the reproach of Religion and wounding of their own Consciences to that degree that they have never recovered former peace again but lived in the world devoid of comfort to their dying day 4. How woful your case had been if the Lord had not mercifully saved you from many thousand temptations that have assaulted you I tell you you cannot estimate the mercies you possess by means of such Providences Are your names sweet and your Consciences peaceful two mercies as dear to you as your two eyes Why surely you owe them if not wholly yet in great measure to the aids and assistances Providence hath given you all along the way you have passed through the dangerous tempting World to this day Walk therefore suitably to this Obligation of Providence also and see 1. That you thankfully own it Don't impute your escapes from sin to accidents or to your own watchfulness or wisdom 2. See that you tempt not Providence on the other hand by an irregular relyance upon its care over you without taking all due care of your selves Keep your selves in the love of God Jude 21. Keep your hearts with all diligence Prov. 4. 23. Though Providence keep you yet it is in the way of your duty The Ninth Performance of Providence IX THus you see what care Providence hath had over your souls in preventing the spiritual dangers and miserJes that else would have befallen you in the way of temptatJons in the next place I will shew you that it hath been no less careful for your bodJes and with how great tenderness it hath carrJed them in its arms through innumerable hazards and dangers also He is called the keeper of Israel that never slumbereth nor sleepeth Psal. 121. 4. the preserve of men Job 7. 20. To display the glory of this Providence before you let us take into consideration The perils into which the best of men sometimes fall and the way and means by which Providence preserves them in those dangers There are manifold hazards into which we are often cast in this World The Apostle Paul gives us a general account of his dangers in 2 Cor. 11. 26. And how great a wonder is it that our life hath not been extinguished in some of those dangers we have been in For 1. Have not some of us fallen and that often into very dangerous sicknesses and diseases in which we have approached to the very brink of the grave and have or might have said with HezekJah Isa. 38. 10. I said in the cutting off of my dayes I shall go to the gates of the grave I am deprived of the residue of my years Have we not often had the sentence of death in our selves and our bodies at that time been like a leaky Ship in a storm as One aptly resembles it that hath taken in water on every side till it was ready to sink Yet hath God preserved careened and lanched us out again as well as ever Oh what a wonder is it that such a crazy body should be preserved for so many years and survive so many dangers Surely it is not more admirable to see a Venice-glass pass from hand to hand in continual use for forty or fifty years and still to remain whole notwithstanding many knocks and falls it hath had If you enjoy health or recover out of sicknesses it is because he puts none of these diseases upon thee or because he is the Lord thy PhysicJan Exod. 125. 26. 2. And how many deadly dangers hath his hand rescued some of you from in those years of confusion and publick calamity when the Sword was bathed in blood and made horrid slaughter when it may be your lives were often given you for a prey This David put a special remarque upon Psal. 140. 7. O God the Lord the strength of my salvatJon thou hast covered my head in the day of Battel Beza being in France in the first Civil War and there tossed up and down for two and twenty months recorded six hundred deliverances from dangers in that space for which he solemnly gave God thanks in his last Testament If the Sword destroyed you not it was because God did not give it a Commission so to do 3. Many of you have seen wonders of salvation upon the deeps where the hand of God hath been signally stretched forth for your rescue and deliverance This is elegantly expressed in Psalâ— 107. 23 24 25 26 27. which I have elsewhere opened at large concerning which you may say in a proper sense what the Psalmist doth metaphorically Psal. 124. 1. 4. If it had not been the Lord who was on our side then the waters had overwhelmed us the stream had gone over our soul. To see men that have spent so many years upon the Seas where your lives have continually hanged in suspense before you attain to your years when you could neither be reckon'd among the living nor the dead as Seamen are not Oh what cause have you to adore your great preserver Many thousands of your Companions are gone down and you yet here to praose the Lord among the Living You have bordered nearer to Eternity all youâ— dayes than others and often been in eminent perils upon the Seas surely such and so many Salvations call aloud upon you for most thankful acknowledgements 4. To conclude how innumerable hazards and accidents the least of which hath cut off others hath God carried us all through I think I may safely say your privative and positive mercies of this kind are more in number than the hairs of your heads Many thousands of these dangers we never saw nor were made particularly sensible of but though we saw them not our God did and brought us out of danger before he brought us into fear Some have been evident to us and those so remarkable that we cannot think or speak of them to this day but our souls are freshly affected with those mercies It is recorded of our famous Jewell that about the beginning of Queen Mary's Reign the Inquisition taking hold of him in Oxford he fled to London by night but providentially losing the Road he escaped the Inquisitors who pursued him however he fell that night into another eminent hazard of life for wandering up and down in the snow he fainted and lay starving in the way panting and labouring for life at which time Mr. Latimer's servant found and saved him It were easie to multiply Examples in this kind Histories abounding with them but I think there are few of us but are furnisht out of our own experience abundantly so that I shall rather chuse to press home the sense of these Providences upon you in order to a suitable return to the God of your mercies for them than add more Instances of this kind To this purpose I desire you seriously to weigh the following particulars 1. Consider what you owe to Providence for your protection by which your life hath been protracted
Devil was worshipped and his lying Oracles zealously attended upon The shaking of the top of Jupiter's Oak in Dodona the Caldron smitten with the rod in the hand of Jupiter's Image the Lawrell and Fountain in Daphne these were the Ordinances on which the poor deluded Wretches waited So in this Nation they worshipped Idols also the Sun and Moon were adored for Gods with many other abominable Idols which our Ancestors worshipped and whose memorials are not to this day quite obliterated among us 5. Or suppose our Lot had fallen in those later miserable dayes in which Queen Mary sent so many hundreds to Heaven in a fiery Chariot and the poor Protestants skâ—lked up and down in holes and woods to preserve them from Popish Inquisitors who like Blood-hounds hunted up and down through all the Cities Towns and Villages of the Natâ—on to seek out the poor sheep of Christ for a prey But such hath the special care of Providence towards us been that our turn to be brought upon the stage of this World was graciously reserved for better dayes so that if we had had our own option we could not have chosen for our selves as Providence hath We are not only furnished with the best room in this great hoâ—se but before we were put into it it was swept with the beesom of National Reformation from Idolatry yea and washed by the blood of Martyrs from Popish filthiness and adorned with Gospel lights shining in as great lustre in our dayes as ever they did since the Apostles dayes You might have been born in England for many Ages and not have found a ChristJan in it yea and since ChristJanity was here owned and not have met a Protestant in it Oh what an Obligation hath Providence laid you under by such a merciful performance as this for you If you say All this indeed is true but what is this to eternal salvation Do not multitudes that enjoy these priviledges eternally perish notwithstanding them yea and perish with an aggravation of sin and misery beyond other sinners True they do so and it is of very sad consideration that it should be so but yet we cannot deny this to be a very choice and singular mercy to be born in such a Land and at such a Time For let us consider what helps for salvation men here enjoy beyond what they could enjoy had their Lot fallen according to the fore-mentioned suppositions 1. Here we enjoy the ordinary means of salvation which elsewhere men are denyed and cut off from So that if any among the Heathens be saved and brought to Christ it must be in some miraculous or extraordinary way for How shall thâ—y belJeve in him of whom they have not heard and how shall they hear without a Preacher Rom. 10. 14. Alas were there a desire awakened in any of their hearts after a Gospel discovery of salvation which ordinarily is not nor can be rationally supposed yet poor Creatures they might travel from Sea to Sea to hear thâ— Word and nâ—t find it whereas you can hardly miss the opportunities of hearing the Gospel Sermons meet you frequently so that you can scarcely shun or avoid the Ordinances and Instruments of your salvation And is this nothing Christ even forces himself upon us 2. Here in this Age of the World the common prejudices against Christianity are removed by the advantage it hath of a publick profession among the people and protection by the Laws of the Countrey Whereas were your habitation among Jews Mahometans or Heathen Idolaters you would find Christ and ChristJanity the common odJum of the Countrey every one defying and deriding both name and thing and such your selves likely had been if your birth and education had been among them For you may observe that whatever is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 traditionally delivered down from Father to Son every one is fond of and zealous in its defence The Jews Heathens and Mahâ—metans are at this day so tenacious of their errors that with spitting hissing and clapping of hands and all other signs of indignation and abhorrence they chase away all others from among them Is it not then a special mercy to you to be cast into such a Countrey and Age where as a learned Divine observes the true Religion hath the same advantages over every false one as in other Countreys they have over it Here you have the presence of precious Means and the absence of soul-destroying prejudices two signal mercies 3. Here in this Age of the World Christianity bespeaks you assoon as you are capable of any sense or impressions oâ— Religion upon you and so by an happy anticipatJon blocks up the passages by which a false Religion would 〈◊〉 certainly enter Here you â—uck in the first notions and principles of Christianity even with the Mothers milk and certainly such a prepossession is a choice advantage Quo semel est imbuta recens servabit odorem Testa diâ— Train up a Child in the way he should go and when he is old â—e will not depart from it Prov. 22. 6. 4. Here you have or may have the help and assistance of Christians to direct your way resolve your doubts support your burthens and help you through those difficulties that attend the new birth Alas if a poor soul had any beginnings or saint workings and stirrings after Christ and true Religion in many other Countreys the hand of every man would presently be against him and none would be found to relieve assist or encourage as you may see in that Example of Galâ—acJus the nearest relations would in that case prove the greatest Enemies the Countrey would quickly hoot at him as a Monster and cry Away with the Heretick to the Prison or Stake Whether these eventually prove blessings to your souls or no certain I am that in themselves they are singular mercies and helps to salvation that are denyed to Millions besides you So that if Plato when he was near his death could bless God for three things viz. That he was a Man and not a Beast that he was born in Greece and brought up in the time of Socrates much more cause have you to admire Providence that you are Men and not Beasts that you were born in England and brought up in Gospel dayes here This is a Land the Lord hath EspJed for you as the expression is Ezek. 20. 6. and concerning it you have abundant cause to say as in another case the Psalmist doth Psal. 16. 6. The lines are fallen to me in pleasant places and I have a goodly heritage The Third Performance of Providence III. THe next observable Performance of Providence which must be heedfully adverted and weighed is the designatJon of the stock and family out of which we should spring and rise And truly this is of special consideration both as to our temporal and eternal good for whether the families in which we grew up were great or small in Israel whether our
vulgar that will enable them to penetrate the Mysteries and relish the sweetness of Providence better than others for doubtless many that live immediately upon Providence for daily bread do thereby gain a nearer acquaintance with it than those whose outward enjoyments flow to them in a more plentiful and stated course but those that excel in grace and experience those that walk and converse with God in all his dispensations towards them these are the persons who are most fully and immediately capable of these high pleasures of the Christian life The daily flow and increase whereof in your Lordships Noble Person and Family is the hearty desire of From my Study at Dartmouth Aug. 10. 1677. Your Lordships most humble servant JOHN FLAVELL To the ingenuous Readers those especially that are the heedful Observers of the wayes of PROVIDENCE Reader THERE are two wayes whereby the blessed God condescends to manifest himself to men His Word and his Works Of the written Word we must say No words like these were ever written since the beginning of Time which can as one speaks take life and root in the Soul yea doth it as really as the seed doth in the ground and are fitted to be engraffed and naturalized there so as no coalition in nature can be more real than this James 1. 21. This is the most transcendent and glorious medJum of manifestation God hath magnifJed his word above all his name Psal. 138. 2. However the manifestations of God by his Works whether of CreatJon or Providence have their value and glory but the prime glory and excellency of his ProvidentJal works consists in this that they are the very fulfillings and real accomplishments of his written word By a wise and heedful attendance hereunto we might learn that excellent Art which is not unfitly called by some ScJentJa architectonica an Art to clear the Mysterious occurrences of Providence by reducing them to the written word and there lodge them as Effects in their proper Causes And doubtless this is one of the rarest essayes men could pursue against Atheism to shew not only how Providences concurr in a most obvious tendency to confirm this great Conclusion Thy word is Truth but how it sometimes extorts also the confession of a God and the truth of his Word from those very tongues which have boldly denyed it Aeschyles the PersJan relating their discomfâ—ture by the GrecJan Army makes this not able observation When the GrecJan Forces hotly pursued us saith he and we must needs venture over the great water Strymon then frozen but beginning to thaw when a hundred to one we had all dyed for it with mine eyes I then saw many of those Gallants whom I had heard before so boldly maintain there was no God every one upon their knees with eyes and hands lifted up begging hard for help and mercy and entreating that the Ice might hold till they got over Many thousand seals hath Providence forced the very Enemies of God to set to his Truths which greatly tends to our confirmation therein but especially to see how the Word and Providences of God do enlighten each other and how the Scriptures contain all those Events both great and small which are disposed by Providence in their seasons And how not only the Promises of the Word are in the general faithfully fulfilled to the Church in all her Exigences and Distresses but in particular to every member of it they being all furnished by Providence with multitudes of Experiences to this use and end O how useful are such observations And as the profit and use so the delight and pleasure resulting from the observations of Providence is exceeding great It will doubtless be a part of our entertainment in Heaven to view with transporting delight how the designs and methods were laid to bring us thither and what will be a part of our blessedness in Heaven may well be allowed to have a prime ingrediency into our Heaven upon Earth To search for pleasure among the due Observations of Providence is to search for water in the Ocean for Providence doth not only ultimately design to bring you to Heaven but as intermediate thereunto to bring by this means much of Heaven into your souls in the way thither How great a pleasure is it to discern how the most wise God is providentially steering all to the Port of his own Praise and his peoples Happiness whilst the whole world is busily employed in managing the Sails and tugging at the Oars with a quite opposite design and purpose To see how they promote his design by opposing it and fulfil his will by resisting it enlarge his Church by scattering it and make their rest to come the more sweet to their souls by makeing their condition so restless in the world This is pleasant to observe in general But to record and note its particular designs upon our selves with what profound wisdom infinite tenderness and incessant vigilancy it hath managed all that concerns us from first to last is ravishing and transporting O what an History might we compile of our own Experiences whilst with a melting heart me trace the footsteps of Providence all along the way it hath led us to this day and set our Remarques upon its more eminent performances for us in the several Stages of our Life Here it prevented and there it delivered Here it directed and there it corrected In this it grJeved and in that it relJeved Here was the Poison and there the Antidote This Providence raised a dismal Cloud and that dispelled it again This straitned and that enlarged Here a want and there a supply This Relation withered and that springing up in its room Words cannot express the high delights and gratifications a gracious heart may â—ind in such employment as this O what a world of rarities are to be found in Providence The blind heedless world makes nothing of them they cannot find one sweet bit where a gracious soul would make a rich feast Plutarch relates very exactly how Timoleon was miraculously delivered from the conspiracy of two Murderers by their meeting in the very nick of time a certain person who to revenge the death of his Father killed one of them just as they were ready to give Timoleon the fatal blow though he knew nothing of the business and so Timoleon escaped the danger And what did this wonderful work of Providence think you yield the Relator Why though he were one of the most learned and ingenious among the Heathen Sages yet all he made of it was only this The Spectators saith he wondered greatly at the Artifice and contrivance which Fortune uses This is all he could see in it Had a spiritual and wise Christian had the dissecting and Anatomizing of such a work of Providence what glory would it have yielded to God! What comfort and encouragement to the Soul The Bee makes a sweeter meal upon one single flower than the Ox doth upon the whole Meadow
Law of Nature To what secret natural cause can they be ascribed In like manner we find the vilest and â—iercest of wicked men have been withheld by an invisible hand of restraint from injuring the Lords people By what secret cause in nature was Jeroboam's hand dried up and made inflexible at the same instant it was stretched out against the Man of God 1. King 13. 4. No wild Beasts rend and devour their prey more greedily than wicked men would destroy the people of God that dwell among them were it not for this providential restraint upon them So the Psalmist expresses his case in the words following my Text My soul is among Lyons and I lye among them that are set on fire The Disciples were sent forth as Sheep into the midst of Wolves Mat. 10. 16. It will not avail in this case to object Those miraculous events depend only upon Scripture testimony which the Atheist is not concluded by for beside all that may be alledged for the Authority of that testimony which is needless to produce to men that own it what is it less that every eye sees or may see at this day Do we not behold a weak defenceless handful of men wonderfully and except this way unaccountably preserved from ruine in the midst of potent enraged and truculent enemies that fain would but cannot destroy them when as yet no natural impediment can be assigned why they cannot And if this pose us what shall we say when we see events produced in the world for the good of Gods chosen by those very hands and means which were intentionally imployed for their ruine These things are as much beside the intentions of their enemies as they are above their own expectations yet such things are no rarities in the world Was not the Envy of Joseph's brethren the cursed Plot of Haman the Decree procured by the â—nvy of the Princes against DanJel with many more of the like nature all turned by a secret and strange hand of providence to their greater advancement and benefit their Enemies lifted them up to all that honour and preferment they had Second Demand How is it if the Saints Concerns are not ordered by a special divine Providence that natural causes unite and assocJate themselves for their relJef and benefit in so strange a manner as they are found to do It is undeniably evident that there are marvellous coincidencies of Providence confederating and agreeing as it were to meet and unite themselves to bring about the good of Gods Chosen There is a like face of things shewing it self in divers places at that time when any work for the good of the Church is come upon the stage of the world As when the MessJah the capital mercy came to the Temple then Simeoâ— and Anna were brought thither by Providence as witnesses to it So in Reformation work when the Images were pulled down in Holland one and the same spirit of zeal possessed them in every City and Town that the work was done in a night He that heedfully reads the History of Joseph's advancement to be the Lord of Egypt may number in that story twelve remarkable acts or steps of Providence by which he ascended to that honour and authority if but one of them had failed in all likelihood the Event had done so too but every one sell in its order exactly keeping its own time and place So in the Churches deliverance â—rom the plot of Haman we find no less than seven acts of Providence concurring strangely to produce it as if they had all met by appointment and consent to break that snare for them one thing so aptly suiting with and making way for another that every heedful observer must needs conclude this cannot be the effect of casualty but wise counsel Even as in viewing the accurate structure of the body of a man the â—igure position and mutual respects of the several members and vessels hath convinced some and is sufficient to convince all that it was the effect of divine Wisdom and power in like manner if the admirable adaptation of the means and instruments employed for mercy to the people of God be heedfully considered who can but confâ—ss that as there are tools of all sorts and sizes in the shop of Providence so there is a most skilful hand that uses them and that they could no more produce such effects of themselves than the Ax Saw or Chisell can cut or carve a rude logg into a beautiful figure without the hand of a sâ—ilful Artificer We find by manifold instances that there certainly are strong combinations and predispositions of persons and things to bring about some issue and design for the benefit of the Church which themselves never thought of they hold no intelligence communicate not their counsels to each other yet meet together and work together as if they did which is as if ten men should all meet together at one place and in one hour about one and the same business and that without any fore-appointment betwixt themselves can any question but such a meeting of means and instruments is certainly though secretly over-ruled by some Wise invisible Agent Third Demand If the Concerns of Gods people be not governed by special Providence Whence is it that the most apt and powerful means imployed to destroy them are rendered ineffectual and weak contemptible means imployed for their defence and comfort crowned with success This could never be if things were wholly swayed by the course of nature If we judge by that rule we must conclude the more apt and powerful the means are the more successful and prosperous they must needs be and where they are inept weak and contemptible nothing can be expected from them thus reason layes it according to the rules of nature but Providence crosses its hands as Jacob did in blessing the Sons of Joseph and orders quite contrary issues and events Such was the mighty power and deep policy used by Pharaoh to destroy Gods Israel that to the eye of reason it was as impossible to survive it as for crackling thorns to abide unconsumed amidst devouring flames by which Emblem their miraculous preservation is expressed Exod. 3. 2. the bush was all in a flame but no consumption of it The Heathen Roman Emperours who made thâ— World tremble and subdued the Nations under them have employed all their power and policy against the poor naked defenceless Church to ruine it yet could not accomplish it Rev. 12. 3 4. O the Seas of blood that Heathen Rome shed in the ten persecutions yet the Church lives and when the Dragon gave his power to thâ— Beast Rev. 13. 2. i. e. the State of Rome became Antichristian O what slaughters have been made by the Beast in all his dominions so that the Holy Ghost represents him as drunken with the blood of the Saints Rev. 17. 6. And yet all will not do the gates i. e. the powers and policies of Hell cannot
Psal. 102. 10. Thou hast lifted me up and cast me down See what a sad Alteration Providence made upon the Church Lam. 1. 1 12. How doth the City sit solitary that was full of people How is she become as a Widow She that was great among the NatJons and Princess among the Provinces how is she become tributary Is it nothing to you all ye that pass by Behold and see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow which is done unto me wherewith the Lord hath afflicted me in the day of his fJerce anger And how great an Instance was Joh of this truth Job 29. per tot and 30. compared How many thousands have complained with Naomi whose condition hath been so strangely altered that others have said as the people of Bethlehem did of her Is this Naomi Ruth 1. 19 20 21. These Vicissitudes of Providence commonly cause great disorders of spirit in the best men Look as intense heat and cold try the strength and soundness of the constitution of our bodies so the alteratJons made by Providence upon our conditions try the strength of our graces and too often discover the weakness and corruption of holy men HezekJah was a good man but yet his weakness and corruption was bewrayed by the alterations Providence made upon his conditions When sickness and pains summoned him to the grave what bitter complaints and despondencies are recorded in Isa. 38. per tot and when Providence lifted him up again into a prosperous condition what ostentation and vain glory did he discover Isa. 39. 2. David had more than a common stock of inherent grace yet not enough to keep him in an equal temper of spirit under great alterations Psal. 30. 6 7. In my prosperity I said I shall never be moved thou hidest thy face and I was troubled It is not every man can say with Paul I know both how to be abased and I know how to abound every where and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry both to abound and to suffer need Phil. 4. 12. He is truly rich in grace whose riches or poverty neither hinders the acting nor impoverisheth the stock of his graces Though the best men be subject to such disorders of heart under the changes of Providence yet these disorders may in a great measure be prevented by the due application of such Rules and helps as God hath given us in such cases Now these helps are suited to a threefold Aspect of Providence upon us viz. 1. Comfortable 2. Calamitous 3. Doubtful To all which I shall speak particularly and briefly Quest. 1. HOw may we attain to an Evenness and Steddiness of heart under the comfortable Aspects of Providence upon us Under Providences of this kind the great danger is lest the heart be lifted up with pride and vanity and fall into a drowsie and remiss temper To prevent this we had need urge humbling and awakening Considerations upon our own hearts such are these that follow First Consideration These gifts of Providence are common to the worst of men and are no special distinguishing fruits of Gods love The vilest of men have been filled even to satiety with these things Psal. 73. 7. Their eyes stand out with fatness they have more than heart could wish Second Consideration Think how unstable and changeable all these things are What you glory in to day may be none of yours to morrow Prov. 23. 5. Riches make themselves wings and flee away as an Eagle towards Heaven As the Wings of a Fowl grow out of the substance of its body so the cause of the Creatures transitoriness is in it self It 's subjected to vanity and that vanity like Wings carries it away they are but fading flowers James 1. 10. Third Consideration The Change of Providences is never nearer to the people of God than when their hearts are lifted up or grown secure by prosperity Doth HezekJah glory in his Treasures The next news he hears is of an impoverishing Providence at hand Isa. 39. 2 3 4 5 6 7. Others may be left to perish in unsanctified Prosperity but you shall not Fourth Consideration This is a great discovery of the Carnality and corruption that is in thy heart it argues an heart little set upon God little mortified to the world little acquainted with the vanity and ensnaring nature of these things O you know not what hearts you have till such Providences try them And is not such a discovery matter of deep humiliation Fifth Consideration Was it not better with you in a low condition than it is now Reflect and compare state with state and time with time How is the frame of your hearts altered with the alteration of your condition So God complains of Israel Hosea 13. 5 6. I did know thee in the Wilderness the land of drought according to their pasture so were they filled they were filled and their heart was exalted therefore have they forgotten me saith the Lord q. d. You and I were better acquainted formerly when you were in a low condition Prosperity hath estranged you and altered the case How sad is it that Gods mercies should be the occasion of our estrangement from him Quest. 2. UPon the other side it 's worth considering how our hearts may be establisht and kept steddy under Caâ—amitous and adverse Providences Here we are in equal danger of the other Extream viz. despondency and sinking under the frowns and strokes of cross Providences Now to support and establish the heart in this case take three helps First Consideration First Consider That afflictive Providences are of great use to the people of God they cannot live without them The Earth doth not more need chastening frosts and mellowing snows than our hearts do nipping Providences Let the best Christian be but a few years without them and he will be sensible of the need of them he will find a sad remissJon and declining upon all his graces Second Consideration No stroke of Calamity upon the people of God can separate them from Christ Rom. 8. 35. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ Shall TribulatJon There was a time when Job could call nothing in this world but trouble his own he could not say my Estate my Honour my Health my Children for all these were gone yet then he could say my Redeemer Job 19. 25. Well then there is no cause to sink whilst Interest in Christ remains sure to us Third Consideration All your calamities will have an end shortly The longest day of the Saints troubles hath an end and then no more troubles for ever The troubles of the wicked will be to Eternity but you shall suffer but a while 1 Pet. 5. 10. If a thousand troubles be appointed for you they will come to one at last and after that no more Yea and though our troubles be but for a moment yet they work for us a
and if destitute of other helps but add those that have fallen out in their own time and experience O what a precious Treasure would these make How would it antidote their souls against the spreading Atheism of these dayes and satisfie them beyond what many other Arguments can do that The Lord he is God the Lord he is God Whilst this Work was under my hand I was both delighted and assisted by a Pious and Useful Essay of an unknown Author who hath to very good purpose improved many Scriptural passages of Providence which seem to lye out of the road of common observation Some passages I have noted out of it which have been sweet to me And O that Christians would every where set themselves to such work Providence carries our lives liberties and concernments in its hand every moment Your bread is in its Cupboard your money in its Purse your safety in its enfolding Arms and sure it is the least part of what you owe to record the favours you receive at its hands More partiâ—ularly 1. Trust not your slippery memories with such a multitude of remarkable passages of Providence as you have and shall meet with in your way to Heaven It 's true things that greatly affect us are not easily forgotten by us and yet how ordinary is it for new impressions to raâ—e out former ones It was a saying of that Worthy man Dr. Hâ—rris My memory said he never failed me in all my life for indeed I durst never trust it Written memorials secure us against that hazard and besides makes them useful to others when we are gone So that you carry not away all your treasure to heaven with you but leave these choice Legacies to your surviving friends Certainly it were not so great a loss to lose your Silver your Goods and Chattels as it is to lose your Experienâ—es which God hath this way given you in this world 2. Take heed of clasping up those rich treasures in a Book and thinking it enough to have noted them there but have frequent recourse to them as oft as new wants â—ears or difficulties arise and assault you Now it 's seasonable to consider and reâ—lect Was I never so distressâ—â— before Is this the first plunge that ever befell me Let me consider the dayes of old the years of aâ—cJent times as Asaph did Psal. 77. 5. 3. Lastly Beware of slighting former straits and dâ—ngers in comparison with present â—nes That which is next us alwayes appears greatest to us and as time removes us farther and farther from our former mercies or dangers so they lessen in our eyes just as the Land from which they sail doth to Sea-men Know that your dangers have been as great and your fears no less formerly than now Make it as much your business to preserve the sense and value as the memory of former Providences and the fruit will be sweet to you FINIS THE TABLE A. ABuse of Scripture punished by Providence Pag. 28 Abuse of Providence cautioned 95 96 AfflictJons preventive of sin 99 AfflictJons restraints from sin 110 AfflictJons how they purge Corruption 112 Adherence to creatures checked 117 AffectJons must suit Providence 148 Afflictive Providences when sanctiâ—ied 23â— Ambrose his providential relief 9â— Andreas how called to the Ministry 80 AnticipatJons by Religion advantageous 47 Assiduity of providential care 91 Aspects of Providence contrary 247 AssocJatJon of natural causes 18 19 Atheism checked by Providence 174 Augustin's strange deliverance 24 Augustin's converting a Manichee 63 B. BArbarous Nations their sad state 40 41 Bible providentially mistaken 63 Body its Elegant structure 35 36 Bolâ—on's Conversion 61 Brethren their different tempers 10â— Bruens happy Marriage 62 C. CAllings ordered by Providence 77 7â— Callings sinful in themselves 7â— Callings poor some mens advantage 82 CautJons about Civil Callings 83 84 Care of God to be eyed in Providence 143 Christ hath his hand six wayes in Providence 187 Children setled providentially in Callings 79 Childrens duties pressed 56 57 CommunJon with God in Providences Rules for it and the sweetness of it 163 Committing to God quieting to us 142 Complaints of painful Callings answered 81 Comparing Providences how melting 194 CondescensJons of God admirable 119 120 212 ConversJon two wayes 58 59 ConversJon endears places and instruments 57 ConversJon how great a mercy 74 75 Content under all Providences 153 Crying to God what it imports 4 Craft sinful providentially defeated 135 CurJosity in prying into Providence 160 161 D. DAngers in extremity 3 Dangers of death providentially prevented 102 Dependance on Creatures checked by Providence 116 Delayes of Providence relieved 156 157 Delayes sink our hearts 226 227 Devil busie with dying Christians 206 DJana's shrines what they were 78 Distrust not God in new difficulties 213 Dod's strange impulse 98 Duty to advert Providence 122 Dying hour sweetned by Providence 205 E. EAvenness of spirit how attained 247 Embryoes their condition 38 Encouragements to wait on God 228 229 Englands Encomium 41 46 47 Epicureans why they denyed Providence 14 ExpectatJon from creatures dashed 115 116 Eye how guarded by nature 102 F. FAcultJes sound a choice Providence 3â— Faithfulness of God eyed in Providence 14â— Faith two signal acts of it 207 FamilJes providentially assigned us 49 Foresight of troubles how taken 25â— Fox his wonderful relief 9â— G. GOd leaves not his in straits 13â— God to be owned in all Providences 21â— Good mens affections over-heated 11â— Greatness of God discovered 11â— H. HArmony of conjugal affections providential 8â— Harmony of Gods attributes 16â— Heavenly-mindedness in all providences 15â— Heart how melted by Providence 192 19â— Heart ballanced under prosperity 25â— Heart cheered under sad Providences 25â— Heart quieted in doubtful Providences 25â— Heart not under our Command 25â— Henry the Second punished by Providence 2â— Holiness improved by eying Providence 20â— I. IDJots the design of Providence in them 37 3â— Idle life a sinful life 7â— Jewel's strange preservation 10â— â—nterpositJons of Providence seasonable 98 â—nobservance of providence sinful 125 â—ntroductive Providences remarkable 130 â—nstruments of Providence to be noted 131 â—mmutability of God in changeable Providences 147 â—oy in God under all Providences 149 â—nterest how best secured 142 â—unJus his Conversion how effected 61 K. KEepers converted by their prisoners 164 L. LIberality the best frugality 141 M. MArrJages the appointments of Providence 86 Ministers removes ordered by Providence 66 6â— MortificatJon promoted by Providence 108 109 N. NAtural causes suspended by providence 15 16 Naaman's change how effected 60 Nativity its place providentially ordered 40 41 Neighbourly Visits improved by Providence 63 Notes of attention why affixt to Providence 123 O. OBjectJons of Vnbelief solv'd by Providence 181 ObservatJons of Providence matter of praise 124 ObservatJons of Providence endear Christ 187 Oâ—colampadJus designed for a Merchant 80 ObligatJons to duty from Providence 212 P. PArents godly what a mercy 50 51 Papists their doom 43 44 Parents advantages opened 52 Parents