meditate terror Yet rejoyce in this that we are within ken of the good land A few Watches more we must run and indeed we must watch as we sail and then we shall see eye to eye and discern the fair haven fairly open for us to enter and land where we long to be On an Anchor that lost its hold and came home and left the ship adrift This Anchor sure had not good ground For if it had it would have kept its hold and not have left the ship thus to drive I see the anchor of hope will not serve the turne to hold the soul in a tempest except the ground of that hope be good There is a hope which hath but an evill ground and in the day of distress it will fail and force the soul to drive O my soule look to thy Hope see where thou castest it Be sure thy Anchor be within the vaile Hope is not good nor grounded except on Christ and free-grace Now the Lord Jesus Christ himselfe and God even the Father who hath loved mee and hath given me everlasting consolation and good hope through grace even that same God comfort my heart and establisheth me in every good word and work that though my hope be singly grounded on grace yet it may bee accompanied with good words and works that I deceive not my self lest my anchor come home and I run afloat ful of fear without hopes or hold in the day of Tempest and tryals On a ship that was left by the Mariners upon the Goodwin-sands in a storm and fetcht off by some Seamen sent to relieve it by my Lord of VVarwick What fearful and unfaithful Mariners were these that left the Vessel to sink and shifted for themselves while their stay and pains might have secured themselves and it well enough Ah Lord may the ship of the state never meet with such Mariners But if that doth stir up some noble Warwicks to send relief to secure the ship which the perfidious Seamen cowardly and unconscionably desert Trust not in men Oh my soul who are unstable as the waters Rely only upon the living God who never forsakes his in a storm or tempest If they prove fearfull and false that ought to tend thy security God can raise up others if he pleases to fetch thee off at any time from any rocks or sands Yea if men fail Sands shall be so good as to keep thee from wracking till Jehovah send help from above to save thee from the waters on which thou sailest that thou sink not and perish On the parting of a ships company at the end of a voyage With what joy do these all part and how glad are these men to leave each other and yet without any malice or ill will They love each other as companions and yet are glad to part company this is indeed a friendly farewell of friends Why should it not be thus between thy soul and body O my heart at the end of thy voyage when death comes and calls upon thee to strike sail and part Why art so loath to leave the carkase thy companion when thou art to go ashore in thy spirit upon Emmannels land Come leap and skip O soul part with the carkase with joy Thy voyage is ended thy months are out Go take thy pay receive thy wages which yet is of grace and not of works Be as glad to go out of the body and to leave it as the Seaman is to leave his ship Yet remember you shall return to your ship again when Mortality shall have put on Immortality your body shall be new rigged and trimmed up And though at the end of time in the World to come John tells us there shall be no Sea yet the Psalmist tells us there shall be a River of Pleasures on which thy soul and body shall sail and swim in an eternall calm of unexpressable bliss in the presence of God in the company of Christ Angels and Saints for evermore Strike fail here O my soul and turmoyle thy self on the Sea of this World no longer THese were some occasional Meditations of my own in the yeer 1642. when I was at sea And I make them thus publike as a pattern that all spiritual Saylors if they have no better may by this imitate themselves upon the like occasions to raise up such Meditations as these are REader I have now ended my Voyage I 'le conclude my Navigation If thou by the help of this Compass arrive the Port I mean Heaven I have my ayme and end therefore I 'le add no more but this This is my desired Haven which I sail unto And while I sail I 'le sing Oh that men would praise the Lord for his goodnesse and for his wonderfull works to the children of men So it is in the Psalm which I commend to every Saylor to studie and to sing Ps 107.30 31. FINIS
their affairs observations and experiences in order to the raising of their hearts to see and praise God for his goodness see ver 3. But more express to help exact meditation remember that here is set forth 1. The man at Sea upon civill accounts verse 23. 2. The spiritual work or duty of him in that his businesse and this is set forth in many branches 1 He is to eye God in his works and wonders v 24. 2. He is to eye God in every storm and tempest 1 As the author of it v. 25 2 As the helper in it v 29 Therefore 3 He is to consider his danger in every storm how neer to death and how full of dread or fear v. 26 27. 4 He is to know his duty in that danger v. 28. 5 He is to consider his joy at the end of danger as ver 30. 6. He is to remember to praise the Lord for his goodness upon the whole verse 31. Now upon these heads meditate thus 1. O my soul the way in which thou art is safe for 't is lawful to traffick by Sea as by Land There is no wickedness in thy way unless thou thy self do make it The Lord as well allowes approves and prospers those whose business is to do in the great waters as whose callings are on the shore 2. But what of God do I see and eye in my way I am to walk with God Enoch-like Gen. 5.24 and as a childe of Abraham Gen. 17.1 So Noah did who was the first that ever swam in ship Hee walked with God righteously on the dry and God secured him in a ship of his own invention in the mighty waters I am not to be as the ship at sea a sensless instrument not kowing whether I sail or what I carry or where I am Neither am I only to eye Winde and Tide but I am to see God to contemplate him in all These waters are his work He made them and gathered them thus together Gen. 1.10 He holds these windes that blow in the hollow of his fist Prov. 30.4 he brings these windes out of his treasure Jer. 10.13 And he rides upon the wings thereof Psal 60.4 Mount my soul above these windes and waters and see thy God in them for they are his works And surely wonderfull is God in working vvhat wisdome in ordering vvhat power in bounding and ruling these unruly things Job 38.8 9 10 11. see the place and meditate thereon 3. Doth a tempest arise Sit down O my soul and see that it comes from God He made the tempest to finde out a sinful Jonah He permits this to try my saith to stir up my prayer to demonstrate his own power As afflictions arises not out of the dust so neither do Tempests come by chance A God is in all he raiseth and he can still vvhen he pleaseth the boysterous windes and waters 4. Yet consider what is thy danger How neer to death What a step what an inch between thee and the grave Bee not as the fool over-hardy nor as the hardened prophane Athiest that scoffs at windes and feareth no weathers Tremble O my soul the next gust may overset thee the next wave may swallow thee up O be not unaffected with nor inconsiderate of thy danger 5. Vp then and call upon thy God Jon. 1.6 That is thy duty in thy danger Slumber not but poure out prayers to him that made and can still the Tempest at his pleasure hold thy sails with fervent Sighs hand thy cords and tackling with a Heart secretly praying Let thy best anchor be within the vail pray in faith cry in hope The Almighty can with a word make a calm Psa 65.7 Christ can say Be still and Windes and Sea must and will obey him Mat. 8.27 Have thy hand at the helm and thy eye at heaven God it may be raised the storm to awake thee from thy soul-sleep Rise up therefore and call upon God hee 'l bring you out of your distresses 6. Reflect O man then what was thy joy when the winde began to slack and the storm to cease It 's good to eye what comforts God gave in at such a time Forget neither thy soul-meltings in a storm nor thy heart-cheering upon a calm O how did God as it were build up thy broken heart was not thy soul almost shattered as thy sails and were not all thy comforts broke as thy cords But what reviving after death and what a resurrection as from the grave hadst thou in such a place at such a time c. was not thy soul refreshed as with wine and thy spirit recovered as with a cordial when after that or the other Tempest God gave a calm 7. Then praise thy Lord O my soule and forget not ALL nar not ANY of his benefits Record recal to mind the great goodness of thy God and praise thou his miraculous mercy Set forth to others thy experiences and let the children of men know by thee what are the wonderful works of Jehovah Tremble at the thought of being as too many are altogether forgetful of deliverances Be not as those whose sinning at land evidences they forget every storm and danger every mercy and deliverance at Sea But Oh do thou my soul praise the Lord for his wonderfull works to thee the poorest of the children of men Inlarge these and the like Meditations upon this Scripture and by them try the like way of meditaring upon other Scriptures CHAP. X. Mixed maritine or Sea-meditations to stir up spiritual affections I Have hinted an example of meditation upon Scripture I will now offer some mixed Meditations relating to Sea-affairs such as may serve to excite and direct in this third and last part of Divinity viz. affectionate 1. What a little thing is between me and death It 's but this board of which the ship is made if that break I am gone my burial place is alwayes by me I shal need no Sexton to dig my grave my dead body will make its way to the bottom of the waters and there shall be my grave till the great day 2. With what care doth the Pilot eye the Compass to direct How exactly doth he observe and consider all his land marks And how careful is the steersman at the helm to hearken to and to follow his direction O what negligent creatures are we in our spiritual Navigation How short do we come of this care and circumspection As if the shipwrack of our souls were a lesser matter then the shipwrack of this vessel 3. How sharp do all the ships crew look out to espy land to discover shoar and harbour whereto they sail And what welcome newes is it to hear that he at the topmast head hath descryed or discovered Land though it be afar off Ah my soul why art thou so lazie to look out So backward to cast thine eyes to use thy Prospective to discover Emmanuels Land which is afar off What! is not the
the better but yet dye we must our holiness will not keep us from it To the West we must there the Grave and night of death waits for us all there our Sun must set and our dayes end 4. From the West we come to the North again and indeed so it is When we dye we return to God the spirit or every one returns to God Eccles 12.7 onely some go to him as a Judge others as to a Father Having looked upon the points of our Compass in their ordinary connexion consider it again in its opposition and remembring still our North point is God our East Christ our South holiness and our VVest death then consider and remember these things as worthy our noting and knowing 1. God and holiness are things not to be severed God looks not on any thing in a direct line of approbation but upon holiness Holiness brings the soul into a right light of aspect and communion with God 2. Even Christ himself as coming into the world for us must dye As the Sun which rises in the East must set in the West And indeed that Christ whose rising star was first seen in the East of Jerusalem Did set upon the West when he dyed upon the cross on Calvary which was on the West of the holy City The ' first of these things noted and known will teach us to labour and to press after holiness to perfect it in the fear and love of God for without it none shall see God The second of these remembred will sweeten death unto us for why should we fear to follow Christ Sith he hath tasted of death before us and for us why should we be so loath to dye To help your eye and thereby to fix these things the better look upon the following Compass as an Epitome of this part of our discourse NORTH God He is The supreme good Must be knowne This by the spirit EAST Christ The light of God The reconciler to God Inioyed by the spirit and by faith SOUTH Holiness It s the new creature The soules lustre Christ at height in us Is at enmity with sin WEST Death In is self certain Out of Christ sad shall have a resurrection brings to iudgment CHAP. IV. The things or duties necessary to be done by Christians reduced to as many practical Rules as there are points in the Compass LET us pass now from the speculative part of our Christian Compass in which we have seen the grand principles which are necessary to be known unto the practical part thereof and see what are the duties or the things which he ought to do in order to the arrival to our happiness And here I shall keep me to my Compass and mention as many points for practise as there are noted in our Compass which are thirty two and for a help to memory I shall begin each point with the initial known Letters on the points of our Compass Our first point is North which is thus cut out into its eight points 1. Never stir or steer any course but by light from God N. Let the Scriptures which are Gods word be thy North-Star This is the original cause of all our misery and miscarriage that we make not Gods commandments our Compass Thy word is a Lamp unto my feet and a light unto my pathes said David Psal 119 105. To the Law and to the Testimony saith Christ by the Prophet Isa 8.10 They are the Scriptures which can make us wise unto salvation I do no more wonder to see men split on the Rocks of error or sunk in the sands of sin who cast off or neglect the Scriptures then I do to see a man make shipwrack who wants or useth not his Compass This is the great device of Satan who strives to shipwrack our souls in these dayes to make poor creatures dispute deny and depart from the Scriptures The North Star is not so useful and necessary to the Marriner as the written word of God unto a Christian And he who upon pretence of the Word within doth lay aside the word without is as a mad Pilot that throws away the câ—mpass that he may steer by his conjecture 2. Never enter upon any design but such as tends towards Christ N. by E. Let Christ be the rising Sun which thy soul doth alwayes worship While other men run from West to East to gain riches do thou lance forth in no bottom or business which will not further thee in thy knowledge and en oyment of Christ Christ is next to God and the word of God principally and primarily points at him to him gave all the Prophets witâ—â—â— Act. 10. â—3 He that labours for other things neglecting Christ is like a Merchant that goeth to the Indies to fetch Pebbles and in the mean time forgets the pearl of great price or like one that digs for dirt and neglects Gold since 't is Christ alone who is a precious pearl and the tried Gold which can inrich our souls 3. Note nothing enviously wch thrives without God N. N. E. indeed nothing can thrive truly without God though sometimes the wicked who want him do seem to prosper Indeed 't is a great remora or hinderance to a spiritual Sea-man to a poor afflicted Saint to see the prosperity of the wicked especially while he is under adversity that it should be so fair weather with the ungodly while it 's so foul with the godly hath often perplexed many It made the Psalmist once think his Voyage Heaven-ward was in vain Psal 73.12 13. but remember not to envy because of the prosperity of the wicked Psal 37. They make a poor voyage that sail with never so fair a wind or never so smooth a sea and yet traffick for nothing but sand or pebles He that trades with Jewels need not envy such at all Though he have foul weather and rough seas yet his Traffick will make amends for all Many miscarry for not eying this point of the Compass therefore minde it Note nothing enviously which thrives or seems to prosper without God 4. Never Enter upon Notwarrantable courses N. E. by N. to procure any the most prized or conceited advantages Many a soul is cast away and sunk into eternal perdition by venturing upon unlawful and not-warrantable designs to advance or inrich it self 1 Tim. 6.9 10. What got Achan by his wedge of Gold Josh 7. What got Gehazi by the talent of silver and changes of raiments 2 Kings 5. Nay what shall it profit a man to get all the world and lose his soul Any thing got in or by a non-warranted way may and will undo the soul though it may please or profit the body 5. Now Entertain the sacred commands of God N. E. if hereafter thou expect the soveraign consolations of God Many are willing to have comfort who care not for command My hands will I lift up to thy commandment which I have loved And I