often to destroy the works of your hands Say not before the Angel It was an error wherefore should God be angry at thy Vows and destroy the works of thy hands Some Expositors refer this to the Priest before whom the sin of rash vows was to be contest others carry it to Christ the Angel of the Covenant who sees through all our subtil excuses and equivocations and punishes them O God is angry when men go so flatly against their Vows O then God is angry and destroys the work of their hands viz. disappoints their endeavors and denies them success Lastly to forget your deliverances and dangers is the greatest ingratitude and unthankfulness in the world hath God given you so many wonderful deliverances so many miraculous preservations to be buried in the grave of oblivion will you murder your mercies and then bury them It is comconly said Murder will out Murdered Mercies will one day make terrible work in walking in your Consciences The next Observation is this That Salvations and Deliverances many times are not sent until persons be left helpless and hopeless I shall give you a touch of this Now all hope of being saved was taken away no small tempest lay upon them now they were gulft in despair of ever coming off with their lives Yet this often is the condition of Nations Ship-Companies and Persons where God intends to save and deliver The proofs of the last Observation about Dangers and Deliverances being recorded and remembred proves this also Thus was Peter saved the Disciple saved when just at sinking But why doth God stay so long before he sends deliverances and salvations 1. Because he delights to draw forth a spirit of prayer if men will not pray when sinking when drowning when dying they will never pray O see how Ionah prays in his distress And Jonah prayed to the Lord out of the Fishes belly and said I cried by reason of mine affliction unto the Lord and he heard me out of the belly of Hell cried I and thou heardst my voice c. When my Soul fainted within me I remembred the Lord and my Prayer came in unto thy holy Temple O Sirs God loves prayer so well that he stayes with his deliverances that we might sue them out by prayer Out of the Depths have I cried unto thee saith David Driven to it by deep and bottomless straits into which I am plunged And it seems to be an allusion to Mariners in their distresses and dangers of being shipwrackt crying unto the Lord. What will any man perish and never pray for it die and never cry for it what and not say as Peter did Master save me or I perish What was it that did draw forth prayer in many of these distressed Ship-Companies in this Treatise mentioned but their dangers and distresses 2. God doth not bring our deliverances and salvations until we be hopeless because he will exercise his peoples graces Therefore the Disciples were not saved until the ship was full that their graces might be exercised O now is a time for faith and patience to be exerted there is nothing more pleasing unto God then to see how poor Souls exercise their graces when they are reduced into extremities God hath a great revenue of glory arising to himself out of the exercise of his own grace in the Souls of Believers O how doth Faith act its part when mercy and deliverance is delayed It was one of Luther's wonders to believe for mercy that was long delayed It is an high exercise of Faith to look up to God long together and nothing to come To say with the Prophet Ionah I will look again towards thy holy Temple And with the Prophet Isaiah Though he hide his face from the house of Jacob I will wait upon him and look for him What though thou be as the Prophets Servant who went down to the Sea to look and he said Master there is nothing But what then doth he give over O no looks again and the seventh look he saw the Cloud So Faith in its exercise will look again and again and never give over until it espy the mercy coming upon the wings of prayer So might I add of Patience O how doth it act its part while the deliverance tarries it quietly waits for the salvation of God saying as David My Soul waits for the Lord more than they that watch for the morning The Soul of the Believer possesses it self in patience until the mercy come 3. God doth not bring our salvations and deliverances until we be brought to an extremity because they are most prized and welcomed until then O now deliverance will be prized The longer that a mercy tarries the more welcome it is when it comes God loves to make all his mercies welcome to us O how welcome is life to a person under a sentence of death O how welcome is a discovery of the love of Christ to a poor Soul that hath long groaned under the burthen of unpardoned guilt O how welcome was the Prodigals Fathers House when he had so long been starving in the Fields with his Husks amongst the Swine 4. Because God will have all his salvations and deliverances look like his own hand and arm his own arm brings salvation with him he will have the print of his own hand upon it that poor sinners may say This is the finger of God the doings of God and it is marvellous in our eyes Alas men would attribute it to themselves if salvation did not come in such a way when all hope of being saved is taken away Oh! everything is beautiful in its season Is not salvation and deliverance now in season now they begin to despair as to probable or visible hopes O now God works like himself now he appears in a deliverance to be God which set the Disciples a wondring What manner of Man is this that the Winds and Sea obey him And at another time when he delivered his Disciples at Sea and calmed the Winds then they that were in the Ship worshipped him saying Of a truth thou art the Son of God 5. Because he will by such salvations set off his love to poor Souls Was not the love of Christ set off highly in taking that season to save the ship when it was full to save them when they were sinking Is not that great Love that steps forth to save in an Extremity O what Love was this to save this Ships Company when all hope of being saved was taken away Love always chuses the fittest times to appear evidence it self Lastly Because he will have his deliverances endearing deliverances to Souls O how doth such an appearance of God at such a time endear the Soul of the receiver Therefore saith David I will love the Lord or love the Lord dearly my Rock and my Deliverer c. But I will proceed to give you also a taste of the Application and not
Then what should a man give for his Soul what will a man give in exchange for his Soul 2. Endeavor they cast out the Tackling of their Ship any thing they part with to save their lives though never so useful to them even that which was necessary for their Voyage they are under a necessity to part with it for the preservation of their lives 2. We have their Dangers as well as Endeavors 1. It is exprest in the violence of the Tempest they were exceedingly tossed with a Tempest 2. It was dark weather neither Sun nor Stars appeared which used to be great comforts and helps to poor men at Sea 3. Their Danger is exprest in this they were brought to the brink of the black pit of Despair all Hope now was taken away O what a sad distressed condition was this their Hope which is called the Anchor of the Soul yea which is the Sheet-Anchor of the Soul was lost they gave all their lives over for gone and lost And oh what could now a company of men do that had lost their Hopes and Hearts could these that had lost their Hopes find their hands they were now saying as the Jews did in their Captivity Our Hope is lost we are cut off for our parts 3. We have their Deliverance and Preservation coming in at such a time and season as this was now that they are brought to an extremity God makes it his opportunity and now that all hope of being saved is taken away salvation will be most seasonable and now the Angel appears to Paul and tells him all their lives are ensured only the ship shall be lost Observations are these 1. Dangers and Deliverances are to be carefully recorded and remembred therefore Paul takes an account of both here in this Voyage 2. Salvations and Deliverances many times are not sent until persons be left hopeless in themselves I shall speak a little to both these upon this present occasion that what you read here may be remarked and remembred 1. Dangers and Deliverances are to be carefully recorded and remembred This Observation hath two parts 1. Dangers are to be remembred 2. Deliverances are to be remembred Thus the Lords poor people used to do in all Ages When Iacob was in danger of his Brother Esau you see how he commemorates it and gives us an exact narrative of it and tells us how he feared him Lord I fear my Brother Esau. How often was David in danger by Saul who was his sworn Enemy and how many Psalms have we taking occasion to remember what danger he was in and how comfortably he was brought off I sought the Lord and he heard me and delivered me out of all my fears As Paul tells the Corinthians what danger they were in they were prest out of measure out of strength in so much that they despaired of life c. And so at Sea as well as Land he would have dangers remembred how that they go up to the Heaven one while and sink into the deeps another their Soul melted because of trouble and they at their wits ends c. Peter's danger at Sea is recorded when he began to sink and cried out Master save me or I perish And the Disciples when they cried out Carest thou not that we perish Mark 4. 38. It is observed the Ship now was full and now comes salvation and deliverance Here was their danger recorded the Ship was full and Christ asleep in the hinder part of the Ship 1. Query is How Dangers should be remembred 2. How Deliverances should be remembred 1. Dangers should be remembred considering we may come into them again Many when dangers are not they sing to their Souls that song and delude themselves The bitterness of Death is past they think they are out of one storm and they shall never come in such another Just as persons do with their Sickness at Land so many do with their Dangers at Sea if God bring them off O they grow hardned and secure again But if God hath brought home one dangerous Voyage we should think it may be the next will be as dangerous Have I escaped one at Sea one at Land if I do not improve it if I do not walk suitable under it O how easily can God bring me into another You never were in such Dangers but you may come to the like again whether at Sea or Land 2. Dangers should be remembred with consideration to the greatness of them great things should be remembred a great God great Mercies great Deliverances great Sins and great Dangers How should we think O what a Danger was I in at this time by such a Storm at Sea by such a Sickness ashore not only my Life in danger but Lord was not my Soul in danger was I fit to die at such a time had I gotten an interest in Christ if I had been cast away at such a a time Men think dangers great for their Bodies but they do not think them so for their Souls they think them great for their Ships for their Estates but they do not think them so for their Eternal conditions O had not my Body Soul Ship and all perished together And was not this a great danger thy Souls danger was the greatest danger hadst thou been drowned at such a time thy Soul had been shipwrackt to all eternity 3. Dangers should be remembred with consideration to their suddenness how many times do they come suddenly upon us As there is sudden fear so there is sudden danger When the Lord sends the Winds out of his Treasury suddenly and threatens men at Sea with sudden destruction when desolation seems to come as a Whirl-wind c. we should think What if sudden death had come upon me what a condition was my poor Soul in what a dreadful thing would it have been if I had been surprised on a sudden and sent into an Eternal condition in the twinkling of an eye I to be threatned to be swallowed up only with a formal God have mercy upon thee in thy mouth not to have time to pray repent reflect upon thy past life O what a sad thing is this 4. We should think of our Dangers with consideration to the frames of hearts what frames of heart we were then under 1. To the frames of our hearts when in our dangers 2. The frames of our hearts when brought from under them 1. The frames of heart when in and under them were not you under great fears and hurries of Soul it may be not knowing how it would go with your Souls if you had gone off the stage of this life at the present David when he was in danger took especial notice of the frame of his spirit Innumerable evils have compassed me about He was compassed about on every side with danger and how was it with him then he calls to mind Mine iniquities have taken bold upon me so that I am not able
to look up And what then O see how he prays Be pleased O Lord to deliver me O Lord make haste to help me Remember what the frames of our hearts were in our dangers in reference to our fears and secondly what in reference to our faith so also did David when pursued in danger by Saul My heart is fixed my heart is fixed I will sing and give praise We are to remember our fears under our dangers that we may be prepared better for future tryals we are to remember our faith under dangers past that we may be encouraged for the time to come in after straits 2. We are to remember our frames of spirit when God brings us out of our dangers how then we were melted with the present sense of the mercy as those Israelites when God brought them out of danger they believed God they sang and gave praise O what resolutions were there then upon the Soul to be given up anew to God to walk before the Lord in the light of the living Thus also did David when brought out of danger Thy vows are upon me O God c. and at another time The Lord preserveth the simple I was brought low c. and thou helpedst me And then what a frame of heart was upon him Return unto thy rest O my Soul c. Then he was all for returning to God O now there was fresh endearments betwixt the Soul and God These we are to remember that we may not wear totally the sense of them off our spirits 5. We should remember our dangers with consideration to the frequency of them how frequently we were in them Paul remembred this in Perills by Sea often in Perils by the Heathen c. O how often have we been near Drowning near Taking near Sinking near Dying and yet God brought us off these things we should call to mind often go out upon dangerous Voyages and often come home the oftner and more frequent our dangers the more should we think upon them 2. We should Remember our Deliverances but how 1. We should Remember them admiring them Remember them so as to admire them thus did the people of the Iews in Ezra Who hath given them such deliverance as this O! they admire it and write a Non-such upon the Head of it as David admired the goodness of God when he had spoken of his House to come Is this the manner of men O God He was in an holy Extasy of Heavenly-admiration so should you say now to carry out and bring home in such a dangerous time as this To hide from Enemies when sought for in such a time such a Voyage as this Oh! who am I and what is my Fathers house that be should bring me hitherto You should turn the Deliverance on every side and admire the goodness of God the wisdom of God the mercy of God the power of God the faithfulness of God in it and say O Lord what a Deliverance is this what a Voyage is this God loves to have his Mercies admired by us 2. We should Remember our Deliverances to have our Hearts raised up in gratitude and thankfulness to God for them Thus did David I will pay my Vows unto the Lord in presence of all his people I will take the Cup of Salvation and call upon the Name of the Lord. We are to remember to pay our Thank-offerings unto God after our Deliverance from God what forget such a Deliverance as this what not be thankful for such a Preservation as this 3. We should Remember our Deliverances so as to endear our Hearts to God Thus we find David I will love thee O Lord I will love the Lord dearly so the Heb. The Lord is my Rock my Fortress and my Deliverer c. O! now how should Souls after their Deliverance boile and burn in Love to God! How are we engaged to a Friend that is at any time but an Instrument in Gods hand to Deliver us and shall we be endeared to the Instrument and not to the Author O! how was David endeared to God when he said He having Redeemed him he would walk before the Lord in the Land of the Living 4. We should Remember our Deliverances to improve them in a way of acting Faith when the next danger and straits comes I will remember thee from the Land of Iordan from the Hill Missar This was to encourage him from his former Deliverances in his future straits and exigencies What now distrust God who hath delivered in six troubles and now shall we give way to unbelief in the seventh Did not holy David thus He hath delivered me out of the Paw of the Lyon and out of the Paw of the Bear and he will deliver me out of the hand of the uncircumcised Philistine Thus Paul rerembers his Deliverance from Nero. And I was delivered out of the mouth of the Lyon and the Lord shall deliver me from every evil work 5. We should remember our Deliverances to be often inculcating and imprinting them upon our own hearts alas when we receive them they are a little fresh it may be upon our spirits but ô how soon do they die because they are not written upon our hearts they are not engraven their as a man that would Remember a thing be it a Notion or any Resolution he will be often turning it over in his thoughts alas if we write our Deliverances is it not in the Dust whereas we should write them in Marble We should write them them with a Pen of Iron and the point of a Diamond 1. We should Commemorate our Dangers with our Deliverances because God gives them to that end The Lord doth not give us our Deliverances to cast them at our heels nor brings us out of our Dangers that we might forget them as though we never had been in any of them God expects that we should faithfully Register and Record them therefore it was a great Provocation to the Lord that the Children of Israel so soon forgot his works If you do but forget the kindness of a Friend you think it is disingenious but ô then what is it to forget that God that hath delivered you out of six troubles and in seven troubles God loves and expects his kindness should be kept upon Record 2. We should Commemorate our Dangers and Deliverances because it was freely of his grace to bring us out of the one and put us under the other is it not of his meer mercy that he Rescued and pull'd us out of our dangers might not we else been swallowed up of them and may not we all say in this case as the Psalmist in that had it not been the Lord who was on our side then the waters had over whelmed us the stream had gone over our Soul then the proud Waves had gone over our Soul may not you sing this Song what and now forget such dangers and cast behind your
Mr. Iames Ianeway's LEGACY TO HIS FRIENDS Containing Twenty Seven Famous Instances of Gods Providences in and about Sea Dangers and Deliverances with the Names of Several that were Eye-witnesses to many of them Whereunto is Added a Sermon on the same Subject Go up now look towards the Sea and he went up and looked and said there is nothing and he said Go up seven times And at the seventh time he said behold there ariseth a little Cloud c. 1 King 18. 44. Come and Hear all ye that fear God and I will declare what he hath done for my soul Psal. 66. 16. London Printed for Dorman Newman at the Kings Armes in the Poultry 1674. THE EPISTLE TO THE READER THe Author of this Treatise now put into thine Hands needs none of my Praises he being lately gone to make one in Consort with that Heavenly Chore above his Works praise him in the Gate only I could not but lend my hand a little being desired to give it a lift into the World and tell thee the Author was a man of Designes for God and more of them he had in his Heart and Head then his Lord and Master whose he was and whom he served did give him time to Finish that his Master might be Honoured and souls Edified he tryed several Ways and that with several sorts of persons leaving no stone unturn'd no means unattempted that the Work of the Lord might Prosper in his hand One while he designes sinners might be helped in getting Acquaintance with God and that Saints might improve their Best Friend in the Worst of Times and to that end he appears in the world to drive on a good Acquaintance betwixt Christ and Souls And another while feeling warm Compassions and Affections bubbling up in his Soul to poor Young Converts he carries on a design of strengthning their weak hands by appearing once again upon the Stage in printing the Comfortable Death of a Young Convert And another while he had a design of preventing the ripening sinnes of youth witness his bowelly and tender-hearted Sermon upon the occasion of the Penitent Murderer in which he Cautions poor enticed Young men to take heed of the Baits that the great Angler for Souls layes before them But lest this man of Designes for God should miss his great aime he shoots lower that he might hit his Mark he stoops and sweetly condescends to send Tokens to Children to bespeak their Hearts betimes for Christ his Master he labours to Teach the Children to cry Hosanna to his Lord And now in the last place he casts about to meet with Sea-faring Men whose Souls he alwayes had bleeding and melting bowels for Oh how would he Weep Pray Mourn Sigh over them entreat them Affectionately beseech them importunately that they would not forget the God of their Mercies and Deliverances nor the Mercies and Deliverances of their God Upon this Occasion of Sea-mens receiving the greatest Deliverances of any men in the World from God and so soon playing the Old Israelites with Gods Wonders viz. soon forgetting his Works Some Friends speaking to him upon this subject and Acquainting him with a Taste of some Memorable Passages of Providences he readily upon desire sets his hand to this work of Collecting several Famous Deliverances from Friends and took pains to get their Papers into his hands but had not time to pollish and adorn them in his sweet and taking Style as he did other things These lay upon his hand above a Year and a half still waiting for more Observable Providences to come to his Cognizance But here thou hast them as they are if thou hast an Heart to improve them to thy further strengthening of thy Faith in future Straits Whether at Sea or Land here thou mayst see the Lord setting his Right Foot upon the Sea Here thou mayst see the Lords Royalty and Soveraignty extending it self to the great Deeps Here thou mayst see the Winds Seas obeying of him Here thou mayst see the Lord giving a literal Com̄ent on that Text When thou goest through the Waters I will be with thee Here thou mayst see Hopeless and Helpless men in their greatest Distress at their wits end sav'd and deliver'd by the great God which is enough one would think to make any Reader cry out with the Psalmist O that men would praise the Lord for his goodness and for his wonderful works to the Children of Men. Here thou mayst see the prevailing Power of Prayer the Wonder-working Power of God the unspeakable Bowels and tender Mercies of God to poor Perishing Sinking Drowning Starving dying Men that thou mayst Pray to this God more Love this God better and dread to sinne against him who is the God of such Miraculous Salvations and Deliverances And that this Treatise may promote that work in thy Soul is the Desire of Thy Cordial Soul-Friend Iohn Ryther Wapping 14 Apr. 1674. There are these Books of Mr. Iames Ianeway'es printed for Dorman Newman at the Kings Armes in the Poultry HEaven upon Earth or the best Friend in the worst of times The 3d Edition enlarged 2. Death Unstung A Sermon Preacht at the Funeral of Thomas Mousley an Apothecary With a brief Narrative of his Life and Death also the manner of God's dealings with him after his Conversion 3. A Sermon preached at the Funeral of Tho. Savage 4. Tokens for Children the first and second Part. 5. Mr. James Janeway 's Legacy c. REMARKABLE SEA DELIVERANCES ONe Major Gibbons a man well known in new England a Gentleman of good education good parts and of good Conversation as the Author hath been credibly informed by them that knew him was bound upon a voyage to Sea himself being Suprà Cargo with such commoditys as those parts of America doth afford after going out from Boston several days by hard weather and contrary winds the Ships company were much distressed and through the Continuance of the Contrary winds Provisions now begin to faile them and O how feeble doth Spirits grow when Bread the Staffe of life taileth now Hunger becomes more dreadfull to them then the every moment threatning Billows of the devouring Ocean and they that one while feared drowning now fears Starving they are brought to the last meal in the Barrel and the last oyl in the Cruse and say as she did We will Eat this litle that is left and dye and now when they thought they had eaten the last what conflicts must they needs have within themselves who knew not where to have another morsel to fortify the tyred and spent Spirits with the constant toyle and hard labour how they look one up one another as men already under a Sentence of death and by one anothers looks Strike terror to one anothers Hearts They look on every side as David says I looked on my right hand but there was no man that would know me Refuge failed me or perished from me They look downward they seeing nothing
but the Belly of destruction opening for them they look upward the onely and last refuge and remedy in this deplorable estate was out of the depths they cry'd to the Lord. But though they look out of the Ship as Noah did out of his Ark upon the waters and send forth the Dove of Prayer that winged Messenger to Heaven yet she brings no Olive branch no Answer the waters asswage not the winds calm not they are like the Prophets Servant when he bid him go up now and look towards the Sea and he went up and looked and said there is nothing and this strikes them into dolefull and dismall Lamentations out of which Lamentations at last Springs up a tragical and sorrowfull Motion The Motion is that which the Marriners in Ionahs Vessel put in execution Come let us cast Lots c. onely with this difference they cast Lots to find out the delinquent and these which of them should dye first to be a Sacrifice for ravenous Hunger to feed upon Concluding as he in that case It is expedient for us that one man should dye for the People and that the whole Ships Company perrish not Life being sweet Skin for Skin and all a man hath will he give for his life they at last bring it through many a sad debate to a result they cast the Lott th disposing of which is of the Lord one of the Company is arrested by the Lott here here is the Condemned Prisoner O but where is the Executioner to be found to act his office upon a poor Innocent is it not death to them now to think who shall act this bloody part in the Tragedy But before they fall upon their involuntary Execution Major Gibbons calls them to Prayer considering that in the Mount the Lord is often seen and that many times our extremity proves Gods opportunity he also askes the poor man if he was willing to dye but O what a hard Question is that to Answer He replys if it might preserve the rest of the lives he could be the more willing to which he hath this Answer All events are in the hands of God we must not dispute them to Prayer they go and O sure these Prayers must melt hearts of Adamant and Behold while they are at it God doth send a visible commentary upon that Scripture Then shalt thou call and the Lord shall Answer thou shalt Cry and he shall say here I am For while they were calling God was Answering there leaps a mighty Fish into the Boat and as it is of the Whale swallowed up Ionah God prepared a Fish for the Lord here prepared or provided a Fish that a poor creature might not be swallowed up but O what joy was here at such a token for good not only it at present releiving and refreshing their hunger which no Question made them quick Cooks but when they looke upon the Finger of God in it sending it as an answer to prayer they conclude it an happy Omen of their deliverance and a pledg of approaching mercy but alas it is not long before their hearts grow faint again their Countenances pale their Spirits sink now as low as they were lifted up high and now the poor Sea-men are like their Ship one while mounted up in the hopes to Heaven and another while they are sunk down again in despair as low as hell they know not now of another cake another Morsell they are reduced to their former exigency which brings them to a resolve to steer in this strait their old course to Lotts they go again the Second time only they have such an honour for the Providence of God they will not put him into condemnation that God hath acquited the Lott now falls upon another person and O now they receive the old trouble and intestine Combats how they shall find in their Hearts to punish one that never had offended any of them and while one thinks of it sayes he Alas poor man what hath he done to deserve this sentence another crys Will not this blood cleave to my Conscience another day though I went to this expe-expedition a Prest-Souldier another says for his part he sees no way but death therefore he cannot take away life when he sees not any life can be preserved by it but they are called again to look upward before they put the Knife to the Throat of this Sacrifice and they remember the last encouragement to put life into the almost dead-mens Prayers they pray now with a pledge in their hands and are ready to tell God the last time he gave them a Pawn an Earnest and O it is not vain to seek the Lord for loe while they are seeking to him he is sending to them as the Prayers flye to Heaven Mercy is dispatched upon the wings from Heaven O turn aside and see this great sight while they are praying Behold a second Answer from above A great Bird lights and fixes her self upon the Mast which one in the Company espies and up he goes and there she stands until he took her with his hand by the wing brought her down to the Company and O what life from the dead is this to them a second time Sure they will hearken to the voyce of the second Sign if not to the voyce of the first and now that which they hoped by the first Providence viz. that it was a fore-runner of the compleat deliverance Now they are by this second confirmed in the Faith and now they begin to think as I can easily imagin if God will save them out of this distress O what manner of persons they will become what manner of lives they will live what Sacrifices of Thanksgiving will they offer up to God! but while they are thus thinking they have no visible hopes but that it must be a third Miracle that brings them out of this their miserable condition they have the same disappointments upon them still only now they divert their Hunger all they can by telling of and remembring the Loaves as I may say their experiences in this extremity of theirs and comforting themselves that if they come to a third strait it would they hoped be an outlet from their present misery and calamity They are reduced the third time to the former course and strait to cast Lotts and when they were to go to the heart-aking work to put him to death upon whom the Lott fell they go to their Old Friend in a day of Adversity to God by hearty and humble Prayer And O now they do as the Prophets man at the Sea-side look again and again but alas Master they cry there is nothing Prayer is done concluded nothing appears O but as the Prophets Man looked seaven times so says this good man Major Gibbons look again as Ionah I will look again towards his Holy Temple says he to one of the Company Go up to the top and see what you can espy and
forgotten by us harden us either they soften or harden These Providences are like Gods Ordinances in this respect they either harden or soften Oh! what a dreadful thing it is to be hardned by Deliverances and Preservation and yet many are Sentence not being speedily executed the hearts of men are fully set in them to do evil 4. Such Deliverances will be great aggravations both of mans sin and misery if forgotten by them The goodness of God was the aggravation of the sin of David says God When I had done so and so for thee nay and I would have done more wherefore hast thou despised the Commandment of the Lord to do evil in his sight What for you that had such deliverances as these to break his Commandments as Ezra says O this is an high aggravation 5. Deliverances and Dangers forgotten will cause the Lord to pull in his hand in a way of Mercy will cause God to give up Persons and take his Protecting presence from them take them from the shaddow of his Wings Souls by forgetting past dangers and deliverances may put themselves from under Gods Protection for the future Vse 2. Is it so that we are to Remember our Sea-Dangers and Deliverances then it is a word of Exhortation be exhorted then to call to mind and keep in mind what God hath done for you and in this Exhortation I address my self to Sea-faring men whose lives are a course and series of Wonders in their frequent Salvations and Preservations witness this Treatise as you see the wonders of God in the Deeps viz. The wonders of his Creation so do you see the wonders of his Salvation How often may Wonderful be Written upon the Head of Salvations that you are every Voyage receiving from God you never go out and come home but God works Wonderfully and appears Wonderfully for you Is not he a Wonder-working-God for you every Voyage The Exhortation is to call to mind and keep in mind to Record and Register your Dangers and Deliverances and not to do as Israel is said to do who soon forgot his works How often doth God bring in this sin of theirs in one Psalm They forgot his works and the wonders he had shewed them 1. Keep them in mind for they are wonderful Dangers and Deliverances They are Wonders these are to be remembred Marvelous things did he for them in the sight of their Fathers c. He devided the Sea and caused them to pass through and he made the waters to stand as an heap and it is brought in again in that Psalm They remembred not his hand nor the day when God delivered them out of the hand of the Enemy c. And in another place They forgot God their Saviour which had done great things in Egypt Wonderous works in the Land of Ham. This heightens the sin exceedingly to forget such great and wonderful Dangers and Deliverances 1. Your Dangers are Wonderful in this Respect they are often such as threaten a sentence of Death to be executed upon you May it not be said of poor Sea-men as was of them For we would not Brethren have you ignorant of our trouble which came to us in Asia that we were pressed out of measure above strength insomuch that we despaired of life but we had the sentence of death in our selves that we should not trust in our selves but in him that raiseth the dead who delivered us from so great a Death and doth Deliver O how many Sea-faring men may say thus Our dangers have been such as we have often despaired of life there hath but been a little betwixt us and Death nay betwixt us and Eternity and shall we forget such Dangers when we have been so near Death in them As he said to David As the Lord lives there is but one step betwixt thee and death O how often have you been near sinking near drowning and yet God hath then appeared for you with an outstretched Arm and in the Mount hath been seen and will not you Remember this 2. Your Dangers are Wonderful in this Respect they are sudden and surprizing they are wonderful sudden how are you often all on a sudden threatned with nothing but present Death and Destruction It may be said of Sea-men as of those in Iob Snares compasses them about and sudden fear troubleth them It doth not only trouble them but all on a sudden trouble them before they know almost where they are as we say We read of some whose Calamity shall come suddenly Suddenly shall he be broken without Remedy O how terrible is such a case or such a danger and hath not God often threatned to make this your case and condition O then do not forget such dangers that have so suddenly lookt you in the Face 3. Your Dangers are Wonderful in this Respect they are not Dangers in which your Bodies are concerned only but they are dangers in which your Souls are concerned It is not only the danger of a Ship-wrack'd Vessel and a Shipwrack'd Estate and a Shipwrack'd Body but a Shipwrack'd Soul Here is the great danger lest thou make a lost Voyage for thy Soul If thou had died in such a Storm or died in the Terme of such a Voyage Oh! what would have become of thy Soul Thy precious thy immortal Soul Had not thou died in a carnal in a Christless state and condition Had not thy poor Soul perished to all Eternity if thou then had miscarried Was not thou then a stranger altogether to Christ and a work of saving Grace upon thy Heart Had not thou then the guilt of all thy sins upon the back of thy Soul unpardoned And ô what danger was this And wilt thou forget such dangers 4. Your Dangers are such at Sea as none but a God can deliver from all your skill cannot Oh then is the greatest Artist at his Wits end The Psalmist tells us the Marriners in their Storms are at their wits end or as some read it all their wisdom is swallowed up they know not what course to Steer the Dutch Annotators carry it Now their very Pilots are at a loss Now all their courage cannot contribute to their deliverance though men of the greatest natural courage and magnanimity in the world Yet now their hearts melt because of troubles as it is said of the Marriners in Ionahs Ship The Marriners were afraid O now when Death and Eternity the Grave and Judgment to come looks them in the face Then they are Magor-Missabibs terror to themselves and to all about them O now the danger is such it must be the only finger of God that can help I have heard of a Ship in Yarmouth Road that in a great Storm they feared the Anchor would come home and the Master discoursing with a Youth in the Ship that God had begun lately to work some Convictions upon O says his Master if God do but lay a Finger upon
one Strand of the Cable it will hold and in the Morning many Ships were lost near them and there was but one Strand in the Cable left O the finger of God only can sometimes save in dangers It was a good saying of a godly Commander of a Ship in eminent dangers None now but that God that saved the Children of Israel at the Red Sea can save us out of this distress and as soon as he had said it the Wind altered and saved them And will you forget such dangers as none but a God can save from 5. Your dangers at Sea are such as many thousands have perished in how many have gone to Sea that never returned more that have been swallowed up in the belly of the great Deeps How many have perished by the Sword at Sea how many by violent Storms and that God should put a difference betwixt you and others and you should forget it this exceedingly heightens and aggravates the guilt How many have lost their lives how many have lost their limbs and yet in such dangers God hath brought you off this is never to be forgotten 2. Your dangers are not only wonderful but your deliverances are so too and therefore should be remembred There is never a deliverance but you may read a wonder in it so many deliverances and salvations at Sea so many wonders God saves you in a miraculous way 1. Is not this a wonder that persons of such great sins and provocations should be persons of such great salvations and preservations that such as sin every Voyage nay it may be at an high rate sin every Voyage should be saved and delivered at such an high rate every Voyage is not this a wonder that men of such sins should be men of such salvations that men that sin against these salvations should not have these deliverances shorten upon them Oh what a wonder is this We should wonder if a person should be continually disobliging any of us and yet we should be still heaping up kindnesses upon him This made the Prophet Ezra say Shall we again break his Commandments after such deliverance as this O do not you provoke the Lord every time that you go out and still he delivers you still he returns you to your Relations to visit your habitations in peace and is not this a wonder 2. Your deliverances are wonderful if you consider your deliverances are great deliverances We read of such And the Lord saved them with a great deliverance or with a great salvation Thus said Sampson Thou hast given this great deliverance into the hand of thy servant Now any great transactions are remembred and recorded Your deliverances are great if we consider these things 1. They are commanded deliverances by the great God his word of command brings all our deliverances about whether at Sea or Land Which made the Church in distress pray Thou art my King O God command deliverances for Jacob. He commands every thing tending to deliverance at Sea in order to deliverance he commands the Winds He maketh the storm a calm He also commands the Seas he says to the proud Waves So far and no further You read of a decree set to the Sea that it cannot pass Though the Waves thereof toss themselves yet can they not prevail though they roar yet can they not pass over it It is the great God only that rides Lord Admiral at Sea to command the Seas and the Waves thereof God is said to shut up the Sea with doors and set bars upon it Hithorto shalt thou come and no further and here shall thy proud waves be stayed Xerxes presumed he could tame the Hellespont for attempting his Bridge of Boats but all this was in vain this is a flower in Gods Crown alone to command the Sea Your deliverances are a fruit and effect of Gods commanding Power therefore great 2. They are great deliverances as they are the curious workmanship as I may call them of the Attributes of a great God Deliverance is said to be wrought for us it is the handy work of God If God will work who can let as the Prophet saith And he seems to speak it upon the account of the deliverance of his People For your sake I have sent down to Babylon and have brought down all their Nobles and the Caldeans whose cry is in their ships In every deliverance there is the excellent work of the Attributes of God we may in such a deliverance say Here is the Power of God and here is the Wisdom of God and here is the Love of God and here is the Faithfulness of God c. For as God in the confounding of the Languages at Babel said Go too let us go down as if he derected himself to his glorious Attributes compassing about his glorious Throne Come let us go down So when God sends us deliverances in our distresses he sets his Attributes at work Go Power go Mercy go Love go Faithfulness go and act your respective parts in this deliverance and must not this be then an excellent and curious Piece that Gods Attributes bring forth 3. They are great deliverances if we consider the great sins and provocations they come over the heads of the great unworthiness of the receiver heightens much the mercy and favour received the reason why persons do not greaten their deliverances is because they do not greaten their sins in the deep sense and aggravations of them O sueh a Soul would say as David Is this the manner of men O God is not this a great deliverance for such a great sinner to receive 4. They are great deliverances if we consider the time and season of their coming in as this deliverance of the Ships Company where Paul was it was when all hope of being saved was taken away and so were many of the deliverances mentioned in this Treatise So Peter's Sea-deliverance when he began to sink Christ stretcheth forth his hand immediately he was now sinking and going but see how ready Christ was to save He stretched forth his hand and caught Peter Our sinking time is Jesus Christs saving time In the Mount is the Lord seen our extremity is Gods opportunity and are not then these great deliverances never to be forgotten 5. They are great deliverances if we consider they are not only deliverances of Bodies and Ships and Estates sometimes but Souls and where and where the Ship is lost and the Estate is lost yet for the life to be saved and the Soul delivered is a very great Deliverance a Reprieve when a Prisoner is under the sentence of Death is a great Mercy O when God Reprieves a poor Prisoner this is some Deliverance we read of some Deliverance God gave to Israel in the days of Shishak a Reprieve is some Deliverance but if it end in suing out the Prisoners Pardon then it is a great Deliverance If it be such a Deliverance in
a Storm at Sea as Hezekiah had from a Sickness at Shoar Thou hast delivered me in love to my Soul and cast all my sins behind thy back This is a double Deliverance and sure such Deliverances as these are worth Recording These are to be written in Marble and not in Dust with the Pen of Iron as the Prophet says and not with the point of a Diamond 3. Your Deliverances are wonderful if you consider the many thousands that have perished in less Dangers to an eye of Reason they are distinguishing Deliverances and therefore wonderful hath God dealt with all men that go to Sea as with you Hath not thousands perished by the Sword at Sea in bloody Engagements Miscarried at Sea in dreadful and terrible Storms Hath not the Sea been a Sepulcher for thousands Are not there Millions of the Dead that the Sea must one day give up and yet you Delivered and yet you spared O what distinguishing Mercy is this And shall this be forgotten by you Should not you keep Records of distinguishing Mercy How many sunk sometimes and perished by your sides How many that went out with you that never Returned One taken and another left one sunk and another saved 4. Your Deliverances are Wonderful if you consider the way that sometimes God takes to bring them about O what strange ways doth God take to deliver when he hath a mind to deliver sometimes he brings down to the very Gate of the Grave he brings to the Doors and Bars of the Sea and then shuts these doors as Iob speaks He brings to the next door to perishing and then he delivers Master save me or I perish and then he lends an Arm witness many of these deliverances here mentioned Sometimes he doth it by strange means low and contemptible as the poor man that we Read of that delivered the City sometimes by unthought of and unexpected means as he that Relieved Major Gibbons as this Story mentions he was a French Pyrate As that Ship I have heard off that when she sprang a Leak and they all had like to have perished all on a sudden the Leak stopt and they knew no Reason but when they came into the next Port to search her there was a great Fish had wrought himself into the Leak that they were glad to cut him out was not here a miraculous deliverance That Ionah should be swallowed up by the Whale ô what a miracle was this and so he was preserved and how have some been saved by sudden shifts of Winds when neer sinking and perishing these are to be remembred to the Lord while you live Oh! methinks this one Motive should set on the Exhortation if I should use no more to Remember your Dangers and your Deliverances But secondly another Motive is this to Remember your Dangers with your Deliverances this will in your great distresses and extremities contribute some hope to you to read over your Register your ancient Records how good God hath been at such a time and such a time how seasonably he stept in and delivered in such a strait and such a strait Oh then says the Soul why should I despair and cast off all hope now hath not he appeared and saved in Deaths often before now for past experiences are good supports for Hope in present exigencies and extremities thus David argues when at a great strait Thou hast delivered me and wilt deliver me and thus Paul Thou hast delivered me and wilt deliver me Haman found this a good way to Remember the years of the Lords right hand 3. Remember your Dangers and Deliverances for God Records them they are filled up by God and he will mind you of them another day if you forget them now he keeps his Journals and Records he hath his Book of Remembrance of your forgotten Mercies as well as your forgotten sins God will one day read over all those Deliverances you have forgotten Oh poor Soul did not I deliver thee in such a Danger in such a Distress in such a Death when there was no Hope when there was no Help yet all this hast thou forgotten forgotten thy Mercy and forgotten the God of thy Mercy Oh! will not this sting you to the Heart when God shall cause your strangled and murdered Mercies to walk in your Consciences when he shall give them a Resurrection there 4. Motive to Remember your Dangers and Deliverances the Vows of God are upon you Oh! what did you say to God in the day of your distress and calamity Lord if thou wilt now appear and be a present help in time of trouble it shall never be forgotten it shall be remembred to the Lord as long as we have a day to live but when God brings poor Souls off many do not only forget their Vows but deny them In Ancient times it was usual in eminent dangers whether at Sea or Land to make Vows We read that Ionahs Marriners they Vowed Vows David did thus Thy Vows are upon me O God! I will render praises unto thee c. and in another place I will pay thee my Vows which my lips have uttered and my mouth hath spoken when I was in trouble But because this is so ordinary to make Vows at Sea and brake them a Shoar let me enlarge a little upon it 1. Why should you forget your Vows after your Deliverances They were not rash Vows there might have been some excuse if you had made them rashly you might then have had a Plea for saying it was an Error but in times of distress men are serious when Death and Eternity is set before them and they upon the brink of another world dare you sinners rashly Vow in this day of your distress O no your Consciences will bear witness against you that you were in sober-sadness at that day 2. Why should you forget your Vows after your Deliverances for God will require payment Nay this is not only the Reason why we should not forget to pay but why we should not delay to pay When thou vowest a vow to the Lord thy God thou shouldst not slack to pay it for the Lord thy God will require it yea will surely require it of thee and it would be sin in thee Take it for granted he will do it yea he will surely do it 1. He will require it so as to call to a payment day he will demand it he will send unto you a Summons to pay the Vows you made to him in the day of your Distress Oh! how often is Conscience Gods Officer that he sends to you to demand Payment O says Conscience Sinner pay what thou owest to the God of thy deliverances is not he a God to whom the Vows must be performed 2. He will require it so as to punish the non-payment and so requiring is here taken and in many other places the Lord doth very often severely punish Vow-breaking breaking of Vows doth cause God
be large because I have been large upon the former which was mainly intended 1. Then learn we hence that God may for gracious ends known to himself delay a mercy or a deliverance and yet fully intends to give in that mercy Iacob may wrestle all night and yet be put off but in the break of day the mercy comes The Woman of Canaan may cry to Christ for her Daughter and at present be put off yet at last she shall carry it The believing Soul may not have the Dove come with an Olive-branch in her mouth until evening Christs manifesting of his love to poor Souls is called his supping with them And I will sup with you Now supper comes not up till evening 2. Learn we hence that Gods timing our deliverances and salvations is best for us his time is the best time Our time is always ready but saith Christ My time is not yet If we had our mercies in our time we should not see that beauty in them for every thing is beautiful in its season and God chuses the fittest seasons to send them because he will put a beauty upon them 3. Learn we hence that no case is desperate to God though it be so to man One would have thought this a desperate case in such a storm lightning the Ship the casting out of the Tackling of the Ship neither Sun nor Stars appeared and all hope of being saved taken away yet all this was but desperate to them it was not so to God now their extremity becomes Gods opportunity and he takes this juncture of time to appear in Thus David all Gods waves and Gods billows had gone over him a desperate case yet God then he believes would command his loving kindness in the day-time and his song should be with him in the night Faith is an excellent grace at a desperate stand 4. Learn we hence that Gods thoughts are not as our thoughts when we think of nothing but sinking and perishing then doth God think of saving and delivering They thought all hope of being saved was taken away but God looks through the storm and Cloud and comforts them As the Disciples when they thought it had been a Spirit in their Storm that appeared to them No saith Christ be not afraid be of good chear it is I. Vse 2. Is it so that the salvations and deliverances that many of us have are not until we be brought to extremities then it is a word of exhortation 1. Then look up to God in the most desperate case when you know not what to do in your storms at Sea in your straits at Land O then let your eyes be up unto the Lord you see how many deliverances have come down in extremities as answers to pray O pray hard let going to Sea being in storms at Sea being brought to extremities at Sea learn you then to pray FINIS Witness that Excellent Treatise of his Death Unstung T. Mousley T. Savage Psal. 142 4 5. 1 Kings 8. 43. Ionah 1. 7. Iohn 11. 50. Esay 58. 9. Fullfilling of the Scriptures pag. 487. Mr. Gedney of New England An extraordinary thing they being the greatest instruments of Cruelty in that Rebellion Fox's Book of Martyrs This Grorius in his Annalls of the neitherlands gives an account of at large Amlasaders Travels you find this Passage Lev. 16 29. Ezek. 37. 11. Psal. 34. 4. 2 Cor. 1. 9 10. Matth. 14. 28 29 30. Psal. 40. 12 13. Psal. 57. 7. Psal. 56. 12 13. Psal. 116. 6 7. 2 Cor. 11. 26. 2 Sam. â— Psal. 116. 12 13 14. Psal. 18. 1. Psal. 56. ult Psal. 42. 6 7. 1 Tim. 4. 17 18. Psal. 124. 4 5. Who have been so often delivered at Sea in eminent dangers Psal. 56. ult Ier. 7. 10. Psal. 50. 15. 2 Sam. 12. 8 9. Ps. 106 13. Ps 78. 11. Psal. 78. 12 13. Ps. 78 42. Psal. 106. 21 22. 2 Cor 1. 8 9 10. Iob 22. 10. Pro. 6. 15. Ps. 107. 27. The courage of such is set forth Olli Robur aes triplex circa Pectus Hor. Ver. 26. He that first ventred into his Ship at Sea is said to have treble brass about his breast a Proverbial speech for a man of courage 1 Chron. 11. 14. Iudg. 15. 18. Psal. 44. 4. Psal. 107. 29. Ier. 5. 22. Iob 38. 8 11. Isai. 43. 13 14. Gen. 11. 7. Or as some take it of the Trinity as in the Creation it is Gods coming down when Persons are delivered in eminent dangers We read of hands at work under the wings we see not so the curious works of providence in our deliverances till they come forth O then how shall we admire them Ezek. 10. 21. Matth. 14. 28 29 30. Is. 38. Eccles. 9. 15. Past Experiences as well as promises are good food for faith We read God gave the Leviathan to be meat for his people in the wilderness Psal. 74. 14 which Expositors take to be meat for their Faith Ionah 1. 16. Psal. 56. 11. Psal. 66. 25. 15. Eccles. 5. 4 5. Deut. 23. 21. Eccles. 5. 4 5. Ionah 2. 1 2 3. vers 7. Psal. 130. 1. Ionah 2. 4 8. Isaiah 17. 1 Kings 18. latter end Psal. 130. vers 6. Mark 4. 41. Matth. 14. 32 33. Psal. 42 7 8. Mark 6. 50 51 52.