St. Paul knew, that both his bonds and the afflictions added to them, should turn to, or (as the word a'iro(3rigirai imports) finally issue in his salvation, Phil. i. 19. Not that in themselves they serve to any such purpose ; but as they are over-ruled and deter- mined to such an end, through prayer, and the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ. When pray er, the external, and the Spirit, the in- ternal mean are joined with them, then afflictions themselves be- come excellent means to promote salvation. And have we not with joy observed how those very things, that sense and reason tell us are opposite to our happiness, have been the most blessed instruments to promote it ! How hath God blessed crosses to mortify corruption, wants to kill our wantonness, disappointments to wean us from the world ! O we little think how comfortable those things will be in the review, which are so burdensome to pre- sent sense.
In the next place, I beseech you to consider, What an effectual mean the due observation of pi^ovidence will he to over-power and suppress the natural atheism that is in your hearts.
There is a natural seed of atheism in the best hearts, and this is very much nourished by passing a rash and false judgment upon the works of providence. When we see wicked ones prosper in the world, and godly men crushed and destroyed in the way of righte- ousness and integrity ; it may tempt us to think there is no ad- vantage by religion, and all our self-denial and holiness to be little better than lost labour. Thus stood the case with good Asaph, Psalm Ixxiii. 12, 13. " Behold, these are the ungodly that prosper " in the world ; they increase in riches."" Atid what doth the iiesh infer from thence ? Why, no less than the unprofitableness
THE mystehy of rrcOviDEXCK. 443
of the ways of holiness ; " verily, I have cleansed my heart in vain, " and washed my hands in innocency."*' This irreligious inference carnal reason was ready to draw from the dispensations of outward prosperity to wicked men ; but now, if we would heedfully observe, either the signal retributions of providence to many of them in this worlds or to all of them in the world to come, O what a full confir- mation is this to our faith ? Psalm ix. 16. " The Lord is known by the judgments that he executeth.''' The fifty-eighth Psalm con- tains the characters of the most prodigious sinners, whose wicked- ness is aggravated,
By the deliberation with which it is committed, ver. 2,
By their habit and custom in it, ver. 3.
By their incorrigibleness and persistance in it, ver. 4, 5, And the providence of God is there invited to destroy their power,
ver. 6. and that either by a gradual and sensible consumption of
By a sudden and unexpected stroke, ver. 9-
And what shall the effects of such providences be to the righte- ous ? Why, It shall be matter of joy, ver. 10. And great confir- mation to their faith in God, ver. 11. " Verily there is a God that judge th in the earth.^
And, on the contrary, how convincingly clear are those pro- vidences that demonstrate the being, wisdom, power, love, and faithfulness of God in the supporting, preserving, and delivering of the righteous in all their dangers, fears, and difficulties .'^ In these things the Lord shews himself to his people, Psal. xciv. 1. Yea, he shews himself to spiritual eyes in his providences as clearly as the sun manifests himself by his own beams of light, Hab. iii. 3, 4. " His brightness was as the light, and he had horns coming out " of his hands, and there was the hiding of his power."" It is spoken of the Lord's going forth for his people in their deliverance from their enemies : And then he had horns, or rays, and beams of power and mercy coming out of his hands. By his hands are meant his providential administrations and dispensations, and the horns that came out of them are nothing else but the glorious dis- play of his attributes in those providences. How did God make himself known to his people in that signal deliverance of them out of Egypt ? See Exod. vi. 3. then he was known to them by his name Jehovah, in giving being by his providences to the mercies promised.
Thus when Christ shall give his people the last and greatest de- liverance from Antichrist, he shall shew himself to his people in a vesture dipt in blood, and his name shall be called, " The word of " God,'' Rev. xix. 13. His name was the word of God before ; but then he was the word revealing' and discovering the promises
4M mvixE CONDUCT ; on,
and truths of God ; now accomplisJiing and fulfilling them. That his name is near, his wonderful works declare, Psalm Ixxv. 1.
But more particularly, let us bring it home to our own experience.
It may be, we find ourselves sometimes assaulted with atheistical thoughts : We are tempted to think God has left all things below to the course and sway of nature ; that our prayers reach him not, as it is Lara. iii. 44. that he regards not what evils befal us. But tell me, saints, have you not enough at hand to stop the mouths of all such temptations ? O do but reflect upon your own experiences, and solemnly ask your own hearts,
1. Have you never seen the all-sufficient God in the provisions he hath made for you and yours throughout all the way that you have gone ? Who was it that supplied to you whatever was needful in all your straits ? Was it not the Lord ? "It is he that hath given " bread to them that fear him, and hath been ever mindful of his *' covenant,"" Psal. cxi. 5. O do but consider the constancy, sea- sonableness, and at some times the extraordinarinessi of these pro- visions, and how they have been given in upon prayer, and shut your eyes if you can, against the convincing evidence of that great truth, Job xxxvi. 7. " He withdraweth not his eye from the ^' righteous.*"
(2.) Have you not plainly discerned the care of God in your preservations from so many and great dangers as you have escaped and been carried through hitherto ? How is it that you have over- lived so many mortal dangers, sicknesses, accidents, designs of ene- mies to ruin you ? It is, I presume, beyond question with you, that the very finger of God hath been m these things, and that it is by his care alone you have been preserved. When God had so sig- nally delivered David from a dangerous disease, and the plots of enemies against him, " By this (saith he) I know thou favourest me, " because mine enemy doth not triumph over me,^ Psalm xli. 11. he gathered from those gracious protections the care God had over him.