O what a world oP rarities are to be found in providence ! The blind, heedless world makes nothing of them : They cannot find one sicccf hit where a gracious soul would make aricfi fea.Hf. Plu- tarch relates very exactly, how Timoleon was miraculously deli- vered from the conspiracy of two murderers, by their meeting in the very nick of time a certain person, who, to revenge the death of liis father, killed one of them, just as they were ready to give Timoleon the fatal blow, though he knew nothing of the business, and so Ti- moleon escaped the danger. And what did this wonderful work of Providence, think you, yield the relator ? Why, though he was one of the most learned and ingenious among the Heathen Sages, yet all he made of it was only this ; TJte spectators (smth he) won^ dered greatly at the artifice and contrivance which Jbrtm^e uses ; This is all he could see in it. Had a spiritual and wise Christian had the dissecting and anatomizing of such a work of Providence, wliat glory would it have yielded to God ! what comfort and en- couragement to the soul ! The bee makes a sweeter meal upon one single flower, than the ox doth upon the whole meadow where thou- eands of them grow.
O reader ! if thy heart be spiritual, and well stocked with expe-* rience, if thou hast recorded the ways of Providence towards thee, and wilt but allow thyself time to reflect upon them ; what a lifis of pleasure mayest thou live ! what an heaven upon earth doth this way lead thee into ! I will not here tell thee what I have met with in this path, lest it should seem to savour of too much vanity ; non est religio ubi omnia patent. There are some delights and enjoyments in the Christian life, which are, and must be enclosed. But try it thyself, taste and see, and thou wilt need no other in- ducement ; thine own experience will be the most powerful oratory to persuade thee to the study and search of Providence.
Histories are usually read with delight : When once the fancy is catched, a man knows not how to disengage himself from it. I am greatly mistaken if the history of our own lives, if it were well drawn up, and distinctly perused, would not be the pleasantest his- tory that ever we read in our lives.
The ensuing treatise is an essay to that purpose, in which thou wilt find some remarks set upon Providence in its passage through the several stages of our lives. But, reader, thou only art able to compile the history of Providence for thyself, because the memorials that furnish it are only in thine own hands. However, here thou mayest find a pattern, and general rules to direct thee ia
IJIVINE CONDUCT ; OR,
tfeat gi-eat and difficult work which is the very end and design of this manual.
I Jiave not had much regard to the dress and ornament into which this discourse is to go abroad, for I am debtor both to the strong and weak, the mse and foohsh : And, in all my observation, I have not found, that ever God hath made much use of laboured periods, rhetorical flowers, and elegancies, to improve the power of religion in the world : Yea, I have observed how Providence hath sometimes rebuked good men, when, upon other subjects they have too much affected those pedantic fooleries, in withdrawing from them its usual aids, and exposing them to shame ; and much more may it do so, when itself is the subject.
Reader, if thy stomach be nice and squeasie, and nothing will relish with thee, but what is spruce and elegant, there are Store of such composures in the world, upon which thou mayest even surfeit thy curious fancy : mean time, there will be found some that will bless God for what thou despisest, and make many a sweet meal upon what thou loathest.
I will add no more, but my hearty prayers that providence will direct this treatise to such hands in such seasons, and so bless and prosper its design, that God may have glory, thou mayest have be- nefit, and myself comfort in the success thereof, who am.
Thine and the church's servant.
In the liand of Providence,
I icill ci^ unio God most high^ unto God that performeth all things
JL HE greatness of God is a glorious and unsearchable mystery : «' The Lord most high is terrible ; he is a great King over all the «« earth,' Psal. Ixvii. % 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," Psal. cxxxviii. 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 j)erforming all things for a poor distressed creature.
It is the great support and solace of the saints in all the distresses
THE MYSTERY OF DIVINE PROVIDENCE. 343
tliat befal therti here, that tliere is a wise spirit sitting in all the wheels of motion, and governing the most excentrical creatures, and their most pernicious designs to blessed and happy issues. And indeed it were not worth while to live in a world xtvca eta xai zr^ovoiagy devoid of God and providence.
How deeply we are concerned in this matter will appear by that great instance, which this jjsalm presents us with.
It was composed (as the title notes) by David prayer- wise, when he hid himself from Saul in the cave ; and is inscribed with a dou- ble title *Al iaschith, Michtam of David. Al taschith refers to the scope, and Michtam to the dignity of the subject-matter.
The former signifies destroy not, or let there be no slaughter, and may either refer to Saul, concerning whom he gave charge to his servants not to destroy him ; or rather, it hath reference to God, to whom, in this great exigence, he poured out his soul in this pathe- tical ejaculation, Al taschith, destroy not.
The latter title, Michtam, signifies a golden ornament, and so is suited to the choice and excellent matter of the j^salm ; which much more deserves such a title than Pythagoras' golden verses did.
Three things are remarkable in the former part of the p>salm ; viz. (1.) His extreme danger. (2.) His earnest address to God in that extremity. (3.) The arguments he pleads with God in that address.
1. His extreme danger expressed both in the title and body of the psahn. The title tells us, this psalm was composed by him when he hid himself from Saul in the cave f. This cave was in the wilderness of Engedi, among the broken rocks where the wild goats inhabited, an obscure and desolate hole ; yet even thither the envy of Saul pursued him, 1 Sam. xxiv, 1, 2. And now he that had been so long hunted as a partridge upon the mountains, seems to be enclosed in the net ; for the place was begirt with his ene- mies, and having in this place no out-let another ^ay, and Said himself entering into the mouth of this cave, in the sides and creeks