(4) Pray for diviiie protection'm all the dangers and hazards to which you shall be exposed. You know not how soon your life and estate shall be in jeopardy : This night you may sleep quietly in your cabin, to-morrow you may be tugging at the pump, and the next night take lip your loaging upon a cold rock. How smartly doth the apostle James reprehend the security of trading persons; Jam. iv. 13, 14. " Go to now, ye that say, to-day or to-morrow we will go into such '' a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get gain ; *' whereas you know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is '' your life ? It is even a vapour, that appears for a little time, and '' then vanisheth away.'^ How easily can God dash all your de- signs, and hopeful projects in one hour ! You know you are every moment as near death as you are near the water, which is but a re- move of one or two inches. How poor a defence is the strongest ship against the lofty seas and lurking rocks ? How innumerable are the accidents and contingencies in a voyage, which the most skilful navigator cannot foresee or prevent ?
They are, as the Psalmist speaks, at their wifs end, Psal. cvii. 27. But O how secure and safe amidst all dangers, is that man whom the Lord takes into his special protection ? And he will not shut out those that sincerely commit themselves to him : The winds and seas obey his voice : he can with a word turn the storm into a calm, Psal. cvii. 29- or order means for your preservation, when you seem lost to the eye of sense and reason. 1 have heard of a young man, that being in a great storm at sea, was observed to be very cheerful, when all the rest were as dead men ; and being asked the reason of his cheerfulness in a case of so much danger ? He replied, ' Truly, I * have no cause to fear, for the pilot of the ship is my father.' O it is an unspeakable comfort when a man hath committed himself unto the hands of God, as a Father, and trusted him over all !
(5.) Pray for counsel and direction in all your affairs and underta- kings, and lean not to your own understandings. " I know, O Lord, " (saith the prophet) that the way of man is not in himself, neither is " it in him that walks, to direct his own steps," Jer. x. 23. Under- take nothing without asking God's leave and counsel. How many that have stronger heads than you, have miserably ruined themselves- and their designs by trusting to their own prudence ? " A man's " heart (saith Solomon) deviseth his way ; but the Lord directeth his " steps," Prov. xvi. 9- We must still preserve the power of God's providence, saith one ; * God would not have us too carnally confi-
* Manton on Jude. It is a robbery to use goods without the owner's leave. "NVe forget to bid ourselves good speed, when we do not acknowledge God's dominion. This is but a piece of religious manners.
850 THE seaman's farewell.
dent. The Lord can blast your enterprize, though managed with never so much wisdom and contrivance. You are not only to look to God as the author oi success, but as the director and guide of the action. It is by his conduct and blessing, that ail things come to pass. If your designs succeed not, you are presently ready to ascribe it to ill fortune, and say, you had bad luck ; when indeed you ruined it your- selves, in the first moulding it, by undertaking it without asking counsel of God : " In all thy ways acknowledge him,'' Prov. iii. 6.
(6.) Pray for success upon your lawful employments and designs, and own it to be from the Lord. You have an excellent pattern in Abraham's servant. Gen. xxiv. 12. " O Lord God of Abraham thy " servant, send me good speed this day." He reverences the sove- reignty of providence, and acknowledges success to be a flower of the imperial crown, and the bridle that God hath upon the reasonable creature, to dispose of the success of human affairs. I look on that business or design in a fair and hopeful way to prosper, wherein we have engaged God to be with us, by asking his counsel, and recom- mending the success to his blessing. These are the mercies you are to pray for.
Secondly y Next I will shew you what influence prayer hath into those mercies you are to pray for ; and it hath much every way. To be short, it hath a threefold influence into them.
(1.) It is a proper and effectual mean to obtain and procure them. God will have every thing fetched out by prayer, Ezek. xxxvi. 37. '' I will yet for this be inquired of by the house of Israel, to do it for " them." God gives not our mercies for prayers, nor will he give them without our prayers. This is the stated method in which our mercies are conveyed to us ; and therein the wisdom and goodness of God are eminently discovered. His wisdom in making us to see the Author of every mercy in the way of receiving it, and securing his own glory in the dispensing of every mercy : His goodness to us in sweetening every mercy this w^ay to us, and raising its value in our estimation. Prayer coming between our wants and supplies is a singular mean to raise the price of mercies with us, and engage us to due improvements of them. So that is an idle pretence for any to say, God knows our wants, whether we pray or not ; and if mercies be decreed for us, we shall have them, though we ask them not : for thouo^h God knows our wants, yet he will have us to know them too, and sensibly to feel the need of mercy. And though prayer be altogether needless to his information, yet it is very necessary to testify our submission ; And though it is true, if God have decreed mercy for us, we shall have it ; yet it is not true, that therefore we need not to prav for it : For decrees exclude not the second means, nor render the creature's duty unnecessary. " I know the thoughts that I think towards you, saith " the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expect- ** ed end. Then shall ye call upon me, and ye shall go and pray " unto me, and I will hearken unto you," Jee. xxix. 11, 12. So that
THE seaman's farewell. S51
it is plain, mercies must be expected in the way of prayer, that being God's appointed way, and stated method in the dispensing of them. (2.) As prayer hath influence into the procuring of our mercies, so it hath a singular influence into the sweetening of them : no mercies so sweet as those that are received upon the knee. There is a two- fold sweetness men taste in their earthly enjoyments : one is natural, and that those that never eye God in them, may relish as much as others; the other is spiritual and supernatural, resulting from the con- sideration of the way in which, and tlie end for which they are given : and I am confident, such is the refreshing sweetness of mercies com- ing in the way of prayer, that they derive a thousand times more sweetness from the channel through which they come, than they have in their own natures. So that it was rightly observed by him that said, ' A believer tastes more sweetness in the common bread he eats