Observing the Performances of Providence
And thus, I have furnished the second general head; but, before I pass from this, I cannot but make a pause, and desire you, with me, to stand in a holy amazement, and wonder at the dealings of God with such poor worms as we are! Surely God deals familiarly with men! His condescensions to his own clay are astonishing! All that I shall note at present about it shall be under these three heads, wherein I find the matter of my present meditations summed up by the psalmist, ‘* Lord, what is man that thou takest knowledge of him? or the’ son of man that thou makest account of him?” Psal. exliv. 3.. ie In this Scripture you have represented the immense and transcendent greatness of God, who is infinitely above us and all our thoughts: ‘+ Canst thou by searching find out God? Canst thou find out the Almighty to perfection? It is as high as heaven, what canst thou do? deeper than hell, what
-eanst thou know? the measure thereof is longer
than the earth, and broader than the sea,’’ Job xi. 7 — 9. ‘* The heaven, and heaven of heavens cannot contain him,’’ 2 Chron. ii. 6. ‘ He is glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders,”’ Exod. xv. 11. When the Scriptures speak of him comparatively, see how it expresses his greatness: ‘* Behold the nations are as the drop of a bucket, and are counted as the small dust of the balance; behold he taketh up the isles as a very little thing. And Lebanon is not sufficient to burn, nor the beasts thereof sufficient for a burnt-offering. All nations before him are as nothing, and they are accounted
to him less than nothing, and vanity,”’ Isa. xl.
-15 — 17. ° When the holiest men have addressed
themselves to him, see with what humility and deep adoration they have spoken of him and to him! “Wo is me, for J am undone, because I am a man of unclean lips, and [ dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts,’ Isa.. vi. 5: Nay, what respects the very angels of heaven have of that glorious majesty, you may see, ver. 2, 3. ‘* Fach one had six wings, with twain he covered” his face, and with twain he covered bis feet, and with twain he did fly. And one cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts the whole earth is full of his glory.”
Also here is shown the baseness, vileness, and utter unworthiness. of man, yea, the holiest and best of men, before God. Verily, every man at his best estate, is altogether vanity,” Psal. xxxix. 5. Every man, take where you will, and every man, in his best estate, or standing in his freshest glory, is not only vanity, but altogether vanity, or every man is very vanity; for do but consider the best of men in their extraction, in their constitution, and in their outward condition. In their extraction, ‘by nature children of wrath, even as others,” Eph. ii. 83. The blood that runs in our veins is as much tainted as theirs in hell. Consider them in their constitution, and natural temper, and it is no better: yea, in many a worse temper than in reprobates; and though grace deposed sin in them from the throne, yet, oh, what offensive and God-provoking corruptions daily break out in the best hearts! Consider them in their outward condition, and they are inferior, for the most part, to others, 1 Cor. i. 26 — 28, «T thank thee, O Father,’’ saith Christ, “that thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes,” Matt. xi, 25.
And now let us consider and admire, that ever this great and blessed God should be so much concerned as you have heard he is, in all his providenves, about such vile, despicable worms as we are! He needs us not, but is perfectly blessed and happy in himself without us. We can add nothing to him. ‘*C@an a man be profitable to God 2”’ Job xxii. 2.- No; the holiest of men add nothing to him; yet see how great account he makes of us. For,
1. Doth not his eternal, electing love bespeak the dear account he made of us? Eph. i. 4, 5. How ancient, how free, and how astonishing is this act of grace! ‘This is that design which all providences are in pursuit of, and will not rest ull they have executed.
2. Doth not the gift of his only Son, out of his bosom, bespeak this truth, that God makes great account of this vile thing, man? Never was man so magnified before. If David could say, “When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy hands, the moon, and the stars, which thou hast ordained, Lord, what is man 2”’ Psal. viii. 3, how much more may we say, when we consider thy Son, that lay in thy bosom, his infinite excellency, and unspeakable dearness to. thee; Lord, what is man, that such a Christ should be delivered to death for him? for him, and not for fallen angels? Heb. ii. 16; for him, when in a state of enmity with God? Rom. v. 8.
3. Doth not the assiduity of His providential care for us speak his esteem of us? ‘* Lest any hurt it, 1 will keep it night and day,” Isa. xxvii. 3. ‘*He withdraweth not his eyes from the righteous,” Job xxxvi. 7. No, not for a moment all-their days; for, did he so, a thousand mischiefs, in that moment, would rush in upon them, and ruin them.
4. Doth not the tenderness of his. Providence speak his esteem for us? ‘ As one whom his mother comforteth, so will I comfort you,” Isa. lxvi. 13. - He comforts his, by refreshing providences, as an indulgent mother -her tender-child. So Isa. xxxl. 5. As birds fly to their nests, when their young are in danger, so he defends his. No tenderness in the creature can shadow forth the tender bowels of the Creator,
5. Doth not the, variety of the fruits of his providence speak it? ‘*Our mercies are new every morning,’ Lam, ill. 23. See Psal. xl. 5. Itisa fountain from which do stream forth spiritual and temporal, ordinary and extraerdinary, .public and personal mercies, mercies without number.
6. Doth not the ministration of angels in the providential kingdom speak it? Are they not all ministering spirits sent forth to minister,’? Heb. i. 14, “Tse
Doth not the Providence which this day calls us to celebrate the memory of, bespeak the great account God hath for his people? QO, if not so, why had we not been given up as a prey to their teeth? See Psal. cxxiv. If the Lord had not been on our side, then wicked men, there compared to fire, water, and wild beasts, had devoured us. O blessed be God for that teeming providence which hath already brought forth more than seventy years’ liberty and peace to the church of God. I shall move in behalf of this providence, that you would do by it as the Jews by their Purim, Esth. ix. 27, 28, and the rather, because we seem now to be as near danger by the same enemy as ever’ since that time; and if such a mercy as this be forgotten, God may say, ‘I will deliver you no more,’ Judges x. 13.
Having proved the concerns of the people of God to be conducted by the care of special Providence, and given various instances to show what influence Providence hath upon .those interests and concerns of theirs among the rest; we come, in the next place, to prove it to be the duty of the people of Ged to reflect upon these performances of Providence for them at all times, but especially in times of straits and troubles.
This I will evidence to be your Gnaueguonable duty, by the following particulars:
1. This is our duty, because God hath expressly commanded it, and called his people to make the most serious reflections upon his works, whether of mercy or judgment. So, when that most dreadful of all judgments was executed upon his professing, people, for their apostasy from.God, and God had removed the symbols of his presence from among them, the rest are’bid to go, that is, by their meditations, (to send at least their thoughts,) to Shiloh, and ‘see what God did to it,’ Jer. vii. 12. So for mercies, God calls us to consider and review them. ‘+ Remember, O, my people, from: Shittim unto Gilgal, that ye may know the faithfulness of the Lord,’’? Mic. vi. 5,:as if he had said, If you reflect not upon that signal providence, my faithfulness will be covered, and your unfaithfulness discovered. So, for God’s works of providence about the creatures, we are called to consider them, that we may prop up our faith by those considerations, for our own supplies; ‘consider the fowls and the lilies,” Matt. Vi. ee 28.
. It is plain that this is our duty, because the Noriast of it is every where in Scripture condemned as a sin. To be of a heedless, unobservant temper, is very displeasing to God; and so much appears from -this Scripture, ‘* Lord, when thy hand is lifted up they will not see,” Isa. xxvi. 11. Nay, it is a sin which God threatens and denounces woe against in his word, Psal. xxviii. 4, 5, and Isa. v. 12, 13, yea; God not only threatens, but smites men with visible judgments for this sin, Job xxxiv. 26, 27.
3. For this end and purpose it is that the Holy Ghost hath affixed those notes of attention to the narrative of the works of Providence, in Scripture, all which invite and call men to a due and clear observation of them. So in that great and ¢elebrated work of Providence, in delivering Israel out of Egyptian bondage, you find a note of attention twice affixed to it, Exod, iii. 2, 9.. So, when that daring enemy Rabshakeh, who put Hezekiah and all the people into such a consternation, was defeated by Pravidence, there is a note of- attention prefixed to that providence: “Behold I will send a blast upon him,” &c. 2 Kings, xix. 7. So when God glorifies his wisdom and power, in delivering his people from their enemies, and ensnaring them in the works of their own hands, a double note of attention is affixed to that double work of Providence, * Higgaion; Selah,’’ Psal. ix. 16. 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! ‘Come and see, come and see,”’ Rev. vi. 1 — 7, &c. All these are very useless and superfluous additions in Scripture, if no such duty lies upon us. See Psal. lxvi. 5.
4, 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 evii. is spent
THE MYSTERY OF PROVIDENCE. 12t
in narratives of God’s providential. care of men: to his people in straits, ver. 4 — 6, to prisoners in their bonds, ver. 10 — 12, to men that lie languishing in beds of sickness, ver. 17 — 19, to seamen upon the stormy-ocean, ver. 23, &c. to men in times of famine, ver. 33 — 38, yea, his Providence is displayed in all those changes that fall out in the world, debasing 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. 48, shows you what a necessary ingredient to that duty observation is: “Whoso is wise, and will observe those things, even they shall understand the loving-kindness of the Lord:”? so that, of necessity, God must be defrauded of his praise, if this duty be neglected.,
5. Without this, we lose the usefulness and benefit of all the works of God for us or others, which would be an unspeakable loss indeed to us. This is the food our faith lives upon in days of distress. ‘* Thou brakest the heads of leviathan in pieces, and gavest him to.be meat to the people inhabiting the wilderness,’’ Psal. lxxiv. 14, that is, food to their faith. From providences past, saints used to argue for fresh and new ones to come. So David expresses himself: ‘The Lord that delivered me out of the paw of the lion, and out of the paw of- the bear, he will deliver me out of the hand of this Philistine,’ 1 Sam. xvii. 37. So Paul, ‘* Who hath delivered, and in whom also we trust that he will yet deliver,’ 2 Cor. i. 10. If these be furgotten, or not considered, the hands of faith hang down. ‘* How is it that ye do’ not remember, neither consider?”? Matt. xvi. 9. This is a topic from which the saints had used to draw their-arguments in prayer for new mercies. As Moses, when he prays for continued or new pardons for the people, he argues from what was past, ‘as thou hast forgiven them from Egypt until now,’’ Numb. xiv. 19, so the church argues for new providences upon the same ground as Mose
pleaded for new. pardons, Isa. li. 9, 10.
6. 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. judgments: “Twill come nigh to you in judgment,” Mal. iii. 5. He comes nigh in mercies also: “The Lord is nigh unto all them that call upon him,” &c. Psal. cxlv. 18, yea, he is said to visit us by his providence when he corrects, Hos. ix. 7, and when he saves and delivers, Psal. evi. 4.. These visitations of God preserve our spirits, Job x. 12, and it is a wonderful condescension in the great God to visit us so often, ‘* every morning and ‘every .moment,’ Job vil. 18. But not to take notice of it, is a vile and brutish contempt of God, Isa. i. 3, and Zeph. iii. 2. You would not do so by a man for whom you have any respect. It is the character of the wicked not to regard God’s favours, Isa. xxvi. 10, or frowns, Jer. v. 3.
7. In a word, men can never order their addresses to God in prayer, suitably to. their conditions, without due observation 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 judgments you are to wait for him, Isa. xxvi. 8, to prepare to meet him, Zeph. ii. 1, 2. Amos iv. 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. xii. 1, 2, but then you must 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. r
Let us next, according to our method proposed, proceed to show 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: 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:
First direction. Labour to get as full and thorough recognitions of the providences of God about you, from first to last, as you are able. O fill your hearts with the thoughts of him and his ways! 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 siar be so beautiful to behold, what 1s a constellation? 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, for so did Asaph; ‘¢ J will remember the works of the Lord: surely I will remember thy wonders of old; I will meditate of all thy work, and talk of thy doings,” Psal. lxxvii. 11, 12. He laboured-to recover and revive the ancient providences of God’s mercies many years past, and sucked: 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 yourselves, 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 passed 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 pleasure therein,” Psal. exi. 2. Not that I think it feasible to sound the depth of Providence by our short line, for ‘Phy way is in the sea, and thy path in the great waters, and thy footsteps are not known,” Psal. lxxvii. 19, but it is our duty to dive as far as we ean, and to admire the depth, when we cannot touch the bottom. It is in viewing providences, as it was with Elijah’s servant, when he looked out for rain, 1 Kings xviii. 44, he went out once, and viewed the heavens, and saw nothing; but the prophet bids him go again, and again, 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 man’s 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, that is, meditate often upon them, and you shall see their 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. ‘The seasonableness of mercy may give it a very great va-Jue; when it shall be timed so opportunely, and fall owt so seasonably, 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 fail, then to have relief given in, wonderfully enhances the price of such a mercy, Isa. xli. 17, 18.
The peculiar care and kindness of Providence to us, is a consideration which exceedingly heightens the mercy in itself, and endears it to us. So when, in general calamities upon the world, we are exempted by the favour of Providence, covered under its wings; when God shall call to us in evil days, ‘‘Come, my people, enter thou into thy chamber,” Isa. xxvi. 19, 20, when such promises shall be fulfilled to us in times of want and famine, as in Psal. xxxiii. 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. Keli 7y 8:
‘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 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. xvii. 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 Jed into them..
The instruments employed by Providence for you are of a special consideration; and the finger of God is clearly seen by us when we pursue that 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 mere stranger to David, cleaved 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, who are more obliged to them. «A prophet,”’ saith Christ, ‘* is not without honour, save in his own country, among his own kin, and in his own house,’’? Mark vi. 4.
Sometimes by the hands of enemies as well as strangers. ‘* The earth helped the woman,” Rev. xii. 16. God hath bowed the hearts of many wicked men to show great kindness to his people, Acts xxvill. 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 ruin, Gen. 1. 20.
The design and scope of Providence, what the aim and level of Providence is, must not escape our thorough consideration. 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 this Scripture: And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God,”’ Rom. viii. 28. A thousand friendly hands are at work for them to promote and bring about their happiness.. Oh! this is enough to. sweeten the bitterness of Providence to us, that we know it shall turn to our salvation! Phil. 19.
The respect and relation 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. xxiv. 45; Dan. ix. 20; Acts xii. 12. You have had the very petitions you asked of him. Providences have borne the very signatures of your prayers upon them. Oh how affectingly sweet are such mercies !-
Second direction. In all your observation of Providence, have 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, ali his days; and. that his hand (put there for his providence) had fulfilled whatever his mouth had spoken, 1 Kings viii. 24. So Joshua, in like manner, acknowlédges, that ‘ not one thing had failed of all the good things which the Lord had spoken,” Jos. xxiii. 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 the things which he hath promised; and so read the text thus: «I will cry unto God most high, to God who performeth the things that he hath promised for me.’’
Now, though [ see no reason to limit the sense so narrowly, yet it cannot be denied that this is a special part of its meaning. Let us, therefore, in all our reviews of Providence, consider what word of God, whether it be of threatening, caution, counsel, or promise, is at any time made good to us by his providences. And hereby a two-fold excellent advantage will result to us.. 1. This will greatly confirm to us the truth of the Scripture, when we shal! see its truth so manifest in the events. Certainly, had Scripture no other seal or attestation, this alone would be an unanswerable argument of its divinity. When men shall find, in all ages, the work of God wrought so exactly according to this model, that we may say, as we have read, or heard, so have we seen. Oh how great a confirmation is here before our eyes! 2. This will abun- -danily direct and instruct us in our present duties, under all providences. We shall know hereby what we have to do, and how to carry ourselves under all changes of conditions. You can learn the voice and errand of the rod only from the word, Psal. xciv. 12.. The word interprets the works of God. Providences in themselves are not a perfect guide: they often puzzle and entangle our thoughts; but bring them to the word, and your duty will be quickly manifested, ‘until I went into the sanctuary, then I understood their end,’’ Psal. Ixxili. 16, 17, and, not only their end, but his own duty, to be quiet in an afflicted condition, and not envy their prosperity.
Well, then, bring those providences you have past through, or are now under, to the word, and you will find yourselves surrounded with. a marvellous light, and see the verification of the Scriptures in them. I shall, therefore, here appeal to your consciences, whether you have not found these events of Providence falling out agreeable in all iste with the word.
. The word tells you, that it is your wisdom Aa ‘interest to keep close to its rules, and the duties it prescribes, that the way of holiness and obedience is the wisest way: ‘** This is your wisdem,”’ Deut. iv. 5, 6.
Now, let the events of Providence speak whether this be true or not. Certainly it will appear to be so, whether we respect our present comfort, or future happiness, both which we may see daily exposed by departure from duty, and secured by keeping close to it. Let the question be asked of the drunkard, adulterer, or profane swearer, when, by sin, they have ruined. body, soul, estate, and name, whether it be their wisdom to walk in those forbidden. paths, after their own lusts; whether they had not better consult their own interest and comfort in keeping within the bounds and limits of God’s commands; and they cannot but confess, that this their way is their folly. “What fruit,”’ saith the apostle, “had ye in those things whereof you are now ashamed? for the end of those things is death,’ Rom. vi. 21. Doth not the providence of God verify upon them those threatenings which are wrilten in the experience of all ages? Prov. xxi, 21, 29, 30; Prov. v.9; Job xxxi. 12; all which woes and miseries they escape that walk in God’s statutes. Look upon all the ruined estates and bodies you may every where see, and behold the truth of the Scriptures evidently made good in those sad providences,
2. ‘The word tells you, that your departure from the way of integrity.and simplicity, to make use of sinful policies, shall never profit you, 1 Sam. xii. 21; Prov. ii. 5.
Let the events of Providence speak to this also; ask your own experience, and you shall have a full confirmation of this truth, “Did you ever leave the way of simplicity and integrity, and use sinful shifts to bring about your own designs, and prosper in that way? Certainly God hath cursed all the ways of sin? and whoever finds them to thrive with them, his peopte shall not. Israel would not rely upon the Lord, but trust in the shadow’ of - Egypt; and what advantage had they by this sinful policy? See Isa. xxx. 1 — 5. David used a great deal of sinful policy to cover his wicked deed; but did it prosper? See 2 Sam. xii. 12. Sinful policies, in their first appearances, are pleasant and promising; in their management, difficult; in their event, sad. Some, by sinful ways, have gotten wealth: but that Scripture hath, been verified in their experience, Treasures of wickedness profit nothing,’? Prov. x. 2. Either. God hath blown upon it by a secret curse, that it hath done them no good, or given them such disquietness: in their consciences that they have been forced to vomit it up ere they could find peace, Job xi. 13 — 15.
That which David gave in charge to Solomon hath been found experimentally true by thousands, 1 Chron. xxii. 12, 135 that the true way to prosperity is to keep close to the rule of the word! and that the true reason why men cannot prosper, is their forsaking that rule, 2 Chron. xxiv. 20.
It is true, if God have a purpose to destroy a man, he may for a time suffer him to succeed and prosper in his sin for his greater hardening, Job xil. 6. But it is not so with those whom the Lord loves; their sinful shifts shall never thrive with them.
8. The word prohibits your trust and confidence in the creature, even in the greatest and most powerful among creatures, Psal. exlvi. 3; it tells us that it is better to trust in the Lord, than in them, Psal. exvill. 9. It forbids our confidence in those. creatures that are most nearly allied and related in the bonds of nature to us, Mic. vii. 5. It curseth the man that gives that reliance to the creature which is due to God, Jer. xvii. 5.
Consult the events. of Providence in this case, and see whether the word be not verified therein. Did you ever lean upon an Egyptian reed, and did it not break under you, and pierce as well as deceive you? Oh, how often hath this been evident in our experience! Whatsoever we have over-loved, idolized, and leaned upon, God hath, from time to time, broken it, and made us to see the vanity of it; so that we find the readiest course to be rid of our comforts is to set our hearts inordinately or immoderately upon them; for our God is a jealous God, and will not part with his glory to another. ‘The world is full of examples of persons deprived of their comforts, husbands, wives, children, estates, &c., upon this account and by this means. If Jonah be overjoyed in his gourd, a worm is presently prepared to smite it. -Hence it is that so many graves are opened for the burying of our idols out of our sight. If David say, ‘* My mountain shall stand strong, I shall not be moved;”’ the next news he shall hear, is of darkness and trouble, Psal. xxx. 6, 7. Oh, how true and faithful do we find these sayings of God to be! Who cannot but put to his seal, and say, Thy words are truth?
4. The word assures us, that sin is the cause and inlet of affliction and sorrow, and that there is an inseparable connexion betwixt them: * Be sure your sin will find you out,” Num. xxxii. 23, that is, the sad effects and afflictions that follow it shall find you out. ‘If his sons forsake my law, I will visit their iniquities with rods,’’ Psal. lxxxix. 30 — 32. /
Inquire now at the mouth of Providence whether this be indeed so, according to the reports of the word. Ask but your own experiences, and you shall find, that just so Providence hath ordered it all along your way. When did you grow into a secure, vain, carnal frame, but you found some rousing, startling providence sent to awaken you? When did you wound your consciences with guilt, and God did not wound you for it in some other of your beloved enjoyments? Nay, so ordinary is this with God, that, from the observations of their own frames and ways, many Christians have foreboded and presaged troubles at hand.
Ido not say that God never afflicts his people but for their sin; for he may do it for their trial, 1 Pet. iv. 12; nor do I say that God follows every sin with a rod; for who then should stand before him! Psal. cxxx. 3, but this I say, that it is God’s usual way to visit the sins of his people with rods of affliction, and this is in mercy to their souls, Upon this account it was, that the rod of God was upon David in a long succession of troubles upon his kingdom and family, after that great prevarication of his, 2 Sam. xii. 9,.10. And if we would carefully search out the seeds and ‘principles of those miseries, under which we or ours do groan, we should find them to be our own turnings aside from the Lord, according to Jer. ii. 19 — iv. 18. Have not all these cautions and threatenings of the word been exactly fulfilled by Providence in your own experience? Who can but see the infallible truth of God in all that he hath threatened? And no less evident is the truth of the promises to all that will observe how Providence makes them good every day to us; for, consider,
5. What great security God hath given to his people, in the promises, that no man shall lose any thing by self-denial, for his sake. He hath told us, ‘¢ Verily, I say unto you, there is no man that hath left house, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my sake and the gospel’s; but he shall receive a hundred fold in.this time, houses, and brethren, and sisters, and mothers, and children, and lands with persecutions, and, in the world to come, eternal life,’’ Mark x. 29, 30.
Though that-vile apostate, Julian, derided this promise, yet thousands and ten thousands have experienced it, and do at this day stand ready to set their seal to it. God hath made it good to his people, not only in spirituals, inward joy, and peace, but even in temporals also; instead of natural relations who took care for them before, hundreds of Christians shall stand ready to assist and help them; so that, though they have left all for Christ, yet they may say with the apostle, ‘as having nothing, and yet possessing all things,’ 2 Cor. vi. 10. Oh the admirable care and tenderness of Providence over those that, for conscience sake, have left all and cast themselves upon its immediate care! Are there not, at this day, to be found many so provided for, even to the envy of their enemies, and their own admiration. Who sees not the faithfulnesss of God in the promises, that hath but a heart to trust God in them?
6. ‘The word of promise assures us, that whatever wants and straits the saints fall into,-their God ‘will never leave them nor forsake them,’ Heb. xiil. 5, that * he will be. with them in trouble,” gal. -xcic, 35:
Consult the various providences of your life to this point, and I doubt not but you will find the truth of these promises as often confirmed as you have been in trouble. Ask your own hearts, where or when was it that your God forsook you, and left you to sink and perish under your burdens? I doubt not, but most of you have been at one time or other plunged in difficulties, difficulties out of which you could see no way of escape by the eye of reason; yea such as, it may be, staggered your faith in the promise, as David’s was, when he said, “I shall one day: perish by the hand of Saul,’’ 1 Sam. xxvil.. 1. All men are liars,’’ even Samvel himself; and yet, notwithstanding all, we see him emerge out of that sea of trouble, and the promises made good in every tittle to him. You may, doubtless, observe the like in your own cases. Ask your own souls the question, and they will satisfy it. Did God abandon and cast you off in the day of your straits? Certainly you must belie your own experience, if you should say so. It is true, there have been some plunges and difficulties you have met with, wherein you could see no way of escape, but concluded you must perish in them; difficulties that have staggered your faith in the promises, and made you doubt whether the Fountain of-all-sufficiency would let out itself for your relief; yea, such difficulties as have tempted you to murmuring and impatience, and thereby provoked the Lord to forsake you in your straits; but yet you see he did not. He hath either strengthened your back to bear, or lightened your burden, or opened an unexpected door of escape, according to that promise, 1 Cor. x. 18, so that the evil which you feared came not upon you..
7. You read, that the word of God is the only support and relief to a gracious soul in the dark day of affliction, Psal. cxix. 5U, 92; 2Sam. xxiii. 5. That for this very purpose it was written, Rom. xv. 4. No rules of moral prudence, no sensual remedies, can perform that for us which the word can do.
And is not this a sealed truth, attested by a thousand undeniable experiences? Hence have the saints fetched their cordials when fainting under the rod. One word of God can do more than ten thousand words of men to relieve a distressed soul. If Providence have at any time directed you to such promises as either assure you that the Lord will be with you in trouble, Psal. xci. 15, or, that encourage you from inward peace, to bear cheerfully outward burdens, John xvi. 33, or satisfy you of God’s tenderness and moderation in his dealings with you, Isa. xxvii. 8, or that you shall reap blessed fruits from them, Rom. viii. 28, or that clear up your interest in God, and his love under your afflictions, 2 Sam. vii. 14. Oh! what sensible ease and relief ensues! How light is your burden compared with what it was before!
8. The word tells us, that there is no such way to improve our estates, as to lay them out with a cheerful liberality for God: and that our withholding our hands, when God and duty calls to distribute, will not be for our advantage. See Prov. x1.25; Isai xxxii. 8; Prov. Xix. 17 ;. Prov. xi/24.
Consult Providence now, and you shall find it, in all respects, according to the report of the word. Oh how true is the Scripture testimony herein! There are many thousand witnesses now living, who can set their seals to both parts of this proposition. What men save (as they count saving) with one hand, Providence scatters -by another hand; and what they scatter abroad with a liberal hand and single eye for God, is surely repaid to them or theirs. Never did any man lose by distributing for God. He that lends to the poor, puts his money to interest to the Lord, as some expound that text. Some have observed, how Providence hath doubled all they have laid out for God in ways unexpected to them.
9. ‘The word assures us, that the best expedient for a man to settle his own interest, in the consciences and affections of men, is to direct his ways so as to please the Lord, Prov. xvi. 7, and doth not Providence confirm it? This the three Jews found by experience, Dan. ili. 28, 29, and so did Dan. vi. 20 — 22. This kept up John’s reputation in the conscience of Herod, Mark vi. 20. So it fell out when Constantius made that exploratory decree; those who were conscientious were preferred, and those who changed their religion, were expelled. Never did any man lose at last by his fidelity.
10. The written word tells us that the best expedient to inward peace and tranquillity of mind, under puzzling and distracting troubles, is to commit ourselves and our case to the Lord; so you read, Psalm xxxvii. 5 — 7, and Prov. xvi. 3.
And as you have read in the word, so you have found it in your own experience. Oh! what a burden is off your shoulders, when you have resigned the case to God! Then doth Providence issue your affairs comfortably for you. ‘The difficulty 1s soon over, when the heart is brought to this.
‘Thus you see how Scriptures are fulfilled by Providence in these few instances I have given of it. Compare them in all other cases, and you shall find the same; for all the lines of Providence lead from the Scriptures, and return thither again, and do most visibly begin and end there.
Third direction. In all your reviews and observations of Providence, be sure that you eye God as the author and orderer of them all, Prov. iil. 6.
1. In all the comfortable providences of your lives eye God as the author or donor of them. Remember he is the Father of mercies, that begets every mercy for you: ‘The God of all comfort,”
2 Cor. i. 3, without whose order no mercy or comfort can come to your hands. And think it not enough thus to a knowledge him in a general way; but, when you receive mercies, take special notice of the following particulars:
(1.) Eye the care of God for you, 1. Pet. v. 7. ‘He careth for you, your Father knows you have need of these things,’ Matt. vi. 32. It is but to acquaint him what you want, and your wants are supplied, Phil. iv. 6. ‘Torture not yourselves about it, you have a Father that cares for you.
(2.) Eye the wisdom of God in the way of dispensing his mercies to you, how suitably they are ordered to your condition, and how seasonably. When one comfort is cut off, and removed, another is raised up in its room. ‘Thus Isaac was comforted in Rebecea after his mother’s death, Gen. XXIV. 67.
(3.) Eye the free grace of God in them, yea see riches of grace in every bequest of comfort to such vile and unworthy creatures as you are. See yourselves over-topped by the least of all your mercies; ‘*] am not worthy of the least,’’ said Jacob, Gen. xxxii. 10..
(4.) Eye the condescension of God to your requests for those mercies, Psal. xxxiv. 6. This is the sweetest bit in any enjoyment, in which a man can sensibly relish the return and answer of his prayers, and greatly inflames the soul’s love to God, Psal. exvi. 1.
(5.) Eye the design and end of God in all your comforts. Know that it is not sent to satisfy the cravings of your sensual appetite, but to quicken and enable you for a more cheerful discharge of your duty, Deut. xxviil. 47.
(6.) Eye the way and method in which your mercies are conveyed to you. They all flow to you through the blood of Christ, and covenant of grace, 1 Cor. ili. 22, 23. Mercies derive their sweetness from the channel through which they run we us.
7.) Eye the distinguishing goodness of God in all the comfortable enjoyments of your lives. How many thousands, better than you, are denied those comforts? See Heb. xi. 37.
(8.) Eye them all as comforts, appointed to refresh you in your way to far better and greater mercies-than themselves. ‘The best mercies are still reserved till the last, and all these are introductive of better.
2. In all the sad and afflictive providences that befall you, eye God as the author and orderer of them also; so he represents himself to us; “Behold, I frame evil against you, and devise a device against you,’ Jer. xviii. 11; and * Is there evil in the city, and the Lord hath not done it?”” Amos ill. 6. More particularly,
(1.) Set befere you the sovereignty of God. Eye him as a being infinitely superior-to you, at beer pleasure, you, and all you have, is, Psal. exv. 3, which is the most conclusive reason and argument of submission, Psal. xlvi. 10, for if we, end all we have, proceeded from his will, how equal is it that we be resigned up to it?. Its not many years ago since we were not, and, when it pleased him to bring us upon the stage of action, we had no liberty of contracting with him on what terms we would come into the world; or, refuse to be, except we might have our being on such terms as we desired. His sovereignty is gloriously displayed in his eternal decrees and temporal providences. He might have put you into what rank of creatures he pleased. He might have made you the most despicable creatures, worms, or toads; or, if men, the most vile, abject, and miserable; and when you had run through all the miseries of this life, have damned you to eternity, made you miserable for ever, and all this without any wrong to you. And shall not this quiet us under the common afflictions of this life?
(2.) Set the grace and goodness of God before you in all afflictive providences. O see him passing by you in the cloudy and dark day, proclaiming his name, ‘*’The Lord, the Lord, merciful and gracious.” ‘There are two sorts of mercies that are seldom eclipsed by the darkest affliction, which befall the saints in their temporal concerns, namely, 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 hereafter. ‘This the church observed, and reasoned herself quiet from it, Lam. iii. 22, Hath he taken some? he might have taken all. Are we afflicted? It is a 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.
(3.) Eye the wisdom of God in all your afflietions: 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 ina greater; the supports afforded you under it, not left altogether helpless; the issue, to which it is overruled, it is to your good, not ruin. Look upon all these, and then ask thy heart that question God asked Jonah, * Dost thou well to be angry?” Surely, when you consider all, what need you have had of these rods, that your corruptions will require all this, it may be much more, to mortify them; that without the perishing of these things, you might have perished for ever; you will see great reason to be quiet and well satisfied under the hand of God.
(4.) Set the faithfulness of the Lord before you under the saddest providences. -So did David, Psal. exix. 75. This is according to his covenant faithfulness, Psal. lxxxix. 32. Hence it is, that the Lord will not withhold a rod when need requires it, 1 Pet. i. 6, nor will he forsake his people under the rod, when he inflicts it, 2 Cor. iv. 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 how! hereafier; his love is judicious, not fond; he consults my good, rather than my ease.
(5.) Eye the all-sufficiency 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, cannot you make up any loss this way? Cannot 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?.
(6.) Eye the immutability. of God. Look on him as the Rock. of ages, ‘the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, nor shadow of turning,’ James, 1.17. Eye Jesus Christ as * the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever.’’ Oh, how quietly will you then behave yourselves under the changes of Providence! It may be, two or three days 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 he was, ‘his place shall know him no more,” Job vii. 10. Well, but God is what he was, and where he was; time shall make no change upon him; ‘the grass withereth, the flower fadeth, but the word of the Lord abideth for ever,’ Isa. xl. 8. Oh! how composing are those views of God to our spirits, under dark providences! Fourth direction. Work up your hearts to those frames, and exercise those affections which the several providences of God, that are about you, call for, Eccles. vii. 14. Suit yourselves 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. 2 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, Ged doth call to it, Isa. xxii. 12; Micah vi. 9.. Now sensitive pleasure and natural joy is out of season, ‘should we then make mirth?” Ezek. xxi. 10. If there be either a filial spirit in us, we cannot be light and vain, when our Father is angry; or, if any real sense of the evil of sin, which provokes God’s anger, we must be heavy-hearted when God is smiting for it; or, if any sense ard compassion for the miseries that sin brings upon the world, it will make us say with David, «1 beheld the transgressors, and was grieved,’’ Psal. cxix. 158. It is’ sad to consider the miseries that they pull down upon themselves in this world, and that to come. If there*be any care in us to prevent utter, ruin, and stop God in the way of his anger, we know this is the means to do it, Amos iv. 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, yet will I rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation,’’? Hab. iii. 17, 18.
There are two sorts of comforts — natural and sensitive, divine and spiritual. ‘There is a time when it becomes Christians to exercise both; so Esth. ix, 22. And there isa time when the former is to be suspended, and laid by, Psal. exxxvii. 2. But there is no season wherein spiritual joy and comfort in God is unseasonable, as appears by those Scriptures, 1 Thess. v. 16, and Phil. iv. 4. This spiritual joy, or comfort, is nothing else but the cheerfulness of our heart in God, and-the sense of our interest in him and in his promises; ‘and it is sure that no providence can render this unseasonable to a Christian. Let us suppose the most afflictive and calamitous state a Christian can be incident to; yet, why should sad providences make him lay by his comforts in God?) Whereas those are but for a moment, but these eternal, 2 Cor. lve LZ., ‘:
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 rejoice, than to be cast down? ‘There is 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. viii. 18.
Why should they be sad as longas their God is with them in all their troubles?) As Christ saith, ‘*Can the children of the bride-chamber be sad, whilst the bridegroom is with them?’? Matt, ix. 15. So say 1: Can the soul be sad, whilst God is with it? Oh! methinks that one promise, ‘1 will be with him in trouble,’’ Psal. xci. 15, should bear you up under all burdens... Let them be cast down that have no God in trouble to turn to.
Why should they be sad as long as no outward dispensation of Providence, be it ever so sad, can be interpreted as a mark or sign of God’s hatred, or enmity? ‘There is one event to the righteous and the wicked,’ Eccles. ix. 2,3. Indeed, if it were a signification of the Lord’s wrath against a man, it would justify our dejection; but this cannot be so; his heart is full of love, whilst the face of Providence is full of frowns.
Why should we be cast down under sad providences, whilst we have such great security, that even, by the hands of these providences, God will do us good, and all these things shall * turn to our salvation,” Rom. viii. 28. By these, God is but killing your lusts, weaning your hearts from a vain world, preventing temptations, and exciting desires after heaven; this is all the hurt they shall do; and shall that sadden us?”
Why should we lay by our joy in God when the change of our condition is so nigh? It is but a little while, and sorrows shall flee away; you shall never suffer more :.** God will wipe away all tears,’ Rev. vii. 17. Well, then, you see there is no reason, upon the account of Providence, to give up your joy and comfort in God. But if you will maintain it under all providences, then be careful;
1. ‘To clear up your interest in and title to God. Faith may be separated from comfort, but assurance Cannot,
2. Mortify your inordinate affections to earthly things. ‘This makes providences, that deprive and cross us, so heavy. Mortify your opinion and affection, and you sensibly lighten your affliction, It is a strong affection that makes strong affliction.
3. Dwell much upon the meditation: of the Lord’s near approach, and then all these things will seem but trifles to you. “Let. your moderation be known unto all men: the Lord is at hand.”
Exercise heavenly-mindedness, and keep your hearts upon things eternal, under all the providences with which the Lord exercises you in this world, Gen. vi. 9. Noah walked with God, yet met with as sad providences, in his day, as any man that ever lived since his time. But, alas! we find most providences rather stop than step in our walk with God. If we be under comfortable providences, how sensual, wanton, and worldly do our hearts grow! and if sad providences befall us, how indolent or distracted are we! And this comes to pass, partly through the narrowness, but mostly through the deceitfulness of our spirits. Our hearts are narrow, and know not how to manage two businesses of such different natures, as earthly and heavenly matters are, without detriment to one. But, certainly, such a frame of spirit is attainable that will enable us to keep on in an even and steady course with God, whatever befall us.. Others have attained it, and why not we? Prosperous providences are for the most part a dangerous state to the soul. The moon never suffers an eclipse but at full; yet Jehoshaphat’s grace suffered no eclipse from the fulness of his outward condition, who ‘had riches in abundance, and his heart was lifted up in the way of God’s commandments,” 2 Chron. xvii. a7.
David’s life was as full of cares, turmoils, and incumbrances, as most men we read of; yet how spiritual the temper of his heart was, that excellent book of Psalms, the most of which was composed amidst those distractions, will acquaint us. ‘The apostles were cast into as great necessities, and suffered as hard things as ever men did; yet how raised and heavenly their spirits were amidst all, who sees not? And, certainly, if it were not possible to maintain heavenly-mindedness in such a state and posture of affairs, God would never exercise any of his people with such providences: he would never give you so much of the world to lose your hearts:in the love of it; or so little, to distract you with the cares of it. If, therefore, we were more deeply sanctified, and the tendencies of our hearts heaven-ward more ardent and vigorous; if we were more mortified to earthly things, and could but keep our due distance from them; our ‘outward conditions would not, at this rate, draw forth and exercise our inward corruptions, nor would we hazard the loss of so sweet an enjoyment as our fellowship with God is, for the sake of any concern our bodies have on earth.
Under all providences, maintain a contented heart with what the Lord allots you, be it more or less of the things of this world. ‘This grace must run parallel with all providences. ‘* Learn how to be full, and how to suffer want, and in every state to be content,’’ Phil. iv. 12,
In this duty, all men are concerned at all times, and in every state, not only the people of God, but even the unregenerate also. I will therefore address.some considerations proper to both. And, first, to the unregenerate, to stop their mouths from
repining, and charging God foolishly, when Providence crosses them. Let them seriously consider these four things:
(1.) That hell and eternal damnation are the portion of their cup, according to the tenor of the law and gospel threatenings. Whatsoever, therefore, is short of this is to be admired as the fruit of God’s stupendous patience and forbearance towards them. Ah! poor souls! know you not that you are men and women, condemned to wrath by the plain sentence of the law! Mark xvi. 16. John iii. 36. 2’Thess.i. 6,7. And if so, surely there are other matters to exercise your thoughts, desires, fears, and care about, than these. Alas! if you cannot bear a frown of providence, a light cross in these things, how will you bear everlasting burning? A man that is to lose his head to-morrow, is not very solicitous what bed he lies on, or how his table is furnished the night before.
(2.) Consider, though you be condemned persons, and have no promise to entitle you to any mercy, yet there are very many mercies in your possession at this day. Be your condition as afflictive as it will, is life nothing? especially considering, whither you must sink when that thread is cut. Are the necessary supports of life nothing? Doth not Providence minister to you these things, though you daily disoblige it, and provoke God to send you to your own place? But, above all, is the gospél and precious means of salvation nothing, by which you yet are in a capacity of escaping the damnation of hell? Oh what would the damned say, if they were but put into your condition once more? What! and yet fret against God, because every thing else suits not your desires?
3.) Consider, that if ever you be rescued out of that miserable condition you are in, such cross providences as these you complain of are the most probable means to do it. Alas! prosperity and success is not the way to save, but destroy you, Prov. i. 832. You must be bound in fetters, and holden in cords of affliction, if ever your ear be opened to instruction, Job xxxvi. 8 — 10. Wo to you, if you go on smoothly in the way in which you are, and meet with no crosses.;
(4.) Consider. all your troubles, under which you complain, are pulled down upon your heads by your own sins. You turn God’s mercies into sin, and then fret against God, because he turns your Sins into sorrow. Your ways and doings procure these things to you. Lay your hand, therefore, upon your mouth, and say, Why doth a living man complain, a man for the punishment of his sin!’ Lam. iii. 39. But I must turn to the Lord’s people, who have least pretences of all men to be dissatisfied with any of God’s providences, and yet are but too. frequently found in that temper. And to them I shall offer the following considerations:
[1.] Consider your spiritual mercies and privileges 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 our spiritual blessings,’ &c. Eph. i. 3.. Oh! who that sees such an inheritance settled 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 these two things in sin: what it deserves from God, and what it requires to mortify and purge it in you. It deserves from God eternal ruin; 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 mortify and subdue them. Do not you find, after all the rods that have been upon you, a proud heart still, a vain and earthly heart sll? Oh! how many bitter potions are necessary to purge out this tough, malignant-humour!
[3.y Consider how near you are to the change of your condition. Have but a little patience, and all will be as well with you as your hearts can desire. tis no small comfort to the saints, that this world is the worst place that ever they shall be in; things will be 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 care for it, if we are sure it is almost break of day; for then there will be no use for them. This is your case: “Your salvation is nearer than when you believed,’’ Rom. xiii. 12,
I have done with the directive part of this discourse; but before I proceed further, I judge it necessary to leave a few cautions to prevent the abuse of Providence, and your miscarriages in your behaviour towards it.
first caution. If Providence delay the performance of any mercy to you, that you have long waited and prayed for, yet see that you despond not, nor grow weary of waiting upon God for that reason. It pleases the Lord oftentimes to try and exercise his people this way, and make them cry, * How Jong, Lord, how long?”’ Psal. xiii. 1, 2.
‘hese delays, both upon spiritual and temporal accounts, are frequent, and, when they befall us, we are too apt to interpret them as denials, and fall into a sinful dispondeney of mind, though there be no cause at all for it, Psal. xxxi. 12, and Lam. li. 8. 44. It is not always that the returns of prayer are despatched to us in the same hour they are asked of God; yet sometimes it falls out so, Isa. lxv. 24, and Dan. ix. 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, ‘* But he is a God of judgment, and blessed are they that wait for him,” Isa. xxx. 18. 2. Afflictive providences have not accomplished that design upon our hearts which 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. x. 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. tous. ‘ 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 rejoice and be glad in his salvation,’ Isa. xxv. 9. ‘This recompenses the
THE MYSTERY OF PROVIDENCE. lok
delay, and pays us for all the expenses of our pallence. bis eg.
But though there be such weighty reasons for the stop and delay of refreshing, comfortable providences, yet we cannot bear it, owr hands hang down, and we faint, “I am weary of my crying, my throat is dry, mine eyes fail, while I wait for my God,” Psal. lxix. 3. For alas! we judge by sense and appearance, and consider not that God’s 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 increase, as usually they do, just before the break of day and change of our condition, then we conclude God is angry with our prayers.’ See Gideon’s reply, Judg. vi. 13. This even staggered the faith of a Moses, Exod. v. 22, 23. Oh what groundless jealousies and suspicions of God are found at such times in the hearts of his own children! Job ix. 16, 17, and Psal. Ixxviil. 7 — 9.
But this is our great evil, and, to prevent it in future trials, I will offer a. few proper considerations in the case:
1. ‘The delay of your mercies is really for your advantage. You read, that the Lord waits that he may be gracious,’ Isa. xxx. 18. What is that? Why,.it is nothing else but the time of his preparation of mercies for you and your hearts, for mercy that so ye may have it with the greatest advantage of comfort. The foolish child would pluck the apple whilst it is green; but, when it is ripe, It drops off of its own accord, and is more pleasant and wholesome,
2. It is a greater mercy to have a heart willing to refer all to God, and to be at his disposal, than to enjoy presently the mercy we are most eager and impatient for: in that, God pleases you; in this, you please God. A mercy may be given you as the fruit of common providence, but such a temper of heart is the fruit of special grace. So much as the glorifying of God is better than the content and pleasure of the creature, so much is such a frame better than such a fruition..
-3. Expected mercies are never nearer than when the hearts and hopes of God’s people are lowest. ‘Thus in their deliverance out of Egypt and Babylon, Ezek. xxxvii. 11, so we have found it in our own personal concerns: ‘+ At evening time it shall be light,’ Zech. xiv. 7. When we look for increasing darkness, light arises.
4. Our unfitness for mercies is the reason why they are delayed so long. We put the bloeks into the way of mercy, and then repine that they make no more haste to us. ‘The Lord’s hand is not shortened, but our iniquities have separated betwixt him and us,”’ Isa. lix. 1, 2.
5. Consider, the mercies you wait for are the fruits of pure grace; you deserve them not, nor can claim them upon any title of desert; and therefore have great reason to wait for them in a patient and thankful frame.
6. Consider how many millions of men, as good as.you by nature, are cut off from all hope and expectation of mercy for ever, and there remains to them nothing but “a fearful expectation of wrath.” This might have been your case: and therefore be not of an impatient spirit, under the expectations of mercy.
Second caution. Pry not too curiously into the secrets of Providence, nor suffer your shallow reason arrogantly to judge and censure its designs.
There are hard texts in the works, as well as in the word of God. It becomes us modestly and humbly to reverence, but not to dogmatize too boldly and positively upon them; a man may easily get a strain by. over-reaching. ‘* When I thought to know this,” saith Asaph, ‘it was too wonderful for me.’ J thought to know this: there was the arrogant attempt of reason, there he pried into the arcana of Providence; but if was too wonderful for me: it was but useless labour, as Calvin expounds it. He pried so far into that puzzling mystery of the afflictions of the righteous, and prosperity of the wicked, till it begat envy towards them, and despondency in himself, Psalm Ixxili. 3. 13, and this was all he got by summoning Providence to the bar of reason. Holy Job was guilty of this evil, and was ingenuously ashamed of it, Job xlii. 3.
I know there is nothing in the word, or.in the works of God, that is repugnant to sound reason; but there are some things in both, which are opposite to carnal reason, as well as above right reason; and therefore our reason never shows itself more unreasonable, than in summoning those things to its bar, which transcend its sphere and capacity. Manifold are the mischiefs which ensue upon this practice. For, by this we are drawn into an unworthy suspicion and distrust of the faithfulness of God in the promises. - Sarah laughed at the tidings of the son of promise, because reason contradicted and told her, it was naturally impossible, Gen. Xviil. 13, 14, Hence come despondency of mind and faintness of heart, under afflictive providences; reason can discern no good fruits in them, nor deliverance from them, and so our hands hang down in a sinful discouragement, saying, ‘* Ail these things are against us,’ Gen. xlii. 836.° Hence flow lem ptations to deliver ourselves by indirect and sinful mediums, Isa. xxx. 15, 16. When our own reason fills us with a distrust of Providence, it naturally prompts us to sinful shifis, and there leaves us entangled in the snares of our own making.
Beware, therefore, you lean not too much to your own reason and understanding. Nothing is more plausible, nothing more dangerous. In other matters it is appointed the arbiter and judge: we make it so here; and, therefore, we are so diffident and distrustful, notwithstanding the fullest security of the promises, whilst our reason stands by unsatisfied.
Having given directions for the due management of this great and important duty, what remains, but that we now set our hearts to it, and make it the constant work of every day throughout our lives? Oh what peace, what pleasure, what stability, what holy courage and confidence would result from such-an observation of Providence, as hath been directed to! But alas! we may say, with reference to the voices of Divine Providence, ‘¢ God speaketh once, yea twice. yet man perceiveth it not,” Job xxxiiil. 14. Many a time Providence hath spoken instruction in duty, conviction for iniquity, encouragement under despondency; but we regard it not. How greatly are we all wanting to our duty and comfort by this neglect! It will be but needful therefore to spread before you the loveliness and excelleney of walking with God in due and daily observation of his providences, that our souls may be fully engaged to.it.
First motive. And first, let me offer this as a moving argument to all gracious souls: That by this means you maintain sweet and sensible communion with God from day to day. And what is there desirable in this world in comparison therewith! «Thou, Lord, hast made me glad through thy work: I will triumph in the works of thy hands,” Psal. xcii. 4; your hearts may be as sweetly and sensibly refreshed by the works of God’s hands, as by the words of his mouth. Psalm civ. Is spent in the consideration of the works of Providence, which so filled the psalmist’s heart, that, by way of ejaculation, he thus expresses the effect of it: ‘*My- meditation of him shall be Ssweet,’” ver. 34.”
Communion with God, properly and strictly taken, consists in two things, namely, God’s manifestation of himself to the soul, and the soul’s answerable returns to God. ‘This is that fellowship we have here with God. Now God manifests himself to his people by providences as well as ordinances; neither is there any grace in a sanctified soul hid from the gracious influences of his providential manifestations. Sometimes the Lord manifests his displeasure and anger against the sins of his people in correcting and rebuking providences. His rods have a chiding voice: ‘* Hear the rod, and who hath appointed it,’’ Micah vi. 9. This discovery of God’s anger kindly melts and thaws a gracious soul, and produces a double sweet effect upon it, namely, repentance for sins past, and due caution against future sins.;
It thaws and melts the heart for sins committed. Thus David’s heart was melted for his sin when the hand of God was heavy upon him in affliction, Psal. xxxii. 4, 5. Thus the captive church, upon whom fell the saddest and most dismal providence that ever befell any of God’s people in any age of the world, see how their hearts are broken for sin under this severe rebuke, Lam. ii. 17 — 19.° And then, in the next place, for caution against sin for it he time to come. It is plain, that the rebukes of Providence leave that effect also upon gracious hearts, Ezra ix. 13,,14; Psal. Ixxxv.’8.
Sometimes he cheers and comforts the hearts of his people with smiling and reviving providences, both public and personal. ‘There are times of lifting up as well as casting down by the hand of Providence. ‘The scene changes; the aspects of Providence are very cheerful and encouraging, their winter seems to be over; they put off their garments of mourning; and then, ah! what sweet returns are made to Heaven by gracious souls! Doth God lift them up by prosperity? ‘They will also lift up their God by praises. See Psal. xviii. 1 — 3. So Moses, and the people with him, Exod. xv., when God had delivered them from. Pharaoh, how do they exalt him in a song of thanksgiving, which, for the elegance and spirituality of it, is. made an emblem of the doxologies given to God in glory by the saints, Rev. xv. 3..
Upon the whole, whatever effects our communion with God, in any of. his ordinances, doth use to produce upon our hearts, the same we may observe to follow our conversing with him, in his providences. For,
1. It is usually found, m the experience of all the saints, that, in what ordinance or duty soever they have any sensible communion with God, it naturally produces in their spirits a deep abasement and humiliation from the sense of divine condescensions to such vile, poor worms as we are. Thus Abraham, ‘I am but dust and ashes,’’ Gen.
xviii, 27. The same effect follows our converse with God in his providences. ‘Thus when God had, in the way of his providences, prospered Jacob, how doth he lay himself at the feet of God, asa man overwhelmed with the sense of mercy! “And Jacob said, I am not worthy of the least of all thy mercies, and of all the truth which thou hast showed thy servant; for, with my staff passed over this Jordan, and now I am become two bands,’”’ Gen. xxxil. 9,10. Thus also it was with David, ‘* Who am I, and what is my father’s house, that thou hast brought me hitherto?”’ 2 Sam. vii. 18., And I doubt not but some of you have found the like frame of heart upon you that these holy men here expressed. Can you not remember, when God lifted you up by providence, how you cast down yourselves before him, and have been viler in your. own eyes than ever! Why, thus. do all gracious hearts: what am I that the Lord should do thus and thus for me? Oh that ever so great and holy a God should be thus concerned for so vile and sinful a worm!
2. Doth communion with God in ordinances melt the heart into love to God? Cant. il. 3-5. Why, so doth the observation of his providences also. Never did any man converse with God’s works of providence aright, but found his heart, at some times, melted into love to the God of his mercies, Psal. xviii. 1, compared with the title. When God had delivered him from the hand of Saul, and all his enemies, he said, ‘* 1 will love thee, O Lord, my strength.” Every man loves the mercies of God, but a saint loves the God of his mercies. The mercies of God, as they are the fuel of a wicked man’s lusts, so they are fuel to maintain a good man’s love to God; not that their love to God is grounded upon these external benefits. Not thine, but thee, O Lord! is the motto of a gracious soul; but yet these things serve to blow up the flame of love to God in their hearts, and they find it so. y
3. Doth communion with God set the keenest edge upon the soul against sin? You see it does, and you have a striking instance of it in Moses, when he had been with God in the mount for forty days, and had there enjoyed communion with him; when he came down and saw the calf the people had made, see what a holy paroxysm of zeal and anger it cast his soul into, Exod. xxxii. 19, 20. Why, the same effect you may discern to follow the saints’ converse with God in his providences. What was that which pierced the heart of David with such a deep sense of the evil of his sin, which was so abundantly manifested in Psal. li, throughout? Why, if you look into the title you shall find it was the effect of what Nathan had laid before him: and if you consult 2 Sam. xii. 7 — 10, you shall find it was the goodness of God manifested to him in the several endearing providences of his life, which, in this, he had so evilly requited the Lord for, that broke his heart to pieces in the sense of it; and I doubt not but some of us have some= times found ‘the like effects by comparing God’s ways and our own together.
4. Does communion with the Lord enlarge the heart for obedience and service? Surely it is as oil to the wheels, that makes them run on freely and nimbly their course. ‘Thus, when Isaiah had obtained a special manifestation of God, and the Lord asked, Whom shall Isend?”” He presents a ready soul for the employment, “Here am I, Lord, send me,”’ Isa. vi. 8. Why, the very same effect follows sanctified providences, as you may see in Johoshaphat, 2 Chron. xvii. 5. 6, and in David, Psalm cxvi. 12. Oh! when a soul ‘considers what God hath done for him, he cannot fail to say, What shall I return? Elow shall I answer these engagements? é
And thus you see what sweet communion a soul may have with God in the way of his providences. O that you would thus walk with him! How much of heaven might be found on earth this way! And certainly it will never repent the Lord he hath done you good, when his mercies produce such effects on your hearts: -he will say of every favour, thus improved, it was well bestowed, and he will rejoice over you to do you good for ever.
Second motive. A great part of the pleasure and delight of the Christian life is made out of the observations of Providence. It is said, ‘The works of the Lord are great, sought out of all them that have pleasure therein,’ Psal. exi. 2, that is, the study of Providence is so sweet and pleasant, that it invites and allures the soul to search and dive into it. How pleasant is it to a well-tempered soul to behold and observe,
1. The sweet harmony and consent of divine attributes in the issues of Providence! ‘They may seem sometimes to jar and clash, to part with each other, and go contrary ways; but they only seem so to do; for, in the winding up, they always meet and embrace each other. ‘* Mercy and truth have met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other,”’ Psal. lxxxv. 10. It is spoken with an immediate reference, to that signal providence of Israel’s deliverance out of the Baby ‘lonish captivity, and the sweet effects thereof; wherein the truth and righteousness of God in the promises, did, as it were, kiss and embrace the mercy and peace that were contained in the performance of them, after they had seemed for seventy years to be at a great distance from each other: for it is an allusion to the usual demonstrations of joy and gladness that two dear friends are wont to give and receive, after a long absence and separation from each other: they no sooner meet, but they smile, embrace, and kiss each other. Even thus it is here; for whenever these blessed promises and performances meet and kiss each other, they are also joyfully embraced and kissed by believing souls. ‘There is, I doubt not, a mediate reference of this Scripture to the Messiah also, and our redemption by him; in him it is that these divine attributes, which before seemed to clash and contradict one another in the business of our salvation, have a sweet agreement and accomplishment. Truth and righteousness do in him meet with mercy and peace, in a blessed agreement. What a lovely sight is this! and how pleasant to behold! Oh, if with Habakkuk, chap. il. ver. 1, we would but stand upon our watch-tower to take due observations of Providence, what rare prospects might we have! Luther understands it of the word of God, as if he had said, I will look into the word, and observe there, how God accomplisheth all things, and brings them to pass, and how his works are the fulfilling of his word. Others, as Calvin, understand it of man’s own retired thoughts and meditations, wherein a man carefully observes what purposes and designs God hath upon the world in general, or upon himself in particular, and how the truth and righteousness of God in the word, work themselves through all difficulties and impediments, and meet in the mercy, peace, and happiness of the saints at last. Every believer, take it in which sense you will, hath his watch-tower, as well as Habakkuk; and give me leave to Say, it is an angelical employment to stand upon it, and behold the consent of God’s attributes, the accomplishment of his ends, and our own happiness in the works of Providence. For this is the very joy of the angels and saints in heaven, to see God’sends wrought out, and his attributes glorified in the mercy and peace of the church, Rev. xiv. 1 — 2. 8.
2. And as it is a pleasant sight to see the harmony of God’s attributes, so it is exceedingly pleasant to behold the resurrection of our own prayers and hopes, as from the dead. Why, this you may often see, if you will duly observe the works of God’s providence towards you. We hope and pray for such and such mercies to the church, or to ourselves; but God delays the accomplishment of our hopes, suspends the answer of our prayers, and seems to speak to us, as ‘ For the°vision is yet for an appointed time, but, at the end, it shall speak and not lie; though it tarry, wait for it, because it will surely come, it will nottarry,’’ Hab. li. 3. But we have no patience to wait the time of the promise, our hopes languish and die in the interim; and we say with the despondent church, ‘¢Our hope is perished from the Lord,’’ Lam. iii. 18. But, oh, how sweet and comfortable is it to see these prayers fulfilled, after we have given up all expectations of them! May we not say of them as the Scripture speaks of the restoration of the Jews, it is even life from the dead? ‘This was David’s case, Psal. xxxi. 22, he gave up his hopes and prayers for lost, yet he lived to see the comfortable and unexpected returns of them. And this was the case of Job, chap. vi. 11, he had given up all expectation of better days, and yet this man lived to see a resurrection of all his lost comforts with advantage. Think how that change and unexpected turn of Providence affected his soul. It is with our hopes and prayers: as with our alms: ‘* Cast thy bread upon the waters, for thou shalt find it after many days,” Eccles. xi. 1, or as it was with Jacob, who had given over all hopes of ever seeing his beloved Joseph again, but-when a strange and unexpected providence had restored that hopeless mercy to him again, oh how ravishing and transporting was it! Gen. xlvi. 29, 30.!
3. What a transporting pleasure is it to behold great blessings and advantages to us wrought by Providence out of those very things that seem to threaten our ruin and misery! And yet,. by duly observing the ways of Providence, you may, to your singular comfort, finditso. Little did Joseph think his transportation into Egypt had been in order to his advancement there; yet he lived with joy to see it, and with a thankful heart to acknowledge it, Gen. xlv. 5. Wait and observe, and you shall assuredly find that promise, “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose,”” Ronn.. viii. 28, working out its way through all providences. How. many times have you been made to say as David, It is good for me that I have been afflicted,” Psal. exix. 71. Oh what a difference have we seen betwixt our afilictions at our first meeting with them, and our parting from them! We have entertained them with sighs and tears, but parted from them with joy, blessing God for them, as the happy instruments of our good.. Thus our fears and sorrows are turned into praises and songs of thanksgiving.
4, What unspeakable comfort is it for a poor soul, that sees nothing but sin and vileness in itself, at the same time, to see what a high esteem and value the great God hath for him! ‘This may be discerned by a due attendance to Providence, for there, a man sees goodness and mercy following him through all his days, as’it is in Psal. xxiii. 6. Other men prosecute good, and it flies from them, and they can never overtake it: but goodness and mercy follow the people of God, and they cannot avoid or escape it; it gives them chase, day by day, and finds them out, even when. they sometimes, by sin, put themselves out of the way of it. In all the providences that befall them, goodness and mercy pursue them. Oh with what a melting heart do they sometimes reflect upon these things! And will not the goodness of God be discouraged from following me, notwithstanding all my vile affronts and abuses of it in former mercies? Lord, what am 1, that mercy should thus pursue me, when vengeance and wrath pursue others as good by nature as fam? It certainly argues the great esteem God hath of a man, when he thus follows him with sanctified providences, whether they be comforts or crosses, for his good; and so much is plain, from this passage: «Lord, what is man, that thou shouldst visit him every morning, and try him every moment?’’ Job vii. 18. Certainly God’s people are his treasure, and, by this, it appears that they are so, that he withdraws not his eye from them, Job xxxvi. 7. I say not that God’s favour and respect to a man may be concluded singly from his providences; but sanctified providences may very much clear it to. us; and when it doth so, it cannot but be matter of exceeding great joy.
5. ‘I’o conclude: What is there in all this world that can give a soul such joy and comfort, as to find himself by every thing set on and furthered in his way to heaven? And yet this may be discerned by a heedful attendance to the effects and issues of Providence.
How cross soever the winds and tides of Providence at any time seem to us, yet nothing is more certain, than that they all conspire to hasten sanctified souls to God, and fit them for glory.
St. Paul knew that both his bonds and the afflictions added to them, should turn to, or finally issue in his salvation, Philip. i. 19, not that in themselves they serve to any such purpose, but as they are overruled and determined to such an end, through prayer, and the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ. When prayer, the external means, and the Spirit, the internal means, are joined with affections, then they become excellent means to promote salvation. And have we not with joy observed, how those very things which sense and reason tell us are opposite to our happiness, have been the most blessed instruments to promote it? How hath God blessed crosses to mortify corruption, wants to kill our wantonness, disappointments to wean us from the world! Oh we little think how comfortable those things will be in the review, which are so burdensome to present sense!
Third motive. In the next place, I beseech you to consider, what an effectual mean the due observation of Providence will be te overpower and suppress the natural atheism that is in your hearts..
There is a natural seed of atheism in the best hearts, and this is very much nourished by passing a rash and false judgment upon the works of Providence. When we see wicked ones prosper in the world, and godly men crushed and destroyed in the way of righteousness and integrity, it may tempt us to think that there is no advantage by religion, and all our self-denial and holiness to be little better than lost labour. ‘Thus stood the case with good Asaph, ‘* Behold, these are the ungodly that prosper in the world, they increase in riches,”’ Psal. lxxiii. 12, 18. And what doth the flesh infer from thence? Why no less than the unprofitableness of the ways of holiness; ‘* Verily I have cleansed my heart in vain, and washed my hands in innocency.”’ ‘This irreligious inference carnal reason was ready to draw from the dispensations of outward prosperity to wicked men; but, now, if we would heedfully observe either the signal retributions of Providence to many of them in this world, or to all of them in the world to come, oh what a full confirmation is this to our faith! “* The Lord is known by the judgment which he executeth,’”’ Psal. ix. 16.
The fifty-eighth Psalm contains the characters of the most prodigious sinners, whose wickedness is aggravated, by the deliberation with which it is. committed, verse 2; by their habit and custom in it, verse 3; by their incorrigibleness and persistence in it, verses 4, 5; and the providence of God is there invited to destroy their power, verse 6, and that either by a gradual and sensible consumption of them, verse 7, 8, or by a sudden and unexpected stroke, verse 9. And what shall the effects of such providences be to the righteous? Why, it shall be matter of joy, verse 10, and great confirmation to their faith in God. ‘+ Verily there is a God that judgeth in the earth,” verse 11.
On the contrary, how convincingly clear are those providences that demonstrate the being, wisdom, power, love, and faithfulness of God, in the supporting, preserving, and delivering of the righteous, in ail their dangers, fears, and difficulties! In these things the Lord shows himself to his people, Psal. xciv. 1.
Yea, he shows himself to spiritual eyes in his providences, as clearly as the sun manifests himself by his own beams of light: His brightness was as the light, he had horns coming out of his hand; and there was the hiding of his power,” Hab. iii. 3,4. It is spoken of the Lord’s going forth for his people in their deliverance from their enemies; and then he had horns, or rays, and beams of power and mercy coming out of his hand. By his hand is meant his providential administrations and dispensations, and the horns that came out of it is nothing else but the glorious display of his attributes in those providences. How did God make himself known to his people in that signal deliverance of them out of Egypt? See Exod. vi. 3. Then he was known to them by his name Jehovah, in giving being, by his providences, to the mercies promised.
Thus, when Christ shall give his people the last and greatest deliverance from antichrist, he shall show himself to his people in a vesture dipped in blood, and his name-shall be called, The Word of God,” Rev. xix. 13.. His name was the Word of God before; but then he was the word revealing and discovering the promises and truths. of God, now accomplishing and fulfilling them. ‘That his name is near, his wonderful’ works declare, Psal. ixxv. 1.
But, more particularly, let us bring it home to our own experience. It may be, we Gad ourselves sometimes assaulted with athetstical thoughts: we
are tempted to think God hath left all things below
to the course and sway of nature, that our prayers reach him not, as it is in Lam. i. 44, that he regards not what evils befall us. But tell me saints, have you not enough at hand to stop the mouths of all such temptations? Oh do but reflect upon your own experiences, and solemnly ask your own hearts,
1. Have you never seen the all-sufficient God in the provisions he hath made for you and yours, throughout all the way that you have gone? Who was it that supplied to you whatever was needful in all your straits? “Was it not the Lord? ‘It is he that hath given bread to them that fear him, and hath been ever mindful of his covenant,’’ Psal. exi. 5. Odo but consider the constancy, seasonableness, and, sometimes, the extraordinariness of these provisions, and how they have been given in upon prayer; and shut your eyes, if you can, against the convincing evidence of that great truth, ‘He withdraweth not his eyes from the righteous,”’ Job xxxvi. 7.
2. Have you not plainly discerned the care of God in your preservations from so many and great dangers as you have escaped, and been carried through, hitherto? How is it that you have outlived so many mortal dangers, sicknesses, accidents, designs of enemies to ruin you? It is, I presume, beyond question with you, that the very finger of God 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 triumph over me,” Psal. xli. 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. ‘I sought the Lord ‘and he heard me, and delivered me from all my fears. They looked unto him, and were lightened, and their faces were not ashamed. This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him, and saved him out of all his troubles,’? Psal. xxxiv. 4 — 6. 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. Oh how satisfying and convincing are these things!
4. Have you not evidently discerned the Lord’s hand, in guiding and directing your paths to your unforseen advantage? Things that you never projected for yourselves have been brought about beyond all your thoughts. Many such things are with God; and which of all the saints hath not found that word verified by clear and undeniable experience, ‘*’The way of man is not in himself,’? Jer. x. 23. I presume, if you will but look over the mercies you possess this 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 exceedingly dear, ‘a God that performeth all’things for them!”’
5. Is it not fully convincing, that there is a God who takes care of you, inasmuch 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 yourselves if you have not seen that promise made good, «1 will be with him in trouble,’ Psal, xci. 15, and that God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above what you are able: but wiil, with the temptation, also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it,’? 1 Cor. x. 13. 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 2 i?:
fourth motive. The recording and recognizing of the performances of Providence will be a singular support to faith in future exigencies; This excellent use of it lies 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 providences come in to its relief, From. this topic faith argues, and that very strongly and conclusively.. So did David’s faith in many exigencies: when he was to encounter the champion of the Philistines, it was from former providences, that he encouraged himself, 1 Sam. xvii. 37; and the apostle Paul improves his experiences to the same purpose, 2 Cor. i. 9,10. Indeed the whole Seripture 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 satisfy myself with the common assertion, than which nothing is more trite in the lips of professors, but will labour to show you, wherein the great usefulness of our recorded experiences, for encouraging faith, labouring under difficulties, consists. For this purpose, I shall desire the reader to ponder seriously these following particulars: 1, How much advantage those things have upon our souls, which we have already felt and tasted, beyond those which ‘we never relished by any former experience! What is experience but the bringing down of the objects’ of faith to the adjudication and test of spiritual sense? Now, when any thing hath been once tasted, felt, and judged by former experience, it is much more easily believed and received when it occurs again. It is 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 any in comparison with the first adventure it makes upon Christ; and the reason lies 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 trial or experience, is a more noble act of faith; but, to trust him. after we have often tried him, is known to be more easy. Oh it is no small advantage to a soul, in a new plunge of 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 stirred up his disciples’ memories with what Providence had formerly wrought for them in a day of straits. ‘* Oye of little faith, why reason ye among yourselves, because ye have brought no bread? Do ye not yet understand, neither remember?”’ Matt. xvi. 8 — 11. As if he had said, Were ye never under any strait for bread before now? Is this the first difficulty that ever your faith combatted with? 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 1o trust God. There is as much difference between believing before and after experience, as there is between 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 are two things which unbelief stumbles atin God: one is his power, the other his willingness to help. i
(1.) Unbelief objects the impossibility of relief in deep distresses: ‘*Can God furnish a table in the wilderness? Can he give bread also? Can-he provide flesh for his people?”’ Psal, lxxviii.. 19. Oh 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 vanquished by a serious reflection upon our own. experiences. ‘God hath helped, therefore he can say, ‘his hand is not shortened,”’ Isa. lix. 1, that is, he hath as much power and ability as formerly..
(2.) Unbelief objects against the’ will of God,
. 1 i
172 “DIVINE conDUCT; OR
and questions whether he will now be gracious, though he hath formerly been so. But after so many experiences of his readiness to help, what room for doubting remains?,’Thus Paul, inferred from the experience of what he had done, what he could do, 2 Cor. i. 10, and ‘so did David, 1 Sam. xvii. 36, Indeed if a man had never experienced the goodness of God to him, it were not so heinous a sin to question his willingness to do him good; but what place is left after such frequent trials, ras,
2. It gives great encouragement to faith, as it answers the objections of unbelief, drawn from the subject: now these objections are of two sorts also: NR Le
(1.) Such as are drawn from our great unworthiness.’ How, saith unbelief, can so sinful and vile a creature expect that ever God should do this or that for me? It is true, we find he did great things for Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, é&c., but these were men of eminent. holiness, men who obeyed God, and denied. themselves forshim, and lived more ina day to his glory than ever I did in all my days.:
Well, but what signifies all this to a’soul, that, under all its sensible vileness and unworthiness, hath tasted the goodness of God as well as they? As unworthy as Tam, God hath been good to me notwithstanding; his mercy appeared first to me, when I was worse than I am now, both in condition and disposition; and, therefore, I will still expect the continuance of his goodness to me, though I deserve it not. «Tf, when we wereenemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, how much more, being reconciled, shall we be saved by-his life?” Rom. v. 10.
(2.) Such as are drawn from the extremity of our present condition. If troubles or dangers grow to a height, and we see nothing bat ruin and misery in the eye of reason before us; now unbelief: becomes importunate and troublesome to the soul; now, where are thy prayers, thy hopes, yea, where is now thy God?
But all this is easily put by and avoided, by consulting our experiences in former cases. ‘This is not the first time I have been in these straits, nor the first time I have had the same doubts and despondencies; and yet God hath carried me through all, Psal. Ixxviil. 7 — 9. This is it that suffers not a Christian to unravel all his hopes in an hour of temptation.. Oh-how useful are these things to the people of God!
Fifth motive. The recognition of former providences will minister to your souls continual matter of praise and ‘thanksgiving, which is the very employment of the angels in heaven, and the sweetest part of our lives on earth.
See Psal. lxi. 7, 8. If God will prepare mercy and truth for David, he will prepare praises for his God, and that daily. + By thee have I been holden up from the womb, thou art he that took me out of my mother’s bowels; (there mercies from the beginning are recognised;) ‘my praise shall be continually of thee,’’ Psal. lxxi. 6. There the natural result of those recognitions is expressed.
There are five things. belonging to the praise of God, and all of them have relation to his providences exercised about us. 1. A careful observation of the mercies,we receive from him, Isa. xli. 17 — 20. This is fundamental to all praise; God cannot be glorified for the mercies we never noted. 2. A faithful remembrance of the favours received.
‘* Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits,”’ Psal. ciii. 2. Hence the Lord brands the ingratitude of his people, «They soon forgat his works,”’ Psal. evi. 13. 3. A due appreciation and valuation of every providence that doth us good, 1 Sam. xii. 24. That Providence that fed them in the wilderness with manna was the most remarkable providence to.them; but they not valuing it at its worth, God had not that praise for it which he expected, Numb. xi. 6. 4. The excitation of all the faculties and powers of the soul in the acknowledgment of these mercies to us.~ Thus David, ‘* Bless the Lord, O my soul; and all that is within me bless his holy name,”’ Psal. ciii. 1. Soul praise is the very soul of praise, this is the very fat and marrow of that thank-offering. 5. A suitable retribution for the mercies received. This David was careful about, Psal. exvi. 1, and the Lord: taxes good Hezekiah for the neglect of it, 2 Chron. xxxil. 24, 25... This consists in a full and hearty resignation of all to him, that we have received by providence from him; and in our willingness actually to part with all for him, when he shall remand it.
‘Thus you see how all the ingredients to praise have respect to Providence; but, more particularly, I will show you, that, as all the ingredients of praise have respect to providence, so all the motives and arguments, obliging and engaging souls to praise, are found therein also. ‘’I’o this end, consider how the mercy and goodness of God are exhibited by Providence to excite our thankfulness.
1. That the goodness and mercy of God are let out upon his people in his providences about them: and this is the very root of praise. It is not so much the possession that Providence gives us of such or such comforts, as the goodness and kindness of God -in the dispensing of them, that engages a gracious soul-to praise. ‘* Because thy loving kindness is better than life, my lips shall praise thee,’’ Psal. lxiii. 3. To give, maintain, and preserve our life, are choice acts of Providence; but to do all this in a way of grace and loving-kindness, this is far better than the gifts themselves. Life is but the shadow of death without it; this is the mercy that crowns all other mercies, Psal. ciii. 4. It is this a sanctified soul desires God would manifest in every providence about him, Psal. xvii. ‘7, and what is our praising of God else but our showing forth that loving-kindness which he showeth forth in his providences? Psal- xeii.:1,:2.
2. As. the loving-kindness of God, manifested in providences, is a motive to praise, so the free and undeserved favours of God, dispensed by the hand of Providence, oblige the soul to praise. This was the consideration that melted David’s heart into.a thankful, praising frame, even the consideration of the free and undeserved favours cast in upon him by Providence. ‘What am I! O Lord God? and what is my father’s house, that thou hast brought me hitherto?’ 2 Sam. vii. 18, that is, to raise me by providence from a mean condition to all this dignity: «From following the ewes, to feed Jacob his people,’’ Psal. lxxviii. 70,71. O this it is that engages thankfulness! Gen. xxxii. 10.
3. As the freeness of mercies, dispensed by providences, engageth praise, so the multitudes of mercies 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. v. 7. We have our Joads of mercies, and that. every day, Psal. lxviii.: 19. Oh what a rich heap will the mercies of one day make, being Jaid together!
4. As the multitudes of mercies dispensed by Providence oblige to praise, so the tenderness of God’s mercy manifested in his providence leaves the soul under‘a strong obligation to thankfulness. We see what tender regards the Lord hath to all our wants, straits, and burdens. ‘* Like as-a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them ‘that fear him,”’ Psal. ciii. 13. He is full of bowels, as is signified in James v. 11. 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. xlix. 15. He feels all our pains, as if the apple of his eye were touched) Zech. ii..8, and all this is discovered to his people in the way of his providences with them, Psal. exi. 1 — 4, Oh 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 clapped by Providence upon the soul to oblige it to a life of praise. Hence it is that the prayers of the saints are so full of thanksgivings upon these aecounts; it is sweet to recount them to the Lord in prayer; to lie at his feet in a holy astonishment at his gracious condescension to poor worms. EOS
Sixth motive. “The due observation 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 streams of mercy that flow from God to us, and all the re- -
THE MYSTERY OF PROVIDENCE. be Fp
turns of praise from us to God, 1 Cor. iii. 21 — 23, All things are ours, upon no other title but our being his.
Now there are six things in providence, which exceedingly endear the Lord Jesus Christ to his people; and these are the most sweet and delicious parts of all our enjoyments.
1. The purchase of all those mercies which Providence conveys to us is by his own blood: for not only spiritual and eternal mercies, but even all our temporal ones are the acquisitions of his blood. For, as sin forfeited all, so Christ restored all these mercies to us again by his death. Sin had so shut up mercy from us, that had not Christ made an atonement by his death, we should never have obtained it to all eternity. ‘It is with him that God freely gives us all things,” Rom. viii. 32, heaven itself, 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 Christ’s blood: and, when we receive it, we must say, It is the price of blood; it is a mercy rising up out of the death of Christ; it cost him dear, though it come to me freely; it is sweet in the possession, but costly in the acquisition. Now this is a most endearing consideration: Did Christ die that these mercies might live? Did he pay his invaluable blood to purchase these comforts that I possess? Oh what transcendent, matchless love was the love of Christ! You have known parents who 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: it is through his poverty we are enriched, 2 Cor. viii. 9. ‘These sweet mercies, that are born of Providence every day, are the fruits of the travail of his soul,
2. ‘The sanctification of all is by our union with Christ: it is by virtue 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, Curist, Matt. vi. 33. They are given with him, as in Rom. viii. 32. This is the tenure by which we hold them, 1 Cor. iii. 21 — 23. What we lost in Adam, is restored again with advantage in Christ. Immediately upon the fall, the curse, Gen. iii. 17, seized upon all the miserable posterity of Adam, and upon all their comforts, outward as well as inward; and this still lies 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 openhanded 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, ‘the prosperity of fools shall destroy them,”’ Prov. i. 32.
But when a man is once in Christ, then all providences are sanctified and sweet. ‘Unto the pure all things are pure,” Tit. i.15. «A little that a righteous man hath, is better than the treasures of many wicked,” Psal. xxxvii. 16. Now, Christ becomes a head of influence as well as of dominion, and in all things he consults the good of his own members, Eph. i. 22.
3. ‘The dispensation of all our comforts and mercies is by his direction and appointment. It is true, the angels are employed in the kingdom of Providence — they move the wheels; that is, 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 Providence, Ezek. i. Now, what an endearing meditation is this! Whatever creature be instrumental for any good to you, it is our Lord Jesus Christ who gave the orders and commands to that. creature to do it, and without it they could have done nothing for you. It is your Head in heaven, that consults your peace and comfort on earth. ‘These are the fruits of his care for you. So in the preventions and restraints of evil, it is he that bridles in the wrath of devils and men, he holds the reins in his own hands, Rev. ii. 10. It was the care of Christ over his poor sheep at Damascus that stopped the raging adversary, who was upon the way, designing to destroy them, Acts 1x.
4. ‘The continuation of all. your mercies and comforts, outward as well as inward, is the fruit of his intercession in heaven for you. For, 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. v. 6; Heb. ix. 24, By this his intercession, our peace and comforts are prolonged to us, Zech. i. 12, 13. Every sin we commit would put an end to the mercies we possess, were it not for that caution which is put in for us by it. ‘If any man sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; and he is the propitiation for our sins,”’ 1 John ii. 1, 2, This stops all pleas, and procures new pardons for new sins- Hence it is ‘¢he saves to the uttermost,’’ Heb. vii. 25, to the Jast completing act. New sins do not irritate our former pardons, nor cut off our privileges settled upon us in Christ.
5. ‘The returns and answers of all your prayers and. cries 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 cries to him, nor return an answer of peace to you, how great soever your distresses should be, Rev. viii. 3, 4. It is his name that gives your prayers their acceptance, John xv. 16, because the Father can deny him nothing, therefore your prayers are not denied. 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? Osee how much you owe to your dear Lord Jesus Christ for this high and glorious privilege!
6. ‘The covenant of grace, in which all your comfortable enjoyments are comprised, and by which they are secured, sanctified, and sweetened to you,
-is made in Christ, and ratified by him betwixt God and you. Your mercies are all comprised in this covenant, even your daily bread, Psal. cxi. 5, as well as your justification, and other spiritual mercies. It is your covenant interest that secures to you whatever it comprises, Isa. lv. 3. Hence they are called the sure mercies of David. Nay, this is it that sanctifies them, and gives them the nature of special and peculiar mercies. One such mercy is worth a thousand common mercies; and, being sanctified and special mercies, they must needs be exceedingly sweet beyond all other mercies. On these accounts it was that David so rejoiced in his covenant interest, though laden with many afflictions, 2 Sam. xxiii. 5. But now all this hangs entirely upon Christ. The new testament is in his blood, 1 Cor. xi. 25, 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.
Seventh motive. The due observation of Providence hath 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 itself and others?
Let a man but set himself to think deliberately and closely of the ways of Providence towards him; let him but follow the track of Providence 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 ways of God with thee, the mercies that broke out early in thy youth, even the first-born mercies from the womb of Providence, and thou wilt say, What need I go further? Here is enough not only to move, but overwhelm my heart. ‘* May I not, from this time, cry unto thee, My Father, thou art. the Guide of my youth,” Jer. iii. 4, What a critical time is the time of youth! It is 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 ruin 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 not 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 consequences, ever since, following thee? and wilt thou not from henceforth say, ‘‘ My Father, my Father, thou art the Guide of my youth!”
2. Let us but bring our 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. God’s thoughts have not been our thoughts, nor his ways our ways.” Among the eminent mercies of thy life, reader, how many of them have been mere surprisals to thee! Thine own projects have been thrust aside to make way for better things, designed by Providence for thee.
3. Do but observe the springs and autumns of Providence, in what order they have flourished and faded with thee, and thou wilt find thyself overpowered 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 ceased, or some other way is opened to thee. Oh the depth of God’s wisdom and goodness! Oh the matchless tenderness of God to his people! |!
4, Compare the dealings of Providence with you and others, yea, with others that sprung 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 than yours, and see the difference, upon many great accounts, it hath made betwixt you and them. I knew aChristian, 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 few hours spent together, finding the spirit of his brother not only estranged from all that is spiritual and serious, but also very vain and profane, he hastened to his chamber, shut the door upon him, threw himself down at the feet of God, and, with flowing eyes and a melting heart, admired the distinguishing grace of God, saying, Was not Esau Jacob’s brother? Oh grace, grace, astonishing grace!
-5. Compare the carriage of Providence towards you with your own carriage towards the Lord, and it must needs melt your hearts, to find so much mercy. bestowed, where so much sin hath been committed. What place did you ever live in where you cannot remember great provocations committed, and manifold mercies, notwithstanding that, received? Oh, with how many notwithstandings and neverthelesses, hath the Lord done you good in every place! What relation hath not been abused by sin, and yet both raised up and continued by Providence for your comfort? In every place, God hath left the marks of his goodness, and you the remembrance of your sinfulness. Give yourselves but leave to think of these things, and it is strange if your hearts relent not at the remembrance of them.
6. Do but compare your own dangers with your fears, and both with the Strange outlets and doors of escape Providence hath opened, and it cannot do less than overpower you with a full sense of divine care and goodness.
‘There have been dark clouds seen to rise over you, judgment even at your door, sometimes threatening your life, sometimes your liberty, sometimes your estate, and sometimes your dearest relations, in whom, it may be, your life was bound up. Remember, in that day, what faintness of spirit seized you, what charges of guilt stirred up fears of the issue within you: you turned to the Lord in that distress, and hath he not made a way tu escape, and delivered you from all your fears? Psal. XXxiv. 4,
Oh! is your life such a continued throng, such a distracted hurry, that there is no room to be found with Christians to sit alone, and think on these things, and press these marvellous discoveries of God in his providences upon their own hearts? Surely, might these things but lie upon our hearts, talk with our thoughts by day, and lodge with us at night, they would even force their passage down to our very veins.
Lighth motive. Due observation of Providence will both beget and secure inward tranquillity in your minds, amidst the vicissitudes and revolutions of things in this unstable, vain world.
‘¢ T will both lay me down in peace and sleep, for the Lord only maketh me to dwell in safety,” Psal. iv. 8. He resolves the sinful fears of events shall not rob him of his inward quiet, nor torture his thoughts with anxious presages. He will commit all his concerns into that faithful, fatherly hand, that had hitherto wrought all things for him, and he means not to lose the comfort of one night’s rest, nor bring the evil of to-morrow upon the day, but knowing in whose hand he was, wisely enjoys the sweet felicity of a resigned will.
Now this tranquillity of our minds is as much begotten and preserved by a due consideration of Providence, as by any thing whatsoever. Hence it was that our Lord Jesus Christ, when he would cure the disciples’ anxious and distracting solicitudes about a livelihood, bids them consider the care Providence hath over the birds of the air and the lilies of the field, how he feeds the one and clothes the other, without any anxious care of theirs; and would have them well consider those providences, and reason themselves into a calm and
Sweet composure of spirit from those considerations, Matt. vi. 25 — 34.
Two things destroy the peace and tranquillity of our lives; our bewailing past disappointments, or fearing future ones. But would we once learn prevision and provision to be divine prerogatives, and take notice how often Providence baffles those that pretend to them, causing the good they foresaw (according to their conjectures) coming to their hand yet to balk them, and flee from them: and the evil they thought themselves sufficiently secured from, to invade them. I say, would we consider how Providence daily baffles these pretensions of men, and asserts its own dominion, it would greatly conduce to the tranquillity of our lives. 7
This is a great truth, that there is no face of adversity so formidable, but, being viewed from this station, would become amicable. Now there are several things in the consideration of Providence that naturally and kindly compose the mind of a Christian to peace, and bring it to a sweet rest, whilst events hang in a doubtful suspense.
1. The supremacy of Providence, and its incontrollable power in working. ‘This is often seen in the good that it brings us in a way that is above the thoughts and cares of our minds, or labours of our hands. ‘I had not thought,”’ said Jacob, * to have seen thy face; and lo, God hath showed me thy seed also,’ Gen. xlviii: 11. There is a frequent coincidence of providences in a way of surprisal, which, from no appearance, or the remotest tendency of outward causes, could be foreseen, but rather falls visibly cross to the present scheme and posture of our affairs. Nothing tends to convince us of the vanity and folly of our own solicitudes and projections more than this doth.
2. ‘The profound wisdom of Providence in all that it performeth for the people of God. ‘The wheels are full of eyes, Ezek. i. 18; that is, there is an intelligent and wise Spirit who sits upon, and governs the affairs of this world.
This wisdom shines out tous in the unexpected, yea, contrary events of things. How often have we been courting some beautiful appearance that invited our senses, and with trembling shunned the formidable face of other things, when, notwithstanding, the issues of Providence have convinced us that our danger lay in what we courted, and our good in what we so studiously declined! This also is a sweet principle of peace and quiet to the Christian’s mind, that he knows not but his good may be imparted in what seemed to threaten his ruin. Many were the distresses and straits of Israel in the wilderness, but all was to humble them, that he might do them. good in the latter end,’’ Deut. vill. 16. Sad and dismal was the face of that Providence which sent them out of their own land into the land of the Chaldeans; yet even this was a project to do them good, Jer. xxiv.5. How often have we retracted our rash and headlong censures of things upon experience of this truth, and been taught to bless our afflictions and disappointments in the name of the Lord! Many a time have we kissed those troubles at parting, which we met with trembling. And what can promote peace, under doubtful providences, more effectually than this?:
3. The experiences we have had throughout our lives, of the faithfulness and constancy of Providence, are of excellent use to allay and quiet our hearts in any trouble that befalls us. ‘ Hitherto God hath helped,’ 1 Sam. vii. 12. We never found him wanting to us in any case hitherto: this is not the first strait we have been in; the first time that our hearts and hopes have been low. Surely he is the same God now as heretofore; his hand is not shortened neither doth his faithfulness fail. O recount in how great extremities former experience hath taught you not to despair!
4. The conjectures Christians may make of the way of Providence towards them, from what its former methods have been towards them, are exceedingly quieting and comfortable. It is usual with Christians to compare times with times, and to guess at the issue of one providence by another. The saints do know what course Providence usually holds; and, accordingly, with great probability, collect what they may expect from what, in like cases, they have formerly observed. Christian, examine thine own heart and its former observations, and thou wilt find, as in Psal. lxxxix. 30 — 32, that it is usually the way of God to prepare some smart rods to correct thee, when either thy heart hath secretly revolted from God, and is grown vain, careless, and sensual, or when thy steps have declined, and thou hast turned aside to the commission of iniquity; and then when those rods have been sanctified to humble, reduce, and purge thy heart, it is usually observed, that those sad providences are then upon the change, and then the Lord changes the voice of his providence towards thee. ‘*Go and proclaim these words towards the north, and say, return thou backsliding Israel, saith the Lord, and I will not cause mine anger to fall upon you, for I am merciful, saith the Lord, and I will not keep anger for ever. Only acknowledge thine iniquity,” &c., Jer. iii. 12, 13.
If, therefore, I find the blessed effects of the rod upon me, that it hath done its work to break the hard heart, and pull down the proud heart, and awaken the drowsy heart, and quicken the slothful, negligent, lazy heart; now with great probability, I may conjecture a more comfortable aspect of Providence will quickly appear, the refreshing and reviving time is nigh.
5. It is usual with Christians to argue themselves into fresh reviving hopes, when the state of things is most forlorn, by comparing the providences of God one with another.
(1.) It is a mighty composing meditation, when we compare the providences of God towards the inanimate and irrational creatures, with his providences towards us. Doth he take care for the very fowls of the air, for whom no man provides, as well as those at the door which we daily feed? Doth he so clothe the very grass of the field? hear the young ravens when they cry for meat? and can it be supposed he should forget his own people, who are of much more value than these? —
(2.) Or if we compare the bounty and care that Providence hath expressed to the enemies of God, how it feeds, and clothes, and protects them, even whilst they are fighting against him with his own mercies, it cannot but quiet and satisfy us, that, surely, he will not be wanting to that people upon whom he hath set his love, to whom he hath given his Son, and for whom he hath designed heaven itself.
(3.) It must needs quiet us, when we consider what the Lord did for us in the way of his providence, when we ourselves were in the state of nature and enmity against God. Did he not then look after us, when we knew him not? provided for us, when we owned him not in any of his mercies? Bestowed thousands of mercies upon ts, when we had no title to Christ, nor any one promise? And will he now do less for us, since we are reconciled and become his children?
Surely such considerations as these cannot but fill the soul with peace, and preserve the tranquillity of it, under the most distracting providences.
Ninth motive. Due observations of the ways of God, in his providences towards us, have an excellent usefulness and aptitude to advance and improve holiness in our hearts and lives; for,
1. The holiness of God is manifested to us in all his works of providence. * The Lord is righteous in all his ways, and holy is all his works,”? Psal. exlv. 17. The instruments used. by Providence may be very sinful and wicked; they may aim at base ends, and make use of wicked mediums to attain them; but. it is certain’ God’s designs are most pure, and all his workings are so too. ‘Though he permits, limits, orders, and overrules many unholy persons and actions, yet, in all, he works like himself, and his holiness is no more defiled and stained by their impurity, than the sunbeams are by the noisome exhalations of a dunghill. ‘He is the rock, his work is perfect ;~for all his Ways are judgment, a God of truth, and without iniquity; just and right is he,’? Deut. xxxii. 4. So that in all his providences he sets before us a perfect pattern of holiness, that he might be holy in all‘our ways, as our Father is in all his ways. But this is not all.
2. His providences, if duly observed, promote holiness by stopping up our way to sin. Oh! if men would but note the designs of God in his preventive providences, how useful would it be to keep them upright and holy in their ways! For why is it that the Lord so often hedges up our way with thorns, as it is in Hosea ii. 6, but that we should not find our paths to sin?: Why doth he clog us, but to prevent our straying from him? “Lest I should be exalted above measure, there Was given mea thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to buffet me,’”’ 2 Cor. xii..7. Oh! it is good to attend to these works of God, and study the meaning of them. Sometimes Providence crosses a hopeful, thriving project to advance our estate, and frustrates all our labours and cares; why is this? but to hide pride from man. Shouldst thou prosper in the world, that prosperity might be thy snare, and make thee a proud, sensual, vain soul; the Lord Jesus sees this, and therefore withdraws the food and fuel from thy corruptions.
It may be thou hast a diseased, weak body; thou labourest often under infirmities: in this the wisdom and care of God over thy soul is manifested; for wert thou not so clogged, how probable is it that much more guilt might be contracted! Your poverty doth but clog your pride; reproaches clog your ambition; want prevents wantonness; sickness of body conduces to. the prevention of many inward gripes of conscience, and groans under guilt. ’
3. ‘The providences of God may be observed to conduce to our holiness, not only preventing sin, that we may not fall into it, but also purging our sins when we are fallen into them.* * By this, there-
* God would not suffer instruments to-rub so hard, if it were not to fetch out the dirt that is engrained in our nafore, shall the iniquity of Jacob be purged; and this is all the fruit, to take away his sin,’’ Isa. Xxvli. 9, and so Dan. xi. 33 — 35; they are of the Same use that fire and water are for purging and cleansing; not that they can purge us from sin in their own virtue and power, for, if so, those that have most afflictions would have most grace also; but it is in the virtue of Christ’s blood, and God’s blessing upon afflictive providences, that they purge us from sin. A cross without a Christ never did any man good. Now, in God’s afilictive 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 heart than this. Must not the heart of a child melt and break whilst 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! ‘*Oh Lord, rebuke me not in thy wrath; neither chasten me in thy hot displeasure: for thine arrows stick fast in me; and thine hand 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,’ Psalm xxxviii, 1 — 3,
(2.) By these rebukes for 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 betures. He loves purity so well, he had rather see a hole than a spot in his child’s garment. — Gurnal’s Christian Armour. Par. 2. p. 221.
fore us, than formerly we ever saw. 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 God of hosts,’’ Jer. ii. 19. Oh 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. xxx. 1 — 5. And this also convinces them of the folly that is in sin, and makes them cleave to the way of simplicity and Integrity.
(4.) Holiness is promoted in the soul, by cautioning and warning the soul against sin for time to come. ‘*] have borne chastisements, I will not offend any more,” Job xxxiv. 31. Oh happy providences, how smart soever, that make the soul for ever afraid of sin! Surely such rods are well bestowed. ‘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. ‘ Behold this self-same thing that ye sorrowed after a godly sort, what carefulness it wrought-in you,” &c., 2 Cor. vii. 11. Oh, if ever a man have been under a sanctified rod, which hath showed him the evil of sin, and kindly humbled him for it, and a temptation should again solicit 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 shall run again into the fire, after I have been already scorched in it?
(5.) 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 heart that he shall not be quiet till he have found a place to pour out his soul in thankfulness to the Lord, 2 Sam. vii. 18.
Afflictive providences will drive us to the feet of God, and there make us to judge and condemn ourselves; and all this hath an excellent use to destroy sin, and promote holiness in the soul.
Tenth motive. Lastly, the consideration 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. We find, when Jacob died, what reflections he had upon the dealings of God with him in the various providences of his life. See Gen. xlviii. 3. 7. 15, 16. In like manner you find Joshua recording the providences of God, when at the brink of the grave; they were the subject of his dying discourse, Josh. xxiv., 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 of 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:
1. The time of death is the time when souls are
—ee a usually most violently assaulted by Satan, with horrid temptations and black suggestions. We may say of that figuratively, as it is said of the natural serpent, he never exerts his utmost rage till the last encounter, and then his great design is to persuade the saints that God loves them not, hath no care nor regard for them, nor their cries; 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. ‘There are no bands in their death,” Psal. lxxiii. 4, whereas 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 memories of God’s tender regard, both to his wants and prayers, and that hath carefully remarked the evident returns of his prayers, and gracious condescensions of God to him, from his beginning to that moment! In this case, his faith 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. ‘‘ Having loved his own which were in the world, he loved them unto to the end,’ John xiii. 1. “For this God is our God for ever and ever, he will be our Guide, even unto death,”’ Psal. xlviii. 14. Did he love me in my youth, and will he cast me off in my decrepid age? “O God,”’ says the psalmist, ‘thou hast taught me from my youth, and hitherto have I declared thy wondrous works; now also, when Iam old and grey-headed, O God, forsake me not,’ Psalm lxxi. 17, 18.
2. At death, the saints are engaged in the last and one of the most eminent works of faith, even the committing of themselves into the hands of God, when we are launching forth into that vast eternity, and entering into that new state, which will make so great a change upon us in a moment. In this, Christ sets us a pattern; ‘ Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit,” Luke xxiii. 46, and having said thus, he gave up the ghost. So Stephen, at his death, «Lord Jesus receive my spirit, and immediately fell asleep,” Acts vii. 59, 60.
There are two signal and remarkable acts of faith, both exceedingly difficult, namely, its first act and its last. The first is a great venture that.it makes of itself upon Christ; and the last is a great venture too, to vast itself 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, ina great measure, the manifold recorded experiences that the soul hath been gathering up from the day of its espousals to Christ, unto its dying-day, which is, ina 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 he hath committed all his affairs to, formerly, and still found him a faithful God; and now hath no reason to doubt but he shall find him so in this last distress and exigence also.
3. 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, for 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 manifuld 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 mercies, and how they have been improved by us, for we are stewards, and then we are to give an account of our stewardship.
4. 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 sat upon the bed, and related to him the eminent appearances of God to him, and the places where, Gen. xlviii. 2, 3, as also an account of his afflictions, ver. 7. .So Joshua, im 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 hath fulfilled the same, toa tittle, in his day. ‘+ 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,’ Joshua Xx. 14.,
And certainly it is. of great importance to the world to understand the judgments, 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. Oh, 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 ali 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!
5. At death, we begin the angelical life of praise and thanksgiving: we then enter upon that everlasting sweet employment; and, as J 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, whilst we are here, and especially when we are ready to enter upon that blessed state. Let it, therefore, 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. O that you would be persuaded to this lovely and every way beneficial 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 Claudian, that he wanted matter suitable to the excellence of his parts; but where is the head or heart that is suitable to this matter? Who can utter the mighty acts of the Lord? Who can show forth all his praise? Psal. evi. 2.
Thus I have, through the aid of Providence, despatched 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 briefly noted upon the whole, and three or four practical cases to be stated. You have heard how Providence ‘ performeth all things for you.” Learn hence,
First corollary. ‘That God is therefore to be owned by you in all that befalls you in this world, whether it be in a way of success and comfort, or of trouble and affliction. O, it is your duty to observe his hand and disposal! When God gives you comforts, it is your great evil not to observe his hand in them. Hence was the charge against israel, ‘*She did not know that I gave her corn, and wine, and oil, and multiplied her silver and gold,’ Hos. ii. 8, that is, she did not actually and affectionately consider my eare over her, and goodness to her in these mercies. And so for afflictions, it is a great wickedness, when God’s hand is lifted up, not to see it, Isa. xxvi. 11. ‘The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master’s crib,” Isa. i. 3; the most dull and stupid creatures know their benefactors. O look to- the hand of God in all, and know, that neither your comforts nor afflictions arise out of the dust, or spring up out of the ground.
Second corollary. if God perform all things for you, how great is his condescension to and eare over his people! “What is man that thou shouldst magnify him, and set thine heart upon him? and that thou shouldst visit him every morning, and try him every moment?” Job vii. 17,18. Such is his tender eare over you, that he withdraws not his eye from you. See Job xxxvi. 7. Lest any hurt you, he himself will guard and keep you, day and night, Isa. xxvii. 3. Should he withdraw-his eye or hand one moment from you, that moment would be your ruin. ‘Ten thousand evils watch but for such an opportunity to rush in upon you, and destroy you and all your comforts. You are too dear to him to be trusted in any hand but his own. ‘All his saints are in thy hand,” Deut. XXXII. 3.
Lhird corollary. Learn hence how you are obliged to perform all duties and services for God, who performeth all. things for you. It was the wish of a good man, Oh! that I could be to God what my hand is to me, namely, a serviceable, useful instrument! Shall God do all things for you, and will you do nothing for God? Is. Providence every moment at work for you, and will you be idle? ‘To what purpose then is all that God hath done for you? Is it not the aim and design of all to make you a fruitful people? If God plant, and fence, and water you by providence, surely he looks you should bring forth fruit, Isa; v. 1 — 4, O that, in return for all the benefits of Providence, you would say to God, as grateful Elisha said to the Shunammite, behold thou hast been careful for us with all this care, what is to be donef or thee? 2 Kings iv. 13, and with David, What shall I render unto the Lord for all his benefits towards me?’ Psal. exvi. 12. He is ever doing you good, be you always abounding in his work. His providence stands by you in your greatest distresses and dangers; do not you flinch from God, when his service and your duty is compassed about with difficulties. O be active for that God who is acting every moment for you!
fourth Corollary. Doth God perform all things for his people? Do not distrust him then as often as new or great difficulties arise. Why should you think that He who hath done so many things for you will now do no more? Surely ‘the Lord’s hand is not shortened that it cannot save, nor.his ear heavy, that it cannot hear,’” Isa. lix. 1, if any thing put a stop to his mercy, it is your iniquities, your distrust, and. infidelity. ‘* How long wilk«it be ere you believe him?’’ If a’ thousand and: ten thousand trials and experiences of his tender care, faithfulness, and love, will cure this distemper in you, you have them at hand to do it. If the frequent confutations of this your distrust, by the unexpected breakings-out of mercy for you, under like discouragements, will cure it, look back, and you may see them. Certainly you have been often forced by Providence, with shame and repentance, to retract your rash censures of his care! and yet will you fall into the same distemper again? O, that you would once learn this great truth, that no man ever wanted that mercy, which he wanted not a heart to trust and wait quietly upon God for. You never yet sought God in vain, except when you sought him vainly., fifth corollary. Doth God perform all things for you? hen seek God for all by prayer, and never undertake any design without him: certainly, if he do not perform it for you, you can never have what you desire and labour for: and though he have designed to perform this or that mercy for you, yet for these things he will be inquired of, that he may do it for you, Ezek. xxxvi. 37. Treckon that business as good as done, that. mercy as good as if it were in hand, that trouble as good as over, for the doing, enjoying, or removing whereof we have engaged God by prayer. It is our folly to engage this instrument or that for us, o attempt this way and that way to.compass our design, and all the while forget him, upon whose pleasure all instruments and means lentirely depend, ‘That which begins not with prayer, seldom winds up with comfort.‘ The way of man is not in himself;’? if it were, prayer might then be reckoned lost labour. Olet him that performs.all, be owned and acknowledged in all.
Sixth corollary. Lastly, if God’ perform all things for us; then it is our great interest and concern in all things to study to please him, upon whom we depend for all things.
It is a grave and weighty observation of Chrysostom: Nothing should be grievous and bitter to a Christian, but to provoke the displeasure of God. Avoid that, and no affliction or trouble whatever can cast down such a prudent soul; but even asa spark is easily extinguished in the sea, so will the
avour of God extinguish all those troubles. It is with such a soul, saith he, as it is with the hea-. vens: we think the heavens suffer, when they-are Overspread with clouds, and the sun suffers when it is eclipsed; but there is no such thing, they suffer not when they seem to suffer. Every thing is well, and shall be well, when all is well betwixt us and God. The great consolation of the saints lies in this, that all which concerns them is in the hands of their Father. “I had utterly despaired,” saith Luther, “had not Christ been head of the church.”’ When he that performs all things is our God, even our God that delights in our prosperity, that rejoices over us to do us good, what ample security is there in the greatest confusions and dangers, When one told Borromeus, that there were some that laid wait for his life, his answer was, What! is God in the world for nothing? And as notable, was the reply of Silentiarius in a like case, If God takes no care of me, how do I live, how have I subsisted hitherto? Though it seem a romance to many, saith a late grave author, yet we must either quit the Scriptures or give credit to this, that the most infallible rules for one to raise his fortune and insure a destiny, that can control the stars, are given forth there, namely, in the Scriptures, where it is evidently found, that a good man may even be his own carver. O that we would but steer our course according to those rare politics of the Bible, those divine maxims of wisdom! Fear nothing. but sin. Study nothing so much as how to please God. Warp not from your integrity under any temptation. Trust God in the way of your duty. These are sure rules to secure yourselves and your interest in all the vicissitudes of this life.
My last work will be to state three or four practical cases about this subject, and so I shall shut up this discourse of Providence.
First case. How may a Christian discover the will of God and his own duty, under dark and doubtful providences?
In order to the clearing of this case, we are to consider what is meant by the will of God; what by those doubtful providences, that make the discovery of his will difficult, and what rules are to be observed for the clearing up of God’s will to ourselves, under such difficult and puzzling providences.
As to the will of God, it falls under a twofold consideration, namely, of his ‘secret and revealed will. ‘his distinction is found in that Scripture, ‘¢ The secret things belong unto the Lord our God, but those things which are revealed belong unto us,’ &e., Deut. xxix. 29. The first is the rule of his own Kottotiy: the latter of ours; and this only is concerned in the query.
This revealed will of God is either manifested to us in his word, or in his works. ‘The former is his commanding will; the latter, his effecting or permitting will; the one concerning good; the other, about evil.
In these ways God manifests his will to men, but yet with great variety and difference, both as to the things revealed, the persons to whom he reveals them, and the degrees of clearness in which they are revealed. 1. As to the things revealed, there is great difference;’ for the great and necessary duties of religion are revealed to us in the word with great perspicuity and evidence. About these, there can be no hesitation; but things of a lower nature and lesser concern are left more, obscure. 2. As to the persons to whom God reveals his will, there is great difference; some are strong men, others babes, 1 Cor. ili. 1; some have senses exercised, others are of weak and dull understanding; and. we know every thing is received according to the ability and measure of the person receiving it. Hence it is, that one man’s way is very plain before him, he knows what he‘ought to do; the other is ever and anon at a loss, dubious and uncertain what to do. 38. The manner of God’s revealing his will to men is also very different. Some have had special, personal, and peculiar discoveries of it made to them. So had Samuel about the choice of the person whom he should anoint king, 1 Sam. ix. 15, and’so had David, 1 Sam. xxiii. 2. 4. 9 — 12: where you find, upon his inquiry of, God, (likely by the urim and thummim,) God told him what was his duty as to that expedition, and what would be the event of it...
But now all are tied up to the ordinary, standing rule of the written word, and must not expect any such extraordinary revelations from’ God... The way we now have to know the will of God concerning us in diflicalt cases, is to search and study the Scriptures; and where we find no particular rule to guide us in this or that particular case, there we are to apply general rules, and govern ourselves according to the analogy and proportion they bear towards each other.
But now, it often falls out, that in-such doubtful cases we are entangled in our own thoughts, and put to a loss what course to take. We pray with David, that God would “make his way plain before us,” Psal. v. 8.. Afraid we are of displeasing God, and yet doubtful we may do so, whether we resolve this way or that. And this comes to pass, not only through the difficulty of the case, and from our Own ignorance and inadvertency, but very frequently from those providences that lie before us, wherein God seems to hint his mind to us, this way or that, and whether we may safely guide ourselves, by those intimations of Providence, is doubtful to us. 7 ‘That God doth give men secret hints and intimations of his will, by his providence, cannot be doubted; but yet providences, in themselves, are no stable rule of duty, nor sufficient discovery of the will of God. We may say of them, ‘ Behold, go forward, but he is not there: and backward, but I cannot perceive him: on the left hand, where he doth work, but L cannot behold him; he hideth himself on the right hand, that I cannot see him,’’ Job xxii. 8,°9, j ’ If providence in itself be allowed to be a sufficient discovery of God’s will to us, then we shall be forced oftentimes to justify and condemn the same cause or person, forasmuch as there is ‘* one event happens to all,’ and ‘as it falls out to the good, so to the wicked, Eccles. ix. 2. Besides, if providence alone were the rule to judge any action or design by, then a wicked undertaking would cease to be so, if it should succeed well; but sin is sin still, and duty is duty still, whatever the events and issues of either be.;, ‘The safest way, therefore, to make use of pro= vidences, in such ‘cases, is to consider them as they follow the commands or promises of the word, and not singly and separately in themselves. If you search the Scriptures with, an impartial ‘and unbiassed spirit, in a doubtful case, pray for counsel and direction from the Lord, attend to the dictates of conscience; when you have done all, and shall find the providences of God falling out agreeably to the dictates of your own conscience, and the best light you can find in the word, you may, in such cases, make use of it as an encouragement to you in the way of your duty; but the most signal demonstrations-of Providence are not to be accepted against a Scripture rule; no smiles or successes of Providence may in this case encourage us to proceed: and, on the other side, no frowns or discouragements of Providence should dishearten us in the way of our duty, how many soever we - should encounter therein.. Holy Job could not find the meaning of God in his works, yet would he not “go back from the commandment of his lips,’ Job xxii. 12. The like resolution you find in David to proceed in his duty, and cleave to the word, how many stumbling-blocks soever Providence should permit to be laid in his way. ‘TI am become,’ saith he, ‘like a bottle in the smoke,”’ not only blacked, but withered up by troubles, ‘* yet do I not forget thy statutes,” Psal. exix. 83; and again, ‘* They had almost consumed me upon earth;; but I forsook not thy precepts,’’ ver. 87.
Paul, by the direction of the Spirit, was engaged to go to Jerusalem, Acts xx. 22. After a clear revelation of the mind of God to him in that matter, how many difficult and discouraging providences befell him in his way! The disciples of Tyre said to him ‘* by the Spirit,’” though in that they followed their own spirits, ‘ that “he should not go to Jerusalem,”’ Acts xxi. 4.
Then at Cesarea, he met Agabus, a prophet, who told him what should befall him when he came thither, chap. xxi. 10, 11. All ‘this will, not dissuade htm. And after all this, how passionately do the brethren beseech him to decline that journey! verses 12,13. Yet knowing his rule, and resolving to be faith ful to it, he puts by all, and proceeds on 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 trial, not your encouragement: take this, therefore, for a sure rule, that no providence can legitimate or justify 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, therefore, in doubtful cases, you would discover God’s will, govern yourselves in. your search after it by these rules.
1. Get the true fear of God upon your hearts; be really afraid of offending him; God will not hide his. mind from such a soul. ‘’The secret-of the Lord is with them-that fear him, and he will show them his covenant,’’ Psal. xxv. 14.
2. Study the word more, and the concerns and interests of the world less. ‘The word is a light to your feet, Psal. cxix. 105, that is, it hath a discovering and directive usefulness as to all the duties to be done, and dangers to be avoided: it is the great oracle at which you are to inquire: treasure up its rules in your hearts, and you will walk safely. ‘Thy word have I hid in my heart, that I might not sin against thee,” Psal. exix. 11.
3. Reduce what you know into practice, and you shall know what is your duty to practise. ‘If any mando his will, he shall know of the doctrine,” John vii. 17 «A good understanding have all they that do his commandments,” Psal. exi. 10.
4. 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. ‘Then I proclaimed a fast there at the river Ahava, that we might afflict ourselves before our God, to seek of him a right way for us, and for our little ones, and for all our substance,”’ Ezra vili. 21. 7 7
5. And this being done, follow providence so far as it agrees with the word, and no further. 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 begun to triumph. in the hopes of his downfall, he prays 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,’ Psal, xli. 11. This providence he looked upon as a token for good, as elsewhere he calls it, Psal. lxxxvi. 17. 2. Providences give us loud calls. to those duties, which the command lays upon us, and tells 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 ourselves, they call us to humiliation, and Jet us know that then the command to humble ourselves at the feet of God is in force upon us. ‘* The Lord’s voice crieth to
LU DIVINE CONDUCTy OR,
the city, and the man of wisdom shall see thy name, hear the rod, and who hath appointed it,”’ Micah vi. 9. ‘The rod hath a voice, and what doth it speak? Why now is the time to humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God; this is the day of. trouble in which God hath bid you to call upon him; and, contrariwise, when comfortable providences refresh us, it now informs us, this is the time to rejoice in God, according to the tule: ‘ In the day of prosperity be joyful,” Eccles. vil. 14, These precepts bind always, but apply to various circumstances: it is 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.
Second case. How may a Christian be snpported in waiting upon God, whilst Providence delays the performance of the mercies to him, for which he hath long prayed and waited?
Two things are supposed in this case. That Providence may linger and delay the performance of those mercies to us, that we have long waited and prayed for. ‘That during that delay and suspension, our hearts and hopes may be very low, and ready to fail. i
1. 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 twofold 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 ourselves, who raise up our own expectations of mercies, sometimes merely through the eagerness of our desires after them,
THE MYSTERY OF PROVIDENCE. 9 ba
and sometimes upon uncertain conjectural grounds and appearances of encouragement, that lie 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 lie in the way of it. ‘Chere was a time prefixed by God himself for the performance of that promise of Israel’s deliverance out of Egypt; and it is said, ‘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,” Exod. xii. 41. Compare this with Acts vil. 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 must accomplish their appointed time, and when they have so done, Providence will fulfil them, and not one of them shall miscarry.
But for the seasons, which are of our own fixing and appointment, as God is not tied to them, so his providences are not governed by them, and hence are our disappointments. ‘* We looked for
eace, but no good came; for a time of health, and behold trouble,” Jer. viii. 15.. And hereupon is it that we fret at the delays of Providence, and suspect the faithfulness of God in their performance. «But his thoughts are not our thoughts,” Isa. lv. 8, «The Lord is not slack’concerning his promise, as men count slackness,’. 2 Peri soe is slackness, if you reckon by our own rule and measure, but it is not so if you reckon and count it by God’s.. The Lord doth not compute and reckon his seasons of working by our arithmetic.
You have both these rules compared, and the ground of our mistake detected in this Scripture: ‘« “The vision is yet for an appointed time, but, at the end, it shall speak, and not lie: though it tarry, wait for it, because it will surely come, it will not tarry,’’ Hab. ii. 3.:
God appoints the time: when that appointed time is come, the expected mercies will not fail; but, in the mean time, “though it tarry,” saith the prophet, ‘* wait for it, for it will not tarry.” Tarry, and not tarry, how shall this be reconciled? The meaning is, it may tarry much beyond your expectation, but not a moment beyond God’s appointment. |,
2. During this delay of Providence, the hearts and hopes of the people of God may be very low, and much discouraged. This is very plain from what the Scriptures have recorded of others, and every one of us may find in our own experiences. We have an instance of this in Isa, xlix. 13, 14, In the 18th verse you have God’s faithful promise, that * he will comfort his people, and have mercy upon his afflicted;”” enough, one would think, to raise and comfort their hearts. But the -mercy promised was long in coming, they waited from year to year, and still the burden pressed them, and was not removed. And therefore “Zion said, the Lord hath forsaken me, and my Lord hath forgotten me,”’ ver. 14, as if:she had said, It is in vain to look for such a mercy, God hath no regard to us, we are out of his heart and mind, he neither cares for us, nor minds what becomes of us.
So it was with David, after God had made him such a promise, and in the time thereof so faithfully performed it, that never was mercy better secured to any man; for they are called ‘the sure mercies of David,” Isa. lv. 3, yet Providence delayed the accomplishment of them so. long, and suffered such difficulties to intervene, that he not only despairs to see the accomplishment of them, but even concludes God had forgotten them too. ‘“How long wilt thou forget me, O Lord? for ever?”’ Psal. xiii. 1. And what he speaks here by way of question, he elsewhere turns into a positive conclusion: All men are liars; I shall one day perish by the hand of: Saul,’’ Psal, exvi. 11. And the causes of these despondencies and sinkings of heart are partly from ourselves, and partly from Satan. If we duly examine our own hearts about it, we shall find that these sinkings of heart are,
(1.) The immediate effects of unbelief. We do not depend and rely upon the word with that full trust and confidence that are due to the infallible word of a faithful and unchangeable God. You may see the ground of this faintness in that Scripture, ‘‘I had fainted unless I had believed,”’ Psal. XXviil. 13. Faith is the only cordial that relieves the heart against these faintinys and despondencies. where this is wanting, or is weak, no wonder our hearts sink at this rate, when discouragements are before us.
(2.) Our judging and measuring things by the rules of sense; this is a great cause of our discouragements. We conclude, that according to the appearances of things, so will be their issues. If Abraham had done so in that great trial of his faith, he had certainly lost his footing; ‘but against hope (that is, against natural probability) he believed in hope, giving glory to God,” Rom. iv. 18. If Paul had done so, he had fainted under his trials. ‘‘ We faint not,” saith he, whilst we look not at
PA eS DIVINE CONDUCT; OR,
the things that are seen,’? 2 Cor. iv. 16, 18, as if he had said, that which keeps-up our spirits is our looking off from things present and visible, and measuring all by another rule, namely, the power and fidelity of God firmly engaged in the promises.
(3.) In all these things, Satan manages a design upon us. Hence he takes occasion to suggest hard thoughts of God, and. to beat off our souls from all confidence in him, and expectations from him. He is the great causer of opposition betwixt God and the saints. He reports the difficulties and fears that are in our ways, with advantage, and labours to weaken our hands and discourage our hearts in Waiting upon God. And these suggestions gain the more credit with us, because they are confirmed and attested by sense and feeling,
But here is a desperate design, earrying on under very plausible pretences, against our souls. It concerns us to be watchful now, and maintain our faith and hope in God. How blessed is he who can resign all to God, and quietly wait for his salvation. ‘T’o assist the soul in this difficulty, I shall offer some further help besides what hath been formerly given under the first caution, in the following considerations: a
First consideration. Though Providence do not yet perform the mercies you wait for, yet you have no ground to entertain hard‘ thoughts of God; for it is possible God never gave you any ground for your expectation of these things from him. It. may be you have no promise to found your hope upon; and if so, why should God be suspected and dishonoured by you in a case wherein his truth and faithfulness were never engaged to you? If we are crossed in our outward concerns, and see our expectations of prosperity dashed; if we see such or such an outward comfort removed, from which we promised ourselves much; why must God be accused for this? These things you promised yourselves; but where did God promise you prosperity, and the continuance of those comfortable things to you? Produce his promise, and show wherein he hath broken it. It is not enough for you to say, There are general promises in the Scripture, that * God will withhold no good thing,” and these are good things which Providence withholds from you; for that promise, Psal. lxxxiv. 1], hath its limitations, it is expressly limited to such as “walk uprightly;”’ and it concerns you to examine whether you have done so, before you quarrel with Providence for non-performance of it. Ah! friend, search thine own heart, reflect upon thine own ways; seest thou not so many flaws in thine integrity, so many turnings aside from God, both in heart and: life, that may justify God, not only in withholding what thou lookest for, but in removing all that thou enjoyest? And, besides this limitation as to the object, it is limited (as all other promises relating to externals are) in the matter or things promised by the wisdom and will of God, which is the only rule by which they are measured out to men in this world; that is, such mercies, in such proportions as he sees needful and most conducive to your good; and these given out in such times and seasons as are of his own. appointment, not yours.
God never came under an absolute, unlimited tie for outward comforts to any of us; and if we be disappointed, we can blame none but ourselves, Who bid us expect rest, ease, delight, and things of this kind in this world? He hath never told us, we shall be rich, healthy, and at ease in our habitations; but, on the contrary, he hath often told us we must expect ‘troubles in the world,’ John Xvi. 83, and that ‘through many tribulations.we must enter into his kingdom,” Acts xiv. 22. All that he stands bound to us by promise for, is, to ‘be with us in trouble,” Psal. xci. 15, to supply our real and absolute needs. ‘* When the. poor and needy seek water, and there is, none, and their tongue faileth for thirst, I the Lord will hear them, I the God of Israel will not forsake them,” Isa. xli. 17, and to sanctify all these providences to our good at last: All things shall work together for good to them that love God,’? Rom. viii. 28. And, as to all these things, not one tittle ever did or shall fail.
Second consideration. But if you say, you have Jong waited upon God for spiritual mercies to your souls, according to the promise, and stili those mercies are deferred, and your eyes fail whilst you look for them; I would desire you seriously to consider of what’ kind those spiritual mercies are, for which you have so long waited upon God, Spiritual mercies are of two sorts; such as belong to the essence, the very being of the new creature, without which it must fail; or, its well-being, and the comfort of the inner man, without which you cannot live so cheerfully as you would. The mercies of the former kind are absolutely necessary, and therefore put into absolute promises, as you read: ‘¢ And I will make an everlasting covenant with them, that I will not turn away from them to do them good, but I will put my fear in their hearts, that they shall not depart from me,” Jer. xxxii. 40. But for the rest, they are dispensed to us in such measures, and at such seasons
THE MYSTERY OF PROVIDENCE. oT7
as the Lord sees fit, and many of his own people live for a long time without them. The donation and continuation of the Spirit to quicken, sanctify, and unite us with Christ, are necessary, but his joys and comforts are not so. <A child of light. may ‘* walk in darkness,” Isa. ]. 10, he lives by faith, and not by feeling.
Third consideration. You complain, Providence delays to perform to you the mercies you have prayed and waited for; but have you right ends in your desires after these mercies? ‘It may be that this is the cause you ask and receive not, James iv. 3. The want of a good aim is the reason why we want good success in our prayers. It may be we pray for prosperity, and our end is to please the flesh: we look no higher than the pleasure and accommodation of the flesh: we beg and wait for deliverance lfrom such a trouble and affliction, not that we might be the more ready and prepared for obedience, but freed of what is grievous to us, and destroys our pleasure in the world. Certainly, if it be so, you have more need to judge and condemn yourselves, than to censure and suspect the care of God.
Fourth consideration. You wait for good, and it comes not; but is your will brought to a due submission to the will of God about it? Certainly God will have you come to this before you enjoy your desires. Enjoyment of your desires is the thing that will please you; but resignation of your wills is that which is pleasing to God. If your hearts cannot come to this, mercies cannot come to you. David was made to wait long for the mercies promised him, yea, and to be content without it, before he enjoyed it; he was brought to be
«6 as a weaned ehild,’’ Psal. cxxxi. 2, and so must: ou.:
Fifth consideration. Your betters have waited long upon God for mercy, and why should not you ?, David waited till his ‘eyes failed,”’ Psal. lxix. 3. ‘The church ‘ waited for him in the way of his judgments,” Isa. xxvi. 8. Are you better than all the saints that are gone before you? Is God more obliged to you than to all his people? They have quietly waited, and why should not you?
Sixth consideration. Will you Jose any thing by patiently waiting upon God for mercies? Certainly not at all; yea, it will turn to a double advantage to you to continue in a quiet, submissive, waiting posture upon God: for though you do not yet enjoy the good you wait for, yet all this while you are exereising your grace; and it is more excellent to act grace, than to enjoy comfort. All this while the Lord is training you up in the ex-. ercise of faith and patience, and bending your wills in submission to himself; and what do you lose by that? Yea, whenever the desired mercy comes, it will be so much the sweeter to you;.for how much faith and prayer have been employed to produce it, how many wrestlings you have had with God for it; so many more degrees of sweetness you will find in it, when it comes. O, therefore, faint not, however long God delay you.
Seventh consideration. Are not those mercies you expect from God worth the waiting for? If not, it is your folly to be troubled for the want of them: if they be, why do not you continue waiting? Is it not all that God expects from you for the mercies he bestows upon you, that you wait upon him for them? You know you have not deserved the least of them at his hands. You expect them not as a recompense, but a free favour 5 and if so, then certainly the least you ean do is to. wait upon his pleasure for them.
Eighth consideration. Consider how many promises are made in the word to waiting souls. One Scripture calls them * blessed that wait for him,” Isa. xxx. 18. Another tells us, ‘none that wait for him shall be ashamed,” Psal. xxv. 3, that is, they shall not be finally disappointed, but at, last be partakers of their hopes. A. third Seripture tells us, ‘they that wait upon the Lord: shall renew their strength,” Isa. xl..31, a promise you had need make much use of in such a fainting time; with many more of like nature: and shall we faint at this rate, in the midst of so many cordials as are prepared to revive us in these promises?
Ninth consideration. How long hath God waited upon you for the time when you will comply with his commands, and come up to your engagements) and promises? You have made God wait long for your reformation and obedience, and therefore have no reason to think it much if God make you wait long for your consolation. We. have our how longs, and hath not God his? We ery, ‘* But thou, O Lord, how long?” Psal. vi. 3. ‘‘How long wilt thou forget me, O Lord? for ever? How ‘ong? 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?” Psal. iit de: De But, 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 unbelief hath made him ery,. ‘* How long will it be ere they believe me?’ Numb. xiv. 11. Our corrupt hearts have made him ery, ‘* How long shall vain thoughts lodge within thee?” Jer. iv. 14. Our impure natures and ways have made him cry, ‘‘How long will it be ere they attain to innocency?” Hosea viii, 5. If God wait upon you with so much patience for your duties, well may you wait upon him for his mercies.
Lenth consideration. This impatience and unbelief of yours, expressed in your weariness to wait any longer, as it is a great evil in itself, so, very probably, it is that evil which obstructs the way of your expected mercies: you might have your mercies sooner, if your spirits were quiet and more submissive, And thus of the second case.
Lhe third case. Wow 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 concerning men in this world, the issues and events of which are vastly different, yea, contrary to each other. To some, all providences are overruled and ordered for good, according to that blessed promise, ‘And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose,’ Rom. viii. 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. For though sin be so intrinsically and formally evil in its own nature, that, in itself, it be not capable of sanctification, yet, out of this worst of evils, God can work good to his people; and though he never makes sin the instrument of good, ow
yet his providence may make it the occasion of good to his people, so that spiritual benefits may, by the wise overruling 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, by 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. ‘By this shall the iniquity of Jacob be purged,” Isa. xxvii. 9, that is, by the instrumentality of this sanctified affliction.
To other persons 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. cix. 7; the ordinances are the savour of death, 2 Cor. ii. 16; the grace of God turned into wantonness, Jude, ver. 4; Christ himself a rock of offence, 1 Pet. ii. 8: their table a snare; Psal. lxix. 225 their prosperity their ruin, Prov. i. 32. As persons are, so things work for good or evil. «To the pure all things are pure, but to them that are defiled and unbelieving is nothing pure,”’ ‘Tit. i. 15. Seeing, therefore, the events of Providence fall out so opposite to each other upon the godly and ungodly, every thing furthering the eternal good of the one, and the ruin of the other, it cannot but be acknowledged a most important case, in which every soul is deeply concerned, whether the providences under which he is, be sanctified to him or not?
For the clearing of which, I shall premise two necessary considerations, and then subjoin the rules which will be useful for the determination of the question.
pbaldy DIVINE CONDUCT; OR,
1. 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 considered, ‘ All things come alike to all; and no man knoweth either love or hatred by all the things that are before him,”’ Eccles. ix. 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 hath more of those providences than the people of his wrath? «‘’They have more than their hearts can wish,”’ Psal. lxxiii. 7. 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 testify our love to God; but, from ten thousand such enjoyments, we cannot get any solid assurance of his love to us.
And from these adverse, afflictive providences, we cannot know God’s hatred. If ‘afflictions, great afflictions, many afflictions, long-continued afflictions, should set a brand, or fix a character of God’s hatred upon the persons on whom they fall, where then shall we find God’s 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 discernible by the view of his temporal. When God draws the sword, it may ‘* cut off the righteous as well as the wicked,” Ezek. xxi. 3.
2, Though the providences of God materially considered, afford no evidences of God’s love to us, yet the manner in which they befall us, and the effects and fruits they produce in us, distinguish them very manifestly, and by them we may diseern, whether they be sanctified providences, and fruits of the love of God, or not. 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 soul’s exercise under them. ‘* Now no affliction for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous, nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruits of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby,” Heb. xii. 11.
‘The benefit of. a providence is discerned 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 cheerfulness. 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 show 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 us, we may warrantably conclude they are blessings to us, and come from the love of God, when,
(1.) They come in a proper season, when we have need of them, either to prevent some sin we are falling into, or recover us out of a remiss, supine, and careless frame of spirit, into which we are fallen. ‘‘If need be, ye are in heaviness,” 1 Pet. i. 6. Certainly it is a good sign, that God designs your good by those troubles which are so fitted and wisely ordered to suit the opportunity. If you see the husbandman lopping a tree in the proper season, it argues he aims at the fruitfulness and flourishing of it; but, to do the same thing at midsummer speaks no regard to it, yea, his design to destroy it.
(2.) When they are fitted both for quality and degree, to work properly upon our predominant corruptions, then they look like sanctified strokes. ‘The wisdom of God is much seen in the choice of his rods. It is not any kind of trouble that will work upon, and purge every sin; but, when God sends such afflictions as, like medicine, are appropriated to the disease the soul Jabours under, this speaks divine care and love. Thus, we may observe, it is usual with God to smite us in those very comforts which stole away too much of the love and delight of our souls from God; to cross us in those things from which we raised up too great expectations of comfort. These providences speak the jealousy of God over us, and his care to prevent far worse evils by these sad but needful strokes. And so for the degrees of our troubles, sanctified strokes, are ordinarily fitted by the wisdom of God to the strength and ability of grace within us. ‘In measure when it shooteth forth, thou wilt debate with it; he stayeth his rough wind in the day-of the east wind,” Isa. xxvii. 8. It is an allusion toa physician, who exactly weighs and measures all the ingredients which he mingles in a portion for his sick patient, that it may be proportionate to his strength, and no more; and so much the next words intimate: ‘ By this, therefore, shall the iniquity of Jacob be purged.”
(3.) It is a good sign our troubles are sanctified tous when they turn our hearts against sin, and not.against God. There are few great afflictions which befall men that do not make them quarrelsome and discontented. Wicked men quarrel with God, and are filled with discontent against him. So the Scripture describes them: “they were scorched with great heat, and blasphemed the name of God which hath power over these plagues,” Rev. xvi. 9..- But godly men, to whom afflictions are sanctified, justify God, and fall out with sin, they condemn themselves, and give glory to God. ‘*O Lord, righteousness belongeth unto thee, but unto.us confusion of faces,”” See, Dan. ix. 7. ‘‘ Wherefore doth a living man complain, a man for the punishment of his sins?’’ Lam. iii. 39. Happy afflictions, which make the soul fall. out and quarrel only with sin.
(4.) It is a sure sign afflicting Brbvidenoss are sanctified when they purge the heart from sin, and leave both heart and life more pure, heavenly, mortified, and humble than they found them. Sanctified afflictions are cleansers, they pull down the pride, refine the earthliness, and purge out the vanity of the spirit. So you read, Dan. xi. 35, it purifies and makes their souls white. Hence it is compared to a furnace, which separates the dross from the pure. metal. ‘‘ Behold Ihave refined thee, but not with silver; I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction,’”’ Isa. xlviii. 10. But, for wicked men, let them be ever so long in the furnace, they lose’no dross, Ezek. xxiv. 6. How many Christians can bear witness to this truth! After some sharp affliction hath been upon them, how is the earthliness of their hearts purged. They see no beauty, taste no more relish in the world,-than in the white of an egg. Oh, how serious, humble, and heavenly are they, till the 1mpressions made upon them by afilictions be worn off, and their deceitful lusts have again entangled them! And this is the reason why we are so often under the discipline of the rod. Let a Christian, saith a late writer, be but two or three years without an affliction, and he is hardly good for any thing; he cannot pray nor meditate, nor discourse as he was wont to do; but, when a new afiliction comes, then he can find his tongue, and comes to his knees again, and lives at another rate.
(5.) It is a good sign afilictive providences are sanctified to us, when we draw near to God under them, and ‘turn to him that smites us.” A wicked man under affliction ‘‘ revolts more and more,”’ Isa. i. 5, “‘turns not to him that smites him,”’ Isa. ix. 13, but grows worse than before: formality is turned into stupidity and indolence.
But if God afilict his own people with a sanctified rod, it awakens them to a more earnest seeking of God; it makes them pray more frequently, spiritually, and fervently, than ever. When Paul was buffetted by Satan, he “besought the Lord thrice,’’ 2 Cor. xii. 8. 5
(6.) We may conclude our afflictions to be sanctified, and to come from the love of God to us, when they do not alienate our hearts from God, but inflame our love to him. ‘This is a sure rule, whatever ends in the increase of our love to God, proceeds from the love of God to us. A wicked man finds his heart rising against God when he smites him, but a gracious heart cleaves the closer to him; he can love as well as justify an afflicting God. ‘<All this is come upon us; yet have we not forgotten thee, neither have we dealt falsely in thy covenant; our heart is not turned back, neither have our steps declined from thy way; theugh thou hast sore broken us in the place of dragons, and covered us with the shadow of death,’’ Psal.
xliv. 17 — 19. Here you have a true account of the temper and frame of a gracious soul under the greatest afflictions. ‘To be ‘* broken ‘in the place of dragons, and covered with the shadow of death,” imports the most ‘dismal state of affliction; yet even then a gracious heart turns not back, that is, doth not for all this abate one drachm of love to God: God is as good and dear to him in aiilictions as ever.
(7.) We may call our afflictions sanctified when divine teachings accompany them to our souls. «Blessed is the man whom thou chastenest, O Lord, and teachest him out of thy law,”’ Psal. xciv. 12. Sanctified afflictions are eye-salves; they teach us sensibly and effectually, when the Spirit accompanies them, the evil of sin, the vanity of the creature, the necessity of securing things that cannot be shaken. Never doth a Christian take a truer measure both of his corruptions and graces than under the rod. Now a man-sees that filthiness which hath been long contracted in prosperity, what interest the creature hath in the heart, how little faith, patience, resignation and self-denial we ean find, when God calls us to the exercise of them. O it is a blessed sign that trouble is sanctified, which makes a man thus turn in upon his own heart. search it, and humble himself before the Lord for the evils of it!
If the next place, let us take into consideration those other providences which are comfortable and pleasant. Sometimes they smile upon us in successes, prosperity, and the gratification of the desires of our hearts. Here the question will be, how the sanctification of these providences may be discovered to us? For resolution to this matter, I shall, for clearness’ sake, lay down two sorts of rules: one negative, the other positive.
First, negative. 1. it is a sign that comfort is not sanctified tous which comes not, ordinarily, in the way of prayer. ‘* The wicked boasteth of his heart’s desire, and blesseth thé covetous, whom the Lord abhorreth. ‘The wicked, through the pride of his countenance, will not seek after God: God is not in all his thoughts,” Psal. x. 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.
2. Whatever success, prosperity, or comfort, men acquire by sinful mediums 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 revenues without right,” Prov. xvi. 8. Better upon this account that it comes in God’s way, and with his blessing, which never follows the way of sins God hath cursed the ways of sin, and no blessing can follow them.
3. Whatever prosperity or success makes men forget God, and cast: off the care of duty, is not sanctified to them. It is unsanctified prosperity which lulls men asleep into a deep oblivion of God. ‘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 oil out of the flinty rock, butter of kine, and milk of sheep, 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 Jeshurun waxed fat and kicked; thou art waxen 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,” Deut. xxxii, 13 — 18. The rich are rarely grateful.
4, When prosperity is abused to sensuality, and merely serves as fuel to maintain fleshly lusts, it is not sanctified. **’[hey send forth their little ones like a flock, and their children dance. They take the timbrel and harp, and rejoice at the sound of the organ. ‘They spend their days in wealth, and in a moment go down to the grave,’ Job xxi. 1J — 13.;
5. It is a sign that prosperity is not sanctified to men, when it swells. the heart with pride and self-conceit, like Nebuchadnezzar. - “At. the end of twelve months 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?”? Dan. iv. 29, 30.
6. That success is not sanctified to men. which takes them off their duty, and makes them wholly negligent, or very much indisposed to it. “O generation, see ye 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?”’ Jer. ii. 81.
7. Nor can we think that prosperity sanctified which wholly swallows up the souls of men in their own enjoyments, and makes them regardless of public miseries or sins. “They lie 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 viols, and invent to themselves instruments of music like David. They drink wine in bowls, and anoint themselves with the chief ointments; but they are not grieved for the affliction of Joseph,” Amos vi. 4 — 6.
Second, positively. 1. ‘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. Thus Jacob said, ‘1 am not worthy of the least of all thy mercies,’’ d&&c., Gen. xxxii. 10.
2. Sanctified mercies are commonly turned into cautions against sin, Ezra ix. 13, they are.so many bands of restraint upon the soul that hath them to make them shun sin.
3. ‘They will engage a man’s heart in love to the God of his mercies; see Psal. xviii. 1, compared with the title.
4..’They never satisfy a man as his portion, nor will the soul accept all the prosperity in the world, upon that score: like Moses, ‘‘esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt: for he had respect unto the recompense of the reward,” Heb. xi. 26.
5. Nor do they make men regardless of -public sins or miseries; see Neh. ii. 1 — 3, compared with Acts vil. 23.
6. It is a sure sign that mercies are sanctified when they make the soul more ready and enlarged for God in duty. ‘Therefore the Lord established the kingdom in his hand, and all Judah brought to Jehoshaphat presents, and he had riches and honour in abundance, and his heart was lifted up in the ways of the Lord,’ &c., 2 Chron. xvii. 5, 6.
7. 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 for this third case.
Fourth case. How may we attain unto an evenness and steadiness 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 ina great measure, prevented by the due use and application of those rules and helps that God hath given us in such cases.
1. 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 increaseth the nations, and destroyeth them; he enlargeth the nations, and straiteneth them again,” Job xii. 23. The same it doth with persons: ‘‘Thou hast lifted me up, and cast me down,” Psal. cil. 10. See what a sad alteration Providence made upon the church: ‘* How doth the city sit solitary that was full of people! How is she become as a widow! She that was great among the nations, and princess among the provinces, how is she become tributary! Is it nothing to you, all ye that pass by? Behold and see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow, which is done unto me, wherewith the Lord hath afflicted me in the day of his fierceanger,” Lam. i. 1. 12. And how great an instance was Job of this truth! See Job ‘Xxix, compared with chap. xxx. How many thousands have complained with Naomi, whose condition hath been so strongly altered that others have said, as the people of Bethlehem did of her, ‘¢Ts this Naomi,’’ Ruth i. 19 — 21.
2. These vicissitudes of Providence commonly cause great disorders of spirit in the best men. As intense heat and cold try the strength and soundness of the constitution of our bodies, so the alterations made by Providence upon our conditions try the strength of our graces, and too often discover the weakness and corruption of holy men. Hezekiah was a good man; but yet his weakness and corruption was discovered by the alterations Providence made upon his condition. When sickness and pains summoned him to the grave, what bitter complaints and despondencies are recorded! See Isa. xxxvili. And when Providence lifted him up again into a prosperous condition, what ostentation and vain-glory did he discover! Isa. xxxix. 2. David had more than a common stock of inherent grace, yet not enough to keep him in an equal temper of spirit under great alterations. In my prosperity, I said, I shall never be. moved; thou didst hide thy face, and I was troubled, Psal. xxx. 6,7. It is not every man that can say with Paul, ‘‘ 1 know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound; every where, and in all things L am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need,’’? Phil. iv. 12. He is truly rich in grace, whose riches or poverty neither hinders the acting nor impoverishes the stock of his graces.
Though the best men be subject to such disorders of heart under the changes of Providence, yet these disorders may, in a great measure, be prevented by the due application of such rules and helps as God hath given us in such cases.
Now these helps are suited to a threefold aspect of providence upon us, namely, 1. Comfortable — 2. Calamitous — -3. Doubtful; to all which I shall speak particularly and briefly.
—Question 1. How may we attain to an evenness and steadiness of heart under the comfortable aspects of Providence upon us?
‘Under providences of this kind, the great danger is, lest the heart be lifted up with pride and vanity, and fall into a drowsy and remiss temper. T’o prevent this, we had need to urge humbling and awakening considerations upon our heart; such are these that follow.
(1.) ‘These gifts of Providence are common to the worst of men, and are no special distinguishing fruits of God’s love. The vilest of men have been filled even to satiety with these things. ‘‘’Their eyes stand out with fatness; they have more than-heart could wish,’”’ Psal. xxii. 7.
(2.) Think how unstable and changeable all these things are. What you glory in to-day may be none of yours to-morrow. ‘* Riches make themselves wings, and flee away as an eagle towards heaven,”’ Prov. xxiii. 5. As the wings of a fowl grow out of the substance of the body, so the cause of the creature’s transitoriness is in itself; it Is subjected to vanity, and that vanity, like wings, carries it away; they are but fading flowers, - James i. 10.
(3.) The change of providences are never nearer
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It ty? to the people of God, than when their hearts are lifted up or grown secure by prosperity. Doth Hezekiah glory in his treasures? The next news he hears is of an impoverishing providence at hand, Isa, xxxix. 2 — 7. Others may be left to perish in unsanctified prosperity, but you shall not.
(4.) This is a great discovery. of the carnality and corruption that is in thy heart: it argues a heart little set on God, little mortified to the world, little acquainted with the vanity and ensnaring nature of these things. O, you know not what hearts you have till such providences try them; and is not such a discovery matter of deep humiliation?
(5.) Was it. not better with you in a low condition than it is now? Reflect, and compare state with state, and time with time. How is the frame of your hearts altered with the alteration of your condition! So God complains of Israel: ‘J did know thee in the wilderness — the land of drought. According to their pasture, so were they filled; they were filled, and their heart was exalted, therefore have they forgotten me,”’ saith the Lord, Hos. xu. 5, 6: as if he had said, You and I were better acquainted formerly, when you were in a low condition; prosperity hath estranged you, and altered the ease. How sad is it, that God’s mercies should be the occasion of our estrangement from him!
Question 2. Upon the other side, it is worth considering, how our hearts may be established and kept steady under calamitous and adverse providences.
flere we are in equal danger of the other extreme — despondency and sinking under the frowns and strokes of cross providences. Now to sup-Pra? Sty, aa a port and establish the heart in this case take three helps.:
(1.) Consider, that afflictive providences are of great use to the people of God; they cannot live without them. The. earth doth not more need chastening frosts and mellowing snows, than our hearts do nipping providences. Let the best Christian be but for a few years without them, and he will be sensible of the want of them; he will find a sad remission and declining of all his graces.
(2.) No stroke or calamity upon the people of God can separate them from Christ: ‘¢ Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation?” Rom. viii. 25. There was a time when Job could call nothing in this world but trouble his own: he could not say, my estate, my honour, my health, my children; for all these were gone; yet then he could say, ‘‘ my Redeemer,’’ Job xix. 25. Well, then, there is no cause to sink whilst interest in Christ remains sure to us.
(3.) All your calamities will have an end shortly. ‘The longest day of the saints’ troubles has an end, and then no more troubles for ever. The troubles of the wicked will be to eternity; but you shall suffer but awhile,’ 1 Pet. v.18. Ifa thousand troubles be appointed for you, they will come to one at last, and after that no more: yea, and though our troubles ‘‘ be but a moment, yet they work for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory,’’ 2 Cor. iv. 1. Let that support your hearts under all your sufferings.
Question 3. Let us consider what may be useful to support and quiet our hearts under doubtful providences, when our dear concerns hang in a doubtful suspense before us, and we know not which way the providence of God will cast and determine them.
Now the best hearts are apt to. grow solicitous and pensive, distracted with thoughtfulness, about the event and issue. ‘To relieve and settle us in this case, the following considerations are very useful.
‘(1.) Let us consider the vanity and inutility of such ‘a solcitude: ‘* Which of you,” saith our Lord, “by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature?’ Matt. vi. 27. We may’ break our peace, and waste our spirits, but not alter the case. We cannot turn God out of his way: “He is in one mind,” Job xxiii. 18... We may, by struggling against’ God, increase, but not avoid, or lighten our troubles.
(2.) How often do we afflict and torment ourselves by our own unquiet thoughts, when there is no real cause or ground for so doing! “Thou hast feared continually every day, because of the fury of the oppressor, as if he were ready to destroy; and where is the fury of the oppressor?” Isa. li. 13. Oh what abundance of disquiet and trouble might we prevent, by waiting- quietly till we see the issues of providence, and not bringing, as we do, the evils of the morrow upon the day!
(3.) What a great ground of quietness is it, that the whole disposal and management of all our affairs and concerns is in the hand of our own God and Father! No creature can touch us without his commission or permission. ‘*{! know,’’ saith Christ, ‘‘ thou couldst have no power against me, except it were given thee from above,’ John xix. 11. Neither men nor devils can act any thing without God’s leave; and be sure he will sign no order to your prejudice.
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(4.) What a great satisfaction must it be to all that believe the Divine authority of the Scriptures, that the faithfulness of God stands engaged for every line and syllable found therein! And how many blessed lines in the Bible may we mark that respect even our outward concerns, and the happy issue of them all? Upon these two grounds: ‘That our outward concerns, with their steady direction to a blessed end, is found in the word; and this word being of Divine authority, the faithfulness and honour of God stands good for every tittle that is found there. I say, these are grounds of such stability, that our minds may repose with the greatest security and confidence upon them, even in the cloudiest day of trouble. Not only your eternal salvation, but your temporal interests are there secured. Be quieted, therefore, in the confidence of a blessed issue.
(5.) Hlow great and sure an expedient have the saints ever found it to their own peace, to commit all doubtful issues of providence to the Lord, and devolve all their cares upon him! ‘* Commit thy works unto the Lord, and thy thoughts shall be established,’’ Prov. xvi. 3. By works he means any doubtful, intricate, perplexing business, about which our thoughts are racked and tortured. Roll all these upon the Lord by faith, leave them with him, and the present, immediate benefit you shall have by it (besides the comfort in the last issue) shall be tranquillity and peace in your thoughts. And who is there of any standing or experience in religion that hath not found it so?
Fifth case. How may a Christian work his heart into a resigned frame unto the will of God, when sad providences approach him, and presage great troubles and afflictions coming on towards him?
For the right stating and resolving of this important case it will be needful to show, 1. What is not included and intended in the question; 2. What it doth suppose and include in it; and, 3. What helps and directions are necessary for the due performance of this great and difficult duty.
1. Negatively. It must be premised, that the question doth not suppose the heart or will of a Christian to be at his own command and disposal in this matter ;~we cannot resign it and subject it to the will of God whenever we: desire so to do; the duty indeed is ours, but the power by which alone we perform it is God’s: we act as we are actuated by the Spirit. It is with our hearts, as with meteors hanging in the air by the influence of the sun; while that continues, they abide above; but when it fails they fall to the earth. We can do this, and all things else, be they ever so difficult, ‘through Christ that strengthens us,’’ Phil. iv. 13; ‘* but. without him we can do nothing,” John xv. 5. He doth not say, Without me ye can do but little; or, Without me ye can do nothing, but with great difficulty; or, Without me ye can do nothing perfectly; but, Without:me ye can do nothing at all. And every Christian hath a witness in his own breast to attest this truth; for there are cases frequently occurring in the methods of Providence, in which, notwithstanding all their prayers and desires, all their reasoning and strivings, they cannot quiet their hearts fully in the disposal and will of God; but, on the contrary, they find all their endeavours in this matter to be but as the rolling of a returning stone against the hill; till God
say to the heart, Be still; and to the will, Give up, nothing can be done.
(2.) Affirmatively. Let us consider what this case doth suppose and include in it, and we shall find,
[1.] That it supposes the people of God to have a foresight of troubles and distresses approaching and drawing near to them. I confess it is not always so, for many of our afflictions, as weil as comforts, come by way of surprises upon us; but oftentimes we have forewarnings of troubles both public and personal, before we feel them: as the weather may be discerned by the face of the sky; when we see a morning sky red and lowering, this is a natural sign of a foul and rainy day, Matt. xvi. 8. And there are as certain signs of the times whereby we may discern when trouble is near, even at the door; and these forewarnings are given by the Lord to awaken us to our duties, by which they may either be prevented, Zeph. 11. 1, 2, or sanctified and sweetened to us when they come. These signs and notices of approaching troubles are gathered, partly from the observation and collation of parallel Scripture cases and examples, God generally holding one tenor and steady course in the administration of his providences in all ages, 1 Cor. x. 6, partly from the reflections Christians make upon the frames and tempers of their own hearts, which greatly need awakening, humbling, and purging providences; for let a Christian be but a few years or months without a rod, and how formal, earthly, dead, and vain will his heart grow! And such a temper presages affliction to them that are beloved of the Lord. Lastly, The ordering and disposing of the next causes into a posture and
/ preparation for our trouble, plainly premonishes us, that trouble is at the door. ‘Thus, when the symptoms of sickness begin to appear upon our own bodies, the wife of our bosom, or our children, (which are as our own souls,) Providence herein awakens our expectations of death and doleful separations: so when enemies combine together, and plot the ruin of our liberties, estates, or lives, and God seems to loose the bridle of restraint upon their necks, now we cannot but be alarmed with the near approach of troubles, especially when, at the same time, our consciences reflect upon the abuse and non-improvement of these our threatened comforts. 7
[2.] The case before us supposes that these premonitions and forerunners of affliction do usually very much disturb the order,-and break the peace of our souls; they put the mind under great discomposure, the thoughts under much distraction, and the affections into tumults and rebellion.
Ah! how unwilling are we to surrender to the Lord the loan which he lent us! to be disquieted by troubles, when at ease in our enjoyments !: How unwelcome are the messengers of affliction to. the best of men! We are ready to say to them as the widow to Elijah, ‘* What have I to do with thee, O thou man (O messenger) of God? art thou come unto me to call my sin to remembrance, and to slay my son?” 1 Kings xvii. 18. And this ariseth partly from the remains of corruption in the best souls; for though every sanctified person is come by his own consent into the. kingdom, and under the government and sceptre of Christ, and every thought of his heart must of right be subjected to him, 2 Cor. x. 5, yet the conquest and power of grace is but incomplete, and in part; and natural corruption, like Jeroboam with his vain men, riseth up against it, and causeth many mutinies in the soul, whilst grace, like young Abijah, is weak-handed, and cannot resist them; and partly from the advantage Satan makes of the season to irritate and assist our corruptions: he knows that which is already in motion is the more easily moved. In this confusion and hurry of thoughts he undiscernedly shuffles in his temptations; sometimes aggravating the evils which we fear with all the sinking and overwhelming circumstances imaginable; sometimes divining and forecasting such events and evils, as, haply, never fall out; sometimes repining at the disposals of God, as more severe to us than to others; and sometimes reflecting with very unbelieving and unworthy thoughts upon the promises of God, and his faithfulness in them; by all which the affliction is made to sink deep into the soul before it actually comes; the thoughts are so disordered, that duty cannot be duly performed; and the soul is really weakened and disabled to bear its trial when it comes indeed: just as if a man should be kept waking and restless all the night with the thoughts of his hard journey which he must travel to-morrow; and so when to-morrow is come, he faints for want of rest, midway on his journey. y
[3.] It is here supposed. to be the Christian’s great duty, under the apprehensions of approaching troubles, to resign his will to God’s, and quietly commit the events and issues of all to him, whatever they may prove. ‘Thus did David in the like ease and circumstances: ‘* And the king said unto Zadok, Carry back the ark of God into the city.
If I shall find favour in the eyes of the Lord, he will bring me back again, and show me both it and his habitation: but if he thus say, I have no delight in thee, behold here am J, let him do to me as seemeth good unto him,” 2 Sam. xv, 25, 26.
Oh, lovely and truly Christian temper! As if he had said, Go, Zadok, return with the ark to its place, though I have not the symbol, yet I hope I shall have the real presence of God with me in this sad journey: how he will dispose the events of this sad and doubtful providence, I know not; either I shall return again to Jerusalem, or I shall not: if I do, then T shall see it again, and enjoy the Lord in his ordinances there: if I do not, then I shall go to that place where there is no need or use of those things; and either way it will be well for me; I am content to refer all to the Divine pleasure, and commit the issue, be it whatever it will, to the Lord. ’ )
Till our hearts come to the like resolve, we can have no peace within. ‘‘ Commit thy works unto the Lord, and thy thoughts shall be established,” Prov. xvi. 3. By works he means not only every enterprise and business we undertake, but every puzzling, intricate, and doubtful event we fear. These being once committed by an act of faith, and our wills resigned unto his, besides the comfort we shall have in the issue, we shall have the present advantage of a well composed and peaceful spirit.
But this resignation is the difficulty. No doubt of peace, could we once bring our hearts to that. And therefore, 7
[4.] I shall here subjoin such helps and directions, as may, through God’s blessing, in the faithful use of them, assist and facilitate this eres and difficult work.
First help. Labour to work into your hearts a deep and fixed sense of the infinite wisdom of God, and your own folly and ignorance. This will make resignation easy to you; whatsoever the Lord doth is by counsel, Eph. i. 11, his understanding is infinite, Psal. exlvii. 5, his thoughts are very deep, Psal, xcii. 5, but, as for man, yea, the wisest among men, how little doth his understanding penetrate the works and designs of Providence! And how often are we forced to retract our rash opinions, and confess our mistakes; acknowledging, that if Providence had not seen with better eyes than ours, and looked further than we did, we had precipitated ourselves into a thousand mischiefs, which, by. its wisdom and care, we have escaped. It is well for us that the seven eyes of Providence are ever awake, and looking out for our good. Now, if one creature can and ought to be ouided and governed by another that is more wise and skilful than himself, as the client by his learned counsel, ‘the patient by his skilful physician, much more should every creature give up his weak reason, and shallow understanding, to the infinite wisdom of the omniscient God.
It is nothing but our pride and arrogance, overruling our understandings, that makes resignation so hard. Carnal reason seems to itself a wise disputant about the concerns of the flesh, but how often hath Providence baffled it. The more humility, the more resignation.
How few of our mercies and comforts have been foreseen by us! Our own projects have come to nothing, and that which we never thought on, or contrived, hath taken place; not our choice of the ground, or skill in weighing and delivering the bowl, but some unforeseen providence, like a rub in the green, was that which made the cast.
Second help. Deeply consider the sinfulness and vanity of torturing your own thoughts about the issues of doubtful providences,
1. There is much sin in so doing: for all our anxious and solicitous emotions, what else are they than the immediate issues and fruits of pride and unbelief? a
There is not a greater discovery of pride in the world than in the contests of our wills with the will of God. [t is a presumptuous invading of God’s prerogative to dictate to his providence, and prescribe to his wisdom.
2. There is a great deal of vanity in it: all the thoughtfulness in the world will not make one hair white or black; all our discontents will not prevail with God to call back, or (as the word may be rendered,) make void his word, Isa. xxxi. 2. He is in one mind, Job xxiii. 18. The thoughts of his mind are from everlasting, Psal. xxxili. 11.
Third help. Set before you those choice Scripture patterns of submission to the Lord’s will, in as deep, yea, much deeper points of self-denial than this before you, and shame yourselves out of this quarrelling temper with Providence.
You know what a close trial that providence was to Abrahain, that called him from his native country and father’s house, to go he knew not whither; and yet it is said in Isaiah xli. 2, “He came to God’s foot,” as readily obeying his call, as a servant when his master knocks for him with his foot.
Paul’s voyage to Jerusalem had a dismal aspect upon himself; he could expect nothing but bonds and afflictions as he tells us, Acts xx. 23. Anda great trial it was to the saints, who could not tell how to give up such a minister, yet he. resigns up his will to God’s, and so do they, Acts xxi. 14, ‘* The will of the Lord be done.’’
But far beyond these, and all other patterns, what an example hath our dear Lord Jesus set before us in the deepest point of self-denial that ever was in the world, when the Father gave the cup of suffering into his hand in the garden, Mark xiv. 36, a cup of wrath, the wrath of the great and terrible God, and that without mixture; the very taste whereof put nature into an agony and astonishment, a sore amazement, a bloody sweat, and forced from him that vehement and sad ery, ‘ Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass;’’ yet still, with submission, ‘‘ nevertheless, not my will, but thine be done.’’ Qh, blessed pattern of obedience and resignation to the pleasure of God! What is your case to this!
Fourth help. Study the singular benefits and advantages of a will resigned to, and melted into the will of God.
1. Such a spirit hath a continual sabbath within itself: the thoughts are established, Prov. xvi. 3. And truly, till a man come to this he doth but too much resemble the devil, who is a restless spirit, seeking rest but finding none.
It was an excellent expression of Luther, to one that was much perplexed in his spirit about the doubtful events :f some affairs of his that were then pending: ‘I he Lord shall do all for thee, and thou shalt do nothing, but be the Sabbath of Christ.
It is by this means that the Lord gives his beloved sleep, Psal. exxvii. 2. He means not the sleep of the body, but of the spirit. ‘Though believers live in the minds of many troubles here, yet with quiet and composed minds they keep themselves in the silence of faith, as though they were asleep.
2. Besides, it fits a man’s spirit for communion with God in all his afflictions, and this alleviates and sweetens them beyond any thing in the world.
3. And surely a man is never nearer the mercy he desires, or the deliverance he expects, (as one truly observes,) than when his soul is brought into a submissive temper. David was never nearer the kingdom than when he became as a weaned child.
Fifth help. Lastly, think how repugnant an unsubmissive temper is, both to your prayers and. professions. You pray that the will of God may be done on earth as it is in heaven, and yet, when it seems to cross your wills or interests, you struggle and fret against it. You profess to have committed your souls to his keeping, and to leave your eternal concerns in his hands; and yet cannot commit things, infinitely less valuable, unto him. How contradictory are these things!
Your profession, as Christians, speaks you to be led by the Spirit; but this practice speaks you to follow the perverse counsels of your own spirits. O then regret no more, dispute no more, but lie down meekly at your Father’s feet, and say, in all eases, and at all times, the will of the Lord be done.
And thus I have, through the aid of Providence, performed what I designed to speak from this Scripture. I acknowledge my performances have been accompanied with much weakness, yet I have endeavoured to speak of Providence the things that are right. Blessed be the Lord, who hath thus far assisted and protected me in this work.
How Providence will dispose of my life, liberty, and labours, for the time to come, I know not; but {cheerfully commit all to him who hath * performed all things for me.”
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