APPLICATION.

Is it so, that our Dangers and Deli∣verances should be remembred by us? then it is a word of information:

1. Learn we here how acceptable it is to God, that we thankfully congratu∣late our Mercies. No Musick like a sound of Trumpets off the waters: so O what sweet Musick, doth it make in Gods ears, that you thankfully record Sea-Mercies, and Sea-Deliverances; this is Musick of the Waters; this makes melody in Gods ears. Sea-Pray∣ers and Sea-Praises▪ come up acceptably before the Lord; he is so pleased with them, that he hath called them Sacri∣fices: O that men would offer the Sa∣crifice of Praise; this is the sound of Trumpets you should carry to Sea with you, outward bound, and homeward bound.

2. Learn we hence what a great evil it is to lose the remembrance of our Dangers and Deliverances. What do many Families? what do many Persons with the Sea-Dangers, with the Sea-De∣liverances? do not they write them in the dust? do not they bury them in the Grave of Oblivion? do not they cast Page  109 them behind their backs? do not they trample them under foot? O poor Souls! they little know what they do. 1. Such Deliverances will have a resur∣rection in their Consciences one day; though they bury them now; O they will rise again: and oh! how will they then dread and terrifie a poor Soul? 2. Such Deliverances will another day be witnesses and evidences against you. Oh! what a cutting testimony will they give in against the Soul? Hast not thou been graciously and wonderfully deli∣vered in such a Voyage, in such a Storm at Sea, in such a Sickness at Shore, and yet walked unsuitably under all these? To be cast out by Mercy, O what a dreadful thing is this! 3. Such deli∣verances forgotten by us, harden us; either they soften, or harden. These Providences are like Gods Ordinances in this respect, they either harden or soften. Oh! what a dreadful thing it is to be hardned by Deliverances and Pre∣servation, and yet many are. Sentence not being speedily executed, the hearts of men are fully set in them to do evil. 4. Such Deliverances will be great aggravations both of mans sin and misery, if forgot∣ten by them. The goodness of God Page  [unnumbered] was the aggravation of the sin of David, says God,* When I had done so and so for thee, nay, and I would have done more, where∣fore hast thou despised the Commandment of the Lord, to do evil in his sight. What, for you that had such deliverances as these, to break his Commandments; as Ezra says; O this is an high aggravation! 5. Deliverances and Dangers forgotten will cause the Lord to pull in his hand in a way of Mercy, will cause God to give up Persons, and take his Protect∣ing presence from them, take them from the shaddow of his Wings. Souls by forgetting past dangers and deliveran∣ces, may put themselves from under Gods Protection for the future.

Vse 2. Is it so that we are to Remem∣ber our Sea-Dangers and Deliverances? then it is a word of Exhortation; be exhorted then to call to mind, and keep in mind, what God hath done for you; and in this Exhortation I address my self to Sea-faring men, whose lives are a course and series of Wonders in their frequent Salvations and Preservations, (witness this Treatise) as you see the wonders of God in the Deeps, (viz.) The wonders of his Creation, so do you see the wonders of his Salvation. Page  111 How often may Wonderful be Written upon the Head of Salvations that you are every Voyage receiving from God? you never go out, and come home, but God works Wonderfully, and appears Wonderfully for you; Is not he a Won∣der-working-God for you every Voy∣age?

The Exhortation is to call to mind,* and keep in mind,* to Record and Re∣gister your Dangers and Deliverances, and not to do as Israel is said to do, who soon forgot his works. How often doth God bring in this sin of theirs in one Psalm? They forgot his works, and the wonders he had shewed them.

1. Keep them in mind, for they are wonderful Dangers and Deliverances;* They are Wonders, these are to be re∣membred. Marvelous things did he for them, in the sight of their Fathers, &c. He devided the Sea, and caused them to pass through, and he made the waters to stand as an heap; and it is brought in again in that Psalm.* They remembred not his hand, nor the day when God delivered them out of the hand of the Enemy, &c. And in ano∣ther place,* They forgot God their Sa∣viour, which had done great things in Page  112 Egypt. Wonderous works in the Land of Ham. This heightens the sin exceed∣ingly to forget such great and wonder∣ful Dangers and Deliverances.

1. Your Dangers are Wonderful in this Respect, they are often such as threaten a sentence of Death to be exe∣cuted upon you. May it not be said of poor Sea-men, as was of them; For we would not (Brethren) have you ignorant of our trouble, which came to us in Asia, that we were pressed out of measure, above strength, insomuch that we despaired of life,* but we had the sentence of death in our selves, that we should not trust in our selves, but in him that raiseth the dead, who delivered us from so great a Death, and doth Deliver. O how many Sea-faring men may say thus! Our dangers have been such, as we have often despaired of life; there hath but been a little betwixt us and Death; nay betwixt us and Eternity; and shall we forget such Dangers, when we have been so near Death in them? As he said to David, As the Lord lives, there is but one step betwixt thee and death. O how often have you been near sinking, near drowning, and yet God hath then ap∣peared for you, with an outstretched Arm, and in the Mount hath been seen, Page  113 and will not you Remember this?

2. Your Dangers are Wonderful in this Respect, they are sudden and sur∣prizing, they are wonderful sudden; how are you often, all on a sudden, threatned with nothing but present Death and Destruction! It may be said of Sea-men,* as of those in Iob, Snares compasses them about, and sudden fear trou∣bleth them. It doth not only trouble them, but all on a sudden trouble them, before they know almost where they are (as we say;) We read of some whose* Calamity shall come suddenly. Suddenly shall he be broken without Remedy. O how terrible is such a case, or such a danger! and hath not God often threatned to make this your case and condition? O then do not forget such dangers that have so suddenly lookt you in the Face!

3. Your Dangers are Wonderful in this Respect, they are not Dangers in which your Bodies are concerned only, but they are dangers in which your Souls are concerned; It is not only the danger of a Ship-wrack'd Vessel, and a Shipwrack'd Estate, and a Shipwrack'd Body, but a Shipwrack'd Soul. Here is the great danger, lest thou make a lost Voyage for thy Soul: If thou had Page  104 died in such a Storm, or died in the Terme of such a Voyage; Oh! what would have become of thy Soul, Thy precious, thy immortal Soul? Had not thou died in a carnal, in a Christless state and condition? Had not thy poor Soul perished to all Eternity, if thou then had miscarried? Was not thou then a stranger altogether to Christ, and a work of saving Grace upon thy Heart? Had not thou then the guilt of all thy sins upon the back of thy Soul unpardoned? And ô what danger was this! And wilt thou forget such dangers?

4. Your Dangers are such at Sea, as none but a God can deliver from; all your skill cannot; Oh, then is the greatest Artist at his Wits end! The Psalmist tells us,* the Marriners in their Storms, are at their wits end; (or as some read it) all their wisdom is swal∣lowed up, they know not what course to Steer, (the Dutch Annotators carry it,) Now their very Pilots are at a loss; Now all their courage cannot contri∣bute to their deliverance, though men of the greatest natural courage and magnanimity in the world: Yet now their hearts melt because of troubles; Page  105 as it is said of the Marriners in Ionahs Ship,* The Marriners were afraid. O now, when Death and Eternity, the Grave and Judgment to come looks them in the face! Then they are Magor-Miss∣abibs, terror to themselves, and to all a∣bout them; O now, the danger is such, it must be the only finger of God that can help! I have heard of a Ship in Yarmouth Road, that in a great Storm, they feared the Anchor would come home, and the Master discoursing with a Youth in the Ship, that God had begun lately to work some Convictions upon, O says his Master, if God do but lay a Finger upon one Strand of the Cable, it will hold; and in the Morning many Ships were lost near them, and there was but one Strand in the Cable left. O the finger of God only can some∣times save in dangers. It was a good saying of a godly Commander of a Ship in eminent dangers, None now but that God that saved the Children of Israel at the Red Sea, can save us out of this distress; and as soon as he had said it, the Wind altered, and saved them; And will you forget such dangers as none but a God can save from?

Page  116 5. Your dangers at Sea are such as many thousands have perished in; how many have gone to Sea, that never re∣turned more? that have been swal∣lowed up in the belly of the great Deeps? How many have perished by the Sword at Sea? how many by vio∣lent Storms? and that God should put a difference betwixt you and others, and you should forget it, this exceed∣ingly heightens and aggravates the guilt. How many have lost their lives? how many have lost their limbs? and yet in such dangers God hath brought you off; this is never to be forgotten.

2. Your dangers are not only won∣derful, but your deliverances are so too, and therefore should be remem∣bred. There is never a deliverance, but you may read a wonder in it; so many deliverances and salvations at Sea, so many wonders. God saves you in a mi∣raculous way.

1. Is not this a wonder, that persons of such great sins and provocations, should be persons of such great salva∣tions and preservations? that such as sin every Voyage, nay, it may be at an high rate sin every Voyage, should be saved and delivered at such an high Page  117 rate every Voyage? is not this a won∣der, that men of such sins, should be men of such salvations? that men that sin against these salvations, should not have these deliverances shorten upon them. Oh what a wonder is this! We should wonder if a person should be continually disobliging any of us, and yet we should be still heaping up kind∣nesses upon him: This made the Pro∣phet Ezra say, Shall we again break his Commandments, after such deliverance as this? O do not you provoke the Lord every time that you go out, and still he delivers you, still he returns you to your Relations, to visit your habita∣tions in peace! and is not this a won∣der?

2. Your deliverances are wonder∣ful, if you consider your deliverances are great deliverances. We read of such;* And the Lord saved them with a great deliverance; or with a great sal∣vation.* Thus said Sampson, Thou hast given this great deliverance into the hand of thy servant. Now any great trans∣actions are remembred and recorded. Your deliverances are great, if we con∣sider these things; 1. They are com∣manded deliverances by the great God; Page  118 his word of command brings all our deliverances about, whether at Sea or Land. Which made the Church in di∣stress pray,* Thou art my King, O God, command deliverances for Jacob. He com∣mands every thing tending to deliver∣ance at Sea; in order to deliverance, he commands the Winds;* He maketh the storm a calm. He also commands the Seas; he says to the proud Waves, So far, and no further. You read of a decree set to the Sea,* that it cannot pass; Though the Waves thereof toss themselves, yet can they not prevail; though they roar, yet can they not pass over it.* It is the great God only that rides Lord Admiral at Sea, to command the Seas and the Waves thereof. God is said to shut up the Sea with doors, and set bars upon it. Hithorto shalt thou come, and no further; and here shall thy proud waves be stayed. Xerxes presumed he could tame the Hel∣lespont, for attempting his Bridge of Boats; but all this was in vain, this is a flower in Gods Crown alone, to com∣mand the Sea. Your deliverances are a fruit and effect of Gods commanding Power, therefore great. 2. They are great deliverances, as they are the curi∣ous workmanship (as I may call them) Page  119 of the Attributes of a great God. De∣liverance is said to be wrought for us,* it is the handy work of God;* If God will work,* who can let? (as the Prophet saith.) And he seems to speak it upon the account of the deliverance of his People; For your sake I have sent down to Babylon, and have brought down all their Nobles, and the Caldeans, whose cry is in their ships. In every deliverance there is the excellent work of the Attributes of God; we may in such a deliverance say, Here is the Power of God, and here is the Wisdom of God, and here is the Love of God, and here is the Faithful∣ness of God, &c. For as God in the confounding of the Languages at Ba∣bel, said, Go too, let us go down, (as if he derected himself to his glorious At∣tributes, compassing about his glori∣ous Throne) Come, let us go down. So when God sends us deliverances in our distresses, he sets his Attributes at work; Go Power, go Mercy, go Love, go Faithfulness, go and act your re∣spective parts in this deliverance; and must not this be then an excellent and curious Piece that Gods Attributes bring forth? 3. They are great deli∣verances,* if we consider the great sins Page  120 and provocations they come over the heads of, the great unworthiness of the receiver, heightens much the mercy and favour received; the reason why persons do not greaten their deliverances, is be∣cause they do not greaten their sins, in the deep sense and aggravations of them. O sueh a Soul would say, as David, Is this the manner of men? O God, is not this a great deliverance, for such a great sinner to receive? 4. They are great deliveran∣ces, if we consider the time and season of their coming in; as this deliverance of the Ships Company where Paul was, it was when all hope of being saved was taken away; and so were many of the deliverances mentioned in this Trea∣tise. So Peter's Sea-deliverance, when he began to sink, Christ stretcheth forth his hand immediately; he was now sinking and going, but see how ready Christ was to save;* He stretched forth his hand and caught Peter. Our sinking time, is Jesus Christs saving time. In the Mount is the Lord seen; our extremity is Gods opportunity; and are not then these great deliverances never to be forgotten? 5. They are great deliver∣ances, if we consider they are not only deliverances of Bodies, and Ships, and Estates sometimes, but Souls; and where Page  121 and where the Ship is lost, and the E∣state is lost, yet for the life to be saved, and the Soul delivered, is a very great Deliverance; a Reprieve when a Pri∣soner is under the sentence of Death, is a great Mercy: O when God Reprieves a poor Prisoner, this is some Delive∣rance; we read of some Deliverance God gave to Israel in the days of Shishak; a Reprieve is some Deliverance, but if it end in suing out the Prisoners Par∣don, then it is a great Deliverance. If it be such a Deliverance in a Storm at Sea, as Hezekiah had from a Sickness at Shoar,* Thou hast delivered me in love to my Soul, and cast all my sins behind thy back; This is a double Deliverance, and sure such Deliverances as these are worth Recording; These are to be written in Marble and not in Dust, with the Pen of Iron, (as the Prophet says) and not with the point of a Diamond.

3. Your Deliverances are wonderful, if you consider the many thousands that have perished in less Dangers to an eye of Reason; they are distinguishing Deliverances, and therefore wonderful hath God dealt with all men that go to Sea as with you. Hath not thousands perished by the Sword at Sea in bloody Engagements? Miscarried at Sea in Page  122 dreadful and terrible Storms; Hath not the Sea been a Sepulcher for thou∣sands? Are not there Millions of the Dead that the Sea must one day give up, and yet you Delivered, and yet you spared? O what distinguishing Mercy is this! And shall this be forgotten by you? Should not you keep Records of distinguishing Mercy? How many sunk sometimes, and perished by your sides? How many that went out with you that never Returned? One taken, and ano∣ther left; one sunk, and another saved.

4. Your Deliverances are Wonder∣ful, if you consider the way that some∣times God takes to bring them about; O what strange ways doth God take to deliver, when he hath a mind to deli∣ver; sometimes he brings down to the very Gate of the Grave, he brings to the Doors and Bars of the Sea, and then shuts these doors; as Iob speaks, He brings to the next door to perishing, and then he delivers; Master save me, or I perish; and then he lends an Arm, witness many of these deliverances here mentioned. Sometimes he doth it by strange means, low and contemptible, as the poor man that we Read of,* that delivered the City, sometimes by un∣thought of and unexpected means, as Page  123 he that Relieved Major Gibbons, as this Story mentions, he was a French Pyrate. As that Ship I have heard off, that when she sprang a Leak, and they all had like to have perished, all on a sudden the Leak stopt, and they knew no Reason, but when they came into the next Port to search her, there was a great Fish had wrought himself into the Leak, that they were glad to cut him out; was not here a miraculous deliverance? That Ionah should be swallowed up by the Whale, ô what a miracle was this! and so he was preserved! and how have some been saved by sudden shifts of Winds when neer sinking and perishing? these are to be remembred to the Lord while you live: Oh! methinks this one Motive should set on the Exhortation, if I should use no more, to Remember your Dangers and your Deliverances.

But secondly, another Motive is this, to Remember your Dangers with your Deliverances; this will in your great distresses and extremities, contri∣bute some hope to you; to read over your Register, your ancient Records, how good God hath been at such a time, and such a time; how seasonably he stept in and delivered in such a strait and such a strait; Oh then says the Soul, Page  124 why should I despair, and cast off all hope now?* hath not he appeared and saved in Deaths often before now? for past experiences are good supports for Hope in present exigencies and extre∣mities; thus David argues, when at a great strait, Thou hast delivered me, and wilt deliver me; and thus Paul, Thou hast delivered me, and wilt deliver me. Haman found this a good way to Remember the years of the Lords right hand.

3. Remember your Dangers and De∣liverances, for God Records them; they are filled up by God, and he will mind you of them another day if you forget them now; he keeps his Jour∣nals and Records, he hath his Book of Remembrance of your forgotten Mer∣cies as well as your forgotten sins; God will one day read over all those Deli∣verances you have forgotten; Oh poor Soul! did not I deliver thee in such a Danger, in such a Distress, in such a Death, when there was no Hope, when there was no Help, yet all this hast thou forgotten; forgotten thy Mercy, and forgotten the God of thy Mercy; Oh! will not this sting you to the Heart, when God shall cause your strangled and murdered Mercies to walk in your Consciences? when he shall give them a Resurrection there?

Page  125 4. Motive to Remember your Dan∣gers and Deliverances; the Vows of God are upon you; Oh! what did you say to God in the day of your distress and calamity? Lord, if thou wilt now appear, and be a present help in time of trouble, it shall never be forgotten, it shall be remembred to the Lord as long as we have a day to live; but when God brings poor Souls off, many do not on∣ly forget their Vows, but deny them;* In Ancient times it was usual in eminent dangers, whether at Sea or Land, to make Vows; We read that Ionahs Mar∣riners they Vowed Vows; David did thus,* Thy Vows are upon me, O God! I will render praises unto thee, &c. (and in ano∣ther place) I will pay thee my Vows,* which my lips have uttered, and my mouth hath spo∣ken when I was in trouble; But because this is so ordinary to make Vows at Sea, and brake them a Shoar, let me en∣large a little upon it. 1. Why should you forget your Vows after your Deli∣verances? They were not rash Vows, there might have been some excuse, if you had made them rashly, you might then have had a Plea, for saying it was an Error; but in times of distress, men are serious, when Death and Eternity is set before them, and they upon the Page  126 brink of another world;* dare you sin∣ners rashly Vow, in this day of your di∣stress; O no, your Consciences will bear witness against you, that you were in sober-sadness at that day. 2. Why should you forget your Vows after your Deliverances, for God will require pay∣ment? Nay, this is not only the Rea∣son why we should not forget to pay, but why we should not delay to pay; When thou vowest a vow to the Lord thy God, thou shouldst not slack to pay it, for the Lord thy God will require it, yea, will surely require it of thee, and it would be sin in thee. Take it for granted he will do it, yea,* he will surely do it. 1. He will require it, so as to call to a payment day, he will de∣mand it, he will send unto you a Sum∣mons to pay the Vows you made to him in the day of your Distress. Oh! how often is Conscience Gods Officer, that he sends to you to demand Payment? O says Conscience, Sinner, pay what thou owest to the God of thy deliver∣ances; is not he a God to whom the Vows must be performed? 2. He will require it, so as to punish the non-pay∣ment; and so requiring is here taken, and in many other places, the Lord doth very often severely punish Vow∣breaking; breaking of Vows doth cause Page  127 God often to destroy the works of your hands. Say not before the Angel,* It was an error, wherefore should God be angry at thy Vows, and destroy the works of thy hands? Some Expositors refer this to the Priest, before whom the sin of rash vows was to be contest; others carry it to Christ, the Angel of the Covenant, who sees through all our subtil excuses and e∣quivocations, and punishes them. O, God is angry when men go so flatly against their Vows; O then God is an∣gry, and destroys the work of their hands, viz. disappoints their endeavors, and denies them success.

Lastly, to forget your deliverances and dangers, is the greatest ingratitude and unthankfulness in the world; hath God given you so many wonderful de∣liverances, so many miraculous preser∣vations, to be buried in the grave of oblivion? will you murder your mer∣cies, and then bury them? It is com∣conly said, Murder will out. Murdered Mercies will one day make terrible work, in walking in your Consciences.

The next Observation is this, That Salvations and Deliverances many times are not sent until persons be left help∣less and hopeless. I shall give you a touch of this. Now all hope of being Page  128 saved was taken away, no small tempest lay upon them; now they were gulft in despair of ever coming off with their lives: Yet this often is the condition of Nations, Ship-Companies, and Persons, where God intends to save and deliver▪ The proofs of the last Observation a∣bout Dangers and Deliverances being recorded and remembred, proves this also. Thus was Peter saved, the Disciple; saved, when just at sinking.

But why doth God stay so long be∣fore he sends deliverances and salvati∣ons? 1. Because he delights to draw forth a spirit of prayer; if men will not pray, when sinking, when drowning, when dying, they will never pray. O see how Ionah prays in his distress:* And Jonah prayed to the Lord out of the Fishes belly, and said, I cried by reason of mine af∣fliction unto the Lord, and he heard me; out of the belly of Hell cried I, and thou heardst my voice,* &c. When my Soul fainted within me, I remembred the Lord; and my Prayer came in unto thy holy Temple. O Sirs, God loves prayer so well, that he stayes with his deliverances, that we might sue them out by prayer.* Out of the Depths have I cried unto thee, saith David: Driven to it by deep and bot∣tomless straits, into which I am plun∣ged. Page  129 And it seems to be an allusion to Mariners, in their distresses and dangers of being shipwrackt, crying unto the Lord. What, will any man perish, and never pray for it! die, and never cry for it! what, and not say as Peter did, Master, save me, or I perish? What was it that did draw forth prayer in many of these distressed Ship-Companies (in this Treatise mentioned) but their dangers and distresses?

2. God doth not bring our deliver∣ances and salvations until we be hope∣less, because he will exercise his peo∣ples graces: Therefore the Disciples were not saved until the ship was full, that their graces might be exercised. O now is a time for faith and patience to be exerted; there is nothing more pleasing unto God, then to see how poor Souls exercise their graces, when they are reduced into extremities; God hath a great revenue of glory arising to himself, out of the exercise of his own grace in the Souls of Believers. O how doth Faith act its part when mercy and deliverance is delayed! It was one of Luther's wonders, to believe for mercy that was long delayed. It is an high ex∣ercise of Faith, to look up to God long together, and nothing to come. To say Page  130 with the Prophet Ionah,* I will look again towards thy holy Temple. And with the Prophet Isaiah,* Though he hide his face from the house of Jacob, I will wait upon him, and look for him. What though thou be as the Prophets Servant, who went down to the Sea to look, and he said, Master;* there is nothing. But what then? doth he give over? O no, looks again; and the seventh look he saw the Cloud. So Faith in its exercise, will look again and again, and never give over, until it espy the mercy coming upon the wings of prayer. So might I add of Pa∣tience; O how doth it act its part while the deliverance tarries; it quietly waits for the salvation of God; saying, as David,* My Soul waits for the Lord, more than they that watch for the morning. The Soul of the Believer possesses it self in patience until the mercy come.

3. God doth not bring our salvations and deliverances, until we be brought to an extremity; because they are most prized and welcomed until then. O now deliverance will be prized: The longer that a mercy tarries, the more welcome it is when it comes; God loves to make all his mercies welcome to us. O how welcome is life, to a person un∣der a sentence of death! O how wel∣come Page  131 is a discovery of the love of Christ to a poor Soul, that hath long groaned under the burthen of unpardoned guilt. O how welcome was the Prodigals Fa∣thers House, when he had so long been starving in the Fields, with his Husks, amongst the Swine!

4. Because God will have all his salva∣tions and deliverances look like his own hand and arm, his own arm brings sal∣vation with him; he will have the print of his own hand upon it, that poor sinners may say, This is the finger of God, the doings of God, and it is marvellous in our eyes. Alas, men would attribute it to themselves, if salvation did not come in such a way, when all hope of being saved is taken away. Oh! everything is beautiful in its season; Is not salva∣tion and deliverance now in season? now they begin to despair, as to pro∣bable or visible hopes. O now God works like himself, now he appears in a deliverance to be God; which set the Disciples a wondring,* What manner of Man is this, that the Winds and Sea obey him? And at another time, when he de∣livered his Disciples at Sea, and calmed the Winds, then they that were in the Ship worshipped him, saying,* Of a truth thou art the Son of God.

Page  132 5. Because he will by such salvations set off his love to poor Souls: Was not the love of Christ set off highly, in ta∣king that season to save the ship when it was full; to save them when they were sinking; Is not that great Love, that steps forth to save in an Extremity? O what Love was this, to save this Ships Company, when all hope of being saved was taken away? Love always chuses the fittest times to appear & evidence it self.

Lastly, Because he will have his de∣liverances, endearing deliverances to Souls. O how doth such an appearance of God, at such a time, endear the Soul of the receiver. Therefore saith David, I will love the Lord, (or love the Lord dearly) my Rock and my Deliverer, &c.

But I will proceed to give you also a taste of the Application, and not be large, because I have been large upon the former, which was mainly intended.

1. Then learn we hence, that God may for gracious ends, known to him∣self, delay a mercy or a deliverance, and yet fully intends to give in that mercy. Iacob may wrestle all night, and yet be put off; but in the break of day the mercy comes. The Woman of Canaan may cry to Christ for her Daughter, and at present be put off, yet at last she shall Page  133 carry it. The believing Soul may not have the Dove come with an Olive-branch in her mouth until evening. Christs manifesting of his love to poor Souls, is called his supping with them; And I will sup with you: Now supper comes not up till evening.

2. Learn we hence, that Gods timing our deliverances and salvations, is best for us; his time is the best time. Our time is always ready, (but saith Christ) My time is not yet. If we had our mercies in our time, we should not see that beauty in them; for every thing is beau∣tiful in its season: and God chuses the fittest seasons to send them, because he will put a beauty upon them.

3. Learn we hence, that no case is desperate to God, though it be so to man: One would have thought this a desperate case, in such a storm, light∣ning the Ship, the casting out of the Tackling of the Ship, neither Sun nor Stars appeared, and all hope of being saved taken away; yet all this was but desperate to them, it was not so to God: now their extremity becomes Gods opportunity, and he takes this juncture of time to appear in. Thus David,* all Gods waves and Gods billows had gone over him; a desperate case! Page  134 yet God (then he believes) would com∣mand his loving kindness in the day∣time, and his song should be with him in the night. Faith is an excellent grace at a desperate stand.

4. Learn we hence, that Gods thoughts are not as our thoughts; when we think of nothing but sinking and perishing, then doth God think of saving and de∣livering. They thought all hope of be∣ing saved was taken away, but God looks through the storm and Cloud, and comforts them. As the Disciples, when they thought it had been a Spirit in their Storm that appeared to them; No,* saith Christ, be not afraid; be of good chear, it is I.

Vse 2. Is it so, that the salvations and deliverances that many of us have, are not until we be brought to extremi∣ties? then it is a word of exhortation; 1. Then look up to God in the most desperate case, when you know not what to do in your storms at Sea, in your straits at Land. O then let your eyes be up unto the Lord; you see how many de∣liverances have come down in extremi∣ties, as answers to pray. O pray hard; let going to Sea, being in storms at Sea, be∣ing brought to extremities at Sea, learn you then to pray.