VII. You have heard how well providence hath performed its part for you, in planting you into families, who once were solitary. Now let us in the next place view another gracious performance of providence for us, in making provision J'rom time to time for us and our families. I the rather put these providences together in this place, because I find the Scripture doth so, Psal. cvii. 41. " He " setteth the poor on high from affliction, and maketh him fami- « lies like a flock.''
You know the promises God hath made to his people, Psal. xxxiv. 10. "The young lions shall lack, and suffer hunger; but " they that seek the Lord, shall not want any good thing." And have you not also seen the constant performance of it ? Cannot you give the same answer, if the same question w^ere propounded to you, that the disciples did, Luke xxii. 3-5. " Since I sent you forth, lack- " ed ye any thing .^ And they said, Nothing." Can ye not, with Jacob, call him, " the God that fed you all your hfe long ? Gen. xlviii. 15. Surely " he hath given bread to them that fear him, " and been ever mindful of his covenant," Psal. cxi. 5.
To display this providence, we will consider it in the following particulars.
(1.) The cu^siduitij and constancy of the care of Providence for the saints. Lam. iii. 23. " His mercies are new every moniing." It is not the supply of one or two pressing needs, but all your wants, as they grow from day to day through all your days. Gen. xlviii. 15. " The God that fed me all my life long," The care of Providence runs parallel with the line of life : See Isa. xlvi. 3, 4. " 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 hoary hairs will I carry you ; I have made, and I Avill bear, " even I will carry and will deliver you." So that as God bid Israel, Micah vi. 5. " To remember from Shittim unto Gilgal, " that they might know the faithfulness of the Lord ;" so would I persuade thee, reader, to record the ways of Providence, from first
596 3)1VINE COXDUr.T ; OK,
to last tlirougliout thy whole course to this day, that thou mayest see what a God he hatli been to thee.
(2.) The seasonableness and opportuneness of its provisions for them : For so runs the promise, Isa. xh. 17. '^ 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 :'' And so liath the performance of it been. And this hath been made good to distressed saints, sometimes in a more ordinary icr/v/, God secretly blessing a little, and making it sufficient for us and ours. Job tells of ^' the secret of God upon *' his tabernacle,'' Job xxix. 4. (i. e, his secret blessing is in their tahernades ) ; by reason whereof, it is that they subsist ; but 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 in 1 Kings xvii. 9, 10, 11, IS, 13, 14. The cyuse and barrel fail not.
Mr. Samuel Clark *, in the life of that painful and humble servant of Christ, Mr. John Fox, records a memorable instance of Providence ; and it is this ; That towards the end of King Henry the eighth's reign, he went to London, where he quickly spent that little his friends had given him, or he had acquired by his own dihgence, and began to be in great want. As one day he sat in Paul's churchy spent with long fasting, his countenance thin, and his eyes hollow, after the ghastly manner of dying men, every one shunning a spectacle of so much horror ; there came one to him, whom he had never seen before, and thrust an untold sum of money into his hand, bidding him be of good cheer, and accept that small gift in good pai't from his countryman ; and tli^t 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 be tutor to the earl of Surry's children, then under her care.
Mr. Isaac Ambrose, a v/orthy divine, whose labours have made him acceptable to his generation, in his epistle to the earl of Bed-, ford, prefixed to his Last Things, gives a pregnant instance in his own case. His words are these ; ' For mine o^vn part (saith he)
< however the Lord hath seen cause to give me but a poor pittance
* of outward things, for which 1 bless his name ; yet in the income
< thereof, I have many times observed so much of his peculiar pro-
* vidence, that thereby they have been very much sweetened, and
* my heart hath been raised to admire his grace. When of late ' under an hard dispensation (which I judge not meet to mention)
* wherein I suffered conscientiously, all streams of wonted supplies
* Clark's Lives, vol. 1. p. 342.
THE MYSTERY OF PllOVIDEXCR. 397
* being stopt, the waters of relief for myself and family did run low : ' I went to bed with some staggerings and doublings of the foun-
* tain's letting out itself for our refreshing; but ere I did awake in
< the morning, a letter was brought to my bed-side, which was ' signed by a choice friend, Mr. Anthony Ash, which reported some ' unexpected breaking out of God's goodness for my comfort.
* These are some of his lines. Your God, who hath given you
< a heart thankfully to record your experiences of his goodness, ' doth 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 spiritual relish than ' all former enjoyments were.'