Acts 27:31

Paul said to the centurion and to the soldiers, Except these abide in the ship, ye cannot be saved.

Paul said to the centurion and to the soldiers - the only parties now to be trusted, and whose own safety was now imperilled,

Except these abide in the ship, ye cannot be saved. The soldiers and passengers could not be expected to possess the necessary seamanship in so very critical a case; the flight of the crew, therefore, might well be regarded as certain destruction to all who remained. Though fully assured, in virtue of a divine pledge, of ultimate safety to all on beard, Paul speaks and acts throughout this whole scene in the exercise of a sound judgment on the indispensable human conditions of safety; and as there is no trace of any feeling of inconsistency between these two things in his mind, so even the centurion, under whose orders the soldiers acted on Paul's views, seems never to have felt perplexed by the two-fold aspect-divine and human-in which the same thing presented itself to the mind of Paul.