Use 2. In the next place, this point is exceeding useful, by way of exhortation, to persuade all men, and particularly seamen, to be men of prayer ; to imitate that noble pattern in the text, and no longer to live in the neglect of a duty so necessary, so sweet, and so bene- ficial to them, as the duty of prayer is. O that you did but know the excellency of this duty ! how would you give yourselves unto prayer ! As David speaks, Psal. cix. 4. Now to persuade you to be praying men, and no longer to live in the neglect of so excellent a duty, I will offer these motives to your consideration.
Motive 1. God hath stiled himself' a God hearing prayer. For your encouragement to this duty, he hath assumed this title to him- self, Psal. Ixv. 2. " O thou that hearest prayer, unto thee shall all " flesh come.'" You cry not as the Heathens do, to stocks and stones, that cannot help or hear them that seek to them, but to the living and true God, by whom never did any upright soul lose a prayer. And to come home to your case more fully, he is a God that hears tlie prayers of poor distressed men upon the seas, when all hope and human help have utterly failed them. So you read in Psalm cvii. 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28. " They that go down to the sea in ships, " that do business in great waters ; these see the works of the Lord, " and his wonders in the deep : for he commandeth, and raiseth " the stormy wind, which lifteth up the waves thereof: they mount " up to heaven, they go down again to the depths ; their soul is " melted because of trouble. They reel to and fro, and stagger " like a drunken man, and are at their wits end. Then they cry " unto the Lord in their trouble, and he bringeth them out of their " distress." So that what the Psalmist elsewhere speaks of the mystical depths of trouble, is true here even in a proper literal sense : " Out of the depths have I cried unto thee, O Lord, hear my voice," Psal. cxxx. 1, 2. Many a prayer hath been heard, and miraculously answered upon the sea. There have men been convinced, and fully satisfied, that it is not in vain to cry to the Lord. So evident and clear have been the appearances of God at the cry of the poor di- VoL. V. Z
S56 THE seaman's farewell.
stressed creatures, that they have sensibly and thanlkfuly acknow- ledged him according to his name ; " The hope of the ends of the " earth, and the confidence of them that are afar off upon the sea," Psal. Ixv. 5. Who is there among you, that has not either heard of, or himself been an example, and instance of this truth ? I might here insert many famous examples to confirm it, but the case is too plain to need them, and it would be too great a dio-ression.
Motive 2. Prayer is certainly the best relief to the distressed. We may say of it, as David said of the sword of Goliath, give me that, for there is none like it. You that are seamen, know what the use of the pump is, when the waters leak into your ship, and of what use the scupper-holes are to you, when waves break and dash over your necks : why, of the same use is prayer, when sorrow leaks into your hearts, and distresses are ready to overwhelm your souls. This gives a vent to that which else would quickly sink you. " Your heart " shall live that seek the Lord," Psal. Ixix. S2. Prayer will buoy up your fainting spirits ; it will sensibly ease an oppressed heart. No fear of fainting, while a man continues praying. Luther was wont to call prayers the leeches of his cares and troubles. O but if troubles come in upon a man every way, and he have no vent, no outlet for them when the ordinary vents of reason, courage, and re- solution are all choaked (as sometimes they are) and there is no succour or relief coming in from heaven ; what a wretched forlorn condition is such a poor creature in ? O therefore get acquaintance with this excellent duty.
Motive 3. All secondary means of deliverance and comfort neces- sarily depend upon the will and pleasure of God, arid signify nothing without him. What the Psalmist saith of an horse, I may say of a ship, Psal. xxxiii. 17. That it is a vain thing for safety. Alas! what a poor defence is it against those giant-like waves of the sea ? And that men (especially seamen) may be convinced of this, God hath many times caused those stately and strong-built ships to perish, and be dashed all to pieces, and preserved those that were not safe in them upon a plank or broken piece of the ship. Acts xxvii. 44. which has carried them more safely to the shore than it could do. And will you not yet see that means signify nothing without God, and that your dependence upon him is necessary in eveiy condition, and the acknowledgment thereof so too ? I am persuaded there would not be half so many shipwrecks aud disappointments as there are, if your carnal confidence in the means were less, and your reliance upon the Lord more. Therefore it is that you so often receive the sentence of death in yourselves, that you may learn not to trust in yourselves, but in God. Oh ! were but your sails filled by prayer, how prosperous would your designs be.^
Motive 4. Whatever deliver ancesjrom dangers, or success in busi- ness, you receive out of the way of prayer, can yield you but little com- Jbrt ; for they are not sanctified to you. You may be delivered, though
TUfi seaman's farewell. S5T
you pray not, and success may follow those that seek not God for it ; but that which you call deliverance is rather a reservation to future mi- serv; and that you call success, is but a snare to your souls. You have the things, but not the comfort and blessing of them. God may give you your desire to your ruin : your lives may be rescued for a time from death, that you may fill up the measureof your iniquities. YourafFairs may prosper, and that prosperity may destroy you, Prov. i. 3^. At best it is but an effect of common providence ; and of such deliver- ances you can never say as Hezekiah said of his ; and every one that receives the like mercy in the way of prayer, may say of his, Isa. xxxviii. 17. " But thou hast in love to my soul delivered it from the " pit of corruption ; for thou hast cast all my sins behind thy back.*' I deny not, but a deliverance by the hand of common providence is a mercy in itself; and it may prove a very great mercy to you in the event, if time thereby added to your life be a space of repent- ance ; else it is but a short reprieval of your damnation, and leaves you to perish under greater guilt than was upon you before. But, on the contrary, how sweet are those mercies that come in the way of prayer ; that discover God's love to you, and inflame yours to him ? One such mercy is worth a thousand of the former.