Now the glory of Divine Providence towards seamen shines and displays itself in three things especially, _/r^^, In making the ocean navigable for them at any time. Secondly^ in preserving them from shipwrecks in the fury and stress of weather. Thirdly., In finding out ways, and strangely providing means of safety, when their ships are lost, and broken upon the sea.
1. It is a wonderful providence of God to make the ocean navi- gable for men at any time ; that such a fluid body as water is, which cannot support a stone or bullet of an ounce weight, should yet, by reason of its own saltness, and the innate property of timber *, be able to support ships of such vast burden, which are carried from place to place, being mounted on the backs of its proud waves. Who can but acknowledge a most wise providence, in gratifying the natural wit and desire of man, which fits him for converse and traffic with foreign nations ; with instruments and materials so fit for his purpose as timber, iron, hemp, pitch, the loadstone, and whatever else is neces- sary for this purpose .? I cannot open the wisdom of God's providence in this respect to better advantage than I find it done by the learned pen of Dr. More, in his Antidote against Atheism, page 58. ' Navi- ' gation (saith he) being of so great consequence to the delight and ' convenience of human life, and there being both wit and courage in ' man to attempt the seas, were he but fitted with right materials,
< and other advantages requisite ; when we see there is so pat ' a provision made for him to this purpose, in large timber for the ^ building of his ship, a thick sea-water to bear the ship's burden ; in
* the magnet or loadstone for his compass ; in the steady and pai'al- ' Icl direction of the axis of the earth for his cynosura ; and then ob-
< serve his natural wit and courage to make use of them ; and how ' that ingenite desire of knowledge and converse, and of the improv- ' ing of his own parts and happiness, stir him up to so notable a de- ' sign : we cannot but conclude from such a train of causes, so fitly
* and congruously complying together, that it was really the counsel ^ of an universal and eternal mind, that hath the overseeing and gui-
2. But (to come home to the case before us) that men should be
* Rather by the pressure of the atmosphere upon the mass ©f water in the ocean.
THE SEAMAN IN A STORM. 363
preserved at sea from immediate ruin in the dreadful tempests that befal them there ; this is a mysterious and admirable work of God : that a poor ship should not be swallowed up by the furious ocean, when mountains of water come rolling towards it with an horrid noise, and give it such dreadful stripes : when seas roll over it, and so cover it with the waves, that for a time they know not whether they sink or swim ; to see it emerge out of such fatal dangers, keep up its head, and mount upon the backs of those lofty seas that threaten immediately to overwhelm it : O how great is the power and care of providence in such a case ! especially if you consider these following particulars, among many others, which threaten ruin on every side : and should but one of these many contingencies be- fal them, in the eye of reason they are lost men.
1. Of how many parts, compared together, doth a ship consist ? These parts indeed are fastened together with bolts of iron ; but being in so many planks, what a wonder is it that none springs, that no bolt gives way, or seams open, whilst every part works with such violence, and so great a stress of weather lies upon it. Should such a thing fall out, (as it is a wonder it should not), how soon would the ship swim within as well as without ?
2. How often are they put from their course by stress of weather, and know not where they are ; not being able, for many days, to take any observation ? so that they must go whither winds and waves will drive them : for there is no dropping anchors in tlie main, nor resist- ing the course of the seas, to which they can make no more resist- ance than a child to a giant. And how is it they are not dashed upon the rocks, or foundered in the sands, seeing the winds shape their course, and not art ? But there is a God that steers your course for you when you cannot.
3. How often are you even fallen upon rocks and shores before you see them, and are almost past hope before you begin Xofiar ? Sometimes almost imbayed, and as much as ever you can do to wea- ther a rock or head-land, which you discerned not until it was almost too late.
I remember Dr. Johnson, in that ingenious and wonderful narra- tive of his voyage to the Sound, when he had survived two ship- wrecks, and was embarked in the third ship, ' We had not (saith ' he) been above two or three hours at sea, but there was a sad dis-
* traction among us in the ship, and the mariners crying, mere?/ ! ^ mercy I for we had almost fallen foul on a rock, which lay so cun-
* ning in the water, that we did not espy it till we were upon it ; ' but by the goodness of God we sailed close by it, and so escaped
* it: the least touch of it had been our ruin.'
4. How often do you ride at anchor in furious weather, near rocks and shores ? Your lives, under God, every moment depending upon a cable and anchor : if the one break, or the other come home, you
S64? THE SEAMAN IN A STOHM.
are lost men. And how wonderful is it they do not ! what is a ca* ble in a storm, but as the new cords with which the Philistines bound Samson, and as easily would they be snapt asunder like a thread of tow, were it not for the care of providence over you ? These, and an hundred other accidents which hourly threaten you, might, and would send you down to the bottom, but that the Lord permits it not so to be.
5. And yet more wonderful than all this ; how often doth God suffer ships to founder and sink under you, and to be dashed to pieces against the rocks, and yet preserve you when the ordinary means of preservation are cut off and gone ? Who like these see the works of the Lord, and his wonders in the deep ?