"(Jeroboam) that he was a mighty man of valour, and that he was "induftrious, made him ruler over all the charge of the house of "Jofeph," I Kings xi. 28. And this was the man that rent the kingdom from his fon, even ten tribes from the houfe of David. And yet,

3. Let defigns be projected with the greatest prudence, and committed to the management of the fittest inftruments; all is nothing as to fuccefs, without the concurrence of health, ftrength, favourable winds, fecurity from the hands of enemies, and perils of the deep. If any of these be wanting, the defign miscarries, and all our projects fail. How often are hopeful and thriving undertakings fruftrated by the failure of any one of these requifites?" Go to now, ye that fay, "to-day or to-morrow we will go into fuch a city, and remain there a year, and buy and fell, and get gain; whereas ye know not "what fhall be on the morrow: for what is your life? It is even a "vapour that appears for a little while, and then vanifheth away," Jam. iv. 13, 14. How foon are the purpofes of men's hearts broken off, and their thoughts perifh in one day? They think to fend or go to fuch a place, and there enrich themselves, and return profperous; but fometimes death, fometimes captivity, fometimes cross winds, dafh all their hopes.

4. Proper feafons must be obferved, elfe all fuccefs and expectation of increase is loft. "There is (faith Solomon) a feafon for every "thing, and a time to every purpose under the fun," Ecclef. iii. 1. This being taken, gives facility and fpeedy difpatch to a business; and therefore he gives this reafon, why man mifcarries fo frequently, and is disappointed in his enterprizes because he knows not the time; Ecclef. ix. 11. He comes (as one faith) when the bird is flown." It is a wife and weighty proverb with the Greeks, That there is much time in a fhort opportunity:" That is, a man hitting the feafon of a bulinefs, may do more in a day, than, lofing it, he may be able to do in a year. This is of a fpecial confideration in all human affairs, and is the very hinge upon which fuccefs turns: So that to come before, is to pluck apples before they are ripe; and to come after it, is to feek them when they are fallen and perished.

5. Laftly, In getting wealth the leaks of our eftates must be stopped: elfe we do but put it into a bag with holes, as the prophet's phrafe is in Hag. i 9. If a man lefe as much one way as he gets another, there can be no increafe. Hence it is, that many are kept low and poor all their days: If one defign profpers, yet another mifcarries; or, if all fucceed well abroad, yet there is a fecret confumption of it home, by prodigality, rict, luxury, or a fecret curfe upon it, which the fcripture calis God's blowing upon it, Hag. i. 3. If therefore by any of thefe ways our gains moulder away, we do but difquiet ourfelves in vain, and labour in the fire for very vanity. Thus you fee what things are requifite to the advancement of an estate upon a prudential account.

Now let us particularly obferve what a dependence there is upon Providence in all these things; and then it will be clear that our good is not in our hand, nor fuccefs at our beck, but it is the Lord that gives us power to get wealth. For,

As to the moulding and projecting of a defign, we may fay, both of the prudent merchant and ingenious feaman, what the prophet doth of the hufbandman, Ifa. xxviii. 10. " It is his God that in"structs him to discretion, and teacheth him." There is, indeed, a spirit in man," But it is the infpiration of the Almighty that giveth "understanding," Job xxxii. 8. The faculty is man's, but the light of wisdom, whether natural or fpiritual, is God's and the natural faculty is of itself no more capable of directing us in our affairs, without his teaching, than the dial is to inform us of hours without the fun's fhining upon it. And because men are fo dull in apprehending, and backward in acknowledging it, but will lean to their own understandings, thence it is that prudent designs are so often blasted, and weaker ones fucceeded.

And no lefs doth Providence manifest itself in directing to, and profpering the means and inftruments employed in our bufinefs: it is of the Lord that they prove ingenious, active and faithful fervants to us; that your factors abroad prove not malefactors to you; that every defign is not ruined by the negligence, ignorance, or treachery of them that manage it. If God qualify men to be fit inftruments to serve you, and then providentially direct you to them, his hand is thankfully to be owned in both. It was no fmall mercy to Abraham, that he had fo difcreet, pious, and faithful a fervant to manage even his weightieft affairs fo prudently and profperoufly for him. Laban, Pharaoh, and Jethro, never fo profpered, as when Jacob, Jofeph, and Mofes, had the charge of their bufinefs. Laban ingenuously acknowledged, "That he had learned by experience that the Lord had bleffed "him for Jacob's fake," Gen. xxx. 27. A heathen you fee is more ingenuous in owning the mercy of God to him in this cafe, than many profeffed Chriftians are, who facrifice all to their own net, and burn incenfe to their drag, i. e. idolize the means and inftruments of their profperity, and fee nothing of God in it.

And then as to the prefervation of thofe that go down into the fea, to do our business in the great waters; who can but acknowledge this to be the peculiar work of God? Doth not daily experience fhew how often poor feamen are cut off in the profecution of our defigns, fometimes by ficknefs, fometimes by ftorms, and fometimes by enemies, to whom they become a prey? If they escape all these, yet how often do they lie wind-bound, or hindered by crofs accidents, till the proper feafon be over, and the design loft? Certainly, if providence fhall fo far favour men, as to prevent all thefe; command winds fit for their purpose, reftrain enemies, preferve life, and carry them fafely and seasonably to their ports, it deferves a thankful ac

knowledgment; and thofe that do not acknowledge providence, do difoblige it.

Laftly, Who is it that flops the leaks in your eftates, prevents the wafting of your fubftance, and fecures to you what you poffefs? Is it not the Lord? How many fair eftates moulder away infenfibly, and come to nothing! Certainly, as there is a fecret blefling in fome families, fo that themfelves can fcarce give any account how they are provided for, fo there is a fecret blaft and confumption upon others, which brings poverty upon them like an armed man. And this is the true fenfe of that fcripture, Hag. i. 6. " Ye have fown much, and "bring in little. Ye eat, but ye have not enough: ye drink, but are "not filled with drink: ye clothe you, but are not warm; and he "that earneth wages, earneth wages to put it into a bag with holes;' or, as in the Hebrew, a bag piercea, or bored through; what goes in at one end, goes out at another, and fo all labour is loft; nothing stays with them to do them good. So that it is an undeniable truth, that profperity and fuccefs are not to be afcribed to our abilities, but to the bleffing of God upon our lawful endeavours.

1. Inference. And if fo, how are they juftly reprovable, that whol ly depend upon means in the neglect of providence; that never eye God, nor acknowledge him in any of their ways? This is a very great evil, and highly provoking to the Lord: it is the fruit and difcovery of the natural Atheism of the hearts of men. How confident are men of fuccefs and profperity, when fecond caufes lie for it, and faile upon them? And, on the contrary, how dejected and heartlefs when they seem to lie crofs to their hopes? O how few confider and be lieve that great truth, Eccl. ix. 1. "That the righteous, and the "wife, and their works are in the hand of God!" To be in the hand of God, noteth both their fubjection 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 profper or fruf trate them at his pleafure.

Foolish man decreeth events without the leave of Providence: as if he were abfolute lord of his own actions, and their fuccefs. Indeed, you may then fpeak of fuccefs, when you have afked God's leave; Job xxii. 28. Acquaint thyfelf with God, then fhalt thou decree a

thing, and it fhall be eftablished." But your confidence in the means, whilft God is neglected, will furely be followed either with a difappointment or a curfe. For what is this but to labour without God, yea, to labour againft God? For fo do all they that give the glory of God to the creature; that fet the inftrumental and fubordinate in the place of the principal efficient caufe. It is juft with God to deny you your comfort in thofe things wherein you rob him of his glory.

2. Inference. How vain and unreasonable are the proud boafts of men, in the m'dft of their fucceffes and profperity! If God be the fole author of it, and it is not in your power, nor the might of your

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 foon do the fpirits of men rife with their eftates? How haughtily do they look? How proudly do they fpeak? What a fenfible change of temper doth this small change of condition work? it is an exceeding hard thing to keep down the heart when providence exalteth a man's eftate. Magnæ fœlicitatis eft,a fœlicitate non vinci, faith Austin, It is a great felicity not to be overcome by felicity. That man is furely rich grace, whose graces fuffer no eclipte by his riches. It is as hard to be profperous and humble, as to be afflicted and cheerful. But to keep down thy heart in times of fuccefs and profperity, I will offer thee, reader, a few humbling confiderations about this matter.

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1. And the firft is this: Though providence do fucceed and profper thy earthly defigns, yet this is no argument at all of the love of God to thy foul: thou mayeft 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 leaft drachm of grace is a better pledge of happinefs, than the greatest fum of gold and filver that ever lay in any man's treafury. Externals diftinguifli not internals; you cannot fo much as guess what a man's fpiritual eftate is, by the view of his temporal. Ifhmael was a very great man, the head of a princely family, but, for all that, excluded from the covenant, and all its fpiritual bleffings, Gen. xvii. 20, 21. He that reads the lxxiii. Pfalm, and the xxi. of Job, will plainly fee how wretched a cafe that man is in, who hath no better evidence for the love of God than this amounts to.

2. Be not proud of outward profperity and fuccefs; for providences are very changeable in these things; yea, it daily rings the changes all the world over. Many a greater eftate than yours, and every way as well, yea, far better fecured to the eye of reason, hath he fcattered in a moment. It is the faying of a philofopher, fpeaking of the eftates of merchants and feamen, Non amo fælicitatem e funibus pendentem; I like not that happinefs that hangs upon ropes. I need not here cite hiftories to confirm this truth: there is none of you but can abundantly confirm it to yourfelves, if you will but recollect thofe inftances and examples which have fallen within your time and remembrance. It is a poor happiness that may leave a man more miferable to-morrow, than he that never arrived to what you have, can be.

3. Pride not yourselves in your fuccefs; for as providences are very changeable, fo the change feems very nigh to you, when your heart is thus lifted up, especially if you be fuch, to whofe eternal happiness God hath any fpecial regard: to be fure he will pull down that proud heart, and quickly order humbling providences to that end: "He "looketh upon every one that is proud, to abafe him,” Job xl. 11. The heart of good Hezekiah was tickled with vain-glory, and he must needs thew the king of Babylon's fervants all his treafures, and pre

cious things; and at that time came the prophet Ifaiah to him with a fad meffage from the Lord, that all these treasures, in which he had gloried, muft be carried to Babylon, Ifa. xxxix. If you hope comfortably to enjoy the good of providence, provoke it not by fuch vain oftentations. It is an ingenious note, even of an heathen,

Tu quoque fac timeas, et quæ tibi lata videntur,
Dum loqueris, fieri triftia poffe, puta.

Ovid.

Exercise fear in profperity, and think with thyfelf, when thy heart is moft affected with it, that whilst the boaft is in thy lips, the scene may alter, and thy happiness be turned into forrow. Whilft that proud boaft was in the mouth of Nebuchadnezzar, the voice from heaven told him, "His kingdom was departed from him, Dan. iv. 30, 31. Pride fhews, that profperity, which feeds it, to be at its vertical point.

3. Inference. If fuccefs in bufinefs be from the Lord, then certainly the true way to profperity is to commend our affairs to God by prayer. He takes the true way to thrive, that engages God's bleffing upon his endeavours. "Commit thy way unto the Lord; truft "alfo in him, and he fhall bring it to pafs," Pfal. xxxvii. 4. It is a vile thing for any man to grudge that time that is spent in prayer, as fo much time loft in his bufinefs. But having preffed this point before, I fhall add no more here.

4. Inference. Doth all fuccefs and profperity depend upon, and come from God? Then let it be faithfully employed to his glory. "If it be of him, and through him," then there is all the reafon in the world it should be to him," Rom. xi. 36. You do but give him of his own, as David fpeaks: "All this ftore cometh of thine hand, " and is thine own," 1 Chron. xxix. 16. He never intended your eftates for the gratifying of your lufts, but to give you a larger capacity thereby of honouring him in the ufe of them. O confider, when God hath profpered your eftates abroad, and you return successfully home, how you have an opportunity of honouring God, and evidenceing your fenfe of his goodness to you, by relieving the poor with a liberal and cheerful charity; by encouraging the gofpel, and making them partakers of your good things, who labour for your fouls, and dispense better things to you than you can return to them. I would not here be mif-interpreted, as though I pleaded my own intereft, under a pretence of pleading God's; no! God forbid; I am well fatisfied with a capacity of doing any good, how little foever I receive; nor can many of you reap the fruit of my labours: but I would not leave you ignorant, or regardless of fo great and plain a duty as this is you are bound to this retribution, by a plain and pofitive precept, Gal. vi. 6. "Let him that is taught in the word, com"municate to him that teacheth, in all good things." You are obliged to do it, proportionably to the fuccefs God gives you in your trade, 1 Cor. xvi. 2. And when you have so done, not to think it