And is thy word a compass, to direct my course to glory? O where am I then like to arrive at last, that in all my course have neglected it, and steered according to the counsel of my own heart ! Lord, I have not made thy word the man of my council, but consulted with flesh and blood ; I have not enquired at this oracle, nor studied it, and made it the guide of my way, but walked after the sight of my eyes, and the lust of my heart. Whither, Lord ! can I come at last, but to hell, after this way of reckoning .f^ Some have slighted thy word professedly, and I have slighted it practically. 1 have a poor soul embarked for eternity, it is now floating on a dangerous ocean, rocks and sands on every side, and I go a-drift before every wind of temptation, and know not where I am. Ah, Lord ! convince me of the danger of this condition. O convince me of my ignorance in thy word, and the fatal consequence and issue thereof Lord, let me now resolve to study, prize, and obey it ; hide it in my heart, that I may not sin against it. Open my understanding, that I may understand the scriptures ; open my heart to entertain it in love. O thou that hast been so gracious to give a perfect rule, give me also a perfect heart to walk by that rule to glory !
JL HIS world's a sea, wherein a numVous fleet Of ships are under sail. Here you shall meet Of evVy rate and size ; frigates, galleons, The nimble ketches, and small pickeroons : Some bound to this port ; some where winds and weather Will drive them, they are bound they know not whither. Some steer away for heaven, some for hell ; To which some steer, themselves can hardly tell. The winds do shape their course, which tho' it blow From any point, before it they must go. They are directed by the wind and tide. That have no compass to direct and guide : For want of this must run themselves a ground, Brave ships are cast away, poor souls are drown'd, Thy word our compass is, to guide our way To glory ; it reduces such as stray. Lord, let thy word dwell richly in my heart, And make me skilful in this heavenly art :
S58 A NEW COMPASS FOU SEAMEN ; OK,
O let me understand, and be so wise, To know upon what point my country lies : And having set my course directly thither. Great God preserve me in the foulest weather. By reason some will coast it ; but I fear, Such coasters never will drop anchor there. Thy word is truly touched, and still directs A proper course, which my base heart neglects. Lord, touch my iron heart, and make it stand Pointing to thee its loadstone. To that land Of rest above, let evVy tempest drive My soul, where it would rather be than live.
Lool; as the sea, hy turns, doth ehh andjtow. So their estates, that use it, come and go,
A HE sea hath its alternate course and motion, its ebbings and Sowings ; no sooner is it high water, but it begins to ebb again, and leave the shore naked and dry, which but a little before it covered and overflowed. And as its tide, so also its waves are the emblem of inconstancy, still rolling and tumbling, this way and that, never fixed and quiet. Instahilis unda: as fickle as a wave, is common, to a proverb, See J" am. i. 6. " He that wavereth is like a wave of " the sea driven with the wind, and tossed." So Isa. Ivii. 20. " It " cannot rest."
Thus mutable and inconstant are all outward things, there is no depending on them : nothing of any substance, or any solid consist- ence in them, 1 Cor. vii. 31. " The fashion of this world passeth " away." It is an high point of folly to depend upon such vanities : Prov. xxiii. 5. " Why wilt thou set (or, as it is in the Hebrew, cause) " thine eyes to fly upon that which is not ? For riches certainly '' make themselves wings, and fly away, as an eagle towards heaven." In flying to us (saith Augustine) they have, alas vix qiiidem pas- serinas, scarce a sparrow's wings ; but in flying from us, wings as an eagle. And those wings they are said to make to themselves ; i. e. the cause of its transitoriness is in itself; the creature is subjected to vanity by sin ; they are sweet flowers, but withered presently, James i. 10. "As the flower of the grass, so shall the rich man fade " away." The man is like the stalk or grass, his riches are the flower of the grass ; his glory and outward beauty, the stalk, is soon wither- ed, but the flower much sooner. This is either withered upon, or blown off from it, while the stalk abides. Many a man outUves his
XAVIGATION SriRITDALlZKD. 259
estate and honour, and stands in the world as a bare dry stalk in the field, whose flower, beauty, and bravery are gone : one puff of wind blows it awa}^, one churlish easterly blast shrivels it up, 1 Pet. iv. 24.
How mad a thing is it, then, for any man to be lifted up in pride, upon such a vanity as this is ? to build so lofty and over-jetting a roof upon such a feeble, tottering foundation ! We have seen meadows full of such curious flowers, mown down and withered ; men of great es- tates impoverished suddenly ; and when, like a meadow that is mown, they have begun to recover themselves again, (as the phrase is) the Lord hath sent " grasshoppers in the beginning of the shooting up of " the latter growth,"" Amos vii. 2. Just as the grasshoppers and other creatures, devour the second tender herbage as soon as the field begins to recover its verdure ; so men, after they have been de- nuded and blasted by Providence, they begin after a while to flourish again ; but then comes some new affliction and blasts all. None have more frequent experience of this than you that are merchants and seamen, whose estates are floating ; and yet such as have had the highest security in the eye of reason, have, notwithstanding, experi- enced the vanity of these things. Henry IV. a potent prince was re- duced to such a low ebb, that he petitioned for a prebend's place in the church of Spire. Gallimer, king of the Vandals, was brought so low, that he sent to his friends for a spunge, a loaf of bread, and an harp: a spunge to dry up his tears, a loaf of bread to maintain his life, and an harp to solace him in his misery. The story of Bellisa- rius is very affecting : he was a man famous in his time, general of an army, yet having his eyes put out, and stripped of all earthly com- forts, was led about crying, Date obolum Bellisario. Give one penny to poor Bellisarius. Instances in history of this kind are infinite. Men of the greatest estates and honours have nevertheless become thiC very ludibriajbrtunce, as one speaks, the very scorn of fortune.
Yea, and not only wicked men that have gotten their estates by rapine and oppression, have lived to see them thus scattered by Pro- vidence : but sometimes godly men have had their estates, how justly soever acquired, thus scattered by providence also. Whoever had an estate, better gotten, better bottomed, or better managed, than Job ? yet all was overthrown and swept away in a moment ; though in mercy to him. as the issue demonstrated.