Consid. 2. 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 ! Eccl. 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 hast vov/ed. Better is it that thou shouldst not " vow, than that thou shouldst vow, and not pay. Suffer not thy " mouth to cause thy flesh to sin, neither say thou, before the an- " gel, that it was an error ; whei'efore [should God be angry] at " thy voice, and [destroy] the works of thy hands P'^ Mark, God will be angry, and in that anger he will destroy the work of thy hands, i. e. saith 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 stand before it ! as Asaph speaks. Psalm Ixxvi. 7. " Thou, even thou art to be feared ; and who may stand " in thy sight, when once thou art angry ?"
Consid. 3. Consider, that all this while thou sinnest ao;ainst know- ledge and conviction ; for did not thy conscience plainly convince thee, when imminent danger opened 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 practices, and to perform such duties ? Thou didst so look upon them then ; by which it appears thy con- ficience is convinced of thy duty, but lust doth master and over-
SS2 MERCIES AXD PROMISES.
rule : and if 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 fear- ful way 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 dost? Ponder but two or three scriptures in thy thoughts, and see what a dreadful way of sinning this is : Rom. ii. 9- " Tribula- *' tion, anguish, and wrath, to every soul of man that doth evil, to •' the [Jew 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 James iv. 17. ** To him that knoweth to do good, and doth it not, to him it is sin ;" i. e. Sin with a witness, horrid sin, that surpasses the deeds of the wicked. So Luke xii. 47. " And that servant that knew his Lord's '* 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 Jews in punishing an offender, who being convict- ed, the judge was to see him bound fast to a pillar, his clothes stript off, and an executioner with a scourge to beat him with so many stripes: but now those stripes came but from the arm of a creature ; these that the text speaks of are set on by the omnipotent arm of God. Of the former there was a determinate number set down in their law, as forty stripes; and sometimes they would remit one of that number too, in mercy to the offender, as you see in the example of Paul, 2 Cor. xi. 24. " Of the Jews I received forty stripes, save '' one ;*" but in hell no mitigation at all, nor allay of mercy. The arm of his power supports the creature in its being ; while the arm of his justice lays on eternally. Soul, consider these things ; do thou not persist any longer then in such a desperate way of sinning against the clear conviction of thine own conscience, which in this case must needs give testimony against thee.
Well then, go to God with the words of David, Psal. Ixvi. 13, 14. and say unto him, " I will pay thee my vows which my lips " have uttered, and my tongue hath spoken when I was in trouble."" Pay it, soul, and pay it speedily unto God, else he will recover it by justice, and fetch it out of thy bones in hell. O trifle not any longer with God, and that in such serious matters as these are .''
And now I have done my endeavour to give your former mercies and promises a resurrection in your consciences. O that you would sit down and pause a while upon these things, and then reflect upon the past mercies of your lives, and on what hath passed betwixt God and your souls in 3^our former straits and troubles? Let not these plain words work upon thy spleen, and make thee say 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 *' sin to remembrance.^"*' But rather let it work kindly on thy heart, and make thee say as David to Abigail, 1 Sam. xxv. 32, 33. " Bles>
THE SEAMAN S CATECHISM.
" sed be tlie Lord God of Israel, which sent thee this day to meet " me ; and blessed be thy advice.""
X HE fifth and last danger I shall warn you of, is your contempt and slighting of death. Ah ! how Uttle a matter do many of you, at least in words, make of it? It seems you have light reverential fear of this king of terrors, not only that you speak slightly of it, but also because you make no more preparations for it, and are no more sensible of your preservations and deliverances from it. Indeed the heathen philosophers did many of them profess a contempt of death upon the account of wisdom and fortitude ; and they were ac- counted the bravest men that most despised and slighted it : But, alas, poor souls ! they saw not their enemy against whom they fought, but skirmished with their eyes shut; they saw indeed its pale face, but not its sting and dart. There is also a lawful contempt of death. We freely grant that in two cases a believer may contemn it. First, When it is propounded to them a temptation on purpose to scare them from Christ and duty, then they should slight it ; as Rev. xii. 11. " They loved not their lives unto the death."" Secondly, When the natural evil of death is set in competition with the enjoyment of God in glory, then a believer should despise it, as Christ is said to do, Heb. xii. 2. though his was a shameful death. But upon all other accounts and considerations, it is the height of stupidity and security to despise it.