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any great matter, 1 Cor. ix. 11. but the discharge of a plain and ne ceffary duty.

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5. Inference. Let not your hearts be fatisfied with all the fuccefs and increase of the world, except your fouls thrive as well as your bodies, and your eternal concerns profper as well as your temporal. It was a pious with of St John for Gaius his hoft, "That he might profper, and be in health, even as his foul profpered," 3 Epift. John, ver. 2. But it were to be wifhed, that your fouls did but profper as your bodies and estates do. It is a poor comfort to have an increafing eftate, and a dead and declining foul. When a confiderable prefent was fent to Luther, he earneftly protefted, God fhould not put him off with these things. O friends! I beseech you take not up in these enjoyments!

6. Inference. Lastly, If God be the author of all your success, how prodigious an evil is it to make your profperity an inftrument of difhonouring him that gave it; to abuse the eftates providence gives you, to rioting and drunkennefs? Do you thus requite the Lord! is this the thanks you give him for all his care over you! and kindnefs to you! you would never be able to bear that from another, which God bears from you. If God do you good, O do not return him evil for it!

THE

DISAPPOINTED SEAMAN.

SERMON V.

LUKE V. 5.

Mafter, we have toiled all the night, and have taken nothing.

T

HESE words are the reply made by Peter unto Chrift, who, in the former verfe, had commanded him to "launch out in"to the deep, and let down the nets for a draught." Peter is difcouraged as to any farther attempt at that time, having already taken fo much pains to fo little purpose: "We have (faith he) toiled "all the night, and have taken nothing." In which reply we note these two things:

1. The great pains he and his company had taken in their honeft calling and employment to get a livelihood; "We have toiled all the "night." No calling more lawful, no diligence in an honeft employment could be greater; not only to spend the night, when other la 3 E

VOL. V.

bourers take their reft, in watching, but in toiling. The word NOTIWσayтes comes from a verb that fignifies vafting, tiring, spending, labour. Here was great diligence, even to the wearying and wafting of their spirits: "They toiled, and that all the night."

2. The unfuccefsfulness and fruitlessness of their labours, they caught nothing. Though their defign was honeft, and their induftry great, yet it fucceeded not according to their defire and expectations: it proved but loft labour and pains to no purpose. Hence the note will be,

Doct. That Goil fometimes fruftrates and blasts the most diligent labours of men, in their juft and lawful callings.

What employment more honeft, or laborious, than that of the husbandman, who eats his bread in the fweat of his brow, and fuftains all that spending toil and labour, by an expectation of fruit in the feafon? And yet fometimes it fo falls out, that after all his labours and hopes, he reaps nothing but fhame and disappointment. Joel i. 11. Be aftonifhed, O ye hufbandmen: Howl, O ye vine"dreffers, for the wheat, and for the barley, because the harvest of "the field is perished."

The employment of the mariner is as lawful as it is beneficial; what he gets, is gotten with imminent hazard of life and liberty, as well as watchings and labours; and yet it fo falls out, fometimes, that they labour but for the wind, and spend their strength for very vanity: God cuts off their expectations and lives together. There is a time when they return rich and profperous, and a time when they either return empty, or return no more. So it was with Tyre, that renowned mart, and famous empory; the flourishing and fail of whose trade you have in Ezek. xxvii. 33. 34. " When thy wares "went forth out of the feas, thou filledft many people; thou didst "enrich the kings of the earth with the multitude of thy riches, and "of thy merchandife." Here was their profperity and fuccefs; but will this day always laft? Shall the fun of their profperity never fet? No; the change was at hand; for in the next verfe the scene alters. "In the day when thou shalt be broken by the feas, in the depths "of the waters, thy merchandife, and all thy company in the "midft of thee, fhall fall."

Now if we fearch into the grounds and reafons of thefe difappointments by the hand of providence, we fhall find them reducible to a threefold caufe and reafon.

1. The fovereign pleasure of God fo difpofes it.

2. The good of the people of God requires it.

3. The manifold fins of men in their callings provoke it. Firft, The fovereign pleasure of God fo difpofes it. He is the Rector of the univerfe, and as fuch will still affert his dominion. is his pleasure to establish this order in the world, to exalt fome, and

Kom fignifies when one lies down wearied at the end of his work.

It

deprefs others; to fet fome above, and others below: all muft not be rich and great, but fome must be poor and low, and to these ends providences are fuited: On fome it fmiles, on others it frowns: 1 Sam. i. 7. "The Lord maketh poor, and maketh rich; he bring"eth low, and lifteth up." And certainly there is much of Divine wisdom fhining forth in this ordination and difpofition of perfons and their conditions. If providence had alike profpered every man's defigns, and fet them upon a level, there had been no occafion to exercife the rich man's charity, or the poor man's patience. Nay, without frequent disappointments, providence itself would fcarcely be owned in fucceffes, nor thefe fucceffes be half fo fweet to them that receive them, as now they are. The very beauty of providence confifts much in these various and contrary effects: So that with respect to the infinite Wisdom which governs the world, it is neceffary fome fhould be croffed, and others profper in their defigns.

Secondly, And if we confider the gracious ends and defigns of God towards his own people, it appears needful that all of them, in fome things, and many of them in moft things (relating to their outward condition in this world) fhould be fruftrated in their expectations and contrivances. For if all things here fhould fucceed according to their with, and a conftant tide of profperity should attend them,

1. How foon would fenfuality and earthlinet, invade their hearts and affections? Much profperity, like the pouring in of much wine, intoxicates, and overcomes our weak heads and hearts. Earthly, as well as heavenly objects, have a transforming efficacy in them; there cannot but be much danger in thofe earthly things that give or promise us much delight. Can a Christian keep his heart as loofe from the fmiling, as from the frowning world? We little think how deeply it infinuates into our affections in the day of profperity; but when adverfity comes, then we find it.

2. How foon would it estrange them from their God, and interrupt their communion with him? He is certainly a very mortified and heavenly Chriftian, whose walk with God fuffers no interruption by the multitude of earthly affairs, efpecially when they are profperous. When Ifrael was settled in the midst of the riches and delights of Canaan, then fay they, (even to their Benefactor, the Author of all their profperity) " We are lords, we will come no more to thee," Jer. ii. 31. Or, if it do not wholly interrupt their communion, yet fecretly deftroys and wastes the vigour, life, and sweetness of it. So that Divine Wisdom fees it neceffary to cross and difappoint them in the world, to prevent the mifchievous influences that profperity would have upon their duties. He had rather you should mifs your desired comforts in these things, than that he should miss that delightful fellowship with you, which he fo defires.

3. How loth fhould we be to leave this world, if constant success and

* Luxuriant animi rebus plerumque fecundis. In profperous times, our mind oft wanton grows.

profperity fhould follow our affairs and defigns here? we fee that notwithstanding all the cares, fears, forrows, croffes, wants, and difappointments we meet with from year to year, and from day to day; yet we are apt to hug the world in our bofonis. As bitter as it is, we court it, admire it, and zealously profecute it. We cling to it, and are loth to leave it, though we have little reft or comfort in it. What conld we do then, if it fhould answer our expectation and defires? If we grafp with pleasure a thorn that pierces and wounds us; what would we do if it were a rofe that had nothing but delight and pleafure in it?

Thirdly, And as difappointments fall out as the effects of fovereign pleasure, and are ordered as preventive means of fuch mischief, which profperity would occafion to the people of God; fo it comes as a righteous retribution and punishment of the many evils that are committed in our trading and dealings with men. It is a hard thing to have much bufinefs pafs through our hands, and no iniquity cleave to them and defile them. If God be provoked against us by our iniquities, wonder not that things go crofs to our defires and hopes. God may fuffer fome men to profper in their wickednefs, and others to mifcarry in their juft and righteous enterprizes; but ordinarily we find that crying fins are remarkably punished, fooner or later, with vifible judgments. So that if others do not, yet we ourselves may obferve the relation that fuch a judgment bears to fuch a fin.

And, from among many, I will here felect thefe following evils, which have deftroyed the eftates and hopes of many.

(1.) Irreligious and atheistical neglect and contempt of God and his worship, efpecially in thofe that have been enlightened, and made profeffion of religion. This was the fin which brought that blafting judgment upon the eftates and labours of the Jews, as the prophet Haggai tells them, chap. i. ver. 2, 4, 6, 9. compared; They neglected the houfe of God" i. e. were careless and regardlefs of his worship, and, in the mean time, were wholly intent upon their own houfes and interefts, as he tells them in ver. 2, 4. Ând what was the iffue of this? Why, ruin to all their earthly comforts and defigns. So he tells them, ver. 6, 9. "Ye have fown much, and bring in little; ye eat, but ye have not enough; ye drink, but ye are not filled with drink; ye clothe you, but there is none "warm; and he that earneth wages, doth it to put it into a bag with holes. Ye looked for much, and lo, it came to little; and when ye brought it home, I did blow upon it. Why, faith the Lord of "hofts? Because of mine houfe that is wafte; and ye turn every

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man unto his own houfe." Here are great and manifold difappointments of their hopes, a curfe, a blast upon all they took in hand; and the procuring cause of all this was their eager profecution of the world, in a carelefs difregard of God and his fervice.

(2.) Injuftice and fraud is a blafting fin. A little unjuft gain mingled with a great estate, will confume it like a moth. The Spirit

of God hath used a very lively fimilitude to represent to us the mifchievous effects of this fin upon all human diligence and industry. Jer. xvii. 11. "As the partridge fitteth upon eggs, and hatcheth them not; fo he that getteth riches, and not by right, fhall leave "them in the midft of his days, and at his end fhall be a fool."

Unjust gain, how long foever men fit brooding upon it, fhall after all their fedulity and expectation, turn to no other account than a fowl's fitting upon a neft of addle-eggs ufes to do: if fhe fit till fhe have pined away herself to death, nothing is produced.

You think you confult the intereft of your families herein, but the Lord tells you, "That you confult fhame to your houses," Hab. ii. 10. This is not the way to feather, but to fire your neft. A quiet conscience is infinitely better than a full purfe; one difh of wholefome, though coarfer food, is better than an hundred delicate, but poifoned dishes. If a man have eaten the beft food in the world, and afterwards fips but a little poifon, he lofeth not only the benefit and comfort of that which was good, but his life or health to boot. It may be, you have gotten much honeftly; what pity is it all this good fhould be deftroyed for the fake of a little gotten difhoneftly? This is the reason why fome men cannot profper.

(3.) Oppreffion is a blafting fin to fome men's eftates and employments. It is a crying fin in the ears of the Lord, and ordinarily intails a vifible curfe upon men's eftates; this, like a moth, will fuddenly fret and confume the greatest eftate. Jam. v. 2, 4. "Your riches "are corrupted, and your garments moth-eaten;" i. e. The fecret curfe of God waftes and destroys what you get. And what was the cause? He tells us, ver. 4. "Behold the hire of the labourers that have reap"ed down your fields, which is of you kept back by fraud, crieth; "and the cries of them which have reaped, are entered into the "ears of the Lord of Sabaoth."

The oppreflion of poor labourers doth more mifchief to the oppreffors, than it doth to them that are oppreffed. It is noted by * one upon this fcripture, that it is twice repeated in this text, "Which "have reaped your fields;" and then again, The cry of them which "have reaped" and the reafon is, because it is their life, and fo an act of the greatest unmercifulness; and befides, they are disappointed of the folace of their labours. Deut. xxiv. 14, 15. "He hath fet "his heart upon it;" i. e. he comforts himself in the toils and labours of the day, by reckoning upon his wages at the end of the day.

I wish thofe that are owners and employers of poor feamen, may feasonably confider this evil: what a woe is denounce upon him "that ufeth his neighbour's fervice without wages !" Jer. xxii. 13. Or that by crafty pretences defrauds them of any part thereof, or by tirefome delays wears out their patience, and cafts them upon manifold fufferings and inconveniencies while they wait for it. God hath

Manton in loc.

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