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To mend what is amifs. The gracious Lord,
Inclin'd to pity, takes them at their word;
The winds into their treafures he doth call,
Rebukes the ftormy fea, and brings them all
To their defired haven; once a-fhore,
And then their vows are ne'er remember'd more.
Thus foul's are shipwreck'd, tho' the bodies live,
Uniefs in time thou true repentance give.

CHA P. VIII.

The navigator fhifts his fails to take

All winds, but that which for his foul doth make.

TH

OBSERVATION.

HE mariner wants no skill and wifdom to improve feveral winds, and make them ferviceable to his end; bare fide wind, by his skill in fhifting and managing the fails, will ferve his tura: He will not lose the advantage of one breath, or gale, that may be useful to him. I have many times wondered to fee two fhips failing in a direct counter motion, by one and the fame wind: Their skill and wisdom herein is admirable.

APPLICATION.

Thus prudent and skilful are men in fecular and lower matters, and yet how ignorant and unskilful in the great and everlafting affairs of their fouls! All their invention, judgment, wit, and memory, feem to be preffed for the fervice of the flesh. They can learn an art quickly, and arrive to a great deal of exactnefs in it; but in foul-matters, no knowledge at all. They can can understand the Equator, Meridian, and Horizon; by the first they can tell the latitude of any place, fouth, or north, measuring it by the degrees in the Meridian; by the fecond they can tell you the longitude of a plac, caft and weft, from the Meridian, measuring it by the degrees of the Equator; and by the third they can difcern the diversifiags and fettings of the stars. And fo in other arts and sciences, we find men endowed with rare abilities, and fingular fagacity. Some have piercing apprehenfions, folid judgments, ftupend ous memories, rare invention, and excellent elocution; but put them upon any fpiritual fupernatural matter, and the weakest Christian, even a babe in Chrift, fhall excel them therein, and give a far better account of regeneration, the work of grace, the life of faith, than these can. Cor. i. 26. "Not many wife

"men after the flesh, &c. But God hath chofen the foolish "things of this world," &c.

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REFLECTION.

How inexcufable, then, art thou, O my foul! and how mute and confounded must thou needs ftand before the bar of God, in that great day? Thou hadit a talent of natural parts committed to thee, but which way have they been improved? I had an understanding, indeed, but it was not fanctified; a mel mory, but it was like a fieve, that let go the corn, and retained nothing but husks and chaff; wit and invention, but, alas! none to do myself good. Ah how will these rise in judgment against me, and stop my mouth? What account thall I give for them in that day?

Again, are men (otherwife prudent and skilful) fuch fots and fools in fpiritual things? Then let the poor, weak Christian, whose natural parts are blunt and dull, admire the riches of God's free grace to him. O what an aftonishing consideration is this! that God fhould pafs by men of the profouadeft natural parts, and chufe me, even poor me, whose natural faculties and endowments, compared with theirs, are but as lead to gold! Thus under the law he paffed: by the lion and eagle, and chofe the lamb and dove. O how fhould it make me to advance grace, as Chrift doth upon the fame account, Matth. xi. 25. "I thank thee, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that thon "haft hid these things from the wife and prudent, and reveals "ed them to babes." And let it ever be an humbling confi. deration to me; for who made me to differ? Is not this one principal thing God aims at, in calling fuch as I am; that boafl? ing may be excluded, and himself alone exalted?

ON

The POE M.

NE thing doth very much affect my mind,
To fee the feaman hufband ev'ry wind;
With excellent art he shifts the fails, and knows
How to improve the fairest wind that blows.
If a direct, or fore right gale he want,

A fide wind ferves his turn, tho' ne'er fo fcant.
And will not this one day in judgment rise
Againit your fouls? Ah! can you be fo wife.
In Imaller matters; what, and yet not know
How to improve fresh gales of grace that blow? (
Falt mnor'd in fin your wind-bound souls can lie,
And let these precious gales rife, blow, and die.
Sometimes on your affections you may feel a
Such gracious breathings: Ah, but hearts of steel,

They move you not, nor caufe you to relents
Tho' able, like Elijah's wind, to rent
The rocks afunder: If you do not prize
Those breathings, other winds will thortly rife,
And from another quarter; thofe once gone,
Then next look out for an Euroclydon,

A dreadful form: How foon, po man can tell;
But when it comes, 'twill blow fuch fouls to hell.

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CHA P. IX.

If feamen lofe a gale, there they may lie;
The foul, when once becalm'd in fin, may die.

OBSERVATIO N.

Eamen are very watchful to take their opportunity of wind and tide, and it much concerns them fo to be; the peglect or a few hours, fometimes, lofes them their paffage, and proves a great detriment to them. They know the wind is an uncertain, variable thing; they must take it when they may they are unwilling to dofe one flow, or breath, that may be ferviceable to them. If a profperous gale offers, and they not ready, it repents them to lose it, as much as it would repent us to fee a veffel of good wine, or beer, tapped and run to wafte.

APPLICATION.

There are also feafons, and gales of grace, for our fouls, golden opportunities of falvation afforded to men, the neglect of which proves the lofs and ruin of fouls, God hath given upto man a day of vifitation, which he hath limited, Heb. iv. 7. and keeps an exact account of every year, month, and day, that we have enjoyed it, Luke xiii. 7. Jer. xxv. 3. Luke xix. 42. The longest date of it can be but the time of this life; this is our day to work in, Job ix. 4. and upon this fmall wire the weight of eternity hangs. But fometimes the feafon of grace is ended, before the night of death comes; the accepted time is gone, men frequently out-live it, Luke xix. 44. 2 Cor. vi.

Or, if the outward means of falvation be continued, yet the fpirit many times withdraws from thofe means, and ceafes any more to strive with men; and then the bleffing, power, and efficacy is gone from them, and inflead thereof a curfe feizeth the foul, Heb. vi. 7, 8, and Jer. vi. 29.

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Therefore it is a matter of high importance to our fouls to apprehend these feafons. How pathetically doth Chrift bewail Jerufalem upon this account! Luke xix. 42. "O that thon VOL. VI

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"hadft known, at least in this thy day, the things of thy peace! "but now they are hid from thine eyes." If a company of feamen are fet a-fhore upon fome remote, uninhabited ifland, with this advice, to be aboard again exactly at fuch an hour, elfe they must be left behind; how doth it concern them to be punctual to their time? The lives of thofe men depend upon a quarter of an hour. Many a foul hath perished eternally, the goipel leaving them behind in their fins, because they knew not the time of their vifitation.

REFLECTION.

What golden feafons for falvation haft thou enjoyed, O my foul? what halcyon days of gospel-light and grace haft thou had? How have the precious gales of grace blown to no purpose upon thee I and the Spirit waited and friven with thee in vain? "The kingdom of heaven, (being opened in the gof"pel difpenfation) hath fuffered violence." Multitudes have been preffing into it in my days, and I myself have fometimes been almost perfuaded, and not far from the kingdom of God: I have gone as far as conviction for fin and mifery, yea, I have been carried by the power of the gospel, to refolve and purpose to turn to God, and become a new creature; but fin hath been too fubtle and deceitful for me: I fee, my refolutions were but as an early cloud, or morning dew; and now my heart is cold and dead again, fettled upon its lees. Ah! I have cause to fear and tremble, left God hath left me under that curfe, Rev. xx. 11. "Let him that is filthy, be filthy Aill." I fear I am become as that miry place, Ezek. xlvii. 1 r. that (hall not be healed by the ftreams of the gofpel, but given to salt, and curfed into perpetual barrenness. Ah Lord wilt thou leave me fo and shall thy Spirit strive no more with me? Then it had been good for me that I had never been born. Ah if I have trifled out this feason, and irrecoverably left it, then I may take up that lamen tation, Jer. viii. 20. and fay, "My harvest is past, my fummer "is ended, and I am not faved:"

Every creature knows its time, even the turtle, crane, and fwallow, know the time of their coming, Jer. viii. 7. How brutish am I, that have not known the time of my visitation! O thou, that art the Lord of life and time, command one gracious feafon more for me, and make it effectual to me, before I go hence, and be seen no more!

A

The POE M.

Fresh and whisking gale prefents to day,

But now the fhip's not ready; winds must stay,

And wait the feaman's leifure. Well, to morrow
They will put out; but then, unto their forrow,
That wind is fpent, and by that means they gain
Perchance a month's repentance, if not twain.
At laft another offers, now they're gone;
But e're they gain their port, the market's done.
For ev'ry work, and purpose, under heav'n,
A proper time and feafen God hath giv'a.
The fowls of heaven, fwallow, turtle, crane,
Do apprehend it, and put us to fhame.
Man hath his feafon too, but that mif-spent,
There's time enough his folly to repent.
Eternity's before him, but therein

No more fuch golden hours as these have been:
When these are pafs'd away, then you shall find
That proverb true, Occafion's bald behind.
Delays are dang'rous, fee that you difcern
Your proper feafons: O that you would learn
This wildom from those fools, that come too late
With fruitless cries, when Chrift has shut the gate.

CHA P. X.

By navigation one place ftores another,
And by communion we must help each other.

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OBSERVATION.

HE most wife God hath fo difpenfed his bounty to the féveral nations of the world, that one ftanding in need of another's commodities, there might be a fociable commerce and traffick maintained amongst them all, and all combining in a common league, may, by the help of navigation, exhibit mutual fuccours to each other. The staple commodities proper to each country, I find expreffed by the poet, Bart. Coll.

Hence comes our fagars from Canary ifles;
From Candy currants, mufkadels, and oils;
From the Molucco's, fpices; balfamum,
From Egypt; odours from Arabia come;
From India, gums, rich drugs, and ivory;
From Syria, mummy; black, red ebony,
From burning Chus; from Peru, pearl, and gold;
From Ruffia, furs, to keep the rich from cold.

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