Selected quad for the lemma: mercy_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
mercy_n	full_a	lord_n	psal_n	2,435	5	7.5110	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A90365	Pelagos. Nec inter vivos, nec inter mortuos, neither amongst the living, nor amongst the dead. Or, An improvement of the sea, upon the nine nautical verses in the 107. Psalm; wherein is handled I. The several, great, and many hazzards, that mariners do meet withall, in stormy and tempestuous seas. II. Their many, several, miraculous, and stupendious deliverances out of all their helpless, and shiftless distressess [sic]. III. A very full, and delightful description of all those many various, and multitudinous objects, which they behold in their travels (through the Lords Creation) both on sea, in sea, and on land. viz. all sorts and kinds of fish, foul, and beasts, whether wilde, or tame; all sorts of trees, and fruits; all sorts of people, cities, towns, and countries; with many profitable, and useful rules, and instructions for them that use the seas. / By Daniel Pell, preacher of the Word.	Pell, Daniel.	1659 (1659)	Wing P1069; Thomason E1732_1; ESTC R203204	470,159	726

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 st●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

e quovis bibunt fonte Jejunus stomachus raro vulgaria temnit Lapsana called of the Arabians Wilde Colewort and of Physicians Cera with the roots of this herb lived the host of Cesar a long time when far off any refreshments and this was at Dyrrachium from whence came that Proverb Lapsana vivere to live wretchedly and hardly which they cannot come to by reason of their great distance from any land or harbour they are constrained out of an impulsive necessity to lay their lips unto the same water the ship swims in now the water of the Sea wee all know is inutilis potui though good alere pisces servire navigantibus the drinking of which water throws many of them into irrecoverable sicknesses and diseases Again it is the special care of Mariners in these long voyages when grown short of water to hang out all the sail that ever they have that it may bee in readiness to receive all the showers of rain that falls upon the ship and this they will wring out of the Canvass to quench their thirst withall And this is sweet water in their mouthes although it run down the Tarry shrouds and Roaps about the ship which doth exceedingly imbitter it Against Rain Sailors are like Spiders in providence who hang their Nets in windows where they know Flyes do most resort and work most in warm weather because Flyes are then most abroad buzzing and stirring in every corner Prov. 27.7 To the hungry soul every bitter thing is sweet 17. Others are oftentimes most sadly endangered in rugged and violent storms I will write thus much upon this remarkable deliverance Ps 142.4 I looked on my right hand and beheld but there was no man that would know me refuge failed me no man cared for my so●● insomuch that the Rudder is forced off its bands by their being thrown upon ground or sands and then is their case to the eye of reason so impossible of being remedied that they have no more command of the ship than the driver hath of the wilde Ass spoken of in Job 39.7 Who scorneth the multitude of the City c. Now will not neither can the ship bee got to go by the Card at this and that Point as formerly shee would I have known some that have been many dayes in this condition driving too and again upon the Seas Vers 5. I cried unto thee O Lord I said thou art my refuge and my portion in the land of the living not able to help themselves and though they have made great and vast recompencing promises unto ships that have seen them and comm'd by them in this distress yet would they not take them in a tow nor afford them any relief and yet notwithstanding when they have been thus forsaken in all their hopes and no eye hath pittied them nor no help from man hath come unto them yet hath the Lord looked out of the heavens upon their sorrows and beat down the waves of the Seas and the raging winds over their heads and then by weak and poor means they have got themselves safe to land Oh the many Sea-men that are yet living and can tell of this very mercy I may write thus much upon this deliverance In communi rerum acervo plurima videmus saepe inter Scyllam Charydim pofita I may further say of this memorable mercy Psal 34.18 The Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart and saveth such us be of a contrite spirit Vers 15. The eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous and his ears are open unto their cry 18. Some are many times by and through the violence of storm and tempest exceedingly hazzarded in their being overset insomuch that the ships Masts have been seen to lye in the very Sea and the ships decks covered all over with water which is one of the dreadfullest and heart-bleedingest conditions that can bee seen They that fall into this predicament of misery there is small hopes of their recovery or rising up again because when a vessel is or comes once to bee foundered there is no possibility of her being helped up insomuch that where one recovers five goes to the bottome 19. Many times when they are riding at an Anchor they are very dolorously hazzarded by violent gusts and stormy blasts of wind insomuch that Cables oftentimes break and their Anchors give way and so are most dreadfully put upon the drift and that which is the saddest circumstance in this unparalleld misery is the propinquity and nearness of sands upon which they are many times likely to perish I may write upon this remarkable deliverance Tria talia poma quadrante cara sunt Three other such Apples are too dear of a farthing I leave the Application It is with Mariners in this case as it was with the Egyptians when they had the Israelites amongst them Exod. 12 3● Wee bee all dead men I may say of Sailors as the Spirit of the Lord saith of the Church Lamentat 5.9 Wee get our bread with the peril of our lives if there were not a singular providence stepping betwixt and to prevent the fatal stroak of such like stormy consequences Many through the undeserved kindness of the Lord have escaped when their Cables have broke in storms and others have gone to the bottome Is not this a mercy worth perpetual boxing and recording in the heart 20. It falls out oftentimes in rugged and blustering weather that they are forced both when they are at an Anchor and also when under sail to lay violent hands upon their masting and yarding and cut down all by the Board for the safe-guarding of their lives and vessel Being once in this condition when upon the coast of Norway I observed that there was not a little terrour and affrightment of being cast away among the Sailors for the wind failed us and the current heav●d us into the shore and the Rocks lay round about us and the Sea was so deep that there was no anchoring for us so that all hopes of being saved was taken away yet casting our selves upon our God he provided deliverance and sent out his breezes some from the Land and some out of the Sea some on Head and some on Stern making all the haste that ever they could as if they had been resolved to tell us that they strave who should bee the first at us to fill our sails and carry us back from dying upon the Rocks and oftentimes before they can take the leasure to hew them down the strongness of the winds breaks them down now in this most dreadful and heart-affrighting and soul-amazing weather when the Seas run Mountain-high as if resolved to swallow them up alive the Lord doth wonderfully preserve them they live in this hard stormy time and others perish in it 21. Others are oftentimes becalmed in the Seas when that they are in the dangerousest and perillousest of places and when that there

dum abiguntur iterum irruunt c. The Flyes that were sent to quarter in Egypt so pestered and plagued Pharaoh and his people that they could not take any rest they did so chase them and flye into their mouths and eyes Of the like restlesness are the Seas when once commissionated by the Lord. And also the Seas are calm and quiet when and at what time the Lord pleaseth to give out the word either to the winds or Seas Mark 4.39 Christ speaks but the word to that raging Sea that had so much disturbed his Disciples Bee still As if hee had said statim penitusque obmutesce Let us not hear any noise in you 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fraenum hee put a bridle upon the mouth of the Sea or haltered it that it might rage no more Truly if God did not halter the Sea I wonder whither that unruly beast would carry our wooden horses Hee that has a mind to go to the Sea let him expect to meet with such waves as Jude speaks of hee calls them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ☞ rageing waves the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 rageing signifies untamed wild waves roaring like the wild beasts in the Woods Forrests and wide Wildernesses of the World Some render the word fluctus maris Erasmus undae efferae maris Others Vndae maris efferatae Hee that will to Sea must look for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 rageing and boysterous waves One Poet call them Fluctus truces cruel and terrible Another calls them Latrantes undae barking waves Another calls them Rapidas aquas Observ 6 That as the Lord hath set times of chastning of those that go in the deeps with dangerous storms So has hee also his set times for comforting of them again Hee maketh the storm a calm The Lord makes them amends after a rugged storm How little should any that have this Observ 7 powerful God for theirs Quid timet hominem mare homo in finu Dei positus What needs that ma● fear that lies under the protection of heaven bee dismayed with or in the dreadfullest Seas and stormiest weather that ever blew Hee maketh the storm a calm It was a good saying of an Heathen Since God quoth Socrates unto a sort of Heathen is so careful for you wherefore need you bee so careful for your selves Numa Pompilius put so much confidence in the Gods that one day when it was told him that his enemies were up in arms against him his answer was And I sacrifice That if God did not bridle the fury of Observ 8 the raging Sea and the Tempestuous wind neither the Mariners skill nor the strength of shipping could preserve them Vers 30. Then are they glad because they bee quiet THese words offer us two things 1. The Sea-mans cheerfulnesse Then are they glad 2. The reason of it Because they bee quiet Before every drop seemed to fight one against another but at the Lords Commandement the Seas are still as if they were of a congealed Ice and this administers matter of comfort to them that go down into the Seas Observ 1 That Gods saving and delivering mercies from the jaws of death in and upon the great and dangerous Seas are both very heart-affecting delighting glorious and wonderfull joyous to behold Then are they glad c. Now have they cause to sing Psal 126.3 The Lord hath done great things for us whereof wee are glad Observ 2 That although Sea-men bee often put to mourning and unto prayer it is but for a time the end and issue thereof frequently terminates in joy and praise Then are they glad c. When Bishop Jewel was in his banishment hee comforted himself with this Haec non dur●bunt aetatem This will not last alwaies Observ 3 That it is no smal comfort and obligation that is put upon any soul in the Sea to have experience of Gods regarding of his Prayer and granting of his requests Then are they glad c. This was Davids resolution Oh let it bee yours souls that go in the Seas Psal 116. I will love the Lord why because hee hath heard my voice If God did not hear your cries in stormy Seas I wonder what would have become of you ere this day Observ 4 That deliverances out of Sea-perils administer matter of great joy to gratious hearts that God is pleased both to trust them and to empley them also in further service for his glory Then are they glad c. That the generality of men do affect Observ 5 quietnesse calmnesse and peaceablenesse In storms Itur ad aethereas per magna pericula sedes both at Sea and Land Then are they glad c. When England in her late wars was tossed like a ship in a storm how gladly did all the good and honest hearts of the Nation wish for peace and a good harbour for her to ride in Horat. Od. 14. lib. 1. O navis referent in mare te novi Fluctus O quid agis fortiter occupa portum c. But alas wee have a great many of male-contented incendiaries in the land that play the Pazzians parts in Florence of whom it is said that to draw and drive on a multitude to their conspiracy in the market-place they would cry Liberty Liberty when indeed and in truth they intended to bring the people into misery and thraldom It has been thus by the Anabaptists and other Schismaticks in the Land But these sort of cattel are like the Porphyrius There be many low-fortuned Pedanticks in England that would gladly be the Princes and the Governors of it May I not say of such be they in authority or out of it as one said of Ventidius Bassus when made of a Mule-driver a Consul at Rome That they had spoiled a good Mul●●er and not made a good Consul which is a Serpent that is full of poyson but toothless There is a Sect of divers forlorn creatures in England that have a great deal of poyson in their bowels against the present Government and indeed all civil order but they are toothless It is a very sad sight may I speak of it to think that an Italian Traveller should say thus of England ☞ when hee had been in it some late years agoe There be a thousand villanous things to be seen in England that former ages would have blushed at and been ashamed of England deals with good government as the great Student did with his wife of whom it is said that he studied so much that he neglected her and chiding of him shee wished her self a book what book quoth he I wish thou wert an Almanack then should I have a new one every year 1. That hee saw a general contempt of the Worship Word and Ministers of God in it 2. A great deal of pride in apparrel 3. Covetousness and imperiousness in Superiours 4. Sedition and seditious practices against Magistracy 5. A general supine carelesness

most high God for delivering mercies is not onely a very acceptable duty with God but also the readiest way to obtain mercy in the like exigency and necessity again Oh that men would praise the Lord Psal 50.23 Who so offereth praise glorifieth mee and then it follows Hee that orders his conversation aright to him will I shew the salvation of God Munera crede mihi placant hominesque Deosq This Scripture now proves it to bee an acceptable performance in the sight of God and that such as give God the most and best of praises they shall have the greatest and the sweetest salvations Improve Neptunum accusat iterum qui naufragium fecit Hee is very injurious to Neptune that complains of being shipwracked when unthankfulness is the cause Alexander the Great by burning Frankincense frankly and freely to the gods gained by conquest the whole Kingdome of Arabia where all the sweet Aromatick trees do grow Ah Sirs you do not know how you might prosper at Sea would you but bee liberal in your praisings of God and thanksgivings to him The people in the Low Countries by giving the Stork leave to build and nest it in their houses to requite the house-keepers shee comes every year at her appointed time Wee read of small or no rain that falls many times in divers parts of Africa and the grand cause is supposed to bee the sandy nature of the soil from whence the Sun can draw no vapours or exhalations which ascending from other parts in great abundance resolve themselves into kinde benign showers refreshing and helping of the earth that yeeldeth none and this is the reason many times why God poures not down his blessings and benefits in such an abundance as sometimes hee hath been wont to do because your hearts are as dry and barren as the barren grounds and sands of Africa for if vapours of melting prayers tears prayses and thanksgivings go not up to heaven mercies will soon bee stopt in their passage down If Sea-men were not so much behinde hand with God in the tribute of praise and good life God would soon lay a charge upon all his creatures both in heaven and in earth that they should pay their tribute unto man the Sun his heat Ah Sirs I am afraid that many in the Sea do vitam gentilem agere sub nomine Christiano live even Turks under the name of Christians The Sailor sometimes is like a Rubrick or Sunday letter very zealously red and all the week after you may write his deeds and his unthankfulness unto his God for Sea deliverances in black the Sea his calmness the Winds their gentleness the Moon her light the Stars their influences the Clouds their moysture the Sea and Rivers their Fish the Land her Fruits the Mines their Treasures c. And when neglected God shuts up the windows of heaven and locks up the treasuries of his bounty and so lets Winds and Seas rage and roar and the creatures gnash and grin their teeth at a people for their ingratitude Ingratitude is a sin supposed to taint the very influences of the Stars it dries up the Clouds infects the very Air makes Winds terrible and boysterous blasts the very fruits of the earth Cyprian attributes the great dearth in his time to the want of thankfulness and truly I shal attribute the many ships that are cast away unto their unthankfulness unto their God for had they been more thankful more holy and humble for those storms God delivered them out of they had never gone so sadly to the pot as they have done Here is quoth Cyprian a very great and general sterility or barrenness of the fruits of the earth and what is the reason of it because there is such a sterility of righteousness and purity Men complain now a dayes that springs are not full Sea-men deal with God as the Heathen who would when they had served their torns upon their gods as Prometheus c. put them off with beasts skins stuffed with straw If they get but out of the storm they never look behinde them who sate upon the floods all the time to deliver them themselves not so healthfull nor the Seas so calm as formerly they have been nor the Winds so quiet and peaceable nor the showers so frequent the earth so fruitful nor the heavens so obsequious unto them as they have been to serve their pleasure and natural profit to God the creatures are obedient and on his errands they go Deu. 28.38 Thou shalt carry much seed out into the field and shalt gather but little in for the locust shall consume it It is sin that makes the Sea so dangerous and so dreadful sin that makes the heavens as iron over head and the earth to grow so full of thorns and brambles But to proceed I shall not adventure pluribus morari but rather bee tanquam Canis ad Nilum in a restless Sea where I can neither hold my pen in my hand nor keep my paper and ink upon board scarce The Arguments why Sea-men should praise God are briefly these 1. Because God had such a special Reason 1 eye and provident care over you in the preserving of you in all the unlikeliest and irrecoverablest dangers and calamities that you have been exercised withall in the Seas 2. Because God did so much for Reason 2 you which hee would not do for others That when God hath delivered men out Observ 4 of their Sea-streights and calamities Sceva told all his friends that at the siege of Dyrrachium where he so long resisted Pompeys Army that he had two hundred and twenty Darts sticking in his Shield Densamque tulit in pectore Sylvam Ah set your deliverances before people it is their duty not onely to praise God for his goodnesses towards them but also to set the fruit of those mercies before others to taste of Oh that men would praise the Lord c. Vers 37. Let them exalt him in the Congregation Portus Olympiaca vocem acceptam septies reddit If any knock or speak at the Gate or Portal of Olympus it returns a sevenfold Eccho of the knock or speech Your mercies should make you speak Sirs Observ 5 That although a man hath nothing to speak of Gods wonderful deliverances in the Seas but what is known unto others as well as to himself yet is it a part of Gods praise and of his thankfulness to make Gods works known and the continual matter of his talk and discourse Oh that men would praise the Lord Psal 105.2 Talk yee of all his wonderful works Talk not of one or two of some of them but of all of them which you have seen and known done and wrought for you in the Seas Observ 6 That freedome from perils in the Seas and injoyment of life are two mercies that call for many thanks at the hands of those that go down into them He that hath but a subjects purse may have

a Kings heart Oh praise the Lord. Sirs you usually pay people in forein parts for your Anchorage in their Harbours for your Pilotage into them for boyage in the Seas and lightage upon land and will you return nothing unto your God You are the Lords Tenants you sit on very great Rents and great Rents you have to pay surely you had need to bee stirring do what you can you will dye in Gods debt Now thankfulness stands not in words and complements if you would express your thankfulness unto God Sirs then do thus 1. Labour to come out of all your storms and Sea-dangers as Job did out of his affliction Job 23.10 When hee hath tried mee I shall come forth as gold It would bee a brave thing that every Sailor that goes into the Furnace of a fiery stormy and raging Sea Beleeve it Sirs God looks for it at your hands What is said of the statue of Juno in the holy City near to Euphrates in Assyria that it will evermore look towards one let them sit where they will in her Temple shee stares full upon them and if you go by shee follows with her eye the same shall I say of the Lord go where you will on Sea or Land the Lords eye follows you should come out of it as gold doth out of the fire when they come on land Ah who would not but take a turn at Sea then to bee purified from their dross 2. Offer unto God the ransome of your lives as the Law runs Exod. 31. leave some seal or pawn of thankfulness behinde you The Gracians paint Jupiter in their Temples with his hands full of thunderbolts Sirs be afraid of unthankfulness Heathens after a ship-wrack a storm or a fit of sickness will offer something or other to their gods for every preservation That thanksgiving is to bee suspected that lyes in nothing but words Give God your hearts hee gives you his mercies Give God your lives hee gave you them when you were in danger 3. Let God have soul-thankfulness from you if wee receive but any benefit or special kindness from our friends our hearts acknowledge it and our tongues confess it Sirs Do what you can you will dye in Gods debt and wee cannot bee at quiet till wee some way or other requite it 4. Let God also have mouth-thankfulness from you let your tongues walk apace and speak at the highest rate you can to the praise of God Psal 124.2 3. If it had not been the Lord who was on our side then had the Seas at such and such a time swallowed us up and at another time drowned us 5. Let God have life-thankfulness from you this God had of and from David in full measure Psal 145.2 Every day will I bless thee and I will praise thy name for ever and ever I have known that those that have undertaken to buy and redeem poor captives out of a Turkish bondage slavery they have vowed to bee their servants all the dayes of their lives A certain Jew when travelling over a deep River in the night where the bridge was broken down saving onely that there was one narrow plank laid over to foot it on he rid very safely over and being asked the next day how he got over he knew nothing and going back through the peoples intreaty swounded away and dyed at the consideration of his deliverance Ah Sirs will not you be Gods servants all the daies of your lives who has delivered you so often out of storms and raging Seas and inevitable dangers 6. Let mee intreat you to look back upon mercy and then tell mee if you can bee unthankful Act. 27.1 And when they were escaped then they knew that the Island was called Melita They viewed their mercy on every side 7. Compare your selves with others others have been denied to be delivered and lye ship and men in the bottome of the Sea and you and your ships are still floating and swimming whilst others are drowned 8. Are not others that have tasted of your deliverances in the Seas often and many a time blessing and thanking of God both in private and publick and will you bee unthankful 9. Bee resolute for the duty of thanksgiving unto God 10. Consider what thou hadst been and where thou hadst been if mercy had not prevented Psal 89.48 and an hand been reached out of heaven as it were to have helped thee 11. Certainly if thou wert but changed from the state of a sinner thou wouldest bee oftner in the thanking of thy God than thou art 12. Were but our Sea-men a generation of people that were much and often in godly sorrows Now if you will not bee thankful unto the Lord for all your deliverances take heed lest hee say Judg 10.13 Wherefore I will deliver you no more they would bee oftner in their thanksgivings unto the Lord. 13. Were but those that use the Seas filled with divine relishes of Gospel graces they would bee thanking of their God oftner than they are He that is the fullest of the spirit of grace is the onely fittest man to bee thankful unto God 14. Were but those that use the Seas much in minding of the mercies and deliverances of the Lord bestowed upon them they would bee a far thankfuller people than they are I have read of one that was in very great debt and yet notwithstanding that he slept as well as if hee had had the greatest estate that could bee to pay it with a great Gentleman in the Country observing it desired him that hee would bee pleased to sell him his bed Ah Sirs you are much in debt to God Psal 5.15 I will sing unto the Lord because hee hath dealt mercifully with mee 15. Did but those that use the Seas take up their joyes and delights in God they would be more thankful unto their God than they are Ah may I not say Psal 78.42 They remembred not his hand nor the day when hee delivered them from the enemy Observ 7 That the Lords creating of the Seas for the use of Navigation to that end men who can neither flye nor swim might the more facilly and commodiously commerce one with another in all and throughout all the forein parts of the world is a point of Gods great praise Oh that men would praise the Lord Heraclitus was such an admirer of the Sea that he said if wee wanted the Sun we should be in perpetual darknesse if wanted the Sea live like barbarous people God has founded the Earth upon the Seas and established it upon the floods Psal 24.2 Aristotle looked upon this as one of the greatest wonders of nature and well hee might that God should set the solid Earth upon the back of the waters for mans conveniency Psal 104.6 7. Jer. 5.22 That the saving and delivering mercies Observ 8 of God at Sea are and ought to bee carefully had and kept in a perpetual remembrance Oh

that men would praise the Lord. Psal 105.5 Remember his marvellous works that hee hath done his wonders and the judgments of his mouth A gratious heart files all the Lords dealings with his soul either at Sea or Land in his heart and steers the same course the Sea-man does in the great deeps who makes it his daily business in long Voyages to keep his Quotidian reckonings for every elevation hee makes whereby hee judges of his advancings and deviations Mens memories should bee deep boxes or store-houses to keep their pretious Sea-mercies in and not like hour-glasses which are no sooner full but are a running out Bind all your sea-deliverances and preservations as fast upon your hearts as ever the Heathen bound their Idol Gods in their Cities in the time of wars siedges and common calamities which they evermore bound fast with Iron chaines and strong guards and sentinels lest they should leap over the walls or run out of their Cities from them Ah Sirs look to those things which Satan will bee very prone to steal from you who is like unto a theef that breaks into an house but will not trouble himself with the lumber of earthen or wooden vessels A gratious heart will resolve that the Orient shall sooner shake hands with the West and the Stars decline the azured Skies than he will forget the Lords deliverances out of gloomy stormy tempestuous and heart-daunting Seas Sirs you stand in need to be called upon for your hearts are not unlike to the leads and plummets of a Clock that continually drive downwards and so stand in need of winding up but falls foul on the plate and jewels Hee does and will steal away your hearts from minding the precious jewels of your Sea-deliverances I find in Scripture that the people of God of old were very careful and heedful to preserve the memory of their mercies I wish all the States Tarpowlings were of the like temper 1. By repeating them often over in their own hearts Psal 77.5 6 11. I will remember the works of the Lord surely I will remember thy wonders of old Sea-men should say of their Sea-deliverances as Lypsius once did of the Book he took so much delight in pluris facio quum relego semper novum quum repetivi repetendum The more I read the more I am tilled on to read The more I think of what God hath done for me the more I still delight to think of it Vers 6. I call to remembrance my song in the night Paul when hee was amongst the Mariners writ down all their transactions in the time of their danger Acts 27.7 The wind not suffering us we sailed under Crete over against Salmone Vers 18. And being exceedingly tossed with a Tempest the next day they lightned the ship Vers 27. But when the fourteenth night was come as wee were driven up and down in Adria about midnight the ship-men deemed that they drew near to some Country Vers 28. And sounded and found it twenty faothms c. 2. By composing and inditing of pretious pious and melodious Psalms Remember the time of your inconsolabili dolore oppressi this was Davids practice Psal 38. which hee titles A Psalm of David to bring to remembrance Again in the 70. Psalm Wee have the very same title A Psalm of David to bring to remembrance In our late wars many had such a pretious spirit breathing in them that they have put the victories and battels of England into sweet composed meeter to the end they might bee remembred Ah Sirs call all your deliverances in this and in the other part of the world to remembrance 3. By giving names to persons times and places on purpose to remind them of Gods mercies This was Hannahs course in the 1 Sam. 1.20 And called his name Samuel saying The States ships resemble the tall Tree in Nebuchadnazzar's dream Dan. 4.20 Whose height reached unto the heaven and the sight thereof to all the earth They go into all parts in the world as much admired are they as Venus was by the Gods Who came flocking about her when shee went to heaven because I have asked him of the Lord to that very end shee might for ever perpetuate the Lords goodness towards her Abraham to keep alive the goodnesse of God towards him in the sparing of his Son would call the place where hee should have been sacrificed Jehovah-Iireth i.e. God will provide Gen. 22.14 The Jews that they might keep in remembrance the daies of their deliverance from bloody-minded Haman they titled them Purim i. e. Lots Esth 9.26 in memory of Lots cast by Haman which the Lord disappointed And very commendable is this Scriptural practice amongst us in England for I have observed it and I like it very well that our Military Grandees to perpetuate their dreadful Land and Sea-fights do give their warlike ships and battels such titles To keep alive that great and desperate engagement which our Army had with the Scots in Scotland one of their warlike ships is called the Dunbar Gentlemen Captains and Sea-men many of your Ships derive borrow their names from the stour-charged and fought Battels of the Souldiery in England to that end you may imitate their valour at Sea which they to the life performed on Land Some are called the Treddah some the Naseby and other some the Dunbar some the Plymouth some the Gainsborough and othersome the Massammore c. Be valiant Sirs the Souldiery fought apace when in those Battels To keep up the memory of Naseby great fight they have another ship which they call the Naseby To keep up the memory of Worcester fight they have a brave warlike ship which they call the Worcester To keep up the enemies defeating at Wakefield in Yorkshire they have a gallant warlike ship called the Wakefield To remember the fight at Nantwich they have a warlike ship called the Nantwich To remember their victory at Plymouth against the enemy they have a ship which they call the Plymouth To keep up the memory of that famous bout at Massammore when the three Nations lay at the stake they have a ship called the Massammore To remember that great fight that was fought at Treddah they have a warlike Vessel called the Treddah To perpetuate the memory of that great and hot dispute that was once at Selby in Yorkshire they have a famous ship they call the Selby To keep up the memory of that bout they had with the enemy at Portsmouth they have a warlike ship they call the Portsmouth To keep up the memory of their taking of Gainsborough they have a brave Prince-like ship called the Gainsborough To keep up the Memory of the dispute that they once had at Preston Bee valiant Sirs your ships have their names from valiant Exploits on Land and the States will deal as kindly with you as the Russians do by those they see behave themselves couragiously the Emperour

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-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

out their hearts do exceedingly fail them and there is nothing else then but crying weeping wailing and wringing of the hands for that lamentable and deplorable condition that they see themselves irremediably involved in now are they in a confusion ransacking and running to and again to throw the ponderousest of their goods over bord that their Vessel may bee the lighter What Dolor cordis is there amongst the Sea-men when the ship is dangerously leaky yea what animi molestiae and what Suspiria flebilia ab imo pectore one while they work and another while they weep to see themselves irrecoverably at deaths door Undique facies pallida mortis Death is now on every side them and with David they cry Psal 39.13 O spare mee that I may recover strength before I go hence and bee no more Being once in a dangerous and leaky Vessel in which the hearts of the Mariners were greatly daunted in respect that wee were very far from Land when wee arived safe on shore I could not but turn about and in the first place look up unto my God with a thankful feeling of heart and in the second look back upon the Sea from whence wee were delivered and write down this upon his undeserved mercy Psal 56.13 For thou hast delivered my soul from death and now doe they unloose every knot of sail that they can make to run unto the nearest shore that they can get unto to save their lives and ever and anon are they sending up one or other unto the top-mast head to see if hee can descry either Land or ships in the Seas which if they can but espy towards them they will make with the greatest cheer that can bee I have known some that have been seven or eight dayes in this very praecedent case and condition that I am now speaking off wherein they have most laboriously pumped and sailed as for their lives and at the last when they have been both despairing and desponding of life in respect that all their strength has been spent with hard working and the ship they sailed in filled even half full of water the Lord has looked down upon the travel of their souls and sent them one ship or other within the sight of them when they have been far out of sight of any Land towards which they have made with all the speed that in them lay and by firing of Guns which is commonly a signal of that ships distress that fires they steered their course directly towards her and taken out the men that would have been lost in her and in a little time the ship that they sailed in has sunk into the bottom Again others in leaky ships when that they have been denyed the sight of any ship in the Seas to flye to have got safe to Land notwithstanding that dreadful distress But now to look back upon and over this deliverance permit mee to move these two questions and they will magnifie it 1. Who is it that sends the Sea-man a ship out of the Seas to take him up when there is no possibility of keeping the ship that hee is in on flote and above water is it not the Lord 2. And who is it also that gives the Leakship leave to arrive safe on shore whereas in the eye of reason shee might rather have perished in the Seas having so far to sail before shee could come to any port and besides could see no support nor succour from ships in her way Is it not the Lord 2. They that go down to the Sea in ships in their passage and re-passage from Country to Country and Nation to Nation have been oftentimes most sadly set at and assaulted by the Turk and other Pyrats insomuch that when the enemy has come up very near unto them almost within the reach of his Ordinance God has most wonderfully many a time appeared for them either by calmning of the winds in that part of the Sea their pursuing enemies have been in or by giving of them a strong gale of wind to run away from them when the enemy has lain in a calm with his sails flat to his Masts God has many and many a time calmed the winds for the English when they have been pursued with the Turk c. insomuch that the Seas have layn to admiration like a Mare mortuum de quo antiqui feruns sine vento sine motu By which means God has kept them from unmerciful thraldom and captivity And the enemy for want of wind has not been able to come up with and to his desired prize or otherwise by granting them a stiff gale until the going down of the Sun by which they have made their escape from the Pyrat in the black of the evening for then has not the enemy been able to see his chase nor to cast for the best because the chased very gladly alters his course This has the Lord Almighty done for many a Merchant ship blessed and for even blessed bee his sweet Name hee has denyed to fill the enemies sails with wind when they have had strong intentions to make spoil and prey of them Oh the many Sea-men that have been thus delivered 3. They that go down to the Sea in ships often and sundry times when they have been surrounded with way-lying Pyrats and Robbers I sometimes with two or three for one which is contrary to that well known rule Ne sit Hercules contra duos notwithstanding in their hot disputes and exchange of Ordnance one against the other even when shot has flown like hail on every side them some striking their Hulls I say no more but this Good Lord how bold and witty men are to kill one another what fine devices have they found out to murther a far off to slay many at once and to fetch off lives at pleasure what honour do many place in slaughter the monuments of most mens glory are the spoils of the slain and subdued enemy whereas contrarily all Gods titles sound of mercy and gracious respects to man some their Shrouds and othersome their men and though they have been most desperately beset both on head and on stern they have most couragiously by the assistance of the Lord cleered themselves out of their hands with very little and small damage I and other sometimes got the victory in their quarrels by sinking of the enemy and sending him down into the bottoms Oh the many Sea-men that have been thus delivered 4. They that go down to the Sea in ships many times when they are in chase of a pestilent enemy this I have seen satis superque satis and when wee have come almost up with him within Demi-culverin distance so that Ordnance has been levelled upon him and the shot has flown over and beyond him the Sea has presently layn all on a calm and as it were the winds have been called off from filling our sails insomuch that there has been a stop put

Haec non durabunt aetatem This will not alwayes indure 2. Bear all your storms and Sea-imbitterments with faith and confidence in God for his general and particular presence with you that sweet promise hath quieted my heart within when wee have had nothing but horrour without in the great and wide Sea Isa 43.2 When thou passest thorow the waters I will bee with thee and thorow the rivers they shall not overflow thee when thou walkest thorow the fire thou shalt not bee burnt neither shall the flame kindle upon thee 3. Beg every day at the hands of your God for a submissive frame of heart that you may resign and give up your selves and all that is of worth and value in your eyes to Gods will It was a sweet frame that a Stoick was in I would all our Sailors were of that temper when hee said Quid vult volo quid non vult nolo vult ut vivam vivam vult ut moriar moriar It is good to be of this temper in storms to bee contented either to live or dye svvim or drovvn for his disposal even as hee shall will and please to that end you may bee in a capacity to yeeld to whatsoever God shall do though it bee never so cross and contrary to your own carnal wills and in all your storms and dangers say Fiat voluntas sua the Lords will bee done One of King Cyrus's Courtiers having but little state and being about to marry his daughter one asked him how he vvould do for to give her a portion his ansvver was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cyrus is my friend and thus he casts his care and confidence upon the King and vvill not you do thus in storms 4. Cast all your fears cares and troubles that you meet withall in the Seas upon the Lord and hee will take care of you and for you you have it under hand and seal for so doing if you have but faith to lay hold on the promise Psal 55.22 Cast thy burden upon the Lord and hee shall sustain thee hee shall never suffer the righteous to bee moved The burden of a dreadful storm is too heavy for thee to bear thou hast sufficient warrant and commandement to unload thy self and cast it upon thy God there is many a man and woman in the world might go a great deal lighter both at Sea and Land if they had but the art of laying their cares upon their God hath not many a man had his back broke I and his heart broke because hee evermore bore his burden and had not the wisdome to run to God to desire him for to bear it for him Sailors lay those dreadful burdens that you meet with all in a stormy Sea upon the Lord and hee will bear them I and carry you out safe and alive from them But to proceed 2. It will not bee out of the road if I present this advertising word unto those that sit at the stern with the helm of our Republick in their hands It vvas a brave temper that Cato vvas of of vvhom it vvas said that he bore things so stoutly that no man ever saw him to be changed and though he lived in a time when the Common-wealth was often changing he was a semper idem in every condition even to bear storms stoutly I mean as to the effects of them which oftentimes end in the ruining of many a goodly sail and if so bee that ships bee cast away that are in your employments which are of vast worth cost and charge it cannot bee helped such casualties will bee coming and falling upon them now and then the Seas have a Million of dangers in them 3. I would hand this word unto the Merchants of our Land also that they would bear storms stoutly I have seen people in the world when unexpected losses Our Merchants of late resemble too much the mourning Nightingale of whom it is said that when her young ones are taken from her that shee will tell every bird of it maestis late loca questibus implere fill the woods with her complaints And so you the States eares with your losses and crosses have come upon them fall a weeping and wringing of their hands and cursing with their tongues in the greatest impatiency that ever was seen as if they were utterly undone now there is none that can be or is undone until they bee damned then they are undone indeed and then they may howl and weep where weeping and gnashing of teeth is in course but whilst in the world and in fair hopes for Heaven temporal accidents should not have that impression to breed that disturbance It is a notable speech of Seneca Suppose says hee that a man who having a very fair and goodly House to dwell in and fair Orchards and Gardens planted and plotted round about it with divers other fruitful trees for ornament and profit Plutarch reports of a certain people that to manifest their disliking and disdaining of men over-much dejected by any affliction they condemned them in token of disgrace to wear womens apparel because they so much unmanned themselves what an indiscreet part were it for that man to murmur and repine because the winds rise and blow down some of the leaves of it when as they hang fuller of fruit than leaves God has given your ships many a prosperous voyage and murmur not at it if you lose one or two now and then it is nothing but mercy that you have any left to trade and trafick withall I and moreover it is a great deal more than you deserve Chrysostom when speaking to the people of Antioch like himself who was a man of an invincible spirit against the tyrants of his time delivered himself thus In this should a gratious man differ from thc Godless hee should bear his crosses couragiously and as it were with the wings of Faith out-soar the hight of all humane miseries hee should bee like a Rock incorporated into Jesus Christ inexpugnable and unshaken with the most furious incursions of the waves and storms of the world It was a gallant speech of Galienus the Emperour when tidings came unto him that all Egypt was lost What then quoth the Emperour cannot I live without the flax of Egypt And by and by came tidings to him that the greatest part of his dominions in Asia were gone also What then quoth the Emperour cannot I live without the delicacies of Asia This is a rare example for Merchants when they lose rich-fraughted ships in the Seas either by storm or Pyrat What It was a gallant spirit that Habakkuk was of when he said Chap. 3.17 Although the fig-tree shall not blossom nor fruit upon the Vines nor Herds in the stalls yet will I rejoyce in the Lord I will joy in the God of my salvation Grant now the worst suppose you had not one ship in the Harbour nor one to come safely home is there not

in this verse as the Taches and Loops were amongst the Curtains of the Tabernacle The Taches put into the Loops did couple the Curtains of the Tent and sew the Tent together that it might be one Exod. 26.10 11. So doth this very particle couple with the other phrase In the words you have these two things 1. An act of mercy 2. An object of misery And hee brings them out of their distresses Here is transcendent mercy shewed to them that are oftentimes drowned and plunged into irrecoverable misery There is nothing difficult in the words but the view of them is very obvious unto the meanest capacity that is Observ 1 That God loves not to give deliverance till it bee welcome Then they cry unto the Lord in their trouble and he bringeth them out of distresses When the ship is upon the sand rapping and knocking as if at every blow shee takes upon the ground would make her flye into a thousand peeces then and not till then comes deliverance Act. 27.44 And the rest some on boards and some on broken peeces of the ship and so it came to pass that they escaped all safe to land When the ship is half full of water with dangerous leaks then and not till then doth the Lord many times appear for them by sending some ship or other into their sight unto which they will make and thereby miraculously they are delivered from drowning by flying out of theirs into that When the ship that Christ and his Disciples were imbarked in was covered all over with waves then and not till then did Christ appear to abate and asswage the storm even but then when there was in the very eye of reason little or no possibility of being saved When Israels Bricks were doubled then and not till then was Moses sent and this is Gods usual time and method to deliver when there is no visible helps or hopes within sight for deliverance 1. Because mercy will not be valued if men should not be thus dreadfully put to it The sound man cryes puff Reasons a fig for the Physitian the Souldier a rush for his enemy when in a strong hold and so the Mariner a straw for storms when in a good harbor but when in the hazards of their lives the mercy then is highly prized 2. Because God would have the glory of his power wisdome and free goodness clearly beheld Act. 27.30 31. And as the ship-men were about to flee out of the ship when they had let down the boat into the Sea under colour as though they would have cast Anchors out of the fore-ship Paul said to the Centurion and to the Souldiers Except these abide in the ship yee cannot bee saved God is tender of his glory power wisdome and honor he would have it seen by the eyes of men 3. Because hee will have the tribute of praise out of every salvation and this is one reason why mercy and deliverance is so oftentimes delayed in the Seas Observ 2 That God in his providence hath a special hand a seeing eye and a prudent care in and over all his creatures for good And hee bringeth them out of their distresses Psal 104.10.21 Psal 107.6 Beasts of the field Fowls of the air Fish in the Sea and all crawling and creeping things upon the face of the earth are preserved and cared for by him If God stept not out of heaven may I so speak to fetch poor souls out of the griping talons of the stormy Seas where no succour and relief can come unto them from the land except it come out of heaven When God would express the tenderness of his love and care to to his people he makes it out by naming the very tenderest part that is in the body Zach. 2.8 Every little thing you know will offend the eye that which wee call the eyes Apple Philosophers call the Chrystalline humour Isbon in Hebrew Ish in Latine Pupilla of pupa because within there is the pretty resemblance of man or otherwise because man is prized and preferred before and above all the creatures besides Heb. 13.5 the Seas and the winds would tear them and their ships to peeces They would soon take down the proudest high decked ships that ever came upon the Seas if God watched not over them both by night and by day How soon would the Sea drink them up even as that great water-drinking Behemoth in Job 33. who drinks up a River I could abundantly inlarge my self in and upon this point but it is such tedious writing in the Sea that I shall bee short and give you in a few inductions to the bargain 1. I would have Sea-men to minde how undeservedly God is with them in their distresses even many wayes A gracious soul spoke on this wise when in a storm and tempestuous night Surely I shall not perish there be so many stars eyes of providence over my head because it was a bright and clear night one while strengthening of you and another while comforting of you Act. 27.22 And now I exhort you to bee of good cheer for there shall bee no loss of any mans life among you but of the ship This was the Apostles experience This was Davids experience Psal 23.4 Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil for thou art with mee thy rod and thy staffe they comfort mee 2. Minde how God doth deliver you out of storms and also the manner and means thereof and the very nick of time that God appears for you and works it in All which circumstances well heeded and observed will make your Sea-deliverances the more wonderfully Sea-men may well say of their deliverances as Moses said of the burning Bush Exod. 3.3 I will now turn aside and see this great sight Ah turn about souls and look with a thankful eye upon all your preservations and the more marvellously glorious in your eyes Paul was a great observer of the deliverance that hee and those that sailed with him partaked o● Act. 27.44 And the rest some on boards and some on broken peeces of the ship and so it came to pass that they escaped all safe to land Call to minde the times when you were shipwracked in Italy Spain or France c. and observe the manner of your deliverances 3. Minde how God delayes and defers sometimes to abate violent storms and to deliver you till that your wills bee conquered into a conformable contentment and obedience unto Gods will to bee delivered or not delivered This was Peters experience Matth. 14.30 31. that Christ reached him not his hand till he was a sinking And immediately Jesus stretched forth his hand and caught him This was Abrahams experience Gen. 22.12 13 14. That God was not seen but in the Mount and Isaac was not delivered from being made a sacrifice of till the knife was at his throat Have you not found it many times that

they have seen their fellow creatures to fal and miscarry in and to avoid building those places which they formerly built in both in Towns and Cities in the time of pestilent and contagious years When you hear of ship-wracks bee affraid and bethink with your selves why may not our turn bee the next if our lives bee not amended whilst storms are a brewing in the skies and are at hand to come upon you it is a special piece of wisdom to send out an Embassie of prayer for conditions of peace in a way of sincere turning unto the Lord. The sins and punishments of others should bee your instructions your afflictions your admonitions their woes should bee your warnings ther 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 should bee your 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 their sufferings your Schoolmasters and remembrancers 4. Look upon the shipwrack of others with an impartial and speedy enquiry and examination into your own hearts whether such upon whom the severe vengeance of the Lord did so heavily fall upon What was Jeroms observation of the wicked upon Land is mine upon the Sea Bonus est Deus domos ergo eorum qui erant defixi in fecibus suis destruit nec eos in leprosis domibus habitaere permittit God being God cannot but destroy the dwellings of them that are bad were greater sinners than your selves ask your consciences that question which the Prophet once propounded and put forth unto the Israelites Are there not with mee even with mee the same sins against the Lord Ransack your hearts and you will quickly finde out the Jonah for which storms came down upon you therefore hide not your transgressions and abominations from the Lord which puts him I am confident upon the ruining and making so many publick examples as there bee and are to bee seen at this day A seeing eye may soon spell out the language of God in the casting away of ships Jer. 32.31 For this City bath been to mee a provocation of mine anger c. So the ships I have cast away This is the language of a sunk ship Oh man thou seest what I now am thou knowest what I have been I know those that use the Seas are as apt to say that to themselves which the Prophet complains of as Israel was to themselves Isa 28.15 Wee have made a Covenant with death and with hell are wee at an agreement when the over-flowing scourge shall pass through it shall not come unto us how many voyages I have gone in safety hitherto over the Seas now think with thy self what thou mayest come to bee 5. Look upon the ships you both know to bee cast away in such and such storms and also upon those whose Top-masts you see at this day standing in the Seas above the waters with an humble thankfulness not as rejoycing in those publick miseries but as blessing the unwearied patience and undeserved sparing and prolonging mercies of the Lord towards you Ah Sirs What an hard-heartedness is there amongst many of you for though you see wracks of ships upon sands and the Masts of sunk ships standing some in the East some in the West some in the North and other some in the South you can sail by them and over the graves of the dead in the Seas and never bee affected with them nor as much as say the Lord bee thanked that I was not in that Vessel or that it fell not so out with mee in those many voyages that I have made What was writ upon the Tomb of that great Assyrian Monarch punished by God for his impieties the same may well be writ upon every sunk ship in the Seas 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Look upon mee and learn to bee godlier What a mercy is it that you that equallize those in penalty of drowning whom you have far out-stripped and exceeded in sinning should bee preserved from day to day 6. Give your assent and faith to the truth of Gods judgements upon the ships that are broke in storms What is said in Exod. 15.10 may be well writ upon all cast away ships Thou didst blow with thy wind the Sea covered them they sank as lead in the mighty waters bee sure that you make this construction of every ruined ship that it was for some deserved sin or other It is and ever hath been the Devils policy and subtil contrivancy both in this and indeed in all ages to strike out the credulity of this truth out of the mindes of men I have read of Porphyry in what Authour I cannot for the present well tell one of Satans fine spun Sophisters and cunning agents that to overturn the miraculousness of the Israelites passage through the Red Sea would say that Moses took the advantage of the low ebbing water and so went thorow safely which the Egyptians not understanding came in with the flood and were drowned by the exuberancy of the waters Strabo also undertakes to weaken Gods raining down Hell out of Heaven upon Sodome and Gomorrah by saying that those Cities were situated on sulphurious soils which were full of holes out of which fire breaking forth consumed them and thus hee attributes the destruction of these Cities to natural causes It is a special act of mercy that God lets not all the Devils out of hell upon those that use the Seas as is supposed some of them were by Origen when the four corners of Jobs house in which his children was was thrown down to the ground It is a wonder that one Devil runs not up into the Main top another into the Fore-top another to the Helm one into the Mizon-top and another on to the Boltsprit and other some into the Howld to pull the Ships you sail in into a thousand peeces for your wickednesse And thus do many Sea-men their lost ships unto the cause of this and that Commonwealths and Kingdomes have their falls and periods let Athens Sparta Babylon Nineveh and Carthage bee witnesses who have at this day no other fences but Paper-walls to keep up their memories Now what have been the causes of these subversions most men are ignorant the Epicure will ascribe it to Fortune the Stoick to Destiny Plato Pythagoras and Bodin to Number Aristotle to an asymmetry and disproportion in the members Copernicus to the motion of the Center of excentrick Circles Cardanus and the major part of Astrologers to Stars and Planets but the Oracles of the Lord speak in other language that sin is the grand cause both of ships States and Commonwealths ruines You are apt to lay the blame of your miscarrying in the Seas upon the Pilot What one sayes of a Cities overthrow the same will I say of cast-away ships Civitatis eversio est morum non murorum casus A Cities overthrow is sooner wrought by lewd lives than weak walls upon the Master upon the Commander of the ship and not upon that abominable weight of sin that is in ships It is every way

whilst you do float above When the Lord would stir up David and melt his heart and bring it unto a kindly sorrow for all his mercies hee takes this course 2 Sam. 12.7 Did not the Lord do thus and thus Did hee not make thee King of Judah and of Israel Did he not give to thee thy Masters wives and houses into thy bosom and if this had not been enough hee would have done more for thee therefore recount the particular kindnesses and Sea-deliverances the Lord has bestowed upon thee does not the Lord seem to say I delivered thee at such a time and in such a storm did not I deliver thee from such a Rock and from such a sand God keeps a reckoning Sirs of what hee does and also of all your deliverances it is but wisdom then to kiss the Son lest hee bee angery to kisse him with a kiss of adoration and subjection all your daies 3. Consideration That thankful hearts are evermore full of thankful thoughts and these are such as are evermore suitable unto the benefits that are received Psal 116.12 What shall I render unto the Lord for all his benefits Hee has delivered mee out of this and the other storm from this and the other shore from many Rocks and Sands both in this and also in the other parts of the world I have met with a story of a Company of Sailors in Zara called by some Jadera a Town in Sclavonia that they consecrated a Church to St. John di Malvatia which they built out of their own wealth and wages to express their thankfulness for their great deliverance out of a storm in which they had like every man of them to have gone to the pot This they vowed when at Sea and when come on Land they were as good as their words where are your thanks Sailors what shall I now bestow upon him How has hee preserved mee when shot has flown like hail When dangers have been unfordable and miseries innumerable then has the Lord stept in to deliver mee Ah Sirs what cause have you that use the Seas to fall down before the Lord in all thankful acknowledgment to him for your deliverances at Sea even as the Wise men of the East did before Christ and offer unto him Gold Incense and Myrrhe aurum fidei thus devotionis aromata pietatis mentes humiles probos mores animos dignos Deo The Gold of faith the Frankincense of Devotion the Myrrhe of Godliness humble minds good manners souls worthy of God 4. Consider That thankful hearts are evermore full of admiring thoughts I wonder at the goodness of God says a good and an honest heart that hee should come and step down so seasonably to deliver mee when I was in a Sea far from any eye or heart to pitty mee Ah how has mercy taken the pains to come and meet us How has mercy as it were fallen into our mouths and into our laps even very unexpectedly Abraham's servant was very full of admiring thoughts when hee saw providence so working for him Gen. 14.21 as the womans coming to the well and her willingness to give him and his Camels as much water as they pleased Ah stand amazed at Gods deliverings of your souls in the stormy and tempestuous Seas 5. Consider That thankful hearts are evermore full of awful and trembbling thoughts at the Judgments of God both executed and threatned upon others in the Seas when they see themselves so threatned in storms and others to bee cast away in them and yet notwithstanding they themselves spared this strikes thoughts of fear into them and upon them Psal 119.20 My flesh trembles for fear of thee and I am afraid of thy righteous Judgments 6. Consider That thankful hearts are evermore full of viewing and observing thoughts Oh how has the Lord delivered mee in this late storm and Tempest in what danger was I in but now our Sails rent our Mast fell about our ears wee pumped and toyled night and day for our lives Cables broke and at another time our Anchors came home and our ships drive And thus such hearts cannot but say Exod. 15.13 Thou in thy Mercy hast led forth the people which thou hast redeemed 7. Solemnly consider that thankful hearts after Sea-deliverances are full of improving thoughts and will not you bee so too Gentlemen You that use the Seas Such a soul has his whole mind taken up with the mercies of the Lord and hee plots contrives and designs how hee may make a good use and a good improvement of all that he has done for him in the Seas Pliny writes of Egypt It is well if it may not too truly be said of those that use the Seas that shee was wont to boast how shee owed nothing to the Clouds or any forein streams for her fertility being abundantly watered by the inundation of her ovvn River Nile I am affraid that you think that you are not beholden to your God and beheld with his eyes in the great deeps Such a soul sets all his Sea-deliverances in print and layes them up in the wardrobe of his heart The holiness goodness mercifulness and majesty of God is evermore much in such a souls eye 8. Consider That all good men are for it and that with tooth and naile and will you not then bee thankful unto the Lord I will tell you who bee against it the Devil and wicked men but I pray God preserve you from such Counsellors Psal 65. Praise waiteth for thee O God in Sion Psal 29.2 Give unto the Lord the glory due unto his name Worship the Lord in the beauty of holynesse 9. Consider That God himself is for it Mal. 2.2 If yee will not hear and if yee will not lay it to heart to give glory unto my name saith the Lord of hosts I will even send a curse upon you 10. Consider That God commands it The shortest cut to ruine men is unthankfulness Trumpeters delight to sound when where they are answered with an Eccho 11. Consider That God expects it 12. Consider That God prizes it and commends it 13. Consider That God is hereby much honoured by it Psal 50. ult 14. Consider That God will fully and freely reward it A word or two now of Use and so I will leave the point because it is so painful to mee to write and lay down at large what I might and what every point would bear I do acknowledge that Spices when they are pounded and beaten small they do evermore smell the sweetest and points of doctrine or Scriptures when they are branched forth expounded and broken up into parts are evermore the profitablest For my part I know not what to say to the generality of Sea-men because they put me to as great a stand as the Turky Painter was once put to when he was to set forth all the several Nations of the world according to their Country dress and habit hee left one