SERMONS UPON GENESIS 24:63

SERMON 10

And Isaac went out to meditate in the field at the even-tide.— GEN. 24: 63.

FOURTHLY, The object which I shall now propose is providence, a large field, and full of useful matter. It is a draught which God hath been plotting from all eternity, and accomplishing these thousands of years. Take it altogether, and it is a continued contexture or concatenation of decrees, actions, and events, from the creation to the day of judg-ment. It is our duty to understand it for the present, and it will be our happiness to understand it perfectly hereafter: Ps. 107:43, ' Whoso is wise, and will observe those things, even they shall under-stand the loving-kindness of the Lord.' It is an excellent piece of wisdom to be able to link events together that we may see the wisdom and love of God in the usual occurrences that happen out. We being of short narrow thoughts, fail most herein. Power is such an attribute as is visible and obvious to a common and careless eye; the heathens knew it: Rom. 1:20, ' For the invisible things of him from the crea-tion of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead.' But to find out the beauty and wisdom of God's work, there needs the light of faith and some acquaintance with God himself; therefore it is said, Job 11:5, 6, ' O that God would speak, &c., and show me the secrets of wisdom, that they are double to that which is.' Power is obvious to sense and reason, but wisdom is scarce discernible to faith.
There is an outside and an inside in all divine dispensations; the outside is full of beauty, but that is but dark to the inside, to the secrets of wisdom. God's works are full of mysteries as well as his word, and we cannot understand them unless God himself be our teacher; we are blind and see not, and then we murmur. But the full knowledge of the mysteries of providence is reserved for our portion in heaven, when we shall know as we are known : 1 Cor. 13:12, ' Now we see through a glass darkly, but then face to face ; now I know in part, but then I shall know even as also I am known.' We shall view all the passages of providence by which we have been brought to glory, and see the beautiful order and links of them. Now 'we have known God, or rather are known of God,' Gal. 4:9. God knoweth what is the meaning of such a provi-dence, what is in the womb of such a dispensation. Here there is a handwriting upon the wall, but we, as Belshazzar, cannot read it. As when we see a woman with child, we cannot tell what it will prove; but when we are on the top of the mount, we shall look back, and see how many are the crooked lanes we have passed, the uphill and down-hill we have trod, and God knew us all along, and did not only lead us in, but lead us out; then we shall know the multitude of his thoughts, and what the great number of them is. I confess by narrow observation we may discern a little for the present; as David: Ps. 139:17, ' How precious also are thy thoughts unto me, O God! how great is the sum of them ! ' When he looked back, how God had carried him through many difficulties, and brought him to rule his people, and watched over him with a careful eye of providence, and ordered every event for his comfort. Some general view and knowledge we may have for the present.
Now, to direct your meditations upon the providence of God—
(1.) I will show what it is;
(2.) That it is;
(3.) I will give you some observations;
(4.) I will press you to treat with your own hearts about the use and comfort of it.
I. To open the nature of it, what it is.
(1.) The grounds of providence ;
(2.) The acts of providence.
1. The grounds of providence; it is founded in God's nature and attributes, three especially—omniscience, wisdom, and power.
[1.] God's omniscience, or knowledge of all affairs in the world. God, like the sun, is all light and all eye: Prov. 15:3, ' The eyes of the Lord are in every place, beholding the evil and the good;' in the congregation, in the closet, in the shop, the eyes of the Lord are everywhere, and do not only behold the evil and the good person, but the evil and the good action. But chiefly God's eyes are upon his children; they fall under his special care: 2 Chron. 16:9, ' The eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect towards him.' God minds their whole condition, takes notice of their wants and dangers and troubles, and will show himself strong in their supply and deliverance. He doth not only know their persons, but their way: Ps. 1:6, ' The Lord knoweth the way of the righteous.' God takes notice of every particular step he takes and every case he is in ; by one intuition all things are present to God. Therefore when Christ would comfort his disciples, and fence them against worldly care, he saith, Matt. 6:32, ' Your heavenly Father knoweth that you have need of all these things.' God takes an exact and particular account of all your wants and necessities. So the psalmist: Ps. 56: 8, ' Thou tellest my wanderings; put thou my tears into thy bottle ; are they not in thy book ? ' There is not a tear you shed but it is treasured up in God's bottle; not a weary step you take for his name's sake but it is recorded in God's book. He speaks of those weary steps he took through the two forests of Ziph and Hateph. But if this be not full enough to commend the particularity of God's care, he goes higher: Isa. 49:16, 'Behold, I have graven thee on the palms of my hands; thy walls are continually before me.' When we are apt to forget, we fix a memorial on our hands; and if we forget a thing recorded in our book, we shall not forget what is imprinted on our hands.
[2.] God's wisdom. He knoweth their wants and ordereth their deliverance. There is something of counsel in all that the Lord doeth: Eph. 1:11, ' Who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will.¡¯ Therefore his will is called his counsel: Acts 4:28, ' For to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined before to be done.' There is not only a mighty hand seen in all the dispensations of God, but a wise counsel. So these two attributes are coupled: Job 9:21, ' He is wise in heart and mighty in strength. We are rash and precipitate, carried on with more resolution than reason; our desires beget an heat that oversetteth us; but whatever God doth it is with exact judgment. If we have eyes to see it, we should see that all the circumstances of providence are disposed with much art.
[3.] God's power to execute and administer that which his wisdom hath devised. God's counsels and purposes are always followed with a shall be, or shall not be, he hath infinite power to accomplish them. His power is as it were the midwife to his blessed decrees; he conceiveth all things in the womb of his will, and then he educeth and bringeth them forth by his mighty power: Ps. 33:9, ' He spake and it was done, he commanded and it stood fast.' ' Let it be' was sufficient to make the world, and ' I will' is enough to preserve it. God pleadeth this as the privilege of the Godhead: Isa. 44:7, ' Who, as I, shall call, and shall declare it, and set it in order for me ?' that is, that can by calling ordain or create. Therefore Christ, when he would discover the power of his godhead, cured by a word of omnipotency: Matt. 8:3, ' I will; be thou clean.'
Now this power of God is discovered in providence three ways—by his ability and sufficiency to work without means, by unlikely means, or by contrary means.
(1.) By working without means. God is not bound to the road of nature, or tied to the course of second causes; he can create where he doth not find; therefore when God is represented as an object of trust to his people this expression is used: 1 Peter 4:19, ' Wherefore let them that suffer according to the will of God commit the keeping of their souls to him in well-doing, as unto a faithful Creator;' as one that is able to create where nothing is found. So God promiseth, Hosea 1:7, 'I will have mercy on the house of Judah, and will save them by the Lord their God, and will not save them by bow, nor by sword, nor by battle, by horses, nor by horsemen.' These were the only means they could pitch upon to re-establish themselves, but, saith the Lord, I have a purpose to save them, but it shall not be by these. God would do it by an invisible sway and turn of things, that they should enjoy the mercy but not see the means. So Isa. 48:7, ' They are created now, and not from the beginning; even before the day when thou heardest them not, lest thou shouldst say, Behold, I know them.' Sometimes God by an immediate sovereignty will help us: Matt. 4:4 'Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.' Sometimes God will not reach out a supply by the ordinary means, but by the powerful word of his providence or commanded blessing.
(2.) By working with unlikely means. There is nothing so evil or so inconsiderable but God can work by it. In the story of Joseph (which is one of the fairest draughts of providence), a lie cast him into prison, and a dream fetched him out; so evil a thing as a lie, and so inconsiderable a thing as a dream. So the Lord makes use of the neglect and errors of men. Possidonius hath two remarkable stories in the life of Austin; one was that in travel he lost his way and found his life, for he escaped an ambush of the Donatists. At another time, being to preach, he forgot both his text and matter, and fell upon to at which through the blessing of God converted Firmius. Omnipotency needeth no outward advantage. So in public deliverances. God's instruments are usually despicable. A straw is as good as a spear in the hands of omnipotence. Most of the judges that rescued Israel were taken from the plough and sheepfold. So for judgments; God by weak means punishes sinners. Egypt was plagued with flies and lice; they were strong to execute God's word.
(3.) By working with contrary means. Christ used clay and spittle, that one would think should put out the eyes, to restore sight to the blind man. Joseph was first made a slave and then a favourite; his brethren first sell him and then worship him; he is cast into the dungeon to be preferred to court. There are strange contrivances and contrarieties in providence; the way seemeth contrary to the aim, and the means disproportionable to the end. When we see great confusions ' in the world, we wonder how this should tend to God's glory and the church's good, and are apt to say, as Joshua 7: 9, ' What wilt thou do unto thy great name?' and as the prophet, Amos. 7:2, ' By whom shall Jacob arise, for he is small?' We wonder how God means to save when Babylon destroyeth, and how confusion and mischief can end in order and beauty. But God knows the sufficiency of his own power, and is able to bring about these things, to bring light out of darkness, and one contrary out of another.
2. The acts of providence; they are three—conservation, gubernation, and ordination.
[1.] Conservation, conserving and keeping all creatures in their being. Therefore the apostle saith, Heb. 1:3, ' He upholdeth all things by the word of his power;' Isa. 22:23, 24,' I will fasten him as a nail in a sure place, and he shall be for a glorious throne to his father's house, and they shall hang upon him all the glory of his father's house.' If God should take away the shoulder of his providence, all things would return to their first nothing, and vanish and disappear; as a seal upon the waters, the impression is defaced as soon as the seal is gone. Providence is a continual creation; everything that is kept in working and being is, as it were, newly born, newly brought forth, newly produced. Nay, Chrysostom saith it is meizon ti, something greater than creation. As it is more to support a burden long in the air than to raise it up from the earth, so it is more to keep all things from returning to nothing than to educe and bring them out of nothing. That is the reason why the Holy Ghost speaks in the present tense: Ps. 104:2,' Who stretcheth out the heavens like a curtain;' and Isa. 40:22, ' It is he that stretcheth out the heavens as a curtain, and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in.' It is not in the future tense, because God is always a stretching them out. So our Saviour; John 5:17, ' My Father worketh hitherto, and I work.' Though there be a cessation of work in regard of new kinds, yet there is a continuation of work in regard of their preservation and God's providential influence. The power which raised from nothing must still preserve from nothing: Rom. 11:36, ' For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things.' This Solomon intends when he saith, Prov. 20:12, ' The hearing ear and the seeing eye, the Lord hath made even both of them.' He doth not mean spiritually, but naturally; he doth not only give the faculty, but the exercise ; as he gives the eye, so the seeing, and as he gives the ear, so the hearing: this could not be done without new acts of providence, assistance, and supportation from God. Therefore we read Hagar did not see the well of water till the Lord opened her eyes: Gen. 21:19, ' And God opened her eyes, and she saw a well of water.' So the disciples: Luke 24:31, 'And their eyes were opened, and they saw him.' When the Lord suspended his influence, the fire could not burn the three children. God did not destroy the property of the fire, but only suspended the efficacy of it. No creature can put forth itself in a way of operation without a new providential assistance from God.
[2.] Gubernation, or governing all things according to his will and pleasure. All things keep their course, for God sitteth at the helm and steereth all: Dan. 4:35, ' He doth according to his will in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth; and none can stay his hand, or say unto him, What doest thou? ' God doth all according to his pleasure; he is not confined by any external law, nor straitened by the course of nature, but acts with a great deal of sovereignty and freedom, and sometimes inverts the order of second causes. God's will is sometimes called thelma, sometimes eudokia; his pleasure is all. There are indeed some standing ordinances of nature, as the ordinances of sun and moon and the covenant of day and night: Jer. 31:35, ' Thus saith the Lord, which giveth the sun for a light by day, and the ordinances of moon and stars for a light by night;' and Gen. 8:22, ' While the earth remaineth, seed-time and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease.' God can alter the course of these, as in Joshua's time and at Christ's death ; there were three days' darkness in Egypt: Matt. 5:45, ' He maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.' There is nothing so casual but it is governed by God, and falls under the ordination of his wise counsel. It is said, 1 Kings 22:34, ' And a certain man drew a bow at a ven-ture, and smote the king of Israel between the joints of the harness.' It was a mere chance as to him, but God directed it into the sides of the king. So Exod. 21:13, ' If a man lie not in wait, but God deliver him into his hand;' compared with Deut. 19:5, ' As when a man goeth into the wood with his neighbour to hew wood, and his hand fetcheth a stroke with the axe to cut down the tree, and the head slippeth from the helve, and lighteth upon his neighbour that he die.' God slew him. There is nothing so casual but it is directed by the wise ordination of God: Prov. 16:33, ' The lot is cast into the lap, but the whole disposal thereof is of the Lord. There seems to be nothing so trivial and casual as the casting the lot into the lap, yet it is overruled by him ; he doth not only permit, but govern. God governs all his creatures; in such a throng of stars there is no interfering. We wonder at strange events when the great sway is discovered. The sea is higher than the earth, yet it doth not transgress its bounds and limits. We live and breathe as the Israelites did in the midst of the Red Sea; this is a daily miracle.
[3.] Ordination. All things are overruled by God's great sway; it is not as the creature will, but as God will; and many times the creatures are serviceable to the designs of God contrary to their inten-tions : Isa. 10: 6, 7, ' I will send him against an hypocritical nation, and against the people of my wrath will I give him a charge to take the spoil, and to take the prey, and to tread them down like the mire of the streets. Howbeit he meaneth not so, neither doth his heart think so, but it is in his heart to destroy and cut off nations not a few.' The king of Assyria was moved with a principle of ambition, rage, and cruelty, but the Lord sent him on his work. So Augustus his covetousness in taxing the whole world God orders it for the occasioning Christ's birth at Bethlehem, Luke 2. The actings of the creature are disposed and carried on besides the purpose of the creature to another end. He discovers his wisdom by man's folly, and his righteousness by man's sin. Look, as in a ship some sleep, and some walk contrary to the ship's motion, so in the world some men are negligent, others keep bustling and stirring and seek to resist the designs of God, but the ship goes on: Acts 4:28, ' For to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined before to be done.' The devil thought to ruin all mankind by seducing of Adam, yet that made way for Christ. Herein is the great beauty and order of providence seen, that God can make hindrances to be helps, and while men seek to cross his will most, they do but accomplish and fulfil it.
II. That there is such a thing as providence. Heathens granted it, though they had but a dim sight of it; and therefore Tully saith, Dii magna curant, parva negligunt—The gods take care of great things, but neglect little things. We count them atheists that deny a providence, as well as they that denied a God.
That there is a providence may be proved from the being of God: there is a God, therefore there is a providence. His wisdom and his goodness enforceth it; he is so wisely good: Ps. 119:68, ' Thou art good, and thou doest good.' The divine wisdom ordereth all things for an end, and the divine power governs all things in order to that end. We read it in the order of the world and the sense of our own conscience; if there were no providence, the devils would soon overturn all things, honesty would be folly, a title without substance, labour without reward: 1 Cor. 15:19, ' If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable.' The godly would have no relief; they would not call God to witness, nor acquaint him with their sorrows, which is their great solace: Job 16:20, ' My friends scorn me, but mine eye poureth out tears unto God.' God's works discover it. Who feedeth the beasts? Job 12:7-9,' But ask now the beasts, and they shall teach thee; and the fowls of the air, and they shall tell thee: or speak to the earth, and it shall teach thee; and the fishes of the sea shall declare unto thee. Who knoweth not in all these that the hand of the Lord hath wrought this?' His judgments show it: Ps. 58:10, 11, 'The righteous shall rejoice when he seeth the vengeance; he shall wash his feet in the blood of the wicked: so that a man shall say, Verily there is a reward for the righteous, verily he is a God that judgeth in the earth.' Some men's sins are open beforehand, and God keeps a petty sessions before the general assize cometh.The great objection that is against providence is because all things come alike to all; but that which seemeth the blemish of providence is the beauty of it. The prosperity of wicked men complieth with God's ends; that there is such a checker-work of providence is for the exercise of the godly, as the stones that are for a temple are hewed and squared; and hereby wicked men are left without excuse; they have prudence, but not grace; and they cannot complain, having common mercies.
III. I will give you some observations.
1. Providence reacheth to the least and most inconsiderable things, as the flight of a sparrow, the falling of a hair: Matt. 10:29,30,' Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? and one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father ; but the very hairs of your head are all numbered.' God takes particular account of every concernment and circumstance of your lives: Ps. 147:4,' He telleth the number of the stars.' It is much that God should be at leisure to tell the stars; much more that he should take particular notice of the hairs of your head.
2. Though providence extends to all things, yet it is chiefly exercised about the most noble creatures, men and angels. The psalmist saith, Ps. 36:6,' Lord, thou preservest man and beast;' but chiefly man. For mark it, these are not only governed by God, but by themselves. Other things, that are void of understanding, are only guided by an external principle without the knowledge of an end, as arrows shot out of a bow; but rational creatures have a principle of their own, viz., prudence, which is a shadow of divine providence. In these providence is most discovered. Man's will is rebellious; it is harder to rule a skittish horse than it is to roll a stone. God challengeth this as his own prerogative: Jer. 10:23, 'O Lord, I kno.w that the way of man is not in himself; it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps.' He can bridle, rule and restrain the hearts of men, and turn them as he pleaseth : Prov. 21:1, ' The king's heart is in the hand of the Lord; as the rivers of water, he turneth it whithersoever he will. The hearts of kings, those that seem to be most led by will and passion, God can turn them, and rule them at his pleasure.
3. Though the providence of God chiefly concerns man, yet the chiefest care of providence is about the good of the elect: Matt. 6:26, ' Behold the fowls of the air, for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them: are ye not much better than they?' 1 Tim. 4:10, ' We trust in the living God, who is the saviour of all men, especially of those that believe.' He is a saviour in this sense in regard of providential administration, but all dispensations towards his people are more exact, and have more of care; God particularly looks after them : Amos 9:9, 'For lo, I will command, and I will sift the house of Israel among all nations like as corn is sifted in a sieve, yet shall not the least grain fall upon the earth.' Mark, above all nations God would have a care of Israel; whatever becomes of the chaff, God watcheth over the corn. The elect are the darlings of providence; the world is continued for their sakes, that all the elect may be gathered in: Isa. 43:3, 4, ' I gave Egypt for thy ransom, Ethiopia and Seba for thee. Since thou wast precious in my sight, thou hast been honourable, and I have loved thee; therefore I will give men for thee, and people for thy life.' All the rest of the world are but as dust and refuse, which God will give up to his justice. If justice must have an object whereon to exercise itself, I will give up Seba and Ethiopia and Egypt to justice; a thousand of them shall perish rather than my people. So ver. 14, ' For your sake I have sent to Babylon, and have brought down all their nobles.' God will stain the glory of all the world for the elect's sake. If God throw them into the furnace, he sitteth by the furnace, prying and looking after his metal: Mal. 3:3, ' And he shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer unto the Lord an offering of righteousness.' The fire shall not be too hot, that nothing be lost.
4. Providence must not be considered by pieces, but all together. You must consider the way of God with the aim of God, and the means with the end. You must not measure things by present feeling : Rom. 8:28, 'All things shall work together for good to those that love God, to those that are the called according to his purpose.' A single part of providence taken out of the frame is odd and unseemly. Providence is a draught of many pieces; there is the manifold wisdom of God in it. All the links of the chain of providence are not of one size. If you would think aright of providence, you must take in your own case and God's aim.
(1.) Consider your own case; not what is absolutely good, but what is respectively good for you. Gold absolutely is better than a draught of water, but not to Sampson, who was ready to die for thirst. Cutting a vein is in itself ill, but good in a fever; so such or such a providence, though not good in itself, may be better for you.
(2.) You must take in God's aim with your own case; the single links of providence are not all of a sort; like Nebuchadnezzar's image, partly gold, partly iron, partly brass, and partly clay. To an observant eye there is a wonderful beauty in the providences of God. There is no beauty in the parts of a building till they be set together; no more is there in the several pieces of providence till you consider them together and compare one with the other. The first dashes of a picture are uncomely, therefore do not look on God's work by halves, but all together.
5. God doth manage and govern all things without labour and difficulty. It is much for us to spread a small net; the care of a family and the care of a congregation is too great for our shoulders, but the Lord governs all the world without difficulty and pain ; he is not burdened with the multitude of cares; it costs him no more to govern angels than to govern ants, to govern palaces than cottages. Look, as the sun doth as easily shine upon a thousand places at one time as upon one field, so the Lord doth as easily manage the affairs of the whole world as of any one place in the world; his care is without trouble, his work is without pains. Lucian scoffs at God's running here and there. No; all things are represented to him in one view.
6. God's providence is conversant about sin, yet without sin. God doth sunergein, work with us, but he doth not sunamartanein, come into the fellowship of our sin or guilt. As the sunbeams may shine upon a dunghill, and in a filthy place the warm sun draweth forth stinking vapours, but the sun is not stained hereby. The apostle saith, Acts 17:28, 'For in him we live and move.' We are moved by him; but as the lameness of the horse is no blemish to the rider, so neither is the defect of the creature to be imputed to the providence that doth support it.
7. Providence doth not take away either the industry or the liberty of the creature : Acts 27:22, compared with ver. 31; it is said, ver. 22, ' There shall be no loss of any man's life among you, but of the ship;' and yet, ver. 31, ' Except these abide in the ship ye cannot be saved.' We must plough though the clouds drop fatness; still there is a place for human industry, and human counsel and deliberation: Ezek. 21:21, 'For the king of Babylon stood at the parting of the way, at the head of the two ways to use divination &c. There were two ways; one way led to his country, the other way led directly to Jerusalem. God had determined which way he should go, yet freely out of his own spirit he is moved to take the way he went; still there was place for human counsel and human deliberation.
8. Observe the providences of God to yourselves, in the womb and from the womb: Ps. 139:12,' How precious also are thy thoughts unto me, O God! how great is the sum of them!' Gen. 32:10, 'With my staff I passed over this Jordan, and now I am become two bands.' Broad rivers come from a small fountain: Job 8: 7, ' Though thy beginnings were small, yet thy latter end should greatly increase.'
9. The great aim of providence is God's glory and the salvation of the elect. God's glory : Rom. 11:36, ' For of him, and through him, and to him are all things, to whom be glory for ever, Amen;' Ps. 119:91,' They continue this day according to thine ordinance, for all are thy servants.' The salvation of the elect: Rom. 8:28, ' All things shall work together for good to them that love God, to them that are called according to his purpose.' The world would soon shatter to pieces, but that God had some elect to gather out of it.
IV. When you have meditated, and taken some view of providence, treat with your own hearts about the use and comfort of it; either about the providences of God in general, or to yourselves in particular.
1. About the providences of God in general. Consider of the care which God hath over all creatures. Urge the providences of God against your fears. Is it fear of man's policy? Oh! consider divine providence is above human prudence : Job 5:13, ' He taketh the wise in their own craftiness, and the counsel of the froward is carried head-long.' Suppose they be able to contrive mischief, yet God can hinder the execution of it, that they cannot find their hands for their enterprise. Or do you fear the cunning of Satan? Consider providence is chiefly exercised for this end, to defeat the power of Satan. There is a providence over the swine, much more over the flock of Christ; and as Tertullian saith, He that has told the bristles of swine hath much more numbered the hairs of the saints. Urge your hearts with the providence of God to encourage your trust in God for outward provision. When you are humbled with straits, and pinched for maintenance of your families, consider there is a providence. The world is God's great common, and he doth not overstock his own common. All things wait upon God; how do the beasts live but upon providence? Ps. 104:27, ' These all wait upon thee, that thou mayest give them their meat in due season.' Who is it that feeds the ravens ? Ps. 147: 9, ' He giveth to the beast his food, and to the young ravens which cry ;' and Ps. 145:16, ' Thou openest thine hand, and satisfiest the desire of every living thing.' Compare it with ver. 19, ' He shall fulfil the desire of them that fear him; he also will hear their cry, and will save them.' Urge your hearts herewith to patience under miseries. Not a sparrow falls to the ground without a providence, therefore certainly your crosses fall under the wise dispensation of God: Ps. 39:6, ' Surely every man walketh in a vain show; surely they are disquieted in vain.' Again, urge your hearts to thankfulness for mercies; look upon the first cause, and acknowledge the providence of God in all that you enjoy.
2. Consider the providences of God to yourselves in particular, for thou art a little world. Consider how the providence of God watched over thee in the womb; when he took thee out from thence, how he provided two bottles to sustain thee; how he hath borne thee up from the womb hitherto; especially how he took care of thee when thou hast been in distress. Oh ! it is sweet when we can say, as David, Ps. 34:6, ' This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him, and saved him out of all his troubles.' I have been in these and these distresses, yet the Lord hath heard and delivered me. Especially if he hath blessed thee from small beginnings, and increased thy substance, urge thy heart to trust in him for the future: 1 Peter 5:7, ' Casting all thy care upon him, for he careth for thee.'
Fifthly, The next object of meditation is the excellency and happiness of our estate in heaven. (See this subject treated on in a sermon on Titus 2:13,' Looking for that blessed hope.')
 
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