(3.) Eye the free grace of God in them, yea, see riches of grace in every bequest of comfort to so vile and unworthy creatures as you are ; see yourselves over-topped by the least of all your mercies. Gen. xxxii. 10. '' I am not wqrthy of the least,"' said Jacob.
426 DIVINE CONDUCT ; OR,
(4.) Eye the condescension of God to your requests for those ijiercies, Psalm xxxiv. 6. This is the sweetest bit in any enjoy- ment in which a man can sensibly relish the return and answer of his prayers, and greatly enflames the souPs love to God, Psalm cxvi. 1.
(5.) Eye the design and end of God in all your comforts ; know that it is not sent to satisfy the cravings of your sensual ap- petite, but to quicken and enable you for a more cheerful dis- charge of your duty, Deut. xxviii. 47.
(6.) Eye the way and method in which your mercies are con- veyed to you ; they all flow to you through the blood of Christ and covenant of grace, 1 Cor. iii. 22, 23. Mercies derive their sweetness from the channel through which they run to us.
(7.) Eye the distinguishing goodness of God in all the com- fortable enjoyments of your lives. How many thousands, better than you, are denied those comforts ? See Heb. xi. 37.
(8.) Eye them all as comforts appointed to refresh you in your way to far better and greater mercies than themselves. The best mercies are still reserved till last, and all these are introductive of better.
2. In all the sad and afflictive providences that befal you, eye God as the the author and orderer of them also. So he represents himself to us, Jer. xviii. 11. " Behold, I create evil, and devise a '' device against you." And Amos iii. 6. " Is there evil in the " city, and the Lord hath not done it .?'" More particularly,
1. Set before you the sovereignty of God, eye him as a being in- finitely superior to you, at whose pleasure you, and all you have is, Psal. cxv. 3. which is the most conclusive reason and argument of submission. Psalm xlvi. 10. For if we and all wx have pro- ceeded from his will, how equal is it that we be resigned up to it ? It is not many years ago since we we were not, and when it pleased him to bring us upon the stage of action, we had no liberty of indenting with him on what terms we could eome into the world ; or refuse to be except we might have our being on such terms as we desired. His sovereignty is gloriously displayed in his eternal decrees^ and temporal ^providences. He might have put you into what rank of creatures he pleased ; he might have made you the most despicable creatures, worms^ or toads: Or, if men, the most vile, abject, and miserable among men : And when you had run through all the miseries of this life, have damned you to eter- nity, made you miserable for ever, and all this without any wrong to you. And shall not this quiet us under the common afflictions of this hfe ?
2. Set the grace and goodness of God before you in all afflictive providences ; O see him passing by you in the cloudy and dark day,
THE MYSTERY OF TTIOVIDFATK. 427
proclaiming his name, the Lord, the Lord mere] fid and gracwns. There are two sorts of mercies that are seldom eclipsed by the dark-i est affliction that befals the saints in their temporal concerns, viz, sparing mercy in this world, and saving mercy in that to come. It is not so bad now as it might, and we deserved it should be, and it will be better hereafter. This the churcli observed, and reasoned herself quiet from it, Lam. iii. 22. Hath he taken some ? He might have taken all. Are we afflicted? It is a mercy we are not destroyed. O ! if we consider ^yhat temporal mercies are yet spared, and what spiritual mercies are bestowed, and yet continued to us, we shall find cause to admire mercy rather than complain of severity.
3. Eye the wisdom of God in all your afflictions, behold it in the choice of the hind of your affliction, this, and not another : The time, now and not at another season : The degree, in this measure only, and not in a greater : The supports afforded you under it not left altogether helpless : The issue to which it is over-ruled, it is to your good, not ruin. Look upon all these, and then ask thy heart that question God asked Jonah, " Dost thou well to be an- *' gO' •'' ' Surely, when you consider all, what need you have had of these rods, that 3'our corruptions will require all this, it may be mwcli more to mortify them ; that without the perishing of these things, you might have perished for ever ; you will see great rea- son to be quiet and well satisfied under the hand of God.
4. Set the faithfulness of the Lord before you under the saddest providences. So did David, Psalm cxix. 75. this is according to his covenant-faithfulness, Psalm Ixxxix. 32. Hence it is, that the Lord will not with-hold a rod when need requires it, 1 Pet. i. 6. nor will he forsake his people under the rod when he inflicts it, S Cor. iv. 9.
O what quietness will this breed ! I see my God will not lose my heart if a rod can prevent it ; he had rather hear me groan here than howl hereafter ; his love is judicious, not fond.^^ he consults my good rather than my ease.
5. Eye the all-sufficiency of God in the day of affliction ; see enough in him still whatever be gone. Here is the fountain still as full as ever, though this or that pipe be cut off, which was wont to convey somewhat of it to me. O Christians, cannot you make up any loss this way ? Cannot you see more in God than in any, or all the creature-comforts you have lost .? With what eyes, then, do you look upon God .?
6. Lastly, eye the immutability of God ; look on him as the rock of ages, James i. 17. " The Father of lights, with whom is no va- <' riableness, nor shadow of turning.'' Eye Jesus Christ as <' the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever." O how quietly
428 riviXE CONDUCT ; or,
will 3'ou then behave yourselves under the changes of providence? It may be two or three days have made a sad change in your con- dition : The death of a dear relation hath turned all things upside- down, that place is empty where lately they were, as it is, Job vii. 10. " His place shall know him no more :"" Well, but God is what he was, and where he was: Time shall make no change upon him, as it is in Isa. xl. 5, 7, 8. " The grass withereth, the flower " fadeth ; but the word of the Lord abideth for ever."" O how composing are those views of God to our spirits under dark provi- dences.
Lastly, Worli up your hearts to these frames^ and exercise those affections ichich the several providences of God that are versant about you ccdljbr, Eccles. vii. 14. Suit yourselves to answer the design and end of God in all providences. As there are various affections planted in your souls, so are there several graces planted in those affections, and several providences appointed to draw forth, and ex- ercise these graces.