For, Ji7'st, sometimes a small boat shall save them, when a stout ship could not : thus many of them have been wonderfully preserved ; and thus the aforementioned author relates the manner of this won- derful preservation. ' Our ship (saith he) had sprung a leak, or ra- ther a plank, and was ready to sink : O how the face of every man was changed at this affrightment ! one was at his prayers, another wringing his hands, a third shedding tears, when we had no need of more salt-water. After this fit they fell to work, and (as it is usual in such extremes) we were all busy in doing nothing, and did we knew not what. The master's mate, whom we sent down to search out the leak, quickly returned to us with a sad countenance, trem- bling hands, gnashing of teeth, a quivering tongue, and words half spoken, signifying unto us, that the wound was incurable. Here was now no room for counsel, neither had we time to ask one ano- ther what was best to be done ; but we presently cast out our long- boat, and shot off eight or ten guns, which seemed to be so many tolls of a passing-bell before our death. I leaped into the boat, but leaped short, one leg in the boat, Alterum in Charontis cymha. Now were we left in the north seas, which seldom wear a smooth brow ; but at this time contending with the wind, swelled into prodigious mountains. It blew half a storm, and we were now in a small ves- sel : what credit could we give to our safety in a small and open shallop, when so stately a castle of wood, which we but now lost, could not defend itself against the insolency of the waves "t We were many leagues from any shore, having no compass to guide us,
nor provisions to sustain us, and the night grew black upon us
Nothing but a miracle could preserve us, being out of the reach of
human help We fell to prayer, and our extremity pleaded for
us : For in this moment of death, when we were without the
least expectation of deliverance, he sent a ship to us, which we must
needs confess to be the finger of God,' &c. Thus he And thus
has been the wonderful door opened in extremity to multitudes more for their escape : but, oh! how astonishing are these ways of the Lord .? Well may we say, " His ways are in the sea, and his paths
THE SEAMAN IN A STORM. 365
" in the great deep, and his footsteps are not known," Psal. Ixxvii.
Secondly^ Sometimes they shall be cast upon a rock in the sea, where they shall be preserved until some other way of deliverance come ; yea, preserved strangely, God blessing a small matter df provision which they saved to sustain them ; though they said of it, as the widow of Sarepta to the prophet, 1 Kings xvii. 12. "I *' have but an handful of meal, and a little oil, and I am gathering '' two sticks, that I may go in and dress it for me and my son, that " we may eat it, and die." Or if they could save nothing, yet a few muscles or birds eggs, with God's blessing, have sustained them until the tmie of piercy come. This hath been the case of many. Think upon this you that abuse the good creatures of God by drunkenness : how sweet would a cup of fresh water be to you when reduced to such extremity ? Oh ! if your hearts be not harder than the rocks you lay upon, how would such extraordinary mercies melt you into love and thankfulness ?
Thirdly, Sometimes they have been wafted to the shore safely upon the wreck *, or by making a raft of the broken pieces of the ship, and torn sails, and ropes ; and upon this (God knows, a poor secu- rity against the boisterous waves) have they ventured themselves : a sinking man (as we say) will catch at a bulrush. Paul, and those that suffered shipwreck Avith him, were thus saved; " The centu- *' rion commanded, that they which could swim, should cast them- " selves first into the sea, and get to land ; and the rest, some on " boards, and some on broken pieces of the ship ; and so it came to " pass jliat they escaped all safe to land," Acts xxvii. 43, 44.
Oh, the miraculous works of the Lord ! to save by such contemp- tible and improbable means ! Who can but with great joy see and ac- knowledge the finger of God to be here ? " Lo, these are parts of " his way ; but how little a portion is heard of him .?" Job xxvi. 14.
1. Use qfrepreqf. If your preservation in storms at sea, be the wonderful works of Divine Providence, then divers of you deserve to be sharply reproved from this truth. And I beseech you suffer the word of reproof meekly and penitently. I shall speak nothing to reproach you ; no, it is not to reproach, but to reform you : and if you hate reproof, and mock at counsel, God may shortly speak in such thundering language to your consciences, as will be terrible for you to bear. I remember, it is said of St. Bernard, That whilst he was seriously reproving the profaneness of one (and if I misremember not, it was his own brother) who was a soldier, and observing how he sliglited his holy and serious counsel, his spirit was greatly grieved at it, and he told him, ' Brother, God I fear, will shortly make way * to your heart with a sword, to which my v, ords can find no access :* And the event soon verified the sad prediction. I pray God none of
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366 THE SEAMAN TN A KTORM.
you may be taught by captivities and shipwrecks what it is to reject faithful reproofs and wholesome counsel, seasonably given for your good. You that read these lines, seriously ask your own consciences these following questions.