cafe with me alone? and how fweetly hath it expoftulated. with me? How clearly hath it convinced of fin, danger, duty, with ftrong demonstration? How terrible hath it menaced my foul, and fet the point of the threatning at my very breaft? And yet my head-ftrong affections will not be remanded by it. I have obeyed the voice of every luft and temptation, Tit. iii. 3. but confcience hath loft its authority with me. Ah Lord! what a fad condition am I in, both in refpect of fin and mifery? My fin receives dreadful aggravations, for rebellion and prefumption are hereby added to it. I have violated the ftrongest bonds that ever were laid upon a creature. If my confcience had not thus convinced and warned, the fin had not been fo great and crimion-coloured, Jam. iv. 17. Ah! this is to fin with an high hand, Numb xv. 30. to come near to the great and unpardonable tranfgreffion, Pfalm xix. 13. O how dreadful a way of finning is this, with opened eyes! and as my fin is thus out of meafure finful, fo my punishment will be out of meafore dreadfui, if I perfift in this rebellion. Lord! thou haft faid, Such fhall be beaten with many ftripes, Luke xii. 48. yea, Lord, and if ever my confcience, which by rebellion is now grown filent, fhould be in judgment awakened in this life; O! what an hell fhould I have within me! how would it thun der and roar upon me, and furround me with terrors? Thy word affures me, that no length of time can wear out of its memory what I have done, Gen. xlii. 21. no violence or force can fupprefs it, Mat. xxvii. 4. no greatnefs of power can Stifle it; it will take the mightieft monarch by the throat, Exod. x. 16. Dan. v. 6. no mufic, pleafures, or delights, can charm it, Job. xx. 22. O confcience! thou art the sweetest friend, or the dreadfulleft enemy in the world; thy confolations are incomparably sweet, and thy terrors infupportable. Ah! let me ftand it out no longer against confcience; the very ship in which I fail, is a confutation of my madness, that rush greedily into fin against both reason and confcience, and will not be commanded by it; furely, O my foul, this will be bitterness in the end. A The POE M. Ship of greatest burthen will obey The rudder; he that fits at helm, may fway. And guide its motion: If the pilot please, Confcience the rudder. Ah! but Lord, what ails My naughty heart, to fhuffle in and out, WE CHA P. VII. Thro' many fears and dangers feamen run, OBSERVATION. E have an elegant and lively defcription of their fears and dangers, Pfal. cvii. 25, 26, 27. "He commandeth "and raiseth the ftormy winds, which lifteth up the waves "thereof; they mount up to heaven, they go down again to "the depths; their foul is melted because of trouble; they "reel to and fro, they ftagger like a drunken man; they are at "their wits end." Or, as it is in the Hebrew, All wisdom "is swallowed up." Suitable to which is that of the poet *. "The Pilot knows not what to chufe, or flee; O what a ftrange and miraculous deliverance have many feamen had? How often have they yielded themselves for dead men, and verily thought the next fea would have fwallowed them up? How earnestly then do they cry for mercy? and, like, the Corinthians, can pray in a ftorm, though they regard it not at other times, Pfal. cvii. 28. Jonah i. 5, 6 APPLICATION. Thefe dreadful ftorms do at once discover to us the mighty Rector in incerto eft: nec quid fugiat petat power of God in raifing them, and the abundant goodness of God in preferving poor creatures in them. 1. The power of God is gracioully manifested in railing them; the wind is one of the Lord's wonders, Pfal. cvii. 24, 25. "They that go down to the fea, fee the works of the "Lord, and his [wonders] in the deep; for he commandeth "and raiseth the stormy winds." Yea, ver. 18. God appro propriates it as a peculiar work of his; "He caufeth his [wind "to blow.]" Hence he is faid, in Scripture," to bring them "forth out of his treasury," Pfal. cxxxvii. 7. there they are locked up, and reserved, not a guft can break forth, till he command and call for it to go and execute his pleasure :: Yea, he is faid to "hold them in his fift," Prov. xxx. 4. What is more incapable of holding than the wind yet God holds it; although it be a ftrong and terrible creature, he controuls and rules it: yea, the Scripture fets forth God," as riding upon "the wings of the wind," Pfal. xviii. 10. It is a borrowed fpeech from the manner of men, who when they would fhew their pomp and greatnefs, ride upon fome ftately horle, or chariot; fo the Lord, to manifeft the greatness of his power, rides upon the wings of the wind, and will be admired in fo terrible a creature. And no lefs of his glorious power appears in remanding them, than in raising them. The heathens afcribe this power to their god Acolus, but we know this is the royalty, and fole preroga tive of the true God, who made heaven and earth; it is he that "makes the form a calm," Pfal. cvii. 29. and it is he that fhifts and changes them from point to point, as he pleaseth; for he hath appointed them their circuits, Ecclef. i. 6. "The wind "goeth towards the fouth, and turneth about unto the north; it "whirleth about continually, and returneth again according to * its circuits." 2. And as we should adore his power in the winds, fo ought we to admire his goodness in preferving men in the height of all their fury and violence: O what a marvellous work of God is here! that men fhould be kept in a poor weak veffel, upon the wild and ftormy ocean, where the wind hath its full ftroke upon them, and they are driven before it, as a wreck upon the feas; yet, I fay, that God fhould preferve you there, is a work of infinite goodness and power. That thofe winds which do rend the very earth, mountains, and rocks, 1 Kings xix. 11. "Breaks the cedars, yea, the cedars of Lebanon, thakes the wildernefs, and makes the hinds to calve," Pfal. xxix. 5, 8, 9. which naturalifts fay bring forth with greateft difficulty; fure ly your prefervation, in fuch tempests, is an astonishing work of mercy. O how dreadful is this creature, the wind, fome times to you! and how doth it make your hearts fhake within you? If but a plank fpring, or a bolt give way, you are all loft. Sometimes the Lord, for the magnifying of the riches of his goodness upon you, drives you to fuch exigencies, that, as Paul speaks, in a like cafe, Acts xxvii. 20. "All hope of "being faved is taken away;" nothing but death before your eyes. The Lord commands a wind out of his treafury, bids it go and lift up the terrible waves, lock you in upon the fhore, and drive you upon the rocks, fo that no art can fave you; and then fends you a piece of wreck, or fome other means, to land you fafe: And all this to give you an experiment of his goodness and pity, that you may learn to fear that God in whole hand your foul and breath are. And it may be, for the prefent, your hearts are much affected; confcience works ftrongly, it fmites you for fins formerly committed, fuch and fuch counfels of minifters, or relations flighted. Now, faith confcience, God is come in this ftorm to reckon with thee for thefe things. But, alas! all this is but a morning dew; no fooner is that form without allayed, but all is quiet within too. How little of the goodness of God abides kindly, and effectually upon the heart? REFLECTION.. How often hath this glorious power and goodness of God' paffed before me in dreadful forms and tempefts at fea? He hath uttered his voice in thefe ftormy winds, and spoken in a terrible manner by them; yet how little have I been affected with it?" The Lord hath his way in the whirlwind, and in "the storm," Nah. i. 3. To fome he hath walked in ways of judgment and wrath, fending them down in a moment to hell; but to me in a way of forbearance and mercy. Ah! how of ten have I been upon the very brink of eternity! had not God shifted, or allayed the wind, in a moment, I had gone down into hell. What workings of confcience were at prefent qpon me? And what terrible apprehenfions had I then of my eternal condition? What vows did I make in that diftrefs? And how carneftly did I then beg for mercy? But, Lord, though thy vows are upon me, yet have I been the fame; yea, added to, and filled up the measure of my fios. Neither the bonds of mercy thou haft laid upon me, nor the facred and folemn vows I have laid upon myself, could reftrain me from thofe ways of iniquity, which then appeared fo dreadful to me. Ah Lord, what an heart have I? What love, pity, and goodness, have I finned againft? If God had but refpited judge ment fo long, what a mercy were it. Sure I am, the damned would account it fo; but to give me fuch a space to repent, ah! what an invaluable mercy is this? And do I thus requite the Lord, Deut. xxxii. 6. and pervert and abuse his goodness thus? Surely, O my foul, if this be the fruit of all thy prefervations, they are rather refervations to fome farther and forer judgments. How dreadfully will justice at last avenge the quarrel of abufed mercy, Jofh. xxiv. 20. How grievously did God take it from the Ifraelites, that they provoked him at the fea, aven at the red-fea? Pfal. cvi. 7. where God had wrought their deliverance in fuch a miraculous way. Even thus have I finoed after the fimilitude of their tranfgreffions; not only against the laws of God, but against the love of God. In the last storm he fhot off his warning piece, in the next, he may discharge his murdering piece against my foul and body. O my foul! hath he given thee" fuch deliverances as these, and darest thou "again break his commandments," Ezra ix. 13, 14. O let me pay the vows that my lips have uttered in my distress, left the Lord recover his glory from me in a way of judgment. TH The POE M. HE fhip that now fails trim before a wind, And then turns out again, with, What chear, ho? |