Piscator fills it with, Unto God that performeth his kindness and mercy.” But still it supposes the mercy performed to be contained in the promise. Mercy is sweet in the promise, and much more so in the providential performance of it to us. Castalio’s supplement comes nearer to ours: 1 will ery unto God most high, unto God the transactor of my affairs.”

But our English, making out the sense by a universal particle, is most fully agreeable to the scope of the text. For it cannot but be a great encouragement to his faith, that God hath transacted all things, or performed all things for him; this Providence, that never failed him in any of the straits that ever he met with, (and his life was a life of many straits,) he might well hope it would not now fail him, though this were an extraordinary and matchless one.

Bring we, then, our thoughts a little closer to this Scripture, and it will give us a fair and lovely prospect of Providence.

In its 1. Universal, 2. Effectual, 3. Beneficial, 4. Encouraging influences upon the affairs and concerns of the saints,

(1.) The expression imports the universal interest and influence of Providence in and upon all the concerns and interests of the saints. It hath not only its hand in this or that, but in all that concerns them. It hath its eye upon every thing that relates to them throughout their lives, from first to last. Not only great and more important, but the most minute and ordinary affairs of our lives are transacted and managed by it. It touches all things that touch us, whether more nearly or remotely.

(2.) It displays the eflicacy of providential influences. Providence doth not only undertake, but performs and perfects what concerns us. It goes through with its designs, and accomplishes what it begins. No difficulty so clogs it, no cross accident so falls in its way, but it carries its design through it. Its motions are irresistible and uncontrollable; he performs it for us.

(3.) And, which is sweet to consider, all its products and issues are exceedingly beneficial to the saints. It performs all things for them. 1tis true, we often prejudice its works, and unjustly censure its designs, and, under many of our straits and troubles, we say, All these things are against us.”” But indeed Providence neither doth nor can do any thing that is really against the true interest and good of the saints. For what are the works of Providence but the execution of God’s decree, and the fulfilling of his word? and there can be no more in Providence than is in them. Now there is nothing but good to the saints in God’s purpo- - ses and promises; and, therefore, whatever Providence doth in their concerns, it must be, as the text speaks, The performance of all things for them.”

(4.) And if so, how cheering, supporting, and encouraging must the consideration of these things -/ be in a day of distress and trouble! What life and hope will it inspire our hearts and prayers with, when great pressures lie upon us! It had such a cheering influence upon the psalmist at this time, when the state of his affairs was, to the eye of sense and reason, forlorn and desperate; there was then but a hair’s breadth, as we say, betwixt him and ruin.

A potent, enraged, and implacable enemy had driven him into the hole of a rock, and was come after him into that hole; yet now, whilst his soul is among lions,” whilst he lies in a cranny of the rock, expecting every moment to be drawn out to death, the reflections he had upon the gracious performances of the Most High for him, from the beginning to that moment, supported his soul, and inspired hope and life into his prayers: I will cry unto God most high: unto God that performeth all things for me.” a

The amount of all, you have in this doctrinal conclusion:

That it is the duty of the saints, especially in times of straits, to reflect upon the performances of Providence for them, in all the states, and through all the stages of their lives.

“The church, in all the works of mercy, owns the hand of God: Lord, thou hast wrought all our works in” or for “us,” Isa. xxvi. 12. And still it hath been the pious and constant practice of the saints, in all generations, to preserve the memory of the more famous and remarkable providences that have befallen them in their times, as a precious treasure. If thou be a Christian indeed, I know thou hast, if not in thy book, yet certainly in thy heart, a great many precious favours upon record; the very remembrance and rehearsal of them is sweet; how much more sweet was the actual enjoyment! Thus Moses, by Divine direction, wrote a memorial of that victory obtained over Amalek, as the fruit and return of prayer, and built there an altar, with this inscription, Jehovah-Nissi, The Lord my banner,” Exod. xvii. 14, 15. Thus Mordecai and Esther took all care to perpetuate the memory of that signal deliverance from the plot of Haman, by ordaining the feast of Purim, as an anniversary throughout every generation, every family, every province, and every city, that those days of Purim should not fail from among the Jews, nor the memorial of them perish from their seed, Esther ix. 28. For this end you find psalms indited, To bring to remembrance,” Psal. 1xx. the title; parents giving suitable names to their children, that every time they looked upon them they might refresh the memory of God’s mercies, 1 Sam. 1. 20; the very places, where eminent providences have appeared, new named upon no other design but to perpetuate the memorial of those sweet providences which so refreshed them there: thence Bethel took its name, Gen. xxviii. 19; and that well of water where Hagar was seasonably refreshed by the angel in her distress, Beer-lahai-roi, the well of him that liveth and looketh on me,” Gen. xvi. 14. Yea, the saints have given, and God hath assumed to himself, new titles upon this very score and account: Abraham’s Jehovah-jireh, The Lord will provide, and Gideon’s Jehovah-shallum, The Lord send peace, were ascribed to him upon this reason. And sometimes you find the Lord styles himself, The God that brought Abraham from Ur of the Chaldees; then The Lord God that brought them out of Egypt; then The Lord that gathered them out of the north country; still minding them of the gracious providences which in all those places he had wrought for them.

Now there is a twofold reflection upon the providential works of God. 1. One entire and full, in the whole complex and perfect frame thereof. This blessed sight 1s reserved for the perfect state. It is in that mount of God where we shall see both the wilderness and Canaan; the glorious kingdom into which we are to come, and the way through which we were led into it. There the saints shall have a ravishing view of that beautiful frame; and every part shall be distinctly discerned, as if it had its particular use, and as it was connected with the other parts, and how effectually and orderly they

all wrought to bring about that blessed design of their salvation, according to the promise, And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God,” &c. Rom. viii. 28. For it 1s certain that no ship at sea keeps more exactly by the compass which directs its course, than Providence doth by that promise which is its pole-star. 2. The other, partial and imperfect in the way to glory, where we only view it in its simple acts, or, at most, in some branches and more observable course of actions.

Betwixt these two 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 observable vessel or joint of a dissected body, and the accurate anatomist’s discerning the course of all the veins and arteries of the body, 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. di}

Oh how ravishing and delightful a sight is that! 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! For, what Christ said to Peter, John xiii. 7, is as applicable to some providences in which we are now concerned, as it was to that particular action: What I do thou knowest not now, but thou shalt know hereafter.” All the dark, intricate, puzzling providences, at which we were sometimes so stumbled, and sometimes amazed, which we could neither reconcile with the promise nor with each other; nay, which we so unjustly censured and bitterly bewailed, 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,” Psal. evii, 7.

And yet, though our present views and reflections upon Providence be so short and imperfect, in comparison with that in heaven, yet such as it is, under all its present disadvantages, it hath 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. It is certainly a highway of walking with God in this world, and as sweet communion may a soul enjoy with him in his providences as in any of his ordinances. 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 hath it convinced them, upon a sober recollection of the events of their lives, that if the Lord had left them to their own counsels, they had as often been their own tormentors, if not executioners! into what and how many fatal mischiefs had they precipitated themselves, if Providence had been as short-sighted as they. They have given it their hearty thanks for considering their interest more than their importunity, and not suffering them to perish by their own desires.

The benefits of adverting to the works of Providence are manifold and unspeakable, as, in its place, we shall show you. But not to entangle the thread of the discourse, I shall cast it into this method: +

First. 1 shall prove that the concerns of the saints, in this world, are certainly conducted by the wisdom and care of special Providence.

Second. 1 will show you in what particular concerns of theirs this providential care is evidently discovered.

Third. That it is the duty of saints to advert to, and carefully observe these performances of Providence for them in all their concernments.

Fourth. In what manner this duty is to be performed by them.

Fifth. What singular benefits result to them from such observations; and then apply the whole in such uses as offer themselves from the point.