JL observe that plants and herbs are sometimes killed by frosts, and yet without frosts they would neither live nor thrive : They are sometimes drowned with water, and yet without water they cannot subsist : They are refreshed and cheered by the heat of the sun, and yet that sun sometimes kills and scorches them up. Thus lives my soul : Troubles and afflictions seem to kill all its comforts ; and yet without these, its comforts could not live. The sun-blasts of prosperity sometimes refresh me, and yet those sun-blasts are the likeliest way to wither me : By what seeming contradictions is the life of my spirit preserved ! what a mystery, w^hat a paradox is the life of a Christian ?
Welcome my health, this sickness makes me well.
Medicines adieu. When with diseases I have list to dwell,
111 wish for you. Welcome, my strength, this weakness makes me able.
Powers adieu. When I am weary grown of standing stable,
I'll wish for you. Welcome, my wealth, this loss hath gain'd me more. Riches adieu.
THE HEAVENLY USE OF EARTHLY THINGS. 2(t.5
When I again grow greedy to be poor,
I'll wish for you. Welcome, my credit, this disgrace is glor}-,
Honours adieu. When for renown and fame I shall be sorry,
I'll wish for you. Welcome content, this sorrow is my joy.
Pleasures adieu. When I desire such griefs as may annoy,
I'll wish for you. Health, strength, and riches, credit and content, Are spared best sometimes when they are spent. Sickness and weakness, loss, disgrace and sorrow. Lend most sometimes, when most they seem to borrow.
And if by these contrary and improbable ways the Lord preserves our souls in life, no marvel tlicn we find such strange and seemingly contradictory motions of our hearts, under the various dealings of God with us, and are still restless, in what condition soever he puts us; which restless frame was excellently expressed in that pious epigram of the reverend Gataker, made a little before his death,
I thirst for thirstiness, I w^eep for tears.
Well pleas'd I am to be displeased thus : The only thing I fear, is want of fears,
Suspecting I am not suspicious.
I cannot chuse but live, because I die ;
And when I am not dead, how glad am I ? Yet when I am thus glad for sense of pain,
And careful am, lest I should careless be ; Then do I grieve for being glad again,
And fear, lest carefulness take care for mc.
Amidst these restless thoughts this rest I find.
For those that rest not here, there's rest behind. Jam tetigi porhim^ valete.
SPIRITUALIZED: Or, a New Compass for SEAMEN,
Consisting of XXXII Points ;
f Pleasant OBSERVATIONS, Of \ Profitable APPLICATIONS, and ( Serious REFLECTIONS.
All concluded with so many Spiritual POEMS,
. What good might seamen get, tfonce they were But Iteavenly minded? If' they could hut steer The Christian'' s course, the soul might then enjoy Sweet peace, they might liJce seas d'erjiow with joy. Were God our all, how woidd our coniforts double Upon us I thus the seas of all our trouble Would be divinely sweet : men should endeavour To see God now, and be with himjbr ever.
To all Masters, Mariners, and Seamen ; especially such as belong to the Borough of Cliflon, Dartmouth, and Hat^dness, in the county of Devon.
X FIND it storied of Anacharsis, that when one asked him whether the living or the dead were more? He returned this answer, ' You ' must first tell me (saith he) in which number I must place seamen :' Intimating thereby, that seamen are, as it were, a third sort of per-, sons, to be numbered neither with the living nor the dead ; their lives hanging continually in suspense before them. And it was anciently accounted the most desperate employment, and they little better than lost men that used the seas. ' Through all my life (saith Aristotle)
* three things do especially repent me: 1. That ever I revealed a ' secret to a woman. 2. That ever I remained one day without a
* will. 3. That ever I went to any place by sea, whither I might
* have gone by land.' ' Nothing (saith another) is more miserable, ' than to see a virtuous and worthy person upon the sea.' And al- though custom, and the great improvement of the art of navigation, have made it less formidable now, yet are you no further from death than you are from the waters, which is but a remove of two or three inches. Now you that border so nigh upon the confines of death and eternity every moment, may be well supposed to be men of sin- gular piety and seriousness : For nothing more composes the heart
THE EPISTLE DEDICATORY. 207