lives for the welfare safety and priviledges of the Countries they live in belong unto Look upon Reverend Mr. Calvin of whom Mr. Beza tells us that in the year 1556. when Perin had conspired against the State of Geneva that hee ran into the midst of their naked swords to appease the tumult well knowing that Nemo sibi natus that men are not born for themselves but for their Country Look upon brave spirited Cratisolea the mother of Cleomenes when hee was loth to send her for a pledge to Egypt she said unto him come come put mee into a ship and send mee whither thou wilt that this body of mine may doe some good for my Country before crooked age consume my life without profit Look upon King Edward of England whom the Chronicles of Flanders tell of when warring against Philip Valesius King of France hee couragiously sent him a challenge in his letters and offered him three Conditions 1. Either person to person 2. A thousand against a thousand 3. or Army against Army But the King of France durst admit of none of them Sailors you have to deal with an enemy that is like to Plutarchs Nightingale of whom it is said that shee sung purely and made a great busling in the woods as if shee had been some greater bird like the fly upon the Charet wheel who was heard to say Oh what a dust do I raise but when shee came once to bee handled and finding little meat on her hee raps out into discontent vox es praeterea nihil You know the applicatory part I may say of England now as a great Politician once said very well Nulla magna Civitas quiescere diu potest si foris hostem non invenit quaerit domi No Nation can long bee quiet or at peace for if it have no enemies abroad it shall and will so on find some at home I leave you to find out my meaning Gentlemen You have run valiantly upon the Swords Pikes Halberds Gun-mouthes Fire-ships and the ragged ship-sides of your enemies in former wars to purchase that peace that England is now in possession of but is your work all done now Shew your selves as hardy and as stout as ever against the enemies of Christ and following these rare Examples I have presented you with all to whet up your spirits Haec imitamini per Deos immortales qui dignitatem qui laudem qui gloriam quaeritis haec ampla sunt haec rara haec immortalia haec fama celebrantur monimentis annalium mandantur posteritati propagantur c. Vers 24. These see the works of the Lord and his wonders in the Deep IF I have trespassed in detaining you so long in the porch Let me tell you every thing that I have touched upon lay so fairly in my road that I could not otherwise chuse but let all ly by the Lee till I had sufficiently spoke with and to those things that I know stands in need of reprooving and correcting in the Seas I have done my part in speaking advertisingly unto the graceless crew that goes in the salt-waters Oh that the Lord would not bee unwilling to do his part upon them and to pitty them that have no pitty upon themselves And besides I have not onely laid them down many very good and profitable rules but I have also spoke of many other things which lay in my way My purpose is now to lead you into the Pallace where you shall have a clear and delightful view of all those various objects and scattered excellencies that lye up and down upon the face of the creation which are onely seen by those that go down into the Seas and by no other These see the works of the Lord c. in the Hebrew who see c. If the question bee demanded who sees them the answer is easily returned they that go down into the Seas in ships And who are those may the question be Answ They are Sea-men or Sailors and these bee the men that have the fullest and clearest aspect of the creation above all people under the Heavens whatsoever These see the works of the Lord c. As if David were a going to say It is not those that sit on land and travel no further than the Soil of their nativity no no but it is those that lanch off the shore into the Main to arrive in forein and far remote Countries that have the sight of those heart-ravishing varieties of Gods six days works and wonders Undoubtedly the Psalmist took great delight and pleasure in holding discourse with some of the best disposed It is worth the while to talk with Sea-men provided they be pious sober and civil for they have more admirable passages to tell you of than all the world besides What Plinie said of the Nightingale I will say of the Mariner Si quis adest auditor Philomela prius animus quam canius deficiet The Nightingale is a bird that if any one will but give her the hearing shee will sing her self sooner out of breath than out of tune and well-minded of the Mariners because this Scripture comes droppingly and admiringly from David as if he had been amongst
lines by and out of which hee that has a seeing eye may read profitable and singular Divinity lectures that they are greatly to blame There bee many tender-hearted people on Land that would even melt into tears if they did either see or know but of the one half of what you both see and know But what is it I pray for a man to see nothing but whiteness in the Lilly redness in the Rose purple in the Violet lustre in the Stars or perfuming sweetness in the Musk c. other creatures see this as well as you if you make no better use of these things Plutarch's little Bee when it spoke could say Ex flâ—sculis succum mellis colligere cum alii non delectentur nisi colore odore I could gather hony out of any flower whilst others passed by and would not light upon it 2. Do what ever in you lyes to get a seeing eye for want of which some in their travels are but meer beetles Nycticoracis oculos habéntes or men that carry their eyes in their heels when they should have had them in their heads A seeing eye will affect the heart let a man go where hee will in the World Lament 3.51 Mine eye affecteth my heart I wish that every poor Sea-man in the world were so spiritual Sea-men might gather rare documents from the creatures as the little decimo seâ—tos that be both in the Sea and Land as the small fish that are in the Sea the Dove Aut that are on the Land as well as from the great folios of the Whale and Elephant c. that every thing that hee sees in the Sea or on the Land affected his heart Holy David was so heavenly that hee could lay his eye upon nothing that his heart was not affected with Psal 148.8 9 10. One while his eye was upon Fixe another while upon Hail one while upon Snow and another while upon Vapour one while upon the stormy Wind and another while upon the Mountains Hills Trees Beasts Cattel Creeping-things and flying Foul c. and none of these but his heart was exceedingly affected and taken in the thinking and beholding of them Again says Solomon Prov. 15.30 The light of the eyes rejoyceth the heart Give me leave to speak one concluding word unto you who are so much as it were in the heart and garden of the world as you are you might pluck many a sweet and savoury flower to make nosegays of I may say of the Sea and the forein parts of the world what one once said of the Sacred Bible that there was evermore aliquid revisentibus Something to see again again to serve you to smel on in your hearts all the dayes of your lives A gratious heart will evermore bee drawing out good observations out of the creature and will take an occasion to breathe after God in every strange thing it sees or enjoyes A goodly Ancient being asked by a prophane Philosopher How hee could contemplate high things sith hee had no books wisely answered that hee had the whole world for his book ready open at all times and in all places and that therein hee could read things Divine and Heavenly Bees will suck hony out of flowers that flies cannot do But to proceed 2. The next thing is to insist a little upon those singular and providential preservations and deliverances that Sea-men meet withall in their navigable employments My last work you know was to set before you a Praelibamen or a small parcel of the works of God that they behold in their travels and my next task is to prefix a few of those works which may very properly and pertinently bee called Opera conservationis works of mercy and preservation from and out of those many dreadful dangers and life-hazarding perils that they do run in the stormy and raging Seas And before I begin arenam descendere to enter upon them I will lay this proposition before you Observ 4 That the Sea-man of all the men under the whole Heavens none excepted is one that is both a partaker and a seer of the greatest and remarkablest of temporal deliverances These see the works of the Lord and his wonders in the deep The course that I shall shape and steer in the handling of this doctrine will bee in these following Corollaries that I shall lay down before you the divulging of which unto the world cannot but advance and exalt my Masters name And I hope it will lye as an engagement upon the hearts of the godly as it was upon Davids to love and fear that God the more that bestows such great and so many undeserved preservations upon them that go in the Seas For this reason is it that I do take upon mee to call their deliverances to mind because their dangers and their preservations are not known to every one the major sort of people that live on Land are not acquainted with the things that I shall sing of My Song shall now bee thâ—t of Virgils ab â—ove principium now I will make it my business to present you with some of them though indeed not the one half of what I might and what others who are more knowing in them might tell you of And if you will but give mee that audience and attention that the beasts of the field the fouls of the air gave unto Orpheus's musick that is all I will desire of you It is said of the Beasts of the field and of the Fouls of the aire that they forgot their several appetites who were some of prey some of game and othersome of quarrel some for one thing and some for another insomuch that they stood very peaceably and sociably listning to the Aires Tunes and Accords of the Harp and when the sound ceased or was drowned with some lowder noise then every beast returned to his own nature again To bee short the truth of it is they are very ear-delighting and heart-melting deliverances that I shall speak of and therefore they are both worthy reading and also hearing 1. They that go down to the Sea in ships are many times most dreadfully surprized and bewildered with dangerous and perilous leaks at which water comes gushing into their Vessels as it will out of a cistern or conduit-pipe when once the cock head is but turned about and it may bee when they are thus unexpectedly taken they are many an hundred mile from any port or Land to save their lives I and further to aggravate their misery they are not within the sight of any ship or ships to come and help them which is not onely an heart-akeing discouragement but an heart-casting-down condition Now goes the hand-pump and the chain-pump which they carry in their ships as fast as ever they can turn them about to throw out that water that springs in upon them and when they find the water to flow in upon them far faster than they can throw it
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
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
Kings and Princes of the Seas and the Conquerours of all the Armadoes in the world that shall dare to meddle with you Inter caetera providentiae divinae opera hoc quoque dignum est admiratione c. Amongst other works of a divine providence this is very admirable that the winds lye upon the Sea for the furtherance of Navigation and that they may all strike and vail to you as forein Nations once did unto the Kings and Princes that were their Conquerors of whom it is said that at what time they sent their Ambassadors to them whom they both had subdued and would have subdued to them they desired of them Terram Aquam and in token of their subjection they sent them both Water and Earth because all command is either by Sea or by Land and all possessions and riches are either gotten out of the Sea or out of the Land And now after all that I have said in the high commendations of you I pray God bestow peace on our Nation both at Sea and Land for that is far better than these dreadful and heart-amazing Wars There is small comfort in it to see Nation rising up against Nation and an imbruing of their hands in one anothers blood It is a very sad sight in these our dayes the Lord amend it to see Nations running one against another like the two Mountains in Pliny of which hee tells Montes duo inter se concurrerunt crepitu maximo assultantes recedentesque inter eos flamma fumoque in Calum exeunte that they ran continually one against the other Plin. cap. 2.83 Nat. Hist from whom nothing but smoke and fire rise up and ascended towards the heavens with a great sonorous and formidable noise they that take delight to see it I wish they may have enough of it Give mee leave to take my leave of you in a few directions which I would have you to look upon as one of the highest expressions of my love and affection that a man can possibly bear you I speak not only unto you altogether that fear the Lord but unto the other prophane crew also shall I commend a word of counsel and this Treatise is one of the greatest Legacies of my love that I either have or know how to bestow upon you and truly I could wish that every Minister that goes in your ships and in the States service would endeavour to shew something of the improvement of his time that it may stand upon record for the good of you that use the Seas and so far would I have any from carping at what I have done that I would wish them to mend it if they can or shew something of their own I had no warm study to sit in nor no place that was free of noyse and tumult when I writ it Sirs You may visibly behold the great love I bear you who hath taken all this pains in the Sea for you What would you have mee to do for you I have gone a begging to all the good Ministers in the land to pray for your preservation conversion and sanctification I have gone a begging to all the Saints and servants of God to pray for you It was somewhat a soure saying of one concerning the viler sort of Sea-men when he said if you see them not in Sea-port Towns in November December January and March which are the windiest Months in the year then you may conclude that they are all gone to Heaven or else they will never come there They mount up to Heaven c. vers 26. I have exhorted all the Sea-ports in England to pray for you and to remember you that go in the turbulent deeps and I will assure you that I will never forget you neither in Pulpit nor in private but pray hard for your prosperity in the Seas and felicity in the life to come My hearts desire is that you may bee saved in the day of the Lord. The Rules I would commend to you that travel are such as these following and I would hand them not onely to every good and honest heart that goes in the Seas but to every prophane wretch whatsoever 1. Let not the irreligion of those places you travel into whether France Spain Italy Barbary or Turky c. breed in you a neglect of divine duties or a disgustion unto the pure and most reformed Religion that is amongst us in England 2. When you meet the Host or Eucharist in the streets through which it is often born to the houses of the sick get out of the way that you kneel not to it which if a stranger neglects hee is lyable to the Inquisitors or one mischief or other 3. Go no further into the Outlandish Churches in the world than the hand of your own Religion and conscience will lead you lest you dash upon the rocks of Atheism and Idolatry 4. Pitty rather than spurn scoffe and scorn at those you see prostrate before a Crucifix or a Saint It hath been matter of pitty unto my soul many and many a time when in forein parts 5. Neglect will sooner kill an injury than revenge If you meet with injuries in forein parts prudently and patiently put them up an ill turn in those parts is far cheaped passed over than revenged the endeavour of which many times is but Gentleman usher to a greater 6. Keep your selves out of all the Mercenary Harlot houses that bee in the Italian French and Spanish Cities or in any other parts of the world you traffick to Prov. 5.8 Remove thy way far from her and come not nigh the door of her house 7. Begin all your voyages with fear and sincere and hearty prayer unto God to go along with you through and over the Seas to carry you well out to return you wel back You go very rashly upon all your designs The Israelites usually asked counsel of God first and then they went The Grecians went to their Oracles Gentlemen and Sea-men in your perusal of this Treatise you will finde me sharply striking at prophaneness in the Sea and to those that are bad I speak to and those that are honest and godly are very silly and simple if they quarrel with it thereby they will bring upon themselves an evil name for let but me hear a man speaking against it and I shall conclude him to bee some Swearer or c. the Persians to their Magi the Egyptians to their Hierophantae the Indians to their Gymnosophista the ancient Gauls and Brittains to their Druides the Romans to their Augures It was not lawful to propound any thing of weight and moment in the Senate Priusquam de coelo observatum est before they had observed from heaven whether God would shine upon their proceedings and enterprises yea or no. 8. Abhor to go to Sea out of any Sea-port Town in England in a drunken posture I would have those that are naught in the Sea to say with
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
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
words and expressions Such as are more vexed for that dishonour a pack of ungodly men throw upon God than they are for â—y disparagement that comes upon themselves And have an holy care and endeavour in all places and companies in the Seas to walk so as that they may thereby win glory to their God and honour and credit to their professions Bee sure that you that are Captains take not in men that will learn all the rest to swear lye and blaspheme 18 None but such as will seek the good and preserve the peace of all the ships they either go or sail in and can comfort themselves with this that in their very callings and publick imployments their aims and endeavours are not more at gain profit or credit than at the glory of God and good of others And so being humble and publick spirited are active to pleasure others in any good office Good Commanders will say to their men as Bernard said to his friends when ever they writ Letters to him Si scribâ—s non placet nisi legam ibi Jesum I like not Sailors further than I see of God Christ in them or service they can making themselves servants to all that stand in need of them 19. None but such as are sound in judgement and not rotten for one of these crown-crazed fellows will infect and poyson all the rest Suffer not such to live under your Commands as deny Jesus Christ to bee the Son of God And deny the immortality of the soul and deny the sacred Scriptures to bee the Word of God Such as these there bee that go in your ships and many that can neither beleeve that there is either a God a Heaven or an Hell These are as dangerous in ships as the unclean person was to the Camp hee went into Num. 5.2 3. Put out of the Camp whosoever is defiled that they defile not their Camps That unclean person defiled every bed hee lay on and every thing he sate on Levit. 15.4 Nay hee defiled every man he touched or came neer This doe many Sailors in the ships they go in they corrupt and defile many a hopeful youngman who would have been far better if he had never come within the smoke of their chimneys and within the reach of their rotten and heart-putrifying discourses and perswasions I would have all the Captaines in England both in the great and small ships that go in the Seas to bee more curious and cautelous about the choice of their men than ever they have been I may say unto our Sea-Captaines of those many men that they have under their Commands as Libidinus said of that contentious debate that was betwixt Caesar's and Pompey's Souldiers who made a loud cry unto them why talk yee saith hee of these things Nisi Caesaris Capite delato Unless Caesar's head bee off there will bee no peace Unless you keep vile wretches down and out of your ships you will never have peace and quietness in them If you did but mind the inconveniences of keeping Swearers Drunkards Adulterers and Quarrellers c. in your Ships you would not give them that countenance and entertainment that you do I would have you to do with wicked men in your ships as the Jews did the day before the Passeover which was after this manner every Father of a Family with other men lighted wax candles and searched every corner in their houses to purge out all crums and remnants of Leaven And their Scribes taught that a man was to search after Leaven in secret places and corners by the light of a candle lest any peece or parcel should bee left behind and so pull a plague down upon that house Oh that our Sea-Captaines were as fearful of carrying Swearers Drunkards Revellers and profaners of the Lords day amongst them as the Jews were of casting out of the Leaven out of their houses what ships should wee then have in the Seas for piety and purity They would then resemble those glorious families spoken of in the New Testament who had Churches in their houses Philemon ver 2. Aquila and Pricilla 1 Cor. 16.19 Nymphas Col. 4.15 Our States ships should bee little Churches and Chappels for the Divine Worship of God But that I may now pass I will sail a while upon a Star-bord-tack and draw up the arrow of my discourse unto the Head that I may thereby a little tell our Sea-Captaines what their duties be in the several ships they are employed in and what also is requisite in those that either do or would bear command God knows there bee many in ships that bee trusted by the States command that know not what to do when they are on shipboard 1. It is requisite and mainly necessary that those that are or would bee Commanders should bee well qualified with knowledge in themselves of the sacred Word of God especially if they bee destitute of learned and pious Chaplins to that end they may bee instrumental to bring on their Sea-men under their Commands unto the fear of God The more insight any Commander has into matters of soul-concernments the meeter are they to instruct their Companies in the things that concern their souls Hee that is well furnished and accomplished with Scripture knowledge and holy wisdom in his heart is the aptest man to advance Religion in a ship 2. That they should seek the knowledge of their ships and strive to get a full and perfect cognizance of the state of their Sea-men viz. of their conditions dispositions necessities capacities inclinations He that would be an accurate and an accomplished Polititian indeed let him turn over Machiavell's bible and travel the varieties of men in the world and laboriously pry into them as well as pore upon his book I remember Austin begins one of his Sermons and as hee begins I would to God our Captaines would also begin and end with no worse advice Ad vos mihi Sermo O juvenes flos aetatis periculum mentis To you is my speech oh young men the flower of age the danger of the mind and of their darke and blind judgements and also of their immoveable and dead affections Had but Commanders now a full sight of these mens miserable conditions I would not fear but that their hearts would bleed to see many brands in the fire By this enquiry now prefixed you may the better know how to suit your Counsels cautions instructions and admonitions without which you cannot Husband-men you know suit their seed-corn as the land and years require and as their grounds will best bear 3. It is requisite that Commanders should have tender affections for and in the behalf of their Sea-men viz. Love and Desire 1. You should have much love to God in your bosoms and to your Sea-mens good I could wish that you were as careful over the poorest and meanest that go in the Seas as ever David and Bathsheba were over Solomon their son Prov. 4. v.
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
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
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
Meadows Vineyards flourishing Pastures upon which hee looks a while with great delight and on he goes again and meets with fruitfull Orchards green Forrests sweet Rivers with silver streams and behaves himself as before and at length he meets with Desarts hard wayes rough and unpleasant soul and overgrown with Bryars and Thorns here he is intangled for a time to stay labouring and sweating with grief to get out of them and after our he neither remembers his toyl nor the objects that he saw yet doth many of them learn out of it and from the creature that there is a God God upbraided Israel for their stupidity and will hee excuse you think you they had before them the Oxe and the Ass which were creatures that they might have learned wisdome enough out of Isa 1.3 The Oxe knoweth his owner and the Ass his Masters crib but Israel doth not know my people doth not consider The word consider comes of con and sydus and so signifies say some not one bare simple stella but a multitude of stars intimating that it is not a bare transient aspect or flash but an abiding and dwelling upon a thing that is to bee pondered and considered of as a Bee will stick upon the flower till shee extract honey out of it God complains again in Jer. 8.7 The Stork in the Heaven knoweth her appointed times and the Turtle and the Crane and the Swallow observe the time of their coming but my people know not the judgement of the Lord. God puts an En ecce exprobrantis upon them for their Caecity and inobservantness of the works of God And will not the Lord say to you one day that go down into the Seas and see his creatures and store-houses that are both in the waters and on the land viz. Fish in the Sea Beasts of the field and Fowls of the air c. that in respect you have made no soul-profiting uses of them they shall bee bitter and tart aggravations of your future condemnation Oh lament lament your blindness and inexcusable stupidity that you can look upon the wonderful works of God and go so boldly and undauntedly and unaffectedly amongst them without wondring at the wisdome of God and reading of Divinity lectures out of them Can you look upon the Leviathan when hee playeth in the Seas or upon the Trunked Behemoth when hee feedeth upon the land and not stand admiring and blessing of the Creator of them Can you look upon the many and strange kinde of Fishes that bee in the Seas of creatures that bee on the land and Fowls that bee in the air and not bee affected and drawn out with new love new fear and new obedience to serve your good God Ah Sea-men Sea-men I will deal plainly with you If I should see the Lord feeding of Sparrows and cloathing Lilies I should bee both stupid and faithless if I learned not that his providence were the same over mee both to cloath mee and to feed mee If that I should look upon the Heavens and see nothing in them but that they are beyond my reach the Horse and the Mâ—â—e would see that as well as I. May not many Sea-men bee painted as the Egyptians were wont to set out an inconsiderate man by To set such an one out in his colours they pictured him with a Globe of the earth before him and his looking-glass behinde him What Solomon sayes in Prou. 17.24 I shall say unto those that travel Wisdome is before him that hath understanding but the eyes of a fool are in the ends of the earth If that thou seest nothing in the earth but a place to walk in or to take thy rest on the Beasts of the earth and Fowls of the air sees that as well as thou If thou canst see nothing in the Sea to admire God for but a place to swim and sail ships in the fowls that daily sit upon the floods see that as well as thou If thou seest nothing in the Bee and Bird but that they are winged other creatures see that as well as thou doest though not to admire them how they sail thorow the vast sea of air that when the Bee is out in the flowry field shee should bee able to steer directly homewards again to her hive and the Bird when abroad to her nest though at never so a geat a distance What shall I say If thou seest nothing in gorgeous apparel but pride the proud Peacock sees that as well as thee Laudatus paevo extendit pennas If of all thy meat and drink that thou livest upon thou knowest nothing but the pleasure and the sweetness that is in them unto thy taste the Hog and the Swine have as great a portion as thou hast If of hearing seeing smelling tasting feeling bee all the delight that thou canst finde in the works of God the dumb creatures do far excel thee in this and thy heart is little better than the heart of a Beast 2 Vse of Exhortation If it bee thus that you that go in the Seas have the fullest and greatest aspect of the Lords works and wonders both in the Sea and Land suffer mee but to leave two things with you and I will pray unto my good God that they may bee profitable unto you and do some good upon you Oculi idcirco dati sunt corpori ut per eos intutamur creaturam ac per hujusmodi mirabilem harmoniam agnoscamus â—pificem 1. Labour for a conscientious eye There is an eye in the world that makes not a little conscience of that glorious sight and Chrystalline humour that God hath put into it for to behold his works with all What a large Book is the Earth that the eye ranges over and how large a Volume is the Sea thorow which you sail certainly you might learn more than you do and bee better scholars in Christs School than you are They that live pind up in one Nation or Country are far from the view of the Creation for they stand but as a man that comes to some great Earl's or Knight's house and stands in the Court now unless hee be invited in hee sees not the sumptuous rooms and places that bee within it onely at a distance hee sees a little of the outward superstructure but they that go into the Sea from Country to Country they see the riches of the Earth the beauties wealth honours and strength of Nations and Kingdoms and truly let mee say thus much that they that see all these things and learn nothing out of them as incentives to love and fear their God Creatio Mundi Scriptura Dei. Vniversus mundus Deus explicatus The whole Creation is nothing else but Gods excellent hand-writing or the Sacred Scripture of the Most high The Heavens the Earth and the waters are his three large Volumes or the three great leaves in which all the creatures are contained and the creatures themselves are as so many
impower and commissionate for services of the bloodiest severity that may be as one of the worlds great wonders but it could not bee such was the fury of the fire and the rage of the Souldiers both of them undoubtedly set on by God so that the fire would not bee extinguished when they threw in both water and the blood of the slain into it Josephus tells us that Herod the King had for eight years together before the ruine of it imployed ten thousand men at work to beautifie it This was a very glorious thing yet how quickly brought down for the sinfulness of a people 1 Cor. 10.11 Now if these things came upon them for sin and security my application is this in short to you that use the Seas Take heed that your sins bring not storms shipwracks and fires upon you when you are in the Seas far from any land If you ask the reason why such a famous City was destroyed the answer is easily returned It was for sin And if you ask what is the reason of such and such Towns and Cities in the world have been fired the answer will bee That sin was the cause of it and so consequently of the ruine of all your ships 2. Because God will shew his power Reason 2 and let nothing-man know what a bubble a flower a helpless creature man is in the hands of his Maker Matth. 8.24 And behold there arose a great tempest in the Sea insomuch that the ship was covered with the waves but hee was asleep and his Disciples came to him and awoke him saying Lord save us wee perish Proud man is very prone to ascribe that to himself which is absolutely and properly due unto the Lord Proud man is oftentimes priding of himself with high thoughts of himself what he is in point of wisdome parts art and skill but when God puts him to the trial hee is a meer nothing Bulla vitrum glacies flos fabula faeuum Vmbra Cinis punctum vo◠sonus aura nihil and therefore God would undoubtedly teach man thus much in storms that there is no wisdome art skill or strength can carry him out of his dangers but it must be God alone that must do it for them But many Sea-men are like to Aprogis that Egyptian Tyrant in many of their storms and dangers of whom it is said that hee was grown to such an height of pride and impiety and contempt of God that hee professed that hee held his Kingdome so safe Ut à nemine Deorum aut hominum sibi eripi possit Behold what a weakling the Sailor is in a storm Isa 33.23 Thy tacklings are loosed they could not well strengthen their Mast they could not spread the sail that neither God nor men could take it from him but hath not God let you see an end of your vain thoughts and imaginations many and many a time and have you not run upon sands when you have purposed to come well home and have you not at other times run on rocks and gone into the very bottome amongst the dead when you have both confidently thought and said you would come safely to your Ports God oftentimes sufficiently convinces you what you are in your own strength and wisdome without him But to proceed 3. Because God would have some Reason 3 humbled God was forced to send a storm after Jonah before hee could get him to buckle to his work Jon. 2.1 Then Jonah prayed unto the Lord his God out of the Fishes belly Nulli rei natus es nauta nisi paenitentiae Sailor thou and every one is born for no other thing but for repenrance and the Lord knows there is none in the world or under the whole heavens that repents less than thou doest Rugged storms will both dissolve men and cause their eyes to run down in rivulets of tears yea it is an argument of a good heart to bee afraid of Gods righteous judgements when the stormy winds are out upon the Seas Good people look upon them as no other but the sword of the Lord that is drawn out of the Scabberd of his indignation which hee waves to and again over and upon the face of the great deeps which puts them upon begging and praying upon the bended knees of their hearts that God would put it up again 4. Because God would have some Reason 4 converted It is very probable and apparent Jonah 1.16 that that storm that came down upon the Mariners proved their conversion Then the men feared the Lord exceedingly and offered a sacrifice unto the Lord and made vows Now they feared God whom they never owned knew nor feared before Storms have been the first converting Sermons that many a man ever met withall Yea God hath met with them in a storm Truly God is forced to do and deal with Sea-men many times as Land-men do with unruly Jades and unbacked horses when they have a minde to take them they must drive them up against some hedge gate or bank where they can neither get forwards nor backwards or else they can never halter them If God do not send down rowsing storms upon the Sailors heads that even threaten to rend both heaven and earth I fear they wil I never return nor come home to God whom a Sermon out of the Pulpit could never take nor reach I many have been caught in a storm that have stood at as great a distance and in as much opposition to God and his word as Ataliba that Indian Prince once did to Fryar Vincents book which hee presented to him withall telling him that it was a small Treatise of all the mysteries of salvation heaven and hell hee looked upon it and told the Gentleman that hee saw no such thing in it asking him withall how hee knew it Many who have heard the word and have said in effect they saw no such matter in it as the Preacher tells them of have been taken napping in a storm God sometimes takes here one and there one napping in a storm that could never bee catched in a calm The word converts but few at Sea but a dreadful storm may fetch in them whom a Sermon could not reach All ground is not alike some must have a shower some a clodding neither is all wood to be used alike some will plain and other some must be taken in the head with wedge and beetle Truly one would think that one of those fearful and most dreadful storms that fall now and then upon the Seas were and should bee sufficient to turn the heathenest Sailor that is in them into a very good and gracious Christian Quaedam fulmina aes ac ferrum liquefaciunt Some Thunders will soften both Brass and Iron and that is an hard heart surely that is not melted and converted before the Lord in those loud thundring claps of storm and tempest Reason 5 5. Because Sinners Swearers and Drunkards are in ships It is nothing but the
a good and a merciful God for you to rejoyce in that is better than ten thousand Sail cannot I live without that ship that I have lost There is a pretty story in Esop of the Goose that laid the poor man her Master every day a golden egg and finding such a benefit by her hee thought that his best course was to kill her and then hee should find them all and upon that conceit hee did but finding himself frustrated Ansere Aesopico invento vacuo stupebat miser ac plangebat rem spem periisse hee fell a weeping for the loss of his golden eggs because hee had taken away her life which if had been preserved would have laid him more Thus the Merchant mourns when he loses his goodly ships that brought him in his riches and upon the consideration of their ruine hee laments to think what accommodement they were unto him But I will let pass this discourse and hasten unto another Proposition that I will lay down and it is shortly this 3. That God threatens before he strikes Observ 3 For hee commandeth the stormy wind How cleer and undeniable is this point unto every ordinary capacity that goeth in the Sea where is the Mariner that is bet up to storms and Tempests but knows beforehand when a storm is coming in the Heavens Every Sailor is as perfect a scholar in the great volume of that over-head canopy of the skies I and knows as well by the Physiognomy of the skye out of what part the storm will come as the childe can tell you his A. B C. when posed in it Before the Lord sends out his stormy wind hee usually gives men that are in that employment notice of it Supra civitatem Hierosolymae stâ—tit sydus simile gladio perannum perseveravit When God was about to strike Jerusalem hee gave them warning by a Star that hung in the form of a sword in a perpendicular manner over their heads which dreadful sign hung over the City for a year together either by the strange flying of the clouds or otherwise clothing of the skies with the black thick and sable curtains of a nocturnal darkness or otherwise by laying upon the airy region a condensation of fogg and mist which are usually forerunners and contemporaneous messengers of what the Lord is above preparing to lay upon that Element and besides these they have many other familiar signs and observations to tell them that the storm is a hastening upon them When the Cormorants leave the Seas and betake themselves to the shore or any of the other Sea-foul that ship that is in the Sea would bee very happy if shee were but in the Harbour But to lay down the ground of this point 1. Because hee is not willing to execute judgment Alexander the Great when ever hee laid siege to any City he hanged up three flags 1. white 2. red 3. black if they compounded and surrendered not before the black flag was set up there was no mercy for them Take heed that God do not so with you Sailors if either threatning or fair means would but serve the turn The loving Father is very loth to lay the rod upon the childs back if admonition would but serve the turn And good Physicians that bear tender love to their Patients when upon the dye will shed tears when they will not take their potions prescribed for their health Luke 19.41 And when hee was come near hee beheld the City and wept over it Gen. 18.32 And hee said I will not destroy it for tens sake God takes little pleasure in the cutting off of souls hee is loth to destroy you Sailors but that you wrest judgments out of his hands to sink you 2. Because hee would let the world know that hee is full of patience Omnis minatio amica monitio Every threatning is a gratious warning Psal 103.8 The Lord is merciful and gratious slow to anger and plentious in mercy 3. The Jews when ever they see the Rain-bow in the clouds they will not stand gazing upon it but presently go forth and confess their sins acknowledging that they are worthy of being deluged and drowned with a second flood They are perswaded that that holy Name of Jehovah is written upon the Bow and therefore do they celebrate his Name at those times Oh that Sailors were in this posture to confess their sins to God when they see storms appearing by the heavens To that end men may bee left without all excuse does not the School-masters warning take off the Scholars excuse when hee comes to whipping A people proudly standing at defiance with their enemy when hee sends them in his summons and tenders of peace for a surrender may thank themselves and not blame the enemy when their streets run down with blood blame not God if hee split your ships in a thousand pieces upon the Seas so that your masts swim one way the rudder another and the broken parcels round about you God shewed you his wrath before it came in the face of the skies but you took no notice of it neither prepared you your selves to meet your God Vers 26. They mount up to the Heaven they go down again to the depths their soul is melted because of trouble FOr the division of the words you have three things that are very remarkable in them 1. Their ascension in these words They mount up to the Heaven 2. Their descension in these words they go down again into the depths 3. Their perturbations in these words their soul is melted because of trouble I will begin with the first and give you a brief explication of their ascending and mounting up The word comes of Mons a Mountain shewing that the Seas are oftentimes conglomerated or accumulated into great and dreadful pyramidical hills and mountains They mount up to the Heaven This phrase in the extent of it is but metaphorical and not really and absolutely so that any ship or ships should rise so high in the violentest storm that is but it is to shew that their elevation is exceedingly raised beyond their ordinary altitude usque ad sedem Hyperbole beatorum Olympicam far above and beyond that hight that calm Seas are of for when the Seas are of a virgin-like smoothness and clearness then are all the ships that go upon them at quiet there is no mounting then nor no going up nor no going down but when the ever-moving Ocean that is lyable to continual agitation and subject to every storm and blast is once raised and stirred up by the winds Storms are like to Ovids Chaos when hee sung that there was Tanta est discordia rerum There is an omnium rerum permixtio in them it flyes in rowling billows and raging surges upon the backs of which the great and weighty ships are tossed up as the ball that is jetted to and fro upon the racket In a troubled Sea ships may
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
even as others did with their Hecatombs but did he prosper afterwards Dionisius was the great ringleader of that jovial crew that went against Proserpinas Temple in Locris which they both robbed and spoyled and in the head of that wretched company he made this out-braving speech Videcis ne amici quam bona navigatio abist is Diis sacrilegis tribuatur See you not my friends what a fortunate Navigation the gods have vouchsafed us in this our sacriledge but did hee ever prosper after Object 3 Mee thinks I hear many Sailors saying unto mee Good Sir There bee many ships that use frequent prayer according to the States Articles of War yet suffer shrewdly and also come to dreadful ruines I even when others go free and clear Ans I will not deny now but that such ships may suffer sadly yet not Gods sore anger many miseries may befall those ships that have good godly and religious people in them that are not the effects of Gods fury were not the Disciples of Christ soundly tossed in a storm and also the Apostle Paul Act. 27.41 And falling into a place where two Seas met they ran the ship a ground and the forepart stuck fast and remained unmoveable but the hinder part was broken with the violence of the waves And yet for all this God loved Paul never the less That trembling hearts in the time when Observ 10 Gods judgements are abroad upon the face of the great deeps are more acceptable unto the Lord than hard and flinty hearts are Matth. 14.26 But streightway Jesus spake unto them saying Bee of good chear it is I bee not afraid Psal 147.11 The Lord taketh pleasure in them that fear him Most Sea-men in the time of their greatest dangers are both void of fear tears and grace for I have observed that they are so inured and bet up to storms and wars that dangers are no dangers to them and storms no storms to them which are indeed no other than the visible tokens of Gods displeasure Are not many Sea-men Sigismund-like who was the young King of Hungary when hearing of the great Turks coming against him proudly said What need we fear the Turks who need not at all fear the falling of the heavens which if they should fall we were able with our spears and halberes to hold them up from falling upon us Sailors say what need we fear the Seas or the winds our ships are strong enough An humbler spirit would better become you but if I know any thing let mee tell them thus much that that frame of heart is not lovely in the eyes of God Jer. 5.22 Fear yee not mee saith the Lord will yee not tremble at my presence You may conclude upon it that God loves not not likes not such a judgement-out-braving temper The greatest plague that could bee seen in Pharaoh was his hardness of heart under all those judgements that God sent upon him and Egypt Sea-men God will not nay I dare tell you of it that hee likes not of you Observ 11 That the generality of the Sea-men are a very holy praying pious religious and precious kinde of people Then they cry c. Under favour I am but telling you of the Sea-mans piety as it was the Hebrews custome to give those that were vile and abominable good names and titles to make them the more despicable and contemptible When they would set out a whorish woman in the defamatoriest dress that they could devise they would call her a sanctified woman and so when they had a minde to set out wicked and prophane men and that unto the life Nautae plurimum in tempestate Deum advocant quem non crederent esse in caelis The Sea-man will call upon God in a storm and when out of it he lives as if he would tell the world that he beleeves that there is neither a God in heaven nor a Devil in hell What a many invocations be there amongst Sailors in time of storms what various devotions and general recourse to their prayers and how many absurdities are committed amongst them confessing themselves one to another others in a loud voyce making confession of their sins stretching out their throats towards heaven as if God were either deaf or thick of hearing they would call them holy men to that very end they might render them the more odious Alas Alas I may better say of the generality of Sea-men even that which was said of Basilides that great Russian Emperour who refused the celestial globe of gold wherein the cunning Artificer as it were in emulation of the Lord had curiously framed the model of heaven so that nothing was wanting of the number of the spheres or of the life and motion that was sent unto him as a very rare present and out of good affection from the German Emperour but his answer was I do not mean to busy my self in the contemplation of Heaven Is not this the Sailors resolution and also all their piety That bold and graceless wretches are Observ 12 made to quake and tremble in Tempestuous storms Then they cry c. Belshazzars mettal melts in the fiery furnace of a rugged storm Dan. 5. Tells us They that said but in now What I swim not in the Sea its air I tread At evey step I feel my lofty and advanced head To knock out a star in Heaven Sing another tune Those that out-faced the heavens and out-braved the stars and neither feared God nor man are now at their wits end Deut. 28.67 Would God it were morning for the fear of thine heart which thou shalt fear and for the sight of thine eyes which thou shalt see that hee was impudently hardy to profess defiance against the God of Heaven by the prophanation of his holy Vessels and also by other external and visible testimonies of his enmity and despight but as soon as hee saw his doom written upon the wall down fell the high-hoysed proud vanting flag of his spirit It is at these times with the Sailors especially when the ship is leaky or upon and near to the Rocks and Sands that lye in the Seas as it was with that great worldly Roy or Monarch Dan. 5.6 Then the Kings countenance was changed and his thoughts troubled him so that the joynts of his loyns were loosed and his knees smot one against another Now are the Sailors countenances as pale as clouts and their hearts as feeble and as full of fear as ever they can hold Now is it with them as it is said in Deut. 28.66 And thy life shall hang in doubt before thee and thou shalt fear day and night and shalt have none assurance of thy life The hearts of wicked men are as much down in storms as the Cucko's is at the going away of the Summer of whom Naturalists tell us that before they betake themselves to their winter-quarters they express their loth to depart by their faultering and doubling of
before deliverance hath come Masts have broke upon your heads Sails have rent Cables broke and Anchors come home The Patient earnestly desires such and such things under his distemper but the Physitian wants nor will to give them him but resolves to give them him so soon as hee is fit and therefore makes him stay till hee hath purged for till hee bee made fit for it and for such a cordial and such a medicine it may prove very hurtful for him Ships half filled with water or by stress of weather thrown upon sands Psal 107.43 Who so is wise will observe these things 4. Mind how God Sounds the deeps for you in calm and serene weather when you are boldly sailing on in the Seas with a great deal of confidence and security that your depths of water are sufficient to swim your ponderous ships in that even then Qui scrutantur saepe marinas aranas nihil potest illudere They that will but sound the Seas carefully in dubious places cannot bee deceived but they that are overcome with laziness to throw the Lead over-board may quickly for ought I know run the ship on ground at such times God has struck some in the ship with a great fear putting it into their hearts that they were in great danger whereupon they have called for the Lead and made inquiry into the Sea and water has scarce been found to keep up the ship from the very bottom Who so is wise will observe these things 5. Mind how the Lord goes before you sounding of your depths in the darkest foggiest and mistiest weather that you are surprised withall when you are going on with strong confidence that there is no danger even contra improvisum omnem ictum then are you in very great peril It is with Sailors in black dark and foggy weather as the Poet tells us of Virg. Eclog. 3. Dic quibus in lymphis eris mihi magnâ—s Apollo Tres pateat coeli spatium non amplius ulnas There it little of the heavens to bee seen in the Seas at these times The fire that came down from Heaven upon the Altar was miraculous yet when it was kindled they kept it in with wood Sea-men let your deliverances never starve for keeping warm upon your hearts for having neither the benefit of the Sun nor of the Moon nor of the Stars you are so dreadfully bewildred that you know not how near you are to any Land nor how such and such sand-banks bear off you nor what course to shape and steer then does the Lord direct you and when you are near to Sands hee gives some or other amongst you secret and impulsory hints and warnings to make an examination of your depths by which you are many and many a time preserved Who so is wise will observe these things 6. Minde how God informs you when you are not aware of many in-Sea-lying sand-banks which are visible and obvious enough to a seeing and a watchful eye that is but careful to cast about for the preventing of danger yet when you have mindlessly been running on without either wit or fear holding a direct course upon them it has pleased the Lord to put it into the heart of one or other to look out of the ship It was a good saying of one at Sea when espyed a breach and making report of it the Mariners within said that they could not beleeve it and withall asked him where it was Ne quaeramus ubi sit sed quomodo illam fugiamus Let us not make inquiry where it is but let us strive how to avoid it who has cast his eye this way and that way and quickly observed the breaches that the waters make upon the sands by which means they have brought the ship with all the speed that ever in them lay upon the stayes and so gone cleer Who so is wise will observe these things 7. Minde how God directs you in your Navigations when you are not advised of those many in-Sea-lying Rocks that bee up and down in the great Ocean both North and West and South and East Ah how near have you come to these with your ships The Butterfly in the fable asked the Owle how hee should deal with fire which had singed her wings her counsel was this be sure thou never come so near it again nor as much as ever come within the sight of the smoak of it Your are prudent and want not the skil of applying of it many and many a time before you have been aware of them and when you have been steering upon a direct line to the hazzad of both your ships and lives upon them God has providentially put some or other upon the looking out who have seen the Seas breaking over them in most dreadful froth and presently have made report thereof by which means the ship has been stopped and altered in her course Ah Sea-men surely the Lord has a great care of you Who so is wise will observe these things 8. Mind how God does miraculously many times in misty and foggy weather when you are nearer to Land than you do estimate your selves to be One was lost when nearer Land than he was aware of but quoth the Ship-master It is but a fog-bank there is no danger when they came neer unto it it proved the white clifs of the Land there the ship perished in the storm All are not so favoured even pull by the obumbrated curtains that are drawn over the face of the deeps by which providential dispensation you have a cleer vision of the white clifts of the Land and thereby alter your course upon the sight of danger whereas otherwise you might have perished sundry times if God had not haled up the foggy curtains of the air and let you see that if you ran any neerer death would bee the conclude of that undertaking Who so is wise will observe these things 9. Minde how frequently I and what tender care the Lord has of you in the Seas by his often hushing of the winds when they are up in roaring and rampiant hostility against you at such times when you are irrecoverably run upon Sands and cannot get your ships off them again if the Lord did not thus appear for those that go in the deeps who are I fear very slow in the seeing and also in the acknowledging of this singular mercy many an hundred sail had been split to pieces at this day which have been at time and times preserved Do not you often see this favour undeservedly to bee bestowed upon you Theseus was never better guided by Ariadnes's threâ— which shee tyed at the entrance of Daedalus's labyrinth than those ships that fear the Lord are guided by their God from Rocks Shoars and Sands in the great and wide Seas May I not say of this frequent experienced mercy that the eyes of the Lord are as swift as the very shoots or flashes of Lightning
his glorious Majesty hee is able to do all things that are works of power might and strength and are not things against his own nature or things that imply contradiction Reason 2 Because when things are impossible in mans eye then is it the fittest time for the Lord to appear in It is a common saying and a true one That mans extreamity is Gods opportunity Observ 6 That God in his Judgments upon the Seas often times remembers mercy And hee bringeth them c. God is slow to wrath I wish I may not say of the Lords indulgency to profane wretches in the Sea what Sigismund the Emperour used to say of his enemies Is inimicum occidit qui inimico parcit I am affraid Deus non nunquam parcendo saevit That the Lords long sparing will end in rageing and may I so speak hee is seen walking towards sinners in the shooes of Asher which were of ponderous brass Deut. 33.24 25. Observ 7 That the greatest dangers of the Seas and the proudest waves that ever elevated are and should bee no plea for unbelief And hee brings them c. Matth. 14.30 31. When Peter saw the wind boysterous his heart begun to fail him but was hee not reproved for his distrusting of the Lord Poop-lantern ship-covering and yard-arm-rising waves should not daunt and discourage faith in God Were the Seas in a storm as high as the mountains of Merionethshire in Wales whose hanging and kissing tops come so close together that the shepherds sitting on their several mountains may very audibly stand and discourse together but if they would go to one another they must take the pains to travel many miles Sailors should not bee apalled and terrified Dangers are faiths Element and in them it lives and thrives best Such was the high-raised valour of Luther that when hee was to go to the City of Worms they told him of strange things Faith like the Ivie the Hop the Woodbine which have a natural instinct in them to cling lay hold upon the stronger Trees laies hold on God in time of danger as many will doe fresh-water travellers at Sea but quoth Luther if all the Tiles that bee upon every House in the Town were devils they should not scare mee Sailors should have the like courage in storms which one had when in a great straight Certa mihi spes est quod vitam qui dedit idem Et velit possit suppeditare cibum Good hearts may say to the Sea when in a storm what Luther said to his enemies Impellere possunt sed totum prosternere non possunt crudeliter me tractare possunt sed non extirpare Haec est fides credere quod non vides dentes nudare sed non devorare occidere me possunt sed in totum me perdere non possunt Faith will put your heads into Heaven and your ships into an Harbour when in a storm it will set you on the top of Pisgab with Moses and descry the promised Land when you may come to bee denied the sight of Land in storms 1. Great Faith is seen in this as much as any one thing whatsoever that it both can and will beleeve in God as a man may say with reverence whether God will or no it will beleeve in an angry God in a killing God and in a drowning God Job 15.10 Great Faith is not easily shaken 2. Great Faith is never clearer seen than when in the midst of souzing storms and dangers there is great confidence and strength of heart in the soul at such times Observ 8 That God will have every thing wrested from him by prayer And hee bringeth c. Good Sea-men should play the part of Daedalus Templum Cybelis Deorum matris non manibâ—es sed precibus solummodo aperiebatur The gates of Cybeles Temples could not bee opened by hands but prayer quickly threw them open who when hee could not escape by way upon Earth went by way of Heaven and that is the way of prayer Five Motives to put Sea-men upon Prayer 1. Solemnly consider that in the creature there is nothing but emptiness and helplesness 2. Solemnly consider that you cannot have any hopes of winning ought from God but by prayer The Champions could not wring an apple out of Milo's hand by strong hand but a fair maid by fair means got it presently 3. Solemnly consider of God what hee is whom you serve naturally no other but goodness it self Nothing animated Benhadad so much as this that the Kings of Israel were merciful Kings It was said of Charles the great I would to God I could say so of every Tarpowling that goes in the Salt-waters that hee delighted so much in prayer that Carolus plus cum Deo quam cum hominibus loquitur That hee spake more and oftner to and with God than hee did with men Flectitur iratus voce rogante Deus And nothing encouraged Titus Vespatian the Emperour's Subjects so much as this that hee did nunquam dimittere tristem never send any away sorrowful 4. Solemnly consider how many in the Seas go upon the very same errand that you go on to him and mind how they speed and are carried securely out of all their distresses 5. Solemnly consider what Prayer is to God hee loves it Let mee hear thy voice for it is comly 6. Call to mind your former experiences did you ever pray in a storm but you fared the better by it Consider what cases you have been heard in That servent Prayer will prevail with Observ 9 God in the greatest storms I would all the States Tarpowlings were of James the Just's principle of whom Eusebius tells us Genua ejus in morem cameli obditrata sensum contactus amiserunt That his knees were hardned like the Camels by his frequent kneeling to Prayer Prayer is Optimus dermientium cuslos certissima navigautium salus tutissimum viatoribus scutum The slâ—epers best keeper the Sailors surest safety the Travellers protecting Shield And hee brings them out c. Witness the Mariners calm Jonah 1. and witness Christs disciples deliverance in the storm Impartial fire that comes from above has been often times seen to spare yeelding objects and to melt resisting metal to pass by lower roofs and to strike upon all high-Towered pinnacles I wish that our Sailors were as much given to Prayer as Anna the daughter of Phannel of whom it was said that shee never departed out of the Temple but served God night and day in prayer and fasting I wish it were the resolution of them that use the Seas to do as Ambrose the Bishop of Millain did when news came to him that Justina the mother of Valentinian intended to banish him hee told them that hee would never run away but if they had any purpose to kill him they should at any time find him in the Church praying for himself and for his people 1. Vse of Comfort For
all that fear the Lord that when they cry they have a God to hear them when they call they have a God to answer them when they need they have a God to help when they mourn they have a God to pitty them when ready to bee overwhelmed with the great waves of the Sea they have a God to defend them So that I may say of such that go in the Seas blessed are the people that bee in such a case yea happy are all they that have the Lord for their God Psal 144.15 who is easily prevailed withall by Prayer That in tempestuous and ship-hazzarding Observ 10 storms it is every mans duty to stand still Charles the fifth gave the Emblem Vlterius stand noâ— still but go on further But in this case us amplius procedas and look up to God for life and for Salvation And hee bringeth c. If the Lord must bring ships out of their distresses then let Sea-men look up unto the Lord for deliverance and trust not too much to their own art and skill Vicount Hugo de Millains motto was on a ship without tackling to stay it with In filâ—ntio spe fortitudinem My strength is in silence and in hope Haedera undemis invenit quo se alliget 〈◊〉 Ivie being weak upon a time looked upon the Elme and spoke on this wise I am not able to stand of my self pray let mee lean on you Sailors you are not able to save your selves in storms lean upon your God That God is the great Saviour and deliverer Observ 11 of mankind Sailors are evermore hurling out of their mouths the demiculverin shot of their own praises Decempedalia sesquipedalia verba You shall seldom hear them say that God ever delivered them out of a storm in and out of all their storms and Tempests And hee bringeth c. The sweet singer of Israel quickly spies out the Sea-mans deliverer But this is more than many a beetle-headed Sailor can do Every eie observes not the stupendious and astonishing mercies of the Lord. Dextra mihi Deus est said a profane man my right-hand was my God or else I had lain my bones in the danger I was surrounded with Another said Haec ego feci non fortuna but never prospered after Wee see that Nebuchadnezzar trusted in his princely City Babel and that Babel became a Babel of confusion to him Xerxes trusted in his multitude of men and his multitude incumbered him Darius trusted to his wealth and his wealth sold him Eumenes in the valour of his Regiment called the Silver-shields and his Silver-shields sold him and delivered him up to Autigonus Roboam in his young Counsellors and his young Counsellors lost him the ten Tribes Caesar in his old Senatours and the Senate conspired against him Domitian in his Guard and his Guard betrayed him Adrian in his Physicians and his Physicians poysoned him so that the proverb ran Multitudo Medicorum perdidit Adrianum Imperatorem Observ 12 That although men at Sea in their dangerous storms seem as it were both forgotten and forsaken yet does the Lord at last very frequently make it evident unto them and to the world that hee does not forget them And hee brings c. Observ 13 That the evil and unworthy deservings of men at Sea does not alwaies interrupt the course of Gods goodnesse towards them And hee brings c. Vers 29. Hee maketh the storm a calm So that the waves therof are still THe words offer unto us two things to bee considered of 1. The Agent 2. The Act or the Effect 1. The Agent that is the Lord in these words Hee maketh the storm a calm 2. The Act or the Effect So that the waves thereof are still That the cessation of all storms and Observ 1 Tempests is by through and from an irresistable and an uncontroulable omnipotentiary power that is in God Hee maketh the storm a calm c. Xerxes finding Helespont to be a little unsmooth would needs throw Irons into it to fetter it so impatient Or if you will take the point thus That God is the great allayer and principal calmer of the raging winds and Seas Philosophers tell us that the winds are allayed several waies 1. When the air is over-burdened troubled and softned by vapours contracting themselves into rain 2. When vapours are dispersed and subtilized whereby they are mixed with the air and agree fairly with it and they live quietly then is the wind allayed 3. When Vapours or Fogs are exalted and carried up on high so that they cause no disturbance until they be thrown down from the middle Region of the air or do penetrate it 4. When vapours gathered into clouds are carried away into other Countries by high-blowing winds so that for them there is peace in those Countries which they fly beyond 5. When the winds blowing from their nurseries languish through their long travels finding no new matter to feed on then does their vehemency abate and expire 6. Rain oftentimes and for the most part does allay winds especially those which are very stormy Observ 2 That the insensiblest of creatures have an ear unto their makers speech It is said of Caesar that hee could with one word quel the discontentedest motion that ever rise in his Army What is the Lords power then in the stilling of the winds and do out of an obediential subjection yeeld to his will to carry on his purposes and designs whether of good or evil of preservation or of destruction towards a people He maketh the storm a calm c. If the Lord speak unto the winds they have an ear to hear him if to the Sea the Sea is attentive to listen to his divine pleasure and bee it good or bee it evil they are both of them loyal and fiducial Souldiers under Heavens Flag or Standard to execute his pleasure Jonah 1.4 Observ 3 That God can when hee sees it fit preserve a people from ruine in and after an incredible unlikely unexpected and miraculous manner Hee maketh c. Acts 27.20 When all hopes of being saved failed the Mariners then began the Lord to stir for them The Lord oftentimes keeps his hand for a dead lift That the great waters stilness and Observ 4 peaceableness at any time is by and from Gods calling off the flying and Sea-disturbing winds Hee maketh c. That it is the Lord that makes changes Observ 5 of conditions in the Sea and gives calmness out of his indulgent kindness and by and by storms for the abuse of the mercies of his calms Hee maketh c. The Seas are quickly alarm'd and beat up into dreadful waves even in all quarters at the commands of the Lord and shall puzzle and torment wicked men as much as those Ciniphes that bred in terra Egypti de fimo muscae quaedam sunt minutissimae inquietissimae inordinatè volitantes in oculos irruentes non permittentes homines quiescere
Virgils Hypotoposis of a storm at Sea is their condition Tollimur in coelum curvato gurgite iidem Subducta ad manes imos descendimus undâ Consider but what a bustling the winds sometimes make and keep in a stormy day upon your Houses and Trees that are in your Orchards insomuch that many times trees are rent up by the roots and out-housing dismounted and thrown down to the very ground Now if the wind have such an influence upon all high things at Land how much more upon the tall spired Masts and shipping that go in the shelterless Seas 5. Word is unto the godly and pretious Ministry that is in great plenty in this Nation Gentlemen you are by your profession 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rowers 1 Cor. 4. And beleeve it rowing is a very hard labour The Seas are as full of dangers to them that go down into them as Pandoras box was whom the Poet reports of that Prometheus the Father of Deucalion would needs pry â—nto out of which Mille morborum malorum genera â—rumpunt A thousand evils was in it for men in the Thames go with their dublets off all day their living is got by the sweat of their brows But your labour in the Lord 's Vinyard is far greater than theirs many have killed themselves by hard working to get the world and I am sure there lies many a pretious Preacher in the grave that might have lived longer if he had not preached himself to death and prayed himself to death though an unworthy world takes no notice of it I beg of you your publick and your private prayers for those that use the Seas Wee have a great number of ships frequently going to Sea above a thousand sail every year both of Merchants and Men of War and stand not these in need of being prayed for I fear many of them perish and finde it to go harder with them than it otherwise would bee did you but pray more for them Ah they stagger it in the Sea every day more then hee that has a cask a tankard Alas the Sea-mans life is a reeling to fro Nutant nautae vacillaâ—t cerebro pedibus may be their mottâ— or an hogshead of strong liquours in the belly of him And are in daily jeopardy of their lives Good Sirs bestow pulpit prayers study prayers family prayers and field-walking prayers upon them all is little enough to prosper Zebulun's Tribe in their goings forth and commings in But I proceed That God watcheth every opportunity Observ 3 and takes all occasions to do his people good Then hee bringeth them unto their desired Haven Very gladly would God have spared Jerusalem if there had but been one man in it that executed judgement and sought after the truth Jer. 5.1 Run thee to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem c. How compassionatly did the Lord affect any opportunity to cure Babylon Mans heart-daunting extremity is Gods goldenest opportunity Acts 27.23 For there stood by mee this night the Angel of God whose I am and whom I serve They all expected to be drowned but God looked out for them to preserve them The Sea is no delightful place to carry in for it is with them that use it as it is with travellers on Land who speed their pace through fields that afford no novelties though sometimes they bait their beasts rest themselves in places that are fruitful when hee intreated her with the best argumentative Oratory that the Heavens could compose till shee said I will not bee cured Jer. 51.9 How did God watch to spare Sodom for ten mens sakes Gen. 18.32 Ah were but Sea-men godly I durst undertake their safety in their well-going out to Sea and returning back from Sea Insomuch that they might bid defiance to the Seas and say unto them as Luther said of Henry the eighth's letters Agant quicquid possunt Henrici Episcopi atque adeo Turca ipse Satan nos filii sumus Regni So Agant venti freta c. What History sets out Neptune in in a statue of gold holding the two terrours of the Seas in his hands the one called Scilla the other Charybdes I may better say of the Lord and these hee has in chains and is feigned to call out aloud to the Mariners and ships that pass that way Pergite securae perfreta nostra rates Ships securely 〈◊〉 on Through our 〈◊〉 Ocean That when ships have been long out of Observ 4 the Land in forein parts their well coming home is evermore very delightful Italiam Italiam laeto clamore salutat Virg. and inexpressable pleasant to them Then hee brings them to their desired Haven It is said of Marcus Tullius that when hee was brought out of banishment it was with him as if hee had entered into a new world and had gotten Heaven for Earth he broke out into this language I am amazed to see the beautifulness of Italy Oh how fair are the Regions thereof what goodly fields what pleasant fruits what famous Towns what sumptuous Cities what Gardens what pleasures what humanity amongst Citizens and Country people It is said of the Trojans after they had been warring a long time in the Mediterranean Seas the like shall I say of our Warriours that as soon as they spied Land they cried out with exulting joyes Oh Italy Italy It is thus with our Sea-men Abigails bottles of Wine and frayles of Raisins were not more welcome to David in the hungry Wilderness of Paran nor the shady Juniper-tree more delectable to the Prophet when in the parching Sun nor Jacobs sat Kid more acceptable to his grave Father Isaac in his sickness than the Land is to the Mariner when he hath been long out of it when been a long tract of time out at Sea in the East or West Indies Oh England England poor Travellers that have been long out of their w◠〈◊〉 the night time wandring here and 〈◊〉 and ring there in a bewildered condition upon Hills and Mountains in vast and large Forrests far from any house destitute of monies and all comfortable refreshments weather-beaten with rain and wind terrified with thunder and lamentably starved with cold and hunger wearied with labour and almost brought to despair with a multitude of miseries if this man or those Travellers should upon a sudden in the twinckling of an eye I may write Epicharmes 's saying upon the Mariners calling 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 All good things are bought with labour bee fetched and placed in some goodly large and rich Palace that is furnished with all kind of rich accommodations warm fire sweet odours dainty meat downy beds pleasant musick fine apparrel honourable and noble company and al this prepared for them Oh how would they bee transported and over-joyed As great contentment and heart-ravishment as all this is the sight of England to the Mariner after a long voyage Observ 5 That every ships sinking and miscarying in
Omnium possessionum pretiosissimum esse amicum fide Corda bonorum aliquando concussa melius solidantur The hearts of good men are best setled after they have been well shaken with a dreadful storm the fitter to serve God prudentia praestantem Great kindnesses Sirs are greatly to be regarded and serious things ought to bee seriously minded Ah Sirs be affected with what God does and has done for you 2. Make a profitable use of all your deliverances for your own good 1. For Obedience Sirs I wish you all that use the Seas when in violent blustring storms a bottle of the Queen of Thebes rich Nepenthe which she upon a time sent to a great Graecian beauty incomparable Lady of the world by name Helena the vertue of which was such that it would over-power all griefs sorrows troubles fears cares and dangers and make one cheerful though never so miserable If you want this at Sea you have a good God that is all this and much more 2. For Comfort 3. For Holiness 1. For confidence in God in the time of storms and dangers Former Experiences of Gods deliverings of you should sinnew and strengthen future confidence in God it was so with David 1 Sam. 17.37 The Lord that delivered mee out of the paw of the Lion and out of the paw of the Bear hee will deliver mee out of the hand of this Philistin Conclude Hee that preserved mee in the last storm and carried mee out of those perils that beset mee about on every side will do so still 2 Cor. 1.10 Who deliverd us from so great a death and doth deliver in whom wee trust that hee will yet deliver us 2. For comfort in bitter storms and heart-striking blasts evermore compare your present condition but with the former and that will make it the more comportable and fordable unto thee hast thou not been in the same or in the like or in as great or greater yet God comforted thee and bore thee out of it and is not this God the same God still yesterday to day and for ever his arm is not shortened Canst thou not Nay dost thou not experience that God has been with thee in six troubles and also in seven No better refuge in the world It was a good saving of one when in a dreadful storm at Sea quoth he I shall not certainly perish there be so many eyes of Providence over my head meaning the Stars in the night than to flye to the strong Tower of a good old Experience in the time of distress Psal 143.4 5. When David was in a great storm in his Kingdom hee flies to experience I remember the dayes of old I remember what thou didst formerly And here hee cast anchor and found much comfort 3. For holiness your daily summerly and winterly experiences of your hardships and difficulties in the Seas should bee carefully spiritualized and improved to the amendment of your hearts and lives 3. And lastly for the good of others bring out your experiences and delivering-mercies upon the Seas and set that savoury dish upon the table for pious gracious and tender hearts to feed on It is reported that sorrow and pleasure and pleasure and sorrow were at strife and variance one with the other insomuch that Jupiter was sent for from Heaven to come and reconcile them and seeing that neither of them would yeeld to one another in respect they referred themselves to Jupiters arbitration quoth he since this is your resolution you shall for ever hereafter go together You have not all hony in your imployments It is reported of a ship that shee spoke on this wise in the commendation of one that had been instrumental to carry her well out of a dangerous place in the Sea which was full of rocks and sands in a dark night Nauta bonus qui manum ad clavum oculos ad astra habet My Helmsman kept one eye upon the Stars and another upon the Card and thereby I escaped And will not you bring forth your experiences Ah Sirs in this case you are too much like Joshuahs Sun that stood still or Hezekias Sun that went backward whereas you should bee as Davids Sun that rejoyceth as a Giant to run his race and turns not again till hee hath finished it I would have Sea-men in this case to resemble that sort of Fish in the Sea that is called an Aspidochelon which is a Sea-monster and when hee opens his mouth there issues out such an aromatick savour that all the by-standing spectators are allured to swim near unto him whereupon hee makes a prey of them Ah Sirs I would have your mouthes to pour out the sweet aromatick perfumes of the Lords deliverances of you in the Seas even in all companies and societies you converse with Ah! you might very much ravish the hearts of all that should hear you would you but undertake to bring forth your Sea-experiences how might you set your souls on a burning flame and heat of love unto your God again Your experiences at Sea are not like Numa Pompilius's feast where there were spectandae dapes non gustandae But every one that hath a gracious frame of spirit may relish them Ah Sirs May not you say to all that know you Deut. 3.24 Oh Lord thou hast began to shew thy servant thy greatness and thy mighty hand for what God is there in heaven or in earth that can do according to thy works and according to thy might you do not think what good you might do in this case People that live on land will bee glad to hear them 4. I could wish that all our Sea-men would put all their experiences of Gods delivering-mercies into a method 1. Consider the greatness of them both for number and measure how many deliverances and mercies God hath given and doth give unto you hee even gives unto you whole loads Psal 68.19 Blessed bee the Lord who daily loadeth us with his benefits even the God of our salvation Selah When God had done great things for Israel as hee hath done for you that go in the Seas hee bad them 1 Sam. 12.14 Consider what God had done for them The word comes of Con and Sydus which signifies a company of Stars and not one bare simple Stella denoting that many give more lustre than one shewing thereby that it is not a transient view of Gods mercies that do affect the heart I may say of your perilous imployment as one sayes of Teneriff they that will go to the top of it must go by night and not by day for as soon as the day begins once to break and come upon the world it is high time to be gone lest that the tenuity of the air as is supposed should dissolve suffocate and stifle their spirits You get your living as if you stole it This is your Proverb as a man that rides Post cannot well make a true Map of a Country