1. It is usually found in the experience of all the saints, that in what ordinance or duty soever they have any sensible communion with God, it naturally produces in their spirits a deep abasement and humiliation from the sense of divine condescensions to such vile, poor worms as we are. Thus Abraham, Gen. xviii. 27 " I am " but dust and ashes." The same effect follows our converse ^vith God in his providences. Thus when God had, in the way of his providence, prospered Jacob, how doth he lay himself at the feet of God as a man overwhelmed with the sense of mercy ! See Gen. xxxii. 9, 10. " And Jacob said, I am not worthy of the least of all " thy mercies, and of all the truth which thou hast shewed thy " servant : for with my staff I passed over this Jordan, and now I "am become two bands.'' Thus also it was with David, 2 Sam. vii. 18. " Who am I, and what is^ my father's house, that thou hast *• brought me hitherto '" And I doubt not but some of you have
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found the like frame of heart upon you, that these holy men here expressed. Can you not remember when God lifted you up by providence, how you cast down yourselves before him, and have been viler in your own eyes than ever ? Why thus do all gracious hearts ! What am I, that the Lord should do thus and thus for me ! O that ever so great and holy a God should be thus concern- ed for so vile and sinful a worm !
2. Doth communion with God in ordinances melt the heart into love to God ? Cant. ii. 3, 4, 5. Why, so doth the observation of his providences also. Never did any man converse with God's •works of providence aright, but found his heart at sometimes melted into love to the God of his mercies, Psal. xviii. 1. compared with the title. When God had delivered him from the hand of Saul, and all his enemies, he said, " I will love thee, O Lord, my " strength.^' Every man loves the mercies of God, but a saint loves the God of his mercies. The mercies of God, as they are the fuel of a wicked man s lusts, so they are fuel to maintain a good man's love tp God : not that their love to God is grounded upon these external benefits ; not thine, but thee, O Lord, is the motto of a gracious soul ; but yet these things serve to blow up the flame of love to God in their hearts, and they find it so.
3. Doth communion with God set the keenest edge upon the soul against sin ? Yom see it doth, and you have a pregnant instance of it in Moses, when he had been with God in the mount for forty days, and had there enjoyed communion with him ; when he came do^vn, and saw the calf the people had made. See what an holy paroxysm of zeal and anger it cast his soul into, Exod. xxxii. 19, 20. why, the same effect you may discern to foUov/ the saint's con- verse with God in his providences. What was that which pierced the heart of David with such a deep sense of the evil of his sin, which was so abundantly manifested in Psalm li. throughout ? Why, if you look into the title, you shall find it was the effect of what Nathan had laid before him: and if 3^ou consult 2 Sam. xii. 7, 8, 9, 10. you shall find it was the goodness of God manifested to him, in the several endearing providences of his life, which in this he had so evilly requited the Lord for, that broke his heart to pieces in the sense of it : And I doubt not but some of us have sometimes found the like effects by compai'ing God's ways and our own together.
4. Doth communion with the Lord enlarge the heart for obe- dience and service f Surely it is as oil to the wheels that makes them run on freely and nimbly their course. Thus, when Isaiah liad obtained a special maniJestatio7i of God, and the Lord asked, " Whom shall I send .^^ He presents a ready soul for the employ- ment J Isa. vi. 8. " Here am I, Lord, send me."^ Why the very
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same effect follows sanctified providences, as you may see in Jeho- shaphat, 2 Chron. xvii. 5, 6. and in David, Fsal. cxvi. 12. O when a soul considers what God hath done for him, he cannot chuse but say. What shall I return ? How shall I answer these en- gagements ?
And thus you see what sweet communion a soul may have with God in the way of his providences. O that you would thus walk with him ! how much of heaven might be found on earth this way I and certainly it will never repent the Lord he hath done you good, when his mercies produce such effects upon your hearts: He will say of every favour thus improved, it was well bestowed, and he will rejoice over you to do you good for ever.
A great part of the pleasure and delight of the Christian life is made out q/'the observations qf providence. It is said, Psal. cxi. 2. *' The works of the Lord are great, sought out of all them that " have pleasure therein f i, e. The study of providence is so sweet and pleasant that it invites and allures the soul to search and dive into it. How pleasant is it to a well-tempered soul to behold and observe,
1. The sweet harmony and consent of Divine attributes in the issues of providence ! They may seem sometimes to jar and clash to part with each other, and go contrary ways ; but they only seem so to do, for in the winding up, they always meet, and embrace each other. Psal. Ixxxv. 10. " Mercy and truth have met to- " gether ; righteousness and peace have kissed each other."" It is spoken with an immediate reference to that signal providence of Israel's deliverance out of the Babylonish captivity, and the sweet effects thereof; wherein the truth and righteousness of God in the promises, did, as it were, kiss and embrace the mercy and peace that were contained in the performance of them, after they had seemed for seventy years to be at a great distance from each other : For it is an allusion to the usual demonstrations of joy and glad- ness, that two dear friends are wont to give and receive, after a long absence and separation from each other ; they no sooner meet, but they smile, embrace, and kiss each other : Even thus it is here. The word mh^v)^^ may be (and by some is) rendered, have met us *, and that also is true; for whenever these blessed promises and performances meet, and kiss each other, they are also joyfully em- braced and kissed by believing souls. There is, I doubt not, a mediate reference of this scripture to the Messiah also, and our re- demption by him. In him it is that these Divine attributes, which
Occurrunt nobis^ Syriac.
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