N02345:124
The vial poured out upon the sea. A remarkable relation of certain pirates brought…
The vial poured out upon the sea. A remarkable relation of certain pirates brought unto a tragical and untimely end. Some conferences with them, after their condemnation. Their behaviour at their execution. And a sermon preached on that occasion. : [Two lines from Job]
Boston: printed by T. Fleet for N. Belknap, 1726
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.
APPLICATION.
But my Discourse must pass into a most Importunate Exhortation. And it is an Exhortation, to be managed with the most Vehement Importunity, because we are every one of us very nearly concerned in it. If any one of us could promise himself to be excused from dying at all; Yea, or if any one of us could promise himself to live so much as One Day longer, the Exhortation might suffer some Abatement of the Flame in which it must come unto us. Oh! But not one of us can promise any such matter. We are all concerned. My Address must be as extensive as that; Psal. 49.1. Hear this, all ye People. This must be the Exhortation to us all. Immediately, Immediately become so wise, as to get beyond the Danger of dying without Wisdom. If you enquire, and methinks you should be Inquisitive, What is that Wisdom? GOD Himself shall give you an Answer, Job 28.28. And unto Man he said, Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is Wisdom, and to depart from evil, that is Understanding. Sirs, be assured of this. A Man may have the Wisdom to Govern and Manage whole Nations of Men; but if he die without any better Wisdom, How art thou fallen from Heaven, O Lucifer, Son of the Morning, who didst order the Nations? A Man may have the Wisdom to understand as many Languages as a Mithridates; but if he die without better Wisdom, he must be lodged where he shall gnaw his Tongue for Pain, & know no Language but that of Roaring and of Blasphemy. A Man may have the Wisdom to Calculate all the Motions of the Heavens; but if he die without better ⟨p. 38⟩Wisdom, he must go down to Hell, and lie in restless Chains of Darkness there. An acute Philosopher, will not by all his Wisdom, avoid a worse Fate than that of an Empedocles.
But my Discourse must pass into a most Importunate Exhortation. And it is an Exhortation, to be managed with the most Vehement Importunity, because we are every one of us very nearly concerned in it. If any one of us could promise himself to be excused from dying at all; Yea, or if any one of us could promise himself to live so much as One Day longer, the Exhortation might suffer some Abatement of the Flame in which it must come unto us. Oh! But not one of us can promise any such matter. We are all concerned. My Address must be as extensive as that;