Let us next, (according to our method proposed) proceed to shew in what manner we are to reflect upon the performances of providence for us. And certainly it is not every slight and transi- ent glance, nor every cold, historical, unafFecting rehearsal, or re- cognition of his providences towards you, that will pass with God for a discharge of this great duty. No, it is another manner of business than the most of men understand it to be. O that we were but acquainted with this heavenly, spiritual exercise ! how sweet would it make our lives ! how light would it 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, ta lead you up to this heavenly^ sweet, and profitable exercise, I wiU beg your attention to the following dh'ectioris.
Lahoiirto get as foil and thorough recognition of the providences of God about you^ fo'om first to last, as you are able. O fill youi^ hearts with the thoughts of him and his ways. If a single act of providence be so ravishing and transporting, what would many such be, if they were presented together to the view of the soul ? If one star be 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.
(1.) Let them be as extensively full, as may be; search backward into all the performances of providence, throughout your lives. So did Asaph, in Psal. Ixxvii. 11, 12; "I will rememlx?r the " works of the Lord ; Surely I will remember thy wonders of *' old : I will meditate of all thy works, and talk of thy doings."" He laboured to recover and revive the ancient providences of God's mercies many years past, and such 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 his- tory of your own lives, if you would but sit down and record to yourselves from the beginning hitherto, what God hath been to you, and done for you : what signal manifestations and out-break- iDgs of his mercy, faithfulness, and love, there have been in all the conditions you have passed through : If your hearts do not
DIVINE CONDUCT ; Oil, 417
Jiielt before you have gone lialf through tliat history, they are hard hearts indeed. My Father^ the guide of my youth.
(2.) Let them be as vitensively full as may be ; let not your tlioughts swim \\kQ feathers upon the surface of the waters, but sink like lead to the bottom^ " The works of the Lord are great, " sought out of them that have pleasure therein," Psal. cxi. % Not that I think it feasible to sound the depth of providence by our short hne. Psal. Ixxvii. 19. " Thy way is in the sea, and thy " path in the gteat waters, and thy footsteps are not known ;"' 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 viewing providences as it was with Elijah's servant when he looked out for rain, 1 Kings xviii. 44. he went out once, and viewed the heavens, and saw no- thing : but the prophet bids him go again and again, and look upon the face of heaven seven times ; and when he had done so. What now, saith the prophet ? O now, saith he, / see a cloud 7'is'inff like a ma)Cs hand, and then, keeping his eye upon it intent, he sees the whole face of heaven covered with clouds. So you may look upon: some providences once and again, and see little or nothing in them, but look seven times, i. e. meditate often upon them, and you shall see their increasing glory like that increasing cloud.
There are divers things to be distinctly pondered and valued in one single providence before you can judge the amount and worth of it ; as, (1.) The seasonableness of mercy may give it a very great value. AVhen it shall be timed so opportunely, and fall out so seasonably as may make it a thousand-fold more considerable to you than the same mercy would have been at another time. Thus when our wants are suffered to grow to an extremity, and all vi- sible hopes fail, then to have relief given, wonderfully enhances the price of such a mercy, Isa. xli. 17, 18. (2.) The peculiar care and kindness of providence to us is a consideration which exceed- ingly heightens the mercy in itself, and endears it to us. So, when in general calamities upon the world, we are exempted by the fa- vour of providence, covered under its wings, when God shall call to us in evil days, " Come, my people, enter thou into thy cham- " ber,*" as it is in Isa. xxvi. 19, 20. when such promises shall be fulfilled to us in times of want and famine, as Psal. xxiii* 18, 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 delivered up, and we saved : O how endeai-ing are such providences ! Psal. xci. 7, 8.
(3.) The introductive7iess of a providence, is of special regard and consideration, and by no means to be neglected by us. There are leading providences, which, how slight and trivial they may seem in themselves, yet, in this respect, justly challenge the first rank
418 JbivixE conduct; or,
among providential favours to us; because they usher in a multi- tude of other mercies, and draw a blessed train of happy conse- quences after them. Such a providence was that of Jesse's send^ ing David with provisions to his brethren that lay encamped in the army, 1 Sam. xvii, 17. And tlius every Christian may fur- nish himself out of his own stock of experience, if be will but re- flect, and consider the place where he is, the relations that he hath, and the way by which he was led into them.
(4.) The instruments employed by providence for you, are of a special consideration ; and the finger of God is clearly seen by us when we pursue that meditation. For,
Sometimes great mercies shall be conveyed to us by \ery im- probable means, and more probable ones laid aside. A stranger shall be 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, clave 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 their own people that are more obliged to them. i\iark vi. 4. " A prophet (saith Christ) is not without ho- " nour, save in his own country, among his own kin, and in his *' own house.^"*
Sometimes by the hands of enemies, as well as strangers. Rev. xii. 16. " The earth helped the woman." God hath bowed the hearts of many wicked men, to shew great kindness to his people, Acts xxviii. 2.
Sometimes God makes use of instruments for good to his peo- ple, who designed nothing but evil and mischief to them. Thus Joseph's brethren were instrumental to his advancement in that very tlimg wherein they designed liis ruin, Gen. 1. 20.