N01600:190
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.
Secondly. A Good Esteem is lost, by them who get Riches in the Ways of Dishonesty; A Good Esteem among all those, who are willing to live in all Godliness and Honesty. We have been told, Prov. XXII. 1. A good Name is rather to be chosen than great Riches. 'Tis far more Honourable and Reputable, to be a Good Man, than to be a Rich Man. It will most of all be found so, in the Day when every Man shall receive Praise of God, who is found worthy of it. But now as a Thief is ashamed when he is found, so 'tis a shameful Thing to be found a False-dealer in any Degree, in any Affair: It makes a Man lightly esteemed. All Baseness in any Dealing, is a Blemish on the Dealer. To Deal unjustly with any Man; 'tis a Blot in any Scutcheon. The Kings themselves that have done it, are of, of what Memory, I beseech you? No one believes it, if they say, A Blessed One.
Thirdly, Yea, a Good Conscience is Lost. And that's a worse Loss, a Thousand Times; a Loss which if we were wise, we should at any time take Joyfully the Spoiling of our Goods, for the preventing of! When a man gets Riches and not by Right, he has a Conscience within him, which tells him, He does what the ought not to do. The Servant of GOD could say; Heb. XIII. 18. We have a Good Conscience, in all things willing to Live honestly. Men don't keep a Good Conscience, when they don't Live Honestly. The man that has taken more than his own, is he, of whom we read, A Dreadful Sound is in his Ears; And again, Terrors shall make him afraid on every side. His Wounded Conscience keeps roaring in his Ears; Thou hast wronged thy Neighbour, and there is a Just GOD, who is a dreadful Revenger of such Wrongs at these. 'Tis a Folly for a man to incur the Reproaches of an Angry Conscience. All the Riches of a Chaldean or Persian Monarch, would be too dearly bought, if a man must have them accompanied with the Lashes of a Guilty Conscience, furiously Reproaching of him. All the Relish of ⟨p. 55⟩Riches is Lost; Rocks of Diamonds, & Mountains of Gold, are not worth a Straw; where the Conscience is like the Troubled Sea, and there is no peace unto the Wicked!