Part 9
industry as to our own strength and power. The physician's skill is best evidenced in mastering a desperate disease. He will bring the counsels of the heathen to nought, Ps. xxxiii. 10. He will let them counsel, he will let them devise and carry on their counsels near to execution, that he may shew that, as the strength of hell is no match for his power, so the craft of Satan is no mate for his wisdom. But he raises the trophies of his wisdom upon the subtle devices of his enemies.
3. God glorifies his care and compassion. When his people are nearest
crushing, God is nearest preserving. God's mercy is greatest when his saints' misery is deepest ; when Zion is as an outcast, it shall be taken into God's protection : Jer. xxx. 16, 17, ' I will heal thee of thy wounds, because they called thee an outcast, saying, This is Zion whom no man seeks after.' When none stood up to plead for her, when her lovers she depended on, had forgotten and forsaken her, when they thought her cast out of the care of any creature, the Creator would take her up. When the ruin was inevi table as to man, their preservation was most regarded by God. Had God stopped Pharaoh at his first march, by raising some mutiny in his army, his mercy to his people, as well as his power against his enemies, had not been so conspicuous. The more desperate things are, the fitter subject for the
advancement of God's kindness. Had God conducted the Israelites through a rich and fruitful country, it would have obscured the glory of his care of them, which was more signal in directing them through a barren desert, crowded with fiery serpents, without bread to nourish them, or water to cool them, wherein he manifested himself to be both their caterer and physician.
Moses was never more peculiarly under God's protection, no, not when he had the whole guard of Israel about him in the wilderness, than when his mother had exposed him to the river forlorn, in a pitched ark, and forsaken by his sister, who stood aloof off to see how providence would conduct him. When Laban was possessed with fury against Jacob, God countermands it, and issues out his own order to him, how he should behave himself towards his son, Gen. xxxi. 24, 29. God times his kindness, so that it may appear to be nothing else but grace, grace with a witness, that his people may be able to understand the very particularities of it : Isa. xxx. 18, ' Therefore will the Lord wait that he may be gracious unto you.' He leaves them therefore for a while to the will of their enemies : verse 17, 'At the rebuke of five shall you flee, till you be left as a beacon upon the top of a mountain, and as an ensign upon a hill.' Never is salvation sweeter, and mercy better relished, than when it snatcheth us out of the teeth of danger. God would have his mercy valued, and it is fit it should. And when is a calm more grateful than after the bitterest storm, attended with the highest despair ? God's mercy in sparing Isaac after the knife was at his throat, was more welcome and more delicious both to father and son, than if God had revealed his intent to Abraham in the three days' journey to the mount Moriah. But God suspending his soul in bitterness all that time, prepared his heart for the valuation of that mercy. When human help forsaketh us, God most embraceth us : Ps. xxvii. 10, < When my father and mother forsake me, then the Lord will take me up.'
4. God glorifies his righteousness and justice. There is a measure of wickedness God stays for, which will be an object of his justice without
104 A DISCOURSE OF DIVINE PROVIDENCE. [2 CHRON. XYI. 9.
exception. When the measure of a people's covetousness is come, ' then their end is come, and God will fill them with men as with caterpillars, and
they shall lift up a shout against them,' Jer. li. 13, 14. Hereby God clears the justice of his proceedings, that he exercised patience so long, that things were come to that pass, that either his people or his enemies must be de stroyed. As the case was with the Israelites, had not God marvellously appeared, every man of them had been cut off or reduced to slavery. The die was cast, either the Egyptians or Israelites must be defeated ; either God must appear for his church, or none would be left in the world to pro fess him. In such a case the justice of God is more unexceptionable. No man has any semblance for complaining of him ; for he struck not till the safety of his adversaries was inconsistent with his own honour and interest of the world. When men come to such a height, as to slight and resolve to break the laws, of God, then is the time for the honour of his righteousness in his own institutions, to vex them in his sore displeasure : Ps. ii. 3, 5,
* Then shall he speak to them in his wrath, and vex them,' &c. When ? When they resolve to ' cast away his bands and cords from them,' ver. 2. He is forced to rise then, when men make void his law, and tread down the honour of it ; when they would not have God to have a standing law in the
world, or a people to profess him : Ps. cxix. 126, ' It is time for the Lord to work, for they have made void thy law.' When the grapes of wickedness are thus fully ripe, then is God's time for the honour of his justice to cast them into the wine-press of his wrath, Rev. xiv. 19, 20. This is God's set time, when he may glorify, without any exception, his justice in punishing
his enemies' sins, his wisdom in defeating his enemies' plots, his power in destroying his enemies' strength, and his mercy in relieving his people's wants.
Thirdly, Such extremities and deliverance in them, are most advantageous for his people.
1. It being a season to improve and know their interest. Men do not usually seek to God, or at least so earnestly, as when they are in distress ;
the time of the tempest was the time of the disciples' praying to Christ. The Israelites, you scarce find them calling upon God but in times of danger and distress ; hereby God doth encourage and give an argument for prayer. The Psalmist useth the extremity of the church often as an argument to move God to pity : Ps. cxxiii. 3, * Have mercy upon us, 0 Lord, have mercy upon us, for we are exceedingly filled with contempt.' We are glutted with con tempt, as low as low can be : so Ps. xliv. 23, 24, ' Awake, why sleepest thou, 0 Lord ? arise, cast us not off for ever ; our soul is bowed to the dust.' That is the most successful time for prayer, which is the time of the stirring
of God's bowels. He hath been a t strength to the poor, a strength to the needy in his distress, a refuge from the storm, a shadow from the heat,
when the blast of the terrible ones is as a storm against the wall,' Isa. xxv. 4. They in such a time find how considerable their interest is with God, when upon their prayer they shall find relief suitable to every kind of danger they are in. The spirit of prayer upon the church is but the presage of their
adversaries' ruin. When God seeks to destroy the nations that come against Jerusalem, he will pour upon the inhabitants of it a spirit of grace and of supplication : Zech. xii. 9, ' And in that day I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem, and I will pour upon the house of David, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplica
tion.' This time of extremity, when all their hands fail, should edge the church's prayers. Our great intercessor seems in this case to set us a pattern : Zech. i. 12, * 0 Lord of hosts, how long wilt thou not have mercy
2 CHRON. XVI. 9.] A DISCOURSE or DIVINE PROVIDENCE. 105
upon Jerusalem !' (nFltf single by itself, not in an affix.) When all the earth sits still and is at rest, unconcerned in the affairs of thy church, if thou wilt not have mercy on them in this strait, who shall relieve them ? none else have any mind to it ; then issue out comfortable words to the angel from the mouth of God. This is an advantage of extremity ; it sets
Christ a pleading, and the church on praying.
2. As a season for acting faith at present, and an encouragement of re liance upon him in future straits. As a season for acting faith at present. Our Saviour lets Lazarus die and stink in the grave, before he raised him,
that he might both confirm faith in his disciples' hearts, and settle it in the hearts of some of the Jews. John xi. 15, 45, ' I am glad for your sakes that I was not there, to the intent that ye may believe.' What, let Lazarus die, one that he loved, one so strongly pleaded for by two sisters that he
loved too, and solicited upon his friendship to relieve him ! ver. 3, ' Behold, he whom thou lovest is sick,' and our Saviour glad he was not there to pre vent it ! yes, not glad of Lazarus his extremity, nor of the church's, but of the opportunity to give them greater ground of faith and encouragement to
trust him. The church's faith is God's glory. He that hath many things to trust to, is in suspense which he should take hold of ; but when there is but one left, with what greediness will he clasp about that ! God cuts down worldly props, that we might make him our stay. How will the church in extremity recollect all the deliverances of it in former ages, and put them up in pleas to God, for a renewal of his wonted kindness and new successions of deliverance, whereby God gets the glory of his former work, and his church the present comfort in renewing fiducial acts upon him ! How doth Jehoshaphat put God in mind of his gracious assistance acted some ages before, when he was in a strait, by the invasion of a powerful army : 2 Chron. xx. 7, ' Art not thou our God that didst drive out the inhabitants of this
land before thy people Israel ?' ver. 12, ' We know not what to do, but our eyes are upon thee.' Never are the church's eyes so fixed upon God, never God's eyes so fixed upon the church, as in times of their distress. Then there is a sweet communion with, and recounting of all their former friend ships. The church then throws itself wholly upon God ; its prosperity is but like a troubled sea, its distress is the time of its rest. So Asa, when assaulted by a million of men under Zerah the Ethiopian, how doth he throw himself and the whole weight of his concerns upon the hands of God, and makes
his cause God's ! 2 Chron. xiv. 11, « Help us, 0 Lord our God, for we rest on thee ; 0 Lord, thou art our God, let not man prevail against thee.' And there is an encouragement also in the deliverance for future faith. It gives a ground for future faith from the riches of the present experience ; in such distresses there is the highest experience of God, and hope is the fruit of experience. How apt are we to believe God in other straits, when we have had assistance (like they that dreamed) come unexpectedly upon us. God overthrew Pharaoh's host in the Bed Sea, when they were upon the heels of the affrighted Israelites and ready to crush them, but God gave them « to be meat to the people inhabiting the wilderness,' Ps. Ixxiv. 14, as a standing excellent dish to feed their hopes for all future deliverances upon their trust in God. And indeed that deliverance was an earnest of their perpetual security, by special providence in any succeeding trouble. And God often gives them a particular charge to remember that deliverance, with a practical remembrance to still their fear and support their faith : Deut. vii. 18, « Thou shalt not be afraid of them, but shalt well remember what the Lord thy God
did unto Pharaoh, and to all the Egyptians.' He would have them remem ber it as a covenant-mercy, < what the Lord thy God did,' thy God in cove-
106 A DISCOUKSE OF DIVINE PBOVIDENCE. [2 C/HRON. XYI. 9.
nant, not what the Lord did barely by an arm of power, but what he did by a vastness of affection, and as a God of truth and firmness in his covenant.
3. In fitting them by the extremity for a holy reception of the mercy intended.
God keeps up the distress of his church to expel self-confidence. Trust in earthly things are the great checks of God's kindness. We hardly forsake this temper till we are forsaken by all those things we confide in. Times of extremity make us more humble ; and humility, like the plough,
fits us for the seed of mercy. The gardener's digging up the clods is but to prepare the earth for the receiving and nourishing some excellent plants he intends to put into its womb. There is a certain set time for God's great actions. He lets the powers of darkness have their hour, and God will take his hour : Ps. cii. 13, ' Thou shalt arise and have mercy upon Sion : for the time to favour her, yea, the set time, is come.' He hath a set time for the discovery of his mercy, and he will not stay a jot beyond it. What is this time ? ver. 9, &c. When they * eat ashes like bread, and mingle their drink with weeping ;' when they are most humble, and when the servants of God have more affection to the church ; when their humble and ardent affections are strong, even to the ruin and rubbish of it ; when they have a mighty desire and longing for the reparation of it, as the Jews
in captivity had for the very dust of the temple : ver. 14, ' For thy servants take pleasure in her stones, and favour the dust thereof.' For there notes it to be a reason why the set time was judged by them to be come. That is
God's set time when the church is most believing, most humble, most affec tionate to God's interest in it, and most sincere. Without faith we are not fit to desire mercy, without humility we are not fit to receive it, without affection we are not fit to value it, without sincerity we are not fit to improve it. Times of extremity contribute to the growth and exercise of those qua lifications.
4. In securing them against future straits. For God's disappointing enemies when they think themselves sure of all, is the highest discourage ment to them, and those of the like temper, to renew the like attempt ; but if they do, it is an evidence they shall meet with the like success ; it is the highest vexation to see their projects diverted, when they have lighted their match, and are ready to give fire. Men may better take notice how God
loves his people, when he apprehends their adversaries in the very pinnacle of their pride, and flings them down from the mount of their hopes. It doth not only dash the present designs, but dishearten future attempts. The Egyptians, after their overthrow at the Eed Sea, never attempted to disturb them in their journey in the wilderness. It was a bridle to all their enemies except Amalek, upon whose country they travelled in the wilderness, when it was the interest of state in all those nations to rout that swarm of people that must have some seat to dwell in ; and every nation might justly fear to be dispossessed by them ; yet we read of no league among those nations bordering upon the wilderness, such a terror did God strike into them by
that relief he gave his people in their extremity at the Eed Sea, whereby he provided for their future security in their whole journey. It was this melted the hearts of the Gibeonites, one of the nations of Canaan, and brought them to a submission to Joshua, as the sentiment of all their neigh bours : Josh. ix. 9, ' We are come, because of the name of the Lord thy God ; for we have heard the fame of him, and all that he did in Egypt.' And for this and other reasons it may be, that the times before the church's last deliverance shall be sharper than any before, which our Saviour inti mates, Mat. xxiv. 21, * For then there shall be great tribulation, such as
2 CHEON. XVI. 9.] A DISCOUESE OF DIVINE PEOVIDENCE. 107
was not since the beginning of the world, no, nor ever shall be.' In dis coursing his disciples of the troubles at the destruction of Jerusalem, which was a type of the trouble preceding the end of the world, he adds a discourse of what shall be at the end of the world, in the last attempt of the enemies
of the church ; for, ver. 29, he saith, ' immediately after the tribulation of those days,' he speaks of his coming in the clouds of heaven with great power and glory. And also in the Revelation : Eev. xvi. 18, ' And there was a great earthquake, such as was not since men were upon the earth, so mighty
an earthquake, and so great.' This, perhaps, at the pouring out of the seventh vial, may concern the Christian church as well as the antichristian party. But the reason why it may be sharper just before that last deliverance, than it was in former ages, may be because it is the last effort the enemy
shall make ; the last demonstration of God's power and wisdom for, and care of his church, and justice upon his enemies in such cases ; the last season for their multiplying their cries, and acting their faith for such a concern.
Use 3. Of exhortation.
If it be so, that the providence of God is chiefly designed for the good of the church, —
First, Fear not the enemies of the church. It is a wrong to God. Fear
of man is always attended with a forgetfulness of God : Isa. li. 12, 13, ' I, even I, am he that comforteth you : who art thou, that art afraid of a man that shalt die, and of the son of man that shalt be made as grass : and for
ge ttest the Lord thy Maker, who hath stretched forth the heavens,' &c. It is to value the power of grass above the power of the Creator, as though that had more ability to hurt than God to help. As if men were as strong as mountains, and God as weak as a bulrush. It is a wrong to his truth ; hath he not comforted you in his promise ? What creature should then deject you ? It is a wrong to his mercy. Is he not the Lord thy Maker ? Calvin refers this to regeneration, and not creation. Hath he not renewed you by his Spirit ? and will he not protect you by his strength ? and that you may not question his power, look up to the heavens which he hath stretched out, and the foundations of the earth which he hath laid. And is that arm which hath done such mighty works, too weak to defend that work, which is choicer in his eye than either the extended heaven or the established earth ? We vilify God, and defile his glory, when our fear of man's power stifles our faith in God : Isa. viii. 12, 13, ' Neither fear you their fear, nor be afraid : sanctify the Lord of Hosts himself, and let him be your fear.' Let the wicked fear the Assyrians, and engage in confederacies against them ;
but let your eyes be lifted 'up to me and my providence. God will either turn away the mouth of the cannon from the church, or arm it against the shot ; either preserve it from a danger, protect it in it, or sanctify it to the church ; and who need fear a sword in a father's hand ?
1. Will you fear man, who have a God to secure you? The church belongs to God, not to man as a just propriety : Isa. xliii. 1, ' Fear not : for I have redeemed thee, I have called thee by my name : thou art mine. When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee,' &c. « Thou art mine,' not man's. Thou art mine, I am thine. I will be with thee as thine, I will secure thee as mine. Is my creating, is my forming, is my redeeming thee to no purpose ? I will not secure you from trouble ; but surely my redemption of you, the propriety I have in you, should secure you from fears in those troubles. None shall hurt you whilst I have power to defend you. GOD WITH ps, if well considered and believed, is sufficient to still those fears which have the greatest outward objects for their encouragement :
108 A DISCOURSE OF DIVINE PROVIDENCE. [2 C/HRON. XVI. 9.
Ps. xxvii. 1, ' The Lord is the strength of my life, of whom shall I be afraid ?' If God be our strength to support us, why should the weakness of dust and ashes scare us ? Alliance to great men, and protection of princes, prop up
men's hearts against the fear of others ; and shall alliance to God be of a weaker efficacy ? A heathen* could so argue, that knew nothing of redemp tion. Let the counsels of enemies be crafty, Ps. Ixxxiii. 3 ; yet they con
sult against God's hidden ones, hidden by God, whilst plotted against by men : who would fear the stratagems of men, whilst protected in an impreg nable tower ? God hides, when men are ready to seize the prey. How did the angel protect a sincere trembling Lot against the invasion of a whole
city, and secured his person whilst he blinded his enemies' eyes that they could not find the door. Instruments cannot design more maliciously, than Christ watches over them affectionately. Christ hath his eye to see your works and danger where Satan hath his throne, Kev. ii. 13.
2. Will you fear men, who have a God to watch over their motions ? What counsels can prevail where God intends to overrule their resolves ? There is no place so close as to keep private resolutions from his knowledge. This was the thought of those statesmen against whom the prophet Isaiah thunders, Isa. xxix. 15, 16 : ' Woe unto them that seek deep to hide their counsel from the Lord, and their works are in the dark ; surely your turn
ing of things upside down shall be esteemed as the potter's clay.' Their counsels were as well known to him as the potter's clay is to the potter, which he can either frame into a vessel, or fling away into the mass from
whence he took it. God hath not despoiled himself of his government ; nor will devolve his right upon any men to dispose of his concerns. When men
think to act so secretly, as though they framed themselves, as though God's eye were not upon them, he will watch and trace all their motions, and make them insignificant to their purposes. Satan himself, the slyest and subtilest agent, is too open to God to hide his counsels from him. Never fear man till the whole combined policies of hell can control the resolves of heaven, till God wants omniscience to dive into their secrets, skill to de feat their counsels, and an arm to abate their power.
3. Will you fear men or devils, who have a God to restrain them ?
The great dragon and general of the serpent's seed is under a binding power, who can bind him not only a thousand years, Kev. xx. 2, but a thou
sand ages. Have his seed more force to resist almightiness than their captain ? The prophet, speaking of the Assyrians threatening Jerusalem, and the confusion in some cities for fear of them, yet, saith he, ' he shall remain at Nob,' a city of the Levites, not far from Jerusalem, where he might have a full prospect of the city. He shall but ' shake his hand,' he shall not gripe it in his talons : he shall shew his teeth, but not bite, snarl
but not worry, Isa. x. 32. God will let out so much of the enemies' wrath as may answer his gracious ends to the church in purging of them, but * the remainder of wrath,' which remains in their hearts for the church's destruc tion, * he will restrain,' Ps. Ixxvi. 9, 10 ; as the physician weighs out as much as may curb the disease, not kill the patient. The chain of providence controls the power of Satan, when it doth not change his desires. The
Egyptian's will against the Israelites was strong, but his power was weak. Might and power is only in the hand of God, who reigns over all, 1 Chron. xxix. 12. And God will exert so much of power to bridle the inclinations of nature in the wicked for the good of his people. He will give them so much line as may serve his holy purposes, but not so much as shall prejudice
the church's standing. A staff is not capable of giving a smart blow with-
#• Arram. in Epist. lib. i. c. 9.
2 CHKON. XVI. 9.] A DISCOURSE OF DIVINE PROVIDENCE. 109
out the force of the hand that holds it. Wicked men are no more than a staff in God's hand: Isa. x. 5, ' The rod of my anger, the staff in their hand is my indignation :' he can either strike with it, or break it in pieces. The staff is
still in the hand of God, and can do no more than what his merciful arm moves
it to ; as he can restrain it, so he can divert it. What should we fear those
whose hearts are in God's hands, whose enmity is under God's restraint, who can change their fury into favour, or at least bridle it as he doth the
waves of the sea ? No enemy's shot can exceed God's commission. God often laughs when men plot, and disappoints when they begin to act. Some times he makes them act contrary to their intentions. Balaam comes to curse the people, and God turns his tongue to bless them, which, if guided by his own heart, would have poured out execrations upon them, Num. xxiii. 7, 8. God puts the words into his mouth, but not in his heart, ver. 5, and makes him bless that which his heart hates.
4. Will you fear them who have a God to ruin them ? Though the beast in the Revelations hath seven heads, a reaching wisdom, and ten horns, a
mighty power, Rev. xvii. 3 (both the numbers of seven and ten being num bers of perfection in Scripture), yet, with all his wisdom and strength, he shall tumble down to destruction ; they can no more resist God's power than blustering winds or raging waves can cross his will. When the enemies of
the church are in combination, like thorns full of prickles ' folded together,' then shall they ' be consumed like stubble that is dry,' Nahum i. 10. God loves to defeat pride : Exod. xviii. 11, * In the thing wherein they dealt proudly, he was above them.' God waits but the time of their swelling to make them burst. Absalom kills his brother, withdraws the people from their obedience to the king, stirs them up to revolt, enters Jerusalem in his
father's absence, pollutes his concubines, engages his designs against his life, raiseth an army against him ; who would not say David was in extremity, and Absalom alone prospering in his designs ? But when Absalom comes to open force, God arises, an oak catches him, his mule forsakes him, and
Joab despatches him. Sennacherib had prospered in his'conquest of Judea, taken many strong towns, laid siege to Jerusalem, solicits the people to revolt, blasphemes the God of heaven, and then an angel comes and makes a dreadful slaughter in a night, and he, returning to his own country, is
killed by his own sons, 2 Kings xix. 7, 35, 36, 37. God's arrows shall never miss their mark, and he hath more than one to strike into the hearts
of his enemies : Ps. xviii. 14, ' He sent out his arrows and scattered them.' What reason then to fear even multitudes, who can never be too strong for that God who gave them that little strength they have !
Secondly, The second duty to which we are exhorted. If all God's pro vidences tend to the good of his church and people,
2. Then censure not God in his dark providences. As we are often too
hasty in our desires for mercy, and are not content to stay God's time, so we are too hasty in making constructions of providence, and will not stay
God's leisure of informing us. When God seems at the beginning of every providence to speak the same language as Christ did to Peter in washing his feet, John xiii. 7, * What I do thou knowest not now, but thou shalt know hereafter,' the instruments are visible, the action sensible, but the inward meaning still lies obscured from our view. We are too short-sighted to apprehend and judge of God's works ; man cannot understand his own way, Prov. xx. 24, much less the ways of an infinite God. God's judgments are a great deep, Ps. xxxvi. 6 ; we may sooner fathom the deepest part in the sea, understand all the turnings of those subterranean passages, lave out the ocean with a spoon, or suck in, into our bellies, that great mass of
110 A DISCOURSE OF DIVINE PROVIDENCE. [2 CflRON. XYI. 9.
waters, than understand the ways of God with our shallow brains. He makes darkness his pavilion ; he is sometimes very obscure in his ways. Neither the greatness of his means, nor the wisdom of his workings, can be fully apprehended by men. We have sense to feel the effects, but not heads
to understand the reasons and methods of the divine government. Eccles.
iii. 11, ' No man can find out the work that God makes from the beginning to the end.' Though a man may see the beginning of God's works, yet is he able to walk understandingly along with divine wisdom in every step it takes ? will he not lose the track often before it comes to an end ? It is not the face, but the back parts of providence which we behold ; why then
should we usurp an authority beyond our ability, and make ourselves God's judges, as if infinite wisdom and power were bounded within the narrow
compass of our purblind reasons ? His ways are beyond our tracing, and his counsels too high for our short measures. Since therefore God satisfies the righteousness of his own will, let us submit our curiosity to his wisdom, and forbear our censures of that exact righteousness and superlative wisdom which we cannot comprehend.
1. Therefore, first fix this in your minds, that God is righteous, wise, and good in everything. Good, therefore nothing can be hurtful to his people ; righteous, therefore nothing unjust ; wise, therefore nothing in vain; our injurious thoughts of him make us so uncharitable towards him, and
greater censurers of his righteous ways than we are of men's wicked actions. Clouds and darkness are about him ; our eye cannot pierce through his darkness, or see the frame of his counsels ; yet let these principles be kept
as the centre, that ' righteousness and judgment are the habitation of his throne,' Ps. Ixxxix. 14. He is righteous in his darkness, wise in his^cloudiness ; though his judgments are unsearchable to us, and his ways past find ing out by our most industrious inquisitions, and a depth of knowledge and wisdom there is in them too deep for us to measure, Rom. xi. 33. God was always righteous, wise, and good ; he is the same still. Though the motions of the planets be contrary, yet the sphere where they are fixed, the natures wherewith they are created, are the same still. Though the providences of God have various motions, yet the spring of his counsel, the rule of his goodness, the eye of his wisdom, the arm of his power, are not altered. He acts by the same rule, disposeth by the same wisdom, orders according to the same righteousness ; he is unchangeable in the midst of the changeable
effects of providence. The sun is the same body, which admits of no inward alteration, keeps exactly its own motion, though its appearances are some times ruddy, sometimes clear ; its heat sometimes more faint, at another time more scorching ; its distance sometimes nearer, sometimes farther off. He must be very ignorant that thinks the objects upon which we look through a prism or trigonal glass change their colours as often as they are represented so in the various turnings of the glass. You see the undulations and wavings of a chain which hangs perpendicularly, one part moves this way and another that way, but the hand that holds it, or the beam to which it is fastened, is firm and steady.
2. Distinguish between preparations to the main work and the perfection
of the work, between the motions of God's eyes and the discovery of his strength; his eyes move before his power. The neglect of this was the
cause of the Israelites' uncharitable censures of the kindness of God; they interpret God's reducing them into the straits near the Red Sea a design for their destruction, which was but the preparation for their complete deliverance, in a way most glorious to God, and most comfortable and advantageous to themselves.
2 CHRON. XVI. 9.] A DISCOURSE OF DIVINE PBOVIDENCE. Ill
He that knows not the use of the grape, would foolishly censure a man who should fling them into a wine-press, and squeeze them into mash, which is but a preparation of them to afford that generous liquor which was
the end of their growth.* God treads his grapes in a wine-press to draw from thence a delicate wine, and preserve the juice for his own use, which would else wither upon the stalk, and dry up to nothing. We judge not the husbandman angry with his ground for tearing it with his^ plough, nor censure an artificer for hewing his stones or beating his iron, but expect patiently the issue of the design. Why should we not pay the same respect to God which we do to men in their arts, since we are less capable of being judges of his incomprehensible wisdom than of the skill of our fello wcreatures ? God in his cross providence prepares the church for fruitfulness whilst he ploughs it. He may seem to be digging up the bowels of the church, while he is only preparing to lay the foundation in Sion for the raising a noble structure ; and in what shape soever he appears in his preparations, he will in his perfection of it appear in glory: Ps. cii. 16, 'When the Lord shall build up Sion, he shall appear in glory;' and evidence that he was restoring whilst we thought him destroying, and heal ing whilst we thought him wounding. As God hath settled a gradual pro gress in his works of creation, so by degrees he brings his everlasting counsels to perfection. The seasons of the year are not jumbled together, but orderly succeed one another : and the coldness of the winter is but a preparation for a seasonable spring and a summer harvest. We do not unrighteously accuse God of disorder in his common works, why should we do it in his special works of providence ? Do we disparage the musician's skill for the jarring and intelligible touches in the tuning the instrument, but rather wait for the lesson he intends to play ? If we stay for God's fuller touches of this great instrument of the world in the way of his pro vidence, it will, like David's harp, chase away that evil spirit from us which is now too apt to censure him.
3. Fix not your eye only upon the sensible operations of providence, but the ultimate end. As in a watch the various wheels have different motions, yet all subservient to one end, to tell the true hour of the day and the mo tion of the sun, so are all the providences of God. Should any have been preserved in the deluge upon some high mountain who had not known the design of the ark, and had seen it floating upon such a mass of waters, he would have judged the people in it in a deplorable condition, and have con cluded that it would have broke against the mountain, or been overturned
by the waves ; yet that was Noah's preservative. Had any of us been with Christ, and acknowledged him the Saviour of the world, and yet seen him crucified in such a manner by men, and judged only by that, what wise and what just constructions should we have made of that providence ? Much the same as some of his disciples did: Luke xxiv. 21, 'We trusted that it had been he which should have redeemed Israel;' but the whole design is spoiled, we are fools, and he an impostor. Yet this, which seemed to be
the ruin of redemption, was the necessary highway to it by God's constitu tion. No other way was it to be procured : ver. 26, « Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to have entered into his glory?' His entrance into glory to perfect our salvation was the end of the sensible suffering wherein he laid the foundation. As they charge Christ with impos ture, not considering the end, so do we God with unrighteousness when we consider not his aim. The end both beautifies and crowns the work ; the
remarks of God's glory in the creation are better drawn from the ends of
* Morn, de verit. Rel. Christian, cap. xii. p. 210, 211.
112 A DISCOURSE OF DIVINE PEOVIDENCE. [2 CnRON. XVI. 9.
the creatures, and their joint subserviency to them, than from any one
single piece of the creation. We must not only consider the present end, but the remote end, because God in his providence towards his church hath his end for after times. God acts for ends at a great distance from us, which may not be completed till we are dead and rotten. How can we judge of that which respects a thing so remote from us, unless we view it
in that relation ? God's aims in former providences were things to come, his aims in present providences are things to come. As the matter of the
church's prayers, so the objects of God's providences are things to come: Isa. xlv. 11, ' Ask me of things to come, concerning my sons.' The matter of their prayers then were, that God would order all things for the coining of
the Messiah. The matter of the church's prayer now is, that God would order all things for the perfecting the Messiah in his mystical body. The whole frame of providence is for one entire design; it is one entire book with seven seals, Rev. v. 1. The beginning of a book, as well as the
middle, hath relation to the end. The design of God's book of providence is but one in all the seven seals and periods of time.
4. Consider not only one single act of providence, but the whole scheme, to make a conclusion. The motions of his eyes are various, but all ends in discoveries of his strength. Men do not argue from one single proposition, but draw the conclusion from several propositions knit together. It is by such a spiritual logic we are to make our conclusions from the way of pro vidence ; as in the reading Scripture, if we take not the whole period, we may make not only nonsense, but blasphemy ; * as in that of the psalmist,
* Thou art not a God that hath pleasure in unrighteousness.' If a man should read only, Thou art not a God, and make a full stop there, it would be blasphemy ; but reading the whole verse, it is an excellent sense, and an honourable declaration of God's holiness. Such errors will be committed in reading the books of providence, if we fix our eyes only in one place, and make a full stop where God hath not made any. We judge not of a picture by the first draught, but the last lines ; not by one shadow or colour, but by the whole composure. The wisdom of God is best judged of by the view of the harmony of providence. The single threads of providence may seem very weak or knotty and uneven, and seem to administer just occasion of censure ; but will it not as much raise the admiration to see them all
woven into a curious piece of branched work ? Consider therefore God's ways of working, but fully judge nothing till the conclusion, for that is to judge before the time. Judge not then of providence at the first appear
ance ; God may so lose the glory of his work, and you the comfort.
Thirdly. The third duty. Inquire into providence, and interpret all public providences by this rule. We must search into it, though we are not able to find out all the reasons of it. What can be a braver study than that
which is the object of God's eternal counsel ? We are conformed to God in our wills, when we have the same ends in our motions ; and we are conformed to God in our understandings, when we have the same object of our thoughts.
Some providences have their interpretation written in their foreheads, we may run and read : such as his signal judgments in the world, which express the very sin for which they are inflicted ; others are wrapped up in a harder shell and more covers, and therefore more labour to reach the kernel ; some are too high for our knowledge, none for our inquiry. It is our duty to seek after God, though we can never arrive to a perfect knowledge of him : Job
xi. 7, * Canst thou by searching find out God ? canst thou find out the Almighty unto perfection ? ' He prohibits not the searching, though he
* Burgess of Justification, part ii. serm. 2, p. 12.
2 CHRON. XVI. 9.] A DISCOURSE OF DIVINE PROVIDENCE. 113
asserts the impossibility of finding him out to perfection. What hath God given us faculties for, but to search after him ? And we must not do it to satisfy our curiosity, but to increase our knowledge, and consequently our admiration of his wise and powerful care. Diligence must be used too. Our first thoughts about things of concernment are usually confused ; so are our first sights of providence. Providence is a great deep ; deep things are not seen without stooping down. We must cra^axy^a/, as the angels do when they search into the things of the gospel, 1 Pet. i. 12. But let this aim of God at the good of his church be the rule of your interpretation. Without this compass to steer our judgments by, we may both lose and rack ourselves in the wilderness of providence, and fortify our natural atheism and ignorance instead of our faith. I must confess the study of providence is in some respect more difficult than in the former ages of the world, because God seems to manage things in the church more by his wisdom than power, which is not so intelligible by man as the sensible effects of his strength. That attribute he manifested most in miraculous ways and the visible minis try of angels, as we read in Scripture stories ; now he employs his wisdom more in ordering second causes, in ordinary ways, to his own high, merciful, and just ends. Yet since the discovering of Christ, God hath given us a rule whereby we may discern much of his wisdom in the knowledge of his end, as the knowledge of Christ removes the veil from the Scripture in our reading
of it : 2 Cor. iii. 14-16, « The same veil remains in the reading of the Old Testament, which veil is done away in Christ ' (which veil is still upon the Jews), and makes us understand those parts of the Old Testament which otherwise would be utterly obscure ; so in the reading the books of provi dence, the knowledge of this end of God in them, will help us to understand the meaning of that which otherwise would non-plus the reason of man. He that knows the end of one that is making a watch, will not wonder at his framing small wheels and filing little pins ; but he that understands nothing Df the design, would count it ridiculous for a man so to trifle away his time. Without the knowledge of this end, we shall expose ourselves to miserable nistakes ; as Plutarch mistook the cause of the ceasing of oracles, ascribing
t to the change of the nature of the soil, not affording those exhalations as brmerly, or the death of the demons which gave those oracles. He had udged otherwise, had he known or believed the rising of a higher power, the 3un of righteousness in the world, who imposed silence upon those angels of larkness, the most famous oracles in the world ceasing about the time of Christ. To nnagine to interpret the motions of providence, without a knowedge of Christ and the design of God for his church, is as vain as to imagine ?e can paint a sound, or understand a colour by our smell. Correct sense >y reason in this work, and reason by faith. To what end hath God pre-
cribed faith to succour us in the weakness of reason, if it had been capable o understand his ways without it, and if we make no use of it upon such ccasions ?
Fourthly. A fourth duty. Consider the former providences God hath nought for the church in the past ages. . Let him not lose the present glory
f his past works : Ps. cii. 18, < This shall be written for the generation to ome, and the people which shall be created shall praise the Lord,' even for aat work of his which is written to be done in former ages. God loves to
ave his former works read and pleaded. It is a keeping a standing praise f him m the world. We have had the benefit of them ; it is fit God should ave the glory of them from us, as well as from those who immediately en- >yed them. Our good was bound up in every former preservation of the aurch. If the candlestick had been broken, where had the candle been ?
VOL. i. H
114 A DISCOURSE OF DIVINE PROVIDENCE. [2 C/HRON. XVI. 9.
Had the church been destroyed, how could the gospel have been transmitted
to us ? Let the duty we owe to God's glory engage us to a consideration of them, and the benefit we have had by them also incite us. We usually for get not things that are strange, nor things that are profitable ; his works of old have been works of wonder in themselves, and profitable to us. To what end are the praises of God discovered to the generations to come, but that they should reflect those praises to heaven again, and convey them down to the generations following ? Ps. Ixxviii. 4, ' Shewing to the generation to come the praises of the Lord.'
1. This will help us in our inquiries in present providences. There is a beautiful connection between former and latter providences ; they are but several links of one chain. The principle and end is the same ; that God from whence they come, that Christ to which they tend, is the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever. What God doth now, is but a copy of what he portrayed in his word as done in former ages ; there are the same goodness, the same design in both. The births of providence are all of a like temper and disposition. We cannot miss of the understanding of them, if we com pare them with the ancient copies ; for God is in the generation of the right eous, the same God still. God is the same, his ends are the same, the events will be the same.
2. It will support our faith. The reason of our diffidence of God in the
cause of the'church, is the forgetfulness of his former appearances for her. Oh if we did remember his former goodness, we should not be so ready to
doubt of his future care. This was the psalmist's care in his despondencies, and in his overwhelming troubles of spirit : Ps. Ixxvii. 9, 'Hath God forgotten to be gracious ? hath he in anger shut up his tender mercies ? ' but, ver. 10, he concludes it his infirmity, and resolves upon a review of the records oi
God's ancient works for his people, ' and the years of the right hand of the Most High,' these times wherein he declared his power and his glory, and so proceeds to the top of all their deliverances, viz., that out of Egypt. Doth
God's wisdom decay, or his power grow feeble ? Is not his interest the same ? Is he not a God still like himself ? Is not his glory as dear to him as before ? Hath he cast off his affection to his own name ? Why should not he then do the same works, since he hath the same concern ? God
himself, to encourage us, calls them to our remembrance : Isa. 1. 2, ' Is my hand shortened, that I cannot redeem ? or have I no power to deliver ?
Behold, at my rebuke I do dry up the sea, I make the rivers a wilderness,1 &c. Am not I the same God that dried up the sea, that wrought those ancient wonders which amazed the world ? What doth your distrust signify but the impair of my power ? Kouse up yourselves to a consideration ol them, and thence gather fresh supplies to strengthen you in your preseni dependence upon me ! He puts us in mind of them, because we are apt tc
forget them. Gen. xv. 6, when it is said Abraham * believed in the Lord, and it was accounted to him for righteousness,' God answered him, ver. 7. * I am the Lord that brought thee out of Ur of the Chaldees.' Keep up thj faith ; and to that end, remember what I did for thee before in calling thee. Cast thy eye upon that place whence I delivered thee, either from the idola tries of the place, or the persecution he was in for the true worship of God. And as God puts him in mind of his mercy he had shewn to him before, foi the encouragement of his faith, so the people of God have made use of them
to this end. Goliah's sword was counted by David the fittest for his defence in his flight, because it had been a monument of God's former deliverance o: him, 1 Sam. xxi. 9. When he asks for a sword or spear, Abimelech saidj
' The sword of Goliah, whom thou slowest, is here ;' and David said, ' There
2 CHEON. XVI. 9.] A DISCOURSE OF DIVINE PROVIDENCE. 115
is none like that : give it me.' How hasty he catches at it ! There is none like that sword, that hath so signal a mercy writ upon it. That very sword will not only defend me against my enemies, but guard my faith against those temptations that would invade it. This encouragement of faith and hope is the end of God in his transmission of the records of his former providences
to us : Ps. Ixxviii. 6, 7, ' That the generation to come might know them, and declare them to their children ' from one posterity to another, ' that they
might set their hope in God.' 3. It will enliven our prayer. It is a mighty plea in prayer. How often doth David urge it ! Thou hast been my help, thou hast delivered my soul from death, wilt thou not
deliver my feet from falling ? But in the church's concerns too : 1 Chron. xvi. 11, 12, ' Seek the Lord and his strength, seek his face continually. Kemember the marvellous works that he hath done.' A reflection upon what God hath done should be enjoined* with our desires of what we would have God to do for us. When Moses was praying upon the top, while Israel was fighting with Amalek at the foot of the hill, he had the rod of God in his hand, Exod. xvii. 9 ; that miraculous rod which had amazed Pharaoh, whose motion summoned all the plagues upon them ; that rod which had split the sea for their passage, broached the rock for their thirst,
and had been instrumental in many miracles : certainly Moses shewed this rod to God, and pleaded all those wonderful deliverances God had wrought instrumentally by it. No doubt but he carried it with him to shew to God for a plea, as well as to the Israelites, to spirit their resolutions against their
enemies.
4. It will prevent much sin. A forgetfulness of his former works is one cause of our present provoca
tions. It was so in the case of the Israelites' sin : Ps. cvi. 7, ' They remembered not the multitude of his mercies ; but provoked thee at the sea,
even at the Bed Sea ; ' they had lost the memory of so many miracles in Egypt, and which aggravated their sin, * they provoked him at the sea, at the
Red Sea ; ' they provoked him under a present indigency, as well as against former mercy ; they provoked him in that place of straits where all the powers on earth could not have relieved them had heaven neglected them. The provocation you may see, Exod. xiv. 11, 12, which sprang from a forgetfulness of his kindness so lately shewed to them. How apt are we to forget old mercies, when we are so naturally apt to blot out of our memories mercies newly received ! If this were well considered by men, it would prevent their enterprises against the church, and consequently their shame and ruin. Are there records of any who have hardened themselves against God and prospered ? Job ix. 4. How might in that reflection be seen the frustrations of counsels, disgracing of attempts, showers of fury and vengeance from heaven upon the heads of such ! The reason why the wonderful works of God were to be made known to posterity, was ' that :hey might not be as their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation of
nen,' Ps. Ixxviii. 6, 8. If they did consider those transactions of God in md for his church, they could no more think to stop the breath of per petual powerful providence, than to bridle in a storm, or stop the motion
)f the sun. To conclude this : God's providential judgments are to be •emembered ; though they are for the punishment of the age that feel them, ,hey are also for the instruction of the age which succeeds them ; tell,
"HD, number, be as exact as in your accounts, wherein you take notice of ivery number, minute, and cypher. The works of providence as well as the
* That is, 'joined in,' or incorporated. — ED.
116 A DISCOURSE OF DIVINE PROVIDENCE. [2 CHRON. XVI. 9.
doctrine of God are parts of a child's catechism, they are to keep up the consideration of them in themselves, and hand them in instruction to their
children.
Fifthly, The fifth duty. Act faith on God's providence. Times of trouble should be times of confidence ; fixedness of heart on
God would prevent fears of heart : Ps. cxii. 7, ' He shall not be afraid of evil tidings: his heart is fixed.' How? * Trusting in the Lord. His heart is established, they shall not be moved.' Otherwise without it we shall be as light as a cock* moved with every blast of evil tidings, our hopes will swim or sink according to the news we hear. Providence would seem to sleep, unless faith and prayer awakened it. The disciples had but little faith
in their Master's account, yet that little faith awakened him in a storm, and he relieved them. Unbelief doth only discourage God from shewing
his power in taking our parts. ' Every one will walk in the name of his god, and we will walk in the name of the Lord our God for ever and ever,' Micah iv. 5. Heathens will trust in their idols, and shall not we in that God that lives for ever ? Have we any reason to have a less esteem of our confidence in God than heathens had of and in their idols ? We should do
our duty, which is faith and hope, and leave God to do his work, which is mercy and kindness. By unbelief we deny his providence, disparage his wisdom, and strip him of his power ; we have none else to trust ; no
creature can order anything for the church's good without God's commission and direction. What should we trust him for ? For that wherein his glory is concerned, which is more worth to him than all the world besides. Trust
him most when instruments fail. God takes them off some time, to shew that he needs not any, and to have our confidence rightly placed on him, which staggered before between him and the creature.
1. All the godly formerly did act faith on a less foundation. The godly patriarchs who lived eight or nine hundred years, depended upon providence
that long time, and shall not we for seventy years, the usual term of man's life ! They had promises to support them, we have not only the same promises, but the performances of tbem too. They had providences, we have the same and more, all upon record in Scripture, all since the canon of Scripture was closed, whatsoever God hath remarkably done for his people
in all ages. Adam had but one promise, and but little experience of God's providence, yet no doubt trusted in him. We have a multitude of promises, not only pronounced, but sealed, confirmed by many repetitions, which are fresh obligations laid by God upon himself, the experience of all the pro vidences of God towards his church for above five thousand years, and shall our faith stagger when upon us are come the ends of the world ? Doth it become us to have our obligations to faith so strong, and our exercise of it so weak ? The promise of Christ, Isa. vii. 14, that a virgin should bring forth a Son, was thought by God a sufficient security to support their con fidence in him against the fury of their enemies ; it being a greater wonder that a virgin without loss of her virginity should bring forth a son, than the routing of an host of enemies. Is not then the performance of this,
God's actual sending his Son to us through the womb of a virgin, a higher ground of confidence for the church's success in every thing else, than barely the promise could be ? All creatures in danger have a natural confidence in God : 'He is the confidence of all the ends of the earth ;' but the church's confidence may be more firmly placed in him, because he is par ticularly the God of their salvation : Ps. Ixv. 5, « By terrible things in
* That is, a weather-cock or vane. — ED.
2 CHKON. XVI. 9.] A DISCOURSE OF DIVINE PROVIDENCE. 117
righteousness wilt thou answer us, 0 God of our salvation ; who art the confidence of all the ends of the earth.'
2. It is your only way to have mercy for the church, and for ourselves.
If he ' take pleasure in them that hope in his mercy,' as it is in Ps. cxlvii. 31, he will take pleasure to relieve them, he will * strengthen the bars of their gates,' ver. 13. If he take pleasure in them that hope in his mercy, then the stronger and more lively their hope is, the more intense is God's pleasure in them. If they do not hope in his mercy, he hath no pleasure in them, and no delight to them. He hath a goodness laid up for them that fear him, and he will lay it out too for them that trust in him : Ps. xxxi. 19,
' Oh how great is thy goodness which thou hast laid up for them that fear thee, which thou hast wrought for them that trust in thee before the sons of
men ! ' It is laid up for all that fear him, but it is wrought for them that trust in him. It is manifested upon special acts of trust and reliance, and wrought before the sons of men. Those that own God publicly in a way of reliance, God will own them publicly in a way of kindness. Faith is the key that unlocks the cabinet of special providence. Those eyes which move about all the world are fixed upon those that trust in him : Ps. xxxiii. 18,
' The eye of the Lord is upon them that hope in his mercy.' The^sixth duty. Wait upon God in the way of his providence. Wait upon him as he is 'a faithful Creator,' 1 Pet. iv. 19 ; much more since the title of being our Redeemer is added to that of our Creator, which strengthens his relation to us. Not to wait disparageth his care, bounds his power, or reflects upon his wisdom, as if he had stripped himself of his immense good ness, and forgot both his promise and his people ; as if he had cancelled the covenant, and given up his whole interest to the lusts of men. Wait in the
saddest appearances. The hour of Christ's death was dismal in the world, and darkness upon the earth ; a miraculous eclipse of the sun taken notice of by the very heathens ; yet were we never nearer to happiness, than in that dreadful time when our Saviour was most dyed in his own blood. The san guine complexion of the evening sky is a presage of a fair succeeding morn ing ; so many times is the red vesture of the church.
1. Wait upon him obedientially. Commit your souls to God, but in ' well-doing,' 1 Pet. iv. 19. Use no indirect means ; a contempt of the precept cannot consist with faith in either promise or providence. The obeying part is ours, the governing part is
God's : Prov. xxiii. 17, 18, ' Let not thine heart envy sinners, but be thou in the fear of the Lord all the day long ; for surely there is an end, and thine
expectation shall not be cut off.' God will govern all the day, but we must fear him all the day. When fear on our part attends government on God's part, there will be an end of our carnal fears, and a good issue of our hopes. The greatest deliverances of his church have been when his people has stood still, Exod. xiv. 13. As that deliverance was a type of all future and a ground of faith, so the carriage God enjoined was a rule to his people in all future
straits. It is against the laws of God's government for those listed in his service to stir without order. The law is our standing rule of duty. Provi dence cannot be a standing visible rule, because of the variety and seeming crossness of it sometimes to our apprehensions. Do not presume to lead God, but be led by him. It is our safety to follow him ; it is our sin and danger to presume to be his directors. We may lose ourselves when we are our own blind guides, and fall into a ditch ; but when we follow God, he hath wisdom to foresee the precipices we may stumble into, and goodness to divert us from them. By interposing carnal devices, men may perhaps have their ends, but with little comfort, perhaps much bitterness to themselves. Jacob
118 A DISCOURSE OF DIVINE PROVIDENCE. [2 CHRON. XVI. 9.
by his hasty using his own and his mother's sinful project for the blessing, got it indeed, but a cross too, for he was a man of sorrows all his days. By
waiting in God's way, we shall have our ends with more sweetness, because purely a fruit of God's care and goodness.
2. Wait patiently. How often are our spirits troubled about future events, and are afraid of the evil which threatens us, as if we were in pain for God,
and in doubt of his wise conduct ! Think not God's time too long. He waits as much for a fit opportunity to shew his mercy, as you can wait for the enjoyment of it : Isa. xxx. 18, ' Therefore will the Lord wait, that he may be gracious unto you ; blessed are all they that wait for him.' It is a part of our blessedness to wait for God, since it is a part of God's kindness to wait for a fit season to be gracious to us. It is not for us to prescribe rules to God, but follow the rules he prescribes to us. He hath freely made his promise ; let him be master of his own time to make it good. He will shew as much wisdom in accomplishing, as he did mercy in declaring it. God can do things in a moment, but it is his wisdom to take time, that his people may have time to exercise their trust, their hope, and their patience. He will take time in the ways of his providence, as well as he did in the works of creation. He allotted six days to that which he could have framed in a minute. He is judge of what is needful for us, and when it is needful for us. If God should give us that which is a mercy in its own nature, many times when we desire it, it might not be a mercy. If we will trust the skill of his wisdom for the best season, it cannot but be a mercy, for he will give it us with his own glory and grace wrapped up in it, which will make it sweeter to himself when his wisdom is honoured, and sweeter to us when our
good is promoted. God's methods appear in the end both wiser and better than our frames. Infinite goodness aims more at our welfare than our shallow
self-love ; and infinite wisdom can conduct things to our welfare, better than our short-sighted skill. He that knows all the moments of time, knows best how to time his actions. As God stayed for a fulness of time to bring the great redemption by Christ into the world, so he stays for a fulness of time to bring all the great consequences and appendices of it unto his church.
' Everything is beautiful in his time,' Eccles. iii. 11 ; in its own time ; in God's time, not in ours, &c.
8. Wait constantly. Though the wheels of providence seem sometimes to stand still, Ezek. i. 21, and God seems to put a period to the care of his church, yet let not us neglect our duty. Wait a while, and the wheels will be put upon their former rolling. Some particular passages of providence may trouble us for a while ; but in the issue, God may answer our desires above our expectations, and thereby confute our fears. His providences are sometimes like rivers that run under ground, out of sight, but will rise again with a delightful stream, with some new medicinal quality, contracted from the earth by the way. Joseph a prisoner waits upon God for his liberty, and God gives him freedom with preferment. God can bring about his
people's safety by unexpected ways. Who would have imagined before, that his own dream should make him a captive, and Pharaoh's dream make him a favourite ? The chief butler remembers him not till he was in an exigency, and the divining skill of the wise men of Egypt confounded. Joseph lost nothing by waiting upon God, who made so many circumstances concur to promote his honour. Wait therefore upon him in the sorest afflictions. The church is only afflicted in mercy, but the enemies of it are pulled up by the
roots : Jer. xxx. 11, « I am with thee to save thee ; though I make a full end of the nations whither I have scattered thee, yet I will not make a full
end of thee, but I will correct thee in measure.' God deals with his people
2 CHRON. XVI. 9.J A DISCOURSE OP DIVINE PROVIDENCE. 119