And is Satan so subtil and industrious to entice souls to sin ? Doth he thus cast out his golden baits, and allure souls with pleasure to their ruin ? Then how doth it behove thee, O my soul, to be jealous and wary ! how strict a guard should I set upon every sense ! Ah, let me not so much regard how sin comes towards me in the temptation, as how it goes off at last. The day in which Sodom was destroyed, be- gan with a pleasant sun-shine, but ended in fire and brimstone. I may promise myself much content in the satisfaction of my lusts: But O how certainly will it end in my ruin ? Ahab doubtless promised himself much content in the vineyard of Naboth, but his blood paid for it in the portion of Jezreel. The harlot's bed was perfumed, to entice the simple youngman, Prov. \'ii. 17. But those chambers of de- light proved the chambers of death, and her house the way to hell. Ah ! with what a smiliiig face doth sin come on towards me in its temptations ? how doth it tickle the carnal fancy, and please the de- ceived heart ? But what a dreadful catastrophe and upshot hath it ^ The delight is quickly gone ; but the guilt thereof remains to amaze and terrify the soul with ghastly forms, and dreadful representations of the wrath of God. As sin hath its delights attending it to enter and fasten it, so it hath its horrors and stings to torment and wound : And as certainly as I see those go before it to make a way, so certainly shall I find these follow after, and tread upon its heels. No sooner is the conscience awakened, but all those delights vanish as a night- vision, or as a dream when one awakes ; and then I shall cry, here is the hook, but where is the bait ? Here is the guilt and horror, but where the delight that I was promised ? And I, whither shall I now go ? Ah, my deceitful lusts ! you have enticed and left me in the midst of all miseries.
THE POEM. here's skill in fishing, that the devil knows ;
For when for souls Satan a fishing goes.
He angles cunningly ; he knows he must
Exactly fit the bait unto the lust.
He studies constitution, place and time.
He guesses what is his delight, what thine !
And so accordinglv prepares the bait,
Whilst he himself lies closelv hid, to wait
When thou wilt nibble at it. Dost inchne
To drunken meetino-s ? then he baits with wine :
Is this the way ? If into this he'll smell.
He'll shortly pledge a cup of wrath in hell.
To pride or lust is thy vile nature bent ?
An object suitable he will present.
NAVIGATION SPIRITUALIZED,
O think on this ! when you cast in the hook, Sav, Thus for my poor soul doth Satan look. O play not with temptations, do not swallow The suoar'd bait, consider what will folloM'. If once he hitch thee, then away he draws Thy captive soul close prisoner in his paws.
Doth trading fail, and voyages prove had ; If you cannot discern the cause, "'tis sad.
A HERE are many sad complaints abroad (and, I think not with- out cause) that trade fails, nothing turns to account. And though all countries are open and free for traffic, a general peace with all na- tions, yet there seems to be a dearth, a secret curse upon trading. You run from country to country, and come losers home. Men can hardly render a reason of it; few hit the right cause of this judgment.
That prosperity and success in trade ai*e from the blessing of God, I suppose few are so atheistical, as once to deny or question. The devil himself acknowledges it, Job i. 10. " Thou hast blessed the " work of his hands, and his substance is increased in the land." It is not in the power of any man to get riches, Deut. viii. 18. " Thou " shalt remember the Lord thy God, for it is he that giveth thee " power to get wealth." It is his blessing that makes good men rich, and his permission that makes wicked men rich. That maxim came from hell, Quisquejortuuce sucejaber : Every man is the contriver of his own condition. Certainly, " The good of man is not in his " own hand," Job xxi. 16. " Promotion cometh not from the cast " nor the west," Psal. Ixxvi. 6, 7.
This being acknowledged, it is evident that in all disappointments, and want of success in our callings, we ought not to stick in second causes, but to look higher, even to the hand and disposal of God : For whose it is to give the blessing, his also it is to with-hold it. And this is as clear in scripture as the other : It is the Lord that takes away the fishes of the sea, Hos. iv. 3. Zeph. i. 3. " It is he " that curseth our blessings,"" Mai. ii. 3.
This God doth as a punishment for sin, and the abuse of mer- cies ; and therefore in such cases we ought not to rest in general complaints to, or of one another, but search what those sins are that provoke the Lord to inflict such judgments.
And here I must request your patience, to hear a plain, and close word of conviction. My brethren, I am persuaded these are the
ST^ A NEW COMPASS FOU SEAMEN ; OH,
sins among many others, that provoke the Lord to blast all your employments.
1. Our undertaking designs without prayer. Alas I how few of us begin with God ! interest him in our dealings, and ask counsel and direction at his mouth. Prayer is that which sanctifies ail em- ployments and enjoyments, 1 Tim. iv. 5. The very heatJten could say, A Jove principium. They must begin with God. O that we had more prayers, and fewer oaths !
2. Injustice and fraud in our dealings. A sin to which merchants are prone, as appears by that expression, Hos. xii. 7. This is that which will blast all your enjoyments.
»S. An over-earnest endeavour after the world. Men make this their business, they will be rich : and hence it is, they are not only unmerciful to themselves, in wearying and wasting their own spirits with carking cares, but to such also as they employ ; neither regard- ing the souls or bodies of men : scarce affording them the liberty of the Lord's day, (as has been too common in our Newfoundland em- ployments,) or if they have it, yet they are so worn out \vith incessant labours, that that precious time is spent either in sleep or idleness. It is no wonder God gives you more rest than you would have, since that day of rest hath been no better improved. This over-doing hath not been the least cause of our undoing.
Lastly, Our abuse of prosperity, when God gave it, making God's mercies the food and fuel of our lusts. When we had affluence and confluence of outward blessings, " this made us kick against God," as, Deut. xxxiii. 15. " forget God," Deut. iv. 14. yea, grow proud of our strength and riches, Ezek. xvi. 13. and Jer. ii. 31, Ah ! how few of us in the days of our prosperity, behaved ourselves as good Je- hoshaphat did ? 2 Chron. xvii. 5, 6. " He had silver and gold in a- *' bundance, and his heart was lifted up in the way of God's com- '' mandments ;" not in pride and insolence.