curse upon themselves saith Ambrose Drunkenness slays more then the Sword Oh! what a terrible thing will in be to consider upon a Death-bed that these pangs and aches are the fruits of thy Intemperance and Excess VVho hath wo Who hath sorrows VVho hath contention VVho hath babling VVho hath wounds without cause VVho hath redness of eyes They that tarry long at VVine they that go to seek mixt VVine Prov. 23. 29 30. By this Enumeration and manner of Interrogation he seems to make it a difficult thing to recount the miseries that Drunkenness loads the outward man with for look as Vermine abound where there is store of Corn so do Diseases in the bodies of Drunkards where crudities do so abound Now methinks if thou have no regard to thy poor Soul or the glory of God yet such a sensible Argument as this from thy body should move thee Arg. 4. Drunkenness wastes and scatters thine estate Proverty attends excess the Drunkard shall be cloathed with Rags and brought to a morsel of bread Solomon hath read thy fortune Prov. 21. 17. He that loveth Wine and Oyl shall not be rich Luxury and Beggary are seldom far asunder When Diogenes heard a Drunkards house cryed to be sold I thought quoth he it would not be long ere he vomited up his house also The Hebrew word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifie Luxury the former is compounded of two words which signify Thou shalt be poor and the latter signifies the losing of the possession of that good which is in our hand The Drunkard and the Glutton shall surely come to poverty Prov. 23. 21. In the Hebrew it is He shall be disinherited or disposessed It doth not only dispossess a man of his Reason which is a rich and fair inheritance given to him by God but it also dispossesses him of his estate it wastes all that either the provident care of thy Progenitors or the blessing of God upon thine own industry hath obtained for thee And how will this sting like and Adder when thou shalt consider it Apicius the Roman hearing that there were seven hundred Crowns only remaining of a fair estate that his Father had left him fell into a deep Melancholly and fearing want hanged himself saith Seneca And not to mention the miseries and sorrows they bring hereby upon their Families drinking the tears yea blood of their Wives and Children Oh what an account will they give to God when their reckoning day comes Believe it Sirs there is not a shilling of your estates but God will reckon with you for the expence thereof If you have spent it upon your luâ—ts while the necessity of your families or the poor called upon you for it I should be loth to have your account to make for a thousand times more than ever you possessed O woful expence that is followed with such dreadful reckonings Arg. 5. Consider what vile and ignominious Characters the Spirit of God hath put upon the subjects of this sin The Scripture every where notes them for infamous and most abominable persons When Eli supposed Hannah to be drunken Count not thy hand-maid a daughter of Belial said she 1 Sam. 1. 16. Now a Son or daughter of Belial is in Scripture-language the vilest of men or women So Psal. 69. 12. They that sit in the gate speak against me and I am the Song of Drunkards i. e. of the basest and vilest of men as the opposition plainly shews for they are opposed to them that sit in the gate that is honourable persons The Lord would have his people shun the society of such as a pest Not to eat with them 1 Cor. 5. 11. Yea the Scripture brands them with Atheism they are such as have lost the sense and expectation of the Day of Judgment mind not another world nor do they look for the coming of the Lord Matth. 24. 27 28. He saith the Lord delayeth his coming and then falls a drinking with the drunken The thoughts of that day will make them leave their Cups or their Cups will drown the thoughts of such a Day And will not all the contempt shame and infamy which the Spirit of God hath poured on the head of this sin cause thee to abhor it Do not all Godly yea Moral Persons abhor the Drunkard Oh methinks the shame that attends it should be as a fence to keep thee from it Arg. 6. Sadly consider there can be nothing of the sanctifying Spirit in a soul that is under the dominion of this lust for upon the first discovery of the Grace of God the Soul renounces the Government of Sensuality The Grace of God that bringeth Salvation teacheth men to live soberly Tit. 2. 11 12. That is one of its first effects Drunkenness indeed may be found among Heathens that are lost in the darkness of Ignorance but it may not be once named among the Children of the Day They that be drunken are drunken in the night but let us that are of the day be sober 1 Thes. 5. 7 8. And the Apostles often oppose Wine and the Spirit as things incompatible Eph. 5. 16. Be not drunk with Wine wherein is excess but be filled with the Spirit So Jude 19. Sensual not having the Spirit Now what a dreadful Consideration is this If any man have not the Spirit of Christ the same is none of his Rom 8. 9. Sensual persons have not the Spirit of Christ and so can be none of his It 's true Noah a Godly man once fell into this sin but as Theodoret saith and that truly it proceeded ab inexperientiae non ab intemperantia from want of experience of the force and power of the Grape not from Intemperance and besides we find not that ever he was again overtaken with that sin but thou knowest it and yet persistest O wretched Creature the Spirit of Christ cannot dwell in thee The Lord help thee to lay it to heart sadly Arg. 7. It 's a Sin over which many direful woes and threats hang in the Word like so many lowring clouds ready to power down vengeance upon the heads of such Sinners Look as the condition of the Saints is compassed round with Promises so is yours with Threatnings Isai. 5. 11. Wo to them that rise up early in the morning that they may follow strong drink and continue until night until VVine inflame So Isai. 28. 1 2. Wo to the Crown of Pride to the Drunkards of Ephraim c. With many other too long to enumerate here Now consider what a fearful thing it is to be under these woes of God Sinner I beseech thee do not make light of them for they will fall heavy assure thy self not one of them shall fall to the ground they will all take place upon thee except thou repent There are woes of Men and woes of God Gods woes are true woes and make their condition woful to purpose on whom they fall Other
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 Harlot's 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-man's Catechism Being an Essay toward their much deâ—â—â—d Reformation from the Horrible and Destable Sins of Drunkenness Swearing Vncleanness Forgetfulness of Mercies Violation of Promises and Atheistical Contempt of Death Fit to be seriously Recommended to their Profane Relations whether Sea-men or Others by all such as Unfeignedly desire their Eternal Welfare And they said Come let us cast Lots that we may know for whose cause this evil is come upon us Jonah 1. 7. Knowing therefore the terrours of the LORD we perswade Men 2 Cor. 5. 11. By Iohn Flavel Minister of the Gospel The Fourth Edition London Printed for M. Fabian in Mercers Chappel at the lower end of Cheapside 1698. What good might Seaman get if once they were But heavenly 〈◊〉 if they could but steer Thâ— Christâ—â—s course the Soul might then enjoy Sweet Peace they might like Seas or-flow with Joy Were God our All how would our Comforts double Upon us thus the Seas of all our trouble Would be divinely sweet Men should endeavour To see God now and be with him for ever To All Masters Marriners and Seamen Especially such as belong to the Borrough of Clifton Dartmouth and Hardnes in the County of Devon Sirs I Find it Story'd of Anacharsis that when one Ask'd him Whether the Living or the Dead were more He returned this Answer You must first tell me saith he in which Number I must place Sea-men Intimating thereby that Sea-men are as it were a Third sort of Persons to be Number'd neither with the Living nor the Dead their Lives hanging continually in suspence before them And it was anciently accounted the most desperate Imployment and they little better than lost Men that us'd the Seas Through all my Life saith Aristotle Three things do especially repent me First That ever I reveal'd a Secret to a Woman Secondly That ever I remain'd one day without a Will Thirdly That ever I went to any place by Sea whither I might have gone by Land Nothing saith another is more miserable than to see a Virtuous and Worthy Person upon the Sea And although Custom and the great Improvement of the Art of Navigation have made it less formidable now yet are you no further from death than you are from the waters which is but a remove of two or three inches Now you that border so nigh upon the confines of death and eternity every moment may well be supposed to be Men of singular Piety and Seriousness For nothing more composes the Heart to such a frame than the lively apprehensions of Eternity do and none have greater external advantages for that than you have But alas for the generality What sort 〈◊〉 Men are more ungodly and stupidly insensible of eterna concernments Living for the most part as if they had made a Covenant with death and with hell were at agreement It was an ancient saying Qui nescit orare discat navigare He that knows not how to Pray let him go to Sea But we may say now alas that we may say so in times of greater light He that would learn to be proâ—ane to drink and swear and dishonour God let him go to Sea As for Prayer it is a rare thing among Sea-men they count that a needless-business they see the prophane and vile deliver'd as well as others and therefore What profit is there if they Pray unto him Mal. 3. 4. As I remember I have read of a profane Souldier who was heard swearing though he stood in a place of great danger and when one that stood by him warned him saying Fellow-souldier do not Swear the Bullets flie he answer'd They that swear come off as well as they that pray Soon after a shot hit him and down he fell Plato diligently admonisht all Men to avoid the Sea For saith he it is the School-master of all Vice and Dishonesty Sirs it is a very sad consideration to me that you who float upon the great deeps in whose bottom so many Thousand poor miserable Creatures lie whose sins have sunk them down not only into the bottom of the Sea but of Hell also whither divine vengeance hath pursu'd them That you I say who daily float and hover over them and have the roaring waves and billows that swallow'd them up gaping for you as the next prey should be no more affected with these things Oh what a Terrible Voice doth God utter in the Stroms It breaks the Cedars shakes the Wilderness makes the Hinds to Calve Psal. 29. 5. And can it not shake your hearts This Voice of the Lord is full of Majesty but his Voice in the Word is more efficacious and powerful Heb. 4. 12. to convince and rip up the heart This Word is exalted above all his Name Psal. 138. 3. and if it cannot awaken you it is no wonder you remain secure and dead when the Lord utters his Voice in the most dreadful storms and tempests But if neither the Voice of God uttered in his dreadful Works or in his glorious Gospel can effectually awaken and rouze there is an Euroclidon a fearful storm coming which will so awaken your souls as that they shall never sleep any more Psal. 11. 6. Upon the wicked he shall reign Snares Fire and Brimstone and an horrible Tempest This is the portion of their Cup. You that have been at Sea in the most Violent storms never felt such a storm as this and the Lord grant you never may no Calm shall follow this Storm There are some among you that I am perswaded do truly fear that God in whose hand their Life and Breath is Men that fear an Oath and are an honour to their Profession who drive a Trade for Heaven and are diligent to secure the happiness of their Immortal souls in the Insurance-Office above but for the generality alas they mind none of these things How many of you are coasting to and fro from one Country to another but never think of that Heavenly Country above nor how you may get the Merchandize thereof which is better than the Gold of Ophir How oft do you tremble to see the foaming V Vaves dance about you and wash over you yet consider not how terrible it will be to have all the waves and billows of God's wrath to go over your souls and that for ever How glad are you after you have been long toss'd upon the Ocean to descry Land And how yare and eagerly do you look out for it who yet never had your hearts warmed with the consideration of that Ioy which shall be among the Saints when they arrive
at the Heavenly Strand and set foot upon the shore of Glory O Sirs I beg of you if you have any regard to those precious immortal Souls of yours which are also imbarqued for Eternity whither all winds blow them and will quickly he at their Port of Heaven or Hell that you will seriously mind these things and learn to steer your course to Heaven and improve all Winds I mean opportunities and means to waft you thither Here you venture life and liberty run through many Difficulties and Dangers and all to compass a perishing Treasure yet how often do you return disappointed in your Designs or if not yet it is but a fading short-liv'd Inheritance which like the flowing Tide for a little while covers the shore and then returns and leaves it naked and dry again And are not Everlasting Treasures worth venturing for Good Souls be wise for Eternity I here present you with the Fruit of a few spare Hours redeemed for your sakes from my other Studies and Imployments which I have put into a new Dress and Mode I have endeavoured to cloath Spiritual Matters in your own Dialect and Phrases that they might be the more intelligible to you and added some pious Poems with which the several Chapters are concluded trying by all means to assault your several Affections and as the Apostle speaks to catch you with guile I can say nothing of it I know it cannot be without its manifold imperfections since I am conscious of so many in my self Only this I will adventure to say of it That how defective or empty soever it be in other respects yet it is stuffed and filled with much true love to and earnest desires after the salvation and prosperity of your Souls And for the other defects that attend it I have only two things to offer in way of excuse It is the first Essay that I ever made in this kind wherein I had no President And it was hastned for your sakes too soon out of my hands that it might be ready to wait upon you when you undertake your next Voyage so that I could not revise and polish it Nor indeed was I sollicitous about the stile I consider I writ not for Critical and Learned Persons my design is not to please your Fancies any further than I might thereby get advantage to profit your Souls I will not once question your welcome Reception of it If God shall bless these Meditations to the Conversion of any among you you will be the Gainers and my heart shall rejoyce even mine How comfortably should we shake hand with you when you go abroad were we perswaded your Souls were interested in Christ and secured from perishing in the New Convenant What life would it put into our Prayers for you when you are abroad to consider that Iesus Christ is interceeding for you in Heaven whilst we are your Remembrancers here on Earth How quiet would our hearts be when you are abroad in Storms did we know you had a special Interest in him whom Winds and Seas obey To conclude what Ioy would it be to your Godly Relations to see you return new Creatures Doubtless more than if you came home laden with the Riches of both Indies Come Sirs set the heavenly Jerusalem upon the Point of your New Compass make all the Sail you can for it and the Lord give you a prosperous Gale and a safe Arrival in that Land of Rest. So prays Your most Affectionate Friend to serve you in Soul-Concernments IOHN FLAVEL IMPRIMATUR Geo. Stradling S. T. P. Rev. in Christo Pat. D. Gilb. Archiepisc. Cant. a. Sac. Domest Ex Aed Lamb. Dec. 14. 1663. To every Sea-man Sailing Heavenward Ingenious Sea-man THE Art of Navigation by which Islands especially are enriched and preserved in safety from Forensical Invasions and the wonderful Works of God in the great Deep and Foreign Nations are most delightfully and fully beheld c. is an Art of exquisite excellency ingenuity rarity and mirability But the Art of Spiritual Navigation is the Art of Arts. It is a gallant thing to be able to carry a Ship richly laden round the World but it is much more gallant to carry a Soul that rich loading a Pearl of more worth than all the Merchandise of the world in a body that is liable to leaks and bruises as any Ship is through the Sea of this World which is as unstable as water and hath the same brinish taste and salt gust which the waters of the Sea have safe to Heaven the best Haven so as to avoid splitting upon any Soul-sinking Rocks or striking upon any Soul-drowning Sands The Art of Natural Navigation is a very great mystery but the Art of Spiritual Navigation is by much a greater mystory Humane wisdom may teach us to carry a Ship to the Indies but the Wisdom only that is from above can teach us to steer our course aright to the Haven of Happiness This Art is purely of Divine Revelation The truth is Divinity the Doctrine of living to God is nothing else but the Art of Soul-Navigation revealed from Heaven A meer man can carry a Ship to any desired Port in all the World but no meer man can carry a Soul to Heaven He must be a Saint he must be a Divine so all Saints are that can be a Pilot to carry a Soul to the fair Haven in Emanuel's land The Art of Natural Navigation is wonderfully improved since the coming of Christ before which time if there be truth in History the use of the Loadstone was never known in the world and before the vertue of that was revealed unto the Mariner it is unspeakable with what uncertain wandrings Sea-men floated here and there rather than sailed the right and direct way Sure I am the Art of Spiritual Navigation is wonderfully improved since the coming of Christ it oweth its clearest and fullest discovery to the coming of Christ. This Art of Arts is now perfectly revealed in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament but the Rulers thereof are dispers'd up and down therein The collecting and methodizing of the same cannot but be a work very useful unto Souls Though when all is done there is an absolute necessity of the teachings of the Spirit and of the anointing that is from above to make Souls Artists in sailing Heavenward The Ingenious Author of the Christians Compass or the Marriners Companion makes three Parts of this Art as the School-men of Divinity viz. Speculative Practical and Affectionate The principal things necessary to be known by a Spiritual Sea-man in order to the steering rightly and safely to the Port of Happiness he reduceth to four Heads answerable to the four general Points of the Compass making God our North Christ our East Holiness our South and Death our West Points Concerning God we must know 1. That he is Heb. 11. 6. and that there is but one God 1 Cor. 8. 5 6. 2. That this God is that
at several Meditations which the spiritual Seaman is to be acquainted with unto which thou hast an excellent Supplement in this New Compass for Seamen This Collection is prefixt that at once thou mayest view all the Compasses both the Speculative Practical and Affectionate by which thou must steer Heaven-ward What further shall be added by way of Preâ—â—â—e is not to commend this New Compass which indeed 2 Cor. 3. 1. needs no 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Letters of Commendation or any Panegyrick to usher it into any honest heart but to stir up all especially Sea-men to make conscience of using such choice helps for the promoting the sanctification and salvation of their Souls for the making of them as dexterous in the Art of Spiritual Navigation as any of them are in the Art of Natural Navigation Consider therefore 1. What rich Merchandize thy Soul is Christ assures us one Soul is more worth than all the world The Lord Iesus doth as it were put the whole world in one scale and one soul in the other and the world is found too light Mat. 16. 26. Shouldst thou by skill in Natural Navigation carry safe all the treasures of the Indies into thine own Port yea gain the whole world and for want of skill in spiritual Navigation lose thy soul thou wouldst be the greatest loser in the world So far wilt thou be from profiting by any of thy Sea-voyages There is a plain 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in those words of Christ What is a man profited if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul More is meant than is spoken 2. What a leaking Vessel thy body is in which this unspeakable inconceivable rich Treasure thy soul is embarked O the many diseases and distempers in the humors and passions that thy body is subject to It is above 2000 years ago that there have been rekoned up 300 Names of Diseases and there be many under one name and many nameless which pose the Physicians not only how to cure them but how to call them And for the affections and passions of the Mind the distempers of them are no less deadly to some than the diseases of the body But besides these internal causes there are many external causes of Leaks in this Vessel as poisonous malignities wrathful hostilities and casual mishaps very small matters may be of great moment to the sinking of this Vessel The least Gnat in the Air may choak one as it did Adrian a Pope of Rome a little hair in Milk may strangle one as it did a Counsellor in Rome a little stone of a Raisin may stop ones breath as it did the Poetical Poet Anacreon Thus you see what a leaking Vessel you sail in Now the more leaky any ship is the more need there is of skill to steer wisely 3. Consider what a dangerous Sea the World is in which thy Soul is to sail in the leaking ship of thy body As there are not more changes in the Sea than are in the World the world being only constant in inconstancy The fashion of this world passeth away 1 Cor. 7. 31. so there are not more dangers in the Sea for ships than there are in the world for souls In this world Souls meet with Rocks and Sands Syrens and Pyrates Worldly Temptations worldly Lusts and worldly Company cause many to drown themselves in perdition 1 Tim. 6. 9. The very things of this world endanger our Souls By worldly Objects we soon grow worldly It is hard to touch Pitch and not be defiled The lusts of this world stain our glory and the men of tâ—is world pollute all they converse with A man that keeps company with the men of this world is like him that walketh in the Sun tanned insensibly Thus you have hinted the dangerousness of the Sea wherein you are to sail Now the more dangerous the Sea is the more requisite it is the Sailer be an Artist 4. Consider what if through want of skill in the heavenly Art of spiritual Navigation thou shouldst not steer thy Câ—â—rse aright I will instance only in two consequents thereof 1. Thou wilt never arrive at the Haven of Happiness 2. Thou shalt be drowned in the Ocean of God's wrath As true as the Word of God is true as sure as the Heavens are over thy head and the Earth under thy feet as sure as thou yet livest and breathest in this Air so true and certain it is thou shalt never enter into Heaven but sink into the depth of the bottomless pit Am I not herein a Messenger of the saddest Tidings that ever yet thy Ears did hear Possibly now thou makest a light matter of these things because thou dost not know what it is to miss of Heaven and what it is for ever to lie under the wrath of God but hereafter thou wilt know fully what it is to have thy Soul lost eternally so lost as that God's mercies and all the good there is in Christ shall never save it and as God hath set and ordered things can never save it Hereafter thou wilt be perfectly sensible of the good that thou mightest have had and of the evil that shall be upon thee this is God's peculiar Prerogative to make a Creature as sensible of Misery as he pleaseth then thou wilt have other thoughts of these things than now thou hast Then the thoughts of thy mind shall be busied about thy lost Condition both as to the pain of loss and the pain of sense so that thou shalt not be able to take any ease any moment then that thy torments may be increased they acknowledge the truth of thy apprehensions yea the strength of them shall be encreased thou shalt have true and deep apprehensions of the greatness of that good that thou shalt miss of and of that evil which thou shalt procure unto thy self and then thou shalt not be able to choose but to apply all thy loss all thy misery to thy self which will force thee to roar out O my loss O my misery O my unconceivable unrecoverable loss and misery Yea for the increasing of thy torments thy Affections and Memory shall be enlarged O that to prevent that lose and misery these things may now be known and laid to heart O that a blind Understanding a stupid Judgment a bribed Conscience a hard Heart a bad Memory may no longer make Heaven and Hell to seem but trifles to thee Thou wilt then easily be perswaded to make it thy main business here to become an Artist in Spiritual Navigation But to shut up this Preface I shall briefly acquaint Sea-men why they should of all others be Men of singular Piety and Heavenliness and therefore more than ordinarily study the heavenly Art of Spiritual Navigation O that Sea-men would therefore consider 1 How nigh they border upon the Confines of Death and Eternity every moment There is but a step but an
inch or two between them and their Graves continually The next Gust may over-set them the next Wave may swallow them up In one place lies lurking dangerous Rocks in another perilous Sands and every-where stormy Winds ready to destroy them Well may the Sea-men cry out Ego crastinum non habui I have not had a Morrow in my hands these many Years Should not they then be extraordinary serious and heavenly continually Certainly as the Reverend Author of this New Compass well observes nothing more composeth the heart to such a frame than the lively apprehensions of Eternity do and none have greater external advantages for that than Sea-men have 2. Consider Sea-men what extraordinary help you have by the Book of the Creatures the whole Creation is God's Voice it is God's excellent Hand-writing or the Sacred Scriptures of the Most High to teach us much of God and what reasons we have to bewail our Rebellion against God and to make conscience of obeying God only naturally and continually The Heavens the Earth the Waters are the three great Leaves of this Book of God and all the Creatures are so many Lines in those Leaves All that learn not to fear and serve God by the help of this Book will be left inexcusable Rom. 1. 20. How inexcusable then will ignorant and ungodly Sea-men be Sea-men should in this respect be the best Scholars in the Lord's School seeing they do more than others see the Works of the Lord and his Wonders in the great Deep Psal. 107. 24. 3. Consider how often you are nearer Heaven than any People in the World They mount up to heaven Psal. 107. 26. It has been said of an ungodly Minister that contradicted his Preaching in his Life and Conversation That it was pity he should e're come out of the Pulpit because he was there as near Heaven as ever he would be Shall it be said of you upon the same account That 't is piâ—y you should come down from the high-towring Waves of the Sea Should not Sea-men that in stormy Weather have their feet as it were upon the Battlements of Heaven look down upon all earthly Happiness in this World but as base waterish and worthless The great Cities of Campania seem but small Cottages to them that stand on the â—lpes Should not Sea-men that so oft mount up to Heaven make it their main business here once at last to get into Heaven What Sea-men shall you only go to Heaven against your Wills When Seamen mount up to Heaven in a storm the Psalmist tells us That their souls are melted because of trouble O that you were continually as unwilling to go to Hell as you are in a storm to go to Heaven 4. And lastly Consider what engagements lie upon you to be singularly holy from your singular deliverances and salvations They that go down to the Sea in Ships are sometimes in the Valley of the shadow of Death by reason of the springing of perilous Leaks and yet miraculously delivered either by some wonderful stopping of the Leak or by God's sending some Ship within their sight when they have been far out of sight of any Land or by his bringing their near-perishing Ship safe to shore Sometimes they have been in very great danger of being taken by Pirates yet wonderfully preserved either by God's calming of the Winds in that part of the Sea where the Pirates have sail'd or by giving the poor pursued Ship a strong gale of Wind to run away from their Pursuers or by sinking the Pirates c. Sometimes their Ships have been cast away and yet they themselves wonderfully got safe to shore upon Planks Yards Masts c. I might be endless in enumerating their Deliverances from Drowning from Burning from Slavery c. Sure Sea-men your extraordinary Salvations lay more than ordinary engagement upon you to praise love fear obey and trust in your Saviour and Deliverer I have read that the enthralled Greeks were so affected with their Liberty procured by Flaminius the Roman General that their shrill Acclamations of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A Saviour a Saviour made the very Birds fall down from the Heavens astonished O how should Seamen be affected with their Sea-Deliverances Many that have been deliver'd from Turkish Slavery have vowed to be Servants to their Redeemers all the days of their Lives Ah Sirs will not you be more than ordinarily God's Servants all the days of your Lives seeing you have been so oft so wonderfully râ—deemed from Death it self by him Verily do what you can you will die in God's Debt As for me God forbid that I should sin against the Lord in ceasing to pray for you 1 Sam. 12. 23 24. That by the perusal of this short and sweet Treatise wherein the jucicious and ingenious Author hath well mixed utile dulci profit and pleasure you may learn the good and right way even to fear the Lord and serve him in truth with all your hearts considering how great things he hath done for you This is the hearty Prayer of Your Cordial Friend earnestly desirous of a prosperous Voyage for your precious and immortal Souls T.M. The AUTHOR to the READER WHen Dewy-cheek'd Aurora doth display Her Curtains to let in the New-born Day Her heavenly Face looks Red as if it were Dy'd with a modest Blush 'twixt Shame and Fear Sol makes her blush suspecting that he will Scorch some too much and others leave to chill With such a Blush my little New-born Book Goes out of hand suspecting some may look Vpon it with Contempt while others raise So mean a Peice too high by flattering Praise It s Beauty cannot make its Father dote 'T is a poor Babe clad in a Sea-green Coat It s gone from me too young and now is run To Sea among the Tribe of Zebulun Go Little Book thou many Friends wilt find Among that Tribe who will be very kind And many of them Care of Thee will take Both for thy own and for thy Father's sake Heav'n save it from the dang'rous Storms and Gusts That will be rais'd against it by Mens Lusts. Guilt makes Men angry Anger is a Storm But Sacred Truth 's thy shelter fear no harm On Times or Persous no Reflection's found Though with Reflections few Books more abound Go Little Book I have much more to say But Sea-men call for thee thou must away Yet e're you have it grant me One Request Pray do not keep it Prisoner in your Chest. BOOKS Lately Printed for Tho. Parkhurst at the Bible and Three Crowns at the lower end of Cheapside MR. Flavel's Fountain of Life open'd or a Display of Christ in his Essential and Mediatorial Glory in 42 Sermons Quarto His Treatise of the Soul of Man Quarto Divine Conduct or Mystery of Providence Burgesses Golden Snuffers a Sermon Preach'd to the Society for Reformation of Manners Sylvester's Reformation Sermon How 's Reformation Sermon Singing of Psalms Vindicated from the Charge of Novelty in
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 â—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 inâ—eed that the King of Heaven was a merciful King â—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 â— 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 â— 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 Buâ— 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 oâ— 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
unto and therefore there is no great matter in them Yea to those which in a little while are to be thrust into Hell Psal. 17. 14. Now if God cloath and feed his enemies if to allude to that Luke 12. 28. he cloath this Grass which to day is in its pride and glory in the Field and to morrow is cast into the Oven into Hell How much more will he cloath and provide for you that are Saints This God that feeds all the Creatures is your Father and a Father that never dies and therefore you shall not be as exposed Orphans that are the Children of such a Father For he hath said I will never leave you nor forsake you Heb. 13. 3. I have read of a good woman that in all wants and distresses was wont to encourage herself with that word 2 Sam. 22. 47. The Lord liveth But one time being in a deep distress and forgetting that consolation one of her little Children came to her and said Mother Why weep ye so What is God dead now Which words from a Child shamed her out of her unbelieving fears and quickly brought her Spirit to rest O Saint whilst God lives thou canst not want what is good for thee How sweet a Life might Christians live could they but bring their hearts to a full subjection to the disposing Will of God! to be content not only with what he commands and approves but also with what he allots and appoints It was a sweet Reply that a gracious Woman once made upon her Death-bed to a Friend that asked her VVhether she were more willing to live or die She answer'd I am pleas'd with what God pleaseth Yea said her Friend but if God should refer it to you which would you chuse Truly saith she if God should refer it to me I would refer it to him again Ah blest Life when the Will is swallow'd up in the Will of God and the heart at rest in his care and love and pleased with all his appointments REFLECTION I remember my fault this day may many a gracious Soul say Ah how faithless and distrustful have I been notwithstanding the great security God hath given to my Faith both in his Word and Works O my Soul thou hast greatly sinned therein and dishonoured thy Father I have been worse to my Father than my Children are to me They trouble not their thoughts with what they shall eat or drink or put on but trust to my care and provision for that Yet I cannot trust my Father though I have ten thousand times more reason so to do than they have to trust me Mat. 7. 21. Surely unless I were jealous of my Father's affection I could not be so dubious of his provision for me Ah I should rather wonder that I have so much than repine that I have no more I should rather have been troubled that I have done no more for God than that I have received no more from God I have not proclaimed it to the World by my Conversation that I have found a sufficiency in him alone as the Saints have done Hab. 3. 17 18. How have I debased the Faithfulness and All-sufficiency of God and magnified these earthly trifles by my anxiety about them Had I had more Faith a light Purse would not have made such an heavy heart Lord how often hast thou convinced me of this folly and put me to the blush when thou hast confuted my unbelief so that I have resolved never to distrust thee more and yet new exigencies renew this corruption How contradictory also hath my heart and my prayers been I pray for them conditionally and with submission to thy Will I dare not say to thee I must have them yet this hath been the language of my heart and life O convince me of this folly THE POEM Variety of curious Fish are caught Out of the Sea and to our Tables brought VVe pick the choicest bits and then we say VVe are sufficed come now take away The Table 's voided you have done but fain I would perswade to have it brought again The sweetest bit of all remains behind VVhich through your want of skill you could not find A bit for Faith have you not found it Then I have made but half a meal come taste agen Hast thou considered O my Soul that hand Which feeds those multitudes in Sea and Land A double mercy in it thou shouldest see It fed them first and then with them fed thee Food in the Waters we should think were scant For such a multitude yet none do want VVhat numerous flocks of Birds above me fly VVhen saw I one through want fall down and die They gather what his hand to them doth bring Though but a VVorm and at that Feast can sing How full a Table doth my Father keep Blush then my naughty heart repent and weep How faithless and distrustful hast thou been Although his care and love thou oft hast seen Thus in a single dish you have a feast Your first and second course the last the best CHAP. XIV Sea-waters drained through the earth are sweet So are th' afflictions which God's People meet OBSERVATION THE Waters of the Sea in themselves are brackish and unpleasant yet being exhaled by the Sun and condensed into Clouds they fall down into pleasant Showers or if drained through the Earth their property is thereby altered and that which was so salt in the Sea becomes exceeding sweet and pleasant in the Springs This we find by constant experience the sweetest crystal Spring came from the Sea Eccles. 1. 7. APPLICATION Afflictions in themselves are evil Amos 2. 6. Very bitter and unpleasant See Heb. 12. 11. Yet not morally and intrinsically evil as sin is for if so the holy God would never own it for his own act as he doth Mic. 3. â—2 but always disclaimeth sin Iam. 1. 3. Besides if it were so evil it could in no case or respect be the object of our election and desire as in some cases it ought to be Heb. 11. 25. But it is evil as it is the fruit of sin and grievous unto sense Heb. 14. 11. But though it be thus brackish and unpleasant in itself yet passing through Christ and the Covenant it loses that ungrateful property and becomes pleasant in the fruits and effects thereof unto believers Heb. 12. 11. Yea such are the blessed fruits thereof that they are to account it all joy when they fall into divers afflictions Iam. 1. 2. David could bless God that he was afflicted and many a Saint hath done the like A good woman once compared her afflictions to her children For saith she they put me in pain in bearing them yet as I know not which child so neither which affliction I conld be without Sometimes the Lord sanctifies affliction to discover the corruption that is in the heart Deut. 8. 2. It is a furnace to shew the dross Ah! when a sharp Affliction comes then the pride
all Process at Law or from the Law is stopt Rom. 8. 1. But if thou be an impenitent persisting sinner thy debt remains upon thine own score And be sure thy sin will find thee out where-ever thou goest Num. 32. 23. i. e. God's revenging hand for sin will be upon thee Thou maist lose the sight and memory of thy sin but they lose not the sight of thee they follow after as the Hound doth the fleeting game upon the scent till they have fetcht thee up And then consider How fearful a thing it is to fall into the hands of the living God Heb. 10. 31. How soon may a storm arrest and bring thee before the Bar of God REFLECTION O my Soul what a case art thou in if this be so Are not all thy sins yet upon thine own score Hast not thou mane light of Christ and that precious Blood of his and hitherto persisted in thy Rebellion against him And what can the issue of this be at last but ruine There is abundant mercy indeed for returning sinners but the Gospel speaks of none for persisting and impenitent sinners And though many who are going on in their sins are overtaken by Grace yet there is no Grace promised to such as go on in sin O if God should arrest me by the next Storm and call me to an account for all that I owe him I must then lie in the Prison of Hell to all Eternity for I can never pay the debt nay all the Angels in Heaven cannot satisfie for it Being Christless I am under all the Curses in the Book of God a Child of Hagar Lord pity and spare me a little longer O discover thy Christ unto me and give me Faith in his Blood and then thou art fully satisfied at once and I discharged for ever O require not the debt at my hand for then thou wilt never be satisfied nor I acquitted What profit Lord is there in my Blood O my soul make hast to this Christ thy Refuge-City thou knowest not how soon the avenger of Blood may overtake thee THE POEM Thy sins are debts God puts them to account Canst tell poor wretch to what thy debts amount Thou fill'st the treasure of thy sins each hour Into his Vials God doth also pour Proportionable wrath Thou seest it not But yet assure thy self there 's drop for drop For every Sand of Patience running out A drop of Wrath runs in Soul look about God's Treasure 's almost full as well as thine When both are full O then the dreadful time Of Reckoning comes thou shalt not gain a day Of patience more but then there hastes away Heaven's Pursivant who comes upon the wing With his Commission seal'd to take and bring Do'st still reject Christ's tenders Well next storm May be the Bailiff ordered to perform This dreadful office O then restless be Till God in Christ be reconcil'd to thee The Sum is great but if a Christ thou get Fear not a Prince can pay a Beggar 's debt Now if the Storm should rise thou need not fear Thou art but the Delinquent is not there A pardoned Soul to Sea may boldly go He fears not Bailiffs that doth nothing owe. CHAP. XIX To save the Ship rich Ladings cast away Thy Soul is Shipwrackt if thy Lusts do stay OBSERVATION IN Storms and Distresses at Sea the Richest Commodities are cast over-board they stand not upon it when Life and all is in jeopardy and hazard Ionah 1. 5. The Mariners cast forth the Wares that were in the Ship into the Sea to lighten it And Act. 27. 18 19. they cast out the very tacklings of the Ship How highly soever Men prize such Commodities yet reason tells them It were better these should perish than Life Satan himself could say Job 1. Skin for skin and all that a Man hath will he give for his Life APPLICATION And surely it is every way as highly reasonable that Men should mortifie cast out and cut off their dearest Lusts rather than their Immortal Souls should sink and perish in the Storm of God's wrath Life indeed is a precious Treasure and highly valued by Men You know what Solomon saith Eccles. 9. 4. That a Living Dog is better than a Dead Lion And we find Men willing to part with their Estates Limbs or any outward Comfort for the preservation of it The Woman in the Gospel spent all she had on the Physicians for her Health a degree below Life Some Men indeed do much over-value their Lives and part with Christ and Peace of Conscience for it but he that thus saves it shall lose it Now if Life be so much worth What then is the Soul worth Alas Life is but a vapour which appeareth for a little while and then vanisheth away Jam. 4. 14. Life indeed is more worth than all the World but my Soul is more worth than Ten thousand Lives Nature teacheth you to value the first so high and Grace should teach you to value the second much higher Mat. 19. 26. Now here is the case Either you must part with your Sins or with your Souls if these be not cast out both must sink together If ye live after the flâ—sh ye must die Rom. 8. 13. God saith to you in this case as to Ahab when he spared Benhadad 1 King 20. 40. Because thou hast let go a Sin which God hath appointed to destruction therefore thy Life shall go for his Life Guilt will raise a Storm of Wrath as Ionah did if not cast out REFLECTION And must Sin or the Soul perish Must my Life yea my Eternal Life go for it if I spare it O then let me not be cruel to mine own Soul in sparing my Sin O my Soul this foolish pity and cruel Indulgence will be thy ruine If I spare it God hath said He will not spare me Deut. 26. 20. It is true the pains of Mortification are sharp but yet it 's easier than the pains of Hell To cut off a right hand or pluck out a right eye is hard but to have my Soul cut off eternally from God is harder Is it as easie O my Soul to burn for them in Hell as to Mortifie them on Earth Surely it is profitable for me that one member perish rather than that all be cast into Hell Mat. 5. 24. I see the Merchant willing to part with rich Wares if embarqued with them in a Storm And those that have Gangreen'd Legs or Arms willingly stretch them out to be cut off to preserve Life And shall I be willing to endure no difficulties for my Soul Christ reckon'd Souls worth his Blood And is it not worth my Self-denyal Lord let me not warm a Snake in my Bosom that will at last sting me to the heart THE POEM Thy Soul 's the Ship its Lading is its Lusts God's Iudgments stormy Winds and dang'rous gusts Conscience the Master but the stubborn Will Goes Supra Cargo and doth keep the Bill Affections are the Men
when it gives its colour in the Glass the Harlot's beauty whose eye-lids are snares hiding always the Hook and concealing the issue from them He promises them gain and profit pleasure and delight and all that is tempting with assurance of Secresie By these he fastens the fatal Hook in their Jawes and thus they are led captive by him at his Will REFLECTION And is Satan so subtil and industrious to entice Souls to sin Doth he thus cast out his golden baits and allure Souls with pleasure to their ruine Then how doth it behove thee O my Soul to be jealous and wary How strict a guard should I set upon every sense Ah let me not so much regard how sin comes towards me in the Temptation as how it goes off at last The day in which Sodom was destroyed began with a pleasant Sun shine but ended in Fire and Brimstone I may promise my self much content in the satisfaction of my Lusts But O how certainly will it end in my ruine Ahab doubtless promised himself much content in the Vineyard of Naboth but his blood paid for it in the portion of Iezreel The Harlots Bed was perfumed to entice the simple young man Prov. 7. 17. But those Chambers of Delight proved the Chambers of Death and her House the way to Hell Ah with what a smiling face doth sin come on towards me in its temptations How doth it tickle the carnal phantasie and please the deceived heart But what a dreadful Catastrophe and Upshot hath it The delight is quickly gone but the guilt thereof remains to amaze and terrifie the Soul with ghastly forms and dreadful representations of the wrath of God As sin hath its Delights attending it to enter and fasten it so it hath its horrours and stings to torment and wound And as certainly as I see those go before it to make away so certainly shall I find these follow after and tread upon its heels No sooner is the Conscience awakened but all those Delights vanish as a Night-vision or as a Dream when one awakes and then I shall cry Here is the Hook but where is the Bait Here is the guilt and horrour but where the delight that I was promised And I whether shall I now go Ah my deceitful Lusts You have enticed and left me in the midst of all miseries THE POEM There 's skill in Fishing that the Devil knows For when for Souls Satan a fishing goes He Angles cunningly He knows he must Exactly fit the Bait unto the Lust. He studies Constitution Place and Time He guesses what is his delight what thine And so accordingly prepares the Bait Whilst he himself lies closely hid to wait When thou wilt nibble at it Dost incline To drunken Meetings then he baits with Wine Is this the way if unto this he 'll smell He 'll shortly pledge a Cup of Wrath in Hell To Pride or Lust is thy vile Nature bent An Object suitable he will present O think on this when you cast in the hook Say Thus for my poor Soul doth Satan look O play not with Temptations do not swallow The sugar'd Bait consider what will follow If once he hitch thee then away he draws Thy captive Soul close Prisoner in his paws CHAP. XXIII Doth Trading fail and Voyages prove bad If you cannot discern the cause 't is sad OBSRRVATION THere are many sad Complaints abroad and I think not without cause that Trade fails nothing turns to account And though all Countries be open and free for Traffick a general Peace with all Nations yet there seems to be a Dearth a secret Curse upon Trading You run from Country to Country and come losers home Men can hardly render a reason of it few hit the right cause of this Judgment APPLICATION That prosperity and success in Trade is from the blessing of God I suppose few are so Atheistical as once to deny or question The Devil himself acknowledges it Job 1. 10. Thou hast blessed the work of his hands and his substance is increased in the Land It is not in the power of any man to get Riches Deut. 8. 18. Thou shalt remember the Lord thy God for it is He that giveth thee power to get wealth It is his Blessing that makes good men rich and his Permission that makes wicked men rich That Maxime came from Hell Quisque fortunae suae faber Every man is the Contriver of his own Condition Certainly The good of man is not in his own hand Job 21. 16. Promotion cometh not from the East or West Psal. 76. 6 7. This being acknowledged it is evident that in all disappointment and want of success in our Callings we ought not to stick in second cause but to look higher even to the hand and dispose of God For whose it is to give the Blessing his also it is to with-hold it And this is as clear in Scripture as the other It is the Lord that takes away the Fishes of the Sea Hos. 4. 3. Zeph. 1. 3. It is he that curseth our blessings Mal. 2. 2. This God doth as a punishment for sin and the abuse of mercies And therefore in such cases we ought not to rest in general complaints to or of one another but search what those sins are that provoke the Lord to inflict such Judgments And here I must request your patience to bear a plain and close word of Conviction My Brethren I am perswaded these are the sins among many other that provoke the Lord to blast all your Imployments 1. Our undertaking designs without Prayer Alas how few of us begin with God Interest him in our dealings and ask counsel and direction at his mouth Prayer is that which sanctifies all employments and enjoyments 1 Tim. 4. 5. The very Heathen could say A Iove Principium They must begin with God O that we had more Prayers and fewer Oaths 2. Injustice and Fraud in our dealings A sin to which Merchants are prone as appears by that expression Hos. 12. 7. This is that which will blast all our enjoyments 3. An over-earnest endeavour after the World Men make this their business they will be rich And hence it is they are not onely unmerciful to themselves in wearing and wasting their own spirits with carking cares but to such also as they employ neither regarding the Souls or Bodies of Men Scarce affording them the liberty of the Lord's Day as hath been too common in our New-found-Land Employments or if they have it yet they are so worn out with incessant Labours that that precious time is spent either in sleep or idleness It is no wonder God gives you more rest than you would have since that day of Rest hath been no better improved This over-doing hath not been the least cause of our undoing Lastly Our abuse of Prosperity when God gave it making God's Mercies the Food and Fewel of our Lusts. When we had an aâ—fluence and confluence of outward Blessings this made us kick against
that the body may be more fit and expedite for duty Prov. 31. 7. But further no man proceeds without the violation of Sobriety When men sit till Wine have inflamed them and reason be disturbed for Drunkenness is the privation of reason caused by immoderate drinking then do they come under the guilt of this horrid and abominable Sin To the Satisfaction and refreshment of nature you may drink for it is a part of the Curse to drink and not be satisfied but take heed you go no further For Wine is a mocker strong Drink is raging and whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise Prov. 20. 1. The Throat is a slipery place how easily may a sin slip through it into the Soul these sensual Pleasures have a kind of inchanting power upon the Soul and by custom gain upon it till they have enslaved it and brought it under their power Now this is the sin against which God hath delivered so many Precepts and denounced so many Woes in his Word Ephes. 5. 18. Be not drunken with wine wherein is excess Rom. 13. 18. Not in rioting and drunkenness not in chambering and wantonness Isa. 5. 11. Wo to them that rise early in the morning that they may follow strong drink that continue until night till wine inflame them with many other of dreadful importance Now to startle thee for ever from this abominable and filthy lust I shall here propound to thy Consideration these ten ensuing Arguments and oh that they might stand in the way as the Angel did in Balaam's when thou art in the prosecution of thy sensual Pleasures And the first is this Arg. 1. It should exceedingly disswade from this Sin to consider that it is an high abuse of the Bounty and Goodness of God in affording us those sweet Refreshments to make our Lives comfortable to us upon earth In Adam we forfeited all right to all earthly as will as heavenly Mercies God might have taken thee from the Womb when thou wast a Sinner but of a span long and immediately have sent thee to thine own place thou hadst no right to a drop of water more than what the bounty of God gave thee And whereas he might have thrust thee out of the world as soon as thou camest into it and so all those days of mercy thou hast had on earth might have been spent in howling and unspeakable misery in Hell Behold the Bounty and Goodness of God in thee I say behold it and wonder He hath suffered thee for so many years to live upon the earth which he hath prepared and furnished with all things fit for thy necessity and delight out of the earth on which thou treadest he bringeth forth thy food and VVine to make glad thy heart Psal. 104. 14 15. And dost thou thus requite the Lord Hath Mercy armed an enemy to fight against it with its own Weapoâ—s Ah that ever the Riches of his Goodness Bounty and Long sâ—ffering all which are arguments to lead thee to repentance should be thus abused If God had not been so bountiful thou couldst not have been so sinful Arg. 2. It degrades a man from the honour of his Creation and equalizeth him to the beast that perisheth Wine is said to take away the heart Hos. 4. 11. i. e. the wisdom and ingenuity of a man and so brutifies him as Nebuchadnezzar who lost the heart of a man and had the heart of a beast given him Dan. 4. 32. The heart of a man hath is generosity and sprightliness brave vigorous spirit in it capable of and fitted for noble and worthy actions and imployments but his lust effeminates quenches and drowns that masculine vigour in the puddle of excess and sensuality For no sooner is a man brought under the dominion of this Lust but the government of Reason is renounced which should exercise a coercive power over the Affections and all is delivered up into the hand of Lust and Appetite and so they act not by discretion and reason but by Lust and Will as the Beasts do by Instinct The spirit of Man entertains it self with intellectual and chast Delights the soul of a Beast is onely fitted for such low sensitive and dreggie Pleasures Thou hast something of the Angel and something of the Beast in thee thy Soul partakes of the nature of Angels thy Body of the nature of Beasts Oh how many pamper the Beast while they strave the Angels God in the first Chaper put all the Creatures in subjection to thee by this Lust thou puttest thy in self Subjection to the creature and art brought under his power 1 Cor. 6. 12. If God had given thee the feet or head of a beast Oh what a misery wouldst thou have esteemed it And is it nothing to have the heart of a Beast Oh consider it sadly Arg. 3. It is a Sin by which thou greatly wrongest and abuseth thine own Body The Body is the Souls Instrument it is as the Tools are to a skilful Artificer this Lust both dulls and spoils it so that it 's utterly unfit for any service of him that made it Thy body is a curious piece not made by a word of command as other Creatures but by a word of counsel I am fearfully and wonderfully made and curiously wrought saith the Psalmist Psal. 139. 14. or as the Vulgar Ace pictus sum Painted as with a Needle like a Garment of Needlework of divers colours richly embroydered Look how many members so many wonders There are Miracles enough saith one betwixt head and foot to fill a volume There is saith another such curious workmanship in the eye that upon the first sight of it some Atheists have been forced to acknowledge a God especially that fifth Muscle in the eye is wonderful whereby as a learned Author observes Man differeth from all other Creatures who have but four one to turn the eye downward a second to hold it forward a third to move it to the right hand a fourth to the left but none to turn it upward as a man hath Now judge in thy self did God frame such a curious piece and enliven it with a Soul which is a spark a ray of his own light whose motions are so quick various and indefatigable whose flights of reason are so transcendent did God thinkest thou send down this curious piece the top and glory of the Creation the Index and Epitome of the whole world Eccl. 12. 2. did God I say send down this picture of his own perfection to be but as a striner for meats and drinks a spung to suck in Wine and Beer Or canst thou answer for the abuse and destruction of it By this excess thou fillest it with innumerable diseases under which it languisheth and at last thy life like a lamp extinguisnt being drowned with to much Oyle Infinite Diseases are begotten by it saith Zanch. hence come Apoplexies Gouts Palfies sudden Death trembling of the hands and legs herein they bring Cain's
woes as one saith do but touch the skin but these strike the Soul other woes are but temporal these are eternal others do only part betwixt us and our outward comforts these betwixt God and us for ever Arg. 8. Drunkenness is a leading sin which has a great retinue and attendence of other sins waiting on it it 's like a sudden Land-flood which brings a great deal of dirt with it So that look as Faith excels among the Graces because it enlivens actuates and gives strength to them so is this among sins It is not so much a special sin against a single Precept of God as a general violation of the whole Law saith accurate Amesius It doth not only call off the guard but warms and quickens all other Lusts and so exposes the Soul to be prostituted by them 1. It gives occasion yea is the real cause of many contentions and fatal quarrels Prov. 23. 29. VVho hath Wo VVho hath sorrow Who hath contention babling wounds without cause They that tarry long at the wine c. Contentions and Wounds are the ordinary effects of drunken meetings when Reason is deposed and Lust heated what will not men attempt 2. Scoff and reproaches of the ways and people of God Psal. 69. 12. David was the Song of the Drunkards 3. It 's the great incendiary of Lust You shall find rioting and drunkenness joyned with chambering and wantonness Rom. 13. 13. Nunquam ego ebrium castum putabo saith Hierome I will never think a drunkard to be chaste Solomon plainly tells us what the issue will be Prov. 23. 33. Thine eyes shall behold a strange woman and thy heart shall utter perverse things speaking of the Drunkard It may be called Gad for a troop followeth it Hence one aptly calls it The Devils bridle by which he turneth the sinner which way he pleases he that is overcome by it can overcome no other sin Arg. 9. But if none of the former Considerations can prevail I hope these two last may unless all sense and tenderness be lost Consider therefore in the 9th place That Drunkards are in Scripture marked out for Hell the Characters of Death are upon them You shall find them pinioned with other Sons of death 1 Cor. 6. 9 10. Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the Kingdom of God Be not deceived Neither Fornicaters nor Idolaters nor adulterers nor effeminate nor Abusers of themselves with Mankinde nor Thieves nor Covetous nor Drunkards nor Revilers nor Extortioners shall inherit the Kingdom of God Oh dreadful thunderbolt He is not asleep but dead that is not startled at it Lord how are guilty sinners able to face such a Text as this is Oh Soul Darst thou for a superfluous Cup adventure to drink a Cup of pure unmixed wrath Oh think when the Wine sparkles in the glass and gives its colour think I say what a Cup of trembling is in the hand of the Lord for thee Thou wilt not now believe this Oh but the day is coming when thou shalt know the price of these brutish pleasures Oh it will then sting like an Adder Ah! this short-lived beastly pleasure is the price for which thou sellest Heaven and rivers of pleasure that are at Gods right hand Obj. But I hope I shall repent and then this Text can be no bar to my Salvation Sol. True if God shall give thee Repentance it could not But in the last place to awaken thee throughly and startle thy secure Conscience which Sensuallity hath brawned and cauterized let me tell thee Arg. 10. That it is a sin out of whose power few or none are ever rescued or reclaimed On this account it was that Saint Augustine called it the Piâ— of Hell he that is addicted to this Sin becomes incurable saith a Reverend Divine for seldom or never have I known a Drunkard recalled And its power to hold the soul in subjection to it lies in two things especially 1 as it becomes habitual and habits are not easily broken be pleased to view an Example in the case Prov. 23. 35. They have stricken me shalt thou say and I was not sick they have beaten me and I felt it not When I shall awake I will seek it yet again 2. As it takes away the heart Hos. 4 11. that is the understanding reason and ingenuity of a man and so makes him uncapable of being reclaimed by counsel Upon this account it was that Abigail would not speak less or more to Nabal till the Wine was gone out of him 1 Sam. 25. 36 37. plainly intimating that no wholsome counsel can get in till the Wine be gone out When one asked Cleostratus whether he were not ashamed to be drunken he tartly replied And are not you ashamed to admonish a Drunkard intimating that no wise man would cast away an admonition upon such an one And it not only renders them uncapable of councel for the time but by degrees it besots and infatuates them which is a very grievous stroke from God upon them making way to their eternal ruine So then you see upon the whole what a dangerous gulph the sin of Drunkenness is I beg you for the Lords sake and by all the regard you have to your souls bodies and estates beware of it Oh consider these ten Arguments I have here produced against it I should have proceeded to answer the several Pleas and Excuses you have for it But I mind brevity and shall shut up this first Caution with a very pertinent and ingenious Poem of Mr. George Herbert in his Temple Drink not the third glass which thou canst not tame When once it is within thee but before Mayst rule it as thou list and pour the shame which it will pour to thee upon the floor It is most just to throw that on the ground Which would throw me there if I kept the round He that is drunken may his Mother kill lie with his Sister he hath lost the Reins Is outlaw'd by himself all kind of ill did with the liquor slide into the veins The Drunkard forfeits Man and doth devest All worldly right save what he has by Beast Shall I to please anothers wine-sprung mind lose all my own God has giv'n me a measure Short of his Can and Body must I finde a pain in that wherein he finds a pleasure Stay at the third glass if thou lose thy hold Then thou art modest but the wine grows bold If Reason move not Gallants quit the room all in a shipwrack shipt their several way Let not a common Ruine thee entomb be not a Beast in courtesies but stay Stay at the third Glass or forgo the place VVine above all things doth Gods stamp deface II. CAUTION THe Second Evil I shall deal with is the evil of the Tongue which as St. Iames saith is full of deadly Poyson Oathes Curses Blasphemies and this poyson it scatters up and down the World in all places an untamed member that none
the dust Job 20. 11. Ah soul One of these days thou shalt be laid on thy Death-bed or see the waves that shall entomb thee leaping and roaring upon every side and then thou wilt surely have other thoughts of the happiness that lies in remission of sin than thou hast now Observe the most incorrigible Sinner then hark how he sighs and groans and cries Ah Lord and must I die And then see how the tears trickle down his Cheeks and his heart ready to burst within him Why what 's the matter Oh the Lord will not pardon him he holds him guilty If he were sure his sins were forgiven then he could die but oh to appear before the Lord in them appals him daunts him kills the very heart of him He would fain cry for mercy but Conscience stops his mouth Oh saith Conscience how canst thou move that tongue to God in prayer for mercy that hath so often rent and torn his glorious Name by Oaths and Curses Sirs I pray you do not make light of these things they will look wishly upon you one of these days except ye prevent it by sound conversation Arg. 5. And then lastly to name no more I pray you consider that a custom of vain words and prophane Oaths is as plain an indication and discovery of an unregenerate Soul as any in the world This is a sure â—ign thou art none of Christs nor hast any thing to do with the promises and priviledges of his people for by this the Scripture distinguisheth the state of Saints and Sinners Eccl. 9. 2. There is one event to the righteous and to the wicked to the clean and to the unclean to him that sacrificeth and to him that sacrificeth not as is the good so is the sinner and he that sweareth as he that feareth an Oath Mark he that sweareth and he that feareth an Oath do as manifestly distinguish the Children of God from wicked men as clean and unclean righteous and wicked sacrificing and not sacrificing This fruit of the tongue plainly shews what the tree is that bears it Isai. 2. 6. The vile person will speak of villany and out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks Loquere ut videam said one Speak that I may see what you are Look what is in the heart that is vented by the Tongue where the treasures of Grace are in the Heart words ministring Grace will be in the Lips Psal. 37. 30. The mouth of the righteous speaketh wisdom and his tongue talketh of Iudgment for the law of the Lord is in his heart To this sense we must understand that Scripture att 12. 27. By thy words thou shalt be justified and by thy words thou shalt be condemned Certainly Justification and Condemnation in the day of Judgment shall not pass upon us meerly for the good or bad words we have spoken but according to the state of the Person and frame of the heart But the meaning is that our words shall justifie or condemn us in that day as evidence of the state and frame of the Soul We use to say such Witnesses hang'd a man the meaning is the Evidence they gave cast and condemned him O think seriously of this if words evidence the state of the Soul what an woful state must thy Soul needs be in whose mouth overflows with Oathes and Curses How many witnesses will be brought in to cast thee in the great Day Your own tongue shall then fall upon you as the expression is Psal. 64 8. And out of your own mouth God will fetch abundant evidence to condemn you And thus I have opened unto you the evil of vain words and prophane Oathes and presented to your view their several aggravations If by these things there be a relenting pang upon thy heart and a serious resolution of reformation then I shall commend these few helps or means to thy perusal and conclude this Head And the first help is this Help 1. Seriously fix in thy thoughts that Scripture Matth. 12. 36. But I say unto you that every idle word that Men shall speak they shall give an account thereof in the day of Iudgment Oh let it sounâ— in thine ears day and night Oh ponder them in thy heart I say unto you I that have always been in the Fathers bosome and do fully know his mind I that am constituted the Judge of quick and dead and do fully understand the rule of Judgment and the whole process thereof I say and do assure you that every idle word that men shall speak i. e. every word that hath not a tendency and reference to the Glory of God though there be no other obliquity or evil in them than this that they want a good end How much more then scurrilous Words bloody Oathes and Blasphemies Men shall give an account thereof that is shall be cast and condemned to suffer the wrath of God for them as appears by that parallel Scripture 1 Pet. 4. 4 5. For as the Learned observe there is plainly a Matalepsis in these words The Antecedent to give an account is put for the Consequent punishment and condemnation to hell fire the certainty whereof admits but of this one exception viz. intervenient repentance or a pardon obtained through the blood of Christ here before you be presented at that judgment-seat Oh then what a bridle should this Text be to thy extravagant tongue I remember Hierom was wont to say Whether I eat or drink or whatever I do methinks I still hear the sound of these words in mine ear Arise ye dead and come to judgment O that the sound of the words may be always in your ears Help 2. Consider before you speak and be not rash to utter words without knowledge He thâ—â— speaks what he thinks not speaks Hipocitically 〈◊〉 he that thinks not what to speak sperks inconsiâ—â—rately You have cause to weigh your words before you deliver them by your tongue for whether you do or do not the Lord pondereth them Records are kept of them else you could not be called to an account for them as I shewed you you must Help 3. Resign up your Tongues to God every day and beg him to guide and keep it So did David Psal. 141. 3. Set a watch O Lord before my mouth and keep thou the door of my lips Beg him to keep you from provocations and temptations or if you fall into them intreat him for strength to rule your spirits in them that you may not be conquered by temptations Help 4. But above all labour to get your Souls cleansed and purified by Faith possest with saving and gracious Principles All other means will be ineffectual without this Oh see the vileness of thy nature and the necessity of a change to pass upon it First make the tree good and then his fruit good a new Nature will produce new words and actions To binde your souls with Vows and resolutions while you are strangers to a regenerate work
Scriptures among many others Prov. 5. 2 3 4. Acts 5. 29. Rom. 1. 24 29. Rom. 13. 13. 1 Cor. 6. 13 14 15 16 18. 2 Cor. 12. 21. Gal. 5. 29. Ephes. 5. 3. Col. 3. 5. 1 Thes. â— 2 3 4 5. Heb. 12. 16. Heb. 13. 4. All these with many others are the true sayings of God By them thou shalt be tryed in the last day Now consider how terrible it will be to have so many words of God and such terrible ones too as most of those are to be brought in and pleaded against thy Soul in that day mountains and hills may depart but these words shall not depart Heâ—ven and Earth shall pass away but not one tittle of the Word shall pass away Believe it Sinner as sure as the Heavens are over thy head and the Earth under thy seet they shall one day take hold of thee though we poor worms who plead them with thee die and perish Zech. 1. 5 6. The Lord tells us it shall not fall to the ground Which is a borrowed speech from a Dart that is flung with a weak hand it goes not home to the mark but falls to the ground by the way None of these words shall so fall to the ground Arg. 3. It is a sin that defiles and destroys the body 1 Cor. 6. 18. He that committeth adultery sinneth against his own body In most other sins the body is but the Instrument here it is the Object against which the sin is committed that body of thine which should be the Temple of the holy Ghost is turned into a stye of filthiness yea it not only defiles but destroys it Iob calls it a fire that burneth to destruction Iob 31. 12. or as the Septuagint reads it a fire that burneth in all the Members It is a sin that God hath plagued with strange and terrible diseases that Morbus Gallicus and sudor Anglicus and that Plica Polonica whereof you may read in Bolton's four last things page 30. and Sclater on Rom. 1. 30. These were judgments sent immediately by Gods own hand to correct the new sins and enormities of the world for they seem to put the best Physicians besides their Books Oh how terrible is it to lie groaning under the sad effects of this sin As Solomon tells us Prov. 5. 11. And thou mourn at the last when thy flesh and thy body are consumed To this sense some expound that terrible Text Heb. 13. 4. Marriage is honourable in all and the bed undefiled but Whoremongers and Adulterers God will judge i. e. with some remarkable judgment inflicted on them in this world if it escape the punishment of men it shall not escape the vengeance of God Ah! with what comfort may a man lie down upon a sick bed when the sickness can be looked upon as a Fatherly Visitation coming in Mercy But thou that shortenest thy life and bringest sickness on thy self by such a sin art the Devils Martyr and to whom canst thou turn in such a day for comfort Arg. 4. Consider what an indelible blot it is to thy nature which can never be wiped away though thou escape with thy life yet as one says thou shalt be burnt in the hand yea branded in the forehead What a foul scar is that upon the face of David himself which abides to this day He was upright in all things save in the matter of Uriah And how was he slighted by his own Children and servants after he had committed this sin Compare 1 Sam. 2. 30. with 2 Sam. 12. 10 11. A wound and dishonour shall he get and his reproach shall not be wiped away This is to give thine honour to another Prov. 5. 9. The shame and reproach attending it should be a preservative from it Indeed the Devil tempts to it by hopes of secresie and concealment but though many other sins lie hid and possibly shall never come to light until that day of manifestation of all hidden things yet this is a sin that is most usually discovered Under the Law Cod appointed an extraordinary way for the discovery of it Numb 5. 13. And to this day the Providence of God doth often very strangely bring it to light though it be a deed of darkness The Lord hath many times brought such persons either by terrors of Conscience Phrensie or some other means to be the publishers and proclaimers of their own shame Yea observe this saith Reverend Mr. Hildersham on the Fourth of Iohn even those that are most cunning to conceal and hide it from the eyes of the world yet through the just judgment of God every one suspects and condemns them for it this dashes in pieces at one stroke that Vessel in which the precious Oyntment of a good name is carried A fool in Israel shall be thy title and even Children shall point at thee Arg. 5. It scatters thy substance und roots up the foundation of thy state Iob 31. 12. It roots up all the increase Strangers shall be filled with thy wealth and thy labours shall be in the house of a stranger Prov. 5. 10. For by means of a whorish woman a man is brought to a morsel of bread Prov. 6. 26. It gives rags for its Livery saith one and though it be furthered by the fulness yet it 's followed with a morsel of bread This is one of those temporal Judgments with which God punishes the unclean person in this life The word Delilah which is the name of an Harlot is conceived to come from a root that signifiesâ—to exhaust drain or draw dry This sin will quickly exhaust the fullest estate and oh what a dreadful thing will this be when God shall require an account of thy Stewardship in the great day How righteous is it that that man should be fuel to the wrath of God whose health and wealth have been so much fuel to maintain the flame of Lust Oh how lavish of their estates are sinners to satisfie their Lusts If the Members of Christ be sick or in Prison they may there perish and starve before they will relieve them but to obtain their Lusts Oh how expensive Ask me never so much and I will give it said Sâ—echem Gen. 34. 12. Ask what thou wilt and it shall be given thee said Herod to the daughter of his Herodias Well you are liberal in spending treasures upon you lusts and believe it God will spend treasures of wrath to punish you for your Lusts. It had been a thousand times better for thee thou hadst never had an estate that thou hadst begg'd thy bread from door to door than to have such a sad reckoning as thou shalt shortly have for it Arg. 6. Oh stand off from this sin because it is a pit out of which very few have been recovered that have fallen therein Few are the footsteps of returners from this den The longer a man lives in it the less power he hath to leave it It is not only a damning but an
houses it went out for want of matter but here the breath of the Lord like a stream of brimstone kindles it The pleasure was quickly gone but the sting and torment abide for ever Who knoweth the power of his anger Even according to his fear so is his wrath Psal. 90. 11. Oh consider how will his Almighty Power rack and torment thee Think on this when sin comes with a smiling face towards thee in the temptation Oh think If the humane nature of Christ recoyled when his cup of Wrath was given him to drink if he were fore amazed at it how shalt thou a poor worm bear and grapple with it for ever Arg. 9. Consider further how closely soever thou carriest thy wickedness in this world tho it should never be discovered here yet there is a day coming when all will out and that before Angels and men God will rip up thy secret sins in the face of that great Congregation at the day of judgment then that which was done in secret shall be proclaimed as upon the house-top Luke 12. 3. Then God will judge the secrets of men Rom. 2. 16. the hidden things of darkness will be brought into the open light Sinner there will be no sculking for thee in the Grave no declining this Bar thou refusedst indeed to come to the Throne of Grace when God invited thee but there will be no refusing to appear before the Bar of Iustice when Christ shall summon thee And as thou canst not decline appearance so neither canst thou then palliate and hide thy wickedness any longer for then shall the Books be opened the Book of God's Omniscience and the Book of thine own Conscience wherein all thy secret Villany is recorded for though it ceased to speak to thee yet it ceased not to write and record thy actions If thy shameful sins should be divulged now it would make thee tear off thy hair in indignation but then all will be discovered Angels and men shall point at thee and say Lo this is the Man this is he that carried it so smoothly in in the world Mr. Thomas Fuller relates a story of Ottocar King of Bohemia who refusing to do his homage to Rodolphus the first Emperour being at last sorely chastised with war condescended to do him homage privately in a Tent but the Tent was so contrived by the Emperours Servants saith the Historian that by drawing one cord it was all taken away and so Ottocar presented on his knees doing Homage to the Emperour in the view of three Armies O Sirs you think to carry it closely you wait for the Twilight that none may see you but alas it will be to no end this day will discover it and then what confusion and everlasting shame will cover thee Will not this work then Arg. 10. Lastly consider but one thing more and I have done By this sin thou dost not only damn thine own soul but drawest another to hell with thee This sin is not as a single bullet that kills but one but as a chain-shot it kills many two at least unless God give repentance And if he should give thee repentance yet the other party may never repent and so perish for ever through thy wickedness and oh what a sad consideration will that be to thee that such a poor soul is in Hell or likely to go thither by thy means Thou hast made fast a snare upon a Soul which now thou canst not untie thou hast done that which may be matter of sorrow to thee as long as thou livest but though thou canst grieve for it thou canst not remedy it In other sins it is not so If thou hadst stoll'n anothers Goods restitution might be made to the injured party but here can be none If thou hadst murthered another thy sin was thine own not his that was murthered by thee but this is a complicated sin defiling both at once and if neither repent then oh what a sad greeting will these poor wretches have in hellâ— hâ—w will they curse the day that ever they saw each others face Oh what an aggravation of their misery will this be For look as it will be matter of joy in Heaven to behold such there as we have been instrumental to save so must it needs be a stinging aggravation of the misery of the damned to look upon those that have been the instruments and means of their damnation Oh methinks if there be any tenderness at all in thy Conscience if this sin have not totally brawned and stupified thee these Arguments should pierce like a sword through thy Guilty Soul Reader I beseech thee by the mercies of God if thou hast defiled thy Soul by this abominable sin speedily to repent Oh get the blood of sprinkling upon thee there is yet mercy for such a wretch as thou art if thou wilt accept the terms of it Such were some of you but you are washed 1 Cor. 6. 11. Publicans and Harlots may enter into the Kingdom of God Matth. 21. 31. Though but few such are recovered yet how knowest thou but the hand of mercy may pull thee as a brand out of the fire if now thou wilt return and seek it with tears Though it be a fire that consumeth unto destruction as Iob calls it Iob 1. 12. yet it is not an unquenchable fire the blood of Christ can quench it And for you whom God hath kept hitherto from the contagion of it O bless the Lord and use all Gods means for the prevention of it The seeds of this sin are in thy nature no thank to thee but restraining grace that thou art not delivered up to it also And that thou mayest be kept out of this Pit conscionably practice these few Directions Direct 1. Beg of God a clean heart renewed and sanctified by saving grace all other endeavours do but palliate a cure the root of this is deep in thy nature Oh get that mortified Matth. 15. 9. Out of the heart proceed fornication adulteries 1 Pet. 2. 11 12. Abstain from fleshly lust having your Conversation honest The lust must first be subdued before the conversation can be honest Direct 2. Walk in the fear of God all the day long and in the sense of his Omniscient eye that is ever upon thee This kept Ioseph from this sin Gen 39. 9. How can I do this wickedness and sin againsâ— God Consider the darkness hideth not from him but shineth as the light If thou couldst find a place where the eye of God could not discover thee it were somewhat Thou darest not to act this wickedness in the presence of a Child and wilt thou adventure to commit it before the face of God See that Argument Prov. 5. 20 And why wilt thou my Son be ravisht with a strange woman and embrace the bosome of a stranger For the ways of man are before the eyes of the Lord and he pondereth all his goings Direct 3. Avoid lewd Company and the Society of unclean
in remote parts far from your Friends and Relations and destitute of all means and accommodations Did you not say in that condition as Hezekiah did in a like case Isai. 38. 10 11 12. I said in the cutting off of my days I shall go to the gates of the grave I am deprived of the residue of my years I said I shall not see the Lord even the Lord in the land of the living I shall behold man no more with the inhabitants of the world Remember thy self man canst not thou call to mind the day when the Arrows of death came whisking by thee and it may be hit those next thee took away those that were as lively and as lusty as thy self when you began your Voyage and yet they were cast for death thou for life and that when there was but an hairs breadth betwixt thee and the grave Tell me Soul What friend was that stood by thee then when thou wast forsaken of all friends When it may be thy Companions stood ready to throw thee over-board Who was it that pitied and remembred thee in thy low estate Who was it that rebuked thy disease of as one very aptly expresses it restrained the humours of thy body from overflowing and drowning thy life for when they are let out in a sickness they would overflow and drown it as the Waters would the earth if God should not say to them Stay you proud waves Who was it man that when thy body was brought low and weak and like a crazy rotten Ship in a storm took in water on all sides so that all the Physitians in the World could not have stopt those Leaks consider what hand was that which quieted and calmed the tempestuous Sea careened and mended thy crazy Body and launched thee into the World again as whole as sound as strong as ever Was it not the Lord that hath done all this for thee Did not he keep back thy Soul from the Pit and thy Life from perishing Yea when thou wast chastened with pain upon thy Bed as Elihu speaks Iob 33. 19 20 21. and the multitude of thy bones with strong pains so that thy life abhorred bread and thy Soul dainty meat thy flesh consumed away that it could not be seen and thy bones that were not seen stuck out yet then as it is vers 28. he delivered thy Soul from going down into the Pit and caused thy Life to see the Light Had the Lamp of life been then extinguisht thou hadst gone into endless Darkness Hell had shut her mouth upon thee Now tell me Soul What hast thou done with this precious mercy Hast thou walked before the Lord in a deep sense thereof and answered his end therein which was to lead thee to Repentance Or hath thy stupid or disingenious heart forgotten it and lost all sense of it so that God's end is frustrated and thy Salvation not a jot furthered thereby O If it be so wo to thee for the blood of this Mercy which thy Ingratitude hath murther'd like the blood of Abel cries to God against thee What a Wretch art thou thus to requite the Lord for such a Mercy He saw thy Tears and heard thy groans and said within himself He shall not die but live Alas poor Creature if I cut him off now he is eternally lost I will send him back a few years more into the World I will try him once more it may be he will bear some fruits to me from this deliverance and if so well if not I will cut him down hereafter He shall be set at liberty upon his Good Behaviour a little longer And is all this nothing in thine eyes Wretch that thou art Dost thou forget and flight such a favour as this Is it worth no more in thine eyes Well it would be worth something in the eyes of the poor Damned Souls if they might have so many years cut out of their Eternity for a meer intermission of their Torments much more as a time of patience and mercy O consider what pity and goodness thou hast abused Quer. 2. Wast thou never cast upon miserable streights and extremities wherein the good Providence of God relieved and supplied thee How many of you have been beaten so long at Sea by reason of contrary winds and other accidents till your Provisions have been even exhausted and spent To how short allowance have you been kept And what a mercy would you have esteemed it if you could but have satisfied Nature with a full draught of Water Certainly this hath been the case of many of you Oh what a price and vallue did you then set upon those common Mercies which at other times have been slightly over-look'd and when you have seen no hopes of relief Have you not looked sadly one upon another and it may be said as that Widow of Zarephtah did to the Prophet 1 King 17. 12. And she said As the Lord thy God liveth I have not a cake but a handful of meal in a barrel and a little oyl in a cruse aud behold I am gathering two sticks that I may go in and dress it for me and my son that we may eat it and die Even such hath been your case yet hath that God whose Mercies are over all his Works heard your sorrows and provided Relief for you either by some Ship which Providence sent to relieve you in that distress or by altering the Winds and sending you safe to the Land before all your Provisions have been spent And hast thou kept no Records of these gracious Providences yea Dost thou abuse the Creature when thou art brought again to the full enjoyment of it and possibly receivest the Creatures whose worth thou so lately hast seen in the want of them without thanksgiving or a sensible acknowledgment of the goodness of God in them I say dost thou thus answer the expectations of God Well beware lest God teach such an unworthy Creature by woful experience that the opening of his hand to give thee a Mercy is worth the opening thy Lips to bless him for it Beware lest that unthankful Mouth that will not bless the Lord for Bread and Water have neither the one or the other to bless him for I can give you a sad instance in the case and I have found it in the Writing of an eminent Divine who saith he had it from an eye and ear-witness of the truth of it A young Man lying upon his Sick-bed was always calling for meat but when the meat he called for was brought unto him he shook and trembled dreadfully at the sight of it and that in every part of his body and so continued until his food was carried away And thus he did as often as any food was brought into his presence and not being able to eat one bit pined away but before his death he freely acknowledged the Justice of God in this punishment For said he in the time of my Health I ordinarily received my
of God The Obligation of it is by Casuists judged to be as great as that of an Oath It is a sacred and solemn bond wherein a Soul binds it self to God in lawful things and being once bound by it it is a most heinous evil to violate it It is an high piece of dishonesty to fail in what we have promised to men saith Dr. Hall but to disappoint God in our Vows is no less than Sacriledge The act is free and voluntary but if once a just and lawful vow or promise hath past your lips saith he you may not be false to God in keeping it It is with us for our vows as it was with Ananias and Saphirah for their substance VVhilst it remained saith Peter was it not thine own He needed not to sell and give it but if he will give he may not reserve it is death to save some he lies to the Holy Ghost that defalks from that which he engaged himself to bestow If thou have vowed to the mighty God of Iacob look to it that thou be faithful in thy performance for he is a great and jealous God and will not be mocked Now I am confident there be many among you that in your former distresses have solemnly engaged your Souls thus to God that if he would deliver you out of those dangers and spare your lives you would walk more strictly and live more holy lives than ever you did You have it may be engaged your Souls to the Lord against those sins as Drunkenness Lying Swearing Uncleanness or whatsoever evil it was that your Conscience then smote you for the vows of God I say are upon many of you But have you performed those vows that your lips have uttered Have you dealt truly with God or have you mocked him and lyed unto him with your lips and omitted those very duties you promised to perform and return'd to the self-same evils you promised to forsake I only put the question let your Consciences answer it But if it be so indeed that thou art a person that makest light of thy engagements to God as indeed Seamens Vows and Sick mens Promises are for the most part deceitful and slippery things being extorted from them by fear of Death and not from any deep resentment of the necessity and weight of those Duties to which they bind their Souls I say if this sin lie upon any of your Souls I advise you to go to God speedily and bewail it humble your self greatly before him admire his patience in forbearing you and pay unto him what your lips have promised And to move you thereunto let these Considerations among many other be laid to heart Consid. 1. Think seriously upon the greatness of that Majesty whom thou hast wronged by lying to him and falsifying thy engagements Oh think sadly on this It is not man whom thou hast abused but God even that God in whose hand thy life and breath is For although as one truly observes there be not in every vow a formal invocation of God God being the proper Correlate and as it were a party to every vow and therefore not formally to be invoked for the contestatioâ— of it yet there is in every vow an implicite calling God to witness so that certainly the Obligation of a Vow is not one jot beneath that of an Oath Now if God be as a party to whom thou hast past thy promise and its obligation on that ground be so great oh what hast thou done for a poor worm to mock with the most glorious majesty of Heaven and break Faith with God what a dreadful thing is that If it were but to thy fellow-creature though the sin would be great yet not like unto this Let me say to thee as the Prophet Isai. 7. 13. It is a small thing for you to weary men but you will weary my God also If you dare to deceive and abuse men dare you do so by God also Oh if the exceeding villanies of the sin do not affect thee yet methinks the danger of provoking so dreadful a Majesty against thee should And therefore consider Consid. 2. Secondly That the Lord will most certainly be avenged upon thee for these things except thou repent O read and tremble at the word of God Eccles. 5. 4. When thou vowest a vow unto God defer not to pay it for he hath no pleasure in fools pay that which thou hast vowed But better it is that thou shouldest not vow than that thou shouldest vow and not not pay Suffer not thy mouth to cause thy flesh to sin neithey say thou before the Angel that it was an errour wherefore should God be angry at thy vice and destroy the works of thy hands Mark God will be angry and in that anger he will destroy the Work of thy hand i. e. saith Diodate Bring thee and all thy actions to nought by reason af thy perjury Now the anger of God which thy breach of promise kindles as appears by this Text is a dreadful fire Oh what Creature can stand before it as Asaph speaks Psal. 76. 7. Thou even thou art to be feared and who may stand in thy sight when once thou art angry Consid. 3. Consider thirdly that all this while thou sinnest against knowledge and Conviction for did not thy Conscience plainly convince thee when imminent danger open'd its mouth that the matter of thy neglected vow was a most necessary duty If not why didst thou bind thy Soul to forsake such practises and to perform such duties Thou didst so look upon them then by which it appears thy Conscience is convinced of thy duty but Lust masters and over-rules And it so poor sinner what a case art thou in to go on from day to day sinning against Light and Knowledge Is not this a fearful rate of sinning And will not such sinners be plunged deeper into Hell than the poor Indians that never saw the evil of their ways as thou doest Ponder but two or three Scriptures in thy thoughts and see what a dreadful way of sinning this is Rom. 2. 9. ' Tribtlation anguish and wrath to every Soul of man that doth evil to the Iew first and also to the Gentile To the Jew first i. e. to the Jew especially and principally he had a precedency in means and light and so let him have in punishment So Iam. 4. 17. To him thrt knoweth to do good and doth it not to him it is sin i. e. Sin with a witness horrid sin sin that surpasses the deeds of the wicked So Luke 12. 47. And that servant that knew his Lords will and prepared not himself neither did according to his will shall be beaten with many stripes Which is a plain allusion to the Custom of the Iews in punishing an offender who being convicted the Judge was to see him bound fast to a Pillar his cloaths stript off and an Executioner with a Scourge to beat him with so many stripes But now those
ran if he had but received him into the house it had been much but he fell on his neck and kissed him He bespeaks him much after that rate he exprest himself to returning Ephraim My Bowels are troubled for him I will surely have mercy on him Jerem. 31. 20. There is not the least Parenthesis in all the pages of Free Grace to exclude a Soul that is sincerely willing to come to Christ. Quest. 13. But how may it appear that he is willing to receive me Answ. Make trial of him thy self If thou did but know his heart to poor sinners you would not question it Believe what he saith in the Gospel there thou shalt find that he is a willing Saviour for therein thou hast First his most serious invitations Matth. 11. 28. Come unto me ye that are weary and heavy laden Isai. 55. 1. Ho every one that thirsteth come ye to the waters These serious Invitations are Secondly backt and confirmed with his Oath Ezek. 35. 11. As I live I desire not the death of a sinner Thirdly amplified with pathetical wishes sighs and groans Matth. 23. 29. Oh that thou hadst known even thou at least in this thy day Fourthly Yea delivered to them in undissembled tears Matth. 23. 37 38. He wept over it and said O Ierusalem Ierusalem Fifthly Nay he hath shed not only tears but blood to convince thee of his willingness View him in his dying posture upon the Cross stretching out his dying arms to gather thee hanging down his blessed head to kiss thee every one of his wounds was a mouth opened to convince thee of the abundant willingness of Christ to receive thee Quest. 14. But my sins are died in grain I am a sinner of the blackest hue will he receive and pardon such an one Answ. Yea Soul if thou be willing to commit thy self to him Isai. 1. 18. Come now let us reason together Though your sins he as scarlet I will make them as snow though they be red like crimson I will make them as wool See p. 10 11. Quest. 25. This is comfortable news but may I not delay my closing with him for a while and yet not hazard my eternal happiness seeing I resolve to come unto him at last Ans. No. There must be no delays in this case Ps. 119. 60. I made hast and delayed not to keep thy commandments Quest. 16. Why may I not defer it at least for a little while Ans. For many weighty reasons this work can bear no delays First the offers of Grace are made to the present time Heb. 3. 15. Wbile it 's said to day harden not your heart There may be a few more days of God's patience but that is unknown to thee Secondly your Life is immediate uncertain how many thousands are gone into Eternity since the last Night If you can say to sickness when it comes Go and come again another time it were somewhat Thirdly Sin is not a thing to be dallied whith Oh! who would be willing to lie down one Night under the guilt of all his sins Fourthly delays increase the difficulty of Conversion Sin still roots itself deeper habits are the more strengthened and the heart still more hardned Fifthly There be thousands now in Hell that perish through delays Their Consciences often urged and prest hard upon them and many resolutions they had as thou hast now but they were never perfected by answerable executions and so they perisht Sixthly Thy way of sinning now is desperate for every moment thou art acting against clear light and conviction and that is a dreadful way of sinning Seventhly There can be no solid reason for one hours delay for thou canst not be happy too soon And be sure of it if ever thou come to taste the sweetness of a Christian Life nothing will more pierce and grieve thee than this that thou enjoyedst it no sooner Qu. 17. Oh but the pleasures of sin engage me to it how shall I break these cords and snares Ans. That snare may be broken by considering solemnly these five things First that to take pleasure in sin is an argument of a most deplorable and wretched state of Soul What a poysonful nature doth it argue in a Toad that is sucking in nothing but poyson and filth wherever he crawls Oh what an heart hast thou hast thou nothing to find pleasure in but that which makes the Spirit of Christ sad and the hearts of Saints ache and groan which digged Hell and let in endless miseries upon the world Secondly think that the misery it involves thee in is infinitely beyond the delights it tempts thee by It doth but delight the sensual part and that but with a brutish pleasure but will torment thy immortal Soul and that for ever The pleasure will quickly go off but the sting will remain behind I tasted but a little honey on the top of my rod said Ionathan and I must die 1 Sam. 14. 43. Thirdly Nay that 's not all but the Lord proportions wrath according to the pleasures souls have had in sin Rev. 18. 7. How much she hath lived deliciously so much torment and sorrow give unto her Fourthly What dost thou pay or at least pawn for this pleasure Thy soul thy precious soul is laid to stake for it and in effect thus thou sayest when thou deferrest the closing with Christ upon the account of enjoying the pleasures of sin a little longer Here Devil take my Soul into thy possession and power if I repent I will have it again if not it is thine for ever Oh dearb ought pleasures What is the the world A great exchange of ware Wherein all Sorts and Sexes cheapning are The Flesh the Devils sit and cry What lack ye When most thay fawn they most intend to rack ye The wares are cups of joy and beds of pleasure There 's goodly choice down-weight and flowing measure A soul 's the price but they give time to pay Vpon the Death-bed or the Dying-day Hard is the bargain and unjust the measure When as the price so much outlasts the pleasure Quarles Lastly It 's thy gross mistake to think thou shalt be bereaven of all delights and pleasures by coming under the government of Christ For one of those things in which his Kingdom consists is joy in the Holy Ghost Rom. 14. 17. Indeed it allows no sinful pleasures to the subjects of it nor do they need it but from the day thou closest in with Christ all thy pure real and eternal pleasures and delight begin and bear date When the Prodigal was return'd to his Father then saith the Text They began to be merry Luke 15. 24. See Acts 8. 5 6. No no Soul thou shalt want no joy for the Scripture saith They shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of thy house and thou shalt make them drink the rivers of thy pleasures for with thee is the fountain of light c. Psal. 36. 8 9. Qu. 18. But how shall I