blessings of the Gospel are quite of another complexion Blessed are you when you shall be persecuted for righteousness sake And again at the 11. verse Blessed are you when men shall revile you and persecute you and shall say all manner of evil of you for my names sake These are the blessings of the Gospel Persecution is the Ensign of Christianity The Cross in a Field of Bloud are the Arms of Christ and Afflictions are the Sables that belong to his Coat When our Saviour Christ went out of the World he left his Disciples this Legacy in his last Will and Testament In the world ye shall have Tribulation This was all the Legacy our Saviour left his Disciples he had nothing else to leave them for Joseph of Arimathea had begged his Body his Spirit he had commended into the hands of God his Father and the Souldiers cast lots for his Garments and what then could our Saviour leave them Yet he left them a Royal Legacy for he left them a Crown but it was of Thorns he left them a Scepter but it was of Reed he left them a purple Robe but it was of Derision he left them likewise the rich embroydery of his scourged Flesh the marks and wounds of his crucified Body This was our Saviour's Legacy this was his Livery and S. Paul seems to wear it daily I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus This was the state of the Church in the time of the Gospel for the Spouse of Christ is black though comely God will have it so for these reasons 1. To withdraw his Children from the love of the World It is in our very nature to love the World Adam is more seen in our Covetousness then in our Concupiscence There is a kind of Magick in the things of this life that doth so enchant the hearts of God's dearest Children that they cannot draw their affections from them Lot was a righteous Person and yet he had no mind to part from his wealth and beloved Sodom and his Wife though she went out with him yet she left her self behind she went with her feet only not with her affections and therefore she could not for her life but she must look back upon Sodom though in flames and she look'd back till she could look no more The World is our Dinah to which our soul so cleaveth that we are content to part with our Rights and Priviledges with our Religion and would be circumcised if we might but enjoy this our Dinah our new-got wealth and honour in peace But God will not have his Children live in peace in this World that they may long for a better a better World and a better Peace Should we always swim in worldly pleasures and meet with no storms and tempests in this our vast Ocean of Prosperity we should say with S. Peter It is good for us to be here let us build us Tabernacles and so think to live here for ever But God will have it otherwise and therefore he keeps his Children in this World in a vale of tears and often leads them through Aceldama a field of bloud and persecution that with Jacob they may long for their Father's house and say with S. Paul I desire to depart and to be with Christ. 2. God will have his Children in a troubled condition not only to make them long for the Kingdom of Glory but to keep them in the Kingdom of Grace The Valleys are more fruitful then the Hills and the lowest estate of a Child of God doth more abound with grace and goodness then the highest Mountain of their Prosperity The Prophet David sayes of God's own People Cum occideret eos When he slew them then they sought him early Strange that they must be slain before they seek God is a gracious God and would lead us unto himself by the hand but we will not go without a Rod. A strange dulness or rather perverseness in our nature that we must be whipt into our own happiness and beaten into heaven I find it likewise thus with Christ's own Disciples in the Gospel the first time they call'd upon him was in a storm at Sea that School of prayer when the Ship was cover'd with waves 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hidden in the Sea Then they were as loud as the Wind and as high as the Tempest in their devotion Master save us we perish And I observe in the Gospel after our Saviour began to shew himself unto the World in the Office of his Ministery the first that came to him were the Blind the Lame and the Diseased Is it not strange that the Blind should find the way to Christ and that the Lame should first come to him and that the Sick should crawl out of their Beds to him nay more bring their Beds with them Which made our Saviour say sometimes to the sick Take up thy Bed and walk It was the affliction of the Body that brought them first to Christ who when they came cured both Body and Soul For he never cured any that came to him of the Diseases of their Bodies but he forgave them their Sins and so heal'd their Souls Thy sins are forgiven thee was the very Physick that cur'd the man sick of the Palsey It is a Salve that cures all Diseases Lord forgive me my sins and then I am sure I shall be whole So then if by the infirmities of their Bodies these men gain'd the salvation of their Souls was it not happy for that man that he was born blind good for that man that he was lame and health for that man that he was sick Beloved we do not know when we are well we are most happy when we think our selves miserable rich when we are poor like the Church of Smyrna and blessed when we mourn If nothing but poverty will bring us unto Christ who would not willingly be as poor as Job If nothing but the pains of the body would bring us unto our Saviour who would not be content to be rack'd with the Gout and grownd in pieces with the Stone If sickness alone would save my Soul let me be sick as Hezekiah was even unto death so I may gain eternal life Who would not go to heaven though in a fiery chariot of a burning Fever Vse 1. Seeing then afflictions are such powerful means to draw us unto Christ whatsoever God shall lay upon us of this sad Nature let us bear it aequo animo with a quiet and even mind But that is not enough we must undergo it laeto animo with a joyful Spirit such a spirit as S. Paul had who rejoyc'd in his bonds and sang in prison and which is above the common Passions of men being inflam'd with an holy and divine Ambition 2 Cor. 11. we shall find him triumphing in his sufferings glorying in his infirmities and exalting himself in his abasement Even as Hezekiah in the
Messenger but Death it self Had he said nothing we might have read our fate and ruine in his countenance Here was now no room for counsel neither had we time to ask one another what was best to be done But we presently cast out our long Boat and shot off some eight or nine Guns which seem'd to me to be so many tolls of a Passing-bell before our death But it was to give notice to one Bartholomew Cook who was Master of that Ship that came out with us and was but a little before us that he should come to our relief In these fair hopes we leapt into the Boat but it was my sad chance to leap short one leg in the boat alterum in Charontis cymba but not without some danger I scrambled out of the Sea into the boat but was no sooner there but one of the Mariners leapt out of the ship upon me and beat me down with his weight which I took kindly enough being willing to have carried them all upon my back to have saved their lives But there was one and but one left in our sinking ship who made such lamentable moan that his tears prevail'd against the fears of our present danger and we took him into our boat when we expected our ship whose sails lay now flat upon the water should sink immediately which must necessarily have drawn our small boat after it as the greater fished swallow up the less But God be thanked we all came clear off the ship but now were rowing we knew not whither For M. Cook came not to our relief and we began to be severe in language against him as if he had not been kinde enough to us when all that knew him will say he was a man of a soft tender nature and a friend to others rather then to himself But all men are suspicious in adversity and commonly take all things in the worst part and so did we not considering at all how it might fare with this honest Master who poor man was in greater distresse then our selves and drank a deeper draught of affliction for both he and his ship and all his men perished in that hour not a man escaped to tell us the cause manner and method of his fate Now were all our hopes dashed as well as our selves being in despair of humane help for we were left in the North Seas which seldom wear a smooth brow but at this time contending with the wind swell'd into prodigious Mountaines which threatned every moment to fall upon us To speak plainly it blew half a storm and we were now in a small Vessel what credit could we give unto our safety in a small and open Shallop when so stately a Castle of wood which we but now lost could not defend it self against the insolency of the waves we were many leagues from any shore having no Compass to guide us no provision to sustain us being starv'd with cold as well as for want of victuals and the Night grew black upon us having nothing in our Boat but a small Kettle and three bags of Pieces of Eight to the value of 300 li. Sterling But alas what good can money do where there is no Exchange we could not eat nor drink our Silver neither could our Pieces of Eight keep us warm Money in its own nature is but an impotent creature a very cripple inutile pondus a burthen of no value Good God! into what a sad condition hast thou now brought us for which of our sins doest thou thus punish us Teach us O Lord that we may know it and first drown our selves in tears of repentance before the Sea swallow us up that though our bodies be cast away we may save our souls Such language my troubled thoughts spake within me For it was with us now as it with St. Paul All hopes that we should be saved were taken away Nothing could preserve us but a miracle being out of the reach of humane help we were sinful creatures and could not expect that God should go out of his ordinary way to save us Though the waves carried us up to Heaven yet we could not hope or believe that God should put his hand out of the clouds and take us miserable Caitives unto himself from the top of a rising wave we had nothing to help us but our prayers I am sorry that word slipt from my hasty pen. Prayer is a multitude a Troop of succors and many enough to deliver us out of the depth though we were intomb'd in the belly of a Whale as it did Jonah Prayer if it be well qualified is that rod of Moses that can turn the Sea into a wilderness and make us pass through upon dry land Upon this only staff did we all lean and I suppose it was with us as in the case of Jonah The mariners were afraid and every man called upon his God And truly I think I may with modesty confesse I thought on those words of David though after a more imperfect manner Out of the depth have I cried unto thee Lord hear my voice and let thine ears be attentive to my supplication I sink in the deep mire where there is no standing Let not the water-flood overflow me neither let the deep swallow me up But beside our personal devotion I am perswaded the extremity of our condition pleaded for us and our misery cried aloud in the ears of God for pity and compassion It is an usual expression when we see any man extreamly poor and miserable to say his poverty or his misery speaks for him and commonly we are not so much moved with a clamorous Beggar who hunts after our Alms with open mouth and makes Hue and Cry after our Charity as if we had stollen something from him who begs of us I say we are not so much moved with such loud impudence as with the silence of those diseased Cripples and infirm Lazaro's that lie at our doors and in the streets and say nothing but shew only their wounds and sores to those that pass by These beggars speak loudest to our affections their very condition is eloquent quot vulnera tot ora so many wounds so many mouths that cry aloud for pity and cannot chuse but melt us into a charitable compassion This was our case our misery was louder then our prayers and our deplorable condition certainly was more prevalent with Almighty God then our imperfect devotions for we may say with the people of Israel He heard our cry and had compassion on us It is the usual way of God to help in Extremities when we are in absolute despair of all outward means he loves to save us that we may say It is his doing alone For in this moment of death when we were without the least expectation of any deliverance He sent a Ship to us which we must needs confess to be Digitus Dei the finger of God that pointed
parts and we were taught to escape our danger by our danger for our Ship breaking in the Stern we were forc'd to fly to the former part and one of the Sea-men the same that pull'd me up by the Rope leap'd from the Bow of the Ship upon the Rock with a rope in his hand which was fastned to one of our Masts and held it with so stiff an hand that another slipt down by it and so all our own company and some of the Danes eight and twenty in number came safe to the Rock that way All this while being left alone upon the Deck I began to wonder what became of my company not then knowing that they had found any means of deliverance But perceiving that they all crowded to the head of the ship I went to see God knows that was all my intention what they did there and so I came to the knowledge of their escape and an opportunity of my own For I found a Dane endeavouring to slide down himself and a small leather-trunk by that rope who like a loving man took pity upon me and presently whipt away his trunk and bid me slide down there but I return'd him his kindness and desir'd him to go down first not so much out of complement but that I might know how to slide down for I saw none of them go before me and I did not know whether I should go with my head or heels foremost I had no time to ask counsel or make experiment but presently I got upon the rope with my heels foremost and back uppermost But the waves beat upon me and the wind which was high blew me round and had almost made me let go my hold but I praise God I came safely to the side of the rock and they cry'd Off off not out of unkindnesse to me whom they knew not in the dark but that I might make a speedy way for another which I quickly did for having laid one hand upon the rock I came off the rope and so on all four climb'd up to the rest of my company I was the last that came down the ship that way for in that very moment the ship began to decline from us and give way which the Master perceiving who was still aboard made lamentable moan to us to help him which we did with our utmost endeavours But the ship brake and sunk immediately There was this good man and four of the Mariners drown'd I saw the Master with a light in his hand fall into the Sea the saddest sight I ever yet beheld in this world and that which pierced my very soul to see him that saved our lives lose his own There was nothing so bitter to me in all my sufferings at Sea as the loss of this man it raised such a storm and tempest in my affections that I am not yet calm within I never think of him but I am cast in a troubled sea of sorrow and suffer shipwrack daily in my mind for as he was a man of a meek and charitable disposition unto all so I found him kinde unto my self after a more special manner How sollicitous was he for us in our distress and used all means though it was to his own hindrance to save us and in all probability had he not staid for us he might have arrived at his own Harbour in safety What shall we say shall we plead with the Almighty with the Prophet Jeremy No it is better to cry out with S. Paul Oh the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgements and his ways past finding out For who hath known the mind of the Lord or who hath been his counsellor All that we can say is that God sometimes thus dealeth with his own children Those whom by his grace he hath made instruments of great good upon earth he taketh unto himself to make them highly blessed in heaven Certainly the Spirit of God moved upon these waters and call'd this good man as Christ did S. Peter on the Sea of Galilee to come to him that for this high act of charity he might receive him and presently crown him with glory Now were we upon the Rock but knew not where and some of the Company before I came to them had measur'd it round with their feet and found it both a Rock and an Isle and contrary to our hopes inhabitable so that we waited for the Morning-Star to draw the curtain of the night and discover us first unto our selves for as yet in the dark we were as ignorant of our selves as of our sad condition and then to shew and discover some coast or land to us which we hoped we were neer to It was a long and a sad night with me a rock is an hard pillow to sleep on beside I was thinly clad having cast off my coat when I intended to swim and had no leisure to put it on again for I thought it best to leave that behinde me rather then my self We went from place to place up and down I may truly say for I had many a fall upon the slimy Rock sometimes we were up to the anckles in water I cannot say overshooes for I had none so that my feet were cut with the sharp stones as my body with the cold wind so that I felt the very teeth of Winter bite quite through me for Winter in that Country is an old man with a grey head when it is but a child with us At length we happen'd in an hole of the rock which was a warm shelter to us against the wind And now the long-expected Morning drew neer and we fain would have seen before we could In that twilight every black cloud we discerned we flatter'd our selves was land and here it was we said and there it was But when the Sun arose we saw it no where only we had a glimpse of the Coast of Norwey but it was at that distance that we were not in any capacity to reach it but with our desires Truly when I rose up and took a view of the Sea and the place where I was I was struck down again with amazement to see so many hundreds of Rocks round about us lying for the most part under water which the Sea-men call Breakers because they break the Sea and turn it into feathers It was a great providence of God that we should in the night with full sails pass by all these rocks the least touch against them had been as mortal to us as our sins and then to come to the great Rock which was as a Church above water I am sure it was an Asylum to us The Countrey-people deservedly call it Arn-Scare It was the same hand again of Gods providence that our ship should be carried with a full strong wind into the cleft and open part of the rock which was as a bosom to receive us had we touch'd upon any other