Motive 5. Consider all you that go out without prayer ^ hoxv soon you may be out of a capacity of' prayer. Now you will not, and shortly you ma}'^ not, have one opportunity to pray for evermore : now unbelief shuts your mouths, and shortly death may do it. How soon may you be past your prayers, both your own and others, and be fixed by death in your unalterable condition ? O seek the Lord therefore whilst he may be found, call upon him whilst he is yet near. Now is your praying season, hereafter there will be no use of prayer. " For this (saith the Psalmist) shall every one that is godly pray " unto thee, in a time when thou mayest be found : surely in the " floods of great waters, they shall not come nigh imto him.'' Psal. xxxii. 6. i. e. saith Dcodate upon the place, in the time of the gene- ral destruction of sinners, as it was in the deluge ; then there is no coming nigh to God by prayer, nor canst thou come nigh him in the day of thy particular destruction, by the flood of great waters. O therefore live not a dav longer in the profane and sinful neglect of this great duty of prayer !
Object. Why^ but I observe those that pray not, generally escape as well as they that do.
AnSiC. This objection was once made by a soldier in the time of fight, when he was pressed by his companion to pray ; and God quickly stopped his blasphemous mouth with a mortal bullet. Have a care of such bold atheistical pleas ; they greatly provoke the Lord against you : I had rather die praying, than live prayerless.
Object. But to what purpose is it for me to pray ^ ijfl am vure- generate? God hears not such prayers, if I make them: and. be- sides, the prayers of the wicked are an abomination to the Lord.
S5S THE seaman's farewell.
Answ. Labour therefore to get into a regenerate state, ahd be not persuaded to rest a day longer in so sad a condition. However in the mean time you must know, that prayer being a part of natural wor- ship, all men, even the unregenerate, are obhged to it by the hght and law of nature ; otherwise the neglect of it could not be their sin.
Object. But many pray, and receive not : I myself have often done so.
Answ. "You ask, and receive not, because you ask amiss," Jam. iv. 3. If we were disposed to receive as God is to give, "we should not be long without the answer of our prayers.
(1.) If your persons were accepted through Christ, your prayers should be accepted too. Gen. iv. 4. But you are in a state of nature, destitute of the Spirit, John xv. 7. And so your voice is to God not the voice of a child, but a stranger.
(3.) If your prayers were regulated by the will of God, they could not miss of the desired success ; 1 John v. 14. " If we ask any thing " according to his will, he heareth us."'
(S.) If your prayers had more faith and fervency, they would not return empty ; see Jam. i. 6. and v. 16. Well then, object no more against your duty, but in the fear of God, apply yourselves to it, and dare not to go forth in any design, until thou hast by prayer re- commended thyself and thy affairs to God. Go alone, my friends, retire from the world ; and say not you cannot spare time for prayer; better any thing else were neglected than this. Tell the Lord, thou art now launching forth into the ocean, and knowest not what this, voyage may bring forth. Possibly thou mayest never return to the land of thy nativity any more ; but however it shall please him to dispose the event, beseech him with all earnestness, that thou mayest have the pardon of sin sealed to thee before thou go. O beg him to separate guilt from thy person, before thou be separated from thy habitation and relations ; lest that stroke that shall sepa- rate thy soul from thy body, should eternally separate both soul and body from God.
Desire of the Lord that his presence may go with thee wherever thou shalt go. Tell him it is the fountain both of thy safety and comfort. Desire him if his presence may not go with thee, not to carry thee hence. All the relief thou hast against trouble, is wrap- ped up in that promise of his, / will be zvlth him in trouble. Tell him, those will be tasteless comforts, and succourless troubles, in which he is not.
Intreat the Lord with all importunity, to keep thee by his fear, from the sins and temptations that are in the world. Tell him thou art sensibly affected with the danger which thy own corrupt heart will every where expose thee to : sins in buying and selling, into which thou mayest easily be drawn by an earthly covetous heart : sins in drinking, wherein thou mayest be entangled (except lie keep thee) by evil company and an irregular appetite: sins of uncleanness.
THE SKAMAN IN A STORM. S59
by which thou mayest be overcome in tlie absence of lawful reme- dies, and presence of alluring objects, except his fear quench the temptation, and break the snare.
Be earnest also with the Lord for his gracious protection of thee in all thy dangers. Tell him, thou canst not be in safety any where, but under the shadow of his wings. Tell him, at zvhat time thou art afraid, thou unit trust in h'wi ; and beseech him, that when thy heart shall be overwhelmed with fears and troubles, he will lead thee to the rock that is higher than thee. Beseech him also to give thee counsel in all thy straits and difficulties, that thou mayest not lean to thine own understanding, but that he will make thy way plain before thee.
And if it be his good pleasure, that he would bless thy just and ho- nest enterprizes with success and prosperity ; which if he shall do, tell him it is thy desire, and beg the assistance of his grace, that thou mayest improve all thy mercies to his praise. If thus you set forth in the fear of God, you may expect a sweet success, and happy issue-
THE SEAMAN IN A STORM.
PsAL. evii. 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28.
They that go down to the sea in ships, that do business in great waters ; these see the worlds 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 dozen again to the depths ; their soul is melted because of trouble. They reel to and fro, and stagger like a di'unken man, and are at their wifs end. Then they C7'y unto the Lord in their trouble^ and he brings them, out of their distress.
A HIS psalfn contains an excellent account of the mysterious and admirable effects of providence : and this paragraph contains that vein or branch oi divine providence which respects seamen ; a sort of men more immediately depending upon the favour of providence than any men in the world ; though all do necessarily and con- tinually depend upon it.
In these verses we have a description, both (1.) of the persons, (2.) of the danger, (3.) of the deliverance, by the wonderful work- ing of divine providence for them.