Navigation Spiritualized, Dedication
To the Right Worshipful Sir Iohn Frederick, Kt, One of the Worshipful Aldermen of the City of LONDON, and their Honourable BURGESS in the present PARLIAMENT.
And to the truly Religious and ever Honoured, Mr. Iohn Lovering, Of the City of London, MERCHANT.
Much honour'd and esteem'd,
ALthough Dedications are too often abused to a vain flattery, yet is there an excellent use and advantage to be made of them: Partly to encourage Persons of VVorth and Eminency to espouse the Interest of Religion themselves; and partly to oblige those Readers, for whom such Books are principally intended, to a diligent perusal of them, by interesting such Persons in them, for whom they have great Respects, o… on whom they have any dependance.
VponUpon the first account, a Dedication would be needless to you: for I am perswaded, you do not only in your Iudgment approve the Design I here manage, viz. The Reformation of the prophane and looser sort of our Sea-men; but are also heartily willing to improve your Interest to the uttermost for the promotion of it. I cannot look upon you as Persons acted by that low and common spirit that the most of your Profession are acted by, who little regard, if they be good Servants to them, whether God have any Service from them, or no, and if they pay them the Wages due for their work never think of the Wages they are to receive for their sin. You are judged to be Persons of another spirit, who do not only mind, but advance Christ's Interest above your own, and negotiate for his Glory, as well as for your own gain: And yet, herein you consult your own Interest as well as God's: Subordinata non pugnant. Your Interest is never more prosperously managed, or abundantly secured, than when it is carried on in a due subordination to God's. Their Reformation will apparently tend to your advantage. Those sins of theirs, against which I have here engaged, are the Jonahs in your Ships: 'tis sin that sinks them, and drives them against the Rocks. One sinner destroys much good, Eccles. 8. 11. How much more a leud Crew of them conspiring to provoke God! The death of their Lusts, is the most probable means to give life to your Trade. And as these Counsels prosper in their hearts, so will your Business thrive in you hands. Piety and Prosperity are married together in that Promise, Psal. 1. 3. Onesimus was never so profitable a Servant to Philemon, as when he became his Brother in a Spiritual, as well as his Servant in a Civil Capacity. Philem. vers. 11. and 16. compared. And yet if your Interest were forced to step back, to give way to Christ's; I hope you would (notwithstanding) rejoyce therein. So that my present business is, not so much to perswade you, whose hearts, I hope, God ha…h already perswaded, to so good a work; as to make your Fames and Respects, which are great among them, an innocent Bait to tempt them to their Duty. And if either your Name or Interest may be useful to such an end, I presume I may use them freely, and welcome: for, sure I am, they can never be put to a better use.
Well then, I will make bould to send this small Adventure in your Ships; and if the Return of it be but tke Conversion of one Soul to God, I shall reckon that I have made a better Voyage than you, let your Returns be never so rich.
How these things will affect them, I know not. I do suppose it will produce different effects upon them, according to the different tempers of their spirits, and according as God shall command, or suspend the Blessing. Possibly some will storm at the close and cutting Rebukes of the Word, (for most mens Lusts are a great deal more sensible and tender than their Consciences) and will fondly imagine that this necessary plainness tends to their reproach. But if none but the guilty can be supposed to be angry at them, they will thereby reproach themselves a great deal more than ever I intend to do.
I confess it is a bitter Pill, and compounded of many …perative and strong Ingredients, which do acute it; …ut not a jot more than is necessary. I shall beg the …ssistance of your Prayers to God for them, and of your …rave Admonitions and Exhortations to them for God; …hich will much help its Operation, and facilitate my Design, to do their Souls a piece of everlasting Service; …ith which Design I can truly say I even travel in pain … them. Your assistance therefore in this good Work, …ill put the highest Obligation upon
Your most affectionate Friend and Servant to be commanded, IOHN FLAVEL.
A Sober Consideration Of the SIN of DRUNKENNESS.
IN the former Treatise I have endeavoured to Spiritualize earthly Objects, and elevate your thoughts to more sublime and excellent Contemplations; that earthly things may rather be … step, than a stop to Heavenly. You have therein my best advice to guide you in your Course to that Po… of your Eternal Rest and Happiness.
In this, I have given warning of some dangero… Rocks and Quick-sands that lie upon your left hand… upon which millions of Souls have perished, and …thers are wilfully running to their own preditio… Such are the horrid Sins of Drunkenness, Vncleanness profane Swearing, Violation of Promises and Ingagements made to God, and Atheistical slighting and co… tempt of Death and Eternity. All which I have … given warning of, and held forth a Light to d… cover where your danger is. If after this you …stinately prosecute your Lusts, and will not be …claimed; you perish without Apology, I have fre… mine own Soul.
Let none interpret this necessary plainness, as… reproach to Sea-men, as if I represented them … the world worse than they are. If upon that… count any of them be offended, methinks these three or four Considerations should remove that offence.
First, that if this close and plain dealing be necessary in order to your Cure, and you will be offended thereat, it's better you should be offend…d than God. Ministers are often put upon lamentable streights, they sail betwixt Sylla and Charibdis; the wrat… of God upon one side, if we do not speak …, and home, as the necessity of the Case …equires; and Man's wrath, if we do: What shall we do in this streight? Either God or you, it seems, must be offended; and if it cannot be avoided, I shall rather hazard your anger than Gods, and think it far more tolerable.
Secondly, If you did but see the necessity and end of this manner of dealing with your Souls, you would not be offended. But put it into a more sensible case, and you will see and acknowledge it presently. If I should see an high-bult Wall giving way, and ready to fall upon you; would you be angry with me, if by plucking you out of the danger, I should pluck your arm out of joynt? Certainly you would not. Why this is the case here: See Isa. 30. 13. Therefore this Iniquity shall be unto you as a breach ready to fall, swelling out in a high Wall, whose breaking cometh suddenly, at as instant.
Thirdly, What a madness is it to abide in a condition over which all Woes and Curses hang, and yet not be able to endure to hear of it! Why what will it profit you to have your misery hid from your eyes, and kept from your eares a little while? You must see this wrath, and hear louder vollies of Woes from your own Consciences, If you remain in this condition. You cannot bear that from us, which your Conscience will one of these days preach themselves to you, and that in a more dreadful dialect than I have used here.
Fourthly, I do not charge these sins indifferently upon all Sea-men. No, I know there are some choice and good men amongst your men, that fear an Oath, and hate even the garments spotted with the flesh, who are (I question not) the credit and glory of our English Nation, in the eyes of Strangers that converse with them. Nor yet do I think, that all that are wicked amongst them, are equally guilty of all these evils; for though all that are graceless, be equally under the dominion of Original Corruption, yet it follows not from thence, that therefore actual sins must reign alike in them: There is great difference, even among ungodly men themselves, in this respect; which difference ariseth from their various Customs, Constitutions, Abilities, Educations, and the different Administrations of the Spirit, in enlightning, convincing, and putting checks upon Conscience: For though God be not the Author, yet he is the Orderer of sin. And this makes a great disparity, even among wicked men themselves. Some are persons of good Morals, though not Gracious Principles, which produce a civil and sober, though not a holy and a religious Life. And others, though they live in some one of these Lusts, yet are not guilty of some others of them. For it is with Original Corruption, just as it is with the sap of the Earth, which though it be the matter of all kind of Fruits, yet in some ground it sorts better with one grain than with another: And so in Plants, in one tree it becomes a Apple, in another a Cherry; even so it is with this Original Corruption: In one man it runs most into Swearing, in another into Uncleanness, in a third into Drunkenness. Lust is nothing else but the corrupt appetite of the Creature to some sinful object: and therefore look as it is with the Appetite with respect to Food, so it is with the vitiated Appetites of Souls to sin. One man loves this Food best, and another that; there is endless variety in that, and so in this.
Having spoken thus much to remove offence, I shall now beg you to peruse the following Discourse. Consider what evidence these things carry with them. Search the alledged Scriptures, see if they be truly recited and applied to the case in hand: And if so, Oh tremble at the truth you read; bring forth your Lusts that they may die the death: Will you not part with these abominable practices till Death and Hell make the seperation? Ah how much better is it for you, that Grace should do it! And because many of you see not the danger, and therefore prize not the Remedy, I do here Request all those that have the Bowels of Pity in them for their poor Relations, who are sinking, drowning, perishing, to spread these following Cautions before the Lord for a Blessing, and then put them into their hands. And oh that all pious Masters would perswade those that are under their charge to buy this ensuing Treatise, and diligently peruse it. And the first Caution I shall give them, is this.