The Mystery of Providence

Just as he came near the place, one of them had thrown his antagonist, and stood triumphing in his strength and activity. This good man wrote up to them, and turning his speech to this person, told him, Friend, I see that you are a strong man, but let not the strong man glory in his strength. You must know that you are not to wrestle with flesh and blood, but with principalities and powers and spiritual wickednesses. How sad will it be that Satan should at last trip up the heels of your hope, and give you an eternal overthrow. After about a quarter of an hour serious discourse upon this subject, he left them and went on his journey. But this discourse made such an impression, that the person had no rest till he confided his trouble to a godly minister, who wisely, following the work upon his soul, saw at last the blessed issue thereof in the gracious change of the person, of which he afterwards gave the minister a joyful account. Oh, how unsearchable are the methods of providence in this matter! Nay, what is yet more wonderful, the providence of God has sometimes ordered the very malice of Satan, and wickedness of man, as an occasion of eternal good to their souls. A very memorable example of this I shall here give the reader, faithfully relating what, not many years past, occurred in my own observation in this place to the astonishment of many spectators. In the year 1673, there came into this port, Dartmouth, a ship of Poole, in her return from Virginia. In this ship was one of that place a lusty young man of twenty-three years of age, who was surgeon in the ship. This person in the voyage fell into a deep melancholy, which the devil greatly improved to serve his own design for the ruin of this poor man. However, it pleased the Lord to restrain him from any attempts upon his own life until he arrived here. But shortly after his arrival, upon the Lord's day, early in the morning, being in bed with his brother, he took out a knife prepared for that purpose and cut his own throat, and then leaped out of bed. And though the wound was deep and large, yet thinking it might not soon enough dispatch his wretched life, desperately thrust it into his stomach, and so lay wallowing in his own blood till his brother, awakening, made a cry for help. Hereupon a physician and a surgeon coming in, found the wound in his throat mortal, and all they could do at present was only to stitch it and apply a plaster, with the design rather to enable him to speak for a little while, than with any expectation of cure, for before that he breathed through the wound, and his voice was inarticulate. In this condition I found him that morning, and apprehending him to be within a few minutes of eternity, I labored to work upon his heart the sense of his condition, telling him I had but little time to do anything for him, and therefore I desired him to let me know what his own apprehensions of his present condition were. He told me he hoped in God for eternal life. I replied that I feared his hopes were ill-grounded, for the scriptures tell us, no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him. But this was self-murder, the grossest of all murders, and insisting upon the aggravation and heinousness of the fact, I perceived his vain confidence begin to fall, and some meltings of heart appeared in him. He then began to lament, with many tears, his sin and misery, and asked me if there might yet be hope for one that had destroyed himself and shed his own blood. I replied, The sin indeed is great, but not unpardonable, and if the Lord gave him repentance unto life, and faith to apply to Jesus Christ, it should be certainly pardoned to him. Finding him unacquainted with these things, I explained to him the nature and necessity of faith and repentance, which he greedily sucked in, and with such great vehemence cried to God that he would work them upon his soul, and entreated me also to pray with him and for him that it might be so. I prayed with him, and the Lord thawed his heart exceedingly in that duty. Loath he was to part with me, but the duties of the day necessitating me to leave him. I briefly summed up what was most necessary in my parting counsel to him, and took my leave, never expecting to see him more in this world. But beyond my own and all men's expectation, he continued all that day and panted most ardently after Jesus Christ. No discourses pleased him but Christ and faith, and in this frame I found him in the evening. He rejoiced greatly to see me again, and entreated me to continue my discourses upon these subjects, and after all told me, Sir, the Lord has given me repentance for this sin, yea, and for every other sin. I see the evil of sin now, so as I never saw it before. Oh, I loathe myself, I am a vile creature in my own eyes. I do also believe, Lord, help my unbelief. I am heartily willing to take Christ upon his own terms. One thing only troubles me, I doubt this bloody sin will not be pardoned. Will Jesus Christ apply his blood to me that have shed my own blood? I told him Christ shed his blood even for them that with wicked hands had shed the blood of Christ, and that was a sin of deeper guilt than his. Well, said he, I will cast myself upon Christ, let him do by me what he will. And so I parted with him that night. Next morning the wounds were to be opened, and then the opinion of the surgeons was that he would immediately expire. Accordingly, at his desire, I came that morning and found him in a most serious frame. I prayed with him, and then the wound in his stomach was opened, and by this time the ventricle itself was swollen out of the orifice of the wound and lay like a livid discolored tripe upon his body, and was also cut through. So that all concluded it was impossible for him to live. However, they stitched the wound in the stomach, enlarged the orifice, and fomented it, and wrought it again into his body, and so stitching up the skin left him to the disposal of providence. But so it was that both the deep wound in his throat and this in his stomach healed, and the more dangerous wound sin had made upon his soul was, I trust, effectually healed also. I spent many hours with him in that sickness, and after his return home, received this account from Mr. Samuel Hardy, a minister in that town, part of which I shall transcribe. Dear Sir, I was much troubled at the sad providence in your town, but did much rejoice that he fell into such hands for his body and soul. You have taken much pains with him, and I hope to good purpose. I think if ever a great and thorough work were done such a way, it is now, and if never the like, I am persuaded now it is. Never grow weary of such good works. One such instance is, methinks, enough to make you to abound in the work of the Lord all your days. O how unsearchable are the ways of providence in leading men to Christ! Let none be encouraged by this to sin that grace may abound. These are rare and singular instances of the mercy of God, and such as no presumptuous sinner can expect to find. It is only recited here to the honor of providence, which works for the recovery of sinners in ways that we do not understand. As providence orders very strange occasions to awaken and arouse souls at first, so it works no less wonderfully in carrying on the work to perfection. This it does in two ways. First, by quickening and reviving dying convictions and troubles for sin. Souls, after their first awakening, are apt to lose the sense and impression of their first troubles for sin, but providence is vigilant to prevent it, and effectually prevents it. Sometimes providence directs the minister to some discourse or passage that shall fall as pat as if the case of such a person had been studied by him and designedly spoken to. How often have I found this in the cases of many souls who have professed they have stood amazed to hear the very thoughts of their hearts revealed by the preacher, who knew nothing of them. Sometimes providence directs them to some proper rousing scripture that suits their present case, and sometimes it permits them to fall into some new sin, which awakens all their former troubles again and puts a new efficacy and activity into the conscience. The world is full of instances of all these cases, and because most Christians have experience of these things in themselves, it will be needless to recite them here. Search but a few years back, and you may remember that, according to this account, at least in some particulars, providence ordered the matter with you. Have you not found some rod or other prepared by providence to rouse you out of your security? Why, this is so common a thing with Christians, that they many times see an affliction coming from the frames they find their own hearts in. Secondly, providence gives great assistance to the work of the Spirit upon the soul by ordering, supporting, relieving, and sharing means to prop up and comfort the soul when it is overburdened and ready to sink in the depths of troubles. I remember Mr. Bolton gives us one instance which fits both these cases, the reviving of convictions and seasonable supports in the depths of trouble. It is of a person that by convictions had been fetched off from his wicked companions and entered into a reformed course of life. But after this, through the enticement of his old companions, the subtlety of Satan, and corruption of his own heart, he again relapsed into the ways of sin. Then was providentially brought to his view that scripture, Proverbs 1, verses 24 through 26. This renewed his trouble, yea, aggravated it to a greater height than ever, insomuch that he could scarcely think, as it seems by the relation, his sin could be pardoned. But in this condition that text, Luke 17, verse 4, was presented to him, which sweetly settled him in a sure and glorious peace. Nor can we here forget that miraculous work of providence in a time of great extremity, which was wrought for that good gentlewoman, Mrs. Honeywood, who under a deep and sad desertion, refused and put off all comfort, seeming to despair utterly of the grace and mercy of God. A worthy minister being one day with her in reasoning against her desperate conclusions, she took a Venice glass from the table and said, Sir, I am as sure to be damned as this glass is to be broken, and therewith threw it forcibly to the ground. But to the astonishment of both, the glass remained whole and sound, which the minister taking up with admiration, rebuked her presumption and showed her what a wonder providence had wrought for her satisfaction, and it greatly altered the attitude of her mind. How unsearchable are his judgments and his ways past finding out, Romans 11, 33. Lo, these are parts of his ways, but how little a portion is heard of him, Job 26, 14. And now let me expostulate a little with your soul, reader. Have you been duly aware of your obligation to providence for this inestimable favor? Oh, what it has done for you! There are various kinds of mercies conveyed to men by the hand of providence, but none like this. In all the treasury of its benefits, none is found like this. Did it cast you into the way of conversion and order the means and occasions of it for you when you little thought of any such thing? How dear and sweet should the remembrance of it be to your soul! Methinks it should astonish and melt you every time you reflect upon it. Such mercies should never grow stale or look like common things to you, for do but seriously consider the following particulars. How surprising was the mercy which providence performed for you in that day! Providence had a design upon you for your eternal good, which you did not understand. The time of mercy was now fully come, the decree was now ready to bring forth that mercy with which it had gone big from eternity, and its gracious design must be executed by the hand of providence, so far as concerned the external means and instruments. How aptly did it cause all things to fall in with that design, though you did not know the meaning of it! Look over all the before mentioned examples, and you will see the blessed work of conversion begun upon those souls when they minded it no more than Saul did a kingdom that morning when he went out to seek his father's asses. 1 Samuel 9 verses 3 and 20 Providence might truly have said to you in that day, as Christ said to Peter, What I do thou knowest not now, but thou shalt know it hereafter. John 13 verse 7 God's thoughts are not our thoughts, but as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are his thoughts higher than ours, and his ways than ours. Little did Zacchaeus think when he climbed up into the sycamore tree to see Christ as he passed by that way, what a design of mercy Christ had upon him, who took thence the occasion of becoming both his guest and savior. Luke 19 verses 5 through 8 And as little did some of you think what the aim of providence was when you went, some out of custom, others out of curiosity, if not worth motives, to hear such a sermon. O how stupendous are the ways of God! What a distinguishing and seasonable mercy was ushered in by providence in that day. It brought you to the means of salvation in a good hour. In the very nick of time when the angel troubled the waters, you were brought to the pool. John 5 verse 4 Now the accepted day was come, the Spirit was in the ordinance or providence that converted you, and you were set in the way of it. It may be you had heard many hundred sermons before, but nothing would stick till now, because the hour was not come. The Lord did, as it were, call in the word for such a man, such a woman, and providence said, Lord, here he is, I have brought him before thee. There were many others under that sermon that received no such mercy. You yourselves had heard many before, but not to that advantage, as it is said. And many lepers were in Israel in the time of Elijah the prophet, and none of them was cleansed, saving Naaman the Syrian. Luke 4 verse 27 So there were many poor unconverted souls beside you under the word that day, and it may be to none of them was salvation sent that day but to you, O blessed providence, that set you in the way of mercy at that time. What a weighty and important mercy was providentially directed to your souls that day. There are mercies of all sizes and kinds in the hands of providence to dispense to the sons of men. Its left hand is full of blessings as well as its right. It has health and riches, honors and pleasures, as well as Christ and salvation to dispense. The world is full of its left hand favors, but the blessings of its right hand are invaluably precious, and few there be that receive them. It performs thousands of kind offices for men, but among them all this is the chiefest to lead and direct them to Christ. For consider of all mercies, this comes through most and greatest difficulties. Ephesians 1 verses 19 and 20 This is a spiritual mercy, excelling in dignity of nature all others, more than gold excels the dirt under your feet. Revelation 3.18 One such gift is worth thousands of other mercies. This is a mercy immediately flowing out of the fountain of God's electing love, a mercy never dropped into any but an elect vessel. 1 Thessalonians 1 verse 4 and 5 This is a mercy that infallibly secures salvation. For as we may argue from conversion to election, looking back, so from conversion to salvation, looking forward. Hebrews 6.9 Lastly, this is an eternal mercy, one which will stick by you when father, mother, wife, children, estate, honors, health, and life shall fail you. John 4.14 O therefore, set a special mark upon that providence that set you in the way of this mercy. It has performed that for you which all the ministers on earth and angels in heaven could never have performed. This is a mercy that puts weight and value into the smallest circumstance that relates to it. Chapter 4. Our Employment Another excellent performance of providence, respecting the good of both your bodies and souls, concerns that employment and calling it has ordered for you in this world. It has not only an eye upon your well-being in the world to come, but upon your well-being in this world also, and that very much depends upon the station and vocation to which it calls you. Now the providence of God with respect to our civil callings may be displayed very takingly in the following particulars. In directing you to a calling in your youth, and not permitting you to live an idle, useless, and sinful life, as many do, who are but burdens to the earth, the winds of the body public, deserving only to disfigure and drain it, to eat what others earn. Sin brought in sweat, Genesis 3.19, but now not to sweat increases sin. He that lives idly cannot live honestly, as is plainly enough intimated, 1 Thessalonians 4, verses 11 and 12. But when God puts men into a lawful calling, in which the labor of their hands or heads is sufficient for them, it is a very valuable mercy, for in so doing they eat their own bread, 2 Thessalonians 3.12. Many a sad temptation is happily prevented, and they are ordinarily furnished by it for works of mercy to others, and surely it is more blessed to give than to receive. In ordering you to such callings and employments in the world, as are not only lawful in themselves, but most suitable to you, There are many persons employed in sinful trades and arts, merely to furnish other men's lusts. They do not only sin in their employments, but their very employments are sinful. They trade for hell, and are factors for the devil. Demetrius and the craftsmen at Ephesus got their estates by making shrines for Diana, Acts 19, verses 24 and 25, that is, little cases or boxes with folding leaves, within which the image of that idol sat enshrined. These were carried about by the people in procession in honor of their idol. And at this day how many wicked arts and employments are there invented, and multitudes of persons maintained by them, merely to gratify the pride and wantonness of a debauched age. Now to have an honest and lawful employment, in which you do not dishonor God in benefiting yourselves, is no small mercy. But if it is not only lawful in itself, but suited to your genius and strength, there is double mercy in it. Some poor creatures are engaged in callings that eat up their time and strength, and make their lives very uncomfortable to them. They have not only consuming and wasting employments in the world, but such as allow them little or no time for their general calling, and yet all this does but keep them and theirs alive. Therefore, if God has fitted you with an honest employment, in which you have less toil than others, and more time for heavenly exercises, ascribe this benefit to the special care of Providence for you. In settling you in such an employment and calling in the world, as possibly neither yourselves nor parents could ever expect you should attain to. There are some among such persons as, on this account, are signally obliged to Divine Providence. God has put them into such a way as neither they nor their parents ever planned. For look how the needle in the compass turns now this way, then that way, and never ceases moving till it settles to the north point. Just so it is in our settlement in the world. A child is now designed for this, and then for that, but at last settles in that way of employment to which Providence designed him. How strangely are things wheeled about by Providence. Not what we or our parents, but what God designed shall take place. Amos was very meanly employed at first, but God designed him for a more honorable and comfortable calling. Amos 7 verses 14 and 15 David followed the lambs, and probably never raised his thoughts to higher things in the days of his youth, but God made him the royal shepherd of a better flock. Psalm 78 verses 70 and 71 Peter and Andrew were employed as fishermen, but Christ called them from that to a higher calling, to be fishers of men. Matthew 4 verses 18 and 19 Parius, when he was fourteen years old, was by the instigation of his stepmother placed with an apothecary, but Providence so wrought that he was taken off from that and fitted for the ministry, in which he became a fruitful and eminent instrument to the church. James Andreas was, by reason of his father's inability to keep him at school, designed for a carpenter, but afterwards, by the persuasion of friends and assistance of a church flock, sent to Stuttgart, and thence to the university, and so attained to a very eminent station of service to the church. A master builder, Echolumpatius, was by his father designed for a merchant, but his mother, by urgent entreaties, prevailed to keep him at school, and this man was a blessed instrument in the reformation of religion. I might easily cite multitudes of such instances, but a taste may suffice. In securing your estate from ruin, hast thou not made in hedge about him and all that he hath? Job 1.10 This is the enclosure of Providence, which secures to us what by its favor we acquire in the way of honest industry, in making your calling sufficient for you. It was the prayer of Moses for the tribe of Judah, let his hands be sufficient for him. Deuteronomy 33 verse 7 And it is no small mercy if yours be so to you. Some there are that have work, but not strength to go through with it. Others have strength, but no employment for it. Some have hands, and work for them, but it is not sufficient for them and theirs. If God bless your labors, so as to give you and yours necessary support and comfort in the world by it, it is a choice providence, and with all thankfulness to be acknowledged. If any that fear God shall complain that, although they have a calling, yet it is a hard and laborious one, which takes up too much of their time, which they would gladly employ in another and better work, I answer that it is likely that the wisdom of providence foresaw this to be the most suitable and proper employment for you, and if you had more ease and rest, you might have more temptations than now you have. The strength and time which is now taken up in your daily labors, in which you serve God, might otherwise have been spent upon such lusts in which you might have served the devil. Moreover hereby it may be your health is the better preserved, and natural refreshments made the sweeter to you. The sleep of a laboring man is sweet, whether he eat little or much, but the abundance of the rich will not suffer him to sleep. Ecclesiastes 5.12 And as to the service of God, if your hearts are spiritual, you may enjoy much communion with God in your very employment, and you have some intervals and respites for that purpose. Have you not more spare hours than you employ to that end? But all my labors will scarcely suffice to procure me and mine the necessities of life. I am kept short and low to what others are, and this is a sad affliction. Though the wisdom of providence has ordered you to a lower and poorer condition than others, yet consider how many there are that are lower than you in the world. You have but little of the world, yet others have less. Read the description of those persons, Job 30.4, etc. If God has given you but a small portion of the world, yet if you are godly, he has promised never to forsake you. Hebrews 13.5 Providence has ordered that condition for you which is really best for your eternal good. If you had more of the world than you have, your heads and hearts might not be able to manage it to your advantage. A small boat must have but a narrow sail. You have not lacked hitherto the necessities of life, and are commanded, having food and raiment, though none of the finest, to be therewith content. A little that a righteous man hath is better than the riches of many wicked. Psalm 37.16 Better in the acquisition, sweeter in the fruition, and more comfortable in the account. Well then, if Providence has so disposed of you all that you can eat your own bread, and so advantageously directed some of you to employments that afford not only necessities for yourselves and families, but a surplus for works of mercy to others, and all this brought about for you in a way you did not plan, let God be owned and honored in this Providence. Will you not henceforth call Him, My Father, the Guide of My Youth? Jeremiah 3.4 Surely it was the Lord that guided you to settle as you did in those days of your youth. You reap it this day, and may to your last day the fruits of those early Providences in your youth. Now see that you walk answerably to the obligations of Providence in this particular, and see to it in the fear of God that you do not abuse any of those things to His dishonor which He has wrought for your comfort. To prevent this, I will here drop a few needful cautions and conclude this particular point. Do not be slothful and idle in your vocations. It is said that Augustus built an Apagropolis, a city void of business. But I am sure God never erected any city, town, or family to that end. The command to Adam, Genesis 3.19, no doubt reaches all his posterity, and Gospel commands bind it upon Christians, Romans 12.11 and 1 Thessalonians 4.11. If you are negligent, you cannot be innocent. And yet do not be so intent upon your particular callings as to make them interfere with your general calling. Beware you do not lose your God in the crowd and hurry aversely business. Mind that solemn warning, but they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition. 1 Timothy 6.9 The inhabitants of Ono, a dry island near Athens, bestowed much labor to draw in a river to water it and make it fruitful. But when the sluices were opened, the waters flowed so abundantly that it overflowed the island and drowned the inhabitants. The application is obvious. It was an excellent saying of Seneca, I do not give, but lend myself to business. Remember always, the success of your callings and earthly employments is by divine blessing, not human diligence alone. But thou shalt remember the Lord thy God, for it is He that giveth thee power to get wealth. Deuteronomy 8.18 The devil himself was so far orthodox as to acknowledge it. Hast not thou made an hedge about him, and about his house, and about all that he hath on every side? Thou hast blessed the work of his hands. Job 1.10 Recommend therefore your affairs to God in prayer. Delight thyself also in the Lord, and He shall give thee the desires of thine heart. Commit thy way unto the Lord. Trust also in Him, and He shall bring it to pass. Psalm 37.4.5 And do not meddle with that which you cannot recommend to God in prayer for a blessing. Be well satisfied in that station and employment in which providence has placed you, and do not so much as wish yourself in another. Let every man abide in the same calling wherein he was called. 1 Corinthians 7.20 Providence is wiser than you, and you may be confident it has suited all things better to your eternal good than you could have done had you been left to your own option. Chapter 5. Family Affairs That providence has a special hand in our marriage is evident both from Scripture assertions and the acknowledgments of holy men who in that great event of their lives have still owned and acknowledged the directing hand of providence. Take an instance of both. The Scripture plainly asserts the dominion of providence over this affair. A prudent wife is from the Lord. Proverbs 19.14 Whoso findeth a wife findeth a good thing and obtaineth favor of the Lord. Proverbs 18.22 So for children. Lo, children are an heritage of the Lord, and the fruit of the womb is his reward. Psalm 127.3 And it has ever been the practice of holy men to seek the Lord for direction and counsel when they have been changing their condition. No doubt, but Abraham's encouragement in that case was the fruit of prayer. His pious servant also, who was employed in that affair, did both earnestly seek counsel of God and thankfully acknowledge his gracious providence in guiding it. Genesis 24.7.12.26.27 The same we may observe in children. The fruit of marriage. 1 Samuel 1.20 Luke 1.13.14 Now the providence of God may be in various ways displayed for the engaging of our hearts in love to the God of our mercies. There is very much a providence seen in appointing the parties for each other. In this the Lord often goes beyond our thoughts and plans, yea, and often crosses men's desires and designs to their great advantage. Not what they expect, but what His infinite wisdom judges best and most beneficial for them takes place. Hence it is that probabilities are so often dashed and things remote and utterly improbable are brought about in very strange and unaccountable methods of providence. There is much of providence seen in the harmony and agreeableness of temperaments and dispositions from which a very great part of the tranquility and comforts of our lives results. Or at least, though natural temperament and education did not so much harmonize before, yet they do so after they come under the ordinance of God, and they shall be one flesh. Genesis 2.24 Not one only in respect of God's institution, but one in respect of love and affection, that those who so lately were mere strangers to each other are now endeared to a degree beyond the nearest relations in blood. Therefore shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife, and they shall be one flesh. But providence is especially remarkable in making one instrumental to the eternal good of the other. What knowest thou, O wife, whether thou shalt save thy husband? Or how knowest thou, O man, whether thou shalt save thy wife? 1 Corinthians 7.16 Hence it is grave exhortation to the wives of unbelieving husbands to win them by their conversation, which should be to them instead of an ordinance. 1 Peter 3.1 Or, if both are gracious, then what singular assistance and mutual help is hereby gained to the furtherance of their eternal good, whilst they live together, as heirs together of the grace of life. 1 Peter 3.7 O blessed providence that directed such into so intimate relation on earth, who shall inherit together the common salvation of heaven. How much of providence is seen in children, the fruit of marriage. To have any posterity in the earth, and not be left altogether as a dry tree, to have comfort and joy in them, is a special providence, importing a special mercy to us. To have the breaches made upon our families repaired, is a providence to be owned with a thankful heart, when God shall say to a man, as he speaks in another case to the church, The children which thou shalt have, after thou hast lost the other, shall say again in thine ears, The place is too straight for me. Isaiah 49.20 And these providences will appear more affectingly sweet and lovely to you, if you but compare God's allotments to you, with what he has allotted to many others in the world. For do but look around, and you will find multitudes unequally yoked to the embittering of their lives, whose relations are clogs and hindrances both in things temporal and spiritual. Yea, we find an account in Scripture of gracious persons, a great part of whose comfort in this world has been split upon this rock. Abigail was a discreet and virtuous person, but very unsuitably matched to that churlish Nabal. 1 Samuel 25.25 What a temptation to the neglect of a known duty prevailed upon the renowned Moses by the means of Zipporah his wife. Exodus 4.24.25 David had his scoffing Michael. 2 Samuel 6.20 Impatient Job had no small addition to all his other afflictions from the wife of his bosom, who should have been a support to him in the days of his troubles. Job 19.17 No doubt, but God sanctifies such rods to his people's good. If Socrates knew how to improve his affliction in his Zanthep to the increase of his patience, much more will they who converse with God under all providences, whether sweet or bitter. Nevertheless, this must be acknowledged to be a sad stroke upon any person, and such as maims them upon the working hand by unfitting them for duty. 1 Peter 3.7 And cuts off much of the comfort of life also. How many there are who never enjoy the comfortable fruits of marriage, but are denied the sight, or at least the enjoyment of children. Thus saith the Lord, Write this man childless, Jeremiah 22.30 Or if they have children, yet cannot enjoy them, though they bring up their children, yet will I bereave them that there shall not be a man left. Hosea 9.12 Who only bear for the grave, and have their expectations raised for a greater affliction to themselves. And it is no rare or unusual thing to see children and near relations the greatest instruments of affliction to their parents and friends, so that after all their other sorrows and troubles in the world, nearest relations bring up the rarest sorrows and prove greater grief than any other. O how many parents have complained with the tree in the fable, that their very hearts have been riven asunder with those wedges that were cut out of their own bodies. What a grief was Esau to Isaac and Rebekah. Genesis 26.34-35 What scourges were Absalom and Amnon to David. Well then, if God has set the solitary in families, Psalm 68.6 Built a house for the desolate, given you comfortable relations, which are springs of daily comfort and refreshment to you, you are upon many accounts engaged to walk answerably to these gracious providences, and that you may understand wherein that decorum and agreeable comportment with these providences consists, take up the sense of your duty in these brief hints. Ascribe to God the glory of all those providential works which yield you comfort. You see a wise, directing, governing providence, which has disposed and ordered all things beyond your own plans and designs. The way of man is not in himself, it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps. Jeremiah 10.23 Not what you have planned, but what a higher counsel than yours determined to come to pass. Good Jacob, when God had made him the father of a family, admired God in the mercy. For with my staff, said he, I passed over this Jordan, and now I am become two bands. Genesis 32.10 And how this mercy humbles and melts him. I am not worthy of the least of all the mercies, and of all the truth which thou hast showed unto thy servant. Be exact in discharging the duties of those relations which so gracious a providence has led you into. Do not abuse the effects of so much mercy and love to you. The Lord expects praise wherever you have comfort. This aggravated David's sin, that he should dare to abuse so great love and mercy as God had shown him in his family relations. 2 Samuel 12.7-9 Use relations to the end providence designed them. Walk together as co-heirs of the grace of life. Study to be mutual blessings to each other. So walk in your relations, that the parting day may be sweet. Death will shortly break up the family, and then nothing but the sense of duty discharged or the neglects pardoned will give comfort. Another gracious performance of providence for us is seen in making provision from time to time for us and our families. I the rather put these providences together in this place, because I find the scripture does so. Yet siddeth the poor on high from affliction, and maketh him families like a flock. Psalm 107.41 You know the promises God has made to his people. The young lions do lack and suffer hunger, but they that seek the Lord shall not want any good thing. Psalm 34.10 And have you not also seen the constant performance of it? Cannot you give the same answer, if the same question were propounded to you, which the disciples did? When I sent you without purse and script and shoes, laughed ye anything? And they said, Nothing. Luke 22.35 Cannot you with Jacob call him the God which fed me all my life long? Genesis 48.15 Surely he hath given meat unto them that fear him. He will ever be mindful of his covenant. Psalm 111.5 To display this providence, we will consider it in the following particulars. The assiduity and constancy of the care of providence for the saints. His mercies are new every morning. Lamentations 3.23 It is not just the supply of one or two pressing needs, but all your wants as they grow from day to day through all your days. The God which fed me all my life long. Genesis 48.15 The care of providence runs parallel with the line of life. Hearken unto me, O house of Jacob, and all the remnant of the house of Israel, which are born by me from the belly, which are carried from the womb, and even to your old age I am he, and even to whore heirs will I carry you. I have made, and I will bear, even I will carry and will deliver you. Isaiah 46.3-4 So that as God bade Israel to remember, from Shittim unto Gilgal, that ye may know the righteousness of the Lord, Micah 6.5 So would I persuade you, reader, to record the ways of providence, from first to last, throughout your whole course to this day, that ye may see what a God he hath been to you. The seasonableness and opportuneness of its provisions for them, for so runs the promise, 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. Isaiah 41.17 And so has the performance of it been. And this has been made good to distressed saints, sometimes in a more ordinary way, God secretly blessing a little, and making it sufficient for us and ours. Job tells us of when the secret of God was upon my tabernacle. Chapter 29 verse 4 That is, his secret blessing is in their tabernacles. It is by reason of this that they subsist, and it is in an unaccountable way that they do so, and sometimes in an extraordinary way it breaks forth for their supply. So you find the crews in beryl fail not. 2 Kings chapter 17 verses 9-14 Samuel Clark, in the life of that painstaking and humble servant of Christ, John Fox, records a memorable instance of providence, and it is this. Towards the end of King Henry the 8th reign, he went to London, where he quickly spent what little his friends had given him, or he had acquired by his own diligence, and began to be in great want. This Reformation audio track is a production of Stillwater's Revival Books. SWRB makes thousands of classic Reformation resources available, free and for sale, in audio, video, and printed formats. Our many free resources, as well as our complete mail-order catalog, containing thousands of classic and contemporary Puritan and Reformed books, tapes, and videos at great discounts, is on the web at www.swrb.com. We can also be reached by email at swrb at swrb.com, by phone at 780-450-3730, by fax at 780-468-1096, or by mail at 4710-37A, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, T6L 3T5. You may also request a free printed catalog. And remember that John Calvin, in defending the Reformation's regulative principle of worship, or what is sometimes called the scriptural law of worship, commenting on the words of God, which I commanded them not, neither came into my heart, from his commentary on Jeremiah 731, writes, God here cuts off from men every occasion for making evasions, since he condemns by this one phrase, I have not commanded them, whatever the Jews devised. There is then no other argument needed to condemn superstitions than that they are not commanded by God. For when men allow themselves to worship God according to their own fancies, and attend not to his commands, they pervert true religion. And if this principle was adopted by the Papists, all those fictitious modes of worship, in which they absurdly exercise themselves, would fall to the ground. It is indeed a horrible thing for the Papists to seek to discharge their duties towards God by performing their own superstitions. There is an immense number of them, as it is well known, and as it manifestly appears. Were they to admit this principle, that we cannot rightly worship God except by obeying his word, they would be delivered from their deep abyss of error. The prophet's words, then, are very important. When he says that God had commanded no such thing, and that it never came to his mind, as though he had said that men assume too much wisdom when they devise what he never required, nay, what he never knew.