▼ ▼ HAT multitudes of men hath the sea devoured ! thousands have made their graves in it. What numbers of men have been in- gulphed together in sea-fights, or storms, or inundations, whereby whole towns have been swallowed up ! certainly the dead which are there, are innumerable.
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But though the sea has received so many thousand bodies of men into its devouring throat, yet it is not the absolute lord or proprietor of them, but rather a steward intrusted with them, till the Lord re- quire an account of them ; and then it must deliver up all it hath received, even to a person. Rev. xx. 11, 12. " And I saw the dead, '' small and great, stand before God : And the books were opened ; *' and another book was opened, which is the book of life ; and the *' dead were judged out of those things which were written in the *' book according to their works. And the sea gave up the dead " which were in it.*''
The doctrine of the resurrection of the body is a doctrine full of singular consolations to believers, 1 Cor. xv. and most clearly asserted in scripture. Acts xxvi. 8. Job xix. 25. 1 Cor. xv. &c. And it is well for us this point is so plainly revealed ; because as it is a most comfortable truth to the people of God, so there is scarce any truth that lies under more prejudice, as to sense or reason, and is more dif- ficult to receive than this is. The Epicures and Stoics laughed Paul to scorn when he preached it to them, Acts xvii. 32. The Familists and Quakers at this day reject it as a fable. The Socinians say tlie same body shall not rise, but an aerial body. And, indeed, if men set up reason as the only judge of supernatural things, it is incredible to think, that a body should be restored that hath been burnt to ashes, and those ashes scattered in the wind ; as history tells us was fre- quently done by the bodies of the saints in Dioclesian's reign ! or when drowned in the sea, and there devoured by several fishes, and those again devoured by others. But yet this is not to be objected to the almighty power of God, that gave them their first being: difficulties and impossibilities are for men, but not for him. " Why should it be " thought a thing incredible with you that God should raise the ** dead?" Acts xxvi. 8.
And must I rise again where-ever my body falls at death .'' Then, Lord, how am I concerned to get union with Christ whilst I live ? By virtue thereof only my resurrection can be made comfortable and blessed to me. Ah ! let my body lie where it will, in earth or sea : let my bones be scattered, and flesh devoured by worms or fish, I know thou canst, and wilt re-unite my scattered parts ; and in this body I must stand before thine awful tribunal, to receive according to what 1 have done therein, 2 Cor. v. 10. Thou that commandest me to stand forth amongst the noblest rank of creatures, when I had no being, and sawest my substance, being yet imperfect, canst as easily reduce me to that being again.
What though reason vote it impossible, and sense incredible.? Though all these difficulties and incumbrances grow upon my faith, yet I know my body is not lost for ever; the sound of thy last and dreadful
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trumpet, shall awaken me ; and thy mighty power, to which all thh)gs are possible, shall bring me before thy bar.
O Lord, I know that I shall stand in that great assembly at the last day, when multitudes, multitudes, even all the sons and daughters of Adam, shall appear together. O if I die christless, it were good for me that there were no resurrection ; for then those eyes that have been windows of lust, must behold Christ the Judge, not as a Re- deemer, but as a Revenger. That tongue that hath vented so much of the filthiness of my heart, will then be struck speechless before him ; and this flesh which I so pampered and provided for, condemn- ed to everlasting flames. O my God let me make sure work for such a day ! if I now get real union with thy Son, I shall awake with sing- ing out of the dust ; and then, as thou saidst to Jacob, so to me, when I go down into the sea, or grave, Gen. xlvi. 3, 4. " Fear not to go " down into the deep ; for I will surely bring thee up again."*'
XT should not seem incredible to thee,
That God should raise the dead in seas that be :
We see in winter, swallows, worms, and flies
Deprived of life, yet in the spring they rise.
What tho' your bodies sevVal fish devour.
Object not that to the Almighty powV.
Some chymists in their art are so exact,
That from one herb they usually extract
Four different elements ; what think ye then
Can pose that God who gave this skill to men ?
The gard'ner can distinguish thirty kinds
Of seeds from one another, tho' he finds
Them mix'd together in the self-same dish ;
Much more can God distinguish flesh from fish.
They seem as lost, but they again must live ;
The sea's a steward, and stewards account must give.
T^ook what you are, when in the ocean drown'd,
The very same at judgment you'll be found.
I would not care whei-e my vile body lies,
Were I assured it should with comfort rise.
The seaman^ s greatest danger's near the coast ; When we are nearest heav'n^ the danger's most.
HOUGH seamen meet with violent storms, yet if they liave sea-room enough, they are not much dismayed: but if they find themselves near the shore, they look upon their condition as very
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dangerous : the sight of the shore is to them (as Solomon speaks of the morning in another case) like the shadow of death, if not able to weather it. For one ship swallowed up in the ocean, many perish upon the coast.
The greatest straits and difficulties that many saints meet with in all their lives, is when they come nearest to heaven, and have almost finished their course. Heaven indeed is a glorious place, the spaci- ous and royal mansion of the Great King ; but difficilia qnce pnlchra ; it hath a strait and narrow entrance, Luke xiii. 24. O the difficulty of arriving there! how many hard tugs in duty, what earnest con- tention and striving even to an agcny ! as that word imports, Luke xiii. 24. Multitudes put forth, and by profession arc bound for this Juir haven : but of the multitudes that put out, how iew do arrive there? A man may set out by a glorious profession with much re- solution, and continue long therein; he may offer very fair for it, and not be far from the kingdom of God, and yet not be able to enter at the last, Matth. vii. 22. .
Yea, and many of those who are sincere in their profession, and do arrive at last, yet come to heaven (as I may say) by the gates of hell ; and put in, as a poor weather-beaten vessel comes into the harbour, more like a wreck than a ship, neither mast nor sail hft. The righteous themselves are scarcely saved, i. e. they are saved with very much difficulty. They have not all an abundant entrance, as the apostle speaks, 2 Pet. i. 11.