heaped this way upon us strongly oblige the soul to thankfulness Thus David comes before the Lord encompassed with a multitude of mercies to praise him Psal. 5. 7. We have our loads of mercies and that every day Psalm 68. 19. O what a rich heap will the mercies of one day make being laid together 4. As the multitudes of mercies dispensed by Providence oblige to praise so the tenderness of Gods mercy manifested in his Providence leaves the soul under a strong obligation to thankfulness We see what tender resentments the Lord hath of all our wants straits and burdens Psalm 103. 13. Like as a Father pitJeth his Children so the Lord pitJeth them that fear him He is full of bowels as the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in James 5. 11. signifies Yea there are not only bowels of compassion in our God but the tenderness of bowels like those of a Mother to her sucking child Isa. 49. 15. He feels all our pains as if the apple of his eye were touched Zech. 2. 8. and all this is discovered to his people in the way of his Providences with them Psal. 111. 2 3 4. O who of all the Children of God hath not often found this in his Providences And who can see it and not be filled with thankfulness All these are so many bands clapt by Providence upon the soul to oblige it to a liâ—e of praise Hence it is that the prayers of the Saints are so full of thanksgivings upon these accounts 't is sweet to recount them to the Lord in prayer to lye at this feet in an holy astonishment at his gracious condescensions to poor worms The Sixth Motive THe due observatJon of Providence will endear Jesus Christ every day more and more to your souls Christ is the Channel of grace and mercy through him are all the dâ—cursus recursus gratiarum all the streams of mercy that â—low from God to us and all the returns of praise from us to God 1 Cor. 3. 21 22. All things are ours upon no other title but our being his Now there be six things in Providence that are exceedingly endearing of the Lord Jesus Christ to his people and these are the most sweet and delicious parts of all our enjoyments The purchase of all those mercies which Providences convey to us is by his own blood for not only spiritual and eternal mercies but even all our temporal ones are the acquisition of his blood Look as sin forfeited all so Christ restored all these mercies again to us by his death Sin had so shut up the womb of mercy that had not Christ made an attonement by his death it could never have brought forth one mercy to all eternity for us It is with him that God freely gives us all things Rom. 8. 32. Heaven it self and all things needful to bring us thither among which is principally included the Tutelage and Aid of Divine Providence so that whatever good we receive from the hand of Providence we must put it upon the score of Christs blood and when we receive it we may say 'T is the price of blood 'T is a mercy rising up out of the death of Christ It cost him dear though it come to me freely It 's sweet in the possessJon but costly in the acquisitJon Now this is a most endearing consideration did Christ dye that these mercies might live Did he pay his invaluable blood to purchase these comforts that I possess O what transcendent matchless love was the love of Christ You have known Parents that have laid out all their stock of money to purchase Estates for their Children but when did you hear of any that spent the whole stock and treasure of their blood to make a purchase for them If the life of Christ had not been so afflictive and sad to him ours could not have been so sweet and comfortable to us 't is through his poverty we are enriched 2 Cor. 8. 9. These sweet mercies that are born of Providence every day are the fruits of the travel of his soul. The sanctification of all is by our union with Christ 't is by vertue of our union with his person that we enjoy the sanctified gifts and blessings of Providence All these are mercies additional to that great mercy CHRIST Matth. 6. 33. they are given with him as in Rom. 8. 32. this is the Tenure by which we hold them 1 Cor. 3. 21 22 23. Look what we lost in Adam is restored again with Advantage in Christ immediately upon the fall that curse Gen. 2. 17. seized upon all the miserable posterity of Adam and upon all their comforts outward as well as inward and this still lyes heavy upon them All that Providence doth for them that are Christless is but to feed so many poor condemned wretches till the sentence they are under be executed upon them it is indeed bountiful and open-handed to many of them and fills them with Earthly comforts but not one special sanctified mercy is to be found among all their enjoyments these gifts of Providence do but deceive defile and destroy them through their own corruptions and for want of union with Christ Prov. 1. 32. The prosperity of fools shall destroy them But when a man is once in Christ then all Providences are sanctified and sweet Tit. 1. 15. Vnto the pure all things are pure A little that a righteous man hath is better than the treasures of many wicked Psal. 37. 16. Now Christ becomes an head of Influence as well as of DominJon and in all things he consults the good of his own members Eph. 1. 22. The dispensation of all our comforts and mercies is by his direction and appointment It 's true the Angels are employed in the Kingdom of Providence they move the wheels i. e. are instrumental in all the revolutions in this lower world but still they receive directions and orders from Christ as you may see in that admirable Scheme of Providences Ezek. 1. 25 26 c. Now what an endearing meditation is this What ever Creature be instrumental for any good to you it 's your Lord Jesus Christ that gave the orders and commands to that Creature to do it and without it they could have done nothing for you It 's your head in Heaven that consults your peace and comfort on Earth these be the fruits of his care for you So in the prevention and restraints of evil 't is he that bridles in the wrath of Devils and men he holds the reins in his own hands Rev. 2. 10. 'T was the care of Christ over his poor Sheep at Damascus that stopt the raging Adversary who was upon the way designing to destroy them Acts. 9. The continuatJon of all your mercies and comforts outward as well as inward is the fruit of his Intercession in Heaven for you For look as the offering up of the Lamb of God a Sacrifice for sin opened the door of mercy at first so his
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
where thousands of them grow O Reader if thy heart be spiritual and well stockt with experience if thou hast recorded the wayes of Providence towards thee and wilt but allow thy self time to reflect upon them what a life of pleasure maist thou live What an Heaven upon Earth doth this way lead thee into I will not here tell thee what I have met in this path lest it should seem to savour of too much Vanity non est religJo ubi omnJa patent There are some delights and enjoyments in the Christian life which are and must be enclosed But Try it thy self Taste and See and thou wilt need no other inducement thine own Experiâ—nce will be the most powerful Oratory to perswade thee to the study and search of Providence Histories are usually read with delight when once the fancy is catcht a man knows not how to disengage himself from it I am greatly mistaken if the History of our own lives if it were well drawn up and distinctly perused would not be the pleasantest History that ever we read in our lives The ensuing Treatise is an Essay to that purpose in which thou wilt find some remarques set upon Providence in its passage through the several Stages of our life But Reader thou only art able to compile the History of Providence for thy self because the memorJals that furnish it are only in thine own hands However here thou maist find a pattern and general Rules to direct thee in that great and difficult work which is the very end and design of this Manual I have not had much regard to the dress and ornament in which this Discourse is to go abroad for I am debtor both to the strong and weak the wise and foolish and in all my observation I have not found that ever God hath made much use of laboured periods Rhetorical flowers and Elegancies to improve the power of Religion in the world Yea I have observed how Providence hath sometimes rebuked good men when upon other Subjects they have too much affected those pedantick fooleries in withdrawing from them its usual aids and exposing them to shame and much more may it do so when it self is the Subject Reader if thy stomach be nice and squeasie and nothing will relish with thee but what is spruce and elegant there are store of such composures in the world upon which thou maist even surfeit thy curious fancy mean time there will be found some that will bless God for what thou despisest and make many a sweet meal upon what thou loathest I will add no more but my hearty prayers that Providence will direct this Treatise to such hands in such seasons and so bless and prosper its design that God may have glory thou maist have benefit and my self comfort in the success thereof who am Thine and the Churches servant in the hand of Providence Iohn Flavell Divine Conduct OR THE MYSTERIE OF Providence Opened in a TREATISE Upon PSAL. 57. 2. I will cry unto God most high unto God that performeth all things for me THE greatness of God is a glorious and unsâ—archable Mysterie The Lord most high is terrible he is a great King over all the Earth Psal. 47. 2. The condescesinon of the most high God to men is also a profound Mysterie Though the Lord be high yet hath he respect unto the lowly Psal. 13 8. 6. But when both these meet together as they do in this Scripture they make up a matchless Mysterie Here we find the most High God performing all things for a poor distressed creature It is the great support and solace of the Saints in all the distresses that befall them here that there is a Wise Spirit sitting in all the wheels of motion and governing the most excentrical Creatures and their most pernicious designs to blessed and happy issues And indeed it were not worth while to live in a world 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 devoid of God and Providence How deeply we are concerned in this matter will appear by that great Instance which this Psalm presents us with It was composed as the Title notes by David prayer-wise when he hid himself from Saul in the Cave And is inscribed with a double Title Al-taschith Michtam of David Altaschith refers to the scope and Michtam to the dignity of the subject matter The former signifies destroy not or let there be no slaughter and may either refer to Saul concerning whom he gave charge to his servants not to destroy him or rather it hath reference to God to whom in this great exigence he poured out his soul in this pathetical ejaculation Al-taschith destroy not The later Title Michtam signiâ—ies a golden ornament and so is suited to the choice and excellent matter of the Psalm which much more deserves such a Title than Pythagoras his golden Verses did Three things are remarkable in the former part of the Psalm Viz. 1 His extream danger 2 His earnest address to God in that extremity 3 The Arguments he pleads with God in that address His extream danger expressed both in the Title and body of the Psalm The Title tells us this Psalm was composed by him when he hid himself from Saul in the Cave This Cave was in the Wilderness of Engedi among the broken Rocks where the wild Goats inhabited an obscure and desolate hole yet even thither the Envy of Saul pursued him I Sam. 24. 1 2. And now he that had been so long hunted as a Partridge upon the Mountains seems to be enclosed in the net for the place was begirt with his Enemies and having in this place no out-let another way and Saul himself entring into the mouth of this Cave in the sides and creeks whereof he and his men lay hid and saw him judge to how great an extremity and to what a desperate state things were now brought Well might he say as it is ver 4. My soul is among Lyons and I lye even among them that are set on fire What hope now remained What but immediate destruction could be expected Yet this frights him not out of his â—aith and duty but betwixt the Jaws of death he prays and earnestly addresses himself to God for mercy v. 1. Be merciful to me O God be merciful unto me This excellent Psalm was composed by him when there was enough to discompose the best man in the world The repetition notes both the extremity of the danger and the ardency of the Supplicant Mercy Mercy nothing but Mercy and that exerting it self in an extraordinay way can now save him from â—ine The Arguments he pleads for obtaining mercy in this distress are very considerable 1. He pleads his reliance upon God as an Argument to move mercy Be merciful to me O God be merciful unto me for my soul trusteth in thee yea in the shadow of thy wings will I make my refuge until these calamitJes be overpast v. 1. This his trust and dependance on God though it be
pattern before it according to which it molded every part as it is Ver. 16. In thy Book were all my members written Hast thou an integral perfection and sulness of members It is because he wrote them all in his Book or limned out thy body according to that exact model which he drew of thee in his own gracious purpose before thou hadst a being Had an eye an ear a hand a foot been wanting in the platform thou hadst now been sadly sensible of the defect this world had been but a dungeon to thee without those windows thou hadst lived as many do an object of pity to others if thou have low thoughts of this mercy ask the blind the deaf the lame and the dumb the value and worth of those mercies and they will tell thee There is a world of cost bestowed upon thy very body Thou mightest have been cast into another mould and created a Worm or a Toad I remember Luther tells us of two Cardinals riding in great pomp to the Council of Constance and by the way they heard a man in the fields bitterly weeping and wailing when they came to him they found him intently viewing an ugly Toad and asking him why he wept so bitterly he told them his heart was melted with this consideration that God had not made him such a loathsome and deformed Creature hoc est quod amarè fleo said he whereupon one of them cryes out Well said the Father Surgunt indocti rapJent Coelum The unlearned will rise and take Heaven and we with all our learning shall be cast into Hell No part of the Common lump was so figured and polisht as man is Galen gave Epicurus an hundred years time to imagine a more commodious scituation configuration or composition of any one member of a humane body And if all the Angels had studied to this day they could not have cast the body of man into a more curious mould And yet all this is but the enamelling of the Case or polishing the Casket wherein the rare Jewel lies Providence hath not only built the house but brought the Inhabitant I mean the soul into the possession of it A glorious piece it is that bears the very Image of God upon it being all in all and all in every part How noble are its Faculties and Affections How nimble various and indesatigable are its Motions How comprehensive is its Capacity It 's a Companion for Angels nay capable oâ— Espousals to Christ and eternal Communion with God It 's the Wonder of Earth and the Envy of Hell Suppose now and why should you not suppose what you so frequently bâ—hold in the world that Providence had so permitted and ordered it that thy soul had entered into thy body with one or two of its faculties wounded and defective Suppose its Vnderstanding had been crackt what a miserable life hadst thou lived in this world neither capable of service nor comfort And truly when I have considered those works of Providence in bringing into the world in all Countreys and Ages some such spectacles of pity some deprived of the use of reason and differing from Beasts in little more than shape and â—igure and others though sound in their understandings yet deformed or defective in their bodies monstrous mishapen and loathsome Creatures I can resolve the design of this Providence into nothing beside a demonstration of his Soveraign power except they be designed as soils to set off the beauty of other rare and exquisite pieces and intended to stand before your eyes as Monitors of Gods mercy to you that your hearts as oft as you beheld them might be mâ—lted into thankfulness for distinguishing favour to you Look then but not proudly upon thy outside and inside see and admire what Providence hath done for thee and how well it hath performed the first service that ever it did for thee in this world And yet this was not all it did for thee before thou sawest this world It preserved thee as well as formed thee in the womb else thou hadst been as those Embryo's Job speaks of Job 3. 11 12. that never saw the light Abortives go for nothing in the world and there are multitudes of them some that never had a reasonable soul breathed into them but only the rudiments and rough draught of a body these come not into the account of men but perish as the Beast doth Others that dye in or shortly after they come out of the Womb and though their life was but for a moment yet that moment entails an Eternity upon them and had this been your case as it is the case of Millions then supposing your salvation yet had you been utterly unserviceable to God in the world None had been the better for you nor you the better for any in the world You had been utterly uncapable of all that good which throughout your life you have either done to others or received from others And if we consider the nature of that obscure life we lived in tho womb how small an accident had it been permitted by Providence had extinguished our life like a Bird in the shell We cannot therefore but admire the tender care of Providence over us and say with the Psalmist Psal. 139. 13. Thou hast covered me in my Mothers womb and not only so but as it is Psal. 22. 9. Thou art he that took me out of my Mothers womb He preserved thee there to the fulness of time and when that time was come brought thee safely through manifold hazards into that place in the world which he from Eternity espied for thee Which leads us to the second performance The Second Performance of Providence II. THe second great performance of Providence for the people of God respects the place and time in which it ordered their Nativity to fall And truly this is no small concernment to every one of us but of vast consequence either to our good or evil though it be little minded by most men I am perswaded the thoughts of â—ew Christians penetrate deep enough into this Providence but slide too slightly and supersicially over an Abysse of much mercy rich and maniâ—old mercy wrapt up in this gracious performance of Providence for them Ah friends can you think it an indifferent thing into what part of the World the womb of Nature had cast you out Is there no odds upon what Spot of the Creation or in what Age of the World your lot had fallen It may be you have not seriously bethought your selves about this matter And because this Point is so seldom toucht I will therefore dive a little more particularly and distinctly into it and endeavour to warm your affections with a representation of the many and rich benefits you owe to this one performance of Providence for you And we will consider it under a double respect or relation as it respects your present comfort in this world and as it relates to your eternal
Devil was worshipped and his lying Oracles zealously attended upon The shaking of the top of Jupiter's Oak in Dodona the Caldron smitten with the rod in the hand of Jupiter's Image the Lawrell and Fountain in Daphne these were the Ordinances on which the poor deluded Wretches waited So in this Nation they worshipped Idols also the Sun and Moon were adored for Gods with many other abominable Idols which our Ancestors worshipped and whose memorials are not to this day quite obliterated among us 5. Or suppose our Lot had fallen in those later miserable dayes in which Queen Mary sent so many hundreds to Heaven in a fiery Chariot and the poor Protestants skâ—lked up and down in holes and woods to preserve them from Popish Inquisitors who like Blood-hounds hunted up and down through all the Cities Towns and Villages of the Natâ—on to seek out the poor sheep of Christ for a prey But such hath the special care of Providence towards us been that our turn to be brought upon the stage of this World was graciously reserved for better dayes so that if we had had our own option we could not have chosen for our selves as Providence hath We are not only furnished with the best room in this great hoâ—se but before we were put into it it was swept with the beesom of National Reformation from Idolatry yea and washed by the blood of Martyrs from Popish filthiness and adorned with Gospel lights shining in as great lustre in our dayes as ever they did since the Apostles dayes You might have been born in England for many Ages and not have found a ChristJan in it yea and since ChristJanity was here owned and not have met a Protestant in it Oh what an Obligation hath Providence laid you under by such a merciful performance as this for you If you say All this indeed is true but what is this to eternal salvation Do not multitudes that enjoy these priviledges eternally perish notwithstanding them yea and perish with an aggravation of sin and misery beyond other sinners True they do so and it is of very sad consideration that it should be so but yet we cannot deny this to be a very choice and singular mercy to be born in such a Land and at such a Time For let us consider what helps for salvation men here enjoy beyond what they could enjoy had their Lot fallen according to the fore-mentioned suppositions 1. Here we enjoy the ordinary means of salvation which elsewhere men are denyed and cut off from So that if any among the Heathens be saved and brought to Christ it must be in some miraculous or extraordinary way for How shall thâ—y belJeve in him of whom they have not heard and how shall they hear without a Preacher Rom. 10. 14. Alas were there a desire awakened in any of their hearts after a Gospel discovery of salvation which ordinarily is not nor can be rationally supposed yet poor Creatures they might travel from Sea to Sea to hear thâ— Word and nâ—t find it whereas you can hardly miss the opportunities of hearing the Gospel Sermons meet you frequently so that you can scarcely shun or avoid the Ordinances and Instruments of your salvation And is this nothing Christ even forces himself upon us 2. Here in this Age of the World the common prejudices against Christianity are removed by the advantage it hath of a publick profession among the people and protection by the Laws of the Countrey Whereas were your habitation among Jews Mahometans or Heathen Idolaters you would find Christ and ChristJanity the common odJum of the Countrey every one defying and deriding both name and thing and such your selves likely had been if your birth and education had been among them For you may observe that whatever is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 traditionally delivered down from Father to Son every one is fond of and zealous in its defence The Jews Heathens and Mahâ—metans are at this day so tenacious of their errors that with spitting hissing and clapping of hands and all other signs of indignation and abhorrence they chase away all others from among them Is it not then a special mercy to you to be cast into such a Countrey and Age where as a learned Divine observes the true Religion hath the same advantages over every false one as in other Countreys they have over it Here you have the presence of precious Means and the absence of soul-destroying prejudices two signal mercies 3. Here in this Age of the World Christianity bespeaks you assoon as you are capable of any sense or impressions oâ— Religion upon you and so by an happy anticipatJon blocks up the passages by which a false Religion would 〈◊〉 certainly enter Here you â—uck in the first notions and principles of Christianity even with the Mothers milk and certainly such a prepossession is a choice advantage Quo semel est imbuta recens servabit odorem Testa diâ— Train up a Child in the way he should go and when he is old â—e will not depart from it Prov. 22. 6. 4. Here you have or may have the help and assistance of Christians to direct your way resolve your doubts support your burthens and help you through those difficulties that attend the new birth Alas if a poor soul had any beginnings or saint workings and stirrings after Christ and true Religion in many other Countreys the hand of every man would presently be against him and none would be found to relieve assist or encourage as you may see in that Example of Galâ—acJus the nearest relations would in that case prove the greatest Enemies the Countrey would quickly hoot at him as a Monster and cry Away with the Heretick to the Prison or Stake Whether these eventually prove blessings to your souls or no certain I am that in themselves they are singular mercies and helps to salvation that are denyed to Millions besides you So that if Plato when he was near his death could bless God for three things viz. That he was a Man and not a Beast that he was born in Greece and brought up in the time of Socrates much more cause have you to admire Providence that you are Men and not Beasts that you were born in England and brought up in Gospel dayes here This is a Land the Lord hath EspJed for you as the expression is Ezek. 20. 6. and concerning it you have abundant cause to say as in another case the Psalmist doth Psal. 16. 6. The lines are fallen to me in pleasant places and I have a goodly heritage The Third Performance of Providence III. THe next observable Performance of Providence which must be heedfully adverted and weighed is the designatJon of the stock and family out of which we should spring and rise And truly this is of special consideration both as to our temporal and eternal good for whether the families in which we grew up were great or small in Israel whether our
mentioned Examples and you shall see the blessed work of Conversion begun upon those souls when they minded it no more than Saul did a Kingdom that morning he went out to seek his Fathers Asses 1 Sam 9. 3 20. Providence might truly have said to you in that day as Christ said to Peter John 13. 7. What I do thou knowest not now but hereafter thou shalt know it Gods thoughts are not as our thoughts but as the Heavens are higher than the Earth so are his thoughts higher than ours and his wayes than our wayes Little did Zacheus think when he climbed up into the Sycamore-tree to see Christ as he passed that way what a design of mercy Christ had upon him who took thence the occasion of becoming both his Guest and SavJour Luke 19. 5 6 7 8. And as little did some of you think what the aim of Providence was when you went some out of custom others out of curiosity if not worse ends to hear such a Sermon O how stupendious are the wayes of God! What a distinguishing and seasonable mercy was usher'd in by Providence in that day It brought you to the means of salvation in a good hour At that very nick of time when the Angel troubled the Waters you were brought to the Pool to allude to that John 5. 4. Now the accepted day was come the Spirit was in the Ordinance or Providence that converted you and you were set in the way of it It may be you had heard many hundred Sermons before but nothing would stick till now because the hour was not come The Lord did as it were call in the Word for such a man such a woman and Providence said Lord here he is I have brought him before thee There were many others under that Sermon that received no such mercy You your selves had heard many before but not to that advantage as it is said Luke 4. 27. There were many Lepers in Israel in the days of Elizeus but to none of them was the Prophet sent save unto Naaman the SyrJan So there were many poor unconverted souls beside you under the Word that day and it may be to none of them was salvation sent that day but to you O blessed Providence that set you in the way of mercy at that time What a weighty and important mercy was Providentially directed to your souls that day There are mercies of all sizes and kinds in the hands of Providence to dispense to the sons of men its left hand is full of blessings as well as its right It hath health and riches honours and pleasures as well as Christ and Salvation to dispense The world is full of its left hand favours but the blessings of its right hand are invaluably precious and few there be that receive them It doth thousands of kind offices for men but among them all this is the chiefest to lead and direct them to Christ. For consider 1. Of all mercies this comes through most and greatest difficulties Eph. 1. 19 20. 2. This is a spiritual mercy excelling in dignity of nature all others more than gold excels the dirt under your feet Rev. 3. 18. One such gift is worth thousands of other mercies 3. This is a mercy immediately slowing out of the fountain of Gods electing love a mercy never dropt into any but an Elect Vessel 1 Thess. 1. 4 5. 4. This is a mercy that infallibly secures Calvation for as we may argue from Conversion to Election looking back so from Conversion to Salvation looking forward Heb. 6. 9. 5. Lastly This is an Eternal mercy that which will stick by you when Father Mother Wife Children Estate Honours Health and Life shall fail thee John 4. 14. O therefore set a special Mark upon that Providence that set you in the way of this mercy It hath performed that for thee which all the Ministers on Earth and Angels in Heaven could never have performed This is a Mercy that puts weight and value into the smallest Circumstance that relates to it The Fifth Performance of Providence V. THus you hear how instrumental Providence hath been in ordering the Means and Occasions of the greatest Mercies for your souls Let us now take into consideration another excellent Performance of Providence respecting the good of your bodies and souls too in respect of that Imployment and Calling it hath ordered for you in this world for it hath not only an Eye upon your well being in the world to come but upon your well being in this world also and that very much depends upon the Station and Vocation to which it calls you Now the Providence of God with respect to our civil Callings may be displayed very takingly in the following particulars In directing you to a Calling in your Youth and not suffering you to live an idle useless and sinful life as many do who are but burthens to the Earth fruges consumere nati the Wens of the body politick serving only to disfigure and drein it to eat what others earn Sin brought in sweat Gen. 3. 19. but now not to sweat increaseth sin 2 Thess. 3. 12. He that lives idly cannot live honestly as is plainly enough intimated 1 Thess. 4. 11 12. But when God puts men into a lawful Calling wherein the labours of their hands or heads is sufficient for them it is a very valuable mercy for thereby they eat their own bread 2 Thess. 3. 12. Many a sad Temptation is happily prevented and they are ordinarily furnished by it for works of mercy to others and surely it is more blessed to give than to receive In ordering you to such Callings and Imployments in the world as are not only lawful in themselves but most suitable to you There be many persons imployed in sinful Trades and Arts meerly to furnish other mens lusts they do not only sin in their Imployments but their very Imployments are sinful they trade for Hell and are Factors for the Devil DemetrJus and the Crafts-men at Ephesus got their Estates by makeing Shrines for DJana Acts 19. 24 25. i. e. little cases or boxes with folding leaves within which the Image of that Idol sate enshrined These were carried about by the People in Procession in honour of their Idol And at this day how many wicked Arts and Imployments are there invented and multitudes of persons maintained by them meerly to gratifie the pride and wantonness of a debauched age Now to have an honest lawful imployment wherein you do not dishonour God in benefiting your selves is no small mercy But if it be not only lawful in it self but suited to your genJus and strength there is a double mercy in it Some poor Creatures are engaged in Callings that eat up their time and strength and make their lives very uncomfortable to them they have not only spending and wasting Imployments in the world but such as allow them little or no time for their general Calling and yet all this doth but keep them
the reproach of Religion and wounding of their own Consciences to that degree that they have never recovered former peace again but lived in the world devoid of comfort to their dying day 4. How woful your case had been if the Lord had not mercifully saved you from many thousand temptations that have assaulted you I tell you you cannot estimate the mercies you possess by means of such Providences Are your names sweet and your Consciences peaceful two mercies as dear to you as your two eyes Why surely you owe them if not wholly yet in great measure to the aids and assistances Providence hath given you all along the way you have passed through the dangerous tempting World to this day Walk therefore suitably to this Obligation of Providence also and see 1. That you thankfully own it Don't impute your escapes from sin to accidents or to your own watchfulness or wisdom 2. See that you tempt not Providence on the other hand by an irregular relyance upon its care over you without taking all due care of your selves Keep your selves in the love of God Jude 21. Keep your hearts with all diligence Prov. 4. 23. Though Providence keep you yet it is in the way of your duty The Ninth Performance of Providence IX THus you see what care Providence hath had over your souls in preventing the spiritual dangers and miserJes that else would have befallen you in the way of temptatJons in the next place I will shew you that it hath been no less careful for your bodJes and with how great tenderness it hath carrJed them in its arms through innumerable hazards and dangers also He is called the keeper of Israel that never slumbereth nor sleepeth Psal. 121. 4. the preserve of men Job 7. 20. To display the glory of this Providence before you let us take into consideration The perils into which the best of men sometimes fall and the way and means by which Providence preserves them in those dangers There are manifold hazards into which we are often cast in this World The Apostle Paul gives us a general account of his dangers in 2 Cor. 11. 26. And how great a wonder is it that our life hath not been extinguished in some of those dangers we have been in For 1. Have not some of us fallen and that often into very dangerous sicknesses and diseases in which we have approached to the very brink of the grave and have or might have said with HezekJah Isa. 38. 10. I said in the cutting off of my dayes I shall go to the gates of the grave I am deprived of the residue of my years Have we not often had the sentence of death in our selves and our bodies at that time been like a leaky Ship in a storm as One aptly resembles it that hath taken in water on every side till it was ready to sink Yet hath God preserved careened and lanched us out again as well as ever Oh what a wonder is it that such a crazy body should be preserved for so many years and survive so many dangers Surely it is not more admirable to see a Venice-glass pass from hand to hand in continual use for forty or fifty years and still to remain whole notwithstanding many knocks and falls it hath had If you enjoy health or recover out of sicknesses it is because he puts none of these diseases upon thee or because he is the Lord thy PhysicJan Exod. 125. 26. 2. And how many deadly dangers hath his hand rescued some of you from in those years of confusion and publick calamity when the Sword was bathed in blood and made horrid slaughter when it may be your lives were often given you for a prey This David put a special remarque upon Psal. 140. 7. O God the Lord the strength of my salvatJon thou hast covered my head in the day of Battel Beza being in France in the first Civil War and there tossed up and down for two and twenty months recorded six hundred deliverances from dangers in that space for which he solemnly gave God thanks in his last Testament If the Sword destroyed you not it was because God did not give it a Commission so to do 3. Many of you have seen wonders of salvation upon the deeps where the hand of God hath been signally stretched forth for your rescue and deliverance This is elegantly expressed in Psalâ— 107. 23 24 25 26 27. which I have elsewhere opened at large concerning which you may say in a proper sense what the Psalmist doth metaphorically Psal. 124. 1. 4. If it had not been the Lord who was on our side then the waters had overwhelmed us the stream had gone over our soul. To see men that have spent so many years upon the Seas where your lives have continually hanged in suspense before you attain to your years when you could neither be reckon'd among the living nor the dead as Seamen are not Oh what cause have you to adore your great preserver Many thousands of your Companions are gone down and you yet here to praose the Lord among the Living You have bordered nearer to Eternity all youâ— dayes than others and often been in eminent perils upon the Seas surely such and so many Salvations call aloud upon you for most thankful acknowledgements 4. To conclude how innumerable hazards and accidents the least of which hath cut off others hath God carried us all through I think I may safely say your privative and positive mercies of this kind are more in number than the hairs of your heads Many thousands of these dangers we never saw nor were made particularly sensible of but though we saw them not our God did and brought us out of danger before he brought us into fear Some have been evident to us and those so remarkable that we cannot think or speak of them to this day but our souls are freshly affected with those mercies It is recorded of our famous Jewell that about the beginning of Queen Mary's Reign the Inquisition taking hold of him in Oxford he fled to London by night but providentially losing the Road he escaped the Inquisitors who pursued him however he fell that night into another eminent hazard of life for wandering up and down in the snow he fainted and lay starving in the way panting and labouring for life at which time Mr. Latimer's servant found and saved him It were easie to multiply Examples in this kind Histories abounding with them but I think there are few of us but are furnisht out of our own experience abundantly so that I shall rather chuse to press home the sense of these Providences upon you in order to a suitable return to the God of your mercies for them than add more Instances of this kind To this purpose I desire you seriously to weigh the following particulars 1. Consider what you owe to Providence for your protection by which your life hath been protracted
unto this day with the usefulness and comfort thereof Look abroad in the world and you may daily see some in every place who are Objects of pity bereaved by sad accidents of all the comforts of life whilst in the mean time Providence hath tenderly preserved you keeping all your bones so that not one of them is broken Psal. 34. 20. Is not the Elegant and Comely Structure of thy Body spoiled thy members dâ—storted or made so many seats of Torment the usefulness of any part deprived why this is because Providence never quitted its hand of thee since thou camest out of the womb but with a watchful eye and tender hand hath guarded thee in every place and kept thee as its charge 2. Consider how every member which hath been so tenderly kept hath nevertheless been an Instrument of sin against the Lord and that not only in the dayes of your unregeneracy when ye yJelded your members as Instruments of unrighteousâ—ess unto sin as the Apostle speaks in Rom. 6. 13. but even since you gave them up in Covenant unto the Lord as dedicated Instruments to his service and yet how tender hath Providence been over them You have often provoked him to afflict you in every part and lay penal evil upon every member that hath been instrumental in moral evil but O how great have his compassions been towards you and his patience admirable 3. Consider what is the aim of Providence in all the tender care it hath manifested for you why doth it protect you so assiduously and suffer no evil to befall you Is it not that you should imploy your bodies for God and cheerfully apply your selves to that service he hath called you to Doubtless this is the end and level of these mercies for else to what purpose are they afforded you Your bodies are a part of Christs purchase as well as your souls 1 Cor. 6. 19. They are committed to the charge and Tutelage of Angels Heb. 1. 14. who have performed many services for them They are dedicated by your selves to the Lord and that upon the highest account Rom. 12. 1. They have already been the subjects of manifold mercies in this world Psal. 35. 10. and shall partake of singulaâ— glory and happiness in the world to come Phil. 3. 21. And shall they not then be employed yea cheerfully worn out in his service How reasonable is it they should be so Why are they so tenderly preserved by God if they must not be used for God The Tenth Performance of Providence X. YOu have heard many and great things performeâ— for you by Divine Providence in the former particulars but there is an eminent favour it bestows on the Saints which hath not yet been considered and indeed is too little minded by us and that is The Aid and assistance it gives the people of God in the great work of MortificatJon Mortification of our sinful affections and passions is the one half of our Sanctification Rom. 6. 11. dead indeed unto sin but alive unto God It 's the great Evidence of our Interest in Christ. See Gal. 5. 24. Rom. 6. 5 6 7 8 9. It 's our safety in the hour of Temptation The corruptions in the world are through lust 2 Pet. 1. 4. Our Instrumental fitness for service depends much upon it 2 Tim. 2. 21. John 15. 2. How great a service to our souls therefore must that be by which this blessed work is carried on upon them Now there are two Means or Instruments imployed in this work The Spirit who effects it internally Rom. 8. 13. And Providence which assists it externally The Spirit indeed is the principal Agent upon whose operation the success of this work depends and all the Providences in the world can never effect it without him But these are secondary and subordinate means which by the blessing of the Spirit upon them have a great stroke in the work How they are so serviceable to this end and purpose I shall open in the following account 1. More generally The most wise God orders the dispensations of Providence in a blessed subordination to the work of his Spirit There is a sweet harmony betwixt them in their distinct workings They all meet in that one blessed issue which God hath by the counsel of his Will directed them to Eph. 1. 11. Rom. 8. 28. Hence it is that the Spirit is said to be in and order the motions of the wheels of Providence Ezek. 1. 20. and so they move together by consent Now one great part of the Spirit 's internal work being to destroy sin in the people of God see how conformable to his design external Providences are steer'd and order'd in the following particulars 1. There is in all the regenerate a strong propension and inclination to sin and in that lyes a principal part of the power of sin Of this Paul sadly complains Rom. 7. 23. But I see another law in my members warring against the law of my mind and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members and every believer daily â—inds it to his grief O 't is hard 't is hard to forbear those things that grieve God God hath made an hedge about us and fenced us against sin by his Laws but there is a proneness in nature to break over the hedge and that against the very reluctations of the Spirit of God in us Now see in this case the concurrence and assistance of Providence for the prevention of sin look as the Spirit internally resists those sinful inclinations so Providence externally layes barrs and blocks in our way to hinder and prevent sin and this is the meaning of those places lately cited Hosea 2. 6. 2 Cor. 12. 7. So Job 33. 17 18 19. There is many a bodily distemper inflicted on this very score to be a clog to prevent sin Oh bear them patiently upon this consideration Basil was â—orely grieved with an inveterate head-ach he earnestly prayes it might be removed God removed it but no sooner was he freed of this clog but he felt the inordinate motions of lust which made him pray for his head-ach again So it might be with many of us if our clogs were off A Question may be moved here Whether it be the genJus and property of a gracJous spirit to forbear sin because of the rod of afflictJon They have surely higher motives and nobler principles than these This is the temper of a carnal and slavish spirit Indeed it is so when this is the sole or principal restraint from sin when a man abhorrs not sin because of the intrinsick â—ilth but only because of the troublesome consequents and effects But this is vastly different from the case of the Saints under sanctified afflictions for as they have highâ—r motives and nobler principles so they have lower and more sensible ones too and these are in their kind and place very useful to them 2. Besides you must know
people from their Enemies and ensnaring them in the works of their own hands a double note of attentJon is affixed to that double work of Providence Psal. 9. 16. higgaJon sâ—lah So at the opening of every seal which contains a remarkable series or branch of Providence how particularly is attention commanded to every one of them Rev. 6. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7. Come and see come and see All these are very useless and superâ—luous additions in Scripture if no such duty lyes upon us See Psal. 66. 5. Without due observation of the work of Providence no praise can be rendered to God for any of them Praise and thanksgiving for mercies depend upon this act of observation of them and cannot be performed without it Psalm 107. is spont in narratives of Gods Providential care of men To his people in straits Ver. 4 5 6. To prisoners in their bonds Ver. 10 11 12. To men that lye languishing upon beds of sickness Ver. 17 18 19. To Seamen upon the stormy Ocean Ver. 23 c. To men in times of famine Ver. 33. to Ver. 40. Yea his Providence is displayed in all those changes that fall out in the world deâ—asing the high and exalting the low Ver. 40 41. and at every paragraph men are still called upon to praise God for each of these Providences but Ver. ult shews you what a necessary ingredient to that duty observation is Whosâ— it wiâ—e and will observe these things even they shall understandâ— the loving kindness of the Lord. So that of necessity God must be defraudedâ— of his praise if this duty be neglected Without this we lose the usefulness and beâ—neâ—it of all the works of God for us or others which would be an unspeakable loss indeed to us This is the food our â—aith lives upon in dayes of distress Psal. 74. 14. Thou â—rakest the heads of LevJathan in pJeces and gavest him to be meat to the people inhabiting the Wilderness i.e. food to their â—aith From Providences past Saints use to argue to fresh and new ones to come So David 1 Sam. 17. 37. The Lord that delivered me out of the paw of the Lyon and out of the paw of the Bear he will deliver me out of the hand of this Philistin So Paul 2 Cor. 1. 10. Who hath delivered and in whom also we trust that he will yet deliver If these be forgotten oâ— not considered the hands of â—aith hang down See Matth. 16. 9. How is it that ye do not remember neither consider This is a Topick from which the Saints have used to draw their Arguments in prayer for new mercies As Moses Numb 14. 19. when he prayes for continued or new pardonâ— for the people he argues from what was past As thou hast forgiven them from Egypt until now So the Church Isa. 51. 9 10. argues for new Providences upon the same ground Moses pleaded for new pardons It is a vile slighting of God not to observe what of himself he manifests in his Providences For in all Providences especially in some he comes nigh to us He doth so in his Judgements Mal. 3. 5. I will come nigh to you in judgement He comes nigh in mercies also Psal. 145. 18. The Lord is nigh unto all them that call upon him c. Yea he is said to visit us by his Providence when he corrects Hosea 9. 7. and when he saves and delivers Psal. 106. 4. These visitations of God preserve our spirits Job 10. 12. And it is a wonderful condescension in the great God to visit us so oâ—ten Job 7. 18. every morning and every moment But not to take notice of it is a vile and bruitish contempt of God Iâ—a 1. 3. Zeph. 3. 2. You would not do so by a man for whom you have any respect It 's the character of the wicked not to regard Gods favours Isa. 26. 10. or frowns Jer. 5. 3. In a word men can never order their addresses to God in prayer suitable to their conditions without due observatJon of his Providences Your prayers are to be suitable to your conditions sometimes we are called to praise sometimes to humiliation In the way of his Judgements you are to wait for him Isa. 26. 8. to prepare to meet him Zeph. 2. 1 2. Amos 4. 12. Now your business is to turn away his anger which you see approaching And sometimes you are called to praise him for mercies received Isa. 12. 1 2. but then you must first observe them Thus you find the matter of David's Psalms still varied according to the Providences that befell him but an inobservant heedless spirit can never do it And thus you have the grounds of the Duty briefly represented we pass on to The Fourth General Head LEt us next according to our method proposed proceed to shew in what manner we are to reflect upon the performances of Providence for us And certainly it is not every slight and transient glance nor every cold historical unaffecting rehearsal or recognition of his Providences towards you that will pass with God for a discharge of this great duty No no it is another manner of business than the most of men understand it to be O that we were but acquainted with this heavenly spiritual exercise how sweet would it make our lives how light would it make our burdens Ah Sirs you live estranged from the pleasure of the Christian life while you live in the ignorance or neglect of this duty Now to lead you up to this heavenly sweet and profitable exercise I will beg your attention to the following Directions The First Direction LAbour to get as full and through recognitJons of the Providences of God about you from first to last as you are able O sill your hearts with the thoughts of him and his wayes If a single act of Providence be so ravishing and transporting what would many such be if they were presented together to the view of the soul If one Star be so beautiful to behold what is a ConstellatJon Let your reflections therefore upon the acts and workings of Providence for you be full extensively and intensively 1. Let them be as extensively full as may be Search backward into all the performances of Providence throughout your lives So did Asaph in Psal. 77. 11 12. I will remember the works of the Lord surely I will remember thy wonders of old I will meditate of all thy works and talk of thy doings He laboured to recover and revive the ancient Providences of God mercies many years past and suck a fresh sweetness out of them by new reviews of them Ah Sirs let me tell you there is not such a pleasant History for you to read in all the world as the History of your own lives if you would but sit down and record to your selves from the beginning hitherto what God hath been to you and done for you what signal manifestations and out-breakings of his mercy faithfulness and love there have been in all
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
Lord the Lord merciful and gracJous There are two sorts of mercies that are seldom eclipsed by the darkest affliction that befalls the Saints in their temporal concerns sc. sparing mercy in this world and saving mercy in that to come It is not so bad now as it might and we deserved it should be and it will be better hereaâ—tâ—r This the Church observed and reasoned her self quiet from it Lam. 3. 22. Hath he taken some he might have taken all Are we afflicted it's mercy we are not destroyed Oh if we consider what temporal mercies are yet spared and what spiritual mercies are bestowed and yet continued to us we shall find cause to admire mercy rather than complain of severity Eye the Wisdom of God in all your afflictions behold it in the choice of the kind of your affliction this and not another the Time now and not at another season the Degree in this measure only and not in a greater the Supports afforded you under it not leâ—t altogether helpless the Issue to which it 's over ruled it 's made to your good not ruine Look upon all these and then ask thy heart that question God askt Jonah Dost thou well to be angry Surely when you consider all what need you had of these rods that your corruptions will require all this it may be much more to mortifie them that without the perishing of these things you might have perished for ever you will see great reasons to be quiet and well satisfied under the hand of God Set the faithfulness of the Lord before you under the saddest Providences So did David Psal. 119. 75. This is according to his Covenant faithfulness Psal. 89. 32. Hence it is that the Lord will not withhold a rod when need requires it 1. Pet. 1. 6. Nor will he forsake his people under the rod when he inâ—licts it 2 Cor. 4. 9. Oh what quietness will this breed I see my God will not lose my heart if a rod can prevent it he had rather hear me groan here than howl hereafter his love is judicious not fond he consults my good rather than my ease Eye the All-sufficJency of God in the day of affliction See enough in him still whatever be gone Here is the fountain still as full as ever though this or that pipe be cut off which was wont to convey somewhat of it to me O Christians can't you make up any loss this way Can't you see more in God than in any or all the Creature comforts you have lost With what eyes then do you look upon God Lastly Eye the Immutability of God Look on him as the Rock of Ages James 1. 17. The Father of lights with whom is no varJableness nor shadow of turning Eye Jesus Christ as the same yesterday to day and for ever Oh how quietly will you then behave your selves under the changes of Providence It may be two or three dayes have made a sad change in your condition the death of a dear relation hath turned all things upside down that place is empty where lately they were as it is Job 7. 10. His place shall know him no more Well but God is what he was and where he was Time shall make no change upon him as it is in Isa. 40. 6 7 8. The grass withereth the flower sadeth but the word of the Lord abideth for ever O how composing are those views of God to our spirits under dark Proviâ— The Fifth Direction LAstly Work up your hearts to those frames and exercise those affectJons which the several Providences of God that are versant about you call for Eccles. 7. 14. Suit your selves to answer the design and end of God in all Providences As there are various affections planted in your souls so are there several graces planted in those affections and several Providences appointed to draw forth and exercise these graces When the Providences of God are sad and afflictive either upon the Church in general or your families and persons in particular then it is seasonable for you to exercise godly sorrow and humility of spirit for in that day and by those Providences God doth call to it Isa. 22. 12. Micah 6. 9. Now sensitive pleasure and natural joy is out of season Ezek. 21. 10. Should we then make mirth If there be either 1. A silial spirit in us we cannot be light and vain when our Father is angry or 2. If any real sense of the evil of sin which provokes Gods anger we must be heavy hearted when God is smiting for it or 3. If any sense and compassion for the miseries that sin brings upon the world it will make us to say with David Psal. 119. 158. I beheld the transgressors and was grJeved 'T is sad to consider the miseries tâ—at they pull down upon themselves in this â—orld and that to come 4. If there be any care in us to prevent utter ruine and stop God in the way of his anger we know this is the means to do it Amos 4. 12. HOw sad and dismal soever the face of Providence be yet still maintain spiritual joy and comfort in God under all Though there be no herd in the stall said Habakuck chap. 3. 17. yet will I rejoyce in the Lord I will joy in the God of my salvation There are two sorts of Comforts Natural and Sensitive Divine and Spiritual There is a time when it becomes ChristJans to exercise both so Hest. 9. 22. And there is a time when the former is to be suspended and laid by Psal. 137. 2. But there is no season wherein spiritual joy and comfort in God is unseasonable as appears by those Scriptures 1 Thess. 5. 16. Phil. 4. 4. This spiritual joy or comfort is nothing else but the cheeriness of our heart in God and the sense of our interest in him and in his Promises And it 's sure that no Providence can render this unseasonable to a Christian. Let us suppose the most afflicted and calamitous state a Christian can be incident to yet 1. Why should sad Providences make him lay by his comforts in God when as those are but for a moment but these eternal 2 Cor. 4. 17. 2. Why should we lay by our joy in God upon the account of sad Providences without when at the very worst and lowest ebb the Saints have infinitely more cause to rejoyce than to be cast down There 's more in one of their mercies to comfort them than in all their troubles to deject them All your losses are but as the loss of a farthing to a Prince Rom. 8. 18. 3. Why should they be sad as long as their God is with them in all their troubles As Christ said Matth. 9. 15. Can the Children of the Bridegroom be sad whilest the Bridegroom is with them So say I Can the soul be sad whilest God is with it Oh methinks that one Promise Psal. 91. 15. I will be with him in trouble should bear you up under all burdens
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
hath been in these things and that it is by his care alone you have been preserved When God had so signally delivered David from a dangerous disease and the plots of Enemies against him by this saith he I know thou favourest me because mine enemy doth not trJumph over me Psal. 41. 11. he gathered from those gracious protections the care God had over him 3. Have you not plainly discerned the hand of God in the returns and accomplishments of your prayers Nothing can be more evident than this to men of observation Psal. 34. 4 5 6. I sought the Lord and he heard me and delivered me from all my fears They looked unto him and were lightned and their faces were not ashamed This poor man cryed and the Lord heard him and saved him out of all his troubles Parallel to this runs the experience of thousands and ten thousands of Christians this day they know they have the petitions they asked of him The Mercy carries the very impress and stamp of the Duty upon it So that we can say This is the Mercy the very Mercy I have so often sought God about O how satisfying and convincing are these things 4. Have you not evidently discerned the Lords hand in the guiding and directing of your paths to your unforeseen advantage Things that you never projected for your selves have been brought about beyond all your thoughts Many such things are with God and which of all the Saints hath not â—ound that word Jer. 10. 23. verified by clear and undeniable experience The way of man is not in himself I presume if you will but look over the mercies you possess thiâ— day you will find three to one it may be ten to one thus wrought by the Lord for you And how satisfying beyond all Arguments in the world are these experiences That there is a God to whom his people are exceeding dear a God that performeth all things for them 5. Is it not fully convictive that there is a God who takes care of you in as much as you have found in all the temptations and difficulties of your lives his promises still fulfilled and faithfully performed in all those conditions I appeal to your selves if you have not seen that Promise made good Psal. 91. 15. I will be with him in trouble and that 1 Cor. 10. 13. God is faithful who will not suffer you to be tempted above that you are able but will with the temptatJon also make a way to escape that ye may be able to bear it Have not these been as clearly made out by Providence before your eyes as the Sun at Noon day What room then is left for Atheistical suggestions in your breasts The Fourth Motive THe Recording and Recognizing of the performances of Providence will be a singular support to faith in future exigencJes This excellent use of it lyes full in the very eye of the Text. There never befell David in all his troubles a greater strait and distress than this and doubtless his faith had staggered had not the considerations of former Providence come in to its relief From this Topick faith argues and that very strongly and conclusively So did David's faith in many exigencies when he was to encounter the ChampJon of the Philistins it was from former Providence that he encouraged himself 1 Sam. 17. 37. And the Apostle Paul improves his experiences to the same purpose 2 Cor. 1. 9 10. Indeed the whole Scripture is full of it What Christian understands not the exceeding usefulness of those experiences he hath had to relieve and enliven But I shall not satisfie my self with the common assertion than which nothing is more tritc in the lips of professors but will labour to shew you wherein the great usefulness of our Recorded Experiences for encouraging faith labouring under difficulties consists To this purpose I shall desire the Reader to ponder seriously these following particulars How much advantage those things have upon our souls which we have already felt and tasted beyond those which were never relished by any former experience What is Experience but the bringing down of the objects of faith to the dijudication and test of spiritual sense Now when any thing hath been once tasted felt and judged by a former Experience it is much more easily believed and received when it occurrs again It 's much easier for faith to travel in a path that is well known to it having formerly trod it than to beat out a new one which it never trod nor can see one step before it Hence it is though there be a difficulty in all the acts of faith yet scarce in any like the first adventure it makes upon Christ and the reason lyes here because in the subsequent acts it hath all its former experiences to aid and encourage it but in the first adventure it hath none at all of its own it takes a path which it never knew before To trust God without any tryal or experience is a more noble act of faith but to trust him after we have often tryed him is known to be more easie O'tis no small advantage to a soul in a new plunge and distress to be able to say This is not the first time I have been in these deeps and yet emerged out of them Hence it was that Christ rub'd up his Disciples memories with what Providence had formerly wrought for them in a day of straits Matth. 16. 8 9 10 11. O ye of little faith why reason ye among your selves because ye have brought no bread do ye not yet understand neither remember q. d. Were yo never under any strait for bread before now Is this the first difficulty that ever your faith combated with No no you have felt straits and experienced the power and care of God in supplying them before now and therefore I cannot but call you men of little faith for a very ordinary and small measure of faith assisted with so much experience as you have had would enable you to trust God There is as much difference betwixt believing before and after experience as there is betwixt swimming with bladders and our first venture into the deep waters without them What a singular encouragement to faith do former Experiences yield it by answering all the pleas and objections of unbelief drawn from the object of faith Now there be two things that unbelief stumbles at in God One is his Power the other his Willingness to help 1. Unbelief objects the impossibility of relief in deep distresses Psal. 78. 19. Can God furnish a Table in the Wilderness can be give bread also can be provide flesh for his people O vile and unworthy thoughts of God! proceeding from our measuring the immense and boundless power of God by our own line and measure because we see not which way relief should come we conclude none is to be expected But all these reasonings of Unbelief are vanquisht by a serious reflection upon our own Experiences
purging and cleansing not that they can purge us from sin in their own vertue and power for if so those that have most afflictions would have most grace also but it is in the vertue of Christ's blood and God's blessing upon afflictive Providences that they purge us from sin A Cross without a Crist never did any man good Now in God's afflictive Providences for sin there are many things that tend to the purging of it For 1. Such rebukes of Providence discover the displeasure of God against us the Lord frowns upon us in those Providences Our father is angry and these are the tokens of it and nothing works more to the melting of a gracious hearâ— than this Must not the heart of a Child melt and break whil'st the father is angry O this is more bitter to our Spirits than all the smart and anguish of the affliction can be to our flesh See Psal. 38. 1 2 3. O Lord rebuke me not in thy wrath neither chasten me in thy hot displeasure for thine arrows stick fast in me and thine band presseth me sore There is no soundness in my flesh because of thine anger neither is there any rest in my bones because of my sin 2. By these rebukes of sin the evil of sin is discovered more sensibly to us and we are made to see more clearly the evil of it in these glasses of affliction which Providence at such times sets before us than formerly we ever saw Jer. 2. 19. Thine own wickedness shall correct thee and thy backslidings shall reprove thee know therefore and see that it is an evil thing and bitter that thou hast forsaken the Lord thy God and that my fear is not in thee saith the Lord of Hosts O the Gall and Wormwood that we taste in it under God's rebukes for it 3. Providence blasts and frustrates all sinful projects to the people of God whoever thrives in them they shall not Isa. 30. 1 2 3 4 5. And this also convinces them of the folly that is in sin and makes them cleave to the way of simplicity and integrity Holiness is promoted in the soul by cautioning and warning the soul against sin for time to come Job 34. 31 I have born chastisement I will not offend any more O happy Providences how smart soever that make the soul for ever aâ—raid of sin surely such rods are well bestow'd This gives God his end and if ever we sorrowed after a godly sort in the day of our troubles it will work this carefulness 2 Cor. 7. 11. Behold this self same thing that ye sorrowed after a godly sort what carefulness it wrought in you c. O if ever a man have been under a sanctified rod which hath shewed him the evil of sin and kindly humbled him for it and a temptation should again sollicite him to the same evil Why thinks he what a madness is it for me to buy repentance at so dear a rate Have I not smarted enough already You may as well ask me whether I will run again into the â—ire after I have been already scorcht in it To conclude Providences do greatly improve and promote holiness by drawing the Soul into the presence of God and giving it the opportunity and occasion of much communion with him Comfortable Providences will do this they will melt a man's heart in love to the God of his mercies and so pain his bowels that he shall not be quiet till he have found a place to pour out his Soul in thankfulness to the Lord. 2 Sam. 7. 18. Afflictive Providences will drive us to the feet of God and there make us to judge and condemn our selves And all this hath an excellent use to destroy sin and promote holiness in the Soul The Tenth Motive LAstly The ConsideratJon and study of Providence will be of singular use to us in a dying hour Hereby we treasure up that which will singularly sweeten our death to us and greatly assist our faith in the last encounter You find when Jacob dyed what reflections he had upon the dealings of God with him in the various Providences of his life See Gen. 4. 8. 3 7 15 16. In like manner you â—ind Joshua recording the Providences of God when at the brink of the grave they were the subject of his dying discourse Josh. 24. And I cannot but think it a sweet close to the life of any Christian It must needs sweeten a death-bed to recount there the several remarkable passages of God's care and love to us from our beginning to that day to reflect upon the mercies that went along with us all the way when we are come to the end of it O Christians treasure up these instances for such a time as that is that you may go out of the world blessing God for all the goodness and truth he hath performed to you all your life long Now the meditations of these things must needs be of great use in that day if you consider the following particulars The time of Death is the time when Souls are usually most violently assaulted by Satan with horrid temptations and black suggestions We may say of that â—igurative as it 's said of the natural Serpent nunquam nisi morJens producitur in longum He never exerts his utmost rage till the last encounter and then his great design is to perswade the Saints that God loves them not hath no care nor regard for them nor their cryes though they pray for ease and cry for sparing mercy they see none comes He handles them with as much roughness and severity as other men yea many of the vilest and most dissolute wretches endure less torments and are more gently handled than they Psal. 73. 4. there are no bands in their death when as thou must go through a long lane of sickness to the grave and endure many deaths in one But what credit can these plausible tales of Satan obtain with a Christian who hath been treasuring up all his life long the memorJals of God's tender regard both to his wants and prayers and that hath careâ—ully remarked the evident returns of his prayers and gracious condescensions of God to him â—rom his beginning to that moment In this case his saith is mightily assisted by thousands of experiences which back and encourage it and will not suffer the soul to give up so easily a truth which he hath so often sensibly felt and tasted I am sure saith he God hath had a tender fatherly care of me ever since I became his he never failed me yet in any former strait and I cannot believe he will do so now I know his love is like himself unchangeable Job 13. 1. having loved his own which were in the world he loved them unto the end for this God is our God for ever and ever he will be our guide even unto death Psal. 48. 14. Did he love me in my youth and will he cast me off in my decrepit age O
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.
of the Spirit was engaged to go to Jerusalem Acts 20. 22. After a clear revelation of the mind of God to him in that matter how many difficult and discouraging Providences beâ—ell him in his way The Disciples at Tyre said to him by the Spirit though in that they â—ollowed their own spirits that he should not go to Jerusalem Acts 21. 4. Then at Cesarea he met Agabus a Prophet who told him what should beâ—all him when he came thither Chap. 21. 10 11. all this will not disswade him And after all this how passionately do the Brethren beseech him to decline that journey Ver. 12 13. Yet knowing his rule and resolving to be faithful to it he puts by all and proceeds in his journey Well then Providence in concurrence with the Word may give some encouragement to us in our way but no testimony of Providence is to be accepted against the Word If Scripture and Conscience tell you such a way is sinful you may not venture upon it how many opportunities and encouragements soever Providence may suffer to offer themselves to you for they are only permitted for your Tryal not your encouragement Take this therefore for a sure Rule That no Providence can legitimate or justifie any moral evil Nor will it be a plea before God for any man to say The Providence of God gave me encouragement to do it though the Word gave me none If thereâ—ore in doubtful cases you would discover Gods will govern your selves in your search after it by these Rules Get the true fear of God upon your hearts be really afraid of offending him God will not hide his mind from such a â—oul Psal. 25. 14. The secret of the Lord is with them that fear him and he will shew them his Covenant Study the Word more and the concerns and interests of the World less The Word is a light to your feet Psal. 119. 105. i. e. it hath a discovering and directive usefulness as to all duties to be done and dangers to be avoided it is the great Oracle at which you are to enquire treasure up its rules in your hearts and you will walk safely Psal. 119. 11. thy word have I hid in my heart that I might not sin against thee Reduce what you know into practice and you shall know what is your duty to practise Joh. 7. 17. If any man do his will he shall know of the doctrine Psal. 111. 10. A good understanding have all they that do thereafter Pray for illumination and direction in the way that you should go beg the Lord to guide you in straits and that he would not suffer you to fall into sin This was the holy practice of Ezra chap. 8. 21. Then I proclaimed a fast there at the river Ahava that we might afflict our selves before our God to seek of him a right way for us and for our little ones and for all our substance And this being done â—ollow Providence so far as it agrees with the word and no farther There is no use to be made of Providence against the word but in subserviency to it And there are two excellent uses of Providence in subserviency to the word 1. Providences as they follow Promises and Prayer are Evidences of God's faithfulness in their Accomplishment When David languished under a disease and his Enemies began to triumph in the hopes of his downfall he prays Psal. 41. 10. that God would be merciful to him and raise him up and by that he saith he knew the Lord favoured him because his Enemy did not triumph over him ver 11. this Providence he looked upon as a token for good as elsewhere he calls it Psal. 86. 17. And 2. Providences give us loud calls to those duties which the Command lays upon us and tell us when we are actually and presently under the obligation of the Commands as to the performance of them Thus when sad Providences befall the Church or our selves they call us to humiliation and let us know that then the command upon us to humble our selves at the feet of God is in force upon us Micah 6. 9. The Lords voice cryeth to the City and the man of wisdom shall see thy name hear the rod and who hath appointed it The Rod hath a voice and what doth it speak Why now is the time to humble your selves under the mighty hand of God This is the day of trouble in which God hath bid you to call upon him And â— contra when comfortable Providences refresh us it now informs us this is the time to rejoyce in God according to the rule Eccles. 7. 14. in the day of prosperiâ—y be joyful These precepts bind always but not to always It 's our duty therefore and our wisdom to distinguish seasons and know the proper duties of every season and Providence is an Index that points them out to us Thus of the first Case The Second Case HOw may a Christian be supported in waiting upon God whil'st Providence delays the performance of the mercies to him for which he hath long pray'd and waited Two things are supposed in this Case 1. That Providence may linger and delay the performance of those mercies to us that we have long waited and prayed for 2. That during that delay and suspension our hearts and hopes may be very low and ready to fail Providence may long delay the performance of those mercies we have prayed and waited upon God for For the right understanding of this know that there is a two-fold term or season fixed for the performance of mercy to us One by the Lord our God in whose hand times and seasons are Acts 1. 7. Another by our selves who raise up our own expectations of mercies sometimes meerly through the eagerness of our desires after them and sometimes upon uncertain conjectural grounds and appearances of encouragement that lye before us Now nothing can be more precise certain and punctual than is the performance of mercy at the time and season which God hath appointed how long soever it be or how many obstacles soever lye in the way of it There was a time prefixed by God himself for the performance of that Promise of Israel's deliverance out of Egypt and it 's said Exod. 12. 41. At the end of the four hundred and thirty years even the self same day it came to pass that all the host of the Lord went out of the Land of Egypt Compare this with Acts 7. 17. and there you have the ground and reason why their deliverance was not nor could be delayed one day longer because the time of the Promise was now come Promises like a pregnant woman must accomplish their appointed months and when they have so done Providence will Midwife the mercies they go big withal into the world and not one of them shall miscarry But for the seasons which are of our own â—ixing and appointment as God is not tyed to them so his Providences are not
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