THE STATE OF A CHRISTIAN, lively set forth by an Allegory of a Ship under Sail. 
Prov. 31.14. job 9.26. Isay 23.1. Rev. 8.9.   
MY Body is the Hull; the Keel my back; my Neck the Stem; the Sides are my Ribs; the beams my bones; my flesh the planks; Gristles and ligaments are the Pintells and knee-timbers; Arteries, veins and sinews the several seams of the ship; my blood is the ballast; my heart the principal hold; my stomach the Cooke-roome; my Liver the Cistern; my Bowels the sink; my Lungs the Bellowes; my teeth the Chopping-knives, except you divide them, and then they are the 32. points of the Sea-card both agreeing in number; Concoction is the Cauldron; and hunger the Salt or sauce; my belly is the lower Deck; my kidneys Close Cabins or receptacles; my thighs are long Galleries for the grace of the ship; my arms and hands the Canhookes, my midriff is a large Partition or Bulk-head; within the circumference of my head is placed the Steeridge room and chief Cabins, with the Round house where the Master lieth, and these for the more safety and decency are enclosed with a double fence, the one Dura matter something hard and thick, the other Pia matter very thin and soft, which serveth in stead of hangings; The ears are two doors or Scuttles, fitly placed for entertainment; the two Eyes are Casements to let in light; under them is my mouth the Stowidge or Steward's room; my lips are Hatches for receipt of goods; my two Nostrils serve as Grating to let in air; at the one end stands my chin which is the Beakehead; my forehead is the upper deck; all which being trimmed with my fat in stead of pitch, and hair in stead of Ockham, are coloured with my skin.  
The foredeck is humility; the stern Charity; active obedience the sails; which being hoist up with the several Yards, Halliers and Bowling of holy precepts and good purposes, are let down again by fickleness, faintings, and inconstancy; Reason is my Rudder; experience the helm; hope of salvation my Anchor; passive obedience the Capstaine; holy Revenge the Cat and Fish to haul the sheate Anchor or last hope; fear of offending is the Buoy; virtues are the Cables; Holy desires and sudden ejaculations the shrouds; the zeal of God's glory is my Mainmast, premeditation the foremast; desire of my own salvation the Mizzen-mast; saving knowledge the Boltesprit; circumspection a sounding line; my Light is illumination, justice is the Card, God's word the Compass; the meditation of life's brevity a Foure-houre glass; Contemplation of the Creatures the cross-staff or jacobs' staff; the Creed a Sea grammar; the life of Christ my Load star; the Saints falls are Sea-marks; Good examples Landmarks; Repentance Pumps out the sink of my sins; a good Conscience keeps me clean; imputative righteousness is my Flag, having this Motto (BEING CASTANNA DOWN WE PERISH NOT) The Flage-staffe is sincerity; the ship is victualled afresh by reading, hearing, receiving; Books are Long-boates; Letters are little Sciffes to carry and recarry my spiritual merchandise; Perseverance is my speed, and patience my name, my fire is lust, which will not be clean extinguished; full feeding and strong drink is the fuel to maintain it, whose flame (if it be not suppressed) is jealousy; whose sparks are evil words; whose ashes is envy; whose smoke is infamy; Lascivious talk is as flint and steel; Concupiscence as tinder, opportunity is the match to light it; Sloth and idleness are the Servants to prepare it.  
The Law of God is my Pilot; Faith my Captain; Fortitude the Master; Chastity the Master's mate; my will the Cousin; Conscience the Preacher; Application of Christ's death the Chirurgeon; Mortification the Cook; Vivification the Calker; Selfedeniall is an Apprentice of his; Temperance the Steward; Contentation his Mate; truth the Purser; thankfulness the Pursers' mate; Reformation the Boatswain; The 4 humours, Sanguine, Choler, etc. are the Quarter masters; Christian vigilancy undertakes to supply the office of Starbord and Larborde watch; Memory is Clerk of the Check; Assurance the Corporal; the Armour Innocency; the Mariner's Angels; schismatics are searchers sent aboard; my understanding as Master Gunner culls out from those two Budgecaskes of the New and old Testament cerraine threats and promises which is my only powder and Shot; and with the assistance of the Gunners mate, holy anger against sin, chargeth my tongue, which like to a piece of Ordnance shoots them to the shame and overthrow of my spiritual Adversaries.  
My Noble Passengers are joy in the holy Ghost & the peace of Conscience, whose retinue are divine graces; my ignoble or rather mutinous passengers are worldly cogitations and vain delights, which are more than a good many; besides some that are arrant thiefs and traitors, namely pride, envy, prejudice▪ but all these i'll bid farewell when I come to my journeys end, though I would but cannot before.  
Heaven is my Country, where I am registered in the Book of life; my King is jehovah; my tribute Almesdeeds; they which gather it are the poor; Love is my Country's badge, my language is holy conference; my fellow companions are the Saints.  
I am poor in performances, yet rich in God's acceptation; The foundation of all my good, is God's free Election; I became bound into the Corporation of the Church to serve him in my baptism; I was enrolled at the time when he first called me: my freedom is justification, it was purchased with the blood of Christ, my evidence is the earnest of his spirit; my privileges are his sanctifying Graces; my Crown (reserved for me on high) is Glorification.  
My Maker and Owner is God, who built me by his Word which is Christ, of earth which was the material: he fraught it with the essence of my soul which is the Treasure; and hath set me to sail in the sea of this world, till I attain to the port of death, which letteth the terrestrial part into the harbour of the grave, and the celestial into the kingdom of heaven; in which voyage conveniency of estate is as sea-room; good affections serve as a tide, and prayer as a a prosperous gale a wind to help forward.  
But innumerable are the Impediments and perils; for here I meet with the proffers of unlawful gain, and sensual delights as so many Sirens; the baits of prosperity (as high banks) on the right hand or weathershore, and there with evil suggestions, and crabbed adversity (as Rocks) on the left hand or Lee-shore ready to split me; the fear of hell like quickesands threaten to swallow me; Original sin like weeds clog me, and actual transgressions like so many Barnacles hang about me, yea every sin I commit springs a new leak; my senses are as so many storms of rain, hail and snow to sink me; lewd affections are roaring billows and waves; selfe-confidence or to rely upon any thing but divine assistance, is to lose the bolt-sprit; Restitution is heaving goods over board to save the ship; Melancholy, is want of freshwater; the scoffs of Atheists and contempt of religion in all places, is a notable becalming; the lewd lives and evil examples of the most a contagious air; Idleness furs it, and is a shrewd decay both of Hull and Tackling. Moreover sailing along and keeping watch (for they that are Christ's friends you know must look for all they meet to be their enemies) we no sooner look up but presently we ken a man of war, and then we must be for war too, and provide for a skirmish.  
Now the Gallyon that hath our Pinnace in chase, and always watcheth for advantages to surprise it, is the Piracy of hell, the synagogue of Satan; her freight is Temptations and persecutions, with all the Engines of mischief; in which the Devil is Master; m●lice the Master's mate; cruelty the Captain; Murder the Cook; Flattery the Calker; profaneness a quarter master; riot the Steward; never content his mate; pride the Cockeson; superstition the Preacher; hypocrisy the Boatswain; covetousness the Purser; lust the Swabber; fury the Gunner; presumption the Corporal; sedition the Trumpeter; drunkenness the Drummer; vices are the sails; custom the Mainmast; Example of the multitude the Foremast; Lusts and passions the Cables; blindness of mind the Rudder; hardness of heart the helm; the wisdom of the flesh the Card; the mystery of iniquity the Compass; the five senses, or if you will scoffing Atheists, profane fowle-mouthed drunkards, and all the rabble of hell are the Mariners; lewd affections the Passengers; little conscience the Lodestar, she hath two Tire of great Ordnance planted in her, heresy and irreligion (being either for a false God or none) Oaths blasphemy and curses are the powder and shot, which they spit against all that worship the Lamb, or fight under the ensign of faith; her armour is carnal security; the Flag in her top, is infidelity, the motto (There is no God but Gain) Her ballast which keeps her upright, is ignorance; most of her tackling she has from Rome, and Amsterdam; Antichrist as Pilot, steers her in such a course that she goes on swiftly, proudly, securely, scorning and scoffing (Sennacharib like) to hear that any Lord should deliver this poor pinnace out of her hands; yet in the sequel this silly Pink having the insurance of God's omnipresence, finds not only secure from the Stock of the Church's prayers, which like another Merchant man comes in to the rescue, but likewise that Gods Almighty power and providence is near at hand as a strong Castle of defence to free her, whereby she escapes even as a bird out of the snare of the hunter, to praise the Lord, who hath not given her as a pray unto their teeth, that would have swallowed up all quick, but delivered her from such swelling waters, floods of affliction, and streams of persecution, as else had gone over her, and even drowned her soul, as it is Psalm 124, while this great Gallion (though, it seem like that Invincible Armado) flies, and (having no Anchor) when the storms of God's wrath arise, down she sinks to desperation, and perisheth in the bottomless pit or burning lake of fire and brimstone, where we'll leave her to receive a just recompense of reward.  
R. Y.   

London Printed by Tho. Cotes for the Author; and are to be sold by Sarah Fairbeard, at the North door of the Royal Exchange. 1646.