Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n
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A58036
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A plat for mariners, or, The seaman's preacher delivered in several sermons upon Jonah's voyage by John Ryther ...
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Ryther, John, 1634?-1681.
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1672
(1672)
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Wing R2442; ESTC R33862
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122,256
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256
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Channel which is a great aggravation of your Affliction there you shall miscarry Nay Here in the River as some have done of late if God have a controversy with you 5ly O give not God cause to take up a Controversy against you for then you will have nothing to plead for your selves when God in his Providences is pleading against you O then poor Sea-men you will be Speechless you will have nothing to say for your selves Thus it was with Jonah He justifies God in his righteous Judgment and condemns himself For my sake is this storm come upon you Then you will in your Souls conclude the Lord is righteous but you are wicked and this storm is now the fruit of your wickedness Hast thou a word to say poor drunken Seaman poor profane Seaman why thou shouldst not perish this storm why thou shouldst not sink to the bottom this storm 6ly O give not God cause to take up a Controversy against you The Controversy will be against your Souls if you do Now this is the sadest Controversy in the world a Controversy against a Ship is not so sad a Controversy against Estates nay Lives is not so sad But for a Controversy to lie against precious Souls this is sadest of all This night thy Soul shall be taken away The Controversy lay against his Soul O for God to say to a poor Sea-man in a stormy night Thou fool this night will thy Soul be taken away this is a sad story thy soul is now to be cast away Few pity cast-away Souls Alas the body is but the Cabbinet the Soul is the Jewel And though the Cabbinet should be cast away if thou knew that thy Soul were safe the breaking or drowning of the Cabbinet would not be so Terrible to thee Second word of Counsel If extraordinary storms be not sent from God without a cause then be counselled poor Sea-men and your Relations to make your peace with God O venture not to Sea untill this work be done Dost thou know what a venture thou runnest every voyage that thou makest and thy Soul unreconciled to God O then you of the Tribe of Zebulun might Rejoyce in going out then you might leave your dear Relations with comfort if not to see them again in this world yet to see them in a better where you shall be ever with the Lord. O the Advantages of Sea-men and their Relations being at peace with God if they were seriously considered would stir you all up with might and main to this work 1. If you were at peace with God then you might lift up your face with confidence to God in all your dangers and distresses What is it that daunts and strikes Terror to the hearts of Seamen in their distresses but this They have not made their peace with God when Conscience asks the Question Is all Peace do not Pâ—aâ— 40. 12. they answer as he did What peace seeing the Witchcrafts and Whoredoms of Jezabel are so many now your iniquities take hold upon you that you cannot look up and what then O then Davids heart fail'd him But now poor Souls that are reconciled to God they know all things shall go well with the Righteous and this makes them look comfortably up to God in their distresses 2ly If you were at peace with God then you might expect all your disappointments and losses would be sanctified to you Many of you go to Sea and meet with Shipwracks though it is a great mercy to have your lives spared yet many of you have breaches made upon you as the Breaches of the Sea breaches upon your Estates it may be God gives an estate for one 7 years and takes it away the next and after that he hath lifted you up he casts you down Now O what a mercy would this be if your Souls and your Relations might prove gainers by these losses and peace made with God would bring on this mercy All things shall work together for the good of such all his dispensations are measured out in love to such No storm is in wrath to such O sayes God to such Fury is not in me 3ly If you were at peace with God then you might expect to carry the especial blessing of Gods protection out with you This was the blessing that Moses blessed the Tribe of Zebulun with Rejoyce O Zebulun in they going out whether it was to war or to trade as Interpreters hold it may be both it was a great blessing to go cut Rejoycing under their hopes of the protection of God O then his Banner over you would be love every Voyage and this the best Ancient or Ensigne that your Ship can carry forth with you This is your best colours to put forth in case you meet with an Enemy This Banner can cover your heads in the day of Battel This especial Protection of God is the Best Pilot to steer you You may talk of a Protection from Man but this is the only Protection that will do you good 4. If you were at peace with God you might then expect his comfortable Soul-reviving presence in all your storms and dangers And Is not his presence brave Company in distress O what a cordial was that word to their fainting Spirits when the Disciples were in that terrible storm at Sea Be of Mark 6. 50. good cheer It is I be not afraid they cry Lord save us and then Christ appears to them and calls to them O what a comfortable night had Paul though in that storm when the Angel stood by him and said Paul be of good cheer all that sayl with thee are given to thee For God to give you the comfort of that promise When thou goest through the water I will be with thee This raises wonderfully the heart of a poor Believer If you were at Peace with God then you would in some comfortable measure be lifted up above fears and can there be fear but there is torment in it O what a mercy would it be when in the Valley of the shaddow of Death then to fear no evil but to have your heart fixed trusting in the Lord. But this hath been hinted before 6. If you were at Peace with God then Death would not have that dread in it This would unsting Death Then your hearts would not so sadly meditate Terror when Death the King of Terrors shall look you in the Face Might not you then say O death where is thy sting O Grave or Sea where is thy Victory while others tremble at the thoughts of it you might tryumph in your comfortable expectations of it holding out your Hands and Arms saying Now Lord let thy Servant depart in Peace Then you may make ready to swim to the bosome of the Lord Jesus it is but thy Body thy Cabinet that is lost that is cast away The Jewel and Treasure is taken up by Christ that comes safe to shoar through all the storms and tempests that can blow 7. If
a man a dead man and a damned man if not rescued from this snare O that poor Sea-men would read that Chapter often over she tells him She had deckt her bed c. O but yet it was the Chamber of Death Though the bed was perfumed and all in bravery yet it was the way to Hell well but after a while he is struck through the Liver being the seat of Lust saith one therefore the foul-disease as you call it is called Morbus Hepatarius The disease of the Liver Splen ridere facit cogit amare jecur Is it not good to say Is not this the cause of the Lords controversie many a time at Sea O how many Sea-mens Souls have been swallowed up of this Guloh 3. Consult to find out the cause the Word Preached A searching Ministry may be a great blessing to Sea-men upon that account The word Preached to you is to be your Spiritual Pilots to shew you where such a Rock lies such a Sand lies where such a Shelve lies we are to tell you from our Lord and Master that if you steer a course of sin you will run a course of Ruine It was the Lords Commission to his Prophets Lift up thy Voyce like a Trumpet cry aloud and spare not Shew unto my people their sins and the House of Jacob their Transgressions We are to shew your sins as the causes of Gods controversie with you We shew you your danger of such a Rock such a sin but do you bear off do you stand off from it if you do not at your peril if you miscarry your blood be upon your own heads O me-thinks of all men Sea-men should love a searching Ministry you enjoy so little of it go many months and hear not a Sermon you that run so many hazards and dangers you love Carpenters for the safety of the ship and Chirurgions for the health of your bodies and why should not you love Ministers for the good of your Souls Must ships must bodies be preferr'd before precious Souls 4. Would you find out the cause Be then often reading over your lives and Conversations You keep your Journals and is it not as necessary to keep Diaries The book of your lives you may read every day when you cannot have time to read other books nay it may be some of you cannot read at all O but this book you may read and may not you often read O Lord my wickedness now doth correct me doth pursue me doth as an Avenger of blood follow me This is thy Iniquity that testifies against thee this is thy sin that now hath found thee out this is thy drunkenness thy abominable uncleanness thy blaspheamous Oaths thy mocking at Prayer thy prophaining of Sabbaths May not you read all this in your lives men at Land that would know how it is with them as to their Estates will cast up their books and men at Sea that would know where they are and what course they run will keep their observations and watches So should you be often casting up your Books your Accounts your Observations if you would know where abouts you are for your Eternal Conditions It may be the Jonah is in thy Conversation that brings the storm then thou must look to Reform that 5. Would you find out the Cause Then you must set before you the danger of miscarrying Now they were in danger they cry out For whose cause is this evil come upon us Truly we are seldom either at Sea or Land led into our duty until danger drive us to it In your storms you are it may be saying to your selves What if the ship should miscarry but do you ever say to your Souls what if your Souls miscarry what if the ship be lost you say but if you said What if your Souls be lost this would help you in the inquiry after the cause of the Lords Controversie with you Set thy danger before thee poor Sea-man that thou may'st find out the cause 1. If thy Soul miscarry it is an eternal miscarriage thou art fixed in that miscarryed estate to all Eternity never to come out of it It is to go to the Pit from whence there is no Redemption There may be Redemption from Sally from Algier nay from Fez where poor Sea-men when they are taken by the Turks are so affraid of being sent O but poor Sea-men from Hell there is no Redemption The King of this Country never gives up his Slaves 2. If thy Soul miscarry poor Sea-man it will aggravate thy sin and misery that thou had'st so many warnings but refused them O what a fair way wast thou once in when convinced of such a sin would be thy Ruine if thou did'st not Repent of it such a Rock would split thy Soul for ever if thou came foul upon it and yet what a bold course did'st thou steer notwithstanding all these warnings Ministers called to thee Relations called to thee Conscience called to thee Godly Friends and Acquaintance that loved thy Soul called to thee O stand off the Rock of sinful Company O take heed of such a sin and such a Lust but alas all these signified nothing to thee O these refused-warnings will be as oyle to make Hells flames burn more vehemently 3. If thou miscarry poor Sea-man thou many times miscarryest on a sudden They go down in a moment to the grave O what little time have they to prepare for Death that little time they have is to provide for their lives that they seldom entertain a thought what will become of their Souls The Sea-mans destruction comes upon them as a whirl-wind suddenly and often inevitably suddenly destroyed and that without Remedy as that word you read and Are not all sudden things sad and full of astonishment Is it not a comfortable thing to have time to prepare for your change now The sense of your danger every Voyage you go should make you find out the cause of Gods Controversie with you The last Use is of Tryal How may we conclude what is the cause of Gods Controversie with us what sin is the Jonah We may pass a false Judgment then how may we find out the sin and Provocation to say This is the cause why God contends with me as David when Nathan said to him Thou art the man so we may say Thou art the sin and so single out the particular Provocation to God 1. That sin usually that lies uppermost on the Conscience is the cause of Gods Controversie with us when we are in any distress or under any Affliction When Jonah's Conscience was gotten cured of his Lethargy it was thus with him his guilt of fleeing from the presence of the Lord was uppermost why hast thou done this say the Ships Company to him For the men knew that he had fled from the presence Gen 4â— 21. of the Lord for he had told them Thus it was with Josephs Brethren And they said one to another in this wise