direct you both in the choice of what is good, and in the way of doing it; ever remembering, that it is not in man that walketh to direct bis fteps.

By doing this, we confecrate all our labours to God; and without doing fo, all that we do is profane; for it is doing it on prefumption that we need not his help, his guidance, and bleffing; but that we can do without them.

Laftly; As we hope to profper in all our ways, we muft fhew that our dependance is upon God's bleffing, not only by our words, but by our deeds; that is, by affigning a portion of our time, and of our labours, to his fervice. Thefe being the only publick acknowledgments that men can make of their dependance upon God, fuch as they can be fure will be accepted. For let a man spend never fo much time in his private devotions, if notwithstanding he neglect to keep holy the Lord's day; and let a man be never fo liberal to the poor, yet if he refufe to give the tenth to God, (for it is to God, and for his fervice it is given) he has no teftimony of his dependance upon God to fhew; or that he owns that it is to the goodness of God that he is indebted for all his time, for the fruits of the earth, and the bleffings of the feas.

This was what God required of his own people; and when once they began to think thefe proportions of their time and labours too much for God, they then found, by experience,

perience, that it was not time and labour that made men happy and profperous, but the bleffing of God upon fuch as obeyed his commands.

It is for this reafon that Chriftians, as well as the Jews, are obliged to fet apart one day in feven to think upon God, and to ferve him, as one great means of obtaining and fecuring his favour and bleffing. And it was for the fame reason, that our pious ancestors thought themselves bound, even by the laws of the gofpel, to dedicate the tithe of all their labours to God, as a publick acknowledgment that they hold of him, and depend upon his bleffing.

And let any Christian but read the third chapter of Malachi, and he will be convinced, that there is no furer way of obtaining an abundant bleffing upon our labours, than by a confcientious payment of tithes, and by a religious obfervation of the fabbathday. He will fee, for inftance, that when men neglect this duty, they are faid to be gone away from the ordinances of God; [ver. 7.] that it is no lefs a crime than robbing of God; [ver. 8.] that it is one great caufe of publick calamities; [ver. 9.] and lastly, to keep close to this duty, is the way to prevail with God to pour down his bleflings upon us; [ver. 10.] and that there fhall be a difference fo vifible, that men shall easily discern betwixt him that

ferveth

ferveth God, and him that ferveth him not, by the favours he shews them.

I will conclude this particular with the words of Haggai the prophet, [chap. i. 5, 6.] Thus faith the LORD of hosts, confider your ways: have fown much, and bring in little; ye eat,

ye

but ye

have not enough; ye drink, but ye are not filled with drink; ye clothe yourselves, but there is none warm; and he that earneth wages, earneth wages to put into a bag with holes; that is, ye are disappointed in every thing ye expect or do: and God himself gives the reason, [ver. 9.] When ye brought it home, I did blow upon it; and why?-because his house and fervice were neglected.

We fhall now confider, what useful inferences and obfervations may be made from this history, and from what has been faid upon it. For this we may be affured of, that this miracle was not recorded fo much for our admiration, as for our inftruction.

And in the first place, this portion of fcripture concerns us of the ministry in an especial manner. We have toiled all the night, and have taken nothing, faith St. Peter; and it is certain, all our pains to instruct and to convert others will fignify very little, if God gives not his bleffing. And he that hopes to do any good by his fermons and other instructions, without most ardent prayers to God to bless his labours, will too likely labour to no purpose;

but

but whatever becomes of his flock, he will be in danger of lofing himself.

Nevertheless, at thy word I will let down the net: so that if God gives the word, a blessing will follow, let the inftrument he makes use of be never fo weak, and the fuccefs never fo unlikely.

Let no man therefore, who calls himself a Christian, undertake any business whatever, where he cannot hope, and with confidence pray God that his bleffing may go along with him. What a world of evil and wickednefs would this prevent: and what an easy rule is this, by which every body may know whether the business he is about be lawful or not. If a man dare not beg God to profper him in the way he goes, he may depend upon it, that his way is perverse in the fight of God. So that the most ignorant would not need to be told, that fuch and fuch things are unlawful, and that a curfe will attend them; his own confcience will tell him, that if he dare not pray for fuccefs, fuccefs will be a fin and a curfe to him.

Let us remember, in the next place, that fuccefs in our undertakings is not always a fign of God's bleffing. An inheritance (faith the wife man) may be gotten hastily at the beginning, but the end thereof shall not be blessed. Nor are riches a certain proof of God's favour: they are fometimes given as a curfe and a punishment; they are often given as a temptation

temptation and a trial; and they are always dangerous things, let them fall into never fo good hands. It behoves, therefore, all Chriftians to confider, how they defire them, how they get them, and what use they make of them.

But efpecially Chriftians fhould confider, that there can be no fecurity, no true fatisfaction, in the enjoyment of any thing that is got either by fraud, or by violence, or by injuftice; by over-reaching of others, or taking advantage of their ignorance, or of their neceffities. For let a man get never fo much, if in the doing it he difplease God, he is fure to be a lofer in the end.

Therefore one would give this good advice to parents and to all others, never to lay up any thing for their children and pofterity, which they are not verily perfuaded was got by God's bleffing upon their honest endeavours; it will be but a curfe and a fnare, and a vexation, to them to whom they leave it.

Let us never envy those that profper in their business better than. we do, nor be troubled when our honeft endeavours are not bleffed with good fuccefs. But let us lay down this for a truth, that God will always do what is beft for them that fear him, and truft in his goodness; that he governs all events, and that nothing happens without his knowledge.

God has bleffings enough ready to bestow upon us, when he, who only knows, fees it

beft