the ice, but with a world of difficulty and danger.

No fooner was that done but we laboured hard to get a good dif tance off from the shore, and fo rowed away to the north. About nine of the clock little wind, but within an hour a gale fprang up at north-east, just in our teeth, at which time being got a little to the northward of Glamp Cove, and fo faint, that we could not poffibly make any more way forwards, we were forced (though with most unwilling and heavy hearts) to bear up and put in there.

We were troubled for ourselves, and the difappointment of our poor companions, at least the long delay of their expectations of relief, increased our trouble. Poor hearts! they looked for a dove with an olive-branch; but now what would they conclude, but that like the raven fent out by Noah, they fhould fee no more of us.

However, it pleafed God about two in the afternoon, the wind ceased, immediately we put out of Glamp Cove, and rowed along though faint and feeble as we could live, and about an hour, in the night, we all came alive to Renoufe, bleffed be the Lord, where fome crawled, and others were helped up to the house of Mr Kirk, Efquire, who with much compaffion and humanity refreshed us with fuch things as the place afforded.

...Immediately we acquainted him with the perifhing ftate of our five companions left in Cripple Cove, begging him paffionately to get a boat, men, and neceffary provifions forthwith, and difpatch to them; which he promised to endeavour; and accordingly next morning they were to go to them to fetch them off: but there being a boat bound that night to Trepaffe, we fent them twenty biscuits, a flacket of beer, and a bottle of rum, which was delivered them timely the next day. But to our great trouble it so fell out, that partly for want of men acquainted with the cove, and partly by the omiffion of the mafters of fhips that fifhed there, the boat defigned to fetch them off proceeded not the next day, and foul weather hindered them the following day. So that it was Thurfday the 15th of May before the boat departed. Upon the arrival of the boat, they found one dead, whom they there buried, and carried away the remaining four for Trepaffe, the wind not ferving to bring them to Renoufe.

Being come thither, the Admiral, Capt. Berry, of Barnstaple, 'called the harbour together, not fo much to behold a prodigy (though fcarce a greater had ever been feen there) but to contri. bute to their relief and cure if it were poffible, by encouraging the furgeons that were to be prefently employed about them. There were two or three upon the place, who did their uttermoft to preserve their lives and limbs, but found three of them fo mortified, that they were forced prefently to difmember two of them, cuts

ting off both legs from one, and one leg from another, the third refufing to be difmembered, died, and likewise those that suffered it, in four or five days; one only of those four recovered.

Thofe that went in the boat to Renoufe were all in a miserable "cafe alfo. One of them died in three weeks time, his feet and hands being perished with the cold, and the rest of us in a fad condition; one loft four toes, the reft had their legs as black as a coal, but by the goodness of God, and speedy use of what means could be had, their lives were preserved to declare the wonders of God among men. So that of twenty-one perfons that were first in the fhip, five went down with the fhip, three perished in the long-boat, one in the cove, and three more at Trepaffe, and one at Renoufe. So that eight only of the twenty-one furvived, of which number the unworthy relater is one; and O! that our lives may be dedicated entirely to his praife, who hath fo graciously, yea, fo miraculously delivered them out of the jaws of death!

M

The Second NARRATIVE.

ASTER Thomas Reed, yet living to attest the truth of this narrative, (an abftract whereof I procured from his nearest relations from Ratcliff, himfelf, at that time, being at fea) was fome years fince in Carolina Bay, in Newfoundland, to load fish, with which he defigned to go for the Straits. The fhip accordingly being loaded, he took up his powder, and made what room he could in his bread-room to ftow away what fish he could; and this being done, the powder was put down again, and all things being put in order, they went to fupper, and fo to their cabbins.

At fupper-time, the mafter had no difpofition at all to eat, he therefore retires himself into his cabbin, to take his reft, but could not fleep. Whereupon he called in the boy to bring a light, which no fooner came, but he perceived fmoak to come out of the ceiling, which gave him an apprehenfion of danger, and taking more notice of it, he hafted out of his cabbin, and cried out, Fire, fire!

The mate being by, feared it might be in the gun-room, and would have gone down immediately to examine it; but before he could ftir a foot farther, the fhip blew up.

The terrible blow was given juft behind the master's back, which rent and carried away all the clothes from his back-parts, and blew him up upon the main-yard, where it laid him in a trance, but fo equally and exactly poized that he fell not; the mate fell also upon his back, and lay upon him: but the master recovering at last some fenfe, and feeling an heavy weight upon his back, he began to ftruggle to take hold of the fhrouds, which

turned over the mate, who fell into the fea, and was feen no

more.

The fhip funk immediately, and that with fuch a noife in the water, that he was forced to climb as fast, and as high as he could, and fo hang till a boat from another thip came and faved him." Thus one among many was miraculously plucked out of the jaws of death, and he fo bruifed and weak with the blow, that it was long before he recovered; yet at last his lameness was cured, and he returned, to the wonder of all men.

IN

ADVERTISEMENTS.

1. TN this relation, there is a concurrence of rare and wonderful circumstances: As, (1.) The indifpofedness of the master that evening both to meat and fleep, though he knew no reason to hinder him from the one or other. Here feems to be a plain prefage of approaching danger, whilft as yet there was not the leaft fufpicious circumftance in fight. This, fome afcribe to a certain unufual crafts of the body, others to an overpoife of complexion," which is much the fame : for my own part, I am satisfied that such prefages as this, (the like whereunto hath been observed in divers others before their death, or fome imminent danger) is from the infpiration of fome fpirit, in a fupernatural way.

Bodinus tells us of a good man of his time and acquaintance, who had many remarkable and strange premonitions given him of approaching danger; and that one time being in very great danger, and newly gone to bed, he was unquiet, and could by no means reft, but was forced to rife again, and spend the night in watching and prayer. The day following he escaped the hands of his perfecutors in a wonderful manner; which being done, in his next fleep he feemed to hear a voice, faying, Now fing, Qui fedit in latibulo Altiffimi: "He that dwelleth in the fecret places of the "Moft High, fhall abide under the fhadow of the Almighty.”

2. The providence of God was alfo wonderful in nicking the very minute, wherein he was to be preserved, which had it been flipt, there had been no efcape from deftruction: for had he staid a minute longer in the cabbin, he had been thattered to pieces, and had he come out fooner, he and the mate had certainly gone down into the gun-room, and both had perished there. O how many fubftantial documents and inftructions may that one circumstance of time afford to the wife and serious obfervers of providence!

3. It was little less than a miracle of providence, that the fame blow which fhattered a flout ship in pieces, blew others away to deftruction in a moment, had its commiffion from heaven only to blow off the clothes from his back, and place him in a perfect

equipoize upon the yard of the ship, where he was settled as the earth itfelf is, Ponderibus librata fuis; evenly balanced or poized with its own weight; the least struggle of a man deprived of fense as he was, had been his ruin.

I do heartily wifh a life made fo remarkable by the wonders of providence, may be no lefs remarkable for eminent and ferious godlinefs, and that his life may be devoted to God, which hath been fo miraculously preferved by him.

ANTIPHARMACUM SALUBERRIMUM: Or, A ferious and feasonable CAVEAT to all the SAINTS in this Hour of Temptation.

READER,

A

THE PREFACE.

S God hath stretched out the expanfum, or firmament of heaven, over the natural world, fo hath he ftretched out his word over the rational world; and as in that he hath placed the ftars and luminaries to enlighten the earth, and to be for figns and feafons, Gen. i. 14. fo hath he placed a conftellation of fcriptures in this also, by which they that are skilful in the word of righteoufnefs may difcern very much the defigns and iffues of these rolling and amazing providences that are over our heads.

And doubtless, nothing more fettles and fupports the hearts of faints under terrible and tempeftuous providences, than to view them in their reference and relation to the world: for of these we may say, as David doth, Pfal. cxlviii. 8. of the ftormy winds, that they fulfil his word, and are the undoubted accomplishments of its predictions and prophecies.

Now to thofe that heedfully observe the Scripture-prophecies, relating to the ruin and destruction of antichrift, it cannot but арт pear that their accomplishment is nigh, and that glorious defign come even to the birth. * But then, as the darkest part of the night is that which immediately precedes the dawning of the day, fo before the vial of the Lord's indignation be poured out upon the throne of the beaft, it will be a time of trouble to the faints, fuch

All right and laws shall perish and be confounded; there fhall be no faithful nefs in men; no peace, nor fhame, neither fafety nor order; and of this confufion this fhall be the cause, that the Roman name, by which the world is now ruled, fhall be taken away from the earth,

as never was since man was upon the earth, Dan. xii. 1. *Rev. xi. 7, 8. The witneffes of Jefus must first be flain, and their dead bodies for a time lie in the streets of the great city: And as the naturalists obferve, that a beast never bites more furiously and deadly, than when dying, even fo it is with this beaft also which hath iron teeth, and is terrible above all that were before it, Dan. vii. 7. And when the ftrong God arifeth to judge Babylon, the shall be found quite drunk with the blood of the faints and nartyrs of Jefus, Rev. xvii. 6. So that we, whose lots are fallen into fuch a day as this, wherein the fiercett rage of the last and most furious of all the beafts, is falling in a dreadful storm upon all the reformed churches of Christ, had need of a more than ordinary degree of faith and patience, to establish us in the truth, and enable us to bear a glorious teftimony for the Lord Jefus.

If any man's heart now shall fail him, and to avoid the fury of antichrift, fhall bafely betray the truth, and forfake the camp of Christ, and receive the mark of the beaft, though not in his forehead, yet in his hand, by a politic and fecret compliance with his worship, that man is adjudged, by the dreadful fentence of the great God, to drink the cup of his pure and unmixed wrath and indignation, Rev. xiv. 10. even fuch as the devils and damned drink: For we may fay of that wrath, which is ordinarily poured out upon finners in this life, as they fay of darkness, Non dantur pure tenebræ; there is no pure or perfect darkness here; fo neither is there any pure unmixed wrath here, it hath in this life an allay of fparing mercy in it; but this is pure.

To prevent this fad iffue, and preferve thee from this terrible wrath of the Lamb, are the following counfels and cautions defigned and intended: And Oh! that they might be bleffed to establish the fliding feet of tempted faints; for I cannot without trembling obferve, how many forward profeffors begin to give ground already and fall into a compliance with antichriftian abominations; furely this is the worft time that ever they could have chofen for it, now that the day of vengeance is in the heart of Chrift against her, and the year of his redeemed even come; his righteoufnefs fo nigh at hand, and his falvation ready to be revealed.

I shall detain thee no longer, but intreat thee to weigh these things, brought to thy hand by providence, and with the fpirit of love, to cover the weakneffes of the author, who is fenfible of his own infirmities, and continual need of divine affiftance, to enable

* It is obfervable, that Rome, in this prophecy, bears the name of Egypt and Babylon, in refpect of the mifery and bondage exercised upon God's people by it; by which alfo is not obfcurely hinted, the time and manner of their deliverance from it. For both from the one and the other, were the Jews delivered, when reduced to the greatest extremity, Exod. vi. 9. and Ezek. xxxvii. 11, 12.