Selected quad for the lemma: death_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	pass_v	sin_n	world_n	8,505	5	5.3728	4	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A39673	Navigation spiritualiz'd: or, A new compass for seamen consisting of XXXII points of pleasant observations, profitable applications, and serious reflections: all concluded with so many spiritual poems. Whereunto is now added, I. A sober consideration of the sin of drunkenness. II. The harlots face in the Scripture-glass. III. The art of preserving the fruit of the lips. IV. The resurrection of buried mercies and promises. V. The sea-mans catechism. Being an essay toward their much desir'd reformation from the horrible and destable [sic] sins of drunkenness, swearing, uncleanness, forgetfulness of mercies, violation of promises, and atheistical contempt of death. Fit to be seriously recommmended to their profane relations, whether sea-men or others, by all such as unfeignedly desire their eternal welfare. By John Flavel, minister of the Gospel.	Flavel, John, 1630?-1691.	1698 (1698)	Wing F1173; ESTC R216243	137,316	227

enjoy it The business you have to do in it is of unspeakable weight and concernment this great work this Soul-work and Eternity-work lies upon your hands you are cast into streights of time about it And if so Oh what an evil is it in you to waste it away thus to no purpose Arg. 3. It 's a sin that few are sensible of as they are of other sins and therefore the more dangerous It 's commonly committed and that without checks of Conscience Other sins as Murther and Adultery though they be horrid sins yet are but seldom committed and when they are Conscience is startled at the horridness of them Few except they be prodigious wretches indeed dare make light of them But now for idle and vain words there are inumerable swarms of these every day and few regard them The intercourse betwixt the heart and tongue is quick they are quickly committed and as easily forgotten Arg. 4. And then 4thly They have mischievous effects upon others How long doth an idle word or foolish jest stick in mens minds and become an occasion of much sin to them The froath and vanity of thy Spirit which thy tongue so freely vents among thy vain Companions may be working in their minds when thou art in the dust and so be transmitted from one to another for unto that no more is requisite than an objective existence of those vain words in their memories And thus mayst thou be sinning in the persons of thy Companions when thou art turned into dust And this is one reason that Suarez gives for a general Judgment after men have past their particular judgment immediately after their death Because saith he after this multitudes of sins by their means will be committed in the world for which they must yet be judged to a fuller measure of wrath So that look as many of the precious Servants of God now in glory have left many weighty and holy Sayings behind them by which many thousands of souls have been benefitted and God glorified on Earth after they had left it So thou leavest that vanity upon the mind of others behind thee by which he may be dishonoured to many generations And then 2. For PROPHANE OATHES th● corrupt fruit of a graceless heart Oh how common are these among you yea the habit of swearing 〈◊〉 so strengthened in some that they have lost all Sens●●● and Conscience of the sin Now Oh that I migh● prevail with you to repent of this wickedness an● break the force of this customary evil among you Will you but give me the reading of a few page● more and weigh with the reason of men what yo● read If you will not hearken to counsel it is a fat● sign 2 Cor. 2. 15 16. and you shall mourn for th● obstinacy hereafter Prov. 5. 12 13. Desperate that evil that scorns the remedy And if you ha●● patience to read it the Lord give you an heart 〈◊〉 consider what you read and obey the Counsels of God or else it were better thine eyes had never ●een these lines Well then I beseech you consider Arg. 1. That prophane Oathes are an high abuse of the dreadful and sacred Name of God which should neither be spoken or thought of without the ●●eepest awe and reverence It is the taking of that ●acred Name in vain Exod. 20. 7. Now God is ●xceeding tender and jealous over his Name it is ●ear to him his Name is dreadful and glorious Malac. 1. 14. I am a great King and my Name is ●readful among the Heathens The Heathen would ●ot ordinarily mention the names of such as they ●everenced Suetonius saith that Augustus pro●ibited the common use of his name he thought it 〈◊〉 indignity to have his name tost up and down in ●very one's mouth Yea saies Dr. Willet on Exod. 〈◊〉 it was a use among them to keep secret such ●ames as they would have in reverence They durst ●ot mention the name of Demogorgon whom they ●eld to be the first God They thought when he ●as named the earth would tremble Also the ●●me of Murcurius Trismegistus was very sparingly ●ed because of that reverence the people had for 〈◊〉 Now consider shall poor worms be so tender 〈◊〉 preserving the reverence of their names Shall 〈◊〉 Heathens dare to use the names of their Idols 〈◊〉 shall the sacred and dreadful name of the true 〈◊〉 be thus bandied up and down by tongues of his 〈◊〉 Creatures Will not God be avenged for these ●ses of his Name Be confident it shall one day 〈◊〉 sanctified upon you in judgment because ye did 〈◊〉 sanctifie it according to your duty Arg. 2. Swearing is a part of the Worship of 〈◊〉 and therefore prophane swearing can be no less than the profanation of his worship and robbing●● him of all the glory he has thereby Deut. 6. 13. ● Thou shalt fear the Lord thy God and serve him and shalt swear by his Name So Jer. 4. 2. Thou shal● swear the Lord liveth in Truth in Iudgment and 〈◊〉 Righteousness If a man swear by God after thi● manner God is exceedingly glorified thereby Now that you may see what revenue of Glory Go●●● hath from this part of his worship and how it be●omes a part of Divine Worship you must know That an Oath is nothing else but The asking o● desiring a Divine Testimony for the confirmation of th● truth of our testimony Heb. 6. 16. For men veril● swear by the greater and an Oath for confirmation is to them an end of all strife The corruption o● humane nature by the fall has made man such a fals● and ●ickle creature that his single testimony canno● be sufficient Security for another especially i● weighty Cases to rest upon and therefore i● swearing he calleth ●od for a witness of the trut● of that he affirms or promiseth I say calleth Go● to be a witness of the truth of what he saith becau●● he is Truth it self and cannot lie Heb. 6. 18. No● this calling for or asking of a Testimony from Go● makes an Oath become a part of Gods Worshi● and gives him a great deal of Glory and Honour For hereby he that sweareth acknowledgeth 〈◊〉 Omnisciency and Infallible Truth and Righteousne●●● His Omnisciency is acknowledged for by this appe●● to Him we imply and acknowledge him to be 〈◊〉 Searcher of the hearts and reins that he knows 〈◊〉 secret intents and meaning of our spirits His 〈◊〉 preme and Infallible Truth is also acknowledged 〈◊〉 this is manifestly carried in an Oath That thoug● am a false and deceitful Creature and my affirmati●● cannot obtain universal and full credence yet that is greater than I by whose Name I swear cannot deceive And lastly his Righteousness is acknowledged in an Oath for he that sweareth doth either expresly or implicitly put himself under the curse and wrath of God if he swear falsely Every Oath hath ●n execration or imprecation in it Neh. 10. 29. They entered into a curse and an

and riches of it if they will but submit to the terms on which it is tender'd to them In the vastness of the Ocean we have also a lively Emblem of Eternity Who can comprehend or measure the Ocean but God And who can comprehend Eternity but he that is said to inhabit it Isa. 57. 15. Though shallow Rivers may be drained and dried up yet the Ocean cannot And though these transitory Days Months and Years will at last expire and determine yet Eternity shall not O! it is a long World and amazing Matter What is Eternity but a constant permanency of Persons and Things in one and the same State and Condition for ever putting them beyond all possibility of change The Heathens were wont to shadow it by a Cricle or a Snake twisted round It will be to all of us either a perpetual Day or Night which will not be measured by Watches Hours Minutes And as it cannot be measured so neither can it ever be diminished When thousands of years are gone there is not a minute less to come Gerhard and Drexelius do both illustrate it by this known similitude Suppose a Bird were to come once in a thousand years to some vast Mountain of Sand and carry away in her Bill one Sand in a thousand years O what a vast time would it be e're that immortal Bird after that rate had recovered the Mountain and yet in time this might be done For there would be still some diminution but in Eternity there can be none There be three things in Time which are not competent to Eternity In Time there is a Succession one Generation Year and Day passeth and another comes but Eternity is a fixed now In Time there is a Diminution and wasting the more is past the less to come But it is not so in Eternity In time there is an Alteration of condition and states A Man may be poor to day and rich to morrow sickly and diseased this week and well the next now in contempt and anon in honour But no change passes upon us in Eternity As the Tree falls at Death and Judgment so it lies for ever If in Heaven there thou art a Pillar and shalt go forth no more Rev. 3. 12. If in Hell no Redemption thence but the smoak of their torments ascendeth for ever and ever Rev. 19. 3. REFLECTION And is the Mercy of God like the great Deeps an Ocean that none can fathom What unspeakable Comfort is this to me may the pardoned Soul say Did Israel sing a Song when the Lord had overwhelm'd their corporal Enemies in the Seas And shall not I break forth into his Praises who hath drowned all my sins in the depth of Mercy O my Soul bless thou the Lord and let his high praises ever be in thy mouth Mayst not thou say that he hath gone to as high an extent and degree of Mercy in pardoning thee as ever he did in any Oh my God who is like unto thee that pardonest Iniquity Transgression and Sin What mercy but the Mercy of a God could cover such abominations as mine But O! what terrible Reflections will Conscience ●ake from hence upon all the Despisers of Mercy when the sinners eyes come to be opened too late for Mercy to do them good We have heard in●eed that the King of Heaven was a merciful King ●ut we would make no address to Him whilst that Scepter was stretched out We heard of Balm in Gilead and a Physician there that was able and willing to cure all our wounds but would not commit our seives to him We read that the Arms of Christ were open to embrance and receive us but we would not O unparallel'd folly O Soul-destroying madness Now the Womb of Mercy is shut up and shall bring forth no more Mercies to me for ever Now the Gates of Grace are shut and no cries can open them Mercy acted its part and is gone off the Stage and now Justice enters the Scene and will be glorified for ever upon me How often did I hear the Bowels of Compassion sounding in the Gospel for me But my hard and impenitent heart could not relent and now if it could it is too late I am now past out of the Ocean of Mercy into the Ocean of Eternity where I am fixed in the midst of endless Misery and shall never hear the Voice of Mercy more O dreadful Eternity Oh Soul-confounding Word ● An Ocean indeed to which this Ocean is but as a drop for in thee no Soul shall see either Bank or Bottom If I lie but one Night under strong pains of body how tedious doth that Night seem And how do I tell the Clock and wish for day In the World I might have had Life and would not And now how fain would I have Death but cannot ● How quick were my sins in execution And how long is their punishment in duration O how shall I dwell with everlasting Burnings Oh that God would but vouchsafe one treaty more with me Bu● alas all tenders and treaties are now at an end with me On Earth peace Luke 2. 13. but none in Hell O my Soul consider these things come let us debate this matter seriously before we launch o● into this Ocean THE POEM Who from some high-rais'd Tower views the ground His heart doth tremble and his head doth round Even so my Soul whilst it doth view and think On this Eternity upon whose brink It borders stands amazed and doth cry O boundless bottomless Eternity The Scourge of Hell whose very Lash doth rend The damned Souls in twain What! never end The more thereon they ponder think and pore The more poor wretches still they howl and roar Ah! though more years in torments we should lie Than Sands are on the Shore or in the Skie Are twinkling Stars yet this gives some relief The hope of ending Ah! but here 's the grief A thousand Years in Torments past and gone Ten Thousand more afresh are coming on And when these Thousands all their course have run The end 's no more than when it first begun Come then my Soul let us discourse together This weighty Point and tell me plainly whether You for these short-liv'd Ioys that come and go Will plunge your self and me in endless woe Resolve the Question quickly do not dream More Time away Lo in an hasty stream We swiftly pass and shortly we shall be Ingulphed both in this Eternity CHAP. III. Within these smooth-fac'd Seas strange Creatures crawl But in Man's Heart far stranger than them all OBSERVATION IT was an unadvised saying of Plato Mare nil memorabile producit The Sea produceth nothing memorable But surely there is much of the Wisdom Power and Goodness of God manifested in those Inhabitants of the Watery Region Notwithstanding the Seas azure and smiling face Strange Creatures are bred in its Womb. O Lord saith David how manifold are thy works In wisdom hast thou made them all the Earth is full

stripes came but from the arm of a Creature these that the Text speaks of are set on by the omnipotent arm of God Of the former there was a determinate number set down in their law as forty stripes and sometimes they would remit one of that number too in mercy to the offender as you see in the example of Paul 2 Cor. 11. 24. Of the ●ews I received forty stripes save one but in Hell no mitigation at all nor allay of mercy The arm of his power supports the Creature in its being while the arm of his justice lays on eternally Soul consider these things do thou not persist any longer then in such a desperate way of sinning against the clear conviction of thine own Conscience which in this case must needs give testimony against thee Well then go to God with the words of David Psal. 66. 13 14. and say unto him I will pay thee my vows which my lips have uttered and my tongue hath spoken when I was in trouble Pay it Soul and pay it speedily unto God else he will recover it by Justice and fetch it out of thy bones in Hell O trifle not any longer with God and that in such serious matters as these are And now I have done my endeavour to give your former Mercies and Promises a Resurrection in your Consciences Oh that you would sit down and pause s● while upon these things and then reflect upon the past Mercies of your lives and on what hath past betwixt God and your Souls in your former straights and trou●bles Let not these plain words work upon thy spleen● and make thee say as the Widow of Sarephta did to th● Prophet Elijah 2 Kings 17. 18. What have I to do wit● thee O thou man of God Art thou come to call my sin to remembrance But rather let it work kindly on thy heart and make thee say as David to Abigail 1 Sam. 25. 32. 33. Blessed be the Lord God of Israel which sent thee this day to meet me and blessed be thy advice V. CAUTION THe fifth and last danger I shall warn you of is Your contempt and slighting of Death Ah how light a matter do many of you at least in words make of it It seems you have little reverential fear of this King of terrours not onely that you speak slightly of it but also because you make no more preparation for it and are no more sensible of your preservations and deliverances from it Indeed the heathen Philosophers did many of them profess a Contempt of Death upon the account of Wisdom and Fortitude and they were accounted the bravest men that most despised and slighted it But alas poor Souls they saw not their enemy against whom they taught but skirmisht with their eyes shut They saw indeed its pale face but not its sting and dart There is also a lawful contempt of death we freely grant that in two Cases a believer may contemn it first when it is propounded to them in a temptation on purpose to scare them from Christ and duty then they should slight it as Rev. 12. 11. They loved not their lives to the death Secondly When the natural evil of death is set in Competition with the enjoyment of God in Glory then a believer should despise it as Christ is said to do Heb. 12. 2 though his was a shameful death But upon all other accounts and considerations it is the height of stupidity and security to despise it Now to the end that you might have right thoughts and apprehensions of death which may put you upon serious preparation for it and that when ever your turn comes to conflict with this King of terrours under whose hand the Pompeys Caesars and Alexanders of the world who have been the terrours of Nations have bowed down themselves I say that when your turn and time comes as the Lord onely knows how soon it may be you may escape the stroke of its dart and sting and taste no other b●tterness in death than the natural evil of it To this end I have drawn the following Questions and Answers which if you please may be called The Sea-man's Catechism And Oh that you might not dare to launch forth into the deeps untill you have seriously interrogated and examined your hearts upon those particulars Oh that you would resolve before you go forth to withdraw your selves a while from all clamours and distractions and calmly and seriously Catechise your own selves in this manner Quest. 1. What may the issue of this Voyage be Answ. Death Prov. 27. 1. Boast no● thy self of to morrow for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth Jam 4. 13 14. Go to now ye that say To day or to morrow we will go into such a City and continue there a year and buy and sell and get gain VVhereas you know not what shall be on to morrow for what is your Life It is even a vapour that appeareth for a little time and then vanisheth away Quest. 2 What is Death Ans. Death is a separation of Soul and Body till the Resurrection 2 Cor. 5. 1. VVe know that if our earthly house of this T●bernacle be dissolved Iob 14. 10 11 12. Read the words Quest. 3. Is Death to be despised and slighted if it be so An. O no! It 's one of the most weighty and serious things that ever a creature went about So dreadful doth it appear to some that the fear of it subjects them to Bondage all their lives Hebr. 2. 15. And to deliver them who through fear of death were all their lives subject to bondage And in Scripture It 's called the King of terrours Job 18. 14. Or the black Prince as some translate Never had any Prince such a title before To some it hath been so terrible that none might mention its Name before them Quest. 4. What makes it so terrible and affrighting to Men Answ. Several things concur to make it terrible to the most of Men As first its Harbingers and Antecedents which are strong Pains Conflicts and Agonies Secondly its office and work it comes about which is to transfer us into the other world Hence Rev. 6. 8. It 's set forth by a Pale Horse An horse for its use and office to carry you away from hence into the upper or lower region of Eternity and a pale horse for it's gastliness and terror Thirdly but above all it 's terrible in regard of its consequence for it 's the door of Eternity the parting point betwixt the present world and that to come the utmost line and boundary of all temporal things Hence Heb. 9. It 's appointed for all men once to die and after that the Iudgment Rev. 6. 8. And I looked and behold a pale Horse and his name that sat on him was Death and Hell followed him Ah it makes a sudden and strange alteration upon mens conditions to be pluckt out of house and from among friends and honours and