to call the God of heaven to account? Muft he render a reason of his ways, and give an account of his matters to fuch a worm as I am? Be filent (O my foul) before the Lord, fubfcribe to his wisdom, and fubmit to his will whatfoever he doth. However it be, yet God is good to Ifrael; the event will manifeft it to be all over a defign of love. I know not how to reconcile them to each other, or many of them to the promife; yet are they all harmonious betwixt themselves, and the certain means of accomplishing the promises. O what a favour is this, that in the midft of the greatest confufions in the world, God hath given fuch abundant fecurity to his people, that it shall be well with them? Amos ix. 8. Ecclef. viii. 12. L THE POEM. ORD! how ftupendous, deep, and wonderful Are all thy draughts of providence! So full Of puzzling intricacies, that they lie Beyond the ken of any mortal eye. A wheel within a wheel's the fcripture notion, And all those wheels tranfverfe, and cross in motion. As thousands of them know not what they do. Deep counfels at the birth this hand doth break, Which, like a poft, fpurs on, and makes them run W CHAP. XXX. Millions of men are funk into the main OBSERVATION. HAT multitudes of men hath the fea devoured! thousands have made their graves in it. What numbers of men have been ingulphed together in fea-fights, or ftorms, or inundations, whereby whole towns have been fwallowed up! certainly the dead which are there, are innumerable. APPLICATION. But though the fea has received fo many thoufand bodies of men into its devouring throat, yet it is not the abfolute lord or proprietor of them, but rather a steward intrufted with them, till the Lord require an account of them; and then it must deliver up all it hath received, even to a perfon. Rev. xx. 11, 12. " And I saw the dead, "fmall and great, ftand before God: And the books were opened; "and another book was opened, which is the book of life; and the "dead were judged out of those things which were written in the "book according to their works. And the fea gave up the dead "which were in it." The doctrine of the refurrection of the body is a doctrine full of fingular confolations to believers, 1 Cor. xv. and moft clearly afferted in fcripture, Acts xxvi. 8. Job xix. 25. 1 Cor. xv. &c. well for us this point is fo plainly revealed; because as it is a most comfortable truth to the people of God, fo there is fcarce any truth that lies under more prejudice, as to fenfe or realon, and is more difficult to receive than this is. The Epicures and Stoics laughed Paul to fcorn when he preached it to them, Acts xvii. 32. The Familifts and Quakers at this day reject it as a fable. The Socinians fay the fame body shall not rife, but an aerial body. And, indeed, if men fet up reafon as the only judge of fupernatural things, it is incredible to think, that a body should be restored that hath been burnt to ashes, and those afhes fcattered in the wind; as hiftory tells us was frequently done by the bodies of the faints in Dioclefian's reign! or when drowned in the fea and there devoured by several fishes, and thofe again devoured by others. But yet this is not to be objected to the almighty power of God, that gave them their first being; difficulties and impoffibilities are for men, but not for him. "Why fhould "it be thought a thing incredible with you, that God fhould raise "the dead?" Acts xxvi. 8. REFLECTION. And must I rife again where-ever my body falls at death? Then, Lord, how am I concerned to get union with Chrift while I live? By virtue thereof only my refurrection can be made comfortable and bleffed to me. Ah! let my body lie where it will, in earth or fea; let my bones be scattered, and flesh devoured by worms or fith, I know thou canft, and wilt re-unite my fcattered parts; and in this body I muft ftand before thine awful tribunal, to receive according to what I have done therein, 2 Cor. v. 10. Thou that commandeft me to ftand forth amongst the nobleft rank of creatures, when I had no being, and faweft my fubftance, being yet imperfect, canft as easily reduce me to that being again. What tho' reafon vote it impoffible, and fenfe incredible? Though all thefe difficulties and incumbrances grow upon my faith, yet I know my body is not loft for ever; the found of thy laft and dreadful trumpet, fhall awaken me; and thy mighty power, to which all things are poffible, fhall bring me before thy bar. O Lord, I know that I fhall stand in that great affembly at the last day, when multitudes, multitudes, even all the fons and daughters of Adam, fhall appear together. O if I die chriftlefs, it were good for me that there were no refurrection; for then those eyes that have been windows of luft, must behold Chrift the Judge, not as a Redeemer, but as a Revenger. That tongue that hath vented so much of the filthinefs of my heart, will then be ftruck fpeechlefs before him; and this flesh which I fo pampered and provided for, condemned to everlating flames. O my God, let me make fure work for fuch a day! if I now get real union with thy Son, I fhall awake with finging out of the dust ; and then, as thou faidft to Jacob, fo to me, when I go down into the fea, or grave, Gen. xlvi. 3, 4. "Fear not to go "down into the deep; for I will furely bring thee up again." THE POEM. T fhould not feem incredible to thee, That God fhould raise the dead in feas that be: We fee in winter, fwallows, worms, and flies Depriv'd of life, yet in the spring they rise. T CHAP. XXXI. The feaman's greatest danger's near the coaft; OBSERVATION. HOUGH feamen meet with violent ftorms, yet if they have fea-room enough, they are not much dismayed: but if they find themselves near the fhore, they look upon their condition as very dangerous: the fight of the fhore is to them (as Solomon fpeaks of the morning in another cafe) like the fhadow of death, if not able to weather it. For one fhip fwallowed up in the ocean, many perish upon the coast. APPLICATION. The greateft ftraits and difficulties that many faints meet with in all their lives, is when they come nearest to heaven, and have almoft finished their courfe. Heaven indeed is a glorious place, the fpacious and royal manfion of the Great King; but difficilia quæ pulchra ; it hath a strait and narrow entrance, Luke xiii. 24. O the difficulty of arriving there! how many hard tugs in duty, what earnest contention and ftriving even to an agony! as that word imports, Luke xiii. 24. Multitudes put forth, and by profeffion are bound for this fair haven: but of the multitudes that put out, how few do arrive there? A man may set out by a glorious profeffion with much resolution, and continue long therein; he may offer very fair for it, and not be far from the kingdom of God, and yet not be able to enter at the laft, Mat. vii. 22. Yea, and many of those who are fincere in their profeffion, and do arrive at last, yet come to heaven (as I may fay) by the gates of hell; and put in, as a poor weather-beaten veffel comes into the harbour, more like a wreck than a ship, neither mast nor fail left. The righteous themselves are fcarcely faved, i. e. they are faved with very much difficulty. They have not all an abundant entrance, as the apoftle speaks, 2 Pet. i. 11. Some persons (as* one well notes) are afar off, Eph. ii. 23. i. e. touched with no care of religion: fome come near, but never enter as femi-converts. See Matth. xii. 34. Others enter, but with great difficulty, they are faved as by fire, 1 Cor. iii. 13. Make an hard shift. But then there are fome that go in with full fail be•fore the wind, and have an abundant entrance; they go triumphing out of the world." Ah! when we come into the narrow channel, at the very point of entrance into life, the foul is then in the most ferious frame all things look with a new face; conscience scans our evidence most critically; then, alfo, Satan falls upon us, and makes his foreft affaults and batteries. It is the laft encounter; if they escape him now, they are gone out of his reach for ever: and if he cannot hinder their falvation, yet if he can but cloud their evening, and make them go groaning and howling out of the world, he reaches another end by it, even to confirm and prejudice the wicked, and weaken the hands of others that are looking towards religion. REFLECTION. If this be fo, how inevitable is my perdition, may the careless foul fay? If they that strive so much, and go fo far, yet perish at last ; and if the righteous themfelves are fcarcely faved, then where fhall fuch • Manton on Jude. p. 119. an ungodly creature as I appear? O Lord! if they that have made religion their business, and have been many years pursuing a work of mortification, have gone mourning after the Lord Jefus, and walked humbly with God; yet if fome of thefe have fuch an hard tug at laft, then what will become of fuch a vain, fenfual, careless, fleshpleafing wretch as I have been? Again, Do faints find it fo ftrait an entrance? Then, though I have well grounded hopes of fafe arrival at laft; yet let me look to it, that I do not increase the difficulty. Ah! they are the things that are now done, or qmitted, that put confcience into fuch an agony then; for then it comes to review the life with the most serious eye. O let me not stick my death-bed full of thorns, against I come to lie down upon it. O that I may turn to the wall in that hour, as Hezekiah did, 2 Kings xx. 2, 3. and fay, "Remember now, O "Lord, how I have walked before thee in truth, and with a perfect "heart," &c. THE POEM. A FTER a tedious paffage, faints defcry The glorious fhore, falvation being nigh: Juft at the harbour's mouth they see the wreck A world of dang'rous rocks before it lie; The harbour's barr'd, and now the winds blow high; Tho' ftormy winds at harbour's mouth should roar. |