address your sâ—lf to your Heavenly Sovereign and say O Lord the Creator and Judge of all who art of infinite holiness and perfection and hast determined that without holiness no man shall see thy reconciled Face Be pleased I humbly beseech thee to save me from my Sins thro' our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ and by thine holy Spirit to sanctify me in Soul and Body that I may glorify thy name on Earth and do the work which thou hast given me to do Vouchsafe good God to work in me that purity of heart to which thou hast promised an infinitly blessed vision And make me to glorify thine holy name amongst these strangers to the common-wealth of Israel amongst wâ—om I sojourn And be pleased to take from them all hardness of Heart all unbeleif and disobedience to thy holy will that they also may at last be saved amongst thy true and faithful People That we may all with one heart and mouth glorify thee and rejoice in thy Salvation thro' Jesus Christ sour onely mediator and Redeemer Amen And now my Brother having shewn you the never failing way to true Contentment here and to eternal happiness hereafter Let not the bitterness of any temporal sufferings leaven your Soul nor run you into sullenness frowardness or the withdrawing of your heart from God Be you assured that God hath brought many a person whom he hath greatly loved into worse sorrows and streights than you are burthened with all The beloved Disciple St Jobn was banished and confined to Patmos a desolate and uncomfortable Island and we read of some excellent men of whom the World was not worthy who wandered about in Sheep-skins and Goats-skins in desarts and Dens and Caves of the Earth being destitute afflicted tormented and yet they would not accept deliverance upon sinful terms because they fixed their hearts on the hope of Heavenly enjoyments Heb. 11. 37. 38. It ought therefore to be your care to acquit your self as they did in every point of Christian duty with all good conscience that you with them may partake of that Rest which remaineth to the People of God And upon the whole as you would perform any of the foregoing Duties in an acceptable manner or injoy any of these great Blessings relating to this or the other world you must be much in Prayer and earnest devotion to God the giver of all Grace who will be found of such as truly seek his face thro' his beloved Son Jesus Christ our only mediator and Redeemer And if it shall please his infinite goodness to restore you to your former Liberty and Enjoyments be sure to live in perpetual thankfulness for such a singular mercy duely answering the ends of it by a serious and truly Christian Life For if your temporal Liberty when obtained should become an occasion of your sinking under the slavery of sinful Lusts and Passions it were infinitly better that you remained all your days under the most bitter and discoâ—solate Thraldom in this world because no chains on Earth can sit so heavy as those of eternal Darkness werewith the Devil is bound and wherewithall he seeks to load us Labour therefore my Brother to obtain such firmness in the ways of God as no Prosperity nor Adversity may ever shock And then if it please God to set you free lift up your devout Soul to God with great fervency and say UNto thee O most gracious and merciful God who hearest Prayer unto thee shall all Flesh come thee will I praise with all the Faculties and Powers of my thankful Soul for that thou hast heard me in my Distress and hast by thy good Providence delivered me from mine Oppressors When thou wast pleased to rebuke me for my Sin and folly and to bind me with affliction and Iron Yet I was not utterly forsaken of thy mercy but I found thy gracious Supports under my Trouble and at last bless'd be thy Name thou hast broken my Yoke and set me at Liberty O Suffer not this desirable enjoyment to be an occasion to the Flesh keep me I beseech thee by thy grace that I fall not under that worse slavery of sinful Lusts and Passions but make me partaker of that Redemption from Sin and Hell which is purchased for us by the blood of thy beloved Son and is offered to sinners in thy blessed Gospel to the privileges of which as thy good providence has now mercifully restored me so let thine holy Spirit lead me in those ways of perfect Liberty which thou hast therein ordained for us that living to thy praise I may dy in thy peace and be for ever thine thro' Jesus Christ our Blessed Lord and Saviour Amen FINIS ADVERTISEMENT THere are some other little useful Books proper to be had and read by all Marriners and Sea-faring-People such as The Religious-Seaman The Pastoral-Letter from a Minister to his Parishioners The Christians Daily-Devotion The Christian Monitor and the Familiar Guide to the Lord's-Supper All which may be had for about 18 d. and much Cheaper in Quantities
always in its Vigor in your breast which is 4. The exalted Degree and Eternal Duration both of the Rewards and Punishments of the world to come The wicked shall go away into Everlasting Punishment But the Righteous into Life Eternal Math. 25. 46. Consider my Brother you cannot hold your hand in the fire which burns on your Hearth for one hour without such Anguish as you reckon intolerable How can you then dwell with everlasting Burnings And this in utter Darkness in company with other howling desperadoes and mocking Devils Where is our sense and our self-love when we do not strive to escape this place of Torment For it is the amazing aggravation of these miseries that they never end How doleful a thought is it that after all the time we can think of is spent there will still be as much torture to come to the damned as at the First moment in which they entered into it Let not such a thought as this pass off hastily my Brother but give your mind leisure to consider it till it kills the very thought and desire of sinful injoyments which are but for a moment Suppose therefore that a nimble Writer did set himself for one whole day to advance the bigest summ in Numeration that he was able How vast would the number of Years be that he would set down before Night every single figure that he made towards the close of his Labour would contain an inconceivable term of time and the whole summ would utterly astonish us Now I would ask any one who beleives a Life to come whether of these two conditions is to be chosen either to live threescore and ten years the common Age of man in the love and service of God and then to enjoy all desirable Blessings for all those Millions of years which would be contained in that summ before mentioned Or on the other hand To live according to our foolish and extravagant Will for the space of Seventy years and then to ly in flames and exquisite tortures for such a vast and astonishing term of Years as the aforesaid Arithmetician had set down In this case every one would speedily determine for the service of God and the blessed Hope that attends it And yet this is nothing of a parallel case to Eternity For tho' not onely that one man but every person in the World added summ to summ throughout their whole Life and if all the Angels good and bad threw in all the Numbers that they were able to swell the prodigious Account to the utmost Advance they could and after this double and treble the whole to the utmost that your mind can imagine Yet still there is more in this one word Eternity than all this And we may hence learn what wonders a lively Faith in the Gospel of our Lord would be able to do were it duely improved and excited It would not only remove Mountains but the whole World when ever it stood in our way to Heaven and we should with great scorn and indignation say what should I be advantaged if I gain'd the whole World and lost my immortal Soul by the bargain Fix your mind seriously on these things my Brother till you find your heart affected with the meditation and then direct your Soul with fervor to the Throne of Grace and say O Blessed God who art the Light and Life and Bliss of all thy Creatures vouchsafe I beseech thee to pity and pardon me a vile Creature that have long lived in darkness and folly and Unbelief How little have I considered the weighty things of thy Law and the dismal consequences of transgressing it I have been blinded and hardned by unbelief and inconsideration and the love of this World and have not duely deny'd my sinful Lusts and Passions nor faithfully employ'd thy Talents O Lord vouchsafe to pardon all my past enormities thro' the Blood of attonement shed by our Lord Jesus Christ whom it pleased thee to appoint as a propitiation for our Sins and a mediator for Sinners And be pleased of thy goodness to determine my Soul unalterably for thy Kingdom and the Righteousness thereof in opposition to all the allurements of the World the Flesh and the Devil And grant that thro' the gracious conduct of thy Blessed Spirit I may daily advance in all grace and may overcome all the temptations of things seen by a firm Belief of things invisible O Lord vouchsafe to settle and envigorate my faith in the Eternity of those rewards and Punishments which thou hast been pleased to annex to our good or Evil deeds and make me with earnestness and constancy to do good and eschew Evil that I may so live to thee whilst I live that I may dy to thee when I dy and may be thine to all Eternity thro' our Lord Jesus Christ to whom with thee O Father and the eternal Spirit be all Blessing Honour Glory and Power ascribed by Angels and Men for evermore Amen Supposing therefore my Brother as in charity I must that you will rather chuse to live or dy in the most painful and wretched outward circumstances than to renounce your God and Saviour and part with your Religion and the hope of Eternal Life through it Your next care must be to walk worthy of that Holy and Venerable name that you bear that is of a Christian That the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ be not blasphemed by the Heathen by reason of our evil deeds but that they may see your good works and glorify your Father which is in Heaven You are reputed to have been brought up in the School of Christ and unbeleivers will be prying into your actions to see what there is in Christianity above other Religions and will judge of it according to what they observe in you be it good or bad O what a motive is this to the strictest Vertue and Piety Since your Lord and Master will be accounted a Divine and Blessed Saviour or a base cheat and Impostor according to your good or bad behaviour Yea and some of those Infidels who might have been brought over to your Religion by your singular Piety will assuredly be hardened against it by your looseness and debauchery So that here are two of the most constraining considerations to induce you to holiness of Life besides those other which have been already laid before you which ought to constrain you to shun all appearance of Evil and to make you careful to shew before an unbeleiving People what Purity meekness Sobriety Patience Charity and integrity our holy Religion teaches and produces Oh! dare not swear lye curse or cheat or to be drunk passionate clamororous or abusive But in meekness and patience possess ye your Souls as having your conversation in Heaven and your hearts set on things above And then God will in his time either remove you to your own Land or what 's better to his heavenly Kingdom In the contemplation of which you may humbly
Enjoyments of which I beseech thee in thy due time to restore me and make me to adorn the holy profession of a Christian in all righteousness and and true holiness And during my present Want of those gracious institutions vouchsafe O Lord to communicate the riches of thy Grace to me in such other ways and means as to thine infinite Wisdom shall seem good that I may not be as a dead branch broken off from the true Vine but may now and ever be accounted of the number of thy true Israel thy beloved people in our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ for whose sake vouchsafe to here me and accept me together with these my unworthy Prayers in whose blessed Name and words I humbly conclude them Our Father which c. In the next place I desire you to consider the awfulness solemnity and strictness of your Christian Vows made in your Baptism and renewed a fresh if you have indeed lived as a Christian at the Holy Table of our Lord. It is not a light matter to make a Promise to the Almighty Soveraign of the World but to make Solemn Vows to him before chosen Witnesses and in the face of a Christian Congregation and to seal this in the Blood of Christ that blood which is of infinite worth and which shews the greatest Love and Pity to us that ever was seen in the World which has a vertue to wash away Sin and to open the Kingdom of Heaven to such as are purified thereby How Sacred how strict how tremendous are such Vows And how sorely will our Righteous God avenge every wilful Violation and slight of them This is called a trampling on Christ's blood and the sorest punishment is threatned to such transgressions especialy to such as turn Renegado's and deny this Faith into which they were Baptized in the name of the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost because they count the blood of the Covenant an unholy thing they count the Lord Jesus Christ an Impostor and a wicked cheat and consequently his blood vile and base and a Covenant with him a despicable and hateful thing to be renounced and abandoned And they do despight to the spirit of Grace they treat that Holy gracious and Eternal Spirit with Scorn and Hatred tho' it be that Spirit which alone can prepare us for Eternal Salvation So that this is the most wretched and desperate Case that we can imagine for it follows Vengeance is mine I will repay saith the Lord. They shall feel the inutterable wrath of an Almighty God in it's most horrible Execution upon them for ever except they deeply Repent You have all this Hebr. 10. 28 29 30. Where it is also added in the next verse It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God So dreadful indeed that the wise and good Men of all Ages have chosen rather to be Sawn a sunder or Torn with wild Beasts or give their Bodies to be broil'd and exposed to all the Miseries that men could invent or inflict than to deny their Faith and thereby fall under the Vengeance of Almighty God to all Eternity And the least grain of Faith must needs constrain us all to do the like thro' the grace of God for what proportion is there betwixt the Anger of a frail man like our selves who can but hurt our bodys and that but for a little while and the displeasure of an Eternal and Omnipotent God who can punish us not only with all bodily tortures but with such horror and desolation of Soul as far exceeds them and that not only for Millions of Millions of Ages but time without End Consider therefore my Brother that you have devoted your self entirely to God thro our Lord Jesus Christ to your Life's end And that to do otherwise will be the blackest Perjury Sacrilege and Apostacy So that your Eternal Hope leanes on your upright discharge of this contract made with God your Saviour in this solemn transaction of the Baptismal Covenant And be you well assured That there is Salvation in no other Person but in that of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ And that you may cleave stedfastly to him with all your Soul in Profession and in Practice let me desire you to consider these few things 1. That our Blessed Saviour proposes nothing to us in order to our Salvation but what is Excellent Admirable and Advantagious in it self To love God above all to beleive and trust in him who came to lead us from Sin and Distruction to love our Brethern as our selves to Pity and Pray for our Enemies and to live soberly and honestly in the course of our Lives how sweet and lovely are these things which are set to keep us from brutal Lusts and infernal passions to lift up our Souls to the likeness of God and the dignity of holy Angels 2. Consider that our Blessed Lord and Saviour will be ready to assist you by his holy Spirit in all the work that he requires at your hands He will help you to subdue your corruptions to conquer temptations to bear afflictions and in short to pass undefiled thro' this present World and to attain the blessedness of the other He has assured us that he will as readily give his holy Spirit for those ends to such as dnely seek him as ever Parent gave a bit of Bread to his own Child crying to him for hunger Luke 11. 9 10 11 12 13. See also Ezek. 36. from the 25 verse to the end of the Chapter 3. Consider that the term of our present Life is very uncertain and at the utmost very short Whether we live well or ill we shall soon finish our Course The mirth of wicked People is but short at the best and the Labors and sufferings of good People are but short at the worst We shall soon have done with this probational Life for our days upon Earth are but as a shadow 1 Chron. 29. 15. And there is this vast difference in the present course of things between good and bad people That the wicked Mans pleasures dye in the enjoyment and inward darkness and regret springs up in their room if he has any sense left But the good man's Difficulties are lessen'd every moment and there is an eternal foundation of comfort laid hereby The wicked person has a little Sunshine in the morning as Sodom had and like it is suddenly overwhelm'd by a shower of Fire and Brimstone And the faithful Christian has a little bad Weather perhaps in the morning but he is riding out of it into perfect serenity and Bliss The one says with Jonathan I have tasted a little Honey and I must dye for it The other says with St. Paul I have fought a good Fight I have finished my Course I have kept the Faith henceforth there 's laid up for me a Crown of Righteousnss 2 Tim. 4 7. And this leads me to another considerration which I beseech you to keep up