the fatal hook in their jaws, and thus they are led captive by him at his will.

REFLECTION.

And is Satan fo fubtil and industrious to entice fouls to fin? Doth he thus caft out his golden baits, and allure fouls with pleasure to their ruin? Then how doth it behove thee, O my foul, to be jealous and wary! how strict a guard should I set upon every fenfe! Ah, let me not fo much regard how fin comes towards me in the temptation, as how it goes off at laft. The day in which Sodom was deftroyed, began with a pleafant fun-fhine, but ended in fire and brimftone. I may promise myself much content in the fatisfaction of my lufts: But O how certainly will it end in my ruin? Ahab doubtless promifed 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 fimple young man, Prov. vii. 17. But those chambers of delight proved the chambers of death, and her house the way to hell. Ah! with what a fmiling face doth fin come on towards me in its temptations? how doth it tickle the carnal fancy, and please the deccived 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 foul with ghaftly forms, and dreadful representations of the wrath of God. As fin hath its delights attending it to enter and fasten it, so it hath its horrors and ftings to torment and wound: And as certainly as I fee thofe go before it to make a way, fo certainly fhall I find these follow after, and tread upon its heels. No fooner is the confcience awakened, but all thofe delights vanifh as a nightvifion, or as a dream when one awakes; and then I fhall cry, here is the hook, but where is the bait? Here is the guilt and horror, but where the delight that I was promifed? And I, whither shall I now go? Ah, my deceitful lufts! you have enticed and left me in the midst of all miferies.

THE POEM.

HERE's fkill in fifhing, that the devil knows ;
For when for fouls Satan a fishing goes,

TH

He angles cunningly; he knows he mult
Exactly fit the bait unto the luft.

He ftudies conftitution, place and time,
He gueffes what is his delight, what thine:
And fo accordingly prepares the bait,
Whilft he himfelf lies clofely hid, to wait
When thou wilt nibble at it. Doft incline
To drunken meetings? then he baits with wine:
Is this the way? If into this he'll smell,
He'll thortly pledge a cup of wrath in hell,
To pride or luft is thy vile nature bent?
An object fuitable he will prefent,

O think on this! when you caft in the hook,
Say, Thus for my poor foul doth Satan look.
O play not with temptations, do not swallow
The fugar'd bait, confider what will follow.
If once he hitch thee, then away he draws
Thy captive foul close pris'ner in his paws.

TH

CHAP. XXIII.

Doth trading fail, and voyages prove bad?
If you cannot difcern the caufe, 'tis fad.

OBSERVATION.

HERE are many fad complaints abroad (and, I think, not without cause, that trade fails, nothing turns to account. And though all countries are open and free for traffic, a general peace with all nations, yet there feems to be a dearth, a fecret curfe upon trading. You run from country to country, and come lofers home. Men can hardly render a reason of it; few hit the right cause of this judgment.

APPLICATION.

That profperity and fuccefs in trade are from the bleffing of God, I fuppofe few are fo atheistical, as once to deny or queftion. The devil himself acknowledges it, Job i. 10. "Thou haft bleffed 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 bleffing that makes good men rich, and his permiffion that makes wicked men rich. That maxim came from hell, Quifque fortuna fua faber: 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 east nor "the weft," Pfalm lxxvi. 6, 7.

This being acknowledged, it is evident that in all disappointments, and want of fuccefs in our callings, we ought not to stick in fecond causes, but to look higher, even to the hand and difpofal of God: For whofe it is to give the bleffing, his also it is to with-hold it. And this is as clear in fcripture, as the other: It is the Lord that takes away the fishes of the fea, Hof. iv. 3. Zeph. i. 3. "It is he that "curfeth our bleffings," Mal. ii. 3.

This God doth as a punishment for fin, and the abufe of mercies; and therefore in fuch cafes we ought not to rest in general complaints to, or of one another, but fearch what thofe fins are that provoke the Lord to inflict fuch judgments.

And here I must request your patience, to bear a plain, and close word of conviction. My brethren, I am perfuaded these are, the

fins, among many others, that provoke the Lord to blaft all your employments.

i. Our undertaking defigns without prayer. Alas! how few of us begin with God! intereft him in our dealings, and afk counsel and direction at his mouth. Prayer is that which fanctifies all employments and enjoyments, 1 Tim. iv. 5. The very heathen could fay, A Jove principium, They muft begin with God. O that we had more prayers, and fewer oaths!

2. Injustice and fraud in our dealings. A fin to which merchants are prone, as appears by that expreffion, Hof. xii. 7. This is that which will blaft all your enjoyments.

3. 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 themfelves, in wearying and wafting their own fpirits with carking cares, but to fuch alfo as they employ; neither regarding the fouls or bodies of men: fcarce affording them the liberty of the Lord's day, (as has been too common in our Newfoundland employments, or if they have it, yet they are fo worn out with inceffant labours, that that precious time is fpent either in fleep or idleness. It is no wonder God gives you more reft than you would have, fince that day of reft hath been no better improved. This over-doing hath not been the leaft caufe of our undoing.

Laftly, Our abuse of profperity, when God gave it, making God's mercies the food and fuel of our lufts. When we had affluence and confluence of outward bleffings, "this made us kick againft 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 Jehofhaphat did? 2 Chron. xvii. 5, 6. "He had filver and gold in abundance, and his heart was lifted up in the way of God's command"ments;" not in pride and infolence.

REFLECTION.

Are these the fins that blaft our bleflings, and wither our mercies? O then let me ceafe to wonder it is no better, and rather admire that it is no worse with me; that my neglect of prayer, injuftice in dealings, earthly-mindednefs, and abufe of former mercies, have not provoked God to ftrip me naked of all my enjoyments. Let me humbly accept from the Lord the punishment of my iniquities, and lay my hand upon my mouth. And O that thefe difappointments might convince me of the creature's vanity, and caufe me to drive on another trade for heaven! then fhall I adore thy wisdom in rending from me thofe idolized enjoyments. Ah, Lord! When I had them, my heart was a perpetual drudge to them: how did I then forget God, neglect my duty, and not mind my eternal concernments! Oh, if thefe had not perifhed, in all probability I had perifhed. My God, let my foul profper, and then a fmall portion of thefe things fhall afford me more comfort than ever I had in their greatest abundance.

"A little that a righteous man hath, is better than the riches of ma"ny wicked," Pfal. xxxvii. 16. THE POEM.

T

TH

HERE's great complaint abroad that trading's bad,
You shake your head, and cry, 'Tis fad, 'tis fad.
Merchants lay out their stock, feamen their pains,
And in their eye they both may keep their gains.
Your fishing fails, you wonder why 'tis fo,
'Tis this (faith one) or that; but I fay-no,
'Twill ne'er be well till you confefs and fay,
It is our fin that frights the fifh away.
No wonder all goes into bags with holes,
Since fo the gofpel hath been in your fouls.
We kick'd like Jefhurun, when the flowing tide
Of wealth came tumbling in, this nourish'd pride.
"Twixt foul and body, now I wish it may
Fare, as betwixt the Jews and us this day.
O that our outward want and loss may be
To us a foul-enriching poverty!

If difappointments here advance the trade
For heaven, then complain not; you have made
The richest voyage, and your empty ships
Return deep laden with foul-benefits.

CHAP. XXIV.

In feas the greater fifh the lefs devour :
So fome men crush all thofe within their power.

OBSERVATION.

HERE are fishes of prey in the fea, as well as birds and beafts of prey on the land. Our feamen tell us, how the devouring whales, fharks, dolphins, and other fifhes, follow the caplein, and other fmaller fifh, and devour multitudes of them. It is frequent with us in our own feas to find several smaller fishes in the bellies of the greater ones; yea, I have often heard feamen say, that the poor fry, when purfued, are fo fenfible of the danger, that they have fometimes feen multitudes of them caft themselves upon the fhore, and perish there to avoid the danger of being devoured by them.

APPLICATION.

little

Thus cruel, mercilefs, and oppreffive are wicked men, whose "ten"der mercies are cruelty," Prov. xxii. 16. We fee the like cruelty in our extortioners, and over-reaching fharks afhore, who grind the faces of the poor, and regard not the cries of the fatherlefs and widows, but fill their houfes with the gain of oppreffion. These are, by the Holy Ghoft compared to the fifhes of the fea, Hab. i. 13, 14. This is a crying fin, yea, it fends up a loud cry to heaven for ven

geance, Exod. xxii. 23. "If thou afflict the widow and the father"lefs, and they cry unto me, I will surely hear their cry." And ver. 27. "I will hear his cry, for I am gracious." Nay, God will not only hear their cry, but avenge their quarrel. That is a remarkable text, 1 Thef. iv. 6. "That no man go beyond and defraud his bro"ther in any matter, because that the Lord is the [avenger] of all "fuch." This word * avenger, is but once more ufed in the New Teftament, Rom. xiii. 4. and there it is applied to the civil magiftrate, who is to fee execution done upon offenders. But now this is a fin that fometimes may be out of the reach of man's juftice, and therefore God himself will be their avenger. You may over-power the poor in this world, and it may be they cannot contend with you at man's bar, therefore God will bring it before his bar.

*

Believe it, firs, it is a fin fo provoking to God, that he will not let it efcape without fevere punishment, fooner or later. The prophet Habakkuk, chap. i. ver. 13. wondered how the holy God could forbear fuch till the general day of reckoning, and that he did not take exemplary vengeance on them in this life. "Thou art of purer eyes "than to behold evil, and canft not look upon iniquity: wherefore "then lookeft thou upon them that deal treacherously, and holdeft "thy tongue when the wicked devoureth the man that is more righ"teous than he?" And Prov. xxiii. 10, 11. "Enter not into the "fields of the fatherless," i. e. of the poor and helpless. But why is it more dangerous violently to invade their right, than another's? The reason is added, "for their Redeemer is mighty, and he fhall "plead their caufe with thee." It may be they are not able to retain a counsel to plead their caufe here; therefore God will plead their caufe for them.

REFLECTION.

Turn in upon thyfelf (O my foul) and confider, haft thou not been guilty of this crying fin? Have I not (when a fervant) over-reached and defrauded others, and filled my master's houfe with violence and deceit ? and fo brought myfelf under that dreadful threatening, Zeph. i. 9. Or fince I came to trade and deal upon mine own account, have not the balances of deceit been in my hand; I have (it may be) kept many in my fervice and employment; have not I ufed their labours without reward, and fo am under that woe? Jer. xxii. 13. or not given them wages proportionable to their work? Ifa. lviii. 3. or by bad payment and unjuft deductions and allowances, defrauded them of a part of their due? Mal. iii. 5. or at leaft delayed payment, out of a covetous difpofition to gain by it; whilft their neceffities in the mean time cried aloud for it; and fo finned against God's exprefs commands, Deut. xxiv. 14, 15. Lev. xix. 30. or have I not perfecuted fuch as God hath fmitten? Pfalm. Ixix. 26 and rigorously exacted the utmoft of my due, though the hand of God hath gone out

* Εκδικος.