4. Compare the dealings of providence with you and others ; yea, with others that sprang up with you in the same generation, it may be, in the same families, and from the same parents, it may be in families greater and more flourishing in the world than yours, and see the difference, upon many great accounts, it hath made betwixt you and them. I knew a Christian, who, after many years separation, was visited by his own brother, the very sight of whom, wrought upon him, much as the sight of Benjamin did upon Joseph, so that he could not refrain to fall upon his neck, and M^eep for joy ; but after a few hours spent together, finding the spirit of his brother, not only estranged from all that is spiritual and serious, but also very vain and profane, he hastened to his cham- ber, shut the door upon him, threw himself down at the feet oi God, and with flowing eyes, and a melting heart, admired the distinguishing grace of God, saying, was not Esau Jacob's brother, O grace, grace, astonishing grace !
5. Compare the carriage of providence towards you, with your own carriage towards the Lord : and it must needs melt your hearts to find so much mercy bestowed, where so much sin hath been committed. What place did you ever live in, where you cannot remember great provocations committed, and manifold mercies, notwithstanding that, received ? O with how many 7iot- mthstandings and neverthelesses^ hath the Lord done you good in
THE MYSTERY OF PTlO^aDEXCi:. 455
every place ! What I'elation hath not been abused by sin ; and yet both raised up and continued by providence for your comfort? In every place God hath left the marks of his goodness, and you the remembrance of your sinfulness : give yourselves but leave to think of these things; and it is strange if your heart relent not at the remembrance of them.
6. Or lastlv ; Do but compare your own dangers with your fears, and both with the strange outlets and doors of escape providence hath opened, and it cannot do less than over-power you with a full sense of Divine care and goodness.
There have l)een dark clouds seen to rise over you, judgment even at your door, sometimes threatening your hfe, sometimes your liberty, sometimes your estate, and sometimes your dearest rela- tions, in whom, it may be, your life was bound up ; remember in that day, what faintness of spirit seized you, what charges of guilt stinnng up fears of the issue within you : you turned to the Lord in that distress, and hath he not made a way to escape, and de- livered you from all your fears .^ Psal. xxxiv. 4.
O ! is* your life such a continued throng, such a distracted huny, that there is no room to be found with Christians to sit alone and think on these things, and press these marvellous discoveries of God in his providences, upon their own hearts.? Surely, might these things but lie upon our hearts, talk with our thoughts by day, and lodge with us at night, they M^ould even force their passage down to our very reins.
I>ue observation of ^providence will both beget and secure inward tranqniUitij in your minds, amidst the vicissitudes and revolutions o/' things, in this unstable, vain zcorld.
Psal. iv. 8. " I will both lay me down in peace, and sleep, for " the Lord only maketh me to dwell in safety." He resolves the sinful fears of events shall not rob him of his inward quiet, nor torture his thoughts mth anxious presages : He will commit all his concerns into that faithful, fatherly hand, that had hitherto wrought all things for him, and he means not to lose the comfort of one night's rest, nor bring the evil of to-morrow upon the day, but knowing in whose hand he was, wisely enjoys the sweet felicity of a resigned will.
Now this tranquillity of our minds, is as much begotten and pre- ser\'ed, by a due consideration of providence, as by any thing whatsoever. Hence it was, that our Lord Jesus Christ, when he would cure the disciples' anxious and distracting solicitudes about a livelihood, bids them consider the care providence hath over the birds of the air, and the lilies of the field, how it feeds the one,
456 DIVINE CONDUCT ; OR,
and clothes the other, without any anxious care of theirs ; and would have them well consider those providences, and reason them- selves into a calm and sweet composure of spirit from those consi- derations, Mat. vi. 27, 28, 29, 30, 31.
Two things destroy the peace and tranquillity of our lives, our hewailhig past disappointments ox fearing future ones. But would we once learn prevision and provision to be Divine prerogatives, and take notice how often providence baffles those that pretend to them, causing the good they foresaw (according to their conjectures) coming to their hand, yet to balk them and flee from them ; and the evil they thought themselves sufficiently secured from, to invade them. I say, would we consider how providence daily baffles these pretensions of men, and asserts its own dominion, it would greatly conduce to the tranquillity of our lives.
This is a great truth, that there is no face of adversity so formi- dable, but, being viewed from this station, would become amicable. Now there be several things in the consideration of providence that naturally and kindly compose the mind of a Christian to peace, and bring it to a sweet rest, whilst events hang in a doubtful suspense.
1. As, Firsts The supremacy of providence, and its uncon- trolable power in working. This is often seen in the good that it brings us in a way that is above the thoughts and cares of our minds, or labours of our hands. " I had not thought (said Jacob) .*' to have seen thy face; and lo, God hath shewed me thy seed
*' also," Gen, xlviii. 11. There is a frequent co-incidency of pro- vidences in a way of surprisal, which from no appearance, or the remotest tendency of outward causes could be foreseen, but rather falls visibly cross to the present scheme and posture of our affairs. Nothing tends to convince us of the vanity and folly of our own solicitudes and projections, more than this doth.
2. The profound wisdom of providence, in all that it performeth for the people of God. The wheels are full of eyes *, Ezek. i. 18. i. e. there is an intelligent and wise Spirit, that sits upon, and governs the affairs of this world.
This wisdom shines out to us in the unexpected, yea, contrary events of things. How often have we been courting some beauti- ful appearance that invited our senses, and with trembling shunned the formidable face of other things, when notwithstanding, the issues of providence have convinced us, that our danger lay in what we courted, and our good in what we so studiously declined ? This also is a sweet principle of peace, and quiet to the Christian's
* Non cceco impetu voluntur rotce. — The wheels of providence revolve not by a bHud fetality.
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