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Part 5
As one day he sat in Paul's church, spent with long fasting, his countenance thin and his eyes hollow, after the ghastly manner of dying men, everyone shunning a spectacle of so much horror, there came to him one whom he had never seen before, who thrust an untold sum of money into his hand, bidding him be of good cheer and accept that small gift in good part from his countrymen, and that he should make much of himself, for that within a few days new hopes were at hand, and a more certain condition of livelihood. Three days after, the Duchess of Richmond sent for him to live in her house, and to be tutor to the Earl of Surrey's children, then under her care. Isaac Ambrose, a worthy divine, whose labours have made him acceptable to his generation, in his epistle to the Earl of Bedford, prefixed to his last things, gives a pregnant instance of his own experience.
His words are these, For mine own part, however, the Lord has seen cause to give me but a poor pittance of outward things, for which I bless his name. Yet in the income thereof I have many times observed so much of his peculiar providence, that thereby they have been very much sweetened, and my heart has been raised to admire his grace. When of late, under a hard dispensation, which I judge not neat to mention, in which I suffered conscientiously all streams of wanted supplies being stopped, the waters of relief for myself and family did run low.
I went to bed with some staggerings and doubtings of the fountains letting out itself for our refreshing. But ere I did awake in the morning, a letter was brought to my bedside, which was signed by a choice friend, Mr. Anthony Ashe, which reported some unexpected breakings out of God's goodness for my comfort. These are some of his lines, Your God, who has given you a heart, thankfully, to record your experiences of his goodness, does renew experiences for your encouragement.
Now I shall report one which will raise your spirit toward the God of your mercies. Whereupon he sweetly concludes, One morsel of God's provision, especially when it comes in unexpected and upon prayer, when wants are most, will be more sweet to a spiritual relish than all former enjoyments were. The wisdom of providence in our provisions.
And this is seen in proportioning the quantity, not satisfying our extravagant wishes, but answering our real needs, consulting our wants, not our wantonness. But my God shall supply all your need. Philippians 4.19 And this has exactly suited the wishes of the best and wisest men who desired no more at his hand.
So Jacob, Genesis 28.20 And Anger, Proverbs 30, verses 8 and 9 Wise providence considers our condition as pilgrims and strangers, and so allots the provision that is needful for our passage home. It knows the mischievous influence of fullness and excess upon most men, though sanctified, and how apt it is to make them remiss and forget of God. Deuteronomy 6.12 So that their heart, like the moon, suffers an eclipse when it is at the full, and so suits and orders all to their best advantage.
The wisdom of providence is also greatly revealed in the manner of dispensing our portion to us. It many times allows our wants to pinch hard, and many fears to arise with a design to magnify the care and love of God in the supply. Deuteronomy 8.3 Providence so orders the case that faith and prayer come between our wants and supplies, and the goodness of God may be the more magnified in our eyes thereby.
And now let me beg you to consider the good hand of providence that has provided for, and suitably supplied you and yours all your days, and never failed you hitherto. And labor to walk suitably to your experience of such mercies. That you may do this, let me press a few suitable cautions upon you.
Beware that you do not forget the care and kindness of providence, which your eyes have seen in so many fruits and experiences. It was God's charge against Israel that they soon forgot his works. Psalm 106.13 A bad heart and a slippery memory deprive men of the comfort of many mercies, and defraud God of the glory due for them.
Do not distrust providence in future necessities. Thus they did. Behold, he smote the rock that the waters gushed out, and the streams overflowed.
Can he give bread also? Can he provide flesh for his people? Psalm 78.20 How unreasonable and absurd are these queries of unbelief, especially after their eyes had seen the power of God in such extraordinary works. Do not murmur and complain under new straits. This is a vile temper, and yet how natural to us when once pressed hard upon us.
Ah, did we but rightly understand what the demerit of sin is, we would rather admire the bounty of God than complain of the straight-handedness of providence. And if we did but consider that there lies upon God no obligation of justice or gratitude to reward any of our duties, it would cure our murmurs. Genesis 32.10 Do not show the least discontent at the lot and portion providence carves out for you, O that you would be well pleased and satisfied with all its appointments.
Say, the lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places, yea, I have a goodly heritage. Psalm 16.6 Surely that is best for you which providence has appointed, and one day you yourselves will judge it so to be. Do not neglect prayer when straits befall you.
You see it as providence dispenses all, you live upon it. Therefore apply yourselves to God in the times of need. This is evidently included in the promise, Isaiah 41.17, as well as expressed in the command, Philippians 4.6. Remember God, and he will not forget you.
Do not worry your hearts with sinful cares. Behold the fowls of the air, Matthew 6.26 says Christ, not the fowls at the door that are daily fed by hand, but those of the air that do not know where the next meal is coming from, and yet God provides for them. Remember your relation to Christ and his engagements by promise to you, and by these things work your hearts to satisfaction and contentment with all the allotments of providence.
Chapter 6 Preservation of the Saints from Evil A further great advantage and mercy the saints receive from the hand of providence is in their preservation from the snares and temptations of sin by its preventing care over them. That providence wards off many a deadly stroke of temptation and many a mortal thrust which Satan makes at our souls is a truth as manifest as the light that shines. This is included in that promise.
God will with the temptation also make a way to escape that ye may be able to bear it. 1 Corinthians 10.13 Providence gives an outlet for the soul's escape when it is shut up in the dangerous straits of temptation. There are two eminent ways by which the force and efficacy of temptation is broken in believers.
One is by the operation of internal grace. The flesh lusteth against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh so that ye cannot do the things that ye would. Galatians 5.17 That is, sanctification gives sin a miscarrying womb after it has conceived in the soul.
The other way is by the external working of providence and of this I intend to speak here. The providence of God is the great barrier and hindrance to a world of sin which otherwise would break forth like an overflowing flood from our corrupt natures. It prevents abundance of sin which otherwise wicked men would commit.
Genesis 19.11 The Sodomites were greedily pursuing their lusts. God providentially hinders it by smiting them blind. Jeroboam intends to smite the prophet.
Providence interposed and withered his arm. 1 Kings 13.4 Thus you see, when wicked men have contrived and are ready to execute their wickedness, Providence claps on its manacles so that their hands cannot perform their enterprise. Job 5.12 And so much corruption there remains in good men that they would certainly plunge themselves under much more guilt than they do if providence did not take greater care of them than they do of themselves.
For though they make conscience of keeping themselves and daily watch their hearts and ways, yet such is the deceitfulness of sin that if providence did not lay blocks in their way, it would more frequently than it does entangle and defile them. And this it does in several ways. Sometimes by stirring up others to interpose with seasonable counsels which effectually dissuade them from prosecuting an evil design.
Thus Abigail meets David in the nick of time and dissuades him from his evil purpose. 1 Samuel 25.34 And I find it recorded as on another account was noted before of that holy man, Mr. Dodd, that being late at night in his study, he was strongly moved, though at an unseasonable hour, to visit a gentleman of his acquaintance. Not knowing what might be the design of providence in this, he obeyed and went.
When he came to the house after a few knocks on the door, the gentleman himself came to him and asked him whether he had any business with him. Mr. Dodd answered, No, but that he could not be quiet till he had seen him. O sir, replied the gentleman, you are sent of God at this hour.
For just now, and with that he takes the halter out of his pocket, I was going to destroy myself, and thus was the mischief prevented. Sometimes by hindering the means and instruments whereby the evil itself is prevented. Thus when good Jehoshaphat had joined himself with that wicked king Ahaziah to build ships at Eze and Gaber to go to Tarshish, God prevents the design by breaking the ships with a storm.
2 Chronicles 20, verses 35-37 We also find in the life of Mr. Bolton, written by Mr. Bagshaw, that while he was in Oxford he had familiar acquaintance with Mr. Anderton, a good scholar, but a strong Papist, who knowing Mr. Bolton's natural gifts and perceiving that he was in some outward need, took this advantage and used many arguments to persuade him to be reconciled to the Church of Rome and to go over with him to the English seminary, assuring him that he should be furnished with all necessities and have gold enough. Mr. Bolton, being at that time poor in mind and purse, accepted the invitation, and a day and place was appointed in Lancashire where they should meet and take shipping and be gone. But Mr. Anderton did not come, and so he escaped the snare.
Sometimes by laying some strong affliction upon the body to prevent a worse evil. And this is the meaning of I will hedge up thy way with thorns. Hosea 2.6 Thus Basil was a long time exercised with a violent headache, which he observed was used by Providence to prevent lust.
Paul had a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan sent to buffet him, and this affliction, whatever it was, was ordained to prevent pride in him. 2 Corinthians 12.7 Sometimes sin is prevented in the saints by the better information of their minds at the sacred oracles of God. Thus when sinful motions began to rise in Asaph's mind from the prosperity of the wicked and his own afflicted state, and grew to such a height that he began to think all he had done in the way of religion was little better than lost labor, he set right again, and the temptation dissolved by going into the sanctuary where God showed him how to take new measures of persons and things to judge them by their ends and issues, not their present appearances.
Psalm 73, verses 12, 13, and 17 And sometimes the providence of God prevents the sins of his people by removing them out of the way of temptations by death. In this sense we may understand that text. The righteous is taken away from the evil to come.
Isaiah 57.1 The evil of sin as well as sufferings. When the Lord sees his people low spirited and not able to grapple with strong trials and temptations which are drawing on, it is for them a merciful providence to be released by death and set out of harm's way. Now consider and admire the providence of God.
O ye saints, who has had more care of your souls than ever you had of them? Had not the providence of God thus wrought for you in a way of prevention, it may be you had this day been so many magor misabibs. See Jeremiah 20, verses 3-4 How was the heart of David melted under that preventing providence aforementioned? 1 Samuel 25, verses 32-34 He blesses the Lord, the instrument and that counsel by which his soul was preserved from sin. Do but seriously think of a few particulars about this case.
Think how your corrupt natures have often impetuously hurried you on toward sin so that all the inherent grace you had could not withstand its force if providence had not prevented it in some such way as you have heard. But every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust and enticed. James 1.14 You found yourselves but feathers in the wind of temptation.
How near you have been brought to the brink of sin and yet saved by a merciful hand of providence. May you not say with one, I was almost in all evil. Proverbs 5.14 And my feet were almost gone, my steps had well nigh slipped.
Psalm 73, verse 2 O merciful providence that stepped in so opportunely to your relief. How many have been allowed to fall by the hand of temptations to the reproach of religion and wounding of their own consciences so far that they have never recovered their former peace again but lived in a world devoid of comfort to their dying day. How woeful your case had been if the Lord had not mercifully saved you from many thousand temptations that have assaulted you.
I tell you, you cannot estimate the mercies you possess by means of such providences. Are your names sweet? Are your consciences peaceful? Two mercies as dear to you as your two eyes. Why surely you owe them if not wholly yet in great measure to the aids and assistances providence has given you all along the way you have passed through the dangerous tempting world to this day.
Walk therefore suitably to this obligation of providence also and see that you thankfully own it. Do not impute your escapes from sin to accidents or to your own watchfulness or wisdom. See also that you do not tempt providence on the other hand by an irregular reliance upon its care over you without taking all due care of yourselves.
Keep yourselves in the love of God. Jude 21 Keep thy heart with all diligence. Proverbs 4 verse 23 Though providence keep you yet it is in the way of your duty.
Thus you see what care providence has had over your souls in preventing the spiritual dangers and miseries that otherwise would have befallen you in the way of temptations. In the next place I will show you that it has been no less concerned about your bodies and with great tenderness it has carried them in its arms through innumerable hazards and dangers also. He that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep.
Psalm 121 verse 4 He is the preserver of man. Job 7 verse 20 To display the glory of this providence before you, let us take into consideration the perils into which the best of men sometimes fall and the ways and means by which providence preserves them in those dangers. There are many hazards into which we are often cast in this world.
The Apostle Paul gives us a general account of his dangers, 2 Corinthians 11 26, and how great a wonder is it that our life has not been extinguished in some of those dangers we have been in. Have not some of us fallen, and that often into very dangerous sicknesses and diseases, in which we have approached to the very brink of the grave? Job 33 verses 18, 21, and 28. And have or might have said with Hezekiah, I said in the cutting off of my days I shall go to the gates of the grave I am deprived of the residue of my years.
Isaiah 38 verse 10. Have we not often had the sentence of death in ourselves, and our bodies at that time been like a leaky ship in a storm, as one aptly resembles it, that has taken in water on every side till it is ready to sink? Yet has God preserved, repaired, and launched us out again as well as ever. Oh, what a wonder is it that such a crazy body should be preserved so many years, and survive so many dangers.
Surely it is not more wonderful to see a Venice glass pass from hand to hand in continual use for forty or fifty years, and still to remain whole, notwithstanding the many knocks and falls it has had. If you enjoy health or recover from sicknesses, it is because He puts none of these diseases upon thee, or because He is the Lord that healeth thee. Exodus 15 26 How many deadly dangers has His hand rescued some of you from, in those years of confusion, and public calamity, when the sword was bathed in blood, and made horrid slaughter, when it may be your lives were often given you for a prey.
This David put a special remark upon. O God the Lord, the strength of my salvation, Thou hast covered my head in the day of battle. Psalm 140 verse 7 Beza, being in France in the first civil war, and there tossed up and down for two and twenty months, recorded six hundred deliverances from dangers in that space, for which he solemnly gave God thanks in his last testament.
If the sword did not destroy you, it was because God did not give it a commission to do so. Many of you have seen wonders of salvation upon the deeps, where the hand of God has been signally stretched forth for your rescue and deliverance. This is elegantly expressed in Psalm 107 verses 23 through 27, which I have elsewhere expounded at large, concerning which you may say in a proper sense what the psalmist says metaphorically.
If it had not been the Lord who was on our side, then the waters had overwhelmed us, the stream had gone over our soul. Psalm 124 verses 1 and 4 To see men that have spent so many years upon the seas, where your lives have continually hung in suspense before you, attained to your years, when you could neither be reckoned among the living or the dead as seamen or not. O what cause have you to adore your great preserver? Many thousands of your companions have gone down, and you are yet here to praise the Lord among the living.
You have bordered nearer to eternity all your days than others, and often been in imminent perils upon the seas. Surely these and so many salvations call aloud to you for most thankful acknowledgements. What innumerable hazards and accidents, at least of which have cut off others, has God carried us all through.
I think I may safely say your private and positive mercies of this time are more in number than the hairs of your heads. Many thousands of these dangers we never saw, nor were made particularly aware of, but though we did not see them, our God did, and brought us out of danger before He brought us into fear. Some have been evident to us, and those so remarkable that we cannot think or speak of them to this day, but our souls are freshly affected with those mercies.
It is recorded of our famous Jewel, John Jewel, that about the beginning of Queen Mary's reign, the Inquisition taking hold of him in Oxford, he fled to London by night, but providentially losing the road, he escaped the Inquisitors who pursued him. However, he fell that night into another imminent hazard of life, for wandering up and down in the snow, he fainted and lay starving in the way, panting and laboring for life, at which time Latimer's servant found and saved him. It would be easy to multiply examples of this kind.
Histories abound with them. But I think there are few of us but are furnished out of our own experience abundantly, so that I shall rather choose to press home the sense of these providences upon you, in order that you may make a suitable return to the God of your mercies for them, than add more instances of this kind. To this purpose, I desire you seriously to weigh the following particulars.
Consider what you owe to Providence for your protection, by which your life has been protracted unto this day, with the usefulness and comfort thereof. Look around in the world, and you may daily see some in every place who are objects of pity, bereaved by sad accidents of all the comforts of life, while in the meantime Providence has tenderly preserved you. He keepeth all his bones, not one of them is broken.
Psalm 34, verse 20. Is the elegant and comely structure of your body unspoiled, your members not deformed, or made so many seats of torment, neither the usefulness of any part deprived? Why, this is because Providence never left its hold of you since you came out of the womb, but with a watchful eye and tender hand, has guarded you in every place, and kept you as its charge. Consider how every member which has been so tenderly kept, has nevertheless been an instrument of sin against the Lord.
And that not only in the days of your unregeneracy, when you yielded your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin, Romans 6, 13, but even since you gave them up in covenant unto the Lord as dedicated instruments to his service, and yet how tender has Providence been over them. You have often provoked him to afflict you in every part, and lay penal evil upon every member that has been instrumental in moral evil. But oh, how great has his compassion been towards you, and his patience, how wonderful.
Consider what is the aim of Providence in all the tender care it has manifested for you. Why does it protect you so assiduously and suffer no evil to befall you? Is it not that you should employ your bodies for God, and cheerfully apply yourselves to that service he has called you to? Doubtless this is the end and goal of these mercies, or else to what purpose are they afforded you? Your bodies are a part of Christ's purchase, as well as your souls. 1 Corinthians 6 19.
They are committed to the charge and tutelage of angels. Hebrews 1 14 who have performed many services for them. They are dedicated by yourselves to the Lord, and not upon the highest account.
Romans 12 1. They have already been the subjects of many mercies in this world. Psalm 35 verse 10. And shall partake of singular glory and happiness in the world to come.
Philippians 3 21. And shall they not then be employed, yea, cheerfully worn out in his service? How reasonable it is that they should be so. Why are they so tenderly preserved by God if they must not be used for God? Chapter 7. The Work of Sanctification There is an imminent favor Providence bestows on the saints, and yet has not been considered, and indeed is too little minded by us.
And that is the aid and assistance it gives to the people of God in the great work of mortification. Mortification of our sinful affections and passions is one half of our sanctification. Dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God.
Romans 6 11 It is the great evidence of our interest in Christ. Romans 6 verses 5 through 9 and Galatians 5 verse 24 It is our safety in the hour of temptation. The corruptions in the world are through lust.
2 Peter 1 4 Our instrumental fitness for service depends much upon it. John 15 verse 2 and 2 Timothy 2 verse 21 How great a service to our souls therefore must that be by which this blessed work is carried on in them. Now there are two means or instruments employed in this work.
The Spirit who affects it internally. Romans 8 13 and Providence which assists it externally. The Spirit indeed is the principal agent upon whose operation the success of this work depends.
And all the providences in the world could never affect it without him. But they are secondary and subordinate means which by the blessing of the Spirit upon them have a great part in the work. How they are so serviceable to this end in purpose I shall now explain.
The most wise God orders the dispensations of Providence in a blessed subordination to the work of his Spirit. There is a sweet harmony between them in their distinct workings. They all meet in that one blessed issue to which God has by the counsel of his will directed them.
Romans 8 28 and Ephesians 1 verse 11 Hence it is that the Spirit is said to be in and to order the motions of the wheels of Providence. Ezekiel 1 20 And so they move together by consent. Now one great part of the Spirit's internal work being to destroy sin in the people of God.
See how conformable to his design external providences are steered and ordered in the following particulars. There is in all the regenerate a strong propensity and inclination to sin. And in that lies a principal part of the power of sin.
Of this Paul sadly complains. But I see another law in my members warring against the law of my mind and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. Romans 7 23 And every believer daily finds it to his grief.
Oh it is hard to forbear those things that grieve God. God hath made a hedge about us and fenced us against sin by his laws. But there is a proneness in nature to break over the hedge and that against the very opposition of the Spirit of God in us.
Now see in this case the concurrence and assistance of providence for the prevention of sin. As the Spirit internally resists those sinful inclinations so providence externally lays bars and blocks in our way to hinder and prevent sin. Job 33 17-19 Hosea 2 6 2 Corinthians 12 7 There is many a bodily ailment inflicted on this very score to be a clog to prevent sin.
Oh bear them patiently upon this consideration. Basil was sorely grieved with an invertebrate headache. He earnestly prayed it might be removed.
God removed it. No sooner was he freed of this clog but he felt the inordinate motions of lust which made him pray for his headache again. And so it might be with many of us if our clogs were off.
At this point it may be asked whether it is proper for a gracious spirit to forbear sin because of the rod of affliction. He has surely higher motives and nobler principles than these. This is the attitude of a carnal and slavish spirit.
Indeed it is so when this is the sole or principal restraint from sin. When a man does not abhor sin because of the intrinsic filth but only because of the troublesome consequences and effects. But this is vastly different from the case of the saints under sanctified afflictions.
For as they have higher motives and nobler principles so they have lower and natural feelings too. And these are in their kind and place very useful to them. Besides you must know that afflictions work in another way upon gracious hearts to restrain them from sin or warn them against sin than they do upon others.
It is not so much the smart of the rod which they feel as the token of God's displeasure which frightens and scares them. Thou renewest thy witnesses against me. Job 10 17.
And this is that which principally affects them. O Lord rebuke me not in thine anger neither chasten me in thy hot displeasure. Psalm 6 1. O Lord correct me but with judgment not in thine anger lest thou bring me to nothing.
Jeremiah 10 24. And surely this is no low and common argument. Notwithstanding this double fence of God's command and preventative afflictions yet sin is too hard for the best of men.
Their corruptions carry them through all to sin. And when it is so not only does the spirit work internally but providence also works externally in order to subdue them. The ways of sin are not only made bitter to them by the remorse of conscience but by those afflictive rods upon the outward man with which God also follows it.
And in both these respects I find that text expounded. Whoso breaketh an hedge a serpent shall bite him. Ecclesiastes 10 8. If as some expounded the hedge is the law of God then the serpent is the remorse of conscience and the sharp teeth of affliction which he shall quickly feel if he is one that belongs to God.
The design and aim of these afflictive providences is to purge and cleanse believers from that pollution into which temptations have plunged them. By this therefore shall the iniquity of Jacob be purged and this is all the fruit to take away his sin. Isaiah 27 9. To the same purpose is that place before I was afflicted I went astray but now have I kept thy word.
Psalm 119 67. These afflictions have the same use and end to our souls that frosty weather has upon those clothes that are laid out to bleach. They alter the hue and make them wither which seems to be the illusion in those words and some of them of understanding shall fall to try them and to purge and to make them white.
Daniel 11 35. And here it may be queried upon what account afflictions are said to purge away the iniquities of the saints. Is it not unwarrantable and very dishonorable to Christ to attribute to affliction that which is the peculiar honor of his blood? It is confessed that the blood of Christ is the only fountain opened for sin and that no afflictions however many or strong or continual they may be can in themselves purge away the pollution of sin as we see in wicked men who are afflicted and afflicted and again afflicted and yet nevertheless sinful.
And the torments of hell however extreme universal and continual they are yet shall never fetch out the stain of one's sin. But it is still true that a sanctified affliction may in the efficacy and virtue of Christ's blood produce such blessed effects upon the soul. Though a cross without a Christ never did any man any good, yet thousands have been indebted to the cross as it has wrought in the virtue of his death for their good.
And this is the case with those souls that this discourse is concerned about. We find the best hearts if God bestow any comfortable enjoyment upon them too apt to be overheated in their affections towards it and to be too much taken up with these outward comforts. This also shows the great power and strength of corruption in the people of God and must by some means or other be mortified in them.
This was the case in Hezekiah whose heart was too much set upon his treasures so that he could not hide a vainglorious disposition. Isaiah 39 verse 2 Likewise, good David Psalm 30 verse 7 thought his mountain, that is his kingdom and the splendor and glory of his present state, had stood so fast that it should never be moved. How the same good man set his heart and affections upon his beautiful son Absalom appears by the doleful lamentation he made at his death, prizing him above his own life, which was a thousand times more worth than he.
So Jonah, when God raised up a gourd for him to shelter him from the sun, how excessively was he taken with it and was exceedingly glad of it. But will God allow these things to lie thus? Shall the creature purloin and draw away our affections from him? No, this is our corruption and God will purge it. And to this end he sends forth providence to smite those creatures on which our affections are either inordinately or excessively set or else to turn them into rods and smite us with them.
Is Hezekiah too much puffed up with his full riches? Why those very Babylonians to whom he boasted of it, shall empty it and make a prey of it. Isaiah 39 verse 6. Is David hugging himself in a fond conceit of the stability of his earthly splendor? Lo, how soon God beclouds all. Psalm 30 verse 7. Is Absalom doted on and crept too far into his good father's heart? This shall be the son of his sorrow that shall seek after his father's life.
Is Jonah so carried away with his gourd? God will prepare a worm to smite it. Chapter 4 verses 6 and 7. How many husbands, wives, and children has providence smitten for this very reason? It might have spared them longer if they had been loved more regularly and moderately. This has blasted many an estate and hopeful project, and it is a merciful dispensation for our good.
The strength of our unmortified corruption shows itself in our pride and the swelling vanity of our hearts when we have a name and esteem among men. When we are applauded and honored, when we are admired for any gift or excellence that is in us, this draws forth the pride of the heart and shows the vanity that is in it. As the finding pot for silver and the furnace for gold, so is a man to his praise.
Proverbs 27 verse 21. That is, as the furnace will reveal what dross is in the middle when it is melted, so will praise and commendations reveal what pride is in the heart of him that receives them. This made a good man say, He that praises me, wounds me.
And which is more strange, this corruption may be felt in the heart, even when the last breath is ready to expire. It was the saying of one of the German divines when those about him recounted for his courage the many services he had done for God. Take away the fire, for there is still the chaff of pride in me.
To crucify this corruption, Providence takes off the bridle of restraint from ungodly men and sometimes permits them to traduce the names of God's servants, as Shimei did David. Yea, they shall fall into disdain among their friends, as Paul did among the Corinthians. And all this to keep down the swelling of their spirits at the realization of those excellences that are in them.
The design of these Providences is nothing else but to hide pride from man. Yea, it deserves a special remark that when some good men have been engaged in a public and eminent work and have therein, it may be, too much sought their own applause, God has withheld his usual assistance at such times from them and caused them so to falter in their work that they have come off with shame and pity at such times, however ready and prepared they have been at other times. It would be easy to give various remarkable examples to confirm this observation, but I pass on.
The corruption of the heart shows itself in raising up great expectations to ourselves from the creature and planning abundance of felicity and contentment from some promising and hopeful enjoyments we have in the world. This we find to have been the case of holy Job in the days of his prosperity. Then I said, I shall die in my nest and I shall multiply my days as the sand.
Chapter 29 verse 18. But how soon were all these expectations dashed by the gloomy Providence that benighted him in the noontide of his prosperity. And all this was for his good, to take off his heart more fully from creature expectations.
We often find the best men over reckon themselves in worldly things and overact their confidences about them. They that have great and well grounded expectations from heaven, may have too great and ungrounded expectations from the earth. But when it is so, it is very usual for Providence to undermine their earthly hopes and convince them by experience how vain they are.
Thus in Haggai 1 verse 9, the people's hearts were intently set upon prosperous Providence's full harvest and great increase while in the meantime no regard was had to the worship of God and the things of his house. Therefore Providence blasts their hopes and brings them to little. Corruption shows itself in dependence upon creature comforts and tangible props.
Oh how apt are the best men to lean upon these things and stay themselves upon them. Thus did Israel stay themselves upon Egypt as a feeble man would lean upon his staff but God allowed it both to fail them and wound them. Ezekiel 29 verses 6 and 7 So for individuals how apt are they to depend upon their tangible supports.
Thus we lean on our relations and the inward thoughts of our hearts are that they shall be to us as so many springs of comfort to refresh us throughout our lives. But God will show us by his Providence our mistake and error in these things. Thus a husband is smitten to draw the soul of a wife nearer to God in dependence upon him.
1 Timothy 5.5 So for children we are apt to say of this or that child as Lamech of Noah this same shall comfort us. Genesis 5.29 But the wind passes over these flowers and they are withered to teach us that our happiness is not bound up in these enjoyments. So for our estates when the world smiles upon us and we have got a warm nest how do we prophesy of rest and peace in those acquisitions thinking with good Baruch great things for ourselves but Providence by a particular or general calamity overturns our plans.
Jeremiah 45 verses 4 and 5 And all this to turn our hearts from the creature to God who is our only rest. Corruption shows its strength in good men by their adherence to things below and their reluctance to go hence. This often proceeds from the engaging enjoyments and pleasant experiences we have here below.
Providence mortifies this inclination in the saints by killing those in sneering comforts beforehand making all or most of our pleasant things to die before us or it embitters this world to us by the troubles of it making life undesirable through the pains and infirmities we feel in the body and so losing our root for our more easy fall by the fatal stroke. Before I pass from this I cannot but make a pause and desire you with me to stand in holy amazement and wonder at the dealings of God with such poor worms as we are. Surely God deals familiarly with man his condescensions to his own play are astonishing.
All that I shall note at present about it shall be under these three heads in which I find the matter of my present meditation 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? Psalm 144 verse 3 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 unto perfection? It is as high as heaven what canst thou do? Deeper than hell what canst thou know? The measure thereof is longer than the earth and broader than the sea.
Job 11 verses 7 through 9. The heaven and heaven of heavens cannot contain him. 2 Chronicles 2 6. He is glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders. Exodus 15-11.
When the scripture speaks 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 beast thereof sufficient for a burnt offering. All nations before him are as nothing, and they are accounted to him less than nothing and vanity. Isaiah 40 verses 15-17.
When the holiest men have addressed him, see with what humility and deep adoration they have spoken of him and to him. Woe is me, for I am undone because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips. For mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.
Isaiah 6-5. Nay, what respect the very angels of heaven have of that glorious majesty. Each one had six wings, with twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his 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. Verses 2 and 3. This Reformation audio track is a production of Stillwater's Revival Books.
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