2. It displays the efficacy o£ p)'0vidential influences ; Providence doth not only undertake, but [performeth] and perfects what con- cerns us : it goes through with its designs, and accomplishes what it begins : no difficulty so clogs it, no cross accidents so falls in its way, but it carries its design through it ; its motions are irresistible and uncontroulable, he performs it for us.
3- And (which is sweet to consider) all its products and issues are exceeding beneficial to the saints : it performs all things [for them] : It is true, we often prejudice its works, and unjustly cen- sure its designs; and under many of our straits and troubles, we say, all these things are against us. But, indeed, providence neither doth, nor can do any thing 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 pro-^ fiiises ; and therefore whatever providence doth in their concern- ments, it must be (as the text speaks) the performance of all things for them.
4. And if so, how cheering, supporting, and encouraging, must the consideration of these things be, in a day of distress and trou- ble.'' What life and hope will it inspire our hearts and pravers ■withal, when great pressures lie upon us ? It had such a cheering influence upon the Psalmist at this time, when the state of his affaii's was, to the eye of sense and reason, forlorn and desperate : there was now but a hair's breadth (as we say) betwixt him and ruin.
A potent, enraged, and implacable enemy had driven him into
THE mysterV of PROVIDENCK. 34t
the hole of a rock, and was come after him into that hole ; yet now whilst Ms sold is among- I'wns, whilst he lies in a cranny of the rocJc^ expecting every moment to be drawn out to death, tlie reflections he had upon the gracious performances of the Most High for him, from the beginning to that moment, support liis soul, and inspire hope and life into his prayers, " I will cry unto God most high, ** unto God that performetli all things for me,""
The amount of all you have in this doctrinal conclusion,
Doct. That it is the duty of the saints, especially in times of straits, to reflect upon tlie performnnces of providence for them in all the states, and through all the stages of their lives.
The church, in all the works of mercy, owns the hand of God; Isa. xxvi. 12. " Lord thou hast wrought all our works in (or for) *' us.'*' And still it hath been the pious, and constant practice of the saints in all generations, to preserve the memory of tlie more famous, and rcmaxkaSAQ providences that have befallen them in tlieir times as a precious treasure. ' If thou be a Christian indeed, I
* know thou hast, if not in thy book, yet certainly in tliy heart, a
* great many precious favours upon record ; the very remembrance ' and rehearsal of them is sweet. How much more sweet was tlie
* actual enjoyment?' Baxter'' s Sainfs Rest, p. 1Q\. 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," iSxod. xvii. 14, 15. Thus Mordecai and Esther took all care to jxiriietuate 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, tiiat those days of Purim should not fail from among '' the Jews, nor the memorial of them perish from their seed,'* Esther ix. 28. For this end you find psalms indited, to bring to remembrance, Psal. Ixx. the title. Parents giving suitable names to their children, that every time they looked upon them, they might refresh the memory of God's mercies, 1 Sam. i. 20. The very places where eminent providences have appeai'ed, new named, upon no other design, but to per|x;tuate the memorial of those sweet providences which so refreshed them there: tlience Bethel took its name. Gen. xxviii. 19- And tWbt well of water where Hagar was seasonably refreshed by the angel in her distress, Beer- lahai-roi, the well of him that liveth and looketli on me. Gen. xvi. 14. Yea, the saints have given, and God hath assumed to himself, new titles upon this very score and account; Abraliam's Jehovah- JiuEH, and Gideon's Jehovah-Siiallu^i were ascribed to him
S48 DIVINE conduct; or,
upon this reason. And sometimes you find the Lord stiles himself^ " the God that brought Abraham from Urof the Chaldees;" then *' the Lord God that brought them out of Egypt ;"" then " the Lord " that gathered them out of the north country ;'* still minding them of thiC gracious providences which in all those places he had wrought for tlicrn,
Now there is a twofold reflection upon the providential zcorJcs of God.
1. One entire and full, in the whole complex and perfect frame thereof. * This blessed sight is reserved for the perfect state : It is in that mount of G^od, where we shall see both the wilderr.ess and Canaan : The glor"'ous kingdom into which we arc to come, and the way through wliich v/e v.ere led into it : There the saints shall have a ravisliing view of that beautiful frame; and every part shall be distinctly discerned, as it had its particular use, and as it was con- nected wich tlie other parts; and how effectually and orderly they all wrought to bring about that blessed design of their salvation, according to the promise, Kom. viii. 28. " And we know that all *' things work together for good to them that love God,"" 4'C. For it is certain, no ship at sea keeps more exactly by the compass which directs its course, than provide^ice doth by that promise^ which is its Cyr.osiira and PQle-star.
9,. The other partial and imperfect in the way to glory, where we only view it in its single acts, or, at most, in some branches and more observable c.Airse of actions.
Ectwixt these two is the same difference as betwixt 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 mo- tion ; or betwixt an ignorant spectator s \nev/ing some more ob- servable vessel or joint of a dissected body, and the accurate AnatOr mist'^s discerning the course of all the veins and arteries of the body, as he follows the several branches of them through the whole, and plainly sees the proper places, figure, and use of each, with their nmtual respect to one another.