out of the heavens for you Accensam lucernam nemo moleste aspicit extinctam dolent omnes When Sea-coast light-houses burn clear bright the Mariner greatly rejoyces in it but when dimly and dully he freâ—â— and curses when Land-lights have burned very deadly and dimly in black dark and blustring evenings upon the sight whereof you have judged your selves to have been at a greater distance than you were and thereby have hazzarded your ships and lives by standing in so much to the shore yet in fine some or other in the vessel have had a fight of the land thorow the thick darkness whereby you have been precautionated to alter your course Who so is wise c. 27. Minde how the Lord looks out of heaven into the deeps for you in the absence of the Moon which is oftentimes over-cast with thick clouds and foggy vapours insomuch that when you have been standing in for the shore and been nearer to it than aware of that the Lord hath caused the Moon to break out very clearly in the skies Wear not these mercies aâ— the Romans â—â—d pearls upon their shoos because of the commonness of them but put them upon the file and hang them the nearest your hearts of any thing in the world besides Alexander thought all cost too little to make a Casket to keep Homers Poems in by which means you have seen what would have been your portion if providence had not been at work for you Who so is wise c. 28. Minde what a care the Lord hath of you in black and formidable nights of wind and rain when in the wide and shelterless Sea The Seas in the night time are as difficult in some places to navigate as the Hircâ—nian Forrests are to travel through in the night Writers say that they are so intricate and difficult to get out of if a man once get into them that the skilfullest traveller that is is oftentimes put to his shifts and were it not for the flying of certain birds which afford such a bright and glistring lustre in their leasurely flight by reason of their white feathers they might take up their lodgings in them who causes the stars to afford you a glimmering light in the absence of the Moon by which means you have in your Navigations observed the frothy breaches of the Seas over the Sand-banks which places you have taken as ominous and altered your courses and thereby gone safe away and clear Who so is wise c. 29. Minde how the Lord takes care for you by giving you secret fears and hints in dark nights when you are in narrow Seas through which many ships trade and travel all the night long insomuch that when they have come within the touch of you by a speedy handling of your helm you have escaped whereas either one or both would have gone down into the bottoms if providence had not looked out for you Who so is wise c. 30. Minde what the Lord doth for you when you are in great distress as to the want of Victual Beer and fresh water when you are many hundred leagues off England how hee gives you a very fair wind which carries you on for a spurt may bee a day or half a day and then it fails you and so a contrary wind looks you in the face and puzzles you and being in many fears and doubts of starving the Lord alters that wind again and causes a gale to stand and wast you over to your desired Ports Who so is wise will c. 31. Minde what a mercy it is The Earl of Ulster endeavoured fifteen times to sail over Sea into Ireland but the wind drave him ever back Every one is not priviledged as you are Satius est claudicare in via quam currere extra viam Better to stop and sound in the Channel than run the ship on shore when in dark stormy and blowing weather you come out of the Southern parts into the channel and are at a stand not knowing where you are whether you bee nearer the French shore or the English but by sounding you distinguish your propinquity to either of them in respect that the one is a white sand and the other red and hereby your ships are preserved many a time Keep these mercies in remembrance as Alexander kept Homers Iliads pro viatico rei militaris for his fellow and companion in the Wars 32. Minde the Lords appearances for you in all your Sea-engagement-mercies when your Masts have been shot down by the board and the enemy hath lain pouring in his great and small shot upon you how seasonably some ship or other hath come in to relieve you from the mouth of the Lion Who so is wise c. 33. Minde how the Lord hath taken care for you when fire ships have been grapled to you that before those combustible materials which they are usually fraught withall have taken fire you have cleared your selves from being devoured in that unmerciful element Who so is wise c. I may write upon this deliverance In tempore veni quod omnium rerum est primum If I had not come in time you had been sent into the bo tome 34 Minde what care the Lord hath used for you in your engagements when you have been so shrewdly worsted by the enemy that you have been put to your flight to the end you might carine and stop your leaks and the enemy observing you at such a disadvantage hath made after you to sinke you down-rights which hee would have done if Providence had not set on some ship or other to prevent him Who so is wise c. If it bee thus then Vse Comfort that God hath such a special eye c. This Doctrine may serve to cheer up the honest hearts and spirits that go into the Sea that God will take care of them When one asked Alexander how hee could sleep so soundly and securely in the midst of danger hee told him that Parmenio watched and when hee watched not hee durst not sleep so soundly Go to Sea with comfort you that fear the Lord not onely Parmenio watcheth for you but the Lord. That if the Lord brought not ships out Observ 3 of storms they were never able to get out of them themselves And hee bringeth them out of their distresses That Sea-mens distresses are both infinite Observ 4 and many yet God out of his infinite mercy helps them out of all And hee brings them out of their distresses That all impossibility in mans narrow Observ 5 judgement and apprehension of being delivered hinders not God in delivering Fides in pericuâ—is secura est in securis periclitatur And hee brings them out c. Witness that wonderful deliverance that Paul and his fellow-passengers received from the cruelty of the Seas Act. 27. Because his power is an unlimited Reason 1 and an unstraitned power which is infinite and most like to
neither canst thou ever perform what thou hast vowed to whom hee replied in the storm Vers 26. Their soul is meltâ—d because of trouble They are even ready to dye at this time Junius understands it of extreme vomiting as if they that used the Seas were casting up their very hearts many times Anacharses for this very cause doubted whether hee should reckon Mariners amongst the living or amongst the dead And another said that any man will go to Sea at first I wonder not but to go a second time thither is little better than madness very softly and silently lest St. Christopher should hear him Hold thy peace thou fool dost thou think that I ever meant it if ever I recover shore the Devil take mee if ever hee gets as much as a small tallow candle of mee or the pairing of my nails Make you the Application 20. Beleeve that all storms that come upon you are of the Lords raising and commissionating I have met with this passage which was found sayes history in a Council above a thousand years ago Si quis credit quod Diabolus tonitrua fulgura tempestates sua authoritate sicut Priscillianus dixit Anathema This Canon was made against such as did simply attribute storms tempests thundrings and lightnings c. to the Devil and not to God as if so be that he should be the causer and the procurer of them whosoever beleeves this said the Council as Priscillianus hath done let him bee an Anathema But without any further wording of it to you I freely bestow this peece of my Nec inter vivos Nec inter mortuos upon you all that use the Seas and beg your acceptance of it The God of Heaven grant it may do you good read it heed it yee need it pray for mee and I shall not bee wanting in my prayers for you that God would bless and prosper you in your imployments and thus hee that takes his ultimum vale of you and the Sea rests Gentlemen Yours to serve you in the service of Christ DANIEL PELL From my Study at my Lady Hungarfords in Hungarford House upon the Strand London May 4. 1659. THE EPISTLE TO THE Christian Readers Whether at Sea or on Land Good Readers I Would very freely invite you had I but that chear that I judge you deservedly worthy of Let this Epistle bee thy Janisary or Pole-star to the perusal of this book The stars that do attend the Artick-pole are the greater and lesser Bear and the least star in the lesser Bears tail is called the Pole-star by reason of its nearness to it and this is the guide of the Mariners as Ovid in his Epistle sings it You great and lesser Bears whose stars do guide Sydonian and Grecian ships that glyde Even you whose Poles do view this c. if you therefore will come to such Fare as hath been provided dished cooked and prepared upon the Sea for you you shall bee freely and heartily welcome and in your coming take this Advertisement along with you or else you had better let it alone Guests that are invited unto some Grandee King Lord or Prince 1. Respect with great desire the hour of his feast and so give their diligent attendance that they may come in a decent seemly and orderly manner 2. That nothing pleaseth the Prince better than to see them feed soundly on the meat dished and prepared for them 3. They are cautelous that they do not speak any thing that may bee in the least offensive to the person that invited them 4. They do not statim by and by depart but stay and sit a while and interchange familiar conference with the Prince 5. At their departure they yeeld a great deal of reverence returning him a thousand humble thanks for the favour vouchsafed them offering themselves ready at his service I question not your wisdome in the applying of what is before you The strongest Arguments that I can lay you down that did put mee upon this laborious business in a restless unquiet and disconsolatory Sea were such as these 1. It was the good pleasure of the Lord to draw and hale mee to undertake it by a strong and an unwithstanding impulsiveness that lay every day upon my heart and spirit till I went about it 2. To reprove that spirit of machless and unknown prophaneness that is amongst many thousands that use the Seas 3. To that end they might bee healed in their souls amended and reformed in their lives and practices 4. Because I never saw any thing writ unto them as suitable to and for their imployment the want of which did the more affectionately lead mee on for the good of their souls 5. Because I bear an extraordinary strong love to the souls of those that go down into the Seas and would as gladly have them saved in the day of the Lord as I would my self 6. Because I would have the world to know a little what perils and hazzards those that use the Seas do run thorow and meet with all in their imployments 7. What Ulysses's commendation was by Homer I shall say of them that use the Seas 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hee knew the Cities and manners of many people They see many brave Cities and Countries that could not bee seen were it not for shipping Our Gentry travel both Sea and Land with much bodily hazzard and with great expence of state and all but to get a little more knowledge of fashions and a gentile behaviour To let the world know what works and wonders of the Lord those do see that go into the Seas and beyond them 8. To that end the world might know what great preservations and deliverances the Lord bestows upon them in their affairs 9. To that end the world might know I made some improvement of my time when at Sea for I never affected the mis-spending of one day all the time I was in it but lived though amongst men as if not amongst them Mihi musis knowing that time is precious and tarries not Vpon a Dialpeece of a Clock in the Colledge Church of Glocester are portrayed four Angels each of them seeming to say something to those that look up to observe the hour of the day which is made up of two old Latine verses 1. An labor an requies 2. Sic transit gloria mundi 3. Praeterit iste dies 4. Nescitur origo secundi Englished Whether you rest or labour work or play The world and glory of it passes away This day is past or near its period grown The next succeeding is to us unknown 10. And lastly To that end all the Lords people would bee mindful of those that use the Seas They are like to a direct North-Dial that hath but morning and evening hours on it They are far from good means on land pray for them and not forget them in their most serious and solemn addresses unto their God They stand in need
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-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
flye upon a ragged one Sea-men Sea-men look for storms it is your usual saying that Pallida luna pluit rubicunda flat alba serenat The Moon looks red and tells us that wee shall have winds You have just occasions many times to look for winds and storms therefore give mee leave to say Delicatus nauta est qui fortunae rabiosas novercantis procellas non expectat that hee is too little a right bred Sea-man that neither would nor doth look for storms the best sort of Sea-men dare not trust the smiling countenance of any one day or night though never so fawning and proffering If he comes to an anchor he sits down and casts about and considers how and what the harbour is and how the winds may turn and change Minus etiam quam luscinia dormit the pleasant Nightingale sleeps more than hee doth because hee is burdened with many cares about his fore-casting of all things for the best It is a great folly for any to think that they may go to Sea and not meet with brushing storms and that man that desires to go to Sea for recreation and not for imployment save onely to see the Seas and sail here and there a little upon them would wish with all his heart that hee was back again when hee sees a storm a coming Alas the Sea is a place where the greatest storms are laid on that ever befell any element whatsoever there are not those gusts and storms to bee found on land that bee upon the Seas neither are the great deeps like the smooth-faced fontes fluvia stagna and lacus's of a land that lyes with never a wrinckle upon their frontlets but they lye in raging froth and fome and by their restlesness give all that come upon them a bitter cup of a plus aloes quam mellis telling them that they shall have more storms than calms 2. Storms as well as calms come from the hands of God For hee commandeth the stormy winds Matth. 8.25 The stormy wind was up for a while in which the Disciples of Christ were most dreadfully rocked and tossed in but afterwards it was rebuked and stilled this is a comfort Nullum violentum est perpetuum things that are violent are not long lasting I would have all Sea-men to bee of that heavenly temper that Job was of when they are in and under perilous storms Job 2.10 What shall wee receive good at the hands of God and shall wee not receive evil It seems evil as well as good happens sometimes for a peoples trial 3. Dayes are evermore seen for to travel with Gods decrees Fair Sun-shine mornings have I seen and known to end in sad and dismal evenings the Proverb is Nescis quid serus vesper vebat Thou knowst not what is in the womb of a big-bellied day The Willow would never bee good if it were not lopt and cut cutting of it makes it spring the better at the root and bear the fairer head The Sailors will never bee ought till they bee cut to peeces I mean laid low upon the bark of affliction if hee say they shall be stormy who can let it and if hee give command that they shall bee tranquil and calm they shall bee so Prov. 27. Boast not thy self of to morrow for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth It may bring forth sickness as well as health storms as well as calms and death as well as life 4. God will humble and correct you and stand you not in very great need of being humbled and corrected Where is the Sailor in the Sea that is so good as may not look for a brushing The Sun is more resplendent after an ecclipse the Sea more calm after a storm and the air much brighter after a shower which made a great Statesman of out Nation to say that storms and tempests contribute to the cleerness of the heavens and the smoothness of the Seas 5. Where there is a looking for smooth and calm Seas the sudden alteration thereof Art thou going to Sea my friend make much of this short word of counsel there is multum in parvo nè quare mollia nè tibi contingant dura wouldst thou have i◠Englished Sailor then this it is Expect not too much favour from the Sea Jactantur oequora ventis He that will sail the great and wide Sea must look for many a roaring gust both hath and doth prove a sad and bitter disappointment to many a mans expectations when Christs Disciples were out at Sea they looked for smooth and calm water and meeting with a rugged and boysterous storm and tempest where they saw themselves greatly endangered they could not bear it Matth. 8.25 Lord save us wee perish Jer. 8.15 Wee looked for peace but no good came and for a time of health and behold trouble They that will go down to the Sea must not look for to have all calms and no storms but oftner storms than calms They that will travel upon the Sea to this and that far and remote Country in the world they must expect to meet with many a sore rub and brushing storm before they shall or can bee transported to them 2. I would have all those that are Grandees and Statesmen of our land to look for storms also my reason is this in respect that your Honours have many brave Golden-stern'd and Golden-headed Sea-boats going to and fro and up and down in the great waters where all the other ships do go and much work you have now in hand for them to do which lies both far and near and I think that it is my judgment that there never was an Age or people called on so much as the English now are both to do and carry on that work and those glorious designs that God has on foot against the Anti-Evangelical and Antichristian powers of the world it is clear to mee that the Lord Jesus Christ who both will and shall rule all Nations with a rod of Iron and in whom is all power and through whom is the guidance of all the affairs that are on foot upon the face of the Earth that you are acted by him against them but that which I aim at is this Right Honourable your gallant ships are now and then rocking and staggering in the waves as well as others and are now and then most dreadfully spending of their Masts and Yards by the board and some again most dangerously are hazarded in their running upon the ground the winds favour them no more than they do the other ships that use the Seas but fall upon them belluino impetu with as much violence as they do upon others The winds take no more notice of the golden gildedst ship than they do of the coarsest Nunc pluit claro nunc Juppiter aethere fulget meanest and plainest stern-painted that goes in the Salt-waters You cannot expect it that the Seas should bee alwaies of a gentile and silver-glistering
their desired Haven Gods people upon the Sea even the very meanest of them may say I never stir out nor sail in the great deeps but my life-guard goes along with mee and if they want for preservation there is never a creature in heaven or earth Sea or land but both will and shall take their parts What man is able to finde out a danger in which God could not or the time when God did not help them Ah Sirs never distrust God Was it dangerous to bee shut out of the Ark when the waters increased upon the old world or to bee shut out of the City of Refuge when the Avenger of blood pursued or to want blood upon the door posts when the Angel was destroying and is it not as dangerous to those that go to Sea without the fear of God Consider but that What hath been said and recorded of Troys Palladium that whilst that image remained there the City was impregnable had not the Greeks found out the stratagem to steal their Idol away they could never have conquered the City I will say of the godly and religious that go in the Seas whilst they walk close with their God It is reported that the Seas on a time being very rough and tempestuous great waves and billows flying mountain high a great Vessel was sailing upon them and every wave threatning to drown her the wicked wretches that were in her scared not the Seas the Waves asked them how it happened that they were no more fearful quoth the Mariners Nos Nautae We are Mariners How much more may the godly say in time of storms Nos Christiani et Deum Omnipotentem habemus the waves shall never hurt them 2 Chron. 15.2 The Lord is with you while you bee with him and if you seek him hee will bee found of you but if you forsake him hee will forsake you That the Lords merciful dealings with Observ 7 the sons of men in the Seas gives the world a convincing evidence of his gracious nature willingness and readiness to do good and to shew favour unto all Hee brings them to their desired Haven That when God will deliver a people out Observ 8 of storms in a shelterless Sea then no opposition shall nor can oppose or hinder him Hee brings them to their desired Haven No powers in Heaven Sea or Land that God cannot over-top and make vail and strike sail to him when hee pleases Psal 114.3 4 5 6 7. What ailed thee Oh thou Sea that thou fleddest thou Jordan that thou wast driven back Proud-vanting This was Davids experience of Gods readinesse to help him when in distresse Psal 18.10 And hee rode upon a Cherub and did flye yea hee did flye upon the wings of the wind The Lord is continually upon one Cherubs back or other over and upon the great deeps one while in the North and another while in the South c. for your deliverance and billow-bouncing Seas soon lower their top-sails at Gods rebuke Vers 31. Oh that men would praise the Lord for his goodness and for his wonderful works to the children of men IN the words wee may soon espye two remarkable things 1. A vehement desire Oh that men would praise the Lord. 2. A duplicatory reason of this desire 1 For his goodness 2. For his wonderful works to the children of men If the heavens were parchment the Seas Iâ—ke and every pile of grasse in the world a pen all would be too little to set forth the high praises of the Lord by This Verse seems to include the ardent earnestness of the Psalmists spirit that Sea-men would bee much in thankfulness and much and frequent in praising of the Lord their deliverer out of all their distresses Oh seems hee to say that I could put men upon this duty it would bee more comfortable to mee seems the Psalmist to say to finde such a principle in the hearts of those that are imployed in the great waters Ah Sirs you let the fresh running floods of Jordan I mean your Sea-deliverances fall into the mare mortuum of your forgetfulnesse than any one thing in the world again whatsoever Oh is but a little word consisting of two letters but no word that ever a man utters with his tongue comes with that force and affection from the heart as this doth Oh is a word of the highest expression a word when a man can say no more This Interjection oftentimes starts out of the heart upon a sudden from some unexpected conception or admiration or other In the composure of these words wee have two things onely considerable 1. The manner of it 2. The matter of it Oh that men would praise the Lord. But to open the words a little Oh that men would praise the Lord c. Heb. That they would confess it to the Lord both in secret and in society this is all the rent that God requires hee is contented that those that use the Seas should have the comfort of his blessings so hee may have the honour of them this was all the fee Christ looked for for his cures Go and tell what God hath done for thee words seem to bee a poor and slight compensation but Christ saith Nazianzen calls himself the Word That deliverances at Sea out of storms Observ 1 and Tempests call upon all the sharers therein and the receivers thereof to bee evermore thankfully praising and magnifying the wonderful goodness Lucan reports that the Elephants that come out of the Nabathaean Woods to wash themselves in the floods near unto them as if to purifie will fall down to adore the Moon or otherwise their Creator and return into the woods again And will nor you that use the Seas to your God that delivers you and undeserved kindness of the Lord vouchsafed unto them Oh that men would praise the Lord. Shall I prove the poynt I profess if Scripture were silent no man I should think should bee so audaciously impudent as to deny the verity thereof 1 Thes 5.18 In every thing give thanks for that is the will of God If in every thing then surely in and for Sea-preservations Men must take heed that they bee not thankless in this thing lest the Heavens blush at their ingratitude Psal 119.62 At midnight will I rise to give thanks to thee Ah that our Sea-men were as forward as they lie in their Cabbins and Hammocks Ah Sirs how many voyages make you to and again upon the Seas one while into the East-Indies So affected were the inthralled Greeks with their liberty procured by Flaminius the Roman Generael that out of thankfulness to him they would oftentimes lift up their voices in such shrill acclamations crying Soter Soter Saviour Saviour that the very birds would fall down from the heavens astonished and amazed And will not you Gentlemen be affected with your Sea deliverances and another while into the West one while into the North and another while
of being prayed for Job 9.26 They are called in that place Ships of desire 1. When a man sees a goodly and a stately ship that is then a ship of desire 2. A Merchants longing for his ships good return home is a ship of desire 3. A ship of desire is a swift Pinnace oâ— a Pyrats Bark or Vessel that is made on purpose for the prey to out-sail all others But to proceed Let mee tell thee Good Reader before I take my leave of thee that I can say of and by my going to Sea for which I had as clear a all to as ever man had to any place in this world as a good man once said who had lyon a long time in prison in the primitive times of persecution I have quoth hee got no harm by this No more harm hath all my troubles at Sea done my inward man than a going up to the rops of those mountains hath done them that have made the trial where neither Winds Clouds nor Rain doth over-top them and such as have been upon them do affirm that there is a wonderful clear skye over head though Clouds below pour down rains and break forth in thunder and lightning to the terrour of them that are at the bottome yet at the top there is no such matter Mee thinks I have heard the Seas say unto mee Vide hic mare hic venti hic pericula disce sapere See how ready the Winds and Seas are at Gods beck and wilt not thou fear him If I may tell thee my experiences of Gods doing of my soul good in the Seas then can I tell thee thus much bee it spoken to the praise of that sweet God whom I serve and honour that I have got no harm by going to Sea but a great deal of good both to my soul and also to my understanding and intellectual parts 1. I have learned by my going to Sea to love the world less than I did before Love not the world c. 1 Joh. 2.15 2. I have learned to know men and the world far better than I did before 3. I have learned to prize a life in heaven far before a reeling and staggering life here on earth 4. I have learned to bee far more shye and wary of sin than I was before because I found my self so fearful of death and drowning many times in storms when in the Seas I have read of a young man that lay on his death-bed and all that ever hee spoke whilst hee lived was this I am so sick that I cannot live and I am so sinful that I dare not dye It is good to keep clear of sin 5. I have learned to live upon God and to put my trust in him more than ever I did before so that I can comfortably speak it Psal 7.1 O Lord my God in thee doe I put my trust c. 6. I have seen more of the Creation by my going to Sea than ever I should have done if I had stayed on Land The Lord sets men the bounds of their habitations It is said of Lypsius that he took such delight in reading of a Book I wish that thou mayest as much in this that hee said Pluris faecio quum relego semper novum quum repetivi repetendum The more I read the more I am tilled on to read 7. I have learned to fear God more and to stand in awe of that God who hath the lives of all his creatures under his feet and is able to dispose both of a mans present and also future condition even as pleaseth him than ever I did before 8. I have learned to pray better and to ply the Throne of Grace oftner with my prayers for spiritual blessings than ever I did before 9 I have so learned Christ that I made it my work and businesse all the time I was at Sea to lead my life so as in the continual presence and aspect of the Lord Meer Heathens thought God to be every where as appears by their Jovis omnia plena Quascunque accesseris oraâ— Sub Jove semper eris c. Psal 16.8 I have set the Lord alwayes before me c. and so I lived and have lived both at Sea and also at Land that I shall give both foe and friend and friend and foe their liberty to speak and observe me as much as they can 10 I have learned to love my God more than ever I did before and if I had not I should appear to be a very rebellious Child As Demetrius Phalerius deceived the calamities of his Banishment by the sweetness of his Study so I the troublesome Seas and rude society by mine I know that this poor Peece of mine has in it its 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Naâ—vi its blacks and spots its Human frailties which the good Lord remit yet in it is there truths Divine and things very profitable and worthy to be embraced in respect the Lord has done so much for me to preserve me and mercy me as hee hath done in a cruel Sea which is a place as the Poet sings Luctus ubique pavor plurima mortis imago Good Reader doest thou live in times of trouble and daies of danger then turn over this Book and thou wilt finde that there is a wise and a powerful God in the Heavens that sits at the Helm both of Sea and Land to preserve poor souls in them Wouldst thou hear of those Sights and Wonders of the Lord that those that goe down into the Seas doe see then will I commend this small Treatise to thee what delight fuller thing canst thou read than a Theam or Subject of the Sea and Sea affairs here mayest thou read and peruse this my Nec inter vivos nec inter mortuos which cost me much pains and get some good out of it When Nebuzaradan burnt the rubbish of the Temple hee kept the Gold c. Though in reading thou meetest with Creature-defects which I will assure thee was never writ upon Land but drawn up as I studied it upon water Libentèr omnibus omnes opes concesserim ut mihi liceat vi nulla interpellante isto modo in literis vivere Tully I would freely give all the good in the world that I might sit down in the world live and lead a studying life But it was the Lords will that I should travel in the great and wide Sea yet wilt thou meet with many a savoury truth if thou hast but a gracious heart in the brest of thee Accept of it My sute to you Readers is that upon your perusal of it you would seek the Lord in its behalf that it may doe good to them that use the Seas I begge the prayers of every godly and gracious Minister into whose hands peradventure it may come that he would pray that it may be instrumental to reform these People that goe in the Seas who stand in need of
as thick as hail about these mens ears they no more regard them than the Leviathan does the throwing of darts Job 41.29 which he counts as stubble and laughs at the shaking of of the spear What Job says in one case of the Leviathan I 'll say in another of the Sailor Job 41.33 Upon earth there is not his like who is made without fear I 'll say of Sailors what Paterculus said of some Caitiffs in his time in Rome quod nequiter ausi fortiter executi that what they wickedly attempted they desperately performed These Blades laugh when broad-sides are poured into their Ships And let me tell you a strange story You are Cousen-Germans to the great Leviathan in the Sea his heart and yours are both of a metal Ver. 24. His heart is as firm as a stone yea as hard as a piece of the nether Milstone It s not the loud Peals of Ordnance and of broad-sides from your Enemies that will dismay or break your hearts Nay when the Sea is on a curded dye of gore blood and runs as freely out of the Skuppers of their Ships as water does down the leaden Pipes of high-tyled houses in a rainy day these Lads have as good a stomach to behold it as ever Hannibal had when he saw a pit of Mans blood and cried out O famosum spectaculum he was so far from swooning at it that he took great delight in it Our Sailors like the Romans are so used not only unto gladiatory fights but great roaring Gun-fights and bloody spectacles and this acquaintance that they have got of Wounds and Blood makes them the lesse fear it in the Wars These are the Lads that make their Guns to roar far louder upon their Enemies than Homers Mars when hurt whom the noise of a thousand men and bells could not drown These are they that do totum concutere Orbem puzzle and amaze the whole world Where ever these go and sail they give every Coast a most dreadfull Alarm And that Immortale nomen that these blades in their late Wars have got is daunting terrible Prope Procul far and near so that they are talked of not onely Lingua Gallica but Italica Turcica Arabica Persica Belgica Hispanica c. and with and by all the Tongues that be in the World and hapned at the Confusion of Babel These Lads These are they that do Tonare armis fulminare cum Bombardis thunder in their arms and lighten the night with their guns who ride in the golden Saddle of their Wooden and Warlike Horses over the great waves and billows of the seas are of the very same metal of that proud prauncing and curvetting Horse in Job 39.19 20 21 22 23 24 25. They are men whose necks are clothed with thunder They with their Frigots go on to meet the armed men They mock at fear and are not affrighted neither turn they back from the Sword or all the Ordnance that 's fired on them They say amongst the Trumpets The glittering Spear and thundering Guns Ha! ha They smell the battel afar off and the thunder of the Ships and Captains They tear the Waves of the Sea in pieces with their fiercenesse And what Job 41.19 speaks of the Leviathans mouth I may say of these mens Gun-mouthes Out of their Gun-mouthes go burning lamps and smoke and sparks of fire leap out of their Gun-nostrils as out of a seething Pot or Cauldron Nay it s wonderful either to see hear or think how cheerfully the Mariners will shout and throw their Caps over-board into the Air and the Sea when they come unto an Engagement and though shot fly as neer their Coats and Caps as the Grecians accent came unto their Greek letter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they turn but up the nose at it Who will or who can deny but that by this Art Mariners have the fairest and fullest view and delightfullest aspect of the whole Creation above all others whatsoever Who will deny that the Seaman has not the amplest prospect of the great Waters These are the Lads that bark against the Crucifix of Rome It has been a Papal Proverb that never any barkt against the Crucifix but he ever ran mad But see you not how our Sailors keep in their right wits notwithstanding all that These are the Lads that have taken as much pleasure in setting the Hollanders ships on a fire when they engaged them in their three last dreadful Disputes as Alexander did in Persipolis when it was on a burning blaze or as Alcibiades did in seeing that Athenian heap of Scrolls on a fire of which he said with much rejoycing Nunquam vidi ignem clariorem I never saw a better fire in my life and of the Works and Wonders of the Lord in them and upon them whilst others that sit on Land neither see nor hear of What Art or Science is there in the world that outstrips this Let them come forth to match her I have read of one in Aristaemeus Ephemeris by name who did so much admire his Mistrisses beauty that he challenged all tho Beauties both of the East West North and South to compare with her Truly so much an admirer am I of this rare Art of theirs who have by Providence been conversant amongst them little lesse than a full Quatuorennium of time that I am transported to say Let the Wits of the East West North and South come in and compare as much of the flower strength and wit of Man and wisdom of the Creator is centred and apparent in this one Art and is daily demonstrable to those that are but tantum beholders as is sufficient to put the ingeniousest piece that is into a Labyrinthical admiration And this rare Art is Nuper admodum of late within these few years more abundantly advanced and improved than ever and I believe if my judgement fail not grown up into a Superlativer perfection than can or does appear to have had or been in quondam times or ages Was there ever more Merchandizing than there 's now Was there ever more crossing and adventuring upon the Salt-waters in Ships than there 's now Was there ever more busking or ranging the Seas out of England with great and terrible Fleets of the Warlikest Ships that ever were seen in the world before than there 's now Was there ever more going down into the great Waters from Country to Country according to Davids phrase than there 's now Go but to years past and enquire of them and they will tell you We never practised so much in the Art as you in these days do Before the vertue of the Loadstone that pointeth out the North was revealed unto the Mariner it s not to be spoke with what uncertain wandrings men were driven about following doubtful conjectures and fallacious accounts and reckonings indirectly floating here and there rather than sailing the right and direct way When the weather was fair when either Sun Moon
considered in the Lords discovering this Artem obnubilatam difficult and intricate Mystery The Gospel of Christ came into England at the first by shipping sayes Chronicles that Joseph of Arimathea was the first bringer of it into this Land who will gainsay me in this that there has not something of Divine Providence appeared as a moving cause or the Causa Procatarctica in God to give man light and understanding in it to this end that the light of the glorious Gospel of Christ which is the great power of God unto Salvation might be transported Undoubtedly but he that filled Bezaliel Aholiah with the Spirit of wisdom for the work of the Tabernacle Exod. 31.3 has not discovered the use of the Loadstone the Art of Navigation unto mankinde meerly for bare trading withal but for some higher end and freely preached and held forth unto those multitudes of ignorant and fettered captives of Satans in those dark mansions and remote Regions of America and unto the other black-nighted parts and corners of the world also We have now by the help of shipping many Plantations up down in the western parts of the world which are and will be by Gods assistance promoters of the interest of Christ and instrumental in the pulling down the interest of the Devil We reade of the Apostles and the disciples of Christ yea of Christ himself that they made use of shipping unto all the Islands they travelled to and Continents without which how should the Gospel of Christ been made manifest It is observed that the use of the Loadstone was never known in the world till Christs coming I would infer thus much then if there be truth in History That God was fully resolved at the coming of his blessed Son into the world to give man the right use and understanding of it to that very end it might be the golden Key to open those many locks bolts bars and doors that lay upon the face of the Creation which was little known or discovered till the Art of Navigation sprung up and came into the world So that by this Key the door of every Nation is opened to let in the Gospel of Christ amongst them and God has given man that dexterity and knowledge in this Art that his love unto the world Joh. 3.33 and the Name of his Son Jesus Christ might go far and neer in all the remote parts of the world over there being no other Name neither in heaven nor upon earth by which man can be saved Act. 4.12 but by this This is an Art now which this Nation of late and several other Nations also in the world are grown wonderfully dexterous ripe and well accomplished in and some excelling one another It s said of the Turk that great Potentate the three half Moons or the Top-gallant Sail of the World that he is no great Mariner and if he had but that skill and Art that other Nations and Countries have in Navigation he would have attempted to have ranged the whole world over he would have been in Wars with Nations though never so far distant and would have striven to have had a greater part of the world than he is in possession of he would have had the Silver Mynes in Hispaniola ere this day but that he knows not how to sail his ships thither But its time now for me to lay the Fore-Topsail of this my Compendious nay I fear rather prolix Prooemium upon the Mariners Art upon the Baek-steads and so lye by the Lee. Loquuntur Nautae Loquatur Ars Is not this now a rare Art I 'll deal as kindly with you as Hezekiah did with the Babylonish Ambassadors Isa 39.2 as he shewed them the house of his precious things the silver the gold the spices and the precious ointments and all the house of his armour all that ever he had So will I set before you the great works and wonders of the Lord in the Seas by which the glorious Gospel of Christ came into this Land and by which comes in all the delicate Fruits Commodities and scattered Excellencies that lye up and down in the Creation to our very doors I will then no longer hold you in the Porch of this delightful Prologue lest you should think your expectations to be either frustrated or defrauded for there 's a better Palace of Discourse to walk in and better banquetting-stuff to feed on My Anchor then is on board if that you will put off with me a little from the shore and lanch out into the main Ocean come now for its high-water for the Frigot of my Discourse to turn out withall When that the Fore-Topsail of any Ship is once loose no surer sign than that the Cable is upon the Capstock and that the ship is a going to make sail 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nec inter vivos nec inter mortuos Neither amongst the Living nor amongst the Dead OR A Compendious Improvement of the SEA PSAL. 107. Ver. 23. They that go down to the Sea in ships that do business in great Waters FOR our Introduction into the words before us our care shall be to ballance every word and circumstance that 's either considerable or materiall in them To that end you may behold that mature and goodly fruit that grows as plentifully upon this Scripture stalk as did upon that pregnant and most fruitful Tree Pliny greatly gloried in which he saw at Tiburts Juxta Tiburtes Tulias omni genere Pomorum alio ramo nucibus alio baccis alio ficis pyris prunis malorumque generibus c. bearing all Novelties upon one bough grew divers kinds of Apples and that of divers colours some red other-some yellow c. some of one colour and some of another upon other some boughs grew several kinds of Nuts and upon other some again all sorts of Berries upon other some again Pears Plums Oranges and Lemmons c. Now who would not but take delight to have seen such a Tree as this were there but such an one in the world that bears all those varieties of fruits which the many and several Trees of the world bring forth I question not but that the handling of this Text of Scripture will afford them that have a sweet Spirit breathing in them as various and as delectable Novelties as they can desire David calls some of his Psalms Michtam which is in the Hebrew Golden ones as being full of choice treasure And what will you call this Psalm I pray I will assure you that this is neither a Silver one nor a Leaden one but a Golden Psalm which is neither empty of worth nor matter It was the usual manner of the Hebrews to say that all those things were of God which were chief and most excellent in their kinde as the Prince of God Gen. 2.23 the Mountains of God Psal 36.7 the Trees of God c. We cannot say that the new composed Psalms of this
at Agincourt heard of the great warlike praeparations that the King of France made against him hee began to bee exceedingly perplexed One of his Commanders standing by made answer that if there were so many there were enough to bee killed enough to bee taken prisoners and enough to run away which resolute speech of his much cheered up the King I would not haue Sea-men to regard how many their enemies bee but where they are who by small and weak means does often times effect great and wonderfull things to that end the glory of all may bee his What the Lacedaemonians once sung of in their three dances I think it may bee sung of England The first was of Old men and they sung Wee have been young and strong and valiant heretofore Till crooked age did hold us back and bid us do no more The second of Young men who sang Wee yet are young bold strong and ready to maintain That quarrel still against all men that do on earth remain The third of Children who sang And wee do hope as well to pass you all at last And that the world shall witness bee ere many years bee past To sparkle our English spirits a little that go in the Seas against the Spaniard Look Look Sailors upon that brave Military and fighting spirit that breathed in Epaminondas who most nobly said that if all the riches of the world should be given him they should not draw him off from any the least duty and service that hee owed his Country Let me tell all the brave spirited Sailors in England that go in the wars against the Spaniard that Pulchrum est pro patria mori It is a very commendable thing for men freely and valiantly to venture and lay down their lives for the welfare safety and priviledges of the Countries they live in belong unto Look upon Reverend Mr. Calvin of whom Mr. Beza tells us that in the year 1556. when Perin had conspired against the State of Geneva that hee ran into the midst of their naked swords to appease the tumult well knowing that Nemo sibi natus that men are not born for themselves but for their Country Look upon brave spirited Cratisolea the mother of Cleomenes when hee was loth to send her for a pledge to Egypt she said unto him come come put mee into a ship and send mee whither thou wilt that this body of mine may doe some good for my Country before crooked age consume my life without profit Look upon King Edward of England whom the Chronicles of Flanders tell of when warring against Philip Valesius King of France hee couragiously sent him a challenge in his letters and offered him three Conditions 1. Either person to person 2. A thousand against a thousand 3. or Army against Army But the King of France durst admit of none of them Sailors you have to deal with an enemy that is like to Plutarchs Nightingale of whom it is said that shee sung purely and made a great busling in the woods as if shee had been some greater bird like the fly upon the Charet wheel who was heard to say Oh what a dust do I raise but when shee came once to bee handled and finding little meat on her hee raps out into discontent vox es praeterea nihil You know the applicatory part I may say of England now as a great Politician once said very well Nulla magna Civitas quiescere diu potest si foris hostem non invenit quaerit domi No Nation can long bee quiet or at peace for if it have no enemies abroad it shall and will so on find some at home I leave you to find out my meaning Gentlemen You have run valiantly upon the Swords Pikes Halberds Gun-mouthes Fire-ships and the ragged ship-sides of your enemies in former wars to purchase that peace that England is now in possession of but is your work all done now Shew your selves as hardy and as stout as ever against the enemies of Christ and following these rare Examples I have presented you with all to whet up your spirits Haec imitamini per Deos immortales qui dignitatem qui laudem qui gloriam quaeritis haec ampla sunt haec rara haec immortalia haec fama celebrantur monimentis annalium mandantur posteritati propagantur c. Vers 24. These see the works of the Lord and his wonders in the Deep IF I have trespassed in detaining you so long in the porch Let me tell you every thing that I have touched upon lay so fairly in my road that I could not otherwise chuse but let all ly by the Lee till I had sufficiently spoke with and to those things that I know stands in need of reprooving and correcting in the Seas I have done my part in speaking advertisingly unto the graceless crew that goes in the salt-waters Oh that the Lord would not bee unwilling to do his part upon them and to pitty them that have no pitty upon themselves And besides I have not onely laid them down many very good and profitable rules but I have also spoke of many other things which lay in my way My purpose is now to lead you into the Pallace where you shall have a clear and delightful view of all those various objects and scattered excellencies that lye up and down upon the face of the creation which are onely seen by those that go down into the Seas and by no other These see the works of the Lord c. in the Hebrew who see c. If the question bee demanded who sees them the answer is easily returned they that go down into the Seas in ships And who are those may the question be Answ They are Sea-men or Sailors and these bee the men that have the fullest and clearest aspect of the creation above all people under the Heavens whatsoever These see the works of the Lord c. As if David were a going to say It is not those that sit on land and travel no further than the Soil of their nativity no no but it is those that lanch off the shore into the Main to arrive in forein and far remote Countries that have the sight of those heart-ravishing varieties of Gods six days works and wonders Undoubtedly the Psalmist took great delight and pleasure in holding discourse with some of the best disposed It is worth the while to talk with Sea-men provided they be pious sober and civil for they have more admirable passages to tell you of than all the world besides What Plinie said of the Nightingale I will say of the Mariner Si quis adest auditor Philomela prius animus quam canius deficiet The Nightingale is a bird that if any one will but give her the hearing shee will sing her self sooner out of breath than out of tune and well-minded of the Mariners because this Scripture comes droppingly and admiringly from David as if he had been amongst
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
I have read of a young prodigal Londoner who had a great longing to give all his five Senses a pleasure at once and allowed to the delight of every sense a several 100 l. by which and such like practices within the space of three years he wasted an estate of 30000 l. in mony left him by his father besides land plate jewels and houses furnished very richly to a great value I bring but this in as an instance to tell you that he that w ll feast his eye with the sight of the Creation it will both cost him penny and pains by which hee sees his works withall and then I will lay-down the promised particulars of what Mariners do see 1. Very wonderful is the sense of hearing tasteing smelling feeling but far more wonderful is the sense of seeing If it should bee demanded of mee what definition may bee given of the eye and what it is I think it may bee said truly that the eye is a little globe that is very full of visory spirits which do exceedingly resemble the round animatedness of the world The visory spirits have their generation from the Animal which flows from the brain to the eye by the nerve Optic and from those proceed the visible and reflected rayes in the eye as in a glass which will soon form any image that it beholds and so is received into the Chrystalline humour and by the visory spirits through the Nerve Optic is conveyed to the brain the object to bee considered of and by the internal senses as imagination memory and the common sense Observ 3 That good and perfect eye-sight is a singular mercy and special blessing from the Lord. These see the works of the Lord c. If it were not for this comfortable sense that God hath bestowed upon man his works could not bee seen nor discovered and viewed as to this day they are to his everlasting praise glory and honour I would exhort all the Sailors in the Seas now to consider how favourably God hath dealt with them in giving them eyes and perfect sight without which their lives would bee but a burden to them as his was that was brought to our Saviour Christ Mat. 12.22 Then was brought unto him one possessed with a devil blinde and dumb and hee healed him in so much that the blinde and dumb both spake and saw Are you not bound and much engaged to God that hee hath given you eyes to see withall whilst other men wanting sight better deserving it than you are like to go without it and so are forced and must go groping and groveling in the dark all their dayes till they come to lye down in their graves with what suspicion and fear walks the blinde up and down in the world how doth their hands and staves examine their way with what jealousie do they receive every morsel and every draught how do they meet with many a poast and stumble upon many a stone fall into many a ditch and swallow up many a flye to them the world is as if it were not or were all rubs gins snares and miserable downfalls and if any man will lend him an hand hee must trust to him and not to himself Consider but the blinde in the Gospel how they lay in the high wayes and roads that lead unto the City of Jerusalem and also amongst us here in England in every high way Towns end or Bridge and you will finde reason enough of your blessing of the Lord for his goodness unto you more than unto others Mark 10.46 47. And when hee heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth hee began to cry out and say Jesus thou Son of David have mercy on mee 2. The eyes in number are two the better to give direction to us Oculists observe that whereas other creatures have but four muscles to turn their eyes about with which is the main reason that they cannot look upwards but altogether downwards now man hath a fifth whereby he can look upwards into the Caelum Empyraeum Os homini sublime dedit caelumque tucri Oculus ab oculendo I may say as God hath set 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the great world both the Sun and Moon as instruments of light to serve it so hath he most wisely wonderfully placed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in man the little world two eyes in the highest part of the body as Organs to serve him This is the sense by which the Sailor or the Traveller turns over and over that Volumen magnum Creationis Elephantinam And though this be a very quick and nimble sense and one that is never weary of seeing yet is there work enough for it in the Creation to behold and more than it can ever run thorow and range over should it do nothing else but travel the whole Creation over and information unto the internals in figure round and thereby they are the more capable of all objects by their motion Their situation is placed very high above the rest of the senses to direct our motion and to foresee our dangers 3. The necessity of this Organ is very great if wee do but seriously ponderate for the welfare of our outward being and the government of our selves and our affairs without which sense the life of man would but bee a very toylsome and wearisome thing unto him in the world 4. By this Organ man sees and foresees that which is good or evil helpful or hurtful and that at a distance The Mariners Proverb is Praevisa saxa minus feriunt Rocks but seen before-hand will never hurt us The first circumstance then that I will a little run on in is those creatures that are Aquatical live in the element of water which are some of the principal and wonderful works of God which Sea-men or men that go down into the Seas do behold And these I will a little set out in view to the end it may the cleerlier appear that they see most or the greatest part of the works of the Lord in and thoughout the Creation 1. They that go down to the Sea in ships c. They often times have a frequent sight of that strange and prodigious sort or kind of fish called the Flying-fish Flying-fish whom God out of wisdom has given wings unto like a foul for the preservation of its life in the great waters This poor creature is often hunted chased and pursued by the Boneto Porpise and other ravenous fish which follow it with as much violence as the hungry hound does the poor silly and shelterless Hare Insomuch that it is forced one while to fly and another while to swim and although nature has provided for it in giving it two strings for its bow yet is all little enough to carry him cleer of the snatching chaps and jaws that make after him This fish whilst in the water I have observed in the Mediterranean is exceedingly exposed to irrecoverable danger and when
whether they should ever recover their pristine constitution and health again or no 1. Meditation It laid no less than this applicatory truth upon my spirit That it is dangerous handling touching or looking upon any of those prohibited objects the Lord hath writ a Noli me tangere upon Elisha's servant had a very good stomach to finger and digest Naaman the Assyrians silver 2 King 5.22.27 and golden wedges but no sooner were they in his hands but the Leprosie was upon his body Better is a little with right than great revenues without right Prov. 16.8 12. They have a frequent sight of that Water-beast called a Crocodile Crocodile and in respect that hee lives in the water as well as upon the land I will bring him in amongst the rest of these there bee to bee seen both in Egypt and the Indies hee is of a scaly and impenetrable substance tongue-less say some but marvellously cruel toothed It is said of this creature that hee will weep over a man when hee hath devoured him and the reason of it is not out of pity but out of an apprehension of his want of another prey to live upon from whence started that Proverb of Lachrymae Crocodili The sight of this creature did fasten 1. Meditation and fix thus much upon my spirit That it is a very common thing for desperate hasty passionate and hot-spirited men to kill Sailor Sailor Let the life of a man be pretious in thy sight God will have no murthering if thou wilt fulfill thy bloody minde in thy brutish challenges think with thy self that thy life lyes at the staâ—e to answer his whom thou gracelesly goes about to take away Thou art just then going to the Devil when thou art about such work I would all the Murtherers in the world would spend a few hours in serious consideration of these Scriptures Numb 35.30 31 32. 2 King 24.4 Whither go all Murtherers when God will not pardon them but unto the Devil and commit murther in their hot blood but when in their cold it hath cost them many a tear to get the guilt of it washed off Psal 51.14 When Murther was sound in Davids hands hee could take no rest day nor night till hee found a pardon from the hands of the Lord for it Deliver mee from blood-guiltiness O God thou God of my salvation The blood of the murthered stuck upon his stomach and the like it will be and do to every one that bathe their hands in innocent blood 13. They have sometimes a sight of that strange kinde of creature called a Meermaid q. Maris mulier and the Meerman also q. Maris vir which is very admirable Meermaid of these here bee both male and female The Sea-men have a sight of these sometimes in their Voyages into the Indies but their espying of them proves very unfortunate and ominous for when they appear they presage no good to the Mariner Storm and shipwrack often ensues those ships that gets a sight of them I have heard of the honest and soberest of men that frequent the Seas say that they have seen of these sort of creatures but presently after hath the windes rise clouds begin to drop and Seas to rage and swell to their terrour and affrightment as if all were a going to wrack and ruine 14. They have a frequent aspect of that wonderful and impenetrable sort of Beasts which the Mariners call an Alligator Alligator This creature is mostly visible in the Indies and in respect that hee lives in the water as well as upon the land I give him his entity amongst the rest This Beast is of a vast longitude and magnitude some say many yards in length in colour hee is of a dark brown which makes him the more invisible and indiscernable when hee lyes his Trapan in the waters and Sea sides as it were an old liveless tree or as one destitute of motion and his onely subtilty and policy of lying conchant is to get hold of the fat This beast hath his three tyer of teeth in his chaps and so firmly scaled and armed with coat of Male that you may as well shoot or strike upon or at a Rock and Iron at offer to wound him This beast is of a very slow pace and goes jumping leaping and gathering up of his body and had not the wisdome and goodness of God so ordered it he would soon make the Indies uninhabitable for he would kill up all the people and the varieties of Cattel and creatures that be in the Mountains and wilde Cows and Bullocks that bee in those parts in great abundance when they come down out of the woods and mountains to cool themselves in the waters but no sooner are they in the water but hee hath hold of the throat of one or other of them which hee tears to peeces Of such strength is this beast that no creature is able to make his escape from him if hee get but his chaps fastened in them This beast at his pleasure goes into the waters and again unto the land Now lest I should bee too tedious both to you and to my self in a bitter restless and uncomfortable Sea either to write or study in I will take leave of the scaly inhabitants in the salt waters which I might have asserted for indeed I have but spoken of small or very little in comparison of what Sea-men have experience of both as to their kinds and qualities but this I hope will serve for a praelibamen unto any that are either delighted in reading or taking a view of the works of the Lord in the Seas The second circumstance then comes above board to bee discoursed on and that is about Terrestrials under which term I am minded to comprehend and handle some of those creatures that are both 1. Volatile 2. Gressile 3. Reptile And these are objects which none but those that go down into the Seas either do or can behold Pelican 1. Volatile They that go down to the Sea in ships They have a very ordinary and frequent aspect of that most amiable and delectable bird called the Pelican from the Greek word I suppose 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 perfozo to beat or peirce Naturalists say that this bird to recover her young when they are upon a dye King John late King of Portugal to express his tender care and affections to his people and Subjects would bee emblemed by no other kind of creature than the Pelican and wounded by stinging and mordacious Serpents shee will tear her body to give them of her own dear blood to fetch life and health into them again The sight of this creature has not procured little wonderment from mee when I have considered her shape and form which is on this wise shee has a great bag or sachel hanging under her bil which is the likest unto a leathern pouch of any thing that I can resemble it to
which will contain and hold a full gallon of any thing whether liquid or unliquid and upwards 2. Amongst the rest of the works of the Lord Eagle they have a frequent sight of that princely bird called the Eagle and where her dwelling is who is the Supream Rex of all birds and of her do all the rest stand in awe and give her the preheminence as their Soveraign It is observed of this bird that shee is attended with sharpness of sight to discover her prey with swiftness of wing to hasten unto it and with strength of body to seize upon it It is further observed of this bird that shee has many followers both great and small unto whom shee is very candid and courteous in the distribution of the prey shee seizes upon It is observed that there is this noble and magnanimous spirit in the Eagle that when shee is in want and greatly suffers hunger that shee scorns to pout and make a noise and a clamour as other birde will do but rests her self satisfied If I have it not now I shall have it hereafter but if shee toyle long in seeking of it then hunger which is her durum telum puts her upon the falling foul of her followers 3. They have a frequent sight of the fouls in Greenland every year which are aestate ibi hyeme attamen veniente avolantes there for a while in the summer but gone long before the winter When the Nocturnal time of the year draws on which is all night and tenebrousness the birds make a terrible doleful and dreadful howling as conscious or fore-seeing of that dismal time of black night's approaching they then betake themselves to their wings and fly into other Countries leaving that black-nighted part of the world unto it self and to the Involatile creatures that do inhabit in it viz. Deer Wolves Beares c. Which would if winged or able to run out of the land bee gone for they take small pleasure to stay in it but in respect they cannot pass the Seas for want of wings they are constrained to live in that uncomfortable darkness and insufferable cold Meditations 1. That the two great lights of the Sun What an uncomfortable place would England bee if it had not the light of the Sun and Moon both in in the winter and in the summer and Moon are wonderful comfortable profitable pleasurable and delightful both to man birds and beasts and very uncomfortable is their absence either unto the sick the healthful and the unhealthful Eccl. 11.7 Truly the light is sweet and a pleasant thing it is for the eyes to behold the Sun What cause have wee to bless the Lord for the light of the Moon and of the Sun that hee has not denyed us their light and that wee have not our beings in those black and benighted parts of the world that are all winter long without The light of the Sun is a sweet benefit but not prized because common and ordinary Manna was esteemed but a light kind of food because common and lightly come by without any price and mony David beholds the Sun with admiration Psal 8. and not with adoration as an Idol The Sun is a vessel into which the Lord gathered the light which till then lay scattered in the whole body of the Heavens In Hebrew the Sun is called Shemesh to serve because God has made it a servant unto and for the world 2. God might have done by England as hee has done by Greenland But blessed bee his glorious Name hee has dealt better by it and with it 3. It has laid this impression upon my spirit That as birds who by the help of their wings will not tarry in that Nocturnal Land but flye out of it into other Countries where they may have the blessed light of the Sun and of the Moon What would the poor damned and tormented in the pit of Hell give that they might come out of that dark and black excruciating Hell that they do howl and roare in to live in that lightsome and glorious pearl-sparkling and diamond-glistring Heaven where there is no need of Sun by day nor of the Moon by night Luke 16.24 is a dolefull spectacle of one crying out of the burning flames hee lives in 4. They have a frequent aspect of that lovely and amiable bird called the Stork much noted by the Holy Ghost in Scripture Stork As for the Stork the fir-tree is her house Psal 104.17 This bird uses Holland and other places and is very famous for her natural love unto her young and her young unto the aged again Storks when young and able to help their young when decayed helps the aged by feeding of them when they are not able to go abroad to gather their food Her name comes of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Greek in Latine no more but Amor. The Graecians call her Love denoting that shee is the truest emblem of Love of any creature in the world again 5. They have a vulgar aspect in the West-Indies of those various kinds of foul that bee in those parts both smal Upon Sand-hills there is to bee seen in the Summer-time say Sea-men whole bushels of egs that are both of various and wonderful speckled colours and great which are of divers colours some green some blew some red some yellow some white and other-some of a niger colour There they see the Parrat flying in great flocks and droves like to our Pidgeons and Pelicans flying in lines like to wild-geese Such an innumerable number is there of all sorts of fouls that great and broad rivers are covered over from side to side with them 6. They have a very frequent sight of that admirable bird Ostrich called the Ostrich whom some will compound to be both bird and beast because she resembles the Camel in legs and feet in the head and bill a Sparrow This creature is of such an hot digesting stomack that it will swallow great gobbets of Iron I have known some to present them with a two-penny or a three-penny naile which they have taken as greedily as a cock will pick up a barly-corn out of a dunghil Job 39.14 Shee leaves her eggs in the dust of the earth In this now this creature differs very much from all other birds who carefully sit to brood and hatch their eggs and are very desirous to bring them forth yet this creature leaves hers in the sand forgeting that the foot of the wilde beast or the Traveller may come that way and crush them Vers 15 16. Shee is hardened against her young ones as though they were not hers and is it not thus amongst many Parents towards their children Vers 3. What time shee lifteth up her self fixe scorns the horse and the rider This is to bee understood not that shee is of that strength and ability of body to contend with an horse-man in fight but in her wings legs and
do nothing for him 3. Amongst the rest of that Congeries Passown and delectable novelty that they have of the works of the Lord the Passown is one of them which is a very strange kinde of creature it is observed of the female that shee hath that prodigious faculty if in case shee bee pursued to sup up her young ones into her belly and betake her self to her legs to escape them and when she gets her self both out of sight and danger shee can at her pleasure turn them out again 4. Strange Sheep They have the sight of those strange kinde of Sheep that bee to bee seen in the Province of Cusk which are of extraordinary height and length equal unto our Kine and are in strength fully answerable unto them Insomuch that two or three heavy-bodied men have been seen to ride upon them These Sheep have necks like Camels and heads bearing a reasonable resemblance unto ours in England Their wool is very fine and pure and in those parts they use them to supply the room of Horses which they have not Auroughscoun 5. They have a sight of the Auroughscoun which resembles a Badger This creature lives on trees and will leap from tree to tree like our Squirrils with us But the Squirrils in Virginia are bigger than ours for they are as large as Rabbets are with us Assapanick 6. They have a sight of the Assapanick which flies after a very strange manner by spreading out of his leggs and stretching out the largness of his skin by which hee can flye at a great distance and so often times escapes his pursuers but if hee had not this shift hee is so slow of foot hee would bee too often preyed upon Zebra 7. The Zebra which is a beast both for beauty and comliness very commendable and admirable whose form is after that exquisite shape and composure that is in the horse but not altogether like him in swiftness this beast is laid all over with party-coloured laces and gards from head to tail and there bee very great herds of these visible in Africa and other of the Austral parts of the world His name comes of Porcus and Spina because hee is a thorny hog This beast if assaulted with dogs or men will spurt out quils that hee has armed in readiness that hee will make the blood trickle down their legs and noses 8. The Porcupine of this kind there is many in the Indies in bigness hee resembles a Pig and his body is beset about with many sharp quils and prickles which are as so many halberds that Nature has armed him withall to stand up in his own defence against any opponent 9. Zibet or the Sivet-Cat Sivet-Cat which is a very admirable creature for from this beast comes all that pretious drug of Sivet which is no other but an excrement that has its growth not onely in the cod or arcane part but in a peculiar receptacle by its increasing every day unto the weight of three pence or four pence which is taken from the creature every day otherwise if it should not bee taken once a day the creature would rub it forth and lose it 10. The Muks-cat Musk-Cat which is a very comly creature not unlike to a Roe both in greatness fashion and hair from which beast comes all our Musk and the growth of it is on this wise in the navel of it lies a little bag in which that pretious drug has its residence and when it draws on to its maturity the beast is frequently troubled with a pruritiveness or a kind of itching that forces the creature to run against rocks or stones to dilate its sweet perfuming liquors and in process of time it fills up in the like manner again 11. They behold Apes Monkies Monkies and Baboons which both in shape and countenance fit verbo venia are very neer and like unto man There bee great store of these to bee seen in the Occidental parts of the world and especially where the Sugar Plantations are They are such lovers of Corn and Sugar say the best sort of Travellers that they will come in great Troops and fall upon fields of Corn or Plantations of Sugar and appoint one to stand Sentinel whilst they feed and burthen themselves and if in case they see any of the Owners approaching the watchman gives a squeeking alarm and they presently betake themselves into the woods and trees where they neither can nor will bee spoke withall to answer the trespass This pleasure they have that travel in the Woods in the Indies the trees are full of Apes and Parrats as if they bore no other fruit one chaseing of another with such noise and chattering that it is no hearing of one another in discourse and those that have young are seen to go with two or three about their necks fast claspt and if none come in the interim whilst they are plundring and stealing they will every one of them carry their burthen and that they lay up against winter Bear 12. The dancing Bear which is a creature that is well known in respect that hee dwells in divers parts of the world There bee many of this kind in Greenland Nova Zembla and those Septentrional parts of the world which are of a very large and corpulent size This beast ravens extraordinarily all Summer and kills many Deer and other sorts of beasts with which they grow very far but when the winter comes on says the Mariner they cannot walk abroad by reason of that abundance of snow frost cold and ice that falls most bitterly upon that uncomfortable side of the world and therefore hee is constrained to keep his hole and suck his pawe all the winter to keep himself alive withall 13. The Buff The Scythians were wont to use the skins of these beasts to make brest-plates of for their waâ—s who is headed and horned like an Hart and in body shaped like a Bull or Cow and in colour resembling an Asse 14. Amongst the rest of the works of the Lord they are not without this pleasant aspect that the vallies in Greenland are richly clothed and covered over in many parts with fat and goodly Herds of innumerable numbers of Deer of which the Mariner kills These are to bee seen gregatim currere quodcunque omne animal cum humanitate communicat Concolores aves pariter volare videmus and feeds on abundantly every year till his return for England When I think with my self how these creatures live in an un-inhabited Land where no man is 1. Meditation it brings into my mind that of Job 39.1 Canst thou mark when the Hinds do calve that God has an eye over all his creatures for good and that to help them when and where there is neither an hand to releeve them nor an eye to pitty them It is thought as is apparent in Psal 29.8 They how themselves
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
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
they are provided for that are without fuel in Island and elsewhere In this Island there is another very remarkable passage that there bee several waters in it which are of such a vehement ardency that they will boyl both fish foul and beef in And in these waters the people both dress and cook all their victuals and bays which the people take up and reserve for winter Certainly hee that guided the Kine which bare the Ark 1 Sam. 6.12 guides and orders that these parcels of wood faggots or fuel should come unto those that would bee starved if they were not thus helped every year and besides if there were not a visible hand of providence appearing for this people that live in a Country where doubtless wood will not grow or otherwise for firing it has been destroyed these peeces that swim upon the floods of the Seas might go from them and into the middle of the Sea rather than unto them if not directed c. 17. Their aspect of the Sea which is sometimes of such an ignifluous lustre as if it were full of Starrs insomuch that if a peece of wood or any other ponderous thing should be thrown into it at such times in the night it will show it self as if it were full of firesparkles Whence that Proverb As true as the Sea burns 18. The sight of those two burning Islands Hecla and Helga is another these are often times covered over with Snow yet burn within and belch out very terrible and vehement sparks of fire 19. Their viewing and walking up and down in the goodly sumptuous princely and stately Cities that bee in the world viz. Constantinople Grand-Cair Genoa Venice Naples Rome c. 20. A sight of those fearful and unusual Lightnings and Thunderings that bee sometimes in the Occidental and Austral parts of the world which are with such vehemency and dreadfulness that one would think that the Heavens and the Earth would come together I have heard the honestest and godliest of men that use the Seas say that when they have been in the Indies if they did but see a cloud appearing in the bigness of ones hand they need no other warning but that a most dreadful storm would ensue Insomuch that they have been forced to make all the haste they could to get sails furl'd yards peak'd and their ships fitted to endure it as well as they could The Observation was this That the most or the greatest part of Gods glorious and wonderful works are seen by Sea-men The point then will afford us these two uses 1. Of Reproof And 2. Of Exhortation 1. Vse Reproof 1. Is it thus then that you that are Sailors and Sea-men do see most of the Lords works yea more than all the people in the world besides Platonists by the sight of Nature see more yea and will shame thousands of our Sailors for they could say that all that pulchtitude and beauty that shines in the creature was but Splendor quidam summi illius boni pulchrum coelum pulchra terra sed pulchrior qui fecit illa Surely this point looks with a sour look upon you that make no improvement nor application of things unto your selves for better amendment than you do I may say unto you in the words of Job 35.11 who teacheth us more than the beasts of the earth and maketh us wiser than the fowls of heaven that God hath taught us more than the beasts of the field and hath made man wiser than the fowls of heaven therefore God looks for another manner of glory and understanding from you that are men than hee doth from them and more from those that are Christians than from natural and carnal men It is a notable saying of Mr. Calvins Diabolica ist aec scientia said hee quae in natura contemplatione nos retinens a Deo avertit That is a Devillish kinde of knowledge that in the contemplation of nature keeps men in nature and holds them back from God After this manner may I speak unto you that it is a devillish kinde of knowledge that you have of the Seas and of the Creation if that all you see know and hear of keep you still in nature what better art thou than a beast for all thy travel Give mee leave to tell you thus much 1. That there is a seeing eye in the world an eye that is much in Quaelibet herba Deum stella creaturaque and upon Gods works Isa 40.26 Job 26.8 Hee bindeth up the waters in his thick clouds and the cloud is not rent under them A seeing eye looks on nothing that is either in Sea or Land but thinks of God in it I have read of one that was so spiritual and heavenly-minded that when hee was in the world where hee had a full view of many wonderful things hee said there was nothing that ever hee did behold but hee saw God in it When I cast mine eyes upon the Earth I saw that God was every where When I looked upon the Heavens I considered with my self that that was his Throne When I looked into the depths of the Sea I beheld the power and wisdome of God in the creating of them And when I looked upon the many creeping things that were in it they told mee that God was there I looked also into the breathing air with all the inhabitants of it and it told mee that God was there whose proper Attribute is to bee every where I looked up into the Starry sphere and spangled roof of heaven which glisters with innumerable stars from whence I learned that that is a Christians Country who is in Christ and from thence do I look for my Saviour and the longer I do look upon those glorious and burning and shining Tapers of the heavens which are estimated the very least of them to bee bigger than the whole earth I consider that God hath undoubtedly great and just expectations from man that hee will do some work and service for his Maker Most Masters will not allow their servants to sport and idle whilst their candles are burning but if they finde them so doing they will blow them forth Certainly Sea-men you may conclude that God looks for great things from you who see so much of the Creation that others see not Will it not bee tollerabler for the ignorant Indian c. and the miserable heathen that is in the world than it will bee for you who have no other light but the light of nature to walk by I may compare the generality of Sea-men unto a Traveller who doth in his vagaries leave all things behind him in his way he passes by stately Towers and comely Turrets brave buildings both of Marble Brick and hewn stone goodly Cities Towns and Countries comely and beautiful people and other some both black and tawny and these hee beholds for a while and admires them and passeth on and leaveth them afterwards he goes thorow the â—ields
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
lines by and out of which hee that has a seeing eye may read profitable and singular Divinity lectures that they are greatly to blame There bee many tender-hearted people on Land that would even melt into tears if they did either see or know but of the one half of what you both see and know But what is it I pray for a man to see nothing but whiteness in the Lilly redness in the Rose purple in the Violet lustre in the Stars or perfuming sweetness in the Musk c. other creatures see this as well as you if you make no better use of these things Plutarch's little Bee when it spoke could say Ex flâ—sculis succum mellis colligere cum alii non delectentur nisi colore odore I could gather hony out of any flower whilst others passed by and would not light upon it 2. Do what ever in you lyes to get a seeing eye for want of which some in their travels are but meer beetles Nycticoracis oculos habéntes or men that carry their eyes in their heels when they should have had them in their heads A seeing eye will affect the heart let a man go where hee will in the World Lament 3.51 Mine eye affecteth my heart I wish that every poor Sea-man in the world were so spiritual Sea-men might gather rare documents from the creatures as the little decimo seâ—tos that be both in the Sea and Land as the small fish that are in the Sea the Dove Aut that are on the Land as well as from the great folios of the Whale and Elephant c. that every thing that hee sees in the Sea or on the Land affected his heart Holy David was so heavenly that hee could lay his eye upon nothing that his heart was not affected with Psal 148.8 9 10. One while his eye was upon Fixe another while upon Hail one while upon Snow and another while upon Vapour one while upon the stormy Wind and another while upon the Mountains Hills Trees Beasts Cattel Creeping-things and flying Foul c. and none of these but his heart was exceedingly affected and taken in the thinking and beholding of them Again says Solomon Prov. 15.30 The light of the eyes rejoyceth the heart Give me leave to speak one concluding word unto you who are so much as it were in the heart and garden of the world as you are you might pluck many a sweet and savoury flower to make nosegays of I may say of the Sea and the forein parts of the world what one once said of the Sacred Bible that there was evermore aliquid revisentibus Something to see again again to serve you to smel on in your hearts all the dayes of your lives A gratious heart will evermore bee drawing out good observations out of the creature and will take an occasion to breathe after God in every strange thing it sees or enjoyes A goodly Ancient being asked by a prophane Philosopher How hee could contemplate high things sith hee had no books wisely answered that hee had the whole world for his book ready open at all times and in all places and that therein hee could read things Divine and Heavenly Bees will suck hony out of flowers that flies cannot do But to proceed 2. The next thing is to insist a little upon those singular and providential preservations and deliverances that Sea-men meet withall in their navigable employments My last work you know was to set before you a Praelibamen or a small parcel of the works of God that they behold in their travels and my next task is to prefix a few of those works which may very properly and pertinently bee called Opera conservationis works of mercy and preservation from and out of those many dreadful dangers and life-hazarding perils that they do run in the stormy and raging Seas And before I begin arenam descendere to enter upon them I will lay this proposition before you Observ 4 That the Sea-man of all the men under the whole Heavens none excepted is one that is both a partaker and a seer of the greatest and remarkablest of temporal deliverances These see the works of the Lord and his wonders in the deep The course that I shall shape and steer in the handling of this doctrine will bee in these following Corollaries that I shall lay down before you the divulging of which unto the world cannot but advance and exalt my Masters name And I hope it will lye as an engagement upon the hearts of the godly as it was upon Davids to love and fear that God the more that bestows such great and so many undeserved preservations upon them that go in the Seas For this reason is it that I do take upon mee to call their deliverances to mind because their dangers and their preservations are not known to every one the major sort of people that live on Land are not acquainted with the things that I shall sing of My Song shall now bee thâ—t of Virgils ab â—ove principium now I will make it my business to present you with some of them though indeed not the one half of what I might and what others who are more knowing in them might tell you of And if you will but give mee that audience and attention that the beasts of the field the fouls of the air gave unto Orpheus's musick that is all I will desire of you It is said of the Beasts of the field and of the Fouls of the aire that they forgot their several appetites who were some of prey some of game and othersome of quarrel some for one thing and some for another insomuch that they stood very peaceably and sociably listning to the Aires Tunes and Accords of the Harp and when the sound ceased or was drowned with some lowder noise then every beast returned to his own nature again To bee short the truth of it is they are very ear-delighting and heart-melting deliverances that I shall speak of and therefore they are both worthy reading and also hearing 1. They that go down to the Sea in ships are many times most dreadfully surprized and bewildered with dangerous and perilous leaks at which water comes gushing into their Vessels as it will out of a cistern or conduit-pipe when once the cock head is but turned about and it may bee when they are thus unexpectedly taken they are many an hundred mile from any port or Land to save their lives I and further to aggravate their misery they are not within the sight of any ship or ships to come and help them which is not onely an heart-akeing discouragement but an heart-casting-down condition Now goes the hand-pump and the chain-pump which they carry in their ships as fast as ever they can turn them about to throw out that water that springs in upon them and when they find the water to flow in upon them far faster than they can throw it
out their hearts do exceedingly fail them and there is nothing else then but crying weeping wailing and wringing of the hands for that lamentable and deplorable condition that they see themselves irremediably involved in now are they in a confusion ransacking and running to and again to throw the ponderousest of their goods over bord that their Vessel may bee the lighter What Dolor cordis is there amongst the Sea-men when the ship is dangerously leaky yea what animi molestiae and what Suspiria flebilia ab imo pectore one while they work and another while they weep to see themselves irrecoverably at deaths door Undique facies pallida mortis Death is now on every side them and with David they cry Psal 39.13 O spare mee that I may recover strength before I go hence and bee no more Being once in a dangerous and leaky Vessel in which the hearts of the Mariners were greatly daunted in respect that wee were very far from Land when wee arived safe on shore I could not but turn about and in the first place look up unto my God with a thankful feeling of heart and in the second look back upon the Sea from whence wee were delivered and write down this upon his undeserved mercy Psal 56.13 For thou hast delivered my soul from death and now doe they unloose every knot of sail that they can make to run unto the nearest shore that they can get unto to save their lives and ever and anon are they sending up one or other unto the top-mast head to see if hee can descry either Land or ships in the Seas which if they can but espy towards them they will make with the greatest cheer that can bee I have known some that have been seven or eight dayes in this very praecedent case and condition that I am now speaking off wherein they have most laboriously pumped and sailed as for their lives and at the last when they have been both despairing and desponding of life in respect that all their strength has been spent with hard working and the ship they sailed in filled even half full of water the Lord has looked down upon the travel of their souls and sent them one ship or other within the sight of them when they have been far out of sight of any Land towards which they have made with all the speed that in them lay and by firing of Guns which is commonly a signal of that ships distress that fires they steered their course directly towards her and taken out the men that would have been lost in her and in a little time the ship that they sailed in has sunk into the bottom Again others in leaky ships when that they have been denyed the sight of any ship in the Seas to flye to have got safe to Land notwithstanding that dreadful distress But now to look back upon and over this deliverance permit mee to move these two questions and they will magnifie it 1. Who is it that sends the Sea-man a ship out of the Seas to take him up when there is no possibility of keeping the ship that hee is in on flote and above water is it not the Lord 2. And who is it also that gives the Leakship leave to arrive safe on shore whereas in the eye of reason shee might rather have perished in the Seas having so far to sail before shee could come to any port and besides could see no support nor succour from ships in her way Is it not the Lord 2. They that go down to the Sea in ships in their passage and re-passage from Country to Country and Nation to Nation have been oftentimes most sadly set at and assaulted by the Turk and other Pyrats insomuch that when the enemy has come up very near unto them almost within the reach of his Ordinance God has most wonderfully many a time appeared for them either by calmning of the winds in that part of the Sea their pursuing enemies have been in or by giving of them a strong gale of wind to run away from them when the enemy has lain in a calm with his sails flat to his Masts God has many and many a time calmed the winds for the English when they have been pursued with the Turk c. insomuch that the Seas have layn to admiration like a Mare mortuum de quo antiqui feruns sine vento sine motu By which means God has kept them from unmerciful thraldom and captivity And the enemy for want of wind has not been able to come up with and to his desired prize or otherwise by granting them a stiff gale until the going down of the Sun by which they have made their escape from the Pyrat in the black of the evening for then has not the enemy been able to see his chase nor to cast for the best because the chased very gladly alters his course This has the Lord Almighty done for many a Merchant ship blessed and for even blessed bee his sweet Name hee has denyed to fill the enemies sails with wind when they have had strong intentions to make spoil and prey of them Oh the many Sea-men that have been thus delivered 3. They that go down to the Sea in ships often and sundry times when they have been surrounded with way-lying Pyrats and Robbers I sometimes with two or three for one which is contrary to that well known rule Ne sit Hercules contra duos notwithstanding in their hot disputes and exchange of Ordnance one against the other even when shot has flown like hail on every side them some striking their Hulls I say no more but this Good Lord how bold and witty men are to kill one another what fine devices have they found out to murther a far off to slay many at once and to fetch off lives at pleasure what honour do many place in slaughter the monuments of most mens glory are the spoils of the slain and subdued enemy whereas contrarily all Gods titles sound of mercy and gracious respects to man some their Shrouds and othersome their men and though they have been most desperately beset both on head and on stern they have most couragiously by the assistance of the Lord cleered themselves out of their hands with very little and small damage I and other sometimes got the victory in their quarrels by sinking of the enemy and sending him down into the bottoms Oh the many Sea-men that have been thus delivered 4. They that go down to the Sea in ships many times when they are in chase of a pestilent enemy this I have seen satis superque satis and when wee have come almost up with him within Demi-culverin distance so that Ordnance has been levelled upon him and the shot has flown over and beyond him the Sea has presently layn all on a calm and as it were the winds have been called off from filling our sails insomuch that there has been a stop put
grave of oblivion where few have taken any notice of them many of these I have gleaned up both from my own experience and from the mouthes of others that have been both good and pious I never knew any one that ever undertook to write any thing upon this subject nor to gather up the Sea-mercies that I have done If they bee not savoury unto thee or any that reads them let me tell you thus much it is an argument of a carnal heart Did Jacob Gen. 33.10 undervalue his deliverance from the hand of his brother Esau as you do Did David look upon it as a small mercy that hee had so good a friend as Jonathan 1 Sam. 20.36 Did the Apostle Paul and the rest of those passengers that escaped that dreadful storm and shipwrack look lightly and think lightly of that deliverance Act. 27. God knows you are men that are at this day trampling these mercies under your feet Swine tread not corn nor trample Acorns under feet more brutishly than many do their deliverances at Sea Use 2. Of Exhortation Bee perswaded to bee much in thankfulness and more than ever you have been Ah souls consider what you owe unto your God you are in so great a debt to him that do what you can you will never bee able to come out of it I may say unto you in the words of Job 33.29 Thanks laid out this way are laid up non percunt shall I say of them sed parturiunt Is 32.8 The liberal man deviseth liberal things and by liberal things he shall stand One would think that he would the rather fall by being so bountiful but indeed he takes the right course to thrive Giving is the only way to an abundance God looks not that mens thankfulness should come from them â— as drops of blood from their hearts or that it should be squeezed out of them as wine out of the grape but that it flow from us as water out of a spring as light from the Sun and as hony from the Comb. Lo all these things worketh God oftentimes with man Even all those deliverances that I have been telling you of Let mee press these things upon you 1. Acknowledge that it is the Lord and hee alone that hath wrought all these deliverances both for you and for others and that not for your merits or for theirs but his own mercies sake 2. Praise his most glorious Name with your tongues and call upon others so to do 3. Obey God the more in your lives and intreat every Sea-man so to do 4. Love him intirely in your hearts and beseech every Sea-man so to do 5. Depend wholly upon him in all your distresses for the time to come and bid other Sea-men so to do 6. Bee evermore in a diligent circumspection and godly fear of provoking of the Lord unto anger and beseech other Sea-men so to do But to proceed Exod. 9.30 I know that yee will not yet fear the Lord God 4. And lastly If it bee demanded of mee What is meant and understood by the Lords Wonders in the deeps I shall give you my most humble thoughts in brief before you had it Works of the Lord and now his Wonders why his Works which wee have spoken of before are wonderful works and works and wonders in this place are both relatives and concomitants and as they go and may bee taken together I shall say of them Deus conjunxit nemo separet Such excellency and eminency is there in the works of the Lord that a seeing eye cannot but look upon the meanest of them as matter of wonderment and astonishment All the deliverances that have been presented and now stand in view upon the Stage before the whole world are nothing else but Gods wonders in the deeps and all those fishes in the Seas of which I have run upon and told you of are Gods Wonders in the deeps viz. the Whale the Sea-horse the Granpisce and the Sea-monster c. Again every wave is a wonder and he that hath a seeing eye in a storm may see ten thousand wonders how one mountainous wave rowls and follows in the heels of another which make most dreadful and amazing downfalls and hollows in so much that it is a terrible thing for a strong brain to look out of a ship into them and amongst them When the Seas are congregated into mountainous heaps rowling tonanti voce ships are jetted up unto the heavens and this is matter of wonderment Yonder is a wave a coming sayes the Sea-man that will bee with us by and by yea and break in upon us and in it comes over the ships waste and when that is over yonder is another a coming that will rowl over our Poops and Lanthorns and when delivered from that a while they sail and by and by rises another billow that threatens to run over the Main-yard arm which is four or six Fathom higher and above the ship insomuch that the Mariner is exceedingly affrighted lest that the ships decks should bee broke with that intolerable weight of water and also of being run down into the bottome But thus much shall serve for an account of those Works and Wonders that Sea-men do see in the Seas and so I proceed Vers 25. For hee commandeth and raiseth the stormy wind which lifteth up the waves thereof IN our handling of these words I will not stand upon that curious quaint and fine-spun division that might bee made of them beleeve mee the Sea will not permit it onely thus much I shall promise to give you all that this Scripture will afford us and that which is materially in it In the words then you have these two things 1. Gods Sovereign and Supreme power 2. The creatures ready and willing obedience The Seas like the Heliotrope or your solsequii flores Sun following flowers which stand constantly gazing and opening unto the Sun from whom they draw their life and nourishment even follow the blowing blustring winds if they be stiff and strong they make the Seas for to rage and roar For hee commandeth c. The particle for in this verse is used as a note of the effect or sign and in our common speech when wee would express our selves in something that others are either ignorant of or desirous to know we then take an occasion to proclaim it and say yonder 's ships in the Offin of the Sea for I see their white sails and yonder 's Guns fired to wind-ward for I see the smoak flying and ascending so that wee may read the word thus Because hee commandeth the winds to blow therefore is it that the waves are lifted up When the winds have blown hard in the remote parts of the Seas whether in the East West North or South the effects thereof are usually seen in far distant parts of the Seas that that storm never light upon for the winds disturb the Seas by blowing upon one part when they travel not
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
infinite mercy goodness and undeserved kindness of the Lord that every day in the Seas is not a stormy Sailors the Seas are turbulent because of you the winds above thunder and roar more over our heads every day than they would the skies are cloudy thick and foggy because of you and the Sun doth not give his light unto the Sea we take not our enemies in our chases because of you neither do wee nor can we bring them down with that violency as we might if you were but good and gracious a gloomy and a dreadful day as long as our ships are full of Diagoras's and drunken Zeno's c. I am confident there is more danger in going to Sea amongst the unsavoury crew that is in ships in England whether Merchant or Men of War than there was for Lot to stay in a stinking Sodome and yet in very deed he had been burnt if the two Angels had not come down from heaven to give him warning and to usher him out of the City whilst fire-balls were making in heaven Gen. 19. The Mariners that carried Jonah had like to have lost their lives what then may one expect in going amongst Sailors that are as full of sin and filthiness as a Dog is full of hairs and fleas 6. To put faith on work Christ was Reason 6 resolved to try Peter Matth. 14.29 30. But when hee saw the wind boysterous hee was afraid and beginning to sinke hee cried saying Lord save mee The German drinks down his sorrows the Spaniard weeps it away the French man sings it away and the Italian sleeps it away all these are but sorry shifts but if thou hast faith in God in stormy times this will make thee sweeter melody in thy foul than all the fidling jigs of Musik in the world Christ soon saw the weakness of his faith It is a strong faith that God delights in and indeed the greater the strength and boldness of it is in God the more it makes for Gods honour declaring him to bee All-sufficient in the worst and greatest of dangers Hee that is faith-proof may go with comfort to Sea whether to the East or to the West to the North or to the South nay such an one ma adventure to imbrace the Artick an Antartick Poles when as a faithless person is but like a Souldier without hi arms Get this grace of faith and thou wilt then see that all thy safety is in God that hee is thy only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Resson 7 7. That patience may bee set on work What a rare speech was that of Paulinus when under that great trial when the savage Goths had invaded the City Nola and ransacked it and taken from him all his richest goods out of his house and coffers hee yeelded not unto the stream of sorrow which might have carried him down into the gulf of despair When Cato's Souldiers were discouraged in their march through the Desart of Lybia because of thirst heat â—â—d and â—â—â—nts he 〈◊〉 this 〈◊〉 unto 〈◊〉 Come 〈◊〉 friends and â—â—at my â—â—uldiers impâ— nt and d câ—uraged these are all pleaâ—â— to a valiant man and to all the storms hazzards and dangers that Sailors meet with all to them that are both valiant and patient but striving against it hee lift up his hands to heaven after this manner Domine ne excrucier propter aurum argentum ubi enim omnia sunt mea tu scis Lord sayes hee let not the loss of these things vexe mee for thou knowest that my treasure is not in this world here was patience exercised The grace of patience is evermore in this world both at Sea and Land upon the trial and sanctified trials both do and will evermore leave in the soul a tranquil calm and quietness Heb. 12.11 Now no chastening for the present seemeth to bee joyous but grievous nevertheless afterward it yeeldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby This is Patiences language Plura sunt tolleranda there be harder storms to bee undergone Job 13.15 Though hee slay mee yet will I trust in him as if hee should have said Should an harder storm come upon mee I would bear it without murmuring Patience will bear every thing quietly and sit as mute in the Sea in time of storms as that Egyptian's goddess whom they call Constancy which they paint upon a rock standing in the Sea where the waves come dashing and roaring upon her with this Motto Semper eadem Storms shall not move mee Certainly all repining comes from an unmortified and an unsanctified spirit the fault lyes not in any condition how desperate soever but in the heart because the heart stoops not to it 8. To set prayer on work If fire bee Reason 8 in straw it will not long lye hid Bias the great Philosopher sailing over some small arm of the Sea amongst the Mariners at that very time there fell a most dreadful storm amongst them insomuch that the ship he was in was greatly endangered of being cast away and the Mariners falling to their strange and confused kinde of prayer and worship the poor Philosopher could not indure it but calls to them and intreats them to hold their peace lest the gods should hear them and he should thereby fare the worse for them if grace bee in the heart it will appear in time of storms and this is the method that God uses many times to put Seamen upon prayer Isa 26.16 Lord in trouble have they visited thee they powred out a prayer when thy chastening was upon them Isa 33.2 O Lord bee gracious unto us wee have waited for thee he thou our arm every morning our salvation also in the time of trouble Storms are like the tolling of a Bell in a ship and when they are dreadful and violent they call all that are in the Seas at those times to prayer and fasting The dumb Son of Craesus could then speak when hee saw the knife at his fathers throat Storms will open those mens mouthes at Sea that never opened them to God in prayer in all their lives The Sea-mans devotion is up in a storm but dead and down in a calm Hee is religious whilst the judgements of the Lord are roaring upon the face of the great deeps but as great a Swearer Drunkard and Adulterer is hee after they are over as ever hee was Reason 9 9. To urge them to seek unto God for pardon of sin There is none under the whole heavens that are more in debt to God than the Sea-man is yet is hee as little sensible of it and as little affected with it as the insensiblest thing in the world either is or can bee But gracious and penitent souls are much troubled for their sins in time of storms looking upon them as the products of their misery and so cannot sleep upon the pillow of worldly enjoyments without a pardon in their hands and hearts The hunted
back-biters haters of God despightful proud boasters inventers of evil things disobedient to Parents without understanding covenant-breakers without natural affection implacable unmerciful and Merchants Service that cannot allow Prayer any room amongst them I speak not of ships that have Chaplins in them but of the Sea-men in general they cannot be got to take up prayer in those very ships that they have Chaplins in What was once said of Solomon's building I may even say of most ships that go in the salt-waters 1 King 6.7 There was neither hammer nor ax nor any tool of Iron heard in the house while it was in building There is no noise of prayer amongst them or to be heard of you would think that all the Sailors were rather dead than living May I not most lamentably speak it as it was once said of Egypt Exod. 12.30 And there was a great cry in Egypt for there was not an house where there was not one dead Is there one ship in the Sea that is either in the States or Merchants Service but there is the greatest part the better half I and I fear even all indeed but are dead men I mean as to prayer or any thing that is good but grant there be is it not a dead Religion and a dead kind of prayer that they live in this is the state condition that Sailors live in excepting a few I question not that is amongst them whom God has otherwise taught principled and quickned To stir you up to take up the duty of Prayer consider of your danger by your neglect of it 1. You are in danger of being overcome by your enemies Exod. 17.12 And it came to pass when Moses held up his hand that Israel prevailed and when hee let down his hand Amalek prevailed If you take up the work of prayer you will engage the Lord to stand by you in the dreadfullest disputes that your enemies can assault you withall Zach. 2.5 For I saith the Lord will bee unto her a wall of fire round about and will bee the glory in the midst of her I and you will engage him to help you when you are at your wits end in time of storms If you will but good Sailors take up prayer-work I will engage in this for you against the proudest enemy that ever strutted in the salt-waters and it is that of Pope Pius the second which hee writ in a letter to that great Zamzummim of the World the Grand-Turk Niteris incassum Christi submergere navem I shall say of that ship where all the men use prayer in her as one said of Troy Victa tamen vinces eversaque Troja resurges Obrint hostiles illa ruma domos Fluctuat ac nunquam mergitur illa ratis Let both Sea and Out-landish enemies do their worst a godly ship was never known to bee overcome or drowned 2. You are in danger of being overcome and over-run with sin for want of prayer Sin is both Master Captain Boatswain and Yeoman in every ship and every man is at sins command amongst you for want of prayer how reigns sin in the Captain of the ship in the Master Gunner Boatswain Sin sits as a King in his Court in your ships who rules by immediate commands whereas the power Ships like bottles may dip and not drown may be filled with waves and yet â—ise again The Palm tree in the emblem had many weights upon the top of it and as many snakes at the very root of it yet could it say Nec premor nec perimor Ships in the Sea that use prayer in them are not unlike to the Artick Pole of which it is said Semper versatur nunquam mergitur and the voyce of prayer breaks the very head and insolency and dominion of sin your ships might bee wonderfully healed of all that filthiness that is amongst them would they but practise prayer It is no wonder though there bee such an hellish voyce of swearing lying idle talking and all manner of filthiness crawling in every mans tongue heart hands and eyes in the Seas as there is the main reason of it is because there is no prayer used by any of them 3. You are in danger of being overcome with Satan whereas fervent prayer would drive the Devil over-board and where no prayer is the Devil will bee sure there to take up his abode I am confident of it that the Devil hath not better entertainment in all the world again than hee hath in ships amongst the Sailors my reason is this they are such vassals and slaves to that unclean spirit even to rend and tear that sacred Name of God in their mouths besides that infinite mass of wickedness that they commit Matth. 17.21 Howbeit this kinde goeth not out but by prayer and fasting If any one would ask me at what sign the Devil dwells in the world or where the Devils dwelling is I would tell them that it is at the sign of a prayerless family that lives either on Sea or Land The Devils Iune called by the name of an Empty house Mat. 12.44 Every Sea-man that is a prayerless man is one of the Devils lodging houses and the Devil is the Landlord of all such houses Empty houses viz. empty of grace and prayer Prayer and the Devil it seems cannot set their horses together dwell together no more than sweet Spices and Tygers can accord together who will at the smell thereof betake themselves to their legs The Devil could no more indure powerful prayer in ships were it but there than the Tyger can indure the melodious sound of the Trumpet or skipping Squirrel the blowing of the Horn. 4. You are in danger of the wrath of Gods great and sore displeasure when in perilous and boysterous storms that this is a truth consult Jer. 10.25 Pour out thy fury upon the heathen that know thee not and upon the families that call not upon thy Name If you would bee preserved in the Seas let not God finde you prayerless men Prayer is the best cable that is in the Hould or about the ship I and it is the best tackling and the best Anchor that is in any of your ships Prayerless men are open to the judgements of God in the Seas and are liable every hour whilst they are in them to be swallowed up by the mountainous waves Helericus King of the Goths after his conquest proclaimed by sound of Trumpet that none should molest or hurt those that were fled into the Temple of Peter and Paul to pray and worship God God will do thus for you in the Seas his Herauld shall go before you and declare unto the winds that they shall not hurt you than the Seas shall not drown you Rocks split you nor sands take hold of you Prayer is thus priviledged Never was there a ship cast away in the Seas I dare bee bold to say it if there were but some in it godly or grant they
his glorious Majesty hee is able to do all things that are works of power might and strength and are not things against his own nature or things that imply contradiction Reason 2 Because when things are impossible in mans eye then is it the fittest time for the Lord to appear in It is a common saying and a true one That mans extreamity is Gods opportunity Observ 6 That God in his Judgments upon the Seas often times remembers mercy And hee bringeth them c. God is slow to wrath I wish I may not say of the Lords indulgency to profane wretches in the Sea what Sigismund the Emperour used to say of his enemies Is inimicum occidit qui inimico parcit I am affraid Deus non nunquam parcendo saevit That the Lords long sparing will end in rageing and may I so speak hee is seen walking towards sinners in the shooes of Asher which were of ponderous brass Deut. 33.24 25. Observ 7 That the greatest dangers of the Seas and the proudest waves that ever elevated are and should bee no plea for unbelief And hee brings them c. Matth. 14.30 31. When Peter saw the wind boysterous his heart begun to fail him but was hee not reproved for his distrusting of the Lord Poop-lantern ship-covering and yard-arm-rising waves should not daunt and discourage faith in God Were the Seas in a storm as high as the mountains of Merionethshire in Wales whose hanging and kissing tops come so close together that the shepherds sitting on their several mountains may very audibly stand and discourse together but if they would go to one another they must take the pains to travel many miles Sailors should not bee apalled and terrified Dangers are faiths Element and in them it lives and thrives best Such was the high-raised valour of Luther that when hee was to go to the City of Worms they told him of strange things Faith like the Ivie the Hop the Woodbine which have a natural instinct in them to cling lay hold upon the stronger Trees laies hold on God in time of danger as many will doe fresh-water travellers at Sea but quoth Luther if all the Tiles that bee upon every House in the Town were devils they should not scare mee Sailors should have the like courage in storms which one had when in a great straight Certa mihi spes est quod vitam qui dedit idem Et velit possit suppeditare cibum Good hearts may say to the Sea when in a storm what Luther said to his enemies Impellere possunt sed totum prosternere non possunt crudeliter me tractare possunt sed non extirpare Haec est fides credere quod non vides dentes nudare sed non devorare occidere me possunt sed in totum me perdere non possunt Faith will put your heads into Heaven and your ships into an Harbour when in a storm it will set you on the top of Pisgab with Moses and descry the promised Land when you may come to bee denied the sight of Land in storms 1. Great Faith is seen in this as much as any one thing whatsoever that it both can and will beleeve in God as a man may say with reverence whether God will or no it will beleeve in an angry God in a killing God and in a drowning God Job 15.10 Great Faith is not easily shaken 2. Great Faith is never clearer seen than when in the midst of souzing storms and dangers there is great confidence and strength of heart in the soul at such times Observ 8 That God will have every thing wrested from him by prayer And hee bringeth c. Good Sea-men should play the part of Daedalus Templum Cybelis Deorum matris non manibâ—es sed precibus solummodo aperiebatur The gates of Cybeles Temples could not bee opened by hands but prayer quickly threw them open who when hee could not escape by way upon Earth went by way of Heaven and that is the way of prayer Five Motives to put Sea-men upon Prayer 1. Solemnly consider that in the creature there is nothing but emptiness and helplesness 2. Solemnly consider that you cannot have any hopes of winning ought from God but by prayer The Champions could not wring an apple out of Milo's hand by strong hand but a fair maid by fair means got it presently 3. Solemnly consider of God what hee is whom you serve naturally no other but goodness it self Nothing animated Benhadad so much as this that the Kings of Israel were merciful Kings It was said of Charles the great I would to God I could say so of every Tarpowling that goes in the Salt-waters that hee delighted so much in prayer that Carolus plus cum Deo quam cum hominibus loquitur That hee spake more and oftner to and with God than hee did with men Flectitur iratus voce rogante Deus And nothing encouraged Titus Vespatian the Emperour's Subjects so much as this that hee did nunquam dimittere tristem never send any away sorrowful 4. Solemnly consider how many in the Seas go upon the very same errand that you go on to him and mind how they speed and are carried securely out of all their distresses 5. Solemnly consider what Prayer is to God hee loves it Let mee hear thy voice for it is comly 6. Call to mind your former experiences did you ever pray in a storm but you fared the better by it Consider what cases you have been heard in That servent Prayer will prevail with Observ 9 God in the greatest storms I would all the States Tarpowlings were of James the Just's principle of whom Eusebius tells us Genua ejus in morem cameli obditrata sensum contactus amiserunt That his knees were hardned like the Camels by his frequent kneeling to Prayer Prayer is Optimus dermientium cuslos certissima navigautium salus tutissimum viatoribus scutum The slâ—epers best keeper the Sailors surest safety the Travellers protecting Shield And hee brings them out c. Witness the Mariners calm Jonah 1. and witness Christs disciples deliverance in the storm Impartial fire that comes from above has been often times seen to spare yeelding objects and to melt resisting metal to pass by lower roofs and to strike upon all high-Towered pinnacles I wish that our Sailors were as much given to Prayer as Anna the daughter of Phannel of whom it was said that shee never departed out of the Temple but served God night and day in prayer and fasting I wish it were the resolution of them that use the Seas to do as Ambrose the Bishop of Millain did when news came to him that Justina the mother of Valentinian intended to banish him hee told them that hee would never run away but if they had any purpose to kill him they should at any time find him in the Church praying for himself and for his people 1. Vse of Comfort For
that men would praise the Lord. Psal 105.5 Remember his marvellous works that hee hath done his wonders and the judgments of his mouth A gratious heart files all the Lords dealings with his soul either at Sea or Land in his heart and steers the same course the Sea-man does in the great deeps who makes it his daily business in long Voyages to keep his Quotidian reckonings for every elevation hee makes whereby hee judges of his advancings and deviations Mens memories should bee deep boxes or store-houses to keep their pretious Sea-mercies in and not like hour-glasses which are no sooner full but are a running out Bind all your sea-deliverances and preservations as fast upon your hearts as ever the Heathen bound their Idol Gods in their Cities in the time of wars siedges and common calamities which they evermore bound fast with Iron chaines and strong guards and sentinels lest they should leap over the walls or run out of their Cities from them Ah Sirs look to those things which Satan will bee very prone to steal from you who is like unto a theef that breaks into an house but will not trouble himself with the lumber of earthen or wooden vessels A gratious heart will resolve that the Orient shall sooner shake hands with the West and the Stars decline the azured Skies than he will forget the Lords deliverances out of gloomy stormy tempestuous and heart-daunting Seas Sirs you stand in need to be called upon for your hearts are not unlike to the leads and plummets of a Clock that continually drive downwards and so stand in need of winding up but falls foul on the plate and jewels Hee does and will steal away your hearts from minding the precious jewels of your Sea-deliverances I find in Scripture that the people of God of old were very careful and heedful to preserve the memory of their mercies I wish all the States Tarpowlings were of the like temper 1. By repeating them often over in their own hearts Psal 77.5 6 11. I will remember the works of the Lord surely I will remember thy wonders of old Sea-men should say of their Sea-deliverances as Lypsius once did of the Book he took so much delight in pluris facio quum relego semper novum quum repetivi repetendum The more I read the more I am tilled on to read The more I think of what God hath done for me the more I still delight to think of it Vers 6. I call to remembrance my song in the night Paul when hee was amongst the Mariners writ down all their transactions in the time of their danger Acts 27.7 The wind not suffering us we sailed under Crete over against Salmone Vers 18. And being exceedingly tossed with a Tempest the next day they lightned the ship Vers 27. But when the fourteenth night was come as wee were driven up and down in Adria about midnight the ship-men deemed that they drew near to some Country Vers 28. And sounded and found it twenty faothms c. 2. By composing and inditing of pretious pious and melodious Psalms Remember the time of your inconsolabili dolore oppressi this was Davids practice Psal 38. which hee titles A Psalm of David to bring to remembrance Again in the 70. Psalm Wee have the very same title A Psalm of David to bring to remembrance In our late wars many had such a pretious spirit breathing in them that they have put the victories and battels of England into sweet composed meeter to the end they might bee remembred Ah Sirs call all your deliverances in this and in the other part of the world to remembrance 3. By giving names to persons times and places on purpose to remind them of Gods mercies This was Hannahs course in the 1 Sam. 1.20 And called his name Samuel saying The States ships resemble the tall Tree in Nebuchadnazzar's dream Dan. 4.20 Whose height reached unto the heaven and the sight thereof to all the earth They go into all parts in the world as much admired are they as Venus was by the Gods Who came flocking about her when shee went to heaven because I have asked him of the Lord to that very end shee might for ever perpetuate the Lords goodness towards her Abraham to keep alive the goodnesse of God towards him in the sparing of his Son would call the place where hee should have been sacrificed Jehovah-Iireth i.e. God will provide Gen. 22.14 The Jews that they might keep in remembrance the daies of their deliverance from bloody-minded Haman they titled them Purim i. e. Lots Esth 9.26 in memory of Lots cast by Haman which the Lord disappointed And very commendable is this Scriptural practice amongst us in England for I have observed it and I like it very well that our Military Grandees to perpetuate their dreadful Land and Sea-fights do give their warlike ships and battels such titles To keep alive that great and desperate engagement which our Army had with the Scots in Scotland one of their warlike ships is called the Dunbar Gentlemen Captains and Sea-men many of your Ships derive borrow their names from the stour-charged and fought Battels of the Souldiery in England to that end you may imitate their valour at Sea which they to the life performed on Land Some are called the Treddah some the Naseby and other some the Dunbar some the Plymouth some the Gainsborough and othersome the Massammore c. Be valiant Sirs the Souldiery fought apace when in those Battels To keep up the memory of Naseby great fight they have another ship which they call the Naseby To keep up the memory of Worcester fight they have a brave warlike ship which they call the Worcester To keep up the enemies defeating at Wakefield in Yorkshire they have a gallant warlike ship called the Wakefield To remember the fight at Nantwich they have a warlike ship called the Nantwich To remember their victory at Plymouth against the enemy they have a ship which they call the Plymouth To keep up the memory of that famous bout at Massammore when the three Nations lay at the stake they have a ship called the Massammore To remember that great fight that was fought at Treddah they have a warlike Vessel called the Treddah To perpetuate the memory of that great and hot dispute that was once at Selby in Yorkshire they have a famous ship they call the Selby To keep up the memory of that bout they had with the enemy at Portsmouth they have a warlike ship they call the Portsmouth To keep up the memory of their taking of Gainsborough they have a brave Prince-like ship called the Gainsborough To keep up the Memory of the dispute that they once had at Preston Bee valiant Sirs your ships have their names from valiant Exploits on Land and the States will deal as kindly with you as the Russians do by those they see behave themselves couragiously the Emperour
Heathens were wont to say Mutus sit oportet qui non laudaret Herculem I may say Let that Sea-mans tongue be tyed up forever that is not alwayes blessing of the Lord for his mercies towards him Vivat Dominus vivat regnet in aternum Deus in nobis said Luther say you so Saylors therefore there is great reason that you should live in a far higher way of holiness than you do 7. Consider that you have been made acquainted with many and more precious deliverances than all the people under the whole heavens again and will you bee no better for all and after all 8. Consider that you have many eyes upon you out of the land how you will behave your selves after mercy They expect you should bee good 9. Consider that you have many tryals for faith and alas who more faithless than you 10. Consider that you might grow better for of all the people in the world none are so much cast down as you your spirits are broken many times by storms and you are laid low upon the back of despair 11. Consider that you are put to far harder shifts shorter and barer commons than others are and will not you bee more humble less proud and stomachful consider how ill it becomes you Ah Sirs your lives are too much like to Leâ—â—is 11. of France who did write in a letter to our Edward the 4. Couzen if you will come over to Paris wee will pamper our flesh and you shall have the choysest beauties in the City to sport with Your delights are too strong when you go to Naples Livorno and Genoa 12. Consider that you are generally a people of a very low rise and fortune in the land both as to state and breeding and will not you grow better sirs 13. Consider that none see so much of the Creation as you do nor none so much of the work of the Lord and will you out-top the whole world in prophaneness will you never behave your selves as that the world may no longer proverbialize you 14. Consider that you go oftentimes safely out and come safely back and will you bee no better for all this mercy 15. Consider that you are oftentimes going to fight and at that time your Hamocks are cut down your Chests stowed in the Hold your Guns haled out and your Decks be-decked with all sorts of dismangling bullets and will not you bee a more serious people Holiness would well become you 16. Consider that the deep Seas upon which and through which you sail Ulysses sayes Homer longed much to be near his own Country when been long cut of it Fumum de patriis posse videre focis Hee saw the smoke of his own Country chymneys shall one day as well as the earth surrender up her dead unto the Eternal and Almighty God and as men dye whether Swearers Drunkards or Adulterers so shall they rise it is a folly for any to think if they bee drowned in the Sea God will never finde them out more They whose bones lye in the bottome God will finde out Sirs I am tyred and spent with writing to you in a rowling restless element and therefore being almost at my desired Port When Ovid was and had been a long time travelling of it in the world hee then thought much of home Nescio qua natale solum dulcediue cunctos Ducit immemores non sinit esse suâ— I will strike and lower down my Fore-top-sail for a little sail commonly carries the ship into the Harbour And what Socrates used to say of and to his Scholars I will say to you the States Tarpowlings if I can but provoke you to learn and to fear my God whom I serve which is the desire of my soul that you might that is as much as I desire and as much as I can look for for from you therefore What Pasquillus said of Rome I will say of you and of the Sea Roma vale vidi satis est vidisse revertar Gran-mare vale vidi satis est vidisse revertar Farewel thou angry Sea farewel you Sailors all I have seen both you and it it is enough I will return Qui in peregrinis locis ad patriam aspirant If not I hope I shall bee able to sing with the Poet. Ferre volo cunctos casus patienter acerbos Littora dum patriae lacrymans portusque relinquo FINIS A Table directing to some of the principallest and remarkablest things in this Treatise A. ANselms penitent and humble expression page 357 Ataliba what that Indian Prince said page 349 Antisthenes's brave mind page 396 Aristippus what he said to the Tarpowlings when at sea amongst you page 358 Alexanders Macedonians how they sought the Emperours favour again page 451 Alexanders usual deportment in all Siedges page 405 Answer that the stormy wind gave when demanded why cast away so many ships page 487 Apis an Idol in Aegypt what it did ibid. Ability of God to muster up the Winds to destroy men page 386 Advice to Sea-men good page 385 Advice to Merchants page 383 Africa how dangerous to bee travelled the Seas compared unto it page 428 Athens what it did when the Plague was in it page 480 Achilles how cast down for the loss of his precious friend Patroclus page 557 Advice what to doe when goe to Sea page 394 Advice how to bear storms at Sea in four things page 399 Armies divers that God has on foot page 334 Alphonsus King of Spain what hee said to one page 5 Antonius what good he did in his preaching page 601 Agamemnons brave instructions to his Souldiers before the Battel began page 27 Austin how he begins his Sermon to young men page 44 Athanasius's brave carriage what page 63 Alipius how enticed page 75 Aristippus how willing to be reconciled to his enemie page 81 Aristotles wisdome and patience page 108 Antigonus how he bore with bad tongues ibid. Augustus how studied to overcome his passion page 109 Anger has a bad name amongst the Hebrews page 110 Alexanders Harper how put metal into the Emperour page 143 Aurclianus how careful of losing a day page 166 Augustines judgement why David put off Sauls armour page 176 Auroughscoun what page 250 Assa panick what page 250 Arbor Triste page 66 Asp what page 259 Arabian Spider what page 299 Alexander how kept Homers Iliads page 512 Alligator page 228 B. BErnards good exhortation to his Brother page 389 Bias's counsel to the Mariners when amongst them in a sad storm page 353 Bellerophon when went to Heaven was thrown neck-break out of it page 415 Bernards humble expression page 118 Boat-Swains exhorted to call their men up to prayer page 94 Boat-Swains if irreligious how harmful they are ibid. Boat-Swains how reproved and for what page 89 Bird what sort brest themselves against the Wind. page 3 Bruso Zeno's Servant what page 15 Bernard what said to his friends page 41 Bonosus a Beast how hurtful page 75