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]

WISDOM In the Latter End.

A SERMON occasion'd by the Condition of the Condemned Pi|rates, July 10. 1726.

Job IV.21.

They Dy even without Wisdom.

THe Greatest Unhappiness imaginable! And yet such as the most of Men are overta|ken withal. To prevent such an Unhap|ness, as it would be the brightest Wisdom, that any Man alive can attain unto, so it should be the liveliest Care that every Man living shall have his Mind concern'd about. It is impossible to begin this Care too soon. It is impossible to pursue this Care too much. Except this be a Mans Chief Care, it is impossible to escape the formidable Un|happiness. I have before me the most Important Sub|ject in the World. We cannot Preach too frequently

or too fervently on the Subject. You cannot hear too Attentively. I bring you this Day, those Max|ims of Wisdom, which will require the greatest At|tention from you. We are a Congregation of Dy|ing People. The Danger of our Dying without Wis|dom, 'tis incident unto us; 'tis threatning of us; we cannot be too deeply affected with it. We live without Wisdom, if we are not very deeply affected with it!

A Comparison is instituted between Angels and Men; to prove, That if Angels must abase them|selves before GOD, and lay aside all boasting pre|tensions to perfection, much more must Men do so. The Children of Men on Earth are on many Ac|counts inferiour to the Angels of God, in Heaven. The Inferiority is particularly conspicuous, in our Mortality. And indeed, we are not only Mortal Creatures, but our Death is attended with some ve|ry Humbling Circumstances. First, when men Dy, they are stript of that Excellency which makes them valuable among the Living. Tho' men may Excel ne|ver so much, in Strength or in Beauty, in Wealth or in Honour; in Learning or in Authority; They are carried Naked unto the Grave. Death, deprives them, disrobes them, of those things for which they were esteemed Excellent. Indeed there is one Excel|lency, which if Men had it, would Abide with them, when they Dy, and would outlive their Death. True Wisdom would do so. But now, Secondly, Behold, how unhappy the most of Men are in this thing, They Dy without Wisdom. And this is that awful Doctrine, which I am to insist upon.

Let Men be never so wise, they are to Dy; but the most of Men are so unhappy as to be found without Wisdom when they Dy.

No Wisdom can deliver any Man from Death; But it is a fearful wretchedness attending the Death of many Men, that they come to it without Wisdom.

I. The first Thing before us is, The Unhappiness of All Men; which yet unto some who have a part in a Great Saviour, in a great Measure ceases to be an Unhappiness. Whatever Wisdom there be in any Men, Death is the unavoidable Portion of all Men. There is no Wisdom that will keep off the Stroke of Death. So some take the meaning of this Clause. In the Original it runs, They Dy, and there is not Wisdom in them; that is, no Wisdom to send off the stroke of Death. Nulla est Sapientia qua mortem Effu|giant. So 'tis carried by Interpreters. The wis|dom of Men signifies no more to save them from Death, than if they had no Wisdom. The Wisdom of any Man will not give him any more priviledge, to Exempt him from Death, than the veriest Fool in the World. We read, Eccl. 2.16. How dyes the wise Man? even as the Fool. We read, Psal. 49.10. Wise Men dy, likewise the Fool and the Brutish perish. It was of old said, concerning a wise Man, Died Ab|ner as a Fool dieth? In some Sense he did so Dy. The Wisest Man in any Court or Colledge upon Earth, is as liable to Death as the poorest Creature that comes within the statute of Idiocy. We read, Heb. 9.27. — 'Tis appointed for Men once to Dy. The Common Law of Death is what every Man, must submit unto. The Law runs, All Titles, Dig|nities,

Preferments, Excellencies &c. to the Contrary, in any wise notwithstanding. 'Tis the Common Lot of Mankind; of wise Men, as well as others. They must be none but Egregious Fools, who can dream of any Exemption from this common Lot. Ah, Foo|lish Wretch, and far gone in Folly; shall the Earth be forsaken for thee; or shalt thou be permitted never to forsake the Earth! And shall a Decree more Esta|blished than a Rock, be removed of its place, that thou mayst always continue in thy place? No, we have the Summ of the Matter, and the Root of it. Rom. 5.12; Wherefore, as by one Man Sin entred into the World, and Death by Sin; and so Death passed upon all Men, for that all have sinned.

First. No Natural Wisdom will secure, or excuse any Man from dying like all other Men. We read, 1 King. 11.43. Solomon slept with his Fathers. Where is the Politician, that can Out-wit his Last Enemy, or by his Wit elude the Approaches of that Enemy? What Lawyer so Cunning as to Quash the Writ of Death? Academies are emptied of their Inhabitants, as well as Hospitals. There is one honourable Tribe of Men, whose Profession 'tis to prolong Life. But the Physicians cannot instruct us how always to pro|rogue Death. None of them can by any means redeem his Brother, or find out an Elixir by which his Patient may Live for ever, and not see Corruption. They some|times put by a Pass, which Death is making at us; but let them Fence never so Skilfully, anon Death gives a Home Thrust, and the Distrest Physicians look on with troubled and grieved Eyes, and own, We are now Physicians of no Value. They dye themselves likewise; and none sooner, than they that like Paracelsus, brag of their Immortalizing Medicines.

Secondly. No, nor will Religious Wisdom neither. We read, Josh. 1.2. Moses my Servant is Dead. They that are wise unto Salvation, yet will not by that Wisdom Save themselves from Temporal Death. Piety will deliver from the Sting of Death; but not from Death it self. Piety will deliver from the second Death; but not from the First Death. Piety will ob|tain a Resurrection for us, that will bring us out of the Grave; it will not obtain a Preservation for us, that we shall not go into the Grave. What Man is he that liveth, let him live never so piously, never so prayerfully, never so Fruitfully, who shall not see Death, or deliver his Soul from the hand of the Grave? In fine, It was a Sentence in the Wisdom of the Ancients; Is Vir non est, qui lapides atque edificia cor|ruere, et homines mori miratur. The Man that won|ders to see Buildings fall, and People dy, is not worthy the Name of a Man. I remember Posidonius in the Life of Austin, tells us, how much that Great Man was affected with that Sentence, a little before his own going out of the World. May we all, since we are all going out of the world, accustom our|selves to this Heart affecting Meditation.

II. The second Thing before us, is, A much worse unhpppiness that befalls the most of men, and the worst unhappiness that any Man can have befalling of him. The most of Men, dy before they have arri|ved unto the only true Wisdom. Few Men are wise before they Dy. Thus this clause is well carri|ed by Expositors; Prius moriuntur quam quicquam intellexerunt de Divina Sapientia. They Dy before they know what Wisdom is: They dy strangers, to Divine, Real, Saving Wisdom. All Men are, born

Fools. We read, Job 11.12. Born like the wild-Asses Colt. And the most of Men Dy Fools. The lives of Men are generally spent in Folly. And they dy before the cure of their Folly.

We will Enquire; First, Whence it proceeds, that the most of Men, dy before they arrive unto Wis|dom? You may be sure, The Fall of Man is the cause of this evil. Man was ambitious of Wisdom. The Temptation of the Forbidden Fruit was, A Tree to be desired, to make one wise. But Man by his Fall has lost his Wisdom. A Darkness is come upon his Mind. His perverse Mind is now naturally dispos|ed unto Error. He is naturally Ignorant, and out of the way. His Faculties, to discern wisely what is Right and Good, are horribly wounded by his Fall from God. It is now come to pass, that the Children of Men come under that Character; Rom. 3.16.17. —The way of Peace they have not know. And because the depraved Soul of Man loves his Error, therefore the Holy God leaves him in it. Because he will not be reclaimed from it, God lets him go on in his Error. Because he hates the Light, God witholds it from him. He Delights in his Darkness, & prefers and practises the Works of Darkness; God therefore gives him up to his Darkness. We may add, what we read; 2. Cor. 4.4. The god of this world blinded their Minds. Satan is by the wrath of God, become the Ruler of this Dark World. Men do by Sin put themselves under the Dominion of Satan. Satan shuts his poor Slaves up in those Dungeons, where the Rayes of Wisdom do not reach them. Sin|ners enslaved by Satan, may say of their Master, He has laid me in the lowest Pitt, in Darkness, in the Deeps. They are by the Intrigues of Satan, kept so

full of Business, and carried unto such a Distance from God, that they can't see things in a True light. So they go down to the Generation of their Foolish Fathers, and they never see light.

Secondly. We will Enquire, How it appears, that the most of Men Dy before they arrive unto Wis|dom. There needs no stronger, nor no sadder proof of this, than what we have in the Daily Com|plaints of Dying Men. Some Dy with very little sense of what has been amiss in their Lives. Mad|ness has been in their Hearts while they have lived, & with that Madness they have gone to the Dead. But, of them who are not perfect Sotts and Stones in their Death, the most by far, dy confessing and complain|ing, that they have been without Wisdom all their Dayes. They own, they have never come unto Wisdom, until their Dying Hour be come upon them. And it is well, if now they do any more, than see that they have been without Wisdom; it is well if now they come really to get any of that Wisdom, which they have been thus long without. We read, Prov. 5.11, 12. of, Mourning at the last, How have I hated Instruction! The most of Men go on fool|ishly all their days, in such Indiscretions, that they mourn at the last;

Oh! If I were to live over again, I would never lead my Life so foolishly as I have done! I would order my Life after another and a wiser Manner than I have done!

When that fa|mous Roman Cicero, was come towards the latter End of his Life, he cried out, O me nunquam pru|densem! 'Alas, I have never done the part of a 'Wise Man, in all my Days. Thus do the most of Men cry out of themselves, at a latter End full of Bitterness. Dying Men say; We have lived without

Wisdom. At their Death 'tis found and own'd, they have been without it. In a Dying Hour to be for|ced unto the Confession, I have until now been whol|ly destitute of Wisdom! And now, no opportunity to Exert it, or, perhaps to obtain it! —

We will Enquire, Thirdly. Who they are, which Dy before they arrive unto Wisdom. You shall shall have a brief Description of them.

First, They who Dy Unprepared for Death, such Dy without Wisdom. The truest Wisdom of Man, lies, of old they said, In a Meditation of Death; I will say, In a Preparation for death. Death finds none but Egregious Fools Unprepared for it. We are warned, That before we dy, we must be prepared for it, by a Sanctifying Change upon us; Prepared for it, by be|ing Renewed in the Spirit of our Minds: Prepared for it, by turning to God, and Closing with Christ, & having the Dispositions which will render us meet for the Inheritance of the Saints in light. We are warned, That if we dy before we are thus Prepared for it, it will be Good for us, that we had never been born. Our Death will be but a sort of a Trap door, by which we shall be thrown down into the place of Dragons, a place of Torments. It can be no Wisdom to slight this warning, and neglect this Preparation for Death. Unto one Unprepared for death, it was said; Luk. 12.20. Thou Fool! Oh! how justly, how justly may it be said unto such an one; Ah, Fool, dying without Wisdom! The unprepared Soul, tumbles into a dreadful Eternity, with such a shriek as that;

What a Fool, Oh! what a Fool, have I been! What horrible Stripes has my Folly brought me to!

Secondly. They who dy, before they have begun to live, shall dy without Wisdom. A Man does not be|gin to live, until he lives unto God. He that never begins to mind the Great Errand, which GOD sent him into the World upon, has not begun to live. He that fills not his Life with Acknowledgements of GOD, and studies not to Acknowledge God in all his ways, has not begun to live. He that lives wholly to himself, and sweels away his Life, only in the Hurries, and the Pleasures, and Amusements of this Life; may have it said of him, as, 1 Tim. 5.6. He is dead, while he lives. 'Tis not Wisdom; No, 'Tis Folly in its Exaltation, to live at this rate. If Death overtakes a Man, while he is yet alienated from the Life of God; If Death siezes upon a Man, be|fore he is experimentally acquainted with the Me|thods of a Godly Life: the Man dies without Wisdom.

Thirdly. They who dy in their Sins, these dy with|out Wisdom. Sin is Folly. Every Sinner is a Fool. In sinning we bring our selves into cause for saying, as, 2 Sam. 24.10. I have sinned, and I have done very foolishly. Men are not come to Wisdom, till they have left off sinning, or, while they go on still in their Trespasses. If Men dy before they are Con|verted from the Error of their ways, they dy without Wisdom. To dy Unpardoned, is to dy Miserable. To dy with Sin unbewailed, and unforsaken, and unre|pented of, is to dy Unpardoned. So to dy — with Folly not abandoned, nor forgiven; To dy, with the Wrath of God yet abiding on the Soul; To dy, and carry away a Guilty Conscience, which will gnaw, and scourge, and vex the Soul, and be within it, a Worm that will never dy! Certainly, tis no Wisdom to dy so!