N01600:189
Instructions to the living, from the condition of the dead. A brief relation of…
Instructions to the living, from the condition of the dead. A brief relation of remarkables in the shipwreck of above one hundred pirates, who were cast away in the ship Whido, on the coast of New-England, April 26. 1717. And in the death of six, who after a fair trial at Boston, were convicted & condemned, Octob. 22. And executed, Novemb. 15. 1717. : With some account of the discourse had with them on the way to their execution. And a sermon preached on their occasion.
Boston: printed by John Allen for Nicholas Boone, 1717
Title page typeset from the transcription.
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
First; It is an astonishing Truth, and among them that walk in the Ways of Dishonesty, it falls down like a flaming Thunderbolt!—Foolish Men, All the Riches which are not Honestly gotten, must be lost in a Shipwreck of Honest Restitution, if ever Men come unto Repentance and Salvation. There is no Man, who gets Riches and not by Right, but the Repentance, ⟨p. 51⟩unto Salvation, will bring him to that Language Zacheus; LUK. XIX. 8. Lord, I Restore. My Friends, 'Tis a tremendous Lesson of Christianity, which I am now treating you withal. Oh! tremble before it. It is, RESTITUTION, RESTITUTION; without which all things not Honestly gotten, will remain and corrode, as an Eternal Poison in the Soul of the Offender. If you get Riches and not by Right, it must be Repented of; it must be Repented of: A Righteous God who loveth Righteousness, will banish you out of His Kingdom, if it be not Repented of. Now, there can be nothing plainer than this; That if you Retain in your hands, what you have gotten and not by Right, you do not Repent of what you have done. You cannot Repent, if you do not Refund unto the utmost of your Capacity. Of a Man who has got Riches and not by Right, we are told Job XX. 15. He hath swallowed down Riches, and he shall vomit them up again, GOD shall cast them out of his Belly. O ⟨p. 52⟩Unjust Man, look for a terrible Vomit. Either God will by Scourges, make thee throw up thy Unjust Gain, and fetch it out of thee by one Impoverishing Stroke after another; Or else, He will by Repentance dispose thee, to throw it up, with an active, equal, patient Restitution. Alas, what hast thou been a doing? A Restitution of all thy Ill-gotten Treasures must be endeavoured, if thou wouldest not shut thy self out from the Everlasting Mercies of GOD. Ah! How fearfully, how fatally, how irrecoverably are the Souls of many Unjust Men entangled in the Snares of Death? They cannot hope to find Favour with GOD, or an Acceptance among true Penitents, if they do not endeavour all the Restitution that is possible. But will they ever come to this? No, The Vomit is too strong for them; they'll sooner dye than come unto it! Foolish Men; You have at once lost all that you have got! You must with your own hands throw all over-board, if ⟨p. 53⟩