thou wilt be a poor fhiftlefs creature, if once by abufing mercy thou make it thine enemy !

Confid. 5. It is breach of vows made in diftrefs to obtain these mercies; they have been eafily forgotten and violated by thee when thou haft obtained thy defire: A word or two to convince you what a further evil lies in this, and how by this confideration thy fins come to be buoyed up to a greater height and aggravation of finfulness; and then I have done with this head.

A vow is a promife made to God, in the things of God. The obligation of it is, by cafuifts, judged to be as great as that of an oath. It is a facred and folemn bond, wherein a foul binds to God in lawful things; and being once bound by it, it is a moft heinous evil to violate it. It is an high piece of difhonefty to fail in what we have promised to men, faith * Dr Hall; but to difappoint God in our vows, is no less than facrilege. The act is free and voluntary; but if once a juft and lawful vow or promise hath past your lips, faith he, you may not be false to God in keeping it. It is with us for our vows, as it was with Ananias and Sapphira, for their fubftance: "Whilst "it remained (faith Peter) was it not thine own?" He needed not to fell and give it; but if he will give, he may not referve: It is death to fave fome; he lies to the holy Ghost, that defalks from that which he engaged himself to beftow. If thou haft vowed to the mighty God of Jacob, 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 diftreffes, have folemnly engaged your fouls thus to God; that if he would deliver you out of thofe dangers, and fpare your lives, you would walk more ftrictly, and live more holy lives than ever you did. You have, it may be, engaged your fouls to the Lord against those fins, as drunkennefs, lying, fwearing, uncleannefs, or whatsoever evil it was that your confcience then fmote you for; the vows of God (I fay) are upon many of you. But have you performed thofe vows that your lips have uttered? Have you dealt truly with God? or have you mocked him, and lied unto him with your lips, and omitted thofe very duties you promised to perform, and returned to the felf-fame evils you have promised to forfake? I only put the question, let your confciences answer it. But if it be fo, indeed, that thou art a perfon that makeft light of thy engagements to God, as indeed feamen's vows and fick men's promises are, for the most part, deceitful and flippery things, being extorted from them by fear of death, and not from any deep refentment of the neceffity, and weight of thofe duties to which they bind their fouls: I fay, if this fin lie upon any of your fouls, I advise you to go to God fpeedily, and bewail it; humble yourself greatly before him, admire his patience in forbearing you, and pay unto him what your

• Cafes of Confcience,

lips have promised. And to move you thereunto, let these confiderations, among many others, be laid to heart.

Confid. 1. Think feriously upon the greatness of that majesty whom thou haft wronged by lying to him, and falfifying thy engagements. O think fadly on this! it is not man whom thou haft abused, but God; even that God in whose hand thy life and breath is. For although (as one truly obferves) 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 conteftation of it ;) yet, there is in every vow an implicit calling God to witnefs; fo 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 haft paft thy promife, and that obligation on that ground be fo great; Oh what haft thou done! for a poor worm to mock the most glorious Majefty of heaven, and break faith with God; what a dreadful thing is that? if it were but to thy fellow-creature, though the fin would be great; yet not like unto this. Let me fay to thee as the prophet Ifaiah, chap. vii. 13. "Is it a fmall thing for you to weary "men, but will you weary my God alfo?" If you dare to deceive and abuse men, dare you do fo by God alfo? Oh! if the exceeding vileness of the fin do not affect thee, yet methinks the danger of provoking fo dreadful a Majefty against thee fhould! And therefore confider,

Confid. 2. That the Lord will moft certainly be avenged upon thee for these things, except thou repent. O read, and tremble at the word of God! Ecclef. v. 4, 5, 6. « When thou vowest a vow unto "God, defer not to pay it: for he hath no pleasure in fools; pay "that which thou haft vowed. Better is it that thou shouldft not ❝ vow, than that thou shouldft vow, and not pay. Suffer not thy "mouth to caufe thy flesh to fin, neither fay thou, before the an"gel, that it was an error; wherefore [fhould God be angry] "at thy voice, and [deftroy] the works of thy hands?" Mark, God will be angry, and in that anger he will deftroy the work of thy hands, i. e. faith Deodate, bring thee and all thy actions to nought, by reason of thy perjury.' Now, the anger of God, which thy breach of promise kindles, as appears by this text, is a dreadful fire. O, what creature can ftand before it! as Afaph fpeaks, Pfalm lxxvi. 7. "Thou, even thou art to be feared; and "who may stand in thy fight, when once thou art angry ?"

Confid. 3. Confider, that all this while thou finneft against knowledge and conviction; for did not thy confcience plainly convince thee, when eminent danger opened its mouth, that the matter of thy neglected vow was a most neceffary duty? If not, why didst thou bind thy foul to forfake fuch practices, and to perform fuch duties? Thou didst fo look upon them then; by which it appears thy conscience is convinced of thy duty, but luft doth master and overVOL. V.

U u

:

rule and if fo, poor finner, what a cafe art the u in, to go on from day to day finning against light and knowledge? Is not this a fearful way of finning? and will not fuch finners be plunged deeper into hell than the poor Indians, that never faw the evil of their ways, as thou doft? Ponder but two or three fcriptures in thy thoughts, and fee what a dreadful way of finning this is: Rom. ii. 9. “ Tribula❝tion, anguish, and wrath, to every foul of man that doth evil, to "the [Jew firft], and also to the Gentile." To the Jew firft, i. e. to the Jew efpecially and principally; he had a precedency in means and light, and fo let him have in punishment. So Jam. iv. 17. "To him that knoweth to do good, and doth it not, to him it is fin;" i. e Sin with a witnefs, horrid fin, that furpaffes the deeds of the wicked. So Luke xii. 47. " And that fervant that knew his Lord's ❝will, and prepared not himself, neither did according to his will, "fhall be beaten with many ftripes." Which is a plain allufion to the custom of the Jews in punishing an offender, who being convicted, the judge was to fee him bound faft to a pillar, his clothes stript off, and an executioner with a fcourge to beat him with fo many ftripes: but now those stripes came but from the arm of a creature; these that the text fpeaks of are fet on by the omnipotent arm of God. Of the former there was a determinate number fet down in their law, as forty ftripes; and fometimes they would remit one of that number too, in mercy to the offender, as you fee in the example of Paul, 2 Cor. xi. 24. "Of the Jews I received forty ftripes, fave "one" but in hell no mitigation at all, nor allay of mercy. The arm of his power fupports the creature in its being; while the arm of his justice lays on eternally. Soul, confider thefe things; do thou not perfift any longer then in fuch a defperate way of finning against the clear conviction of thine own confcience, which in this cafe muft needs give teftimony against thee.

Well then, go to God with the words of David, Pfal. lxvi. 13, 14. and fay unto him, "I will pay thee my vows which my lips have uttered, and my tongue hath spoken when I was in trouble." Pay it, foul, and pay it speedily unto God, elfe he will recover it by justice, and fetch it out of thy bones in hell. O trise not any longer with God, and that in such serious matters as these are?

And now I have done my endeavour to give your former mercies and promises a resurrection in your confciences. O that you would fit down and paufe a while upon these things, and then reflect upon the past mercies of your lives, and on what hath paffed betwixt God and your fouls in your former ftraits and troubles? Let not thefe plain words work upon thy fplean, and make thee fay as the widow of Sarepta did to the prophet Elijah, 1 Kings xvii. 18. "What have I "to do with thee, O thou man of God? Art thou come to call my "fin to remembrance?" But rather let it work kindly on thy heart, and make thee fay as David to Abigail, 1 Sam. xxv. 32, 33. " Blef

"fed be the Lord God of Ifrael, which fent thee this day to meet and blessed be thy advice."

me;

TH

CAUTION V.

HE fifth and laft danger I fhall warn you of, is your contempt. and flighting of death. Ah! how little a matter do many of you, at least in words, make of it? It feems you have light reverential fear of this king of terrors, not only that you speak flightly of it, but also because you make no more preparations for it, and are no more fenfible of your preservations and deliverances from it. Indeed the heathen philofophers did many of them profefs a contempt of death upon the account of wisdom and fortitude; and they were accounted the braveft men that moft defpifed and flighted it: But, alas, poor fouls! they faw not their enemy against whom they fought, but fkirmished with their eyes fhut; they faw indeed its pale face, but not its fting and dart. There is alfo a lawful contempt of death. First, We freely grant that in two cafes a believer may contemn it. When it is propounded to them a temptation on purpose to scare them from Christ and duty, then they should flight it; as Rev. xii. 11. "They loved not their lives unto the death." Secondly, When the natural evil of death is fet in competition with the enjoyment of God in glory, then a believer should despise it, as Chrift is faid to do, Heb. xii. 2. though his was a fhameful death. But upon all other accounts and confiderations, it is the height of ftupidity and fecurity to despise it.

Now, to the end that you might have right thoughts and apprehenfions of death, which may put you upon ferious preparation for it; and that whenever your turn comes to conflict with this king of terrors, under whofe hand the Pompeys, Cæfars, and Alexanders of the world, who have been the terrors of nations, have bowed down themselves; I fay, that when your turn and time comes, as the Lord only knows how foon it may be, you may escape the stroke of its dart and fting, and tafte no other bitterness in death, than the natural evil of it: To this end I have drawn the following questions and anfwers, which, if you please, may be called The Seaman's Catechifm. And, oh that you might not dare to launch forth into the deeps, until you have ferioufly interrogated and examined your hearts upon thofe particulars. Oh! that you would refolve, before you go forth, to withdraw yourselves a while from all clamours and diftractions, and calmly and seriously catechife your ownselves in this manner. Queft. 1. What may the iffue of this voyage be?

Anf. Death, Prov. xxvii. 1. "Boaft not thyfelf of to-morrow, " for thou knoweft not what a day may bring forth." Jam. iv. 13, 14. "Go to now, ye that fay, To-day, or to-morrow, we will go in"to fuch a city, and continue there a year, and buy and fell, and get gain: whereas you know not what fhall be on the morrow; "for what is your life? It is even a vapour that appeareth for a

"little time, and then vanifheth away." Queft. 2. What is death?

Anfw. Death is a feparation of foul and body until the refurrection, 2 Cor. v. 1. "We know that if our earthly house of this taber"nacle be diffolved." Job xiv. 10, 11, 12. Read the words.

Queft. 3. Is death to be defpifed and flighted if it be fo?

Anfu. O no! it is one of the moft weighty and serious things that ever a creature went about: fo dreadful doth it appear to fome, that the fear of it fubjects them to bondage all their lives, Heb. ii. 15. "And to deliver them who, through fear of death, were all their life-time subject to bondage." And in fcripture it is called, The king of terrors, Job xviii. 14. Or the black prince, as fome tranflate. Never had any prince fuch a title before. To fome it hath been fo terrible, that none might mention its name before them.

Queft. 4. What makes it fo terrible and affrighting to men?

Anfw. Several things concur to make it terrible to the most of men; as, fir, Its harbingers and antecedents, which are strong pains, conflicts, and agonies. Secondly, Its office and work it comes about, which is to transfer us into the other world. Hence, Rev. vi. 8. it is fet forth by a pale horse: an horse for its use and office to carry you away from hence into the upper, or lower region of eternity; and a pale horse, for its ghaftlinefs and terror. Thirdly, But above all, it is terrible in regard of its confequence; for it is the door of eternity, the parting point betwixt the present world and that to come; the utmost line and boundary of all temporal things. Hence, Heb. ix. 27. "It is appointed unto men once to die; but after this the judgment." Rev. vi. 8. "And I looked, and behold, a pale horse, and his name "that fat on him was Death, and hell followed him." Ah! it makes a fudden and strange alteration upon men's conditions, to be plucked out of houfe, and from among friends and honours, and fo many delights, and hurried in a moment into the land of darkness, to be clothed with flames, and drink the pure wrath of the Almighty for ever. This is it that makes it terrible.

Queft. 5. If death be fo weighty a matter, am I prepared to die? Anfw. I doubt not; I am afraid I want many things that are neceffary to a due preparation for it.

Queft. 6. What are thofe things wherein a due preparation for death confifteth?

Anfw. Many things are neceffary. Firft, Special and faving union with Jefus Chrift. This is that which difarms it of its fting: "O death, where is thy fting? Thanks be to God who hath given [us] the victory, through [our] Lord Jefus Chrift," 1 Cor. xv. 55, 57. So John xi. 26. "Whofoever [liveth,] and [believeth] in me fhall "never die." Whofoever liveth, i. e. is quickened with a new fpiritual life and principle, and fo puts forth the principal act of that life, viz. faith, he fhall never die, i. e. eternally. This hornet, death, fhall never leave its fting in his fides. Secondly, To entertain