Whether these eventually prove blessings to your souls or no, certain I am, that in themselves they are singular mercies and helps to salvation that are denied to millions besides you. So that if Plato, when he was near his death, could bless God for three tilings, viz. That he was a man, and not a beast : That he was born in Greece, and brought up in the time of Socrates : Much more cause have you to admire providence, that you are men, and not beasts, that you are born in England, and brought up in gos- pel-days here. This is a land the Lord hath espied for you, as the expression is, Ezek. xx. 6. and concerning it you have abundant cause to say, as in another case the Psalmist doth, Psal. xvi. 6» " The lines are fallen to me in pleasant places, and I have a " goodly heritage.""
The third performance of providence.
The next observable performance of providence which must be heedfully adverted and M^eighed, is the designation of the stock and family out of which we shoidd spinng and rise. And truly this is of special consideration, both as to our temporal and eternal good : For whether the families in which we grow up were great or small in Israel ; whether our parents were of a higher or low^er class and rank among men, yet if they were such as feared God, and wrought righteousness, if they took any care to educate you righ- teously, and trained you up " in the nurture and admonition of the Lord/' you arc bound to reckon it among your chief mercies,
THJE MYstEEY OF PROVIDENCIJ. 3Tl
tliat you sprung from the loins of such parents: For from this spring a double stream of mercy rises to you.
(1.) Temporal and eternal mercies to your outward man. You cannot but know, that as godliness entails a blessing, so wickedness and unrighteousness a curse upon posterity. An instance of the former you have in Gen. xvii. 18, 20. On the contrary, you have the threatening, Zech. v. 4. and both together, Prov. iii. 83. " The curse of the Lord is in the house of the wicked, but he " blesseth the habitation of the just.'' True it is, that both these imply the children's treading in the steps of their parents, accord- ing to Ezek. xviii. But how frequently is it seen, that wicked men breed their children vainly and wickedly ; so that it is said of Abijam, 1 Kings xv. 3. " He walked in all the sins of his father, " which he had done before him ;'' and so the curse is entailed from generation to generation. To escape this curse is a choice providence.
(2.) But especially take notice what a stream of spiritual blessings and mercies flows from this providence to the inner man. O 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 Tim. i. 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.
(1.) 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, Gen. xv. 2. and Hannah, 1 Sam. i. 10, 11. and some here likely 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. O put a value upon such mer- cies, 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. Job i. 5.
(2.) What a special mercy was it to us to have the excrescencies of corruption nipt 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 every thing that is evil: Why else are they called youthful friends .^ 2 Tim. ii. 22. When David asketh, " Wherewith shall a young man cleanse his way T Vol. IV. A a
e3T2 DIVINE CONDUCT ; OK,
It is plainly enough Implied in the very question, that the M'ay he takes lieth through the pollutions of the world in his youth, Psal. cxix. 9. AVhen you find a David praying that God would " not ** remember the sins of his youth, Psal. xxv. 7. and a Job bitterly complaining, that God " made him to posses the sins of his youth," Job xiii. 26. Sure you cannot but reflect Avith a very thankful heart upon those happy means by which the corruption of your nature was happily prevented or restrained in your youth.
(3.) And how gi-eat a mercy was it, that we had parents, who carefully instilled the good knowledge of God into our souls in our tender years ? How careful was Abraham of this dut}^. Gen. xviii. 19. And David ? 1 Chron. xxviii. 9. We have some of us had parents, who might say to us, as the apostle, Gal. iv. 19- " My *' little children, of whom I travail again in« bu*th till Christ be " formed in you.*" As they longed for us before they had usy 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, cloath and heal them ; so did they think no prayers, counsels, or tears, too much for our souls, that they might be saved. They knew a parting time would come betwixt them and us, and did strive to make it as eas}^ and comfortable to them as they could, by lea^nng 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 as sensibly felt the miseries of our souls, as of our bodies ; and nothing was more desirable to them, than that they might say in the great day, *' Lord, here am I, and the children which '' thou hast given me.*"
(4 ) And was it not a special favour to us, to have parents that went before us as a pattern of holiness, and beat the path to heaven for us by their examples ? Who could say to us, as Phil. iv. 9. " What things ye have heard and seen in me, that do ;" and as 1 Cor. xi. 1. " Be ye followers of us, as we are of Christ." The parents' life is the child's copy. O it is no common mercy, to have a fair copy set before us, especially in the moulding 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 o/itcf him, to keep the way of the Lord. And such mercies some of us have had also.