Will you own the hand that delivers you, that feeds, clothes, and heals you ? Will you resolve to live the life of praise, and render to the Lord according to the benefits you have received ? Will you in- deed walk humbly, and thankfully, under all your deliverances, and successes, and glorify God by that wherewith he hath comforted and refreshed you ? If there be any saving knowledge of God, and spiri- tual sense of his love in your souls, methinks I should prevail with you ; for do but weigh these following arguments seriously, and they will engage you to it.
Argument 1. How freely have all your mercies streamed to you from the fountain of grace ? There was nothing in you to engage it.
The very notion of mercy includes freeness ; they are all bestowed upon us^not only as we are immerentes ^huX male merentesy undeserving.
THE seaman's return. 415
but ill-deserving creatures ; not only without our merits, but against our merits. And what though there be a concurrence of your abili- ties, head-work and hand-work in the procurement of some of your mercies, yet still those mercies are the pure effects of free-grace : for all those endeavours of yours had signified nothing to their procure- ment, without God's blessing ; yea, and that wisdom and industry which you have used, were themselves the free gifts of God. You know there are thousands in the world as industrious and wise as you, -and such as never provoked God by such sins as you have ; who yet are denied the mercies you enjoy. O how should this endear you to God!
Argument 2. How seasonably your mercies have been bestowed upon you in the very point of extremity and danger ! God hath on purpose suffered it to grow to an extremity, that thereby he might commend his mercy to you with greater advantage. " In the mount " of the Lerd it hath been seen," Gen. xxii. 14. without this God saw his mercies would have been slighted, and low prized by you : But God hath watched the opportunity of bestowing his goodness upon you, for no other end but to magnify his mercies in your eyes, and make the deeper and more lasting impressions upon your hearts. Shall such mercies, which at first were so amazing and overwhelming to you, at the reception whereof you were like men that dreamed, as the Psalmist speaks. Psalm cxxvi. 1. so soon grow stale and common ? God forbid !
Argument 3. How special and distinguishing have some of your mercies been ? God hath not dealt with every one as he hath with you. Are not some that went out with you found wanting at your return : They are among the dead, it may be among the damned, and you among the living, yet enjoying the capacity and the means of salvation. God hath prospered your voyage, and returned you with success ; you have sucked the abundance of the sea, and the treasures hid in the sand, as the text speaks ; but others may say as Naomi, Ruth i. 21. "I went out full, and am come back empty.'' I went out full of hopes, and am come back with sad disappointments. And is not this a strong tie to thanksgiving ?
Argument 4. Did not your mercies find you under great guilt ? You know what your own transgressions against the Lord were, and vet such was the strength of mercy, that it brake through all your great provocations, and made its way to you through a multitude of iniquities. It came triumphing over all your great unworthiness ; and is not such mercy worthy to be admired, and recorded for ever ! O what will affect and melt your hearts, if this will not ? Surely such mercies have a constraining power in them, upon all sensible souls.
Argument 5. To conclude ; if all the goodness of God which hath passed before your eyes, does indeed prevail upon you to love the Lord, and fear to offend him ; if it really constrains you to give up yourselves, and all you have, to be his ; then all this is but the be-
416 THE seaman's IIETUIIN'.
ginning of mercies, and you shall see yet greater things than these. God hath more mercies yet behind, and those of a higher kind and more excellent nature than these temporal mercies are. You are now delivered from the dangers of the sea, and have escaped those perils : O but what is this to deliverance from wrath to come ? You have been preserved from, or delivered out of Turkish slavery ; but what is that to a deliverance from the curse of the law, the bondage of your lusts, and the power of Satan ? Happy souls, if these deliver- ances do in any measure prove introductive to the great salvation.
Thus I have, as the Lord hath enabled me, endeavoured to chuse and improve proper subjectsforyour meditation in every condition that befalsyou. I cannot carry these truths one degree farther, it is the Lord only that can make them effectual to your souls. But it is my earnest request to you, masters, that have the over-sight, and must give an account for your companies, that you will not only read and consider these things yourselves, but that you will at fit seasons, espe- cially upon the Lord's day, read and inculcate them upon your ser- vants and company ; and that, as those who must give an account. Will not this be a better expence of that precious and hallowed time, than to spend it in sleeping in your cabins, or drinking in tipling- houses ? AH that sin of theirs which you may prevent, and do not, be- comes your own sin. And have you not personal sins enough al- ready, but you must draw the guilt of their sins upon you also ? I beseech you, and it is my last request, that you will faithfully labour, that you and your companies may serve the Lord.
THE GREAT WORK OF A CHRISTIAN,
OPENED AND PRESSED. From Prov. iv. 25.
THE EPISTLE DEDICATORY.
To my clearly beloved and longed for, the Flock of Jesus Christ in Dartmouth, over whom the Holy Ghost hath made me an Over- seer: Sound Judgment, true Zeal, and unstained Purity, are heartily wished. Ml/ dear Fr lends ^
HERE are three sad sights with which our eyes should conti- nually affect our hearts : "Ihejirst, is to behold in every place so many profane and dissolute ones, who bear the very image of Sa- tan : the face of whose conversation plainly discovers what they are, and whither they are going, Philip, iii. 18, 19. These look hke them- selves, the children of wrath. The second is to see so many cursed hy- pocrites artificially disguising themselves, and with marvellous dex- terity acting the parts of saints, so that even a judicious eye may sometimes mistake the similar workings of the Spirit on them, for his saving workings on others : To hear such a person conferring, praying, bewailing his corruptions, and talking of his experiences ; would easily persuade a man to believe that he hath the heart, as well as the face of a sincere Christian : For,
Sic oculos, sic ille manus, sic oraferehat.