Psal 65.7 He disappoints the devices of crafty captaines and makes the common Mariners to yeeld up them that blood may not be shed nor peace broken God makes even men at Sea as well as waves to be calme and still On a man thnt standing to sound with the line fell over-board and was lost This man sounded to secure the ship yet he lost himself He stood with the line and lead to sound what depth of water the vessel had and he falls into the waters and so himself sunk to th◠bottome to feel the depth Ah O my soule Is not this man an embleme of thee who soundest the depths of Satan to secure others Art not thou in danger to loose thy self Preachers look about you fear lest while you sound and discourse of Satans deeps to warn others fear I say lest you lose your selves Mariners look to it while you stand by the line and lead sounding Consider that you may be neerer the bottome then you are aware 't will be sad if you fall and sinke even while you sound But sadder if as your body like the lead goes down the bottome of the deep your soul sink as a stone into the depth of Hell You had need be well skilled in the art and mystery of spiritual swimming that so your souls may be secure and fase by swimming to the banks of heaven's shoar when your bodyes sinke to bottome of the Seas On the sight of many great shot made from a Fort to some vessels and none taking place Surely the gunner intended to hit and hurt however he still missed the mark he traversed and levelled to mischief vessel and men but yet still his bullet flew over and besides both Seest thou not O my soul how its God who guides the bullet while man fires the gun Divine providence can at pleasure disappoint the gunners intents Bullets obey God not men and he that is under the protection of the Almighty is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i.e. Shot-free Why then should they who are on the service of God and a good cause fear men or guns both whose breath is in their nostrils and who may shoot often but hit or hurt never without divine permission Saile by go on securely ye men of war who are upon divine designs Pass by forts by the sides of ships A thousand shot shall flye a head and as many more a sterne many shall fall over and beyond you and none shall fasten to do you the least hurt while God is with you All bullets flye at Gods command and not according to the gunners intent On the sight of one corrected at the capstock for an offence How do men observe and punish offences in all places This vessel is the Seamans habitation and house of correction and the same instrument which holds the anchor of hope sometimes holds the offender to be chastized Indeed O my soul chastisement is at the capstock of the anchor of hope It 's a hope we are children and not bastards if we are chastised Who then would presume to sin when in all places there are punishments and yet who would faint under any affliction when as he is so neer the hold of the anchor of hope I 'le fear thee my God and Lord put thy fear into my heart that I may say and hold never presuming to offend at land or Sea for thou canst punish me in all places at thy pleasure yet still I 'le hope under every punishment For verily 't is good that a man accept of the punishment of his iniquity with patience and with hope Next to be free from offending the next mercy to that is to be chastised neer and by hope On the fall of a bed that was lashed to the ship side in a blowing night I did lye down in peace and thought to have slept so but how is my bed faln under me and how am I awakened with a fall when I expected to lye soft and secure But see O my soul what poor things beds are to rest in Surely no bed in this world is fastned sure enough to secure sleep and safety Though the feathers are soft the fastening is not sure How can that bed stand that alway rowles upon on the waves of a tempestuous world The next blast O secure sleepy man may shake thy bed unloose or break thy cords and then where is all thy security and expectation of rest make sure O my soul of a better bed and in a better cabine then any in this world Cast thy self into thy Saviours bosom That bed is soft and sure let the winds blow and the floods arise let the ship rowle and thy cords shake yet still that bed shall abide and not be shaken When thou goest to bed in thy cabbin O Seaman thou art not sure of rest but thou who restest in Christ thy rest is sure and in him thou mayest lye thee down in peace and sleep for he only can make thee to dwell and rest in safety On a boy at the topmast head looking out to descry land How nimbly did that boy run up the shrowds and clime that topmast and how sharply doth he look out for land yea how doth the master attend his report I see now that he who desires to see the land afar off must climb high A low station cannot discover the remote banks of Emanuels land He that will spie the white clifts of heavens faire shoar must mount the topmast and Habakkuk-like set him upon his tower And hearken O soul to the report of him on the top-mast Watchman what of the night what of the day what of land what of the shoar Surely methinks I hear the report the land is yet afar off we shall see it but it may be ere we come to an anchor our heart may meditate terror Yet rejoyce in this what we are within ken of the good land A few watches more we must run and indeed we must watch as we sail and then we shall see eye to eye and discern the fair haven fairly open for us to enter and land where we long to be On an anchor that lost its hold and came home and left the ship adrift This anchor sure had not good ground For if it had it would have kept it's hold and not have left the ship thus to drive I see the anchor of hope will not serve the turn to hold the soul in a tempest except the ground of that hope be good There is a hope which hath but an evil ground and in the day of distress it will fail and force the soul to drive O my soul look to thy hope See where thou castest it Be sure thy anchor be within the vaile Hope is not good nor grounded except on Christ and free grace Now the Lord Jesus Christ himself and God even the Father who hath loved me and hath given me everlasting consolation and good hope through grace Even that same God comfort my heart and establish me in every good word and work that though my hope be singly grounded on grace yet it may be accompanied with good words and works that I deceive not my self lest my anchor come home and I run afloat full of fear without hopes or hold in the day of tempest and tryals On a ship that was left by the Mariners upon the Goodwin-sands in a storm and fetcht off by some seamen sent to relieve it by my Lord of Warwick What fearful and unfaithful Mariners were these that left the vessel to sink and shifted for themselves while their stay and pains might have secured themselves and it well enough Ah Lord may the ship of the state never meet with such Mariners But if that doth stir up some Noble Warwicks to send relief to secure the ship which the perfidious Seamen cowardly and unconscionaly desert Trust not in men On my soul who are unstable as the waters Rely onely upon the living God who never forsakes his in a storm or tempest If they prove fearful and false that ought to tend thy security God can raise up others if he pleases to fetch thee off at any time from any rocks or sands Yea if men fail sands shall be so good as to keep thee from wracking till Jehovah send help from above to save thee from the waters on which thou sailest that thou fink not and perish On the parting of a ships company at the end of a voyage With what joy do those all part and how glad are these men to leave each other and yet without any malice or ill will They love each other as companions and yet are glad to part company this is indeed a friendly farewell of friends Why should it not be thus between thy soul and body O my heart at the end of thy voyage when death comes and call upon thee to strike sail and part Why art so loath to leave the carkass thy companion when thou art to go ashoar in thy spirit upon Emanuels land Come leap and skip O soul part with the carkass with joy Thy voyage is ended thy months are out Go take thy pay receive thy wages which yet is of grace and not of works Be as glad to go out of the body and to leave it as the Seaman is to leave his ship Yet remember you shall return to your ship again when mortality shall have put on immortality your body shall be new rigged and trimmed up And though at the end of time in the world to come John tells us there shall be no sea yet the Psalmist tells us there shall be a river of pleasures on which thy soul and body shall sail and swim in an eternal calme of unexpressibly bless in the presence of God in the company of Christ Angels and Saints for evermore Strike saile here O my soul and turmoile thy self on the sea of this world no longer REader I have now ended my voyage I 'le conclude my Navigation If thou by the help of this compass arrive this port I have my aime and end therefore I 'le add no more but this This is my desired haven which I sail unto And while I saile I 'le sing Oh that men would praise the Lord for his goodness and for his wonderful works to the children of men So it is in the Psalm which I commend to every sailor to studye and to sing Psal 107.30.31 FINIS
let every Mariner look out and look about him Happy are they whom God will chuse and use at all But more happy are they who as the ships of Tarshish shall come first as Isa 60.9 As there is glory in being in Christ first unto which Paul alludes Rom. 16.7 So there is a peculiar priviledge in being used by Christ first in any great service Seamen therefore now if ever look after godliness God hath chosen the godly man for himself and service Wicked men whom God doth use may and shall have large rewards and good wages but yet they shall lose their voyage Even Nebuchadnezzar had his wages for his service as it is Ezek. 29.18 Yet alas what became of him O ye gallant Mariners who are to swim and serve in gallant ships upon a gallant service strive to be truely gracious which will be your greatest gallantry and glory now and to eternity without which you will either be fit for no service or fit for no wages Now it 's high time to flye from those Sea-monsters of swearing drunknness uncleanness c. Now its time to purge your heart's and hands and to goe from those abominations that ye may be vessels fitted for the Master use and prepared unto every good work But I 'le speak no more unto you now yet I 'le fight out the rest for you in secret Verily ye Mariners you have a great place in my heart My first publike service in the Gospel of Christ was in the Sea I cannot chuse therefore but love and pray for Seamen Let me beseech you therefore to accept of this short hint in love Now the blessed God who glorifiess his power in mans weakness glorifie himself by blessing this little book with the furtherance of souls in their spiritual sea-voyage Reader I am thine in the service of thy soul for Christs sake and his Gospels John Durant The Spiritual Sea-man OR A Manual for Mariners CHAP. I. The Introduction to the Discourse setting forth the state of a Christian in this world to be as of a ship at Sea LIke as it is with a Ship laden with some rich treasure at Sea in a dark night without Card or Compass not knowing where the haven lieth unto which it would go nor how to shape of steer a course unto it So is it with Mankinde since the Fall Our body is our ship our soul is our rich lading a pearl indeed of great price worth more then all the merchandize of this world this world is the sea And as we come into it naturally we want both the knowledge of our haven unto which we ought to bend our course and also the knowledge of that by which we might be directed in it As much therefore as it concerns the Merchant to endeavour the safety of his Ship so much doth it concern us to endeavour the safety of our soul And the way of the one is a fit Embleme of the way of the other A Christian under the state or in the dispensation of the Gospel is called or likened unto a Merchant-man And well he may for in many particulars a Christian and a Merchant are parallel Or a Man at sea and a Soul in the world And to illustrate this in a word First let this world be eyed as a sea or a place of waters the waters being no more instable then the world is There are not more changes in the Sea then are in the World the affairs thereof rouling up and down in as great a tossing as the waves of the sea do Eb and Flood are not more certain in the waters then they are by flux and reflux of worldly affairs And the same brinish taste the same salt gust is in the things of the world which is in the waters of the sea And indeed persons not used to the sea are not more Sea-sick upon the water then Saints are while in the world Secondly our body may well pass for a ship which is in its passage upon the waters of this world Passing away as a ship so Job's phrase is A great massie Hull As liable to leaks and bruises as a ship is And were it not for traffique-sake for a time a wise Christian would as little care for it as a Land-man doth for a Ship or Bark Thirdly therefore it 's not it but our soul which is our treasure Epictetus and many of the more refined Heathens when they saw this when they said the Body was the Organ or vessel the soul was the man and Merchandize The empty hull of the ship without Merchandize is of more value then the body without the soul It 's our soul and it's concerments that are our precious lading and of these it is alone that we are to fear shipwrack Fourthly Souls have their rocks their sands their Scylla their Carybdis their Syrenes c. endangering them in this world as much as ships at Sea Sins corruptions temptations prophane companions carnal pleasures earthly-mindedness c. These cause many to drown themselves in perdition as it is 1 Tim. 6.9 And all have reason to cry out ofter in this respect as David did Save me O God out of the waters or as it is Psal 69.1 For the waters come into my soul You see the similitude will run well upon these four feet indeed upon many more But let this suffice to hint it in the General That all souls are seamen And that our way in the world is as the way of a ship in the mighty waters CHAP. II. Spiritual navigation pointed at and divided according to the division of the body of Divinity SUrely sith we are Seamen it 's our duty and wisdom to be skilled in the Art of Navigation How else shall we be able to steer our course aright to shape our way so as to have a happy voyage Q. But How shall we learn it who shall teach it us A. Certainly flesh and and blood cannot reveal this mystery unto us Art may make Seaman but it cannot make a Saint Humane wisdom may teach us to carry a ship to the Indies but it cannot teach us to steer our course to the Haven of happiness In this matter as the wise Verulam said transeundum est enavicula rationis c. i.e. we must have the Bark of reason we must lay aside at least not trust to the compass of humane wisdom And we must to the Sanctuary if ever we will learn this mystery He that would steer aright to happiness must have Jacobs staffe Pauls compass The spirits teaching and that anointing which is from above otherwise hee 'l sinke into the deep of the bottomless pit and never arrive the fair haven in Emmanuels land In a word he must be an artist in the mysteries of the Kingdom He must be a Divine for so all Saints are that can be Pilot to carry a ship a soul to God Divinity is the art of soul-navigation That alone tells us which and where our haven is
use of all in thy spiritual Navigation 11. The ship hath not onely merchandize and treasure in its hold but it carryes force and strength upon its decks Here are instruments of war guns c. to secure from enemies and pirates as well as commodities to traffick withall And surely O my soul it becomes thee to mind the weapons of thy warfare that whole Armor of God which out of the magazine of the Scriptures thou art to be furnished withall There are enemies pirates upon the soul-Sea Men yea and divels of wrath and war that way-lay thee Expect an onset and provide None ever did pass over the Sea of the world but met with pirates Thou must resist and fight yea and that unto blood to secure thy self from being taken or sunk And remember this and look about thee O my soul thou carryest petty pirates within thee that will never fight for thee flesh will not fight against the world and Satan nay which war against thy soul Look to it therefore to watch against those within that thou mayest the better maintaine thy fight without 12. Still by our helme stands the compass that the steersman may alway eye it As soon as his hand is on the helme his eye is on the compass with what exactness and strength doth he hold the helme to steer to a point by that Thus it becomes thee O my poor soul to eye thy compass in all thy stirring steering up and down the world It s not enough to hand and hold the helme to put forth strength to stir do indeed this good against idleness But thou must eye the rule that while thou stirrest it may be within as we say are according to compass Many who are not idle are yet all imployed who though they stirr yet it s not according to compass and it is a thousand to one if they run not aground upon some rock or sand But let the word be in thy hand in thy heart keep it that it may guide thee Remember and retain it O my soul as a certain truth That they make shipwrack of their soul who eye not and steer not according to compass CHAP. XI Here are some occasional meditations to stir up and to direct in this work I Have now almost done onely to these Maritine meditations which I call mixed as being of sundry sorts I shall and twelve more occasional ones drawn from some particular occasion and then I 'le conclude On the Boatswains whistle What a shrill sound doth this whistle make How is it heard both fore and aught above and beneath deck And how ready is every one at the sound thereof Surely there is no vertue in this whistle onely the Seamen know the sound and use thereof and 't is therefore that they are so ready at its call to come Both John and Jesus piped O my soul but the refractory Jews stirred not surely they knew not what that sound meant But shew thy life and skill O my soul and upon any sound of the words whistle stir upon every blast of sacred breath which sounds that sacred silver pipe up and see what it means O let the sound thereof be shrill and powerful on thy heart On a peece of plank floating on the Sea Yonder swims the sad signe of the wrack of some I conclude the sinking of the passenger from the swimming of the plank Blessed Lord Why suffer me to ask it why didst not save some one upon that peece of timber might not that board or broken peece have been as in Pauls case a little ark to save some from drowning by carrying them to shoar But pardon my presumption in this question Yet it may be there wanted a Paul in the vessel to whom thou mightest have given all that did sail therein But why should I so imagine and uncharitably sink them lower who are gone down into the bottom of the great deep Turn in O my soul upon thy self reflect and see what might have befaln thee That plank might have been thy floating tomb or monument that some other passenger might have read on it thy departure by drowning Be not high minded then but fear Admire mercy in preserving thee The same hand that broke that vessel in peeces whereof that plant was can split thee at his pleasure And the next passengers may see he broken peeces of the ship in which thou wert and read a better lecture on them then thou dost on this making better use both of instruction and improvement by example On a Seaman which fell asleep in the shrouds and fell down into the Sea while the Sermon was preaching c. What another Eutychus is here yet ther 's a difference Eutychus in the Acts chap. 20. was asleep in the window and he sunk down from the third loft saith the holy historian but this young man was asleep in the shrowds of a ship and sunk down into the Sea Eutychus was dead with the fall this young man but almost drowned Eutychus had a fairer excuse for his drowziness for it was in the night then this young man who fell asleep at the noon of the day Yet O my soul canst not say this to excuse this young man He had not so holy so rowzing a preacher as Eutychus had Alas how far thou O my soul beneath Paul Well let the young man learn to be less drowzie and be thou more awaking and stirring in preaching Yet tell others O my soul 't is dangerous sleeping in Sermon-time Bid them to look about them to attend to the word of life lest they sleep the sleep of death and sink down from a corporal to a spiritual sleep never to awake till they are row zed up to give an account for that Sermon at which they slept and dyed On a great distraction in the Navy suddenly and safely ended on a Sabbath day 'T was but this morning we received orders to prepare and be in readiness to fight It was indeed in an evil time because it was upon a good day A fight is as well a misery on the Sabbath day as a flight and both are equally to be prayed against Yet necessity hath no law And Joshua's seven dayes compassing about Jericho will be a president for us to lye about those ships in a warlike posture seeing we are put upon it But O my soul what cannot God do He that made Jericho fall at the sound of Rams horns hath male ships give up and yield at the sound of fellow-Seamen exhorting to yeeld to subjection We shall not need I see sometimes to use our guns words can conquer when God will Now I know indeed that the Lord can make wars to cease or as the word is Psal 46.9 Turns war into a Sabbath when a Sabbath might have turned into a war Verily I 'le praise the Lord and sing it s the Lord that stilleth the noise of the Seas the voice of their waves and the tumults of their people