Lastly, Who is it that stops the leaks in your estates, prevents the ^vastingof your substance, and secures to you what you possess ? Is it not the Lord ? How many fair estates moulder away insensibl}'^, and come to nothing ! Certainly, as there is a secret blessing in some fami- lies, so that themselves can scarce give any account how they are pro- vided for, so there is a secret blast and consumption upon others, ■which brings poverty upon them like an armed man. And this is the true sense of that scripture, Hag. i. 6. "Ye have sown much, and " bring in little. Ye eat, but ye have not enough : ye drink, but are " not iilled with drink : ye clothe you, but are not warm ; and he " that earneth wages, earncth wages to put it into a bag with holes ;" or, as in the Hebrew, a bag 2)ie7'ced, or bored tJtrough ; what goes in at one end, goes out at another, and so all labour is lost ; nothing stays with them to do them good. So that it is an undeniable truth, that prosperity and success are not to be ascribed to our abilities, but to the blessing of God upon our lawful endeavours.
1. Inference. And if so, how are they justly reprovable, that wholly depend upon means in the neglect of providence ; that never eye God, nor acknowledge him in any of their ways ? This is a ver^^ great evil, and highly provoking to the Lord ; it is the fruit and discovery of the natural Atheism of the hearts of men. How confident are men of success and prosperity, when second causes lie for it, and smile upon them ? And, on the contrary, how dejected and heartless when they seem to lie cross to their hopes "? O how few consider and be- lieve that great truth, Eccl. ix. 1. " That the righteous, and the " wise, and their works are in the hand of God !" To be in the hand of Gcd, noteth both their subjection to his power, and to his directive providence. Whether your works be in your hand, or put out of your hand, they always are in God's hand to prosper or frus- trate them at his pleasure.
Foolish man decreeth events without the leave of Providence : as if he were absolute lord of his own actions, and their success. Indeed, you may then speak of success, when you have asked God's leave; Job xxii. 28. " Acquaint thyself with God, then shalt thou decree a " thing, and it shall be established.'' But your confidence in the means, whilst God is neglected, will surely be followed either with a disappointment or a curse. For what is this but to labour without God, yea, to labour against God ? For so do all they that give the glory of God to the creature : that set the instrumental and subordi- nate in the place of the principal efficient cause. It is just with God to deny you your comfort in those things wherein you rob him of his glory.
2. Inference. How vain and unreasonable are the proud boasts of men, in the midst of their successes and prosperity ! If God be the pole author of it^ and it is not in your power, nor the might of your
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hand, that hath gotten you this wealth ; why do you glory in it, as if it were the effect and fruit of your own prudence and industry ? How soon do the spirits of men rise with their estates ? How haugh- tily do they look ? How proudly do they speak ? What a sensible change of temper doth this small change of condition work ? it is an exceeding hard thing to keep down the heart when providence exaltetli a man's estate. Magna: fceVicitatis est^ ajwlicitate non vinci, saith Austin, It isa great felicity not to be overcome by felicity. That man is surelv rich in grace, whose graces suffer no eclipse by his riches. It is as hard to be prosperous and humble, as to be afflicted and cheerful. But to keep down thy heart in times of success and prosperity, I will offer thee, reader, a few humbling considerations about this matter.
1. And the first is this : Though providence do succeed and pros- per thy earthly designs, yet this is no argument at all of the love of God to thy soul : thou mayest be the object of his hatred and wrath for all this. No man knows either love or hatred by all that is be- fore him, Eccl. ix. 1. How weak an evidence for heaven must that be, which millions now in hell have had in a greater measure than you have.^ The least drachm of grace is a better pledge of happiness, than the greatest sum of gold and silver that ever lay in any man's treasury. Externals distinguish not internals ? you cannot so much as guess what a man's spiritual estate is, by the view of his temporal. Ish- raael was a very great man, the head of a princely family, but, for all that, excluded from the covenant, and all its spiritual blessings. Gen. xvii. 20, 21. He that reads the Ixxiii. Psalm, and the xxi. of Job, will plainly see how wretched a case that man is in, who hath no better evidence for the love of God than this amounts to.
2. Be not proud of outward prosperity and success ; for provi- dences are very changeable in these things ; yea, it daily rings the changes all the world over. Many a greater estate than yours, and every way as well, yea, far better secured to the eye of reason, hath he scattered in a moment. It is the saying of a philosopher, speaking of the estatesof merchants and seamen, Non amofocUdiatem ef ambus pendentem ; I like not that happiness that hangs upon ropes. I need not here cite histories, to confirm this truth : there is none of you but can abundantly confirm it to yourselves, if you will but recollect those instances and examples which have fallen within your time and remem- brance. It is a poor happiness that may leave a man more miserable to-morrow, than he that never arrived to what you have, can be.
3. Pride not yourselves in your success ; for as providences are very changeable, so the change seems very nigh to you, when your heart is thus lifted up, especially if you be such, to whose eternal happiness God hath any special regard : to be sure he will pull down that proud heart, and quickly order humbling providences to that end : " He " looketh upon every one that is proud, to abase him," Job xl. 11. The heart of good Hezekiah was tickled with vain-glory, and he must needs shew the king of Babylon's servants all his treasures, and pre-*
S94 THE SUCCESSFUL SEAMAN*.
cious things ; and at that time came the prophet Isaiah to him with a sad message from the Lord, that all these treasures, in which he had gloried, must be carried to Babylon, Isa. xxxix. If ^^ou hope comfortably to enjoy the good of providence, provoke it not by such vain ostentations. It is an ingenious note, even of an heathen,
Tu qiioquejcic iimeas, et quce tibi la:ta videntur, Dum loquer is, fieri tristia posse, puta. Ovid.