John Flavel
1Taken with editing from Flavel’s Works, vol 5. Although it was written with a particular consciousness of the special dangers that seamen faced in the days of sail, this Catechism is relevant to everyone, for we must all die. Flavel (1628-91) was a minister in Dartmouth, a seaport in Devon, and so was very much aware of dangers at sea.
Introduction.
The last danger I shall warn you of is your contempt of death. It seems you have little reverential fear of this king of terrors. Not only do you speak slightly of it, but you do not make more preparation for it and are no more conscious of your need to be preserved from it.
There is a lawful contempt of death. We freely grant that in two cases a believer may contemn it. First, when it is put to them as a temptation to scare them from Christ and duty, they should slight it, as when “they loved not their lives unto the death” (Rev 12:11). Second, when the natural evil of death is set in competition with the enjoyment of God in glory, then a believer should despise it, as Christ is said to do (Heb 12:2).
Now, I wish you to have right thoughts about death, which may lead you to serious preparation for it. Then, when your time comes – as only the Lord knows how soon it may be – you will escape its sting and taste no other bitterness in death than the natural evil of it. To this end I have drawn up the following questions and answers, which may be called “The Seaman’s Catechism”. O that you would resolve, before you go to sea, to withdraw yourselves for a while from all distractions and calmly and seriously catechise yourselves in this way.
Question 1. What may the outcome of this voyage be?
Answer. Death. “Boast not thyself of tomorrow, for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth” (Prov 27:1). “Go to now, ye that say, Today, or tomorrow, we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get gain: whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow; for what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away” (Jas 4:13,14).
Question 2. What is death?
Answer. Death is a separation of soul and body until the resurrection: “We know that . . . our earthly house of this tabernacle [will] be dissolved” (2 Cor 5:1). “Man dieth, and wasteth away: yea, man giveth up the ghost, and where is he? As the waters fail from the sea, and the flood decayeth and drieth up: so man lieth down, and riseth not: till the heavens be no more, they shall not awake, nor be raised out of their sleep” (Job 14:10,11,12).
Question 3. Is death to be despised and slighted if it is so?
Answer. O no! It is one of the most serious things that ever a creature can meet. So dreadful does it appear to some, that the fear of it subjects them to bondage all their lives, “who, through fear of death, were all their lifetime subject to bondage” (Heb 2:15). In Scripture it is called, “The king of terrors” (Job 18:14), or the black prince, as some translate it. No prince ever had such a title before. To some it has been so terrible, that no one might mention its name before them.
Question 4. What makes it so terrible and frightening to men?
Answer. Several things concur to make it terrible to most men. First, what goes before it: strong pains, conflicts and agonies. Second, its work: to transfer us into the other world. Hence it is set forth as a pale horse (Rev 6:8): a horse which is to carry you away from hence into the upper, or lower, region of eternity; and a pale horse, for its ghastliness and terror. Third, Above all, it is terrible in its consequences; for it is the door of eternity, the parting point between the present world and the one to come, the boundary of all temporal things. Hence “it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgement” (Heb 9:27). “And I looked, and behold a pale horse, and his name that sat on him was Death, and hell followed with him” (Rev 6:8). It makes a sudden and strange alteration upon men’s conditions, to be plucked out of their house and from among friends and honours and so many delights and hurried in a moment into the land of darkness, to be clothed with flames, and drink the pure wrath of the Almighty for ever. This is what makes it terrible.
Question 5. If death is so weighty a matter, am I prepared to die?
Answer. I am afraid I lack many things that are necessary to a due preparation for it.
Question 6. What things does a due preparation for death consist in?
Answer. Many things are necessary. First, Special and saving union with Jesus Christ. This is what disarms it of its sting: “O death, where is thy sting? . . . Thanks be to God which giveth us the victory, through our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Cor 15:55,57). So “whosoever liveth and believeth in Me shall never die” (Jn 11:26). Whosoever liveth (that is, is made alive with a new spiritual life and principle) and so puts forth the principal act of that life – namely, faith – he shall never die, eternally. This hornet, death, shall never leave its sting in his sides.
Second, to entertain death comfortably, the evidence and knowledge of this union is necessary, “for we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God” (2 Cor 5:1). And then he will not only be content; he will not groan to be unclothed (v 2). A mistake in the first matter will cost me my soul, and a mistake here will lose me my peace and comfort.
Third, in order to have this evidence, it is necessary for me to keep a good conscience in all things, both towards God and man. “Our rejoicing is this, the testimony of our conscience, that in simplicity and godly sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom, but by the grace of God, we have had our conversation in the world” (2 Cor 1:12). This good conscience respects all and every part of our work and duty to be done, and all and every sin to be renounced and denied. He that is early united to Christ by faith has clear evidence of that union; and the evidence fairly gathered from the testimony of a good conscience, witnessing to his faithfulness in all the duties to be done and the sins to be avoided. Then he is fit to die; death can do him no harm. But, alas, these things are not to be found in me.
The glory of God is His absolute sovereignty.
Jonathan Edwards
To trust God in the light is nothing, but to trust Him in the dark, that is faith. To believe that all shall go well when outward providences blow softly is any fool’s play, but to believe that it must and shall go well when storms and tempests are round about you, and you are blown farther and farther from the harbour of your desire – this is a work of grace.
C H Spurgeon