about that blessed design of their salvation, according to the promise in Rom. viii. 28, " We know that all things work together for good to them that love God;" for it is certain, that no ship at sea keeps more exactly by the compass which directs its course, than Providence does by that promise.

The other view of Providence is partial and imperfect in the way to glory, where we only view it in its single acts, or, at most, in some of its more observable actions.

Betwixt these two there is the same difference as betwixt the sight of the disjointed wheels and scattered pins of a watch, and the sight of the whole united in one frame, and working in one orderly motion; or betwixt an ignorant spectator's viewing some more remarkable vessel or joint of a dissected body, and the accurate anatomist's discerning the course of all the veins and arteries of the frame, as he follows the several branches of them through the whole, and plainly sees the proper places, figure, and use of each, with their mutual respect to one another.

O how ravishing and delightful a sight will that be, to behold, at one view, the whole design of Providence, and the proper place and use of every single act, which we could not understand in this world! All the dark, intricate, puzzling providences, at which we are now sometimes so stumbled and sometimes amazed, which we can reconcile neither with the promise nor with each other, nay, which we so unjustly censure and bitterly bewail as if they had fallen out quite cross to our happiness, we shall then see to be unto us, as the difficult passage through the wilderness was unto Israel, "the right way to a city of habitation."

And though our present view of Providence is so short and imperfect, in comparison of that in heaven, yet, under all its present disadvantages, it has so much excellency and sweetness in it, that I may call it a little heaven, or, as Jacob called his Bethel, "the gate of heaven." How often have the hearts of its observers been melted into tears of joy at the beholding of its wise and unexpected productions! How often has it convinced them, on a sober recollection of the events of their lives, that if the Lord had left them to their own counsels, they would have

been their own tormentors, if not their own executioners! Into what and how many fatal mischiefs would they have precipitated themselves, if Providence had been as short sighted as they! They accordingly give it their hearty thanks for considering their interest more than their importunity, and not suffering them to perish by their own desires.

In this Treatise I shall first prove, that the concerns of the saints in this world are certainly conducted by the wisdom and care of a special Providence; secondly, I will show in what particular concerns of theirs this providential care is evidently discovered; thirdly, that it is the duty of saints to advert to, and heedfully observe these performances of Providence for them; fourthly, in what manner this duty is to be performed by them; fifthly, what benefits result to them from such observation.

CHAPTER I.

Proofs of a special Providence.

I SHALL first undertake the proof and defence of this great truth-that the affairs of the saints in this world are certainly conducted by the wisdom and care of a special Providence.

There is a two-fold consideration of Providence, according to its two-fold object and manner of dispensation; the one is general, exercised about all creatures, rational and irrational, animate and inanimate; the other is special and peculiar. Christ has a universal empire over all things, Eph. i. 22; he is the head of the whole world by way of dominion; but a head to the church by way of union and special influence; John xvii. 2; "the Saviour of all men, but specially of them that believe," 1 Tim. iv. 10. The church is his special care and charge; he rules the world for her good.

The heathens generally denied a Providence. They foresaw that the concession of it would impose an eternal yoke upon their necks, by making them accountable for

all they did to a higher tribunal; and that they must necessarily pass the time of their sojourning here in fear, whilst all their thoughts, words, and ways were strictly noted and recorded, in order to an account by an allseeing and righteous God; and therefore they labored to persuade themselves that was not, which they had no mind should be. But my business is not so much to deal with professed atheists, who deny the existence of God, and consequently deride all evidence brought from scripture of the extraordinary events that fall out in favor of that people who are called his; but rather to convince those who professedly own all this, yet never having tasted religion by experience, suspect, at least, that all those things which we call special providences to the saints, are but natural events or mere contingencies: and thus, whilst they profess to own a God and a Providence, they do, in the mean time, live like atheists, and both think and act as if there were no such things. But if it be indeed so, that the affairs of the world in general, and more especially those of the saints, are not conducted by divine Providence, but, by the course of natural causes, let them who are tempted to think thus, rationally satisfy the following demands

I. How comes it to pass that so many signal mercies and deliverances have befallen the people of God, above the power and against the course of natural causes; to make way for which, there has been a suspension and stop put to the course of nature?

It is most evident, that no natural effect can exceed the power of its natural cause; nothing can give to another more than it has in itself. And it is as clear, that whatsoever acts naturally, acts necessarily; fire burns to the utmost of its power; waters overflow and drown all that they can; lions and other rapacious and cruel beasts, especially when hungry, tear and devour their prey. And as for arbitrary and rational agents, they also act according to the principles and laws of their natures; a wicked man, when his heart is fully set in him, if he have power in his hand and opportunity to execute his conceived mischief, will certainly give it vent, and perpetrate the wicked devices of his heart. But if any of these

inanimate, brute, or rational agents, when there is no natural obstacle, have their power suspended, and that when the effect is near the birth and the design on the very point of execution, so that though they would, yet they cannot hurt, to what, think you, is this to be assigned and referred? Yet so it has often been, where God's interest has been immediately concerned in the danger and evil of the event. The sea divided itself in its own channel, and made a wall of water on each side to give God's distressed Israel a safe passage, and that not in a calm, but when the waves thereof roared, Isa. li. 15. The fire when blown up to the most intense and vehement flame, had no power to singe one hair of God's faithful witnesses, when at the same instant it had power to destroy their intended executioners at a greater distance, Dan. iii. 22. The hungry lions put off their natural fierceness and became gentle and harmless, when Daniel was cast among them for a prey. Are these things according to the course and law of nature? To what secret and natural cause can they be ascribed?

In like manner, we find the vilest and fiercest of wicked men have been withheld by an invisible hand from injuring the Lord's people. By what secret cause in nature was Jeroboam's hand dried up and made inflexible at the very instant in which it was stretched out against the man of God, 1 Kings xiii. 4? No wild beasts rend and devour their prey more greedily, than wicked men would destroy the people of God who 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 lions, and I lie among them that are set on fire." The disciples were sent forth as sheep in the midst of wolves, Mat. x. 16.

It will not avail, in this case, to object that these miraculous events depend only upon scripture-testimony; for besides all that may be alleged for the authority of that testimony, what are they more than every eye sees or may see at this day? Do we not behold a weak, defenceless handful of men, wonderfully and unaccountably preserved from ruin in the midst of potent, enraged, and turbulent enemies, that fain would, but cannot destroy them,

when as yet no natural impediment can be assigned why they cannot?

And if this silence us, what shall we say, when we see events produced in the world for the good of God's chosen, by those very hands and means which were intentionally employed for their ruin? These things are as much contrary to the intention of their enemies, as they are above their own expectations; yet such things are not rare in the world. Was not the envy of Joseph's brethren, the cursed plot of Haman, and the decree procured by the envy of the princes against Daniel, turned by the secret and strange hand of Providence, to the advancement and benefit of God's servants? Their enemies lifted them up to all the honor and preferment to which they attained.

II. If the saints' concerns are not ordered by a special divine Providence, how is it that natural causes unite for their relief and benefit, in so strange a manner as they are found to do?

It is undeniably evident, that there are marvellous coincidences of Providence, confederating and agreeing, as it were, to meet and unite themselves to bring about the good of God's chosen. There is a like face of things showing itself in divers places when any work for the good of the church is coming on the stage of the world. When the Messiah came to the temple, Simeon and Anna were brought thither by Providence as witnesses to it. When, during the reformation, the images were pulled down in Holland, one and the same spirit of zeal possessed them in every city and town, so that the work was done in a night. He who heedfully reads the history of Joseph's advancement to be lord of Egypt, may number in that story twelve remarkable acts or steps of Providence, by which he ascended to honor and authority. If but oue of them had failed, in all likelihood the event had failed too; but every one fell in its order, keeping exactly its own time and place. Even in viewing the accurate structure of the body of a man, the figure, position, and mutual relations of the several members and vessels, have convinced some, and are sufficient to convince all, that it is the effect of divine wisdom and power. In like manner if the admirable adapting of the means and in