The navigator shifts his fails to take
Navigation Spiritualized.
Tomendwhat is amiss.
The gracious Lord, Inclin'd to pity, takes them at their word ; The winds into their treasures he doth call,
Rebukes the stormy sea, and brings them all To their defiredhaven; once a-shore, And then their vows are ne'er remember'd more.
Thus foul's are shipwreck'd, tho' the bodies live, Unless in time thou true repentance give.
CHAP .
VIII .
The navigator soifts his fails to take All winds, but that which for his foul doth make.
OBSERVATION.
HE mariner wants no skill and wisdom to improve several winds, and make them serviceable to his end ; a bare side wind, by his skill in shifting and managing the fails, will serve his turn: He will not lose the advantage of one breath, or gale, that maybe useful to him. I havemanytimes wondered to see two ships failing in a direct counter motion, by one and the same wind : Their skill and wisdom herein is admirable.
APPLICATIΟΝ .
Thus prudent and skilful are men in secular and lower matters, and yet how ignorant and unskilful in the great and everlasting affairs of their souls!
All their invention, judgment, wit, and memory, seem to be pressed for the service of the flesh.
They can learn an art quickly, and arrive to a great deal of exactness 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, south, or north, measuring it by the degrees in the Meridian ; by the second they can tell you the longitude of a place, cast and west, from the Meridian, measuring it by the degrees of the Equator ; and by the third they candifcernthediversrisiags and settings of the stars. And so in other arts and sciences,we
find men endowed with rare abilities, and singular sagacity.
Some have piercing apprehensions, solid judgments, stupendous memories, rare invention, and excellent elocution; but put them upon any spiritual supernatural matter, and the weakest
Christian, even a babe in Christ, shall excel them therein, and give a far better account of regeneration, the work of grace, the life of faith, than these can.
I Cor. i. 26. " Not many wife レ
A New Compass for Seamen : Or, " men after the flesh, &c. But God hathchofen the fool if things of this world," &c.
REFLECTION.
How inexcusable, then, art thou, O my fout ! and how mute and confounded must thou needs stand before the bar of God, in that great day ?
Thou hadtt a talentofnatural parts com. mitted to thee, but which way have they been improved ?
I had an understanding, indeed, but it was not sanctified ; a me mory, but it was like a sieve, that let go the corn, and retained nothing but husks and chaff; wit and invention, but, alas ! nonetodomyself 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 (otherwise prudent and skilful) such fots and foolsinfpiritualthings ? Then let the poor, weak Christian, whose natural parts are blunt and dull, admire the riches of God'sfreegrace to him. O what an astonishing consideration is this! that God should pass by men of the profoundest natural parts, and chuse me, even poor me,whose natural facul. ties andendowments, compared with theirs, are but as lead to gold! Thus under the law he passed by the lion and eagle, and chose the lamb and dove. O how should it make me to advance grace, as Christ doth upon the fame account, Matth. xi. 25.
" I thank thee, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that thou " hast hid these things from the wife and prudent, and reveals
" ed them to babes." And let it ever be an humbling consideration tome; for who made me to differ ?
Is not this one principal thingGodaims at, in calling such as I am; that boast ing maybe excluded, and himself alone exalted?
Ο The POEM.
NE thing doth very much affect my mind, To fee the seaman husband 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 fidewind serves his turn, tho' ne'er so seant.
Andwillnotthis one day in judgment rise Against your souls ? Ah ! can you be so wife .
InImallermatters ; what, and yet not know How to improve fresh gales of grace that blow ?
Fastmoor'd in finyour wind-bound fouls can lie, And let these precious gales rise, blow, and die.
Sometimes on your affections you may feel Such gracious breathings : Ah, but hearts of steel,
Navigation Spiritualized.
Theymoveyou not, nor cause you to relent; Tho' able, like Elijah's wind, to rent The rocks asunder: If you do not prize Those breathings, other winds will shortlyrife,
And from another quarter; thoseoncegone, Then next look out for an Euroclydon, A dreadful storm : How soon, nomancantell;
> But when it comes, 'twill blow such souls to hell.
CHAP.
IX.
Iffeamen loseagale, there they may lie ; The soul, when once becalm'dinfin, may die.
OBSERVATION.
Eamenare very watchful to take their opportunity of wind S and tide, and it much concerns them so to be; the ; the neglect or a few hours, sometimes, loses them their passage, and proves agreatdetriment to them.
They know the wind is an uncertain, variable thing ; they must take it when they may : they are unwilling to lose one flow, or breath, that may be serviceable to them.
If aprofperous gale offers, and they not ready, it repents them to lose it, as much as it would repent us to fee a vessel of good wine, or beer, tapped and run to waste.
APPLICATION.
There are also seasons, and gales of grace, for our souls, golden opportunities of salvation afforded to men, the neglect
of which proves the loss and ruin of souls, God hath givenuntoman a day of visitation, which he hath limited, Heb. iv. 7. and keeps an exact account ofeveryyear, month, and day, that we have enjoyed it, Luke xiii. 7. Jer. xxv. 3. Lukexix. 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 small wire the weight of eternity hangs. But sometimes the season 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 salvation be continued, yet the spirit many times withdraws from those means, and ceases any more to strivewithmen; andthentheblessing, power, and efficacy is gone from them, and instead thereof a curse seizeth the soul, Heb. vi. 7, 8. and Jer. vi. 29.
Therefore it is a matter of high importance to our souls to apprehend these seasons. How pathetically doth Christ bewail
Jerufalemuponthis account ! Luke xix . 42. " O that thou VOL. VI.
A New Compass for Seamen: Or, " hadstknown, at least in this thy day, the things ofthypeace !
" but now they are hid from thine eyes."
If a company of seamen are feta-shore upon some remote, uninhabited island, with this advice, to be aboard again exactly at such an hour, else they must be left behind; how doth it concern them to be punctual to their time ? The lives of those men depend upon a quarter of an hour. Many afoul hath perished eternally,the goipel leaving them behind in their fins, because they knew not the time of their visitation.
REFLECTION.
What golden seasons for salvation hast thou enjoyed, O my soul ? what halcyon days of gospel-light and grace hast thou had? How have the precious gales of grace blown to nopurposeuponthee I and the Spirit waited and strivenwith thee in vain ?
" The kingdom of heaven,(being opened in the gof- " pel dispensation) hath suffered violence."
Multitudes have been pressing into it in my days, and I myself have sometimes been almost persuaded, and not far from the kingdom of God :
I have gone as far as conviction for fin and misery, yea, I have been carried by the powerofthegospel,to refolveandpurposeto turn to God, and become anew creature ; but fin hath been too subtle and deceitful for me : I fee, my resolutions were but as an early cloud, or morningdew; and nowmyheart is cold and dead again, settled upon its lees. Ah ! I have cause to fear and tremble, lestGod hath left me under that curse, Rev. XXII.
" Let him that is filthy, be filthy A ill." I fear I am become as that miryplace, Ezek. xlvii. 11. that shall not be healed by the streams of the gospel, but given to salt, and cursed into perpetual barrenness.
Ah Lord ! wilt thou leave me so ! and thall 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 season, and irrecoverably left it, then Imaytake up thatlamen tation, Jer. viii. 20. and say, " My harvest is past, myfummer
" is ended, and I am not saved."
Every creature knows its time, even the turtle, crane, and swallow, knowthetime of their coming, Jer.viii. 7. How brutish am I, that have not known the time of my visitation!"
Othou, that art the Lord of life and time, command one gracious season more for me, and make it effectual to me, before Igohence, and be seen no more !
AF The POEM.
Fresh and whisking gale presents today, But now the ship's not ready; winds must stay,
...
Navigation Spiritualized.
267:
And wait the seaman's leisure.
Well, to morrow.
They will put out; but then, unto their sorrow, That wind is spent, and by that means they gain
Perchance a month's repentance, if not twain.
At last another offers, now they're gone; But e're they gain their port, the market'sdone.
For ev'ry work, and purpose, under heav'n, Apropertime andseasonGodhath giv'n.
The fowls of heaven, swallow, turtle, crane, Do apprehend it, and put us to shame.
Man hath his season too, but that mif-spent, There's time enough his follyto repent.
Eternity's before him, but therein No more such golden hours as these have been:
When these are pass'd away, then you shall find That proverb true, Occasion'sbaldbehind.
Delays are dang'rous, see that you discern Your proper seasons : O that you would learn
This wisdom from those fools, that come too late With fruitless cries, when Christ has shut the gate.
CHAP.
By navigation one place stores another, Andbycommunionwe must help each other.
OBSERVATION.
HE most wife God hath so dispensed his bounty to the several nations of the world, that one standing in need of another's commodities, there might be a sociable commerce and traffick maintained amongst them all, and all combining in a common league, may, by the help of navigation, exhibit mutual succours to each other. The staple commodities proper to each country, I find expressed by the poet, Bart.Coll.
Hence comes our sugars from Canary isles ; From Candy currants, muskadels, and oils ;
From theMolucco's, spices; 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 Russia, furs, to keep the rich from cold.
L12
A New Compass for Seamen Or, From Florence, silks; from Spain, fruit, saffron, sacks;
FromDenmark, amber, cordage, firs, and flax; FromHolland, hops; horse, from the banks of Rhine;
From France, and Italy, the choicest wine.
From England, wool; all lands as God distributes, To the world's treasure pay their sundry tributes.
APPLICATION
Thus hath God distributed the more rich and precious gifts and graces of his Spirit among his people: fomeexcelling in one grace, some in another, though every grace, infomedegree, be in them all ; even as in nature, though there be all the faculties in all, yet some faculties are in some more lively and vigorous than in others ; some have a more vigorous eye, others a more ready ear, others a more voluble tongue, so it is inspirituals. Abraham excelled in faith, Job in patience, John in love.
These were their peculiar excellencies. All the elect vessels are not of one quantity; yet even thosethatexcel others insomeparticular grace, come short in other respects of those they to excelled in the former, and maybe much improved by converse with such as in some respects are much below them.
The solid, wife, and judicious Christian may want that livelipessof affections, and tenderness of heart, that appears in the weak; and one that excels in gifts and utterance, maylearnhumility from the very babes in Christ.
And one principal reason of this different distribution is to maintain fellowship among them all, 1 Cor. xii. 21. " The head
" cannot say to the feet, I have no need of you." As in a familywhere there is much business to be done, even the little childrenbearapart, according to their strength, Jer. vii. 18,
" The children gather wood, the fathers kindle the fire, the " women knead the dough."
So in the family of Christ, the weakest Christian is serviceableto the strong.
There be precious treasures in theseearthenvessels, for which we should trade by mutual communion. The preciousness of the treasure, should draw out our desires and endeavours after it; and the consideration of the brittleness of those vessels in which they are kept, should cause us to be themoreexpeditious nour trading with them, and make the quicker returns.
For when those vessels(I mean bodies of the faints) are broken by death, there is no more to be gotten out of them.
Thattrea fureof grace, which made them such profitable, pleasant, and desirable companions on earth,thenascendswiththem into heaven, where every grace receives its adolefcenceand perfection:
Navigation Spiritualized.
and then, thoughtheybe tenthousandtimesmoreexcellentand delightful than ever they wereonearth, yet we can have no more communion with them, till we come to glory ourselves.
Now therefore it behoves us to be enriching ourselves by communication of what God hath dropt into us, and improvement of them, as one well notes : We should do by fainus, as we use to do by some choice book lent us for a few days, we should fix in our memories,or transcribe all the choice notionswemeet with in it, that they may be our own when the book is called for, andwecanhave it no longer by us.
REFLECTION.
Lord, how,short do I come of my duty in communicating to, or receiving good by others ! My soul is either empty and barren, or if there be any treature in it, yet it is but as a treasure locked up in some chest, whose key is lost, when it should be opened for the use of others. Ah Lord ! I have finnedgreatly, not only byvainwords, but sinful silence. I have been of little use in the world.
How little also have 1 gotten by communion with others ?
Some, it maybe, that are of my own size, or judgment, or that I am otherwise obliged to, I can delight toconverfewith : but,
O, where is that largeness of heart, and general delight I should have to, and in all thy people ? How many of my old dear acquaintance are nowinheaven,whose tongues were as choicefilver, while they were here, Prov. x. 20. And blessed souls ! how communicativewere they of what thou gavest them ? O what an improvement had I made of my talent this way, had I been diligent !
Lord pardon my neglect of those tweet and blessed advantages. O let all my delight be in thy saints, who are the excellent of the earth. Let me never go out of their company, without an heart more warmed, quickened, and enlarged, than when I came amongst them.
T The POE M.
O several nationsGoddoth so distribute His bounty, that each one must payatribute
Unto each other.
Europe cannot vaunt, And fay, Of Africa I have no want.
America and Asia need not firive, Which of itself can best subsist and live.
Each country's want, in something, doth maintain Commerce betwixt them all.
Such is the aim :
* Mr. Gurnal.
A New Compass for Seamen : Or, AndendofGod, whodothdispense and give More grace to some, their brethren to relieve.
Thismakesthesunten thousand times more bright, Because it is diffusive of its light ; Its beams are gilded gloriously; but then
This property doth gildthem o'er again.
Should fun, moon, stars, impropriate all their light, Whatdismaldarknesswouldthe world be night?
On this account men hate the verminbrood, Becausetheytake in much, butdonogood.
What harm, if I at yours my candle light ?
Except thereby I make your room more bright.
He that, by pumping, fucks and draws the spring, New streams, and sweeter, to the welldothbring.
Grace is a treasure in an earthen pot; Whendeathhath dasht it, no more canbegot Out of that vessel : then, while it is whole,
Get out the treasure to enrich your foul.
CHAP.
The rocks abide, though seas against them rage:
SeSballthechurch, which is God'sheritage.
OBSERVATIΙΟΝ .
THE rocks, though situate in the boisterousandtempestuous ocean, yet abide firm and immovable from age to age.
The impetuouswavesdash against them with great violence, but cannot remove them out of their place. And although sometimes they wash over them, and make them to disappear, yet theretheyremain fixed and impregnable.
APPLICATION.
This is a lively emblem of the condition of the church, amidstalldangers and oppositionswherewith itisencounteredand assaulted in this world. These metaphorical waves roar and beat with violence against it, but with as little success as the sea against the rocks, Matth. xvi. 18. " Upon this rock will I build
" my church, and the [gates] of hell shall not prevail against " it." The gates of hell, are the power and policy of hell ; for it is conceived to be an allusive speechtothegatesof the Jews, wherein their ammunition for war was lodged, which also were the seats of judicature, there sat the judges; but yet these gates of hell shall not prevail.
Nay, this rock is not only in. vincible, in the midst of their violence, but also breaks all that dahagainst it, Zech. xii. 3. " In that day I will make Jerusa
Navigation Spiritualized.
lemaburdensomestone for all people ; all that burden them- " selves with it, shall be cut in pieces, though all the people of
" the earth be gathered together against it. " An allusion to one that essays to roul some great stone against the hill, which at last returns upon him, and crushes him to pieces.
And the reason why it is thus firm and impregnable, is not from itself; for alas, so considered, it is weak, and obnoxious to ruin; but from the almighty power of God, which guards and preserves itdayandnight, Psalm xlvi 5, 6. "God is in the " midst of her, she shall not be moved: God shall help her,
"andthatrightearly." Vatab. Dum afpicitmane. When the morning appears.
Which notes (faith Calvin)God's assiduous andconstanthelp and fuccour, which is extended in all dangers, as constantly as the fun arises. And this affiduous faccourto his people, and their great security thereby, is set forth in the
Scriptures by a pleasant variety of metaphors and emblems, Zech. ii. 5. " 1, faith the Lord, will be a wall of fire round a- "boutit." Some think thisphrasealludes tothecherubims, that kept the way of the tree of life with flaming swords: others, to the fiery chariots round aboutDathan,whereElishawas; bur most think it to bean allusion to an antient custom of travellers in the desarts; who, to prevent the affaultsof wild beasts in the night, made a circular fire round about them,which was as a wall to them .
ThuswillGodbe to his peopleawall of fire, which none can scale.
SoExod. iii. 3, 4, 5. we have an excellent emblem of the church's low and dangerous condition, and admirable preservation.
You have here both a marvel and a mystery.
The marvel was to fee a bush all on fire, and yet not consumed. The mystery is this, the bush represented the fadconditionof the church in Egypt; the fire flaming upon it, the grievous afflictions, troubles, and bondage it was in there ; the remaining of the bush unconfumed, the orange and admirable preservation of the church in those troubles.
It lived there as the three noble Jews,untouched in the midst of a burning fiery furuace: and the angel of the Lord,in aflame of fire, in themidstofthe bush,was nothingelsebutthe Lord Jesus Christ , powerfully and graciously present with his people, amidst all their dangers and sufferings. The Lord is exceeding tender over them, and jealous for them, as that expression imports,
Zech. ii. 8. " He that toucheth you, toucheth the apple of " mine eye."
He that strikes at them, strikes at the face of God; and at the most excellent part of the face, the eye, and at the most tender and precious part of the eye, the apple of the eye. And yet, as a learned modern observes, this peo-
27호 ANew Compass for Seamen: Or, ple, of whom he uses this tender and dear expression, were none of the best of Israel oeither; but the residue that staid behind in Babylon, when their brethren were gone to rebuild the temple ; and yet over thele, he is as tender as a man is over his cyc.
REFLECTION.
And is the security of the church so great! and its preferva tion so admirable, amidst all storms andtempests! then why art thou so prone and subject todespond, O my soul, in the day
: ofSion'strouble? Sensible thon wast, andoughtest to be; but no reason to hang down the he d through discouragement, much less to forsake Zion innerautrels, for fear of being ruin edwithher.
WhatDavid spake to Abiathar, 1 Sam. xxii. 23. that may Zionspeak to all her sons and daughters in all their distresses :
" Though he that seekeththy life, feeketh mine also; yet with " me thalt thou be in safeguard." God hath entailedgreat salvation and deliverances upon Zion; and blessed are all her friends andfavourers ; the Rock of Ages is its defence.
Fear not, therefore, O my soul, though the hills be removed out of their place, and cast into the midst of the sea. O let my faith triumph, and my heart rejoice upon this ground of comfort. I fee the fame rocks now, and in the same placeandcondition theyweremanyyears ago.
Though they have endured many storms, yet there they abide; and so shall Zion,when the proud waves have spent their furyand rage against it.
M The POEM.
Esopotamia, situatein the seas, May represent the church; or, if you please, A rock, o'er which the wavesdowash and swell,
May figure it ; chuse either, which you will.
Winds strive upon those seas, and make a noise, The loftywaves sometimes lift up their voice,
And, fwellinghigh successively, do beat With violence against it, then retreat.
They break themselves, but it abides their shock; And when their rage is spent. there slands the rock.
Then they are out, that do affirm and vote, Peace, pomp, and splendor, is the church's note.
Andtheydeserveno less reproof, that are In Zion's troubles ready to despair.
This rock amidst far stronger rocks doth lie, Which are its fence; so deep, fothick, so high,