Christ, zcith a word, can sm-gmg- waves appease : . His voice a troubled soul can quickly ease.
^ T HEN the sea works, and is tempestuous, it is not in the power of any creature to appease it. When the Egyptians would by their hieroglyphics express an impossibility, they did it by the picture of a man treading upon the waves. It is storied of Canute, an ancient Danish king, that when a mighty storm of flattery arose upon him, he appeased it by shewing that he could not appease the sea : But one of his courtiers told him as he rode near the sea-side, ' That he ' was Lord of the sea as well as land.' ' Well, (said the king) we shall ' see that by and by ;' and so went to the water-side, and with a loud voice cried, 'O ye seas and waves, come no further, touch not my feet.' But the sea came up notwithstanding that charge, and confuted the flattery. But now Jesus Christ hath command of them indeed : It is said of him. Mat. viii. 20. That he rebuked them. And Mark iv. 38. He quiets them with a word, Peace, be still ; as one would hush a child, and it obeyed him.
Conscience, when awakened by the terrors of the Lord, is like a raging tempestuous sea ; so it works, so it roars ; and it is not in the power of all creatures to hush or quiet it. Spiritual terrors, as well as spiritual consolations are not known till felt. O when the arrows of the Almighty are shot into the spirit, and the terrors of God set themselves in array against the soul ; when the venom of those arrows drink up the spirits, and those armies of terrors charge violently and successively upon it, as Job vi. 4. What creature then is able to stand before them ! Even God's own dear children have felt such terrors as have, distracted them, Psal. Ixxxi. 15. Conscience is the seat of guilt : it is like a burning glass, so it contracts the beams of the threatnings, twists them together, and reflects them on the soul, luitil it smoke, scorch, and flame. If the wrath of the king be like the roar- ing of a lion, then what is the Almighty's wrath ! which is burning wrath, Jobxix. 11. Tea7'ing wrath, Psal. 1. 22. Surprizing icrath. Job XX. 23. And abiding wrath. Job iii. 36.
In this case no creature can relieve : all are physicians of no value ; sqme under these terrors have thought hell more tolerable, and by a violent hand have thrust themselves out of the world into it to avoid these gnawings : Yet Jesus Christ can quickly calm these mystical waves also, and hush them with a word ; yea, he is the ph^'sician, and no other. It is the sprinkling of his blood, which, like a cooling fomentation, allays those heats within : That blood of sprinkling speaks peace, when all others have practised upon the soul to no pur- pose ; and the reason is, because he is a Person, in whom God and
^66 A NEW COMPASS FOIl SEAMEN ; OKy
man, justice and mercy meet and kiss each other, Eph. ii. 14. And hence fetches in peace to the soul, Rom. v. 1.
Can none appease a troubled conscience but Christ? Then learn, O my soul, to understand, and daily more and more to savour that glo- rious name, even Jesus, that delivers not only from the wrath to come, but that which is felt here also. O, if the foretaste of hell be so intoler- able, if a few drops, let fall on the conscience in this life be so scalding and insufferable, what is it to have all the vials poured out to eter- nity, when there shall be nothing to divert, mitigate, or allay it ?
Here men have somewhat to abate those terrors, some hopes of mercy, at least a possibility : but there is none. O my soul ! how art thou loaded with guilt ! and what a Magormissahlh wouldst thou be, should God rouse that sleepy lion in thy bosom ! My condition is not at all the better because my conscience is quiet. Ah ! the day is coming when it must awake, and will lighten and thunder terribly within me, if I get not into Christ the sooner. O Lord, who knows the power of thy wrath ? O let me not carry this guilt out of the world with me, to maintain those everlasting flames, let me give no sleep to mine eyes, nor slumber to mine eye-lids, till I feel the com- fort of that blood of sprinkling, which alone speaketh peace.
A.MONG the dreadful works of God, I find No metaphors to paint a troubled mind. I think on this, now that, and yet will neither Come fully up, though all be put together. 'Tis like the raging sea that casts up mire, Or like to ^tna, breathing smoke and fire; Or like a roused lion, fierce and fell ; Or like those furies that do howl in hell. O conscience ! who can stand before thy power, Endure thy gripes and twinges but an hour ? Stone, gout, strappado, racks, whatever is Dreadful to sense, is but a toy to this. No pleasures, riches, honours, friends can tell How to give ease : In this 'tis like to hell. Call for the pleasant timbrel, lute, and harp ; Alas ! the music howls, the pain's too sharp For these to charm, divert, or lull asleep : These cannot reach it, no, the wound's too deep. Let all the promises before it stand. And set a Barnabas at its right hand ; These in themselves no comfort can afford, 'Tis Christ, and none but Christ can speak the word. And he no sooner speaks but all is still, The storm is over, and the mind tranquil.
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There goes a powV, with his majestic voice, To hush the dreadful storm, and still its noise. Who would but fear and love tliis glorious Lord, That can rebuke such tempests with a word ?
Our food out of the sea God doth command; Yet few therein tahe notice of' his hand.
X HE providence of God in furnishing us with such plenty and variety offish, is not slightly to be past over. We have not only several sorts of fish in our own seas, which are caught in their sea- sons ; but from several parts, especially the western parts of Eng- land, many sail of ships are sent yearly to the American parts of the world ; as Newfoundland, New-England, &c. Whence every year is brought home, not only enough to supply our own nation, but many thousand pounds worth also yearly returned from Spain, and other countries ; by which trade many thousand families do subsist,