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
they bring forth their young That God does for the good of those creatures that live in desarts Wildernesses and uninhabited places in the world send out of the Heavens a dreadful thundring which is heard running and ecchoing up and down from one side of the Porrests and Wildernesses unto another that thereby the ligaments of those creatures that are with young are loosned and by this voyce of the Lord the travels of all the wild beasts in the world are facilitated The voice of the Lord makes the Hinds to calve i. e. Surely that they may not wrong they young or off-spring of which they are so careful that they seem to strain and dilate themselves for the speedier passage of their deliverance and this is their natural midwifery Psal 50.10 11. Every beast of the forrest and the cattel upon a thousand hills is the Lords and hee knows all the fouls of the mountains and the wild-beasts of the desart Wild-Goat 15. The Rock-climing Wild Goat which is undoubtedly the surest footed beast of any other in the world for they will go up unto the top of the inaccessiblest Crag that ever yet was seen without any staggering haesitancy or stumbling and when dogs are in chase of them they will flye to the Rocks where they do know themselves to bee both safe and out of the reach both of dogs and man I have not a little admired the nimbleness of this creature when I have seen of them both in Norway and other places how they will climb places that one would think they would bee praecipitated by coming upon them This Scripture has come into my thoughts Job 39.1 Knowest thou when the wild Goats of the Rock bring forth I learn thus much from thence that the eyes of God are in every secret part and corner of the earth where man has neither being nor dominion and that all the various actions that bee amongst his creatures are daily viewed by him 16. The Tyger Tyger which is of beasts the furiousest and cruelest he out-strips them all in matter of truculency and unmercifulness his abode is usually in the hottest Countries because it is supposed that their generation does require much heat This beast is of an incredible swiftness and fierceness especially in the time of his lust or when hee has his young to bring up and though many of the Mariners bee frequently skirmishing with him yet notwithstanding all their fire-locks and staffs does hee tear some of them to peeces and makes his escape 17. The Lyon Lyon who is indeed the Kingliest and Princeliest beast of them all This creature is of that stately prowess and most noble spirit that hee will not seek his prey himself but sends his Caterer or Jack-call to run about to seek it him which very much resembles a dog and this creature waits upon the Lyon and at his pleasure searches him the bushes and thickets in the wilderness and when hee finds any beast worthy preying upon hee makes report thereof to his Lord and Master Latrante voce with a barking mouth welk welk and the majestick Lyon answers him again with a teering mouth as if it were the crack of a great Gun Bou Bou and as soon as hee comes up to the creature which has no power to escape the Lyon after it hears his heart-daunting mouth hee seizes upon it and when the Lyon is well fed his servant Jack-call goes to dinner and not till then but stands at a distance from him Wild-Cows 18. The Wild-Cows and Wild-Oxen that be to be seen in the Indies there be thousands of these that run wild upon the Mountains that are very tall goodly fat and broad-headed beasts that know no homage unto man nor will not own him but if they see him walking at a distance they will leave their pasturing and follow him This dictares thus much unto mee that when God at the first became an enemy unto man because of his falling from him all the creatures did and are also become his enemy in the world every one of them ready to fall upon him let him go where hee will with as great violence to kill him as any other feral creature in the world will do Wild-bore 19. The Wild-boar of this sort and kind of Wild-Swine there bee without number that live in the Indies ranging upon every hill and Mountain these creatures are very fierce and furious for if they set but an eye upon any man that is walking to and again neer unto them It is observed of the Wild-Swine in the Indies that they will at some certain time every year once especially when there falls much rain come running down off the mountains creep into holes to hide themselves for they can endure neither rain nor wind at this time they will come into the Indian towns and out of the windows they will kill them they will pursue him with the greatest ferity that can bee with their bristles raund and their mouths wide open which are beset on each side with long great and dreadfull tusks But to avoid them they betake themselves into trees out of which they will shoot and kill many of them I may now take up the words of the Apostle in his Epistle unto the Hebrews 11.32 and tell you And what shall I more say for the time would fail mee to tell of Gideon and of Barak and of Sampson and of Jeptha c. So truely the time would fail mee I and it would bee too hard and too tedious an undertaking for mee to go about in an uncomfortable Sea to tell you of the many more things May it not now bee said in the praise of the Sea-man that hee is a lad that walks with Apollo per Xanthi fluenta and with Diana per Eurotae ripas perjuga Cynthi in suburbanis agris hortis irriguis ubi multiplex arborum genus florum varietas pomorum ubertas fluviorum cursus parietum vestitus avicularum melos vallium amaeâ—itas stagna omnis generis piscibus abundantia Juga florea dican Creationis errantque ripas that Sea-men do behold in their travails who are far more able to give you an accompt thereof themselves than I am What has been presented is but small in comparison of what is seen and to bee seen and read of in the great volume in the Creation yet I hope sufficient to demonstrate and prove the foregoing proposition That the most or the greatest part of the works of the Lord are seen by Sea-men The third circumstance then that offers to our view is of those creatures that are of a creeping crawling and reptile nature I will take the pains to run over a few of them and come unto the prosecution of that which is more material 1. Reptile They that go down to the Sea in ships Amongst the rest of those delightful and heart-taking objects that they have that venemous creature called a
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
kinde of evil amongst us but gave us our liberty to do what wee thought good And what Captain served you at Sea I have served Captain this three years but hee neither ever prayed amongst us nor instructed us in any thing that was good What a dreadful reckoning will there bee here to bee made many Captains think that they do not stand charged with the care of souls but one day you will finde it when God shall bid you go to hell for the neglect of your duties 2. Suppose a Captains reproof have not such success upon their souls as hee could desire yet may it bee that hee may thereby tame and take down their high hoised insolency by seasonable contradiction as that they shall not bee able to carry it away in a vaunting Bravado You may cool and confound their swearing and swaggering humors that they glory not in it by bringing them unto shame and condign punishment for it If Sea-men will swear I would then stand up and tell them that all this while they fight against God damn their own souls and please none else but the Devil and wicked men and that they shall assuredly burn everlastingly in hell if they hold on in their cursed humors without timely repentance and reformation 3. Suppose that reproof after reproof will not prevail know thus much that it is not in vain for hereby you shall the more increase and aggravate their inexcusableness clear your selves and glorifie the Tribunal of Gods justice which shall one day smoak against them 2. In all sinful cases you are bound to speak 1. Because silence at such times when you hear swearing lying and behold drunkenness in your ships and amongst your Sea-men will greatly bewray either your Cowardliness in the cause of God or hypocrisie in your professions Will it not seem strange think you that you that pretend to stand on the Lords side shall hear the glorious Name of God prophaned in a base sordid and blasphemous manner and yet never open your mouthes at all in his behalf against them who will not but say Captain Thou art an Hypocrite and Captain Thou art another dissembling Hypocrite also 2. If your consciences Gentlemen bee either inlightned wakened tender or rightly informed I will appeal to any of you whether or no they do not and will not smite check and quarrel with you for the omission of your reproving duty by your cowardly and unseasonable silence Hereby you do but intangle your selves in their guiltiness and pull upon your own heads an accountableness for that swearing and villany which you are privy unto who would not then but reprove and slash the roots of sin 3. How knowest thou but that by thy speaking in such cases thou maist lay and charm down the spirit of profaneness that walks up and down the ships thou art in so that it shall not bee able to rage and break out in others as otherwise it would do Who would then but ever and anon be speaking 4. Hereby you will exceedingly comfort and cheer up the hearts of the godly amongst you from being grieved and cast down by a company or crew of Sathans swaggerers Revellers I am confident of it that if our Sea-Commanders were but as carefull to put out the fire of swearing of lying that is in ships every day as they are to pass the word every evening fore aft put out your candles alow there There would not be so many ships lost and cast away as there bee and Ranters Good people they mourn to hear the swearing and the profaneness that is in your ships both betwixt decks and in every corner they walk into or sit themselves down in Their villany is a meer dagger and burthen to their hearts and spirits I profess that that bad order that is in the Sea and that toleration of swearing and profaneness makes many an honest heart take his leave of the States service and bid farewel Sea who would otherwise have continued in it longer than they have done I have known some that have striven to be cleered upon an account of a great internal fear lest God should fire the ships from heaven which they have gone in or otherwise in stormes throw them upon Rocks or sands because of that filthiness abominable wickedness they have observed amongst them I remember once that when wee were comming out of the Sea from France into England that we saild neer to one of our Sea-port towns and upon an occasion a piece of Ordinance was fired the smoke of which fell into our main-sail and represented the ship on a fire to those that were on shore and great running forth there was and weeping and wailing by those that had friends in our ship for fear of the loss of our lives but blessed bee the Lord there was no such danger though it was a great town-talk When I came to hear of it I returned my God thanks Chrysostome speaking of youth says it is difficilem jactabilem fallibitem vehementissimisque egentem fraenis hard to be ruled easy to bee drawn away apt to bee deceived standing in need of very violent reins Seamen stand in need of tutoring and looking to that the swearing that was within board set us not on a blasing fire in the sight of our own Country The Objections now that seem to arise against the putting what has been said into practice are some such invalid arguments as these 1. Objection I love not to medle and I have Scripture commands for it Jam. 3.1 Bee not many masters Answ Not medling in this case is a kind of soul murthering what sayest thou to this now wilt you lye under the guilt of murther 2. Object It is a thankless office Answ Not with the wise Prov. 9.8 I have read concerning the sweating sickness when it was in England that those whom they carefully kept waking escaped but the sickness seized mortally on them that were suffered to sleep Oh keep your Sea-men waking if it bee possible that they sleep not unto death and though it bee an unpleasing work on both sides yet shall you have thanks for it one day 3. Object I shall lose my labour Answ Venture that thou hast lost many a worse Job 6.25 How forcible are right words 3. Object Plato went thrice to Sicily to convert Dionysius and lost his labour Polemo a great Drunkard by hearing Xenocrates became a sober man a very learned Philosopher I shall hereby lose the love of all my Sea-men Answ It may bee not but say thou shouldest thou shalt find a better thing than ever their good word or well likeing of thee will ever avail thee I will present thee with one Scripture that wil when thou readest it sparkle thy spirits and draw thee on to bee more for thy God than ever thou hast been Peruse it then Mark 10.29 30. A man had better offend all the Sailors in the Seas and all the people in the
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
them hearing them telling of the wonderful works of God Nay it is more than probable that they did tell him and inform him of many things that his eyes had never seen otherwise wee had not had such a sweet composed Psalm upon the Mariners most famous art of Navigation and going down into the Seas as is now extant to bee read of by us at this very day I shall adventure to speak it Dabe audaciam verbis and give it out deny it who will and that in laudem Nautarum in the praise and honour of the Sailors and Sea-men both in England and elsewhere that they have the fairest view and the greatest discoveries of the works of God of all the men upon the face of the earth What is there that Travellers do not see whilst others do but read Sea-men have a full sight of the strength riches honors glories and sweetnesses of Countries They see the great Cities the renowned men the magnificent Courts the rich Mines and veines of gold silver the spicy Islands the Chrystal mountains coasts of pearl rocks of Diamond how the earth is paved with her various sweet smelling herbs and glorious flowers how she is decked in forein parts with flourishing trees green woods watered with Seas and Rivers replenished with great Majesty of towns Cities garnished with all manner of fruits spices and furnished with all living creatures Beasts Fowls and Fishes serving for mans necessity use and pleasure They that follow their callings on Land and have no other discoveries but Map-knowledge or Book-knowledge they may read of much but the Navigating Viator carries the bell away Such may say Insulam videmus etiam cum non videmus wee see a fair Island by description when wee see it not but they that go down into the Sea in ships they have a real a full and satisfactory sight of all the sweet and delightful Countries and fruitful Islands whilst others by Maps and Books do but read of or at the best but hear of them Before I go any further I will cut up the words in this following method and set them together again in a Doctrinal composure In the words you may soon espy these two things 1. Persons seeing 2. Things seen 1. The persons seeing They are declared to bee such as go down into the Seas These see the works of the Lord c. 2. The things that are seen They are of two sorts 1. Opera Creationis The works of Creation 2. Opera Conservationis Works of Salvation For the first of these The thing then in hand and that which is inquirable into is what is to bee understood by Works in this place or what those Works of God are that Sea-men or Sailors and Mariners have such a full sight of in their goings down into the Seas To bee short I humbly conceive that they may bee ranked into these five infallible heads under which I shall comprehend what I will and do intend Deo permittente in a rowling and quarrelling Sea the Lord assisting to speak of and herein I shall bee forced to stay you a little till I have broke off the opening of these promised particulars that I may come unto the next verses that I would speak to and infer something from These Works then are 1. Aquatical 2. Terrestrial And under this term I would comprehend 1. Gressile 2. Volatile 3. Reptile Now these are the things when opened that Mariners and Travellers have a very large and ample satisfying sight of That the most or the greatest part of Observ 1 Gods glorious Works and Wonders whether in the deeps or on land The Sea is an Hive wherein the hony of good instruction may be made and gathered are seen by Sea-men These see the Works of the Lord c. I will now leave the point thus collected and stated onely thus much I will say for and in the behalf of it that man hath not now that advantage which Adam primarily had in Paradise before whom all the creatures were summoned in to come and make their personal appearance before him the Lords chief Deputy or Terrestrial Vice-roy that hee might behold their several forms shapes kindes and species It is a question whether the fish in the salt waters or fresh waters were seen by Adam yea or no it is likely hee did not see them because they live in another element and would soon perish if but any while removed out of it Those that were volatile it is probable that they took wing and hastened to present themselves before their Lord and Sovereign and those that were Gressile it is likely and of slow pace and heavy bodies that they paced it unto him and the rest that were Reptile they came crawling and rowling upon the ground with all the speed they could make to shew themselves and acknowledge Adam with the rest as their supreme But it is not thus now these creatures that were thus seen by Adam are wandred up and down into the world some dwell in the East some in the West some in the South and other some in the North. Hee that would behold the various living creatures and the wide world must betake himself to travel or would bee acquainted with the habit modes and fashions laws and actions of Countries these cannot bee seen though may bee known by reading without perambulatory pains and travel Observ 2 That travel is the onely thing to compleat He that would travel the world must take this course 1. He must furnish himself with Out-country language or otherwise it will be but a beggarly thing to live upon borrowing from friends or Interpreters 2 He must have a veil over his eyes a key on his ear and a compass on his lips furnish adorn and perfect any man These see the works of the Lord c. Their eyes behold that by going into the Seas which will finde them matter of discourse and meditation all the dayes of their lives Nay they hear that which they would not for a world but hear and know that which they would not for a world but know Josh 2.1 And Joshua the Son of Nun sent out of Shittim two men to spye secretlie saying Go view the land even Jericho Thus much I would infer from this presented Scripture That it is travel that doth accomplish a man and not sitting at home for hereby he comes to have a copious cognizance of forein parts and of the whole Creation These see the works of the Lord c. I would a little now speak unto and of the excellency of that ocular Organ that God hath bestowed upon man The eye hath the greatest variety of objects to feed on and delight it self in above all the other senses in the body none ranges so much thorow the world nor thorow the Seas by shipping into forein parts and Countries nor none pierces the skies and the fixed stars so much as this ocular and visory sense doth
hee is out of the water upon his wings hee is then again in no less hazzard than hee was before in respect of that multitude of Sea-fouls that lye upon the waters for the catch and to make use of all such opportunities It is observed by the Mariners that this fish rather than it will bee taken by its enemies in the waters it will many times betake it self in its flight into ships or boats And alas this makes the Proverb good Out of the frying-pan into the fire Incidit in Scyllam qui vult vitare Charybdim Our blessed Saviour the Lord Jesus Christ had an excellent way and faculty of drawing holy and heavenly thoughts and discourses out of and from terrestriall objects as appears by his Parables and the whole course of his life and conversation his eye was one while upon birds another while upon lilies Matth. 6.26 28. One while upon the Sower and another while upon the Seed one while upon the ground and another while upon the tares one while upon the mustard-seed and another while upon leaven one while upon hid treasure and another while upon pearls one while upon the net cast into the Sea Mat 13. and another while upon the five Virgins one while upon lamps and another while upon oyle one while upon the Master and another while upon the servant one while upon the Shephard and another while upon the sheep besides many other things which I might reckon up and instance in The use now that I have made unto my self upon the sight of this creature will bee as follows for I have made it my business and it has also been my practice whilst at Sea and I wish it were the practice of all Sea-men who where I have seen a leaf of the Creation they have seen a volume to abstract spiritual thoughts from all the uncouch creatures that they fix their eyes upon whether in the Seas or in the Nations beyond the Seas This has been my exercise whilst in the Seas and I think and take it to bee a very notable improving way to grow heavenly and spiritually minded Rom. 8.6 For to bee carnally minded is death but to bee spiritually minded is life and peace 1. That if God had not Satan in his chain hee would make greater spoil and havock of the Saints of God than the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 do in the Seas whose work and business is to go about like a roaring lyon seeking whom hee may devour He may well be called a murtherer for hee has been so from the beginning hee has been a soul-killer this five thousand years and upwards and hee is the same still But this is the Saints comfort though hee bee one of the ragingest beasts that walks in the Forrest that Christ Jesus who is the Lyon of the Tribe of Judah bridles him 2. That many a pretious and gratious soul is as hardly chased and pursued with heart-daunting terrours both from sin conscience law and Satan as ever this poor creature was in the waters and in a far dolorouser sort Sin makes a Hubbub in the soul and Satan hee makes an assault and conscience accuses and often-times there is little peace but at last like the Moon that wades through many clouds or the ships that go through many stoâ—ns they arrive at the fair Harbour and port of quietness All the good creatures of God whether fish in the Seas fouls in the aire or beasts of the field are flowers and none but the labourious Bees of contemplating spirits that give themselves unto meditation either do or can suck forth the sweet hony of instruction out of them Therefore it is good and would do well that all our Sailors were found praying unto Christ for the teaching of them this holy art skil to behold God more fully in the creature for it is the custom of the Lord Jesus to send in a Quietus est into the soul after it has been troubled with the tempestuous storms of the guilt of sin Son be of good cheer thy sins are forgiven thee Matth. 11.28 Come unto mee yee that are weary and heavy laden c. 2. They that go down to the Sea in ships oftentimes have a frequent sight of that marvailous fish Sun-fish called the Sun-fish whose usual property is to come out of the depths in the sweetest and calmest weathers to lye sleeping and beaking of himself upon the Surface of the Seas not fearing nor thinking nor praesupposing in the least of any fish to prey upon him or of Sea-foul to light upon him or of ships to run over him or of boats to row to him or of darts or bullets to be shot and thrown at him The very sight of these creatures have very much wounded mee when I have seen them sleeping when the ship has been even ready for to run over them Mariners sometimes will hoyse out their boats and take them up but when once they come to bee awake then they will and do struggle very much to regain their pretious liberty which they lost so carelesly by sleeping 1. It brought into my mind that it is a very perilous thing for a Christian to bee found asleep by that mortal and deadly enemy Satan when and whilst hee is standing Sentinel upon his guard Meditations The Devil is of an indefatigable spirit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the present tense which reports him not to bee lazy but busy not a loyterer but a stickler and a stirrer in his pernitious work shut him out at the street door and hee will come in again at the back-door 2. That as the Sun-fish lyes carelessly upon the salt-waters exposing of himself in the very warmth of summer to bee preyd upon by the ranging fish in the Seas or to bee surprized by the Mariner or crushed by the ships which have their quick and speedy passage through the Seas after the like carelessness live thousands of the poor Sailors of what shall become of their pretious and immortal souls Their souls are starving and there is a delusion upon their spirits that all is well when alas all the sail is out that ever they can make to carry them hood-winkt to hell The Devil has winds gales baits traps and gins in all corners to carry them destruction-ward Yet the Lord knows my soul even bleeds for the poorest and the meanest of them to doe them good They are too ignorant of his devices But knowing the subtilty of the Devil and also in some measure the terrours of my God whom I serve I would perswade you all upon the bended knees of my soul to make more conscience of your ways of Gods good Word and how you may come to bee eternally saved at the last than you do 3. They oftentimes have a frequent sight of that sociable companionable Sea-fish called the Dolphin Dolphin Naturalists tell us that these creatures do take great delight to accompany the swift-sailing ships that
there is writ in legible characters upon the tongue of an Elephant this noble and generous sentence The Lord loveth a cheerful giver This beast is willing to let all sorts and kindes of creatures feed by him he medles not with them nor molests them in any wise in the enjoyment of their priviledges If there were as many several creatures nere to him as there were Lambs upon the Sicilian hills of whom the Poet sings he would not meddle with them Mille meae Siculis errant in montibus aguae There is none of the creatures in all the Lords Store-houses that are like unto him view examine and survey all the beasts in the world and you will finde none of them resembling of him for magnitude strength and wisdome for hee is one of the amplest demonstrations of the power and wisdome of God of any other creature throughout the whole universe that lives a sensitive life Job 40.15 Hee eateth grass as an Oxe Though this creature now is of wonderful strength and greatness yet by ordination harmless and hurtless His food is grass and not flesh even the very same that the beasts of the field do live upon and yet a far greater strength hath hee in his loyns than any of them If God had appointed this beast to have eaten flesh then would hee have killed up the poor and hurtless beasts of the field Vers 18. His bones are as strong as brass his bones are like bars of Iron There is not the like of this beast in the world that is so firmly and strongly made and boned and ribbed as hee is Those bones that are either in the Oxe or in the Horse which are the strongest creatures that are visibly amongst us are nothing comparable and so may easily bee broken but the Elephants are of greater strength Vers 19. Hee is the chief of the wayes of God hee that made him can make his sword approach unto him Hee that made him can bridle him but man is too weak an instrument either to handle him or command him Meditat. That Sin-burnt souls delight in nothing more than to fit under the shadow of Jesus Christ when God is angry with them Cant. 2.3 I sate down under his shadow with great delight and his fruit was sweet to my taste Vers 22. The shady trees cover him with their shadow the willows of the brook compass him about These beasts being gendred and bred up in hot Countries are naturally creatures of that vehement heat that they desire the coolest places and shades that they can finde to hide themselves in from the heat of the Sun and the extraordinary warmth of the day which is very scorching in those Austral parts that they do live in Vers 23. Behold hee drinketh up a River and hasteth not hee trusteth that hee can draw up Jordan into his mouth It is no small proportion of water that will satisfie that extraordinary drought that is usually in this creature for hee will continue a long time drinking in a brook or river before that his panch and thirst bee filled and quenched This creature fears no danger nor no affront whilst drinking as other beasts commonly do because they are so timorous in respect that their heads and necks are so much stretched forth and bowed down to take of the water Vers 24. Hee taketh it with his eyes This beast will tear up young trees bushes brambles and shrubs by the roots if they lye in his way in those bewildered places that he inhabits I have observed that the strength of this creature is very great in respect that he will take a man upon his Trunk and carry him on high as easily as I could carry a feather his nose pierceth thorow snares In the Margin it is will any take him in his sight as much as to say let him that will attempt any such thing be aware of that by his nose is to bee understood his Trunk with which hee makes his way against all snares gins or oppositions that bee laid against him 2. They that go down to the Sea in ships Amongst the rest of that various and manifold kinde of objects that they have to look upon is that indomable The Wilde-ass had rather have the barren lands of the world to live in together with his ease and quiet than the fattest Fastures that the labouring Horse and Oxe do enjoy and go in in any inhabited Nation in the world In the wildernesse saith he I can eat and drink and lay me down and rise up when I will and walk whither I please there is none to controle me whereas all labouring beasts are under the servitude and command of man to do this and that The Bul when wearied with the yoak cried out That it was better with him when he did inter vaccas sylvas saltusque peragrare live at ease in Pasture-grounds amongst the Cows and wilde sort of beasts called a Wilde-ass There bee many of this kinde to bee seen in the inhabitable parts of the world The sight of this creature presented that that is spoken of him in Scripture unto mee which I will take occasion to lay down before you with as much succinctness as I can Job 39.5 Who hath sent out the Wilde-ass free or who hath loosed the bands of the Wilde-ass The meaning of the words seem to bee this That there bee but very few people in the world that would grant any serviceable creature that freedome and that ease and liberty that God hath given him they would make use of them and imploy them here and there and every way but God hath given this creature this priviledge that hee is free from all servitude and bondage Vers 6. His house is the wilderness the barren land is his range This beast makes a very good shift to pick up a living in the abjectest and outcastenest soils that is in the world and in his portion hee rejoyces not a little that hee is out of the hand and sight of man where hee ows him neither homage service nor subjection as other creatures do Vers 7. Hee scorneth the multitude of the City neither regardeth hee the crying of the Driver Hee is a perfect stranger unto man and knows no obedience that is due unto him if they call and hollow after him hee scorns to take any notice of them as other Cattel will do to go and come at the cry of the Driver I have known some of these wilde creatures to bee taken and kept by the Spaniards but if they offered either to ride upon them or set them unto any work they would lye them down and dye upon the place they have stood upon rather than buckle to do any thing for man It put this Scripture into my thoughts that this creature was sent out free and being violently taken away out of its native soil it might very well resist and tell man in the best language that it could utter that it would
Scorpion is one which in form and shape resembles a Lobster Scorpion having many legs and stings in the tail of it There bee many of these in the Austral parts of the world as Barbary c. and also in the Occidental in the Indies They lye amongst rocks and stones and are harmless but if trod upon unawares they will sting most mortally They that are stung with them at any time to cure themselves take hold of the Scorpion and bruises him in peeces and applie him to the place pained and grieved and are thereby in little time recovered again 2. They that go down to the Sea in ships Amongst the rest of that amaene and voluptuous prospect that they have of the works of the Lord the Asp is one Asp which is not unlike the Land-snake whose eyes are red and flaming but their poyson incureable from whence that expression The poyson of Asps is under their tongue God out of his infinite goodness hath cast a dimness and dulness into the eyes of this creature and also given it slowness of pace that it cannot do the mischief that it would This creature is very hurtful and perillous and not a little a destructive enemy unto mankinde if hee can but approach unto him 3. Amongst the rest of that sugred and dulce aspect that they have of the works of the Lord Camelion the Camelion is another which is a very admirable creature from whence started that Proverb Camaeleonte mutabilior because of its perpetual variableness I know not well how to describe it although I have seen of that kinde it is as I conceive of a very aiery substance The Camelion is thought to live either upon the air or upon Grashoppers Cataterpillars and Flyes because it hath such an Adamantine atractiveness in the tongue of it that it will not misse the smallest flye if come near unto it and very alterable in its colours Pass but by it and it will bee first of one colour and then of another now white then green now red then yellow c. 4. The West-India Spiders Spiders of which it is observed that they are of very large size these are visible to Travellers in their hanging upon trees after a most pleasant and admirable manner not in the least venimous and of various colors as if all over-laid I have observed when in Norway walking in the woods of that Septentrional part that the Spiders threds are of an incredible strength and will indure as much viss to break them as ordinary thred with us and drest with gold pearl and silver these creatures are of an eye be-dazeling lustre The webs that these creatures do weave from tree to tree are made of a perfect raw silk so strong with all that birds of divers kindes are frequently caught in them 5. The Crab which is to bee seen in innumerable numbers crawling and creeping upon the sands on the Sea-shore in the Indies they are of such a crawling and ranging nature that whatsoever lyes in their way they will climb over it let it bee house rock or mountain c. These creatures take great delight to go into the woods and to crawl up the bole of trees and upon the bows and branches of them insomuch that they make a very dolorous and turbulent noise knocking and ratling in their shelly armour that one would think there were a multitude of men thundering in their arms in the woods when as it is nothing else but a multitudinous company of crawling Crabs But to recall my self I will not expatiate any further in this circumstance for it is not a little dolorous and painful to mee in an unmercifull element to write of things when that the Sea will scarce suffer mee to hold my Pen in my fingers let this suffice The next thing that is in my eye is those many and various sorts and kindes of trees that bee in the world and these are viewed A short model of the names of those various trees that are seen by those that travel over Seas found out and discovered by those that sail in the Seas I will run over a few of them and call them by their names tell you what fruits they bear and the several benefits that the world have by them and then I hope that you will have an ample account of the things that are seen by those that go into the Seas 1. They that go down to the Sea in ships Amongst the rest of the wonderful Palm and delectable creatures of the Lord the goodly Palm is one Put what weight you will upon the Palm and it will rise up again sayes the Sea-man It is thus or should be thus with Christians Plura sunt toleranda whose comely branches in antiquated times were carried Sicuti quoddam vexillum victoriolae before the Victor as a badge of victory and conquest 2. They that go down to the Sea in ships Amongst the rest of the sweet and pretious creatures of the Lord the Nutmeg is one which is not unlike to the Peach or Pear the fruit of it is very like the Peach Nutmeg but the inner part which is the Nutmeg is covered and interlaced with Mace When the fruit is ripe the first and outermost part openeth as our Walnuts will do and then the Mace will flourish and shew it self in a very fair red and ruddy colour which in ripening turns in the conclude to a sad yellow This tree resembles a graceless Sailor in a ship it is very harmful unto all round about it and will not suffer other trees to thrive by it if lying near unto it Invidet alterius rebus macrescit opimis 3. The goodly and lofty Pine which is seen to grow in great and vast woods This wood is not subject to worms nor to decay 4. The Fir is one which is of a tall vast and incredible height of which all our yarding and masting is made for the ships that go in the Seas there bee great and mighty woods of these both in the Septentrional and also in the Occidental parts of the world When I have been walking amongst them in Norway that Scripture hath sprung in upon mee Psal 104.17 As for the Stork the Fir-tree is her house That bird that builds in the top of a Fir-tree is safe enough from any hands coming up to molest her if the Axe bee not laid unto the root of the tree shee is in as great security as any bird in the world because no boughs on the bole save at the very top 5. That wonderful and admirable sort of tree Cocus called a Cocus tree which is seen in many parts of the world It is observed that this tree is never without fruit which is shelled about like our Nuts but far larger and also of a different form and shape some of these shels when the innermost substance is taken forth are known to hold near upon
Meadows Vineyards flourishing Pastures upon which hee looks a while with great delight and on he goes again and meets with fruitfull Orchards green Forrests sweet Rivers with silver streams and behaves himself as before and at length he meets with Desarts hard wayes rough and unpleasant soul and overgrown with Bryars and Thorns here he is intangled for a time to stay labouring and sweating with grief to get out of them and after our he neither remembers his toyl nor the objects that he saw yet doth many of them learn out of it and from the creature that there is a God God upbraided Israel for their stupidity and will hee excuse you think you they had before them the Oxe and the Ass which were creatures that they might have learned wisdome enough out of Isa 1.3 The Oxe knoweth his owner and the Ass his Masters crib but Israel doth not know my people doth not consider The word consider comes of con and sydus and so signifies say some not one bare simple stella but a multitude of stars intimating that it is not a bare transient aspect or flash but an abiding and dwelling upon a thing that is to bee pondered and considered of as a Bee will stick upon the flower till shee extract honey out of it God complains again in Jer. 8.7 The Stork in the Heaven knoweth her appointed times and the Turtle and the Crane and the Swallow observe the time of their coming but my people know not the judgement of the Lord. God puts an En ecce exprobrantis upon them for their Caecity and inobservantness of the works of God And will not the Lord say to you one day that go down into the Seas and see his creatures and store-houses that are both in the waters and on the land viz. Fish in the Sea Beasts of the field and Fowls of the air c. that in respect you have made no soul-profiting uses of them they shall bee bitter and tart aggravations of your future condemnation Oh lament lament your blindness and inexcusable stupidity that you can look upon the wonderful works of God and go so boldly and undauntedly and unaffectedly amongst them without wondring at the wisdome of God and reading of Divinity lectures out of them Can you look upon the Leviathan when hee playeth in the Seas or upon the Trunked Behemoth when hee feedeth upon the land and not stand admiring and blessing of the Creator of them Can you look upon the many and strange kinde of Fishes that bee in the Seas of creatures that bee on the land and Fowls that bee in the air and not bee affected and drawn out with new love new fear and new obedience to serve your good God Ah Sea-men Sea-men I will deal plainly with you If I should see the Lord feeding of Sparrows and cloathing Lilies I should bee both stupid and faithless if I learned not that his providence were the same over mee both to cloath mee and to feed mee If that I should look upon the Heavens and see nothing in them but that they are beyond my reach the Horse and the Mâ—â—e would see that as well as I. May not many Sea-men bee painted as the Egyptians were wont to set out an inconsiderate man by To set such an one out in his colours they pictured him with a Globe of the earth before him and his looking-glass behinde him What Solomon sayes in Prou. 17.24 I shall say unto those that travel Wisdome is before him that hath understanding but the eyes of a fool are in the ends of the earth If that thou seest nothing in the earth but a place to walk in or to take thy rest on the Beasts of the earth and Fowls of the air sees that as well as thou If thou canst see nothing in the Sea to admire God for but a place to swim and sail ships in the fowls that daily sit upon the floods see that as well as thou If thou seest nothing in the Bee and Bird but that they are winged other creatures see that as well as thou doest though not to admire them how they sail thorow the vast sea of air that when the Bee is out in the flowry field shee should bee able to steer directly homewards again to her hive and the Bird when abroad to her nest though at never so a geat a distance What shall I say If thou seest nothing in gorgeous apparel but pride the proud Peacock sees that as well as thee Laudatus paevo extendit pennas If of all thy meat and drink that thou livest upon thou knowest nothing but the pleasure and the sweetness that is in them unto thy taste the Hog and the Swine have as great a portion as thou hast If of hearing seeing smelling tasting feeling bee all the delight that thou canst finde in the works of God the dumb creatures do far excel thee in this and thy heart is little better than the heart of a Beast 2 Vse of Exhortation If it bee thus that you that go in the Seas have the fullest and greatest aspect of the Lords works and wonders both in the Sea and Land suffer mee but to leave two things with you and I will pray unto my good God that they may bee profitable unto you and do some good upon you Oculi idcirco dati sunt corpori ut per eos intutamur creaturam ac per hujusmodi mirabilem harmoniam agnoscamus â—pificem 1. Labour for a conscientious eye There is an eye in the world that makes not a little conscience of that glorious sight and Chrystalline humour that God hath put into it for to behold his works with all What a large Book is the Earth that the eye ranges over and how large a Volume is the Sea thorow which you sail certainly you might learn more than you do and bee better scholars in Christs School than you are They that live pind up in one Nation or Country are far from the view of the Creation for they stand but as a man that comes to some great Earl's or Knight's house and stands in the Court now unless hee be invited in hee sees not the sumptuous rooms and places that bee within it onely at a distance hee sees a little of the outward superstructure but they that go into the Sea from Country to Country they see the riches of the Earth the beauties wealth honours and strength of Nations and Kingdoms and truly let mee say thus much that they that see all these things and learn nothing out of them as incentives to love and fear their God Creatio Mundi Scriptura Dei. Vniversus mundus Deus explicatus The whole Creation is nothing else but Gods excellent hand-writing or the Sacred Scripture of the Most high The Heavens the Earth and the waters are his three large Volumes or the three great leaves in which all the creatures are contained and the creatures themselves are as so many
Others again have been delivered when pursued and followed with Pyrats by taking into the Ports and Harbours in other Nations and if they had not been so near them at such time when they were chased and had those refuges to shelter themselves in I will say of this deliverance Qui non potest volare ut Aquila volet ut Passer He that cannot sail well let him thrust in betimes for an Harbour they had been taken 38. Others have been delivered on this wise when they have seen no possibility of escaping the pursuer by running themselves on purpose into the perilousest places that they have been acquainted withall as Sand-banks and uncertain shallows I may write upon this deliverance Expertae credunt aquae inexpertae nulli The Mariner will not now stand Viamerranti indicare If he should he would but be counted both a fool and a knave insomuch that the enemy who has been a deep drawing Vessel has not dared to adventure after his prize but given her up for lost 39. Others again have been delivered on this wise when that the enemy has come up with his chase and been in very great and probable hopes of boarding of her providence has thrown the dye of their expectations quite contrary by sending a violent and strong gale of wind upon them when all their sails have been out insomuch that the Pyrat has either had his masts and yards broken with it or otherwise been forced to hand his sail and the ship that hee has pursued being a stronger Vessel has been able to carry more sail and thereby has escaped 40. Others have also been delivered by this means and low kind of shift when they have been put to it for to run indeed by throwing over bord their Boats This may be the Mariners Motto Vita nostra nunquam molestiis periclis vacua their lumber and their luggage by which their Vessel has been much lightned and drawn little water and so out-saild their pursuers 41. Others again have escaped when assaulted by an enemy in the night in an Harbours mouth by a quick nimble I will say of this deliverance Nauta nimium onerantes sunt in periculo Non cuivis homini contingit adire Corinthum He that cannot do as he would must do as he can and stout-hearted stirring of themselves in their cutting of their cable and speedy loosing of their sails by which means they have cleered themseves from being boarded by an enemy 42. Others again have been delivered on this wise when they have been taken and over-powred with their enemy their enemies have gone down very boldly to ransacke in the Hould and quaff and drink of their wines with which they have been in such a merry vein that they have not feared an after clap by and from those that were there prisoners because perhaps but few in comparison of them yet notwithstanding when they have been thus frolicking and fudling of it they have couragiously nailed down the Hatches and brought them away prisoners into England Upon this deliverance I will say no more but this In labyrintho properantes ipsa velocitas implicat Hee is the likeliest man to get the soonest out of a maze that makes the most haste out of it that thought to have carried them away prisoners into another Nanation 43. Others have escaped danger by enquiring of ships that they have met in their passage and re-passage whether they saw any Pyrats yea or no and according to their directions they have altered their courses I may sing of this deliverance Invadunt urbem somno vinoque sepultam Latratus molossi furem manifestat 44. Others again have been delivered on this wise when that they have sailed or do travel single and alone in thick misty and foggy weather then cannot a Pyrat see them because they are wrapt up in a cloud and their way is never a whit the worse for Navigation I will say upon this deliverance Ibant obscuri sola sub nocte per umbras Virg. Aen. 6. Or if you will Gygis annulum habet That man is highly favoured that goes through the dangerousest Seas invisibly with his ship hung and covered with the Caelestial curtains of providence's weaving because the Sun shines not or the Moon and Stars appear not provided they bee but far from Land and have Sea-roome enough for their Card is their Magnetick Neptune by which they shape their course either night or day and by this means many a rich Merchant-ship is secured that would otherwise undoubtedly bee made prize of 45. Others have been delivered in misty weather but more especially at its breaking up when that Pyrates have got the sight of them so that when providence has been pleased to furle up the foggy curtains of the Heavens that have lain upon the face of the great and wide deeps Nautae veluti visco vaga aves sequaâ—i illaqueantur the enemy being neerer them than they were aware has made after them with all the sail that ever could bee but providence providing another refuge for them in their flight some of the English Friggots have releeved them Having thus recovered one as soon as the Fog had broke up out the hands of an enemy I could not but look upon it though the mercy were not mine but anothers with admiration and affection 46. Others also have been delivered from their way-lying enemies in the Seas by their curious and ingenious working moulding I will say of the poor Merchant Qualis populea maerens philomela sub umbra Amissos quaeritur faetusque captos Hee trembles and forming of timber in the form and representation of Ordnance and these being blacked and counterfeted the enemy observing them to bee so well gund upon their quarters that they have passed by them and been discouraged to medle with them 47. Others again have been admirably delivered when in Greenland and elsewhere in their killing of wild beasts as Bear Tyger Wolf c. in their intending to strike them mortally many times they have stumbled and failed in their performance Sea men the Lord knows my heart your deliverances do much affect it which makes mee rake them out of the ashes of forgetfulness why may not I speak of them Look into the 1 Sam. 17.34 and you shall hear David telling us how he was delivered both from the Lyon the Bear two dreadful creatures and the wild beast observing of it has leaped upon them and carried them away in their mouths and others of their companions being not far distant have seen these dreadful spectacles and followed on very violently to rescue and thereby redeemed their lives 48. Others have been wonderfully delivered when in ships that have been on a burning and blazing fire when that the fire has run up the tarry shrouds and masts and broke out at the port-holes in a most terrible manner and never a boat on board left to
the half way nay it may bee that a storm that hath fallen upon the Occidental Seas is felt and seen in the South though many hundred miles from it by its rowling restlesness the Hebrew Expositors read it How hee commandeth and raiseth that is maketh to stand c. And indeed none see how the Lord raiseth up the stormy wind but those that go down into the Sea these see the dreadful billows that bee at such times upon the face of the deeps All that I finde now either remarkable or observable in the words is this 1. That the great God hath all the creatures at his command All the creatures Observ 1 both the Magnalia and the Minutila throughout the whole universe are at Gods command to come and go and go and come at his will and pleasure Nay let the errand bee what it will they will perform it if but commissionated from him to go about it If that hee say but unto the winds Go I will have the Seas thrown into heaps hills and mountains There be storms which fall upon the sandy plains in Egypt that bury many thousands of travellers that pass over them The least gnat in the air but impowred and set on by God shall choak one as it did once a Pope of Rome a little hair in milk strangle one as it did a great Counsellour in Rome a little stone of a Raisin stop ones breath as it did the Poetical Pipe of Anacreon how quickly is it done and when the Seas were but even now on a sweet smoothe and silver calm they are upon an instant thrown into dashing and dreadful clashing waves This Wind-army when the Lord stands in need of it may I so speak or hath service for it to do it is presently upon the march to run and dispatch his errands whether of indignation or of mercy If that the great Lord General of Heaven and Earth the great supreme Commander of the winds will have them to destroy a people to throw down their houses on land or break their ships at Sea it is quickly done 2 Chron. 20.37 Because thou hast joyned thy self with Ahaziah the Lord hath broken thy works and the ships were broken that they were not able to go to Tarshish Nay the snuff of a candle a tile of an house a crum of bread a Chery-stone hath been impowred to mortalize man God wants not for means to punish the wicked divers wayes When God is about to fight against a people all the creatures will march in rank and file against them the Drum of Gods wrath is no sooner struck up and the Trumpet of his indignation blown but the creatures are up in their arms his servants are in every corner of the world let a man travel what way hee will hee hath a rod in every angle of the universe to lay upon their backs and that will follow them at the heels God is Lord General in chief and all the creatures are his hosts and servants if hee say to the Plague Feaver Ague c. Go and fall upon such a Town Country or person it is gone The unruly Sea tamely stands still if God command it and lovingly opens its bosome to entertain the Israelites The Sun goes backward at his command Josh 10.12 The greedy and cruel Lions are quickly muzled and grow gentle at his command Isa 38.8 So the Sun returned ten degrees by which degrees it was gone down The course that I shall now shape in the handling of this Proposition will bee to inlighten you further in this truth in a parcel of very clear evidences The four Wind-armies of the world This Wind-army of the Lord then as I may properly call it I shall rank divide and marshal into four Squadrons because they lye quartered in the four corners of the world at a great distance from one another 1. The first is quartered in the North and it is a very terrible Army when it hath a commission and is set on by God vi armis as wee say it makes the Seas under the Artick pole and elsewhere to snere again and if it doth not execution enough in that quarter hee can give it command to advance on to the North and by West and do his will there and if not in that place in the North North-west and there shall it stay and blow and accomplish his ruining work upon ships even as hee pleases and if not in that place on it marches into the North-west and by North North-west and if not there on it goes again into the North-west and by West West North-west c. Who so is wise will observe these things Psal 107.43 2. The other lyes quartered in the East and it is no less potent and powerful than the other but doth presently at the sound of Gods silver Trumpet consurgere in arma rise up into arms and military postures either to break ships or to throw the Seas into pyramidical hills Be advertised all ye graceless Sailors that go in the Seas that think your selves because you have good ships under you so safe and so secure that neither God Winds nor Devils can harm you alas if God commissionate impower and set but on one of these Wind-armies upon your backs you would not be able to stand under the blows of it it would either tear your ships to peeces throw them upon the shore the Rocks and Sands or else sinck you down right into the bottoms where you should never bee seen nor heard of more and mountains and this Army wheels as easily about to serve the Lord in any part of the world as the flaming sword did to keep the Garden of Eden Gen. 3.24 If it bee not serviceable enough either to do good or evil in the Seas in the East and by East it will advance on into the East South-east and if not in that place it will go on into the East and by South and again if the Lord will have some Vessels or other ruined and drowned it will wait upon his pleasure in the East East and by North and from thence again to attend upon his sacred and most holy will it will bee in the twinkling of an eye in the East North-east I and round about the Card if hee pleases to break ships in any part of the world whatsoever 3. The next Army is quartered in the West and it is as blustring and stormy as the rest and when it has pleased the Lord to suffer this Army to draw the sword many ships have perished in the Seas by it and been both forced on shore and also unmercifully and irrecoverably thrown upon the Rocks and Sands of destruction This is one of the great supream Lord General 's attendants and is ready at hand to bee his messenger either of good or evil where the great Soveraign of Heaven and Earth shall appoint him either to take ships and break them in the West South-West or if not 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
night or what hour there is in the year that the Sea-man is not liable to some fearful jeopardy and casualty or other hee cannot positively and absolutely say any day that hee either sails or anchors in that it shall bee a day of peace and quietness unto him Hee cannot say after this day is over I will live and go into this and that place to morrow it was therefore a very humble and also a very gracious saying of one when invited to come and give his friend a visit upon the morrow ensuing to which courtesie hee returned this answer Ego crastinum non habui hos plurimos annos I have not had a morrow in my hands this many years What greater dangers of losing life are those in that go down into the Seas than that poor soul was that ever lived in the expectation of death The Sea hath a million of dangers in it I and fuller of perils to the Mariner than Africa either is or can bee unto the Traveller It is observed What I have read of one concerning that which he did see in a vision I may bring in and say of the Sea when hee beheld the many snares of the. Devil that were spread upon the face of the earth he sate down mourning and lamenting in this manner Oh Quis pertransiet ista who shall pass through all this and by and by after some long debate a voyce behinde him was heard Humilitas pertransiet Humility will carry thee through them Good Lord seems many a stout man to say how shall wee ever go through those many dangers that are upon the Seas in one place lies lurking rock in another perilous sands and every where the stormy wind I answer that faith in God will carry thee thorow them all that hee that will travel in Africa must take these following directions besides the many more that are prescribed or otherwise they will soon bee cut off with that multiplicity of venemous creatures that bee in it 1. Hee must not take his journey fasting because if hee should accidentally bee bitten or stinged by any of them the poyson will have the greater Influence upon the body in respect that the veins and arteries are the more open and empty at those times than at ohers 2. Hee must have a care of travelling when the Sun is hot and shining because all manner of vermine lye very much couchant in every field and graminous place and not onely for that reason neither but because if they should bee stinged at such a time the wound will bee the harder to get cured 3. Hee must have a special heed that hee foot it not over graminous bushy leavy and bramble places because in those places the veniferous creatures take up their abode and so will ceize upon any one that shall but tread or come amongst them 4. Hee must not go without that antidoting herb called A veneniferis creaturilis libera me domine The good Lord deliver mee from all venemous and hurtful creatures I bring but in this dangerous part and place of the world as a comparison to the Sea which is as full of hazzards as Africa can to him that shall travel it Nay further to set it home that they that use the Seas are in perpetual danger give mee leave to cast about and to tell you that all the creatures which encompass us about do as it were bend their whole force against us the very Sun in the firmament which is the dayes bright shining lamp of the world and is as a certain general Father to all living things doth sometimes so scorch with his beams that all things are parched and burnt up with the heat thereof at another time it takes its course so far from us that all things are like to dye in its absence with very cold the earth also which is the Magna parens mundiâ— the great mother of us all swallows up many thousands with her gulfs and earthquakes and the Season the other hand they devour and kill up men abundantly what an infinit of Rocks Sands Elâ—â—s Shallows Sirtes's and Charybdus's bee there in the Seas all which endanger the ships that go in them and upon them What shall I say also of the air Is not it many times corrupted And doth it not engender and gather clouds thick mists pestilence and sicknesses neither Land nor Sea Desart places private houses or open streets are free from ambushments conspiracies hatreds emulations Theeves and Pyrats Is there not spoyling of fields Terror ubique trerâ—or timor undique undique terror said the Poet. This may be the Sailors emblem Eccl. 2.23 For all his daies are sorrows and his travel grief yea his heart taketh not rest in the night sacking of Cities preying upon mens goods fireing of houses imprisonments captivities and cruel deaths falling upon mankinde in one place or other of the world It is at Sea as it is with a man that is of necessity having no other way to travel over some great wide thorny wilderness in which is all manner of ravening beasts in one corner Bear in another Wolf in one Lyon in another Tyger in one Wilde Oxen in another Wilde Boar in one Elephant in another Alligator in one Serpent in another Scorpion in one angry Leopard and in another the murthering Crocodile Would you think now that a man should ever get safe over such a place Consider all things and I know that the Sea is little inferiour to it for danger 5. Ship-leak springing The Mariner meets oftentimes with this most dreadful and inevitable accident which is of more trouble to him than any one thing in the world besides I a leak in a ship hath more terrour in it than an house that is on fire because the inhabitants may at their pleasure run out of it even when they please but it is not so at Sea in a ship for let the ship bee on fire or half filled with the waves of the Sea there is no back door for them to run out at That Log which Jupiter hurled out of heaven upon the heads of those Rana co axantes in cavernulis which molested him with their croaking Petitions for a King was not more terrible unto them than a leak is unto the Mariner in a storm It is reported of a ship that shee made this doleful complaint when going to sink Ego mergor quippe nautae mei aquam non extulerunt They let mee sink for want of pumping which if there had then many a thousand sail would have been left to run this way and that way ere this day at the pleasure of the winds and the Seas because men in such straights will give any thing for their lives A Leak in a ship is like to a sting in a Tortoyse of whom it is said that if shee bee stung with a Viper shee dyes upon it if she get not to that medicinable herb Margerum or Penny-royal This is an hour
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
into the South but where are your thanksgivings all this time to God for your safe goings our and returnings home Go but to the Planets and they will tell you that they will not deal so with the Sun as you deal with your God wee say they receive much light from the Sun and for a testimony of our thankfulness wee do not detain it but reflect it back again upon the Sun Go to the Earth Sailors and shee will tell you that shee will not deal so with the Heavens as you do with your God shee will tell you that shee receives much rain from the Heavens and out of a testimony of much thankfulness shee detains it not but returns it back in Vapor again and after this manner may you hear her speaking Cessat decursus donorum si cesset recursus gratiarum Mercies from above would soon cease If my thanksgivings and returnings from below went not up It is said of the Lark that shee praises the Lord seven times a day with sweet melodious ditties Atque suum tiriletiriletiriletiriletirile cantat Alauda Isa 20. The beast of the field shall honour mee the Dragons and the Owls because I give waters in the Wilderness and rivers in the Desart to give drink to my people my chosen 1. Reason Because your lives were at the stake as Isaac's was upon the Altar's when the knife was at his throat yet did the Lord call and look forth very seasonably The Romans used to stick and bedeck the bosom of their great God Jupiter with Laurel as if they had glad tidings of fresh victories and that out of a testimony of their thankfulness for what they had out of the Heavens for you and spake to the winds when they were up in a rampant kind of hostility and rebellion against you and bid them be quiet and do you no harm otherwise you had perished in many a storm ere this day and is not this worthy a great many thanks Who can bee too thankful to that God that has been so careful and tender-hearted over you when in the Seas where there was no eye to pitty you 2. Reason Because in that storm if God had given it commission thou hadst been shortly after either in Hell I have met with a story of one when being risen from the dead therefore you that live ungodlily in the Seas think of it he was asked in what condition he was in when he was there he made answer No man will beleeve no man will beleeve no man will beleeve They asked him what hee meant by that he told them no man will beleeve how exactly God examines how strictly God judges and how severely hee punishes or Heaven or may I not leave Heaven out and thou hadst been in Hell where the Devils would have fallen upon thee to tear thee to peeces Ah Sirs your lives hang but upon small wyers and what would become of you if God should not spare you Bee affected with this mercy 3. Reason Because had the storm but had licence to have destroyed you and the ships you sailed in which the Lord would not suffer you had never come home with your rich lading nor never had that mercy granted you of ever seeing or enjoying of your loving friends wives children houses lands and acquaintance again and shall not all this move you unto thankfulness If this will not I know nothing in the world that will prevail with you I pray God that Sea-men do not with their deliverances at Sea as Pharaoh did with the miracles that were done before his face Exod. 7.23 Of whom it is said That hee would not set his heart to the miracle 4 Reason Because you have now at the present a still quiet and peaceable Sea to sail in and upon which in the storm you had not such was the proud vantingness of it that you durst not loose a knot of sail nor keep your Top-masts unlowred and un-peaked and the waves run mountain-high rageing and rowling on every hand you in such a miserable manner It seems strange to mee that Sea-men are not bettered by all the storms they meet with by all the calms God bestows upon them Iron is never cleaner than when it comes out of the furnace nor brighter than when it has been under the sharp file the Sun never shines clearer than when it comes from under a Cloud the Coale that has been covered with ashes is thereby the hotter the quicker every thing brightens betters but the rusty Sailor Gods mercies judgments in the Seas do not scour him as that you were at your wits-end but Oh what sweet peace and tranquil weather have you now insomuch that your Vessels go now upright without that nodding staggering and reeling which they were put to before How still are the waves how clear above bee the skies and Heavens how well escaped are you from the shore the Rocks and sands which you were so near to in the storm Are you not affected with this mercy The Lord soften your hard hearts then Give mee leave to present you with a few motives unto this duty of thankfulness 1. Consider Soul what an unspeakable mercy it is that God should hear thy Prayers in a storm when thou wast almost overwhelmed that God should hear prayers nay prating and babling rather than praying which is but an abomination unto the Lord that God should hear the prayers of the righteous that is nothing strange because hee hears them alwaies but that God should hear your prayers Sirs which are most sorry and sinful prayers The Stork is said to leave one of her young ones where shee hatched them The Elephant to turn up the first sprig towards Heaven when he comes to feed and both out of an instinct of gratitude to their Creator Sailors let not brute creatures excel you for whatsoever is not of Faith is sin this is wonderful Ah will not you bee thankful unto the Lord Sirs I have red of a Lyon that had but got a thorn in his foot as hee was walking and ranging in the Forrest for and after his prey and being exceedingly pained with it hee made after a foot-Traveller which hee spied in the Forrest making signs to him that hee was in distress which the Traveller seeing and apprehending that his case was dangerous if hee ran hee stood still to know the Lyons pleasure to whom the Lyon declared himself and the poor man pulled it forth and the Lyon to requite him followed him as guarding of him from all wrongs by other wild-beasts quite through the Forrest Ah Sirs will not you express your thankfulness to your good God 2. Consider the particular dealings of God with you he deals not so with every one Do you not see God in the winds Mercavab Velohaâ—ocheb how is hee to bee seen in the Chariot which he rides in though not the Rider says a Rabbi some goes down into the bottoms amongst the dead
people naked and being asked the reason why hee said hee could not tell vvhat apparrel to put upon them You are thankless to your God for your Sea mercies I must bee forced to do as the Musitioner who evermore strikes most and oftenest upon the sweetest note in his song the Paven or Galliard brevity is the Card I must sail by in the Sea unless I were in some warm study upon Land to write and expatiate my self in The uses are two 1. Of Reproof 2. Of Exhortation 1. Of Reproof Is it thus then that your great and many mercies do cal for thanksulness at your hands then let me tell you that this point looks sourely upon you even as Diana's image in Chios did upon all those that came into her Temple with a lowring and contracted countenance but looked blithe and smiled on them when they went forth Ah Sirs consider what you do you with-hold Gods right from him Will any Land-lord bear with his Tennant that shuffels him off from year to year Mariners like the fish Borchora of vvhom it is said that shee does devour many fish one after another but at last is met vvith taken so do they their Sea-mercies but God vvill meet vvith them if they repent not of it and pays him never a farthing Gentlemen consider this God will not alwaies bear with your ingratitude Pharaoh escaped many plagues and judgments as you do ship-wracks storms and Tempests which the rest of the Egyptians smarted under and so may you many storms whilst others perish and are denied to bee saved either by planks or boats but what was Pharaoh kept for was hee not reserved for the Sea to bee made a prey on in the great deeps so may you even thousands of you for ought I know out of all your deliverances out of storms bee reserved for the next to bee swallowed up in The Sodomites were rescued out of the hands of Chedorlaomer but were after consumed with fire from heaven and thus the wicked have many deliverances which they had in a manner as good bee without for they turn into curses and not blessings when they are not sanctified Will not the Lord say to you when you come into distresses Jer. 22.21 I spake unto thee in thy prosperity but thou saidst I will not hear this hath been thy manner from thy youth that thou obeyedst not my voyce I will deliver you no more for you have been unthankfull under all 2. Of Exhortation What I speak to you good people I speak to my own soul and the Lord speak it to us all let mee beg of you who have been delivered even out of a little Million of perils by Sea to express your thankfulness to that God that hath delivered you even to his praise in all societies that you either go amongst or converse with Ah how near drowning have you been at such a time how near killing at another time how near being lost Your condition hath been many and many a time like the tree the Poet fingâ— of which bore golden boughs Quaquantum vertice ad auras Aethereas tantum radice in tartara tendit Virg. whose root was just so much beneath the earth as the top was in height above it Your ships were hard by drowning and of never being heard of more many a time and is not all this worthy of thanks to that God from whence you had his care over you to protect you Observ 2 That there is no duty that man is more dull and backward to and in than in the praysing Si ingratum dixeris omnia dixeris let me but hear of a man accused for unthankfulness and you need say no more Senec. and celebrating of the Name of the Lord. Oh that men would praise the Lord c. Mee thinks there is a great deal of dead-heartedness upon the Sea amongst men as to the performance of this very duty Masters are dead Captains are dead Lieutenants Boatswains Gunners Carpenters Sea-men Tarpowlings and all that use the Seas are not so much affected with their deliverances as they should bee He deserves to lose his Garden that will not afford his Landlord a flower I have read of the heathen that when they had escaped shipwracks at any time they would hang up their votivas tabulas to Neptune as a testimony of their thankfulness What will you do Sirs for your God Sirs If you would praise God take these ensuing Directions along with you In some tenures people do not refuse to do their homage though it be but the rendring of a Red rose or a Pepper-corn 1. Labour for humility of heart Gen. 32.10 I am not worthy of the least of all thy mercies and of all the truth which thou hast shewed unto thy servant A proud spirit cannot bee thankful unto God a haughty minde is never thankful unto God for any mercy bestowed 2. Labour for a due consideration of the greatness of the blessing Will a Picture continue that is drawn upon an Ice will it not fade and melt away when the Ice upon which it is drawn thaws 3. Take all advantages of praising God Jam. 5.13 when you are upon the merry pin then praise the Lord I mean cheerful Praise God in publick Many of you are as unthankful for your Sea-mercies as Bajazet the great Turk was for his being made so great a Monarch who when asked if ever hee had thanked God for it he said that he never so much as once thought of it in all his life time then but just you should smart for it quoth Tamerlain and praise him in private 4. Strive against all hindrances whatsoever bee it sluggishness backwardness or whatsoever 5. If you would praise the Lord do it speedily 6. Do it sincerely 7. Largely 8. Freely 9. For the least mercy 10. Constantly not like the new Moon which shines all the beginning part of the night and then leaves all the hinder part in darkness Motives to praise God are these 1. Hereby you will honour God much 2. It is a gainful kinde of trading with God the husbandman delights to sow his seed in and upon fruitful soils where hee knows his increase will yeeld sixty or an hundred fold There be seven sorts of people that I would put upon the praising of God for Sea-mens deliverances 1. Their Wives 2. Their Parents 3. Their Friends 4. Their Brethren 5. Their Sisters 6. Their Acquaintance 7. Gods people The meeting of Friends after a long Voyage at Sea should bee like that of Joseph Gen. 46. And hee fell on his neck and wept c. They are not lost praises that are given unto God 3. It is a most noble act of Religion to praise God 4. Giving of thanks to God is more than to pray 5. If you will bee much in the praising of the Lord you will bee under much joy and comfort Observ 3 That the praysing of the Name of the great and