resemble one another save onely that there bee a-many of sharp spikes or scuers as it were upon either edge of it and the property of this Fish is to get underneath the Whale and there to riple him and rake him all over the belly which will cause him to roar and exclaim upon the Theeves that beset him as if there were a dart in the heart of him and the Tresher playes his part above table Thresher for when his partner forces him upwards hee layes on to purpose upon the Whales back insomuch that his blows are audible two or three miles in distance and their rage and fury is so great against the Whale that one would think they would cut him and thrash him to peeces 8. Amongst the rest of the works of God in the waters they have a frequent sight of that strange sort and kinde of fish Sea-swine called Porcus Marinus the Sea-hog or Swine This creature is headed like an Hog toothed and tusked like a Boar and this kinde consort and keep much together What hurt and harm Swine do on land when they get into fields of Corn Meadows and Pasture-grounds far greater hurt harm and havock do the Sea swine make in the salt waters by their killing up of the great and small fishes that be in it according to the Proverb Pares cum paribus facillime congregantur These beasts take such delight in one anothers company that they are to be seen in greater troops and herds than the greatest land-herds of Swine that ever were seen for they are not comparable unto the multitudes that bee of them and are in the Seas sometimes a Porpise troop is to bee seen consisting of four or five hundred and sometimes more and sometimes less running and ranging and snorting in the waters like the snuffing and snorting of Swine at land or as a pack of Hounds that run stragling and bawling after an Hare I have observed that when this fish hath been wounded by shot or Harping-iron that hee is no sooner peirced and mortally wounded but every one of the same kinde will follow him with the greatest violence that can bee striving and contending who should beat him first and have their teeth and mouthes the deepest and fastest in his carkass now whilst they are living they will not meddle with one another but when dead or dying they will fall foul upon them as their proper right and due It brought this into my minde 1. Meditation That when a man is once down and underfoot in the world that every malapart Pedantick is ready to set his foot upon him Lucianus Timon when he lived in prosperity was the sole spectacle of Greece who but Timon then loved honoured and applauded by all every one offering their service to him and seeking to be a kin to him out when his gold was spent fair possessions gone Timon was then of no more value with them I leave the Application Every one looks upon the Sun-rising of a man but they will never look upon his Sun-setting 9. They are not without a frequent sight of that admirable fish called the Sea-calf Sea-calf which is both headed and haired like a Calf swiming oftentimes with his head above water There be very many of this kinde in and about the several Islands in Scotland being providentially sent into those parts I have observed very many of them at night they will come on shore to sleep and rest themselves and early in the morning they will betake themselves to the Sea not daring to stay on land for fear of surprizals 1. Meditation It hath brought this to my mind that many take the night in the States service for their cloak knavery As the Theef and the Adulterer that Job tels us of used to do Job 24.15 16. The eye of the Adulterer waiteth for the twilight saying No eye shall see mee and disguiseth his face In the dark they dig thorow houses which they had marked for themselves in the day time they know not the light Sea-turtle 10. They are not destitute of a frequent aspect of that wonderful and Jehovah-extolling-creature called the Sea-Turtle If the Turtle float long above water then will the Sun-beams harden her shell that shee cannot go down any more into the Sea but lye for a prey both to Mariners that go thorow the Seas to fishes in them and fâ—wls that live upon them or the Tortoise This Bird-fish at the time of the year constantly leaves the Sea and betakes her self to the shore where shee will shoot an infinite number of Eggs and cover them in the sand and as soon as ever she hath done shee departs the place and makes for the Sea again not daring to stay and brood them as other birds will do because shee hath no wings to flye withall and to help her self if in case shee should bee set at And when her young ones are once hatched which come to that maturity by reason of that warmth that is in the sand they will go as directly towards the Sea as if they had been in it many a time before they had their being and although the Sea bee a mile or two from the place the old one left her Eggs in out of a natural instinct they will finde the Sea although it bee out of fight It is observable that if any of these Sea-fowl bee taken on land as oftentimes they are by Sea-men that they will never give over sighing sobbing weeping and bewayling of their Captivity as long as life is in them tears will drill and trickle from their eyes as from children in great abundance The sight of this creature imprinted no less than this upon my spirit 1. Meditation that all those affronts indignities wrongs and injuries that the righteous ones do suffer in this world whose eyes are evermore running down with tears like the surprized Sea-turtle shall turn to their good and the time is advancing on when sighing shall flye away fears cares troubles griefes wrongs and afflictions shall cease and all tears bee wiped away from their eyes Jam. 1.8 The support of the Apostles spirit lay in this that the coming of the Lord was drawing near and that was one thousand and six hundred years ago therefore what cause have all the godly to rejoyce in that that time is one thousand six hundred years the nearer than it was in the Apostles time 11. They have oftentimes a sight of that admirable Fish called the Torpedo Torpedo or the Cramp-fish which is indued with a very prodigious clandestine quality if it be but touched or handled the body is presently stunned and benummed as an hand or leg that is dead and without all feeling I have known some that have taken of this kinde at unawares who have not a little lamented and repented of their infelicitous and incogitant misery They have been for some hours in a very desponding estate
late outlandish Traveller spied in it page 528 Elephants how sayed to expresse their thankfulnesse unto God page 593 England likened to the Song of the Lacedemonians three Dances page 186 Epaminondas how valiant for his Country page 87 Edward an English King how challenged all France page 188 Eagle page 231 Elephant and what written upon his tongue page 244 Ebone Tree page 263 Aegyptians how set out inconsiderate men page 283 English how delivered when set at by the Turks page 292 Eumenes's silver Shields how betrayed him page 520 Earl Ulster how often driven back when going for Ireland page 511 Experimental deliverances page 34 Ebbing and flowing of Seas what page 163 Englands desire of three things to be accomplished page 169 England what it has done against Spain page 171 English should resemble Hanibal upon the Alps. page 172 England is not to bee medled withall by a forein enemy page 140 Aesops Grashopper what it did page 100 Elysian Fields hard to be come at page 603 Examples how Swearers have been punished page 103 F. FLying Fish what page 199 Fowls in Green-land how said to leave it page 232 Fire-flies page 238 Fogo a burning Mountain page 273 Flyes in the Indies how buzze and huâ— in the Woods page 268 Fox in the Fable how pleaded page 314 Fire-lights on Sea-coasts what page 10 G. GOld Mines how discovered page 9 God how said to bee a Man of Warre page 177 Greeks how wonderfully affected with a temporal deliverance page 564 Goose in Aesop sadly dealt withall page 405 God in the Winds page 569 Ginger page 264 Gregories Fox how cunning page 312 Greenland how supplied with wood page 276 Grashoppers what page 239 Graecians how affected with their deliverance page 502 Gauls how would let no Vines grow in their Country page 78 H. HAven the word what it comes of page 533 Hermite how carried away by an Angel in the evening page 490 Haven-towns how exhorted to pray for Seamen page 533 Harbours how feigned to speak and call aloud to Sea-men when in storms page 532 Hurtful qualities in all the four Winds page 440 Heraclitus what an admirer of the Sea page 586 Holland in what advised page 138 Heron and Falcon how they fight page 137 Harbours not to be tarried long in by Commanders page 78 Hold breaking up very unwarrantable page 64 Heathen how said to deal with their gods page 595 Hecla and Helga how said to burn page 277 Hopfoy page 238 Heron. page 237 Henry 5. K. England how discouraged page 186 Heliotrope page 328 I. IEroms observation of the wicked on Land applied to the wicked at sea page 551 Jewes how perswaded that the name Jehovah is written upon every Rainbow page 405 Jerusalem how warned by a Starre for a whole year together page 404 Julius Caesar how used to carry three things when followed the Warres 1. His Pen. 2. His Books 3. His Laws page 419 Jupiter how said to have his hands full of Thunder-bolts page 583 Jew how affected with his deliverance over the plank that was laid upon a bridge page 584 Juno's Statue how compared page 583 James the just a wonderful pâ—â—ying soul page 517 Jewes how deal with the Book of Esther page 507 John K. Portugal his great love to his Country page 230 Isidores observation how infectious bad men be page 112 Joseph how carried himself in Potiphars house page 114 James Abbes cryed up to bee saved by a wicked page 121 Jerom what said of Asela page 157 Joshua what said of him whilst young and after when ancient page 175 Italian Proverb what page 134 Island how wonderfully supplied with wood page 276 K. KNowledge requisite to goe to Sea withall page 12 L. LOg that was hurled out of Heaven by Jupiter upon the Froggs how compared page 426 Language of a storm page 546 Land how sweet and welcome it is to them that have been long out of it ibid. Locrian Law what it was page 529 Lions when enter into choler what they doe page 451 Lion what he did for the poor man that pulled the thorn out his foot page 568 Lark how often she praises her Creator in a day page 565 Locust page 264 Lapland page 275 Lucianus Timon what said of him page 223 Luther not discouraged at sad tidings page 515 Lacedemonian Law what page 35 Loadstone how its use not found out till the coming of Christ page 9 Lying reproved at Sea page 105 Luther what said of prayer page 177 Libbard how pursues his prey page 314 M. MOtto or Language of all sunk ships page 553 Mercy of God great that hee lets not all the Devils in Hell loose upon the Saylors backs page 554 Mercy of God great that any prophane ships keep up above water page 556 Motto of Seamens employment page 550 Merchants how compared to the Nightingale in their losses page 401 Mercies of old how preserved in several particulars page 588 Masters if godly what good they may doe in ships page 94 Masters and all States Officers should bee of Clavigers mind page 97 Menelaus what he said unto the Graecians when cowardly page 145 Mahumet how would not enter into any City for fear of temptations page 175 Mary Queen of Scots what she said page 176 Maps what they say of England page 139 Mariners how careful of one another when in danger page 134 Magistrates Commission how sufficient for Sea-men to fight any enemy page 124 Malestreamwell what page 271 Magellan Streights what storms lye in them page 268 Murder a Soul-damning sin page 227 Mearmaid what page 228 Muscetos what they doe in the West Indies page 238 Monkies page 251 Muscat what page 251 N. NOva Zembla what manner of place it is page 275 Noddy what said of her page 240 Numa's confidence in the gods page 525 North-wind what called by one page 441 Neptune how feigned to hold the two terrours of the Seas in chains page 544 Nautical skill how requisite to go to Sea withall page 7 Navy of Solomon how ordered when sent it out to Sea page 8 Numa Pompilius how strict in Religion page 31 Navigation how warrantable page 159 Narsetes got the victory at Sea by prayer page 178 O. OLympus what an high mountain it is page 367 Orpheus's musick what it was page 289 Ordinances of Heaven what page 272 Ostrich what page 234 Oculists what they observe of the eye page 197 Officers in States ships what they should do page 98 Octavius Augustus how hee dealt with a rude young man page 312 P. PAris streets how once swimmed with blood page 143 Paphos Queen how thankful page 501 Pelican page 230 Passown what page 249 Porcupine what page 250 Platonists what said by page 278 Palm tree what page 261 Prayer if not used at Sea endangers in four things page 466 Plato's counsel to Alcibiades the same given to Sea-men page 475 Prayer wonderfully priviledged page 470 Pliny never liked the East wind page 440 Pope Gregories fancy of the
English page 435 Prayer how should resemble the stars about the North-pole page 460 Prayer begged at the hands of all the godly and powerful Ministry in England for poor Sea-men page 542 Pliny's expression of Rome given to men that use the Seas page 478 Pliny's judgement what the wind is page 367 Prayer how prevalent with God page 482 Perpetual life-danger of Sea-men page 420 Philostrates's life compared to Sea-men page 392 Prophane Sea-mens Motto ibid. Prayer forced is never ought page 486 Plutarchs report of men dejected what done withall page 401 Paulinus how hee bore his great trial under the savage Goths page 352 Patience an excellent vertue the heathen thought it so when page 353 Praising of God in several directions page 576 Pythagoras scholars what their custome was page 109 Plato how answered Socrates in his rashness page 25 Persons what should not bee taken in into Navy ships page 32 Physiognomer what hee said of an Emperour page 80 Plato's great desire to convert Dionysius page 61 Paul how desirous to have them saved that sailed with him page 52 Pepper-tree how it grows page 263 Pemblico a bird page 242 Q. Question fifteen page 150 R. REasons why Sea-men should bee thankful unto their God for their deliverances are five page 565 Reasons laid down are sixteen why storms arise upon the Seas page 348 Reasons two strong ones why men are so fearful in storms page 455 Righteous man of what worth page 36 Reasons five why young men should bee looked after in the Sea page 73 Roman Ambassadors what said of them page 78 Romans highly esteem of faithfulness page 84 Roman General what a command he bore page 30 Romans cannot indure any without a calling page 166 Rome how once laid down to the ground page 180 Rocks in the Sea what their language is page 322 Richard the first how travelled to the Holy Land page 124 S. SEa compared to Plutarchs Moon page 427 Sea summoned in by the Mariners why it did drown so many of them as it did page 427 Speech objurgatory to the rest less Sea ibid. Speech of Galienus the Emperour when lost all that ever hee had page 402 Sea-men how compared to all high pinacles page 409 Sea-men too confident of going to heaven page 410 Seneca's speech page 401 Sea-men in storms are nearer heaven than any in the world besides page 409 Ships when cast away may bee concluded on that it was when the Mariners were swearing page 487 Several Reasons why Sea-men are the worst people in the world page 488 Sea-mans life and conversation page 393 Sea what it saith to prophane men ibid. Sea-mens lives very uncertain page 388 Ships uncertainty of ever returning whilst at Sea page 383 Sailors Motto what page 417 Sea-mans head what compared to page 416 Ships how rest less in the Sea page 27 Sailors Motto what page 445 Seasons six in which Sea-men are evermore out of their wits page 445 Sea hath four ill things in it page 446 Sea-mans Motto in a storm page 418 Sea-mans night-watching in time of storms page 418 Ship-leak springing how terrible page 426 Sea-mans day labouring in time of storms page 417 Sea-men how seemingly good in time of danger page 484 Shark what said of him page 206 Sea-horses what said of them page 209 Sea-men compared to the Nightingale page 191 Sea-swine what said of them page 222 Sea-calf page 224 Sea-turtle ibid. Stork what said of her page 234 Strange-sheep in Cusko page 249 Sivet-cat what shee is page 251 Scorpion what page 258 Strumbilo how it burns page 273 Sea-men too like the traveller that leaves all things behinde him page 281 Sea like the Sea in Pauten page 301 Ship-masters how reproved and for what page 91 Ship-masters exhorted to imitate Tiberius in his honest minde page 90 Sabbath day how sweetly it is observed at Sea page 95 Swearing complained of and exclaimed against at Sea page 101 Subjects that should bee preached on at Sea laid down page 102 Swearing ships but unhealthful air to breathe in page 103 Sea-men if ever they would bee good and Religious must practise seven things page 111 Socrates how fearful of Alcibiades page 115 Spanish Proverb what page 116 Sea-men prophane how compared to Pharaohs seven ill-favoured Kine page 118 Sun how said to shine and would not shine were it not for the godly page 119 Sea-men must practise six things if ever they would have credit ibid. Sea-men exhorted to practise nine very singular good things page 123 Sea-men counselled in three good things page 125 Sea-men should rather dye than stain their credits ibid. Sea-men prophane too like to those in Luthers time page 126 Ships when miscarry may be said that they never sought God in their going out page 132 Ships what order they observe in their going to Sea in nine things page 133 Sea-men how valiant they should bee when they hear of an enemy page 141 Spaniard in what to bee disgusted page 141 Spaniard how massacred many English page 144 Sea or Land a controversie whether bee greater page 153 Sea-men when come out of the West-Indies how glad they are when they can once see the North star page 154 sea-Sea-water how far it excels land-Land-water in strength page 156 Seas wonderful beneficial to all Countries in five things page 161 Sea-men exhorted to bee of Themistocles temper page 172 Sea separates many Nations a great mercy page 162 Sorrow and pleasure how they fell out page 598 Sea-men how wished a bottle of Nepenthe in storms page 596 States ships how said to resemble Nebuchadnezzars tree page 589 Ships how said to derive their names from the stout fought Battels in England page 290 Ships what several names they have to perpetuate the memory of Englands Battels page 591 Ships that carry the names of Englands Battels upon them are terrible page 592 Sea what manner of place it is page 4 Ship how shee commended the Pilot that steered her well in a storm page 598 Sea hath no lanes foot-paths nor high-wayes to travel by page 12 Sea-men counselled to bee of Fabritius's minde page 16 Sea-men far more on stern in matters of good than any in the world besides page 18 Scipio how of a brave spirit page 21 Sea-Captains some how compared to Thales page 22 Sin the only of Commanders being hurled out ibid. States how little they set by men at Sea whose carriages are naught page 23 Ships carry famous Titles and wherefore page 26 Sea-men too like the Cypress tree page 29 Sea-men that are prophane should bee cast out of ships page 33 Ships have good names but want of government in them page 30 States ships might prosper wonderfully had they but these men in them page 35 States ships should bee little Churches and Chappels page 42 Sea-man how defined page 46 Sea-men how backward to all good in divers particulars page 48 Sabbath day how sweetly it is observed at Sea page 55 Sea Commanders some too like Harpocrates
the Egyptian ibid. Spots soon seen in the Ermin page 64 Suspicious ships should not bee neglected to hee spoke withall page 65 Song that the poor bird sung when got out of the Fowlers hands ibid. Suevians estimation of peace page 70 Ships how they should bee governed ibid. Strong drink should bee kept out of ships page 77 Sailors that are naught too like the unsavoury Elder tree ibid. Star the Mariner sails by what page 12 Sailors prophane life like to King Eldreds Reign page 413 Sea-men how they will go forth in windy nights to see if they can espye any star in the heavens page 420 Sea-men how fearful of Rocks and Sands page 430 Sea-men how unkindly they deal with Prayer page 483 Saylors in storms how compared to the Froggs in the Country-mans Pond page 481 Saylors how resemble the Siryphian Froggs page 478 Swearing ships worse habitations than the stinking Jakes and Channels about the City of London page 490 Saylors like to the people in the time that Juvenal lived in page 489 Seas turbulent and dangerous to Passengers because of prophane men in ships page 350 Security taken napping at sea as the old World was page 364 Sea how compared to lovely Paris in Hectors eye page 376 Sea-men exhorted in their employments to imitate the Nobilities of Rome ibid. Storms as well as Calms come from the hand of God page 379 Signs of the coming of storms be fifteen page 373 Ships at sea how resemble the Owl in the Embleme page 535 Saylors imployment how compared to the picture of the naked man in the Almanack page 530 Sea-ports should resemble the Emblem of the Candle page 535 Sea-men how they sit in the Waves and upon the Flouds like him in the Emblem page 536 Sea compared to the English Colledge at Valladolid in Spain for danger page 536 Sea-port Towns if naught how they endanger and threaten the whole Land with ruine page 538 Sunk ships bespeak Sea-men to make seven good applicatory uses page 550 Ships that have fair names upon them oftentimes very foulely miscarry page 547 Sea-mans life and conversation page 548 Sea how compared to Pandora's Box for danger page 542 Ships brought to ruine by reason of sinful men that saile in them page 555 Sea-men if godly need not fear the seas page 544 Saylors life what it is page 458 Sea compared to Proteus page 454 Syracucian when in a storm to save himself threw his wife over-board page 455 Sea how compared to the river Hypanis page 438 Seas why turbulent and Winds boysterous be divers in respect of the prophane wretches that goe in them ibid. Storms how the uttering of Gods voyce in wrath against them that use the seas page 340 Sea-mens large vowes to their God when in storms page 461 Sea-men in want of fear how compared to Sigismund page 475 Sea-men how they call upon God in storms and never in calms page 476 Sea-mans employment as dangerous as the Snails going over the bridge page 533 Story of one risen from the dead page 566 Storms better not bad men page 567 Stork how she expresses her thankfulnesse page 568 Saylors of Zara what they offered to their God for a deliverance in a storm page 570 Sea-men deal with their God as Egypt with the Clouds page 572 Seas upon a time how spoke to a pack of swearing Saylors and asked them why they was not affraid page 560 Shipwrack many suffer and why page 547 Saylors compared to Bees page 452 Sea-men how should prepare for storms page 394 Storms what Gods aimes are in them page 395 Sceva how he told of all his deliverances to his friends page 573 Seamen what they should say of their deliverances page 588 Sea-men how they deal with God page 580 Ship how covered over with Celestial curtains page 318 Storms how dreadful sometimes in Egypt page 329 Sea-lights when burn dimme make the Mariners curse and rage page 509 Seas as difficult to Navigate as the Hircinian Forrests bee to travel through page 510 Sigismund Emperour what used to say of his enemy page 514 Seas in storms run as high as the mountains in Mirioneth-shire in Wales page 514 Spaniard how may be dealt withall page 182 Spanish Ambassadors proud Ambassage into England page 185 Sea-men exhorted to bee as valiant for England as the two Scipio's were page 185 Sea-men exhorted to charge the Spaniard stoutly page 187 Sea-men how they see the riches honours and beauties of Countries page 191 T. TRojans how glad after their long Warre when came within the sight of their own Country page 545 Toledo the Arch-Bishop how hee despaired of Solomon page 410 Thankfulnesse how gainful it was to Alexander page 578 Tyger what page 254 Toddy-tree what page 265 Terebinth-tree page 266 Torrid Zone how people live in it page 273 Troy how ruined when secure page 298 Torpedo what page 226 Tumbler page 441 Titus Vespasian how sweetly spoken page 517 Travellers on Land what course they take page 11 Teneriff how difficult to goe up to the top of it page 600 Tree in Pliny how delightful page 2 Theodore how careful of his Childrens education page 35 Turkycock how said to rage page 106 Thistle in the Scottish coyn what it said page 139 Trumpet sounds England stand to thine Arms. page 143 Turks how allow none to be idle page 166 Thescus how guided by Ariadnes thred page 500 Thresher what said of him page 222 Thrush how brings evil upon her self page 205 Turk what said of England when looking for it in a Map page 183 V. ULysses what said of eloquence page 45 Voluptuous Londoner how feasted his five senses page 100 Vines in India how compared page 21 Virgils observation of a storm page 542 Ulysses how sadly hee raged when like to bee drowned in a storm page 556 Venice how lived a thousand years in one form of Government page 529 Use of comfort to those that use the Seas that God is the great Commander of them and of the winds page 360 Voyages are all to bee begun in the fear and by the good leave of God page 387 Vulcan so proud that hee would dwell no longer on earth but c. page 415 Vses of Information Circumspection and Reproof page 361 Unthankfulness reproved page 576 577 W. VVInd what it doth page 36â— Wars of old what they did when they went into them page 388 Wonders the greatest in England are her famous and stately Fabricks of warlike ships page 382 White-hall how a curb both to Sea and Land page 489 Winds how overthrow Sambelicus and his Army whilst at dinner page 338 Wind-Armies bee four page 331 Walnot tree how better for beating page 504 Winds are allayed six several wayes page 522 Waves of the Sea what called by some page 524 World if travelled what to be done page 194 Whale what said of him page 212 Wilde-Ass what page 247 Water-spouts at Sea what page 271 Wilde-Cows what page 255 Wilde-Goat what page 254 Wilde-Bore what page 255 Waters of the Sea why called great page 152 Water in Sicily what page 153 War how ought to begin and bee carried on page 145 World how often it hath been fought for page 170 World divided how few Christians in it page 271 Williams valour when went to Sea page 124 West-Indies how tame Fowls are page 241 Weeping-tree page 266 X. XErxes trusting in a multitude of men how betrayed page 520 Xerxes angred at Helespont how threw Irons into it page 521 Y. YEars ago could not sail far at Sea because wanted the use of the Loadstone page 9 Z. Zebra what page 250
instruction and I fear perish for want of it and also of knowledge I took the pains the Lord knows my heart upon no other account but to doe the Souls of those good that goe down into the Seas and it shall bee my prayer perpetually that God would prosper this poor and imbecil Peece to every one of their Souls certainly that God that put me upon the dressing of this wholsom and savoury Dish for them will blesse it to them Which that it may be shall be the hearty and constant prayer of mee for you and them that the ever-living all powerful and most gracious God would fire and enflame your hearts and theirs in all the duties of holinesse that both you that sit on Land and they that goe to Sea may find his favour and such acceptance as may sweeten your Souls and theirs in the saddest seasons So prayeth he that is Yours willing to serve you in Soul affairs DANIEL PELL Study at my Lady Hungarfords in Hungarford House upon the Strand London May 4. 1659 Reader IT is impossible that any Book should come from the Press void of Errata's provided thou knowest what belongs to Printing therefore what thou findest amiss in much meekness correct for it is neither the fault of the Author nor the minde of the Printer THE PROOEMIUM I Question not but that the gallant Englishmans rare Navigating Art and deserving Science is an Art out-stripping Arts. Who will deny but Ignoramus's that this Art carries the Poop-lanthorn or the high-hoised Maintop-light and many others for their inferiority and indignity come on Stern If any will go about to set up their own what would such do but Splendente Sole lucernam accendere light up dim burning Torches or Candles in the shining Sun Who will say that this pre-excelling Art is not an Art of exquisite Excellency Rarity Mirability and Ingenuity Who will say that this Art brings not in fair Engleterra's Wealth her Silks her Wines her Sugars Spices Stuffs her Silver and her Gold besides many other innumerable and unreckonable Commodities Whence came Solomon to and by all his Gold Precious Stones Silver Ivory Apes Peacocks Almug-trees was it not by shipping He built himself a Fleet of Ships 1 King 9.26 27 28. which were employed and sent about to that very end and purpose to fetch unto Jerusalem the Gold of Ophir and those other Barbary Commodities And how should we come by the Silver Mynes in Hispaniola and those inestimable Riches that lye in great abundance in those remote Occidental and Oriental parts of the World if we built not Ships and sent them out unto them The Riches that are in other Nations and Countries will not come to as we must go down to Sea to them and for them if we would have them These Lads are Masters oâ— the Seas and the greatest Princes that ever crossed the salt waters They beat their enemies in the Seas make them run as fast before them as ever the Bezar ran or runs before the dogs of whom it s said Cupiens evadere damno Testiculorum adeo medicatum intelligit inguen rather than lose his life he bites them off his stones when an enemy is pursued out of fear goes overboard his Cask next his Chests and then his Boat or any thing that may but lighten his vessel to escape his hungry followers Who will say that this Art under God is not Englands safety from Forinsical Invasions If not let that Octogesimus Octavus Mirabilis Annus speak in which was that desperate attempt that the Spaniard made against this Nation under God that little shipping that was then at that time in England was wonderfully instrumental to scatter and break to pieces their long hatched and contrived purposes Oh England England write this and all thy other deliverances from those dreadful fulminations of Rome in aereis memoriae tuae foliis in the brassy leaves of a never-dying memory write them down I 'll say again with the Pen of a Diamond What would have become of England if we look but into nearer times viz. in our late Wars with Holland and the French if we had not had warlike Ships out at Sea both to have boxed them and broke their bones Under God this shipping that is in England has been instrumental to keep the Inhabitants of our Nation in their Possessions Houses Lands and Livings which otherwise would have been most miserably hazarded and prey'd upon ere this day by a multitude of truculent and unmerciful Wretches It s said of Constantinople that it is sufficiently fortified with three sorts of Bulwarks 1. With Wood 2. With Stones 3. With Bones By Wood is meant their warlike Ships which they keep out at Sea in the defence of the City and their Sea-Port Towne By Stones is meant their thick and impenetrable Walls which is round about the City And by Bones is understood an invincible Number of stout Sword-handling men to fight any Enemy that shall or dare oppose them Such a threefold Bulwark as this is the onely way to keep up England in a flourishing estate and posture and that in despight both of the Devil and all its Adversaries Our warlike Ships are the best Walls and Sea-Port Castles that be about the whole Nation of England keep but them up and bid a button for the World Our warlike Ships at Sea are to us in England what those Canes Allatrantes sive Stridentes Anseres were to the Romans which kept their Capitol by whose barking and galling if any attempted those Treasury-Houses Give but chase unto one of these Coast-creeping Pirats and alas he is but a Virfugiens hand moratur lyrae strepitum he will not stay to dance after the Musick of a lower Tyre of our Ordnance but runs from us like the frantick Satyr who had no sooner blown his horn but ran away amazed in the sound of it the Citizens were presently up in Arms. Englands safety lies in keeping out their Gun-barking and Gun-fighting Ships upon the Seas which scare our Enemies more than if the Devil were amongst them Nay they are as much terrified at the sight of one of our Warlike Frigots as ever Brutus was with that Malus Genius that disquieted him the night before he died Nay they are as fearful of them as ever the Burgundians were of every Thistle they did see which they thought was a Lance and every Tree a Man and every Man a Devil Every great Ship the Pirate sees in the Sea he takes for a Statesman of War Non ita Bovem Argus Argus never kept his transformed Io nor that watchful Dragon the Golden-fleece nor Cerberus the coming in of Hell so narrowly as our vigilant and watchful warlike Frigots do the Coasts and Shipping of this Land and Nation And indeed there is great necessity that they should act and bestir themselves with a Juno's-like jealousie a Danae's custody and an Argus's vigilancy for had they as many hands as Bryareus
as thick as hail about these mens ears they no more regard them than the Leviathan does the throwing of darts Job 41.29 which he counts as stubble and laughs at the shaking of of the spear What Job says in one case of the Leviathan I 'll say in another of the Sailor Job 41.33 Upon earth there is not his like who is made without fear I 'll say of Sailors what Paterculus said of some Caitiffs in his time in Rome quod nequiter ausi fortiter executi that what they wickedly attempted they desperately performed These Blades laugh when broad-sides are poured into their Ships And let me tell you a strange story You are Cousen-Germans to the great Leviathan in the Sea his heart and yours are both of a metal Ver. 24. His heart is as firm as a stone yea as hard as a piece of the nether Milstone It s not the loud Peals of Ordnance and of broad-sides from your Enemies that will dismay or break your hearts Nay when the Sea is on a curded dye of gore blood and runs as freely out of the Skuppers of their Ships as water does down the leaden Pipes of high-tyled houses in a rainy day these Lads have as good a stomach to behold it as ever Hannibal had when he saw a pit of Mans blood and cried out O famosum spectaculum he was so far from swooning at it that he took great delight in it Our Sailors like the Romans are so used not only unto gladiatory fights but great roaring Gun-fights and bloody spectacles and this acquaintance that they have got of Wounds and Blood makes them the lesse fear it in the Wars These are the Lads that make their Guns to roar far louder upon their Enemies than Homers Mars when hurt whom the noise of a thousand men and bells could not drown These are they that do totum concutere Orbem puzzle and amaze the whole world Where ever these go and sail they give every Coast a most dreadfull Alarm And that Immortale nomen that these blades in their late Wars have got is daunting terrible Prope Procul far and near so that they are talked of not onely Lingua Gallica but Italica Turcica Arabica Persica Belgica Hispanica c. and with and by all the Tongues that be in the World and hapned at the Confusion of Babel These Lads These are they that do Tonare armis fulminare cum Bombardis thunder in their arms and lighten the night with their guns who ride in the golden Saddle of their Wooden and Warlike Horses over the great waves and billows of the seas are of the very same metal of that proud prauncing and curvetting Horse in Job 39.19 20 21 22 23 24 25. They are men whose necks are clothed with thunder They with their Frigots go on to meet the armed men They mock at fear and are not affrighted neither turn they back from the Sword or all the Ordnance that 's fired on them They say amongst the Trumpets The glittering Spear and thundering Guns Ha! ha They smell the battel afar off and the thunder of the Ships and Captains They tear the Waves of the Sea in pieces with their fiercenesse And what Job 41.19 speaks of the Leviathans mouth I may say of these mens Gun-mouthes Out of their Gun-mouthes go burning lamps and smoke and sparks of fire leap out of their Gun-nostrils as out of a seething Pot or Cauldron Nay it s wonderful either to see hear or think how cheerfully the Mariners will shout and throw their Caps over-board into the Air and the Sea when they come unto an Engagement and though shot fly as neer their Coats and Caps as the Grecians accent came unto their Greek letter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they turn but up the nose at it Who will or who can deny but that by this Art Mariners have the fairest and fullest view and delightfullest aspect of the whole Creation above all others whatsoever Who will deny that the Seaman has not the amplest prospect of the great Waters These are the Lads that bark against the Crucifix of Rome It has been a Papal Proverb that never any barkt against the Crucifix but he ever ran mad But see you not how our Sailors keep in their right wits notwithstanding all that These are the Lads that have taken as much pleasure in setting the Hollanders ships on a fire when they engaged them in their three last dreadful Disputes as Alexander did in Persipolis when it was on a burning blaze or as Alcibiades did in seeing that Athenian heap of Scrolls on a fire of which he said with much rejoycing Nunquam vidi ignem clariorem I never saw a better fire in my life and of the Works and Wonders of the Lord in them and upon them whilst others that sit on Land neither see nor hear of What Art or Science is there in the world that outstrips this Let them come forth to match her I have read of one in Aristaemeus Ephemeris by name who did so much admire his Mistrisses beauty that he challenged all tho Beauties both of the East West North and South to compare with her Truly so much an admirer am I of this rare Art of theirs who have by Providence been conversant amongst them little lesse than a full Quatuorennium of time that I am transported to say Let the Wits of the East West North and South come in and compare as much of the flower strength and wit of Man and wisdom of the Creator is centred and apparent in this one Art and is daily demonstrable to those that are but tantum beholders as is sufficient to put the ingeniousest piece that is into a Labyrinthical admiration And this rare Art is Nuper admodum of late within these few years more abundantly advanced and improved than ever and I believe if my judgement fail not grown up into a Superlativer perfection than can or does appear to have had or been in quondam times or ages Was there ever more Merchandizing than there 's now Was there ever more crossing and adventuring upon the Salt-waters in Ships than there 's now Was there ever more busking or ranging the Seas out of England with great and terrible Fleets of the Warlikest Ships that ever were seen in the world before than there 's now Was there ever more going down into the great Waters from Country to Country according to Davids phrase than there 's now Go but to years past and enquire of them and they will tell you We never practised so much in the Art as you in these days do Before the vertue of the Loadstone that pointeth out the North was revealed unto the Mariner it s not to be spoke with what uncertain wandrings men were driven about following doubtful conjectures and fallacious accounts and reckonings indirectly floating here and there rather than sailing the right and direct way When the weather was fair when either Sun Moon
considered in the Lords discovering this Artem obnubilatam difficult and intricate Mystery The Gospel of Christ came into England at the first by shipping sayes Chronicles that Joseph of Arimathea was the first bringer of it into this Land who will gainsay me in this that there has not something of Divine Providence appeared as a moving cause or the Causa Procatarctica in God to give man light and understanding in it to this end that the light of the glorious Gospel of Christ which is the great power of God unto Salvation might be transported Undoubtedly but he that filled Bezaliel Aholiah with the Spirit of wisdom for the work of the Tabernacle Exod. 31.3 has not discovered the use of the Loadstone the Art of Navigation unto mankinde meerly for bare trading withal but for some higher end and freely preached and held forth unto those multitudes of ignorant and fettered captives of Satans in those dark mansions and remote Regions of America and unto the other black-nighted parts and corners of the world also We have now by the help of shipping many Plantations up down in the western parts of the world which are and will be by Gods assistance promoters of the interest of Christ and instrumental in the pulling down the interest of the Devil We reade of the Apostles and the disciples of Christ yea of Christ himself that they made use of shipping unto all the Islands they travelled to and Continents without which how should the Gospel of Christ been made manifest It is observed that the use of the Loadstone was never known in the world till Christs coming I would infer thus much then if there be truth in History That God was fully resolved at the coming of his blessed Son into the world to give man the right use and understanding of it to that very end it might be the golden Key to open those many locks bolts bars and doors that lay upon the face of the Creation which was little known or discovered till the Art of Navigation sprung up and came into the world So that by this Key the door of every Nation is opened to let in the Gospel of Christ amongst them and God has given man that dexterity and knowledge in this Art that his love unto the world Joh. 3.33 and the Name of his Son Jesus Christ might go far and neer in all the remote parts of the world over there being no other Name neither in heaven nor upon earth by which man can be saved Act. 4.12 but by this This is an Art now which this Nation of late and several other Nations also in the world are grown wonderfully dexterous ripe and well accomplished in and some excelling one another It s said of the Turk that great Potentate the three half Moons or the Top-gallant Sail of the World that he is no great Mariner and if he had but that skill and Art that other Nations and Countries have in Navigation he would have attempted to have ranged the whole world over he would have been in Wars with Nations though never so far distant and would have striven to have had a greater part of the world than he is in possession of he would have had the Silver Mynes in Hispaniola ere this day but that he knows not how to sail his ships thither But its time now for me to lay the Fore-Topsail of this my Compendious nay I fear rather prolix Prooemium upon the Mariners Art upon the Baek-steads and so lye by the Lee. Loquuntur Nautae Loquatur Ars Is not this now a rare Art I 'll deal as kindly with you as Hezekiah did with the Babylonish Ambassadors Isa 39.2 as he shewed them the house of his precious things the silver the gold the spices and the precious ointments and all the house of his armour all that ever he had So will I set before you the great works and wonders of the Lord in the Seas by which the glorious Gospel of Christ came into this Land and by which comes in all the delicate Fruits Commodities and scattered Excellencies that lye up and down in the Creation to our very doors I will then no longer hold you in the Porch of this delightful Prologue lest you should think your expectations to be either frustrated or defrauded for there 's a better Palace of Discourse to walk in and better banquetting-stuff to feed on My Anchor then is on board if that you will put off with me a little from the shore and lanch out into the main Ocean come now for its high-water for the Frigot of my Discourse to turn out withall When that the Fore-Topsail of any Ship is once loose no surer sign than that the Cable is upon the Capstock and that the ship is a going to make sail 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nec inter vivos nec inter mortuos Neither amongst the Living nor amongst the Dead OR A Compendious Improvement of the SEA PSAL. 107. Ver. 23. They that go down to the Sea in ships that do business in great Waters FOR our Introduction into the words before us our care shall be to ballance every word and circumstance that 's either considerable or materiall in them To that end you may behold that mature and goodly fruit that grows as plentifully upon this Scripture stalk as did upon that pregnant and most fruitful Tree Pliny greatly gloried in which he saw at Tiburts Juxta Tiburtes Tulias omni genere Pomorum alio ramo nucibus alio baccis alio ficis pyris prunis malorumque generibus c. bearing all Novelties upon one bough grew divers kinds of Apples and that of divers colours some red other-some yellow c. some of one colour and some of another upon other some boughs grew several kinds of Nuts and upon other some again all sorts of Berries upon other some again Pears Plums Oranges and Lemmons c. Now who would not but take delight to have seen such a Tree as this were there but such an one in the world that bears all those varieties of fruits which the many and several Trees of the world bring forth I question not but that the handling of this Text of Scripture will afford them that have a sweet Spirit breathing in them as various and as delectable Novelties as they can desire David calls some of his Psalms Michtam which is in the Hebrew Golden ones as being full of choice treasure And what will you call this Psalm I pray I will assure you that this is neither a Silver one nor a Leaden one but a Golden Psalm which is neither empty of worth nor matter It was the usual manner of the Hebrews to say that all those things were of God which were chief and most excellent in their kinde as the Prince of God Gen. 2.23 the Mountains of God Psal 36.7 the Trees of God c. We cannot say that the new composed Psalms of this
Age are infallibly Divine but I dare conclude it that this Psalm is and proceeded from God into Davids heart and herein is and lies the excellency and dignity of it For the Division of the words there be four things presenting and offering themselves unto our consideration 1. The Persons in this word They. 2. Their Posture in these words going down 3. Their Business or Occasions in these words that do business 4. and lastly Great waters in these words In the great waters The Persons they are to be considered under a threefold respect and denomination as they are most commonly 1. Juveniles 2. Cognoscentes 3. Servi These Lads are ad instar Halcyonis contra ventum like that bird Naturalists write of which evermore brests her self against the wind These are they that can live Fame frigore illuvie squalore inter saxa rupesque membraque saepe torrida gelu habent Juveniles They are then young men that use the Seas such as are robore nati full of manhood resolution strength and valour men that are of rugged and undaunted Spirits and dispositions Sea-headed Sea-brain'd Storm-proof hardy and stout to act and perform their hard and laborious Water-service even in all weathers that blows whatsoever And is there not a necessity now that they should be of this Tarpowling and Brass-pot-like metal who have perpetually the Freta indignantia froth-foming and hill-swelling Seas to ride over in their unruly and uncommandable wooden Chariots By these dangers are despised difficulties adventured on terrors contemned fears laughed at cowardize vanquished generosity and manhood is the onely thing that is in repute and esteem with them And is there not a necessity that it should be so and that every one that will take upon him to go to Sea should be a Ludibria rerum humanarum fortiter contemnens ac aleam fortunae novercantis ridens one that can pluck up a good heart in the midst of the stormiest Seas or proudest Waves that ever elevated Youth now is the prime time for the Sea because the body is in its best abilities to endure the Cradle-rocking Waves of restless Amphitrite 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Old Age cannot brook the unkindness of the bouncing and rowling billows of the Seas for it makes their bones both to crack and ake and it s very frequently seen that when men that have used the Seas long The Sea is Navigandi locus ac tamen commorandi non It s good for navigation but bad for habitation and are come into yeers once that they betake themselves to their heels and bid farewell unto it as Gulls and Cormorants will hasten to banks or sheltring places when they see a storm a coming upon the Sea They can endure it no longer Let this word then ring in the ears of those many thousands of young and stout valiant and hardy pieces that go both in the Merchant and the States Service of England Had I but that faculty that Pericles that famous and learned Athenian Orator had I question not but it would take place of whom it s said that when ever he came up before the people ere he left them he did in animis Auditorum aculeos relinquere leave an itching upon their spirits I have read of Alphonsus King of Spain how that he was petitioned to succour a decaid Knight but inquiring into the reason of his poverty said Had he young spent his estate in my service I would supplied him when old It s well if God say not of you at last who forget God that you served the States the Merchant and the Devil and now when you come to dye you would have heaven and pardon of sin Go get you to hell So of Hermanius in the Bohemian History that that great Courtier when he came to die cried out most bitterly that he had spent more time in the Palace than in the Temple This will be the cry of Sailors one day that they have spent more time in the Seas and in the States and Merchants service than ever they spent in Gods Remember young men that as you are in your prime for States Common-wealths or Merchant Service that you are also in the same plight and equipage for Gods though you be now in your warm blood yet there is a time of infirmities a coming on wherein your fiery spirits will be cooled and your blood-shedding hands exceedingly weakned The time is coming when you shall say Eccl. 12.1 We have no pleasure in the gallant Ships that sail the Seas We take no delight in seeing the brave Gallies that go with Oars nor in the thundring and firing of Guns or in the sound of that ear-pleasing noise of Trumpets that play their Warlike Levets upon the gilded Poops of the State of Englands Ships Some there be though God knows very few amongst you which do both serve and really and sincerely fear and love the Lord and God will remember them and all their obedience Jer. 2.2 I remember thee the kindness of thy youth God is a great observer and notice-taker of the kindness of those that serve him in their youth and he takes notice also of the hard-heartedness of those that neither fear him nor obey him Isa 1.2 3 4. Hear O Heavens and give ear O Earth The Heavens and the Earth blush at the graceless lives that you live and lead in the Seas Lay it to heart I beseech you and consider how flexible and how obedient some young men are unto God and how vile stubborn rebellious and obstinate you are against him Serve God with as much vigour strength heartiness and cheerfulness as you serve the States or the Merchant you will hazard and venture your lives over and over for them what will you do for God then Will you throw out of doors all Religion and the worship and fear of God Will you do the hard Service of the Common-wealth of England and will you not do the sweet blessed and easie Service of the Lord which will in the end bring you greater Salary than they can give you Live then in Prayer Reading Meditating and all the good means that you may in time have that carnal part that 's in you killed and sacrificed unto God 2. Cognoscentes As none will say but that the Sea requires the yong mans Service What a learned man in one case said of the unlearned people of the world I may say of the unlearned unskilful Mariner 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To be destitute of learning is to dance in the dark To go to sea without Nautical accomplishments is the only way to throw the ships upon the Rocks So I think none will deny but that it calls for judicious knowing and understanding men to be employed in it And such as have good skill in the Mathematicks and in the use of those many Navigating Instruments which Mariners take to Sea with them viz. Square Cube Astrolaby c. and in all
requisite that those that go into the Seas with ships of such worth as they do that they should be well acquainted and furnished with all those Nautical dexterities that tend both unto the preservation of ships and lives A Traveller at Land that has many hundreds of miles either to ride or foot and not knowing above ten or twenty miles of the way he will not take it as sufficient that the Countrey that he is to go unto lies East West or North but he will get himself a short schedule of the names of all the Towns Countreys or Counties he is to travel by and through and this note he carries with him in his Pouch for his guide and direction That which I would infer now from this is thus much That it is not enough for a Sea-man to know that his course to such or such a Countrey lyes South East North or West but its requisite that he should have an exquisite cognisance of the Rocks Sands and Shallows that lye in his way that thereby he may be in a capacity to save both himself and the ship he takes charge of otherwise he may sing Qui non ante cavet post dolebit Had they not need think you to be skilful men that will venture themselves to go into the Sea where there is neither Lanes Foot-paths High-wayes Houses Countries Trees Sea-marks Mercuries or men to ask which is the way to such a place but all the directions that they can procure in their long Travels are fetch'd from the Pole and the Stars These are their Mercuries that they consult withall the men that they ask for the way unto any place and these guides dwell in the Heavens they come not down out of their Orbs to tell the Sailors whereabouts they are in their Voyages in the Seas neither are they sociable or to be spoke withall and yet notwithstanding though they be both mute and dumb directors yet can the Mariners interpret their Language and pick out their way in the Sea out of them and get intelligence from them though they be many hundreds of miles from them both of their advancings and disadvancings which they evermore compare with their Card and Compass What mad work would unskilfull men make with a ship Had they not need to be better Artists that go down to sea than he in Pliny who when finding a disproportion betwixt a Dial the Suns motion thought surely that the Earth was moved from its Centre or that the Sun had taken a new course but suspected not that the Dial had been shaken by an Earthquake were they two or three hundred leagues in the Sea off any Land even let her drive this way and that way like a company of children in a small Boat that 's carried with great violence down the Tide or Stream Phaeton get but leave one day of his father to rule the Horses of the Sun and for want of art and skill overturn'd the Chariot and set the World on fire The like mad work would many men make were they but trusted with ships in the Seas either set the Vessels they sailed in upon their heads or run them upon the first Rocks and Sands they came at and thereby involve themselves in a dolorouser labyrinth than ever the Cretan Minotaure was shut up in The Sea is like that Egyptian Labyrinth which Histories tell of that was full of dark and intricate mazes and turnings so that there was no passing in nor out without Guide Torch and Candle So no going to Sea without Card and Nautical skill Have they not great need to be pregnantly well skill'd in the Precepts of Navigation and that after the exactest manner that can be in all those Rocks which lye lurking in the Seas to catch ships by the Keel They that will go to Sea had need be Ex procera praescientes specula ventura videntes men looking about them He that will ride we say must have an eye ad cursum equum to the running of the horse He that will plow ad arandam bovem must keep the ox in the furrow He that will hunt must have an eye ad indigandam canem and he that wil sail ad Navigandam Navem Quod in Navi gubernator quod curru agitator quod in choro precentor quod denique Dux in exercitu A skilful Master in a ship is a comely thing and in all those Quick-sands which many ships are swallowed up with how they bear and lye which things are engraven in their Maps and Waggoners to that very end they may not perish nor be to seek Surely Sailors should be as cautious in the Sea as the Foxes of Thrace which is a very cold Countrey and subject unto much frost and snow every Winter are who will not when they are to passe over any frozen Pool come upon the Ice without great fear and jealousie laying their ears unto the ground to listen if they can hear any stream of water bubbling underneath which if they do then back they go as from an unsound and dangerous passage but if they hear no breach of water underneath then on they go very boldly But to conclude every one that uses the Seas has not the ability to take charge of ships though for advantage sake they would be undertaking To such I shall say what Sylla that Noble Roman said of young men That they must first take a turn at the Oar before they come either to the Helm or Stern Such Novices as those that have not skill when that they come once to lose sight of Land they have not the Art nor Prudence to judg how many leagues they are run in distance from it for being in the water though they sail never so many leagues water is all alike at the furthest run as it was at their first setting forth As it is with the Sun-dial even after the same manner is it with the Sea Horologii umbram progressam sentimus progredientem non We may perceive that the shadow goes but cannot see it going so men may perceive themselves to have departed from land but not know how far they are from it unlesse that they have better judgement in the Mariners Art 3. Servi and these are to be considered under a twofold denomination 1. As they are servants unto the Merchant And 2. As they are servants also unto the State 1. Unto the Merchant It s with gracelesse Sailors as it was with Bruso Zeno's servant when being taken with theft alleged for himself that it was his destiny to steal to which his Master answered it was his destiny then to be beaten You are employed by Merchants whose moneys you are oftentimes betrusted with into the Forein parts of the World to lay out for them in all those several Commodities they send you into the sea for to bring them home viz. Silks Wines Stuffs Sugars Figs Lemons Oranges Raisins c. And if you be light-fingered and rotten-hearted men
sweet flowers in the Spring which are not known nor seen by the owners of the Cattel Altamen occultum referunt in lacte Saporem Virg. Georg. 4. So though no eye can behold the Merchant in a foreign Nation what hee trades in yet the benefit of his going out is evermore found at his return such ship or ships is to make report thereof by firing of Guns and if in the night by hanging out of lights and firing of Guns 9. If that the Admiral in a Fleet bee minded and resolve to anchor in the night hee makes sign thereof by hanging out perhaps his two lights in the Mizzen shrouds one above another and when anchors fires a peece of Ordinance and all the rest of the Fleet come to an anchor 3. Their business or occasions and those has respect unto two things 1. Merchandizing 2. Warring and Fighting 1. Merchandizing The Merchant-mans employment lyes wholly in traffiking from Country to Country buying and selling and selling and buying according to that in the Poet Impiger extremos currit Mercator ad Indos He goes down into the Sea to bring into the Land those costly Silks Spices Wines Sugars Stuffs Fruits c. which are in other parts very plentifully to bee had And by these wealthy and vendible commodities is both the City of London and the whole Nation besides both marvellously benefited and inriched What our Nation is destitute of it is fetcht into it out of other Countries that affords it by shipping So that England wants not for those scattered varieties that have their growth and being in other climates but hath a full and sufficient supply of every thing Now the Merchants business is various in respect that it lyes sometimes here and sometimes there sometimes in the Eastern parts of the world and sometimes in the Western sometimes in the Southern and other some times again in the Northern It s an Italian Proverb that the world is theirs that are bold Paradise theirs that are devour and Learning theirs that will but study for it The application is fair enough in view Sometimes for one commodity and other some times for another by which rare calling and imployment hee doth Angliam valde locupletari Hee goes into Countries Omnia copiarum genere abundantes that flow with all manner of varieties The Merchant-ships are continually going and coming and coming and going into England and out of England into the remote parts of the world as Bees out of an Hive in Summer time Vt in prat is ubique apes serenâ floribus infidunt variis As in Summer time every eye may behold the laborious Bee one while in the field and another while in the garden one while bringing home and another while flying out for hony so do our ships take flight upon their Canvass wings and bring home the riches and the wealth that is in other parts These are they that are like to Zebulun the Mariners Tribe who dwelt at the Haven of the Sea Josh 33.19 and sucked of the abundance of the Seas They that go too and again in the Sea may see in one part twenty sail in another forty in one fifty and in another sixty or an hundred going this way and that way Eastward Westward Northward and Southward Sicuti apes omnes circumvolitantes quod est utile domum adducunt As Bees light on every flower so some or other of the Merchants ships upon every Nation and that which is profitable and beneficial they bring with them into the Land Observation 2 That the worlds wealth is not to bee gotten without great pains and diligence whether at Sea or Land That do business in the great waters Many a perilous and rocking storm doth the Merchant-ship go thorow before shee either gets to her journies end into a forein part or from thence unto her home again What one said when hee stood admiring what pains Gentlemen take in hunting of the Hare the same I may say of the Merchant in his hunting out of forein Countries Tanto labore pro uno lepore homines valde torqueri video quos montes ascendunt quas paludes transibunt quas vepres sentesque sine sensu percurrunt modo unum lepusculum Capiant What mountains doth the Hunter climb what waters runs hee thorow and hedges breaks hee over with what toyl and sweat doth hee follow after the Hare Even the like pains takes the Merchant in climbing over the great mountains in the stormy Seas There is scarce any wind that blows but some ships are both going out and coming in or out one harbour or other in England But 2. Warring and fighting I would have our Sailors when they fight an enemy to strive as much for the wind as the Heron doth her endeavour to be above the Falcon that she may wet his wings with her excrements to that end he may flye both heavily and also that his purpose may be made ineffectual Having now spoke something of Merchandizing business it follows that I should descant a little upon that warring and fighting work and business that wee have now in this age to do Shipping business then lyes not altogether in trading but sometimes in fighting and warring upon the Seas when there bee breaches and fallings out betwixt State and State And when the quarrel is once begun betwixt two Nations there is great care taken on both sides who should run down one another by the board first So that if there were not a careful imploying of warlike Fleets both at home and abroad 1 For securing of Merchant-trade And 2. For guarding of the Nation Englands enemies are so many that they would soon put down the Merchandizing of it Ships might either stay in their harbours or otherwise if they went out to Sea without men of War they would come short of their homes How quickly would our cruel and bloody-minded enemies clip their Canvass wings from ever coming into our English Ports again Nay they would not stick to come and visit us with great and dreadful Armadoes threatning to land and break in upon us Besides wee have a cunning and subtil enemy to deal withal which plaies us as notable pranks as the Fowler doth the birds with his Larking-day-net which he spreads out in fair mornings and himself whirling about with his artificial motions thereby not onely the merry Lark and fearful Pidgeon are dazled and drawn into it out of admiration Let me say thus much unto the Hollander which Archidamus once said unto the Aeolians when he saw them intending to aid the Argives against him He writ a letter unto them the substance of which was in this Quietness is far better Take heed of aiding the Spaniard but stouter birds of prey the swift Merlin and towering Hobbie are sometimes inticed to stoop unto it which proves the loss of their lives Our Merchants that are small birds are not onely snapt and taken by the enemy now and then but
is not onely all neither but hereby where such are either at Sea or Land there may the sooner bee a looking for a curse than a blessing in all their undertakings And again a war that is undertaken upon just and good grounds It is not unlawfull to use the help of those who fight out of a bad intention either out of hatred violence ambition honour or desire of plunder for their bad intention does not violate the righteousness of the cause Is there not many Sea-Captains that fight for nothing in the world but their 10 pound and 15 pound per moneth I may say of Sailors what one said of Law Logick Switsers They may bee hired to fight for any one Sea man Sea-man get better principle And is there not thousands of Sea-men that fight for their 18. shillings per moneth Nay may I not say that they would fight for the Devil would hee but give them better wages than the States do How many thousands bee there of them that are now fighting day by day in one part or other of the world and they know not what they fight for save onely this Saile ship and come pay-day They look not upon the glory of God nor the cause that is in hand against the proud opposers of Christ and his glorious and everlasting Gospel And now I will not deny but that these will serve to goe on in the wars to do Christs work in the world withall though hee hurl the rod into the fire after all is done It is well known in all Histories that the trash and trumpery of the world have evermore gone in the wars and indeed they are the fittest men to lose their lives for the godly and well-minded people in the world cannot well bee spared and should they bee slain the world would sustain great loss in their deaths But now what shall I say of all the wars that are on foot in the world whether in the North or in the East in the South or in the West May I not say that sin has made a man a very hurtful and harmful creature man is not now become hurtful to beasts and beasts to man but one man unto another and one Nation with and to another And this has been so of old and is no new thing still but likely to bee so as long as there is so much of the first Adam in the world both acting and ruling in the sons of men as long as Pride shall bee seen exalted above the grace of Humility Covetousness above Contentedness Lust above Chastity and Enmity above Love and Charity never look for better in the world Man till sinfull was never thus hurtfull Before hee sinned was hee not naked and neither feared nor offered wrong and will not his sinless estate ever bee known by the state of innocency When that lost Image of God comes once to bee recovered again in all men generally and when the Kingdoms of the Earth shall become the Kingdoms of the Lord Jesus Christ then shall there bee peace and quietness in the Earth that one may walk up and down in the world at pleasure but not till then When mankind shall become a lamb then will it bee a glorious age and never till then It is observed that all other creatures save the lamb are armed by natures providence but the lamb is sent into the world naked and un-armed comes into it with neither offensive nor defensive weapons When mankind comes once to receive the glorious Image of the Lord then will there bee no longer this fighting and contentious principle that is in the hearts of most men but they will bee as meek and harmeless as the Dove who in the Greek is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sine cornibus non feriens cornibus An hornless creature Phil. 2.15 But now Dii boni what indignities what affronts what pushing with the ten horns and with the little horn spoken of in Scripture When that you see once the Lyons Bears ravening Wolves and Tygers of the world to bee turned into Lambs and their wolvish and Lion-like natures changed and metamorphosed into a Dove-like meekness then may it be said that there is then new Heavens and new Earth and in the interim never look for a cessation of war in the world till there bee some great Gospel-work wrought in the Earth But fourthly That which now follows in order is the consideration of this word Great waters The Spirit of the Lord here takes great delight to put this distinguishing accent upon them and indeed it is a very famous and glorious title that God is pleased to set upon their heads Great waters calling them great in opposition to small Rivulets which the eyes of Inland dwellers are upon It is a well known axiom in Philosophy Set but contraries in the presence of each other Opposita juxta se posita magis elucescunt and the difference is quickly made Therefore in our speaking of the Great waters pray what are the Aquae Stagnantes in a Land and what are the Fontaneae Scaturigines sive Torrentes sive Fluvii maximi What are the great Rivers or the standing pools and running torrents of a Land in comparison to the great and wide Ocean As vast a disproportion and dissimilitude is there betwixt them as there is betwixt the shining Sun and a twinckling star or betwixt the massy Elephant and the little bodied Mouse The Spirit of the Lord titles them Great waters and to speak re vera Legere non intelligere est negligere in re tamen seria really they are so as I shall by and by declare upon several accompts They who have never seen the Seas nor ever sailed in them and upon them they cannot credit their magnitude latitude and longitude and when they read over that 1 Chap. Gen. 9. where God said Let the waters under the Heaven bee gathered together unto one place and let the dry land appear and it was so it is but transiently inconsiderately and at the best unponderingly for there is but few that mind or apprehend what they read Why These are waters indeed in respect they are little less in spatiousness nay if not greater than the whole Earth joyn all the small Ex pede Hereulem wee say The skilful Geometrician finding the length of Hercules foot upon the hill Olympus made the portracture of his whole body by it You may judge of the Seas though you never saw them and great Islands and Continents that be either in the East and West North and South together they are not so vast and large as the Seas bee Now I know that many are very prone to deem this assertion as a thing not credible because of the weakness of their judgements but that I may bring those into a beleef of it that may call what is laid down here into question I will tell them what they shall do to put the thing out of
all doubt and controversie even take shipping and make trial of it Let the waters saith God bee gathered together and at his word they fled and tarried not for another word of command but away they ran roaring and raging off the Land which they held in their possession till God gave them Commission to give it up to mankinde and the creatures the Lord intended to live in it which were choyser inhabitants and so ever since that word of Command they have continued in those Caves Pits Depths Cells and bottomless receptacles which God out of wisdome digged and delved for them Psal 104.9 Thou hast set a bound that they may not pass over that they turn not again to cover the earth 2. And that in order it will appear that they may well bee called great What Writers say of the Jasper may better be said of the Seas that its easier to admire them than to declare them in and upon a fourfold account 1. For Latitude 2. Longitude 3. Profundity 4. Potency 1. Respectus latitudinis Every string in Davids Harp warbles out the immense latitude of the Seas In Psal 104.25 26. You may behold David as one amazed at the beholding of the great works of God in the deeps So is this great and wide Sea wherein are things creeping innumerable both small and great beasts There go the ships there is that Leviathan whom thou hast made to play therein They are called in this Psalm both great and wide What Policritus writes of a certain water in Sicily the same will I write upon the Superficies of the Seas Quam si quis irgrediatur in latum extenditur into which the deeper a man wades the larger it doth extend in self and the further he goes into it the further he may Some call it into question and debate whether the Sea or the Land be greater and the controversie cannot well be decided By the Maps of the world it is told us that some of the Southern parts in the world are not yet known and discovered which they title at this day by the name of Terra Australis nondum cognita and whether it be Sea or whether it be Land it is not yet known These are two words if but well considered which comprehend such vast dimensions as is not easily demonstrable by reason of that roomy and spatious magnitude that they are of Some wee call the narrow Seas because Lands and Countries are not far distant from each other In the Straights the Sea carries the name of Mediterranean because it parts Europe and Africa which are but a very small run betwixt each other But after one is out of the Straights-mouth or the Mediterranean they may in sailing Westward travel long enough ere they see any land again And after that ships get out of our narrow Seas in England here they may sail many hundreds of Leagues ere they come within the sight of land again The Seas that are betwixt England and France is but a very narrow cut and also betwixt it and Holland and betwixt England and Denmark Norway Jutland and Zealand c. in comparison what other Seas bee both Westward Southward Northward Some to prove that the Earth is far greater than the Sea alledg that in Esd 6.42 that God gathered the waters from off the seventh part of the earth and dried up the six other parts and if this Scripture were Canonical and of authority in the Church of God we might beleeve it But it is not my judgement to think that the Land is greater than the Seas 2. Respect a longitudinis What an unspeakable and almost incredible way may one sail directly end-wayes in the Seas from the East into the West and from the North into the South Of all visible latitudes indeed the East and the West are the largest What a vast longitude is that which our shipping run when they go out of the East into the West the North star and the Septentrional spangles are run down into the Sea out of their sight long before they come within sight of the Indies and at their return back when they come to such an elevation as once to behold the peepings of it forth out of the Sea which doth ask them a long time sailing before they can bring themselves within the sight of it how cheerful are they in their spirits of their advancings England-ward The Mariner makes many a look in his solitary and nocturnal Navigations upon the heavens for the appearance of this Star and when once his eye beholds it his first sight of it is as if it riss out of the water or as the rising of the Sun in a Winter or Summers morning which rises so low to outward appearance as if it had its surrection out of the earth After the same manner doth the North star to them which go far down into the Seas as if it riss out of the waters 3. Respectu profunditatis The salt waters are of such an unfadomable and intangible depth and abyss in many parts that no bottome is to bee found though one would tyre themselves with Line and Lead to make the trial of it I have heard it told again and again by some of the civilest and soberest of Sea-men that they have known of the Dutches who are very great and expert Mariners to have taken with them a small vessels loading of Line to sound the Seas in some of the Southern parts I have read of one that fell almost into an irrecoverable swound at the sight of seeing one sounding of the Seas in the ship he sailed in beholding such an infinite length of Line run thorow his hands he looked like a dead man on it when he apprehended what dangerous depths he sailed over and when he came to himself he cried out Mira profunditas and though they have painfully rafled out all that great and mighty Clew consisting of many thousands of Fathoms insomuch that they have been a whole day in letting down of Line and Lead and haling up yet not touched the bottome of it What truth there may bee in this report I know not But without all controversie the Sea is of an unkennable depth Some that are of the wisest and prudentest of Sea-men are of this judgement that the Seas in some parts are twenty thirty yea forty miles in depth from the very top upon which ships swim unto the very bottome Of such depth are the Seas after our ships get out of the Channel Southward that there is no anchoring for them because the Seas are far deeper than their Cables are in length 4. Respectu potentiae I will follow the Musicioners method in the handling of this for hee that playes upon the Harp strikes not upon one string but upon all and that is it that makes the Musick The great waters then are of such power force and strength when the winds lift them up into swelling Hills and pyramidical Mountains that they
do no more value ships of a thousand or sixteen hundred Tun than the wind vallues a light and unballasted feather The sporting Student for recreation bandies not his Tennis-ball with more facility from side to side yea and sometimes over the Court-wall than the Seas do both the great and small ships that they carry upon their shoulders It is true water is a very weak creature The water in the Sea far exceeds the strength of waters out of it viz. in Rivers Pools Wells and Ponds It is observed of ships in their coming up the River of Thames that they will draw a foot or two more water than they will do when in the Sea and of creatures one of the very weakest if my judgement fail not but when and where there is much of it congregated into an Alpine mountain and so carried up on the wings of the wind in a rowling manner it carries no small terrour in it The rising of a Lion out of his sandy Den or the appearance of a Greenland Leviathan looks not more grimly and gastly upon one than merciless and rowling waves in time of stormy Seas Many a one that is in the stormy Seas would wish to bee at a distance from those great rowling waves and billows that threaten to run over their heads ships and yard arms of such force are the Seas that let a ship bee great or small strong or weak if it bee her hap to fall upon sands or stick upon the bottome they will knock her all to peeces If any one would read what terrible and dreadful Majesty there is in God let him go down into the Sea a while and hee shall see so much of God in that clear water-looking glass as might be sufficient to turn him from sin to holiness from the world unto heaven and from the devil unto God all his dayes What Jerom speaks of Asella I may even say of my self after all that I have said Habebat silentium loquens whilst she spoke she was silent quicklier than if there were an hundred Carpenters set on work to do such a thing The Seas did so by the ship the Apostle Paul was in Act. 27. and they will and do so still if they take ships but once stranded The Eagle is a great bird yet is her vertue seen in a feather because it will consume all other feathers As mighty as the fire of Aetna is yet may one feel the beat of it in one spark as huge as the Sea is one may taste of its saltness in a drop and as great as the Whale is one may perceive his power at a distance So the Sea either in a little storm or quiet calm if but in it And now what shall I say the more Painters when they have used strokes of gold to make the brightest radiancy they can of the Sun wee see how weak and faint a shadow they represent of its beams and light So what I or any other would undertake to write of the Seas it is nothing comparatively what they are in themselves That the Mariners imployment in and Observation 3 upon the great water how dangerous or how perilous soever it bee is both lawful warrantable and allowable They that go down This text of Scripture which wee are at this time handling and speaking from doth naturally treat of Navigation as the vocation and occupation of some men viz. Such as have business in the great waters And have not many men affairs and commerce betwixt Nation and Nation to manage and dispatch which cannot any otherwise bee either done or performed but by this art If it were not for this art the creation could not bee travelled into nor the eminent works of God discovered nor the excellent fruits and commodities of the earth that bee in other parts of the world participated of Now this vocation hath been an antient imployment and of very long standing and continuance it hath been in use before Christs time and of use in his time and ever since Christs coming into the world Gods own people the Jews were very great Merchants and so are all the Jews generally unto this day the word Canaan signifies a Merchant denoting that they were not ordinary but of the greatest of Merchants And God hath not prohibited nor forbid men from coming upon the Seas no more than hee did in those times If that this calling had been unlawful and unwarrantable then Zebulun the Mariners Tribe would have been forbad it Deut. 33.18 And of Zebulun hee said Rejoyce Zebulun in thy going out c. vers 19. For they shall such of the abundance of the Seas and of treasures hid in the same But it is so far from being forbid that it is rather encouraged and allowed of and if it were lawful for Zebuluns Tribe it is the same for England or any other Nation in matters of trading and commerce one with another Some have their callings stations and habitations on Land some again at Sea Some are ingenious in one thing and some again in another All men have not the like equality of gifts parts and graces that othersome have and certainly one main end is that they bee helpful to one another Moses had not the voluble tongue therefore hee was beholden to Aaron to bee his prolocutor God sets men their bounds and their work and task whilst they are in this world some must go to Sea all their dayes and other some not so much as set their footupon the Salt waters But now for a little further confirmation of the Doctrine were there no Scripture to prove the lawfulness of the Mariners Calling I would then demand of any one 1. To what end the Lord did cut out all those Harbours Creeks Chanels and convenient places for ships to ride in in time of storms and to go into to fraught themselves both in this Nation of ours and in all the other Nations in the world 2. To what end were the great Rivers cut out for but to carry ships up to Cities and Towns viz. All the Sea-port Towns and Cities whether in England France Spain Holland Norway and the rest of the Nations in the world 3 To what end grows the great and tall Fir of which is made masting and yarding for all the ships that bee or shall bee built in the world These grow in great plenty both in Norway New England and divers other parts in the world Now I would not bee misunderstood I do not deny but that Fir is useful in many other things But I propound but this as a question and so leave it with you 4. To what end were Pitch Tar and Iron in such abundance as is in many parts of the world though useful in and about divers things besides if this art were not lawful 5. To what end is the use of the Loadstone discovered It is a well-known axiâ—me Deus nihil frustra fecit God never made any thing in vain but for
some use or other and also the secret vertue that is betwixt the Loadstone and the two Polar points the Artick and the Antartick which keeps the Mariners Card most firm and stable in all his Navigations and courses that hee steers and shapes if this art were not lawful I will give you now in a few particulars a Praelibamen or taste of those various uses and singular benefits that mankinde generally hath of and by the Seas 1. All the Nations of the world have this benefit by the Seas They yield them an easy quick and speedy passage or transportation to and fro by which every place or part in the world partakes of what one another enjoys Hereby are earthly blessings transmitted unto one another Esau's earthly portion or blessing was the fatness of the Earth plenty of corn wine and oyle c. Gen. 27.39 and these good things that are in the world some in one part and some in another are carried into those parts that are wanting and destitute of them Now speed is a great advantage in all businesses for quick dispatch of things What one says of the heavenly bodies I may in one sense as well say of the Art of Navigation Heavenly bodies do convey their sweet influences non qua calidae sed qua velocis motus England thou art happy that thou art an Island and at a great distance from the cruelty of the dark corners of the Earth And wee know that all Nations are carefull to keep up and maintain their Stationary post both in England France Spain Italy Turky Germany and the rest of them to that end the Nations may bee quickly informed in all secular occurrences or all assaults by the breaking in of forein powers And of the same use are the Seas upon which and through which do our shipping and the shipping in all Nations fly upon their canvas wings and are by good winds in a little time carried unto the furthest ports in the world and when fraughted if weather favour as speedily returned 2. They quell the rage of the hottest Element and are very useful and instrumental to keep sublunary mansions from being converted into cinders and ashes 3. They part Nations from one another If all the world were in one continent it is more than probable that sin which has brought in such an hurtfull Principle into the minds of men that there would bee nothing but a daily killing slaughtering and murthering of one another Now God might if hee had pleased have laid all the whole world in one continent and not separated one Nation from another as hee has done What intrudeing is there upon one anothers borders what fireing of Towns what burning of Villages what slaughtering at their pleasure is there evermore amongst those that are in one Continent would it not bee thus every where were there not a Sea betwixt them to part them from pulling one another by the throat And hee might have given commission to the great waters to have lain upon the back of the world and not in the heart of it as they doe but the Lords unsearchable and incomprehensible Wisdom has contrived all things for the good and conveniency of mankind blessed and ever blessed bee his holy name Does not the great infinite and wonderful Wisdom of God appear in this in that hee hath divided and taken the world and broken it into many pieces for one people to live in one place and another people in another of it Look but into some great continents in the world where there be several Kings Princes Dukes and Emperours and they are never at quiet but in a perpetual hostility and enmity one against the other witness France and Spain the Turk and the Persian and divers other parts in the world 4. The ebbing and flowing of the Seas are of marvellous use and benefit unto all the Haven-towns in all Nations whatsoever whether East or West North or South far or near by this ships come in with the flood and goe out with the ebbe Gen. 41.13 Zebulun that dwelt at the Haven of the Sea found the benefit of the fluxes and the re-fluxes of the Seas by which their ships came in and by which they went out How useful is the flowing What this ebbing and flowing of the Seas it as to the natural causes of it none knows the supernatural every one can tell Some fictitiously attribute it unto an Angel whose office is as it was in the Pool of Bethesda to move the waters to and fro Other some have these guesses at it that there are certain subterranean or under Sea-fires that give the Seas their motion One calls the ebbing and flowing of the Sea Arcanum naturae magnum natures great secret Contra rationem nemo sobrius Contra Scripturam nemo Christianus Contra Ecclesiam nemo pacificus They that are wise may see both reason and Scripture in the proof of the point and re-flowing of the Seas both to London in the Thames and Hull in Humber besides many other ports and places in this Land and Nation where ships are continually comming in and going out Some attribute the flowings and the re-flowings of the Seas which is a most wonderful thing to the various effects of the divers appearances of the Moon and this is not improbable not unlikely for experience teacheth us that according to the courses of the Moon tides they are both ordered and altered from whence wee may positively conclude that the waters have their attraction from the Moon And indeed it is the judgement of the best Philosophers that the Moon by her operation sets the Sea the worlds great wonder on ebbing and flowing Aristotle because hee could not find out the natural cause of the Seas flowing and ebbing told the Sea that if hee could not comprehend the reason of it the Sea should comprehend him and out of grief immediately hee threw himself into the Sea Others again think that the final cause of the Seas motion was ordained by God for the purging and preserving of the waters as the aire has its purgings by and from the winds which are as brooms and besoms to sweep away all the contagious vapours and infectious savours that climb up into it Standing waters wee know are apt to putrify corrupt and stink if it were not for sweet springs that feed them but what are small Rivulets that are extracted and strained waters through the veins of the Earth though out of all the Nations in the world to the great and wide Sea they are but as the drop of a bucket or a mole-hill to a Mountain 5. The Sea affords all mankind this great singular and publique benefit in respect it yields them such an innumerable variety of all sorts and kinds of Fish both great and small which is a great supply to many Towns Cities and Countries both in the Eastern Western Northern and Southern parts of the world And of these are killed infinitely every
business that is Observ 4 now to bee done and followed on in the Seas England thou hast argumentum Aristotelicum argumentum Basilinum on thy side Three special things desire to bee seen and enjoyed in this world 1. The fall of Babylon the destruction of Antichrist 2. The destruction of Gog and Magog the Turkish Monarchy 3. The full conversion of the Jews is to pull down the house of Austria and the Pope of Rome That do business in great waters c. Amongst the many reasons that might be deposited take these for some 1. Because the time draws on that that which is prophecied shall bee fulfilled Rev. 11.15 And the seventh Angel sounded and there were great voices in Heaven saying The Kingdoms of this world are become the Kingdoms of the Lord Jesus and hee shall reign for ever and ever St. John saw the elders casting down all their crowns before the Throne 1600 years ago what may wee not expect now then saying thou art worthy O Lord to receive glory and honour and power Apoc. 4.10 Hee that has but a seeing eye at nearer times may clearly discern What valiant spirits were they of in former times History tells us that the whole world was fought for thrice 1 Betwixt Alexander and Xerxes 2 Betwixt Caesar and Pompey 3 Betwixt Constantine and Lucinius Were they so valiant in those dayes Sailors and wil not you be as valiant in these dayes of ours that both Crowns and Kingdomes are staggering And soon after John heard every creature in heaven and in Earth and Sea saying Blessing Honour Glory and Power bee unto him that sits upon the Throne and unto the Lamb for evermore Chap. 5.13 And soon after he saw Christ with his Crown upon him going forth conquering and to conquer Chap. 6.2 And hee that hath a seeing eye may observe the approach of this day 2. Because it hath stood so many hundreds of years in the opposition of Christs and still remains and perseveres a malignant and peevish enemy unto the interest of Christ and the very life and power of godliness 3. Because God hath given the valiant Joshuahs of this age and generation a most wonderful magnanimous and undaunted courage and resolution to go on in their Sea-wars against them Yea they are admirably fitted with fighting spirits for the work Surely that universal and military spirit that is now in the fighting breasts and bosomes of the English do bee-speak the great things that God hath on foot in the world otherwise to what end is it that men should bee in these dayes so unknownly valorous and couragious if God had not some work for them to do 4. Reason may seem to bee this Englands late activeness and carefulness in building of so many famous brave What was said of Epeâ—s I wil say of England against Spain and Rome that he did Lignum facere equum in eversionem Troja England builds wooden horses that carry great Guns in their panches to ruine their enemies withall Divide the world into thirty equal parts nineteen of those thirty are Heathen six of the eleven Mahumetans five parts of the thirty Christians Of Professors of Christ most Papists few Protestants And of Protestants how few beleevers By this we may see that Christ hath but a little share in the world sumptuous warlike ships this be-speaks England ni fallor to bee an instrument in the hands of Christ to crush the Papal and Antichristian powers of the world No Nation under the whole Heavens look all the whole universe thoughout is in that gallant posture and warlike equipage by Sea that the Nation of England is in at this very day God preserve it To stir up your British blood that they would every one of them lend their helping hand to tear the scarlet Whore of Rome to peeces and those Papal powers and adherents of the world I think it convenient to press some ponderous and considerable motives For I know by experience that the Souldier prepares not to battel untill hee hear the sound of the Drum or Trumpet sounding an Horse Horse or a Stand to your Arms. Therefore to put you on brave Warriours in the Seas Nil desperandum Christo duce auspice Christo Bee not afraid Christ is your Captain and hee is resolved to have all the sinful powers and the irreligious Kings and Emperours and Princes of the world down and if you will not do it Generations after you will do Christs work for Christ will no longer bee crowded into a corner of the world but hee will have the world in his own hands Rev. 11.1 I would have Sailors to be of Themistocles metal against the Spaniard of whom Plutarch said that after he had heard once that Miltiades had got himself so much honour in the Marathonian battel he was not able to sleep because Miltiades was so far before him and he so short of him in honour 7 15. Hee will take unto himself his great power and reign c. Zach. 10.11 The pride of Assyria shall bee brought down and the Scepter of Egypt shall depart away It is usual to express the enemies of the Church by the names of old enemies as Assyria and Egypt was 1. That it is one special peece of Englands generation-work Therefore look to it and withdraw not till you have laid Babylon in the dust 2. That God is arising to recover his lost glory and honour in the world And will not you arise and bestir your selves then 3. Consider but seriously the soul-damning vassallage and infringed liberty that Southern Nations lye in and groan under What groans what cryes and what sighs bee there in Spain and yet dare not bee known in their secret disaffection to their impertinent and God-displeasing worship Gentlemen have you not fought out your own liberties in England yea fatis superque satis And why will you not now venture as deeply for Christs interest still as you have done I would have our English to overlook the greatest difficulties that are to be objected prima facie in a work of this like nature and resemble Hannibal in courage who said when upon the Alps with his Army Aut viam inveniam aut viam faciam I will either finde out a way over these cloud topping mountains or make my way through them Doth not the captived condition of forein parts call for help 4. Consider seriously that general disowning and denying of the Gospel of Christ either to bee read or preached in publick and private as it should be This is in Spain and Italy c. Will not this set your spirits on a fire against those subtil and soul-murthering adversaries of the Lord Jesus Christs 5. Consider seriously the damnable cruel and Diabolical Inquisition that they have in Spain which hath been hatched betwixt the Devil and two sophistical Spanish Jesuits By this they can take off any mans life for questioning of their Religion and that at
I have read of a young prodigal Londoner who had a great longing to give all his five Senses a pleasure at once and allowed to the delight of every sense a several 100 l. by which and such like practices within the space of three years he wasted an estate of 30000 l. in mony left him by his father besides land plate jewels and houses furnished very richly to a great value I bring but this in as an instance to tell you that he that w ll feast his eye with the sight of the Creation it will both cost him penny and pains by which hee sees his works withall and then I will lay-down the promised particulars of what Mariners do see 1. Very wonderful is the sense of hearing tasteing smelling feeling but far more wonderful is the sense of seeing If it should bee demanded of mee what definition may bee given of the eye and what it is I think it may bee said truly that the eye is a little globe that is very full of visory spirits which do exceedingly resemble the round animatedness of the world The visory spirits have their generation from the Animal which flows from the brain to the eye by the nerve Optic and from those proceed the visible and reflected rayes in the eye as in a glass which will soon form any image that it beholds and so is received into the Chrystalline humour and by the visory spirits through the Nerve Optic is conveyed to the brain the object to bee considered of and by the internal senses as imagination memory and the common sense Observ 3 That good and perfect eye-sight is a singular mercy and special blessing from the Lord. These see the works of the Lord c. If it were not for this comfortable sense that God hath bestowed upon man his works could not bee seen nor discovered and viewed as to this day they are to his everlasting praise glory and honour I would exhort all the Sailors in the Seas now to consider how favourably God hath dealt with them in giving them eyes and perfect sight without which their lives would bee but a burden to them as his was that was brought to our Saviour Christ Mat. 12.22 Then was brought unto him one possessed with a devil blinde and dumb and hee healed him in so much that the blinde and dumb both spake and saw Are you not bound and much engaged to God that hee hath given you eyes to see withall whilst other men wanting sight better deserving it than you are like to go without it and so are forced and must go groping and groveling in the dark all their dayes till they come to lye down in their graves with what suspicion and fear walks the blinde up and down in the world how doth their hands and staves examine their way with what jealousie do they receive every morsel and every draught how do they meet with many a poast and stumble upon many a stone fall into many a ditch and swallow up many a flye to them the world is as if it were not or were all rubs gins snares and miserable downfalls and if any man will lend him an hand hee must trust to him and not to himself Consider but the blinde in the Gospel how they lay in the high wayes and roads that lead unto the City of Jerusalem and also amongst us here in England in every high way Towns end or Bridge and you will finde reason enough of your blessing of the Lord for his goodness unto you more than unto others Mark 10.46 47. And when hee heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth hee began to cry out and say Jesus thou Son of David have mercy on mee 2. The eyes in number are two the better to give direction to us Oculists observe that whereas other creatures have but four muscles to turn their eyes about with which is the main reason that they cannot look upwards but altogether downwards now man hath a fifth whereby he can look upwards into the Caelum Empyraeum Os homini sublime dedit caelumque tucri Oculus ab oculendo I may say as God hath set 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the great world both the Sun and Moon as instruments of light to serve it so hath he most wisely wonderfully placed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in man the little world two eyes in the highest part of the body as Organs to serve him This is the sense by which the Sailor or the Traveller turns over and over that Volumen magnum Creationis Elephantinam And though this be a very quick and nimble sense and one that is never weary of seeing yet is there work enough for it in the Creation to behold and more than it can ever run thorow and range over should it do nothing else but travel the whole Creation over and information unto the internals in figure round and thereby they are the more capable of all objects by their motion Their situation is placed very high above the rest of the senses to direct our motion and to foresee our dangers 3. The necessity of this Organ is very great if wee do but seriously ponderate for the welfare of our outward being and the government of our selves and our affairs without which sense the life of man would but bee a very toylsome and wearisome thing unto him in the world 4. By this Organ man sees and foresees that which is good or evil helpful or hurtful and that at a distance The Mariners Proverb is Praevisa saxa minus feriunt Rocks but seen before-hand will never hurt us The first circumstance then that I will a little run on in is those creatures that are Aquatical live in the element of water which are some of the principal and wonderful works of God which Sea-men or men that go down into the Seas do behold And these I will a little set out in view to the end it may the cleerlier appear that they see most or the greatest part of the works of the Lord in and thoughout the Creation 1. They that go down to the Sea in ships c. They often times have a frequent sight of that strange and prodigious sort or kind of fish called the Flying-fish Flying-fish whom God out of wisdom has given wings unto like a foul for the preservation of its life in the great waters This poor creature is often hunted chased and pursued by the Boneto Porpise and other ravenous fish which follow it with as much violence as the hungry hound does the poor silly and shelterless Hare Insomuch that it is forced one while to fly and another while to swim and although nature has provided for it in giving it two strings for its bow yet is all little enough to carry him cleer of the snatching chaps and jaws that make after him This fish whilst in the water I have observed in the Mediterranean is exceedingly exposed to irrecoverable danger and when
aggravation to and of their sorrows If man had continued in that happy estate he was in at first then would there have been no such fear of the Lion in the wilderness nor of the Bear in the Forrest nor of the Wolf or Tyger by land or of the Shark and Crocodile by water I am very apt to think that all the creatures of what kinde or sort soever would have been willingly serviceable unto man and never groaned under their service as at this day they do provided man had not so relapsed and turned into sin It is probable that if man had continued in his purity and primitive integrity that creatures should have fawned upon him and when ever hee had pleased to come amongst them they should have obeyed him and not been so ready to prey upon him as now they are by reason of that nature that is come into them since the Rebellion of man 5. They want not for objects the greatest want I see amongst the Mariners is pondering meditating and contemplating hearts In their voyages to Greenland tempore oportuno at the time of the year in that slaughtering house of the world they have not onely a sight but hot disputes and skirmishes with the great and warlike Horses of the Seas Sea-horses which to take their pleasure come out of the water to range upon the land in great and almost innumerable Troops Sometimes by three or four hundred in a flock sometimes more and sometimes less Their great desire is to roost themselves on land in the warm Sun and whilst they adventure to fall asleep by their appointment they give orders out to one of the company to stand sentinel his hour or such a certain time and upon the expiration of it another takes his turn upon the watch whilst the rest sleep during such time till it goes round amongst them And provided any enemy approach them the Sentinel will neigh beat kick and strike upon their bodies and never leave till hee hath rowsed them up out of their snorting slumbers to shift for themselves and betake themselves to the Seas But Sailors being too cunning for them get betwixt them and the Sea and fall a beating out the brains of the first that comes to hand on purpose that their great bodies may bee a stop to the rest that come with such violence to make for the Sea And by this project many sober solid and honest minded men that use the Seas have averred that they have killed of them whilst they have been no longer able for want of breath and strength And the reason why they kill so many of these creatures is because their teeth is of great worth and value and very vendable in the Southern parts of the world Meditations From this Creature I have learned to apply thus much unto my self in particular That it is a very dangerous thing for a man to bee out of his general and particular Calling I remember what I have read of a certain young woman who was undoubtedly something a kin to spruse gadding Dinah Gen. 34.1 shee had a strong desire to go unto a Stage-play and that upon the Lords day which was indeed contrary to her profession and principles well you will say shee smarted soundly for it when you have heard the story in her passage on before ever shee got to it Satan met with her and arrested her and afterwards took possession of her and thereupon she was most grievously tormented with that unclean Spirit and she exceedingly bewayled her unwarrantable going forth upon that day about such an unlawful action and Satan the Devil being asked the reason of his possessing of her told them Inveni cam infundo meo I found her upon my own ground The applicatory part is very fair in view to him that hath a seeing eye I have heard of a very admirable passage that hath been backed again and again by the good and honest people in one part of Kent It is good walking by warrant in every thing as Israel did by the Cloud how that to their knowledge there was a very gratious man a neighbour that was walking in the fields about the shutting in of the evening probably to meditate as Isaac did for hee was a very spiritual heavenly-minded man in all his talk hee cast up his eye upon the sky and hee beheld a cloud as it were descending and hastening to come to the earth and at last hee observed it to draw nearer and nearer him and that in another form than before now it was got into the shape and likeness of a Foal and so lighted into the place hee was walking in at a very little distance from him unto whom the good man being full of faith spoke on this wise What art thou I am sayes he the Prince of the night Well said the good man God is God of the day and God is God of the night and God is God unto all those that walk in his way and Avoid Satan and thereupon the unclean Spirit vanished Certainly it is good being well imployed But when men are out of their Callings and out of Gods wayes it is as ill with them then as it is with the Deer that breaks out of the Park and straggle and range into the fields and pastures of others who will not let them take any rest but are evermore setting on them every Dog to chase them and this is their experience of it at last when wee were in our bounds it was better with us than now it is for then wee were Venantium procul a dentibus canorum rabiosis in safety from the clamouring and pursuing Dog and after this manner they lamented and bewayled their going forth Nay the rest said they that kept themselves in the Park whilst wee broke out are extra telorum jactum put of danger It is an observation that Out-lying Deer are never seen to be so well liking as those that keep themselves within the Pale and the reason is assigned that those straglers though they have more ground to range over more grass and ground to take their repast upon yet are they in constant fear as if conscious that they are trespassers and being out of their protection because out of the Pale of the Park this makes their eyes and ears alwayes to stand sentine for their mouthes Prov. 27.8 As the bird that wanders from her nest c. Whilst the bird keeps her nest shee is safe enough from the Kite the Falcon snare gin and Fowler where as when out of it shee is indangered by them I need not trouble my self in the application these instances preach themselves onely bee pleased to take thus much notice that I shall forbear my many other meditations because this Book would swell into too great a Volume 6. The Whale is a meer Monstrum horrendum informe ingens c. They have a very frequent sight of the Leviathan which is one of the
greatest Sea-beasts or Monsters of all the creatures that are to bee found either in the Seas or upon the Land What the sweet and blessed Spirit of the Lord is pleased to say of him in that Job 41.12 the very same shall I conclude with that I will not conceal his parts nor his power nor his comely proportion And this Scripture its wonderful pregnant in the describing of him in very elegant Dialect and excellent Rhetorical Phraseology what hee is in the Seas Canst thou draw out Leviathan with an hook That is canst thou by an angling line bring such a beast as hee is out of the Seas in that order thou doest pull small fishes out of some shallow standing Pond or running Rivulet Here the Lord speaks of him in opposition unto small Fishes that are caught by small Line and Angle Vers 8. Lay thy hand upon him Whale remember the battel do no more Give me leave to run over a few of these verses 5. Ver. Wilt thou play with him as with a bird Wilt thou binde him for thy Maidens that is Canst thou handle him like a bird that will come at thy chat and beck It is impossible to reduce this feral creature unto that domableness that young women might play with him who hath so much dreadfulness and ferity in the very shape proportion and countenance of him which lye so fair in my way and you will have him lively enough emblemed or limned out unto you The spirit of the Lord then seems to say from those words draw but neer this terrible creature and offer him but the least violence and hee will make the stoutest of your hearts to quake and tremble and wish to bee out of his reach When the Mariners go about to kill of these Sea-beasts it stands them in hand as indeed they are very carefull to have their line ready to vere forth otherwise when wounded the Whale flyes with such violence that shee would pull an hundred boats underwater so fast does the line thunder out of the boat that the boats head it often times set on a fire did not the Mariners throw on water to quench it When they wound the Whale it is observable that blood wil spurt up twenty or thirty fadom high into the aire This creature is of such an incredible and inexpressible strength and force in the Seas that in Greenland that great Whale-slaughtering place of the world when they come once to dart an Harping-Iron into him hee will so rage rend and tear that if there were an hundered boats or shallops neare unto him hee would make them fly in a thousand shivers into the skyes Vers 9. Behold the hope of him is in vain shall not one bee cast down at the sight of him God would here set him forth as indeed he is a very formidable creature insomuch that there is very small hopes of taking of him because his assailants and pursuers may as well bee slain in the battel I and sooner too than escape They that adventure to encounter him cannot say wee will come off conquerours for there is many a boatfull of lusty hardy and stout-hearted fellows that leave their bones in the Sea by medling with him The very sight of this creature is so terrible and dreadfull affrighting that it would even share one to behold him when hee raises himself up above the waters which is with such majesty and fierceness as if hee were able to overturn the greatest ships that sail upon the Ocean Vers 13. Who can discover the face of his garment or who can come unto him with his double bridle The meaning of the words is who can or dare go unto him in the waters as hee can unto a gentle and tamed horse that feedeth in the fields or standeth in the stable Can any one go to him in the Seas without shipping or can any one go to him in shipping as the stable groom does unto his geldings with halter or with bridle Hee that shall venture either to saddle or bridle this unruly and indomable beast never need to look to come off again with life and his bones unbroke in his skin Vers 14. Who can open the doors of his face his teeth are terrible round about A man might as well go and take a wild Lion by the chaps or a truculent Bear or a merciless Tyger by the ears as medle with this creature after that manner They that will attempt the killing of these beasts stand in need of a great deal of art skill and dexterity otherwise it may cost them their lives were there a thousand of them in a boat together When this creature comes once to receive a mortal blow what by expence of blood and extream pain which hee undergoes hee gives up his life to him that gave it and his body to his pursuers and at such time as this may any one go unto him and look upon him and open the doors of his mouth for there is neither life nor strength in him then to make resistance but were hee living all the men in the world could not hold him nor do so by him Now may they take a view of his head When the victory is got over the Whale then they may go round about him and tell all his goodly fins which are as so many Oars upon his sides to row his great and corpulent carkass to and again in the Seas at his pleasure which are reckoned to bee three hundered and upwards and by these hee goes at what rate hee ploases in the waters as violently as an arrow out of a bow or a bullet out of a peece of Ordnance in which are eyes as large as some pewter dishes and room enough in his mouth for many people to sit in Now may they look upon his terrible teeth and handle his great and tree-like tongue which is upwards of two yards in breadth and in length longer and thicker than the tallest man that is upon the earth Out of which part the Marines extract above an Hogshead of Oyle Vers 20. Out of his nostrils goes smoake as out of a seething pot or cauldron In the Mediterranean I have seen and observed these creatures but it is not very usual to see any store of these beasts in those Austral parts for there be more in those parts of your Minor Whales and Granpisces than of those Major Sea-beasts In smooth water warm and calm weather they are now and then to bee seen sporting and playing of themselves and shewing their great and massy bodies above the waters unto the aspect of the ships that sail hard by them in the Seas One while rising up and another while falling down one while appearing and by and by disappearing and in their mounting up above water there goes evermore a smoaking breath out of their Nostrils as if it were the smoak of some thundring Bombard or peece of Ordnance the report of which is commonly audible above
whether they should ever recover their pristine constitution and health again or no 1. Meditation It laid no less than this applicatory truth upon my spirit That it is dangerous handling touching or looking upon any of those prohibited objects the Lord hath writ a Noli me tangere upon Elisha's servant had a very good stomach to finger and digest Naaman the Assyrians silver 2 King 5.22.27 and golden wedges but no sooner were they in his hands but the Leprosie was upon his body Better is a little with right than great revenues without right Prov. 16.8 12. They have a frequent sight of that Water-beast called a Crocodile Crocodile and in respect that hee lives in the water as well as upon the land I will bring him in amongst the rest of these there bee to bee seen both in Egypt and the Indies hee is of a scaly and impenetrable substance tongue-less say some but marvellously cruel toothed It is said of this creature that hee will weep over a man when hee hath devoured him and the reason of it is not out of pity but out of an apprehension of his want of another prey to live upon from whence started that Proverb of Lachrymae Crocodili The sight of this creature did fasten 1. Meditation and fix thus much upon my spirit That it is a very common thing for desperate hasty passionate and hot-spirited men to kill Sailor Sailor Let the life of a man be pretious in thy sight God will have no murthering if thou wilt fulfill thy bloody minde in thy brutish challenges think with thy self that thy life lyes at the staâ—e to answer his whom thou gracelesly goes about to take away Thou art just then going to the Devil when thou art about such work I would all the Murtherers in the world would spend a few hours in serious consideration of these Scriptures Numb 35.30 31 32. 2 King 24.4 Whither go all Murtherers when God will not pardon them but unto the Devil and commit murther in their hot blood but when in their cold it hath cost them many a tear to get the guilt of it washed off Psal 51.14 When Murther was sound in Davids hands hee could take no rest day nor night till hee found a pardon from the hands of the Lord for it Deliver mee from blood-guiltiness O God thou God of my salvation The blood of the murthered stuck upon his stomach and the like it will be and do to every one that bathe their hands in innocent blood 13. They have sometimes a sight of that strange kinde of creature called a Meermaid q. Maris mulier and the Meerman also q. Maris vir which is very admirable Meermaid of these here bee both male and female The Sea-men have a sight of these sometimes in their Voyages into the Indies but their espying of them proves very unfortunate and ominous for when they appear they presage no good to the Mariner Storm and shipwrack often ensues those ships that gets a sight of them I have heard of the honest and soberest of men that frequent the Seas say that they have seen of these sort of creatures but presently after hath the windes rise clouds begin to drop and Seas to rage and swell to their terrour and affrightment as if all were a going to wrack and ruine 14. They have a frequent aspect of that wonderful and impenetrable sort of Beasts which the Mariners call an Alligator Alligator This creature is mostly visible in the Indies and in respect that hee lives in the water as well as upon the land I give him his entity amongst the rest This Beast is of a vast longitude and magnitude some say many yards in length in colour hee is of a dark brown which makes him the more invisible and indiscernable when hee lyes his Trapan in the waters and Sea sides as it were an old liveless tree or as one destitute of motion and his onely subtilty and policy of lying conchant is to get hold of the fat This beast hath his three tyer of teeth in his chaps and so firmly scaled and armed with coat of Male that you may as well shoot or strike upon or at a Rock and Iron at offer to wound him This beast is of a very slow pace and goes jumping leaping and gathering up of his body and had not the wisdome and goodness of God so ordered it he would soon make the Indies uninhabitable for he would kill up all the people and the varieties of Cattel and creatures that be in the Mountains and wilde Cows and Bullocks that bee in those parts in great abundance when they come down out of the woods and mountains to cool themselves in the waters but no sooner are they in the water but hee hath hold of the throat of one or other of them which hee tears to peeces Of such strength is this beast that no creature is able to make his escape from him if hee get but his chaps fastened in them This beast at his pleasure goes into the waters and again unto the land Now lest I should bee too tedious both to you and to my self in a bitter restless and uncomfortable Sea either to write or study in I will take leave of the scaly inhabitants in the salt waters which I might have asserted for indeed I have but spoken of small or very little in comparison of what Sea-men have experience of both as to their kinds and qualities but this I hope will serve for a praelibamen unto any that are either delighted in reading or taking a view of the works of the Lord in the Seas The second circumstance then comes above board to bee discoursed on and that is about Terrestrials under which term I am minded to comprehend and handle some of those creatures that are both 1. Volatile 2. Gressile 3. Reptile And these are objects which none but those that go down into the Seas either do or can behold Pelican 1. Volatile They that go down to the Sea in ships They have a very ordinary and frequent aspect of that most amiable and delectable bird called the Pelican from the Greek word I suppose 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 perfozo to beat or peirce Naturalists say that this bird to recover her young when they are upon a dye King John late King of Portugal to express his tender care and affections to his people and Subjects would bee emblemed by no other kind of creature than the Pelican and wounded by stinging and mordacious Serpents shee will tear her body to give them of her own dear blood to fetch life and health into them again The sight of this creature has not procured little wonderment from mee when I have considered her shape and form which is on this wise shee has a great bag or sachel hanging under her bil which is the likest unto a leathern pouch of any thing that I can resemble it to
flight This bird is too ponderous indeed to flye but what by the help of her wings and legs together the swiftest horse that runs will scarce fetch her up When they are brought forth shee is monstrously unnatural unto them and the reason of it is God has given other birds an instinct of love and providence to love their young which shee is both denyed and deprived of 7. They have a frequent aspect of a bird which is called by the Mariner a Fezerallo Fezerallo which is a black-coloured bird but somewhat less than a Sea Gull Such is the truculent and feral property of this bird that hee will give unkind assaults to the Gulls and the rest of the Sea-birds who take great pains in fishing till that they vomit up all that they have caught out of their bellies to feast this tyrant withall This bird will not take the paines to fish himself as the Sea Gulls and other birds do who fly up and down in the Seas day by day to feed themselves but hee will have his dyet and daily commons out of their panches or else hee will break their bones It has been matter of much wonderment unto mee in the Sea to observe this bird The Hawk chases not the Partridge with greater violence than the Fezerallo does the Gulls in the Seas till they vomit up their almost digested modioum how hee will hunt up and down in the Sea to find out the Gulls and when hee has found them hee will not leave pursueing of them one by one till they drop the fish they have taken upon the waters and when hee has stooped down to take it up he will fall fresh of another Gull and so upon the rest till hee has satisfied his hunger 1. Meditation 1. The sight of this bird presently imprinted this collection upon my spirit That there is many an idle person in the Commonwealth and more than ever both at Sea and Land that lives upon the sweat of another mans brow What was said of some Poets may well bee said of such that Homer vomitted and they licked it up 8. They have in the Indies a frequent sight of an infinite and numberless number of Cranes Cranes that dwell in that part of the world which fly and feed together in great flocks and troops It is observed of these birds When these birds flye our of Cilicia over the Mountain Taurus c. they diligently carry with them in their mouthes little pebbles lest that by their galling and gagling they should become a prey unto the Eagles that listen to all such opportunities upon the cragged rocks Uobrideled tongues bring themselves into much mischief often times and rouze the Eagles about their eares whereas in little medling is much security and tranquillity and nothing said is soon amended that where ever they light that they wil appoint one to stand Sentinel and when his time is expended there is another ordered to take his turn and after him another whilst the rest both feed and repose themselves It is also further reported that the Crane-sentinel lest hee should sleep in his watch he will hold a little pebble in his claws that if in case hee should chance to nod or slumber the fall of it will awake him It is observed of these birds that if in case there bee any jangling or disagreement amongst themselves the King and Supream over them and amongst them quickly salves it up and moderates betwixt them 9. They are frequently seeing an other sort and kind of bird which is called the Heron which are in great plenty and abundance in the Indies Heron. and elsewhere This is a foul that lives much about waters and does exceedingly abhor and dislike of rain and tempests and to avoid them they will betake themselves to their wings and flye as far on high as ever they are able into and above the cloudy region that they may bee above the winds and rains that fall upon and into the lower world 10. They are frequently seeing a sort and kind of bird which the French call an Hop-foy and these are to bee seen upon the banks in New-found Land Hop-foy and that which is admirable in them is this that they are so greedy of the livers that the Fisher-men throw out in the dressing of their fish that rather than they will forsake their desired food they will bee taken with ones hand and forfeit both lives and liberties for a worthless morsel 11. They are ever and anon seeing of those strange kind of creatures in the Indies which the Spaniards call Muscitos and these flyes will draw the blood where ever they light Muscetos though it bee upon the cloths and not upon the bare skin Insomuch that there is scarce any sitting standing lying or walking in the fields for them in the summer-time they are such a mordacious and phlebotomizing creature 12. They have a frequent sight of that strange kind of creature called a Fire-fly Fire-fly which is an uncouch and admirable light and lustre In the night it shines like the coal of a match It is observed The Indians say Sea-men do use of the Fire-flies in the night time instead of candles binding five or six of them together and by this bundle it affords them very good light in their Booths and Cottages even as well as if they had burning torches or candles to spend in their houses that this creature carries four lights about him two in the sight of his eyes sparkling like candles and two which hee shows when hee opens his wings 13. They have a sight of that sort of creature that is commonly called a flying Locust which are to bee seen in great supernumerary swarms in Barbary Locust and other of the Austral parts of the world Sometimes these creatures come in such volatile multitudes that they are observed to darken the very skies in their military marches upon the wings of the wind These if God will but give them a Commission will take wing and come and fall upon any Nation which hee pleases and eat up all the fruits of the earth the plenty the fatness the sweetness If that Proverb bee true Erucam viz pascit hortâ—s unam that the whole Country will scarce satisfie one avarous Caterpillar what will then satisfie a multitude God knows wee have a great many of these vermine Locusts and Catterpillars in England that do nothing in the world but eat up the green fâ—â—â— of God Word and the very greenness and verdancy of Nations they will devour and swallow up the grass corn and grape of Countries Psal 78.46 Psal 109.23 I am tossed up and down as a Locust David offers to our view in this Scripture that they are carried to and fro up and down at the will of the Lord upon the wings of the wind 14. They are not indigent of the sight of those strange kind of birds which are neither able
to flye nor to run so fast as to escape their pursuers in body somewhat less than a Goose but bigger than a Mallard short and thick having no feathers but instead thereof a matted down that is very hard and their beaks are not much unlike to the bills of crows these foul lodge in earth as Rabbets do 15. They have a sight and cognizance of that strange sort and kind of foul Noddy which is called a Noddy It is observed that when this bird is pleased to take her flight into foraign Countries being much toyled and wearied by flying over that dreadful deluge or Sea of water shee will betake her self to the first ships shee can descry to rest her self upon and the Mariners who both know them and are very observant of them or any other birds that light upon their ships which they know do come unto them out of a meer necessity will fall a hollowing and shouting at her and after shee hears that noise and clamour below the poor bird has no power to spread out her wings and bee gone but the Sea-men may run up the shrouds and fetch her down with their hands for there shee sits as one bewitched or necromantickly inchanted 16. They have a sight of that strange kind of bird which is called by some a Tumbler Tumbler of which sort there bee many in Barbary which will fetch a flight up to the Heavens and then come tumbling down again over and over as if some thing were a falling in a praecipitant manner out of the Heavens with very great violence This bird is in shape and form like to one of our Land-Pidgeons differing a little in size and colour 17. They have a frequent sight of that domableness that is in the major part of the birds and souls that bee in the Indies how one may walk amongst them turn them over with their feet It is observable that the fouls in the Indies will come and lay their eggs at ones foot if they walk amongst them on their Sand-hils and if they bee upon their nests they will not stir unless they pull them off The little Pygmies are forced to stand to their arms when they hear the sonorous alarms of the Cranes who will come and carry them into the clouds and take them up in their hands and it is probable that this tameableness is in them because man is a great stranger to them and seldom comes amongst them 18. Amongst the rest of that novelty and variety of objects they do tell us that if they shoot but off a gun in those parts and places where the Fouls lye that they will rise both off the waters and from off the land with such an hideous and sonorous noise that one would think the very heavens were a crashing and falling upon their heads Their clapping of their wings make a greater noise than an Army of horse and foot when they are on their march Hence sings the Poet from the like experience Ad subit as Thraeâ—um volucres nubemque sonoram Pygmaeus parvia currit Bellator in armis It would yeeld much laughter in our parts to see a Pygmye and a Craines quarrel 19. Amongst the rest of that novelty and variety of creatures they do survey and behold this is one which is no less admirable than the rest that they do call Pemblico because her usual and constant note is Pemblico Pemblico Pemblico this bird is seldom seen on the day time and in the night she is very clamorous but if heard by Sea-men it is oftentimes too true a presage prognostick of some dreadful storm and tempest When the Sea-man hears this bird in those occidental parts of the world hee looks for little good and moderate weather 20. Cahow They have a sight of the bird called a Cahow and is one of them The Arara is a bird which they often see about the bigness of a Goshawk seeming a whole garden of Tulips every feather being of a several colour which beheld in the Sun-shine dazles the eyes which is one of the nocturnal kinde and loves not to bee seen in the day but in the night as the Bat and the Owl with us but in the night when all other Foul are at roost and quiet shee will come forth and if shee hear any loud sounding hollowing or shouting shee will make directly towards them for shee hath no power of her self to stay where shee is so that oftentimes when Mariners have set up a shouting in the night they would come and light upon their heads and shoulders 21. Dotteril They have a sight of the Dotteril of whom they say that whatsoever is done in the sight of her shee will exactly imitate and endeavour to do the like if an hand bee but put forth shee will stretch out her leg if they beck or nod with the head shee will do the like with hers again And all this time the poor silly bird hath no power to flye away but becomes a prey unto the Fouler after this ridiculous order 22. It is observed of the Quail that when he is grown weary with flying that hee will light in the calm Sea on one side resting of himself with his other held up above the water towards heaven lest he should presume too long a flight so that at first he usually wets one wing and lest he should despair of taking a new flight afterwards he keeps the other wing dry Amongst the rest of that amaene novelty and variety that they have in the Seas is the Quail in whose flight over the Sea it is observed that when this bird is defatigable and wearied with flying that hee will betake himself to any ship that is within the sight of him to rest himself upon it Sometimes great flocks and droves of these birds will light clogging and cleaving to the yard arms of ships as if they would break all down with their ponderousness Thus much shall suffice now to speak of Birds and may I Apologize for my self it is but little in comparison of that which others that have travelled are able to report of I will now take my leave and run upon the other particular that I promised unto you and follow that rule of Alium post alium florem in pratis oarpere smelling and savouring of one flower after another The second circumstance comes now upon the stage to bee insisted and descanted upon is of those creatures that are Gressile 1. They that go down to the Sea in ships Amongst the rest of that novelty and variety that they have in their viewing of the Creation they have a full eye-satisfying sight of one of Gods greatest and mightiest land-creatures that bee upon the face of the whole earth again which is in Scripture called the Behemoth Elephant and with us an Elephant This beast is of a crusty nature and of an impenetrable skin Some Writers tell us that
a pinte The leaves of this tree are said to bee very useful to the people in those parts where they grow to afford them coverings for their houses and for their Tents Mats besides several other things to no small admiration 6. The sweet senting Clove and perfuming Clove which in form is like to our Bay This tree brings forth blossomes first white then green afterwards red and then obdurates from whence come the Cloves 7. The goodly Cypress Cypress which is a very tall grown tree the wood of it is yellowish and of a very pleasant and delightful smell if but approached unto It is held to bee of a very durable nature and will not rot nor decay neither will it Hyeme amittere viriditatem lose its greenness in the Winter 8. The Ebone Ebone many of these have their growth in the Indies and other parts of the world This wood never yeelds so sweet a savour as when it is thrown upon the back of the Fire What think you of a childe of God when he is thrown upon the back of Afflictions Some trees are seen in the Sea-mens Travels that are of such a vast bignesse that they are seven or eight Fathome in Diameter and seventy or eighty high Of which they make Canoes and Boats of two or three hundred Tun. This wood is white on the outside but the inside of it is black 9. The Pepper tree which hath its growth on this wise it springs up at the foot of other trees climbing up like your Ivy by the help of another and grows in bunches as grapes do upon the Vines Locust 10. The Locust tree many of these trees have I seen in Italy whose fruit is very sweet and luscious and having sometimes pulled of it off from the trees in eating of it that Scripture in Matth. 3.4 sprang in upon my thoughts And his meat was Locusts and wilde-honey It is very probable that that tree Locust was that which John the Baptist did eat Ginger 11. The Ginger tree whose growth is after the very same manner that young reeds do shoot up Notwithstanding now this dreadful displeasure that is in God against all such filthinesse the Turk lives in the sin of Sodomitry as boldly as ever And to excuse himself he says he learned it of the wanton Italian and is in blossome like unto the Lilly 12. Some do assert and tell it for a very truth that have travelled into the Austral parts of the world that there is a Town above or beyond Cypress on which the ruining hand of the Lord fell most bitterly certainly to give the world a warning insomuch that not onely all the trees that grew in it or near unto it are turned into flint both bole bough and fruit on which there did grow both Lemon Orange Apple Pears c. And though they have the very colour of fruit yet are they through Gods severe anger perfect stone and in the fruit there is to bee seen ingraven in visible Characters as if God were resolved to let the world know wherefore and what was the cause of that unheard-of judgement men buggering Boyes and Asses c. And the men and women also of that place standing and turned into perfect stone save only that they do still bear the shape of men and women 13. The Cynamond tree Cynamond which is very like to the Olive for greatness and bears leaves like the Bay with us and the fruit of it is not much unlike to the Olives and of the inner rinde of this tree is that Cynamond that comes into England 14. The tall and lofty Cedar Cedar These are called The trees of the Lord. The Cedars of Lebanon 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for excellency sake These trees are streight their leaves are thick and very sweet sented This tree is never without fruit come at what time of the year you will you shall not finde it fruitless as the Fig tree was that our Saviour cursed The fruit of this tree is much like unto that which the Pine bears 15. The Toddy Toddy which is of as great height and tallness almost as the Fir without any branches upon the bole till you come unto the top up which notwithstanding the nimble Indian will go with his Calabasse upon his back for that sweet jucy liquor that it affords out of that teat that grows near unto the top this liquor is as strong and as nourishing as Sack They to get this liquor take a sharp pointed knife and cuts into the teat and it will distill and drop out of the cicatrized place into the vessel which they hang upon the tree to fill Arbor Triste 16. That strange kinde of Tree which they call the Arbor triste this is a sad a sorrowful or a melancholy kinde of tree the leaves of which tree will shut up at the rising of the Sun and open at its down setting Great is the wisdome of the Lord yea it is unsearchable and past finding out It was upon my heart to conceive when I was in Norway where I did see some of the trees to run and sweat with their Turpentine liquors in the very height of the Summer that if these trees had their growth in the Southern parts of the world which are extraordinary hot and scorching the Sun would either cause their oyly liquors to run down upon the ground or otherwise set them on a blazing fire Now the Lord to prevent that hath given them their growth in the coldest soils of the world 17. The Terebinth or Turpentine both this and the Pitch drop their liquors These have their growth in Norway Russia c. which are very cold Climates 18. That strange kinde of tree which they call the Weeping-tree Weeping-tree It is observed of this tree that it is a very great distiller of water which drops out of the leaves of it in such abundance that in those hot parts where the wisdome of the Lord hath set its growth they are destitute of Springs and Wells and instead thereof though they want water and seldome or never have rain yet this tree supplies them and serves an Island of many thousands of people besides Cattel c. It is observed that there lyes a Mist continually over the tree 19. They have a frequent sight of that strange kind of Tree that grows in the Northern Islands of Orchades in Scotland which they call a Barnacle Barnacle upon which grows the Shel-fish which is of a very white colour in which lye little living creatures in the form and shape of birds and in process of time come to their maturity and perfection the shell opening by little and little as they grow in it and in fine they will drop into the water and become lively swiming and flying foul but those that fall upon the land never come unto any accomplishment I will not instance any further in this circumstance
e quovis bibunt fonte Jejunus stomachus raro vulgaria temnit Lapsana called of the Arabians Wilde Colewort and of Physicians Cera with the roots of this herb lived the host of Cesar a long time when far off any refreshments and this was at Dyrrachium from whence came that Proverb Lapsana vivere to live wretchedly and hardly which they cannot come to by reason of their great distance from any land or harbour they are constrained out of an impulsive necessity to lay their lips unto the same water the ship swims in now the water of the Sea wee all know is inutilis potui though good alere pisces servire navigantibus the drinking of which water throws many of them into irrecoverable sicknesses and diseases Again it is the special care of Mariners in these long voyages when grown short of water to hang out all the sail that ever they have that it may bee in readiness to receive all the showers of rain that falls upon the ship and this they will wring out of the Canvass to quench their thirst withall And this is sweet water in their mouthes although it run down the Tarry shrouds and Roaps about the ship which doth exceedingly imbitter it Against Rain Sailors are like Spiders in providence who hang their Nets in windows where they know Flyes do most resort and work most in warm weather because Flyes are then most abroad buzzing and stirring in every corner Prov. 27.7 To the hungry soul every bitter thing is sweet 17. Others are oftentimes most sadly endangered in rugged and violent storms I will write thus much upon this remarkable deliverance Ps 142.4 I looked on my right hand and beheld but there was no man that would know me refuge failed me no man cared for my soâ—â— insomuch that the Rudder is forced off its bands by their being thrown upon ground or sands and then is their case to the eye of reason so impossible of being remedied that they have no more command of the ship than the driver hath of the wilde Ass spoken of in Job 39.7 Who scorneth the multitude of the City c. Now will not neither can the ship bee got to go by the Card at this and that Point as formerly shee would I have known some that have been many dayes in this condition driving too and again upon the Seas Vers 5. I cried unto thee O Lord I said thou art my refuge and my portion in the land of the living not able to help themselves and though they have made great and vast recompencing promises unto ships that have seen them and comm'd by them in this distress yet would they not take them in a tow nor afford them any relief and yet notwithstanding when they have been thus forsaken in all their hopes and no eye hath pittied them nor no help from man hath come unto them yet hath the Lord looked out of the heavens upon their sorrows and beat down the waves of the Seas and the raging winds over their heads and then by weak and poor means they have got themselves safe to land Oh the many Sea-men that are yet living and can tell of this very mercy I may write thus much upon this deliverance In communi rerum acervo plurima videmus saepe inter Scyllam Charydim pofita I may further say of this memorable mercy Psal 34.18 The Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart and saveth such us be of a contrite spirit Vers 15. The eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous and his ears are open unto their cry 18. Some are many times by and through the violence of storm and tempest exceedingly hazzarded in their being overset insomuch that the ships Masts have been seen to lye in the very Sea and the ships decks covered all over with water which is one of the dreadfullest and heart-bleedingest conditions that can bee seen They that fall into this predicament of misery there is small hopes of their recovery or rising up again because when a vessel is or comes once to bee foundered there is no possibility of her being helped up insomuch that where one recovers five goes to the bottome 19. Many times when they are riding at an Anchor they are very dolorously hazzarded by violent gusts and stormy blasts of wind insomuch that Cables oftentimes break and their Anchors give way and so are most dreadfully put upon the drift and that which is the saddest circumstance in this unparalleld misery is the propinquity and nearness of sands upon which they are many times likely to perish I may write upon this remarkable deliverance Tria talia poma quadrante cara sunt Three other such Apples are too dear of a farthing I leave the Application It is with Mariners in this case as it was with the Egyptians when they had the Israelites amongst them Exod. 12 3â— Wee bee all dead men I may say of Sailors as the Spirit of the Lord saith of the Church Lamentat 5.9 Wee get our bread with the peril of our lives if there were not a singular providence stepping betwixt and to prevent the fatal stroak of such like stormy consequences Many through the undeserved kindness of the Lord have escaped when their Cables have broke in storms and others have gone to the bottome Is not this a mercy worth perpetual boxing and recording in the heart 20. It falls out oftentimes in rugged and blustering weather that they are forced both when they are at an Anchor and also when under sail to lay violent hands upon their masting and yarding and cut down all by the Board for the safe-guarding of their lives and vessel Being once in this condition when upon the coast of Norway I observed that there was not a little terrour and affrightment of being cast away among the Sailors for the wind failed us and the current heavâ—d us into the shore and the Rocks lay round about us and the Sea was so deep that there was no anchoring for us so that all hopes of being saved was taken away yet casting our selves upon our God he provided deliverance and sent out his breezes some from the Land and some out of the Sea some on Head and some on Stern making all the haste that ever they could as if they had been resolved to tell us that they strave who should bee the first at us to fill our sails and carry us back from dying upon the Rocks and oftentimes before they can take the leasure to hew them down the strongness of the winds breaks them down now in this most dreadful and heart-affrighting and soul-amazing weather when the Seas run Mountain-high as if resolved to swallow them up alive the Lord doth wonderfully preserve them they live in this hard stormy time and others perish in it 21. Others are oftentimes becalmed in the Seas when that they are in the dangerousest and perillousest of places and when that there
force some storms are known to bee of that they will overturn houses on Land and â—â—nd up trees by the roots 1 King 19.11 Sambelicus sets out the strength the force and the power of the winds when hee tells us how whilst Cambyses and his Army sate down to dinner in a sandy desart a dreadful storm arose and beat up the sandy mountains about their eats and became as so many Sextons to delve the graves of the greatest part of his Army for them This vapour sets forth the great power of God let those therefore that go upon the Seas learn to fear the Lord lest hee bury them in the deep Psal 148.8 The stormy wind fulfilling his word The fierceness of this creature is little known and as little understood supposed and imagined to bee so terrible as it is I mean to those that live on Land and are far from the view of the dreadful and military force and power that is in it but it is too well known to those that live in sailing and floting houses upon the Seas The word Stormy wind comes from a borrowed metaphor from the Soldiary and Land-Armies who will when they do assault and storm either Forts Towns Castles or Cities even lay on their greatest force of Men and Ordnance and then is there the greatest frowns in their faces and palpitations in their hearts It is called here a Stormy wind in opposition to smooth gentle and benign gales and winds as the Sea was but ev'n now in a fair temperate and moderate calm so that the smalest boat might have rowed to and again in the Seas now cannot scarce the greatest and strongest ships live in them but are in perpetual jeopardy of being drowned 2. What the effects of a stormy wind are and these are twofold 1. Lifters up of the waters 2. Sinkers or ruiners of ships 1. The word lifting up has its countenance the clear demonstration of this like borrowed Metaphor as it is with and amongst men that are proud high and haughty and of an Elephantinum hominis genus who wil lift up themselves strut look big speak loftily and magnify themselves or else from those Strapados which they have in the Austral parts of the world by which they will hoyst up their malefactors many fadoms high and then lower them down again with the greatest violence that their weighty bodies can descend withall After this manner are the ships lifted up in storms that use the Seas and as violently thrown down again As the potentest military power is seen to put his enemy unto flight as great So dreadful are the downfals that are made in storms that they seem to outstrip the deepest Vallies that sit under the cloud-topping and cloud-imbraceingest mountaines that bee in the world I and greater disorder doe the Seas run in and flye before the stromy winds 2. Ships are oftentimes cast away by them Acts 27.41 And falling into a place where two Seas met they ran the ship a ground and the fore-part stuck fast and remained unmovable but the hinder-part was broken with the violence of the waves And again storms end in the debilitating and disinabling of ships That all perilous storms and ship-wracking Observ 2 Tempests are both of the Lords raising and sending What are storms but the uttering of Gods voice in wrath and judgement upon the Seas If the winds blow harder at some times than their ordinary course is which is most useful profitable unto the Mariner it is no other but a curse a judgment and a token of the Lords displeasure But where is the Sea-man that beleeveth this for hee commandeth c. If this point stand in need of proving I will make it out both pregnantly and sufficiently that the Lord lays claim to it and challenges his propriety in it and so consequently that it is his act and none but his therefore that I may not put you off with words I will throw you in these inlightning and doctrine-confirming Scriptures Psal 147.18 Hee causeth his wind to blow and the waters flow Psal 148.8 Stormy wind fulfilling his word That word of his that God has and will fulfill many times may bee sinking and perishing for ought I know as well as floting and keeping above water The Lord has the winds at command to bee his executioners and administratours either of destruction or preservation hee it is and hee alone that finds them with employment 2 Chron. 20.37 And the ships were broken that they were not able to go to Tarshish May bee many of them were hurled into the bottom of the Sea and others of them thrown upon the Rocks and Sands But to speak shortly now and yet exactly unto the interest of this praegoing point I would then have all the Sailors in the world to conclude upon this ground of truth that all stormy and tempestuous winds are of the Lords raising and sending and that hee is to bee acknowledged in them and herein I would have you to soare far higher than the natural causes of things Hee that drove man out of Paradise both doth and can drive graceless wretches out of the Seas and hurl them upon Rocks Sands and Shore The Rocks the Sands and the Winds I may fitly resemble unto the Cherubins and the flaming sword that was placed at the East end of the Garden of Eden Gen. 3.24 Which turned every way these are ready at the Lords command to break ships in the East in the North and in the South or in the West It is said of the Earth that it is given by God unto the children of men Psal 115.16 But the winds the Lord keeps in his own hands to move and flye to and again this way and that way in the Heavens even as it pleaseth him best to do this and to do that and their dependency is in the heavens no creature has them at command but God solely and properly for every Tempest that comes has as it were an express command from the Lord and that under both hand and seal and if the winds should bee questioned and summoned in to give an accompt of the sad perils they throw the Mariners into and the many shipwracks and great and innumerable losses they put them to year by year they would tell such as should demand an answer of them that they had order from above for so doing and that sin which abounds in ships was the onely cause of those fatal and ominous ruins and desolations But that I may give you the grounds of this Proposition you will in the end I question not bee fully satisfied about the Lords proceedings in this manner 1. Because God would shew his Divine Reason 1 displeasure and indignation against that sinful and ungodly generation of people that go in the Seas Seamen you may conclude it that there is never a storm that comes down upon the Seas to endanger you but God is exceedingly angry with you what more frequent
impower and commissionate for services of the bloodiest severity that may be as one of the worlds great wonders but it could not bee such was the fury of the fire and the rage of the Souldiers both of them undoubtedly set on by God so that the fire would not bee extinguished when they threw in both water and the blood of the slain into it Josephus tells us that Herod the King had for eight years together before the ruine of it imployed ten thousand men at work to beautifie it This was a very glorious thing yet how quickly brought down for the sinfulness of a people 1 Cor. 10.11 Now if these things came upon them for sin and security my application is this in short to you that use the Seas Take heed that your sins bring not storms shipwracks and fires upon you when you are in the Seas far from any land If you ask the reason why such a famous City was destroyed the answer is easily returned It was for sin And if you ask what is the reason of such and such Towns and Cities in the world have been fired the answer will bee That sin was the cause of it and so consequently of the ruine of all your ships 2. Because God will shew his power Reason 2 and let nothing-man know what a bubble a flower a helpless creature man is in the hands of his Maker Matth. 8.24 And behold there arose a great tempest in the Sea insomuch that the ship was covered with the waves but hee was asleep and his Disciples came to him and awoke him saying Lord save us wee perish Proud man is very prone to ascribe that to himself which is absolutely and properly due unto the Lord Proud man is oftentimes priding of himself with high thoughts of himself what he is in point of wisdome parts art and skill but when God puts him to the trial hee is a meer nothing Bulla vitrum glacies flos fabula faeuum Vmbra Cinis punctum vo◠sonus aura nihil and therefore God would undoubtedly teach man thus much in storms that there is no wisdome art skill or strength can carry him out of his dangers but it must be God alone that must do it for them But many Sea-men are like to Aprogis that Egyptian Tyrant in many of their storms and dangers of whom it is said that hee was grown to such an height of pride and impiety and contempt of God that hee professed that hee held his Kingdome so safe Ut à nemine Deorum aut hominum sibi eripi possit Behold what a weakling the Sailor is in a storm Isa 33.23 Thy tacklings are loosed they could not well strengthen their Mast they could not spread the sail that neither God nor men could take it from him but hath not God let you see an end of your vain thoughts and imaginations many and many a time and have you not run upon sands when you have purposed to come well home and have you not at other times run on rocks and gone into the very bottome amongst the dead when you have both confidently thought and said you would come safely to your Ports God oftentimes sufficiently convinces you what you are in your own strength and wisdome without him But to proceed 3. Because God would have some Reason 3 humbled God was forced to send a storm after Jonah before hee could get him to buckle to his work Jon. 2.1 Then Jonah prayed unto the Lord his God out of the Fishes belly Nulli rei natus es nauta nisi paenitentiae Sailor thou and every one is born for no other thing but for repenrance and the Lord knows there is none in the world or under the whole heavens that repents less than thou doest Rugged storms will both dissolve men and cause their eyes to run down in rivulets of tears yea it is an argument of a good heart to bee afraid of Gods righteous judgements when the stormy winds are out upon the Seas Good people look upon them as no other but the sword of the Lord that is drawn out of the Scabberd of his indignation which hee waves to and again over and upon the face of the great deeps which puts them upon begging and praying upon the bended knees of their hearts that God would put it up again 4. Because God would have some Reason 4 converted It is very probable and apparent Jonah 1.16 that that storm that came down upon the Mariners proved their conversion Then the men feared the Lord exceedingly and offered a sacrifice unto the Lord and made vows Now they feared God whom they never owned knew nor feared before Storms have been the first converting Sermons that many a man ever met withall Yea God hath met with them in a storm Truly God is forced to do and deal with Sea-men many times as Land-men do with unruly Jades and unbacked horses when they have a minde to take them they must drive them up against some hedge gate or bank where they can neither get forwards nor backwards or else they can never halter them If God do not send down rowsing storms upon the Sailors heads that even threaten to rend both heaven and earth I fear they wil I never return nor come home to God whom a Sermon out of the Pulpit could never take nor reach I many have been caught in a storm that have stood at as great a distance and in as much opposition to God and his word as Ataliba that Indian Prince once did to Fryar Vincents book which hee presented to him withall telling him that it was a small Treatise of all the mysteries of salvation heaven and hell hee looked upon it and told the Gentleman that hee saw no such thing in it asking him withall how hee knew it Many who have heard the word and have said in effect they saw no such matter in it as the Preacher tells them of have been taken napping in a storm God sometimes takes here one and there one napping in a storm that could never bee catched in a calm The word converts but few at Sea but a dreadful storm may fetch in them whom a Sermon could not reach All ground is not alike some must have a shower some a clodding neither is all wood to be used alike some will plain and other some must be taken in the head with wedge and beetle Truly one would think that one of those fearful and most dreadful storms that fall now and then upon the Seas were and should bee sufficient to turn the heathenest Sailor that is in them into a very good and gracious Christian Quaedam fulmina aes ac ferrum liquefaciunt Some Thunders will soften both Brass and Iron and that is an hard heart surely that is not melted and converted before the Lord in those loud thundring claps of storm and tempest Reason 5 5. Because Sinners Swearers and Drunkards are in ships It is nothing but the
is this there is such swearing cursing and profaning of the holy Name of the Lord amongst you that a gracious heart that goes in ships with you would think that he were rather in an hell conversing with Devils than Men and Christians How ought all our Sailors in the time of storms to say with the Church unto their God Lam. 3.40 Let us search and try our waies and turn again to the Lord. Jonah was searched out in the storm and Achan when the Camp was troubled no better way or course to pacify an angry God than to seek for all that filthiness that is upon and in your hearts and spirits and so to throw it over board and take out the new and sacred lesson of piety and uprightness of heart and spirit 14. To put the godly upon the growth Reason 14 in holiness and make their hearts the better Storms are gods pruning-knives Corrupt blood must be drawn out before the Leech falls off and all carnal filthiness parted with before the storm end Boysterous storms are Gods people's kitchin-scullions to scour off their rust their dross canker to let Sea-men bleed withall for they have a great deal of corrupt blood in their veins and though they carry Chirurgions with them at Sea yet God is their best Physician This course God takes that they may bring forth more fruit Joh. 15.2 And every branch that beareth fruit hee purgeth it that it may bring forth more fruit Flowers have a sweeter savour after a shower than ever they had before so a gracious soul a brokener heart after a storm than in a calm Wheat under the flail parts with its chaff Gold when put in the fire loses it dross Reason 15 15. To put people into a greater fear of sinning and offending that have smarted so much for sin It is a common Proverb That the burnt child dreads the fire It was Job's resolution Chap. 34.32 If I have done iniquity I will do no more I think it would bee the Sea-mans greatest wisdom not onely to say so but to have a care of offending God who is able to hurl the Seas into dreadful waves and raging surges about his ears Reason 16 16. To keep people from back-sliding If you should alwaies have fair weather at Sea The game hunting dogs of Cicily lose their sport oftentimes by reason of the sent and sweet smel of flowers And so thoughts of God and Heaven if all calms and no storm and every thing as you would have it that were the onely way to have you to forget your God Israel soon cast God out of their thoughts and hearts when they got into Canaan but oftner in their thoughts when in a pinching and hard-faring Wilderness The Bee is quickly drowned if shee fall but into the pot of hony and a good heart is soon over-run with weeds and corrupted if not under imbitterments and afflictions Reason 17 17. To wean people from the world and all the earthly comforts and merchandizings of it Whilst there is sweetness to bee sucked out of the dugs of worldly comforts they will not care for the relinquishing of them but when God laies wormwood upon them then they will grow weary of them and even bee ad instar canis ad Nilum as the dog at the river Nilus that dare not stay to take his full draught for fear of the Crocodile The Uses of this doctrine are various but especially they are these five 1. Information 2. Circumspection 3. Meditation 4. Reprehension 5. Consolation 1. Vse This doctrine may inform you and let you see that every boysterous Storm and Tempest that breaks out upon the face of the great deeps is no other but an arrow shot out of the bended bow of Gods displeasure against you or one of the lower tier of his indignation that is fired upon you Nahum 1.3 The Lord hath his way in the whirl-wind and in the storm and the clouds are the dust of his feet If shiphazarding storms fall upon you you may conclude that the Lord is in them and not far from you I and that hee is not well pleased with you 2. Vse This doctrine may serve to put you upon a serious meditation and deliberative ponderating upon the Power and terrible Majesty of God who has the whole universe at his command to wage war against whom hee pleases but especially in these three things 1. What is the cause or occasion of immoderate storms 2. What is his end in the sending of them upon you 3. And lastly what improvement you should make of them 3. Vse This doctrine may serve for a word of advice to startle you and to tell you that you have great need to look about you if so bee that all perilous and ship-wracking storms and Tempests are of the Lords commissionating and raising I mean not onely to make the best provisions that you can to prevent dangers for common reason prompts you to that but my advice is this that you would live every day preparedly seeing your lives are the deepliest engaged and in the greatest hazzards of any under the whole Heavens if a man were to go over some narrow bridge under which hee knew that there was deep water how gingerly and how carefully would hee tread I and if there were no way else to go but that what prayers would hee put up that hee might go safely over and if not that God would cancel all his scores my thinks it should bee thus with you who are in greater dangers in the raging Seas 1. Sin less swear less and drink less than you do if you would have God to preserve you in time of storms 2. Please God more if you desire favour and preservation in the day of calamity and irremediable adversity 3. Make it your business to get sin daily pardoned or otherwise you may look for nothing but an open hostility from the winds and Seas 4. Vse This doctrine may serve to reprove and to lash that bold profaneness and atheisticalness that is amongst the generality of Sea-men and Sailors who never have it in their thoughts when the greatest storm that ever blew is from the Lord but a thing in course or common and ordinary and so never acknowledge the hand of God in those dreadfull judgments that hee lays upon the Seas and those affrighting and heart-melting sorrows that they are often plunged into There be four things that I would reprove you for 1. Ignorance 2. Carelesness 3. Want of the fear of God 4. Negligence 1. Ignorance This is an Epidemical distemper that all or the greatest part of Sea-men are aegrotant off or in Suffer this doctrine to reprove you and I am sure it will tell you to the full that it is the Lord that sends out his stormy wind fulfilling his Word upon you I and also condemn you for your infidelity and paganism in this very particular 2. Carelesness Who more loose who more prophane and who more secure
and the rest of our feral and remote Antagonists 4. It is of wonderful use to the purifying of the air off and from its many infections and contagions the winds are the cleansing engines of the world or the airs sweeping-brooms by which the air is kept both sweet and salubrious and this they do by their oblique and ubiquitary motion which would otherwise corrupt and stench as standing pools Job 37.11 But the wind passeth and cleanseth them Jer. 4.11 This benefit every Land and Country hath of the winds both to fan and sweep the foul corners of the air that are amongst them 5. It is of wonderful use as to the scattering of the clouds here and there in this and in the other Country How are the clouds seen sometimes in a very pendulous manner to hang over the very heads of parched Countries as if unwilling to dilate and part with their watry liquor because of the sinfulness of those Countries Clouds fly and hang over them yet drop no fatness God allows all Countries excepting Egypt which is supplied in a wonderful manner by the River Nilus the benefit of the clouds and of the Heavens hee misses not the smallest of those many Islands that he has lying here and there up and down in the world but remembers them all yea the uninhabitablest place that is in the world both procul prope for the use and benefit and accommodement of mankind by these are the Lords water-pots or cloudy water-bowls of the Heavens shaked and poured down upon the dry and thirsty places of the Earth All Gardens Orchards Corn-fields valleys hils and desarts that bee in the world are watered by them Job 37 11. Hee scattereth his bright cloud The winds are of very considerable and important use as to the conducting and convoying of the aquatical clouds of the Heavens to water the many Islands Territories and Countries of the Lords that bee in and throughout the world It seems that God has a special care of every Country and corner in the world that none of his Gardens and Orchards should parch for want of water and therefore hee has cloudy tankards in the Heavens which flye upon the wings of the wind to fall upon what place hee pleases to supply them 6. It is of wonderful use in its various vertibility and instability Non ita Carpathiae variant Aquilonibus undae The wind is a very varying and turning thing in respect that all parts in the world are served by it one while it serves to carry some Mariners into the North some out of the East into the West and other some again out of the West into the South It stays not long in one quarter but is a meer Camelaeâ—nce mutabilior Eccl. 1.6 The wind goeth toward the South and turneth about unto the North it whirleth about continually and the wind returneth again according to his circuits And hereby is it the more commodious because if it should have its abode any long time either in the Eastern Southern Northern or Western parts of the world then the opposit parts would bee greatly obstructed in their sailing into those parts from whence the wind should blow Great is the Wisdom of our infinite and good God who has ordered and created all things for the good of man in that hee has thus appointed and disposed of the winds to bee one while in one place and another while in another both to fetch Mariners that are far from home and also to carry them out that are desirous and have busines and occupation to do from home 7. It is of wonderful use to alter Seasons it cannot bee gainsaled that the winds have not an altering influence in all Seasons because they bring in our heat and by and by comes in our cold Job 37.17 How thy garments are warm when hee quieteth the Earth by the South wind When the wind comes out of the South how is every one warm and cheerful both in City and in Country although but in a thin and Summers garment but when it comes out of the blustering North or the frigid and mordacious Oriental of the world how is every one then cold within doores and without doors I even in the thickest habit that they can put on Job 37.9 Out of the North cometh forth the cold Now undoubtedly that cold comes upon the wings of the winds out of and from under the Artick and also heat in the same manner from the Antartick of the world When the wind comes out of the North or out of the East how quickly is the heat of the Earth cooled and taken away but as soon as ever it comes out of the South how is the Earth warmed and all the Animals of the world revived Psal 107.43 Who so is wise will observe these things 8. It is of wonderful use to dry up the wetness and dirtiness that is upon the face of the Earth how are all foot-paths and all horse-rodes shoveled and cleansed by the winds It is wonderful to think how an Easterly wind will sweep all the beaten paths and corners that are in the world this wind is called in Scripture a supping wind Hab. 1.9 because it drinks up the moystures that have been laid upon the Earth by the clouds Psal 107.43 Who so is wise will observe these things 9. It is of wonderful use to clear the Heavens for us and to feed us with the light of those glorious lamps and luminaries that are hung up in the Heavens to make the world comfortable to us how would the Sun the Moon the Stars and the face of Heaven bee absconded over-shaddowed and obumbrated to us with clouds fogs mists and ascending vapours that are as so many curtains drawn over those great and glorious Lanterns of the Heavens if the winds did not sweep them and reduce them to an annihilation 10. It is of a wonderfull and most dreadful use in the hand of the Lord to break and ruine the greatest and the strongest ship or ships that ever crossed the salt-salt-waters 2 Chron. 20.37 The ships were broken that they were not able to go to Tarshish And the great Spanish Armado that came against us to invade our Land were broken and scattered by the winds so that they were frustrated in their Dice-games and carried into the bottoms when that they thought they should have had the full possession and enjoyment of this English Island 7. Vse A word of Exhortation and that unto all you that go in the Seas Is it thus indeed that all perilous storms and ship-wracking Tempests are both of the Lords raising sending and impowering give mee leave then to commit three sweet words unto you and I will pray hard both in private and publick that they may be a heart-wining and an heart-perswading word but before I hand them unto you I will lay down a few of those natural symptomes prognosticks and common observations of the approaching of winds and storms only as
flye upon a ragged one Sea-men Sea-men look for storms it is your usual saying that Pallida luna pluit rubicunda flat alba serenat The Moon looks red and tells us that wee shall have winds You have just occasions many times to look for winds and storms therefore give mee leave to say Delicatus nauta est qui fortunae rabiosas novercantis procellas non expectat that hee is too little a right bred Sea-man that neither would nor doth look for storms the best sort of Sea-men dare not trust the smiling countenance of any one day or night though never so fawning and proffering If he comes to an anchor he sits down and casts about and considers how and what the harbour is and how the winds may turn and change Minus etiam quam luscinia dormit the pleasant Nightingale sleeps more than hee doth because hee is burdened with many cares about his fore-casting of all things for the best It is a great folly for any to think that they may go to Sea and not meet with brushing storms and that man that desires to go to Sea for recreation and not for imployment save onely to see the Seas and sail here and there a little upon them would wish with all his heart that hee was back again when hee sees a storm a coming Alas the Sea is a place where the greatest storms are laid on that ever befell any element whatsoever there are not those gusts and storms to bee found on land that bee upon the Seas neither are the great deeps like the smooth-faced fontes fluvia stagna and lacus's of a land that lyes with never a wrinckle upon their frontlets but they lye in raging froth and fome and by their restlesness give all that come upon them a bitter cup of a plus aloes quam mellis telling them that they shall have more storms than calms 2. Storms as well as calms come from the hands of God For hee commandeth the stormy winds Matth. 8.25 The stormy wind was up for a while in which the Disciples of Christ were most dreadfully rocked and tossed in but afterwards it was rebuked and stilled this is a comfort Nullum violentum est perpetuum things that are violent are not long lasting I would have all Sea-men to bee of that heavenly temper that Job was of when they are in and under perilous storms Job 2.10 What shall wee receive good at the hands of God and shall wee not receive evil It seems evil as well as good happens sometimes for a peoples trial 3. Dayes are evermore seen for to travel with Gods decrees Fair Sun-shine mornings have I seen and known to end in sad and dismal evenings the Proverb is Nescis quid serus vesper vebat Thou knowst not what is in the womb of a big-bellied day The Willow would never bee good if it were not lopt and cut cutting of it makes it spring the better at the root and bear the fairer head The Sailors will never bee ought till they bee cut to peeces I mean laid low upon the bark of affliction if hee say they shall be stormy who can let it and if hee give command that they shall bee tranquil and calm they shall bee so Prov. 27. Boast not thy self of to morrow for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth It may bring forth sickness as well as health storms as well as calms and death as well as life 4. God will humble and correct you and stand you not in very great need of being humbled and corrected Where is the Sailor in the Sea that is so good as may not look for a brushing The Sun is more resplendent after an ecclipse the Sea more calm after a storm and the air much brighter after a shower which made a great Statesman of out Nation to say that storms and tempests contribute to the cleerness of the heavens and the smoothness of the Seas 5. Where there is a looking for smooth and calm Seas the sudden alteration thereof Art thou going to Sea my friend make much of this short word of counsel there is multum in parvo nè quare mollia nè tibi contingant dura wouldst thou have i◠Englished Sailor then this it is Expect not too much favour from the Sea Jactantur oequora ventis He that will sail the great and wide Sea must look for many a roaring gust both hath and doth prove a sad and bitter disappointment to many a mans expectations when Christs Disciples were out at Sea they looked for smooth and calm water and meeting with a rugged and boysterous storm and tempest where they saw themselves greatly endangered they could not bear it Matth. 8.25 Lord save us wee perish Jer. 8.15 Wee looked for peace but no good came and for a time of health and behold trouble They that will go down to the Sea must not look for to have all calms and no storms but oftner storms than calms They that will travel upon the Sea to this and that far and remote Country in the world they must expect to meet with many a sore rub and brushing storm before they shall or can bee transported to them 2. I would have all those that are Grandees and Statesmen of our land to look for storms also my reason is this in respect that your Honours have many brave Golden-stern'd and Golden-headed Sea-boats going to and fro and up and down in the great waters where all the other ships do go and much work you have now in hand for them to do which lies both far and near and I think that it is my judgment that there never was an Age or people called on so much as the English now are both to do and carry on that work and those glorious designs that God has on foot against the Anti-Evangelical and Antichristian powers of the world it is clear to mee that the Lord Jesus Christ who both will and shall rule all Nations with a rod of Iron and in whom is all power and through whom is the guidance of all the affairs that are on foot upon the face of the Earth that you are acted by him against them but that which I aim at is this Right Honourable your gallant ships are now and then rocking and staggering in the waves as well as others and are now and then most dreadfully spending of their Masts and Yards by the board and some again most dangerously are hazarded in their running upon the ground the winds favour them no more than they do the other ships that use the Seas but fall upon them belluino impetu with as much violence as they do upon others The winds take no more notice of the golden gildedst ship than they do of the coarsest Nunc pluit claro nunc Juppiter aethere fulget meanest and plainest stern-painted that goes in the Salt-waters You cannot expect it that the Seas should bee alwaies of a gentile and silver-glistering
Haec non durabunt aetatem This will not alwayes indure 2. Bear all your storms and Sea-imbitterments with faith and confidence in God for his general and particular presence with you that sweet promise hath quieted my heart within when wee have had nothing but horrour without in the great and wide Sea Isa 43.2 When thou passest thorow the waters I will bee with thee and thorow the rivers they shall not overflow thee when thou walkest thorow the fire thou shalt not bee burnt neither shall the flame kindle upon thee 3. Beg every day at the hands of your God for a submissive frame of heart that you may resign and give up your selves and all that is of worth and value in your eyes to Gods will It was a sweet frame that a Stoick was in I would all our Sailors were of that temper when hee said Quid vult volo quid non vult nolo vult ut vivam vivam vult ut moriar moriar It is good to be of this temper in storms to bee contented either to live or dye svvim or drovvn for his disposal even as hee shall will and please to that end you may bee in a capacity to yeeld to whatsoever God shall do though it bee never so cross and contrary to your own carnal wills and in all your storms and dangers say Fiat voluntas sua the Lords will bee done One of King Cyrus's Courtiers having but little state and being about to marry his daughter one asked him how he vvould do for to give her a portion his ansvver was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cyrus is my friend and thus he casts his care and confidence upon the King and vvill not you do thus in storms 4. Cast all your fears cares and troubles that you meet withall in the Seas upon the Lord and hee will take care of you and for you you have it under hand and seal for so doing if you have but faith to lay hold on the promise Psal 55.22 Cast thy burden upon the Lord and hee shall sustain thee hee shall never suffer the righteous to bee moved The burden of a dreadful storm is too heavy for thee to bear thou hast sufficient warrant and commandement to unload thy self and cast it upon thy God there is many a man and woman in the world might go a great deal lighter both at Sea and Land if they had but the art of laying their cares upon their God hath not many a man had his back broke I and his heart broke because hee evermore bore his burden and had not the wisdome to run to God to desire him for to bear it for him Sailors lay those dreadful burdens that you meet with all in a stormy Sea upon the Lord and hee will bear them I and carry you out safe and alive from them But to proceed 2. It will not bee out of the road if I present this advertising word unto those that sit at the stern with the helm of our Republick in their hands It vvas a brave temper that Cato vvas of of vvhom it vvas said that he bore things so stoutly that no man ever saw him to be changed and though he lived in a time when the Common-wealth was often changing he was a semper idem in every condition even to bear storms stoutly I mean as to the effects of them which oftentimes end in the ruining of many a goodly sail and if so bee that ships bee cast away that are in your employments which are of vast worth cost and charge it cannot bee helped such casualties will bee coming and falling upon them now and then the Seas have a Million of dangers in them 3. I would hand this word unto the Merchants of our Land also that they would bear storms stoutly I have seen people in the world when unexpected losses Our Merchants of late resemble too much the mourning Nightingale of whom it is said that when her young ones are taken from her that shee will tell every bird of it maestis late loca questibus implere fill the woods with her complaints And so you the States eares with your losses and crosses have come upon them fall a weeping and wringing of their hands and cursing with their tongues in the greatest impatiency that ever was seen as if they were utterly undone now there is none that can be or is undone until they bee damned then they are undone indeed and then they may howl and weep where weeping and gnashing of teeth is in course but whilst in the world and in fair hopes for Heaven temporal accidents should not have that impression to breed that disturbance It is a notable speech of Seneca Suppose says hee that a man who having a very fair and goodly House to dwell in and fair Orchards and Gardens planted and plotted round about it with divers other fruitful trees for ornament and profit Plutarch reports of a certain people that to manifest their disliking and disdaining of men over-much dejected by any affliction they condemned them in token of disgrace to wear womens apparel because they so much unmanned themselves what an indiscreet part were it for that man to murmur and repine because the winds rise and blow down some of the leaves of it when as they hang fuller of fruit than leaves God has given your ships many a prosperous voyage and murmur not at it if you lose one or two now and then it is nothing but mercy that you have any left to trade and trafick withall I and moreover it is a great deal more than you deserve Chrysostom when speaking to the people of Antioch like himself who was a man of an invincible spirit against the tyrants of his time delivered himself thus In this should a gratious man differ from thc Godless hee should bear his crosses couragiously and as it were with the wings of Faith out-soar the hight of all humane miseries hee should bee like a Rock incorporated into Jesus Christ inexpugnable and unshaken with the most furious incursions of the waves and storms of the world It was a gallant speech of Galienus the Emperour when tidings came unto him that all Egypt was lost What then quoth the Emperour cannot I live without the flax of Egypt And by and by came tidings to him that the greatest part of his dominions in Asia were gone also What then quoth the Emperour cannot I live without the delicacies of Asia This is a rare example for Merchants when they lose rich-fraughted ships in the Seas either by storm or Pyrat What It was a gallant spirit that Habakkuk was of when he said Chap. 3.17 Although the fig-tree shall not blossom nor fruit upon the Vines nor Herds in the stalls yet will I rejoyce in the Lord I will joy in the God of my salvation Grant now the worst suppose you had not one ship in the Harbour nor one to come safely home is there not
bee compared to a man that runs up an high ladder and as soon as ever hee is got up to the highest stave of it down hee goes till hee comes unto the lowest and by and by hee returns unto the highest Solomon tels us Prov. 23.5 that the Eagle taketh wing and flyeth towards heaven but hee does not say that shee flies so high but it denotes that shee is one of the highest flying birds of any of the fouls under the Heavens Christ tels us also Matth. 11.23 that Capernaum was exalted unto Heaven when alas it was not so nor so because it was but an hyperbolical but rather an Ironical expression for Capernaum was so far from Heaven that her feet was rather upon the very threshold of Hell than Heaven as appears by the poynt shee steered by But this elegant Hyperbole of the Psalmists is to set forth the Sea-mans high soaring sursums and his down-falling deorsums They mount up almost as high as that caelestial 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is feigned to be Elemenci quarti nomen how that hee is one while carried upwards upon the swelling billows of the Seas even ad aulam astriferam as high as the starry mansions and bespangled roofs of Heaven and then by and by they are returned down again 2. They go down again to break up this word unto you there is nothing difficult in it onely wee may take notice that their descension in storms is not gradatim or pedetentim but rather in the violentest manner that can bee even as a stone that is hurled up in the air it will not tarry there any longer than the strength of the hand is upon it and then it will down again because it covets to bee at its Center So the weightier any thing is the speedier is and will bee the descent of it I am confident it would produce many a gallon of salt tears from the eyes of the godly that are on Land if there were but a possibility of their seeing of ships how they labour rock and reel ascend and descend in the restless Seas in time of storms for by and by they are to bee seen anon they are not to bee seen but as if they were covered all over in the Seas That Sea-men are the nearest Heaven Observation 1 of any people in the world when they are once got up upon the back of an high-rising water-billow They mount up to Heaven c. These are the onely cloud-climbing lads of the world Sea men are like to the pinnacles that are praefixed upon all high battlements which point upwards to Heaven but poyse downwards to their center Exod. 8.15 Whilst the judgments of God were upon Pharaoh he was some thing conformable but when the storm was over he was as vile as ever and none go so near or are so fair for Heaven as Sea-men are seems the Psalmist to say but let mee add this pray God they ever come there my prayers shall bee for them 1 Sam. 12.23 Moreover as for mee God forbid that I should sin against the Lord in ceasing to pray for you but I will teach you the good and right way Vers 24. Onely fear the Lord and serve him in truth with all your heart for consider how great things hee hath done for you For I fear that many an hundred Sea-man when hee is got up to the top of an high water promontory in the Sea that hee is as near Heaven as ever hee will bee It was once said of one that preached well and lived ill upon a time when in the pulpit some importunate messenger or other came for him to come out of the Church but one of his auditors made answer Oh let him alone for hee is as near Heaven as ever hee will bee So I may say it is a thousand pitties that ever some Sea-men should come off and down from the high-towering waves of the Seas because they are in those stormy times peradventure nearer Heaven than ever they will bee when they come on Land again Observation 2 That all Sea-men generally without all exception whether they bee young or whether they bee old both do and shall assuredly go to heaven They mount up to the heaven Me thinks the Sea-man likes mee well in the laying down of this proposition and the godly on the other hand look very strangely upon it and so consequently conclude I knovv Sea-men are as confident of going to Heaven the Lord help them as the Turks either are or can bee of that lock vvhich they keep upon the top of their crownes that they shall bee dravvn up into Paradise by Pray God Sea-men vvould once forsake their confidence and then there vvould bee some hopes of them that I have no warrant nor ground in Scripture to build it upon To clear up the point unto you I would have you to observe that there are two parts in it 1. That they do go to Heaven 2. That they shall all go thither For the first of these that they do go thither I would have you to understand mee rightly without any misconstruction I will have nothing to doe with their Salvation in this point for that is as doubtful to mee as Solomon's was to Toledo the Arch-Bishop who weighing that much-disputed controversie whether Solomon was saved or damned and not being satisfied with their arguments caused Solomon to bee pictured upon the walls of his Chapel the one half in hell and the other half in heaven There be three Heavens 1. Coelum Aerium 2. Coelum Astriferum 3. Coelum Beatorum It is not the latter novv they go to in storms but the tvvo former But to the point in hand that you may understand my meaning in it take notice that it is stormy and tempestuous weather that Sea-men go to Heaven in even then when the winds lift up the waves of the Seas by which and upon which thay are in this sense transported unto Heaven what they do or whither they go when dead I have nothing to do to judge and therefore whilst they are living wee need not credit that they go into Heaven Sailors are like to Grashoppers in goodness vvho make faint essayes to fly up to Heaven and then presently fall dovvn to the Earth again Sea-men that have their feet as it vvere in stormy vveather upon the battlements of Heaven should look dovvn upon all earthly happiness in the world as both base abject slight and slender waterish and worthless The great Cities of Campaniae seem but small cottages to them that stand on the tops of the Alps. for I never knew any of them so holy Enoch indeed Gen. 5.24 Walked with God and hee was not for God took him There is a vast difference betwixt going to Heaven and into Heaven the Eagle that Solomon speaks of flew towards Heaven but hee doth not say that shee went into it There is a vast disproportion betwixt a mans going to a place and
could not find a better emblem in the world to set out a ships reeling and staggering by than by one that is in a drunken and reeling posture because hee flyes first of all this way and by and by hee goes with as great violency that way again Observ 1 That Sea-men reel not alwaies by and through the swelling raging and rest less waves of the salt-salt-waters but frequently and too often both on bord and on shore by and with strong drink and heady liquors I will say for the confirmation of this point Job 24.25 And if it bee not so now who will make mee a liar and make my speech nothing worth Englands foulest stain or one of its tauntingest reproaches at this day in the world is for the sin of dunkenness How common a sin is this even in the very skirts of our Land is not every Sea-port-Town England throughout a meer nest of Drunkards and a seat of piping tiplers whereas these Towns should bee full of righteousness and sobriety because they are the very skirts of our Land and if filthiness and iniquity bee found abounding in them strangers that come from beyond Seas will bee apt to conclude that the whole Land is as ill let them adventure to travel never so far into it But again were our Sea-mens carriages good in forein parts they would not disparrage our Land so much as they do by their swearing and drunkenness Certainly if you carried your selves soberly and religiously they would say of you as Gregory the first once did when hee beheld some English boyes to bee sold in the open Market at Rome and asking them of what Country they were of beholding of them to bee fair skinned beautifully faced and flaxen-haired the answer returned him was that they were of an Isle called England and they were Angli well quoth the Pope they may well bee called Angli English-men quasi Angeli for they have very Angelical faces of their own Oh Sea-men labour to bee like Angels in grace and purity Ah that I should be forced to say that of Sea-men which Parafius an exquisit Painter said once of Helen when hee was to take the counterfeit of her person he drew her with her head attyre loose and being demanded the reason thereof hee said Shee was loose Ah Sea-men you are loose creatureâ— I would have all Commanders in the Seas to bee very careful in their discouraging and beating down of drunkenness in and amongst their men upon these considerations if they ponderate not I know not what will when you are in the forein parts of the world that they may say you are rather Angels in practice than men But that I may take you off from this sin of drunkenness which is a blemish to our Land to our Governours in it and to the Commanders that you serve under in their respective ships 1. Consider that by thy taking in too much strong drink at any time that thou dost thereby very sinfully deface the Image of God in thee And is not that a grievous and an hainous sin for thee to do Gen. 1.26 And God said Let us make man in our Image after our likeness Now what kind of creatures do men make themselves when they drown themselves in drink what boyled and distorted eyes have they What redness have they in their faces and how mis-shapen are they and carried out of that image God made them in 2. Consider that by thy immoderate drinking thou art about the selling of the excellentest part that is in all the whole nature of man even for a contemptible and despicable pleasure and that is the use of reason Prov. 23.34 Yea thou shalt bee as hee that lieth down in the midst of the Sea or as hee that lieth upon the top of a mast 3. Consider that all immoderate drinking does render men unfit and uncapable either of serving their God or men 4. Hee that has no moderation in his drinking is at the very next dore of all profaneness that man will not stick to do murther and commit adultery When men tarry long at strong drink they get this evil by it In one hours drunkenness Lot uncovered those thighs which had been covered six hundred years by sobriety Hierome Quem non vicerat Sodome vicerunt vina Whom Sodom could not overcome wine did Prov. 23.33 Thine eyes shall behold strange women and thine heart shall utter strange things Nunquam vidi ebrium castum I never saw a drunken man a chaste man said Jerome 5. By immoderate drinking a man exposes himself to many mischiefs which are very incident to light either upon the body name Vbi fuisti where hast thou been Apud inferos said Erasmus very wittily when hee compared tipling-houses unto Hell or outward condition Prov. 23.29 30. Who hath wo who hath sorrow who hath contentions who hath babling who hath wounds without cause who hath redness of eyes They that tarry long at the wine they that go to seek mixt wine Many Sailors drink God out of their hearts wit out of their brains mony out of their purses health out of their bodies themselves out of their ships strength out of their joynts wives and children out of doors and themselves also out of the Land and hereby are miserably constrained to go to Sea for a subsistency all their lives long These lads drink the Land out of quiet and threaten both Sea and Land with misery If they have but a groat it burns the purse bottom out till it bee melted into liquor Had these lads gold they would change it or plate they would pawn it or if great Lordships all should go in a merry quaft and humour amongst their fellow Compotators That the great and wide Sea is of such a restless nature that every thing that Observ 2 swims upon or in the superficies of it is liable to horrid staggering and reeling He that would go to Sea had need to bee of that candid or rather hardy temper that they are of that exercise themselves in Olympick playes who patiently suffer their hands to bee bruised their feet to bee disjoynted their mouths to be filled with dust and gravel and now and then very sad smarting blows They reel to and fro c. Isa 57.20 The wicked are like the troubled Sea when it cannot rest whose waters cast up mire and dirt The Seas do superba gerere fronte caperata supercilia The Sea tosses every thing that comes into it not because it is wronged but because it is unquiet One main reason why the Sea is so restless seems to be this 1. Because People do not pray for the Seas The Inundations of Nilus make Egypt fruitful and I dare say that if you were but importunate with God at the throne of grace in poor Sea-mens behalfs that you would soon make their voyages the more prosperous and successful No wonder though the Seas bee so rageing and the winds above so roaring
God hears oftener from an afflicted people Curae leves mutescunt ingentes loquientur Small dangers are dumb but great ones make men for to speak Periculosâ—or tranquilitas Nautae quam Tempestas Sailors are like to Bees soon killed with hony but quickned with vinegar spoiled with calms but bettered by storms than hee either does or can from a people that are at ease quiet and out of danger Then they cry The prodigal Son was very high and resolved never to return till brought low by pinching and nipping afflictions then his Father had some tidings of him Hagar was proud in Abraham's house but humbled in the wilderness Jonah was asleep in the ship but awake and at prayer in the Whales belly Jonah 2.1 Manasses lived in Jerusalem like a Libertin but when bound in chains at Babel his heart was turned to the Lord. 2 Chron. 33.11 12. Corporal diseases forced many under the Gospel to come to Christ whereas others that enjoyed bodily health would not acknowledge him One would think that the Lord would abhor to hear those prayers that are made onely out of the fear of danger and not out of the love reality and sincerity of the heart If there had not been so many miseries of blindness lameness Palsies Feavers c. in the daies of Christ there would not have been that flocking after him Too much fertility hurts the Corn Storms invite men to go to God as the sight of Bugbears do children into the bosoms of their parents In calms Sea-men either pray not at all or if they pray rarae fumant faelicibus arae faintly yawningly Oratio sine malis est ut avis sine alis overmuch fruit breaks the limbs boughs and branches of the Tree the body is the worse for too long health and the Sea-man baddest of all in the enjoyment of many calmes Sailors are not unlike to the dumb son of Craesus who was never heard to speak a word but then to call out cleerly when hee saw the knife a going to his Fathers throat 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 May not the Sailor say in stormy weather as the Heart of Apollo said when seething in an hot boyling kettle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I have been the cause of this That none have any assurance of the continuance of their lives and comforts in Observ 5 this life bee they at Sea or bee they on Land Then they cry It seems that both ship and men and all are now at the stake and ready to bee sacrificed There bee very many strange mutations and unexpected eversions befalling of the Mariner now and then That counsel that Xaverius presented unto John the third King of Portugal the very same would I give our Sailors He bid the King meditate every day a quarter of an hour upon that text Matth. 16.26 For what is a man profited if hee shall gain the whole world and loose his own soul or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul It is reported of a ship that shee spoke on this wise when in a dreadful storm after all that ever the Mariners could do to save her The Sea is Proteus-like assuming all forms and shapes now calm now stormy Fiet enim Subito sus horridus atraque Tigris Squamosusque Draco aut fulva Cervice Lcaena Virg. Georg. l. 4. Sometimes like bristled boar it fomes Like scaely Dragon now it roams by lightning of her and throwing not onely of the worst but of the best commodities into the Sea Fie Fie thou angry Sea wilt not thou bee hired will neither gold nor silver do any thing must I perish Alas I am fraughted with rich Wines Silks and Sugars ask what thou wilt for my ransome and thou shalt have it reverse reverse I pray thee thou great Sea thy cruel intentions and if thou wilt take the greatest summe that ever was given for a ship thou shalt have it for thy sparing of mee and the lives of them that live within me But all this fair speech that the ship made unto the Sea was not prevalent but shortly after shee sunk into the bottom I bring but in this passage now to shew you that wee have but a slippery hold of any thing that is temporal That there is such terrour and astonishment Observ 6 in deaths grim countenance that it makes all people whether at Sea or at Land cry out for deliverance from it Then they cry c. Jonah 1.5 Appius Claudius was the most out of love with the Greek letter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that ever I heard of because when it is pronounced it represents the gnashing teeth of a dying soul Sigismund was much out of love with death also for when he was upon the dye hee gave command to all his servants about not so much as to name death in his hearing Life is sweet and nature would preserve it self Then the Mariners were afraid and cried every man unto his God One cried out when death knockt at his door to take him away out of the world Oh spare mee yet a little longer Inducias vel ad horam let mee but have reprival for a day truce but for an hour respit for a minute but all would not doe What is it I wonder that men will not do in time of storms to save their lives I have read of one who was a Syracusian by Country that did in a storm when all ponderous things were hurled over-bord cried out to the Mariners come let us clap on the tagles and out with my wife and his reason was Quia maximum pondus erat that shee was the greatest burden in the ship Because there is so much flesh both in Reason 1 the best and worst of men and also because mens faith in God is so weak in them therefore is it that the fear of the waters is so strong Did men fear God more and trust him more they should then know more of the intentions of God in storms and also not be so much dejected at them as now they are Reason 2 Because there is a dunghil of guilt dwelling both in the best and worst of men this is that makes people afraid of death I have read of a pretious soul that was very much afraid to die but to encourage himself hee spoke on this wise What my soul art thou affraid now that hast served the Lord Jesus Christ this seventy years and upwards Oh go out go out my soul there is no fear I have read of another that under much wearisomness and discontentedness called for death and dye hee would and death appearing to him as hee had wished for it before hee told that soul and body-rending Sergeant that hee called him for no other end but ut hunc lignorum fascem super humeros imponeres That hee would help him up with his burthen of sticks The man had no more stomack to dye Those that are in Christ if they perish in storms or bee
their voice which is not half so clear nor so pleasant as it was at first Nay they are as much down when their lives are at the stake as the Seryphian Frogs were of whom it is said in Observ 13 Scyrum deportatae mutescunt eaedem alio translatae canunt Carry them into Scyrus and you silence them What Pliny said of Rome I may say of the Sailors at Sea that there was never any earthquake in Rome but it was the fore-runner of some great change event and alteration So no appearance of windsly in the Physiognomy of the skies but some change of weather Praecedunt paenas nuntia figna graves There was one that went up and down Jerusalem 80. years before ever the war begun to bee commenced against it crying a voice from the East a voice against Jerusalem and the Temple a voice against all this people Sailors God gives you some warning many times before hee claps his stormy wind upon your backs let all external signs of storms carry you then out to seek your God let them alone in Seryphia and you shall hear them sing and croak That it is and would bee the Sea-mans greatest wisdom and safest course when hee sees a storm a comming to run unto the Lord that hee would become his friend Then they cry c. You see the heavens grow black and many observations and guessings you have from and of the skies what weather is a brewing will you not then prepare to meet the Lord by sending out your prayers as Ambassadours to plead with him in your behalf Amos 4. ult people that are on Land if they see but a Tempest or a shoure of Hail or Snow a coming they will with all the speed that ever they can make betake themselves either to some good sheltering hedg or the nearest neighbouring house that they can get unto How much more should you then fly even as the young Chickens will under the wings of the old ones when the Kite is hovering to fall upon them to the protecting arms of God that you may bee supported in a shelterless Ocean Shal the sight of a warlike ship coming before the wind with all the clew of sail that ever shee can make and spread Top-gallant sails Stay-sails and Boome-sails call upon you I and startle you too to get your ship into her fighting weed and dress Insomuch that you are in such a toss at those times that you cut down Hammoks knock down wooden stanchions hale out your guns keep your matches lighted and your Ordnance primed your chartages filled your shot and powder upon and betwixt decks and all your men in arms some to stand by the great Guns and other some upon deck by your small shot and will you not bee in the like fear when the Heavens frown above you How should you make towards your God at such times Plutarch reports of Athens that when their City was visited and long punished with mortal sickness that they had recourse to the Oracle of Apollo to know what they should do in their extreamity who made them this answer that their onely way was duplare aram to double their Sacrifices The onely way for Sailors to bee delivered in time of storms is to ply God hard both before and when they are come with prayer Nautae sereno coelo non nihil laxant vela cum autem suspicio tempestatis contrahunt In fair weather Mariners will have their Top-gallant sails out but if foresee foul they presently take them in I would have Sea-men to strive who should bee the first at prayer in such times as these as it is said in Zach. 8.21 Let us go speedily to pray before the Lord and to seek the Lord of Hosts I will goe also The Tulipant which our Herbalists call Narcissus because it is an admirandos flos ad radios solis se pandens a flower that will constantly expose it self unto the fulgency of the Sun but when ever it apprehends the Suns setting or a Tempest a coming it hides it self and will not hazzard its tender flower to bee shaken and rent with the wind Learn thus much from this creature as to betake your selves unto your God when you see storms a mustering in the clouds and starry Sphaeres That hee that has a gratious purpose Observ 14 and design in time of storms to honour God in the remainder of his life may the warrantablierly pray for the prolonging of his life Then they cry c. Psal 119.175 Sailors in storms resemble the Frogs in the Countrymans pond of whom it is said that whilst it thundered they were very silent but no sooner was the thunder over but they betook themselves to their croaking and obstreperous notes again whilst storms are upon the Sailors backs they tell God many a fair story which afterwards they leave undischarged Let my soul live and it shall praise thee As if David were a going to say if it were not for that end I would not wish to live a minute nor a moment upon the face of the Earth Sea-men if this bee not your design in your prayers I cannot see how you can have the face to expect audience from your God at such times Tell mee what is thy end Captain in this storm what is thy end Master what is thy end Boatswain Sea-men what are your ends now in this storm where our lives are at the stake are they not to swear to lye to drink and to dishonour God as you have done are they now fixed upon the glory of God and the honour of God and the obedience of your God Fear not then I will joyn with you in prayer for the Lord will never drown us if our hearts have these resolutions in them Psal 119.17 Deal bountifully with thy servant that I may live and keep thy Word Oh that this were the prayer and the very thought of every poor Sea-mans heart when hee is beset both on head and stern with that affrighting enemy pale death I shall say thus much for the encouragement of all those that go in the Seas that are thus gratiously disposed as it was said to the Emperour Marcus Antonius when in Almany with a very great Army and being beset by the enemy in a dry Country where all passages was stopped up and there being no other likelyhood but that both hee and his whole Army should perish and that for want of water the Emperours Lieutenant seeing him so sadly distressed told him that hee had heard that the Christians could obtain any thing of their God by prayer whereupon the Emperour having a Legion of Christians in his Army hee put them all upon prayer both for him and for his Army and shortly after dureing the time that they were at prayer great thunder fell amongst their enemies and abundance of water upon the Romans whereby their thirst was quenched and the enemy routed and overthrown without any fight at all You shall have
before deliverance hath come Masts have broke upon your heads Sails have rent Cables broke and Anchors come home The Patient earnestly desires such and such things under his distemper but the Physitian wants nor will to give them him but resolves to give them him so soon as hee is fit and therefore makes him stay till hee hath purged for till hee bee made fit for it and for such a cordial and such a medicine it may prove very hurtful for him Ships half filled with water or by stress of weather thrown upon sands Psal 107.43 Who so is wise will observe these things 4. Mind how God Sounds the deeps for you in calm and serene weather when you are boldly sailing on in the Seas with a great deal of confidence and security that your depths of water are sufficient to swim your ponderous ships in that even then Qui scrutantur saepe marinas aranas nihil potest illudere They that will but sound the Seas carefully in dubious places cannot bee deceived but they that are overcome with laziness to throw the Lead over-board may quickly for ought I know run the ship on ground at such times God has struck some in the ship with a great fear putting it into their hearts that they were in great danger whereupon they have called for the Lead and made inquiry into the Sea and water has scarce been found to keep up the ship from the very bottom Who so is wise will observe these things 5. Mind how the Lord goes before you sounding of your depths in the darkest foggiest and mistiest weather that you are surprised withall when you are going on with strong confidence that there is no danger even contra improvisum omnem ictum then are you in very great peril It is with Sailors in black dark and foggy weather as the Poet tells us of Virg. Eclog. 3. Dic quibus in lymphis eris mihi magnâ—s Apollo Tres pateat coeli spatium non amplius ulnas There it little of the heavens to bee seen in the Seas at these times The fire that came down from Heaven upon the Altar was miraculous yet when it was kindled they kept it in with wood Sea-men let your deliverances never starve for keeping warm upon your hearts for having neither the benefit of the Sun nor of the Moon nor of the Stars you are so dreadfully bewildred that you know not how near you are to any Land nor how such and such sand-banks bear off you nor what course to shape and steer then does the Lord direct you and when you are near to Sands hee gives some or other amongst you secret and impulsory hints and warnings to make an examination of your depths by which you are many and many a time preserved Who so is wise will observe these things 6. Minde how God informs you when you are not aware of many in-Sea-lying sand-banks which are visible and obvious enough to a seeing and a watchful eye that is but careful to cast about for the preventing of danger yet when you have mindlessly been running on without either wit or fear holding a direct course upon them it has pleased the Lord to put it into the heart of one or other to look out of the ship It was a good saying of one at Sea when espyed a breach and making report of it the Mariners within said that they could not beleeve it and withall asked him where it was Ne quaeramus ubi sit sed quomodo illam fugiamus Let us not make inquiry where it is but let us strive how to avoid it who has cast his eye this way and that way and quickly observed the breaches that the waters make upon the sands by which means they have brought the ship with all the speed that ever in them lay upon the stayes and so gone cleer Who so is wise will observe these things 7. Minde how God directs you in your Navigations when you are not advised of those many in-Sea-lying Rocks that bee up and down in the great Ocean both North and West and South and East Ah how near have you come to these with your ships The Butterfly in the fable asked the Owle how hee should deal with fire which had singed her wings her counsel was this be sure thou never come so near it again nor as much as ever come within the sight of the smoak of it Your are prudent and want not the skil of applying of it many and many a time before you have been aware of them and when you have been steering upon a direct line to the hazzad of both your ships and lives upon them God has providentially put some or other upon the looking out who have seen the Seas breaking over them in most dreadful froth and presently have made report thereof by which means the ship has been stopped and altered in her course Ah Sea-men surely the Lord has a great care of you Who so is wise will observe these things 8. Mind how God does miraculously many times in misty and foggy weather when you are nearer to Land than you do estimate your selves to be One was lost when nearer Land than he was aware of but quoth the Ship-master It is but a fog-bank there is no danger when they came neer unto it it proved the white clifs of the Land there the ship perished in the storm All are not so favoured even pull by the obumbrated curtains that are drawn over the face of the deeps by which providential dispensation you have a cleer vision of the white clifts of the Land and thereby alter your course upon the sight of danger whereas otherwise you might have perished sundry times if God had not haled up the foggy curtains of the air and let you see that if you ran any neerer death would bee the conclude of that undertaking Who so is wise will observe these things 9. Minde how frequently I and what tender care the Lord has of you in the Seas by his often hushing of the winds when they are up in roaring and rampiant hostility against you at such times when you are irrecoverably run upon Sands and cannot get your ships off them again if the Lord did not thus appear for those that go in the deeps who are I fear very slow in the seeing and also in the acknowledging of this singular mercy many an hundred sail had been split to pieces at this day which have been at time and times preserved Do not you often see this favour undeservedly to bee bestowed upon you Theseus was never better guided by Ariadnes's threâ— which shee tyed at the entrance of Daedalus's labyrinth than those ships that fear the Lord are guided by their God from Rocks Shoars and Sands in the great and wide Seas May I not say of this frequent experienced mercy that the eyes of the Lord are as swift as the very shoots or flashes of Lightning
out of the heavens for you Accensam lucernam nemo moleste aspicit extinctam dolent omnes When Sea-coast light-houses burn clear bright the Mariner greatly rejoyces in it but when dimly and dully he freâ—â— and curses when Land-lights have burned very deadly and dimly in black dark and blustring evenings upon the sight whereof you have judged your selves to have been at a greater distance than you were and thereby have hazzarded your ships and lives by standing in so much to the shore yet in fine some or other in the vessel have had a fight of the land thorow the thick darkness whereby you have been precautionated to alter your course Who so is wise c. 27. Minde how the Lord looks out of heaven into the deeps for you in the absence of the Moon which is oftentimes over-cast with thick clouds and foggy vapours insomuch that when you have been standing in for the shore and been nearer to it than aware of that the Lord hath caused the Moon to break out very clearly in the skies Wear not these mercies aâ— the Romans â—â—d pearls upon their shoos because of the commonness of them but put them upon the file and hang them the nearest your hearts of any thing in the world besides Alexander thought all cost too little to make a Casket to keep Homers Poems in by which means you have seen what would have been your portion if providence had not been at work for you Who so is wise c. 28. Minde what a care the Lord hath of you in black and formidable nights of wind and rain when in the wide and shelterless Sea The Seas in the night time are as difficult in some places to navigate as the Hircâ—nian Forrests are to travel through in the night Writers say that they are so intricate and difficult to get out of if a man once get into them that the skilfullest traveller that is is oftentimes put to his shifts and were it not for the flying of certain birds which afford such a bright and glistring lustre in their leasurely flight by reason of their white feathers they might take up their lodgings in them who causes the stars to afford you a glimmering light in the absence of the Moon by which means you have in your Navigations observed the frothy breaches of the Seas over the Sand-banks which places you have taken as ominous and altered your courses and thereby gone safe away and clear Who so is wise c. 29. Minde how the Lord takes care for you by giving you secret fears and hints in dark nights when you are in narrow Seas through which many ships trade and travel all the night long insomuch that when they have come within the touch of you by a speedy handling of your helm you have escaped whereas either one or both would have gone down into the bottoms if providence had not looked out for you Who so is wise c. 30. Minde what the Lord doth for you when you are in great distress as to the want of Victual Beer and fresh water when you are many hundred leagues off England how hee gives you a very fair wind which carries you on for a spurt may bee a day or half a day and then it fails you and so a contrary wind looks you in the face and puzzles you and being in many fears and doubts of starving the Lord alters that wind again and causes a gale to stand and wast you over to your desired Ports Who so is wise will c. 31. Minde what a mercy it is The Earl of Ulster endeavoured fifteen times to sail over Sea into Ireland but the wind drave him ever back Every one is not priviledged as you are Satius est claudicare in via quam currere extra viam Better to stop and sound in the Channel than run the ship on shore when in dark stormy and blowing weather you come out of the Southern parts into the channel and are at a stand not knowing where you are whether you bee nearer the French shore or the English but by sounding you distinguish your propinquity to either of them in respect that the one is a white sand and the other red and hereby your ships are preserved many a time Keep these mercies in remembrance as Alexander kept Homers Iliads pro viatico rei militaris for his fellow and companion in the Wars 32. Minde the Lords appearances for you in all your Sea-engagement-mercies when your Masts have been shot down by the board and the enemy hath lain pouring in his great and small shot upon you how seasonably some ship or other hath come in to relieve you from the mouth of the Lion Who so is wise c. 33. Minde how the Lord hath taken care for you when fire ships have been grapled to you that before those combustible materials which they are usually fraught withall have taken fire you have cleared your selves from being devoured in that unmerciful element Who so is wise c. I may write upon this deliverance In tempore veni quod omnium rerum est primum If I had not come in time you had been sent into the bo tome 34 Minde what care the Lord hath used for you in your engagements when you have been so shrewdly worsted by the enemy that you have been put to your flight to the end you might carine and stop your leaks and the enemy observing you at such a disadvantage hath made after you to sinke you down-rights which hee would have done if Providence had not set on some ship or other to prevent him Who so is wise c. If it bee thus then Vse Comfort that God hath such a special eye c. This Doctrine may serve to cheer up the honest hearts and spirits that go into the Sea that God will take care of them When one asked Alexander how hee could sleep so soundly and securely in the midst of danger hee told him that Parmenio watched and when hee watched not hee durst not sleep so soundly Go to Sea with comfort you that fear the Lord not onely Parmenio watcheth for you but the Lord. That if the Lord brought not ships out Observ 3 of storms they were never able to get out of them themselves And hee bringeth them out of their distresses That Sea-mens distresses are both infinite Observ 4 and many yet God out of his infinite mercy helps them out of all And hee brings them out of their distresses That all impossibility in mans narrow Observ 5 judgement and apprehension of being delivered hinders not God in delivering Fides in pericuâ—is secura est in securis periclitatur And hee brings them out c. Witness that wonderful deliverance that Paul and his fellow-passengers received from the cruelty of the Seas Act. 27. Because his power is an unlimited Reason 1 and an unstraitned power which is infinite and most like to
his glorious Majesty hee is able to do all things that are works of power might and strength and are not things against his own nature or things that imply contradiction Reason 2 Because when things are impossible in mans eye then is it the fittest time for the Lord to appear in It is a common saying and a true one That mans extreamity is Gods opportunity Observ 6 That God in his Judgments upon the Seas often times remembers mercy And hee bringeth them c. God is slow to wrath I wish I may not say of the Lords indulgency to profane wretches in the Sea what Sigismund the Emperour used to say of his enemies Is inimicum occidit qui inimico parcit I am affraid Deus non nunquam parcendo saevit That the Lords long sparing will end in rageing and may I so speak hee is seen walking towards sinners in the shooes of Asher which were of ponderous brass Deut. 33.24 25. Observ 7 That the greatest dangers of the Seas and the proudest waves that ever elevated are and should bee no plea for unbelief And hee brings them c. Matth. 14.30 31. When Peter saw the wind boysterous his heart begun to fail him but was hee not reproved for his distrusting of the Lord Poop-lantern ship-covering and yard-arm-rising waves should not daunt and discourage faith in God Were the Seas in a storm as high as the mountains of Merionethshire in Wales whose hanging and kissing tops come so close together that the shepherds sitting on their several mountains may very audibly stand and discourse together but if they would go to one another they must take the pains to travel many miles Sailors should not bee apalled and terrified Dangers are faiths Element and in them it lives and thrives best Such was the high-raised valour of Luther that when hee was to go to the City of Worms they told him of strange things Faith like the Ivie the Hop the Woodbine which have a natural instinct in them to cling lay hold upon the stronger Trees laies hold on God in time of danger as many will doe fresh-water travellers at Sea but quoth Luther if all the Tiles that bee upon every House in the Town were devils they should not scare mee Sailors should have the like courage in storms which one had when in a great straight Certa mihi spes est quod vitam qui dedit idem Et velit possit suppeditare cibum Good hearts may say to the Sea when in a storm what Luther said to his enemies Impellere possunt sed totum prosternere non possunt crudeliter me tractare possunt sed non extirpare Haec est fides credere quod non vides dentes nudare sed non devorare occidere me possunt sed in totum me perdere non possunt Faith will put your heads into Heaven and your ships into an Harbour when in a storm it will set you on the top of Pisgab with Moses and descry the promised Land when you may come to bee denied the sight of Land in storms 1. Great Faith is seen in this as much as any one thing whatsoever that it both can and will beleeve in God as a man may say with reverence whether God will or no it will beleeve in an angry God in a killing God and in a drowning God Job 15.10 Great Faith is not easily shaken 2. Great Faith is never clearer seen than when in the midst of souzing storms and dangers there is great confidence and strength of heart in the soul at such times Observ 8 That God will have every thing wrested from him by prayer And hee bringeth c. Good Sea-men should play the part of Daedalus Templum Cybelis Deorum matris non manibâ—es sed precibus solummodo aperiebatur The gates of Cybeles Temples could not bee opened by hands but prayer quickly threw them open who when hee could not escape by way upon Earth went by way of Heaven and that is the way of prayer Five Motives to put Sea-men upon Prayer 1. Solemnly consider that in the creature there is nothing but emptiness and helplesness 2. Solemnly consider that you cannot have any hopes of winning ought from God but by prayer The Champions could not wring an apple out of Milo's hand by strong hand but a fair maid by fair means got it presently 3. Solemnly consider of God what hee is whom you serve naturally no other but goodness it self Nothing animated Benhadad so much as this that the Kings of Israel were merciful Kings It was said of Charles the great I would to God I could say so of every Tarpowling that goes in the salt-Salt-waters that hee delighted so much in prayer that Carolus plus cum Deo quam cum hominibus loquitur That hee spake more and oftner to and with God than hee did with men Flectitur iratus voce rogante Deus And nothing encouraged Titus Vespatian the Emperour's Subjects so much as this that hee did nunquam dimittere tristem never send any away sorrowful 4. Solemnly consider how many in the Seas go upon the very same errand that you go on to him and mind how they speed and are carried securely out of all their distresses 5. Solemnly consider what Prayer is to God hee loves it Let mee hear thy voice for it is comly 6. Call to mind your former experiences did you ever pray in a storm but you fared the better by it Consider what cases you have been heard in That servent Prayer will prevail with Observ 9 God in the greatest storms I would all the States Tarpowlings were of James the Just's principle of whom Eusebius tells us Genua ejus in morem cameli obditrata sensum contactus amiserunt That his knees were hardned like the Camels by his frequent kneeling to Prayer Prayer is Optimus dermientium cuslos certissima navigautium salus tutissimum viatoribus scutum The slâ—epers best keeper the Sailors surest safety the Travellers protecting Shield And hee brings them out c. Witness the Mariners calm Jonah 1. and witness Christs disciples deliverance in the storm Impartial fire that comes from above has been often times seen to spare yeelding objects and to melt resisting metal to pass by lower roofs and to strike upon all high-Towered pinnacles I wish that our Sailors were as much given to Prayer as Anna the daughter of Phannel of whom it was said that shee never departed out of the Temple but served God night and day in prayer and fasting I wish it were the resolution of them that use the Seas to do as Ambrose the Bishop of Millain did when news came to him that Justina the mother of Valentinian intended to banish him hee told them that hee would never run away but if they had any purpose to kill him they should at any time find him in the Church praying for himself and for his people 1. Vse of Comfort For
all that fear the Lord that when they cry they have a God to hear them when they call they have a God to answer them when they need they have a God to help when they mourn they have a God to pitty them when ready to bee overwhelmed with the great waves of the Sea they have a God to defend them So that I may say of such that go in the Seas blessed are the people that bee in such a case yea happy are all they that have the Lord for their God Psal 144.15 who is easily prevailed withall by Prayer That in tempestuous and ship-hazzarding Observ 10 storms it is every mans duty to stand still Charles the fifth gave the Emblem Vlterius stand noâ— still but go on further But in this case us amplius procedas and look up to God for life and for Salvation And hee bringeth c. If the Lord must bring ships out of their distresses then let Sea-men look up unto the Lord for deliverance and trust not too much to their own art and skill Vicount Hugo de Millains motto was on a ship without tackling to stay it with In filâ—ntio spe fortitudinem My strength is in silence and in hope Haedera undemis invenit quo se alliget 〈◊〉 Ivie being weak upon a time looked upon the Elme and spoke on this wise I am not able to stand of my self pray let mee lean on you Sailors you are not able to save your selves in storms lean upon your God That God is the great Saviour and deliverer Observ 11 of mankind Sailors are evermore hurling out of their mouths the demiculverin shot of their own praises Decempedalia sesquipedalia verba You shall seldom hear them say that God ever delivered them out of a storm in and out of all their storms and Tempests And hee bringeth c. The sweet singer of Israel quickly spies out the Sea-mans deliverer But this is more than many a beetle-headed Sailor can do Every eie observes not the stupendious and astonishing mercies of the Lord. Dextra mihi Deus est said a profane man my right-hand was my God or else I had lain my bones in the danger I was surrounded with Another said Haec ego feci non fortuna but never prospered after Wee see that Nebuchadnezzar trusted in his princely City Babel and that Babel became a Babel of confusion to him Xerxes trusted in his multitude of men and his multitude incumbered him Darius trusted to his wealth and his wealth sold him Eumenes in the valour of his Regiment called the Silver-shields and his Silver-shields sold him and delivered him up to Autigonus Roboam in his young Counsellors and his young Counsellors lost him the ten Tribes Caesar in his old Senatours and the Senate conspired against him Domitian in his Guard and his Guard betrayed him Adrian in his Physicians and his Physicians poysoned him so that the proverb ran Multitudo Medicorum perdidit Adrianum Imperatorem Observ 12 That although men at Sea in their dangerous storms seem as it were both forgotten and forsaken yet does the Lord at last very frequently make it evident unto them and to the world that hee does not forget them And hee brings c. Observ 13 That the evil and unworthy deservings of men at Sea does not alwaies interrupt the course of Gods goodnesse towards them And hee brings c. Vers 29. Hee maketh the storm a calm So that the waves therof are still THe words offer unto us two things to bee considered of 1. The Agent 2. The Act or the Effect 1. The Agent that is the Lord in these words Hee maketh the storm a calm 2. The Act or the Effect So that the waves thereof are still That the cessation of all storms and Observ 1 Tempests is by through and from an irresistable and an uncontroulable omnipotentiary power that is in God Hee maketh the storm a calm c. Xerxes finding Helespont to be a little unsmooth would needs throw Irons into it to fetter it so impatient Or if you will take the point thus That God is the great allayer and principal calmer of the raging winds and Seas Philosophers tell us that the winds are allayed several waies 1. When the air is over-burdened troubled and softned by vapours contracting themselves into rain 2. When vapours are dispersed and subtilized whereby they are mixed with the air and agree fairly with it and they live quietly then is the wind allayed 3. When Vapours or Fogs are exalted and carried up on high so that they cause no disturbance until they be thrown down from the middle Region of the air or do penetrate it 4. When vapours gathered into clouds are carried away into other Countries by high-blowing winds so that for them there is peace in those Countries which they fly beyond 5. When the winds blowing from their nurseries languish through their long travels finding no new matter to feed on then does their vehemency abate and expire 6. Rain oftentimes and for the most part does allay winds especially those which are very stormy Observ 2 That the insensiblest of creatures have an ear unto their makers speech It is said of Caesar that hee could with one word quel the discontentedest motion that ever rise in his Army What is the Lords power then in the stilling of the winds and do out of an obediential subjection yeeld to his will to carry on his purposes and designs whether of good or evil of preservation or of destruction towards a people He maketh the storm a calm c. If the Lord speak unto the winds they have an ear to hear him if to the Sea the Sea is attentive to listen to his divine pleasure and bee it good or bee it evil they are both of them loyal and fiducial Souldiers under Heavens Flag or Standard to execute his pleasure Jonah 1.4 Observ 3 That God can when hee sees it fit preserve a people from ruine in and after an incredible unlikely unexpected and miraculous manner Hee maketh c. Acts 27.20 When all hopes of being saved failed the Mariners then began the Lord to stir for them The Lord oftentimes keeps his hand for a dead lift That the great waters stilness and Observ 4 peaceableness at any time is by and from Gods calling off the flying and Sea-disturbing winds Hee maketh c. That it is the Lord that makes changes Observ 5 of conditions in the Sea and gives calmness out of his indulgent kindness and by and by storms for the abuse of the mercies of his calms Hee maketh c. The Seas are quickly alarm'd and beat up into dreadful waves even in all quarters at the commands of the Lord and shall puzzle and torment wicked men as much as those Ciniphes that bred in terra Egypti de fimo muscae quaedam sunt minutissimae inquietissimae inordinatè volitantes in oculos irruentes non permittentes homines quiescere
or Castles if that you that are the Sea-ports of our Nation were but a praying pious and religious people and that holiness purity equity and justice dwelt amongst you and were pregnantly in you were these the fruits that the skirts or branches of our Nation brought forth for so I call you because you are but the feet of the Land you are far from the head and heart of the Nation how might you strengthen us that go in the Seas and weaken our enemies against whom wee fight Ah Sirs if you live irreligiously in these Towns and Ports Many Sea-port Towns are like to Rumny-marsh Neque hyeme uque aestate good neither Winter nor Summer The very scum of the Land dwells in them all the Nation will smart by it surely it would do better that the best people in England lived in Sea-ports and not the worst How many Sea-ports has the Turk made havock of both of the Venetians and also of the Spaniards they were well enough fortified but sin being within a filthy people living in them they were soon conquered and made fire faggot and captives of Inland-Towns fare the worse for Godless Sea-ports Ezek. 39.6 Ezek. 30.9 In that day shall messengers go forth from me in ships to make the careless Ethiopians afraid and great pain shall come upon them as in the day of Egypt lo it cometh Ezek. 28.7 That great trading City of Tyrus which was the fame of the world for exporting and importing of Commodities If any one would ask me the definition of a Sea-port-Town I should tell him I would draw the Picture of the people speaking they are given to gross railing privy defamations and whisperings to the prejudice of one another hot scalding words and tongues set on fire in hell are the best fruits they bear Jam. 3.6 to whom resorted the Merchants of all Countries for traffique both of Palestina Syria Egypt Assyria Judea and Arabia by reason of her filthinesse was brought down from all her pomp and pride Alas They that live in Sea-ports should bee Moses's and Aaron's to stand in the gap and plead with God and not trash and trumpery When people live profanely and irreligiously in Sea-ports it makes all strangers think that people are no better that live higher up in the Land truly they will bee apt to censure the whole Nation if it bee not amended amongst you 2 Word is unto the States-men of our Land and that is succinctly this What Claudian the Heathen Poet sang of Theodosius's good success in the wars the like shall I sing of our English Warriours in the Seas O nimium dilecte Deo cui militat aether Et conjurati veniunt ad classica venti That all their warlike Ships and Boats that are employed in the Seas derive their felicitous arrivals and good success abroad whether unto or from Spain and the West-Indies or off and from those many parts and corners of the World where now you send them from the Lord Almighty whose the the Sea is And hee bringeth them to their desired haven Italiam Italiam laeto clamore salutant Virg. Good news is coming to you oftentimes from them and that as thick as the three luckie messengers that were sent to King Philip of Macedon at one time 1. One came and told him that â—â—e had won the game at Olympus by the running of his Chariots 2. Another came and brought him word that his Captain Parmenio had overthrown the Dardanians 3. Another came and told him that his wife Olympia had born him a son which was called Alexander and hee was very fair for a fourth It is not the Pagans Neptune or the Papagans S. Nicholas I know not what that delivers people in the Seas brings them home to their harbours as many ignorant Papists fancy 3. Word is unto the Merchant and Sea-man I would wrap you both together because you are sharers most commonly either in each others losses or successes you have interests and that of great worth and value in several and sundry bottoms which cut their way through the Salt waters and great wisdom it is indeed not to venture all in one bottom for hee said wittily that said He liked not that wealth that hung in ropes meaning ships There bee many dangers not good to have all in one bottom the Mouse will not trust to one hole therefore shee has many if in case shee bee assaulted But that which I ayme at unto you Gentlemen is this when any of your ships come home and richly laden with the rich and wealthy Commodities of forein parts which you are partakers and sharers in Oh bee affected with such mercies and consider how undeservedly the Lord throws in the world upon you it flows in upon you and flyes â—ay from others Ah Sirs when your ships come home bless the Lord for his goodness towards you and them in bringing them home both to theirs and also your desired Haven 4. Word is unto the Inland Towns and Cities of the Nation Gentlemen I may say to our Inland-Towns Cities what the Orator in another case once said to his Auditory Non timet mare qui non navigat non bellum qui noâ— bellat non terae motum qui est in Galatia non fulmen qui est in Aethiopia They that sail not know not what the roughness of the Seas are Their condition in the Sea is like the mans in the Emblem that runs through thick thin foul fair saying Culmen ad Aonidum recto contendere cursu Fert animus Pindi saxa pâ—â— tribulos Friends and Country-men you live far from the Sea neither are you in the sight of it at any time nor in the hearing of its roaring and ear-deafening waves yet is not this any excuse for you to bee unmindful of those that are employed in it and daily upon it Sea-men which are the Nations servants run through a Million of hazzards to fetch in the rich and costly Commodities of forein parts viz. Silks Spices Oranges Figs and Lemmons c. The shipping of the Land is not onely Sub Deo instrumental to keep you in safety but also to afford you those Commodities that have not their growth nor entity in England David lived at Jerusalem far from the Sea as many of you do yet was not hee ignorant of the many sorrows and dangers that those that use the Seas do goe through and meet withall Whereupon you have him here composing of their condition into a Psalm and is much affected with it Hee was sensible of the blowing of the winds of the raging and roaring of the Seas of the Rocks and Sands of the dangers and shipwracks that men in those employments were liable to Ah Sirs pitty them that go in the Seas and bestow a thousand prayers upon them for their condition calls for it and requires it at your hands if you have any spark of pitty and Christianity in you
the sea Storms are the Lords surly Sergeants whom hee claps upon mens backs in the Seas to arrest them which say unto them that go in the Seas as Greg did to the Emperour Anastatius whom he took by the sleeve and told him Sir this silken cassock and this scarlet coâ—t you shall not carry hence with you This ship says a storm shall never go to her Harbour is by of and from the Divine permission and appointment of the Lord. God out of wrath and displeasure suffers some to go to the pot and perish Many ships have gone out with very famous names upon them some called the Swallow some the Antelope some the Lawrel and some again the Bonadventure some the Meer-maid some the Swift-sure and other some the Triumph and one Rock Sand Storm or casualty or other has in a short time given them the new name of a Non-such It is reported of a ship that had been a very long time out at Sea and having made a very good voyage of it shee was hard by and very fair for her Port but before shee could get into it a storm arose and drave her back and she mourningly said Per ware per procellas tutissime huc usque navigavi ac portum juxta infelicissime mergor I have hitherto gone clear and escaped all seas and storms and now my greatest misery is this I must perish in the sight of my harbour The Use that I would have all that go in the Seas to make of this Truth praedelivered will bee this Vse Nauf agium ad paucos ut mâ—tus ad omnes perveniat some suffer shipwrack that fear and terrour may strike upon the rest 1. Look upon the shipwrack of others with deep solid serious and not with flying and transient consultations that they may sink into your hearts and spirits fix your eyes upon such steep your thoughts in their sorrows ponder them in their certainty causes severity it is not possible that posting passengers can ever bee any serious or curious observers of homeward or forein Countries Ah Sirs dwell upon the Sea-monuments of Divine Justice transient thoughts does not become such dreadful and permanent judgements Quot vulnera tot ora Other mens harms should bee our warnings and Sea-standing spectacles Misericordia Judicium sunt duo pedes Domini are the two feet on which the Lord is oftentimes found walking upon with those that use the Seas I may say unto you that use the Seas as the Prophet said unto Israel in another case Isa 42.23 24. Who among you will give ear to this Who will hearken and hear for the time to come 2. Behold Gods Judgments in storms with particular application Many or indeed the major part of Sea-men hearing of the Judgments of God upon the Seas say within themselves and to the ships they are in as Peter once said to Christ These things shall not bee to us or as proud Babylon said of her self Ah Sirs mee thinks many of your calling run riot swagger swear drink and whore as if hell were broke loose God had dispensed with Justice and Judgement and granted you a general indulgence Your destruction in the Seas is never neerer than when you put it furthest from you Baltazar was tiplâ—ng but he was surprized in his bowels Dan. â— Ah! you live as if you had passed the day of Judgment over and the very torments of Hell Isa 47.8 I am and none else besides me I shall not sit as a widdow c. and though shee put destruction far from her yet was shee laid in the dust there cry the Ostriches and there dance the Satyres Isa 13.21 Few places have such prerogatives as Nineveh had so much state had that famous City says Volateran that it was eight years in building and all that time no less than ten thousand workmen upon it and Diodorus Siculus says that the height of the walls were an hundred foot the bredth able to receive three Carts in a brest it had one thousand five hundred Turrets and yet none of these have any other than paper walls to preserve their memories by Sin turned the seven Churches of Asia Nice Ephesus and Chalcedon who were famous for General Councils into rubbish and ruines pastures for Oxen and Sheep Sea-men In the Emblem there is a naked sword an halter about it Discite Justitiam laqueus monet illud et ensis Sirs you should learn goodness out of storms you are doing that your selves which you may see God punishing in others if you will but if God bee somewhat slack and loth to punish you as hee hath done others by sending them into the bottom of the Seas his patience should lead you to repentance Rom. 2.4 Make you better and not the worse Marke But Gods severity towards others and the same God that pays other men their deserved punishment will shortly pay you without speedy and sound repentance What ever you see God punishing in others in the Seas bee sure you beware of that in your selves if God punish a sinning Cain by setting a brand upon him it is to teach others to keep their hands from blood if God throw a Dives into Hell it is to teach others that they keep cleer of the sin of covetousness if hee set a fire on the Gates of Jerusalem for breaking the Sabbath it is to teach others to keep it holy Plurimae intrant pauciores perambulant paucissimae recedunt may bee the Motto of the Lords dealings with many ships that justly for their wretched unsavoury lives If hee hurl ships and Sea-men into the bottoms of the great deeps it is to teach others to take heed of swearing and the graceless lives that they lived and led whilst above water When the Epitamizer of Trogus had to the full described and set forth King Ptolomie's riot as the chief and principal cause of his ruine and destruction hee adds this Tympanum Tripudium It was when hee was fidling and danceing So should any ask mee when ships or wherefore such and such ships were cast away I should say it was when and because they were swearing 3. Behold Gods Judgments in storms with an eye of prudent anticipation and prevention Were such and such swearers and drunkards cast away in the last storm I may say of such ships as are cast away as one said of the fallen Angels 2 Pet. 2.4 5 6. God hanged them up in Gibbets that others might hear see and fear and do no more so wickedly So the Lord cast so many sail away in a stormy night or in a stormy day that you might take warning to live after another manner than they did Ah souls flye you then from that wrath which you are at such times warned of is it not easier to keep out of the Sea than to get out of it I have often times observed that both birds and beasts will avoid those places where
as easie to say who cast away the brave ships that go in the salt waters as it is to say such a man built them every plank that is broken by the dashing waves of the Seas which are many times to bee seen swiming here and floating there hath a tongue to speak and to accuse the villany prophaneness and impiety of the persons so dealt with Mee thinks I see it written in fair legible and visible characters and capital letters upon all the sunk ships and wracks that bee and lye about the shores and Sea-coasts in all Countries whether East or West North or South A fruitful land maketh hee barren for the iniquity of them that dwell therein Many a ship that is well rigged tackled trimmed manned and gunned with her top and Top-gallant and her spread Sails proudly swelling with a full Sail in a fair day hath gone to the pot before the evening Brave Merchant and warlike ships comes to ruine by and through the wickedness of those that live in them Full little did the ship-builders or the owners think that the costly and brave warlike Fabricks should so soon violently end in a desolate rubbish It is not for us to bee high-minded but to fear no ship is so well cauked so well decked or planked but may give way and lay all her passengers in the bottome Surely Gentlemen you that use the Seas may very well say with the Magicians in Scripture when ships are cast away Exod. 8.19 Then the Magicians said unto Pharaoh This is the finger of God Lachrymae ubi vos subtraxistis Lachrymae ubi estis fontes lachrymarum fluite super facies nostras rigate maxillas 7. Bee filled with weeping tears either at the hearing or at your seeing of ships sunk and cast away in the Seas I confess those that dye in the waters are more to bee lamented than those that go to their graves by a timely death at land Lament 4.9 They that bee slain with the sword are better than they that be drowned Homer brings in brave Ulysses in great despair and disgustion of a drowning death when labouring in a dismal tempest I do not much wonder though the Lord knows it pities my heart that ships are cast away many times because it is nothing else but the infinite patience of God that they are kept up above water there bee so many oaths sworn in them which far exceed either the number of the stars in the heavens or of the drops in the Ocean 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 wishing hee had dyed among the Trojans than dye ignobly in the Seas Hee abhorred to dye in the waters Christ wept over Jerusalem when hee fore-saw her desolation and so did hee over Lazarus in his grave Bee affected with the sufferings of those that miscarry in the Seas Can you hear of Gods judgements in the Seas both against others and your selves and not bee affected with it Oh hardness of heart Oh mores Oh tempora Let mee tell you that I have seen a bird that hath got loose from a stone or stick unto which it hath been tyed yet in flying with the string about its heels it hath been intangled in the next bough or branch it may bee thus with you you have escaped in many a storm but take heed that you go not to the pot in the next I have observed it that there is a great deal of tenderness in the hearts of those that live in Sea-ports upon this account in respect there is much weeping and wringing of their hands for the deaths of their friends and acquaintance in such cases John such a one and Thomas such a one was cast away in such a storm I cannot blame them I have read of Achilles that hee took such delight and pleasure in his dear friend Patroclus En triftis rumor nostras pervenit ad aures that upon a time in his long absence he was much dejected because hee feared that hee should never see him more his mother Thetis to drive off his melancholy thoughts brought him an elaborate buckler made by Vulcan Cubans in facie â—ox deinde supinus One while he lay on his back and another while upon his face for grief which had imbost upon it Sun Moon Stars Planets Sea Land Men fighting running riding hills walls Towns Towers Castles Brooks Rivers Trees any thing every thing his heart could desire yet nothing could quiet him for his minde still ran upon his dear friend Patroclus Errat in nulla sede moratur amor may be the Motto of what is spoken of and so it must needs bee with those that live in Sea-ports who sometimes lose dear husbands other sometimes their children sometimes their brethren and other sometimes their kindred 8. Labour for a fruitful and profitable improvement both of your own and also of others sufferings in the Seas humbly intreat the Lord that no storm may blow over without benefit to your souls None sleep so soundly as they who continue sleeping under the greatest joggings Physick if it works not proves hurtful to the Patient If thou art so close nailed and glewed to thy swearing drinking whoring and dabling in sin that storms cannot part thee and them it is a provocation to God to leave thee It was a good saying of one after many storms and dangers upon the Seas I have had sayes her Pedem alterum in Cymba Charontis alterum in ripa Acherontica but I am the better for it It is good to bee sometimes in this life Inter Scyllam Charybdim inter scopulos et arenas Isa 1.5 and an encouragement to Satan that hee shall keep thee God is never more displeased than when hee takes away judgements in judgement than when he punishes you by delivering you out of storms and leaving you to your own hearts Ah Sirs beg of God that the blessed opportunities of shipwracking storms may never leave you as bad as they found you and that no wind may go down till it hath driven you nearer unto your God But I proceed to what remains That God hath power to do what hee Observ 6 will with our ships and ours and hath no Sovereign unto whom hee is Lauda navigantem cum pervenerit ad portum There is much danger to be tugged with all before the ship gets to her Port. or can bee made accountable or responsible for what hee doth Then hee brings c. How far then should every man bee from expecting that he should give them or any other an account of his actions and proceedings It should suffice them that what ever befalls them in the Seas is from the Lord Job 1.21 The Lord gives and the Lord takes blessed bee his name The Lord brings us home and other sometimes hee cuts us short of coming home blessed bee his name That those that fear God in their respective Observ 7 ships at Sea are never unsafe Hee brings them unto
their desired Haven Gods people upon the Sea even the very meanest of them may say I never stir out nor sail in the great deeps but my life-guard goes along with mee and if they want for preservation there is never a creature in heaven or earth Sea or land but both will and shall take their parts What man is able to finde out a danger in which God could not or the time when God did not help them Ah Sirs never distrust God Was it dangerous to bee shut out of the Ark when the waters increased upon the old world or to bee shut out of the City of Refuge when the Avenger of blood pursued or to want blood upon the door posts when the Angel was destroying and is it not as dangerous to those that go to Sea without the fear of God Consider but that What hath been said and recorded of Troys Palladium that whilst that image remained there the City was impregnable had not the Greeks found out the stratagem to steal their Idol away they could never have conquered the City I will say of the godly and religious that go in the Seas whilst they walk close with their God It is reported that the Seas on a time being very rough and tempestuous great waves and billows flying mountain high a great Vessel was sailing upon them and every wave threatning to drown her the wicked wretches that were in her scared not the Seas the Waves asked them how it happened that they were no more fearful quoth the Mariners Nos Nautae We are Mariners How much more may the godly say in time of storms Nos Christiani et Deum Omnipotentem habemus the waves shall never hurt them 2 Chron. 15.2 The Lord is with you while you bee with him and if you seek him hee will bee found of you but if you forsake him hee will forsake you That the Lords merciful dealings with Observ 7 the sons of men in the Seas gives the world a convincing evidence of his gracious nature willingness and readiness to do good and to shew favour unto all Hee brings them to their desired Haven That when God will deliver a people out Observ 8 of storms in a shelterless Sea then no opposition shall nor can oppose or hinder him Hee brings them to their desired Haven No powers in Heaven Sea or Land that God cannot over-top and make vail and strike sail to him when hee pleases Psal 114.3 4 5 6 7. What ailed thee Oh thou Sea that thou fleddest thou Jordan that thou wast driven back Proud-vanting This was Davids experience of Gods readinesse to help him when in distresse Psal 18.10 And hee rode upon a Cherub and did flye yea hee did flye upon the wings of the wind The Lord is continually upon one Cherubs back or other over and upon the great deeps one while in the North and another while in the South c. for your deliverance and billow-bouncing Seas soon lower their top-sails at Gods rebuke Vers 31. Oh that men would praise the Lord for his goodness and for his wonderful works to the children of men IN the words wee may soon espye two remarkable things 1. A vehement desire Oh that men would praise the Lord. 2. A duplicatory reason of this desire 1 For his goodness 2. For his wonderful works to the children of men If the heavens were parchment the Seas Iâ—ke and every pile of grasse in the world a pen all would be too little to set forth the high praises of the Lord by This Verse seems to include the ardent earnestness of the Psalmists spirit that Sea-men would bee much in thankfulness and much and frequent in praising of the Lord their deliverer out of all their distresses Oh seems hee to say that I could put men upon this duty it would bee more comfortable to mee seems the Psalmist to say to finde such a principle in the hearts of those that are imployed in the great waters Ah Sirs you let the fresh running floods of Jordan I mean your Sea-deliverances fall into the mare mortuum of your forgetfulnesse than any one thing in the world again whatsoever Oh is but a little word consisting of two letters but no word that ever a man utters with his tongue comes with that force and affection from the heart as this doth Oh is a word of the highest expression a word when a man can say no more This Interjection oftentimes starts out of the heart upon a sudden from some unexpected conception or admiration or other In the composure of these words wee have two things onely considerable 1. The manner of it 2. The matter of it Oh that men would praise the Lord. But to open the words a little Oh that men would praise the Lord c. Heb. That they would confess it to the Lord both in secret and in society this is all the rent that God requires hee is contented that those that use the Seas should have the comfort of his blessings so hee may have the honour of them this was all the fee Christ looked for for his cures Go and tell what God hath done for thee words seem to bee a poor and slight compensation but Christ saith Nazianzen calls himself the Word That deliverances at Sea out of storms Observ 1 and Tempests call upon all the sharers therein and the receivers thereof to bee evermore thankfully praising and magnifying the wonderful goodness Lucan reports that the Elephants that come out of the Nabathaean Woods to wash themselves in the floods near unto them as if to purifie will fall down to adore the Moon or otherwise their Creator and return into the woods again And will nor you that use the Seas to your God that delivers you and undeserved kindness of the Lord vouchsafed unto them Oh that men would praise the Lord. Shall I prove the poynt I profess if Scripture were silent no man I should think should bee so audaciously impudent as to deny the verity thereof 1 Thes 5.18 In every thing give thanks for that is the will of God If in every thing then surely in and for Sea-preservations Men must take heed that they bee not thankless in this thing lest the Heavens blush at their ingratitude Psal 119.62 At midnight will I rise to give thanks to thee Ah that our Sea-men were as forward as they lie in their Cabbins and Hammocks Ah Sirs how many voyages make you to and again upon the Seas one while into the East-Indies So affected were the inthralled Greeks with their liberty procured by Flaminius the Roman Generael that out of thankfulness to him they would oftentimes lift up their voices in such shrill acclamations crying Soter Soter Saviour Saviour that the very birds would fall down from the heavens astonished and amazed And will not you Gentlemen be affected with your Sea deliverances and another while into the West one while into the North and another while
a Kings heart Oh praise the Lord. Sirs you usually pay people in forein parts for your Anchorage in their Harbours for your Pilotage into them for boyage in the Seas and lightage upon land and will you return nothing unto your God You are the Lords Tenants you sit on very great Rents and great Rents you have to pay surely you had need to bee stirring do what you can you will dye in Gods debt Now thankfulness stands not in words and complements if you would express your thankfulness unto God Sirs then do thus 1. Labour to come out of all your storms and Sea-dangers as Job did out of his affliction Job 23.10 When hee hath tried mee I shall come forth as gold It would bee a brave thing that every Sailor that goes into the Furnace of a fiery stormy and raging Sea Beleeve it Sirs God looks for it at your hands What is said of the statue of Juno in the holy City near to Euphrates in Assyria that it will evermore look towards one let them sit where they will in her Temple shee stares full upon them and if you go by shee follows with her eye the same shall I say of the Lord go where you will on Sea or Land the Lords eye follows you should come out of it as gold doth out of the fire when they come on land Ah who would not but take a turn at Sea then to bee purified from their dross 2. Offer unto God the ransome of your lives as the Law runs Exod. 31. leave some seal or pawn of thankfulness behinde you The Gracians paint Jupiter in their Temples with his hands full of thunderbolts Sirs be afraid of unthankfulness Heathens after a ship-wrack a storm or a fit of sickness will offer something or other to their gods for every preservation That thanksgiving is to bee suspected that lyes in nothing but words Give God your hearts hee gives you his mercies Give God your lives hee gave you them when you were in danger 3. Let God have soul-thankfulness from you if wee receive but any benefit or special kindness from our friends our hearts acknowledge it and our tongues confess it Sirs Do what you can you will dye in Gods debt and wee cannot bee at quiet till wee some way or other requite it 4. Let God also have mouth-thankfulness from you let your tongues walk apace and speak at the highest rate you can to the praise of God Psal 124.2 3. If it had not been the Lord who was on our side then had the Seas at such and such a time swallowed us up and at another time drowned us 5. Let God have life-thankfulness from you this God had of and from David in full measure Psal 145.2 Every day will I bless thee and I will praise thy name for ever and ever I have known that those that have undertaken to buy and redeem poor captives out of a Turkish bondage slavery they have vowed to bee their servants all the dayes of their lives A certain Jew when travelling over a deep River in the night where the bridge was broken down saving onely that there was one narrow plank laid over to foot it on he rid very safely over and being asked the next day how he got over he knew nothing and going back through the peoples intreaty swounded away and dyed at the consideration of his deliverance Ah Sirs will not you be Gods servants all the daies of your lives who has delivered you so often out of storms and raging Seas and inevitable dangers 6. Let mee intreat you to look back upon mercy and then tell mee if you can bee unthankful Act. 27.1 And when they were escaped then they knew that the Island was called Melita They viewed their mercy on every side 7. Compare your selves with others others have been denied to be delivered and lye ship and men in the bottome of the Sea and you and your ships are still floating and swimming whilst others are drowned 8. Are not others that have tasted of your deliverances in the Seas often and many a time blessing and thanking of God both in private and publick and will you bee unthankful 9. Bee resolute for the duty of thanksgiving unto God 10. Consider what thou hadst been and where thou hadst been if mercy had not prevented Psal 89.48 and an hand been reached out of heaven as it were to have helped thee 11. Certainly if thou wert but changed from the state of a sinner thou wouldest bee oftner in the thanking of thy God than thou art 12. Were but our Sea-men a generation of people that were much and often in godly sorrows Now if you will not bee thankful unto the Lord for all your deliverances take heed lest hee say Judg 10.13 Wherefore I will deliver you no more they would bee oftner in their thanksgivings unto the Lord. 13. Were but those that use the Seas filled with divine relishes of Gospel graces they would bee thanking of their God oftner than they are He that is the fullest of the spirit of grace is the onely fittest man to bee thankful unto God 14. Were but those that use the Seas much in minding of the mercies and deliverances of the Lord bestowed upon them they would bee a far thankfuller people than they are I have read of one that was in very great debt and yet notwithstanding that he slept as well as if hee had had the greatest estate that could bee to pay it with a great Gentleman in the Country observing it desired him that hee would bee pleased to sell him his bed Ah Sirs you are much in debt to God Psal 5.15 I will sing unto the Lord because hee hath dealt mercifully with mee 15. Did but those that use the Seas take up their joyes and delights in God they would be more thankful unto their God than they are Ah may I not say Psal 78.42 They remembred not his hand nor the day when hee delivered them from the enemy Observ 7 That the Lords creating of the Seas for the use of Navigation to that end men who can neither flye nor swim might the more facilly and commodiously commerce one with another in all and throughout all the forein parts of the world is a point of Gods great praise Oh that men would praise the Lord Heraclitus was such an admirer of the Sea that he said if wee wanted the Sun we should be in perpetual darknesse if wanted the Sea live like barbarous people God has founded the Earth upon the Seas and established it upon the floods Psal 24.2 Aristotle looked upon this as one of the greatest wonders of nature and well hee might that God should set the solid Earth upon the back of the waters for mans conveniency Psal 104.6 7. Jer. 5.22 That the saving and delivering mercies Observ 8 of God at Sea are and ought to bee carefully had and kept in a perpetual remembrance Oh
come through the Seas out of an ambitious and aspiring nature to compare and try whether they or the ships should swim or sail the fastest This is not unlikely for to my experience I have seen them accompanying of us for a longtime together both in the Mediterranean and elsewhere some swimming on head some on stern some on the Starbord-side of us and othersome on the Larbord like so many Sea-pages or Harbingers runing before our wooden horses as if they were resolved by the best language that fish could give us to welcome us into and through the waters and telling us that they would go along with us And notwithstanding all this wonderfull kindness of theirs to us which I have oftentimes much delighted in it has ended very tragically unto their sorrow For it is the Sea-mans custom to take al opportunities of killing those fish that are good and mandable and thereupon they have got their fisgigs or other instruments in readiness and upon and by reason of their propinquity and neerness have oftentimes most sadly wounded and killed of them Meditations 1. I have hereby learned thus much wisdom that it is dangerous fawning upon strangers and that all acquaintance and intimateness with carnal natural and unregenerate men who are and have no more in them than a natural principle and are in possession of no higher excellencies that their friendship will suddenly turn into enmity and hatred ruining both a mans good name estate and liberty Our Saviour Christ who was so well accomplished and imbued with all spiritual wisdom would not commit himself unto man John 2.24 25. Because he knew right well what was in man They that disclose their secrets to plausible and carnal men they play the Thrashes part to halter themselves I◠is said of this bird Turdus sibi malum cacat Shee leaves her doing in the trees and the Fowler makes Bird-lime of it to take her withall Wisdom will apply it Is it not then great folly in people to lay open themselves to men whom they know not 2. That Gods righteous and holy children who are both harmeless and innocent doves even as quiet and peaceable in the world as domable or indomable doves are that sit upon their Columbaries or other birds that perk themselves upon the highest or lowest branches or as Dolphins in the Sea which intend the Mariner no hurt nor harm yet cannot the godly and the upright live at quiet for them in the world for their arrows are dayly notched and upon their strings that they may privily shoot at the upright in heart Psal 11.2 It is an infallible argument that the spirit of the Devil is in those that have no love unto the godly for they tarry but here for a while till death the Saints transporting charriot comes to waft them out of it of whom the world is not worthy Heb. 11.38 and then they will bee gone from that unclean impure and soul-vexing rabble that they doe live near and amongst 3. That the wiseman foresees a danger and therefore hides himself whilst the foolish run on and are punished Prov. 22.3 4. They have in the Salt-waters a frequent aspect of the ravenous feral and preying sort of fish called a Shark Shark of whom the Mariner is more afraid than of all the fish in the Sea besides Some have observed of this fish that they have not stuck to clammer up upon their ship sides out of a greediness to feed upon the Sailors in their ships This Pickroon if hee can but take any of them bathing themselves in it in the Summer-time hee will tear them limb from limb so great a lover hee is of the flesh of man To describe you this creature I must tell you that he is of very great bulk and of a double or treble set or gang of teeth which are as sharp as needles but God out of his infinite wisdom considering the fierceness and violence of the creature has so ordered him that hee is forced to turn himself upon his back before hee can have any power over his prey or otherwise nothing would escape him This fish has dismembered many a poor Sea-man and also taken away the life of many a man before ever they could bee rescued out of their cruelty Meditations 1. The sight of this creature imprinted no less than this in and upon my spirit That sin has not onely brought a curse upon the earth and upon and into many of the creatures that are upon the Land Psal 8.6 The foul of the aire and the fish of the sea and whatsoever passeth through the paths of the sea Not so now Fallen man has lost Imperium suum Imperium sui the command of himself the command of the creatures but also into and upon those that bee and now are also in the Seas Insomuch that there is both great danger in walking amongst them and sailing upon the Seas Sin has exceedingly dishonoured man in respect that the creatures have such ferity and audacity in them to disown him and to rise up in arms against him whom at the first they owned as their Supream All the creatures when they came before Adam subjected themselves but now not so for that was in the time or state of mans innocency and integrity in which if he had permained and continued hee might still have expected the same or a more willing obedience and subjection from them than either now is or can bee had since the fall Certainly they should then have carried man and not have groaned under their burthen as now they do The Greek word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and it imports thus much that all the creatures stand upon tip to listning hearkning for the day of their deliverance Rom. 8.21 Look upon all the creatures and tell me what hearts they have to serve sinful man It is true God gave man at first dominion over all the creatures Gen. 1.26 And this prerogative being given to man the question may bee to what man and in what condition not to sinfull man but to man after Gods own Image and likeness to man made upright Eccles 7.29 Not to the ungodly man so that the prime end of all the creatures service was directed to righteous man man after Gods own Image and likeness but for the creatures to serve wicked ungodly and unrighteous men is both beyond and besides the prime end and therefore according to their nature they groan because they obtain not their first end that is they are not pleased Indeed they are not intelligent and in that respect they know it not but yet it is against the first law of their creation that they should bee servants unto wicked men they were not created for that end If the Horse the Oxe c. knew but thus much it would greatly displease them but it is not fitting nor convenient that they should know it because it would bee great
6. An inundation of all iniquity 7. An old man without Religion 8. Young men without obedience and reverence 9. Rich men without liberality and alms deeds 10. Opinionative contentious and turbulent Christians 11. A people that would neither have good laws nor governement I would it were enacted in England as it was amongst the Locrians as Demosthenes tells us Every Citizen that was desirous to bring in any new Law let him come and declare it in publick with an halter about his neck to that end that if it bee not both meet and profitable for the Commonwealth hands may bee laid hold on him to hang him I would there were an halter about every seditious man's neck in England It is observed of the Lacedemonians that they continued seven hundred years without any alteration of government and that the Venetians have lived in one form of government for the space of a thousand years Wee are so fickle in England that wee would have a new one every year That men after they are delivered out Observ 6 of their Sea-dangers should study to apprehend them no less lively than when they were in them Then are they glad c. This was Israels experience after all Psal 124.1 If it had not been the Lord who was on our side now may Israel say What would have become of us if God had not looked out of the heavens into the deep and shelterless Seas for us So hee bringeth them unto their desired haven Qui adversis ventis undis navigat portam petit Whilst the Sea-man is in the storm it seems hee has an impetuous desire to bee delivered out of it The wearied Traveller longs not with greater vehemency to leave the road and take up at his Inne or the labouring woman to bee at her journies end than the Mariner doth in a storm to bee in some good Harbour Ships whilst out are lyable to a thousand ominous contingencies I am at Sea and not on Land expect no curious division of the words The notes are these Observ 1 That the Sea-man doth earnestly desire the Haven when tossed in violent furious and horrid storms In angusto flumine tutiores istae naves quam quae in pelagi natantes fluctibus So he bringeth them unto their desired Haven When I have been in heart-danting storms the land hath been as much in my thoughts and as much desired as ever Leucippe was of whom the Poet speaks Nihil praeter Leucippen cerno nihil praeter Leucippen cerno Leucippe Leucippe mihi perpetuo in oculis animo versatur Observ 2 That every ships safe arrival at any Port or Harbour whether far or near at home or abroad is by and through the special blessing means and good providence of the Lord. So hee bringeth them c. I wish I might not say of Sea-men as it was once said of Epicurus The Sailor at Sea may fitly bee compared to the picture of the naked man in the Almanack who is miserably beset on all sides the Ram pushes at the head the Bull gores the neck the Lion tears the heart the Scorpion tears the privy parts another shoots at the thighs c. yet doth God bring them out of and over all the pushing waves who was not afraid to deny that there was neither God nor Providence but held that all things came to pass by chance and fate Alas such difficulty and jeopardy is there in the Sea-mans imployment by reason of storms rocks shelves and sands that it is a meer wonder that ever any one of them comes back safely home into their Harbours It is wonderful or at leastwise should bee to every one that either lives in Sea-port Towns or comes accidentally into them to see how many poor ships come home torn and tattered some with never a Mast standing others with their Rudders struck off others again with never a Cable nor Anchor on board others with dangerous leaks and laborious pumping and others again with so many manglements that it is a very great wonder to see the providence of God in the preserving of them and returning of them home One brings in the Sea-man thus congratulating All good Havens and Harbours Good Havens and ship-sheltring Harbours Si nobis sint linguae centum sint oraque centum had wee an hundred tongues a peece or were wee all fluently Chrysostomized Tullyized or Demosthenized far more thanks and praise should you have from our lips and mouths quam in coelo stellulae aut mare guttulae than there bee stars in the Heavens or drops in the Ocean In the interim you shall have all the grateful acknowledgements that possibly can bee for the many favours wee receive from you both in the Winter and Summer season and these shall bee continued to you Dum juga montis aper fluvios dum piscis amabit as long as ever the wild Boar shall range the craggy and bramble wilderness or the great Leviathan sport her self amongst the scaly inhabitants in an unfathomable Ocean When wee are far out at Sea in rugged and austere and bitter storms ☞ Adeste Adeste you seem to shout out unto us Voce Stentatereâ Virgilianâ linguâ in that sweet candid tone of Virgils Alas If wee should call down all the Nine noble Muses out of the famous Mount of Helicon or pray to bee assistant the three loving Graces or great Apollo god Master and chief Inventor of Eloquence or witty Mercury with his dulce and sugred Rhetorick with sweet Suada goddess of all perfection all would bee little enough to express our thankfulness unto good Harbours Hic tamen hac mecum poteris requiascere nocte Fronde super viridi◠sunt nobis mitia ponia Castaneae molles Eccl. 1. Come take up your lodgings with us whilst the wind is so boysterous and so dangerously turbulent and besides for your entertainment here is a cup of good Bear Ale and Wine to refresh you The Sea-mans thankful Reply Could wee but catch those beamy rayes Which Phoebus at high noon displayes Wee 'd set them on a loom and frame Webs of praise for you o' th' same Give mee leave now after all to offer a word or two of good savoury and wholesome counsel The first will bee unto all the Haven Towns in England The second is unto all our Inland Towns and Cities in and through the Nation 1. You that are the Haven Towns of our Nation ☜ Haven is an old Saxon word and comes of Have in to the Harbour o◠Town you dwell all of you as Zebulun the Mariners Tribe did at the Haven of the Sea Gen. 49.13 and are Havens for ships Your seats dwellings and habitations are fair in the view and prospect of the great and formidable Seas where goe all the Warring and Merchandizing ships of this Nation and not of this onely The Sea-mans imployment is as dangerous as the Snales going over the stone wall bridge on the
out side of which was nothing but deep water saying Lente equidem tamen attente gradior morae nulla est Si modo sat bent quo vis cito sat venies but of divers others also now the remote and Inland Towns of our Nation have not that delectable aspect that you daily have they are far from beholding the mountainous Seas the dreadful storms and shipwracks that are perpetually happening and befalling that restless element which you both see and daily hear of Sea-men tell you many a story how at such a time the winds blew their sails rent their masts broke and how at such a time they were shipwracked some got to shore upon this peece of plank and another upon that and at another time how they were put to it by reason of the leakiness of their ship and a thousand more dangers besides these do they tell you of All that I aim at unto you is this Bee affected with your deliverances Exod. 4.31 And when they heard that the Lord had visited the children of Israel and that hee had looked upon their affliction then they bowed their heads and worshipped Oh bee melted at the goodness of God towards men in this imployment and when they come into your Towns perswade the poor Sea-men to fear the Lord and win them if you can unto the liking of the good wayes of God One of the saddest plagues that I know of this day in England is in our Sea-port Towns the people in them care not if they can but get their monies though they leave a thousand Oaths behinde them in their houses 2. When you see great Fleets upon the Seas or going out of your Harbours or from the other parts of our Nation put up your prayers unto the Lord for them and in their behalf perhaps your eyes may never see them more The Sea-mans life is not unlike to the roof of the great Temple in Jerusalem which as Villalpandus records out of Josephus shewed flowers growing amongst gilded prickles The best dayes of your lives have many a thorn in them nor they ever see the land or shore again their imployment hath so many thousand casualties attending it Multa cadunt inter calicem supremaque labrae That comes in an hour that happens not in a thousand The Sea is not unlike to Proteus whom Homer tells of A ship in the Sea is in as much danger of being lost as the Owl in the Emblem who had many fowls pecking at her to tear her in peeces Perfero quid faciam nequeo compeâ—cere multos Spumat aper fluit unda fremit Leo sibilat anguis It foams like a Boar flyes like a flood hisses like a Snake and roars like a Lion Did Inland Towns but see and know of the staggering dangers that Sea-men go through they would send out their prayers for them that God would allay storms moderate Seas halter the winds and that God would prosper them to their desired Ports Ah Sirs No grace resembles God so much as the promoting of the good of others as well as our own private and particular good Every man looks upon his own things Phil. 2.21 Sea-port Towns in this case should resemble the Emblem of the candle pro vobis luceo ardeo I am willing to do all the good I can All minde themselves sayes the Apostle all comparatively in respect of the paucity of those that do pray for the good of others It was Tacitus's word of that famous Roman Emperour Sibi bonus aliis malus Hee that is too much for himself fails to bee good to others I may say of Haven Towns as some Antients used to say of the Statues of their Princes that they would have them alwayes placed by their fountains intimating that they were or at leastwise should bee Fountains of publick good Your dwellings are by the great Ocean side from whence you should learn to resemble it in the publick good it doth it admits every Bark Ship and Vessel to come and sail in it and upon it You should not bee for your selves onely but for others Sea-men sit in the waves of the Sea as he in the Emblem did of whom it is said Dum clavum rectum teneam navimque gubernem Uni committam caetera cuncta Deo Pray for them Oh let ships that sail in the Seas have many prayers from you bee they our Country or any other Country shipping that you see pray for them Is not the good of many to bee preferred above and before a private good Matth. 5.45 God makes his Sun to shine and his rain to fall upon the unjust as well as upon the just You cannot resemble God in any thing more than in being publick-spirited for the good of others 3. When you see the great ships of War that are the woodden walls of our land go out to Sea pray for them and for their good success and prosperity against the enemies of Jesus Christ to the end they may bee preserved in those hot and dreadful disputes that they are oftentimes called unto You can salute them now and then with your roaring Ordnance from off your Castles and Sea-ports Town and make all flye in fire and smoak when they are takeing their farewel of the Land The Sea is ful of perils not unlike to the English Colledge at Valladolid in Spain which at ones very first entrance bee terribiles visu formas terrible shapes and representations of men with knives at their throats Alas to the eye of reason death attends their imployment in the Seas every day they uprise or at their return home from some prolix voyage Ah Sirs salute them with your prayers that will do them most good Can you see the Warlike Frigots of this Land sailing and crusing of it every day upon the Seas before your eyes which lye out night and day in an uncomfortable and restless Sea to secure your Harbours Towns and Trading and yet never bee affected with their dangers fears and sorrows Can you go to your beds at an evening and rise up in the morning and never think of them who lye rocking reeling and staggering in the roaring and raging waves Let mee argue the case with you Is not the Commonwealth of England a great first rate And is not or hath not every one in the Nation their cabbins houses The Sea-mans habitation is Ubi nil est nisi pontus aer But yours is upon firm land and habitations in it our Nation is but an Island and stands in the Sea and so may very well bee resembled to a ship all of you are passengers and partners in this ship and if shee prosper miss or hit upon the rocks and sands that bee in the Seas you are like to bee sharers therein so that in seeking the publick good you most wisely seeke your own good 4. Certainly my friends Praying people in Sea-ports are Englands best Bombardae bellicosissimae Guns either in Towns