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  THE MYSTERY OF PROVIDENCE
  by John Flavel
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John Flavel's classic work on God's providential care, tracing divine
sovereignty through historical examples and Scripture to demonstrate God's
faithful governance of all human affairs.

  Chapters: 12

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  TABLE OF CONTENTS
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    0. The Mystery of Providence
    1. Part 1
    2. Part 2
    3. Part 3
    4. Part 4
    5. Part 5
    6. Part 6
    7. Part 7
    8. Part 8
    9. Part 9
   10. Part 1 11
   11. Part 1 11

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  CHAPTER 0: THE MYSTERY OF PROVIDENCE
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  CHAPTER 1: PART 1
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The Mystery of Providence by John Flavel Publisher's Introduction On February
the 13th, 1688, amidst the splendor of the banqueting house at Whitehall, an
epic-making event took place. Prince William and Princess Mary of Orange
accepted the crown from the Estates of England. They were proclaimed as King and
Queen.

Thus, in the words of Lord Macaulay, was consummated the English Revolution.
Throughout the land, the following day was observed as a public thanksgiving for
the deliverance of the nation from papacy. Preaching at this celebration, one of
the few surviving Puritan leaders, John Flavel, had occasion to observe a
remarkable coincidence.

In 1588, England had experienced a signal deliverance from Roman Catholicism.
The mighty armada of Spain, sent to dethrone the Protestant Elizabeth and
restore her people to the old faith, had been blasted by the winds and waves. A
hundred years had passed, Flavel reminded his readers.

Yet behold, another eighty-eight, crowned and enriched with mercies, no less
admirable and glorious than the former. Another attempt to subjugate England to
the yoke of Rome had been thwarted by the providence of God. The century spanned
by the Spanish armada and the glorious revolution was as decisive in the
religious as in the political history of England.

The religions of Rome and of the Reformation were locked in a struggle for
national supremacy. 1662 saw the expulsion from the National Church of the
Puritans, those who above all stood for the Reformation principle of the
supremacy of Scripture in the Church. In 1688, the claim of Roman Catholicism to
be the religion of England was, for generations to come, repudiated.

This did not mean, however, the triumph of Puritanism. Indeed, it would be true
to say that by 1688, the Puritan movement was virtually at an end. Its aims were
to a large extent still unrealized.

The history of Puritanism is quite remarkable. As a movement for thorough reform
of the Church on the basis of the word of God, it was indeed as old as the
Reformation. But if the Reformation revived preaching, the Puritans came to
stand for preaching of a particular kind.

It has been the verdict of competent judges ever since that, for applying the
word of God to the conscience with power, thoroughness, and unction, the
Puritans stand alone. Yet it is difficult to define in detail how they differ
from preachers of other ages. It is as difficult to explain how the movement
arose, in a short time producing a host of outstanding preachers, and then a
hundred years or so later, how this supply dried up.

If we take the view that the Puritan movement was nothing less than an
outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon the Church of England, then it is a signal
instance of the principle of divine working enunciated by our Lord. The wind
bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell
whence it cometh, and whither it goeth. This view of the Puritan movement as
preeminently God-given is borne out by the absence of anything in the nature of
a gradual decline in the caliber of the Puritans.

One of the most noteworthy of the later Puritans, John Flavel of Dartmouth, will
bear comparison as a practical writer with any of his predecessors, though by
far the greater part of his ministry fell after the great ejection of 1662. His
father, Richard Flavel, was a minister at Broomsgrove in Worcestershire, and
from all accounts a faithful servant of God. His ministry, like many others, was
terminated by law in 1662, and he died prematurely of the plague in 1665 after
being imprisoned in Newgate on a charge of sedition.

John was the eldest son in a Puritan household, and like many similarly placed,
he was sent to university at what would now be considered an early age, entering
University College, Oxford. The visitation of Oxford ordered by Parliament in
1647, after the First Civil War, and the consequent reorganization of the
university took place almost certainly while Flavel was there. Speaking of his
time at Oxford, Flavel regretted that he had neglected the good of his own soul
so much.

Nonetheless, in 1650, he was recommended as assistant to the minister of
Dipford, Devon, and so commenced his life's work. Mr. Walplate, the rector of
Dipford, had sought help because of failing health. Consequently, his young
assistant was not starved of ministerial duties.

Flavel was formally ordained to the ministry in October 1650. Hearing of an
ordination service at Salisbury, he offered himself there for examination by the
presbytery and was duly recognized. Though he succeeded Walplate as rector of
Dipford on the latter's death and was comparatively well paid, Flavel accepted a
call to another sphere of service in 1656.

The seaport of Dartmouth in Devon could look back upon a long history. From an
early period it was noted for its capacious harbor and in 1190 had been the
rendezvous of the crusading fleet. Coming down to the 17th century, it was an
important post in the Civil War, captured for the king by Prince Maurice after a
siege of four weeks in 1643 and retained by the royalists until 1646 when it was
taken by General Fairfax.

In 1656, Anthony Hartford, minister of Dartmouth, died. Two churches were
associated in the incumbency, St. Saviour's and Townstall. To St. Saviour's, the
inhabitants chose Alan Gere, son-in-law of the famous John Canne, pastor of the
English church at Amsterdam.

As Hartford's successor in Townstall Church, a young man was designated who had
recently presided with distinction at a provincial synod of the Devonshire
churches. That young man was John Flavel, and so commenced an association with
Dartmouth which continued until his death. Flavel's ministry at Dartmouth might
well have been attended by great outward prosperity and success had it fallen in
another era.

In fact, like many others including his own father, he was ejected by the Act of
Uniformity in 1662. This enactment was successful in silencing some of the
non-conforming ministers. Many, however, considered that their divine commission
took precedence over any man-made laws.

Thus Flavel continued to exercise his ministry in Dartmouth as he was able. Not
satisfied with the ejection, the government of Charles II sought to destroy
dissent altogether. In 1665, the Oxford Act forbade non-conforming ministers to
come within five miles of a town unless they took an oath including a promise
not to endeavor any altercation in church or state.

Some of the non-conformists in Devon, notably John Howe, took the oath. Flavel,
however, refused to do so, though this meant leaving his home and flock. Moving
to Slapton, a village which was the prescribed distance from Dartmouth, he was
resorted to by many of his old parishioners to whom he preached on Sundays.

A brief respite for the Puritans followed upon the Declaration of Indulgence
issued by Charles II in 1672. The king, unknown to the nation and to Parliament,
had entered into an engagement with Louis XIV of France to establish Roman
Catholicism in England and as a preliminary step granted liberty of worship to
dissenters, Protestant and Roman Catholic. Flavel took advantage of this liberty
and was licensed as a Congregationalist.

Even when, shortly afterwards, the indulgence was withdrawn as a result of
Parliamentary pressure, he continued to preach in Dartmouth. He preached in
private houses and woods and even held meetings at low water on a rock called
Saltstone in Kingsbridge Estuary. As a leading and active non-conformist, Flavel
was often in danger and in 1682 was compelled to leave Dartmouth for London.

In the city, he met with other dissenting ministers, notably William Jenkin. In
September 1684, Jenkin, Flavel and other friends were gathered for prayer when
soldiers broke in upon them. Jenkin was arrested and though Flavel managed to
escape, he was close enough to hear the soldiers' insolence to their captive.

He returned to Devon soon after this experience, refusing an invitation to
succeed Jenkin, who died in prison in January 1685. Flavel lived to enjoy the
liberty given to dissenters by the last Stuart King, James II, and rejoiced in
the bloodless revolution of 1688 and 1689, which made the English Crown
Protestant and gave lasting toleration to non-conformists. At this time,
measures were afoot to settle the differences between the Presbyterians and the
Congregationalists.

This work was dear to Flavel's heart and he played a leading role in promoting
the happy union in Devon. It was while engaged in this work that he died
suddenly in Exeter in 1691. He was buried at Dartmouth, being accompanied to his
grave by many dissenters, says an unsympathetic witness.

It is recorded that in 1709 his epitaph was removed. The vicar objected to it as
being worthy of a bishop. Even a brief glance at Flavel's history gives some
indication of his outstanding character.

Of his influence, Wood, the royalist historian, observes that he had more
disciples than either John Owen or Richard Baxter. The same writer accused him
of plagiarism, sedition, and faction. It seems, however, that to Wood his great
crime was that he did not conform in 1662.

One who was intimately acquainted with him, John Galpin of Totemies, draws
attention in his memoir of Flavel to three characteristics, his diligence, his
longing for the conversion of souls, and his peaceable and healing spirit. In
addition to the incidents recorded in his own writing, there are some remarkable
examples of the effects of Flavel's ministry. Luke Short was a farmer in New
England who attained his hundredth year in exceptional vigor, though without
having sought peace with God.

One day as he sat in the fields reflecting upon his long life, he recalled a
sermon he had heard in Dartmouth as a boy before he sailed to America. The
horror of dying under the curse of God was impressed upon him as he meditated on
the words he had heard so long ago, and he was converted to Christ eighty-five
years after hearing John Flavel preach. Another remarkable convert was a London
gentleman who tried to obtain some plays from a bookshop.

The owner was a godly man, and had none in stock, but recommended Flavel's
treatise on Keeping the Heart. The would-be reader scorned and threatened to
burn the book, but took it, and returned in a month's time saying that God had
used it to save his soul. Flavel was a prolific writer, and his works, separate
and collected, have been republished many times since the author's lifetime.

His complete works were republished in 1820 by W. Baines and Son in London,
making up six volumes. Although some of these writings are polemical, the author
confessed that he found this kind of work disagreeable. His preference was for
practical divinity, and it is here that his skill as a physician of souls shines
most eminently.

Divine Conduct, or The Mystery of Providence Opened, was first published in
1678, and has passed through several editions, the most recent being that
published by the Sovereign Grace Union in 1935. The present edition differs from
the original in two respects. Slight alterations of vocabulary and punctuation
have been made, not to change, but to make clear the original force and sense of
Flavel's words.

Moreover, the treatise has been freshly subdivided and given new chapter
headings. These are divisions which arise naturally out of the author's
treatment of his subject. Thus, for all practical purposes, the matter of
Flavel's work is unchanged, while the style of presentation has been altered
slightly to help modern readers.

This may have diminished the academic historical value of this edition, but it
is hoped that it has greatly increased its spiritual usefulness to this
generation. Yet, even granting the timeless spiritual value of John Flavel as a
writer, some friends will deem it unwise to introduce him to the Christian
public through his work on Providence. Surely it would be better to let an old
writer speak on a subject that is not peculiar to his own era.

Why not see what Flavel had to say on personal evangelism, on guidance, or on
the way to achieve peace and victory in the Christian life? These, without
doubt, are the themes which popular preachers in our own day chiefly dwell upon.
These are the topics about which most Christians wish to read. Why should we
not, then, find out whether the Puritans really can help us on the burning
issues of this day? In answer to this, there is no doubt that Flavel and his
colleagues gave advice in these matters.

But their whole approach was in marked contrast to that to which we are
accustomed. Our modern piety, when it deals with spiritual problems, tends to be
self-centered and subjective. How can I find peace? How can I be victorious and
effective? How can I be guided? If we know the answers to these questions, it is
often felt, nothing more can be asked of us.

Within the terms of such an outlook, little time and attention can be spared for
the consideration of such an apparently theoretical subject as the providence of
God. It may even provoke some impatience. In view of the demands of modern life,
is it really necessary for us to spend time reading a lengthy treatment of what
is not a priority? Flavel's approach to the subject of providence cuts clean
across our modern criticism.

He insists from the outset that it is the duty of believers to observe all the
performances of God's providence for them, especially when they are in
difficulties. Clearly, this conviction is not shared by the majority of
evangelical Christians in the present day. It is not our custom, nor is it
regarded as a mark of spiritual keenness, to seek to discover and meditate upon
the work of providence in all that happens to us.

Two reasons for this may be suggested. First and foremost, the Puritans had a
lively sense of the sovereignty of God, and it is just this that, speaking
generally, we lack today. Many Christians reject it intellectually as repugnant
to free will, and their understanding of the love of God.

When they suffer a setback in their personal affairs or in the work of the
gospel, it is ascribed wholly to the devil or to failure in themselves to
fulfill the conditions. They feel a sense of personal frustration and may even
believe that God himself has been frustrated. Their only hope of success is to
intensify their spiritual exercises.

Prayer on this basis is not so much a plea to omnipotence as the throwing of
one's weight into the scale on the side of God. Even those who profess to accept
without question the truth of divine sovereignty are not infrequently guilty of
practical unbelief. Glibly to assert that all things work together for good to
them that love God is relatively easy, but to believe this when our
circumstances are distasteful and appear likely to deteriorate is evidence of a
spiritual apprehension of the sovereignty of God.

Yet we cannot truly recognize and improve the workings of providence until we
learn from the scriptures that God performs all things for us. A second reason
may be suggested why we do not meditate on the providence of God. It is that we
have a deep distaste for meditation.

This is not a matter of temperament. The recluse or introvert has no advantage
over the active, busy Christian. True meditation is a work to which we are all
naturally indisposed, but it is one to which the Holy Spirit prompts those whom
he indwells, those who have trusted Christ.

To the work of meditation upon providence, believers must apply themselves, but
first they must recognize it as a duty and understand what it involves. When
John Flavel writes of the providence of God, he does not simply deliver a
lecture. He writes in a thrilling way out of a full heart.

He knows from church history and from his own experience of the works of God on
behalf of his people. Above all, he knows the word of God intimately, and he
knows how to apply it. He shows how the hand of God may be discerned in our
personal affairs, avoiding the extravagances of mysticism as well as the
skepticism of unbelief.

His treatise is calculated to abase man and exalt God, and yet to kindle faith
and adoration in the heart of every child of God. To learn of the providence of
God under the tuition of John Flavel will bring Christian believers into a
sphere they never reckoned with before. It will also, we are confident, shed
light on the great concerns of present-day evangelicals.

How may we live a consecrated and victorious life? Let us first realize that
everything does not depend on us. Let us see what God has done and is doing for
our spiritual good. Then we may seek to work out what he is working in us.

And what of guidance? Let us learn that, in an ultimate sense, we can never be
outside of the will of God. Flavel would teach us that God's will for us is our
duty to be found in his word. Moreover, we should have a right attitude to all
circumstances, even the most adverse.

Finally, our Christian witness will not be crippled, as many fear, but quickened
by a right apprehension of the sovereignty of God. What a great God is ours,
greater than we ever thought when we first trusted him for salvation. How futile
for men and women to fight against him.

If Christians showed at all times, by their demeanor, that they had a living
faith in the God of the Scriptures, they would be better placed to commend to an
unbelieving world their God and his power to save. Michael Boland, February 1963
Introduction I will cry unto God Most High, unto God that performeth all things
for me. Psalm 57 verse 2 The greatness of God is a glorious and unsearchable
mystery.

For the Lord Most High is terrible, he is a great king over all the earth. Psalm
47 verse 2 The condescension of the Most High God to men is also a profound
mystery. Though the Lord be high, yet hath he respect unto the lowly.

Psalm 138 verse 6 But when both these meet together, as they do in this
Scripture, they make up a matchless mystery. Here we find the Most High God
performing all things for a poor distressed creature. It is the great support
and solace of the saints in all the distresses that befall them here, that there
is a wise spirit sitting in all the wheels of motion and governing the most
eccentric creatures and their most pernicious designs to blessed and happy
issues.

And indeed, it were not worthwhile to live in a world devoid of God and
providence. How deeply we are concerned in this matter will appear by that great
instance which Psalm 57 presents us with. It was composed, as the title notes,
by David when he hid himself from Saul in the cave.

It is ascribed with a double title, Al-Tashith, Midshim of David. Al-Tashith
refers to the scope, and Midshim to the dignity of the subject matter. The
former signifies destroy not, or let there be no slaughter, and may either refer
to Saul, concerning whom he gave charge to his servants not to destroy him, or
rather it has reference to God, to whom in this great necessity he poured out
his soul in this passionate ejaculation.

Al-Tashith, destroy not. The latter title, Midshim, signifies a golden ornament,
and so is suited to the choice and excellent matter of the psalm, which much
more deserves such a title than do Pythagoras' golden verses. Three things are
remarkable in the former part of the psalm.

His extreme danger, his earnest address to God in that extremity, and the
arguments he pleads with God in that address. His extreme danger is expressed in
both the title and the body of the psalm. The title tells us this psalm was
composed by him when he hid himself from Saul in the cave.

This cave was in the wilderness of En-Jedi, among the broken rocks where the
wild goats lived, an obscure and desolate hole. Yet even there the envy of Saul
pursued him. 1 Samuel 24 verses 1 and 2 And now he that had been so long hunted
as a partridge upon the mountains seems to be enclosed in the net.

His enemies were outside the cave, from which there was no other outlet. Then
Saul himself entered the mouth of this cave, in the sides and creeks of which
David and his men lay hidden, and they actually saw him. Judged to how great an
extremity, and to what a desperate state things were now brought, well might he
say, My soul is among lions, and I lie even among them that are set on fire.

Verse 4 What hope now remained? What but immediate destruction could be
expected? Yet this does not frighten him out of his faith and duty, but between
the jaws of death he prays and earnestly addresses himself to God for mercy. Be
merciful unto me, O God, be merciful unto me. Verse 1 This excellent psalm was
composed by him when there was enough to discompose the best man in the world.

The repetition notes both the extremity of the danger and the ardency of the
supplicant. Mercy, mercy, nothing but mercy, and that exerting itself in an
extraordinary way can now save him from ruin. The arguments he pleads for
obtaining mercy in this distress are very considerable.

First, he pleads his reliance upon God as an argument to move mercy. Be merciful
unto me, O God, be merciful unto me, for my soul trusteth in thee, yea, in the
shadow of thy wings will I make my refuge, until these calamities be overpassed.
Verse 1 This his trust and dependence on God, though it is not an argument in
the respect of the dignity of the act, yet it is so in respect of the nature of
the object, a compassionate God, who will not expose any that take shelter under
his wings, also in respect of the promise by which protection is assured to them
that fly to him for sanctuary.

Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee, because he
trusteth in thee. Isaiah 26.3 Thus he encourages himself from the consideration
of that God in whom he trusts. He pleads former experiences of his help in past
distresses as an argument encouraging hope under the present strait.

I will cry unto God Most High, unto God that performeth all things for me. Verse
2 In these words I shall consider two things, the duty resolved upon, and the
encouragement to that resolution. The duty resolved upon, I will cry unto God.

Crying unto God is an expression that denotes not only prayer, but intense and
fervent prayer. To cry is to pray in a holy passion, and such are usually
speeding prayers. Psalm 18 verse 6 and Hebrews 5 verse 7 The encouragement to
this resolution are taken from the sovereignty of God and from the experience he
had of his providence.

The sovereignty of God. I will cry unto God Most High. Upon this he acts his
faith in extremity of danger.

Saul is high, but God is the Most High, and without his permission he is assured
Saul cannot touch him. He had none to help, and if he had, he knew God must
first help the helpers, or they cannot help him. He had no means of defense or
escape before him, but the Most High is not limited by means.

This is a singular prop to faith. Psalm 59 verse 9 The experience of his
providence hitherto. Unto God that performeth all things for me.

The word which we translate performeth comes from a root that signifies both to
perfect and to desist and cease. For when a business is performed and perfected,
the agent then ceases and desists from working. To such a happy issue the Lord
has brought all his doubtful and difficult matters before, and this gives him
encouragement that he will still be gracious and perfect that which concerns him
now as he speaks, the Lord will perfect that which concerneth me.

Psalm 138 verse 8 The Septuagint renders Psalm 57 too, the well-doer saving me,
who profits or benefits me. And it is a certain truth that all the results and
issues of providence are profitable and beneficial to the saints. But the
supplement in our translation well conveys the sense of the text, who performeth
all things.

And it involves the most strict and proper notion of providence, which is
nothing else but the performance of God's gracious purposes and promises to his
people. And therefore, that Abulus and Muus supply and fill up the room left by
the conciseness of the original with which he hath promised, thus I will cry
unto God Most High, unto God that performeth the things which he hath promised.
Payment is the performance of promises, grace makes the promise, and providence
the payment.

Piscator fills it thus, unto God that performeth his kindness and mercy. But
still it supposes the mercy performed to be contained in the promise. Mercy is
sweet in the promise, and much more so in the providential performance of it to
us.

Castilio's supplement comes nearer to ours, I will cry unto God Most High, unto
God the transactor of my affairs. But our English making out the sense by a
universal particle, is most agreeable to the scope of the text. For it cannot
but be a great encouragement to his faith that God had transacted all things or
performed all things for him.

This providence that never failed him in any of the straits that ever he met
with, and his life was a life of many straits, he might well hope would not fail
him now, though this were an extraordinary and matchless one. Let us then bring
our thoughts a little closer to this scripture, and it will give us a fair and
lovely prospect of providence in its universal, effectual, beneficial, and
encouraging influence upon the affairs and concerns of the saints. The
expression imports the universal interest and influence of providence in and
upon all the concerns and interests of the saints.

It not only has its hand in this or that, but in all that concerns them. It has
its eye upon everything that relates to them throughout their lives from first
to last. Not only the great and more important, but the most minute and ordinary
affairs of our lives are transacted and managed by it.

It touches all things that touch us, whether more nearly or remotely. The text
displays the efficacy of providential influences. Providence not only
undertakes, but perfects what concerns us.

It goes through with its designs and accomplishes what it begins. No difficulty
so clogs it. No cross-accident falls in its way, but it carries its design
through it.

Its motions are irresistible and uncontrollable. He performs it for us. And,
which is sweet to consider, all its products and issues are exceedingly
beneficial to the saints.

It performs all things for them. It is true we often prejudge its work and
unjustly censure its designs. And in many of our straits and troubles we say,
all these things are against us.

But indeed, providence neither does nor can do anything that is really against
the true interest and good of the saints. For what are the works of providence
but the execution of God's decree and the fulfilling of his word? And there can
be no more in providence than is in them. Now there is nothing but good to the
saints in God's purposes and promises.

And therefore, whatever providence does concerning them, it must be, as the text
speaks, the performance of all things for them. And if so, how cheering,
supporting, and encouraging must the consideration of these things be in a day
of distress and trouble. What life and hope will it inspire our hearts and
prayers with when great pressures lie upon us? It had such a cheering influence
upon the psalmist at this time when the state of his affairs was, to the eye of
sense and reason, forlorn and desperate, there was now but a hair's breadth, as
we say, between him and ruin.

A powerful, enraged, and implacable enemy had driven him into the hole of a rock
and was come after him into that hole. Yet now, while his soul is among the
lions, while he lies in a cranny of the rock, expecting every moment to be drawn
out to death, the reflections he had upon the gracious performances of the Most
High for him from the beginning to that moment support his soul and inspire hope
and life into his prayers. I will cry unto God Most High, unto God that
performeth all things for me.

From the text, then, you have this doctrine. It is the duty of the saints,
especially in times of straits, to reflect upon the performances of providence
for them in all states and through all the stages of their lives. The church, in
all the works of mercy, owns the hand of God.

Lord, thou hast wrought all our works in or for us. Isaiah 26, 12 And still it
has been the pious and constant practice of the saints in all generations to
preserve the memory of the more famous and remarkable providences that have
befallen them in their times as a precious treasure. If thou be a Christian
indeed, I know thou hast, if not in thy book, yet certainly in thy heart, a
great many precious favors upon record.

The very remembrance and rehearsal of them is sweet. How much more sweet was the
actual enjoyment! Thus Moses, by divine direction, wrote a memorial of that
victory obtained over Amalek as the fruit and return of prayer, and built there
an altar with this inscription, Jehovah Nissi, the Lord my banner. Exodus 17,
verse 14 and 15 Thus Mordecai and Esther took all care to perpetuate the memory
of that signal deliverance from the plot of Haman by ordaining the Feast of
Purim as an anniversary throughout every generation, every family, every
province, and every city, that these days of Purim should not fail from among
the Jews, nor the memorial of them perish from their seed.

Esther 9, 28 For this end you find Psalms indicted to bring to remembrance.
Psalm 70, Title You find parents giving suitable names to their children, that
every time they looked upon them they might refresh the memory of God's mercies.
1 Samuel 1.20 You find the very places where imminent providences have appeared
given a new name, for no other reason but to perpetuate the memorial of those
sweet providences which so refreshed them there.

Thus Bethel received its name. Genesis 28.19 And that well of water where Hagar
was seasonably refreshed by the angel in her distress was called Bir Laharoi,
the well of him that liveth and looketh on me. Genesis 16.14 Yea, the saints
have given, and God has assumed to himself new titles upon this very score and
account.

Abraham's Jehovah Jireh and Gideon's Jehovah Shalom were ascribed to him for
this reason. And sometimes you find the Lord styles himself the God that brought
Abraham from Ur of the Chaldees or the Lord God that brought them out of Egypt
or again the Lord that gathered them out of the north country reminding them of
the gracious providences which in all those places he had wrought for them. Now
there is a twofold reflection upon the providential works of God.

One is entire and full in its whole complex and perfect system. This blessed
site is reserved for the perfect state. It is in that mount of God where we
shall see both the wilderness and Canaan, the glorious kingdom into which we are
come and the way through which we were led into it.

There the saints shall have a ravishing view of it in its entirety and every
part shall be distinctly discerned as it had its particular use and as it was
connected with the other parts and how effectually and orderly they all wrought
to bring about that blessed design of their salvation according to the promise
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. Romans 8 28 For it is certain no
ship at sea keeps more exactly by the compass which directs its course than
providence keeps by that promise which is its sinosure and pole star. The other
site is partial and imperfect which we have on the way to glory during which we
only view it in its single acts or at most in some branches and more observable
series of actions.

Between these two is the same difference as between the sight of the disjointed
wheels and scattered pins of a watch and the sight of the whole united in one
frame and working in one orderly motion or between an ignorant spectator who
views some more observable vessel or joint of a dissected body and the accurate
anatomist who discerns the course of all the veins and arteries of the body as
he follows the various branches of them through the whole and plainly sees the
proper place, figure and use of each with their mutual respect to one another.
Oh how ravishing and delectable a sight will it be to behold at one view the
whole design of providence and the proper place and use of every single act
which we could not understand in this world. What Christ said to Peter is as
applicable to some providences in which we are now concerned as it was to that
particular action.

What I do thou knowest not now but thou shalt know hereafter. John 13 7 All the
dark, intricate, puzzling providences at which we were sometimes so offended and
sometimes amazed which we could neither reconcile with the promise nor with each
other nay, which we so unjustly censured and bitterly bewailed as if they had
fallen out quite against our happiness we shall then see to be to us as the
difficult passage through the wilderness was to Israel the right way to a city
of habitation. Psalm 107 verse 7 And yet though our present views and
reflections upon providence are so short and imperfect in comparison to that in
heaven yet such as it is under all its present disadvantages it has so much
excellence and sweetness in it that I may call it a little heaven or as Jacob
called his Bethel the gate of heaven.

It is certainly a highway of walking with God in this world and a soul may enjoy
a sweet communion with him in his providences as in any of his ordinances. How
often have the hearts of its observers been melted into tears of joy at the
beholding of its wise and unexpected productions. How often has it convinced
them upon a sober recollection of the events of their lives that if the Lord had
left them to their own counsels they had as often been their own tormentors if
not executioners.

Into what and how many fatal mischiefs had they precipitated themselves if
providence had been as short-sighted as they. They have given it their hearty
thanks for considering their interests more than their importunity and not
allowing them to perish by their own desires. Part 1. The Evidence of Providence
Chapter 1. The Work of Providence for the Saints First I shall undertake the
proof and defense of the great truth that the affairs of the saints in this
world are certainly conducted by the wisdom and care of special providence and
in so doing I address myself with cheerfulness to perform as I am able a service
for that providence which has throughout my life performed all things for me as
the text speaks.

There is a two-fold consideration of providence according to its two-fold object
and manner of dispensation. The one in general exercised about all creatures
rational and irrational animate and inanimate the other special and peculiar.
Christ has a universal empire over all things Ephesians 1.22 He is the head of
the whole world by way of dominion but a head to the church by way of union and
special influence John 17.2 He is the savior of all men especially of those that
believe 1 Timothy 4.10 The church is his special care and charge he rules the
world for its good as a head consulting the welfare of the body.

Heathens generally deny providence and no wonder since they deny the God for the
same arguments that prove one will prove the other. Aristotle, the prince of
heathen philosophers could not by the utmost search of reason find out how the
world originated and therefore concludes it was from eternity. The Epicureans
did in a way acknowledge a God but yet denied a providence and wholly excluded
him from any interest or concern in the affairs of the world as being
inconsistent with the felicity and tranquility of the divine being to be
diverted and cumbered with the care and labor of government.

This assertion is so repugnant to reason that it is a wonder they did not blush
at its absurdity but I guess the reason and one of them according to Cicero
speaks it out in broad language If this is so you have yoked us to an eternal
master such as we would fear day and night for who would not be frightened of a
prying busybody of a God who provides plans and observes everything and who
considers that everything is his concern. They foresaw that the concession of a
providence would impose an eternal yoke upon their necks by making them
accountable for all they did to a higher tribunal so that they must necessarily
pass the time of their sojourning here in fear while all their thoughts words
and ways were strictly noted and recorded for the purpose of an account by an
all-seeing and righteous God. They therefore labored to persuade themselves that
what they had no mind for did not exist but these atheistical and foolish
conceits fall flat before the undeniable evidence of this so great and clear a
truth.

Now my business here is not so much to deal with professed atheists who deny the
existence of God and consequently deride all evidences brought from scripture of
the extraordinary events that fall out in favor of that people that are called
his but rather to convince those that professedly own all this yet never having
tasted religion by experience suspect at least that all these things which we
call special providences to the saints are but natural events or mere
contingencies. Thus while they profess to own a God and a providence which
profession is but the effect of their education they do in the meantime live
like atheists and both act and think as if there were no such things and really
I fear this is the case with the greater part of the men of this generation. But
if it were indeed so that the affairs of the world in general and more
especially those of the saints were not conducted by divine providence but as
they would persuade us by the steady course of natural causes beside which if at
any time we observe any event to fall out it is merely casual and contingent or
proceeds from some hidden and secret cause in nature.

If this indeed were so let them that are tempted to believe it give a rational
answer to the following questions. How comes it to pass that so many signal
mercies and deliverances have befallen the people of God above the power and
against the course of natural causes to make way for which there has been an
obvious suspension and stop put to the course of nature? It is most evident that
no natural effect can exceed the power of its natural course. Nothing can give
to another more than it has in itself and it is as clear that whatsoever acts
naturally acts necessarily.

This Reformation audio track is a production of Stillwater's Revival Books. SWRB
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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


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 2: PART 2
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The Mystery of Providence by John Flavel Publisher's Introduction On February
the 13th, 1688, amidst the splendor of the banqueting house at Whitehall, an
epic-making event took place. Prince William and Princess Mary of Orange
accepted the crown from the Estates of England. They were proclaimed as King and
Queen.

Thus, in the words of Lord Macaulay, was consummated the English Revolution.
Throughout the land, the following day was observed as a public thanksgiving for
the deliverance of the nation from papacy. Preaching at this celebration, one of
the few surviving Puritan leaders, John Flavel, had occasion to observe a
remarkable coincidence.

In 1588, England had experienced a signal deliverance from Roman Catholicism.
The mighty armada of Spain, sent to dethrone the Protestant Elizabeth and
restore her people to the old faith, had been blasted by the winds and waves. A
hundred years had passed, Flavel reminded his readers.

Yet behold, another eighty-eight, crowned and enriched with mercies, no less
admirable and glorious than the former. Another attempt to subjugate England to
the yoke of Rome had been thwarted by the providence of God. The century spanned
by the Spanish armada and the glorious revolution was as decisive in the
religious as in the political history of England.

The religions of Rome and of the Reformation were locked in a struggle for
national supremacy. 1662 saw the expulsion from the National Church of the
Puritans, those who above all stood for the Reformation principle of the
supremacy of Scripture in the Church. In 1688, the claim of Roman Catholicism to
be the religion of England was, for generations to come, repudiated.

This did not mean, however, the triumph of Puritanism. Indeed, it would be true
to say that by 1688, the Puritan movement was virtually at an end. Its aims were
to a large extent still unrealized.

The history of Puritanism is quite remarkable. As a movement for thorough reform
of the Church on the basis of the word of God, it was indeed as old as the
Reformation. But if the Reformation revived preaching, the Puritans came to
stand for preaching of a particular kind.

It has been the verdict of competent judges ever since that, for applying the
word of God to the conscience with power, thoroughness, and unction, the
Puritans stand alone. Yet it is difficult to define in detail how they differ
from preachers of other ages. It is as difficult to explain how the movement
arose, in a short time producing a host of outstanding preachers, and then a
hundred years or so later, how this supply dried up.

If we take the view that the Puritan movement was nothing less than an
outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon the Church of England, then it is a signal
instance of the principle of divine working enunciated by our Lord. The wind
bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell
whence it cometh, and whither it goeth. This view of the Puritan movement as
preeminently God-given is borne out by the absence of anything in the nature of
a gradual decline in the caliber of the Puritans.

One of the most noteworthy of the later Puritans, John Flavel of Dartmouth, will
bear comparison as a practical writer with any of his predecessors, though by
far the greater part of his ministry fell after the great ejection of 1662. His
father, Richard Flavel, was a minister at Broomsgrove in Worcestershire, and
from all accounts a faithful servant of God. His ministry, like many others, was
terminated by law in 1662, and he died prematurely of the plague in 1665 after
being imprisoned in Newgate on a charge of sedition.

John was the eldest son in a Puritan household, and like many similarly placed,
he was sent to university at what would now be considered an early age, entering
University College, Oxford. The visitation of Oxford ordered by Parliament in
1647, after the First Civil War, and the consequent reorganization of the
university took place almost certainly while Flavel was there. Speaking of his
time at Oxford, Flavel regretted that he had neglected the good of his own soul
so much.

Nonetheless, in 1650, he was recommended as assistant to the minister of
Dipford, Devon, and so commenced his life's work. Mr. Walplate, the rector of
Dipford, had sought help because of failing health. Consequently, his young
assistant was not starved of ministerial duties.

Flavel was formally ordained to the ministry in October 1650. Hearing of an
ordination service at Salisbury, he offered himself there for examination by the
presbytery and was duly recognized. Though he succeeded Walplate as rector of
Dipford on the latter's death and was comparatively well paid, Flavel accepted a
call to another sphere of service in 1656.

The seaport of Dartmouth in Devon could look back upon a long history. From an
early period it was noted for its capacious harbor and in 1190 had been the
rendezvous of the crusading fleet. Coming down to the 17th century, it was an
important post in the Civil War, captured for the king by Prince Maurice after a
siege of four weeks in 1643 and retained by the royalists until 1646 when it was
taken by General Fairfax.

In 1656, Anthony Hartford, minister of Dartmouth, died. Two churches were
associated in the incumbency, St. Saviour's and Townstall. To St. Saviour's, the
inhabitants chose Alan Gere, son-in-law of the famous John Canne, pastor of the
English church at Amsterdam.

As Hartford's successor in Townstall Church, a young man was designated who had
recently presided with distinction at a provincial synod of the Devonshire
churches. That young man was John Flavel, and so commenced an association with
Dartmouth which continued until his death. Flavel's ministry at Dartmouth might
well have been attended by great outward prosperity and success had it fallen in
another era.

In fact, like many others including his own father, he was ejected by the Act of
Uniformity in 1662. This enactment was successful in silencing some of the
non-conforming ministers. Many, however, considered that their divine commission
took precedence over any man-made laws.

Thus Flavel continued to exercise his ministry in Dartmouth as he was able. Not
satisfied with the ejection, the government of Charles II sought to destroy
dissent altogether. In 1665, the Oxford Act forbade non-conforming ministers to
come within five miles of a town unless they took an oath including a promise
not to endeavor any altercation in church or state.

Some of the non-conformists in Devon, notably John Howe, took the oath. Flavel,
however, refused to do so, though this meant leaving his home and flock. Moving
to Slapton, a village which was the prescribed distance from Dartmouth, he was
resorted to by many of his old parishioners to whom he preached on Sundays.

A brief respite for the Puritans followed upon the Declaration of Indulgence
issued by Charles II in 1672. The king, unknown to the nation and to Parliament,
had entered into an engagement with Louis XIV of France to establish Roman
Catholicism in England and as a preliminary step granted liberty of worship to
dissenters, Protestant and Roman Catholic. Flavel took advantage of this liberty
and was licensed as a Congregationalist.

Even when, shortly afterwards, the indulgence was withdrawn as a result of
Parliamentary pressure, he continued to preach in Dartmouth. He preached in
private houses and woods and even held meetings at low water on a rock called
Saltstone in Kingsbridge Estuary. As a leading and active non-conformist, Flavel
was often in danger and in 1682 was compelled to leave Dartmouth for London.

In the city, he met with other dissenting ministers, notably William Jenkin. In
September 1684, Jenkin, Flavel and other friends were gathered for prayer when
soldiers broke in upon them. Jenkin was arrested and though Flavel managed to
escape, he was close enough to hear the soldiers' insolence to their captive.

He returned to Devon soon after this experience, refusing an invitation to
succeed Jenkin, who died in prison in January 1685. Flavel lived to enjoy the
liberty given to dissenters by the last Stuart King, James II, and rejoiced in
the bloodless revolution of 1688 and 1689, which made the English Crown
Protestant and gave lasting toleration to non-conformists. At this time,
measures were afoot to settle the differences between the Presbyterians and the
Congregationalists.

This work was dear to Flavel's heart and he played a leading role in promoting
the happy union in Devon. It was while engaged in this work that he died
suddenly in Exeter in 1691. He was buried at Dartmouth, being accompanied to his
grave by many dissenters, says an unsympathetic witness.

It is recorded that in 1709 his epitaph was removed. The vicar objected to it as
being worthy of a bishop. Even a brief glance at Flavel's history gives some
indication of his outstanding character.

Of his influence, Wood, the royalist historian, observes that he had more
disciples than either John Owen or Richard Baxter. The same writer accused him
of plagiarism, sedition, and faction. It seems, however, that to Wood his great
crime was that he did not conform in 1662.

One who was intimately acquainted with him, John Galpin of Totemies, draws
attention in his memoir of Flavel to three characteristics, his diligence, his
longing for the conversion of souls, and his peaceable and healing spirit. In
addition to the incidents recorded in his own writing, there are some remarkable
examples of the effects of Flavel's ministry. Luke Short was a farmer in New
England who attained his hundredth year in exceptional vigor, though without
having sought peace with God.

One day as he sat in the fields reflecting upon his long life, he recalled a
sermon he had heard in Dartmouth as a boy before he sailed to America. The
horror of dying under the curse of God was impressed upon him as he meditated on
the words he had heard so long ago, and he was converted to Christ eighty-five
years after hearing John Flavel preach. Another remarkable convert was a London
gentleman who tried to obtain some plays from a bookshop.

The owner was a godly man, and had none in stock, but recommended Flavel's
treatise on Keeping the Heart. The would-be reader scorned and threatened to
burn the book, but took it, and returned in a month's time saying that God had
used it to save his soul. Flavel was a prolific writer, and his works, separate
and collected, have been republished many times since the author's lifetime.

His complete works were republished in 1820 by W. Baines and Son in London,
making up six volumes. Although some of these writings are polemical, the author
confessed that he found this kind of work disagreeable. His preference was for
practical divinity, and it is here that his skill as a physician of souls shines
most eminently.

Divine Conduct, or The Mystery of Providence Opened, was first published in
1678, and has passed through several editions, the most recent being that
published by the Sovereign Grace Union in 1935. The present edition differs from
the original in two respects. Slight alterations of vocabulary and punctuation
have been made, not to change, but to make clear the original force and sense of
Flavel's words.

Moreover, the treatise has been freshly subdivided and given new chapter
headings. These are divisions which arise naturally out of the author's
treatment of his subject. Thus, for all practical purposes, the matter of
Flavel's work is unchanged, while the style of presentation has been altered
slightly to help modern readers.

This may have diminished the academic historical value of this edition, but it
is hoped that it has greatly increased its spiritual usefulness to this
generation. Yet, even granting the timeless spiritual value of John Flavel as a
writer, some friends will deem it unwise to introduce him to the Christian
public through his work on Providence. Surely it would be better to let an old
writer speak on a subject that is not peculiar to his own era.

Why not see what Flavel had to say on personal evangelism, on guidance, or on
the way to achieve peace and victory in the Christian life? These, without
doubt, are the themes which popular preachers in our own day chiefly dwell upon.
These are the topics about which most Christians wish to read. Why should we
not, then, find out whether the Puritans really can help us on the burning
issues of this day? In answer to this, there is no doubt that Flavel and his
colleagues gave advice in these matters.

But their whole approach was in marked contrast to that to which we are
accustomed. Our modern piety, when it deals with spiritual problems, tends to be
self-centered and subjective. How can I find peace? How can I be victorious and
effective? How can I be guided? If we know the answers to these questions, it is
often felt, nothing more can be asked of us.

Within the terms of such an outlook, little time and attention can be spared for
the consideration of such an apparently theoretical subject as the providence of
God. It may even provoke some impatience. In view of the demands of modern life,
is it really necessary for us to spend time reading a lengthy treatment of what
is not a priority? Flavel's approach to the subject of providence cuts clean
across our modern criticism.

He insists from the outset that it is the duty of believers to observe all the
performances of God's providence for them, especially when they are in
difficulties. Clearly, this conviction is not shared by the majority of
evangelical Christians in the present day. It is not our custom, nor is it
regarded as a mark of spiritual keenness, to seek to discover and meditate upon
the work of providence in all that happens to us.

Two reasons for this may be suggested. First and foremost, the Puritans had a
lively sense of the sovereignty of God, and it is just this that, speaking
generally, we lack today. Many Christians reject it intellectually as repugnant
to free will, and their understanding of the love of God.

When they suffer a setback in their personal affairs or in the work of the
gospel, it is ascribed wholly to the devil or to failure in themselves to
fulfill the conditions. They feel a sense of personal frustration and may even
believe that God himself has been frustrated. Their only hope of success is to
intensify their spiritual exercises.

Prayer on this basis is not so much a plea to omnipotence as the throwing of
one's weight into the scale on the side of God. Even those who profess to accept
without question the truth of divine sovereignty are not infrequently guilty of
practical unbelief. Glibly to assert that all things work together for good to
them that love God is relatively easy, but to believe this when our
circumstances are distasteful and appear likely to deteriorate is evidence of a
spiritual apprehension of the sovereignty of God.

Yet we cannot truly recognize and improve the workings of providence until we
learn from the scriptures that God performs all things for us. A second reason
may be suggested why we do not meditate on the providence of God. It is that we
have a deep distaste for meditation.

This is not a matter of temperament. The recluse or introvert has no advantage
over the active, busy Christian. True meditation is a work to which we are all
naturally indisposed, but it is one to which the Holy Spirit prompts those whom
he indwells, those who have trusted Christ.

To the work of meditation upon providence, believers must apply themselves, but
first they must recognize it as a duty and understand what it involves. When
John Flavel writes of the providence of God, he does not simply deliver a
lecture. He writes in a thrilling way out of a full heart.

He knows from church history and from his own experience of the works of God on
behalf of his people. Above all, he knows the word of God intimately, and he
knows how to apply it. He shows how the hand of God may be discerned in our
personal affairs, avoiding the extravagances of mysticism as well as the
skepticism of unbelief.

His treatise is calculated to abase man and exalt God, and yet to kindle faith
and adoration in the heart of every child of God. To learn of the providence of
God under the tuition of John Flavel will bring Christian believers into a
sphere they never reckoned with before. It will also, we are confident, shed
light on the great concerns of present-day evangelicals.

How may we live a consecrated and victorious life? Let us first realize that
everything does not depend on us. Let us see what God has done and is doing for
our spiritual good. Then we may seek to work out what he is working in us.

And what of guidance? Let us learn that, in an ultimate sense, we can never be
outside of the will of God. Flavel would teach us that God's will for us is our
duty to be found in his word. Moreover, we should have a right attitude to all
circumstances, even the most adverse.

Finally, our Christian witness will not be crippled, as many fear, but quickened
by a right apprehension of the sovereignty of God. What a great God is ours,
greater than we ever thought when we first trusted him for salvation. How futile
for men and women to fight against him.

If Christians showed at all times, by their demeanor, that they had a living
faith in the God of the Scriptures, they would be better placed to commend to an
unbelieving world their God and his power to save. Michael Boland, February 1963
Introduction I will cry unto God Most High, unto God that performeth all things
for me. Psalm 57 verse 2 The greatness of God is a glorious and unsearchable
mystery.

For the Lord Most High is terrible, he is a great king over all the earth. Psalm
47 verse 2 The condescension of the Most High God to men is also a profound
mystery. Though the Lord be high, yet hath he respect unto the lowly.

Psalm 138 verse 6 But when both these meet together, as they do in this
Scripture, they make up a matchless mystery. Here we find the Most High God
performing all things for a poor distressed creature. It is the great support
and solace of the saints in all the distresses that befall them here, that there
is a wise spirit sitting in all the wheels of motion and governing the most
eccentric creatures and their most pernicious designs to blessed and happy
issues.

And indeed, it were not worthwhile to live in a world devoid of God and
providence. How deeply we are concerned in this matter will appear by that great
instance which Psalm 57 presents us with. It was composed, as the title notes,
by David when he hid himself from Saul in the cave.

It is ascribed with a double title, Al-Tashith, Midshim of David. Al-Tashith
refers to the scope, and Midshim to the dignity of the subject matter. The
former signifies destroy not, or let there be no slaughter, and may either refer
to Saul, concerning whom he gave charge to his servants not to destroy him, or
rather it has reference to God, to whom in this great necessity he poured out
his soul in this passionate ejaculation.

Al-Tashith, destroy not. The latter title, Midshim, signifies a golden ornament,
and so is suited to the choice and excellent matter of the psalm, which much
more deserves such a title than do Pythagoras' golden verses. Three things are
remarkable in the former part of the psalm.

His extreme danger, his earnest address to God in that extremity, and the
arguments he pleads with God in that address. His extreme danger is expressed in
both the title and the body of the psalm. The title tells us this psalm was
composed by him when he hid himself from Saul in the cave.

This cave was in the wilderness of En-Jedi, among the broken rocks where the
wild goats lived, an obscure and desolate hole. Yet even there the envy of Saul
pursued him. 1 Samuel 24 verses 1 and 2 And now he that had been so long hunted
as a partridge upon the mountains seems to be enclosed in the net.

His enemies were outside the cave, from which there was no other outlet. Then
Saul himself entered the mouth of this cave, in the sides and creeks of which
David and his men lay hidden, and they actually saw him. Judged to how great an
extremity, and to what a desperate state things were now brought, well might he
say, My soul is among lions, and I lie even among them that are set on fire.

Verse 4 What hope now remained? What but immediate destruction could be
expected? Yet this does not frighten him out of his faith and duty, but between
the jaws of death he prays and earnestly addresses himself to God for mercy. Be
merciful unto me, O God, be merciful unto me. Verse 1 This excellent psalm was
composed by him when there was enough to discompose the best man in the world.

The repetition notes both the extremity of the danger and the ardency of the
supplicant. Mercy, mercy, nothing but mercy, and that exerting itself in an
extraordinary way can now save him from ruin. The arguments he pleads for
obtaining mercy in this distress are very considerable.

First, he pleads his reliance upon God as an argument to move mercy. Be merciful
unto me, O God, be merciful unto me, for my soul trusteth in thee, yea, in the
shadow of thy wings will I make my refuge, until these calamities be overpassed.
Verse 1 This his trust and dependence on God, though it is not an argument in
the respect of the dignity of the act, yet it is so in respect of the nature of
the object, a compassionate God, who will not expose any that take shelter under
his wings, also in respect of the promise by which protection is assured to them
that fly to him for sanctuary.

Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee, because he
trusteth in thee. Isaiah 26.3 Thus he encourages himself from the consideration
of that God in whom he trusts. He pleads former experiences of his help in past
distresses as an argument encouraging hope under the present strait.

I will cry unto God Most High, unto God that performeth all things for me. Verse
2 In these words I shall consider two things, the duty resolved upon, and the
encouragement to that resolution. The duty resolved upon, I will cry unto God.

Crying unto God is an expression that denotes not only prayer, but intense and
fervent prayer. To cry is to pray in a holy passion, and such are usually
speeding prayers. Psalm 18 verse 6 and Hebrews 5 verse 7 The encouragement to
this resolution are taken from the sovereignty of God and from the experience he
had of his providence.

The sovereignty of God. I will cry unto God Most High. Upon this he acts his
faith in extremity of danger.

Saul is high, but God is the Most High, and without his permission he is assured
Saul cannot touch him. He had none to help, and if he had, he knew God must
first help the helpers, or they cannot help him. He had no means of defense or
escape before him, but the Most High is not limited by means.

This is a singular prop to faith. Psalm 59 verse 9 The experience of his
providence hitherto. Unto God that performeth all things for me.

The word which we translate performeth comes from a root that signifies both to
perfect and to desist and cease. For when a business is performed and perfected,
the agent then ceases and desists from working. To such a happy issue the Lord
has brought all his doubtful and difficult matters before, and this gives him
encouragement that he will still be gracious and perfect that which concerns him
now as he speaks, the Lord will perfect that which concerneth me.

Psalm 138 verse 8 The Septuagint renders Psalm 57 too, the well-doer saving me,
who profits or benefits me. And it is a certain truth that all the results and
issues of providence are profitable and beneficial to the saints. But the
supplement in our translation well conveys the sense of the text, who performeth
all things.

And it involves the most strict and proper notion of providence, which is
nothing else but the performance of God's gracious purposes and promises to his
people. And therefore, that Abulus and Muus supply and fill up the room left by
the conciseness of the original with which he hath promised, thus I will cry
unto God Most High, unto God that performeth the things which he hath promised.
Payment is the performance of promises, grace makes the promise, and providence
the payment.

Piscator fills it thus, unto God that performeth his kindness and mercy. But
still it supposes the mercy performed to be contained in the promise. Mercy is
sweet in the promise, and much more so in the providential performance of it to
us.

Castilio's supplement comes nearer to ours, I will cry unto God Most High, unto
God the transactor of my affairs. But our English making out the sense by a
universal particle, is most agreeable to the scope of the text. For it cannot
but be a great encouragement to his faith that God had transacted all things or
performed all things for him.

This providence that never failed him in any of the straits that ever he met
with, and his life was a life of many straits, he might well hope would not fail
him now, though this were an extraordinary and matchless one. Let us then bring
our thoughts a little closer to this scripture, and it will give us a fair and
lovely prospect of providence in its universal, effectual, beneficial, and
encouraging influence upon the affairs and concerns of the saints. The
expression imports the universal interest and influence of providence in and
upon all the concerns and interests of the saints.

It not only has its hand in this or that, but in all that concerns them. It has
its eye upon everything that relates to them throughout their lives from first
to last. Not only the great and more important, but the most minute and ordinary
affairs of our lives are transacted and managed by it.

It touches all things that touch us, whether more nearly or remotely. The text
displays the efficacy of providential influences. Providence not only
undertakes, but perfects what concerns us.

It goes through with its designs and accomplishes what it begins. No difficulty
so clogs it. No cross-accident falls in its way, but it carries its design
through it.

Its motions are irresistible and uncontrollable. He performs it for us. And,
which is sweet to consider, all its products and issues are exceedingly
beneficial to the saints.

It performs all things for them. It is true we often prejudge its work and
unjustly censure its designs. And in many of our straits and troubles we say,
all these things are against us.

But indeed, providence neither does nor can do anything that is really against
the true interest and good of the saints. For what are the works of providence
but the execution of God's decree and the fulfilling of his word? And there can
be no more in providence than is in them. Now there is nothing but good to the
saints in God's purposes and promises.

And therefore, whatever providence does concerning them, it must be, as the text
speaks, the performance of all things for them. And if so, how cheering,
supporting, and encouraging must the consideration of these things be in a day
of distress and trouble. What life and hope will it inspire our hearts and
prayers with when great pressures lie upon us? It had such a cheering influence
upon the psalmist at this time when the state of his affairs was, to the eye of
sense and reason, forlorn and desperate, there was now but a hair's breadth, as
we say, between him and ruin.

A powerful, enraged, and implacable enemy had driven him into the hole of a rock
and was come after him into that hole. Yet now, while his soul is among the
lions, while he lies in a cranny of the rock, expecting every moment to be drawn
out to death, the reflections he had upon the gracious performances of the Most
High for him from the beginning to that moment support his soul and inspire hope
and life into his prayers. I will cry unto God Most High, unto God that
performeth all things for me.

From the text, then, you have this doctrine. It is the duty of the saints,
especially in times of straits, to reflect upon the performances of providence
for them in all states and through all the stages of their lives. The church, in
all the works of mercy, owns the hand of God.

Lord, thou hast wrought all our works in or for us. Isaiah 26, 12 And still it
has been the pious and constant practice of the saints in all generations to
preserve the memory of the more famous and remarkable providences that have
befallen them in their times as a precious treasure. If thou be a Christian
indeed, I know thou hast, if not in thy book, yet certainly in thy heart, a
great many precious favors upon record.

The very remembrance and rehearsal of them is sweet. How much more sweet was the
actual enjoyment! Thus Moses, by divine direction, wrote a memorial of that
victory obtained over Amalek as the fruit and return of prayer, and built there
an altar with this inscription, Jehovah Nissi, the Lord my banner. Exodus 17,
verse 14 and 15 Thus Mordecai and Esther took all care to perpetuate the memory
of that signal deliverance from the plot of Haman by ordaining the Feast of
Purim as an anniversary throughout every generation, every family, every
province, and every city, that these days of Purim should not fail from among
the Jews, nor the memorial of them perish from their seed.

Esther 9, 28 For this end you find Psalms indicted to bring to remembrance.
Psalm 70, Title You find parents giving suitable names to their children, that
every time they looked upon them they might refresh the memory of God's mercies.
1 Samuel 1.20 You find the very places where imminent providences have appeared
given a new name, for no other reason but to perpetuate the memorial of those
sweet providences which so refreshed them there.

Thus Bethel received its name. Genesis 28.19 And that well of water where Hagar
was seasonably refreshed by the angel in her distress was called Bir Laharoi,
the well of him that liveth and looketh on me. Genesis 16.14 Yea, the saints
have given, and God has assumed to himself new titles upon this very score and
account.

Abraham's Jehovah Jireh and Gideon's Jehovah Shalom were ascribed to him for
this reason. And sometimes you find the Lord styles himself the God that brought
Abraham from Ur of the Chaldees or the Lord God that brought them out of Egypt
or again the Lord that gathered them out of the north country reminding them of
the gracious providences which in all those places he had wrought for them. Now
there is a twofold reflection upon the providential works of God.

One is entire and full in its whole complex and perfect system. This blessed
site is reserved for the perfect state. It is in that mount of God where we
shall see both the wilderness and Canaan, the glorious kingdom into which we are
come and the way through which we were led into it.

There the saints shall have a ravishing view of it in its entirety and every
part shall be distinctly discerned as it had its particular use and as it was
connected with the other parts and how effectually and orderly they all wrought
to bring about that blessed design of their salvation according to the promise
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. Romans 8 28 For it is certain no
ship at sea keeps more exactly by the compass which directs its course than
providence keeps by that promise which is its sinosure and pole star. The other
site is partial and imperfect which we have on the way to glory during which we
only view it in its single acts or at most in some branches and more observable
series of actions.

Between these two is the same difference as between the sight of the disjointed
wheels and scattered pins of a watch and the sight of the whole united in one
frame and working in one orderly motion or between an ignorant spectator who
views some more observable vessel or joint of a dissected body and the accurate
anatomist who discerns the course of all the veins and arteries of the body as
he follows the various branches of them through the whole and plainly sees the
proper place, figure and use of each with their mutual respect to one another.
Oh how ravishing and delectable a sight will it be to behold at one view the
whole design of providence and the proper place and use of every single act
which we could not understand in this world. What Christ said to Peter is as
applicable to some providences in which we are now concerned as it was to that
particular action.

What I do thou knowest not now but thou shalt know hereafter. John 13 7 All the
dark, intricate, puzzling providences at which we were sometimes so offended and
sometimes amazed which we could neither reconcile with the promise nor with each
other nay, which we so unjustly censured and bitterly bewailed as if they had
fallen out quite against our happiness we shall then see to be to us as the
difficult passage through the wilderness was to Israel the right way to a city
of habitation. Psalm 107 verse 7 And yet though our present views and
reflections upon providence are so short and imperfect in comparison to that in
heaven yet such as it is under all its present disadvantages it has so much
excellence and sweetness in it that I may call it a little heaven or as Jacob
called his Bethel the gate of heaven.

It is certainly a highway of walking with God in this world and a soul may enjoy
a sweet communion with him in his providences as in any of his ordinances. How
often have the hearts of its observers been melted into tears of joy at the
beholding of its wise and unexpected productions. How often has it convinced
them upon a sober recollection of the events of their lives that if the Lord had
left them to their own counsels they had as often been their own tormentors if
not executioners.

Into what and how many fatal mischiefs had they precipitated themselves if
providence had been as short-sighted as they. They have given it their hearty
thanks for considering their interests more than their importunity and not
allowing them to perish by their own desires. Part 1. The Evidence of Providence
Chapter 1. The Work of Providence for the Saints First I shall undertake the
proof and defense of the great truth that the affairs of the saints in this
world are certainly conducted by the wisdom and care of special providence and
in so doing I address myself with cheerfulness to perform as I am able a service
for that providence which has throughout my life performed all things for me as
the text speaks.

There is a two-fold consideration of providence according to its two-fold object
and manner of dispensation. The one in general exercised about all creatures
rational and irrational animate and inanimate the other special and peculiar.
Christ has a universal empire over all things Ephesians 1.22 He is the head of
the whole world by way of dominion but a head to the church by way of union and
special influence John 17.2 He is the savior of all men especially of those that
believe 1 Timothy 4.10 The church is his special care and charge he rules the
world for its good as a head consulting the welfare of the body.

Heathens generally deny providence and no wonder since they deny the God for the
same arguments that prove one will prove the other. Aristotle, the prince of
heathen philosophers could not by the utmost search of reason find out how the
world originated and therefore concludes it was from eternity. The Epicureans
did in a way acknowledge a God but yet denied a providence and wholly excluded
him from any interest or concern in the affairs of the world as being
inconsistent with the felicity and tranquility of the divine being to be
diverted and cumbered with the care and labor of government.

This assertion is so repugnant to reason that it is a wonder they did not blush
at its absurdity but I guess the reason and one of them according to Cicero
speaks it out in broad language If this is so you have yoked us to an eternal
master such as we would fear day and night for who would not be frightened of a
prying busybody of a God who provides plans and observes everything and who
considers that everything is his concern. They foresaw that the concession of a
providence would impose an eternal yoke upon their necks by making them
accountable for all they did to a higher tribunal so that they must necessarily
pass the time of their sojourning here in fear while all their thoughts words
and ways were strictly noted and recorded for the purpose of an account by an
all-seeing and righteous God. They therefore labored to persuade themselves that
what they had no mind for did not exist but these atheistical and foolish
conceits fall flat before the undeniable evidence of this so great and clear a
truth.

Now my business here is not so much to deal with professed atheists who deny the
existence of God and consequently deride all evidences brought from scripture of
the extraordinary events that fall out in favor of that people that are called
his but rather to convince those that professedly own all this yet never having
tasted religion by experience suspect at least that all these things which we
call special providences to the saints are but natural events or mere
contingencies. Thus while they profess to own a God and a providence which
profession is but the effect of their education they do in the meantime live
like atheists and both act and think as if there were no such things and really
I fear this is the case with the greater part of the men of this generation. But
if it were indeed so that the affairs of the world in general and more
especially those of the saints were not conducted by divine providence but as
they would persuade us by the steady course of natural causes beside which if at
any time we observe any event to fall out it is merely casual and contingent or
proceeds from some hidden and secret cause in nature.

If this indeed were so let them that are tempted to believe it give a rational
answer to the following questions. How comes it to pass that so many signal
mercies and deliverances have befallen the people of God above the power and
against the course of natural causes to make way for which there has been an
obvious suspension and stop put to the course of nature? It is most evident that
no natural effect can exceed the power of its natural course. Nothing can give
to another more than it has in itself and it is as clear that whatsoever acts
naturally acts necessarily.

This Reformation audio track is a production of Stillwater's Revival Books. SWRB
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Edmonton, Alberta, Canada T6L3T5 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


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  CHAPTER 3: PART 3
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Oh, what a distinction has divine mercy made where nature made none. Consider,
ungrateful man, you might have fallen into some of those regions where a tainted
air frequently cloys the jaws of death, where the inhabitants differ very little
from the beasts in the manner of their living. But God has provided for you, and
given the poorest among us far better accommodations of life than the greatest
among them are ordinarily provided with.

Oh, what providence has done for you! But all that I have said is very
inconsiderable in comparison with the spiritual mercy and advantages you here
enjoy for your souls. Oh, this is such an advantageous cast of providence for
you as obliges you to a thankful acknowledgement of it to all eternity. For let
us here make but a few suppositions in the case before us and the glory of
providence will shine like a sunbeam full in your faces.

Suppose it had been your lot to have fallen in any of those vast continents
possessed by pagans and heathens at this day, who bow down to the stalk of a
tree and worship the host of heaven. This is the case of millions and millions
of millions, for pagan idolaters, as that searching scholar Beerwood informs us,
do not only fill the circumference of 900 miles in Europe, but almost the one
half of Africa, more than the half of Asia, and almost the whole of America. Oh,
how deplorable had your case been if a pagan idolatress had brought you forth
and idolatry had been sucked in with your mother's milk.

Then, in all probability, you had been at this day worshiping devils and racing
at full speed in the direct road to damnation. For these are the people of God's
wrath. Pour out thy fury upon the heathen that know thee not, and upon the
families that call not upon thy name.

Jeremiah 10.25 How dreadful is that imprecation against them, which takes hold
of them and all that is theirs. Confounded be all they that serve graven images,
that boast themselves of idols. Psalms 97.7 Or suppose your lot had fallen among
Mohammedans, who, next to pagans, spread over the greatest tract of the earth.

For though Arabia bred that unclean bird, yet that cage could not long contain
him. For not only the Arabians, but the Persians, Turks, and Tartars do all bow
down their backs under that grand imposter. This poison has dispersed itself
through the veins of Asia, over a great part of Africa, even the circumference
of 7,000 miles, and does not stop there, but has tainted a considerable part of
Europe also.

Had your lot fallen here, oh what unhappy men and women you had been,
notwithstanding the natural amenity and pleasantness of your native soil. You
had then adored a grand imposter, and died in a fool's paradise. Instead of
God's living oracles, you had been, as they are now, deceived to your eternal
ruin, with such fond, mad, and wild dreams, as who so considers would think the
authors had more need of manacles and fetters than arguments or sober answers.

Or if neither of these had been your lot, suppose you had been emptied by the
womb of nature into this little spot of the earth, which is Christianized by
profession, but nevertheless, for the most part, overrun by popish idolatry and
anti-Christian delusions. What unhappy men and women had you been, had you
sucked a popish breast, for his people are to be the subjects of the vials of
God's wrath, to be poured out successively upon them. Revelation 16 And the
scriptures in round and plain language tell us what their fate must be.

And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe
a lie, that they all might be damned, who believed not the truth, but had
pleasure in unrighteousness. 2 Thessalonians 2, verses 11 and 12 Nay, you might
have fallen into the same land in which your habitation now is, and yet have had
no advantage by it as to salvation, if he that chose the bounds of your
habitation had not also graciously determined the times for you. Acts 17.26
Suppose your lot had fallen where it is, during the pagan state of England,
where for many hundred years were gross and vile idolaters.

Thick darkness overspread the people of this island, and as in other countries
the devil was worshipped, and his lying oracles zealously believed. The shaking
of the top of Jupiter's oak in Dodona, the cauldron smitten with the rod in the
hand of Jupiter's image, the laurel and fountain in Daphne, these were the
ordinances on which the poor deluded wretches waited. So in this nation they
worshipped idols also.

The sun and moon were adored for gods, together with many abominable idols which
our ancestors worshipped, and whose memorials are not to this day quite
obliterated among us. Or suppose our lot had fallen in those later miserable
days in which Queen Mary sent so many hundreds to heaven in a fiery chariot,
when the poor Protestants skulked up and down in holes and woods to preserve
themselves from popish inquisitors who, like bloodhounds, hunted up and down
through all the cities, towns, and villages of the nation to seek out the poor
sheep of Christ for a prey. But such has been the special care of Providence
towards us that our turn to be brought upon the stage of this world was
graciously reserved for better days, so that if we had had our own option we
could not have chosen for ourselves as Providence has done.

We are not only furnished with the best room in this great house, but before we
were put into it it was swept with the broom of national reformation from
idolatry, yea, and washed by the blood of martyrs from popish filthiness, and
adorned with gospel lights, shining in as great luster in our days as ever they
did since the apostles' days. You might have been born in England for many ages
and not have found a Christian in it, yea, and since Christianity was here owned
and not have met a Protestant in it. Oh, what an obligation has Providence laid
you under by such a merciful performance as this for you.

If you say, all this indeed is true, but what is this to eternal salvation? Do
not multitudes that enjoy these privileges eternally perish notwithstanding
them? Yea, and perish with an aggravation of sin and misery beyond all sinners?
True, they do so, and it is very sad that it should be so. But yet we cannot
deny this to be a very choice and singular mercy to be born in such a land and
at such a time. For let us consider what helps for salvation men here enjoy,
beyond what they could enjoy had their lot fallen according to the
aforementioned suppositions.

Here we enjoy the ordinary means of salvation, which elsewhere men are denied
and cut off from, so that if any among the heathen are saved and brought to
Christ, it must be in some miraculous or extraordinary way. For how shall they
believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a
preacher? Alas, were there a desire awakened in any of their hearts after a
gospel discovery of salvation, which ordinarily is not nor can be rationally
supposed, yet poor creatures, they might travel from sea to sea to hear the word
and not find it, whereas you can hardly miss the opportunities of hearing the
gospel. Sermons meet you frequently, so that you can scarcely shun or avoid the
ordinances and instruments of your salvation.

And is this nothing? Christ even forces Himself upon us. Here in this age of the
world, the common prejudices against Christianity are removed by the advantage
it has of a public profession among the people and protection by the laws of the
country. Whereas were your habitation among Jews, Mohammedans or heathen
idolaters, you would find Christ and Christianity the common odium of the
country, everyone defying and deriding both name and thing, and such yourselves
likely had been if your birth and education had been among them.

For you may observe that whatever is traditionally delivered down from father to
son, everyone is fond of and zealous in its defense. The Jews, heathens, and
Mohammedans are at this day so tenacious of their errors that, with spitting,
hissing, and clapping of hands, and all other signs of indignation and
abhorrence, they chase away all others from among them. Is it not then a special
mercy to you to be cast into such a country and age where, as a learned divine
observes, the true religion has the same advantages over every false one as in
other countries they have over it? Here you have the presence of precious means
and the absence of soul-destroying prejudices, too, signal mercies.

Here in this age of the world, Christianity confronts you as soon as you are
capable of any sense or impressions of religion upon you, and so, by unhappy
anticipation, blocks up the passages by which a false religion would else
certainly enter. Here you suck in the first notions and principles of
Christianity, even with the mother's milk, and certainly such a prepossession is
a choice advantage. For many a day the pot will keep the scent of that which
first it held when freshly baked.

Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart
from it. Proverbs 22.6 Here you have, or may have, the help and assistance of
Christians to direct your way, resolve your doubts, support your burdens, and
help you through those difficulties that attend the new birth. Alas, if a poor
soul had any beginnings or faint workings and stirrings after Christ and true
religion in many other countries, the hand of every man would presently be
against him.

None would be found to relieve, assist, or encourage, as you may see in that
example of Galacius. The nearest relations would, in that case, prove their
greatest enemies. The country would quickly hoot at him as a monster and cry,
Away with the heretic to the prison or stake! Whether these eventually prove
blessings to your souls or not, certain I am that in themselves they are
singular mercies and help to salvation that are denied to millions besides you.

So that if Plato, when he was near his death, could bless God for three things,
that is, that he was a man and not a beast, that he was born in Greece, and that
he was brought up in the time of Socrates, much more cause have you to admire
providence that you are men and not beasts, that you were born in England and
that you are brought up in gospel days. This is a land the Lord has aspired for
you, as the expression is, Ezekiel, chapter 20, verse 6, and concerning it you
have abundant cause to say, as in another case the psalmist does, the lines are
fallen unto me in pleasant places, yea, I have a goodly heritage, chapter 16,
verse 6. Another performance of providence which must be carefully noticed and
weighed is the designation of the stock and family out of which we should spring
and rise, and truly this is of special consideration, both as to our temporal
and eternal good. For whether the families in which we grew up were great or
small in Israel, whether our parents were of the higher or lower class and rank
among men, yet if they were such as feared God and wrought righteousness, if
they took any care to educate you religiously and train you up in the nurture
and admonition of the Lord, you are bound to reckon it among your chief mercies
that you sprang from the loins of such parents, for from this spring a double
stream of mercy rises to you.

First, temporal and external mercies to your outward man. You cannot but know
that as godliness entails a blessing, so wickedness and unrighteousness accurs
upon posterity. An instance of the former you have in Genesis 17, verses 18-20.

On the contrary, you have the threatening, Zechariah 5, verse 4, and both
together in this passage. The curse of the Lord is in the house of the wicked,
but he blesseth the habitation of the just, Proverbs 3, 33. True it is that both
these imply the children's treading in the steps of their parents, Ezekiel 18,
but how frequently is it seen that wicked men breed their children vainly and
wickedly, so that, as it is said of Abijan, and he walked in all the sins of his
father, which he had done before him, 1 Kings 15, 3, and so the curse is
entailed from generation to generation.

To escape this curse is a choice providence. But especially take notice what a
stream of spiritual blessings and mercies flows from this providence to the
inner man. Oh, it is no common mercy to descend from pious parents.

Some of us do not only owe our natural life to them as instruments of our
beings, but our spiritual and eternal life also. It was no small mercy to
Timothy to be descended from such progenitors, 2 Timothy 1, 5, nor to Augustine
that he had such a mother as Monica, who planted in his mind the precepts of
life with her words, watered them with her tears, and nourished them with her
example. We will a little more particularly inspect this mercy, and in so doing
we shall find manifold mercies contained in it.

What a mercy was it to us to have parents that prayed for us before they had us,
as well as in our infancy when we could not pray for ourselves. Thus did
Abraham, Genesis 15, 2, and Hannah, 1 Samuel 1, verses 10 and 11. And probably
some here are the fruits and returns of their parents' prayers.

This was that holy course they continued all their days for you, carrying all
your concerns, especially your eternal ones, before the Lord with their own, and
pouring out their souls to God so affectionately for you when their eye strings
and heart strings were breaking. Oh, put a value upon such mercy, for they are
precious. It is a greater mercy to descend from praying parents than from the
loins of nobles.

See Job's pious practice, chapter 1, verse 5. What a special mercy was it to us
to have the outgrowth of corruption nipped in the bud by their pious and careful
discipline. We now understand what a critical and dangerous season youth is, the
wonderful proclivity of that age to everything that is evil. Why else are they
called youthful lusts, 2 Timothy 2.22? When David asks, Wherewithal shall a
young man cleanse his way? It is plain enough implied in the very question that
the way he takes lies through the pollutions of the world in his youth, Psalm
119, verse 9. When you find a David praying that God would not remember the sins
of my youth, Psalm 25.7, and a Job bitterly complaining that God made me to
possess the iniquities of my youth, chapter 13, verse 26, surely you cannot but
reflect with a very thankful heart upon those happy means by which the
corruption of your nature was happily prevented or restrained in your youth.

And how great a mercy was it that we had parents who carefully instilled the
good knowledge of God into our souls in our tender years. How diligent was
Abraham in this duty, Genesis 18.19, and David, 1 Chronicles 28.9. We have, some
of us, had parents who might say to us as the Apostle, My little children, of
whom I travail in birth again, until Christ be formed in you, Galatians 4.19. As
they longed for us before they had us, and rejoiced in us when they had us, so
they could not endure to think that when they could have us no more, the devil
should. As they thought no pains, care, or cost too much for our bodies to feed
them, clothe, and heal them, so they think no prayers, counsels, or tears too
much for our souls that they might be saved.

They knew a parting time would come between them and us, and did strive to make
it as easy and comfortable to them as they could by leaving us in Christ and
within the blessed bond of His covenant. They were not glad that we had health,
and indifferent whether we had grace. They felt the miseries of our souls as
much as of our bodies, and nothing was more desirable to them than that they
might say in that great day, Lord, here am I, and the children which thou hast
given me.

And was it not a special favor to us to have parents that went before us as
patterns of holiness, and beat the path to heaven for us by their examples? They
could say to us, Those things ye have heard and seen in me, do. Philippians 4.9
And be ye followers of me, as also I am of Christ. 1 Corinthians 11.1 The
parent's life is the child's copy.

Oh, it is no common mercy to have a fair copy set before us, especially in the
molding age. We saw what they did, as well as heard what they said. It was
Abraham's commendation that he commanded his children and his household after
him to keep the way of the Lord.

And such mercies some of us have had also. Ah, my friends, let me beg you that
you will take special notice of this providence, which so graciously wrought for
you, and that your hearts may be more thoroughly warmed in the sense of it.
Compare your condition with others, and seriously consider the following.

How many children there are among us that are drawn headlong to hell by their
cruel and ungodly parents, who teach them to curse and swear as soon as they can
speak? Many families there are in which little other language is heard but what
is the dialect of hell. These, like the old logs and small spray, are preparing
for the fire of hell, where they must burn together. Of such children that
scripture will one day be verified, except they repent.

He shall go to the generation of his fathers. They shall never see light. Psalm
49 verse 19 And how many families there are, though not so profane, who yet
breed up their children vainly and sensually, and take no care what becomes of
their souls, if they can but provide for their bodies.

Job 21 verse 11 If they can but teach them to carry their bodies, no matter if
the devil actuate their souls. If they can but leave them lands or monies, they
think they have very fully discharged their duties. Oh, what will the language
be with which such parents and children shall greet each other at the judgment
seat and in hell forever.

And how many there are who are more sober and yet hate the least appearances of
godliness in their children. Instead of cherishing, they do all that they can to
break bruised reeds and quench smoking flats, to stifle and strangle the first
appearances and offers they make towards Christ. They would rather accompany
them to their graves than to Christ, doing all that in them lies, Herod-like, to
kill Christ in the cradle.

Ah, sirs, you little know what a mercy you enjoy or have enjoyed in godly
parents, and what a good lot providence casts for you in this affair of your
bodies and souls. If any shall say this was not their case, they had little help
heavenward from their parents, to such I reply as follows. If you had little
furtherance, yet own it as a special providence that you had no hindrance.

Or if you had opposition, yet admire the grace of god in plucking you out by a
wonderful distinguishing hand of mercy from among them and keeping alive the
languishing sparks of grace amidst the floods of opposition. And learn from
hence, if God gave you a posterity of your own, to be so much the more strict
and careful of family duties by how much you have actually felt the want of it
in yourselves. But seeing such a train of blessings, both as to this life and
that to come, fall upon an holy education of children, I will not dismiss the
point till I have discharged my duty in exhorting parents and children to their
duties.

And first for you that are parents or to whom the education of children is
committed, I beseech you, mind the duty which lies on you, that I may
effectually press it. Consider how near the relation is between you and your
children, and therefore how much you are concerned in their happiness or misery.
Consider but the scripture account of the dearness of such relations, expressed
by longings for them, by our joy when we have them, as Christ expresses it, the
high value set on them, the sympathy with them in all their troubles, and by our
sorrow at parting, Genesis 37 verse 35, Consider how God has charged you with
their souls as well as bodies, and this appears by precepts directly laid upon
you, Deuteronomy 6 verses 6 and 7, and Ephesians chapter 6 verse 4, and by
precepts laid on them to obey you, Ephesians 6 verse 1, which plainly implies
your duty as well as expresses theirs.

What shall comfort you at the parting time if they die through your neglect in a
Christless condition? Oh, this is the cutting consideration. My child is in hell
and I did nothing to prevent it. I helped him there.

Duty discharged is the only route of comfort in that day. If you neglect to
instruct them in the way of holiness, will the devil neglect to instruct them in
the way of wickedness? No, no. If you will not teach them to pray, he will teach
them to curse, swear, and lie.

If ground be uncultivated, weeds will spring up. If the season of their youth is
neglected, how little probability is there of any good fruit afterwards. Youth
is the molding age, Proverbs 22, 6, how few are converted in old age.

A twig is brought to any form, but grown limbs will not bend. You are
instrumental causes of all their spiritual misery and that by generation and
imitation. They lie spiritually dead of the plague which you brought home among
them.

Behold, I was shapen in iniquity and in sin did my mother conceive me. Psalm 51,
5 There is none in the world so likely as you to be instruments of their eternal
good. You have peculiar advantages that no one else has, such as the interest
you have in their affections, your opportunities to instill the knowledge of
Christ into them, being daily with them, Deuteronomy 6, 7, your knowledge of
their character.

If therefore you neglect, who shall help them? Again, the consideration of the
great day should move your bowels of pity for them. O remember that text, And I
saw the dead, small and great, stand before God. Revelation 20, verse 12 What a
sad thing will it be to see your dear children at Christ's left hand.

O friends, do your utmost to prevent this misery. Knowing the terror of the
Lord, we persuade men. And you children, especially you that sprang from
religious parents, I beseech you, obey their counsels, and tread in the steps of
their pious examples.

To press this, I offer the following considerations. Your disobedience to them
is a resisting of God's authority. Children, obey your parents in the Lord.

Ephesians 6, 1 There is the command. Your rebellion therefore runs higher than
you think. It is not man but God that you disobey, and for your disobedience God
will punish you.

It may be their tenderness will not suffer them, or you are grown beyond their
correction. All they can do is to complain to God, and if so, he will handle you
more severely than they could do. Your sin is greater than the sin of young
heathens and infidels, and so will your account be also.

O better if a wicked child that you had been the offspring of savage Indians,
nay, of beasts, than of such parents. So many counsels disobeyed, hopes and
prayers frustrated, will turn to sad aggravations. It is usual with God to
retaliate men's disobedience to their parents in kind.

Commonly our own children shall pay us home for it. I have read in a grave
author of a wicked wretch that dragged his father along the house. The father
begged him not to drag him beyond such a place, for, said he, I dragged my
father no further.

O the sad but just retributions of God! And for you in whose hearts grace has
been planted by the blessing of education, I beseech you to admire God's
goodness to you in this providence. O what a happy lot has God cast for you, how
few children are partakers of your mercies. See that you honor your parents.

The tie is double upon you so to do. Be you the joy of their hearts and comfort
of their lives if they are alive. If not, yet still remember the mercy while you
live and tread in their pious path.

That you and they may both rejoice together in that great day and bless God for
each other to all eternity. Chapter 3 The Work of Conversion In nothing does
providence shine forth more gloriously in this world than in ordering the
occasions, instruments, and means of conversion of the people of God. However
skillfully its hand had molded your bodies, however tenderly it had preserved
them, and however bountifully it had provided for them, if it had not also
ordered some means or other for your conversion, all the former favors and
benefits it had done for you had meant little.

This, O this, is the most excellent benefit you ever received from its hand. You
are more indebted to it, for this, than for all your other mercies. And in
explaining this performance of providence, I cannot but think your hearts must
be deeply affected.

This is a subject which every gracious heart loves to steep its thoughts in. It
is certainly the sweetest history that ever they repeated. They love to think
and talk of it.

The places where, and instruments by whom this work was wrought, are exceedingly
endeared to them for the work's sake, yea, endeared to that degree, that for
many years after, their hearts have melted when they have but passed
occasionally by those places, or but seen the faces of those persons that were
used as instruments in the hand of providence for their good. As no doubt but
Jacob's Bethel was ever after that night sweet to his thoughts, Genesis 48, 3,
so other saints have had their Bethels as well as he. O blessed places, times,
and instruments, O the deep, the sweet impressions never to be erased out of the
memory or heart that this providence has made upon those on whom it wrought,
this blessed effect at years of discretion, and in a more perceptible way.

But lest any poor soul should be discouraged by the display of this providence
because he cannot remember the time, place, instruments, and manner when, and by
which conversion work was wrought, I will therefore premise this necessary
distinction to prevent injury to some while I design benefit to others.
Conversion, as to the subjects of it, may be considered two ways, either as it
is more clearly wrought in persons of riper years, who in their youthful days
were more profane and vile, or upon persons in their tender years, into whose
hearts grace was more imperceptibly and indiscernibly instilled by God's
blessing upon pious education. In the former sort, the distinct acts of the
Spirit, illuminating, convincing, humbling, drawing them to Christ and sealing
them are more evident and discernible.

In the latter, these are more obscure and confused. They can remember that God
gave them an esteem and liking of godly persons, care of duty and conscience of
sin, but as to the time, place, instruments, and manner of the work, they can
give but a slender account of them. However, if the work is savingly wrought in
them, there is no reason they should be troubled because the circumstances of it
are not so evident to them as they are to others.

Let the substance and reality of the work appear, and there is no reason to
afflict yourselves because of the lack of evidence of such circumstances. But
where the circumstances as well as substance are clear to a man, when we can
call to remembrance the time when, the place where, and the instrument by whom
that work was wrought, it must needs be exceedingly sweet, and they cannot but
yield a fresh delight to the soul every time they are reflected upon. There are
many of the following occasions which, it may be, we took for stragglers when
they first befell us, but they proved scouts sent out from the main body of
providence which they make way for.

Now there are various things in those providences that respect this work, which
are exceedingly sweet, and taking as namely, the wonderful strangeness and
undecountableness of this work of providence in casting us into the way and
ordering the occasions, yea, the minutest circumstances about this work. Thus
you find that the eunuch at that very instant when he was reading the prophet
Isaiah, had an interpreter, one among a thousand, that joins his chariot just as
his mind was by a fit occasion prepared to receive the first light of the
knowledge of Christ. Acts 8 verses 26-30 And how strange was that change,
however far it went, upon Naaman the Syrian, 2 Kings 5 verses 1-4, that the
Syrians in their incursion should bring away this little girl.

Likely her beauty was the inducement, but she must be presented to Naaman's wife
and relate to her the power of God that accompanied the prophet. Though you find
in that particular case there had never been an instance given before. Luke 4.27
Doubtless, the whole of this affair was guided by the signal direction of
providence.

So for the conversion of the Samaritans it is observed that Christ must needs go
that way. John 4.4 It lay just in the road between Judea and Galilee, and at the
sixth hour that is high noon, he rests himself upon Jacob's well, still seeming
to have no other design but his own refreshment by sitting and drinking there.
But oh what a train of blessed providences follow this which seemed but an
accidental thing.

First the woman of Samaria, and then many more in that city are brought to
believe in Christ. Verses 29 and 41 It is noted by Melchior Adams in the life of
Junius how much of an atheist he was in his younger years. But in order to bring
about his conversion to God, first a wonderful preservation of his life in a
public tumult at Lyons in France must take place.

Which forces from him the acknowledgement of a deity. Then his father sends for
him home and with much gentleness persuades him to read the scriptures. He lies
upon the first of John, and with it he feels a divine supernatural majesty and
power seizing his soul, which brought him over by a complete conversion to Jesus
Christ.

Thus as the woman of Tekoa told David, does God devise means to bring back his
banished? 2 Samuel 14.14 The vatter tells us that many Spanish soldiers going
into the wars of Germany were there converted to Christ by going into the cities
and towns where godly ministers and Christians were. Robert Bolton, though an
excellent scholar, yet in his younger years he was a very irreligious person and
a jeer of holy men. But being cast into the company of godly Mr. Peacock was by
him brought to repentance and proved a famous instrument in the church of
Christ.

A scrap of paper accidentally coming to view has been used as an occasion of
conversion. This was the case of a minister in Wales who had two livings but
took little care of either. Being at a fair he bought something at a peddler's
stall and tore off a leaf of Mr. Perkins' catechism to wrap it in and reading a
line or two in it God sent it home so as it did the work.

The marriage of a godly man into a carnal family has been ordered by providence
for the conversion and salvation of many therein. Thus we read in the life of
that renowned English worthy John Bruin that in his second match it was agreed
that he should have one year's diet in his mother-in-law's house. During his
abode there that year the Lord was pleased by this means graciously to work upon
her soul as also upon his wife sister and half-sister their brothers William and
Thomas Fox with one or two of the servants in that family.

The reading of a good book has been the means of bringing others to Christ and
thus we find many of the German divines converted by reading Luther's books.
Yea, and what is more strange Slavin in his commentary tells us that Virgius
though he were an eye and ear witness to that doleful case of Spira which one
would think should move a stone yet still continued so firm to the Pope's
interest that when he fell into some suspicion among the cardinals he resolved
to perch himself by writing a book against the German apostates but while he
read the Protestant books out of no other design but to confuse them while he is
weighing the arguments he is himself convicted and brought to Christ. He finding
himself thus overcome by the truth imparts his conviction to his brother also a
zealous papist.

This brother deplores the misery of his case and seeks to reclaim him but
Virgius in treating him to weigh well the Protestant arguments he also yields
and so both immediately gave themselves to preaching justification by the free
grace of God through the blood of Christ. Yea, not only the reading of a book or
hearing of a minister but which is most remarkable the very mistake or
forgetfulness of a minister has been improved by Providence for this end in
purpose. Augustine once preaching to his congregation forgot the argument which
first he proposed and attacked the error of the Manichees beside his first
intention.

By this discourse he converted one firmest his hearer who fell down at his feet
weeping and confessing he had lived a Manchee many years. Another I knew who
going to preach took up another Bible that he had designed in which not only
missing his notes but the chapter also in which his text lay was put to some
loss thereby. But after a short pause he resolved to speak on any other
scripture that might be presented to him and accordingly read that text The Lord
is not slack concerning his promise as some men count slackness.

2 Peter 3.9 And though he had nothing prepared for the Lord yet the Lord helped
him to speak both methodically and pertinently from it. By which discourse a
gracious change was wrought upon one in the congregation who has since given
good evidence of a sound conversion and acknowledged this sermon to be the first
and only means thereof. The accompanying of others in a neighborly civil visit
has been overruled to the same end.

Thus many of the Jews accompanied Mary unto Bethany designing only to manifest
their civil respect. But there they met Christ saw the things which he did and
believed on him. John 11.45 Sermon tells us of one who had lived many years in a
town where Christ had been as clearly and as long preached as in any other town
in England.

This man when he was about 76 years of age went to visit a sick neighbor. A
Christian friend of mine says my author came to see him also and finding this
old man there whom he judged to be one that lived upon his own stocks, civility,
good works, etc. He purposefully fell into that discourse to show how many
persons lived upon their duties but never came to Christ.

The old man sitting by the bedside heard him and God was pleased to convince him
that he was such a person who had lived upon himself without Christ to that day
and would say afterwards had I died before threescore and sixteen I had perished
for I knew not Christ. The committing of a godly man to prison has been the
method of providence to save the soul of a poor keeper. So Paul was made a
prisoner to make his keeper a spiritual free man.

Acts 16.27 The like success had Dr. Barnes in Queen Mary's days who afterwards
celebrated the Lord's Supper in prison with his converted keeper. The scattering
of ministers and Christians by persecution from cities and towns into the
ignorant and barbarous parts of the country has been the way of providence to
find out and bring home some lost sheep that were found there to Jesus Christ.
Acts 8.1-4 The like signal event has since followed upon the like scattering of
godly ministers of which there are many outstanding instances in this day.

A servant running away from his master probably out of no other design but to
live an idle life yet falling into such places and companies as providence
ordered in a design to him unknown has thereby been brought to be the servant of
Christ. This was the very case of Onesimus who ran away from his master Philemon
to Rome whereby a strange providence possibly a mere curiosity to see the
prisoners he there falls into Paul's hands who begat him to Christ in his bonds.
Philemon verses 10-16 Going to hear a sermon in jest has proved some men's
conversion in earnest.

The above named Mr. Furman tells us of a notorious drunkard whom the drunkards
called father that one day would needs go to hear what Wilson said out of no
other design it seems but to scoff at that holy man but in the prayer before the
sermon his heart began to thaw and when he read his text Sin no more lest a
worse thing come unto thee John 5-14 he could not contain and in that sermon the
Lord changed his heart though so bitter an enemy that the minister on lecture
days was afraid to go to church before his shop door lo these are parts of his
ways but how small a portion is known of him. The dropping of some grave and
weighty word accidentally in the presence of vain carnal persons the death of a
husband wife or child a fit of sickness with a thousand other such like
occasions have been thus improved by providence to the conversion of souls and
no less remarkable and wonderful are the designs of providence in ordering the
removals and governing the movements of ministers from place to place for the
conversion of souls thus often it carries them to places where they did not
intend to go God having unknown to them some elect vessels there who must be
called by the gospel thus Paul and Timothy a sweet and lovely pair when they
were traveling through Phygeria and Galatia were forbidden to preach the word in
Asia to which probably their minds inclined Acts 16 6 and when they assayed to
go into Bithynia the spirit suffered them not verse 7 but a man of Macedonia
that is an angel in the shape or habit of a man of that country appeared to Paul
in a vision and prayed him saying come over into Macedonia and help us verse 9
and there did God open the heart of Lydia I knew a pious minister now with God
who falling in his study upon a very rousing subject intended for his own
congregation was strongly moved when he had finished it to go to a rude vile
profane people about five miles off and first preach it to them after many
wrestlings with himself not being willing to quench any motion that might be
supposed to come from the spirit of God he obeyed and went to this people who
had then no minister of their own and few durst come among them and there did
the Lord beyond all expectation open a door and several profane ones received
Christ in that place and engaged this minister to a weekly lecture among them in
which many souls were one to God the same holy man at another time being upon a
journey passed by a company of vain persons who were wrestling upon a green near
the road just as he came near the place one of them had thrown his antagonist
and stood up triumphing in his strength and activity this Reformation audio
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  CHAPTER 4: PART 4
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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.


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  CHAPTER 5: 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
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  CHAPTER 6: PART 6
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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. Secondly, you have the
baseness, vileness, and utter unworthiness of man. Yea, the holiest and best of
men before God. Verily every man and his best state is altogether vanity, Psalm
39.5. Every man, take where you will, and every man in his best state, or
standing in his freshest glory, is not only vanity, but altogether vanity.

Literally every man is very vanity. For do but consider the best of men in their
extraction, by nature the children of wrath, even as others, Ephesians 2.3. The
blood that runs in our veins is as much tainted as theirs in hell. Consider them
in their constitution a natural disposition, and it is no better, yea, in many
there is worse disposition than in reprobate.

And though grace depose sin in them from the throne, yet oh what offensive and
God-provoking corruptions daily break out of the best of hearts. Consider them
in their outward condition, and they are inferior for the most part to others. I
thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these
things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes.

Matthew 11.25. See also 1 Corinthians 1.26-28. And now let us consider and
marvel that ever this great and blessed God should be so much concerned, as you
have heard he is in all his providences, about such vile, despicable worms as we
are. He does not need us, but is perfectly blessed and happy in himself without
us. We can add nothing to him.

Can a man be profitable unto God? Job 22.2. No, the holiest of men add nothing
to him, yet see how great account he makes of us. For does not his eternal
electing love show the dear account he made of us? Ephesians 1.4-5. How ancient,
how free, and how astonishing is this act of grace. This is that design which
all providences are in pursuit of, and will not rest till they have executed.

Does not the gift of his only Son out of his bosom show this, 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 fingers, the moon,
and the stars, which thou hast ordained, what is man? Psalm 8.3-4. How much more
may we say, when we consider thy Son, that lay in thy bosom, his infinite
excellence 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.
Hebrews 2.16. For him, when in a state of enmity with God.

Romans 5.8. Does not the assiduity of his providential care for us show his
esteem of us? Lest any hurt it, I will keep it night and day. Isaiah 27.30. He
withdraweth not his eyes from the righteous. Job 36.7. No, not a moment all
their days, for if he did, a thousand mischiefs in that moment would rush in
upon them and ruin them.

Does not the tenderness of his providence show his esteem to us? As one whom his
mother comforteth, so will I comfort you. Isaiah 66.13. He comforts his own by
refreshing providences as an indulgent mother her tender child. As birds flying,
Isaiah 31.5, that is to their nests when their young are in danger, so he
defends his.

No parental tenderness in the creature can shadow forth the tender affection of
the Creator. Does not the variety of the fruits of his providence show it? Our
mercies are new every morning. See Psalm 40.5 and Lamentations 3 verse 23.

It is a fountain from which do stream forth spiritual and temporal, ordinary and
extraordinary, public and personal mercies, mercies without number. Does not the
ministry of angels in the providential kingdom show it? Are they not all
ministering spirits sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of
salvation? Hebrews 1.14. Does not the providence of which this day calls us to
celebrate the memory show the great regard God has for his people? Oh, if not
so, why were we not given up as a prey to their teeth? If it had not been the
Lord who was on our side, then wicked men, compared to fire, water, wild beasts,
had swallowed us up quick. Psalm 124.

Oh, blessed be God for that teeming providence that has already brought forth
more than seventy years liberty and peace to the church of God. I suggest
concerning this providence that you do buy it as the Jews buy their Purim.
Esther 9 verses 27 and 28.

And the rather because we seem now to be as near danger by the same enemy as
ever since that time. If such a mercy as this is forgotten, God may say, I will
deliver you no more. Judges chapter 10 verse 13.

Part 2. Meditation on the providence of God. Chapter 8. The duty of meditation
on providence. Having proved the affairs of the people of God to be conducted by
the care of special providence and given instances of what influence providence
has upon those interests and concern of theirs, we come in the next place to
prove it to be the duty of the people of God to meditate upon these performances
of providence for them at all times, but especially in times of difficulty and
trouble.

This is our duty because God has expressly commanded it and called his people to
make the most serious reflections upon his words, 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 bidden to go, that is, by their
meditations, to send at least their thoughts to Sheol and see what God did to
it. Jeremiah 7.12. So for mercies, God calls us to consider and review them.

Oh, my people, remember now what Balaam, king of Moab, consulted, and what
Balaam, the son of Beor, answered him from Shittim unto Gilgal, that ye may know
the righteousness of the Lord. Micah 6.5. As much as to say, if you do not
reflect upon that signal providence, my righteousness will be covered and your
unrighteousness uncovered. So for God's work of providence concerning the
creatures, we are called to consider them that we may prop up our faith by those
considerations for our own supplies.

Matthew 6.28. It is plain that this is our duty because the neglect of it is
everywhere in scripture condemned as a sin. To be careless and unobservant is
very displeasing to God. And so much appears by that scripture, Lord, when thy
hand is lifted up, they will not see.

Isaiah 26.11. Nay, it is a sin which God threatens and denounces woe against in
his word. Psalm 28.4.5. Isaiah 5.12.13. Yea, God not only threatens, but smites
men with visible judgments for this sin. Job 34.26.27. And for this end and
purpose, it is that the Holy Ghost has affixed notes of attention, such as,
behold, to the narratives of the works of providence in scripture.

All these invite and call men to a due and deep observation of them. For
example, in that great and celebrated work of providence in delivering Israel
out of Egyptian bondage, you find a note of attention twice affixed to it.
Exodus 3.2.9. Again, when that daring enemy, Rabshaketh, that put Hezekiah and
all the people into such a consternation was defeated by providence, there is a
note of attention prefixed to that providence.

Behold, I will send a blast upon him. 2 Kings 19.7. When God glorifies his
wisdom and power in delivering his people from their enemies and ensnaring the
latter in the works of their own hands, a double note of attention is affixed to
that double work of providence. Gideon, Selah, Psalm 9.16. Also 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.

Revelation 6.1-7. All these are very useless and superfluous additions in
scripture if no such duty lies upon us. See Psalm 66.5. Without due observation
of the works of providence, no praise can be rendered to God for any of them.
Praise and thanksgiving for mercy depend upon this act of observation of them,
and cannot be performed without it.

Psalm 107 is spent in narrating God's providential care of men to his people in
difficulties, verses 4-6. To prisoners in their bonds, verses 10-12. To men that
lie languishing upon beds of sickness, verses 17-19.

To seamen upon the stormy ocean, verse 23. To men in times of famine, verses
33-40. Yea, his providence is displayed in all those changes that occur in the
world, debasing the high and exalting the low, verses 40-41.

And at every paragraph men are called upon to praise God for each of these
providences. Verse 43 shows you what a necessary ingredient to that duty
observation is. Who so is wise and will observe these 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 is
neglected. 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 breakest the heads of Leviathan in pieces, and gavest him to be meat to the
people inhabiting the wilderness. Psalm 74-14. That is, food to their faith.

From providences past saints argue to fresh and new ones to come. So David, 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 Samuel 17 verse
37.

So Paul, who hath delivered, and in whom also we trust that he will yet deliver.
2 Corinthians 1 10. If things are forgotten or not considered, the hands of
faith hang down.

How is it that ye do not remember, neither consider? Matthew 16 verse 9. This is
a topic from which the saints have often drawn their arguments in prayer for new
mercies. As when Moses prays for continued or new pardons for the people, he
argues from what was past, as thou hast forgiven them from Egypt until now.
Numbers 14 verse 19.

So the church argues for new providences upon the same ground Moses pleaded for
new pardons. Isaiah 51 verses 9 and 10. It is a vile slighting of God not to
observe what he manifests of himself in his providences.

For in all providences, especially in some, he comes near to us. He does so in
his judgments. I will come near to you in judgment, Malachi 3 5. He comes near
in mercies also.

The Lord is nigh unto all them that call upon him. Psalm 145 verse 18. Yea, he
is said to visit us by his providence when he corrects us.

Hosea 9 7. And when he saves and delivers. Psalm 106 verse 4. These visitations
of God preserve our spirits. Job 10 verse 12.

And it is a wonderful condescension in the great God to visit us so often, every
morning and every moment. Job 7 18. But not to take notice of it is a vile and
brutish contempt of God.

Isaiah 1 3 and Zephaniah 3 verse 2. You would not do so to a man for whom you
have any respect. It is the character of the wicked not to regard God's favors.
Isaiah 26 10.

Or frowns. Jeremiah 5 3. In a word, men can never order their addresses to God
in prayer suitable 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. Isaiah 26 8. To prepare to meet him.

Zephaniah 2 verses 1 and 2. And Amos 4 verse 12. Sometimes your business is to
turn away his anger, which you see approaching. And sometimes you are called to
praise him for mercies received.

Isaiah 12 verses 1 and 2. But you must first observe them. Thus you find the
matter of David's psalms still varied, according to the providences that befell
him. But one who is unobservant and careless can never do it.

And thus you have the grounds of the duty briefly presented. Chapter 9. How to
meditate on the providence of God. Next we 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, no, it is
another kind of work than what most men understand it to be. Oh that we were but
acquainted with this heavenly spiritual exercise, how sweet it would make our
lives, how light it would 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. Labor to get as full and thorough recognition as you are
able of the providences of God concerning you from first to last.

Oh fill your hearts with the thoughts of him and his ways. If a single act of
providence is so ravishing and transporting, what would many such be if they
were presented together to the view of the soul? If one star is so beautiful to
behold, what is a constellation? Let your reflections therefore upon the acts
and workings of providence for you be full, extensively and intensively. Let
them be as extensively full as may be.

Search backward into all the performances of providence throughout your lives.
So did Asaph. I will remember the works of the Lord.

Surely I will remember thy wonders of old. I will meditate also of all thy work
and talk of thy doings. Psalm 77 verses 11 and 12.

He labored to recover and revive the ancient providences of God's mercies many
years past, and suck a fresh sweetness out of them by new reviews of them. Ah
sirs, let me tell you, there is not such a pleasant history for you to read in
all the world as the history of your own lives. If you would but sit down and
record from the beginning hitherto what God has been to you and done for you,
what signal manifestations and outbreakings 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, you
are a hard heart indeed. My father, thou art the guide of my youth. Jeremiah 3
4. Let your meditation be as intensively full as may be.

Do not let 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. Thought out of
them that have pleasure therein.

Psalm 111 verse 2. Not that I think it feasible to sound the depth of providence
by our short line. Thy way is in the sea, and my path in the great waters, and
my footsteps are not known. Psalm 77 19.

But it is our duty to dive as far as we can, and to admire the depth when we
cannot touch the bottom. It is in our viewing providences as it was with
Elijah's servant when he looked out for rain. 1 Kings 18 44.

He went out once, and viewed the heavens, and saw nothing. But the prophet bid
him go again and again, and look upon the face of heaven seven times. And when
he had done so, what now, says the prophet? And now, says he, I see a cloud
rising like a man's hand.

And then, keeping his eye intently upon it, he sees the whole face of heaven
covered with clouds. So you may look upon such providences once and again, and
see little or nothing in them. But look seven times, that is, meditate often
upon them, and you will see their increasing glory, like that increasing cloud.

There are several things to be distinctly pondered and valued in one single
providence, before you can judge the amount and worth of it. First, the
seasonableness of mercy may give it a very great value. That it is timed so
opportunely, and occurs just when needed, makes it a thousandfold more
considerable to you than the same mercy would have been at another time.

Thus, when our needs are permitted to grow to an extremity, and all visible
hopes fail, then to have relief given wonderfully enhances the price of such a
mercy. Isaiah 41 verses 17 and 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 favor of
providence, covered under its wing, when God shall call to us in evil days,
Come, my people, enter thou into thy chambers, Isaiah 26 20, when such promises
shall be fulfilled to us in times of want or famine, Psalm 33 verses 18 and 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 are delivered up and
we saved. O how endearing are such providences! Psalm 91 verses 7 and 8. What a
providence introduces is of special regard and consideration, and by no means to
be neglected by us.

There are leading providences which, however slight and trivial they may seem in
themselves, yet in this respect justly challenge the first rank among
providential favors 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 Samuel 17 17. And thus every Christian may furnish himself out of
his own stock of experience, if he will but reflect and consider the place where
he is, the relations that he has, and the way by which he was led into them.

The instruments employed by providence for you are of special consideration, and
the finger of God is clearly seen by us when we pursue that meditation. For
sometimes great mercies are conveyed to us by very improbable means, and more
probable ones are laid aside. A stranger is 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, claimed 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 from their
own people that are more obliged to them. A prophet, said Christ, is not without
honor but in his own country and among his own kin and in his own house.

Mark 6 4. Sometimes help has come from the hands of enemies as well as
strangers. The earth helped the woman. Revelation 12 16.

God has bowed the hearts of wicked men to show great kindnesses to his people.
Acts 28 2. Sometimes God makes use of instruments for good to his people who
design nothing but evil and mischief to them. Thus Joseph's brethren were
instrumental to his advancement in that very thing in which they designed his
ruin.

Genesis 50 verse 2. The design and scope of providence must not escape our
thorough consideration what the aim and goal of providence is. And truly this,
of all others, is the most warming and melting consideration. You have the
general account of the aim of all providences and we know that all things work
together for good to them that love God, to them who are called according to his
purpose.

Romans 8 28. A thousand friendly hands are at work for them to promote and bring
about their happiness. Oh, this is enough to sweeten the bitterest providence to
us that we know it shall turn to our salvation.

Philippians 1 19. The respect and relation providence bears to our prayers is of
singular consideration and the most taking and sweet meditation. Prayer honors
providence and providence honors prayer.

Great notice is taken of this in scripture. Genesis 24 45. Daniel 9 20 and Acts
12 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.

In all your observations of providence have special respect to that word of God
which is fulfilled and made good to you by them. This is a clear truth that all
providences have relation to the written word. Thus Solomon in his prayer
acknowledges that the promises and providences of God went along step by step
with his father David all his days and that his hand put there for his
providence had fulfilled whatever his mouth had spoken.

First Kings 8 24. So Joshua in like manner acknowledges that not one good thing
had failed of all the good things of which the Lord had spoken. Joshua 22 verse
14.

He had carefully observed what relation the works of God had to this 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
explanation they supply and fill the sense with the things which he has promised
and so read the text thus I will cry unto God most high unto God that performeth
the things he has promised for me.

Psalm 57 verse 2. Now though I see no reason to limit the sense so narrowly yet
it cannot be denied that this is an a special part of its meaning. Let us
therefore in all our reviews of providence consider what word of God whether it
be a threatening caution counsel or promise is that any time made good to us by
his providences. Doing this will greatly confirm to us the truth of the
scripture when we see its truth so manifest in the event.

Had scripture no other seal or attestation this alone would be an unanswerable
argument of its divinity when men shall find in all ages the works of God
wrought so exactly according to this model that we may say as we have read or
heard so have we seen. Oh how great a confirmation is here before our eyes.
Again doing this will abundantly direct and instruct us in our present duties
under all providences.

We shall know what we have to do and how to behave under all changes of
conditions. You can learn the voice and errand of the rod only from the word.
Psalm 94 verse 12 which interprets the words 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 of God then understood I their end.
Psalm 73 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 passed through or are now under to
the word and you will find yourself surrounded with a marvelous 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 occurring
agreeably in all respects with the word. The word tells you that it is your
wisdom and interest to keep close to its rules and the duties it prescribes.

It tells that the way of holiness and obedience is the wisest way. This is your
wisdom. Deuteronomy 4 verses 5 and 6. Now let the events of Providence speak
whether this is 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 swear 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
lust. Whether they had not better consulted 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 says the Apostle had ye in those things whereof ye are now ashamed
for the end of those things is death. Romans 6 21. Does not the Providence of
God verify upon them those threatenings that are written in the experience of
all ages.

Job 31 verse 12. Proverbs chapter 5 verse 9 and 10 chapter 23 verses 21 and 29.
All which woes and miseries they escape that walk in God's statutes.

Look upon the ruined estates and bodies you may everywhere see and behold the
truth of the scriptures evidently made good in those sad providences. The word
tells you that your departure from the way of integrity and simplicity to make
use of sinful policies shall never profit you. 1st Samuel 12 21 and Proverbs 3
5. Let the events of Providence speak regarding 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 has cursed
all the ways of sin and whoever find they thrive with them his people shall not.
Israel would not rely upon the Lord but trust in the shadow of Egypt and what
advantage had they by this sinful policy? Isaiah 30 verses 1 through 5. David
used a great deal of sinful policy to cover his wicked deed but did it prosper?
2nd Samuel 12 12.

It is an excellent observation of Livy. Sinful policies in their first
appearances are pleasant and promising. In their management difficult.

In their event sad. Some by sinful ways have obtained wealth but that scripture
has been verified in their experience. Treasures of wickedness profit nothing.

Proverbs 10 2. Either God has blown upon it by a secret curse that it has 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 11 verses 13 through
15. That which David gave as a charge to Solomon has been found experimentally
true by thousands.

1st Chronicles 22 verses 12 and 13. That the true way to prosperity is to keep
close to the rule of the word and that the true reason why men cannot prosper is
their forsaking that rule. 2nd Chronicles 24 verse 20.

It is true if God has a purpose to destroy a man, he may for a time permit him
to succeed and prosper in his sin for his greater hardening. Job 12 verse 6. But
it is not so with those whom the Lord loves. Their sinful shift shall never
thrive with them.

The word prohibits your trust and confidence in the creature, even the greatest
and most powerful among creatures. Psalm 146 verse 3. It tells us that it is
better to trust in the Lord than in them. Psalm 118 verse 8. It forbids our
confidence in those creatures that are most nearly allied and related in the
bonds of nature to us.

Micah 7 verse 5. It curses the man that gives to the creature that reliance
which is due to God. Jeremiah 17 verse 5. Consult the events of providence in
this case and see whether the word is not verified in it. Did you ever lean upon
an Egyptian reed and it did not break under you and pierce as well as deceive
you? Oh, how often has this been evident in our experience.

Whatsoever we have overloved, idolized, and leaned upon, God has 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, and estates for this reason and by this means. If Jonah is
overjoyed in his gourd, a worm is at once prepared to smite it. Hence it is that
so many graves are opened for the bearing of our idols out of sight.

If David says, my mountain shall stand strong, I shall not be moved. The next
news he shall hear is of darkness and trouble. Psalm 30 verses 6 and 7. Oh, how
true and faithful do we find these things of God to be.

Who cannot put to his seal and say, thy word is truth. John 17 17. The word
assures us that sin is the cause and inlet of affliction and sorrow and that
there is an inseparable connection between them.

Be sure your sin will find you out. Numbers 32 23. That is the sad effects and
afflictions that follow it shall find you out.

If his children forsake my law and walk not in my judgments, if they break my
statutes and keep not my commandments, then will I visit their transgression
with the rod and their iniquity with stripes. Psalm 89 verses 30 through 32.
Inquire now at the mouth of Providence whether this is indeed so, according to
the reports of the word.

Ask but your own experiences and you will find that just so Providence has
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 or 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 foreseen troubles at hand. I do not say that God never afflicts
his people but for their sins, for he may do it for their trial.

First Peter 4 12. Nor do I say that God follows every sin with a rod, for who
then could stand before him? Psalm 130 verse 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 in
mercy to their souls. For this reason 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. Second Samuel 12 10. If we would
carefully search out the seeds and principles of those miseries under which we
or others do groan, we should find them to be our own turnings aside from the
Lord.

Jeremiah 2 19 and chapter 4 verse 18. Have not all these cautions and
threatenings of the word been exactly fulfilled by Providence in our own
experience? Who can but see the infallible truth of God in all that he has
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 how great
security God has given to his people in the promises that no man shall lose
anything by self-denial for his sake.

He has 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
but he shall receive an hundredfold now 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 10 verses 29 and 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 has made it good to his people not only in spiritual things, inward joy and
peace, but even in temporal things also. Instead of natural relations who took
care of 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. 2nd Corinthians 6 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 does not see the faithfulness of God
in the promises that have but a heart to trust God in them? The word of promise
assures us that whatever wants or straights the Saints fall into, their God will
never leave them nor forsake them. Hebrews 13 5. That he will be with them in
trouble.

Psalm 91 verse 15. Consult the various providences of your life at 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 heart 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 now perish one day by the hand of Saul. 1st Samuel 27 1. All men
are liars.

Psalm 116 11. Even Samuel 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.

The like doubtless you may observe in your own case. Ask your own souls the
question and they will satisfy it. Did God abandon and cast you off in the day
of trouble? 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 in
which you could see no way of escape but concluded you must perish in them.
There have been 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 provoked you to murmuring and
impatience and thereby provoke the Lord to forsake you in your trouble.

But yet you see he did not. He has either strengthened your back to bear or
lightened your burden or else open an unexpected door of escape according to
promise. 1 Corinthians 10 13.

So that the evil which you feared did not come upon you. You read that the word
of God is the only support and relief to a gracious soul in the dark day of
affliction. Psalm 119 verse 50 and 92.

And 2 Samuel 23 verse 5. And that for this purpose it was written. Romans 15
verse 4. No rules of moral prudence. No natural remedies can perform for us that
which the words can do.

And is not this a sealed truth attested by a thousand undeniable experiences.
From this source have the Saints fetched their cordials when fainting under the
rod. One word of God can do more than 10,000 words of men to relieve a
distressed soul.

If providence has at any time directed you to such promises as either assure you
that the Lord will be with you in trouble. Psalm 91 15. Or that encourage you
from inward peace to bear cheerfully outward burdens.

John 16 33. Or satisfy you of God's tenderness and moderation in his dealings
with you. Isaiah 27 8. Or that you shall reap blessed fruits from them.

Romans 8 28. Or that make clear your interest in God and his love under your
afflictions. 2nd Samuel 7 14.

Or what ease and relief ensues and how light is your burden compared with what
it was before. The word tells us that there is no better way to improve our
estates than to lay them out with a cheerful liberality for God. And that our
withholding our hands when God in duty calls to distribute will not be for our
advantage.

Proverbs 11 24 and verse 25. And chapter 19 verse 17. Also Isaiah 32 verse 8.
Consult providence now and you will find it in all respects according to the
report of the word.

Oh how true is the scripture testimony in that respect. There are many thousand
witnesses now living that 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 a single eye for God is surely repaid to them or theirs.
Neither did any man lose by distributing for God.

He that lends to the poor lends to the Lord or as some expound that text put his
money to interest to the Lord. Some have observed how providence has doubled all
that they have laid out for God in ways unexpected to them. 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.

Proverbs 16 verse 7. And does not providence confirm it? This the three Jews
found by experience. Daniel 3 verse 28 and 29. And so did Daniel chapter 6
verses 20 through 22.

This kept up John's reputation in the conscience of Herod. Mark 6 20. So it
proved when Constantine made that exploratory decree, those that with conscience
were preferred and those that changed their religion expelled.

Neither did any man lose at last by his fidelity. The written word tells us that
the best way to gain inward peace and tranquility of mind under puzzling and
disturbing troubles is to commit ourselves and our case to the Lord. Psalm 37
verses 5 through 7. And Proverbs chapter 16 verse 3. 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 providence concludes your affairs comfortably for you. The difficulty is
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. Compare them in all other cases and you will find the same. For all
the lines of providence lead from the scripture and return there again and do
most visibly begin and end there.

In all your reviews and observations of providence be sure that you eye God as
the author or orderer of them all. Proverbs 3 verse 6. 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. Second Corinthians 1 3. Without whose order no mercy or
comfort can come to your hands. And do not think it enough thus to acknowledge
him in a general way but when you receive mercies take special notice of the
following particulars.

Eye the care of God for you. He careth for you. First Peter 5 7. Your heavenly
father knoweth that you have need of these things.

Matthew 6 32. You have but to acquaint him with your need and your needs are
supplied. Be careful about nothing.

Philippians 4 6. Do not torture yourselves about it. You have a father that
cares. 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 Rebekah after his mother's death.

Genesis 24 verse 67. Eye the free grace of God in them. Yea see riches of grace
in every bequest of comfort to so vile and unworthy creatures as you are.

See yourselves surpassed by the least of all your mercies. I am not worthy of
the least said Jacob. Genesis 32 verse 10.

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
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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.


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  CHAPTER 7: PART 7
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I the condescension of God to your request for those mercies, Psalm 34 verse 6.
This is the sweetest bit of any enjoyment, in which a man can consciously relish
the return and answer of his prayers, and it greatly inflames the soul's love to
God, Psalm 116 verse 1. I 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, Deuteronomy
28, 47. I the way and method in which your mercies are conveyed to you. They all
flow to you through the blood of Christ and the covenant of grace, 1 Corinthians
3 verses 22 and 23.

Mercies derive their sweetness from the channel through which they run to us. I
the distinguishing goodness of God in all the comfortable enjoyments of your
lives. How many thousands better than you are denied these comforts, Hebrews 11,
37.

I then 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 last,
and all these are introductive to better. In all the sad and afflictive
providences that befall you, I God as the author and orderer of them also.

So he represents himself to us. Behold, I create evil and devise a device
against you, Jeremiah 18, 11. Is there evil in the city and the Lord hath not
done it? Amos 3, 6. Set before you the sovereignty of God.

I him as a being infinitely superior to you, at whose pleasure you and all you
have subsist. Psalm 115, verse 3. Which is the most conclusive reason and
argument for submission. Psalm 46, 10.

If we and all we have proceeded from his will, how right is it that we be
resigned up to it? It is 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 among men. And when you had run through
all the miseries of this life, have damned you to eternity, made you miserable
forever, and all this without any wrong to you. And shall not this quiet us
under the common afflictions of this life? 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 God Merciful and Gracious, Exodus 34, 6. There are two sorts of mercies
that are seldom eclipsed by the darkest affliction that befalls the saints in
their temporal concerns, that is, sparing mercy in this world and saving mercy
in that to come. It is not so bad now as it might be, and we deserved it should
be, and it will be better hereafter. This the Church observed and reasoned
herself quiet from it, Lamentations 3.22. Has he taken some? He might have taken
all.

Are we afflicted? It is a mercy we are not destroyed. O if we consider what
temporal mercies are yet spared, and what spiritual mercies are bestowed and
still continued to us, we shall find cause to admire mercy rather than complain
of severity. I the wisdom of God in all your afflictions, behold it in the
choice of the kind of your affliction, this and not another, the time, now and
not at another season, the degree, in this measure only and not in a greater,
the supports offered you under it, not left altogether helpless, the issue to
which it is overruled, it is to your good, not ruin.

Look upon these, and then ask your heart that question God asked Jonah, Doest
thou well to be angry? 4.9. Surely when you consider all, what need you had of
those 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
forever. You will see great reason to be quiet and well satisfied under the hand
of God. Set the faithfulness of the Lord before you under the saddest
providences.

So did David. Psalm 119 verse 75. This is according to his covenant
faithfulness.

Psalm 89 verse 32. Hence it is that the Lord will not withhold a rod when need
requires it. 1 Peter 1.6. Nor will he forsake his people under the rod when he
inflicts it.

2 Corinthians 4.9. O what quietness will this breed! I see my God will not loose
my heart if a rod can prevent it. He would rather hear me groan here than howl
hereafter. His love is judicious, not fond.

He consults my good rather than my ease. I the all-sufficiency of God in the day
of affliction, see enough in him still whatever is gone. Here is the fountain
still as full as ever, though this or that pipe is 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? Lastly, I the immutability of God, look on him as the rock of
ages, the father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of
turning. James 1.17. I Jesus Christ as the same yesterday, today, and forever. O
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 has turned all things upside down. That place is
empty where lately he was. As it is, neither shall his place know him any more.

Job 7.10. While 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 our God shall
stand forever. Isaiah 40.6-8. O how composing are those views of God to our
spirits under dark providences! Lastly, work up your hearts to those frames, and
exercise those affections, which the particular providences of God that concern
you call for.

Ecclesiastes 7.14. As there are various affections planted in your souls, so
there are various graces planted in those affections and various providences
appointed to draw forth and exercise these graces. When the providences of God
are sad and afflictive, either upon the church in general or your families and
persons in particular, then it is seasonable for you to exercise godly sorrow
and humility of spirit. For in that day and by those providences, God calls to
it.

Isaiah 22.12 and Micah 6.9. Now sensual pleasure and natural joy is out of
season. Should we then make mirth? Ezekiel 21.10. If there is a filial spirit in
us, we cannot be light and vain when our father is angry. If there is any real
sense of the evil of sin which provokes God's anger, we must be heavy hearted
when God is smiting for it.

If there is any sense and compassion for the miseries that sin brings upon the
world, it will make us say with David, I beheld the transgressors and was
grieved. Psalm 119.158. It is sad to consider the miseries that they pull down
upon themselves in this world and that to come. If there is 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 4.12. However sad and dismal the face of providence is, yet still maintain
spiritual joy and comfort in God under all. Although the fig tree shall not
blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines, the labor of the olive shall fail,
and the fields shall yield no meat, the flock shall be cut off from the fold,
and there shall be no herd in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will
joy in the God of my salvation. Habakkuk 3.17.18 There are two sorts of
comforts, natural and sensual, divine and spiritual.

There is a time when it becomes Christians to exercise both. Esther 9.22 And
there is a time when the former is to be suspended and laid by. Psalm 137.2 But
there is no season wherein spiritual joy and comfort in God is unseasonable.

1 Thessalonians 5.16 Philippians 4.4 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 afflicted and calamitous
state a Christian can be in, yet why should sad providences make him lay aside
his comforts in God when those are but for a moment and these eternal? 2
Corinthians 4.17 Why should we give up our joy in God on 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. Romans 8.18 Why
should they be sad as long as their God is with them in all their troubles? As
Christ said, Can the children of the bride chamber mourn as long as the
bridegroom is with them? Matthew 9.15 So say I, can the soul be sad while God is
with it? Oh, I think that one promise, I will be with him in trouble. Psalm
91.15 Shall bear you up under all burdens.

Let them be cast down that have no God to turn to in trouble. Why should we be
sad as long as no outward dispensation of providence, however sad, can be
interpreted as a mark or sign of God's hatred or enmity? There is one event to
the righteous and wicked. Ecclesiastes 9.2-3 Indeed, if it were a sign of the
Lord's wrath against a man, it would justify our dejection.

But this cannot be so. His heart is full of love while the face of providence is
full of frowns. Why should we be cast down under sad providences while we have
so great security that even by the hands of these providences, God will do us
good and all these things shall turn to our salvation? Romans 8.28 By these, God
is but killing your lusts, weaning your hearts from a vain world, preventing
temptations and exciting your desires after heaven.

This is all the hurt they shall do you and shall that sadden us? Why should we
give up our joy in God when the change of our condition is so near? It is but a
little while and sorrows shall flee away. You shall never suffer again. God will
wipe away all tears.

Revelation 7.17 While then, you see there is no reason on account of providence
to give up your joy and comfort in God. But if you will maintain it under the
providences, then be careful to make sure of your interest in and title to God.
Faith may be separated from comfort, but assurance cannot.

Mortify your inordinate affections to earthly things. This makes providences
that deprive and cross us so heavy. Mortify your opinion and affection and you
will lighten your affliction.

It is strong affection that makes strong affliction. 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. Philippians 4.5 Exercise heavenly mindedness, and keep your
hearts upon things eternal under all the providences with which the Lord
exercises you in this world. Noah walked with God, Genesis 6.9, yet met with as
sad providences in his day as any man that ever lived since his time.

But alas, we find most providences rather stops than steps in our walk with God.
If we are under comfortable providences, how sensual, wanton, and worldly do our
hearts grow. And if sad providences befall us, how cast down or disturbed we
are.

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 of them. 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 befalls 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 it's
full. Yet Jehoshaphat's grace suffered no eclipse from the fullness of his
outward condition who had riches and honor in abundance.

And his heart was lifted up in the ways of the Lord. 2 Chronicles 17 verses 5
and 6 David's life was as full of cares, turmoils, and encumbrances as most men
we read of. Yet how spiritual the attitude of his heart was.

That excellent book of Psalms which was mostly composed amidst those turmoils
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.

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 care of it. If
therefore we were more deeply sanctified and the tendencies of our hearts
heavenward 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 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.

Philippians 4 verses 11 and 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 complaining and charging God foolishly
when providence crosses them. Let them seriously consider these four things
first that hell and eternal damnation are the portion of their cup according to
the tenor of law and gospel threatenings.

Whatsoever therefore is short of this is to be admired as the fruit of God's
stupendous patience and forbearance toward them. Ah poor souls! Do you not know
that you are men and women condemned to wrath by the plain sentence of the law?
Mark 16 16 John 3 36 and 2 Thessalonians 1 verses 6 and 7 And if so surely there
are other matters to exercise your thoughts desires fears and cares about than
these. Alas if you cannot bear a frown of providence a light cross in these
things how will you bear the everlasting burnings? A man that is to lose his
head tomorrow is not very concerned about what bed he lies on or how his table
is furnished the night before.

Consider though you are 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
where you must sink to when that thread is cut. Are the necessary supports of
life nothing? Does not providence minister to you these things that you daily
disoblige it and provoke God to send you to your own place? But above all are
the gospel and precious means of salvation nothing by which you yet are in a
capacity of escaping the damnation of hell? O what would the damned say if they
were but put into your condition once more? What and yet fret against God
because everything else does not suit your desires? Consider that if ever you
are 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 to destroy you. Proverbs
1 verse 32 You must be bound in fetters and held in cords of affliction if ever
your ear is to be open to instruction. Job 36 verses 8 through 10 Woe to you if
you go unsmoothly in the way in which you are and meet with no crosses.

Lastly consider that 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 Wherefore does a living man
complain? A man for the punishment of his sins. Lamentations 3 verse 39 But now
I must turn to the Lord's people who have least pretenses of all men to be
dissatisfied with any of God's providences and yet are but too frequently found
in that attitude. And to them I shall offer the following considerations.

Consider your spiritual mercies and privileges with which the Lord Jesus has
invested you and complain at your providential lot if you can. One of these
mercies alone has 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 has blessed us with all
spiritual blessings.

Ephesians 1 verse 3 O who that sees such an inheritance settled upon him in
Christ can never open his mouth again to complain at his providential lot.
Consider your sins and that will make you contented with your lot. Yea, consider
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 you not find after all the rods that have been upon you a proud
heart still, a vain and earthly heart still? O how many bitter portions are
necessary to purge out this tough malignant disease. 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. It is no small comfort to the saints that this world is the worst place
that they shall ever be in. Things will get better every day with them.

If the traveler has spent all his money yet it does not much trouble him if he
knows himself to be within a few miles of his own home. If there are no candles
in the house we do not much trouble over it if we are sure it is almost break of
day for then there will be no use for them. This is the case with us for now is
our salvation nearer than when we believed.

Romans 13 11 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. If providence delays the performance of any mercy to you
that you have long waited and prayed for yet see that you do not despond nor
grow weary of waiting upon God for that reason. It pleases the Lord often to try
and exercise his people this way and make them cry, How long Lord, how long?
Psalm 13 verses 1 and 2 These delays both for spiritual and temporal reasons are
frequent and when they befall us we are too apt to interpret them as denials and
fall into a sinful despondency of mind though there is no cause at all for it.

Psalm 31 verse 12 and Lamentations 3 verses 8 and 44 It is not always that the
returns of prayer are dispatched to us in the same hour they are asked of God
yet sometimes it falls out so. Isaiah 65 verse 24 and Daniel 9 verse 23 But
though the Lord means to perform for us the mercies we desire yet he will
ordinarily exercise our patience to wait for them and that for these reasons.
One is that 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 does not judge as we do we are all in haste and will have it now.
Numbers 12 verse 13 For the Lord is a God of judgment blessed are all they that
wait for him.

Isaiah 30 verse 18 Another reason is that afflicted providences have not
accomplished that design upon our hearts they were sent for when we are so
earnest and impatient for a change of them until then the rod must not be taken
off. Isaiah 10 verse 12 Again the more prayers and searchings of heart come
between our needs and supplies our afflictions and reliefs the sweeter are our
reliefs and supplies thereby made to us. Lo 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. Isaiah 25 verse 9 This recompenses the delay and pays us for all the
expenses of our patience. But though there are such weighty reasons for the stop
and delay of refreshing comfortable providences yet we cannot bear it our hands
hang down and we faint I am weary of my crying my throat is dried mine eyes fail
while I wait for my God.

Psalm 69 verse 3 For alas we judge by sense and appearance and do not consider
that God's heart may be towards us while the hand of his providence seems to be
against us. If things continue as they are 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. Judges 6.13 This even staggered a Moses faith. Exodus 5
verses 22 and 23 Oh what groundless jealousies and suspicions of God are found
at such times in the hearts of his own children.

Job 9 verses 16 and 17 and Psalm 77 verses 7 through 9 But this is our great
evil and to prevent it in future trials I will offer a few proper considerations
in the case. First the delay of your mercies is really for your advantage. You
read and therefore will the Lord wait that he may be gracious.

Isaiah 30 verse 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 you may have it
with the greatest advantage of comfort. The foolish child would pluck the apple
while it is green but when it is ripe it drops off of its own accord and is more
pleasant and wholesome. Secondly it is a greater mercy to have a heart willing
to refer all to God and be at his disposal then to enjoy immediately 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 an attitude of heart is the fruit of special
grace. So much as the glorifying of God is better than the satisfaction and
pleasure of the creature so much is such a frame better than such a fruition.

Thirdly 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.
Ezekiel 37 verse 11 So we have found it in our own personal concerns at evening
time it shall be light. Zechariah 14 7 When we look for increasing darkness
light arises.

Fourthly our unfitness for mercies is the reason why they are delayed so long.
We put the blocks into the way of mercies and then repine that they make no more
haste to us. Behold the Lord's hand is not shortened that it cannot save neither
his ear heavy that it cannot hear but your iniquities have separated between you
and your God and your sins have hid his face from you that he will not hear.

Isaiah 59 1 and 2 Fifthly consider that the mercies you wait for are the fruits
of pure grace. You do not deserve them nor can claim them upon any title of
desert and therefore have reason to wait for them in a patient and thankful
frame. Lastly consider how many millions of men as good as you by nature are cut
off from all hope and expectation of mercy forever and there remains to them
nothing but a fearful expectation of wrath.

This might have been your case and therefore do not be of an impatient spirit
under the expectations of mercy. Do not pry too curiously into the secrets of
providence nor allow 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 overreaching. When I
thought to know this said Asaph, it was too painful for me.

Psalm 73 verse 16 I thought to know this there was the arrogant attempt of
reason, there he pried into the mystery of providence but it was too wonderful
for me it was useless labor 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 began envy towards them and despondency in himself. Psalm 73
verses 3 and 13 and this was all he got by summoning providence to the bar of
reason.

Holy Job was guilty of this evil and frankly ashamed of it. Job 42 verse 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
fear and capacity. Many are the mischiefs which ensue upon this practice.

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. Genesis 18
verse 13 and 14 Hence comes 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 all these things are against
us. First Samuel 27 verse 1 Hence flow temptations to deliver ourselves by
indirect and sinful means. Isaiah 30 verses 15 and 16 When our own reason fills
us with a distrust of providence it naturally prompts us to sinful expedience
and there leaves us entangled in the snares of our own making.

Beware therefore that you do not lean too much to your own reasonings and
understandings. Nothing is more plausible nothing more dangerous. Chapter 10 The
Advantages of Meditating on Providence Having given direction 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 has been recommended. But
alas we may say with reference to the voices of divine providence as it is
written For God speaketh once, yea twice, yet man perceiveth it not. Job 33
verse 14 Many a time providence has spoken instruction in duty, conviction for
iniquity, encouragement under despondency, but we do not regard it.

How greatly are we all wanting in our duty and comfort by this neglect. It will
be needful therefore to spread before you the loveliness and excellence of
walking with God in a due and daily observation of his providences that our
souls may be fully engaged to it. First let me offer this as a moving argument
to all gracious souls that by this means you may maintain sweet and conscious
communion with God from day to day.

And what is there desirable in this world in comparison with that? For thou Lord
has made me glad through thy work. I will triumph in the works of thy hands.
Psalm 92 verse 4 Your hearts may be as sweetly refreshed by the works of God's
hands as by the words of his mouth.

Psalm 104 is all spent in the consideration of the works of providence which so
fill the psalmist's heart that by way of ejaculation he expresses the effect of
it. My meditation of him shall be sweet. Verse 34 Communion with God properly
and strictly taken consists of two things that is 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 ye the rod and who hath appointed it? Micah 6 9 This manifestation 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. Psalm 32
verses 4 and 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. Lamentations 2
verses 17 through 19 and then it produces caution against sin for the time to
come. It is plain that the rebukes of providence leave this effect upon gracious
hearts.

Ezra 9 verses 13 and 14 and Psalm 85 verse 8 Sometimes God 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 all sweet returns
are made to heaven by gracious souls.

Does God lift them up by prosperity? They also will lift up their God by
praises. Psalm 18 title and verses 1 through 3 So Moses and the people with him,
Exodus 15 When God had delivered them from Pharaoh, how they exalt him in a song
of thanksgiving which for the eloquence and spirituality of it is made an emblem
of the doxologies given to God in glory by the saints. Revelation 15 verse 3 On
the whole, whatever affects our communion with God in any of his ordinances is
one to produce upon our hearts the same we may observe to follow our conversing
with him in his providences.

It is usually found in the experience of all the saints that in whatever
ordinance or duty they have any conscious communion with God, it naturally
produces in their spirits a deep abasement and humiliation from the sense of
divine condescension to such vile poor worms as we are. Thus Abraham, which am
but dust and ashes, Genesis 18 27. The same effect follows our converse with God
in his providences.

Thus when God had in the way of his providence prospered Jacob, how does he lay
himself at the feet of God, as a man overwhelmed with the sense of mercy? I am
not worthy of the least of all the mercies, and of all the truth which thou hast
shown thy servant. For with my staff I passed over this Jordan, and now I am
become two bands. Genesis 32 10 Thus also it was with David, Who am I, O Lord
God, and what is my house, that thou hast brought me hitherto? 2 Samuel 7 18 And
I doubt not, but some of you have found the same frame of heart upon you that
these holy men have 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?
O that ever so great and holy a God should thus be concerned for so vile and
sinful a worm! Does communion with God in ordinances melt the heart into love to
God? Psalm 2 3-5 Why so does 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. When God had delivered
David from the hand of Saul and all his enemies, he said, I will love thee, O
Lord, my strength. Psalm 18 verse 1 Compared with the title 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, yet these things serve to blow up the flame of love to God
in their hearts, and they find it so. Does communion with God set the keenest
edge upon the soul against sin? You see it does, and you have a great 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 cast the people had made, see what a holy anguish
of zeal and anger it cast his soul into. Exodus 32 verses 19 and 20 Why, the
same effect you may discern to follow the saints' converse with God in his
providences. What was that which pierced the heart of David with such a deep
sense of the evil of his sin, which is so abundantly manifested in Psalm 51
throughout? Why, if you look into the title, you shall find it was the effect of
what Nathan had laid before him.

And if you consult 2 Samuel 12 verses 7 through 10, you will 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. It was the
realization of this that broke his heart to pieces. And I doubt not, but some of
us have sometimes found the like effects by comparing God's ways and our own
together.

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 in their
course. Thus when Isaiah had obtained a special manifestation of God and the
Lord asked, whom shall I send? He presents a ready soul for the employment. Here
am I, send me, Isaiah 68.

Why the very same effect follows sanctified providences as you may see in
Jehoshaphat, 2 Chronicles 17 verses 5 and 6, and in David Psalm 116 verse 12.
Oh, when a soul considers what God has done for him, he cannot choose but say,
What shall I return? How shall I answer these engagements? And thus you see what
sweet communion a soul may have with God in the way of his providences. Oh, 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 has done you good when his mercies produce such effects upon
your hearts. He will say of every favor thus improved, it was well bestowed and
will rejoice over you to do you good forever. A great part of the pleasure and
delight of the Christian life is made out of the observations of providence.

The works of the Lord are great, sought out of all them that have pleasure
therein. Psalm 111 verse 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.

Observe the sweet harmony and consent of divine attributes in the issues of
providence. They may seem sometimes to jar and clash, depart 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 are met together. Righteousness and peace have kissed each
other. Psalm 85 verse 10 This is spoken with an immediate reference to that
signal providence of Israel's deliverance out of the Babylonish captivity and
the sweet effects thereof.

The truth and righteousness of God in the promises did, as it were, kiss and
embrace the mercy and peace that was 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 demonstration 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. The Hebrew word may be rendered, have met us. And that
also is true, 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, an indirect reference in this scripture to the Messiah
also, and a redemption by Him. This Reformation audio track is a production of
Stillwater's Revival Books. SWRB makes thousands of classic Reformation
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Our many free resources, as well as our complete mail-order catalog, containing
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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 7.31
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 assumed too much wisdom, when they devised what he never required,
nay, what he never knew.


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  CHAPTER 8: PART 8
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There is, I doubt not, an indirect reference in 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 we would but
stand upon our watchtower, Habakkuk 2.3, to take due observations of providence,
what rare prospects might we have! Luther understands it of the Word of God as
much as to say, I will look into the Word and observe there how God accomplishes
all things and brings them to pass, and how His works are the fulfilling of His
Word. Others, as Calvin, understand it of a man's own retired thoughts and
meditations, in which a man carefully observes what purposes and designs God has
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, has his watchtower as well as
Habakkuk, and give me leave to say, it is an angelic employment to stand up 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's ends
wrought out and His attributes glorified in the mercy and peace of the Church.
Revelation 14 verses 1-3 and verse 8 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 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, 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 not tarry. Habakkuk 2 verse 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, My hope is perished from the Lord. Lamentations 3 verse 18 But how sweet
and comfortable it is to see these prayers fulfilled after we have given up all
expectation of them. May we not say of them that it is even life from the dead.

This was David's case. Psalm 31 verse 22 He gave up his hopes and prayers for
lost, yet lived to see the comfortable and unexpected returns of them. And this
was the case of Job.

Chapter 6 verse 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 an 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 on the waters, for thou shalt find it after many days.
Ecclesiastes 11 verse 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 it was. Genesis 46 verse 29 and 30 What a transporting pleasure it
is to behold great blessings and advantages to us wrought by providence out of
those very things that seem to threaten our ruin or misery.

And yet by duly observing the ways of providence, you may to your singular
comfort find it so. 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.

Genesis 45 verse 5 Wait and observe, and you shall assuredly find that promise.
Romans 8 verse 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.

Psalm 119 verse 71 Oh what a difference we have seen between our afflictions and
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.

What unspeakable comfort it is 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 has 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.
Psalms 23 verse 6 Other men pursue good, and it flies from them.

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 put themselves by sin 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 I that
mercy should thus pursue me, when vengeance and wrath pursue others as good by
nature as I am? It certainly argues the great esteem God has of a man when he
thus follows him with sanctified providences, whether comforts or crosses, for
his good. And so much is plain from what is man, that thou shouldst visit him
every morning, and try him every moment. Job 7 verses 17 and 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 36 verse 7 I say not that God's favor and respect to a man may be concluded
solely from his providences, but sanctified providences may very much make it
clear to us, and when it does so, it cannot but be a matter of exceeding great
joy. What is there in all this world that can give a soul such joy and comfort
as to find himself by everything set on and furthered in his way to heaven? And
yet this may be discerned by a careful attendance to the effects and issues of
providences. However contrary the winds and tides of providences 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 as the Greek word imports, finally issue in his salvation. Not that in
themselves they serve to any such purpose, but as they are overruled and
determined to such an end, through your prayer and the supply of the Spirit of
Jesus Christ. Philippians 1.19 When prayer, the external, and the Spirit, the
internal means, are joined with them, then afflictions themselves become
excellent means to promote salvation.

And have we not with joy observed how those very things that sense and reason
tell us are opposite to our happiness, have been the most blessed instruments to
promote it? How has God blessed crosses to mortify corruption, wants to kill our
wantonness, disappointments to wean us from the world? O we little think how
comfortable those things will be in the review, which are so burdensome to
present sense. I beseech you, consider what an effectual means the due
observation of providence will be to overpower and suppress the natural atheism
that is in your hearts. There is a natural sea 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 prospering in the world, and godly men crushed and
destroyed in the way of righteousness and integrity, it may tempt us to think
there is no advantage by religion, and all our self-denial and holiness to be
little better than lost labor. Thus stood the case with good Asaph. Behold,
these are the ungodly, who prosper in the world.

They increase in riches. Psalm 73 verse 12. And what does the flesh infer from
this? 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. Verse
13. This new religious inference, carnal reason, was ready to draw from the
dispensations of outward prosperity to wicked men.

But now if we would carefully 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
judgments which he executeth. Psalm 9 verse 16.

Psalm 58 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 and 5. And the providence of God is there invited to destroy their
power. Verse 6. And that either by a gradual and unperceived consumption of
them. Verses 7 and 8. Or by a sudden and unexpected stroke.

Verse 9. And what shall the effects of such providence 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 judges in the earth. Verse 11. And 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 all their dangers, fears, and difficulties.

In these things the Lord shows himself to his people. Psalm 94 verse 1. Yea, he
shows himself to spiritual eyes in the providences as clearly as the sun
manifests itself by its own beams of light. And his brightness was as the light.

He had horns coming out of his hand, and there was the hiding of his power.
Habakkuk 3 verses 3 and 4. It is spoken of the Lord's going forth for his people
in their deliverance from their enemies. Then he had horns, or rays, and beams
of power and mercy coming out of his hands.

By his hands are meant his providential administrations and dispensations. And
the horns that came out of them are nothing less 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? Exodus 6 verse 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. Revelation 19 verse 13. His name
was the Word of God before, but then he was the Word revealing and manifesting
the promises and truths of God, now accomplishing and fulfilling them.

For that thy name is near, thy wondrous works declare. Psalm 75 verse 1. But
more particularly, let us bring it home to our own experience. It may be we find
ourselves sometimes assaulted with atheistical thoughts.

We are tempted to think God has left all things below to the course and sway of
nature, that our prayers do not reach him. Lamentations 3 verse 44. That he does
not regard what evil befalls 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 the following questions. Have you never seen the all-sufficient God
in the provisions he has 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? He hath given me unto them that fear him. He will
ever be mindful of his covenant.

Psalm 111 verse 5. Oh, do but consider the constancy, seasonableness, and at
sometimes the extraordinariness of these provisions, and how they have been
given in answer to 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 36 verse 7. Have you not plainly discerned the care of God in your
preservation from so many and great dangers as you have escaped and been carried
through hitherto? How is it that you have survived 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 that you have been preserved. When God had so
signally delivered David from a dangerous disease and the plots of enemies
against him, by this, he says, I know thou favourest me, because mine enemy doth
not triumph over me. Psalm 41 verse 11.

He gathered from those gracious protections the care God had over him. 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 man 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.
Psalm 34 verses 4 through 6. Parallel to this runs the experience of thousands
and tens of thousands of Christians this day.

They know they have the petitions they asked of him. The mercy carries the very
impress and stamp of the duty upon it, so that we can say, this is the mercy,
the very mercy I have so often sought God about. O how satisfying and convincing
are these things! Have you not evidently discerned the Lord's hand in the
guiding and directing of your paths to your unforeseen advantage? Things that
you never planned for yourself have been brought about beyond all your thoughts.

Many such things are with God, and which of all the saints have not found that
word, the way of man is not in himself, Jeremiah 10.23, verified by clear and
undeniable experience? I presume if you will but look over the mercies you
possess this day, you will find three to one, yet maybe ten to one, thus brought
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 performs all things for them, Psalm 57 verse 2. 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, whether you have not seen that promise made good, I will be with him
in trouble, Psalm 91 verse 15, and that God is faithful, who will not suffer you
to be tempted above that ye are able, but will with the temptation also make a
way of escape, that ye may be able to bear it, 1 Corinthians 10.13. Have not
these been as clearly made out by providence before your eyes as the sun at
noonday? What room then is left for atheistical suggestion in your breast? The
remembering and recording 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 strain and distress than
this, and doubtless his faith had staggered had not the consideration 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 Samuel 17 verse 37. And the apostle
Paul improves his experiences to the same purpose, 2 Corinthians 1 verses 9 and
10. Indeed the whole scripture is full of it.

What Christian does not understand the exceeding usefulness of those
experiences, he has had to relieve and enliven. But I shall not satisfy myself
with the common assertions, than which nothing is more trite in the lips of
professors, but will labor to show you wherein the great usefulness of our
recorded experiences for encouraging faith laboring under difficulties consists.
To this purpose I shall desire the reader to ponder seriously these following
particulars.

Consider 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 anything has been once
tasted, felt, and judged by a 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 is a difficulty in all the acts of faith, yet scarce
in any like the first venture it makes upon Christ. And the reason lies here,
because in the subsequent acts it has all its former experiences to aid and
encourage it. But in the first venture it has 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 and distress to be able
to say, This is not the first time I have been in these deeps, and yet emerged
out of them. Hence it was that Christ rubbed up His disciples' memories with
what Providence had formerly wrought for them in a day of need. O ye of little
faith, why reason ye among yourselves, because ye have brought no bread? Do ye
not understand or remember? As much as to say, Were you never in any need of
bread before now? Is this the first difficulty that ever your faith met with?
No, no, you have been in straits and experienced the power and care of God in
supplying them before now.

And therefore I cannot but call you men of little faith. For a very ordinary and
small measure of faith, assisted with so much experience as you have had, would
enable you to trust God. There is as much difference between believing before
and after experience as there is between swimming with ladders 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 that unbelief stumbles at in God, His power and
His willingness to help. Unbelief maintains 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? Psalm 78 verses 19 and 20 O vile and unworthy
thoughts of God which proceed from our measuring the immense and boundless power
of God by our own line and measure. Because we do not see 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 has helped, therefore He can. His hand is not shortened, Isaiah 59 1 He has
as much power and ability as formerly. Unbelief queries the will of God and
questions whether He will now be gracious, though He has been so formerly.

But after so many experiences of His readiness to help, what room for doubting
remains? Thus Paul reasoned from the experience of what he had done to what he
could do. 2 Corinthians 1 verse 10 And so did David. 1 Samuel 17 verse 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? It gives great encouragement
to faith to answer the objections of unbelief drawn from the subject. Now these
objections are of two sorts also. First, such as are drawn from our great
unworthiness.

How, says 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, etc. But these were men of eminent holiness, men
that obeyed God and denied themselves for Him and lived more in a day to His
glory than ever I did all my days. Well, but what signifies all this to a soul
that under all its felt vileness and unworthiness has tasted the goodness of God
as well as they? As unworthy as I am, God has 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 do not deserve it. For if when we were enemies we were
reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more being reconciled we shall
be saved by His life.

Romans 5.10 Secondly, such as are drawn from the extremity of our present
condition. If troubles or dangers grow to a height and we see nothing but ruin
and misery in the eye of reason before us, now unbelief becomes importunate and
troublesome to the soul. Now where are your prayers, your hopes? Yea, where is
now your 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 traits, nor the first time I
have had the same doubts and despondencies, and yet God has carried me through
all. Psalm 77, verses 7-9 This is what prevents a Christian from losing all his
hopes in an hour of temptation. O how useful are these things to the people of
God! The remembrance 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.

If God will prepare mercy and truth for David, he will prepare praises for his
God, and that daily. Psalm 61, verses 7 and 8 By thee have I been holden up from
the womb, thou art he that took me out of my mother's bowels. Their mercies from
the beginning are recognized.

My praise shall be continually of thee. Psalm 71, verse 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. Isaiah 41, verses
17-20 This is fundamental to all praise. God cannot be glorified for the mercies
we never noted.

2. A faithful remembrance of the favors received. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and
forget not all his benefits. Psalm 103, verses 2 Hence the Lord brands the
ingratitude of his people.

They soon forget his works. Psalm 106, verses 13 3. A due appreciation and
valuation of every providence that does us good. 1 Samuel 12, verses 24 That
providence that fed them in the wilderness with manna was a most remarkable
providence to them.

But since they did not value it at its worth, God had not that praise for it
which he expected. Numbers 11, verses 6 4. The stirring up of all the faculties
and powers of the soul in the acknowledgement of these mercies to us. Thus
David, bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me bless his holy name.

Psalm 103, verses 1 Soul praise is the very soul of praise. This is the very fat
and marrow of that thank offering. 5. A suitable recompense for the mercies
received.

This David was careful about. Psalm 116, verses 1 6. And the Lord taxes good
heads of pious when in neglect of it. 2 Chronicles 32, verses 24 and 25 This
consists in a full and hearty resignation to him of all that we have received by
providence from him and in our willingness actually to part with all for him
when he shall require it.

Thus you see how all the ingredients to praise have respect to providences. But
more particularly I will show you that as all the ingredients of praise have
respect to providences so all the motives and arguments obliging and engaging
souls to praise are found therein also. To this end consider how the mercy and
goodness of God is exhibited by providence to excite our thankfulness.

The goodness and mercy of God to his people is seen in his providences
concerning them and this is the very root of praise. It is not so much the
possession that providence gives us of such or such comfort 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.

Psalm 63, verse 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.

Psalm 103, verse 4 It is this a sanctified soul desires God would manifest in
every providence concerning him. Psalm 17, 7 And what is our praising of God but
our showing forth that loving kindness which he shows to us in his providences.
Psalm 92, verses 1 and 2 As the loving kindness of God manifested in providence
is a motive to praise so the free and undeserved favors of God dispensed by the
hand of providence obliged 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 favors cast in upon him
by providence. Who am I, O Lord God, and what is my house that thou hast brought
me hitherto? 2 Samuel 7, 18 That is, raise me by providence from a mean
condition to all this dignity, from following the ewes to feed Jacob his people.

Psalm 78, verses 70 and 71 O this is what engages thankfulness. Genesis 32,
verses 10 As the freeness of mercies dispensed by providence engages praise so
the multitudes of mercies heaped this way upon us strongly obliged the soul to
thankfulness. Thus David comes before the Lord encompassed with a multitude of
mercies to praise him.

Psalm 5, verses 7 We have our loads of mercies and that every day. Psalm 68,
verses 19 O what a rich heap will the mercies of one day make being laid
together. As the multitudes of mercies dispensed by providence obliged 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 regard the Lord has of all our needs, difficulties and
burdens. Like as a father pities his children so the Lord pities them that fear
him. Psalm 103, verses 13 He is full of bowels as that Greek word in James 5,
verses 11 signifies.

Yea, there are not only bowels of compassion in our God but the tenderness of
bowels like those of a mother to her sucking child. Isaiah 49, verses 15 He
feels all our pains as if the apple of his eye were touched. Zechariah 2, verses
8 And all this is shown to his people in the way of his providences with them.

Psalm 111, verses 2-4 O who of all the children of God has 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 accounts. 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.

The due observation of providence will endear Jesus Christ every day more and
more to our 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 returns of praise from
us to God.

1 Corinthians 3, verses 21 and 22 All things are ours upon no other title but
our being his. Now there are various things in providence which exceedingly
endear the Lord Jesus Christ to his people and these are the most sweet and
delightful parts of all our enjoyments. 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 acquisition of his blood.

As sin forfeited all, so Christ restored all these mercies again to us by his
death. Sin had so shut up the womb of mercy that had not Christ made an
atonement by death it could never have brought forth one mercy to all eternity
for us. It is with him that God freely gives us all things.

Romans 8.32 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 may 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 the
most endearing consideration. Did Christ die that these mercies might live? Did
he pay his invaluable blood to purchase these comforts that I possess? O what
transcendent matchless love was the love of Christ! You have known parents that
have laid out all their stock of money to purchase estates for their children
and 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 painful
and sad to him ours could not have been so sweet and comfortable to us.

It is through his poverty that we are enriched. 2 Corinthians 8.9 These sweet
mercies that are born of providence every day are the fruits of the travail of
his soul. Isaiah 53.11 The sanctification of all those mercies which providence
conveys to us 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, Christ. Matthew 6.33 They are given with him.

Romans 8.32 This is the tenure by which we hold them. 1 Corinthians 3.21-23 What
we lost in Adam is restored again with advantage in Christ. Immediately upon the
fall that curse, Genesis 2.17 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 does for them that are Christless is but to feed so many
poor condemned wretches till the sentence they are under is executed upon them.
It is indeed bountiful and open handed to many of them and fills them with
earthly comforts but not one special sanctified mercy is to be found among all
their enjoyments. These gifts of providence do but deceive, defile and destroy
them through their own corruptions for want of union with Christ.

The prosperity of fools shall destroy them. Proverbs 1.32 But when a man is once
in Christ then all providences are sanctified and sweet. Unto the pure all
things are pure.

Titus 1.15 A little that a righteous man hath is better than the treasures of
many wicked. Psalm 37.16 Now Christ becomes a head of influence as well as of
dominion and in all things he consults the good of his own members. Ephesians
1.22 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
they still receive directions and orders from Christ as you may see in that
admirable scheme of providences.

Ezekiel 1.25-26 Now what an endearing meditation is this. Whatever creature is
instrumental for any good to you it is your Lord Jesus Christ that gave the
orders and commands to that creature to do it. And without it they could not
have done anything 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 prevention and restraints of evil
it is he that bridles the wrath of devils and men.

He holds the reins in his own hands. Revelation 2.10 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 9 The continuation of all our mercies
and comforts outward as well as inward is the fruit of his intercession in
heaven for you.

As the offering up of the Lamb of God as 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. Revelation 5.6 Hebrews 9.24 By this his
intercession our peace and comforts are prolonged to us. Zechariah 1.12-13 Every
sin we commit would put an end to the mercies we possess were it not for that
plea which is put in for us by it.

And 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 2.1-2 This stops all
accusations and procures new pardons for new sins. Hence it is he saves to the
uttermost.

Hebrews 7.25 To the last compelling act new sins do not make void our former
pardons nor cut off our privileges settled upon us in Christ. The returns and
answers of all your prayers and cries to heaven or the removing of your
afflictions or supply of your needs 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 however great your distresses might be.

Revelation 8.3-4 It is his name that gives our prayers their acceptance. John
15.16 Because the Father can deny him nothing therefore your prayers are not
denied. Does God condescend to hear you in the day of trouble? Does he convince
you by your own experience that your prayers have power with God and do prevail?
O see how much you owe to your dear Lord Jesus Christ for this high and glorious
privilege.

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 between God and you. Your mercies are all comprised in this
covenant even your daily bread, Psalm 111.5 as well as your justification and
other spiritual mercies. It is your covenant interest that secures to you
whatever it comprises.

Hence they are called the sure mercies of David. Isaiah 55.3 Nay, this is what
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.

For these reasons it was that David so rejoiced in his covenant interest though
laden with many afflictions. 2 Samuel 23.5 But now all this hangs entirely upon
Christ. The New Testament is in his blood.

1 Corinthians 11.25 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. The due observations of
providence have a marvelous efficacy to melt the heart and make it thaw and
submit before the Lord.

How can a sanctified heart do less than melt into tears while 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 leading of
providence as it has led him all along the way that he has gone.

And if there is any principle of gracious tenderness in him he shall meet with
variety of occasions to excite and draw it forth. Go back with your serious
thoughts to the beginning of the ways of God with you. The mercies that broke
out early in your youth even the first born mercies from the womb of providence
and you will say what need I go further.

Here is enough not only to move but overwhelm my heart. Wilt thou not from this
time cry unto me my father thou art the guide of my youth. Jeremiah 3 verse 4
What a critical time is the time of youth.

It is the molding age and ordinarily according to the course of those leading
providences after providences do steer their course. What levity, rashness,
ignorance and strong propensities to sin and ruin accompany that age. How many
beings then left to the sway of their own lusts run themselves into those sins
and miseries which they never recover themselves from to their dying day.

These like the errors of the first concoction are rarely rectified afterwards.
Did the Lord guide you by his providence when by the child? Did he then preserve
you from those follies and misdemeanors which blast the very blossom and nip the
bud so that no good fruit is to be expected afterwards? Did he then cast you
into such families or among such company and acquaintance as molded and formed
your spirit into a better disposition? Did he then direct you into that way of
employment in which you have seen so large a train of happy consequences ever
since following you? And will you not from henceforth say, My father, thou art
the guide of my youth? 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 Reform 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.


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  CHAPTER 9: PART 9
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Let us but bring our thoughts close to the providences of aftertimes, 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 all been 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. Isaiah 55.8
Among the eminent mercies of your life, reader, how many of them have been mere
surprises to you? Your own projects have been thrust aside to make way for
better things designed by providence for you. Nay, do but observe the springs
and autumns of providence, in what order they have flourished and faded with
you, and you will find yourself overpowered with the sense of divine wisdom and
goodness.

When necessity required, such a friend was stirred up to help you, such a place
opened to receive you, such a relation raised up or continued to refresh you.
And no sooner does providence deprive you of any of them, but either your need
of them ceases, or some other way is opened to you. O the depth of God's wisdom
and goodness! O the matchless tenderness of God to his people! Compare the
dealings of providence with you and others, yea, with others that spring 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 accounts, it has made between you and them.

I knew a Christian 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? Malachi 1.2 O
grace, grace, astonishing grace! Compare the behavior of providence towards you
with your own behavior towards the Lord, and it must need melt your hearts to
find so much mercy bestowed where so much sin has been committed. What place did
you ever live in where you cannot remember great provocations committed and,
notwithstanding that, manifold mercies received? O with how many
notwithstandings and neverthelesses has the Lord done you good in every place!
What relationship has not been abused by sin, and yet both raised up and
continued by providence for your comfort? In every place God has left the marks
of his goodness, and you the remembrances of your sinfulness.

Give yourselves but leave to think of these things, and it will be strange if
your hearts do not melt at the remembrance of them. Or lastly, do but consider
your dangers with your fears, and both with the strange outlets and doors of
escape providence has 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 estates, and sometimes your dearest relatives, in
whom, it may be, your life was bound up.

Remember in that day when faintness of spirit seized you, what charges of guilt
stirring up fears of the issue within you? You turned to the Lord in that
distress, and has he not made a way to escape and delivered you from all your
fears? Psalm 34 verse 4 O is your life such a continued throng, such a mad
hurry, that there is no time for Christians to sit alone and think on these
things, and press these marvelous manifestations of God in his providences upon
their own hearts? Surely might these things but lie upon your hearts. Talk with
our thoughts by day, and lodge with us at night, that they would even force
their passage down to our very reign. Due observation of providence will both
beget and secure inward tranquility in your minds, amidst the vicissitudes and
revolutions of things in this unstable vain world.

I will both lay me down in peace and sleep, for thou, Lord, only makest me dwell
in safety. Psalm 4 verse 8 He resolves the sinful fear of events, shall not rob
him of his inward quiet, nor torture his thoughts with anxious forebodings. He
will commit all his concerns into that faithful fatherly hand that had hitherto
wrought all things for him.

And he does not mean to lose the comfort of one night's rest, nor bring the evil
of tomorrow upon today, but knowing in whose hand he was, wisely enjoys the
sweet felicity of a resigned will. Now this tranquility of our minds is as much
begotten and preserved by the due consideration of providence as by anything
whatever. Hence it was that our Lord Jesus Christ, when he would cure the
disciples' anxious and distracting care about a livelihood, bidst them consider
the care providence has over the birds of the air and the lilies of the field,
how it feeds the one and clothes the other without any anxious care of theirs,
and would have them well consider these providences and reason themselves into a
calm and sweet composure of spirit from those considerations.

Matthew 6 verses 27-34 Two things destroy the peace and tranquility of our
lives, our bewailing past disappointments or fearing future ones. But would we
once learn prevision and provision to be divine prerogatives and take notice how
often providence baffles those that pretend to it, causing the good they
foresaw, according to their conjectures, coming to their hand yet to bulk 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 tranquility of our lives. 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, while events hang in a doubtful suspense. First, the supremacy of
providence and its uncontrollable 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 labor of our hands.

I had not thought, said Jacob, to see thy face, and lo, God hath showed me also
thy seed. Genesis 48 verse 11 There is a frequent coincidence of providences in
a way of surprise, which from no appearance or the remotest tendency of outward
causes could be foreseen, but rather falls visibly contrary to the present
scheme and state of our affairs. Nothing tends to convince us of the vanity and
folly of our own anxieties and fears more than this does.

Second, the profound wisdom of providence in all that it performs for the people
of God. The wheels are full of eyes, Ezekiel 118. That is, there is an
intelligent and wise spirit that sits upon and governs the affairs of this
world.

This wisdom shines out to us in the unexpected, yea, contrary events of things.
How 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 intended 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, Deuteronomy 8.16. Sad
and dismal was the face of that providence that sent them out of their own land
into the land of the Chaldeans. Yet even this was a project to do them good,
Jeremiah 24.5. How often have we retracted our rash and headlong censures of
things upon experience of this truth, and been taught to bless our afflictions
and disappointments in the name of the Lord? Many a time have we kissed those
troubles at parting which we met with trembling. And what can promote peace
under doubtful providences more effectually than this? The experiences we have
had throughout our lives of the faithfulness and constancy of providence are of
excellent use to allay and quiet our hearts in any trouble that befalls us.

Hitherto hath the Lord helped us, 1 Samuel 7.12. We never found him wanting to
us in any case hitherto. This is not the first strait we have been in, nor the
first time that our hearts and hopes have been low. Surely he is the same God
now as hitherto.

His hand is not shortened, neither does his faithfulness fail. O recount in how
great extremities former experience has taught you not to despair. The
conjectures Christians may make of the way of providence towards them from what
its former methods have been towards them is 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 know what course providence
usually holds, and accordingly with great probability infer what they may expect
from what in like cases they have formerly observed. Christian, examine your own
heart and its former observations, and you will find, as Psalm 89 verses 30-32,
that it is usually the way of God to prepare some smart rods to correct you when
either your heart has secretly revolted from God and is grown vain, careless and
sensual, or when your steps have declined and you have turned aside to commit
iniquity.

And then, when those rods have been sanctified to humble, reduce and purge your
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 you. 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 a merciful, saith the Lord, and I will not keep anger forever.

Only acknowledge thine iniquity. Jeremiah 3 verses 12 and 13 If therefore I find
the blessed effects of the rod upon me, that it has 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 near. 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.

It is a mighty composing meditation when we compare the providences of God
towards the inanimate and irrational creatures with his providences towards us.
Does 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? Does he so clothe the very grass
of the field, hear the young ravens when they cry for meat, and can it be
supposed he should forget his own people that are of much more value than these?
Matthew 6 verses 26 and 30 Or if we compare the bounty and care that providence
has expressed to the enemies of God, how it feeds and clothes and protects them,
even while 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 has set his love, to whom he has given his son, and for whom he has designed
heaven itself. Lastly, 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 did not know him, provide for us when we
did not own him in any of his mercies, bestow thousands of mercies upon us when
we had no title to Christ or any one promise? And will he now do less for us
since we are reconciled and become his children? Surely such considerations as
these cannot but fill the soul with peace and preserve the tranquility of it
under the most disturbing providences. Do 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? The holiness of God is manifested to
us in all his works of providence. The Lord is righteous in all his ways and
holy in all his works.

The instruments used by providence may be very sinful and wicked. They may aim
at base ends and make use of wicked means 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 noxious 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.

So that in all his providences he sets before us a perfect pattern of holiness
that we might be holy in all our ways, as our Father is in all his ways. But
this is not all. 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 preventative 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? Hosea 2.6, but
that we should not find out paths to sin. Why does he clog us but to prevent our
straying from him? And lest I should be exalted above measure through the
abundance of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the
messenger of Satan to buffet me.

2 Corinthians 12.7 Oh, it is good to attend to these works of God and study the
meaning of them. Sometimes providence ruins a hopeful, thriving project to
better our condition and frustrates all our labors and plans. Why is this but to
hide pride from man? Should you prosper in the world, that prosperity might be
your snare and make you a proud, sensual, vain soul.

The Lord Jesus sees this and therefore withdraws the food and fuel from your
corruptions. It may be you have a diseased, weak body, you labor under many
infirmities. In this the wisdom and care of God over your soul is manifested.

For were you not so clogged, how probable is it that much more guilt might be
contracted. Your poverty does but clog your pride, reproaches clog your
ambition, want prevents wantonness. Sickness of body conduces to the prevention
of many inward gripes of conscience and groans under guilt.

The providences of God may be observed to conduce to our holiness not only by
preventing sin, that we may not fall into it but also by purging our sins when
we have fallen into them. By this therefore shall the iniquity of Jacob be
purged and this is all the fruit to take away his sin. Isaiah 27 verse 9 They
are of the same use that fire and water are for purging and cleansing.

Daniel 11 verses 33 through 35 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
afflicted providences that they purge us from sin. A cross without a Christ
never did any man good.

Now in God's afflicted providences for sin there are many things that tend to
the purging of it. Such rebukes of providence reveal 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 while the father is angry? O this is more bitter to our spirit than all
the smart and anguish of the affliction can be to our flesh. O Lord, rebuke me
not in thy wrath, neither chasten me in thy hot displeasure.

For thine arrows stick fast in me and thine hand presses 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 38 verses 1 through 3 By these rebukes of sin the evil of sin is revealed
more apparent to us and we are made to see more clearly the evil of it in these
glasses of affliction which providence at such times sets before us than we ever
saw formerly. Thine own wickedness shall correct thee and thy backsliding 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.

Jeremiah 2 19 O the gall and wormwood that we taste in it under God's rebukes
for it. Providence blasts and frustrates all sinful projects to the people of
God. Whoever else thrives in them they shall not.

Isaiah 30 verses 1 through 5 And this also convinces them of the folly that is
in sin and makes them cleave to the way of simplicity and integrity. Holiness is
promoted in the soul by cautioning and warning the soul against sin for time to
come. I have borne chastisement, I will not offend any more.

Job 34 verses 31 O happy providences, however smart, that make the soul forever
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. For behold this selfsame thing, that ye sorrowed after a
godly sort. What carefulness it wrought in you.

2 Corinthians 7.11 O if ever a man hath been under a sanctified rod, which hath
shewed 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 will run again into the fire after I have been
already scorched in it. To conclude, providences do greatly improve and promote
holiness by drawing the soul into the presence of God and giving it the
opportunity and occasion of much communion with him.

Comfortable providences will do this. They will melt a man's heart in love to
the God of his mercies and so pain his bowels that he shall not be quiet till he
have found a place to pour out his soul in thankfulness to the Lord. 2 Samuel
7.18 Afflictive providences will drive us to the feet of God and there make us
to judge and condemn ourselves.

And all this has an excellent use to destroy sin and promote holiness in the
soul. Finally, 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.

You find when Jacob died what reflections he had upon the dealings of God with
him in the various providences of his life. Genesis 48 verses 3, 7, 15 and 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.

Joshua 24 And I cannot but think it is a sweet close to the life of any
Christian. It must need sweeten a deathbed to recount there the several
remarkable passages of God's care and love to us from our beginning to that day.
To reflect upon the mercies that went along with us all the way when we are come
to the end of it.

O Christians, treasure up these instances for such a time as that is that you
may go out of the world blessing God for all the goodness and truth he has
performed for you all your life long. Now the meditations of these things must
needs be of great use in that day if you consider the following particulars. The
time of death is the time when souls are usually most violently assaulted by
Satan with horrid temptations and black suggestions.

We may say of that figurative as it is said of the natural serpent he never
exerts his utmost rage to the last encounter and then his great design is to
persuade the saints that God does not love them has 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, Psalm 73 verse
4 whereas you 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
has been treasuring up all his life long the memorials of God's tender regard
both to his needs and prayers and who has carefully marked 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 let the soul give up so
easily a truth which he has so often felt and tasted. I am sure, says he, God
has had a tender fatherly care of me ever since I became his.

He never failed me yet in any form or difficulty 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 the end.

John 13 verse 1 For this God is our God forever and ever. He will be our guide
even unto death. Psalm 48 verse 14 Did he love me in my youth and will he cast
me off in my decrepit age? O God, said David, thou hast taught me from my youth
and hitherto have I declared thy wondrous works.

Now also when I am old and gray-headed, O God, forsake me not. Psalm 71 verse 17
and 18 At death the saints are engaged in the last and one of the most eminent
works of faith even the committing themselves into the hands of God when they
are launching forth into that vast eternity and entering into that new state
which will make so great a change to us in a moment. In this Christ sets us a
pattern.

Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit and having said thus he gave up the
ghost. Luke 23 verse 46 So Stephen at his death Lord Jesus received my spirit.
Acts 7 59 and immediately fell asleep.

There are two signal and remarkable acts of faith both exceedingly difficult 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 cast itself into the ocean of
eternity upon the belief of a promise. But yet I know the first venture of the
soul upon Christ is much more difficult than the last venture upon death and
that which makes it so is in great measure the manifold recorded experiences
that the soul has been gathering up from the day of its espousal to Christ unto
its dying which is in a sense its marriage day.

Oh with what encouragement may a soul throw himself into the arms of that God
with whom he has so long conversed and walked in this world whose visits have
been sweet and frequent with whom the soul has contracted so intimate
acquaintance in this world to whom it has committed all its affairs formerly and
still found him a faithful God and now has no reason to doubt but it shall find
him so in this last distress and exigency also. At death the people of God
receive the last mercies that they shall ever 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 manifold receipts of favor for which he is to reckon with God
speedily and how shall this be done without a due and serious observation and
recording of them now? I know there are thousands of mercies forgotten by the
best of Christians a memory of brass cannot contain them and I know also that
Jesus Christ must make up the account for us or it will never pass with God yet
it is our duty to keep the accounts of our own mercies and how they have been
used by us for we are stewards and then are to give an account of our
stewardship at death we owe an account also to men and stand obliged if there is
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 Genesis 48 verses 2 and 3 as also an account of his afflictions verse 7 so
Joshua in his last speech to the people makes it his business to vindicate and
demonstrate the truth of the promises by recounting to them how the providence
of God had fulfilled the same to a tittle in his day and behold said he this day
I am going the way of all the earth and ye know in your hearts and in 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 23 verse 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 our lives with an honorable account of the
ways of God to go out of the world blessing him for all the mercies and truth
which he has here performed to us how this would encourage we Christians and
convince the atheistical world that verily there is a reality and an excellence
in the ways and people of God at death we begin the angelical life of praise and
thanksgiving we then enter upon that everlasting sweet employment and as I doubt
not but the providences in which we were concerned in this world will be a part
of that song which we shall sing in heaven so certainly it will become us to
tune our hearts and tongue for it while we are here and especially when we are
ready to enter upon that blessed state oh therefore let it be your daily
meditation and study what God has been to you and done for you from the
beginning of his way hitherto and thus I have spread before you some
encouragement to this blessed work oh that you would be persuaded to take up
this lovely and in 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 lack new mercies to record to his
dying day it was said of Claudian that he lacked matters suitable for the
excellency of his powers but where is the head or heart that is suitable for
this matter who can utter the mighty acts of the Lord who can show forth all his
praise Psalm 106 verse 2 Part 3 Application of the Doctrine of Providence
Chapter 11 Practical Implications for the Saints If as we have seen God performs
all things for you God is to be owned by you in all that befalls you in this
world whether it is in a way of success and comfort or of trouble and affliction
oh it is your duty to observe his hand and disposal when God gives you comfort
it is your great evil not to observe his hand in them henceforth that charge
against Israel for she did not know that I gave her corn and wine and oil and
multiplied her silver and gold Hosea 2.8 that is she did not actually and
affectionately consider my care 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 Isaiah 26 verse 11 the ox knows his owner and the ass his master's
crib Isaiah 1.3 the most dull and stupid creatures know their benefactors oh
look to the hand of God in all and know that neither your comforts nor
afflictions do arise out of the dust or spring up out of the ground if God
performs all things for you how great is his condescension to and care over his
people what is man that thou should magnify him and that thou should set thine
heart upon him and that thou should visit him every morning and try him every
moment Job 7 verses 17 and 18 such is his tender care over you that he does not
withdraw his eye from you Job 36 verse 7 lest any hurt you he himself will guard
and keep you day and night Isaiah 27 verse 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 Deuteronomy 33 verse 3 if God performs all things for you
see how obliged you are to perform all duties and services for God it was the
wish of a good man oh that I could be to God what my hand is to me that is a
serviceable useful instrument shall God do all things for you and you will 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 has 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 expects you to bring forth fruit Isaiah 5 verses 1-4 oh
that in return for all the benefits of providence you would say to God as
grateful Elisha said to the Shumanites behold thou hast been careful for us with
all this care what is to be done for thee 2nd Kings 4.13 and with David what
shall I render unto the Lord for all his benefits towards me Psalm 116 verse 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 then flinch from
God when his service and your duty is compassed about with difficulties oh be
active for that God who every moment is active for you does God perform all
things for his people do not distrust him then when new or great difficulties
arise why should you think he that has done so many things for you will now do
no more surely the Lord's hand is not shortened that it cannot save neither his
ear heavy that it cannot hear Isaiah 59 verse 1 if anything put a stop to his
mercy it is your iniquities your distrust and infidelity how long will 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 unbelief 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 unbelieving state again oh that you would
once learn this great truth that no man ever lacked that mercy which he did not
lack a heart to trust and wait quietly upon God for you never yet sought God in
vain except when you sought him vainly does God perform all things for you then
seek God for all by prayer and never undertake any design without him certainly
if he does not perform it for you you can never have what you desire and labor
for and though he has 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 Ezekiel 36 verse
37 I reckon 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 of which we
have engaged God by prayer it is our folly to engage this instrument and that
for us to attempt this way and that to achieve our end and all the while forget
him upon whose pleasure all instruments and means entirely depend that which
begins not with prayer seldom ends with comfort the way of man is not in himself
Jeremiah 10 verse 23 if it were prayer might then be reckoned lost labor oh let
him that performs all be owned and acknowledged in all if God performs 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 that 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 as a spark is easily
extinguished in the sea so will the favor of God extinguish those troubles it is
with such a soul says he as it is with the heavens 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 do not suffer when they seem to suffer everything is
well and shall be well when all is well between us and God the great consolation
of the saint lies in this that all that concerns them is in the hands of their
father Luther said I have utterly despaired 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 here
in the greatest confusions and dangers when one told Baromias 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 Silentarius in a like case if God takes
no care of me how do I live how have I subsisted hitherto though it seems a
romance to many yet we must either quit the scripture or give credit to this
that the most infallible rules for one to raise his fortune and ensure a destiny
that can control the stars are given forth there that is in the scriptures where
one can see that he who knows the truth will govern the stars and the means by
which every man can shape his own fortune a good man may even be his own carver
oh 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 do not turn 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 chapter 12 practical problems in
connection with providence how may a Christian discover the will of God and his
own duty under dark and doubtful providences in order to answer this question we
must consider what is meant by the will of God and what by those doubtful
providences that make the discovery of his will difficult and what rules are to
be observed for ascertaining God's will for us under such difficult and puzzling
providences as to the will of God it falls under a twofold consideration of his
secret and revealed will this distinction is found in that scripture the secret
things belong unto the Lord our God but those things which are revealed belong
unto us Deuteronomy 29 29 the first is the rule of his own actions 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
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 as to the things
revealed there is a great difference the great and necessary duties of religion
are revealed to us in the word with the greatest purpose there is obscurity and
evidence about these there can be no hesitation but things of a lower nature and
lesser concern are left more obscure as to the persons to whom God reveals his
will there is great difference some are strong men others babes 1 Corinthians
3.1 some have senses exercised others are of weak and dull understanding and we
know everything 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 the manner of God's revealing his will to men is also very varied
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 Samuel
9.15 and so had David for you find upon his inquiry of God probably by the Urim
and Thummim God told him what was his duty as to that expedition and what would
be the event of it 1 Samuel 23.2 4 and 9-12 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 difficult 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 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 this Reformation audio track is a production of Stillwater's
Revival Books SWRB makes thousands of classic Reformation resources available
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the web 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.


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  CHAPTER 10: PART 1 11
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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 straight before us. Psalm 5 verse 8. Afraid we are of
displeasing God and yet fearful we may do so, whether we resolve this way or
that.

And this comes to pass not only through the difficulty of the case, but from our
own ignorance and carelessness. And very frequently from those providences that
lie before us in which 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.

That God does give men secret hints and intimations of his will by his
providence cannot be doubted. But yet providences in themselves are no staple
rule of duty nor sufficient discovery of the will of God. We may say of them,
Behold I go forward, but he is not there, and backwards, but I cannot perceive
him.

On the left hand where he doth work, but I cannot behold him. He hideth himself
on the right hand, that I cannot see him. Job 23 verses 8 and 9. If providence
in itself is allowed to be a sufficient means of knowing God's will for us, then
we shall often be forced to justify and condemn the same cause or person, for as
much as there is one event happens to all, and as it falls out to the good, so
to the wicked, Ecclesiastes 9.2. 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.
The safest way, therefore, to make use of providences 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 unbiased spirit in a doubtful case, pray for counsel and direction
from the Lord, attend to the dictates of conscience, and when you have done all,
you will 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 as a scripture rule. No smiles or successes of providence may in this
encourage us to proceed, and on the other side, no frowns or discouragements of
providence should discourage us in the way of our duty, however many we should
encounter therein. Holy Job could not find the meaning of God in his works, yet
would he not go back from the commandments of his lips.

Job 23 verse 12 The like resolution you will find in David to proceed in his
duty and cleave to the word, however many stumbling blocks providence should
permit to be laid in his way. For I am become, saith he, like a bottle in the
smoke, not only black, but withered up by troubles, yet do I not forget thy
statutes. Psalm 119 verse 83 And they had almost consumed me upon earth, but I
forsook not thy precepts.

Verse 87 Paul by the direction of the Spirit was engaged to go to Jerusalem.
Acts 20 verse 22 After a clear revelation of the mind of God to him in that
matter, how many difficult and discouraging providences beset him in his way.
The disciples at Tyre said to him through the Spirit, though in that they
followed their own spirit, that he should not go to Jerusalem.

Acts 21 verse 4 Then at Caesarea he met Agabus, a prophet, who told him what
should befall him when he came there. Acts 21 verses 10 and 11 But all this
would not dissuade him. And after all this, how patiently do the brethren
beseech him to decline that journey.

Verses 12 and 13 Yet knowing his rule and resolving to be faithful to it, he
puts by all and proceeds in his journey. Well then, providence in concurrence
with the word may give some encouragement to us in our way, but no testimony of
providence is to be accepted against the word. If scripture and conscience tell
you such a way is sinful, you may not venture upon it however many opportunities
and encouragements providence may permit 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 legitimize 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 the following 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. Psalm 25 verse 14 2. Study the word more, and the concerns and
interests of the world less. The word is a light to your feet.

Psalm 119 verse 105 That is, it has a discovering and directing usefulness as to
all 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 mine heart, that I might not sin against thee. Psalm 119
verse 11 3. Reduce what you know into practice, and you shall know what is your
duty to practice. If any man do his will, he shall know of the doctrine.

John 7 verse 17 A good understanding have all they that do his commandments.
Psalm 111 verse 10 4. Pray for illumination and direction in the way that you
should go. Beg the Lord to guide you in straights, and that he would not permit
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. Chapter 8 verse
21 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 subservience
to it. And there are two excellent uses of providence in subservience to the
word. Providences, as they follow promises and prayer, are evidences of God's
faithfulness in their accomplishment.

When David languished under a disease, and his enemies began to triumph in the
hope of his downfall, he praised that God would be merciful to him and raise him
up. Psalm 41 verse 10 And by that, he says, he knew the Lord favored him,
because his enemy did not triumph over him. Verse 11 This providence he looked
upon as a token for good, as elsewhere he calls it.

Psalm 86 verse 17 Also 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 befell the church or ourselves, they call us to humiliation, and let
us know that then the command upon us to humble ourselves at the feet of God is
in force upon us. The Lord's voice crieth unto the city, and the man of wisdom
shall see thy name, hear ye the rod, and who hath appointed it.

Micah 6 verse 9 The rod has a voice, and what does it speak? Why, now is the
time to humble yourselves unto the mighty hand of God. This is the day of
trouble, in which God hath bid you to call upon him. And on the contrary, when
comfortable providences refresh us, it now informs us this is the time to
rejoice in God, according to the rule, in the day of prosperity be joyful.

Ecclesiastes 7 verse 14 These precepts bind always, but not to always. 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.

Thus far with the first case. How may a Christian be supported in waiting upon
God, while providence delays the performance of the mercies to him for which he
has long prayed and waited? It is 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, and that during that delay and suspense our hearts and hopes may
be very low and ready to fail. Providence truly 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
are times and seasons, Acts 1 7, another by ourselves who raise up our own
expectations of mercies, sometimes merely through the eagerness of our desires
after them, 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 has
appointed, however long it is, or however many obstacles lie in the way of it.
There was a time prefixed by God himself for the performance of that promise of
Israel's deliverance out of Egypt, and it is said, And it came to pass at the
end of the four hundred and thirty years, even the selfsame day it came to pass,
that all the hosts of the Lord went out of the land of Egypt.

Exodus 12 verse 41 Compare this with Acts 7 17, and there you have the ground
and reason why their deliverance was not, nor could be delayed one day longer,
because the time of the promise was now come. Promises, like a pregnant woman,
must accomplish their appointed months, and when they have done so, providence
will midwife the mercies they go big with into the world, 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
here are our disappointments.

We looked for peace, but no good came, and for a time of health, and behold,
trouble. Jeremiah 8 15 And this is why we fret at the delays of providence, and
suspect the faithfulness of God in their performance. But his thoughts are not
our thoughts.

Isaiah 55 verse 8 The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men
count slackness. 2 Peter 3 9 It is slackness if you reckon by your own rule and
measure, but it is not so if you reckon and count by God's. The Lord does not
compute and reckon his seasons by working by our arithmetic.

You have both these rules compared, and the ground of our mistake detected in
that scripture. For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the time it
shall speak and not lie, though it tarry, wait for it, because it will surely
come, it will not tarry. Habakkuk 2 3 God appoints the time, when that appointed
time is come, the expected mercy will not fail.

But in the meantime, though it tarry, says 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. During this delay of providence, the hearts and hopes of the people
of God may be very low and much discouraged.

This is too plain from what the scriptures have recorded of others, and every
one of us may find in our own experiences. We have an instance of this in
Isaiah, where you have God's faithful promise that he will comfort his people
and will have mercy upon his afflicted, chapter 49, verse 13. 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, verse 14.

That is, it is in vain to look for such a mercy. God has 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 due time so
faithfully performed it, that never was mercy better secured to any man, for
they are called the sure mercies of David, Isaiah 55, 3. Yet Providence delayed
the accomplishment of them so long, and permitted such difficulties to
intervene, that he despairs to see the accomplishment of them, but even
concludes God had forgotten him too. How long wilt thou forget me, O Lord?
Forever? Psalm 13, verse 1. And what he speaks here by way of question, he
elsewhere turns into a positive conclusion. All men are liars.

Psalm 116, verse 11. I shall one day perish by the hand of Saul. 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 the immediate effects of unbelief. We do not depend and rely upon the
word with that full trust and confidence that is due to the infallible word of a
faithful and unchangeable God. You may see the ground of this faintness in that
scripture, I had fainted unless I had believed.

Psalm 27, verse 13. Faith is the only cordial that relieves the heart against
these faintings and despondencies. Where this is wanting, or is weak, no wonder
our hearts sink at this rate when discouragements are before us.

Our judging and measuring things by the rules of sense, this is a great cause of
our discouragement. We conclude that according to the appearance of things 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. Romans 4, verses 18 and 20. If Paul had done so, he had
fainted under his trials.

We faint not, said he, while we look not at the things that are seen. 2
Corinthians 4, verses 16 and 18. As much as to say, that which keeps up our
spirit is our looking off from present things and visible, and measuring all by
another rule, that is the power and fidelity of God, firmly engaged in the
promises.

In all these things, Satan schemes against 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 mischief maker between God and
the saints. He reports and exploits the difficulties and fears that are in our
way, and labors 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 carrying on
under very plausible pretenses against our souls. It concerns us to be watchful
now, and maintain our faith and hope in God.

Now blessed is he that can resign all to God, and quietly wait for his
salvation. To assist the soul in this difficulty I shall offer some further help
in the following considerations. Though providence does 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 build your hope upon, and if so, why should God
be suspected and dishonored by you in a case in which his truth and faithfulness
was never engaged to you? If we are thwarted in our outward concerns, and see
our expectations of prosperity dashed, if we see such and such an outward
comfort removed from which we promised ourselves much, why must God be blamed
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 where he has 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,
Psalm 84, verse 11, has its limitations. It is expressly limited to such as walk
uprightly.

It concerns you to examine whether you have done so before you quarrel with
providence for non-performance of it. Ah, friend, search your own heart, reflect
upon your own ways. Do you not see so many flaws in your integrity, so many
turnings aside from God both in heart and life, that may justify God not only in
withholding what you look for, but in removing all that you enjoy? And besides
this limitation as to the object, it is limited, as all other promises relating
to externals are, in the matter or things premised 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 are disappointed, we can blame none but ourselves. Who bid us
expect rest, ease, delight, and things of that kind in this world? He has never
told us we shall be rich, healthy, and at ease in our habitation, but on the
contrary, he has often told us we must expect troubles in the world, and that we
must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God. All that he stands
bound to us by promise for, is to be with us in trouble, to supply our real and
absolute needs, and to sanctify all these providences to our good at last, and
we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them
who are called according to his purpose, Romans 8.28. And as to all these
things, not one tittle ever did or shall fail.

If you say you have long waited upon God for spiritual mercies to your souls
according to the promise, and still those mercies are deferred, and your eyes
fail while 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 to its well-being in
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 see, 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, Jeremiah 32.40. But
for the rest they are dispensed to us in such measures and at such seasons 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 is necessary, but his joys and comforts are not so. A child of light
may walk in darkness, Isaiah 50.10. He lives by faith and not by feeling. You
complain that 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 4.3. The lack of a
good aim is the reason why we lack good success in our prayers.

It may be we pray for prosperity, and our aim is to please the flesh. We look no
higher than the pleasure and accommodation of the flesh. We beg and wait for
deliverance from 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
is so, you have more need to judge and condemn yourselves than to censure and
suspect the care of God. You wait for good, and it does not come, 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 mercy promised
to him, yea, and to be content without it before he enjoyed it.

He was brought to be as a weaned child, Psalm 131, verse 2, and so must you.
Your bidders have waited long upon God for mercy, and why should not you? David
waited till his eyes failed, Psalm 69, verse 3. The church waited for him in the
way of his judgment, Isaiah 26, verse 8. Are you better than all the saints that
have gone before you? Is God more obliged to you than to all his people? They
have quietly waited, and why should not you? Will you lose anything by patiently
waiting upon God for mercy? Certainly not, 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 exercising your grace, and it is more excellent to act grace than to enjoy
comfort.

All this time the Lord is training you up in the exercise of faith and patience,
and bending your wills in submission to himself, and what do you lose by that?
Yea, and whenever the desired mercies come, it will be so much the sweeter to
you, for look how much faith and prayer has 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
delays with you. Are not those mercies you expect from God worth waiting for? If
not, it is your folly to be troubled for the lack of them.

If they are, why do you not 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 in his hands. You expect them,
not as a recompense, but as a free favor, and if so, then certainly the least
you can do is wait upon his pleasure for them. Consider how many promises are
made in the word to waiting souls.

One scripture declares, Blessed are all they that wait for him, Psalm 30 verse
18. Another tells us that none that wait for him shall be ashamed, Psalm 25
verse 3. That is, they shall not be finally disappointed, but at last be made
partakers of their hope. A third scripture tells us, They that wait upon the
Lord shall renew their strength, Isaiah 40 verse 31.

A promise you had made 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? How long has God waited for you
to comply with his commands, to come up to your engagements and promises? You
have made God wait long for your reformation and obedience, and therefore you
have no reason to think it much if God makes you wait long for your consolation.
You have our how longs, and has not God his? We cry, But thou, O Lord, how long?
Psalm 6, 3. How long wilt thou forget me, O Lord, forever? How long wilt thou
hide thy face from me? How long shall I take counsel in my soul, having sorrow
in my heart daily? How long shall mine enemy be exalted over me? Psalm 13,
verses 1 and 2. But surely we should not think these things long, when we
consider how long the Lord has exercised his patience towards us.

We have made him say, How long, how long? Our unbelief has made him cry, How
long will it be ere they believe me? Numbers 14, verse 11. Our corrupt hearts
have made him cry, How long shall thy vain thoughts lodge within thee? Jeremiah
4, 14. Our impure natures and ways have made him cry, How long will it be ere
they attain to innocency? Hosea 8, 5. If God waits for you with so much patience
for your duties, well may you wait upon him for his mercies.

This impatience and infidelity of yours, expressed in your weariness to wait any
longer, is a great evil in itself. Very probably it is that evil which obstructs
the way of your expected mercies. You might have your mercies sooner if your
spirits were quieter and more submissive, and so much for the second case.

How may a Christian discern when a providence is sanctified and comes from the
love of God to him? There are two sorts or kinds of providences which come to
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, Romans 8, 28. Not only things that are
good in themselves as ordinances, graces, duties, and mercies, but things that
are evil in themselves as temptations, afflictions, and even their sins and
corruptions, shall turn in the issue to their advantage and benefit.

For though sin is so intrinsically and formally evil in its own nature, that in
itself it is 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, 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 by
it. And so for afflictions of all kinds, the greatest and sorest of them, under
the influence of providence bring 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, therefore, shall the iniquity of Jacob be purged, Isaiah 27, verse 9,
that is, by the instrumentality of this sanctified affliction. To others nothing
is sanctified, either as an instrument or occasion of any spiritual good, but as
the worst things are ordered to the benefit of the saints, so the best things
wicked men enjoy do them no good. Their prayers are turned into sin, Psalm 109,
verse 7. The ordinances are the savor of death, 2 Corinthians 2, verse 16.

The grace of God turned into wantonness, Jude 4. Christ himself a rock of
offense, 1 Peter 2, 8. Their table a snare, Psalm 69, verse 22. Their prosperity
their ruin, Proverbs 1, verse 32. As persons are, so things work for good or
evil.

Unto the pure all things are pure, but unto them that are defiled and
unbelieving is nothing pure, Titus 1, verse 15. Seeing, therefore, the events of
providence fall out so opposite to each other upon the godly and ungodly,
everything furthering the eternal good of the one in the ruin of the other, it
cannot but be acknowledged the most important case in which every soul is deeply
concerned whether the providences under which he is are sanctified to him or
not. For the understanding of this I shall premise two necessary considerations
and then give the rules which will be useful for the resolution of the question.

First, let it be considered that we cannot know from the matter of the things
before us whether they are sanctified or unsanctified to us. For no man knoweth
either love or hatred by all the things that are before him. All things come
alight to all, Ecclesiastes 9, verses 1 and 2. We cannot understand the mind and
heart of God by the things he dispenses with his hand.

If prosperous providences befall us, we cannot say, This is a sure sign that God
loves me. For who have more of those providences than the people of his wrath?
They have more than heart could wish. Psalm 73, verse 7. Surely 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 adverse
afflictive providences we cannot know his hatred.

If afflictions, great afflictions, many afflictions, long continued afflictions,
should set a brand or fix a character of 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, sensuous 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 state is discernible by the view
of his temporal. When God draws the sword, it may cut off the righteous as well
as the wicked.

Ezekiel 21, verse 3. Secondly, though the providences of God materially
considered afford no evidence of God's love to us, yet the manner in which they
befall us and the effects and fruits they produce in us do distinguish them very
manifestly. And by them we may discern whether they are sanctified providences
and fruits of the love of God or not. Yet these effects and fruits of
providences by which we discern their nature do not always appear immediately,
but time must be allowed for the soul's exercise under them.

Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous.
Nevertheless, afterwards it yieldeth the peaceable spirit of righteousness unto
them which are exercised thereby. Hebrews 12, verse 11.

The benefit of a providence is discerned as that of a medicine is. For the
present it grips 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 are some of them comfortable and others sad and grievous to
nature, and the way to discern the sanctification and blessing of them is by the
spirit 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 show them to be sanctified and
blessed to us. And first for sad and afflictive providences, in whatever kind or
degree they befall us, we may warrantedly conclude they are blessings to us and
come from the love of God when they come in a proper season when we have need of
them, either to prevent some sin we are falling into or recover us out of a
remiss, supine, and careless frame of spirit into which we are already fallen.
If need be, ye are in heaviness.

1 Peter 1.6 Certainly it is a good sign that God designs your good by those
troubles which are so fitted and wisely ordered to meet the need. If you see the
husbandman pruning a tree in the proper season, it argues he aims at the
fruitfulness and flourishing of it, but to do the same thing at midsummer speaks
no regard to it, yea, his design to destroy it. When our troubles are fitted
both for quality and degree to work properly upon our most predominant
corruptions, then they look like sanctified strokes.

The wisdom of God is much seen in the choice of his rods. It is not any kind of
trouble that will work upon and purge every sin, but when God chooses for us
such afflictions as, like medicine, are suited to the disease the soul labors
under, this speaks divine care and love. Thus we may observe that 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, and to cross us in those things from
which we are raised up to great expectations of comfort.

These providences show 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 our inherent grace. In measure, when it shooteth forth,
thou wilt debate with it.

He stayeth his rough wind in the day of the east wind. Isaiah 27, verse 8 It is
an allusion to a physician who exactly weighs and measures all the ingredients
which he mingles in a potion for his sick patient, that it may be proportionate
to his strength, and no more. And so much the next words intimate, by this
therefore shall the iniquity of Jacob be purged.

Verse 8 It is a good sign that our troubles are sanctified to us when they turn
our hearts against sin and not against God. There are few great afflictions
which befall men, but they make them quarrelsome and discontented. Wicked men
quarrel with God, and are filled with discontent against him.

So the scripture describes them, And men were scorched with great heat, and
blasphemed the name of God, which hath power over these plagues. Revelation 16,
verse 9 But godly men, to whom afflictions are sanctified, they justify God, and
fall out with sin. They condemn themselves, and give glory to God.

O Lord, righteousness belongs unto thee, but unto us confusion of faces. Daniel
9, verse 7 And, wherefore doth a living man complain? A man for the punishment
of his sins. Lamentations 3, verse 39 Happy afflictions, which make the soul
fall out and quarrel only with sin.

It is a sure sign that afflicting providences are sanctified when they purge the
heart from sin and leave both heart and life more pure, heavenly, mortified, and
humble than they found them. Sanctified afflictions are cleansers. They pull
down the pride, refine earthliness, and purge out the vanity of the spirit.

So you read, Daniel 11, verse 35 that it purifies and makes their souls white.
Hence, it is compared to a furnace which separates the dross from the pure
metal. Behold, I have refined thee, but not with silver.

I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction. Isaiah 48, verse 10 But for
wicked men, let them be never so long in the furnace. They lose no dross.

Ezekiel 24, verse 6 How many Christians can bear witness to this truth? After
some sharp affliction has been upon them, how is the earthliness of their hearts
purged? They see no beauty, taste no more relish in the world than in the white
of an egg. Oh, how serious, humble, and heavenly are they till the impressions
made upon them by afflictions are 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, says a late writer, be but two or three years without an
affliction, and he is almost good for nothing. He cannot pray, nor meditate, nor
discourse at that rate he would want to do. But when a new affliction comes, now
he can find his tongue and come to his knees again and live at another rate.

It is a good sign that afflictive providences are sanctified to us when we draw
near to God unto them and turn to him that smites us. A wicked man under
affliction revolts more and more, Isaiah 1.5. Turneth not unto him that smiteth
him, Isaiah 9.13. But grows worse than before. Formality is turned into
stupidity and indolence.

But if God afflicts His own people with a sanctified rod, it awakens them to a
more earnest seeking of God. It makes them pray more frequently, spiritually,
and fervently than ever. When Paul was buffeted by Satan, he besought the Lord
thrice, 2 Corinthians 12.8. 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 enslave 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.

Though thou hast sore broken us in the place of dragons and covered us with the
shadow of death. Psalm 44 verses 17-19 Here you have a true account of the
attitude 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 enforces the
most dismal state of affliction.

Yet even then a gracious heart does not turn back, that is, does not for all
this abate one drachm of love to God. God is as good and dear to Him in
afflictions as ever. 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. Psalm 94 verse 12 Sanctified afflictions are eye salve. They teach us
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 does a Christian take a truer measure both of his corruptions and graces
than under the rod. Now a man sees that filthiness that has been long
contracting in prosperity, what interest the creature has in the heart, how
little faith, patience, resignation and self-denial we can find when God calls
us to the exercise of them. O, it is a blessed sign that trouble is sanctified
when a man thus turns in upon his own heart and searches it and humbles himself
before the Lord for the evils of it.

In the next place let us take into consideration the other branch of providences
which are comfortable and pleasant. Sometimes it smiles upon us in successes,
prosperity and the gratification of the desires of our hearts. Here the question
will be how the sanctification of these providences may be known by us.

For resolution in this matter, I shall for clearness sake lay down two sorts of
rules, one negative, the other positive. Number one, negative. It is a sign that
comfort is not sanctified to us which does not come ordinarily in the way of
prayer.

For the wicked boasteth of his heart's desire and blesseth the covetous whom the
Lord abhorreth. The wicked, through the pride of his confidence, will not seek
after God. God is not in all his thoughts.

Psalm 10 verses 3 and 4 Here you see providence may give men their heart's
desire and yet they never once open their desires to God in prayer about it.
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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 7.31 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


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  CHAPTER 11: PART 1 11
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Here you see Providence may give men their heart's desire, and yet they never
once open their desires to God in prayer about it. But then those gifts of
Providence are only such as are bestowed on the worst of men and are not the
fruits of love. Whatever success, prosperity, or comfort men acquire by sinful
means and indirect forces 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. Proverbs 16, verse 8.
Better upon this account that it comes in God's way and with His blessing, which
never follows the way of sin.

God has cursed the ways of sin, and no blessing can follow them. Whatever
prosperity and success makes men forget God and cast off the care of duty is not
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 kind and milk of sheep, with fat of lambs, and rams of
the breed of basian and goats, with the fat of kidneys of wheat. And thou didst
drink the pure blood of the great, but Jeshurun waxed fat and kicked.

Thou art waxen fat, thou art young thick, thou art covered with fatness. Then he
forsook God which made him, and rightly esteemed the rock of his salvation.
Deuteronomy 32, verses 13-15.

Of the rock that begat thee, thou art unmindful, and hath forgotten God that
formed thee. Verse 18. There is little stench of sacrifice on the altars of the
rich.

Impossibility is abused to sensuality, and merely serves as fuel to maintain
fleshly lust. It is not sanctified. They 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 21, verses
11-13.

It is a sign that prosperity is not sanctified to men, when it swells the heart
with pride and self-conceitedness. 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 honor of my majesty? Daniel 4, verses 29-30.

That success is not sanctified to men, which takes them from 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. Jeremiah 2, verses 31. 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 vial, 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 afflictions of Joseph. Amos 6, verses 4-6.
Number two, positive.

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. And Jacob said, I am not worthy of the least of all thy mercies, and of
all the truth which thou hast shown unto thy servant. Genesis 32, verses 9 and
10.

Sanctified mercies are commonly turned into cautions against sin. Ezra 9.13.
There are so many bands of restraint upon the soul that has them to make them
shun sin. They will engage a man's heart in love to the God of his mercies.

Psalm 18, verse 1, and also the title. They never satisfy a man as his portion,
nor will the soul accept all the prosperity in the world upon that score.
Esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt, for
he had respect unto the recompense of the reward.

Hebrews 11, verse 26. Nor do they make men regardless of public sins or
miseries. Nehemiah 2, verses 1 through 3, compared with Acts 7, verse 23.

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's presence, and he had riches and
honor in abundance, and his heart was lifted up in the ways of the Lord. 2
Chronicles, chapter 17, verses 5 and 6. 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. How may we attain an evenness and steadiness of
spirit under the changes and contrary aspects of providence upon us? Three
things are supposed in this case. Number one, that providence has various and
contrary aspects upon the people of God.

Number two, that it is a common thing with them to experience great disorders of
spirit under those changes of providence. Number three, that these disorders may
be, at least in a great measure, prevented by the due use and application of
those rules and helps that God has given us in such cases. That providence has
various, yea, contrary aspects upon the people of God is a case so plain that it
needs no more than the mentioning to commend it to all our understandings.

Which of all the people of God have not felt this truth? Providence brings the
changes all over the world. He increases the nations and destroys them. He
enlarges the nations and straightens them again.

Job 12, verse 23. The same it does with persons. Thou hast lifted me up and cast
me down.

Psalm 102, verse 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? Lamentations 1.1 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 you, wherewith the Lord hath afflicted me in the day of his fierce
anger.

Verse 12. And how great an instance was Job of this truth. Job 29 and 30
compared.

How many thousands have complained with Naomi, whose condition has been so
strangely altered that others have said, as the people of Bethlehem did of her,
Is this Naomi? Ruth 1.19 These vicissitudes of providence commonly cause great
disorders of spirit in the best of 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 reveal the weaknesses and corruption of holy men. Hezekiah was a good man,
but yet his weakness and corruption was betrayed by the alterations providence
made upon his conditions.

When sickness and pains summoned him to the grave, what bitter complaints and
despondencies are recorded? Isaiah 38. And when providence lifted him up again
into a prosperous condition, what ostentation and vain glory did he show? Isaiah
39.2 David had more than a common stock of inherent grace, yet not enough to
keep him in an evenness of spirit under great alterations. And in my prosperity
I said, I shall never be moved.

Thou didst hide thy face, and I was troubled. Psalm 30 verses 6 and 7. Is it not
every man that can say with Paul, I know both how to be abased, and I know how
to abound, everywhere and in all things I am instructed, both to be full and to
be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. Philippians 4 verse 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 are 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 has given us in such cases, and these shall be considered accordingly.
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 condition.

To prevent this, we had need urge humbling and awakening considerations upon our
own hearts such as the following. 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 fullness with these things.

Their eyes stand out with fatness. They have more than heart could wish. Think
how unstable and changeable all these things are.

What you glory in today may be none of yours tomorrow. For riches certainly make
themselves wings. They fly away as an eagle towards heaven.

As the wings of a fowl grow out of the substance of its body, so the cause of
the creature's transitoryness is in itself. It is subjected to vanity, and that
vanity like wings carries it away. They are but fading flowers.

James 1.10 The change of providences is never nearer to the people of God than
when their hearts are lifted up or grown secure by prosperity. Does Hezekiah
glory in his treasures? The next news he hears is of an impoverishing providence
at hand. Isaiah 39.2-7 Others may be left to perish in unsanctified prosperity,
but you shall not.

This is a great revelation of the carnality and corruption that is in your
heart. It argues a heart little set upon God, little mortified to the world,
little acquainted with the vanity and ensnaring nature of these things. Oh, you
do not know what hearts you have till such providences try them.

And is not such a discovery matter of deep humiliation? 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, I did know thee in the wilderness,
in the land of great drought. According to their pasture so were they filled.

They were filled, and their heart was exalted. Therefore have they forgotten me.
Isaiah 13.5-6 As much as to say, you and I were better acquainted formerly when
you were in a low condition.

Prosperity has estranged you and altered the case. How sad it is that God's
mercies should be the occasion of our estrangement from Him. How may our hearts
be established and kept steady under calamitous and adverse providences? Here we
are in equal danger of the other extreme, that is, despondency and sinking under
the frowns and strokes of contrary providences.

Now to support and establish the heart in this case, consider the following.
Afflictive providences are of great use to the people of God. They cannot live
without them.

The earth does not need more chastening frosts and mellowing snows than our
hearts do nipping providences. Let the best Christian be but a few years without
them, and he will be aware of the need of them. He will find a sad remissness
and declining upon all his graces.

No stroke of calamity upon the people of God can separate them from Christ. Who
shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation? Romans 8.35 There
was a time when Job could call nothing in this world his own but trouble. He
could not say, My estate, my honor, my health, my children, for all these were
gone.

Yet then he could say, My Redeemer. Chapter 19, verse 25 Well then, there is no
cause to sink while interest in Christ remains sure to us. All your calamities
will have an end shortly.

The longest day of the saints' troubles has an end, and then no more troubles
forever. The troubles of the wicked will be to eternity, but you shall suffer
but a little while. 1 Peter 5.10 If a thousand troubles are appointed for you,
they will come to one at last, and after that no more.

Yea, and though our light afflictions are but for a moment, yet they work for us
a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. 2 Corinthians 4.17 Let that
support your hearts under all your sufferings. Next, 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 do not know which way the
providence of God will cast and determine them.

Now the best hearts are apt to grow concerned and pensive, distracted with
anxiety about the event and outcome. To relieve and settle us in this case, the
following considerations are very useful. Let us consider the vanity and
uselessness of such anxiety.

Which of you, by taking thought, can add one cubit unto his stature? Matthew
6.27 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 23.13 We may, by struggling against God, increase, but not avoid or lighten
our troubles. How often do we afflict and torment ourselves by our own restless
thoughts when there is no real cause or ground for so doing, and have 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? Isaiah 51.13 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 today. How great a ground of quietness it is 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. Jesus answered,
Thou couldst have no power at all against me, except it were given thee from
above. John 19.11 Neither men nor devils can do anything without God's leave,
and be sure He will sign no order to your prejudice.

How great satisfaction must it be to all that believe the divine authority of
the Scripture 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 is, 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 honor 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 quiet, therefore, in the confidence of a blessed outcome.

How great and sure a means have the saints ever found it to their own peace to
commit all doubtful outcomes of providence to the Lord, and devolve all their
cares upon Him. Commit thy works unto the Lord, and thy thoughts shall be
established. Proverbs 16.3 By works he means any doubtful, intricate, perplexing
business about which our thoughts are wracked 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 tranquility and peace in your thoughts. And who is there of any
standing or experience in religion that has not found it so? How may a Christian
work his heart into resignation to the will of God when sad providences approach
him and forebode great troubles and afflictions coming on toward him? For the
right stating and resolving of this important case, it will be needful to show
what is not included and intended in the question, what it does suppose and
include in it, and what help and directions are necessary for the due
performance of this great and difficult duty.

It must be premised that the question does 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 acted upon 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, however difficult, through Christ that
strengthens us. Philippians 4.13 But without him we can do nothing. John 15.5 He
does 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 has a witness in his own breast to attest this truth, for
there are cases frequently occurring in the methods of providence in which,
notwithstanding all their prayers and desires, all their reasonings and
strivings, they cannot quiet their hearts fully in the disposal and will of God,
but on the contrary they find all their endeavors 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. Let us consider what this
case does suppose and include in it, and we shall find 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 well as comforts
come upon us by way of surprise, but often we have forewarning 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. Matthew 16 verse 3 So there are as certain signs
of the times by which 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, 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 administrations of his
providence in all ages, and partly from the reflections Christians make upon the
attitude and disposition 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 in vain will his heart grow.

And such a disposition presages affliction to them that are beloved of the Lord,
as really as the giving or sweating of the stones does rain. Lastly, the
ordering and disposing of the next causes into a posture and preparation for our
trouble, plainly warns us that trouble is at the door. Thus when the symptoms of
sickness begin to appear on our own bodies, the wife of our bosom, or our
children, that are as our own souls, providence herein awakens our expectations
of death and doleful separations.

So when enemies combine together and plot the ruin of our liberties, estates, or
lives, and God seems to lose the bridle of restraint upon our neck, we cannot
but be alarmed with the near approach of troubles, especially when at the same
time our conscience reflects upon the abuse and non-improvement of these, our
threatened comforts. 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 tumult and rebellion.

Ah, how unwilling we are 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 of God? Art thou come
unto me to call my sin to remembrance, and to slay my son? And this arises
partly from the remains of corruption in the best of souls, for though every
sanctified person is come by his own consent into the kingdom, and under the
government and scepter of Christ, and every thought of his heart by right must
be subjected to him, yet in fact the conquest and power of grace is but
incomplete and in part, and natural corruption, like Jeroboam with his vain men,
rises up against it and causes many mutinies in the soul, while grace, like
young Abijah, is weak-handed and cannot resist them, and partly from the
advantage Satan makes upon the season to irritate and assist our corruptions. He
knows that what is already in motion is the more easily moved. In this confusion
and hurry of thoughts he undiscerningly slips in his temptations, sometimes
aggravating the evils which we fear with all the thinking and overwhelming
circumstances imaginable, sometimes divining and forecasting such events and
evils as happily never fall out, sometimes repining at the disposals of God as
more severe to us than others, and sometimes reflecting with very unbelieving
and unworthy thoughts upon the promises of God and his faithfulness in them, by
all which the affliction is made to sink deep into the soul before it actually
comes.

The thoughts are so disordered that duty cannot be duly performed, and the soul
is really 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 tomorrow, and so when tomorrow is come he
faints midway on his journey for want of rest. 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 their outcome to him,
whatever they may prove. Thus did David in the like case 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 I. Let him do to me as seemeth good unto him.

2 Samuel 15 verses 25 and 26 O lovely and truly Christian attitude! As much as
to say, 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 I shall see it again, and enjoy the Lord in his ordinances there.
If I do not, then I shall go to that place where there is no need or use of
those things. And either way it will be well for me.

I am content to refer all to the divine pleasure, and commit the issue, be it
whatever it will, to the Lord. Until 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.

Proverbs 16 verse 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 to 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.

There is no doubt of peace. Could we once bring our hearts to that? And
therefore, I shall here give such helps and directions as may, through God's
blessing, and in the faithful use of them, assist and facilitate this great and
difficult work. Labor 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 does is by counsel.
Ephesians 1.11 His understanding is infinite.

Psalm 147 verse 5 His thoughts are very deep. Psalm 92 verse 5 But as for man,
yea, the wisest among men, how little does his understanding penetrate the works
and designs of providence. And how often we are forced to retract our rash
opinions, and confess our mistakes, and to acknowledge that if providence had
not seen with better eyes than ours, and looked farther 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 guided and governed by
another that is more wise and skillful than himself, as the client by his
learned counsel, the patient by his skillful physician, much more should every
one give up his weak reason and shallow understanding to the infinite and
omniscient God. It is nothing but our pride and arrogance, overvaluing our own
understandings, that makes resignation so hard.

Carnal reason seems to itself a wise disputant about the concerns of the flesh.
But how often has 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 of or contrived has taken
place. Not our choice of the ground, nor skill in weighing and delivering the
bowl, but some unforeseen providence, like a rub in the green, was that which
made the cast.

Deeply consider the sinfulness and vanity of torturing your own thoughts about
the issues of doubtful providences. There is much sin in so doing, for all our
anxious and agitated emotions, what are they other than the immediate outcome
and fruits of pride and unbelief? There is not a greater display of pride in the
world than in the contest of our wills with the will of God. It is a
presumptuous invading of God's prerogative to dictate to his providence and
prescribe to his wisdom.

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.

Isaiah 31 verse 2 He is in one mind. Job 23 verse 13 The thoughts of his mind
are from everlasting. Psalm 33 verse 11 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 quarreling
attitude with providence.

You know what a close trial that providence was to Abraham that called him from
his native country and father's house to go he knew not where. And yet it is
said that he came to God's foot, as readily obeying his call as a servant when
his master knocks for him with his foot. Isaiah 41 verse 2 Paul's voyage to
Jerusalem had a dismal aspect upon himself.

He could expect nothing but bonds and prisons, as he tells us. Acts 20 verse 23
And a 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.

Chapter 20 verse 22 And so do they. The will of the Lord be done. Chapter 21
verse 14 But far beyond these and all other patterns, what an example has 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 sufferings into his hands in the garden, a cup
of wrath, the wrath of the great and terrible God, and that without mixture, the
very taste of which put nature into an agony and astonishment, a sore amazement,
a bloody sweat, and forced from him that vehement and sad cry, Abba, Father, all
things are possible unto thee. Take away this cup from me, yet still with
submission. Nevertheless, not what I will, but what thou wilt.

Mark 14 verse 36 O blessed pattern of obedience and resignation to the pleasure
of God, what is your case in comparison to this? Study the singular benefits and
advantages of a will resigned up and melted into the will of God. Such a spirit
has a continual Sabbath within itself. The thoughts are established, Proverbs 16
verse 3, and truly till a man comes to this, he does 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 of some affairs of his that were then
depending. The 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 giveth his beloved sleep.

Psalm 127 verse 2 He does not mean the sleep of the body, but of the spirit. As
one has said on this verse, Though believers live in the midst of many troubles
here, yet with quiet and composed minds they keep themselves in the silence of
faith, as though they were asleep. Besides, it fits a man's spirit for communion
with God in all his afflictions, and this alleviates and sweetens them beyond
anything in the world.

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
attitude. David was never nearer the kingdom than when he became as a weaned
child. Think how repugnant and unsubmissive attitude 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 contrary to your will or interest, you struggle or fret against
it. You profess to have committed your souls to his keeping, and to leave your
eternal concerns in his hands, yet cannot commit these infinitely less valuable
unto him. How contradictory are these things! You profess as Christians to be
led by the Spirit, but this practice shows you 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 cases and at all times, The will of the Lord be done. And
this I have, through the aid of providence, performed what I design to speak
from this scripture. I acknowledge that my performances have been accompanied
with much weakness, yet I have endeavored to speak of providence the things that
are right.

Blessed be the Lord who has thus far assisted and protected me in this work. How
providence will dispose of my life, liberty, and labors for time to come I know
not, but I cheerfully commit all to him who has hitherto performed all things
for me. Psalm 57 verse 2 Chapter 13 The Advantages of Recording Our Experiences
of Providence In consideration of the great and manifold advantages resulting
from a humble and careful observation of providence, I cannot but judge it the
concern of Christians that have time and ability for such a work, to keep
written memorials or journals of providence by them, for their own and others'
use and benefit.

For want of collecting and communicating such observations, not only ourselves,
but the Church of God is greatly impoverished. Some say the art of medicine was
acquired and perfected thus. When anyone had met with some rare medicinal herb
and accidentally discovered the virtues of it, he would post it up in some
public place, and so the physician attained his skill by a collection of those
posted experiments and recipes.

I am not for posting up all that a Christian knows or meets with in his
experience, for, as I have said before, religion does not lay all open. Yet
there is a prudent, humble, and seasonable communication of our experiences and
observations of providence, which is exceedingly beneficial both to ourselves
and our brethren. If Christians, in reading the Scriptures, would judiciously
collect and record the providences they shall meet with there, and its destitute
of other helps, but add those that have fallen out in their own time and
experience, oh, what a precious treasure would these make! What an antidote
would it be to their souls against the spreading atheism of these days, and
satisfy them beyond what many other arguments can do, that the Lord, He is the
God, the Lord, He is the God.

1 Kings 18 verse 39 While this work was under my hand, I was both delighted and
assisted by a pious and youthful essay of an unknown author, who has to a very
good purpose used many scriptural passages of providence, which seem to lie out
of the road of common observation. Some passages I have noted out of it have
been sweet to me. Oh, that Christians would everywhere set themselves to such a
work! Providence carries our lives, liberties, and concerns in its hand every
moment.

Your bread is in its cupboard, your money in its purse, your safety in its
unfolding arms, and surely it is the least part of what you owe to record the
favors you receive at its hands. Do not trust your slippery memories with such a
multitude of remarkable passages of providence as you have, and shall meet with
in your way to heaven. It is true things that greatly affect us are not easily
forgotten by us, and yet how ordinary is it for new impressions to raise out
former ones.

It was a saying of that worthy man, Dr. Harris, My memory never failed me in all
my life, for indeed, I dare not trust it. Written memorials secure us against
that hazard, and besides, make them useful to others when we are gone, so that
you do not carry away all your treasure to heaven with you, but leave those
choice legacies to your surviving friends. Certainly were it not so great a loss
to lose your silver, your goods, and properties, as it is to lose your
experiences which God has this way given you in this world.

Take heed of clasping up those rich treasures in a book, and thanking it enough
to have noted them there, but have frequent recourse to them as oft as new
needs, fears, or difficulties arise and assault you. Now it is reasonable to
consider and reflect, Was I never so distressed before? Is this the first plunge
that ever befell me? Let me consider the days of old, the years of ancient
times, as Asaph did. Psalm 77 verse 5 Beware of slighting former straits and
dangers in comparison with present ones.

That which is next to us always appears greatest to us, and as time removes us
farther and farther from our former mercies or dangers, so they grow less in our
eyes, just as the land does from those who sail. Know that your dangers have
been as great, and your fears no less formerly than now. Make it as much your
business to preserve the sense and value as the memory of former providences and
the fruit will be sweet to you.

This is the end of the book. 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 T6L3T5 You may also request a free printed
catalog. 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 7.31, 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.


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Source: https://sermonindex.net/books/the-mystery-of-providence/
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