Navigation Spiritualized, Chapter 18
CHAP. XVIII.
Like hungry Lions, Waves for Sinners gape:
Leave then your Sins behind, if you'll escape.
OBSERVATION.
THE Waves of the Sea are sometimes raised by God's Commission, to be Executioners of his Threatnings upon sinners. When Ionah fled from the presence of the Lord to Tarshish, the Text saith, The Lord sent out a great Wind into the Sea, and there was a mighty Tempest, so that the Ship was like to be broken, Joh. 1. 4. These were God's Bailiffs, to arrest the Run-away Prophet. And Psal. 148. 8. The stormy winds are said to fulfil his word; not only his word of Command, in rising when God bids them, but his word of threatning also. And hence it is called a destroying wind, Jer. 51. 1. and a stormy wind in God's fury, Ezek. 13. 13.
APPLICATION.
If these be the Executioners of the Lord's threatnings, how sad then is their condition that put forth to Sea under the guilt of all their sins? O, if God should commissionate the Winds to go after and arrest thee for all thou owest him, where art thou then? How dare you put forth under the power of a Divine threat, before all be cleared betwixt God and thee? Sins in Scripture are called debts, Mat. 6. 12. They are debts to God; not that we owe them to him, or ought to sin, but Metonymically, because they render the Sinner obnoxious to God's Judgments, even as pecuniary debts oblige him that hath not wherewith to pay, to suffer punishment. All sinners must undergo the Curse, either in their own person, according to the express letter of the Law, Gen. 2. 17. Gal. 3. 10. or their surety, according to the tacite intent of the Law, manifested to be the mind of the Law-giver, Gen. 3. 15. Gal. 3. 13, 14.
Now he that by Faith hath Interest in his Surety, hath his Discharge, his Quietus est, sealed in the Blood of Christ; all Process at Law, or from the Law, is stopt Rom. 8. 1. But if thou be an impenitent, persisting sinner, thy debt remains upon thine own score. And be sure thy sin will find thee out, where-ever thou goest, Num. 32. 23. (i. e.) God's revenging hand for sin will be upon thee: Thou maist lose the sight and memory of thy sin, but they lose not the sight of thee; they follow after, as the Hound doth the fleeting game upon the scent, till they have fetcht thee up: And then consider, How fearful a thing it is to fall into the hands of the living God, Heb. 10. 31. How soon may a storm arrest, and bring thee before the Bar of God?
REFLECTION.
O my Soul, what a case art thou in, if this be so? Are not all thy sins yet upon thine own score? Hast not thou mane light of Christ, and that precious Blood of his, and hitherto persisted in thy Rebellion against him? And what can the issue of this be at last, but ruine? There is abundant mercy indeed for returning sinners; but the Gospel speaks of none for persisting and impenitent sinners. And though many who are going on in their sins are overtaken by Grace, yet there is no Grace promised to such as go on in sin. O, if God should arrest me by the next Storm, and call me to an account for all that I owe him, I must then lie in the Prison of Hell to all Eternity; for I can never pay the debt; nay, all the Angels in Heaven cannot satisfie for it. Being Christless, I am under all the Curses in the Book of God; a Child of Hagar. Lord, pity and spare me a little longer! O discover thy Christ unto me, and give me Faith in his Blood, and then thou art fully satisfied at once, and I discharged for ever. O require not the debt at my hand, for then thou wilt never be satisfied, nor I acquitted. What profit, Lord, is there in my Blood! O my soul, make hast to this Christ, thy Refuge-City; thou knowest not how soon the avenger of Blood may overtake thee.
THE POEM.
Thy sins are debts, God puts them to account:
Canst tell, poor wretch, to what thy debts amount?
Thou fill'st the treasure of thy sins each hour.
Into his Vials God doth also pour
Proportionable wrath: Thou seest it not;
But yet assure thy self, there's drop for drop.
For every Sand of Patience running out,
A drop of Wrath runs in. Soul, look about.
God's Treasure's almost full, as well as thine:
When both are full, O then the dreadful time
Of Reckoning comes; thou shalt not gain a day
Of patience more, but then there hastes away
Heaven's Pursivant, who comes upon the wing
With his Commission seal'd, to take and bring.
Do'st still reject Christ's tenders? Well, next storm
May be the Bailiff ordered to perform
This dreadful office. O then restless be,
Till God in Christ be reconcil'd to thee.
The Sum is great, but if a Christ thou get,
Fear not, a Prince can pay a Beggar's debt.
Now if the Storm should rise, thou need not fear;
Thou art, but the Delinquent is not there.
A pardoned Soul to Sea may boldly go:
He fears not Bailiffs, that doth nothing owe.