IX. “Thus you see what care Providence hath had over your souls, in preventing the spiritual dangers and miseries that else would have befallen you in the way of temptations. In the next place, I will show you, that it hath been no less careful for your bodies, and with how great tenderness it hath carried them in its arms, through innumerable hazards and dangers also. Thou keepest me as the apple of thine eye.”’ Psal. xvii. 8. Ile is called the Keeper of Israel, that never slumbereth nor sleepeth,” Psal. cxxi. 4; the Preserver of men,” Job vii. 20.
To display the glory of his providence before
you, let us take into consideration the perils into which the best of men sometimes fall, and the ways and means by which Providence preserves them in those dangers. ~~
“There are manifold hazards into which we are often cast in this world. The apostle Paul gives us a general account of his dangers in 2 Cor. xi. 26. And how great a wonder is it, that our lives have not been extinguished in some of those dangers we have been in! For, 1. Have not some of us fallen, and that often, into very dangerous sicknesses and diseases; in which we have approached to the very brink of the grave? and have, or might have said with Hezekiah, 1I said in the cutting off of my days, I shall go to the gates of the grave: I am deprived of the residue of my years,” Isa. xxxviii. 10. Have we not often had the sentence of death in ourselves; and our bodies at that time been like a leaky ship in a storm, that hath taken in water on every side till it was ready to sink? Yet hath God preserved, careened, and launched us out again as well as ever. Oh! what a wonder is it that such a crazy body should be preserved for so many years, and survive so many dangers! Surely it is not more admirable to see a Venice glass pass from hand te hand, in continual use, for forty or fifty years, and still to remain whole, notwithstanding many knocks and falls it hath had. If you enjoy health, or recover out of sickness, it is because he puts none of those diseases upon thee,” or, because he is the Lord thy physician,” Exod. xv. 26.
2. And how many deadly dangers hath his hand rescued some of you from, in those years of confusion and public calamity, when the sword was bathed in blood, and made horrid slaughter, when, it may be, your lives were often given you for a prey! This David put a special remark upon: “O God the Lord, the strength of my salvation, thou hast covered my lead in the day of battle,” Psal. exl. 7. = = il
Beza, being in France in the first civil war, and there tossed up and down for twenty-two months, recorded six hundred deliverances from dangers in that space, for which he solemnly gave God thanks in his last testament. If the sword destroyed you not, it was because God did not give it a commission so to do.::
3. Many of you have seen wonders of salvation upon the deeps, where the hand of God hath been signally stretched forth for your rescue and delivevance. This is elegantly expressed in Psal. evii. 23—27; concerning which you may say, in a proper sense, what the psalmist doth metaphorically; If it had not been the Lord who was on our side, then the waters had overwhelmed us, the streams had gone over our soul,” Psal. exxiv. 1. 4. To see men who have spent so many years upon the seas, where your lives have continually hung in suspense before you, atlain to your years, when you could neither be reckoned among the living nor the dead, as seamen are not, oh! what cause have you to adore your great Preserver! Many thousands of your companions are gone down, and you yet here to praise the Lord, among the living. ~ You have bordered nearer to eternity all your days than others, and often been in imminent perils upon the seas. Surely such, and so many salvations, call aloud upon you for most thankful acknowledgments.
4. To conclude: How innumerable hazards and accidents, the least of which have cut off others,
J04 DIVINE conpuUCT; OR, hath God carried us all through! I think I may safely say, your primitive and positive mercies, of this kind, are more in number than the hairs of your heads. Many thousands of these dangers we never saw, nor were made particularly sensible of; but though we saw them not, our God did, and brought us out of danger, before he brought us into fear, Some have been evident to us, and those so remarkable, that we cannot think or speak of them to this day but our souls are freshly affected with those mercies.
It is recorded of our famous Jewell, that about the beginning of Queen Mary’s reign, the inquisition, taking hold of him in Oxford, he fled to London by night; but providentially losing the road, he escaped the inquisitors, who pursued him. However, he fell that night into another imminent hazard of life, for, wandering up and down in the snow, he fainted, and lay starving in the way, panting and labouring for life, at which time Mr. Latimer’s servant found and saved him.
It were easy to multiply examples of this kind, histories abounding with them; but 1 think there are few of us but are furnished out of our own experience abundantly; so that I shall rather choose to press home the sense of these providences upon you, in order to a suitable return to the God of your mercies for them, than add more instances of this kind. To this purpose, I desire you seriously to weigh the following particulars:
(1.) Consider what you owe to Providence for your protection, by which your life hath been protracted unto this day, with the usefulness and comfort thereof. Louk abroad in the world, and you may daily see some in every place, who are objects of pity, bereaved by sad accidents of all the comforts of life, whilst, in the mean time, Providence hath tenderly preserved you, keeping all your bones, so that none of them is broken,” Psal. xxxiv. 20. Is the elegant and comely structure of thy body not spoiled, thy members not distorted, and made so many seats of torment, the usefulness of any part not destroyed? Why, this is because Providence never quitted his hold of thee since thou camest out of the womb, but, with a watchful eye and tender hand, hath guarded thee in every place, and kept thee as its charge.
(2.) Consider how every member, which hath been so tenderly kept, hath, nevertheless, been an instrument of sin against the Lord, and that not only in the days of your unregeneracy, when, ye yielded your members as instruments. of unrighteousness unto sin,” Rom. vi. 13, but ever since you gave them up in covenant unto the Lord as dedicated instruments to his service; and yet how tender hath Providence been over them! You have often provoked him to afflict you in every part, and lay penal evil upon every member that hath been instrumental in moral evil; but oh how great have his compassions been towards you, and his patience admirable! -
(8.) Consider what is the aim of Providence, in all the tender care it hath manifested for you. Why doth it protect you so assiduously, and suffer no evil to befall you? Is it not that you should employ your bodies for God, and cheerfully apply yourselves to that service he hath called you to? Doubtless this is the end and level of these mercies; for, else to what purpose are they afforded you? your bodies are a part of Christ’s purchase, as well as your souls, 1 Cor. vi. 19, they are committed to the charge and tutelage of angels, Heb. i.
14, who have performed many services for them. They are dedicated by yourselves to the Lord, and that upon the highest account, Rom. xii. 1. They have already been the subjects of manifold mercies in this world, Psal. xxxv. 10, and shall partake of singular glory and happiness in the world to come, Phil. 1ii. 21. And shall they not be employed, yea, cheerfully worn out in his service? How reasonable is it they should be so! Why are they so tenderly preserved by God, if they must not be used for God? -