(1.) Have you not soon forgotten the works and wonders of the Lord, which your eyes have seen ? It may be, for t,he present, you have been sensibly affected with your danger, and the mercy of God in your deliverance, but hath it remained upon your hearts .'' I doubt these mercies have been written in the dust, which should have been engraven, as in the rock, for ever. Thus it was with Israel, a peo- ple tliat saw as many wonders wrought for them by the immediate finger of God, as ever did any people in the world : and yet it is said of them, even after the Reci-sea deliverance, in which " God divided ** the sea for them, when the waves thereof roared," Isa. li. 15. and with which, for the present, their hearts were greatly affected ; for it is said, Psalm cvi. 12. " That they believed his word, and sang " his praises ;" but in the next verse you read, that a little time easily wiped out the sense of this mercy; for it is said, ver. 13. " They soon forgat his works, and waited not for his counsels." I doubt this was not the sin of Israel only, but is the case of many of you at this day. Well, God did not forget you in the time of ex- tremity, though you so quickly forgot him. Think not to excuse yourselves from this guilt by saying, you do still remember the thing : you may do so, and yet be said to forget his mercy : for a deliver- ance may be remembered by him that received it two ways ; namely, speculatively and affectingly. A speculative remembrance is only to call to mind the story of such a danger and preservation ; this you may do, and yet God account himself forgotten, except you so remember it as still to feel the powerful impressions thereof upon your hearts, softening and melting them into thankfulness, love, and dependence upon the God of your salvations.
(2.) Have you not walked very unanswerably to your deliverances, yea, and to the solemn engagements you made to God in the day of your distress ? I fear some of you have walked after God hath rescued you by a wonderful immediate hand from the jaws of death, as if you had been delivered to do all these abominations. As it is Jer. vii. 10. It may be the last week or month you were reeling to and fro upon the stormy sea, and staggering like drunken men ; and this, reeling and staggering along the streets really drunken. O horrid abomination f do you thus requite the Lord, wlio pitied you in your distress, and, being full of compassion, saved you when you cried to him .? Is this the fruit of your wonderful salvation ? If a man should have told you in that day it would have been thus, you yourselves could not have believed it, but would have answered as Hazael did to the prophet, ^ Kings viii. 13. * What ! is thy servant a dog, that he should do such things.?'^ Yet so it was, and so it is still : the" Lord humble you for this great wickedness. If this be all the fruit of mercy and deliverance, it had
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been better for you that you had gone down to the bottom then, rather than to hve only to treasur6 up more wrath against the day of wrath, and fill up your measure.
(3.) Are there not a sort of atheistical seamen, who own not provi- dence at all, either in the raising of these horrid tempests, or in their marvellous preservation in them ! but look on all as coming in a na- tural way, and their escape to be only by good fortune and chance ? How wonderful a thing is it in the eyes of all considering men, that providence should take any notice of them in a way of favour, that so "wickedly disown it, and so directly disoblige it? How can you possibly- shut your eyes against such clear light, and stopyour ears against such loud and plain language, whereby the power and goodness of God proclaims itself to you in these providences ! Ah ! methinks you should most readily and thankfully subscribe that great truth, Psal. Ixviii. 20. " He that is our God is the God of salvation ; and unto *' God the Lord belong the issues from death." But though men see signs and wonders they will not beUeve ; yea, though they them- selves become wonders to the world by their miraculous deliverances, yet so brutish and stupid are they, that they will not see the hand that saves them. Take heed what you do : you set yourselves in the direct way to destruction by this, and highly provoke the Lord to abandon and cast you out of the care of his providence : and if he once do so, you are lost men.
(4'.) And yet more vile (if more vileness can be in sin) than all this : is there not a generation of wretched men among you, that fall a swearing, cursing, and blaspheming God, even when he is uttering his terrible voice in the tempest, and every moment threatening to intomb them in the deep 'i When you should be upon your knees bewailing your sins, and pleading with God for mercy, (as I doubt not but some of you do) to be yet more and more provoking him, daring him to his face ; and yet more incensing his indignation, which is already kindled against you ; who, that hears this can chuse but admire the riches of God's patience and forbearance towards such men? The very heathen mariners in a storm called every man upon his god, Jonah i. 5. We say, extremity will cause the worst of men to pray, and compose the vainest spirit unto seriousness ; but it seems by you it will not. Is this the frame and temper you will meet death in ? What! speaking the language of devils and damned spirits be- fore you come among them ; hastening on your own ruin as if ii were too slack and lingering in its motion ? The Lord open the eyes of these miserable creatures, and convince them, that they are not only going to hell as others are, but that they are the forlorn of all that wretched crew that are bound thither ; and proportionably will bo their misery, except they repent.
2. Use of exhortation. This point is yet farther improveable for you by way of exhortation, serving to press you to those proper duties
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which God calls you to by his terrible providential voice in the storms, and by your wonderful deliverances.
1. And the first lesson you are to learn from hence is, To adore the power of God. O what a manifestation of Divine power is here ! you are the men that see more than others the works of the Lord, and his wonders in the deep. It is one of God's ends in shewing you these wonders, " To make his mighty power known,"" Psal. cvi. 8. O what a terrible voice doth God utter upon the seas when the heavens are black above you, the furious winds and dreadful thunders ratthng about you, the seas and waves roaring beneath you ! Is not this voice of the Lord full of majesty ? Doth it not awe your hearts, and make them tremble? In three things his infinite power is discovered to you.