Selected quad for the lemma: death_n
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A57542
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A sermon preached before the corporation of Trinity-house in Deptford Strand, at the election of their master, May XXX, 1681 by John Rogers ...
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Rogers, John, b. 1647.
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1681
(1681)
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Wing R1818; ESTC R11375
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14,418
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41
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the Nations begins with perils in the deep and again twice repeats it in the same verse in perils of water in perils in the Sea as if those alone were the great afflictions he would most glory in and the Philosopher accounted men at Sea to be but a kind of Borderers between the living and the dead They that go down to the Sea in Ships saith the Psalmist they see the works of the Lord and his wonders in the deep i. e. the great and mighty works of the Creation and the extraordinary wonders of God's Providence are so apparent to these mens eyes that they cannot but consider them and take especial notice of the dangers they pass through And however custom may in time wear off all Sense of danger yet can it never lessen it as will appear by considering these three things 1. The Suddenness of those calamities which may happen to sea-faring men 2. The Number of them and 3. Their Frequency For their Suddenness there are no kind of accidents to which the lives of men are subject that are so sure and swift Executioners as those which lye in wait for Mariners A man may linger out his days under a sore Disease and though some fiercer kinds may sooner seize upon his Vitals yet rarely is Death this way so swift of foot as not to give some Warning to the Patient and by alarming his Conscience make him so to consider his latter end as to apply his heart to Wisdom and Repentance But alas 't is far otherwise in the condition I am now speaking of a man may see a Cloud no bigger than his hand yet in a moment its waters shall overwhelm him and the Deep shall swallow him up quick before he shall be able to arise and call upon his God The consideration of this cannot but inform you what obligations you have above other men to be always in a readiness and diligently to watch because you know not in what hour this sad calamity may fall upon you Watch therefore for you know not what hour the Lord doth come But know this That if the good man of the house had known in what watch the Thief would come he would have watched and would not have suffered his house to be broken up Therefore be you also ready for in such an hour as you think not the Son of man cometh For the Number of the dangers they become yet more terrible and beyond my abilities to recount The dangers of the Waters beneath the falling of Spouts from above the Rocks and Quicksands the tempestuous Winds and Hurricanes without any small Leak within one Spark in the Gun-room nay one wry step is sufficient to dispatch a man and send him quick into another World And can any one in his right senses reflect upon these things and yet neglect the working out his salvation with fear and trembling Consider but in what an Amazement must that wretched man be who passes immediately with Oaths and Execrations in his mouth to make his appearance before the Judgment-Seat of Christ What a surprize must it needs be unto him when he awakens in another World and begins then to call upon his God when he can expect no other Answer than I know you not depart from me you wicked into everlasting fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels Again For the Frequency of the dangers they are yet more formidable because this will certainly convince you that these sad Afflictions are not only possible but common unto men and that for ought any one knows to the contrary his own turn is next Now that the dangers which sea-faring men are exposed to are frequent and common and do ordinarily happen unto them there needs no other Argument to convince you than your own experience of them the many rescues you have had out of the very Jaws of Death those many and even miraculous deliverances which you cannot but be sensible of and which have happened to you even then when all hopes of escape seemed to be quite taken away I should not have mentioned this particular but that I am afraid it is an opinion too common amongst you That since the great improvements of Navigation and the daily advancement of Knowledge in Sea-affairs the Ocean is now rendred so passable and secure that the Accidents seem not to exceed those which men in general are exposed to and yet out of your own mouths may you be convinced since it is hardly possibly to find one sea-faring man who is not able to recount as many dangers as voyages and does not after a long and perillous absence from home esteem it almost a resurrection from the dead to recover his native Shore again Now if these things were but once throughly considered and laid to heart one would think it almost impossible there should be any such Monster in the World as a loose and irreligious Sea-man and that these are they of all men who live soberly righteously and godly in this present world who pray continually and call upon their God and are least obnoxious to inconsideration and stupidity that these are they who live in a perpetual sense of the protecting Arm of God and a continual dread of his Majesty in whom after an extraordinary manner they live and move and have their being and that if this sort of warfare cannot perswade men neither will they be perswaded though one should rise to them from the dead there being nothing in this World which in its own nature can tend more to the awakening of mens minds and bring them over into the ways of Religion and Vertue than that perillous state they live in through the suddenness the number and frequency of those calamities which are always incident to sea-faring men I come therefore to shew II. What great encouragement you have to call upon God from the consideration of his especial Providence over Sea-affairs If so be that God will think upon us that we perish not And whoever considers how full and express the Scriptures are in the declaration of this truth he will at the same time be inclined to think That though Gods Providence and his mercy are over all his works yet the great strokes of his Divine Arm are made most manifest in the Deep For he it is who commandeth and raiseth the stormy wind which lifteth up the waves of the Sea He gathereth the waters of the Sea together as an heap and layeth up the depth in his store-houses he treadeth upon the waves of the Sea and stilleth the noise of the Seas and the noise of their waves he ruleth the raging of the Sea and when the waves thereof arise he stilleth them Fear ye not me saith the Lord will ye not tremble at my presence which have placed the Sand for the Bound of the Sea by a perpetual Decree that it cannot pass it and though the waves thereof toss themselves yet
can they not prevail though they roar yet can they not pass over it And what an encouragement must it needs be to serve and fear that God who is thus able to think upon you that you perish not It cannot but be highly your concern to engage this Providence on your side which is only able to deliver you unless you can pretend like Xerxes to stop the raging of the Sea by casting Manacles and Fetters into the Hellespont which he was as able to perform as thou art to bind the sweet influences of Pleiades or loose the bands of Orion Alas these are the Ordinances of Heaven and from hence alone must we expect to be delivered out of our distress But tell me O wretched man whoever thou art that art not used to call upon thy God but in thy Oaths and Blasphemies which way canst thou promise to thy self security whilst thou thinkest thus to out-face God and defie the Almighty when he hath got thee fast if I may so speak in the very Element of his wrath What meanest thou O Sleeper Dost thou presumptuously go on because thy misfortunes hitherto have not been worse than other mens Despisest thou the riches of God's goodness and forbearance and long suffering not knowing that the goodness of God should lead thee to repentance but after thy hardness and impenitent heart treasurest up unto thy self wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God who when the Sea shall give up her dead will render to every man according to his deeds 'T is true how much soever we call upon our God yet on the other hand may we still fail of a deliverance and there is no reason to expect that the event must punctually answer our desires unless we were as able to judge for our selves as infinite wisdom it self is But although ordinarily it cannot be supposed that every good man should hear the voice of God whose he is and whom he serves speaking to him after the same manner as once to the Apostle Saint Paul Fear not thou must be brought before Caesar and lo I have given thee all them that sail with thee though I say it were unjustifiable thus to presume upon extraordinary acts of Providence yet does it not at all follow from hence that good men are not entituled to the mercies and deliverances of God and the bad are not sometimes examples of his vengeance This is plainly acknowledged by the Philosopher when he bespoke his wretched Companions after this manner 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Hold your peace says he lest the gods knowing that you sail with us we all perish for your sakes III. I come now to answer some Objections which this Discourse may be thought liable unto And the most plausible that I can think of are these that follow 1. That Religion is apt to inject fear into mens minds which must needs render it very improper for sea-faring men 2. It will take up too much of your time and slacken your endeavours in cases of imminent danger 3. That the Knowledge of the Seas is rather apt to draw men off from the belief of a God and Providence than to settle and establish them in it And if these things be so I have lost my labour all my advice is in vain But let us see of what force these Objections are before we and our Religion so easily part And 1. 'T is said That Religion is apt to inject fear into mens minds which must needs render it very improper for sea-faring men For it being already granted that throughout the whole visible Creation there is not to be found such another Scene of astonishing dangers as men sometimes meet with out at Sea when they are on all sides terrified with grim Messengers of death and as the Psalmist well expresseth it they reel to and fro and stagger like a drunken man and are at their wits end It will then follow that they of all men in the World have at such time the greatest need of an undaunted courage and a bold and resolute mind But this cannot otherwise be obtained than by casting off all apprehensions of Death and Hell and a Judgment to come which will so infeeble mens minds and prey upon their Spirits that the effect of dwelling upon such thoughts will certainly appear to be an heartless and despairing condition and since it were the best way to overlook all those terrours which are so visible about us what reason is there that we should create new ones which are not seen and raise a more formidable enemy within our selves In answer to this First I yield partly to what the Objection supposes That bad men when their lives are in real danger have the terrours of the Lord upon them and a fearful expectation of a Judgment to come and if men will venture out at Sea with evil habits about them and laden with iniquity there is no help for it if the fears of Death and a Judgment consequent upon it shall naturally accompany and overset them There is no other possible remedy in this case but one and that is That such men would deal by their sins as the Mariners in the Verse before my Text were forced to do by their wares get rid of them as speedily as they can that by so doing they may lighten the Vessel and having laid aside every weight and the sin which doth so easily beset them they may run with patience that race which is set before them But then Secondly On the other hand it is as certain that nothing inspires men more with true courage and bravery of resolution than Religion and Vertue For when men have got at liberty from their Lusts and are become Masters of themselves and have abandoned the soft Paths of ease and luxury as in times of the greatest difficulty and hazard they will far exceed other men in sagacity and presence of mind and consequently in a happy discovery of the best means of escape so will they also truly become better inabled to undergo the worst of hardships and to weather out the most violent Storms and whereas the wicked are full of inward disconsolations and fearful abodings which so distract their minds that they are already sunk in despair the vertuous man is secure of God's Providence on his side and is certainly assured That whatever the success of his endeavours be he shall be still on the victorious Party for he well knows that that God whom he serves will either deliver him out of his present calamities or will bring him to his last his best and most desired Haven And now what is there that shall be able to dismantle the spirit of a man thus fortified or rob him of his resolution and his courage both which like a wise man he hath founded upon a Rock and let the rain descend the floods come and the winds beat upon