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

of thy riches So is this great and wide Sea wherein are things creeping innumerable both small and great Beasts Psalm 104. 24 25. And we read Lam. 4. 3. of Sea-Monsters which draw out their Breasts to their young Pliny and Purchas tell incredible stories about them About the Tropick of Capricorn our Sea-men meet with flying Fishes that have Wings like a Rere-mouse but of a Silver-colour they fly in flocks like Stares There are Creatures of very strange Forms and Properties some resembling a Cow called by the Spaniards Manates by some supposed to be the Sea-monster spoken of by Ieremy In the Rivers of Guiana Purchas saith there are Fishes that have four Eyes bearing two above and two beneath the Water when they swim Some resembling a Toad and very poisonous How strange both in shape and property is the Sword-fish and Thrasher that fight with the Whale Even our own Seas produce Creatures of strange shapes but the commonness takes off the wonder APPLICATION Thus doth the heart of Man naturally swarm and abound with strange and monstrous lusts and abominations Rom. 1. 29 30 31 Being filled with all unrighteousness fornication wickedness covetousness maliciousness fuil of envy murder debate deceit malignity whisperers back-bit●rs haters of God despiteful proud boasters inventors of evil things disobedient to Parents without understanding covenant-breakers without natural affection implacable unmerciful O what a swarm is here and yet there are multitudes more in the depths of the heart And it is no wonder considering that with this Nature we received the spawn of the blackest and vilest abominations This original lust is productive to them all Iam. 1. 14. 15. Which lust though it be in every Man numerically different from that of others yet it is one and the same speciffically for sort and kind in all the Children of Adam even as the reasonable Soul though every Man hath his own Soul viz a Soul individually distinct from another Man's yet is it the same for kind in all men So that whatever abominations are in the hearts and lives of the vilest Sodomites and most profligate Wretches under Heaven there is the same matter in thy heart out of which they were shaped and formed In the depths of the heart they are conceived and thence they crawl out of the eyes hands lips and all the members Mat. 15. 18. 19. Those things saith Christ which proceed out of the mouth come forth from the heart and defile a man For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts murders adulteries fornications thefts false-witness blasphemies Even such Monsters as would make a gracious heart tremble to behold What are my Lusts saith Fuller's Medone but so many Toads spitting of Venome tations p 11. and spawning of Poison croaking in my Iudgment creeping in my Will and crawling into my Affecttions The Apostle in 1 Cor. 5. 1. tells us of a sin Not to be named so monstrous that Nature it self startles at it Even such Monsters are generated in the depths of the heart Whence comes evils was a Question that much puzled the Philosphers of old Now here you may see whence they come and when they are begotten REFLECTION And are there such strange abominations in the heart of Man Then how is he degenerated from his Perfection and Glory His streams were once as clear as Chrystal and the Fountain of them pure there was no unclean Creature moving in them What a stately Fabrick was the Soul at first And what holy Inhabitants possessed the several rooms thereof But now as God speaks of Idumea Isai. 34. 11. The line of confusion is stretched out upon it and the stones of emptiness The Cormorant and Bittern posses it the Owl and the Raven dwell in it Yea as Isai. 13. 21. 22. The wild beasts of the desert lie there is is full of doleful creatures the Satyrs dance in it and Dragons cry in those sometimes pleasant places O sad change how sadly may we look back towards our first state and take up the words of Iob O that I were as in months past as in the days of my youth when the Almighty was yet with me when I put on righteousness and it cloathed me when my glory was fresh in me Job 29. 2 4. 5. Again think O my Soul what a miserable condition the Unregenerate abide in Thus swarmed and over-run with hellish Lusts ●nder the dominion and vassalage of divers Lusts Tit. 3. 3. What a tumultuous Sea is such a Soul How do these Lusts rage within them how do they contest and scuffle for the Throne and usually take it by turns For as all Diseases are contrary to health yet some contrary to each other so are Lusts. Hence poor Creatures are hurried on to different kinds of servitude according to the Nature of that imperious Lust that is in the Throne and like the Lunatick Mat. 17. are sometimes cast into the VVater and somtimes into the Fire Well might the Prophet say The wicked is like a troubled Sea that cannot rest Isai. 57. 20. They have no peace now in the serv ice of sin and less they shall have hereafter when they receive the wages of sin There is no peaec to the wicked saith my God they indeed cry Peace peace but my God doth not say so The last issue and result of this is Eternal Death no sooner is it delivered of its deceitfull pleasures but presently it falls in travel again and brings forth death Iam. 1 15. Once more And is the Heart such a Sea abounding with monstrous abominations then stand astonished O my Soul at that Free-grace which hath delivered thee from so sad a Condition O fall down and kiss the feet of Mercy that moved so freely and seasonably to thy rescue Let my heart be enlarged abundantly here Lord what am I that I should be taken and others left Reflect O my Soul upon the Conceptions and Births of Lusts in the days of Vanity which thou now blushest to own O what black imaginations hellish desires vile affections are lodged there Who made me to differ Or how came I to be thus wounderfully separated Surely it is by thy Free-grace and nothing else that I am what I am And by that Grace I have escaped to mine own astonishment the corruption that is in the World through Lust. O that ever the holy God should set his eyes on such an one or cast a look of love towards me in whom were Legions of unclean Lusts and Abominations THE POEM My Soul 's the Sea wherein from day to day Sins like Leviathans do sport and play Great Master-Lusts with all the lesser fry Therein increase and strangely multiply Yet strange it is not sin so fast should breed Since with this Nature I receiv'd the Seed And Spawn of every Species which was shed Into its Caverns first then nourished By its own native warmth which like the Sun Hath quickned them and now abroad they come And like the Frogs of Aegypt creep

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. ●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

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

make your hearts shake within you If but a Plank spring or a Bolt give way you are all lost Sometimes the Lord for the magnifying of the riches of his goodness upon you drives you to such exigencies that as Paul speaks in a like case Acts 17. 20. All hopes of being saved is taken away Nothing but Death before your eyes The Lord commands a Wind out of his Treasury bids it go and lift up the terrible Waves look you in upon the shore and drive you upon the Rocks so that no Art can save you and then sends you a piece of Wreck or some other means to land you safe And all this to give you an experiment of his goodness and pity that you may learn to fear that God in whose hand your Soul and Breath is And it may be for present your hearts are much affected Conscience works strongly it smites you for sins formerly committed such cannsels of Ministers or Relations slighted Now saith Conscience God is come in this storm to reckon with thee for these things But alas all this is but a morning-dew no sooner is that storm without allayed but all is quiet within too How little of the goodness of God abides kindly and effectually upon the heart REFLECTION How often hath this glorious power and goodness of God passed before me in dreadful storms and tempests at Sea He hath uttered his Voice in those stormy Winds and spoken in a terrible manner by them yet how little have I been affected with it The Lord hath his way in the whirlwind and in the storm Nah. 1. 3. To some he hath walked in ways of Judgment and Wrath sending them down in a moment to Hell but to me in a way of forbearance and mercy Ah how often have I been upon the very brink of Eternity Had not God shifted or allaid the Wind in a moment I had gone down into Hell What workings of Conscience were at present upon me And what terrible apprehensions had I then of my eternal condition What Vows did I make in that distress and how earnestly did I then beg for Mercy But Lord though thy Vows are upon me yet have I been the same yea added to and filled up the measure of my sins Neither the bonds of Mercy thou hast laid upon me nor the sacred and solemn Vows I have laid upon my self could restrain me from those ways of iniquity which then appeared so dreadful to me Ah Lord what an heart have I What love pity and goodness have I sinned against If God had but respited Judgment so long what a mercy were it Sure I am the damned would account it so but to give me such a space to repent Ah what an invaluable Mercy is this And do I thus requite the Lord Deut. 32. 6. and pervert and abuse his goodness thus Surely O my Soul if this be the fruit of all thy preservations they are rather reservations to some further and sorer judgment How dreadfully will Justice at last avenge the Quarrel of abused Mercy Iosh. 24. 20. How grievously did God take it from the Israelites that they provoked him at the Sea even at the Red Sea Psal. 106. 7. where God had wrought there deliverance in such a miraculous way Even thus have I sinned after the similitude of there transgressions not onely against the Laws of God but against the Love of God In the last storm he shot off his VVarning-piece in the next he may discharge his Murdering-piece against my Soul and body O my Soul hath he given thee such deliverances as these and darest thou again break his Commandments Ezra 9. 13 14. O let me pay the Vows that my lips have uttered in my distress lest the Lord recover his glory from me in a way of Judgment THE POEM The Ship that now sails trim before a Wind E're the desired Port it gains may find A tedious passage Gentle Gales a-while Do fill its Sails the flattering Seas do smile The Face of Heaven is bright on every side The wanton Porpice tumbles on the Tide Into their Cahbins now the Sea-men go And then turn out again with What chear ho All on a sudden darkned are the Skies The Lamp of Heaven abscur'd the Winds do rise Waves s●ell like Mountains Now their Courage flags The Masts are crackt the Canvas torn to rags The Vessel works for life anon one cries The Main mast's gone by th' Board another plies The ●ump until a third do strike them blank With Sirs prepare for Death w' have sprung a Plank Now to their Knees they go and on this wise They beg for Mercy with their loudest Cries Lord save us but this once and thou shalt see What Persons for the future we will he Our former ●im's mis-spent but with a Vow VVe will engage if thou wilt save us now To mend what is amiss The gracious Lord Inclin'd to pity takes them at their word The VVinds into their Treasures he doth call Rebukes the stormy Sea and brin●s them all To their desired Haven once ashore And then their Vows are ne'r remembred more Thus Souls are shipwrackt tho the Bodies live Vnless in time thou true Repentance give CHAP. VIII The Navigator shifts his Sails to take All VVinds but that which for his Soul doth make OBSERVATION THE Mariner wants no Skill and wisdom to improve several Winds and make them serviceable to his eud A bare side-wind by his skill in shifting and managing the Sails will serve his turn He will not lose the advantage of one breath or gale that may be useful to him I have many times wonder'd to see two Ships failing in a direct counter-motion by one and the same wind Their skill and wisdom herein is admirable APPLICATION Thus prudent and skilful are Men in secular and lower matters and yet how ignorant and unskilful in the great and everlasting affairs of their Souls All their Invention Judgment Wit and Memory seem to be prest for the service of the flesh They can learn an Art quickly and arrive to a great deal of exactness in it but in soul-matters no knowledge at all They can understand the Aequator Meridian and Horizon By the first they can tell the Latitude of any place South or North measuring it by the degrees in the Meridian by the second they can tell you the Longitude of a place East and West from the Meridian measuring it by the degrees of the Aequator And by the third they can discern the divers risings and settings of the Stars And so in other Arts and Sciences we find men endowed with rare abilities and singular sagacity Some have piercing Apprehensions solid Judgments stupendious Memories rare Invention and excellent elocution But put them upon any spiritual pernatural matter and the weakest Christian even a babe in Christ shall excel them therein and give a far better account of Regeneration the Work of Grace the Life of Faith than these can 1 Cor. 1. 26. Not many

and yet such as have had the highest security in the eye of Reason have notwithstanding experienc'd the vanity of these things Henry the Fourth a potent Prince was reduced to such a low ebb that he petitioned for a Prehends place in the Church of Spire Gallimer King of the Vandals was brought so low that he sent to his Friend for a spunge a Loaf of Bread and an Harp a Spunge to dry up his tears a Loaf of bread to maintain his life and an Harp to solace himself in his misery The story of Bellisarius is very affecting He was a man famous in his time General of an Army yet having his eyes put out and striped of all earthly comforts was led about crying Date abolum Bellisario Give one penny to poor Ballisarius Instances in History of this kinde are infinite Men of the greatest estates and honours have nevertheless become the very Ludibria Fortunae as one speaks The very scorn of Fortune Yea and not onely wicked men that have gotten their Estates by rapine and oppression have lived to see them thus scattered by Providence But sometimes godly Men have had their Estates how justly soever acquired thus scattered by Providence also Who ever had an estate better gotten better bottomed or better managed than Iob yet all was overthrown and swept away in a moment though in mercy to him as the issue demonstrated Oh then what a vanity is it to set the heart and let out the affections on them You can never depend too much upon God nor too little upon the creature 1 Tim. 6. 17. Charge them that are rich in this world that they be not high-minded and trust in uncertain riches REFLECTION Are all earthly things thus transitory and vain Then what a reproach and shame is it to me that the men of this world should be more industrious and eager in the prosecution of such vanities then I am to enrich my Soul with solid and everlasting Treasure O that ever a sensual lust should be more operative in them then the love of God in me O my Soul thou dost not lay out thy strength and earnestness for Heaven with any proportion to what they do for the World I have indeed higher Motives and a surer Reward than they But as I have an advantage above them herein so have they an advantage above me in the strength and intireness of the principle by which they are acted What they do for the World they do it with all their might they have no contrary principle to oppose them their thoughts strength and affection is entirely carried in one Channel But I find a Law in my Members warring against the Law of my Mind I must strive through a thousand Difficulties and Contradictions to the discharge of a Duty O my God! Shall not my heart bemore enlarged in Zeal Love and Delight in thee than theirs are after their Lusts O let me once find it so Again is the Creature so vain and unstable then why are my Affections so hot and eager after it And why am I so apt to dote upon its beauty especially when God is staining all its pride and glory Ier. 45. 5 6. Surely it is unbecoming the spirit of a Christian at any time but at such a time we may say of it as Hushai of Ahitophel's Counsell It is not good at this time O that my Spirit were raised above them and my conversation more in Heaven O that like that Angel Revel 10. 1 2. which came down from Heaven and set one foot upon the Sea and another upon the Earth having a Crown upon his head so I might set one foot upon all the cares fears and terrours of the World and another upon all the tempting splendour and glory of the World treading both under foot in the dust and crowning my self with nothing but spiritual excellencies and glory THE POEM Iudge in thy self O Christian is it meet To set thy heart on what Beasts set their feet 'T is no Hyperbole if you be told You dig for Dross with Mattocks made of Gold Affections are too costly to bestow Vpon the fair-fac'd Nothings here below The Eagle scorns to fall down from on high The Proverb saith to catch the silly Flie. And can a Christian leave the Face of God T' embrace the Earth or dote upon a Clod Can earthly Things thy heart so strangely move To tempt it down from the Delights above And now to court the World at such a time When God is laying Iudgment to the Line It 's just like him that doth his Cabbin sweep And trim when all is sinking in the Deep Or like the silly Bird that to her Nest Doth carry straws and never is at rest Till it be feather'd well but doth not see The Axe beneath that's hewing down the Tree If on a Thorn thy heart it self repose With such delight what if it were a Rose Admire O Saint the Wisdom of thy God Who of the self-same Tree doth make a Rod Lest thou shouldst surfeit on forbidden Fruit And live not like a Saint but like a Brute CHAP. XVIII Like hungry Lions Waves for Sinners gape Leave then your Sins behind if you 'll escape OBSERVATION THE Waves of the Sea are sometimes raised by God's Commission to be Executioners of his Threatnings upon sinners When Ionah fled from the presence of the Lord to Tarshish the Text saith The Lord sent out a great Wind into the Sea and there was a mighty Tempest so that the Ship was like to be broken Joh. 1. 4. These were God's Bailiffs to arrest the Run-away Prophet And Psal. 148. 8. The stormy winds are said to fulfil his word not only his word of Command in rising when God bids them but his word of threatning also And hence it is called a destroying wind Jer. 51. 1. and a stormy wind in God's fury Ezek. 13. 13. APPLICATION If these be the Executioners of the Lord's threatnings how sad then is their condition that put forth to Sea under the guilt of all their sins O if God should commissionate the Winds to go after and arrest thee for all thou owest him where art thou then How dare you put forth under the power of a Divine threat before all be cleared betwixt God and thee Sins in Scripture are called debts Mat. 6. 12. They are debts to God not that we owe them to him or ought to sin but Metonymically because they render the Sinner obnoxious to God's Judgments even as pecuniary debts oblige him that hath not wherewith to pay to suffer punishment All sinners must undergo the Curse either in their own person according to the express letter of the Law Gen. 2. 17. Gal. 3. 10. or their surety according to the tacite intent of the Law manifested to be the mind of the Law-giver Gen. 3. 15. Gal. 3. 13 14. Now he that by Faith hath Interest in his Surety hath his Discharge his Quietus est sealed in the Blood of Christ

infatuating sin The danger of falling this way must needs be great and the fall very desperate because few that fall into it do ever rise again I shall lay two very terrible Scriptures before you to this purpose either of them enough to drive thee speedily to Christ or to drive thee out of thy wits the one is that Eccles. 7. 26. And I find more bitter than death the woman whose heart is snares and nets and whose hands are bands Whoso pleaseth God shall escape from her but the sinner shall be taken by her The Argument which the spirit of God uses here to disswade from this Sin is taken from the subject they that fall into it for the most part are persons in whom God has no delight and so in judgment are delivered up to it and never recovered by Grace from it The other is that in Prov. 22. 14. The mouth of a strange woman is a deep pit he that is abhorred of the Lord shall fall therein Oh terrible word able to daunt the heart of the the securest sinner your whores embrace you yea but God abhors you you have their love oh but you are under Gods hatred What say you to these two Scriptures If you are not Athiests methinks such a word from the mouth of God should strike like a Dart through thy Soul And upon this account it is that they never are recover'd because God has no delight in them If this be not enough view one Scripture more Prov. 2. 18 19. For her house inclineth unto Death and her paths unto the Dead None that go to her reture again neither take they hold of the paths of life Reader if thou be a person addicted to this sin go thy ways and think seriously what a case thou art in None return again i. e. a very few of many the examples of such as have been recovered are very rare Pliny tells us the Mermaids are commonly seen in green Meadows and have inchanting Voices but there are always found heaps of dead mens bones lying by them This may be but a fabulous Story But I am sure it is true of the Harlot whose Syren-Songs have allured thousands to their inevitable destruction It 's a captivating sin that leads away the sinner in triumph they cannot deliver their souls Prov. 7. 22. He goeth after her straightway as an Ox goeth to the slaughter or as a Fool to the correction of the stocks Mark a Fool it dementates and befools men takes away their understanding the Septuagint renders it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 As a dog to the Collar or like as we use to say a dog in a string I have read of one that having by this sin wasted his body was told by Physitians that except he left it he would quickly lose his Eyes he answered If it be so then Vale lumen amicum Farewel sweet light And I remember Luther writes of a certain Nobleman in his Country who was so besotted with the sin of Whoredome that he was not ashamed to say That if he might live here for ever and be carried from one stews to another he would never desire any other Heaven The greatest Conquerors that have subdued Kingdoms and scorned to be commanded by any have been miserably enslaved and captivated by this Lust. O think sadly upon this argument God often gives them up to Impenitency and will not spend a rod upon them to reclaim them See Hos. 4. 14. Revel 22. 11. Arg. 7. And then in the 7th place Those few that have been recovered by Repentance out of it oh how bitter hath God made it to their souls I find it saith Solomon more bitter than death Eccles. 7. 26. Death is a very bitter thing Oh what a struggling and reluctance is there in Nature against it But this is more bitter Poor David found it so when he roared under those bloody lashes of Conscience for it in Psalm 51. Ah! when the Lord shall open the poor Sinner's eyes to see the horrid guilt he hath hereby contracted upon his own poor soul it will haunt him as a Ghost day and night and terrifie his soul with dreadful forms and representations O dear-bought pleasure if this were all it should cost What is now become of the pleasure of sin Oh! what gall and wormwood wilt thou taste when once the Lord shall bring thee to a sight of it the Hebrew word for Repentance Nacham and the Greek word Metamelia the one signifies an irking of the Soul and the other signifies After grief Yea it is called A renting of the heart as if it were torn in pieces in a mans breast Ask such a poor soul what it thinks of such Courses now Oh now it loaths abhors it self for them Ask him if he dare sin in that kind again You may as well ask me will he answer whether I will thrust my hand into the fire Oh it breeds an indignation in him against himself That word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2 Cor. 7. 11. signifies the rising of the stomach with very rage and being sick with anger Religious wrath is the fiercest wrath Oh what a furnace is the breast of the poor penitent what fumes what heats do abound in it whilst the sin is even before him and the sense of guilt upon him One night of carnal pleasure will keep thee many days and nights upon the rack of horrour if ever God give thee repentance unto life Arg. 8. And if thou never repent as indeed but ●ew do that fall into this sin then consider how God will follow thee with eternal vengeance Thou shalt have flaming Fire for burning Lust. This is a sin that hath a scent of fire and brimstone with it wherever you meet with it in Scripture The Harlots guests are lodged in the depths of Hell Prov. 9. 18. No more perfumed beds they must now lie down in flames Whoremongers shall have their part in the Lake that burneth with fire and brimstone which is the second death Rev. 21. 1. Such shall not inherit the Kingdom of God and Christ 1 Cor. 6. 9. No Dog shall come into the new Ierusalem there shall in no wise enter in any thing that defileth or that worketh abomination You have spent your strength upon sin and now God sets himself a work to shew the glory of his Power in punishing Rom. 9. 22. The wrath of God is transacted upon them in Hell by his own immediate hand H●b 10. 30. Because no Creature is strong enough to convey all his wrath and it must all be poured out upon them therefore he himself will torment them for ever with his own immediate Power now he will stir up all his wrath and sinners shall know the price of their pleasures The punishment of Sodom is a little Map of Hell as I may say Oh how terrible a day was that upon those unclean wretches but that fire was not of many days continuance when it had consumed them and their