of Heaven ring and eccho when the high praises of God shall be in the mouth of such a Congregation then shall the Saints be joyfbl in glory and sing aloud upon their Beds of everlasting Rest. REFLECTION And is there such a day approaching for the Sons of God indeed and have I authority to call my selfe one of the number Iohn 1. 12. O then let me not droop at present difficulties nor hang down my hands when I meet with hardships in the way O my Soul what a joyful day will this be for at present we are tost upon an Ocean of troubles fears temptations but these will make Heaven the sweeter Chear up then O my Soul thy Salvation is now nearer than when thou first believedsts Rom. 13. 11. And it will not now be long ere I receive the end of my Faith 1 Pet. 1. 9. And then it will be sweet to reflect even upon these hardships in the way Yet a few days more and then comes that blessed day thou hast so long waited and panted for Oppose the glory of that day O my Soul to thy present abasures and sufferings as blessed Paul did Ram. 1. 18. And thou shalt see how it will shrink them all up to nothing Oppose the Inheritance thou shalt receive in that day to thy losses for Christ now and see how joyfully it will make thee bear them Heb. 10. 34. Oppose the honour that will be put upon thee in that day to thy present reproaches and see how easieiâ— will make them to thee 1 Cor 4. 5. What condition can I be in wherein the believing thoughts of this blessed day cannot relieve me Am I poor Here is that which answers Poverty Jam. 3. 5. Hearken my beloved Brethren hath not God chosen the poor of this world rich in Faith and heirs of the Kingdom Am I tempted Here is relief against that Revel 12. 16. Now is come Salvation and strength for the Accuser of our Brethren is cast down c. Am I deserted Here is a remedy for that too Revel 22. 5. And there shall be no night there c. Come then my Soul let us enter upon our Inheritance by degrees and begin the Life of Heaven upon Earth THE POEM VVhen Solomon in Isreal first was King Heaven's Arches Earth's Foundations seem'd to ring VVith joyful Exclamations How much more VVill Heaven resound when Saints are come ashore How will the ravish'd Souls transported be At the first glimpse of Christ VVhom they shall see In all his glory and shall live and move Like Salamanders in the fire of love A flood of tears convey'd them to the Gate VVhere endless Ioys receiv'd them Now the date Of all their Sorrow 's out henceforth they walk In Robes of Glory Now there 's no more talk Of fears temptations of that snare or this No Serpent in that Paradise doth hiss No more desertions troubled thoughts or tears Christ's full enjoyment supersedes those fears Delights of Princes Courts are all but toys To these delights these are transcendent joys The joys of Christ himself and what they are An Angel's Tongue would stammer to declare Were our Conceptions clear did their Tongues go Vnto their Ela yet the Note 's too low What! Paint the Son too bright it cannot be Sure Heaven suffers no Hyperbole My thoughts are swallowed up my Muse doth doth tire And hang her Wings Conception soars no higher Give me a place among thy Children there Although I lie with them in Dungeons here A Concluding Speech I Have now done and am looking to Heaven for a blessing upon these weak Labours what use you will make of them I know not but this I know that the day is coming when God will reckon with you for this and all other helps and means afforded to you And if it be not improved by you be sure it will be produced as a witness against you Sirs I beg you in the Name of Christ before whom both you and I must shortly appear that you receive not these things in vain Did I know what other lawful means to use that might reach your hearts they should not be in vain to you but I cannot do God's part of the work nor yours Onely I request you all both Masters common Men and all others into whose hands this shall come that you will lay to heart what you read pray unto him that hath the Key of the House of David that openeth and no man shutteth to open your hearts to give entertainment to these truths Alas If you apply it not to your selves I have Iaboured to no purpose the Pen of the Scribe is in vain But God may make such an application of them in one Storm or another as may make your hearts to tremble O Sirs when Death and Eternity look you in the face Conscience may reflect upon these things to your horror and amazement and make you cry out as Prov. 5. 12 13. How have I hated knowledge and my heart despised reproof And have not obeyed the voice of my Teacher nor inclined my ears to them that instructed me And O what a dreadful shriek will such Souls give when the Lord opens their eyes to see that misery that they are here warned of But if the Lord shall bless these things to your Conversion then we may say to you as Moses did to Zebulun the Mariner's Tribe Deut. 33. 12. Rejoyce Zebulun in thy going out The Lord will be with you which way soever you turn you selves and being in the bosome of the Covenant you are safe in the midst of all dangers O! thou that art the Father of Spirits that formedst and canst easily reform the heart open thou the blind eye unstop the deaf ear let the Word take hold upon the heart If thou wilt but say the word these weak Labours shall prosper to bring home many lost Souls unto thee Amen FINIS A Pathetical and Serious DISSWASIVE From the Horrid and Detestable Sins OF Drunkenness Swearing Uncleanness Forgetfulness of Mercies Uiolation of Promises and Atheistical Contempt of Death APPLIED By way of CAUTION to Sea-men and now added as an APPENDIX to their NEW COMPASS Being an Essay toward their much desired Reformation Fit to be seriously recommended to their Profane Relations whether Sea-men or others by all such as unfeignedly desire their Eternal Welfare By IOHN FLAVEL Minister of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. 2 Cor. 5. 19. Knowing therefore the terrours of the LORD we perswade men Ezek. 3. 19. Yet if thou warn the wicked and he turn not from his wickedness nor from his wicked way he shall die in his iniquity but thou hast delivered thy soul. LONDON Printed by Tho. Parkust and M. Fabian 1698. To the Right Worshipful Sir Iohn Frederick Kt One of the Worshipful Aldermen of the City of LONDON and their Honourable BURGESS in the present PARLIAMENT And to the truly Religious and ever Honoured Mr. Iohn Lovering Of the City of London MERCHANT Much honour'd and
at several Meditations which the spiritual Seaman is to be acquainted with unto which thou hast an excellent Supplement in this New Compass for Seamen This Collection is prefixt that at once thou mayest view all the Compasses both the Speculative Practical and Affectionate by which thou must steer Heaven-ward What further shall be added by way of Preâ—â—â—e is not to commend this New Compass which indeed 2 Cor. 3. 1. needs no 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Letters of Commendation or any Panegyrick to usher it into any honest heart but to stir up all especially Sea-men to make conscience of using such choice helps for the promoting the sanctification and salvation of their Souls for the making of them as dexterous in the Art of Spiritual Navigation as any of them are in the Art of Natural Navigation Consider therefore 1. What rich Merchandize thy Soul is Christ assures us one Soul is more worth than all the world The Lord Iesus doth as it were put the whole world in one scale and one soul in the other and the world is found too light Mat. 16. 26. Shouldst thou by skill in Natural Navigation carry safe all the treasures of the Indies into thine own Port yea gain the whole world and for want of skill in spiritual Navigation lose thy soul thou wouldst be the greatest loser in the world So far wilt thou be from profiting by any of thy Sea-voyages There is a plain 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in those words of Christ What is a man profited if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul More is meant than is spoken 2. What a leaking Vessel thy body is in which this unspeakable inconceivable rich Treasure thy soul is embarked O the many diseases and distempers in the humors and passions that thy body is subject to It is above 2000 years ago that there have been rekoned up 300 Names of Diseases and there be many under one name and many nameless which pose the Physicians not only how to cure them but how to call them And for the affections and passions of the Mind the distempers of them are no less deadly to some than the diseases of the body But besides these internal causes there are many external causes of Leaks in this Vessel as poisonous malignities wrathful hostilities and casual mishaps very small matters may be of great moment to the sinking of this Vessel The least Gnat in the Air may choak one as it did Adrian a Pope of Rome a little hair in Milk may strangle one as it did a Counsellor in Rome a little stone of a Raisin may stop ones breath as it did the Poetical Poet Anacreon Thus you see what a leaking Vessel you sail in Now the more leaky any ship is the more need there is of skill to steer wisely 3. Consider what a dangerous Sea the World is in which thy Soul is to sail in the leaking ship of thy body As there are not more changes in the Sea than are in the World the world being only constant in inconstancy The fashion of this world passeth away 1 Cor. 7. 31. so there are not more dangers in the Sea for ships than there are in the world for souls In this world Souls meet with Rocks and Sands Syrens and Pyrates Worldly Temptations worldly Lusts and worldly Company cause many to drown themselves in perdition 1 Tim. 6. 9. The very things of this world endanger our Souls By worldly Objects we soon grow worldly It is hard to touch Pitch and not be defiled The lusts of this world stain our glory and the men of tâ—is world pollute all they converse with A man that keeps company with the men of this world is like him that walketh in the Sun tanned insensibly Thus you have hinted the dangerousness of the Sea wherein you are to sail Now the more dangerous the Sea is the more requisite it is the Sailer be an Artist 4. Consider what if through want of skill in the heavenly Art of spiritual Navigation thou shouldst not steer thy Câ—â—rse aright I will instance only in two consequents thereof 1. Thou wilt never arrive at the Haven of Happiness 2. Thou shalt be drowned in the Ocean of God's wrath As true as the Word of God is true as sure as the Heavens are over thy head and the Earth under thy feet as sure as thou yet livest and breathest in this Air so true and certain it is thou shalt never enter into Heaven but sink into the depth of the bottomless pit Am I not herein a Messenger of the saddest Tidings that ever yet thy Ears did hear Possibly now thou makest a light matter of these things because thou dost not know what it is to miss of Heaven and what it is for ever to lie under the wrath of God but hereafter thou wilt know fully what it is to have thy Soul lost eternally so lost as that God's mercies and all the good there is in Christ shall never save it and as God hath set and ordered things can never save it Hereafter thou wilt be perfectly sensible of the good that thou mightest have had and of the evil that shall be upon thee this is God's peculiar Prerogative to make a Creature as sensible of Misery as he pleaseth then thou wilt have other thoughts of these things than now thou hast Then the thoughts of thy mind shall be busied about thy lost Condition both as to the pain of loss and the pain of sense so that thou shalt not be able to take any ease any moment then that thy torments may be increased they acknowledge the truth of thy apprehensions yea the strength of them shall be encreased thou shalt have true and deep apprehensions of the greatness of that good that thou shalt miss of and of that evil which thou shalt procure unto thy self and then thou shalt not be able to choose but to apply all thy loss all thy misery to thy self which will force thee to roar out O my loss O my misery O my unconceivable unrecoverable loss and misery Yea for the increasing of thy torments thy Affections and Memory shall be enlarged O that to prevent that lose and misery these things may now be known and laid to heart O that a blind Understanding a stupid Judgment a bribed Conscience a hard Heart a bad Memory may no longer make Heaven and Hell to seem but trifles to thee Thou wilt then easily be perswaded to make it thy main business here to become an Artist in Spiritual Navigation But to shut up this Preface I shall briefly acquaint Sea-men why they should of all others be Men of singular Piety and Heavenliness and therefore more than ordinarily study the heavenly Art of Spiritual Navigation O that Sea-men would therefore consider 1 How nigh they border upon the Confines of Death and Eternity every moment There is but a step but an
me and make it effectual to me before I go hence and be seen no more THE POEM A fresh and whisking Gale presents to day But now the Ship 's not ready Winds must stay And wait the Sea-mens leisure Well to morrow They will put out but then unto their sorrow That Wind is spent and by that means they gain Perchance a Month's Repentance if not twain At last another offers now they 're gone But e're they gain their Port the Market's done For every work and purpose under Heaven A proper time and season God hath given The Fowls of Heaven Swallow Turtle Crane Do apprehend it and put us to shame Man hath his season too but that mis-spent There 's time enough his folly to repent Eternity's before him but therein No more such golden hours as these have been When these are past away then you shall find That Proverb true Occasion 's bald behind Delays are dangerous see that you discern Your proper seasons O that you would learn This Wisdom from those Fools that comes too late With fruitless cries when Christ has shut the gate CHAP. X. By Navigation one place stores another And by Communion we must help each other OBSERVATION THE most wise God hath so dispenced his Bounty to the several Nations of the World that one standing in need of anothers Commodities there might be a sociable Commerce and Traffick maintaintain'd amongst them all and all combining in a common League may by the help of Navigation exhibit mutual succours to each other The Staple-Commodities proper to each Country I find thus expressed by the Poet Bart. Coll. Hence come our Sugars from Canary Isles From Candy Currans Muskadels and Oyls From the Moluccoes Spices Balsamum From Aegypt Odours from Arabia come From India Gums rich Drugs and Ivory From Syria Mummy Black Red Ebony From burning Chus from Peru Pearl and Gold From Russia Furs to keep the Rich from Cold. From Florence Silks from Spain Fruit Saffron Sacks From Denmark Amber Cordage Firs and Flax From Holland Hops â—orse from the Banks of Rhine From England VVool all Lands as God distributes To the VVorld's Treasure pay their sundry Tributes APPLICATION Thus hath God distributed the more rich and precious Gifts and Graces of his Spirit among his People Some excelling in one Grace some in another though every Grace in some degree be in them all even as in Nature though there be all the Faculties in all yet some Faculties are in some more lively and vigorous than in others some have a more vigorous eye others a more ready ear others a more voluable tongue so it 's in Spirituals Abraham excell'd in Faith â—ob in Patience Iohn in Love These were their peculiar excellencies All the elect Vessels are not of one quantity yet even those that excel others in some particular Grace come short in other respects of those they so excelled in the former and may be much improv'd by converse with such as in some respects are much below them The solid wise and judicious Christian may want that liveliness of affections and tenderness of heart that appears in the weak and one that excels in gifts and utterance may learn Humility from the very Babes in Christ. And one principal Reason of this different distribution is to maintain fellowship among them all 1 Cor. 12. 21. The Head cannot say to the Feet I have no need of you As in a Family where there is much business to be done even the little Children bear a part according to their strength Jer. 7. 18. The children gather wood the fathers kindle the fire the women knead the dough So in the Family of Christ the weakest Christian is serviceable to the strong There be precious Treasures in these Earthen Vessels for which we should trade by mutual communion The preciousness of the Treasure should draw out our desires and endeavours after it and the consideration of the brittleness of those Vessels in which they are kept should cause us to be the more expeditious in our trading with them and make the quicker Returns For when those Vessels I mean the Bodies of the Saints are broken by Death there is no more to be gotten out of them That Treasure of Grace which made them such profitable pleasant and desirable companions on Earth then Ascends with them into Heaven where every Grace receives its adolescence and perfection And then though they be Ten thousand times more excellent and delightful than ever they were on Earth yet we can have no more communion with them till we come to Glory our selves Now therefore it behoves us to be enriching our selves by communication of what God hath dropt into us and improvement of them as one well Notes We should do by Saints as we use to do by some choice Book lent us for a few days we should fix in our Memories or transcribe all the choice Notions we meet with in it that they may be our own when the Book is called for and we can have it no longer by us REFLECTION Lord How short do I come of my Duty in communicating to or receiving good by others My Soul is either empty and barren or if there be any Treasure in it yet it is but as a Treasure locked up in some Chest whose Key is lost when it should be open'd for the use of others Ah Lord I have sinned greatly not only by vain words but sinful silence I have been of little use in the World How little also have I gotten by communion with others Some it may be that are of my own size or judgment or that I am otherwise obliged to I can delight to converse with But O where is that largeness of heart and general delight I should have to and in all thy People How many of my old dear Acquaintance are now in Heaven whose Tongues were as Choice silver while they were here Prov. 10. 20. And blessed Souls how communicative were they of what thou gavest them O what an improvement had I made of my Talent this way had I been diligent Lord pardon my neglect of those sweet and blessed advantages O let all my delight be in thy Saints who are the excellent of the earth Let me never go out of their company without an heart more warmed quickned and enlarged than when I came amongst them THE POEM To several Nations God doth so distribute His bounty that each one must pay a tribute Vnto each other Europe cannot vaunt And say Of Africa I have no want America and Asia need not strive Which of it self can best subsist and live Each Countries want in something doth maintain Commerce betwixt them all Such is the aim And end of God who doth dispense and give More Grace to some their Brethren to relieve This makes the Sun Ten thousand times more bright Because it is diffusive of its Light Its Beams are gilded gloriously but then This property doth gild them o're agen Should Sun Moon
unto and therefore there is no great matter in them Yea to those which in a little while are to be thrust into Hell Psal. 17. 14. Now if God cloath and feed his enemies if to allude to that Luke 12. 28. he cloath this Grass which to day is in its pride and glory in the Field and to morrow is cast into the Oven into Hell How much more will he cloath and provide for you that are Saints This God that feeds all the Creatures is your Father and a Father that never dies and therefore you shall not be as exposed Orphans that are the Children of such a Father For he hath said I will never leave you nor forsake you Heb. 13. 3. I have read of a good woman that in all wants and distresses was wont to encourage herself with that word 2 Sam. 22. 47. The Lord liveth But one time being in a deep distress and forgetting that consolation one of her little Children came to her and said Mother Why weep ye so What is God dead now Which words from a Child shamed her out of her unbelieving fears and quickly brought her Spirit to rest O Saint whilst God lives thou canst not want what is good for thee How sweet a Life might Christians live could they but bring their hearts to a full subjection to the disposing Will of God! to be content not only with what he commands and approves but also with what he allots and appoints It was a sweet Reply that a gracious Woman once made upon her Death-bed to a Friend that asked her VVhether she were more willing to live or die She answer'd I am pleas'd with what God pleaseth Yea said her Friend but if God should refer it to you which would you chuse Truly saith she if God should refer it to me I would refer it to him again Ah blest Life when the Will is swallow'd up in the Will of God and the heart at rest in his care and love and pleased with all his appointments REFLECTION I remember my fault this day may many a gracious Soul say Ah how faithless and distrustful have I been notwithstanding the great security God hath given to my Faith both in his Word and Works O my Soul thou hast greatly sinned therein and dishonoured thy Father I have been worse to my Father than my Children are to me They trouble not their thoughts with what they shall eat or drink or put on but trust to my care and provision for that Yet I cannot trust my Father though I have ten thousand times more reason so to do than they have to trust me Mat. 7. 21. Surely unless I were jealous of my Father's affection I could not be so dubious of his provision for me Ah I should rather wonder that I have so much than repine that I have no more I should rather have been troubled that I have done no more for God than that I have received no more from God I have not proclaimed it to the World by my Conversation that I have found a sufficiency in him alone as the Saints have done Hab. 3. 17 18. How have I debased the Faithfulness and All-sufficiency of God and magnified these earthly trifles by my anxiety about them Had I had more Faith a light Purse would not have made such an heavy heart Lord how often hast thou convinced me of this folly and put me to the blush when thou hast confuted my unbelief so that I have resolved never to distrust thee more and yet new exigencies renew this corruption How contradictory also hath my heart and my prayers been I pray for them conditionally and with submission to thy Will I dare not say to thee I must have them yet this hath been the language of my heart and life O convince me of this folly THE POEM Variety of curious Fish are caught Out of the Sea and to our Tables brought VVe pick the choicest bits and then we say VVe are sufficed come now take away The Table 's voided you have done but fain I would perswade to have it brought again The sweetest bit of all remains behind VVhich through your want of skill you could not find A bit for Faith have you not found it Then I have made but half a meal come taste agen Hast thou considered O my Soul that hand Which feeds those multitudes in Sea and Land A double mercy in it thou shouldest see It fed them first and then with them fed thee Food in the Waters we should think were scant For such a multitude yet none do want VVhat numerous flocks of Birds above me fly VVhen saw I one through want fall down and die They gather what his hand to them doth bring Though but a VVorm and at that Feast can sing How full a Table doth my Father keep Blush then my naughty heart repent and weep How faithless and distrustful hast thou been Although his care and love thou oft hast seen Thus in a single dish you have a feast Your first and second course the last the best CHAP. XIV Sea-waters drained through the earth are sweet So are th' afflictions which God's People meet OBSERVATION THE Waters of the Sea in themselves are brackish and unpleasant yet being exhaled by the Sun and condensed into Clouds they fall down into pleasant Showers or if drained through the Earth their property is thereby altered and that which was so salt in the Sea becomes exceeding sweet and pleasant in the Springs This we find by constant experience the sweetest crystal Spring came from the Sea Eccles. 1. 7. APPLICATION Afflictions in themselves are evil Amos 2. 6. Very bitter and unpleasant See Heb. 12. 11. Yet not morally and intrinsically evil as sin is for if so the holy God would never own it for his own act as he doth Mic. 3. â—2 but always disclaimeth sin Iam. 1. 3. Besides if it were so evil it could in no case or respect be the object of our election and desire as in some cases it ought to be Heb. 11. 25. But it is evil as it is the fruit of sin and grievous unto sense Heb. 14. 11. But though it be thus brackish and unpleasant in itself yet passing through Christ and the Covenant it loses that ungrateful property and becomes pleasant in the fruits and effects thereof unto believers Heb. 12. 11. Yea such are the blessed fruits thereof that they are to account it all joy when they fall into divers afflictions Iam. 1. 2. David could bless God that he was afflicted and many a Saint hath done the like A good woman once compared her afflictions to her children For saith she they put me in pain in bearing them yet as I know not which child so neither which affliction I conld be without Sometimes the Lord sanctifies affliction to discover the corruption that is in the heart Deut. 8. 2. It is a furnace to shew the dross Ah! when a sharp Affliction comes then the pride
cursed Apostate who feared not to say There was as good matter in Phocillides as in Solomon in Pindarus his Odes as in David's Psalms And the Papists generally slight it making it a lame imperfect Rule yea making their own Tradâ—tions the Touchstone of Doctrines and Foundation of Faith Montanus tells us that although the Apostle would have Sermons and Service celebrated in a known Tongue yet the Church for very good cause hath otherwise order'd it Gilford called it The Mother of Heresies Boner's Chaplain judged it worthy to be burnt as a strange Doctrine They set up their Inventions above it and frequently come in with a Non obstante against Christ's Institutions And thus do they make it void or as the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies Matth. 15. 6. unlord it and take away its authority as a Rule But those that have thus slighted it and followed the by-paths unto which their corrupt Hearts have led them they take not hold of the paths of Life and are now in the depths of Hell All other Lights to which men pretend in the neglect of this are but false fires that will lead Men into the Pits and Bogs of Destruction at last REFLECTION And is thy Word a Compass to direct my course to Glory O where am I then like to arrive at last that in all my course have neglected it and steered according to the counsel of my own heart Lord I have not made thy Word the Man of my counsel but consulted with flesh and blood I have not enquired at this Oracle nor studied it and made it the guide of my way but walked after the sight of my eyes and the lust of my heart Whither Lord can I come at last but to Hell after this rate and reckoning Some have slighted thy Word professedly and I have slighted it practically I have a poor Soul embarqued for Eternity it is now floating on a dangerous Ocean Rocks and Sands on every side and I go a drift before every Wind of Temptation and know not where I am Ah Lord convince me of the danger of this condition O convince me of my Ignorance in thy Word and the fatal consequence and issue thereof Lord let me now resolve to study prize and obey it hide it in my heart that I may not sin against it Open my understanding that I may understand the Scriptures Open my heart to entertain it in love O thou that hast been so gracious to give a perfect Rule give me also a perfect heart to walk by that Rule to glory THE POEM This VVorld's a Sea wherein a numerous Fleet Of Ships are under sail Here you shall meet Of every Rate and Size Frigats Galleons The nimble Ketches and small Pickeroons Some bound to this Port some where VVinds and VVeather VVill drive them they are bound they know not whither Some steer away for Heaven some for Hell To which some steer themselves can hardly tell The Winds do shape their course which though it blow From any Point before it they must go They are directed by the VVind and Tide That have no Compass to direct and guide For want of this must run themselves a-ground Brave Ships are cast away poor Souls are drown'd Thy VVord our Compass is to guide our way To Glory it reduces such as stray Lord let thy VVord dwell richly in my heart And make me skilful in this heavenly Art O let me understand and be so wise To know upon what Point my Country lies And having seâ— my Course directly thither Great God preserve me in the foulest Weather By Reason some will coast it but I fear Such Coasters never will drop Anchor there Thy Word is truly toucht and still directs A proper Course which my base heart neglects Lord touch mine Iron heart and make it stand Pointing to thee its Loadstone To that Land Of Rest above let every Tempest drive My Soul where it would rather be than live CHAP. XVII Look as the Sea by turns doth ebb and flow So their Estates that use it come and go OBSRRVATION THE Sea hath its alternate Course and Motion its Ebbings and Flowings No sooner is it High-water but it begins to Ebbe again and leave the Shoar naked and dry which but a little before it covered and over-flowed And as its Tides so also its Waves are the Emblem of Inconstancy still rouling and tumbling this way and that never fixt and quiet Instabilis unda As fickle as a VVave is common to a Proverb See Iam. 1. 6. He that wavereth is like a Wave of the Sea driven with Winds and tossed So Isai. 57. 20. It cannot rest APPLICATION Thus mutable and inconstant are all outward things there is no depending on them Nothing of any substance or any solid consistence in them 1 Cor. 7. 31. The fashion of this world passeth away It is an high point of folly to depend upon such vanities Prov. 23. 5. Why wilt thou set or as it is in the Hebrew cause thine eyes to fly upon that which is not For riches certainly make themselves wings and fly away as an Eagle towards Heaven In flying to us saith Augustine they have Alas vix quidem passerinas scarce a Sparrow's wings but in flying from us wings as an Eagle And those Wings they are said to make to themselves i. e. The cause of its transitoriness is in itself the Creature is subjected to Vanity by sin they are sweet flowers but withered presently Iam. 1. 10. As the flower of the grass so shall the rich man fade away The man is like the stalk or grass his riches are the flower of the grass his glory and outward beauty the stalk is soon withered but the flower much sooner This is either withered upon or blown off from it while the stalk abides Many a man out-lives his estate and honour and stands in the world as a bare dry stalk in the field whose flower beauty and bravery is gone One puff of wind blows it away one churlish easterly blast shrivels it up 1 Pet. 4. 24. How mad a thing is it then for any man to be lifted up in pride upon such a vanity as this is to build so lofty and over-jetting Roof upon such a feeble tottering Foundation We have seen Meadows full of such curioâ—s flowers mown down and withered men of great Estates impoverished suddenly And when like a Meadow that is mown they have begun to recover themselves again as the phrase is the Lord hath sent Grashoppers in the beginning of the shooting-up of the latter growth Amos 7. 1. Just as the Grashoppers and other Creatures devour the second tender Herbage as soon as the Field begins to recover its verdure So men after they have been denuded and blasted by Providence they begin after a while to flourish again but then comes some new affliction and blasts all None have more frequent experience of this than you that are Merchants and Sea-men whose estates are floating
And is it not a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God who hath said He will take vengeance for these things THE POEM Devouring Whales and ravenous Sharks do follow The lesser Fry and at one gulp do swallow Some hundreds of them as our Sea-men say But we can tell far stranger things than they For we have Sharks ashore in every Creek That to devour poor Men do hunt and seek No Pity Sense or Bowels in them be Nay have they not put off Humanity Extortioners and Cheaters whom God hates Have dreadful open Mouths and through those Gates Brave Persons with their Heritages pass In Funeral-state Friends crying out Alas O give me Agur's wish that I may never Be such my self or feel the hands of either And as for those that in their paws are grip'd Pity and rescue Lord from that sad plight When I behold the squeaking Lark that 's born In Falcon's Talons crying bleeding torn I pity its sad case and would relieve The Prisoner if I could as well as grieve Fountain of Pity hear the piteous Moans Of all thy Captive and Oppressed Ones CHAP. XXV In Storms to spread much Sail endangers all So carnal Mirth if God for Mourning call OBSERVATION IN Storms at Sea the wise Navigator will no◠spread much Sail that is the way to lose Masts and all They use then to furl up the Sails and lie a Hull when not able to bear a Knot of Sail or else to lie a Try or Scud before the Wind and Seas It is no time then to hoist up the Top and Top-gallant and shew their bravery APPLICATION When the Judgments of God are abroad in the earth it is no time then to make mirth Ezek. 21. 10 11. Should we then make mirth It contemneth the rod of my son as every tree i. e. As if it were a common Rod and ordinary affliction whereas the Rod of my Son is not such as may be had of every Tree but it is an Iron Rod to such as dispise it Psal. 2. 9. O it is a provoking evil and commonly God severely punishes it Of all persons such speed worst in the common calamity Amos 6. 1. VVo to them that are at ease in Sion that are not grieved for the afflictions of Ioseph as ver 4. It may be as one observes upon the Text they did not laugh at him or break Jests upon him but they did not condole with him And what shall be their punishment See vers 7. Therefore now shall they go captive with the first that go captive God will begin with them first Solomon tells us Eccles. 3. 4. There is a time to weep and a time to laugh a time to mourn and a time to dance Only as Master Trap notes upon the Text we must not invert the order but weep with Men that we may laugh with Angels To be merry and frolick in a day of tribulation is to disturb the order of seasons That is a terrible Text Isai. 22. 12. which should make the hearts of such as are guilty in this kind to tremble In that day did the Lord of Hosts call to mourning and to girding with sackcloath and behold joy and gladness slaying Oxen killing Sheep drinking VVine c. Well what is the issue of this Surely this iniquity shall not be purged from you till ye die O dreadful word Surely my Brethren Sympathy is a debt we owe to Christ Mystical Whatever our Constitution Condition or Personal Immunities be yet when God calls for Mourning we must hear and obey that call David was a King an expert Musician a Man of a sanguine and chearful constitution yet who more sensible of the evil of those times than he Rivers of water ran down his eyes at the consideration of them Melancthon was so affected with the Miseries of the Church in his days that he seemed to take little or no notice of the death of his Child whom he entirely loved At such a time we may say of laughter Thou art mad and of mirth What doth it REFLECTION Blush then O my Soul for thy levity and insensibility under God's angry Dispensations How many of the precious Sons and Daughters of Sion lie in Tears abroad while I have been Nourishing my heart as in a day of slaughter The voice of God hath cried to the City and Men of understanding have heard its voice Mic. 6. 9. But I have been deaf to that cry How loth my God have I been to urge my sensual Heart to acts of Sorrow and Mourning Thou hast bid me weep with them that weep but my vain heart cannot comply with such commands Ah Lord if I mourn not with Sion neither shall I rejoyce with her O were mine eyes opened and my heart sensible and tender I might see cause enough to melt into Tears and like that Christian Niobe Luke 7. 38. to lie weeping at the feet of Christ. Lord What stupidity is this Shall I Laugh when thou art Angry and thy Children weeping and trembling Then I may justly fear lest when they shall sing for joy 〈◊〉 heart I shall howl for vexation of spirit Isai. 65. 13 14. Surely O my Soul such laughter will be turned into mourning either here or hereafter THE POEM In troublous Times Mirth in the Sinners face Is like a Mourning-Cloak with Silver Lace The Lion's roaring makes the Beasts to quake God's roaring Iudgments cannot make us shake What Belluine Contempt is this of God To laugh in 's face when he takes up the Rod Such laughter God in tears will surely drown Vnless he hate thee e're he lay it down These Rods have Voices if thou hear them well If not another Rod's prepar'd in Hell And when the Arm of God shall lay it on Laugh if thou canst no then thy Mirth is gone All Sion's Children will lament and cry When all her beauteous Stones in dust do lie And he that for her then laments and mourns Shall want no joy when God to her returns CHAP. XXVI A little Leak neglected dangerous proves One Sin connived at the Soul undoes OBSERVATION THE smallest Leak if not timely discovered and stopt is enough to sink a Ship of the greatest burden Therefore Sea-men are wont frequently to try what Water is in the Hold and if they find it fresh and increasing upon them they ply the Pump and presently set the Carpenters to search for it and stop it and till it be found they cannot be quiet REFLECTION What such a Leak is to a Ship that is the smallest sin neglected to the Soul it is enough to ruine it eternally For as the greatest sin discover'd lamented and mourned over by a Believer cannot ruine him so the least sin indulged covered and connived at will certainly prove the destruction of the sinner No sin though never so small is tolerated by the pure and perfect Law of God Psal. 119. 96. The command is exceeding broa◠not as if it gave Men a latitude to
that the body may be more fit and expedite for duty Prov. 31. 7. But further no man proceeds without the violation of Sobriety When men sit till Wine have inflamed them and reason be disturbed for Drunkenness is the privation of reason caused by immoderate drinking then do they come under the guilt of this horrid and abominable Sin To the Satisfaction and refreshment of nature you may drink for it is a part of the Curse to drink and not be satisfied but take heed you go no further For Wine is a mocker strong Drink is raging and whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise Prov. 20. 1. The Throat is a slipery place how easily may a sin slip through it into the Soul these sensual Pleasures have a kind of inchanting power upon the Soul and by custom gain upon it till they have enslaved it and brought it under their power Now this is the sin against which God hath delivered so many Precepts and denounced so many Woes in his Word Ephes. 5. 18. Be not drunken with wine wherein is excess Rom. 13. 18. Not in rioting and drunkenness not in chambering and wantonness Isa. 5. 11. Wo to them that rise early in the morning that they may follow strong drink that continue until night till wine inflame them with many other of dreadful importance Now to startle thee for ever from this abominable and filthy lust I shall here propound to thy Consideration these ten ensuing Arguments and oh that they might stand in the way as the Angel did in Balaam's when thou art in the prosecution of thy sensual Pleasures And the first is this Arg. 1. It should exceedingly disswade from this Sin to consider that it is an high abuse of the Bounty and Goodness of God in affording us those sweet Refreshments to make our Lives comfortable to us upon earth In Adam we forfeited all right to all earthly as will as heavenly Mercies God might have taken thee from the Womb when thou wast a Sinner but of a span long and immediately have sent thee to thine own place thou hadst no right to a drop of water more than what the bounty of God gave thee And whereas he might have thrust thee out of the world as soon as thou camest into it and so all those days of mercy thou hast had on earth might have been spent in howling and unspeakable misery in Hell Behold the Bounty and Goodness of God in thee I say behold it and wonder He hath suffered thee for so many years to live upon the earth which he hath prepared and furnished with all things fit for thy necessity and delight out of the earth on which thou treadest he bringeth forth thy food and VVine to make glad thy heart Psal. 104. 14 15. And dost thou thus requite the Lord Hath Mercy armed an enemy to fight against it with its own Weapoâ—s Ah that ever the Riches of his Goodness Bounty and Long sâ—ffering all which are arguments to lead thee to repentance should be thus abused If God had not been so bountiful thou couldst not have been so sinful Arg. 2. It degrades a man from the honour of his Creation and equalizeth him to the beast that perisheth Wine is said to take away the heart Hos. 4. 11. i. e. the wisdom and ingenuity of a man and so brutifies him as Nebuchadnezzar who lost the heart of a man and had the heart of a beast given him Dan. 4. 32. The heart of a man hath is generosity and sprightliness brave vigorous spirit in it capable of and fitted for noble and worthy actions and imployments but his lust effeminates quenches and drowns that masculine vigour in the puddle of excess and sensuality For no sooner is a man brought under the dominion of this Lust but the government of Reason is renounced which should exercise a coercive power over the Affections and all is delivered up into the hand of Lust and Appetite and so they act not by discretion and reason but by Lust and Will as the Beasts do by Instinct The spirit of Man entertains it self with intellectual and chast Delights the soul of a Beast is onely fitted for such low sensitive and dreggie Pleasures Thou hast something of the Angel and something of the Beast in thee thy Soul partakes of the nature of Angels thy Body of the nature of Beasts Oh how many pamper the Beast while they strave the Angels God in the first Chaper put all the Creatures in subjection to thee by this Lust thou puttest thy in self Subjection to the creature and art brought under his power 1 Cor. 6. 12. If God had given thee the feet or head of a beast Oh what a misery wouldst thou have esteemed it And is it nothing to have the heart of a Beast Oh consider it sadly Arg. 3. It is a Sin by which thou greatly wrongest and abuseth thine own Body The Body is the Souls Instrument it is as the Tools are to a skilful Artificer this Lust both dulls and spoils it so that it 's utterly unfit for any service of him that made it Thy body is a curious piece not made by a word of command as other Creatures but by a word of counsel I am fearfully and wonderfully made and curiously wrought saith the Psalmist Psal. 139. 14. or as the Vulgar Ace pictus sum Painted as with a Needle like a Garment of Needlework of divers colours richly embroydered Look how many members so many wonders There are Miracles enough saith one betwixt head and foot to fill a volume There is saith another such curious workmanship in the eye that upon the first sight of it some Atheists have been forced to acknowledge a God especially that fifth Muscle in the eye is wonderful whereby as a learned Author observes Man differeth from all other Creatures who have but four one to turn the eye downward a second to hold it forward a third to move it to the right hand a fourth to the left but none to turn it upward as a man hath Now judge in thy self did God frame such a curious piece and enliven it with a Soul which is a spark a ray of his own light whose motions are so quick various and indefatigable whose flights of reason are so transcendent did God thinkest thou send down this curious piece the top and glory of the Creation the Index and Epitome of the whole world Eccl. 12. 2. did God I say send down this picture of his own perfection to be but as a striner for meats and drinks a spung to suck in Wine and Beer Or canst thou answer for the abuse and destruction of it By this excess thou fillest it with innumerable diseases under which it languisheth and at last thy life like a lamp extinguisnt being drowned with to much Oyle Infinite Diseases are begotten by it saith Zanch. hence come Apoplexies Gouts Palfies sudden Death trembling of the hands and legs herein they bring Cain's
the dust Job 20. 11. Ah soul One of these days thou shalt be laid on thy Death-bed or see the waves that shall entomb thee leaping and roaring upon every side and then thou wilt surely have other thoughts of the happiness that lies in remission of sin than thou hast now Observe the most incorrigible Sinner then hark how he sighs and groans and cries Ah Lord and must I die And then see how the tears trickle down his Cheeks and his heart ready to burst within him Why what 's the matter Oh the Lord will not pardon him he holds him guilty If he were sure his sins were forgiven then he could die but oh to appear before the Lord in them appals him daunts him kills the very heart of him He would fain cry for mercy but Conscience stops his mouth Oh saith Conscience how canst thou move that tongue to God in prayer for mercy that hath so often rent and torn his glorious Name by Oaths and Curses Sirs I pray you do not make light of these things they will look wishly upon you one of these days except ye prevent it by sound conversation Arg. 5. And then lastly to name no more I pray you consider that a custom of vain words and prophane Oaths is as plain an indication and discovery of an unregenerate Soul as any in the world This is a sure â—ign thou art none of Christs nor hast any thing to do with the promises and priviledges of his people for by this the Scripture distinguisheth the state of Saints and Sinners Eccl. 9. 2. There is one event to the righteous and to the wicked to the clean and to the unclean to him that sacrificeth and to him that sacrificeth not as is the good so is the sinner and he that sweareth as he that feareth an Oath Mark he that sweareth and he that feareth an Oath do as manifestly distinguish the Children of God from wicked men as clean and unclean righteous and wicked sacrificing and not sacrificing This fruit of the tongue plainly shews what the tree is that bears it Isai. 2. 6. The vile person will speak of villany and out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks Loquere ut videam said one Speak that I may see what you are Look what is in the heart that is vented by the Tongue where the treasures of Grace are in the Heart words ministring Grace will be in the Lips Psal. 37. 30. The mouth of the righteous speaketh wisdom and his tongue talketh of Iudgment for the law of the Lord is in his heart To this sense we must understand that Scripture att 12. 27. By thy words thou shalt be justified and by thy words thou shalt be condemned Certainly Justification and Condemnation in the day of Judgment shall not pass upon us meerly for the good or bad words we have spoken but according to the state of the Person and frame of the heart But the meaning is that our words shall justifie or condemn us in that day as evidence of the state and frame of the Soul We use to say such Witnesses hang'd a man the meaning is the Evidence they gave cast and condemned him O think seriously of this if words evidence the state of the Soul what an woful state must thy Soul needs be in whose mouth overflows with Oathes and Curses How many witnesses will be brought in to cast thee in the great Day Your own tongue shall then fall upon you as the expression is Psal. 64 8. And out of your own mouth God will fetch abundant evidence to condemn you And thus I have opened unto you the evil of vain words and prophane Oathes and presented to your view their several aggravations If by these things there be a relenting pang upon thy heart and a serious resolution of reformation then I shall commend these few helps or means to thy perusal and conclude this Head And the first help is this Help 1. Seriously fix in thy thoughts that Scripture Matth. 12. 36. But I say unto you that every idle word that Men shall speak they shall give an account thereof in the day of Iudgment Oh let it sounâ— in thine ears day and night Oh ponder them in thy heart I say unto you I that have always been in the Fathers bosome and do fully know his mind I that am constituted the Judge of quick and dead and do fully understand the rule of Judgment and the whole process thereof I say and do assure you that every idle word that men shall speak i. e. every word that hath not a tendency and reference to the Glory of God though there be no other obliquity or evil in them than this that they want a good end How much more then scurrilous Words bloody Oathes and Blasphemies Men shall give an account thereof that is shall be cast and condemned to suffer the wrath of God for them as appears by that parallel Scripture 1 Pet. 4. 4 5. For as the Learned observe there is plainly a Matalepsis in these words The Antecedent to give an account is put for the Consequent punishment and condemnation to hell fire the certainty whereof admits but of this one exception viz. intervenient repentance or a pardon obtained through the blood of Christ here before you be presented at that judgment-seat Oh then what a bridle should this Text be to thy extravagant tongue I remember Hierom was wont to say Whether I eat or drink or whatever I do methinks I still hear the sound of these words in mine ear Arise ye dead and come to judgment O that the sound of the words may be always in your ears Help 2. Consider before you speak and be not rash to utter words without knowledge He thâ—â— speaks what he thinks not speaks Hipocitically 〈◊〉 he that thinks not what to speak sperks inconsiâ—â—rately You have cause to weigh your words before you deliver them by your tongue for whether you do or do not the Lord pondereth them Records are kept of them else you could not be called to an account for them as I shewed you you must Help 3. Resign up your Tongues to God every day and beg him to guide and keep it So did David Psal. 141. 3. Set a watch O Lord before my mouth and keep thou the door of my lips Beg him to keep you from provocations and temptations or if you fall into them intreat him for strength to rule your spirits in them that you may not be conquered by temptations Help 4. But above all labour to get your Souls cleansed and purified by Faith possest with saving and gracious Principles All other means will be ineffectual without this Oh see the vileness of thy nature and the necessity of a change to pass upon it First make the tree good and then his fruit good a new Nature will produce new words and actions To binde your souls with Vows and resolutions while you are strangers to a regenerate work
infatuating sin The danger of falling this way must needs be great and the fall very desperate because few that fall into it do ever rise again I shall lay two very terrible Scriptures before you to this purpose either of them enough to drive thee speedily to Christ or to drive thee out of thy wits the one is that Eccles. 7. 26. And I find more bitter than death the woman whose heart is snares and nets and whose hands are bands Whoso pleaseth God shall escape from her but the sinner shall be taken by her The Argument which the spirit of God uses here to disswade from this Sin is taken from the subject they that fall into it for the most part are persons in whom God has no delight and so in judgment are delivered up to it and never recovered by Grace from it The other is that in Prov. 22. 14. The mouth of a strange woman is a deep pit he that is abhorred of the Lord shall fall therein Oh terrible word able to daunt the heart of the the securest sinner your whores embrace you yea but God abhors you you have their love oh but you are under Gods hatred What say you to these two Scriptures If you are not Athiests methinks such a word from the mouth of God should strike like a Dart through thy Soul And upon this account it is that they never are recover'd because God has no delight in them If this be not enough view one Scripture more Prov. 2. 18 19. For her house inclineth unto Death and her paths unto the Dead None that go to her reture again neither take they hold of the paths of life Reader if thou be a person addicted to this sin go thy ways and think seriously what a case thou art in None return again i. e. a very few of many the examples of such as have been recovered are very rare Pliny tells us the Mermaids are commonly seen in green Meadows and have inchanting Voices but there are always found heaps of dead mens bones lying by them This may be but a fabulous Story But I am sure it is true of the Harlot whose Syren-Songs have allured thousands to their inevitable destruction It 's a captivating sin that leads away the sinner in triumph they cannot deliver their souls Prov. 7. 22. He goeth after her straightway as an Ox goeth to the slaughter or as a Fool to the correction of the stocks Mark a Fool it dementates and befools men takes away their understanding the Septuagint renders it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 As a dog to the Collar or like as we use to say a dog in a string I have read of one that having by this sin wasted his body was told by Physitians that except he left it he would quickly lose his Eyes he answered If it be so then Vale lumen amicum Farewel sweet light And I remember Luther writes of a certain Nobleman in his Country who was so besotted with the sin of Whoredome that he was not ashamed to say That if he might live here for ever and be carried from one stews to another he would never desire any other Heaven The greatest Conquerors that have subdued Kingdoms and scorned to be commanded by any have been miserably enslaved and captivated by this Lust. O think sadly upon this argument God often gives them up to Impenitency and will not spend a rod upon them to reclaim them See Hos. 4. 14. Revel 22. 11. Arg. 7. And then in the 7th place Those few that have been recovered by Repentance out of it oh how bitter hath God made it to their souls I find it saith Solomon more bitter than death Eccles. 7. 26. Death is a very bitter thing Oh what a struggling and reluctance is there in Nature against it But this is more bitter Poor David found it so when he roared under those bloody lashes of Conscience for it in Psalm 51. Ah! when the Lord shall open the poor Sinner's eyes to see the horrid guilt he hath hereby contracted upon his own poor soul it will haunt him as a Ghost day and night and terrifie his soul with dreadful forms and representations O dear-bought pleasure if this were all it should cost What is now become of the pleasure of sin Oh! what gall and wormwood wilt thou taste when once the Lord shall bring thee to a sight of it the Hebrew word for Repentance Nacham and the Greek word Metamelia the one signifies an irking of the Soul and the other signifies After grief Yea it is called A renting of the heart as if it were torn in pieces in a mans breast Ask such a poor soul what it thinks of such Courses now Oh now it loaths abhors it self for them Ask him if he dare sin in that kind again You may as well ask me will he answer whether I will thrust my hand into the fire Oh it breeds an indignation in him against himself That word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2 Cor. 7. 11. signifies the rising of the stomach with very rage and being sick with anger Religious wrath is the fiercest wrath Oh what a furnace is the breast of the poor penitent what fumes what heats do abound in it whilst the sin is even before him and the sense of guilt upon him One night of carnal pleasure will keep thee many days and nights upon the rack of horrour if ever God give thee repentance unto life Arg. 8. And if thou never repent as indeed but â—ew do that fall into this sin then consider how God will follow thee with eternal vengeance Thou shalt have flaming Fire for burning Lust. This is a sin that hath a scent of fire and brimstone with it wherever you meet with it in Scripture The Harlots guests are lodged in the depths of Hell Prov. 9. 18. No more perfumed beds they must now lie down in flames Whoremongers shall have their part in the Lake that burneth with fire and brimstone which is the second death Rev. 21. 1. Such shall not inherit the Kingdom of God and Christ 1 Cor. 6. 9. No Dog shall come into the new Ierusalem there shall in no wise enter in any thing that defileth or that worketh abomination You have spent your strength upon sin and now God sets himself a work to shew the glory of his Power in punishing Rom. 9. 22. The wrath of God is transacted upon them in Hell by his own immediate hand Hâ—b 10. 30. Because no Creature is strong enough to convey all his wrath and it must all be poured out upon them therefore he himself will torment them for ever with his own immediate Power now he will stir up all his wrath and sinners shall know the price of their pleasures The punishment of Sodom is a little Map of Hell as I may say Oh how terrible a day was that upon those unclean wretches but that fire was not of many days continuance when it had consumed them and their
at the Heavenly Strand and set foot upon the shore of Glory O Sirs I beg of you if you have any regard to those precious immortal Souls of yours which are also imbarqued for Eternity whither all winds blow them and will quickly he at their Port of Heaven or Hell that you will seriously mind these things and learn to steer your course to Heaven and improve all Winds I mean opportunities and means to waft you thither Here you venture life and liberty run through many Difficulties and Dangers and all to compass a perishing Treasure yet how often do you return disappointed in your Designs or if not yet it is but a fading short-liv'd Inheritance which like the flowing Tide for a little while covers the shore and then returns and leaves it naked and dry again And are not Everlasting Treasures worth venturing for Good Souls be wise for Eternity I here present you with the Fruit of a few spare Hours redeemed for your sakes from my other Studies and Imployments which I have put into a new Dress and Mode I have endeavoured to cloath Spiritual Matters in your own Dialect and Phrases that they might be the more intelligible to you and added some pious Poems with which the several Chapters are concluded trying by all means to assault your several Affections and as the Apostle speaks to catch you with guile I can say nothing of it I know it cannot be without its manifold imperfections since I am conscious of so many in my self Only this I will adventure to say of it That how defective or empty soever it be in other respects yet it is stuffed and filled with much true love to and earnest desires after the salvation and prosperity of your Souls And for the other defects that attend it I have only two things to offer in way of excuse It is the first Essay that I ever made in this kind wherein I had no President And it was hastned for your sakes too soon out of my hands that it might be ready to wait upon you when you undertake your next Voyage so that I could not revise and polish it Nor indeed was I sollicitous about the stile I consider I writ not for Critical and Learned Persons my design is not to please your Fancies any further than I might thereby get advantage to profit your Souls I will not once question your welcome Reception of it If God shall bless these Meditations to the Conversion of any among you you will be the Gainers and my heart shall rejoyce even mine How comfortably should we shake hand with you when you go abroad were we perswaded your Souls were interested in Christ and secured from perishing in the New Convenant What life would it put into our Prayers for you when you are abroad to consider that Iesus Christ is interceeding for you in Heaven whilst we are your Remembrancers here on Earth How quiet would our hearts be when you are abroad in Storms did we know you had a special Interest in him whom Winds and Seas obey To conclude what Ioy would it be to your Godly Relations to see you return new Creatures Doubtless more than if you came home laden with the Riches of both Indies Come Sirs set the heavenly Jerusalem upon the Point of your New Compass make all the Sail you can for it and the Lord give you a prosperous Gale and a safe Arrival in that Land of Rest. So prays Your most Affectionate Friend to serve you in Soul-Concernments IOHN FLAVEL IMPRIMATUR Geo. Stradling S. T. P. Rev. in Christo Pat. D. Gilb. Archiepisc. Cant. a. Sac. Domest Ex Aed Lamb. Dec. 14. 1663. To every Sea-man Sailing Heavenward Ingenious Sea-man THE Art of Navigation by which Islands especially are enriched and preserved in safety from Forensical Invasions and the wonderful Works of God in the great Deep and Foreign Nations are most delightfully and fully beheld c. is an Art of exquisite excellency ingenuity rarity and mirability But the Art of Spiritual Navigation is the Art of Arts. It is a gallant thing to be able to carry a Ship richly laden round the World but it is much more gallant to carry a Soul that rich loading a Pearl of more worth than all the Merchandise of the world in a body that is liable to leaks and bruises as any Ship is through the Sea of this World which is as unstable as water and hath the same brinish taste and salt gust which the waters of the Sea have safe to Heaven the best Haven so as to avoid splitting upon any Soul-sinking Rocks or striking upon any Soul-drowning Sands The Art of Natural Navigation is a very great mystery but the Art of Spiritual Navigation is by much a greater mystory Humane wisdom may teach us to carry a Ship to the Indies but the Wisdom only that is from above can teach us to steer our course aright to the Haven of Happiness This Art is purely of Divine Revelation The truth is Divinity the Doctrine of living to God is nothing else but the Art of Soul-Navigation revealed from Heaven A meer man can carry a Ship to any desired Port in all the World but no meer man can carry a Soul to Heaven He must be a Saint he must be a Divine so all Saints are that can be a Pilot to carry a Soul to the fair Haven in Emanuel's land The Art of Natural Navigation is wonderfully improved since the coming of Christ before which time if there be truth in History the use of the Loadstone was never known in the world and before the vertue of that was revealed unto the Mariner it is unspeakable with what uncertain wandrings Sea-men floated here and there rather than sailed the right and direct way Sure I am the Art of Spiritual Navigation is wonderfully improved since the coming of Christ it oweth its clearest and fullest discovery to the coming of Christ. This Art of Arts is now perfectly revealed in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament but the Rulers thereof are dispers'd up and down therein The collecting and methodizing of the same cannot but be a work very useful unto Souls Though when all is done there is an absolute necessity of the teachings of the Spirit and of the anointing that is from above to make Souls Artists in sailing Heavenward The Ingenious Author of the Christians Compass or the Marriners Companion makes three Parts of this Art as the School-men of Divinity viz. Speculative Practical and Affectionate The principal things necessary to be known by a Spiritual Sea-man in order to the steering rightly and safely to the Port of Happiness he reduceth to four Heads answerable to the four general Points of the Compass making God our North Christ our East Holiness our South and Death our West Points Concerning God we must know 1. That he is Heb. 11. 6. and that there is but one God 1 Cor. 8. 5 6. 2. That this God is that
inch or two between them and their Graves continually The next Gust may over-set them the next Wave may swallow them up In one place lies lurking dangerous Rocks in another perilous Sands and every-where stormy Winds ready to destroy them Well may the Sea-men cry out Ego crastinum non habui I have not had a Morrow in my hands these many Years Should not they then be extraordinary serious and heavenly continually Certainly as the Reverend Author of this New Compass well observes nothing more composeth the heart to such a frame than the lively apprehensions of Eternity do and none have greater external advantages for that than Sea-men have 2. Consider Sea-men what extraordinary help you have by the Book of the Creatures the whole Creation is God's Voice it is God's excellent Hand-writing or the Sacred Scriptures of the Most High to teach us much of God and what reasons we have to bewail our Rebellion against God and to make conscience of obeying God only naturally and continually The Heavens the Earth the Waters are the three great Leaves of this Book of God and all the Creatures are so many Lines in those Leaves All that learn not to fear and serve God by the help of this Book will be left inexcusable Rom. 1. 20. How inexcusable then will ignorant and ungodly Sea-men be Sea-men should in this respect be the best Scholars in the Lord's School seeing they do more than others see the Works of the Lord and his Wonders in the great Deep Psal. 107. 24. 3. Consider how often you are nearer Heaven than any People in the World They mount up to heaven Psal. 107. 26. It has been said of an ungodly Minister that contradicted his Preaching in his Life and Conversation That it was pity he should e're come out of the Pulpit because he was there as near Heaven as ever he would be Shall it be said of you upon the same account That 't is piâ—y you should come down from the high-towring Waves of the Sea Should not Sea-men that in stormy Weather have their feet as it were upon the Battlements of Heaven look down upon all earthly Happiness in this World but as base waterish and worthless The great Cities of Campania seem but small Cottages to them that stand on the â—lpes Should not Sea-men that so oft mount up to Heaven make it their main business here once at last to get into Heaven What Sea-men shall you only go to Heaven against your Wills When Seamen mount up to Heaven in a storm the Psalmist tells us That their souls are melted because of trouble O that you were continually as unwilling to go to Hell as you are in a storm to go to Heaven 4. And lastly Consider what engagements lie upon you to be singularly holy from your singular deliverances and salvations They that go down to the Sea in Ships are sometimes in the Valley of the shadow of Death by reason of the springing of perilous Leaks and yet miraculously delivered either by some wonderful stopping of the Leak or by God's sending some Ship within their sight when they have been far out of sight of any Land or by his bringing their near-perishing Ship safe to shore Sometimes they have been in very great danger of being taken by Pirates yet wonderfully preserved either by God's calming of the Winds in that part of the Sea where the Pirates have sail'd or by giving the poor pursued Ship a strong gale of Wind to run away from their Pursuers or by sinking the Pirates c. Sometimes their Ships have been cast away and yet they themselves wonderfully got safe to shore upon Planks Yards Masts c. I might be endless in enumerating their Deliverances from Drowning from Burning from Slavery c. Sure Sea-men your extraordinary Salvations lay more than ordinary engagement upon you to praise love fear obey and trust in your Saviour and Deliverer I have read that the enthralled Greeks were so affected with their Liberty procured by Flaminius the Roman General that their shrill Acclamations of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A Saviour a Saviour made the very Birds fall down from the Heavens astonished O how should Seamen be affected with their Sea-Deliverances Many that have been deliver'd from Turkish Slavery have vowed to be Servants to their Redeemers all the days of their Lives Ah Sirs will not you be more than ordinarily God's Servants all the days of your Lives seeing you have been so oft so wonderfully râ—deemed from Death it self by him Verily do what you can you will die in God's Debt As for me God forbid that I should sin against the Lord in ceasing to pray for you 1 Sam. 12. 23 24. That by the perusal of this short and sweet Treatise wherein the jucicious and ingenious Author hath well mixed utile dulci profit and pleasure you may learn the good and right way even to fear the Lord and serve him in truth with all your hearts considering how great things he hath done for you This is the hearty Prayer of Your Cordial Friend earnestly desirous of a prosperous Voyage for your precious and immortal Souls T.M. The AUTHOR to the READER WHen Dewy-cheek'd Aurora doth display Her Curtains to let in the New-born Day Her heavenly Face looks Red as if it were Dy'd with a modest Blush 'twixt Shame and Fear Sol makes her blush suspecting that he will Scorch some too much and others leave to chill With such a Blush my little New-born Book Goes out of hand suspecting some may look Vpon it with Contempt while others raise So mean a Peice too high by flattering Praise It s Beauty cannot make its Father dote 'T is a poor Babe clad in a Sea-green Coat It s gone from me too young and now is run To Sea among the Tribe of Zebulun Go Little Book thou many Friends wilt find Among that Tribe who will be very kind And many of them Care of Thee will take Both for thy own and for thy Father's sake Heav'n save it from the dang'rous Storms and Gusts That will be rais'd against it by Mens Lusts. Guilt makes Men angry Anger is a Storm But Sacred Truth 's thy shelter fear no harm On Times or Persous no Reflection's found Though with Reflections few Books more abound Go Little Book I have much more to say But Sea-men call for thee thou must away Yet e're you have it grant me One Request Pray do not keep it Prisoner in your Chest. BOOKS Lately Printed for Tho. Parkhurst at the Bible and Three Crowns at the lower end of Cheapside MR. Flavel's Fountain of Life open'd or a Display of Christ in his Essential and Mediatorial Glory in 42 Sermons Quarto His Treatise of the Soul of Man Quarto Divine Conduct or Mystery of Providence Burgesses Golden Snuffers a Sermon Preach'd to the Society for Reformation of Manners Sylvester's Reformation Sermon How 's Reformation Sermon Singing of Psalms Vindicated from the Charge of Novelty in
Answer to Dr. Russel Mr. Marlow c. Bury's Looking-Glass for the Unmarry'd Discourses upon the Rich Man and Lazarus by Mr. Timothy Cruso BOOKS Printed for and Sold by M. Fabian in Mercers Chappel at the lower end of Cheapside Viz. HYmens Praeludia or Loves Master-piece being that so much admired Romance called Cleopatâ—a Gouges Word to Saints and Sinners Christian directions The Protestant School or a Spelling-book by Moses Lane School-master being the most copious extant The Pastoral Letters of the Incomparable Iurieu directed to the Protestants in France groaning under the Babylonish Tyranny translated Wherein the Sophistical arguments and unexpressible Cruelties made use of by the Papists for making Converts are laid open and expos'd to just abhorrence Unto which is added a brief account of the Hungarian Persecution The History of Scotland from the year 1423 to 1542 containing the Lives and Reigns of Iames the 1 2 3 4 and 5 with several memorials of State during the Reigns of Iames the 6 and Charles the 1. Illustrated with their Effiges in Copper Plates by W. Drummond of Hauthornden With a Prefatory Introduction taken out of the Records of that Nation by Mr. Hall of Grays Inn. The 2 Edition with a brief account of the Authors Life Collyers Compendions Discourses Self denyal Bampfields reply to Dr. Wallis Gosnold of Baptism Post with a Pacquet of Letters School for Princes Spiritual guide to disentangled Souls by P. Molino Learnings Foundation firmly laid in a short method of teaching to read English more exact and easie than ever was yet publish'd by any comprehending all things necessary for the perfect and speedy attaining the same Whereby any one of discretion may be brought to read the Bible truly in the space of a Month tho' he never knew a Letter before the truth whereof hath been confirm'd by manifold experience by George Robertson School-master A New Compass for Sea-Men OR Navigation Spiritualiz'd CHAP. I. The Launching of a Ship plainly sets forth Our double State by First and Second Birth OBSERVATION NO sooner is a Ship built launched rigged victualled and manned but she is presently sent out into the boisterous Ocean where she is never at rest but continually fluctuating tossing and labouring until she be either overwhelmed and wrecked in the Sea or through Age knocks and bruises grows leaky and unserviceable and so is haled up and ript abroad APPLICATION No sooner come we into the World as Men or as Christians by a natural or supernatural Birth but thus we are tost upon a Sea of Troubles Job 5. 7. Yet Man is born to trouble as the sparks flie upwards The spark no sooner comes out of the fire but it flies up naturally it needs not any external force help or guidance but ascends from a principle in it self So naturally so easily doth trouble rise out of sin There is radically all the misery anguish and trouble in the World in our corrupt Natures As the spark lies close hid in the coals so doth misery in sin Every sin draws a rod after it And these sorrows and troubles fall not only on the Body in those breaches flaws deformities pains aches diseases to which it is subject which are but the groans of dying Nature and its crumbling by degrees into dust again but on all our Imployments and Callings also Gen. 3. 17 18 19. These are full of pain trouble and disappointment Hag. 1. 6. We earn Wages and put it into a Bag with holes and disquiet our selves in vain all our Relations full of trouble The Apostle speaking to those that Marry saith 1 Cor. 7. 28. Such shall have trouble in the flesh Upon which words one glosseth thus Flesh and Trouble are Marry'd together whether we Marry or no But they that are Marry'd Marry with and Match into new troubles All Relations have their burdens as well as their comforts It were endless to enumerate the sorrows of this kind and yet the troubles of the Body are but the body of our troubles The spirit of the Curse falls upon the spiritual and noblest part of Man The Soul and Body like to Ezekiel's Roll are written full with sorrows both within and without So that we make the same report of our lives when we come to die that old Iacob made before Pharaoh Gen. 47. 9. Few and evil have the days of the years of our lives been For what hath Man of all his labour and of the vexation of his heart wherein he hath laboured under the Sun For all his days are sorrows and his travel grief yea his heart taketh no rest in the night This is also vanity Eccles. 2 22 23. Neither doth our New Birth free us from troubles though then they be sanctify'd sweetned and turned into blessings to us We put not off the Humane when we put on the Divine Nature nor are we then freed from the sense though we be deliver'd from the sting and curse of them Grace doth not presently pluck out all those Arrows that sin hath shot into the sides of Nature 2 Cor. 7. 5. When we were come into Macedonia our Flesh had no rest but we were troubled on every side without were fightings and within were fears Rev. 7. 14. These are they that come out of great tribulations The first cry of the New-born Christian says one gives Hell an alarm and awakens the rage both of Devils and Men against him Hence Paul and Barnabas acquainted those new Converts Act. 14. 22. That through much tribulation they must enter into the Kingdom of God And we find the state of the Church in this World set out Isa. 54. 11. by the similitude of a distressed Ship at Sea O thou afflicted and tossed with Tempests and not comforted Tossed as Iona's Ship was for the same word is there used Ionah 1. 11. 13. as a Vessel at Sea stormed and violently driven without Rudder Mast Sail or Tacklings Nor are we to expect freedom from those Troubles until harboured in Heaven see 2 Thess. 1. 7. O what large Catalogues of Experiences do the Saints carry to Heaven with them of their various Exercises Dangers Trials and marvellous Preservations and Deliverances out of all And yet all these Troubles without are nothing to those within them from Temptations Corruptions Desertions by Passion and Compassion Besides their own there comes daily upon them the Troubles of others many Rivulets fall into this Channel and Brim yea often overflow the Banks Psal. 34. 19. Many are the afflictions of the righteous REFLECTION Hence should the graceless heart thus reflect upon it self O my Soul into what a Sea of troubles art thou lanched forth And what a sad case thou art in Full of Trouble and full of Sin and these do mutually produce each other And that which is the most dreadful Consideration of all is That I cannot see the end of them As for the Saints they suffer in the World as well as I but it is but for a While 1 Pet.
and riches of it if they will but submit to the terms on which it is tender'd to them In the vastness of the Ocean we have also a lively Emblem of Eternity Who can comprehend or measure the Ocean but God And who can comprehend Eternity but he that is said to inhabit it Isa. 57. 15. Though shallow Rivers may be drained and dried up yet the Ocean cannot And though these transitory Days Months and Years will at last expire and determine yet Eternity shall not O! it is a long World and amazing Matter What is Eternity but a constant permanency of Persons and Things in one and the same State and Condition for ever putting them beyond all possibility of change The Heathens were wont to shadow it by a Cricle or a Snake twisted round It will be to all of us either a perpetual Day or Night which will not be measured by Watches Hours Minutes And as it cannot be measured so neither can it ever be diminished When thousands of years are gone there is not a minute less to come Gerhard and Drexelius do both illustrate it by this known similitude Suppose a Bird were to come once in a thousand years to some vast Mountain of Sand and carry away in her Bill one Sand in a thousand years O what a vast time would it be e're that immortal Bird after that rate had recovered the Mountain and yet in time this might be done For there would be still some diminution but in Eternity there can be none There be three things in Time which are not competent to Eternity In Time there is a Succession one Generation Year and Day passeth and another comes but Eternity is a fixed now In Time there is a Diminution and wasting the more is past the less to come But it is not so in Eternity In time there is an Alteration of condition and states A Man may be poor to day and rich to morrow sickly and diseased this week and well the next now in contempt and anon in honour But no change passes upon us in Eternity As the Tree falls at Death and Judgment so it lies for ever If in Heaven there thou art a Pillar and shalt go forth no more Rev. 3. 12. If in Hell no Redemption thence but the smoak of their torments ascendeth for ever and ever Rev. 19. 3. REFLECTION And is the Mercy of God like the great Deeps an Ocean that none can fathom What unspeakable Comfort is this to me may the pardoned Soul say Did Israel sing a Song when the Lord had overwhelm'd their corporal Enemies in the Seas And shall not I break forth into his Praises who hath drowned all my sins in the depth of Mercy O my Soul bless thou the Lord and let his high praises ever be in thy mouth Mayst not thou say that he hath gone to as high an extent and degree of Mercy in pardoning thee as ever he did in any Oh my God who is like unto thee that pardonest Iniquity Transgression and Sin What mercy but the Mercy of a God could cover such abominations as mine But O! what terrible Reflections will Conscience â—ake from hence upon all the Despisers of Mercy when the sinners eyes come to be opened too late for Mercy to do them good We have heard inâ—eed that the King of Heaven was a merciful King â—ut we would make no address to Him whilst that Scepter was stretched out We heard of Balm in Gilead and a Physician there that was able and willing to cure all our wounds but would not commit our seives to him We read that the Arms of Christ were open to embrance and receive us but we would not O unparallel'd folly O Soul-destroying madness Now the Womb of Mercy is shut up and shall bring forth no more Mercies to me for ever Now the Gates of Grace are shut and no cries can open them Mercy acted its part and is gone off the Stage and now Justice enters the Scene and will be glorified for ever upon me How often did I hear the Bowels of Compassion sounding in the Gospel for me But my hard and impenitent heart could not relent and now if it could it is too late I am now past out of the Ocean of Mercy into the Ocean of Eternity where I am fixed in the midst of endless Misery and shall never hear the Voice of Mercy more O dreadful Eternity Oh Soul-confounding Word â— An Ocean indeed to which this Ocean is but as a drop for in thee no Soul shall see either Bank or Bottom If I lie but one Night under strong pains of body how tedious doth that Night seem And how do I tell the Clock and wish for day In the World I might have had Life and would not And now how fain would I have Death but cannot â— How quick were my sins in execution And how long is their punishment in duration O how shall I dwell with everlasting Burnings Oh that God would but vouchsafe one treaty more with me Buâ— alas all tenders and treaties are now at an end with me On Earth peace Luke 2. 13. but none in Hell O my Soul consider these things come let us debate this matter seriously before we launch oâ— into this Ocean THE POEM Who from some high-rais'd Tower views the ground His heart doth tremble and his head doth round Even so my Soul whilst it doth view and think On this Eternity upon whose brink It borders stands amazed and doth cry O boundless bottomless Eternity The Scourge of Hell whose very Lash doth rend The damned Souls in twain What! never end The more thereon they ponder think and pore The more poor wretches still they howl and roar Ah! though more years in torments we should lie Than Sands are on the Shore or in the Skie Are twinkling Stars yet this gives some relief The hope of ending Ah! but here 's the grief A thousand Years in Torments past and gone Ten Thousand more afresh are coming on And when these Thousands all their course have run The end 's no more than when it first begun Come then my Soul let us discourse together This weighty Point and tell me plainly whether You for these short-liv'd Ioys that come and go Will plunge your self and me in endless woe Resolve the Question quickly do not dream More Time away Lo in an hasty stream We swiftly pass and shortly we shall be Ingulphed both in this Eternity CHAP. III. Within these smooth-fac'd Seas strange Creatures crawl But in Man's Heart far stranger than them all OBSERVATION IT was an unadvised saying of Plato Mare nil memorabile producit The Sea produceth nothing memorable But surely there is much of the Wisdom Power and Goodness of God manifested in those Inhabitants of the Watery Region Notwithstanding the Seas azure and smiling face Strange Creatures are bred in its Womb. O Lord saith David how manifold are thy works In wisdom hast thou made them all the Earth is full
of thy riches So is this great and wide Sea wherein are things creeping innumerable both small and great Beasts Psalm 104. 24 25. And we read Lam. 4. 3. of Sea-Monsters which draw out their Breasts to their young Pliny and Purchas tell incredible stories about them About the Tropick of Capricorn our Sea-men meet with flying Fishes that have Wings like a Rere-mouse but of a Silver-colour they fly in flocks like Stares There are Creatures of very strange Forms and Properties some resembling a Cow called by the Spaniards Manates by some supposed to be the Sea-monster spoken of by Ieremy In the Rivers of Guiana Purchas saith there are Fishes that have four Eyes bearing two above and two beneath the Water when they swim Some resembling a Toad and very poisonous How strange both in shape and property is the Sword-fish and Thrasher that fight with the Whale Even our own Seas produce Creatures of strange shapes but the commonness takes off the wonder APPLICATION Thus doth the heart of Man naturally swarm and abound with strange and monstrous lusts and abominations Rom. 1. 29 30 31 Being filled with all unrighteousness fornication wickedness covetousness maliciousness fuil of envy murder debate deceit malignity whisperers back-bitâ—rs haters of God despiteful proud boasters inventors of evil things disobedient to Parents without understanding covenant-breakers without natural affection implacable unmerciful O what a swarm is here and yet there are multitudes more in the depths of the heart And it is no wonder considering that with this Nature we received the spawn of the blackest and vilest abominations This original lust is productive to them all Iam. 1. 14. 15. Which lust though it be in every Man numerically different from that of others yet it is one and the same speciffically for sort and kind in all the Children of Adam even as the reasonable Soul though every Man hath his own Soul viz a Soul individually distinct from another Man's yet is it the same for kind in all men So that whatever abominations are in the hearts and lives of the vilest Sodomites and most profligate Wretches under Heaven there is the same matter in thy heart out of which they were shaped and formed In the depths of the heart they are conceived and thence they crawl out of the eyes hands lips and all the members Mat. 15. 18. 19. Those things saith Christ which proceed out of the mouth come forth from the heart and defile a man For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts murders adulteries fornications thefts false-witness blasphemies Even such Monsters as would make a gracious heart tremble to behold What are my Lusts saith Fuller's Medone but so many Toads spitting of Venome tations p 11. and spawning of Poison croaking in my Iudgment creeping in my Will and crawling into my Affecttions The Apostle in 1 Cor. 5. 1. tells us of a sin Not to be named so monstrous that Nature it self startles at it Even such Monsters are generated in the depths of the heart Whence comes evils was a Question that much puzled the Philosphers of old Now here you may see whence they come and when they are begotten REFLECTION And are there such strange abominations in the heart of Man Then how is he degenerated from his Perfection and Glory His streams were once as clear as Chrystal and the Fountain of them pure there was no unclean Creature moving in them What a stately Fabrick was the Soul at first And what holy Inhabitants possessed the several rooms thereof But now as God speaks of Idumea Isai. 34. 11. The line of confusion is stretched out upon it and the stones of emptiness The Cormorant and Bittern posses it the Owl and the Raven dwell in it Yea as Isai. 13. 21. 22. The wild beasts of the desert lie there is is full of doleful creatures the Satyrs dance in it and Dragons cry in those sometimes pleasant places O sad change how sadly may we look back towards our first state and take up the words of Iob O that I were as in months past as in the days of my youth when the Almighty was yet with me when I put on righteousness and it cloathed me when my glory was fresh in me Job 29. 2 4. 5. Again think O my Soul what a miserable condition the Unregenerate abide in Thus swarmed and over-run with hellish Lusts â—nder the dominion and vassalage of divers Lusts Tit. 3. 3. What a tumultuous Sea is such a Soul How do these Lusts rage within them how do they contest and scuffle for the Throne and usually take it by turns For as all Diseases are contrary to health yet some contrary to each other so are Lusts. Hence poor Creatures are hurried on to different kinds of servitude according to the Nature of that imperious Lust that is in the Throne and like the Lunatick Mat. 17. are sometimes cast into the VVater and somtimes into the Fire Well might the Prophet say The wicked is like a troubled Sea that cannot rest Isai. 57. 20. They have no peace now in the serv ice of sin and less they shall have hereafter when they receive the wages of sin There is no peaec to the wicked saith my God they indeed cry Peace peace but my God doth not say so The last issue and result of this is Eternal Death no sooner is it delivered of its deceitfull pleasures but presently it falls in travel again and brings forth death Iam. 1 15. Once more And is the Heart such a Sea abounding with monstrous abominations then stand astonished O my Soul at that Free-grace which hath delivered thee from so sad a Condition O fall down and kiss the feet of Mercy that moved so freely and seasonably to thy rescue Let my heart be enlarged abundantly here Lord what am I that I should be taken and others left Reflect O my Soul upon the Conceptions and Births of Lusts in the days of Vanity which thou now blushest to own O what black imaginations hellish desires vile affections are lodged there Who made me to differ Or how came I to be thus wounderfully separated Surely it is by thy Free-grace and nothing else that I am what I am And by that Grace I have escaped to mine own astonishment the corruption that is in the World through Lust. O that ever the holy God should set his eyes on such an one or cast a look of love towards me in whom were Legions of unclean Lusts and Abominations THE POEM My Soul 's the Sea wherein from day to day Sins like Leviathans do sport and play Great Master-Lusts with all the lesser fry Therein increase and strangely multiply Yet strange it is not sin so fast should breed Since with this Nature I receiv'd the Seed And Spawn of every Species which was shed Into its Caverns first then nourished By its own native warmth which like the Sun Hath quickned them and now abroad they come And like the Frogs of Aegypt creep
and crawl Into the closest Rooms within my Soul My Fancy swarms for there they frisk and play In Dreams by Night and foolish Toys by day My Iudgment 's clouded by them and my Will Perverted every corner they do fill As Locusts seize on all that 's fresh and green Vncloath the beauteous Spring and make it seem Like drooping Autumn so my Soul that first As Eden seem'd now 's like a Ground that 's curst Lord purge my Streams and kill those Lusts that lie Within them if they do not I must die CHAP. IV. Seas purge themselves and cast their filth ashore But Graceless Souls retain and suck in more OBSERVATION SEas are in a continual motion and agitation they have their Flux and Reflux by which they are kept from putrefaction like a Fountain it cleanses it self Isai. 57. 20. It cannot rest but cast up mire and dirt whereas Lakes and ponds whose Waters are standing and dead corrupt and stink And it is observ'd by Seamen hat in the Southern parts of the World where the Sea in more calm and setled it is more corrupt and unfit for use so is the Sea of Sodom called The Dead Sea APPLICATION Thus do regnerate Souls purify themselves and work out corruption that defiles them they cannot suffer it to settle there 1 Iob 3. 3. He purifieth himself even as he is pure Keepeth himself that the wicked one toucheth him not 1 Iohn 5. 18. scil Tacta qualitativo with a Qualitative Touch as the Load-stone toucheth Iron leaving an Impression of its Nature behind it They are Doves delighting in cleanness Isai. 33. 15. He dispiseth the gain of opression he shaketh his hands from holding of bribes stoppeth his ears from hearing blood and shutteth his eyes from seeing evil See how all Senses and Members are guarded against sin But it is quite contrary with the wicked there no principle of Holiness in them to oppose or expel corruption It lies in their hearts as Mud in a Lake or Well which settles and corrupts more and more Hence Ezec. 47. 11. their Hearts are compared to myrie or marish places which cannot be healed but are given to Salt The meaning is that the purest streams of the Gospel which cleanse others make them worse than before as abundance of Rain will a myrie place The reason is because it meets with an obstacle in their souls so that it cannot run through them and be glorisied as it doth in gracious Souls All the means and endeavours used to cleanse them are in vain all the grace of God they receive in vain They hold fast deceit they refuse to let it go Jer. 8. 5. Sin is not in them as floating Weeds upon the Sea which it strives to expel and purge out but as Spots in the Leopard's Skin Ier. 13. 21. or Letters fashioned and engraven in the very substance of Marble or Brass with a pen of Iron and point of a Diamond Ier. 17. 1 Or as Ivy in an old Wall that hath gotten rooting into its very intrails VVickedness is sweet in their mouths they roul it under their tongues Job 20. 12. No threats nor promises can divorcethem from it REFLECTION Lord this is the very frame of my heart may the graceless Soul say My corruptions quietly settle in me my heart labours not against it I am a stranger to that conflict which is daily maintained in all the Faculties of the regenerate Soul Glorified Souls have no such conflict because Grace in them stands alone and is perfectly triumphant over all its opposites and graceless Souls can have no such conflict because in them corruption stands alone and hath no other principle to make opposition to it And this is my case O Lord I am full of vain hopes indeed but had I a living and wellgrounded hope to dwell for ever with so holy a God I could not but be daily purifying my self But O! what will the end of this be I have cause to tremble at that last and dreadfullest Curse in the Book of God Rev. 22. 11. Let him that is filthy be filthy still Is it not as much as if God should say Let them alone I will spend no more rods upon them no more means shall be used about them but I will reckon with them for all together in another World O my Soul what a dismal reckoning will that be Ponder with thy self in the mean while those terrible and awaking Texts that if possible this fatal issue may be prevented See Isai. 1. 5. Hos. 4. 14. Jer. 6. 29 30 Heb. 6. 8. THE POEM My Heart 's no Fountain but a standing Lake Of putrid Waters if therin I rake By serious search O! what a noysome smell Like Exhalations rising out of Hell The stinking Waters pump'd up from the Hole Are as perfumes to Sea-men but my Soul Vpon the same account that they are glad Its long continuance there is therefore sad The Scripture saith No Soul God's face shall see Till from such filthy Lusts it cleansed be Yet though unclean it may that way be rid As Hercules the Augean Stable did Lord turn into my Soul that cleansing Bloud Which from my Saviour's side flow'd us a Flood Flow sacred brim my Banks and flow Till you have made my Soul as white as Snow CHAP. V. Sea-men fore-see a Danger and prepare Yet few of greater Dangers are aware OBSERVATION HOW watchfull and quick sighted are Sea-men to prevent Dangers If the Wind die away and then fresh up Sourtherly or if they see the Sky hezy they provide for a Storm If by the Prospective-Glass they ken a Pirate at the greatest distance they clear the Gun-room prepare for fight and bear up if able to deal with him if not they keep close by the Wind make all the Sail they can and bear away If they suppose themselves by their reckoning near Land how often do they sound And if upon a Coast with which they are unacquainted how careful are they to get a Pilot that knows and is acquainted with it APPLICATION Thus watchful and suspicions ought we to be in Spiritual Concernmets We should study and be acquainted with Satan's Wiles and Policy The Apostle takes it for granted that Christians are not ignorant of his devices 2 Cor. 2. 11. The Serpent's eye as one saith would do well in the Dove's head The Devil is a cunning Pirate he puts out false Colours and ordinarily comes up to the Christan in the disguise of a friend O the manifold depths and stratagems of Satan to destroy Souls Though he have no Wisdom to do himself good yet policy enough to do us mischiefe He lies in ambush behind our lawful comforts and imployments Yet for the most of men how supine and careless are they suspecting no danger Their Souls like Laish dwell carelesly their Senses unguarded O what an easie prize and conquest doth the Devil make of them Indeed if it were with us as with Adam in innocency or as it was with
Christ in the days of his flesh who by reason of that overflowing fulness of Grace that dwelt in him the purity of his Person and the Hypostatical Union was secured from the danger of all temptations the case then were otherwise but we have a Traytor within Jam. 1. 14 15. as well as a Tempter without 1 Pet. 5. 8. Our adversary the Devil goes about as a roaring Lion seeking whom he may devour And like the Beasts of the Forest poor Souls lie down before him and become his prey All the lagacity wit policy and foresight of some Men is summoned in to serve their Bodies and secure their fleshly enjoyments REFLECTION Lord how doth the care wisdom and vigilancy of Men in temporal and external things condemn my carelesness in the deep and dear concernments of my precious Soul What care and labour is there to secure a perishing life liberty or treasure When was I thus sollicitous for my Soul though its value be inestimable and its dangers far greater Self-preservation is one of the deepest Principles in Nature There is not the poorest Worm or Flie but will shun danger if it can Yet I am so far from shunning those dangers to which my Soul lies continually exposed that I often run it upon temptations and voluntarily expose it to its enemies I see Lord how watchful Jealous and laborious thy People are what Prayers Tears and Groans searching of Heart Mortification of Lusts guarding of Senses and all accounted too little by them Have not I a Soul to save or lose eternally as well as they Yet I cannot deny one fleshly lust nor withstand one temptation O how am I convinced and condemned not only by others care and vigilancy but my own too in lesser and lower matters THE POEM I am the Ship whose Bills of Lading come To more than Mans or Angels art can sum Rich fraught with Mercies on the Ocean now I float the dangerous Ocean I do plow Storms rise Rocks threaten and in every Creek Pirates and Pickeroons their Prizes seek My Soul should watch look out and use its Glass Prevent Surprizals timely but alas Temptations give it chase it 's grappled sure And boared whilst it thinks it self secure It sleeps like Jonah in the dreadful'st storm Although its case be dangerous and forlorn Lord rouze my drowsie Soul lest it should knock And split it self upon some dangerous Rock If it of Faith and Conscience shipwrack make I am undone for ever Soul awake Till thou arrive in Heaven watch and fear Thou mayst not say till then the Coast is clear CHAP. VI. How small a matter turns a Ship about Yet we against our Conscience stand it out OBSERVATION IT is just matter of admiration to see so great a body as a Ship is and when under Sail too before a fresh and strong Wind by which it is carried as the Clouds with marvellous force and speed yet to be commanded with ease by so small a thing as the Helm is The Scripture takes notice of it as a matter worthy our consideration Jam. 3. 4 Behold also the ships which though they be great and driven of fierce winds yet they are turned about with a small Helm whithersoever the Governour listeth Yea Aristotle himself that Eagle ey'd Philosopher could not give a reason of it but looked upon it as a very marvellous and wounderful thing APPLICATION To the same use and office has God design'd Conscience in Man which being rectified and regulated by the Word and Spirit of God is to steer and order his whole Conversation Conscience is as the Oracle of God the Judge and Determiner of our Actions whether they be good or evil and it lays the strongest obligatons upon the creature to obey its dictates that is imaginable For it binds under the reason and consideration of the most Absolute and Soveraign Will of the great God So that as often as Conscience from the Word convinceth us of any sin or duty it lays such a bond upon us to obey it as no power under Heaven can relax or dispense with Angels cannot do it much less Man for that would be to exalt themselves above God Now therefore it is an high and dreadful way of sinning to oppose and rebel against Conscience when it convinces of sin or duty Conscience sometimes reasons it out with Men and shews them the necessity of changing their way and course arguing it from the clearest and most allowed Maxims of right Reason as well as from the indisputable Soveraignty of God As for instance It convinceth their very Reason that things of Eternal Duration are infinitely to be preferred to all momentary and perishing things Rom. 8. 18. Heb. 11. 26. And it is our duty to chuse them and make all secular and temporary concernments to stand aside and give place to them Yet though Men be convinced of this their stubborn Will stands out and will not yield up it self to the conviction Further It argues from this acknowledged truth That all the delights and pleasures it this World are but a miserable portion and that it is the highest folly to adventure an immortal soul for them Luke 9. 25. Alas what remembrance is there of them in Hell They are as the waters that pass away What have they left of all their mirth and jollity but a tormenting sting It convinceth them clearly also that in matters of deep concernment it is an high point of wisdom to apprehend and improve the right seasons and opportunities of them Prov. 10. 5. He that gathers in summer is a wise Son Eccles. 8. 5. A wise man's heart discerns both time and judgment There is a season to every purpose Eccles. 3. 1. viz. A nick of time an happy juncture when if a Man strikes in he doth his work effectually and with much facility Such Seasons Conscience convinceth the Soul of and often whispers thus in its ear Now Soul strike in close with this motion of the Spirit and be happy for ever thou maist never have such a gale for Heaven any more Now though these be allowed Maxims of Reason and Conscience inforce them strongly on the soul yet cannot it prevail the prou'd stubborn Will rebels and will not be guided by it See Ephes. 2. 3. Iob 34. 37. Isai. 46. 12. Ezek. 2. 4. Ier. 44. 16. REFLECTION Ah Lord such an heart have I had before thee thus obstinate thus rebellious so uncomptrolable by Conscience Many a time hath Conscience thus whispered in mine ear many a time hath it stood in my way as the Angel did in Balaams or the Cherubims that kept the way of the Tree of Life with flaming swords turning every way Thus hath it stood to oppose me in the way of my Lusts. How often hath it calmly debated the Case with me alone And how sweetly hath it expostulated with me How clearly hath it convinced of sin danger duty with strong demonstration How terrible hath it menaced my soul and set
Bread ascertain'd VVaters too secur'd Then shout and sing ye that are thus Immur'd CHAP. XII VVhat Dangers run they for a little gains VVho for their Souls would ne'r take half the pains OBSERVATION HOw exceeding solicitous and adventurous are Sea-men for a small portion of the World How prodigal of strength and life for it They will run to the ends of the Earth engage in a Thousand dangers upon the hopes and probability of getting a small Estate Per mare per terras per mille pericula currunt Hopes of gain makes them willing to adventure their liberty yea their life and encourages them to endure Heat Cold and Hunger and a Thousand streights and difficulties to which they are frequently exposed APPLICATION How hot and eager are Mens affections after the World And how remiss and cold towards things eternal They are careful and troubled about many things but seldom mind the great and necessary matters Luke 10. 40. They can rise early go to bed late eat the bread of carefulness But when did they so deny themselves for their poor Souls Their heads are full of designs and projects to get or advance an Estate VVe will go into such a City continue there a year and Buy and Sell and get gain Jam. 4. 13. This is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Master-design which engrosseth all their time studies and contrivances The Will hath past a Decree for it the Heart and Affections are fully let out to it They will be rich 1 Tim. 6. 9. This Decree of the Will the Spirit of God takes deep notice of it and indeed it is the clearest and fullest discovery of a Man's portion and condition For look what is highest in the estimation first and last in the thoughts and upon which we spend our time and strength with delight certainly that is our Treasure Mat. 6. 20 21. The Heads and Hearts of Saints are full of solicitous cares and fears about their Spiritual Condition The great design they drive on to which all other things are but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 things on the by is to make sure their Calling and Election This is the Pondus the weight and byass of their Spirit if their hearts stray and wander after any other thing this reduces them again REFLECTION Lord this hath been my manner from my Youth may the Carnal minded Man say I have been labouring for the Meat that perisheth disquieting my self in vain full of designs and projects for the World and unwearied in my endeavours to compass an earthly treasure yet therein I have either been checkt and disappointed by Providence or if I have obtained yet I am no sooner come to enjoy that Content and Comfort I promised my self in it but I am ready to leave it all to be stript out of it by Death and in that day all my thoughts perish But in the mean time What have I done for my Soul When did I ever break a Night's sleep or deny and pinch my self for it Ah fool that I am to nourish and pamper a vile Body which must shortly lie under the Clods and become a loathsome Carkass and in the mean time neglect and undo my poor Soul which partakes of the Nature of Angels and must live for ever I have kept others Vineyards but mine own Vineyard I have not kept I have been a perpetual drudge and slave to the World in a worse condition hath my Soul been than others that are Condemned to the Mines Lord change my Treasure and change my Heart O let it suffice that I have been thus long labouring on the fire for very vanity Now gather up my heart and affections in thy self and let my great design now be to secure a special interest in thy Blessed Self that I may once say To me to live is Christ. THE POEM The Face of Man imprest and stampt on Gold VVith Crown and Royal Scepters we behold No wonder that an humane Face it gains Since Head Heart Soul and Body it obtains Nor is it strange a Scepter it should have That to its Yoke the World doth so enslave Charm'd with its chinking Note away they go Like Eagles to the Carcass ride and row Through worlds of hazards foolish creatures run That into its embraces they may come Poor Indians in the Mines my heart condoles But seldom turns aside to pity Souls Which are the slaves indeed that toyl and spend Themselves upon its service Surely Friend They are but Sextons to prepare and make Thy Grave within those Mines whence they do take And dig their Ore Ah! many Souls I fear Whose Bodies live yet lie entombed there Is Gold so tempting to you Lo Christ stands VVith length of days and riches in his hands Gold in the fire tried he freely proffers But few regard or take those Golden Offers CHAP. XIII Millions of Creatures in the Seas are fed Why then are Saints in doubt of daily bread OBSERVATION THere are multitudes of Living Creatures in the Sea The Psalmist saith There are in it things creeping innumerable both small and great beasts Psal. 104. 25. And we read Gen. 1. 20. that when God blessed the Waters he said Let the Waters bring forth abundantly both Fish and Fowl that move in it and fly about it Yet all those multitudes of Fish and Fowl both in Sea and Land are cared and provided for Psal. 145. 15 16. Thou givest them their meat in due season thou openest thy hand and satisfiest the desire of every living thing APPLICATION If God take care for the Fishes of the Sea and the Fowls of the Air much more will he care and provide for those that fear him When the poor and needy seeketh water and there is none and their tongue faileth for thirst I the Lord will hear them I the God of Israel will not forsake them Isai. 41. 17. Take no thought for your life saith the Lord what ye shall eat or what ye shall drink or for the body what ye shall put on Which he backs with an Argument from God's Providence over the Creatures and enforceth it with a much rather upon them Matth. 6. 25 31. God would have his people be without carefulness i. e. anxious care 1 Cor. 7. 32. And to cast their care upon him for he careth for them 1 Pet. 5. 7. There be two main Arguments suggested in the Gospel to quiet and satisfie the hearts of Saints in this particular The one is that the Gift of Jesus Christ amounts to more than all these things come to yea in bestowing him he has given that which virtually and eminently comprehends all these inferiour mercies in it Rom. 8. 32. He that spared not his own Son but delivered him up for us all how shall he not with him freely give us all things And 1 Cor. 3. 22. All things are yours and ye are Christ's and Christ is God's Another Argument is That God gives these Temporal Things to those he never gave his Christ
impatiency and unbelief of the heart appears Matura vexata prodit seipsam When the Water is stirred then the mud and filthy sediment that lay at the bottom rises Little saith the afflicted Soul did I think there had been in me that pride self-love distrust of God carnal fear and unbelief as I now find O where is my Patience my Faith my Glory in tribulation I could not have imagined the sight of Death would have so appalled me the loss of outward things so have pierced me Now what a blessed thing is this to have the heart thus discovered Again Sanctified Afflictions discover the emptiness and vanity of the Creature Now the Lord hath stained its pride and vailed its tempting splendour by this or that affliction and the Soul sees what an empty shallow deceitful thing it is The World as one hath truly observed is then only great in our eyes when we are full of sense and self But now Affliction makes us more spiritual and then it is nothing It drives them nearer to God makes them see the necessity of the Life of Faith with multitudes of other benefits But yet these sweet fruits of Affliction do not naturally and of their own accord spring from it No we may as well look for Grapes from Thorns or Figs from Thistles as for such Fruits from Affliction till Christ's sanctifying Hand and Art have past upon them The reason why they become thus sweet and pleasant as I noted before is because they run now into another channel Jesus Christ hath removed them from Mount Ebal to Gerezim they are no more the effects of vindictive Wrath but paternal Chastisement And as Mr. Case well notes A teaching affliction is to the Saints the result of all the Offices of Iesus Christ. As a King he chastens as a Prophet he teacheth viz. by chastening and as a Priest he hath purchased this grace of the Father that the dry Rod might blossom and bear fruit Behold then a sanctified affliction is a Cup whereinto Jesus Christ hath wrung and prest the juyce and virtue of all his Mediatory Offices Surely that must be a Cup of generous Royal Wine like that in the Supper a Cup of Blessing to the people of God REFLECTION Hence may the unsanctified Soul draw matter of fear and trouble even from its unsanctified troubles And thus it may reflect upon it self O my Soul what good hast thou gotten by all or any of thy afflictions God's Rod hath been dumb to thee or thou deaf to it I have not learned one holy Instruction from it My troubles have left me the same or worse than they found me my Heart was proud earthly and vain before and so it remains still They have not purged out but onely given vent to the pride murmur and atheism of my heart I have been in my afflictions as that wicked Ahaz was in his 2 Chron. 28. 22. Who in the midst of his distress yet trespassed more and more against the Lord. When I have been in storms at Sea or troubles at home my Soul within me hath been as a raging Sea casting up mire and dirt Surely this Rod is not the Rod of God's Children I have proved but dross in the Furnace and I fear the Lord will put me away as dross as he threatens to do by the wicked Psal. 119. 119. Hence also should gracious Souls draw much encouragement and comfort amidst all their troubles O these are the fruits of Gods fatherly love to me Why should I fear in the day of evil or tremble any more at affliction though they seem as a Serpent at a distance yet are they a Rod in hand O blessed be that skilful and gracious hand that makes the Rod the dry Rod to blossome and bear such precious fruit Lord what a mystery of love lies in this dispensation That sin which first brought afflictions into the world is now it self carried out of the world by affliction Rom. 5. 12. Isa. 7. 9. O what can frustrate my Salvation when those very things that â—eem most to oppose it are mad subservient to it â—nd contrary to their own nature do promote and â—urther it THE POEM â—Tis strange to hear what different censures fall Vpon the same affliction some do call Their troubles sweet some bitter others meet Them both mid-way and call them bitter-sweet But here 's the question still I fain would see Why sweet to him and bitter unto me Thou drink'st them Dregs and all but others find Their troubles sweet because to them refin'd And sanctifi'd which difference is best By such apt Siâ—ilies as these exprest From Salt and Brackish Seas Fumes rise and fly Which into Clouds condens'd obscure the skie Their property there alter'd in few hours Those brackish fumes fall down in pleasant showers Or as the dregs of Wine and Beer distill'd By Limbeck with ingredients doth yield A Cordial water though the Lees were bitter From whence the Chymist did extract such liquor Then marvel not that one can kiss that Rod Which makes another to blaspheme his God O get your troubles sweet'ned and refin'd Or else they 'll leave bitter effects behind Saints troubles are a Cord let down by love To pully up their hearts to things above CHAP. XV. The Seas within their bounds the Lord contains He also Men and Devils holds in Chains OBSERVATION IT is a wonderful work of God to limit and bound such a vast and furious Creature as the Sea which according to the judgment of many Learned Men is higher than the Earth and that it hath a propension to overflow it is evident both from its nature and motion were it not that the great God had laid his Law upon it And this is a work wherein the Lord glories and will be admired Psal. 104. 9. Thou hast set a bound that they may not pass over that they turn not again to cover the Earth Which it's clear they would do were they not thus limitted So Job 38. 8. 10. 11. Who shut up the Seas with doors when it breake forth as if it had issued out of the VVomb I brake up for it my decreed place and set bars and doors and said Hitherto shalt thou come but no further and here shall thy proud VVaves be staid APPLICATION And no less is the glorious Power and Mercy of God discovered in bridling the rage and fury of Satan and his Instruments that they break not in upon the Inheritance of the Lord and destroy it Surely the wrath of man shall praise thee and the remainder of wrath thou shalt restrain Psal. 76. 10. By which it is more than hinted that there is a World of Rage and Malice in the hearts of wicked men which fain would but cannot vent itself because the Lord restrains or as the Hebrew Girds it up Satan is the envious one and his rage is great against the people of God Rev. 12. 12. But God holds him and all his Instruments in a
all Process at Law or from the Law is stopt Rom. 8. 1. But if thou be an impenitent persisting sinner thy debt remains upon thine own score And be sure thy sin will find thee out where-ever thou goest Num. 32. 23. i. e. God's revenging hand for sin will be upon thee Thou maist lose the sight and memory of thy sin but they lose not the sight of thee they follow after as the Hound doth the fleeting game upon the scent till they have fetcht thee up And then consider How fearful a thing it is to fall into the hands of the living God Heb. 10. 31. How soon may a storm arrest and bring thee before the Bar of God REFLECTION O my Soul what a case art thou in if this be so Are not all thy sins yet upon thine own score Hast not thou mane light of Christ and that precious Blood of his and hitherto persisted in thy Rebellion against him And what can the issue of this be at last but ruine There is abundant mercy indeed for returning sinners but the Gospel speaks of none for persisting and impenitent sinners And though many who are going on in their sins are overtaken by Grace yet there is no Grace promised to such as go on in sin O if God should arrest me by the next Storm and call me to an account for all that I owe him I must then lie in the Prison of Hell to all Eternity for I can never pay the debt nay all the Angels in Heaven cannot satisfie for it Being Christless I am under all the Curses in the Book of God a Child of Hagar Lord pity and spare me a little longer O discover thy Christ unto me and give me Faith in his Blood and then thou art fully satisfied at once and I discharged for ever O require not the debt at my hand for then thou wilt never be satisfied nor I acquitted What profit Lord is there in my Blood O my soul make hast to this Christ thy Refuge-City thou knowest not how soon the avenger of Blood may overtake thee THE POEM Thy sins are debts God puts them to account Canst tell poor wretch to what thy debts amount Thou fill'st the treasure of thy sins each hour Into his Vials God doth also pour Proportionable wrath Thou seest it not But yet assure thy self there 's drop for drop For every Sand of Patience running out A drop of Wrath runs in Soul look about God's Treasure 's almost full as well as thine When both are full O then the dreadful time Of Reckoning comes thou shalt not gain a day Of patience more but then there hastes away Heaven's Pursivant who comes upon the wing With his Commission seal'd to take and bring Do'st still reject Christ's tenders Well next storm May be the Bailiff ordered to perform This dreadful office O then restless be Till God in Christ be reconcil'd to thee The Sum is great but if a Christ thou get Fear not a Prince can pay a Beggar 's debt Now if the Storm should rise thou need not fear Thou art but the Delinquent is not there A pardoned Soul to Sea may boldly go He fears not Bailiffs that doth nothing owe. CHAP. XIX To save the Ship rich Ladings cast away Thy Soul is Shipwrackt if thy Lusts do stay OBSERVATION IN Storms and Distresses at Sea the Richest Commodities are cast over-board they stand not upon it when Life and all is in jeopardy and hazard Ionah 1. 5. The Mariners cast forth the Wares that were in the Ship into the Sea to lighten it And Act. 27. 18 19. they cast out the very tacklings of the Ship How highly soever Men prize such Commodities yet reason tells them It were better these should perish than Life Satan himself could say Job 1. Skin for skin and all that a Man hath will he give for his Life APPLICATION And surely it is every way as highly reasonable that Men should mortifie cast out and cut off their dearest Lusts rather than their Immortal Souls should sink and perish in the Storm of God's wrath Life indeed is a precious Treasure and highly valued by Men You know what Solomon saith Eccles. 9. 4. That a Living Dog is better than a Dead Lion And we find Men willing to part with their Estates Limbs or any outward Comfort for the preservation of it The Woman in the Gospel spent all she had on the Physicians for her Health a degree below Life Some Men indeed do much over-value their Lives and part with Christ and Peace of Conscience for it but he that thus saves it shall lose it Now if Life be so much worth What then is the Soul worth Alas Life is but a vapour which appeareth for a little while and then vanisheth away Jam. 4. 14. Life indeed is more worth than all the World but my Soul is more worth than Ten thousand Lives Nature teacheth you to value the first so high and Grace should teach you to value the second much higher Mat. 19. 26. Now here is the case Either you must part with your Sins or with your Souls if these be not cast out both must sink together If ye live after the flâ—sh ye must die Rom. 8. 13. God saith to you in this case as to Ahab when he spared Benhadad 1 King 20. 40. Because thou hast let go a Sin which God hath appointed to destruction therefore thy Life shall go for his Life Guilt will raise a Storm of Wrath as Ionah did if not cast out REFLECTION And must Sin or the Soul perish Must my Life yea my Eternal Life go for it if I spare it O then let me not be cruel to mine own Soul in sparing my Sin O my Soul this foolish pity and cruel Indulgence will be thy ruine If I spare it God hath said He will not spare me Deut. 26. 20. It is true the pains of Mortification are sharp but yet it 's easier than the pains of Hell To cut off a right hand or pluck out a right eye is hard but to have my Soul cut off eternally from God is harder Is it as easie O my Soul to burn for them in Hell as to Mortifie them on Earth Surely it is profitable for me that one member perish rather than that all be cast into Hell Mat. 5. 24. I see the Merchant willing to part with rich Wares if embarqued with them in a Storm And those that have Gangreen'd Legs or Arms willingly stretch them out to be cut off to preserve Life And shall I be willing to endure no difficulties for my Soul Christ reckon'd Souls worth his Blood And is it not worth my Self-denyal Lord let me not warm a Snake in my Bosom that will at last sting me to the heart THE POEM Thy Soul 's the Ship its Lading is its Lusts God's Iudgments stormy Winds and dang'rous gusts Conscience the Master but the stubborn Will Goes Supra Cargo and doth keep the Bill Affections are the Men
the VVinds do rise The Storm increases Conscience gives Advice To throw those Lusts o're-board and so to ease The Vessel which else cannot keep the Seas The VVill opposes and th' Affections say The Master's Counsel they will not obey The case is dangerous that no man can doubt Who sees the storm within and that without Lusts and Affections cannot part no rather They are resolv'd to swim or sink together Conscience still strives but they cannot abide That it or Reason should the Case decide Lust knows what Reason in like cases still Determines well Then chuse ye whom ye will Shall 's make the Devil Iudge This case has been Before him and he judg'd That skin for skin And all men have they 'll part with for their life Then how unreasonable is this strife They that their sins do with their persons ship Do for their Souls prepare a dreadful whip CHAP. XX. Christ with a word can surging Waves appease His Voice a troubled Soul can quickly ease OBSERVATION WHen the Sea works and is tempestuous it is not in the power of any Creature to appease it When the Egyptians would by their Hieroglyphicks express an Impossibility they did it by the Picture of a Man treading upon the Waves It is storied of Canute an ancient Danish King That when a mighty storm of Flattery arose upon him he appeased it by shewing that he could not appease the Sea But one of his Courtiers told him as he rode near the Sea-side That he was Lord of the Sea as well as Land Well said the King we shall see that by and by and so went to the Water-side and with a loud Voice cried O ye Seas and Waves come no further touch not my feet But the Sea came up notwithstanding that charge and confuted the flattery But now Jesus Christ hath the command of them indeed It is said of him Mat. 8. 26. That he rebuked them And Mark 4. 38. He quiets them with a word Peace be still as one would hush a Child and it obeyed him APPLICATION Conscience when awakened by the terrors of the Lord is like a raging tempestuous Sea so it works so it roars and it is not in the power of all the Creatures to hush or quiet it Spiritual Terrors as well as spiritual Consolations are not known till felt O when the Arrows of the Almighty are shot into the Spirit and the Terrors of God set themselves in array against the Soul when the Venome of those Arrows drink up the Spirits and those Armies of Terrours charge violently and successively upon it as Iob 6. 4. What Creature then is able to stand before them Even God's own dear Children have felt such Terrours as have distracted them Psal. 81. 15. Conscience is the seat of Guilt It is like a Burning-glass so it contracts the Beams of the Threatnings twists them together and reflects them on the Soul until it smoke scorch and flame If the wrath of a King be like the roaring of a Lion then what is the Almighties wrath which is burning wrath Job 19. 11. Tearing wrath Psal. 50. 22. Surprizing wrath Job 20. 23. And abiding wrath Job 3. 36. In this case no Creature can relieve all are Physicians of no value some under these terrors have thought Hell more tolerable and by a violent hand have thrust themselves out of the World into it to avoid these gnawings Yet jesus Christ can quickly calm these mystical Waves also and hush them with a word yea he is the Physician and no-other It is the sprinkling of his Blood which like a cooling Fomentation allays those heats within That Blood of sprinkling speaks Peace when all other have practised upon the Soul to no purpose and the reason is because he is a Person in whom God and Man Justice and Mercy meet and kiss each other Eph. 2. 14. And hence Faith fetches in peace to the Soul Rom. 5. 1. REFLECTION Can none appease a troubled Conscience but Christ Then learn O my Soul to understand and daily more and more to savour that glorious Name even Jesus that delivers not only from the wrath to come but that which is felt here also Oh if the foretaste of Hell be so intolerable if a few drops let fall on the Conscience in this life be so scalding and insufferable what is it to have all the Vials poured out to Eternity when there shall be nothing to divert mitigate or allay it Here men have somewhat to abate those Terrours some hopes of Mercy at least a possibility but there is none O my Soul how art thou loaded with Guilt And what a Magormissabib wouldst thou be should God rouze that sleepy Lion in thy bosom My condition is not at all the better because my Conscience is quiet Ah the day is coming when it must awake and will lighten and thunder terribly within me if I get not into Christ the sooner O Lord who knows the power of thy wrath O let me not carry this guilt out of the World with me to maintain those everlasting flames let me give no sleep to mine eyes nor slumber to my eye-lids till I feel the comfort of that Blood of Sprinkling which alone speaketh Peace THE POEM Amongst the dreadful works of God I find No Metaphors to paint a troubled Mind I think on this now that and yet will neither Come fully up though all be put together 'T is like the raging Sea that casts up mire Or like to Aetna breaâ—hing smoke and fire Or like a rouzed Lion fierce and fell Or like those Furies that do howl in Hell O Conscience Who can stand before thy power Endure thy gripes and twinges but an hour Stone Gout Strapado Racks whatever is Dreadful to Sense is but a toy to this No Pleasures Riches Honours Friends can tell How to give ease in this 't is like to Hell Call for the pleasant Tymbrel Lute and Harp Alas The Musick howls the pain 's too sharp For these to charm divert or lull asleep These cannot reach it no the wound 's too deep Let all the Promises before him stand And set a Barnabas at his right hand These in themselves no comfort can afford 'T is Christ and none but Christ can speak the word And he no sooner speaks but all is still The storm is over and the mind tranquil There goes a power with his Majestick Voice To hush the dreadful'st storm and still its noise Who would but fear and love this glorious Lord That can rebuke such Tempests with a VVord CHAP. XXI Our Food out of the Sea God doth command Yet few therein take notice of his hand OBTERVATION THE Providence of God in furnishing us with such plenty and variety of Fish is not slightly to be past over We have not only several sorts of Fish in our own Seas which are caught in their Seasons but from several parts especially the Western parts of England many Sail of Ships are sent yearly to the
when it gives its colour in the Glass the Harlot's beauty whose eye-lids are snares hiding always the Hook and concealing the issue from them He promises them gain and profit pleasure and delight and all that is tempting with assurance of Secresie By these he fastens the fatal Hook in their Jawes and thus they are led captive by him at his Will REFLECTION And is Satan so subtil and industrious to entice Souls to sin Doth he thus cast out his golden baits and allure Souls with pleasure to their ruine Then how doth it behove thee O my Soul to be jealous and wary How strict a guard should I set upon every sense Ah let me not so much regard how sin comes towards me in the Temptation as how it goes off at last The day in which Sodom was destroyed began with a pleasant Sun shine but ended in Fire and Brimstone I may promise my self much content in the satisfaction of my Lusts But O how certainly will it end in my ruine Ahab doubtless promised himself much content in the Vineyard of Naboth but his blood paid for it in the portion of Iezreel The Harlots Bed was perfumed to entice the simple young man Prov. 7. 17. But those Chambers of Delight proved the Chambers of Death and her House the way to Hell Ah with what a smiling face doth sin come on towards me in its temptations How doth it tickle the carnal phantasie and please the deceived heart But what a dreadful Catastrophe and Upshot hath it The delight is quickly gone but the guilt thereof remains to amaze and terrifie the Soul with ghastly forms and dreadful representations of the wrath of God As sin hath its Delights attending it to enter and fasten it so it hath its horrours and stings to torment and wound And as certainly as I see those go before it to make away so certainly shall I find these follow after and tread upon its heels No sooner is the Conscience awakened but all those Delights vanish as a Night-vision or as a Dream when one awakes and then I shall cry Here is the Hook but where is the Bait Here is the guilt and horrour but where the delight that I was promised And I whether shall I now go Ah my deceitful Lusts You have enticed and left me in the midst of all miseries THE POEM There 's skill in Fishing that the Devil knows For when for Souls Satan a fishing goes He Angles cunningly He knows he must Exactly fit the Bait unto the Lust. He studies Constitution Place and Time He guesses what is his delight what thine And so accordingly prepares the Bait Whilst he himself lies closely hid to wait When thou wilt nibble at it Dost incline To drunken Meetings then he baits with Wine Is this the way if unto this he 'll smell He 'll shortly pledge a Cup of Wrath in Hell To Pride or Lust is thy vile Nature bent An Object suitable he will present O think on this when you cast in the hook Say Thus for my poor Soul doth Satan look O play not with Temptations do not swallow The sugar'd Bait consider what will follow If once he hitch thee then away he draws Thy captive Soul close Prisoner in his paws CHAP. XXIII Doth Trading fail and Voyages prove bad If you cannot discern the cause 't is sad OBSRRVATION THere are many sad Complaints abroad and I think not without cause that Trade fails nothing turns to account And though all Countries be open and free for Traffick a general Peace with all Nations yet there seems to be a Dearth a secret Curse upon Trading You run from Country to Country and come losers home Men can hardly render a reason of it few hit the right cause of this Judgment APPLICATION That prosperity and success in Trade is from the blessing of God I suppose few are so Atheistical as once to deny or question The Devil himself acknowledges it Job 1. 10. Thou hast blessed the work of his hands and his substance is increased in the Land It is not in the power of any man to get Riches Deut. 8. 18. Thou shalt remember the Lord thy God for it is He that giveth thee power to get wealth It is his Blessing that makes good men rich and his Permission that makes wicked men rich That Maxime came from Hell Quisque fortunae suae faber Every man is the Contriver of his own Condition Certainly The good of man is not in his own hand Job 21. 16. Promotion cometh not from the East or West Psal. 76. 6 7. This being acknowledged it is evident that in all disappointment and want of success in our Callings we ought not to stick in second cause but to look higher even to the hand and dispose of God For whose it is to give the Blessing his also it is to with-hold it And this is as clear in Scripture as the other It is the Lord that takes away the Fishes of the Sea Hos. 4. 3. Zeph. 1. 3. It is he that curseth our blessings Mal. 2. 2. This God doth as a punishment for sin and the abuse of mercies And therefore in such cases we ought not to rest in general complaints to or of one another but search what those sins are that provoke the Lord to inflict such Judgments And here I must request your patience to bear a plain and close word of Conviction My Brethren I am perswaded these are the sins among many other that provoke the Lord to blast all your Imployments 1. Our undertaking designs without Prayer Alas how few of us begin with God Interest him in our dealings and ask counsel and direction at his mouth Prayer is that which sanctifies all employments and enjoyments 1 Tim. 4. 5. The very Heathen could say A Iove Principium They must begin with God O that we had more Prayers and fewer Oaths 2. Injustice and Fraud in our dealings A sin to which Merchants are prone as appears by that expression Hos. 12. 7. This is that which will blast all our enjoyments 3. An over-earnest endeavour after the World Men make this their business they will be rich And hence it is they are not onely unmerciful to themselves in wearing and wasting their own spirits with carking cares but to such also as they employ neither regarding the Souls or Bodies of Men Scarce affording them the liberty of the Lord's Day as hath been too common in our New-found-Land Employments or if they have it yet they are so worn out with incessant Labours that that precious time is spent either in sleep or idleness It is no wonder God gives you more rest than you would have since that day of Rest hath been no better improved This over-doing hath not been the least cause of our undoing Lastly Our abuse of Prosperity when God gave it making God's Mercies the Food and Fewel of our Lusts. When we had an aâ—fluence and confluence of outward Blessings this made us kick against
God as Deut. 32. 15. Forget God Deut. 4. 14. Yea grow proud of our strength and riches Ezek. 16. 15. and Ier. 2. 31. Ah! How few of us in the days of our prosperity behaved our selves as good Iehosaphat did 2 Chron. 17. 5 6. He had silver and gold in abundance and his heart was lifted in the way of God's Commandments not in pride and insolence REFLECTION Are these the sins that blast our Blessings and wither our Mercies O then let me cease to wonder it is no better and rather admire that it is no worse with me that my neglect of Prayer injustice in dealings Earthly-mindedness and abuse of former Mercies have not provoked God to strip me naked out of all my enjoyments Let me humbly accept from the Lord the punishment of my Iniquities and lay my hand upon my mouth And O that these disappointments might convince me of the Creatures vanity and cause me to drive on another trade for Heaven then shall I adore thy wisdom in rending from me those idolized enjoyments Ah Lord when I had them my heart was a perpetual drudge to them How did I then forget God neglect duty and not mind my eternal concernments Oh if these had not perished in all probability I had perished My God let my Soul prosper and then a small portion of these things shall afford me more comfort than ever I had in their greatest abundance A little that a righteous man hath is better than the riches of many wicked Psal. 37. 16. THE POEM There 's great Complaint abroad that Trading's bad You shake your head and cry 'T is sad 't is sad Merchants lay out their stock Sea-men their pains And in their eye they both may put their gains Your Fishing fails you wonder why 't is so 'T is this saith one or that but I say No 'T will ne'r be well till you confess and say It is our sin that frights the Fish away No wonder all goes into Bags with Holes Since so the Gospel hath been in your Souls We kick'd like Jesurun when the flowing Tide Of Wealth came tumbling in this nourish'd Pride 'Twixt Soul and Body now I wish it may Fare as betwixt the Jews and us this day O that our outward want and loss may be To us a Soul-enriching Poverty If disappointments here advance the Trade For Heaven then complain not you have made The richest Voyage and your empty Ships Return deep laden with Soul-benefits CHAP. XXIV In Seas the greater Fish the less devour So some Men crush all those within their power OBSERVATION THere are Fishes of Prey in the Sea as well as Birds and Beasts of Prey on the Land Our Sea-men tell us how the devouring Whales Sharks Dolphins and other Fishes follow the Caplein and other smaller Fish and devour multitudes of them It is frequent with us in our own Seas to find several smaller Fishes in the Bellies of the greater ones yea I have often heard Sea-men say That the poor little Fry when pursued are so sensible of the danger that they have sometimes seen multitudes of them cast themselves upon the Shoar and perish there to avoid the danger of being devoured by them APPLICATION Thus cruel merciless and oppressive are wicked Men whose tender mercies are cruelty Prov. 22. 10. We see the like cruelty in our Extortioners and over-reaching Sharks ashore who grind the faces of the Poor and regard not the Cries of the Fatherless and Widows but fill their Houses with the gain of Oppression These are by the Holy Ghost compared to the fishes of the Sea Hab. 1. 13 14. This is a crying sin yea it sends up a loud cry to Heaven for Vengeance Exod. 22 23. If thou afflict the widow and the fatherless and they cry unto me I will surely hear their cry And Verse 27. I will hear his cry for I am gracious Nay God will not only hear their Cry but avenge their Quarrel That is a remarkable Text 1 Thes. 4. 6. That no man go beyond and defraud his brother in any matter because that the Lord is the Avenger of all such This word Avenger is but once more used in the New Testament Rom. 13. 4. And there it is applyed to the Civil Magistrate who is to see Execution done upon Offenders But now this is a Sin that sometimes may bâ— out of the reach of mans Justice and therefore God himself will be their Avenger You may overpower the Poor in this World and it may be they cannot contend with you at mans Barr therefore God will bring it before his Barr. Believe it Sirs it is a sin so provoking to God that he will not let it 'scape without severe punishment sooner or later The Prophet Habbakkuk Chap. 1. verse 13. wondred how the holy God could forbear such till the general day of reckoning and that he did not take exemplary Vengeance on them in this Life Thou art of purer eyes than to behold evil and canst not look upon Iniquity Wherefore then lookest thou upon them that deal treacherously and holdest thy tongue when the wicked devours the man that is more righteous than he And Prov. 23. 10 11. Enter not into the Fields of the Fatherless i. e. Of the poor and helpless But why is it more dangerous violently to invade their right than anothers The reason is added For their Redeemer is mighty and he shall plead their cause with thee It may be they are not able to retain a Counsel to plead their cause here therefore God will plead their cause for them REFLECTION Turn in upon thy self O my Soul and consider Hast thou not been guilty of this crying sin Have I not when a Servant over-reached and defrauded others and filled my Master's House with Violence and Deceit and so brought myself under that dreadful threatning Zeph. 1. 9. Or since I came to trade and deal upon mine own account have not the Ballances of Deceit been in my hand I have it may be kept many in my service and employment have not I used their labours without reward and so am under that woe Ier. 22. 13. Or not given them Wages proportionable to their work Isai. 58. 3. Or by bad Payment and unjust Deductions and Allowances defrauded them of a part of their due Mal. 3. 5. Or at least delayed payment ouâ— of a covetous disposition to gain by it whilst their necessities in the mean time cryed aloud for it and so sinned against God's express commands Deut. 24. 14 15. Levit. 19. 30. Or have I not persecuted such as God hath smitten Psal. 69. 26. And rigorously exacted the uttermost of my due though the hand of God hath gone out against them breâ—king their estates O my Soul examine thy self upon these particulars rest not quiet until this guilt be â—emoved by the application of the Blood of Sprinkling Hath not the Lord said Jam. 2. 13. That they shall have judgment without mercy that hath shewed no mercy
10. REFLECTION If the Wisdom of God do thus triumph and glorifie itself in the Distresses of the Saints then why should I fear in the day of evil Psal. 49. 4. Why doth my heart faint at the foresight and apprehension of approaching trouble Fear none of those things that thou shalt suffer O my Soul if thy God will thus be with thee in the fire and water thou canst not perish Though I walk through the Valley of the shadow of Death yet let me fear no evil whilst my God is thus with me Creatures cannot do what they please his wisdom limits and over-rules them all to gracious and sweet ends If my God cast me into the Furnace to melt and try me yet I shall not be consumed there for he will sit by the Furnace himself all the while I am in it and curiously pry into it observing when it hath done its work and then will presently withdraw the fire O my Soul bless and adore this God of Wisdom who himself will see the ordering of all thine Afflictions and not trust it in the hands of Men or Angels THE POEM Though tost in greatest Storms I 'll never fear If Christ will sit at Helm to guide and steer Storms are the triumph of his Skill and Art He cannot close his Eyes nor change his Heart VVisdom and Power ride upon the VVaves And in the greatesâ— danger helps and saves From dangers it by dangers doth deliver And wounds the Devil out of his own Quiver It countermines his Plots and so doth spoil And make his Engines on himself recoil It blunts the Politicians restless Tool And makes Ahitophel the veriest Fool It shews us how our Reason us misled And if we had not we had perished Lord to thy VVisdom I will give the Reins And not with Cares perplex and vex my brains CHAP. XXIX Things in the bottom are unseen No eye Can trace God's Paths which in the Deeps do lie OBSERVATION THE Ocean is so deep that no Eye can discover what lies in the bottom thereof We use to say proverbially of a thing that is irrecoverably lost It is as good it were cast into the Sea What lies there lies obscure from all eyes but the Eye of God APPLICATION Thus are the Judgments of God and the Ways of his Providence profound and unsearchable Psal. 36. 16. The Righteous is like the great Mountains and thy Iudgments are a great Deep i. e. his Providences are secret obscure and unfathomable but even then and in those Providences his Righteousness stands up like the great Mountains visible and apparent to every eye Though the Saints cannot see the one yet they can clearly discern the other Ier. 12. 1. Ieremiah was at a stand so was Iob in the like case Iob 12. 7. So was Asaph Psal. 73. and Habbakkuk Chap. 1. 3. These Wheels of Providence are dreadful for their height Ezek. 1. 18. There be deep Mysteries of Providence as well as of Faith It may be said of some of them as of Paul's Epistles That they are hard to be understood Darkness and Clouds are round about the Throne of God No man can say what will be the particular issue and event of some of his dispensations Luther seemed to hear God say to him when he was importunate to know his mind in some particular Providence Deus sum non sequax I am a God not to be traced Some Providences like Hebrew Letters must be read backward Psal. 92. 7. Some Providences pose Men of the greatest parts and graces His way is in the Sea his paths in the great VVaters and his foot-steps are not known Psal. 77. 19. Who can trace Foot-steps in the bottom of the Sea The Angels Ezek. 1. Have their hands under their wings The hand is either Symbolum roboris The Symbol of strength or Instrumentum Operationis The Instrument of Action Where these hands are put forth they work effectually yea but very secretly they are hid under their wings There be some of God's Works that are such Secrets as that they may not be enquired into they are to be believed and adored but not pryed into Rom. 11. 33. Others that may be enquired after but yet are so profound that few can understand them Psal. 111. 2. The works of the Lord are great sought out of all those that have pleasure therein When we come to Heaven then all those mysteries as well in the Works as in the Word of God will lie open to our view REFLECTION O then why is my heart disquieted because it cannot sometimes discern the way of the Lord and see the connection and dependence on his providential dispensations Why art thou so perplexed O my Soul at the Confusions and Disorders that are in the world I know that Goodness and Wisdom sits at the Stern And though the Vessel of the Church be tossed and distressed in Storms of Trouble yet it shall not perish Is it not enough for me that God hath condescended so far for my satisfaction as to shew me plainly the ultimate and general issue of all these mysterious Providences Ephes. 1. 22. Rom. 8. 28. unless I be able to take the height of every particular Shall I presume to call the God of Heaven to account Must he render a reason of his ways and give an account of his matters to such a worm as I am Be silent O my Soul before the Lord subscribe to his Wisdom and submit to his Will whatsoever he doth However it be yet God is good to Israel the event will manifest it to be all over a design of love I know not how to reconcile them to each other or many of them to the Promise yet are they all harmonious betwixt themselves and the certain means of accomplishing the Promises O what a favour is this that in the midst of the greatest confusions in the world God hath given such abundant security to his people that it shall be well with them Amos 9. 8. Eccles. 8. 12. THE POEM Lord how stupendious deep and wonderful Are all thy draughts of Providence So full Of puzling Intricacies that they lie Beyond the ken of any mortal eye A Wheel within a Wheel's the Scripture Notion And all those VVheels transverse and cross in motion All Creatures serve it in their place yet so As thousands of them know not what they do At this or that their aim they do direct But neither this nor that is the effect But something else they do not understand VVhich sets all Politicians at a stand Deep Counsels as the birth this hand doth break And deeper things performeth by the weak Men are like â—orses set at every stage For Providence to ride from age to age VVhich like a Post spurs on and makes them run From stage to stage until their Iourney 's done Then take a fresh But they the business know No more than Horses the Post-Letters do Yet though its work be not conceal'd from sight 'T will
poor Weather-beaten Vessel comes into the Harbour more like a Wrack than a Ship nor Mast nor Saile left The righteous themselves are scarcely saved i. e. they are saved with very much difficulty They have not all an abundant entrance as the Apostle speaks 2 Pet. 1. 11. Some Persons as one well notes Manton on Iude are afar off Eph. 2. 23. i. e. touch p. 119. with no care of Religion Some come near but never enter as Semiconverts see Matth. 12. 34. Others enter but with great difficulty they are saved as by fire 1 Cor. 3. 13. Make an hard shift But then there be some that go in with full sail before a VVind and have an abundant entrance They go triumphing out of the world Ah! when we come into the Narrow Channel at the very point of entrance into life the Soul is then in the most serious frame all things look with a new face Conscience scans our evidence most crittically then also Satan falls upon us and makes his sorest assaults and batteries It is the last encounter it they escape him now they are gone out of his reach for ever And if he cannot hinder their Salvation yet if he can but cloud their Evening and make them go groaning and haling out of the world he reaches another end by it even to confirm and prejudice the wicked and weaken the hands of others that are looking towards Religion REFLECTION If this be so how inevitable is my perdition may the careless Soul say if they that strive so much and go so far yet perish at last and if the righteous themselves are scarcely saved then where shall such an ungodly Creature as I appear O Lord if they that have made Religion their business and have been many years pursuing a work of Mortification have gone mourning after the Lord Jesus and walked humbly with God yet if some of these have such an hard tug at last then what will become of such a vain sensual careless Flesh-pleasing Wretch as I have been Again Do Saints find it so streight an entrance Then though I have well-grounded Hopes of safe arrival at last yet let me look to it that I do not increase the difficulty Ah! they are the things that are now done or omitted that put Conscience into such an agony then for when it comes to review the life with the most serious eye O let me not stick my Death-bed full of Thorns against I come to lie down upon it O that I may turn to the Wall in that hour as Hezekiah did 2 Kings 20. 2 3. and say Remember now O Lord I have walked before thee in truth and with a perfect heart c. THE POEM After a tedious Passage Saints descry The glorious Shore Salvation being nigh Death 's Long boat 's launch'd ready to set ashore Their panting Souls O how they tug at Oar Longing to be at rest but then they find The hardest Tug of all is yet behind Iust at the Harbours mouth they see the Wrach Of Souls there cast away and driven back A world of dangerous Rocks before it lie The Harbours barr'd aâ—d now the VVinds blow high Thoughts now arise fears multiply apace All things about them have another face Life blazes just like an expiring light The Soul 's upon the lip prepar'd for flight Death till the Resurrection tears and rends Out of each other's arms two parting Friends The Soul and Body Ah! but more than so The Devil falls upon them ere they go With new temptations back'd with all his power And scruples kept on purpose for that hour This is the last encounter now or never If he succeeds not now they 're gone for ever Thus in they put with hardship at the last As Ships out of a Storm nor Sail nor Mast Yet some go in before a Wind and have Their Streamer of Assurance flying brave Lord give me easier entrance if thou please Or if I may not there arrive with ease Yet I beseech the set me safe ashore Though stormy Winds at Harbours mouth should roar CHAP. XXXII How glad are Seamen when they make the Shore And Saints no less when all their Danger 's o're OBSERVATION WHat Joy is there among Sea-men when at last after a tedious and dangerous Voyage they descry Land and see the desied Haven before them Then they turn out of their loath'd Cabbins and come upon open Deck with much joy Psal. 107. 30. Then they are glad because they be quiet So he bringeth them to their desired Haven Now they can reflect with comfort upon the many dangers they have past Olim haec meminisse juvabit It is sweet to recount them APPLICATION But O what transcendent Joy yea ravishing will ove-run the hearts of Saints when after so many Conflicts Temptations and Afflictions they arrive in glory and are harbour'd in Heaven where they shall rest for ever 2. Thes. 1. 7. The Scripture saith They shall sing the Song of Moses and of the Lamb Rev. 15. 3. The Song of Moses was a triumphant Song composed for the celebration of that glorious Deliverance at the Red Sea The Saints are now fluctuating upon a troublesome and tempestuous Sea their hearts sometime ready to sink and die within them at the apprehension of so many and great dangers and difficulties Many an hard storm they ride out and many streights and troubles they here encounter with But at last they arrive at their desired and long expected Haven and then Heaven rings and resounds with their joyful acclamations And how can it be otherwise when as soon as ever they set foot upon that glorious Shoar Christ himself meets and receives them with a Come ye blessed of my Father Matth. 25. 34. O joyful voice O much desired Word saith Parâ—us What tribulation would not a man undergo for his Words sake Besides then they are perfectly freed from all evils whether of sin or suffering and perfectly filled with all desired good Now they shall joyn with that great Assembly in the high praises of God O what a day will this be if saith a worthy Divine Diagoras died away with an excess of Joy whilst he enbraced his three Sons that were crowned as Victors in the Olympic Games in one day And good old Simeon when he saw Christ but in a body subject to the insirmities of our natures cryed out Now let thy Servant depart in peace what unspeakable joy will it be to the Saints to behold Christ in his glory and see their godly relations also to whose conversion perhaps they have been instrumental all crown'd in one day with everlasting Diadems of bliss And if the stars did as Ignatius saith make a Quire as it were about that star that appear'd at Christ's incarnation and there be such joy in Heaven at the conversion of a sinner no wonder then the Morning-stars sing together and the Sons of God shout for Joy when the general Assembly meet in Heaven O how will the Arches
Scriptures among many others Prov. 5. 2 3 4. Acts 5. 29. Rom. 1. 24 29. Rom. 13. 13. 1 Cor. 6. 13 14 15 16 18. 2 Cor. 12. 21. Gal. 5. 29. Ephes. 5. 3. Col. 3. 5. 1 Thes. â— 2 3 4 5. Heb. 12. 16. Heb. 13. 4. All these with many others are the true sayings of God By them thou shalt be tryed in the last day Now consider how terrible it will be to have so many words of God and such terrible ones too as most of those are to be brought in and pleaded against thy Soul in that day mountains and hills may depart but these words shall not depart Heâ—ven and Earth shall pass away but not one tittle of the Word shall pass away Believe it Sinner as sure as the Heavens are over thy head and the Earth under thy seet they shall one day take hold of thee though we poor worms who plead them with thee die and perish Zech. 1. 5 6. The Lord tells us it shall not fall to the ground Which is a borrowed speech from a Dart that is flung with a weak hand it goes not home to the mark but falls to the ground by the way None of these words shall so fall to the ground Arg. 3. It is a sin that defiles and destroys the body 1 Cor. 6. 18. He that committeth adultery sinneth against his own body In most other sins the body is but the Instrument here it is the Object against which the sin is committed that body of thine which should be the Temple of the holy Ghost is turned into a stye of filthiness yea it not only defiles but destroys it Iob calls it a fire that burneth to destruction Iob 31. 12. or as the Septuagint reads it a fire that burneth in all the Members It is a sin that God hath plagued with strange and terrible diseases that Morbus Gallicus and sudor Anglicus and that Plica Polonica whereof you may read in Bolton's four last things page 30. and Sclater on Rom. 1. 30. These were judgments sent immediately by Gods own hand to correct the new sins and enormities of the world for they seem to put the best Physicians besides their Books Oh how terrible is it to lie groaning under the sad effects of this sin As Solomon tells us Prov. 5. 11. And thou mourn at the last when thy flesh and thy body are consumed To this sense some expound that terrible Text Heb. 13. 4. Marriage is honourable in all and the bed undefiled but Whoremongers and Adulterers God will judge i. e. with some remarkable judgment inflicted on them in this world if it escape the punishment of men it shall not escape the vengeance of God Ah! with what comfort may a man lie down upon a sick bed when the sickness can be looked upon as a Fatherly Visitation coming in Mercy But thou that shortenest thy life and bringest sickness on thy self by such a sin art the Devils Martyr and to whom canst thou turn in such a day for comfort Arg. 4. Consider what an indelible blot it is to thy nature which can never be wiped away though thou escape with thy life yet as one says thou shalt be burnt in the hand yea branded in the forehead What a foul scar is that upon the face of David himself which abides to this day He was upright in all things save in the matter of Uriah And how was he slighted by his own Children and servants after he had committed this sin Compare 1 Sam. 2. 30. with 2 Sam. 12. 10 11. A wound and dishonour shall he get and his reproach shall not be wiped away This is to give thine honour to another Prov. 5. 9. The shame and reproach attending it should be a preservative from it Indeed the Devil tempts to it by hopes of secresie and concealment but though many other sins lie hid and possibly shall never come to light until that day of manifestation of all hidden things yet this is a sin that is most usually discovered Under the Law Cod appointed an extraordinary way for the discovery of it Numb 5. 13. And to this day the Providence of God doth often very strangely bring it to light though it be a deed of darkness The Lord hath many times brought such persons either by terrors of Conscience Phrensie or some other means to be the publishers and proclaimers of their own shame Yea observe this saith Reverend Mr. Hildersham on the Fourth of Iohn even those that are most cunning to conceal and hide it from the eyes of the world yet through the just judgment of God every one suspects and condemns them for it this dashes in pieces at one stroke that Vessel in which the precious Oyntment of a good name is carried A fool in Israel shall be thy title and even Children shall point at thee Arg. 5. It scatters thy substance und roots up the foundation of thy state Iob 31. 12. It roots up all the increase Strangers shall be filled with thy wealth and thy labours shall be in the house of a stranger Prov. 5. 10. For by means of a whorish woman a man is brought to a morsel of bread Prov. 6. 26. It gives rags for its Livery saith one and though it be furthered by the fulness yet it 's followed with a morsel of bread This is one of those temporal Judgments with which God punishes the unclean person in this life The word Delilah which is the name of an Harlot is conceived to come from a root that signifiesâ—to exhaust drain or draw dry This sin will quickly exhaust the fullest estate and oh what a dreadful thing will this be when God shall require an account of thy Stewardship in the great day How righteous is it that that man should be fuel to the wrath of God whose health and wealth have been so much fuel to maintain the flame of Lust Oh how lavish of their estates are sinners to satisfie their Lusts If the Members of Christ be sick or in Prison they may there perish and starve before they will relieve them but to obtain their Lusts Oh how expensive Ask me never so much and I will give it said Sâ—echem Gen. 34. 12. Ask what thou wilt and it shall be given thee said Herod to the daughter of his Herodias Well you are liberal in spending treasures upon you lusts and believe it God will spend treasures of wrath to punish you for your Lusts. It had been a thousand times better for thee thou hadst never had an estate that thou hadst begg'd thy bread from door to door than to have such a sad reckoning as thou shalt shortly have for it Arg. 6. Oh stand off from this sin because it is a pit out of which very few have been recovered that have fallen therein Few are the footsteps of returners from this den The longer a man lives in it the less power he hath to leave it It is not only a damning but an
persons they are but panders for Lust. Evil communication corrupts good manners The tongues of sinners do cast fire-balls into the hearts of each other which the corruption within is easily kindled and enflamed by Direct 4. Exercise thy self in thy Calling diligently It will be an excellent means of preventing this sin It is a good observation that one hath That Israel was safer in the Brick-kilns in Egypt than in the Plains of Moab 2 Sam. 11. 2. And it came to pass in the even-tide that David arose from off his bed and walked on the roof of the Kings house and this was the occasion of his fall See 1 Tim. 5. 11 13. Direct 5. Put a restraint upon thine appetite feed not to excess Fulness of bread and idleness were the sins of Sodom that occasioned such an exuberancy of Lust. They are like fed horses every one neighing after his neighbours Wife When I had fed theâ— to the full then they committed Adultery and assembled themselves by troops in the Harlots houses Jer. 5. 7 8. This is a sad requital of the bounty of God in giving us the enjoyment of the Creatures to make them fuel to lust and instruments of sin Direct 6. Make choice of a meet Yoke-fellow and delight in her you have chosen This is a lawful Remedy See 1 Cor. 7. 9. God ordained it Gen. 2. 21. But herein appears the corruption of nature that men delight too tread by-pathes and forsake the way which God hath appointed as that Divine Poet Mr. Herbert saith If God had laid all common certainly Man would have been the closer but since now God hath impal'd us on the contrary Man breaks the fence and every ground will plow O what were Man might he himself misplace Sure to be cross he would shift feet and face Stollen waters are sweeter to them than those waters they might lawfully drink at their own fountain but withal know it is not the having but the delighting in a lawful Wafe as God requires you to do that must be a â—ence against this sin So Solomon Prov. 5. 19. Let her be as the loving Hinde and pleasant Roe Let her breasts satisfie thee at all times and be thou ravisht always with her love Direct 7. Take heed of running on in a course of sin especially Superstition and Idolatry in which cases and as a punishment of which evils God often gives up men to these vile affections Rom. 1. 25 26. Who changed the truth of God into a lye worshipped and served the Creature more than the Creator who is blessed for ever Amen For this cause God gave them up to vile affections c. They that defile their Souls by Idolatrous practices God suffers as a just recompence their bodies also to be defiled with uncleanness that so their ruine may be hastned Let the admirers of Traditions beware of such a judicial Tradition as this is Wo to him that is thus delivered by the hand of an angry God No punishment in the world like this when God punishes sin with sin When he shall suffer those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 those common notices of Conscience to be quench'd and all restraints to be moved out of the way of sin it will not be long ere that sinner come to his own place IV. CAUTION IN the next place I shall make bold to expostulate a little with your Conscience concerning the precious mercies you have received and the solemn promises you have bound your selves withal for the obtaining of those mercies I fear God hath many bankrupt debtors among you that have dealt slipperily and unfaithfully with him that have not rendered to the Lord according to the great things he hath done for them nor according to those good things they have vowed to the Mighty God of Iacob But truely if thou be a despiser of mercy thou shalt be a pattern of wrath God will remember them in fury who forget him is his favours I will tell you what a grave and eminent Minister once told his people dealing with them about this sin of unthankfulness for mercy and I pray God it may affect you duely Let us all mourn saith he and take on we are all behindhand with God The Christian world is become bankrupt quite broke makes no return to God for his love He is issuing out process to seize upon body goods and life and will be put off no longer Bloody Bayliffs are abroad for bad debtors all theâ— world over Christians are broke and make no return and God is breaking all He cannot have what he would have what he should have he will take what he can get for money he will take goods limbs arms legs he will have his own out of your skin out of your blood out of your bodies and souls He is setting the Christian world as light and as low as they have set his love Ah Lord what a time do we live in Long-suffering is at an end Mercy will be righted in Iustice Iustice will have all behind it will be paid to the utmost farthing 't will set abroach your blood but 't will have all behind c. Do you hear Souls Is not this sad news to some of you who have received vast sums of mercy and given God your bond for the repayment of him in praise and answerable fruit and yet forfeited all and lost your credit with God Oh how can you look God in the face with whom you have dealt so perfidiously I am now come in the Name of God to demand his due of you to call to remembrance the former receipts of mercy which you mind not but God doth and there is a witness in your bosome that doth and will one day witness to your faces that you have dealt perfidiously with your God your souls have been the graves of mercy which should have been as so many gardens where they should have lived and flourished I am come now to open those graves and view those mercies that your unthankfulness hath killed and buried to lay them before your eyes and see whether your ungreatful hearts will bleed upon them Buried mercies are not lost for ever they shall as certainly have a day of Resurrection as thy self It were better for thee they should have a Resurrection now in thy heart than to rise as witnesses against thee when thou shalt rise out of the dust that will be a terrible Resurrection indeed when they shall come to plead against thy Soul nothing pleads more dreadfully against a Soul than abused mercy doth But I shall come to the particulars upon which I interrogate your Consciences and I pray deal truly and ingenuously in answering these Queries Quer. 1. And first I shall demand of you Whether you never had experience of the power and goodness of God in restoring you to Health from dangerous Sickness and Diseases Have you not sometimes had the sentence of Death in your selves and that possibly when you have been
stripes came but from the arm of a Creature these that the Text speaks of are set on by the omnipotent arm of God Of the former there was a determinate number set down in their law as forty stripes and sometimes they would remit one of that number too in mercy to the offender as you see in the example of Paul 2 Cor. 11. 24. Of the â—ews I received forty stripes save one but in Hell no mitigation at all nor allay of mercy The arm of his power supports the Creature in its being while the arm of his justice lays on eternally Soul consider these things do thou not persist any longer then in such a desperate way of sinning against the clear conviction of thine own Conscience which in this case must needs give testimony against thee Well then go to God with the words of David Psal. 66. 13 14. and say unto him I will pay thee my vows which my lips have uttered and my tongue hath spoken when I was in trouble Pay it Soul and pay it speedily unto God else he will recover it by Justice and fetch it out of thy bones in Hell O trifle not any longer with God and that in such serious matters as these are And now I have done my endeavour to give your former Mercies and Promises a Resurrection in your Consciences Oh that you would sit down and pause sâ— while upon these things and then reflect upon the past Mercies of your lives and on what hath past betwixt God and your Souls in your former straights and trouâ—bles Let not these plain words work upon thy spleenâ— and make thee say as the Widow of Sarephta did to thâ— Prophet Elijah 2 Kings 17. 18. What have I to do witâ— thee O thou man of God Art thou come to call my sin to remembrance But rather let it work kindly on thy heart and make thee say as David to Abigail 1 Sam. 25. 32. 33. Blessed be the Lord God of Israel which sent thee this day to meet me and blessed be thy advice V. CAUTION THe fifth and last danger I shall warn you of is Your contempt and slighting of Death Ah how light a matter do many of you at least in words make of it It seems you have little reverential fear of this King of terrours not onely that you speak slightly of it but also because you make no more preparation for it and are no more sensible of your preservations and deliverances from it Indeed the heathen Philosophers did many of them profess a Contempt of Death upon the account of Wisdom and Fortitude and they were accounted the bravest men that most despised and slighted it But alas poor Souls they saw not their enemy against whom they taught but skirmisht with their eyes shut They saw indeed its pale face but not its sting and dart There is also a lawful contempt of death we freely grant that in two Cases a believer may contemn it first when it is propounded to them in a temptation on purpose to scare them from Christ and duty then they should slight it as Rev. 12. 11. They loved not their lives to the death Secondly When the natural evil of death is set in Competition with the enjoyment of God in Glory then a believer should despise it as Christ is said to do Heb. 12. 2 though his was a shameful death But upon all other accounts and considerations it is the height of stupidity and security to despise it Now to the end that you might have right thoughts and apprehensions of death which may put you upon serious preparation for it and that when ever your turn comes to conflict with this King of terrours under whose hand the Pompeys Caesars and Alexanders of the world who have been the terrours of Nations have bowed down themselves I say that when your turn and time comes as the Lord onely knows how soon it may be you may escape the stroke of its dart and sting and taste no other bâ—tterness in death than the natural evil of it To this end I have drawn the following Questions and Answers which if you please may be called The Sea-man's Catechism And Oh that you might not dare to launch forth into the deeps untill you have seriously interrogated and examined your hearts upon those particulars Oh that you would resolve before you go forth to withdraw your selves a while from all clamours and distractions and calmly and seriously Catechise your own selves in this manner Quest. 1. What may the issue of this Voyage be Answ. Death Prov. 27. 1. Boast noâ— thy self of to morrow for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth Jam 4. 13 14. Go to now ye that say To day or to morrow we will go into such a City and continue there a year and buy and sell and get gain VVhereas you know not what shall be on to morrow for what is your Life It is even a vapour that appeareth for a little time and then vanisheth away Quest. 2 What is Death Ans. Death is a separation of Soul and Body till the Resurrection 2 Cor. 5. 1. VVe know that if our earthly house of this Tâ—bernacle be dissolved Iob 14. 10 11 12. Read the words Quest. 3. Is Death to be despised and slighted if it be so An. O no! It 's one of the most weighty and serious things that ever a creature went about So dreadful doth it appear to some that the fear of it subjects them to Bondage all their lives Hebr. 2. 15. And to deliver them who through fear of death were all their lives subject to bondage And in Scripture It 's called the King of terrours Job 18. 14. Or the black Prince as some translate Never had any Prince such a title before To some it hath been so terrible that none might mention its Name before them Quest. 4. What makes it so terrible and affrighting to Men Answ. Several things concur to make it terrible to the most of Men As first its Harbingers and Antecedents which are strong Pains Conflicts and Agonies Secondly its office and work it comes about which is to transfer us into the other world Hence Rev. 6. 8. It 's set forth by a Pale Horse An horse for its use and office to carry you away from hence into the upper or lower region of Eternity and a pale horse for it's gastliness and terror Thirdly but above all it 's terrible in regard of its consequence for it 's the door of Eternity the parting point betwixt the present world and that to come the utmost line and boundary of all temporal things Hence Heb. 9. It 's appointed for all men once to die and after that the Iudgment Rev. 6. 8. And I looked and behold a pale Horse and his name that sat on him was Death and Hell followed him Ah it makes a sudden and strange alteration upon mens conditions to be pluckt out of house and from among friends and honours and
Navigation Spiritualiz'd OR A NEW COMPASS FOR SEAMEN Consisting of XXXII Points Of Pleasant OBSERVATIONS Profitable APPLICATIONS and Serious REFLECTIONS All concluded with so many Spiritual Poems Whereunto is now Added I. A Sober Consideration of the Sin of Drunkenness II. The Harlot's Face in the Scripture-Glass III. The Art of Preserving the Fruit of the Lips IV. The Resurrection of Buried Mercies and Promises V. The Sea-man's Catechism Being an Essay toward their much deâ—â—â—d Reformation from the Horrible and Destable Sins of Drunkenness Swearing Vncleanness Forgetfulness of Mercies Violation of Promises and Atheistical Contempt of Death Fit to be seriously Recommended to their Profane Relations whether Sea-men or Others by all such as Unfeignedly desire their Eternal Welfare And they said Come let us cast Lots that we may know for whose cause this evil is come upon us Jonah 1. 7. Knowing therefore the terrours of the LORD we perswade Men 2 Cor. 5. 11. By Iohn Flavel Minister of the Gospel The Fourth Edition London Printed for M. Fabian in Mercers Chappel at the lower end of Cheapside 1698. What good might Seaman get if once they were But heavenly 〈◊〉 if they could but steer Thâ— Christâ—â—s course the Soul might then enjoy Sweet Peace they might like Seas or-flow with Joy Were God our All how would our Comforts double Upon us thus the Seas of all our trouble Would be divinely sweet Men should endeavour To see God now and be with him for ever To All Masters Marriners and Seamen Especially such as belong to the Borrough of Clifton Dartmouth and Hardnes in the County of Devon Sirs I Find it Story'd of Anacharsis that when one Ask'd him Whether the Living or the Dead were more He returned this Answer You must first tell me saith he in which Number I must place Sea-men Intimating thereby that Sea-men are as it were a Third sort of Persons to be Number'd neither with the Living nor the Dead their Lives hanging continually in suspence before them And it was anciently accounted the most desperate Imployment and they little better than lost Men that us'd the Seas Through all my Life saith Aristotle Three things do especially repent me First That ever I reveal'd a Secret to a Woman Secondly That ever I remain'd one day without a Will Thirdly That ever I went to any place by Sea whither I might have gone by Land Nothing saith another is more miserable than to see a Virtuous and Worthy Person upon the Sea And although Custom and the great Improvement of the Art of Navigation have made it less formidable now yet are you no further from death than you are from the waters which is but a remove of two or three inches Now you that border so nigh upon the confines of death and eternity every moment may well be supposed to be Men of singular Piety and Seriousness For nothing more composes the Heart to such a frame than the lively apprehensions of Eternity do and none have greater external advantages for that than you have But alas for the generality What sort 〈◊〉 Men are more ungodly and stupidly insensible of eterna concernments Living for the most part as if they had made a Covenant with death and with hell were at agreement It was an ancient saying Qui nescit orare discat navigare He that knows not how to Pray let him go to Sea But we may say now alas that we may say so in times of greater light He that would learn to be proâ—ane to drink and swear and dishonour God let him go to Sea As for Prayer it is a rare thing among Sea-men they count that a needless-business they see the prophane and vile deliver'd as well as others and therefore What profit is there if they Pray unto him Mal. 3. 4. As I remember I have read of a profane Souldier who was heard swearing though he stood in a place of great danger and when one that stood by him warned him saying Fellow-souldier do not Swear the Bullets flie he answer'd They that swear come off as well as they that pray Soon after a shot hit him and down he fell Plato diligently admonisht all Men to avoid the Sea For saith he it is the School-master of all Vice and Dishonesty Sirs it is a very sad consideration to me that you who float upon the great deeps in whose bottom so many Thousand poor miserable Creatures lie whose sins have sunk them down not only into the bottom of the Sea but of Hell also whither divine vengeance hath pursu'd them That you I say who daily float and hover over them and have the roaring waves and billows that swallow'd them up gaping for you as the next prey should be no more affected with these things Oh what a Terrible Voice doth God utter in the Stroms It breaks the Cedars shakes the Wilderness makes the Hinds to Calve Psal. 29. 5. And can it not shake your hearts This Voice of the Lord is full of Majesty but his Voice in the Word is more efficacious and powerful Heb. 4. 12. to convince and rip up the heart This Word is exalted above all his Name Psal. 138. 3. and if it cannot awaken you it is no wonder you remain secure and dead when the Lord utters his Voice in the most dreadful storms and tempests But if neither the Voice of God uttered in his dreadful Works or in his glorious Gospel can effectually awaken and rouze there is an Euroclidon a fearful storm coming which will so awaken your souls as that they shall never sleep any more Psal. 11. 6. Upon the wicked he shall reign Snares Fire and Brimstone and an horrible Tempest This is the portion of their Cup. You that have been at Sea in the most Violent storms never felt such a storm as this and the Lord grant you never may no Calm shall follow this Storm There are some among you that I am perswaded do truly fear that God in whose hand their Life and Breath is Men that fear an Oath and are an honour to their Profession who drive a Trade for Heaven and are diligent to secure the happiness of their Immortal souls in the Insurance-Office above but for the generality alas they mind none of these things How many of you are coasting to and fro from one Country to another but never think of that Heavenly Country above nor how you may get the Merchandize thereof which is better than the Gold of Ophir How oft do you tremble to see the foaming V Vaves dance about you and wash over you yet consider not how terrible it will be to have all the waves and billows of God's wrath to go over your souls and that for ever How glad are you after you have been long toss'd upon the Ocean to descry Land And how yare and eagerly do you look out for it who yet never had your hearts warmed with the consideration of that Ioy which shall be among the Saints when they arrive