God hath helped 1 Sam. 7. 12. We never found him wanting to us in any case hitherto this â—s not the first strait we have been in the first time that our hearts and hopes have been low Surely he is the same God now as heretofore his hand is not shortned neither doth his faithfulness â—ail O recount in how great extremities former experience hath taught you not to despair The conjectures Christians may make of the way of Providence towards them from what its former methods have been towards them is exceeding quieting and comfortable It 's usual with Christians to compare times with times and to guess at the issue of one Providence by another The Saints do know what course Providence usually holds and accordingly with great probability collect what they may expect from what in like cases they have formerly observed Christian examine thine own heart and its former observations and thou wilt find as Psal. 89. 30 31 32. that it's usually the way of God to prepare some smart rods to correct thee when either thy heart hath secretly revolted from God and is grown vain careless and sensual or when thy steps have declined and thou hast turned aside to the commission of iniquity And then when those rods have been sanctified to humble reduce and purge thy heart it 's usually observed that those sad Providences are then upon the change and then the Lord changes the voice of his Providence towards thee Jer. 3. 12 13. Go and proclaim these words towards the North and say Return thou backsliding Israel saith the Lord and I will not cause mine anger to fall upon you for I am merciful saith the Lord and I will not keep anger for ever Only acknowledge thine iniquity c. If therefore I find the blessed effects of the rod upon me that it hath done its work to break the hard heart and pull down the proud heart and awaken the drowsie heart and quicken the slothful negligent lazy heart now with great probability I may conjecture a more comfortable aspect of Providence will quickly appear the refreshing and reviving time is nigh It is usual with Christians to argue themselves into fresh reviving hopes when the state of things is most forlorn by comparing the Providences of God one with another 1. It is a mighty composing meditation when we compare the Providences of God towards the inanimate and irrational Creatures with his Providences towards us Doth he take care for the very Fowls of the air for whom no man provides as well as those at the door which we daily feed Doth he so clothe the very Grass of the field hear the young Ravens when they cry for meat and can it be supposed he should forget his own people that are of much more value than these 2. Or if we compare the bounty and care that Providence hath expressed to the Enemies of God how it feeds and clothes and protects them even whilst they are fighting against him with his own mercies it cannot but quiet and satisfie us that surely he will not be wanting to that people upon whom he hath set his love to whom he hath given his Son and for whom he hath designed Heaven it self 3. Or Lastly It must needs quiet us when we consider what the Lord did for us in the way of his Providence when we our selves were in the state of nature and enmity against God Did he not then look after us when we knew him not provided for us when we owned him not in any of his mercies bestowed thousands of mercies upon us when we had no title to Christ or any one promise and will he now do less for us since we are reconciled and become his Children Surely such considerations as these cannot but fill the soul with peace and preserve the tranquillity of it under the most distracting Providences The Ninth Motive DVe observations of the wayes of God in his Providences towards us have an excellent usefulness and aptitude to advance and improve Holiness in our hearts and lives For The Holiness of God is manifested to us in all his works of Providence Psal. 145. 17. The Lord is righteous in all his ways and holy in all his works The Instruments used by Providence may be very sinful wicked they may aim at base ends make use of wicked mediums to attain them but it 's certain Gods designs are most pure and all his workings are so too Though he permits limits orders and over-rules many unholy persons and actions yet in all he works like himself and his Holiness is no more defiled and stained by their impurity than the Sun-beams are by the noisome exhalations of a dunghill Deut. 32. 4. He is the rock his work is perfect for all his wayes are judgement a God of truth and without iniquity just and right is he So that in all his Providences he sets before us a perfect pattern of holiness that we might be holy in all our wayes as our Father is in all his wayes But this is not all His Providences if duely observed promote Holiness by stopping up our way to sin Oh if men would but note the designs of God in his preventive Providences how useful would it be to keep them upright and holy in their wayes For why is it that the Lord so often hedges up our way with thorns as it is Hosea 2. 6. but that we should not â—ind our paths to sin Why doth he clogg us but to prevent our straying from him 2 Cor. 12. 7. Lest I should be exalted above measure there was given me a thorn in the slesh a messenger of Satan to buffet me O 't is good to attend to these works of God and study the meaning of them Sometimes Providence crosseth a hopeful thriving project to advance our estate and frustrates all our labours and cares Why is this but to hide pride from man Shouldst thou prosper in the world that prosperity might be thy snare and make thee a proud sensual vain â—oul the Lord Jesus sees this and therefore withdraws the food and fuel from thy corruptions It may be thou hast a crazy diseased weak body thou labourest under often infirmities in this the Wisdom and Care of God over thy soul is manifested for wert thou not so clogged how probable is it that much more guilt might be contracted Your poverty doth but clog your pride reproaches clog your ambition want prevents wantonness sickness of body conduces to the prevention of many inward gripes of conscience and groans under guilt The Providences of God may be observed to conduce to our holiness not only by preventing sin that we may not â—all into it but also by purging our sins when we are fallen into them Isa. 27. 9. By this therefore shall the iniquity of Jacob be purged and this is all the fruit to take away his sin So Dan. 11. 33 34 35. they are of the same use that fire and water are for
friends as Paul did among the CorinthJans and all this to keep down the swelling of their spirits at the sense of those excellencies that are in them The design of these Providences being nothing else but to hide pride from man Yea it deserves a special remarque that when some good men have been engaged in a publick and eminent work and have therein it may be too much sought their own applause God hath withheld usual assistance at such times from them and caused them to salter so in their work that they have come off with shame and pity at such times how ready and presential soever they have been at other times It were easie to give divers remarkable examples to confirm this Observation But I pass on 5. The corruption of the heart shews it self in raising up great expectations to our selves from the Creature and projecting abundance of felicity and contentment from some promising and hopeful enjoyments we have in the world This we find to have been the case of holy Job in the dayes of his prosperity Job 28. 19. Then I said I shall dye in my nest I shall multiply my dayes as the sand But how soon were all these expectaâ—ions dasht by a gloomy Providence that benighted him in the Noon-tide of his prosperity and all this for his good to take off his heart more fully from creature expectations We often find the best men to over-reckon themselves in worldly things and over-act their confidences about them They that have great and well-grounded expectations from Heaven may have too great and ungrounded expectations from the Earth But when it is so it 's very usual for Providence to undermine their Earthly hopes and convince them by experience how vain they are Thus Haggai 1. 9. the peoples hearts were intently set upon prosperous Providences full Harvests and great Increase whilst in the mean while no regard was had to the Worship of God and the things of his House therefore Providence blasts their hopes and brings them to little 6. Corruption discovers it self in dependance upon Creature comforts and sensible props Oh how apt are the best men to lean upon these things and stay themselves upon them Thus did Israel stay themselves upon Egypt as a feeble man would lean upon his staff but God suffered it both to fail them and wound them Ezek. 29. 6 7 8. So for single persons how apt are they to depend upon their sensible supports Thus we lean on our Relations and the inward thoughts of our hearts are that they shall be to us so many springs of comfort to refresh us throughout our lives but God will shew us by his Providence our mistake and error in these things Thus an Husband is smitten to draw the soul of a Wife nearer to God in dependence upon him 1 Tim. 5. 5. So for Children we are apt to say of this or that Child as Lamech of Noah Gen. 5 29. This same shall comfort us but the wind passes over these slowers and they are withered to teach us that our happiness is not bound up in these enjoyments So for our Estates when the world smiles upon us and we have got a warm nest how do we prophesie of rest and peace in those acquisitions minding with good Baruch great things for our selves but Providence by a particular or general calamity over-turns our projects as Jer. 45. 4 5. and all this to reduce our hearts from the Creature to God our only rest 7. Corruption discovers its strength in good men by their adherence to things below and lothness to go hence This often proceeds from the engaging enjoyments and pleasant fruitions we have here below Providence mortiâ—ies this inclination in the Saints 1. By killing those ensnaring comforts before-hand making all or most of our pleasant things to dye before us 2. By imbittering this world to us by the troubles of it 3. By making life undesirable through the pains and infirmities we feel in the body and so loosing our root in order to our more easie fall by the fatal stroke And thus I have finished the Second General Head but before I pass from this I cannot but make a pause and desire you with me to stand in an holy amazement and wonder at the dealings of God with such poor worms as we are Surely God deals familiarly with men his condescensions to his own clay are astonishing All that I shall note at present about it shall be under these three heads wherein I find the matter of my present meditations summed up by the Psalmist Psal. 144. 3. Lord what is man that thou tâ—kest knowledge of him or the son of man that thou makest account of him And in this Scripture you have represented The immense and transcendent goodness of God who is infinitely above us and all our thoughts Job 11. 7 8 9. Canst thou by searching find out God canst thou find out the Almighty unto perfection It is as high as Heaven what canst thou do deeper than Hell what canst thou know The measure thereof is longer than the Earth and broader than the Sea 2 Chron. 2. 6. The Heaven and Heaven of Heavens cannot contain him Exod. 15. 11. He is glorious in holiness fearful in praises doing wonders When the Scripture speaks of him comparatively see how it expresses his greatness Isa. 40. 15 16 17. Behold the Nations are as the drop of a bucket and are counted as the small dust of the balance behold he taketh up the Isles as a very little thing And Lebanon is not sufficient to burn nor the Beasts thereof sufficient for a burnt-offering All Nations before him are as nothing and they are accounted to him less than nothing and vanity When the holJest men have addrest themselves to him see with what humility and deep adoratJon they have spoken of him and to him Isa. 6. 5. Wo is me for I am undone because I am a man of unclean lips and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips for mine eyes have seen the King the Lord of Hosts Nay what aspects the very Angels of Heaven have of that glorJous Majesty you may see Ver. 2 3. Each one had six wings with twain â—e covered his face and with twain he covered his feet and with twain be did fly And one cryed unto another and said Holy holy holy is the Lord of Hosts the whole Earth is full of his glory The baseness vileness and utter unworthiness of Man yea the holiest and best of men before God Psal. 39. 5. Verily every man at his best estate is altogether vanity Every man take where you will and every man in his best estate or standing in his freshest glory is not only vanity but altogether vanity Col Adam col Hebel every man â—s every vanity For do but consider the best of men in their ExtractJon in their ConstitutJon and in their outward ConditJon 1. In their ExtractJon Eph. 2. 3. By nature Children of wrath
see how their hearts are broken for sin under this severe rebuke Lam. 2. 17 18 19. And then 2. For caution against sin for the time to come it 's plain that the rebukes of Providence leave that effect also upon gracious hearts Ezra 9. 13 14. Psal. 85. 8. Sometimes he cheers and comforts the hearts of his people with smiling and reviving Providences both publick and personal There are times of lifting up as well as casting down by the hand of Providence The Scene changes the aspects of Providence are very cheerful and encouraging their Winter seems to be over they put off their garments of mourning and then Ah what sweet returns are made to heaven by gracious souls Doth God lift them up by prosperity they also will lift up their God by praises See Psal. 18. Title and v. 1 2 3. So Moses and the people with him Exod. 15. when God had delivered them from Pharaoh how do they exalt him in a song of thanksgiving which for the elegancy and spirituality of it is made an Emblem of the doxologies given to God in glory by the Saints Rev. 15. 3. Upon the whole whatever effects our Communion with God in any of his Ordinances doth use to produce upon our hearts the same we may observe to follow our conversing with him in his Providences For It is usually found in the experience of all the Saints that in what Ordinance or duty soever they â—ave any sensible communion with God it naturally produces in their spirits a deep abasement and humiliation from the sense of divine condescensions to such vile poor Worms as we are Thus Abraham Gen. 18. 27. I am but dust and ashes The same effect follows our converse with God in his Providences Thus when God had in the way of his Providence prospered Jacob how doth he lay himself at the feet of God as a man overwhelmed with the sense of mercy See Gen. 32. 5 10. And Jacob said I am not worthy of the least of all thy mercJes and of all the truth which thou hast shewed thy servant for with my staff I passed over this Jordan and now am become two bands Thus also it was with David 2 Sam. 7. 18. Who am I and what is my Fathers house that thou hast brought me hitherto And I doubt not but some of you have found the like frame of heart upon you that these holy men here expressed Can you not remember when God lifted you up by Providence how you cast down your selves before him and have been viler in your own eyes than ever Why thus do all gracious hearts What am I that the Lord should do thus and thus for me O that ever so great and holy a God should thus be concerned for so vile and sinful a Worm 2. Doth Communion with God in Ordinances melt the heart into love to God Cant. 2. 3 4 5. Why so doth the observation of his Providences also Never did any man conversâ— with Gods works of Providencâ— aright but fâ—â—nd his heart at some times melted into love to the God of his mercies Psal. 18. 1. compared with the Title When God had delivered him from the hand of Saul and all his Enemies he said I will love thee O Lord my strength Every man loves the mercies of God but a Saint loves the God of his mercies The mercies of God as they are the fewel of a wicked mans lusts so they are fewel to maintain a good mans love to God not that their love to God is grounded upon these external benefits Not thine but thee O Lord is the motto of a gracious soul but yet these things serve to blow up the flame of love to God in their hearts and they find it so Doth Communion with God set the keenest edge upon the soul against sin You see it doth and have a pregnant Instance of it in Moses when he had been with God in the Mount for forty dayes and had there enjoyed communion with him when he came down and saw the Calf the people had made see what an holy paroxysm of zeal and anger it cast his soul into Exod. 32. 19 20. Why the same effect you may discern to follow the Saints converse with God in his Providences What was that which pierced the heart of David with such a deep sense of the evil of his sin which is so abundantly manifested in Psalm 51. throughout Why if you look into the Title you shall find it was the effect of what Nathan had laid before him and if you consult 2 Sam. 12. 7 8 9 10. you shall find it was the goodness of God manifested to him in the several endearing Providences of his life which in this he had so evilly requited the Lord for that broke his heart to pieces in the sense of it and I doubt not but some of us have some times found the like effects by comparing Gods wayes and our own together Doth Communion with the Lord enlarge the heart for obedience and service Surely it is as oyl to the wheels that makes them run of freely and nimbly their course Thus when IsaJah had obtained a special manifestation of God and the Lord askt whom shall I send he presents a ready soul for the employment Isa. 6. 8. Here am I Lord send me Why the very same effect follows sanctified Providences as you may see in Jehosaphat 2 Chron. 17. 5 6. and in David Psal. 116. 12. O when a soul considers what God hath done for him he cannot chuse but say what shall I return how shall I answer these engagements And thus you see what sweet Communion a soul may have with God in the way of his Providences O that you would thus walk with him How much of Heaven might be found on Earth this way And certainly it will never repent the Lord he hath done you good when his mercies produce such effects upon your hearts he will say of every savour thus improved It was well bestowed and will rejoyce over you to do you good for ever Second Motive A Great part of the pleasure and delight of the ChristJan life is made out of the observatJons of Providence It is said Psal. 111. 2. The works of the Lord are great sought out of all them that have pleasure therein i. e. the study of Providence is so sweet and pleasant that it invites and allures the soul to search and dive into it How pleasant is it to a well tempered soul to behold and observe 1. The sweet harmony and consent of divine Attributes in the issues of Providence They may seem sometimes to jarr and clash to part with each other and go contrary wayes but they only seem so to do for in the winding up they alwayes meet and embrace each other Psal. 85. 10. Mercy and Truth have met together Righteousness and Peace have kissed each other It is spoken with an immediate reference to that signal Providence of Israels deliverance out of the
us we may warrantably conclude they are blessings to us and come from the love of God when They come in a proper season when we have need of them either to prevent some sin we are falling into or recover us out of a remiss â—upine and careless frame of spirit into which we are already fallen 1 Pet. 1. 6. if need be ye are in heaviness Certainly it is a good sign that God designs your good by those troubles which are so fitted and wisely order'd to niâ—k the opportunity If you see the Husbandman lopping a tree in the proper Season it argues he aims at the fruitfulness and flourishing of it but to do the same thing at Midsummer speaks no regard to it yea his design to destroy it When they are fitted both for quality and degree to work properly upon our most predominant corruptions then they look like sanctified strokes The Wisdom of God is much seen in the choice of his rods It is not any kind of trouble that will work upon and purge every sin but when God chuses for us such afflictions as like Physick are appropriated to the disease the soul labours under this speaks divine care and love Thus we may observe it 's usual with God to smite us in those very comforts which stole away too much of the love and delight of our souls from God to cross us in those things from which we raised up too great expectatioâ—s of comfort These Providences speak the jealousie of God over us and his care to prevent far worse evils by these sad but needful strokes And so for the degrees of our troubles sanctified strokes are ordinarily fitted by the wisdome of God to the strength and ability of our inherent grace Isa. 17. 8. in measure when it shooteth forth thou wilt debate with it he stayeth his rough wind in the day of the east wind It is an AllusJon to a PhysicJan who exactly weighs and measures all the ingredients which he mingles in a potion for his sick patient that it may be proportionate to his strength and no more and so much the next words intimate by this therefore shall the iniquity of Jacob be purged It is a good sign our troubles are sanctiâ—ied to us when they turn our hearts against sin and not against God There be few great afflictions which befall men but they make them quarrelsome and discontented Wicked men quarrel with God and are filled with discontent against him So the Scripture describes them Rev. 16. 9. They were scorched with great heat and blasphemed the name of God which hath power over these plagues But Godly men to whom afflictions are sanctified they justifie God and fall out with sin they condemn themselves and give glory to God Dan. 9. 7. O Lord righteousness belongeth unto thee but unto us confusJon of faces c. And Lam. 3. 39. â—Wherefore doth a living man complain a man for the punishment of his sins Happy afflictions which make the Soul fall out and quarrel only with sin It is a sure sign afflicting Providences are sanctified when they purge the heart from sin and leave both heart and life more pure heavenly mortified and humble than they found them Sanctified afflictions are cleansers they pull down the pride refine the earthliness and purge out the vanity of the Spirit So you read Dan. 11. 35. it purifies and makes their Souls white Hence it 's compar'd to a furnace which separates the dross from the pure metal Isa. 48. 10. Behold I have refined thee but not with Silver I have chosen thee in the furnace of afflictJon But for wicked men let them be never so long in the Furnace they lose no dross Ezek. 24. 6. How many Christians can bear witness to this truth After some sharp affliction hath been upon them how is the earthliness of their hearts purged they see no beauty taste no more relish in the world than in the white of an Egg. Oh how serious humble and heavenly are they till the impressions made upon them by afflictions be worn off and their deceitful lusts have again entangled them And this is the reason why we are so often under the discipline of the rod. Let a Christian saith a late writer be but two or three years without an affliction and he is almost good for nothing he cannot pray nor meditate nor discourse at that rate he was wont to do but when a new affliction comes now he can find his tongue and come to his knees again and live at another rate It is a good sign afflictive Providences are sanctified to us when we draw near to God under them and turn to him that smites us A wicked man under affliction revolts more and more Isa. 1. 5. turns not to him that smites him Isa. 9. 13. but grows worse than before formality is turned into stupidity and dedolency But if God afflict his own people with a sanctified rod it awakens them to a more earnest seeking of God it makes them pray more frequently spiritually and fervently than ever When Paul was buffeted by Satan he besought the Lord thrice 2 Cor. 12. 8. We may conclude our afflictions to be sanâ—tified and to come from the love of God to us when they do not alienate our hearts from God but inflame our love to him This is a sure rule Whatever ends in the increase of our love to God proceeds from the love of God to us A wicked man finds his heart rising against God when he smites him but a gracious heart cleaves the closer to him he can love as well as justifie an afflicting God All this is come upon us yet have we not forgotten thee neither have we dealt falsly in thy Covenant our heart is not turned back neither have our steps declined from thy way though thou hast sore broken us in the place of Dragons and covered us with the shadow of Death Psal. 44. 17 18 19. Here you have a true account of the temper and frame of a gracious soul under greatest afflictions To be broken in the place of Dragons and covered with the shadow of death imports the most dismal state of affliction yet even then a gracious heart turns not back i. e. doth not for all this abate one drachm of love to God God is as good and dear to him in afflictions as ever Lastly We may call our afflictions sanctified when divine teachings accompany them to our souls Psal. 94. 12. Blessed is the man whom thou chastenest O Lord and teachest him out of thy law Sanctified afflictions are eye-salve they teach us sensibly and effectually when the Spirit accompanies them the evil of sin the vanity of the creature the necessity of securing things that cannot be shaken Never doth a Christian take a truer measure both of his corruptions and graces than under the rod. Now a man sees that â—ilthiness that hath been long contracting in prosperity what interest the Creature hath in the heart
not Argumentative in respect of the dignity of the Act yet it is so in respect both of the nature of the Object a compassionate God who will not expose any that take shelter under his wings and in respect of the Promise whereby protection is assured to them that fly to him for sanctuary Isa. 26. 3. Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on thee because he trusteth in thee Thus he encourages himself from the consideration of that God to whom he betakes himself 2. He pleads former experiences of his help in past distresses as an Argument encouraging hope under the present strait ver 2. I will cry unto God most high unto God that performeth all things for me In which words I shall consider two things 1. The Duty resolved upon 2. The Encouragement to that resolution The duty resolved upon I will cry unto God Crying unto God is an expression that doth not only denote Prayer but intense and fervent prayer To cry is to pray in an holy passion and such are usually speeding prayers Psalm 18. 6. and Heb. 5. 7. The Encouragements to this Resolution and these are twofold 1. Objective taken from The Soveraignty of God and 2. Subjective taken from The Experience he had of his Providence The Soveraignty of God I will cry unto God most High Upon this he acts his faith in Extremity of danger Saul is high but God the most high and without his permission he is assured Saul cannot touch him He had noâ— to help and if he had he knew God must first help the helpers or they cannot help him He had no means of defence or escape before him but the Most High is not limited by means This is a singular prop to faith Psal. 59. 9. The Experience of his Providence hitherto unto God that performeth all things for me The word which we tradâ—â—ate performeth comes from a root that signifies both to perfect and to desisâ— or cease For when a business is performed and perfected the Agent then ceases and â—â—sists from working he puts to the last hand when he finisheâ— the work To such an happy issue the Lord hath brought all his doubtful and difficult matters before and this gives him encouragement that he will still 〈◊〉 gracious and perfect that which concerneth him now as he speaks Psal. 138. 8. The Lord will perfect that which concerneth me The Sepâ—uagint renders it by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who profiteth or benefiteth me And it is a certain Truth that all the results and issues of Providence are profitable and beneficial to the Saints But the Supplement in our Translation well receives the importance of the place Who performeth all things And it involves the most strict and proper notion of Providence which is nothing else but the performance of God's gracious purposes and promises to his people And therefore Vatablus and Muis supply and fill up the room which the conciseness of the Original leaves with quae promisit I will cry unto God most high unto God that performeth the things which he hath promised Payment is the performance of promises Grace makes the promise and Providence the payment Piscator fills it with benignitatem misericordJam suam unto God that performeth his kindness and mercy But still it supposes the mercy performed to be contained in the promise Mercy is sweet in the promise and much more so in the providentJal performance of it to us CastalJo's Supplement comes nearer to ours rerum mearum Transactorem I will cry unto God most high unto God the Transactor of my affairs But our English making out the sense by an universal particle is most fully agreeable to the scope of the Text. For it cannot but be a great encouragement to his faith that God had transacted all things or performed all things for him this Providence that never failed him in any of the straits that ever he met with and his life was a life of many straits he might well hope it would not now fail him though this were an extraordinary and matchless one Bring we then our thoughts a little closer to this Scripture and it will give us a fair and lovely prospect of Providence in its 1. Universal 2. Effectual 3. Beneficial 4. Encouraging Influence upon the Affairs and Concerns of the Saints The expression imports the Vniversal Interest and Influence of Providence in and upon all the Concerns and Interests of the Saints It hath not only its hand in this or that but in all that concerns them It hath its eye upon every thing that relates to them throughout their lives from first to last Not only great and more important but the most minute and ordinary affairs of our lives are transacted and managed by it It touches all things that touch us whether more nearly or remotely It displaies the Efficacy of ProvidentJal Influences Providence doth not only undertake but performeth and perfects what concerns us It goes through with its designs and accomplisheth what it begins No difficulty so clogs it no cross accident falls in its way but it carries its design through it Its motions are irresistible and uncontrollable he performs it for us And which is sweet to consider all its products and issues are exceeding beneficJal to the Saints It performs all things for them 'T is true we often prejudge its works and unjustly censure its designs and under many of our straits and troubles we say all these things are against us but indeed Providence neither doth nor can do any â—hing that is really against the true Interest and goâ—d of the Saints For what are the works of Providence but the execution of God's Decree and the fulfilling of his Word and there can be no more in Providence than is in them Now there is nothing but good to the Saints in God's purposes and promises and therefore whatever Providence doth in their Concernments it must be as the Text speaks the performance of all things for them And if so how chearing supporting and encouraging must the consideration of these things be in a day of distress and trouble What life and hope will it inspire our Hearts and Prayers withal when great pressures lie upon us It had such a chearing influence upon the Psalmist at this time when the state of his affairs was to the eye of sense and reason forlorn and desperate there was now but an hairs breadth as we say betwixt him and ruine A potent eâ—â—aged and implacable Enemy had driven him into the hole of a rock and was come after him into that hole yet now whilst his soul is among Lyons whilest he lies in a cranny of the Rock expecting every moment to be drawn out to death the reflections he had upon the gracious performances of the Most High for him from the beginning to that moment support his soul and inspire hope and life into his prayers I will cry unto God most high unto God that performeth
all things for me The amount of all you have in this Doctrinal Conclusion DOCT. That it is the duty of the Saints especJally in times of straits to reflect upon the performances of Providence for them in all the states and through all the stages of their lives The Church in all the works of mercy owns â—he â—and of God Isa. 26. 12. Lord thou hast wrought all our works in or for us And still it hath been the pious and constant practice of the Saints in all generations to preserve the memory of the more famous and remarkable providences that have befallen them in their times as a precious treasure If thou be a ChristJan indeed I know thou hast if not in thy book yet certainly in thy heart a great many precJous favours upon record the very remembrance and rehearsal of them is sweet how much more sweet was the actual enjoyment Baxter's Saints Rest p. 768. Thus Moses by divine direction wrote a memorial of that victory obtained over Amalek as the fruit and return of prayer and built there an Altar with this Inscription Jehovah Nissi The Lord my Banner Exod. 17. 14 15. Thus Mordecai and Hester took all care to perpetuate the memory of that signal deliverance from the plot of Haman by ordaining the feast of Purim as an Anniversary throughout every generatJon every family every Province and every Ciâ—y that those days of Purim should not fail from among the Jews nor the memorJal of them perish from their seed Esth. 9. 28. For this end you find Psalms indited to bring to remembrance Psal. 70. the Title Parents giving suitable names to their Children that every time they looked upon them they might refresh the memory of Gods mercies 1 Sam. 1. 20. The very places where eminent Providences have appeared new named upon no other design but to perpetâ—ate the memorial of those sweet Providences which so refreshed them there Thence Bethel took its name Gen. 28. 19. And that well of water where Hagar was seasonably refreshed by the Angel in her distress Beer-la-hai-roi the well of him that liveth and looketh on me Gen. 16. 14. Yea the Saints have given and God hath assumed to himself new Titles upon this very score and account Abraham's Jehovah jirch and Gideon's Jehovah shallum were ascribed to him upon this reason And sometimes you find the Lord stiles himself The God that brought Abraham from Vr of the Chaldeâ—s then the Lord Lord that brought them out of Egypt then the Lord that gathered them out of the North Countrey still minding them of the gracious providences which in all those places he had wrought for them Now there is a twofold reflection upon the providentJal works of God One entire and full in the whole Complex and perfect frame thereof This blessed sight is reserved for the perfect state It is in that Mount of God where we shall see both the Wilderness and Canaan the glorious Kingdom into which we are come and the way through which we were led into it There the Saints shall have a ravishing view of that beautiful frame and every part shall be distinctly discerned as it had its particular use and as it was connected with the other parts and how effectually and orderly they all wrought to bring about that blessed design of their salvation according to the promise Rom. 8. 28. And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God c. For it is certain no Ship at Sea keeps more exactly by the Compass which directs its course than Providence doth by that Promise which is its Cynosura and Pole-star The other partial and imperfect in the way to glory where we only view it in its single acts or at most in some branches and more observable course of actions Betwixt these two is the same difference as betwixt the sight of the dis-jointed wheels and scattered pins of a Watch and the sight of the whole united in one frame and working in one orderly motion or betwixt an ignorant Spectators viewing some more observable vessel or joint of a dissected body and the accurate Anatomist's discerning the course of all the veins and arteries of the body as he follows the several branches of them through the whole and plainly sees the proper places figure and use of each with their mutual respect to one another O how ravishing and delectable a sight is that to behold at one view the whole design of Providence and the proper place and use of every single act which we could not understand in this world for what Christ said to Peter John 13. 7. is as applicable to some providences in which we are now concerned as it was to that particular action What I do thou knowest not now but hereafter thou shalt know it All the dark intricate puzling Providences at which we were sometimes so stumbled and sometimes amazed which we could neither reconcile with the promise nor with each other nay which we so unjustly censured and bitterly bewailed as if they had fallen out quite cross to our happiness we shall than see to be unto us as the difficult passage through the Wilderness was unto Israel the right way to a City of habitatJon Psalm 107. 7. And yet though our present views and reflections upon Providence be so short and imperfect in comparison of that in Heaven yet such as it is under all its present disadvantages it hath so much excellency and sweetness in it that I may call it a little Heaven or as Jacob called his Bethel the Gate of Heaven 'T is certainly an high-way of walkking with God in this world and as sweet communion may a soul enjoy with him in his Providences as in any of his Ordinances How often have the hearts of its observers been melted into tears of joy at the beholding of its wise and unexpected productions How often hath it convinced them upon a sober recollection of the events of their lives that if the Lord had left them to their own counsels they had as often been their own tormenters if not executioners Into what and how many fatal mischiefs had they precipitated themselves if Providence had been as short sighted as they They have given it their hearty thanks for considering their Interest more than their Importunity and not suffering them to perish by their own desires The benefits of adverting the works of Providence are manifold and unspeakable as in its place we shall shew you But not to entangle the thread of the discourse I shall cast it into this method First I shall prove that the Concernments of the Saints in this world are certainly conducted by the Wisdom and care of special Providence Secondly I will shew you in what particular concernments of theirs this providential care is evidently discovered Thirdly That it is the duty of Saints to advert and heedfully observe these performances of Providence for them in all their Concernments Fourthly In what manner
parents were of the higher or lower Class and rank among men yet if they were such as feared God and wrought righteousness if they took any care to educate you religiously and trained you up in the nurture and admonitJon of the Lord you are bound to reckon it among your chief mercies that you sprung from the loins of such parents for from this Spring a double stream of mercy rises to you 1. Temporal and external mercies to your outward man You cannot but know that as Godliness entails a blessing so wickedness and unrighteousness a curse upon posterity An instance of the former you have in Gen. 17. 18 20. On the contrary you have the threatning Zech. 5. 4. and both together Prov. 3. 33. The Curse of the Lord is in the house of the wicked but he Blesseth the habitatJon of the just True it is that both these imply the Childrens treading in the steps of their Parents according to Ezek. 18. but how frequently is it seen that wicked men breed their children vainly and wickedly so that as it 's said of Abijam 1 Kings 15. 3. He walked in all the sins of his father which he had done before him and so the curse is entail'd from generation to generation To escape this Curse is a choice Providence 2. But especially take notice what a stream of spiritual blessings and mercies â—lows from this Providence to the Inner man O it 's no common mercy to descend from pious Parents Some of us do not only owe our natural life to them as Instruments of our Beings but our Spiritual and Eternal life also It was no small mercy to Timothy to be descended from such Progenitors 2 Tâ—m 1. 5. nor to Augustine that he had such a Mother as Monica who planted in his mind the precepts of life with her Words watered them with her Tears and nourished them with her Example We will a little more particularly inspect this mercy and in so doing we shall find manifold mercies contained in it 1. What a Mercy was it to us to have Parents that prayed for us before they had us as well as in our Infancy when we could not pray for our selves Thus did Abraham Gen. 15. 2. and Hannah 1 Sam. 1. 10 11. and some here likely are the fruits and returns of their Parents Prayers This was that holy course they continued all their dayes for you carrying all your concerns especially your Eternal ones before the Lord with their own and pouring out their souls to God so affectionately for you when their eye-strings and heart-strings were breaking Oh put a value upon such Mercies for they are precious It 's a greater Mercy to descend from praying Parents than from the loyns of Nobles See Job's pious practice Job 1. 5. 2. What a special Mercy was it to us to have the excrescencies of corruption nipt in the bud by their pious and careful discipline We now understand what a critical and dangerous season Youth is the wonderful proclivity of that Age to every thing that is evil Why else are they called Youthful lusts 2 Tim. 2. 22. When David asketh Wherewith shall a young man cleanse his way it's plainly enough implyed in the very Question that the way he takes lieth through the pollutions of the world in his youth Psal. 119. 9. When you find a David praying that God would not remember the sins of his youth Psal. 25. 7. and a Job bitterly complaining that God made him to possess the sins of his youth Job 13. 26. Sure you cannot but reflect with a very thankful heart upon those happy means by which the corruption of your nature was happily prevented or restrained in your Youth 3. And how great a Mercy was it that we had Parents who carefully instilled the good knowledge of God into our souls in our tender years How careful was Abraham of this duty Gen. 18. 19. and David 1 Chron. 28. 9. We have some of us had Parents who might say to us as the Apostle Gal. 4. 19. My little Children of whom I travail again in birth till Christ be formed in you As they longed for us before they had us and rejoyced in us when they had us so they could not endure to think that when they could have us no more the Devil should As they thought no pains care or cost too much for our bodies to feed them cloath and heal them so did they think no prayers counsels or tears too much for our souls that they might be saved They knew a parting time would come betwixt them and us and did strive to make it as easie and comfortable to them as they could by leaving us in Christ and within the blessed bond of his Covenant They were not glad that we had Health and indifferent whether we had Grace They as sensibly felt the miseries of our souls as of our bodies and nothing was more desirable to them than that they might say in the great day Lord here am I and the Children which thou hast given me 4. And was it not a special Favour to us to have Parents that went before us as Patterns of Holiness and beat the path to Heaven for us by their Examples Who could say to us as Phil. 4. 9. What things ye have heard and seen in me that do and as 1 Cor. 11. 1. Be ye followers of us as we are of Christ. The Parents life is the Childs copy O 't is no common mercy to have a fair copy set before us especially in the moulding age we saw what they did as well as heard what they said It was Abraham's commendation that he commanded his Children and his houshold after him to keep the way of the Lord. And such mercies some of us have had also Ah my friends let me beg you that you will set special remarques upon this Providence which so graciously wrought for you and that your hearts may be more throughly warmed in the sense of it compare your condition with others and seriously bethink your selves 1. How many Children there be among us that are drawn headlong to Hell by their cruel and ungodly Parents who teach them to curse and swear assoon as they can speak Many families there are wherein little other language is heard but what is the Dialect of Hell These like the old logs and small spray are preparing for the fire of Hell where they must burn together Of such Children that Scripture Psal. 49. 19. will one day be verified except they repent They shall go to the generatJon of their fathers where they shall not see light 2. And how many families are there though not so prophane who yet breed up their Children vainly and sensually as Job 21. 11 c. take no care what becomes of their souls so they can but provide for their bodies If they can but teach them to carry their bodies no matter if the Devil act their souls If they can but leave them Lands or Moneys
they think they have very fully discharged their duties O what will the language be wherewith such Parents and Children shall great each other at the Judgement Seat and in Hell for ever 3. And how many be there who are more sober and yet hate the least appearances of Godliness in their Children who instead of cherishing do all that they can to break bruised reeds and quench smoaking â—lax to stifle and strangle the first appearances and offers they make towards Christ Who had rather accompany them to their graves than to Christ doing all that in them lyes Herod like to kill Christ in the Cradle Ah Sirs ye little know what a mercy ye do or have enjoyed in Godly Parents and what a good Lot Providence cast for you in this Concernment of your bodies and souls If any shall say This was not their case they had little help Heaven-ward from their Parents To such I shall only reply three things 1. If you had little furtherance yet own it as a special Providence that you had no hinderance or if you had opposition yet 2. Admire the Grace of God in plucking you out by a wonderful distinguishing hand of mercy from among them and keeping alive the languishing sparks of Grace amidst the floods of opposition 3. And learn from hence if God give you a posterity of your own to be so much the more strict and careful of relational duties by how much you have sensibly felt the want of it in your selves But seeing such a train of blessings both as to this life and that to come follow upon an holy education of Children I will not dismiss the Point till I have discharged my duty in exhorting Parents and Children to their duties And first for you that are Parents or to whom the Education of Children is committed I beseech you mind how concerning a duty lies on you and that I may effectually press it consider 1. How near the Relation is betwixt you and your Children and therefore how much you are concerned in their happiness or misery Consider but the Scripture account of the dearness of such Relations expressed 1. By longings for them as Gen. 15. 2. Gen. 30. 1. and 2. By our joy when we have them as Christ expresses it John 16. 21. 3. The high value set on them Gen. 42. 38. 4. The sympathie with them in all their troubles Mark 9. 22. and 5. By our sorrow at parting Gen. 37. 35. Now shall all this be to no purpose For to what purpose do we desire them before we have them rejoice in them when we have them value them so highly sympathize with them so tenderly grieve for their death so excessively if in the mean time no care be taken what shall become of them to Eternity 2. How God hath charged you with their souls as well as bodies and this appears by two sorts of Precepts 1. Precepts directly laid upon you Deut. 6. 6 7. and Eph. 6. 4. 2. By Precepts laid on them to obey you Eph. 6. 1. which plainly implies your duty as well as expresses theirs 3. What shall comfort you at the parting time if they dye through your neglect in a Christless condition Oh this is the cutting consideration My Child is in Hell and I did nothing to prevent it I helped him thither Duty discharged is the only root of comfort in that day 4. If you neglect to instruct them in the way of Holiness will the Devil neglect to instruct them in the way of Wickedness No no if you will not teach them to pray he will to curse swear and lye If ground be uncultivated weeds will spring 5. If the season of their youth be neglected how little probability is there of any good fruit afterwards that is the Moulding age Prov. 22. 6. How few are converted in old age A twig is brought to any form but grown limbs will not bow 6. You are instrumental causes of all their spiritual misery and that 1. By generatJon 2. ImitatJon they lye spiritually dead of the Plague which you brought home among them Psal. 51. 5. Behold I was shapen in iniquity and in sin did my Mother conceive or warm me 7. There 's none in the World so likely as you to be Instruments of their Eternal good You have peculiar advantages that none other hath as 1. The interest you have in their affections 2. Your opportunities to instil the knowledge of Christ into them being daily with them Deut. 6. 7. 3. Your knowledge of their tempers if therefore you neglect who shall help them 8. The consideration of the great day shoâ—â—d move your bowels of pity for them O remember that Text Rev. 20. 12 c. I saw the dead small and great stand before God What a sad thing will it be to see your dear Children at Christs left hand O friends do your utmost to prevent this misery Knowing the terrors of the Lord we perswade men And you Children especially you that sprang from religious Parents I beseech you obey their Counsels and tread in the steps of their pious Examples To press this I offer these Consideration 1. Your disobedience to them is a resisting of Gods Authority Ephes. 6. 1. Children obey your Parents in the Lord there 's the Command your rebellion therefore runs higher than you think It is not Man but God that you disobey and for your disobedience God will punish you It may be their tenderness will not suffer them or you are grown beyond their correction all they can do is to complain to God and if so he will handle you more severely than they could do 2. Your Sin is greater than the Sin of young Heathens and Infidels and so will your Account be also O better if a wicked Child that thou hadst been the off-spring of Salvage IndJans nay of Beasts than of such Parents So many Counsels disobeyed Hopes and Prayers frustrated will turn to sad aggravations 3. It 's usual with God to retaliate mens disobedience to their Parents in kind Commonly our own Children shall pay us home for it I have read in a grave Author of a wicked Wretch that drag'd his Father along the house the Father begg'd him not to draw him beyond such a place for said he I drag'd my Father no farther O the sad but just retributions of God! And for you in whose hearts Grace hath been planted by the blessing of Education I beseech you to admire Gods goodness to you in this Providence Oh what an happy Lot hath God cast for you How few Children are partakers of your mercies See that you honour such Parents the tie is double upon you so to do Be you the joy of their hearts and comfort of their lives if living if not yet still remember the mercy while you live and tread in their pious path that you and they may both rejoice together in the great day and bless God for each other to all Eternity The Fourth
AsJa to which probably their minds inclined Acts 16. 6. and when they essayed to go into BythinJa the Spirit suffered them not Ver. 7. But a man of MacedonJa i. e. an Angel in the shape or habit of a man of that Countrey appeared to Paul in a Vision and prayed him saying Come over into Macedonia and help us Ver. 9. and there did God open the heart of LydJa I knew a pious Minister now with God who falling in his Study upon a very rouzing subject intended for his own Congregation was strongly moved when he had finished it to go to a rude vile prophane people about five miles off and first preach it to them after many wrestlings with himself not being willing to quench any motion that might be supposed to come from the Spirit of God he obeyed and went to this people who had then no Minister of their own and few durst come among them And there did the Lord beyond all expectation open a door and several prophane ones received Christ in that place and engaged this Minister to a Weekly Lecture among them in which many souls were won to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 â—ame holy Man at another time being 〈◊〉 a Journey passed by a company of vain persons who were wrestling upon a Green near the road and just as he came against the place one of them had thrown his Antagonist and stood triumphing in his strength and activity This good man rode up to them and turning his speech to this person told him Friend I see you are a strong man but yet let not the strong man glory in his strength You must know that you are not to wrestle with flesh and blood but with principalities and powers and spiritual wickednesâ—es how sad will it be that Satan should at last trip up the heels of your hope and give you an eternal overthrow And after about a quarter of an hours serious discourse upon this subject he left them and went on his Journey but this discourse made such an imperssion that the person had no rest till he opened his trouble to a godly Minister who wisely following the work upon his soul saw at last the blessed issue thereof in the gracious change of the person whereof he afterwards gave the Minister a joyful account O how unsearchable are the Methods of Providence in this matter Nay what is yet more wonderful the Providence of God hath sometimes ordered the very malice of Satan and wickedness of men as an occasion of Eternal good to their souls A very memorable Example whereof I shall here give the Reader faithfully reâ—â—â—ing what not many years past â—ell out in my own observation in this place to the astonishment of many spectators In the year 1673. there came into this Port a Ship of Poole in her return from Virginiâ— in which Ship was one of that place a lusty young man of twenty three years of age who was Chirurgeon in the Ship This person in the voyage fell into a deep melancholy which the Devil greatly improved to serve his own design for the ruine of this poor man however it pleased the Lord to restrain him from any attempts upon his own life until he arrived here But shortly after his arrival upon the Lords Day early in the morning being in bed with his Brother he took a knife prepared for that purpose and cut his own throat and withal leapt out of the bed and though the wound was deep and large yet thinking it might not soon enough dispatch his wretched life desperately thrust it into his st mach and so lay wallowing in his own blood till his Brother awaking made a cry for help hereupon a PhysicJan and a Chirurgeon coming in found the wound in his Throat mortal and all they could do at present was only to stitch it and apply a plaister with design rather to enable him to speak for a little while than with any expectation of cure for before that he breathed through the wound and his voice was inarticulate In this condition I found him that morning and apprehending him to be within a few minutes of Eterity I laboured to work upon his heart the sense of his condition telling him I had but little him to do any thing for him and therefore desired him to let me know what his own apprehensions of his present Condition were He told me he hoped in God for Eternal Life I replyed that I feared his hopes were ungrounded for that the Scripture tells us No Murderer hath eternal life abiding in him but this was self-murther the grossest of all Murthers and insisting upon the aggravation and heinousness of the fact I perceived his vain confidence began to fall and some meltings of heart appeared in him He then began to lament with many tears his sin and misery and asked me if there might yet be hope for one that had destroyed himself and shed his own blood I replyed the sin indeed is great but not unpardonable and if the Lord gave him repentancae unto life and â—aith to apply Jesus Christ it should be certainly pardoned to him and finding him unacquainted with these things I opened to him the nature and necessity of faith and repentance which he greedily suckt in and with great vehemency cryed to God that he would work them upon his soul and intreated me also to pray with him and for him that it might be so I prayed with him and the Lord thawed his heart exceedingly in that duty loth he was to part with me but the duties of the day necessitating me to leave him I briefly summed up what was most necessary in my parting counsel to him and took my leave never expecting to see him more in this world But beyond my own and all mens expectation he continued all that day and panted most ardently after Jesus Christ no discourses pleased him but Christ and faith and in this frame I found him in the evening He rejoiced greatly to see me again and entreated me to continue my discourses upon these subjects and after all told me Sir the Lord hath given me repentance for this sin yea and for every other sin I see the Evil of sin now so as I never saw it before O I loath my self I am a vile creature in my own eyes I do also believe Lord help my unbelJef I am heartily willing to take Christ upon his own terms One thing only troubles me I doubt this bloody sin will not be pardoned Will Jesus Christ said he apply his blood to me that have shed my own blood I told him Christ shed his blood even for them that with wicked hands had shed the blood of Christ and that was a sin of deeper guilt than his Well said he I will cast my self upon Christ let him do by me what he will And so I parted with him that night Next morning the wounds were to be opened and then the opinion of the Chirurgeons was he would immediately expire Accordingly
at his desire I came that morning and found him in a most serious frame I prayed with him and then the wound in his stomach was opened but by this time the Ventricle it self was swoln out of the orifice of the wound and lay like a livid discoloured Tripe upon his body and was also cut through so that all concluded it was impossible for him to live however they stitcht the wound in the stomach enlarged thâ— Orifice and somented it and wrought it again into his body and so stitching up the skin left him to the dispose of Providence But so it was that both the deep wound in his throat and this in his stomach healed and the more dangerous wound sin had made upon his soul was I trust effectually healed also I spent many hours with him in that sickness and after his return home received this account from Mr. Samuel Hardy a Minister in that Town Part whereof I shall transcribe Dear Sir I Was much troubled at the sad Providence in your Town but did much rejoice that he fell into such hands for his body and soul. You have taken much pains with him and I hope to good purpose I think if ever a great and through work were done such a way it is now and if never the like I am perswaded now it is Never grow weary of such good works One such Instance is methinks enough to make you to abound in the work of the Lord all your dayes c. O how unsearchable are the wayes of Providence in leading men to Christ Let none be encouraged by this to sin that grace may abound These are rare and singular Instances of the mercy of God and such as no presumptuous sinner can expect to find It 's only recited here to the honour of Providence which works for the recovery of sinners in wayes that we understand not O what a fetch hath Providence beyond our Understandings And as it orders very strange occasions to awaken and rouse souls at first so it works no less wonderfully in carrying on the work to perfection and this it doth two wayes 1. By quickning and reviving dying convictions and troubles for sin Souls after their first awakening are apt to lose the sense and impression of their first troubles for sin but Providence is vigilant to prevent it and doth effectually prevent it sometimes by directing the Minister to some discourse or passage that shall fall as pat as if the case of such a person had been studied by him and designedly spoken to How often have I found this in the cases of many souls who have professed they have stood amazed to hear the very thoughts of their hearts discovered by the Preacher who knew nothing of them Sometimes by directing them to some proper rousing Scripture that suites their present case And sometimes by suffering them to fall into some new sin which shall awaken all their former troubles again and put a new efficacy and activity into the Conscience The world is full of Instances in all these cases and because most Christians have experience of these things in themselves it will be needless to recite them here Search but a few years back and you may remember that according to this Account at least in some particulars Providence ordered the matter with you Have you not found some rod or other prepared by Providence to rouze you out of your security Why this is so common a thing with Christians that they many times presage an affliction coming from the frames they find their own hearts in 2. It gives also great assistance to the work of the Spirit upon the soul by ordering supporting relieving and cheering means to prop up and comfort the soul when it is over-burthened and ready to sink in the deeps of troubles I remember Mr. Bolton gives us one Instance which fits both these cases the reviving of convictJons and seasonable supports in the deeps of troubles And it is of a person that by convictions had been fetcht off from his wicked companions and entered into a reformed course of life but after this through the inticement of his old companions the subtilty of Satan and corruption of his own heart did again relapse into the wayes of sin Then was Providentially brought to his view that Scripture Prov. 1. 24 25 26 c. this renewed his trouble yea aggravated it to a greater height than ever insomuch that he could scarcely think as it seems by the relation his sin could be pardoned But in this plunge that Text Luke 17. 4. was presented to him which sweetly setled him in a sure and glorious peace Nor can we here forget that miraculous work of Providence in a time of great extremity which was wrought for that good Gentlewoman Mrs. Honeywood and is somewhere mentioned by the same Author who under a deep and sad desertion refused and put off all comfort seeming to despair utterly of the grace and mercy of God A worthy Minister being one day with her and reasoning against her desperate conclusions she took a Venice-glass from the Table and said Sir I am as sure to be damned as this glass is to be broken and therewith threw it forcibly to the ground but to the astonishment of both the glass remained whole and sound which the Minister taking up with admiration rebuked her presumption and shewed her what a wonder Providence had wrought for her satisfaction and it greatly altered the temper of her mind O how unsearchable are his wayes and his paths past finding out Lo these are part of his wayes but how small a portion do we know of him ANd now suffer me to expostulate a little with thy soul Reader hast thou been duly sensible of thy obligation to Providence for this inestimable favour O what hath it done for thee there are divers kinds of mercies conveyed to men by the hand of Providence but none like this in all the Treasury of its benefits none is found like this Did it cast thee into the way of Conversion and order the means and occasions of it for thee when thou little thoughtest of any such thing How dear and sweet should the remembrance of it be to thy soul Methinks it should astonish and melt you every time you reflect upon it Such Mercies should never grow stale or look like common things to you for do but seriously consider the following particulars How surprizing the mercy was which it performed for you in that day Providence had a design upon you for your eternal good which you understood not The time of mercy was now fully come the Decree was now ready to bring forth that mercy with which it had gone big from Eternity and its gracious design must be executed by the hand of Providence so far as concerned the external means and instruments and how aptly did it cause all things to fall in with that design though you knew not the meaning of it Look over all the before
be negligent you cannot be innocent And yet Be not so intent upon your particular Callings as to make them interfere with your general Calling Beware you lose not your God in the Crowd and hurry of Earthly business Mind that solemn warning 1 Tim. 6. 9. But they that will be rich fall into TemptatJon and a snare and into many foolish and hurtful lusts which drown men in destructJon and perditJon The inhabitants of O Enoc a dry Island near Athens bestowed much labour to draw in a River to water it and make it fruitful but when the Sluces were opened the waters slowed so abundantly that it overflowed the Island and drowned the Inhabitants The application is obvious It was an excellent saying of Seneca rebus non me trado sed commodo I don't give but lend my self to business Remember alwayes the success of your Callings and earthly Imployments is by Divine blessing not humane diligence alone Deut. 8. 18. Thou shalt remember the Lord they God for it is he that giveth thee power to get wealth The Devil himself was so far Orthodox as to acknowledge it Job 1. 10 Hast not Thou made an hedge about him and about his house and about all that he hath on every side Thou hast blessed the work of his hand c. Recommend therefore your affairs to God by prayer according to Psal. 37. 4 5. Delight thy self also in the Lord and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart Commit thy way unto the Lord trust also in him and he shall bring it to pass And touch not with that which you cannot recommend to God by Prayer for a blessing Be well satisfied in that Station and Imployment in which Providence hath placed you and do not so much as wish your selves in another 1 Cor. 7. 20. Let every man abide in the same Calling wherein he was called Providence is wiser than you and you may be confident hath suited all things better to your Eternal good than you could do had you been left to your own option The Sixth Performance of Providence VI. THus you see the care Providence hath had over you in your youth in respect of that Civil Imployment to which it guided us in those dayes We will in the next place consider it as our Guide and the Orderer of our RelatJons for us That Providence hath a special hand in this matter is evident both from Scripture assertions and the acknowledgements of holy men who in that great concernment of their lives have still owned and acknowledged the directing hand of Providence Take an instance of both The Scripture plainly asserts the dominion of Providence over this affair in Prov. 19. 14. A prudent Wife is from the Lord and Prov. 18. 22. Who 's findeth a Wife findeth a good thing and obtaineth favour of the Lord. So for Children see Psal. 127. 3. Lo Children are an heritage of the Lord and the fruit of the Womb is his reward And it hath ever been the practice of holy men to seek the Lord for direction and counsel when they have been upon the change of their condition No doubt but Abraham's encouragement in that case was the fruit of prayer Gen. 24. 7. His pious servant also who was imployed in that affair did both earnestly seek counsel of God Gen 24. 12. and thankfully acknowledge his gracious Providence in guiding it Ver. 26 27. The same we may observe in Children the fruit of marriage 1 Sam. 1. 20. Luke 1. 13 14. Now the Providence of God may be divers wayes displayed for the engaging of our hearts in love to the God of our mercies 1. There is very much of Providence seen in appointing the Parties each for other In this the Lord goes oftentimes beyond our thoughts and projections yea and oftentimes crosses mens desires and designs to their great advantage Not what they fancy but what his infinite wisdom judges best and most beneficial for them takes place Hence it is that probabilities are so often dashed and things remote and utterly improbable are brought about in very strange and unaccountable methods of Providence 2. There is much of Providence seen in the harmony and agreeableness of tempers and dispositions from whence a very great part of the tranquillity and comforts of our lives results or at least though natural tempers and educations did not so much harmonize before yet they do so after they come under the Ordinance of God Gen. 2. 24. They two shall be one flesh not one only in respect of Gods institutJon but one in respect of love and affectJon that those who so lately were meer strangers to each other are now endeared to a degree beyond the nearest relations in blood Vbi supra For this cause shall a man leave Father and Mother and shall cleave to his Wife and they two shall be one flesh 3. But especially Providence is remarkable in making one instrumental to the eternal good of the other I Cor. 7. 16. How knowest thou O Wife but thou maist save thy Husband or how knowest thou O Man whether thou shalt save thy Wife Hence is that grave Exhortation to the Wives of unbelieving Husbands 1 Pet. 3. 1. to win them by their conversation which should be to them in stead of an ordinance Or if both be gracious then what singular assistance and mutual help is hereby gained to the furtherance of their Eternal good Whilst they live together as Heirs of the grace of life I Pet. 3. 7. O blessed Providence that directed such into so intimate relation on Earth who shall inherit together the common SalvatJon in Heaven 4. How much of Providence is seen in Children the fruit of MarrJage To have any Posterity in the Earth and not be left altogether as a dry tree To have comfort and joy in them is a special Providence importing a special mercy to us To have the breaches made upon our Families repaired is a Providence to be owned with a thankful heart When God shall say to a man as he speaks in another case to the Church Isa. 49. 20. The Children which thou shalt have after thou hast lost the other shall say again in thine ears the place is too strait for me c And these Providences will appear more affectingly sweet and lovely to you if you but compare its allotments to you with what it hath allotted to many others in the world For do but look abroad and you shall find 1. Multitudes unequally yoked to the imbittering of their lives whose Relations are clogs and hinderances both in Temporals and Spirituals Yea we find an account in Scripture of gracious persons a great part of whose comfort in this world hath been split upon this Rock Abigail was a discreet and vertuous Wâ—man but very unsuitably matched to a churlish Nabal see 1 Sam. 25. 25. What a temptation to the neglect of a known duty prevail'd upon the renowned Moses by the means of Zipporah his
and Barrel sail not Mr. Samuel Clarke in the Life of that painful and humble servant of Christ Mr. John Fox records a memorable Instance of Providence and it is this That towards the end of King Henry the Eighth his Reign he went to London where he quickly spent that little his friends had given him or he had acquired by his own diligence and began to be in great want As one day he sate in Paul's Church spent with long fasting his countenance thin and his eyes hollow aftâ—â— the ghastful manner of dying men every one shunning a Spectacle of so much horror There came one to him whom he had never seen before and thrust an untold summ of money into his hand bidding him be of good cheer and accept that small gift in good part from his Countrey-man and that he should make much of himself for that within a few dayes new hopes were at hand and a more certain condition of livelihood Three dayes after the Dutchess of Richmond sent for him to live in her house and be Tutor to the Earl of Surrey's Children then under her care Mr. Isaac Ambrose a worthy Divine whose labours have made him acceptable to his generatJon in his Epistle to the Earl of Bedford prefixed to his Last things gives a pregnant Instance in his own case his words are these For mine own part saith he however the Lord hath seen cause to give me but a poor pittance of outward things for which I bless his name yet in the income thereof I have many times observed so much of his peculiar Providence that thereby they have been very much sweetned and my heart hath been raised to admire his grace When of late under an hard dispensation which I judge not meet to mention wherein I suffered conscientiously all streams of wonted supplyes being stopt the waters of relief for my self and family did run low I went to bed with some staggerings and doubtings of the Fountains letting out it self for our refreshing but e're I did awake in the morning a Letter was brought to my bed side which was signed by a choice friend Mr. Anthony Ash which reported some unexpected breakings out of Gods goodness for my comfort These are some of his lines Your God who hath given you an heart thankfully to record your experiences of his goodness doth renew experiences for your encouragement Now I shall report one which will raise your spirit toward the God of your mercies Whereupon he sweetly concludes One morsel of Gods provision especially when it comes in unexpected and upon prayer when wants are most will be more sweet to a spirituall relish than all former enjoyments were 3. The Wisdom of Providence in our provisions And this is discovered in two things 1. In proportioning the quantity not satisfying our extravagent wishes but answering our real needs consulting our wants not our wantonness Phil. 4. 19. My God shall supply all your wants and this hath exactly suited the wishes of the best and wisest men who desired no more at its hand So. Jacob Gen. 28. 20. and Agur Prov. 30. 8 9. Wise Providence considers our condition as Pilgrims and Strangers and so allots the VJaticum provision that is needful for our passage home It knows the mischievous influence of fulness and redundancy upon most men though sanctified and how apt it is to make them remiss and forgetful of God Deut. 6. 12. that their hearts like the Moon suffers an Eclipse when it is at the full and so â—aâ—ts and orders all to their best advantage 2. It s Wisdom is much discovered in the manner of dispensing our portion to us It many times suffers our wants to pinch hard and many scars to arise out of design to magnifie the care and love of God in the supply Deut. 8. 3. Providence so orders the case that faith and prayer coming betwixt our wants and supplies the goodness of God may be the more magnified in our eyes thereby And now let me beg you to consider the good hand of Providence that hath provided for and suitably supplyed you and yours all your dayes and never failed you hitherto and labour to walk suitably to your experiences of such mercies In order whereunto let me press a few suitable Cautions upon you Beware that you forget not the care and kindness of Providence which your eyes have seen in so many fruits and experiences thereof It was Gods charge against Israel Psal. 106. 3. that they soon forgat his wondrous works A bad heart and a slippery memory deprive men of the comfort of many mercies and defraud God of the glory due for them Do not distrust Providence in future exigencies Thus they did Psal. 78. 20. Behold he smote the rock that the waters gushed out and the streams overflowed can he give bread also can he provide flesh for his people How unreasonable and absurd are these queries of unbelief especially after their eyes had seen the power of God in such extraordinary effects Do not murmur and regret under new straits This is a vile temper and yet how incident to us when wants press hard upon us Ah! did we but rightly understand what the demerit of sin is we would rather admire the bounty of God than complain of the strait-handedness of Providence And if we did but consider that there lyes upon God no obligation of Justice or Gratitude to reward any of our duties it would cure our murmurs Gen. 32. 10. Do not shew the least discontent at the lot and portion Providence carves out to you O that you would be well pleased and satisfied with all its appointments Say as Psal. 16. 6. The lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places yea I have a goodly heritage Surely that is best for you which Providence hath appointed and one day you your selves will judge it so to be Do not neglect Prayer when straits befall you You see it's Providence dispenses all you live upon it therefore apply your selves to God in the times of need This is evidently included in the Promise Isa. 41. 17. as well as expressed in the Command Phil. 4. 6. Remember God and he will not forget you Do not distract your hearts with sinful cares Matth. 6. 25 26. Consider the fowls of the Air saith Christ not the fowls at the Door that are daily fed by hand but those of the Air that know not where to have the next meal and yet God provides for them Remember your relation to Christ and his engagements by promise to you and by these things work your hearts to satisfaction and content with all the allotments of Providence The Eighth Performance of Providence VIII THe next great advantage and mercy the Saints receive from the hand of Providence is in their preservatJon from the snares and temptatJons of sin by its preventing care over them That Providence wards off many a deadly stroke of Temptation and puts by many a mortal thrust which Satan
that afflictions work in another way upon gracious hearts to restrain them from sin or warn them against sin thâ—n they do upon others It is not so much the smart of the rod which they feel as the tokens of Gods displeasure which affrights and scares them Job 10. 17. Thous renewest thy witnesses against me c. and this is that which principally affects them See Psal. 6. 1. O Lord rebuke me not in thine anger neither chasten me in thy hot displeasure and Jer. 10. 24. O Lord correct me but with judgement not in thine anger lest thou bring me to nothing and surely this is no low and common argument 2. Notwithstanding this double sence of Gods command and preventive afflictions yet sin is too hard for the best of men their corruptions carry them through all to sin And when it is so not only doth the Spirit work internally but Providence also works externally in order to their reductJon The wayes of sin are not only made bitter unto them by the remorse of Conscience but by those afflictive rods upon the outward man with which God also follows it and in both these respects I find that place expounded Eccles. 10. 8. Whoso breaketh an hedge a Serpent shall bite him If as some expound it the hedge be the Law of God then the Serpent is the remorse of Conscience and the sharp teeth of afflictJon which he shall quickly feel if he be one that belongs to God The design and aim of these afflictive Providences is to purge and cleanse them from that pollution into which temptations have plunged them Isa. 27. 9. By this shall the iniquity of Jacob be purged and this is all the fruit to take away his sin To the same purpose is that place Psal. 119. 67. Before I was afflicted I went astray but now have I kept thy word These afflictions have the same use and end to our souls that frosty weather hath upon those clothes that are laid a bleaching they alter the hue and make it whiter which seems to be the allusion in those words Dan. 11. 35. And some of them of understanding shall fall to try them and to purge and to make them white And here it may be querJed Upon what account afflictions are said to purge away the iniquities of the Saints Is it not unwarrantable and very dishonourable to Christ to attribute that to affliction which is the peculiar honour of his blood It is confessed that the blood of Christ is the only Lavatory or Fountain opened for sin and that no afflictions how many or strong or continual soever they be can in themselves purge away the pollution of sin as we see in wicked men who are afflicted and afflicted and again afflicted and yet nevertheless sinful and the Torments of Hell how extream universal and continual soever they are yet shall never fetch out the stain of one sin But yet this hinders not but that a sanctiâ—ied affliction may in the efficacy and vertue of Christs blood produce such blessed effects upon the soul. Though a Cross without a Christ never did any man good yet thousands have been beholden to the Cross as it hath wrought in the vertue of his death for their good And this is the case of those souls that this discourse is concerned about 3. We find the best hearts if God bestow any comfortable enjoyment upon them too apâ— to be over-heated in their affections towards it and to be too much taken up with these outward comforts This also sheweth the great power and strength of corruption in the people of God and must by some means or other be mortiâ—ied in them This was the case of HezekJah his heart was too much affected with his treasures so that he could not hide a vain-glorious temper as you find Isa. 39. 2. and so good David Psal. 30. 7. he thought his Mountain i.e. his Kingdom and the splendour and glory of his present state had stood so fast that it should never be moved The same good man how did he let out his heart and affections upon his beautiful Son Absalom as appears by the doleful lamentation he made at his death prizing him above his own life which was a thousand times more worth than he So Jonah when God raised up a Gourd for him to shelter him from the Sun how excessively was he taken with it and was exceedingly glad of it But will God suffer things to lye thus Shall the Creature puâ—â—oin and draw away our affections from him No this is our corruption and God will purge it And to this end he sends forth Providence to smite those Creatures on which our affections are either inordinately or excessively let out or else to turn them into rods and smite us by them â—s HezekJah too much puâ—â—ed up with his full Exchequer Why those very BabylonJans to whom he boasted of it shall empty it and make a prey of it Isa. 39. 6. Is David hugging himself in a fond conceit of the stability of his Earthly Splendor Lo how soon God beclouds all Psal. 30. 7. Is Absalom doted on and crept too far into his good Fathers heart this shall be the Son of his sorrow that shall seek after his Fathers life Is Jonah so transported with his Gourd God will prepare a Worm to smite it Jonah 4. 6 7. How many Husbands Wives and Children hath Providence smitten upon this very account It might have spared them longer if they had been loved more regularly and moderately This hath blasted many an Estate and hopeful project and it is a merciful dispensation for our good 4. The strength of our unmortified Corruption shews it self in our pride and the swelling vanity of our hearts when we have a name and esteem among men when we are applauded and honoured when we are admired for any gift or excellency that is in us this draws forth the pride of the heart and shews the vanity that is in it So you read Prov. 27. 21. As the â—ining pot for silver and the â—urnace for gold so is a man to his praise i.e. as the â—ornace will discover what dross is in the metal when it is melted so will praise and commendations discover what pride is in the heart of him that receives them This made a good man say He that praises me wounds me And which is more strange this corruption may be felt in the heart even when the last breath is ready to expire It was the saying of one of the German Divines when those about him recounted for his encouragement the many services he had done for God auferte ignem saith he adhuc enim paleas habeo Take away the sire for there is still the chaff of pride in me To crucifie this corruption Providence takes off the bridle of restraint from ungodly men and sometimes permits them to traduce the names of Gods servants as Shimei did David's Yea they shall fall into disesteem among their
even as others The blood that â—uns in our veins is as much tainted as theirs in Hell 2. Consider them in their ConstitutJon and â—atural temper and it is no better yea in many a worse temper than in Reprobates and though grace depose sin in them from the Throne yet Oh what offensive and God provoking corruptions daily break out of the best hearts 3. Consider them in their outward ConditJon â—nd they are inferiour for the most part to â—thers 1 Cor. 1. 26 27 28 c. and Matth. 1. 25. I thank thee O Father saith Christ that â—ou hast hid these things from the Wise and Prudent â—nd hast revealed them unto Babes And now let us consider and admire that ever his great and blessed God should be so much â—â—ncerned as you have heard he is in all his Proâ—â—dences about such vile despicable Worms as â—â—e are He needs us not but is perfectly blessed â—nd happy in himself without us We can add â—othing to him Job 22. 2. Can a man be profitable God No the holiest of men add nothing to him yet see how great account he makes of us For Doth not his eternal electing love bespeak the dear account he made of us Eph. 1. 4 5. How ancient how free and how astonishing is this act of grace This is that design which all Providences are in pursuit of and will not rest till they have executed Doth not the gift of his only Son out of his bosome speak this truth That God makes great account of this vile thing Man Never was man so magnified before If David could say Psal. 8. â— When I consider the Heavens the work of thy hands the Moon and Stars which thou hast ordained Lord what is man How much more may we say when we consider thy Son that lay in thy bosome his infinite excellency and unspeakable dearness to thee Lord what is man that such a Christ should be delivered to death for him for him and not for fallen Angels Heb. 2. 16. for him when in a state of enmity with God! Rom. 5. 8. Doth not the assiduity of his Providential care for us speak his esteem of us Isa. 27. 3. 〈◊〉 any hurt it I will keep it night and day Hâ— withdraweth not his eye from the righteous Job 36. 7. no not a moment all their dayes for did he so a thousand mischiefs in that moment woulâ— rush in upon him and ruine him Doth not the tenderness of his Providencâ— speak his esteem of us Isa. 66. 13. as one whom his Mother comforteth so will I comfort you He comforts his viz. by refreshing Providences aâ— an indulgent Mother her tender Child So Isa 31. 5. As birds flying viz. to their nests when their young are in danger so he defends his No 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 tenderness in the Creature can shadow forth the tender bowels of the Creator Doth not the variety of the fruits of his Providence speak it Lam. 3. 23. Our mercJes are new every morning See Psal. 40. 5. It is a fountain from which do stream forth spiritual and temporal ordinary and extraordinary publick and personal mercies mercies without number Doth not the ministration of Angels in the Providential Kingdom speak it Heb. 1. ult Are they not all ministring spirits sent forth c. Doth not the Providence which this day calls us to celebrate the memory of bespeak the great account God hath for his people O if not so why had we not been given up as a prey to their teeth See Psal. 124. If the Lord had not been on our side then wicked men there compar'd to fire water wild beasts had devoured us O blessed be God for that teeming Providence that hath already brought forth more than seventy years liberty and peace to the Church of God I shall move in behalf of this Providence that you would do by it as the Jows by their Purim Esth. 9. 27 28. and the rather because we seem now to be as near danger by the same Enemy as ever since that time and if such a mercy as this be forgotten God may say as Judges 10. 13. I will deliver you no more The Third General Head HAving proved the Concernments of the people of God to be conducted by the care of special Providence and given Instances in the ten last named Heads what influence Providence hath upon those Interests and concerns of theirs among the rest we come in the next place to prove it to be the duty of the people of God to reflect upon these performances of Providence for them at all times but especially in times of straits and troubles This I will evidence to be your unquestionable duty by the following particulars This is our duty because God hath expresly commanded it and called his people to make the most serious reflections and animadversions upon his works whether of mercy or judgement So when that dreadfullest of all Judgements was executed upon his professing people for their Apostasie from God and God had removed the Symbols of his presence from among them the rest are bid to go i.e. by their meditations to send at least their thoughts to Shiloh and see what God did to it Jer. 7. 12. So for mercies God calls us to consider and review them Micah 6. 5. Remember O my people from Shittim unto Gilgal that ye may know the faithfulness of the Lord q. d. if you reflect not upon that signal Providence my faithfulness will be covered and your unfaithfulness discovered So for Gods works of Providence about the Creatures we are called to consider them that we may prop up our faith by those considerations for our own supplies Matth. 6. 28. consider the Fowls and Lillies It 's plain that this is our duty because the neglect of it is every where in Scripture condemned as a sin To be of an heedless inobservant temper is very displeasing to God and so much appears by that Scripture Isa. 26. 11. Lord when thy hand is lifted up they will not see Nay it is a sin which God threatens and denounces woe against in his Word Psal. 28. 4 5. and Isa. 5. 12 13. Yea God not only threatens but smites men with visible Judgements for this sin Job 34. 26 27. And for this end and purpose it is that the Holy Ghost hath affixed those notes of attention to the narratives of the works of Providence in Scripture all which do invite and call men to a due and deep observation of them So in that great and celebrated work of Providence in delivering Israel out of EgyptJan bondage you find a note of attentJon twice affixed to it Exod. 3. 2 9. So when that daring Enemy Rabsheka that put HezekJah and all the people into such a consternation was defeated by Providence there is a note of attentJon prefixt to that Providence 2 Kings 19. â— Behold I will send a blast upon him c. So when God glorifies his wisdom and power in delivering his
the conditions you have past through if your hearts do not melt before you have gone half through that History they are hard hearts indeed My father the guide of my youth 2. Let them be as intensively full as may be Let not your thoughts swim like feathers upon the surface of the waters but sink like lead to the bottom The works of the Lord are great sought out of them that have pleasurâ— therein Psal. 111. 2. Not that I think it feasible to sound the depth of Providence by our short line Psal. 77. 19. Thy way is in the sea and thy path in the great waters and thy footsteps are not known but it 's our duty to dive as far as we can and to admire the depth when we cannot touch the bottom It is in our viewing Providences as it was with Elijah's servant when he looked out for rain 1 Kings 18. 44. he went out once and viewed the Heavens and saw nothing but theâ— Prophet bids him go again and again â—and look upon the face of Heaven seven times and when he had done so what now saith the Prophet O now saith he I see a cloud rising like a mans hand and then keeping his eye upon it intent he sees the whole face of Heaven covered with clouds So you may look upon some Providences once and again and see little or nothing in them but look seven times i. e. meditate often upon it and you shall see its increasing glory like that increasing cloud There are divers things to be distinctly pondered and valued in one single Providence before you can judge the amount and worth of it as 1. The seasonableness of mercy may give it a very great value When it shall be timed so opportunely and â—all out in such a nick as may make it a thousand fold more considerable to you than the same mercy would have been at another time Thus when our wants are suffered to grow to an extremity and all visible hopes â—ail then to have relief given in wonderfully enhances the price of such a mercy Isa. 41. 17 18. 2. The peculJar care and kindness of Providence to us is a consideration which exceedingly heightens the mercy in it self and endears it to us So when in general calamities upon the world wâ— are exempted by the favour of Providence covered under its wings when God shall call to us in evil dayes Come my people enter thou into thy chambers as it is in Isa. 26. 20 21. When such Promises shall be fulfilled to us in times of want and famine as Psal. 33. 18 19. When others are abandoned and exposed to misery who have every way as much it may be much more visible security against it and yet they delivered up and we saved Oh how endearing are such Providences Psal. 91. 7 8. 3. The Introductiveness of a Providence is of special regard and consideration and by no means to be neglected by us There are leading Providences which how slight and trivial soever they may seem in themselves yet in this respect justly challenge the first rank among Providential favours to us because they usher in a multitude of other mercies and draw a blessed train of happy consequences after them Such a Providence was that of Jesse's sending David with provisions to his Brethren that lay encamped in the Army 1 Sam. 17. 17. And thus every Christian may furnish himself out of his own stock of Experience if he will but reflect and consider the Place where he is the Relations that he hath and the Way by which he was led into them 4. The Instruments imployed by Providence for you are of special consideration And the finger of God is clearly seen by us when we pursue â—hat meditation For Sometimes great mercies shall be conveyed to us by very improbable means and more probable ones laid aside A stranger shall be stirred up to do that for you which your near relations in nature had no power or will to do for you Jonathan a meer stranger to David clave closer to him and was more friendly and useful to him than his own Brethren who despised and slighted him Ministers have found more kindness and respect from strangers than their own people that are more obliged to them Mark 6. 4. A Prophet saith Christ is not without honour save in his own Countrey and among his own Kin and in his own House Sometimes by the hands of EnemJes as well as Strangers Rev. 12. 16. The Earth helped the Woman God hath bowed the hearts of many wicked men to shew great kindness to his people Acts 28. 2. Sometimes God makes use of Instruments for good to his people who designed nothing but evil and mischief to them Thus Joseph's Brethren were instrumental to his advancement in that very thing wherein they designed his ruine Gen. 50. 20. 5. The design and scope of Providence must not eâ—â—ape our through consideration what the aim and level of Providence is And truly this of all others is the most warming and melting consideration You have the general account of the aim of all Providences in Rom. 8. 28. And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God A thousand friendly hands are at work for them to promote and bring about their happiness O this is enough to sweeten the bitterest Providence to us that we know it shall turn to our salvation Phil. 1. 19. 6. The respect and relatJon Providence bears to our prayers is of singular consideration and a most taking and sweet meditation Prayer honours Providence and Providence honours Prayer Great notice is taken of this in Scripture Gen. 24. 45. Dan. 9. 20. Acts 12. 12. You have had the very PetitJons you asked of him Providences have born the very signatures of your Prayers upon them O how affectingly sweet are such mercies The Second Direction IN all your Observations of Providence have a special respect to that Word of God which is fulfilled and made good to you thereby This is a clear truth that all Providences have relation to the written Word Thus Solomon in his prayer acknowledges that the Promises and Providences of God went along step by step with his Father David all his dayes and that his hand put there for his Providence had fulfilled whatever his mouth had spoken â— Kings 8. 24. So Joshuah in like manner acknowledges that not one good thing had failed of all the good things which the Lord had spoken Jos. 23. 14. He had carefully observed what relation the Works of God had to his Word He compared them together and found an exact harmony And so may you too if you will compare them as he did This I shall the more insist upon because it is by some Interpreters supposed to be the very Scope of the Text. For as was noted in the Explication they supply and fill the sense with quae promisit the things which he hath promised and so read the Text thus
I will cry unto God most high to God who performeth the things he hath promised for me Now though I see no reason to limit the sense so narrowly yet it cannot be denyed but this is an especial part of its intendment Let us therefore in all our reviews of Providence consider what word of God whether it be of threatning caution counsel or promise is at any time made good to us by his Providences And hereby a twofold excellent advantage will result to us 1. This will greatly confirm to us the truth of the Scripture when we shall see its truth so manifest in the events Certainly had Scripture no other seal or attestation this alone would be an unanswerable Argument of its divinity When men shall find in all ages the works of God wrought so exactly according to this model that we may say As we have read or heard so have we seen O how great a conâ—irmation is here before our eyes 2. This will abundantly direct and instruct us in our present duties under all Providences We shall know hereby what we have to do and how to carry our selves under all changes of conditions You can learn the voice and â—rrand of the rod only from the Word Psal. 94. 12. The Word interprets the works of God Providences in themselves are not a perfect guide They often puzzle and entangle our thoughts but bring them to the Word and your duty will be quickly manifested as Psal. 73. 16 17. Vntil I went into the Sanctuary then I understood their end and not only their end but his own duty to be quiet in an afflicted condition and not envy their prosperity Well then bring those Providences you have past through or are now under to the Word and you will find your selves surrounded with a marvellous light and see the verification of the Scriptures in them I shall therefore here appeal to your consciences whether you have not found these Events of Providence falling out agreeably in all respects with the Word The Word tells you that it is your Wisdom and Interest to keep close to its rules and the duties it prescribes that the way of holiness and obedience is the wisest way Deut. 4. 5 6. This is your wisdom Now let the events of Providence speak whether this be true or not Certainly it will appear to be so whether we respect our present comfort or future happiness both which we may see daily exposed by departure from duty and secured by keeping close to it Let the question be asked of the Drunkard Adulterer or prophane Swearer when by sin they have ruined body soul estate and name whether it be their wisdom to walk in those forbidden paths after their own lusts Whether they had not better consulted their own interest and comfort in keeping within the bounds and limits of Gods commands and they cannot but confess that this their way is their folly What fruit saith the Apostle had ye in those things whereof you are now ashamed for the end of those things is death Rom. 6. 21. Doth not the Providence of God verifie upon them those threatnings that are written in the experience of all ages Prov. 23. 29. Prov. 23. 21. Prov. 5. 9. Job 31. 12. Prov. 5. 10. all which woes and miseries they escape that walk in Gods Statutes Look upon the ruined estates and bodies you may every where see and behold the truth of the Scriptures evidently made good in those sad Providences The Word tells you that your departure from the way of integrity and simplicity to make use of sinful policies shall never profit you 1 Sam. 12. 21. Prov. 3. 5. Let the Events of Providence speak to this also ask your own experience and you shall have a full confirmation of this truth Did you ever leave the way of simplicity and integrity and use sinful shifts to bring about your own designs and prosper in that way Certainly God hath cursed all the wayes of sin and whoever finds them to thrive with them his people shall not Israel would not rely upon the Lord but trust in the shadow of Egypt and what advantage had they by this sinful policy See Isa. 30. 1 2 3 4 5. David used a great deal of sinful policy to cover his wicked fact but did it prosper See 2 Sam. 12. 12. It is an excellent note of Livy ConsilJa callida primâ specJe lâ—ta tractata dura eventu tristJa Sinful policies in their first appearances are pleasant and promising in their management difficult in their event sad Some by sinful wayes have gotten wealth but that Scripture hath been verified in their experience Prov. 10. 2. Treasures of wickedness profit nothing Either God hath blown upon it by a secret curse that it hath done them no good or given them such disquietness in their consciences that they have been forced to vomit it up e're they could find peace Job 11. 13 14 15. That which David gave in charge to Solomon hath been found experimentally true by thousands 1 Chron. 22. 12 13. That the true way to prosperity is to keep close to the rule of the Word And that the true reason why men cannot prosper is their forsaking that rule 2 Chron. 24. 20. It 's true if God have a purpose to destroy a man he may for a time suffer him to succeed and prosper in his sin for his greater hardening Job 12. 6. But it is not so with those whom the Lord loves their sinful shiâ—ts shall never thrive with them The World prohibits your trust and conâ—idencâ— in the Creature even the greatest and most powerful among Creatures Psal. 14 6. 3. It tells us that 't is better to trust in the Lord than in thâ—m Psal. 118. 8. It forbids our conâ—idence in those Creatures that are most nearly ally'd and related in the bonds of nature to us Micah 7. 5. It curseth the man that gives that relyance to the Creature which is due to God Jer. 17. 5. Consult the Events of Providence in this case and see whether the Word be not verified therein Did you ever lean upon an EgyptJan reed and it did not break under you and pierce as well as deceive you O how often hath this been evident in our experience Whatsoever we have over-loved idolized and leaned upon God hath from time to time broken it and made us to see the vanity of it so that we find the readiest course to be rid of our comforts is to set our hearts inordinately or immoderately upon them for our God is a jealous God and will not part with his glory to another The World is full of examples of persons deprived of their comforts Husbands Wives Children Estates c. upon this account and by this means If Jonah be over-joyed in his Gourd a Worm is presently prepared to smite it Hence it is that so many graves are opened for the burying of our Idols out of our sight If David say My mountain shall
Let them be cast down that have no God in trouble to turn to 4. Why should they be sad as long as no outward dispensation of Providence be it never so sad can be interpreted as a mark or sign of Gods hatred or Anger Eccl. 9. 2 3. There is one event to the righteous and wicked Indeed if it were a signification of the Lords wrath against a man it would justifie our dejection but this cannot be so his heart is full of love whilest the face of Providence is full of frowns 5. Why should we be cast down under sad Providences whilst we have so great security that even by the hands of these Providences God will do us good and all these things shall turn to our salvatJon Rom. 8. 28. By these God is but killing your lusts weaning your hearts from a vain world preventing temptations and exciting your desires after heaven this is all the hurt they shall do you and shall that sadden us 6. Why should we lay by our joy in God when as the change of our condition is so nigh It 's but a little while and sorrows shall flee away you shall never suffer more God will wipe away all tears Revel 7. 17. Well then you see there 's no reason upon the account of Providence to give up your joy and comfort in God But if you will maintain it under all Providences then be careful 1. To Clear up your Interest in and Title to God Faith may be separated from comfort but assurance cannot 2. Mortifie your inordinate affections to earthly things This makes Providences that deprive and cross us so heavy Mortifie your opinion and affection and you sensibly lighten your affliction It is strong affection that makes strong affliction 3. Dwell much upon the meditation of the Lords near approach and then all these things will seem but trifles to you Let your moderation be known unto all men the Lord is at hand EXercise heavenly mindedness and keep your hearts upon things eternal under all the Providences with which the Lord exercises you in this world Gen. 6. 9. Noah walked with God yet met with as sad Providences in his day as any man that ever lived since his time But alas we find most Providences rather stops than steps in our walk with God If we be under comfortable Providences how sensual wanton and worldly do our hearts grow And if sad Providences befall us how dedolent or distracted are we And this comes to pass partly through the narrowness but mostly through the deceitfulness of our spirits Our hearts are narrow and know not how to manage two businesses of such different natures as Earthly and Heavenly matters are without detriment to one Pectora nostra duas curas non admittunt But certainly such a frame of spirit is attainable that will enable us to keep on in an even and steddy course with God whatever befall us Others have attained it and why not we Prosperous Providences are for the most part a dangerous state to the soul. The Moon never suffers an Eclipse but at full yet Iâ—hosaphat's grace suffered no Eclipse from the fulness of his outward condition who had riches in abundance and his heart was lifted up in the way of Gods commandments 2 Chron. 17. 5 6. David â—s life was as full of cares turmoils and incumbrances as most men we read of yet how spiritual the temper of his heart was that excellent Book of Psalms which was mostly composed amidst those distractions will acquaint us The Apostles were cast into as great necessities and suffered as hard things as ever men did yet how raised and heavenly their spirits were amidst all who sees not And certainly if it were not possible to maintain heavenly-mindedness in such a state and posture of affairs God would never exercise any of his people with such Providences he would never give you so much of the world to lose your hearts in the love of it or so little to distract you with the cares of it If therefore we were more deeply sanctified and the tendencies of our hearts heaven-ward more ardent and vigorous If we were more mortified to Earthly things and could not but keep our due distance from them our outward conditions would not at this rate draw forth and exercise our inward corruptions nor would we hazard the loss of so sweet an enjoyment as our fellowship with God is for the sake of any concernment our bodies have on Earth UNder all Providences maintain a contented heart with what the Lord allots you be it more or less of the things of this world This grace must run parallel with all Providences Learn how to be full and how to suffer want and in every state to be content Phil. 4. 12. In this duty all men are concerned at all times and in every state not only the people of God but even the unregenerate also I will therefore address some considerations proper to both And first to the unregenerate to stop their mouths from repining and charging God â—oolishly when Providence crosses them Let them seriously consider these four things 1. That Hell and Eternal damnation are the portion of their cup according to the tenour of Law and Gospel threatnings Whatsoever therefore is short of this is to be admired as the fruit of Gods stupendious patience and forbearance towards them Ah poor souls Know you not that you are men and women condemned to wrath by the plain sentence of the Law Mark 16. 16. John 3. 36. 2 Thess. 1. 6 7. And if so â—ure there are other matters to exercise your thoughts desires fears and cares about than these Alas if you cannot bear a frown of Providence a light cross in these things how will you bear the everlasting burnings A man that is to lose his head to morrow is not very solicitous what bed he lyes on or how his Table is â—urnisht the night before 2. Consider though you be condemned persons and have no promise to entitle you to any mercy yet there are very many mercies in your possession at this day Be your condition as afflictive as it will is life nothing especially considering whither you must sink when that thread is cut Are the necessary supports of life nothing Doth not Providence minister to you these things though you daily disoblige it and provoke God to send you to your own place But above all is the Gospel and precious means of salvation nothing by which you yet are in a capacity of escaping the damnation of Hell O what would the damned say if they were but put into your condition once more What and yet fret against God because every thing else suits not your desires 3. Consider that if ever you be rescued out of that miserable condition you are in such cross Providences as these you complain of are the most probable means to do it Alas prosperity and success is not the way to save but destroy you Prov. 1.
32. You must be bound in fetters and holden in cords of affliction if ever your ear be opened to instruction Job 36. 8 9 10. Wo to you if you go on smoothly in the way in which you are and meet with no crosses 4. Lastly Consider all your troubles under which you complain are pulled down upon your heads by your own sins You turn Gods mercies into sin and then fret against God because he turns your sins into sorrow Your wayes and doings procure these things to you Lay your hand therefore upon your mouth and say Why doth the living man complain a man for the punishment of his sin Lam. 3. 39. But I must turn to the Lords people who have least pretences of all men to be dissatisfied with any of Gods Providences and yet are but too frequently sound in that temper And to them I shall offer the following considerations 1. Consider your spiritual mercJes and priviledges with which the Lord Jesus hath invested you and repine at your Lot of Providence if you can One of these mercies alone hath enough in it to sweeten all your troubles in this world When the Apostle considered them his heart was overwhelmed with astonishment so that he could not forbear in the midst of all his outward troubles to cry out Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who hath abounded to us in all spiritual blessings c. Eph. 1. 3. Oh who that sees such an Inheritance setled upon him in Christ can ever open his mouth more to repine at his Lot of Providence 2. Consider your sins and that will make you contented with your Lot Yea consider two things in sin 1. What it deserves from God and 2. What it requires to mortifie and purge it in you It deserves from God Eternal ruine the merit of Hell is in the least vain thought Every sin forfeits all the mercies you have and if so rather wonder your mercies are so many than that you have no more Besides you cannot doubt but your corruptions require all the crosses wants and troubles that are upon you and it may be a great deal more to mortifie and subdue them Don't you find after all the rods that have been upon you a proud heart still a vain and earthly heart still Oh how many bitter potions are but necessary to purge out this tough malignant lâ—umour 3. Consider how near you are to the Change of your conditJon have but a little patience and all will be as well with you as your hearts can desire It is no small comfort to the Saints that this world is the worst place that ever they shall be in things will better every day with them If the Traveller have spent all his money yet it doth not much trouble him if he know himself within a few miles of his own home If there be no Candles in the house we do not much matter it if we are sure it 's almost break of day for then there will be no use for them This is your case your salvatJon is nearer than when you belJeved Rom. 13. 11. I have done with the directive part of this discourse but before I pass to this fifth Head I judge it necessary to leave a few Cautions to prevent the abuse of Providence and your miscarriages in your behaviour towards it And First Caution If Providence delay the performance of any mercy to you that you have long waited and prayed forâ— yet see that you despond not nor grow weary of waitâ—ing upon God for that reason It pleases the Lord oftentimes to try and exercise his people thiâ— way and make them cry How long Lord hoâ— long Psal. 13. 1 2. These delayes both upon spiritual and tempoâ—ral accounts are frequent and when they befaâ—â—us we are too apt to interpret them as denyals and fall into a sinful despondency of mind thoughâ— there be no cause at all for it Psal. 31. 12. Lam. 3. 8. 44. It is not alwayes that the returns of prayer are dispatcht to us in the same hour they are asked of God yet sometimes it falls out so Isa. 65. 24. Dan. 9. 23. But though the Lord means to perform to us the mercies we desire yet he will ordinarily exercise our patience to wait for them and that for these reasons 1. Because our time is not the proper season for us to receive our mercies in Now the season of mercy is a very great circumstance that adds much to the value of it God judges not as we do we are all in haste and will have it now Numb 12. 13. But he is a God of judgement and blessed are they that wait for him Isa. 30. 18. 2. Afflictive Providences have not accomplished that design upon our hearts they were sent for when we are so earnest and impatient for a change of them and till then the rod must not be taken off Isa. 10. 12. 3. The more prayers and searchings of heart come between our wants and supplies our afflictions and reliefs the sweeter are our reliefs and supplies thereby made to us Isa. 25. 9. This is our God we have waited for him and he will save us this is the Lord we have waited for him we will rejoyce and be glad in his salvatJon This recompenses the delay and payes us for all the expences of our patience But though there be such weighty reasons for the stop and delay of refreshing comfortable Providences yet we cannot bear it our hands hang down and we faint Psal. 69. 3. I am weary of my crying my throat is dry mine eyes fail while I wait for my God For alas we judge by sense and appearance and consider not that Gods heart may be towards us whilst the hand of his Providence seems to be against us If things continue at one rate with us we think our prayers are lost and our hopes perished from the Lord much more when things grow worse and worse and our darkness and trouble encreases as usually it doth just before the break of day and change of our condition then we conclude God is angry with our prayers See Gideon's reply Judges 6. 13. This even staggered a Moses's faith Exod. 5. 22 23. O what groundless Jealousies and suspicions of God are found at such times in the hearts of his own Children Job 9. 16 17. Psal. 77. 7 8 9. But this is our great evil and to prevent it in future tryals I will offer a few proper considerations in the case The delay of your mercies is really for your advantage You read Isa. 30. 18. The Lord waits that he may be gracJous What is that Why it 's nothing else but the time of his preparation of mercies for you and your hearts for mercy that so you may have it with the greatest advantage of comfort The foolish Child would pluck the apple while it 's green but when it 's ripe it drops of its own accord and is more pleasant and wholsome It 's
appearing before God as a Lamb that had been slain still keeps that door of mercy open Rev. 5. 6. Heb. 9. 24. By this his intercession our peace and comforts are prolonged to us Zech. 1. 12 13. Every sin we commit would put and end to the mercies we possess were it not for that caution which is put in for us by it 1 â—ohn 2. 1 2. ' If any man sin we have an Aâ—vocate with the Father Jesus Christ the righteous and he is the propitJatJon for our sins c. This stops all pleas and procures new pardons for new sins Hence it is he saves to the uttermost to the last compleating act Heb. 7. 25. New sins do not irritate our former pardons nor cut off our priviledges setled upon us in Christ. The returns and answers of all your prayers and cryes to Heaven for the removing of your afflictions or supply of your wants are all procured and obtained for you by Jesus Christ. He is the Master of your requests and were it not that God had respect to him he would never regard your cryes to him nor return any answer of peace to you how great soever your distresses should be Rev. 8. 3 4. 'T is his name that gives our prayers their acceptance John 15. 16. because the Father can deny him nothing therefore your prayers are not denyed Doth God condescend to hear you in the day of trouble Doth he convince you by your own experience that your prayers have power with God and do prevail O see how much you owe to your dear Lord Jesus Christ for this high and glorious priviledge The Covenant of Grace in which all your comfortable enjoyments are comprized and by which they are secured sanctified and sweetned to you is made in Christ and ratified by him betwixt God and you Your mercies are all comprized in this Covenant even your daily bread Psalm 111. 5. as well as your justification and other spiritual mercies 'T is your Covenant interest that secures to you what ever it comprizes Isa. 55. 3. hence they are called the sure mercies of David Nay this is it that sanctifies them and gives them 〈◊〉 nature of special and peculiar mercies One 〈◊〉 mercy is worth a thousand common mercies And being sanctified and special mercies they must needs be exceeding sweet beyond all other mercies On these accounts it was that David so rejoiced in his Covenant Iâ—teresâ— though laden with many afflictions â— Sam. 23. 5. But now all this hangs entirely upon Christ. The New Testament is in his blooâ— 1 Cor. 11. â—5 and whatever mercies you reap from that Covenant you must thank the Lord Jesus Christ for them Put all this together and then think how such considerations will endear Christ to your souls The Seventh Motive THe due observations of Providence have a marvellous efficacy to melt the heart and make it thaw and relent ingenuously before the Lord. How can a sanctified heart do less than melt into tears whilst it either considers the dealings of God from time to time with it or compares the mercies received with the sins committed or the different administrations of Providence towards it self and others Let a man but set himself to think deliberately and closely of the wayes of providence towards him let him but follow the Tract 〈◊〉 â—rovidence as it hath led him all along the way that he hath gone and if there be any principle of gracious tenderness in him he shall meet with variety of occasions to excite and draw it forth Reader go back with thy serious thoughts 1. To the beginning of the wayes of God with thee the mercies that brake out early in thy youth even the first born mercies from the womb of Providence and thou wilt say What need I go farther Here is enough not only to moves but overwhelm my heart May I not from this time cry unto thee my Father thou art the guide of my youth Jer. 3. 4. What a critical time is the time of youth it's the moulding age and ordinarily according to the course of those leading Providences after Providences do steer their course What levity rashness ignorance and strong propensions to sin and ruine accompanied that age How many being then left to the sway of their own lusts run themselves into those sins and miseries which they never recover themselves from to their dying day These like the errors of the first concoction are rarely rectified afterwards Did the Lord guide thee by his Providence when but a Child Did he then preserve thee from those follies and miscarriages which blast the very blossom and nip the bud so that no good fruit is to be expected afterwards Did he then cast thee into such families or among such company and acquaintance as moulded and formed thy spirit to a better temper Did he then direct thee into that way of employment wherein thou hast seen so large a train of happy consequents ever since following thee And wilt thou not from henceforth say My Father my Father thou art the guide of my youth Or 2. Let us but bring out thoughts close to the Providences of after times and consider how the several changes and removes of our lives have been ordered for us Things we never foresaw nor designed but much better for us than what we did design have been all along ordered for us The way of man is not in himself Gods thoughts have not been our thoughts nor his wayes our wayes Among the eminent mercies of thy life Reader how many of them have been meer surprizals to thee Thy own projects have been thrust aside to make way for better things designed by Providence for thee Nay 3. Do but observe the Springs and Autumns of Providence in what order they have flourished and faded with thee and thou wilt find thy self over-powered with the sense of Divine Wisdom and Goodness when necessity required such a friend was stirred up to help thee such a place opened to receive thee such a Relation raised up or continued to refresh thee and no sooner doth Providence deprive thee of any of them but either thy need of them ceases or some other way is opened to thee O the depth of Gods Wisdom and Goodness O the matchless tenderness of God to his people 4. Compare the dealings of Providence with you and others yea with others that sprang up with you in the same generation it may be in the same families and from the same Parents it may be in families greater and more flourishing in the world then yours and see the difference upon many great accounts it hath made betwixt you and them I knew a ChristJan who after many years separation was visited by his own Brother the very sight of whom wrought upon him much as the sight of Benjamin did upon Joseph so that he could not refrain to fall upon his neck and weep for joy but after a â—ew hours spent together finding the spirit of his
Brother not only estranged â—rom all that 's spiritual and serious but also very vain and prophane he hastened to his chamber shut the door upon him threw himself down at the feet of God and with flowing eyes and a melting heart admired the distinguishing Grace of God saying Was not Esau Jacob's Brother O Grace Grace astonishing Grace 5. Compare the carriage of Providence towards you with your own carriage towards the Lord and it must needs melt your hearts to find so much mercy bestowed where so much sin hath been committed What place did you ever live in where you cannot remember great provocations committed and manifold mercies notwithstanding that received O with how many notwithstandings and neverthelesses hath the Lord done you good in every place What Relation hath not been abused by sin and yet both raised up and continued by Providence for your comfort In every place God that left the marks of his goodness and you the remembrances of your sinfulness give your selves but leave to think of these things and it 's strange if your hearts relent not at the remembrance of them 6. Or Lastly Do but compare your dangers with your fears and both with the strange out-letts and doors of escape Providence hath opened and it cannot do less than over power you with a full sense of divine care and goodness There have been dark clouds seen to rise over you judgement even at your door sometimes threating your life sometimes your liberty sometimes your estates and sometimes your dearest relations in whom it may be your life was bound up remember in that day what faintness of spirit seized you what charges of guilt stirring up fears of the issue within you You turned to the Lord in that distress and hath he not made a way to escape and delivered you from all your fears Psal. 34. 4. Oh is your life such a continued throng such a distracted hurry that there is no room to be found with Christians to sit alone and think on these things and press these marvellous discoveries of God in his Providences upon their own hearts Surely might these things but lye upon our hearts talk with our thoughts by day and lodge with us at night they would even force their passage down to our very Reins The Eighth Motive DVe observation of Providence will both beget and secure inward tranquillity in your minds amidst the vicissâ—udes and revolutions of things in this unstable vain world Psal 4. 8. I will both lay me down in peace and sleep for the Lord only maketh me dwell in safety He resolves the sinful fears of Events shall not rob him of his inward quiet nor torture his thoughts with anxious presages he will commit all his concerns into that faithful fatherly hand that had hitherto wrought all things for him and he means not to lose the comfort of one nights rest nor bring the evil of to morrow upon the day but knowing in whose hand he was wisely enjoyes the sweet felicity of a resigned will Now this Tranquillity of our minds is as much begotten and preserved by a due consideration of Providence as by any thing whatsoever Hence it was that our Lord Jesus Christ when he would cure the Disciples anxious and distracting sollicitudes about a livelihood bids them consider the care Providence hath over the Birds of the air and the Lillies of the field how it feeds the one and clothes the other without any anxious care of theirs and would have them well consider those Providences and reason themselves into a calm and sweet composure of spirit from those considerations Mat. 6. 27 28 29 30 31. Two things destroy the peace and tranquillity of our lives our bewailing past disappointments or fearing future ones But would we once learn prevision and provision to be divine prerogatives and take notice how often Providence baffles those that pretend to it causing the good they foresaw according to their conjectures coming to their hand yet to balk them and â—lee from them and the evil they thought themselves sufficiently secured from to invade them I say would we consider how Providence daily baffles these Pretensions of men and asserts its own Dominion it would greatly conduce to the tranquillity of our lives This is a great truth that there is no face of Adversity of formidable but being viewed from this station would become amicable Now there be several things in the consideration of Providence that naturally and kindly compose the mind of a Christian to peace and bring it to a sweet rest whilst events hang in a doubtful suspense As First The Supremacy of Providence and its uncontroulable power in working This is often seen in the good that it brings us in a way that 's above the thoughts and cares of our minds or labour of our hands I had not thought said Jacob to have seen thy face and lo God hath shewed me thy seed also Gen. 48. 11. There is a frequent coincidency of Providences in a way of surprizal which from no appearance or the remotest tendency of outward causes could be foreseen but rather falls visibly cross to the present Scheme and posture of our affairs Nothing tends to convince us of the vanity and folly of our own sollicitudes and projections more than this doth The profound Wisdom of Providence in all that it performeth for the people of God The Wheels are full of eyes Ezek. 1. 18. i.e. there is an intelligent and wise Spirit that sits upon and governs the affairs of this world This Wisdom shines out to us in the unexpected yea contrary events of things How oâ—ten have we been courting some beautiful appearance that invited our senses and with trembling shun'd the formidable face of other things when notwithstanding the issues of Providence have convinced us that our danger lay in what we couâ—ted and our good in what we so studiously declined This also is a sweet principle of peace and quiet to the Christians mind that he knows not but his good may be imported in what seemed to threaten his ruine Many were the distresses and straits of Israel in the Wilderness but all was to humble them that he might do them good in the latter end Deut. 8. 16. Sad and dismal was the face of that Providence that sent them out of their own land into the land of the Chaldeans yet even this was a project to do them good Jer. 24. 5. How often have we retracted our rash and headlong censures of things upon experience of this truth and been taught to bless our afflictions and disappointments in the name of the Lord. Many a time have we kissed those troubles at parting which we met with trembling And what can promote peace under doubtful Providences more effectually than this The experiences we have had throughout our lives of the faithfulness and constancy of Providence are of excellent use to allay and quiet our hearts in any trouble that befalls us Hitherto
God saith the Psalmist thou hast taught me from my youth and hitherto have I declared thy wondrous works now also when I am old and gray headed O God forsake me not Psal. 71. 17 18. At death the Saints are engaged in the last and one of the most eminent works of faith even the committing themselves into the hands of God when we are lanching forth into that vast Eternity and entring into that new state which will make so great a change upon us in a moment In this Christ sets us a pattern Luke 23. 46. Father into thy hands I commend my spirit and having said thus he gave up the Ghost So Stephen at his death Lord Jesus receive my spirit and immediately fell asleep Act. 7. 59. There be two signal and remarkable acts of faith both exceedingly difficult viz. its first act and its last The first is a great venture that it makes of it self upon Christ and the last is a great venture too to cast it self into the Ocean of Eternity upon the credit of a Promise But yet I know the first adventure of the Soul upon Christ is much more difficult than the last adventure upon death and that which makes it so is in great measure the manifold recorded experiences that the Soul hath been gathering up from the day of its espousals to Christ unto its dying which is in a sense its marriage day Oh with what encouragement may a Soul throw himself into the arms of that God with whom he hath so long conversed and walked in this world Whose visits have been sweet and frequent with whom the soul hath contracted so intimate acquaintance in this world whom it hath committed all its affairs to formerly and still â—ound him a faithful God and now hath no reason to doubt but it shall find him so in this last distress and exigence also At death the people of God receive the last mercies that ever they shall receive in this world by the hand of Providence and are immediately to make up their Accounts with God â—or all the mercies that ever they received from his hand What can be more suitable therefore to a dying person than to recount with himself the mercies of his whole life the manifold receipts of favour for which he is to reckon with God speedily and how shall this be done without a due and serious observation and recording of them now I know there are thousands of mercies forgotten by the best of Christians a memory of brass cannot contain them And I know also that Jesus Christ must make up the Account for us or it will never pass with God yet it is our duty to keep the Accounts of our own mercies and how they have been improv'd by us for we are Stewards and then are to give an Account of our Stewardship At death we owe an Account also to men and stand obliged if there be opportunity for it to make known to them that survive us what we have seen and found of God in this world that we may leave a testimony for God with men and bring up a good report upon his ways Thus dying Jacob when Joseph was come to take his last farewell of him in this world strengthened himself and sate upon the bed and related to him the eminent appearances of God to him and the places where Gen. 48. 2 3. as also an account of his afflictions Verse 7. So Joshua in his last speech to the people makes it his business to vindicate and clear the truth of the Promises by recounting to them how the Providence of God had fulfill'd the same to a tittle in his day Josh. 23. 14. And behold saith he this day I am going the way of all the earth and ye know in all your hearts and in all your souls that not one thing hath failed of all the good things which the Lord your God spake concerning you all are come to pass unto you and not one thing hath failed thereof And certainly 't is of great importance to the world to understand the Judgements and hear of the Experiences of dying men They of all men are presumed to be most wise and most serious Besides this is the last opportunity that ever we shall have in this world to speak for God O then what a sweet thing would it be to close up our lives with an honourable Account of the ways of God! to go out of the world blessing him for all the mercies and truth which he hath here performed to us how would this encourage weak Christians and convince the Atheistical world that verily there is a reality and an excellency in the ways and people of God! At death we begin the Angelical life of praise and thanksgiving We then enter upon that everlasting sweet employment and as I doubt not but the Providences in which we were concerned in this world will be a part of that Song which we shall sing in Heaven so certainly it will become us to tune our hearts and tongues for it whil'st we are here and especially when we are ready to enter upon that blessed state O therefore let it be your daily meditation and study what God hath been to you and done for you from the beginning of his way hitherto And thus I have spread before you some encouragements to this blessed work Oh that you would be perswaded to this lovely and every way beneâ—icial practice This I dare presume to say that whoever finds a careful and a thankful heart to record and treasure up the daily experiences of God's mercy to him shall never want new mercies to record to his dying day It was said of ClaudJan that he wanted matter suitable to the excellency of his parts but where is the head or heart that is suitable to this matter who can utter the mighty works of the Lord who can shew forth all his praise Psal. 106. 2. Thus I have through the aid of Providence dispatched the main design I aimed at in the choice of this subject All that remains will now be speedily finished in some few Corollaries to be brieâ—ly noted upon the whole and three or four practical Cases to be stated You have heard how Providence perâ—ormeth all things for you Learn thence First Corollary THat God is therefore to be owned by you in all that befalls you in this world whether it be in â— way of success and comfort or of trouble and afflictJon O 't is your duty to observe his hand and disposal When God gives you comforts 't is your great evil not to observe his hand in them Hence was that charge against Israel â—os 2. 8. She did not know that I gave her Corn and Wine and Oil and multiplJed her Silver and Gold i. e. she did not actually and affectionately consider my care over her and goodness to her in these mercies And so for afflictions 't is a great wickedness when God's hand is listed up not to see it Isa.
governed by them and hence are our disappointments We looked for peace but no good came for a time of health and behold trouble Jer. 8. 15. And hereupon is it that we fret at the delays of Providence and suspect the faithfulness of God in their performance But his thoughts are not our thoughts Isa. 55. 8. The Lord is not slack concerning his promise as men count slackness 2 Pet. 3. 9. It is slackness if you reckon by our own rule and measure but it is not so if you reckon and count it by God's The Lord doth not compute and reckon his seasons of working by our Arithmetick You have both these Rules compared and the ground of our mistake detected in that Scripture Hab. 2. 3. The VisJon is yet for an appointed time but at the end it shall speak and not lye though it tarry wait for it because it will surely come it will not tarry God appoints the time when that appointed time is come the expected mercies will not fail But in the mean time though it tarry saith the Prophet wait for it for it will not tarry Tarry and not tarry how shall this be reconciled The meaning is it may tarry much beyond your expectatJon but not a moment beyond God's appointment During this delay of Providence the hearts and hopes of the people of God may be very low and much discouraged This is too plain from what the Scriptures have recorded of others and every one of us may find in our own experiences We have an instance of this in Isa. 40. 13 14. in the 13. verse you have God's faithful Promise that he will comfort his people and have mercy upon his afflicted Enough one would think to raise and comfort their hearts But the mercy promised was long in coming they waited from year to year and still the burthen pressed them and was not removed And therefore ver 14. ZJon said the Lord hath forsaken me and my Lord hath forgotten me q. d. It 's in vain to look for such a mercy God hath no regard to us we are out of his heart and mind he neither cares for us nor minds what becomes of us So it was with David after God had made him such a Promise and in the time thereof so faithfully performed it that never was mercy better secured to any man for they are call'd the sure mercJes of David Isa. 55. 3. yet Providence delayed the accomplishment of them so long and suffered such difficulties to intervene that he even despaires to see the accomplishment of them but even concludes God had forgotten him too Psal. 13. 1. How long wilt thou forget me O Lord for ever And what he speaks here by way of questJon he elsewhere turns into a positive conclusJon Psal. 116. 11. All men are Lyars I shall one day perish by the hand of Saul And the causes of these despondencies and sinkings of heart are partly from our selves and partly form Satan If we duly examine our own hearts about it we shall find that these sinkings of heart are The immediate effects of unbelief We do not depend and rely upon the word with that full trust and confidence that is due to the infallible word of a faithful and unchangeable God You may see the ground of this faintness in that Scripture Psal. 27. 13. I had fainted unless I had belJeved Faith is the only Cordial that relieves the heart against these faintings and despondencies Where this is wanting or is weak no wonder our hearts sink at this rate when discouragements are before us Our judging and measuring things by the rules of sense this is a great cause of our discouragements We conclude According to the Appearances of things will be their Issues If Abraham had done so in that great tryal of his faith he had certainly lost his footing but against hope i. e. against natural probability he belJeved in hope giving Glory to God Rom. 4. 18. If Paul had done so he had fainted under his tryals 2. Cor. 4. 16 8 we faint not saith he whil'st we look not at the things that are seen q. d. That which keeps up our spirits is our looking off from things present and visible and measuring all by another rule viz. the power and fidelity of God â—irmly engaged in the Promises In all these things Satan manages a design upon us Hence he takes occasions to suggest hard thoughts of God and to beat off our Souls from all confidence in him and expectations form him He is the great make-bate betwixt God and the Saints He reports the difficulties and fears that are in our way with advantage and labours to weaken our hands and discourage our hearts in waiting upon God And these suggestions gain the more credit with us because they are confirm'd and attested by sense and feeling But here is a desperate design carrying on under very plausible pretences against our souls It concerns us to be watchful now and maintain our faith and hope in God Now blessed is he that can resign all to God and quietly wait for his salvation To assist the soul in this difficulty I shall offer some farther help beside what hath been formerly given under the first CautJon pag. 158. in the following Considerations First Consideration Though Providence do not yet perform the mercies you wait for yet you have no ground to entertain hard thoughts of God for it 's possible God never gave you any ground for your expectation of these things from him It may be you have no Promise to bottome your hope upon and if so why shall God be suspected and dishonoured by you in a case wherein his truth and faithfulness was never engaged to you If we are crossed in our outward concernments and see our expectations of prosperity dashed if we see such or such an outward comfort removed from which we promised our selves much why must God be accused for this these thing you promised yourselves but where did God promise you prosperity and the continuance of those comâ—ortable things to you produce his Promise and shew wherein he hath broken it It is not enough for you to say There are general Promises in the Scripture that God will withhold no good thing and these are good things which Providence withholds form you for that Promise Psal. 84. 11. hath its limitations it is expresly limited to such as walk uprightly and it concerns you to examine whether you have done so before you quarrel with Providence for non-performance of it Ah friend search thine own heart reflect upon thine own ways seest thou not so many â—laws in thine integrity so many turnings aside from God both in heart and life that may justice God not only in withholding what thou lookest for but in removing all that thou enjoyest And besides this limitation as to the Object it 's limited as all other promises relating to externals are in the matter or things premised by the Wisdome and Will
think it much if God make you wait long for your consolation We have our How longs and hath not God his We cry Psal. 6. 3. But thou O Lord how long Psal. 13. 1 2. How long wilt thou forget me O Lord for ever How long wilt thou hide thy face from me How long shall I take counsel in my soul having sorrow in my heart daily How long shall mine enemy be exalted over me â—ut surely we should not think these things long when we consider how long the Lord hath exercised his patience about us We have made him say How long how long Our unbelJef hath made him cry How long will it be ere they belJeve me Numb 14. 11. Our corrupt hearts have made him cry How long shall vain thoughts lodge within thee Jer. 4. 14. Our impure natures and wayes have made him cry How long will it be ere they attain to innocency Hosea 8. 5. If God wait upon you with so much patience for your duties well may you wait upon him for his mercies Tenth Consideration This impatience and infidelity of yours exprest in your weariness to wait any longer as it is a great evil in it self so very probably it is that evil which obstructs the way of your expected mercies you might have your mercies sooâ—er if your spirits were quieter and more submissive And thus of the Second Case The Third Case HOw may a Christian discern when a Providence is sanctified and comes from the love of God to him There are two sorts or kinds of Providences versant about men in this world the issues and events of which are vastly different yea contrary to each other To some all Providences are over-ruled and ordered for good according to that blessed Promise Rom. 8. 28. not only things that are good in themselves as Ordinances Graces Duties and Mercies but things that are evil in themselves as Temptations Afflictions and even their Sins and Corruptions shall turn in the issue to their advantage and benefit 〈◊〉 though sin be so intrinsecally and formally evil in its own nature that in it self it be not capable of sanctification yet out of this worst of evils God can work good to his people and though he never make sin the Instrument of good yet his Providence may make it the occasJon of good to his people so that spiritual benefits may by the wise over-ruling of Providence be occasioned to the people of God by it And so for afflictions of all kinds the greatest and sorest of them they do work in the influence of Providence a great deal of good to the Saints and that not only as the occasions but as the Instruments and means of it Isa. 27. 9. by this shall the iniquity of Jacob be purged i. e. by the instrumentality of this sanctified affliction To others nothing is sanctified either as an Instrument or occasion of any spiritual good but as the worst things are ordered to the benefit of the Saints so the best things wicked men enjoy do them no good Their Prayers are turned into sin Psal. 109. 7. The Ordinances are the savour of Death 2 Cor. 2. 16. The Grace of God turned into wantonness Jude v. 4. Christ himself a rock of Offence 1 Pe. 2. 8. Their Table a snare Psal. 69. 22. Their Prosperity their ruine Prov. 1. 32. As persons are so things work for good or evil Tit. 1. 15. To the pure all things are pure but to them that are defiled and unbelJeving is nothing pure Seeing therefore the Events of Providence fall out so opposite to each other upon the Godly and Ungodly every thing farthering the eternal good of the one and the ruine of the other it cannot but be acknowledged a most important case in which every Soul is deeply concern'd whether the Providences under which he is be sanctified to him or no For the clearing of which I shall premise two necessary Considerations and then subjoyn the Rules which will be useful for the determination of the question And first Let it be considered that we cannot know from the matter of the things before us whether they be sanctified or unsanctified to us for so consider'd all things come alike to all and no man knoweth either love or hatred by all the things that are before him Eccles. 9. 1 2. We cannot understand the mind and heart of God by the things he dispenseth with his hand If prosperous Providences befall us we cannot say Herein is a sure sign that God loves me for who have more of those Providences than the people of his wrath Psal. 73. 7. They have more than their hearts can wish Sure that must be a weak Evidence for Heaven which accompanies so great a part of the world to Hell By these things we may testifie our love to God but from ten thousand such enjoyments we cannot get any solid assurance of his love to us And from adverse afflictive Providences we cannot know his hatred If afflictions great afflictions many afflictions long continued afflictions should set a brand or fix a Character of Gods hatred upon the persons on whom they â—all where then shall we find Gods people in the world We must then seek out the proud vain sensual wantons of the world who spend their days in pleasure and say these are the men whom God loves Outward things are promiscuously dispensed and no man's spiritual estate is discernable by the view of his temporal When God draws the Sword it may cut off the righteous as well as the wicked Ezek. 21. 3. Though the Providences of God materJally considered afford no evidence of Gods love to us yet the manner in which they befall us and the effects and fruits they produce in us do distinguish them very manifestly and by them we may discern whether they be sanctified Providences and fruits of the love of God or no. But yet these effects and fruits of Providences by which we discern their nature do not always presently appear but time must be allowed for the souls exercise under them As it is Heb. 12. 11. Now no affliction for the present seemeth joyous but grJevous nevertheless afterwards it yJeldeth the peaceable fruits of Righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby The benefit of a Providence is discern'd as that of a medicine is for the present it gripes and makes the stomach sick and loathing but afterwards we find the benefit of it in our recovery of health and chearfulness Now the Providences of God being some of them comfortable and others sad and grievous to nature and the way to discern the sanctification and blessing of them being by the manner in which they come and their operations upon our spirits I shall consider the case as it respects both sorts of Providences and shew you what effects of our troubles or comforts will speak them to be sanctified and blessed to us And first for sad and afflictive Providences in what kind or degree soever they befall
how little faith patience resignation and self-denyal we can find when God calls us to the exercise of them O 't is a blessed sign that trouble is sanctified that makes a man thus turn in upon his own heart search it and humble himself before the Lord for the evils of it IN the next place let us take into consideration the other branch of Providences which are comfortable and pleasant Sometimes it smiles upon us in successes prosperity and the gratification of the desires of our hearts Here the Question will be how the sanctification oâ— these Providences may be discovered to us For resolution in this matter I shall for clearness sake lay down two sorts of Rules one Negative the other positive First Negative It is a sign that comfort is not sanctified to us which comes not ordinarily in the way of Prayer The wicked boasteth of hiâ— hearts desire and blesseth the covetous whom the Lord abhorreth The wicked through the pride of his countenance will 〈◊〉 sâ—â—k after God God is not in all his thoughts Psal. 10. 3 4. Here you see Providence may give men their hearts desire and yet they never once open their desires to God in prayer about it But then those gifts of Providence are only such as are bestowed on the worst of men and are not the fruits of love Whatever success prosperity or comfort men acquire by sinful medJums and indirect courses are not sanctified mercies to them This is not the method in which those mercies are bestowed Better is a little with righteousness than great revenews without right Prov. 16. 8. better upon this account that it comes in Gods way and with his blessing which never follows the way of sin God hath cursed the wayes of sin and no blessing can follow them Whatever prosperity and success makes men forget God and cast off the care of duty is not sanctifJed to them It is unsanctifJed prosperity which lulls men asleep into a deep oblivJon of God Deut. 32. 13 14 15 18. He made him ride on the high places of the earth that he might eat the increase of the fields and he made him to suck honey out of the rock and oyl out of the flinty rock butter of Kine and milk of Sheep with fat of Lambs and rams of the breed of Bashan and Goats with the fat of kidneys of wheat and thou didst drink the pure blood of the grape but Iesurun waxed fat and kicked thou art waxed fat thou art grown thick thou art covered with fatness then he forsook God which made him and lightly esteemed the Rock of his Salvation Of the Rock that begat thee thou art unmindful and hast forgotten God that formed thee Rarè fumant foelicibus arae When prosperity is abused to sensuality and meerly serves as fuell to maintains fleshly lusts it is not sanctifJed See Job 21. 11 12 13. They send forth their little ones like a flock and their Children dance They take the Timbrell and Harp and rejoyce at the sound of the Organ They spend their dayes in wealth and in a moment go down to the grave It 's a sign that prosperity is not sanctifJed to men when it swells the heart with pride and self-conceitedness Dan. 4. 29 30. At the end of twelve moneths he walked in the Palace of the Kingdom of Babylon The King spake and said Is not this great Babylon that I have built for the house of the Kingdom by the might of my power and for the honour of my Majesty That success is not sanctified to men which takes them off from their duty and makes them wholly negligent or very much indisposed to it Jer. 2. 31. O generatJon see the Word of the Lord have I been a Wilderness unto Israel a land of darkness Wherefore say my people We are Lords we will come no more unto thee Nor can we think that prosperity sanctifJed which wholly swallows up the souls of men in their own enjoyments and makes them regardless of publick miserJes or sins Amos 6. 4 5 6. They lye upon beds of Ivory and stretch themselves upon their couches and eat the lambs out of the flock and the calves out of the midst of the stall They chant to the sound of the Viol and invent to themselves Instruments of musick like David They drink wine in bowls and anoint themselves with the chief ointments but they are not grieved for the afflictions of Ioseph But then Positively Those mercies and comforts are undoubtedly sanctified to men which humble their souls kindly before God in the sense of their own vileness and unworthiness of them Gen. 32. 10. And Jacob said I am not worthy of the least of all the mercJes c. Sanctified mercies are commonly turned into Cautions against sin Ezra 9. 13. they are so many bands of restraint upon the soul that hath them to make them shun sin They will engage a mans heart in love to the God of his mercies Psal. 18. 1. compared with the Title They never satisfie a man as his Portion nor will the soul accept all the prosperity in the world upon that score Heb. 11. 26. Esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt for he had respect unto the recompence of the reward Nor do they make men regardless of Publick sins or miseries Nehem. 2. 1 2 3. compared with Acts 7. 23. It 's a sure sign that mercJes are sanctifJed when they make the soul more expedite and enlarged for God in duty 2 Chron. 17. 5 6. Therefore the Lord stablished the Kingdom in his hand and all Iudah brought to Iehoshaphat presents and he had riches and honour in abundance And his heart was lift up in the wayes of the Lord c. To conclude That which is obtained by prayer and returned to God again in due praise carries its own testimonials with it that it came from the love of God and is a sanctified mercy to the soul. And so much of this Third Case The Fourth Case HOw may we attain unto an evenness and steddiness of spirit under the Changes and contrary Aspects of Providence upon us Three things are supposed in this Case 1. That Providence hath various and contrary Aspects upon the people of God 2. That it is a common thing with them to experience great disorders of spirit under those Changes of Providence 3. That these disorders may be at least in a great measure prevented by the due use and application of those rules and helps that God hath given us in such Cases That Providence hath various yea contrary Aspects upon the people of God is a case so plain that it needs no more than the mentioning to let it in to all our Understandings Which of all the people of God have not felt this truth Providence rings the changes all the world over He encreaseth the NatJons and destroyeth them he enlargeth the NatJons and straitneth them again Job 12. 23. The same it doth with persons
Psal. 102. 10. Thou hast lifted me up and cast me down See what a sad Alteration Providence made upon the Church Lam. 1. 1 12. How doth the City sit solitary that was full of people How is she become as a Widow She that was great among the NatJons and Princess among the Provinces how is she become tributary Is it nothing to you all ye that pass by Behold and see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow which is done unto me wherewith the Lord hath afflicted me in the day of his fJerce anger And how great an Instance was Joh of this truth Job 29. per tot and 30. compared How many thousands have complained with Naomi whose condition hath been so strangely altered that others have said as the people of Bethlehem did of her Is this Naomi Ruth 1. 19 20 21. These Vicissitudes of Providence commonly cause great disorders of spirit in the best men Look as intense heat and cold try the strength and soundness of the constitution of our bodies so the alteratJons made by Providence upon our conditions try the strength of our graces and too often discover the weakness and corruption of holy men HezekJah was a good man but yet his weakness and corruption was bewrayed by the alterations Providence made upon his conditions When sickness and pains summoned him to the grave what bitter complaints and despondencies are recorded in Isa. 38. per tot and when Providence lifted him up again into a prosperous condition what ostentation and vain glory did he discover Isa. 39. 2. David had more than a common stock of inherent grace yet not enough to keep him in an equal temper of spirit under great alterations Psal. 30. 6 7. In my prosperity I said I shall never be moved thou hidest thy face and I was troubled It is not every man can say with Paul I know both how to be abased and I know how to abound every where and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry both to abound and to suffer need Phil. 4. 12. He is truly rich in grace whose riches or poverty neither hinders the acting nor impoverisheth the stock of his graces Though the best men be subject to such disorders of heart under the changes of Providence yet these disorders may in a great measure be prevented by the due application of such Rules and helps as God hath given us in such cases Now these helps are suited to a threefold Aspect of Providence upon us viz. 1. Comfortable 2. Calamitous 3. Doubtful To all which I shall speak particularly and briefly Quest. 1. HOw may we attain to an Evenness and Steddiness of heart under the comfortable Aspects of Providence upon us Under Providences of this kind the great danger is lest the heart be lifted up with pride and vanity and fall into a drowsie and remiss temper To prevent this we had need urge humbling and awakening Considerations upon our own hearts such are these that follow First Consideration These gifts of Providence are common to the worst of men and are no special distinguishing fruits of Gods love The vilest of men have been filled even to satiety with these things Psal. 73. 7. Their eyes stand out with fatness they have more than heart could wish Second Consideration Think how unstable and changeable all these things are What you glory in to day may be none of yours to morrow Prov. 23. 5. Riches make themselves wings and flee away as an Eagle towards Heaven As the Wings of a Fowl grow out of the substance of its body so the cause of the Creatures transitoriness is in it self It 's subjected to vanity and that vanity like Wings carries it away they are but fading flowers James 1. 10. Third Consideration The Change of Providences is never nearer to the people of God than when their hearts are lifted up or grown secure by prosperity Doth HezekJah glory in his Treasures The next news he hears is of an impoverishing Providence at hand Isa. 39. 2 3 4 5 6 7. Others may be left to perish in unsanctified Prosperity but you shall not Fourth Consideration This is a great discovery of the Carnality and corruption that is in thy heart it argues an heart little set upon God little mortified to the world little acquainted with the vanity and ensnaring nature of these things O you know not what hearts you have till such Providences try them And is not such a discovery matter of deep humiliation Fifth Consideration Was it not better with you in a low condition than it is now Reflect and compare state with state and time with time How is the frame of your hearts altered with the alteration of your condition So God complains of Israel Hosea 13. 5 6. I did know thee in the Wilderness the land of drought according to their pasture so were they filled they were filled and their heart was exalted therefore have they forgotten me saith the Lord q. d. You and I were better acquainted formerly when you were in a low condition Prosperity hath estranged you and altered the case How sad is it that Gods mercies should be the occasion of our estrangement from him Quest. 2. UPon the other side it 's worth considering how our hearts may be establisht and kept steddy under Caâ—amitous and adverse Providences Here we are in equal danger of the other Extream viz. despondency and sinking under the frowns and strokes of cross Providences Now to support and establish the heart in this case take three helps First Consideration First Consider That afflictive Providences are of great use to the people of God they cannot live without them The Earth doth not more need chastening frosts and mellowing snows than our hearts do nipping Providences Let the best Christian be but a few years without them and he will be sensible of the need of them he will find a sad remissJon and declining upon all his graces Second Consideration No stroke of Calamity upon the people of God can separate them from Christ Rom. 8. 35. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ Shall TribulatJon There was a time when Job could call nothing in this world but trouble his own he could not say my Estate my Honour my Health my Children for all these were gone yet then he could say my Redeemer Job 19. 25. Well then there is no cause to sink whilst Interest in Christ remains sure to us Third Consideration All your calamities will have an end shortly The longest day of the Saints troubles hath an end and then no more troubles for ever The troubles of the wicked will be to Eternity but you shall suffer but a while 1 Pet. 5. 10. If a thousand troubles be appointed for you they will come to one at last and after that no more Yea and though our troubles be but for a moment yet they work for us a
far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory Let that support your hearts under all your sufferings Quest. 3. LAstly Let us consider what may be useful to support and quiet our hearts under doubtful Providences when our dear concernments hang in a doubtful suspence before us and we know not which way the Providence of God will cast and determine them Now the best hearts are apt to grow solicitous and pensive distracted with thoughtfulness about the event and issue To relieve and settle us in this case the following Considerations are very useful First Consideration First Let us consider the vanity and inutility of such a solicitude Matth. 6. 27. Which of you saith our Lord by taking thought can add one Cubit We may break our peace and waste our Spirits but not alter the Case We cannot turn God out of his way Job 23. 13. He is in one mind We may by strugling against God increase but not avoid or lighten our troubles Second Consideration How often do we afflict and torment our selves by our own unquiet thoughts when there is no real cause or ground for so doing Isa. 51. 13. And hast feared continually every day because of the fury of the oppressor as if he were ready to destroy and where is the fury of the oppressor O what abundance of disquiet and trouble might we prevent by waiting quietly till we see the issues of Providence and not bringing as we do the evils of the morrow upon the day Third Consideration How great a ground of quietness is it that the whole dispose and management of all our affairs and concerns is in the hand of our own God and Father No Creature can touch us without his commission or permission I know saith Christ thou couldst have no power against me except it were given thee from above John 19. 11. Neither Men nor Devils can act any thing without Gods leave and be sure he will sign no order to your prejudice Fourth Consideration How great satisfaction must it be to all that believe the Divine Authority of the Scripture that the faithâ—ulness of God stands engaged for every line and syllable found therein And how many blessed lines in the Bible may we mark that respect even our outward concerns and the happy issue of them all Upon these two grounds viz. that our outward concerns with their steddy direction to a blessed end is â—ound in the Word and this Word being of Divine Authority the faithfulness and honour of God stands good for every Title that is found there I say these are grounds of such stability that our minds may repose with greatest security and confidence upon them even in the cloudiest day of trouble Not only your eternal salvation but your temporal Interests are there secured Be quieted therefore in the confidence of a blessed issue Fifth Consideration How great and sure an expedient have the Saints ever found it to their own peace to commit all doubtful issues of Providence to the Lord and devolve all their cares upon him Prov. 16. 3. Commit thy works unto the Lord and thy thoughts shall be established By Works he means any doubtful intricate perplexing business about which our thoughts are rackt and tortur'd Roll all these upon the Lord by faith leave them with him and the present immediate benefit you shall have by it besides the comfort in the last issue shall be tranquillity and peace in your thoughts And who is there of any standing or Experience in Religion that hath not found it so The Fifth Case HOw may a Christian work his heart into a resigning frame unto the will of God when sad Providences approach him and presage great troubles and afflictions coming on towards him For the right stating and resolving of this important case it will be needful to shew 1. What is not included and intended in the Question 2. What it doth suppose and include in it and lastly what helps and directions are necessary for the due performance of this great and difficult duty First Negatively As to the first It must be premised that the Question doth not suppose the heart or will of a Christian to be at his own command and dispose in this matter we cannot resign it and subject it to the will of God whenever we desire so to do the duty indeed is ours but the power by which alone we perform it is Gods We act as we are acted by the Spirit It is with our hearts as with meâ—eors hanging in the air by the influence of the Sun while that continues they abide above but when it fails they fall to the earth We can do this and all things else be they never so difficult through Christ that strengthens us Phil. 4. 13. But without him we can do nothing John 15. 5. he doth not say without me ye can do but little or without me ye can do nothing but with great difficulty or without me ye can do nothing perfectly but without me ye can do nothing at all And every Christian hath a witness in his own breast to attest this truth for there are cases frequently occurring in the methods of Providence in which notwithstanding all their prayers and desires all their reasonings and strivings they cannot quiet their hearts fully in the dispose and will of God but on the contrary do find all their endeavours in this matter to be but as the rolling of a returning stone against the Hill till God say to the heart be still and to the will give up nothing can be done Secondly Affirmatively Next Let us consider what this case doth suppose and include in it and we shall find That it supposeth the people of God to have a foresight of troubles and distresses approaching and drawing near to them I confess 't is not always so for many of our afflictions as well as comforts come by way of surprizals upon us but oft times we have forewarnings of troubleâ— both publick and personal before we feel them as the weather may be discerned by the â—ace of the Sky when we see a morning Sky red and lowring this is a natural sign of a foul and rainy day Matth. 16. 3. and there are as certain signs of the times whereby we may discern when trouble is near even at the door And these forewarnings are given by the Lord to awaken us to our duties by which they may either be prevented Zeph. 2. 1 2. or sanctified and sweetned to us when they come These signs and notices of approaching troubles are gathered partly from the observatJon and collation of parallel Scripture cases and examples God generally holding one tenour and steddy course in the administrations of his Providences in all ages 1 Cor. 10. 6. partly from the ReflectJons Christians make upon the frames and tempers of their own hearts which greatly need awakening humbling and purging Providences For let a Christian be but a few years or months without
a rod and how formal earthly dead and vain will his heart grow And such a temper presages affliction to them that are beloved of the Lord as really as the giving or sweating of the stones doth rain Lastly The ordering and disposing of the next causes into a posture and preparation for our trouble plainly premonisheth us that trouble is at the door Thus when the symptoms of sickness begin to appear upon our own bodies the wiâ—e of our bosome or our children that are as our own souls Providence herein awakens our expectations of death and doleful separations so when enemies combine together and plot the ruine of our liberties estates or lives and God seemeth to loose the bridle of restraint upon their necks now we cannot but be alarmed with the near approach of troubles especially when at the same time our conscience shall reflect upon the abuse and non-improvement of these our threatned comforts The case before us supposeth that these premonitions and fore-runners of affliction do usually very much disturb the order and break the peace of our souls they put the mind under great discomposure the thoughts under much distraction and the affections into tumults and rebellion Ah how unwilling are we to surrender to the Lord the Loan which he lent us to be disquieted by troubles when at ease in our enjoyments How unwelcome are the messengers of affliction to the best men we are ready to say to them as the Widow to Elijah What have I to do with thee O man O messenger of God art thou come unto me to call my sin to remembrance and to slay my Son 1 King 17. 18. And this ariseth partly from the remains of corruption in the best souls for though every sanctified person is come by his own consent into the Kingdom and under the government and Scepter of Christ and every thought of his heart de jure and of right must be subjected to him 2 Cor. 10. 5. yet de facto the conquest and power of grace is but incompleat and in part and natural corruption like Jerobâ—am with his vain men riseth up against it and â—auseth many mutinies in the soul whil'st grace like young Abijah is weak handed and cannot resist them And partly from the advantage Satan makes upon the season to irritate and assist our corruptâ—ons he knows that which is already in motion is the more easily moved In this confusion and hurry of thoughts he undiscernedly shuffles in his temptations Sometimes aggravating the evils which we fear with all the sinking and overwhelming circumstances imaginable Sometimes divining and fore-casting such events and evils as haply never fall out Sometimes repining at the disposes of God as more severe to us than others And sometimes reflecting with very unbelieving and unworthy thoughts upon the promises of God and his faithfulness in them by all which the affliction is made to sink deep into the soul before it actually comes The thoughts are so disordered that duty cannot be duly performed And the soul is really weakned and disabled to bear its tryal when it comes indeed just as if a man should be kept waking and restless all the night with the thoughts of his hard journey which he must travel to morrow and so when to morrow is come he faints for want of rest mid-way his journey It is here supposed to be the Christians great duty under the apprehensions of approaching troubles to resign his will to Gods and quietly commit the events and issues of all to him whatever they may prove Thus did David in the like case and circumstances 2 Sam. 15. 25 26. And the King said unto Zadock carry back the Ark of God into the City If I shall find favour in the eyes of the Lord he will bring me back again and shew me both it and his habitatJon but if he shall thus say I have no delight in thee behold here am I let him do to me as seemeth good to him O lovely and truly Christian temper q. d. go Zadock return with the Ark to its place though I have not the symbol yet I hope I shall have the real presence of God with me in this sad journey how he will dispose the events of this sad and doubtful Providence I know not Either I shall return again to Jerusalem or I shall not If I do then I shall see it again and enjoy the Lord in his ordinances there If I do not then I shall go to that place where there is no need or use of those things And either way it will be well for me I am content to refer all to the divine pleasure and commit the issue be it whatever it will be to the Lord. And till our hearts come to the like resolve we can have no peace within Commit thy works unto the Lord and thy thoughts shall be established Prov. 16. 3. By works he means not only every enterprize and business we undertake but every puzzling intricate and doubtful event we fear These being once committed by an act of faith and our wills resigned unto his besides the comfort we shall have in the issue we shall have the present advantage of a well composed and peaceful Spirit But this resignation is the difficulty no doubt of peace could we once bring our hearts to that And therefore I shall here subjoyn such helps and directions as may through Gods blessing in the faithful use of them assist and facilitate this great and difficult work First Help And first Labour to work into your hearts a deep and fixed sense of the infinite wisdom of God and your own folly and ignorance This will make resignation easie to you whatsoever the Lord doth is by counsel Eph. 1. 11. his understanding is infinite Psal. 147. 5. his thoughts are very deep Psal. 92. 5. but as for man yea the wisest among men how little doth his understanding penetrate the works and designs of Providence And how oft are we forced to retract our rash opinions and confess our mistakes acknowledging that if Providence had not seen with better eyes than ours and looked farther than we did we had precipitated our selves into a thousand mischiefs which by its wisdom and care we have escaped It 's well for us that the seven eyes of Providence are ever awake and looking out for our good Now if one creature can and ought to be guided and governed by another that is more wise and skilful than himself as the ClJent by his learned Counsel the PatJent by his skilful PhysicJan much more should every creature give up his weak reason and shallow understanding to the infinite wisdom of the omniscient God It 's nothing but our pride and arrogance over-valuing our own understandings that makes resignation so hard Carnal reason seems to it self a wise disputant about the concerns of the flesh but how often hath Providence baffled it The more humility the more resignation How few of our mercies and comforts have