“It was marvellous and unexpected, that in a foreign country, at such a distance from friends and acquaintance, God should raise us up friends out of strangers, namely the Queen, foreign ministers, and great officers, in whose sight we found wonderful favour, to our preservation under God and a great means of effecting what we came about, maugre the labours and designs of our enemies against it, and their plots and attempts for our destruction, had not our Rock of Defence secured us.
“I should detain you very long, though I hope it would not be thought too long, to recite all our remarkable mercies; and it is an excellent thing that they are so numerous. We are now coming homewards. How did our God preserve us over the Baltic Sea from innumerable dangers of the rocks, sands, coasts, islands, fierce lightnings, storms, and those high-swelling waters! Such was our preservation in the Elbe, when our countrymen leaped into the water to bring us off from danger, and when the tempests hurried us up and down, by Heligoland, then towards Holland, then to the northward, then to the southward, in the open breaking rough seas, when we had lost our course and knew not where we were.
“Above all other was that most eminent deliverance near our own coast, when our ship was stuck upon the sand twelve leagues from any shore, when no help nor human means were left to save us, when pale death faced us so long together, when no hopes remained to escape his fury or the rages of the waves, which we expected every instant to swallow us; even then, to show where our dependence ought to be, our God would make it His own work to deliver us. He it was that raised the wind, and brought it from the higher part of the bank, to shake our fastened ship, and crumble the loose sands; and no sooner had we taken a resolution of praying and resigning our souls to God, but He gave us our lives again, moving our ship by His powerful arm, making it to float again, none knowing how or by what means, but by the free act of His mercy, and not a return of ours, but of the prayers of some here present, and divers others our Christian friends, who at that very time were met together to seek the Lord for us and for our safe return.
“Methinks the hearts of us who were partakers of these mercies should rejoice in the repetition of them, and those that hear them cannot but say they hear excellent things; and certainly never had any men more cause than we have of returning humble and hearty thanks to God who hath thus saved us.
“And having received these mercies, and been delivered out of these distresses, I may say to you, as Jacob said to his household (Gen. xxxv.), ‘Let us arise and go to Bethel;’ let us serve God and praise His name who answered us in the day of our distress, and was with us in the way which we went. Let us also keep Jacob’s vow: ‘The Lord hath been with us and kept us in our way, and brought us again to our fathers’ house in peace; let the Lord be our God.’ Let not any of our former vanities or lusts, or love of the world, be any more our God, but let the Lord be our God; let our thanksgiving appear in owning the Lord for our God, and in walking answerable to our mercies; let our prayers be according to the counsel of the Apostle (Eph. v.), ‘See then that ye walk circumspectly, giving thanks always for all things.’ How much more are we bound to do it from our special mercies!
“Gentlemen, give me leave to conclude with my particular thanks to you who accompanied me in my journey, and have manifested very much respect, care, diligence, courage, and discretion. You have, by your demeanour, done honour to our profession of religion, to our country, to yourselves, to your Ambassador, who will be ready to testify the same on all occasions, and to do you all good offices; chiefly in bearing you company to return praises to our God, whose mercies endure for ever.”
After these exercises performed, wherein Whitelocke was the more large in manifesting the abounding of his sense of the goodness of God towards him, and was willing also to recollect his thoughts for another occasion, the company retired themselves; and Whitelocke complimented his particular friends, giving them many thanks who had shown kindness to his wife and family, and had taken care of his affairs in his absence.
A banquet held in State, as in Sweden. He bid them all welcome, and desired them to accompany company him the next day to his audience before the Protector and Council. Then he led them into a great room, where the table was spread, and all things in the same state and manner as he used to have them in Sweden, that his friends might see the fashion of his being served when he was in that condition, and as his farewell to those pomps and vanities.
The trumpets sounding, meat was brought in, and the mistress of the house made it appear that England had as good and as much plenty of provisions as Sweden, Denmark, or Germany. His friends and company sat down to meat as they used to do in Sweden; the attendants, pages, lacqueys, and others, in their liveries, did their service as they were accustomed abroad. Their discourse was full of cheerfulness and recounting of God’s goodness; and both the time of the meat and the afternoon was spent in rejoicing together for the present mercy, and for the whole series of God’s goodness to them; and in the evening they parted, every one to his own quarters.