providences that befal them are, and can be no other than the return of their prayers.

And now who can be diffatisfied in this point that wifely confider these things? Muft we not conclude as it is Job xxxvi. 7. “He "withdraweth not his eye from the righteous:" And as 2 Chron. xvi. 9. "The eyes of the Lord run to and fro through the whole "earth, to fhew himself ftrong in the behalf of them whofe "heart is perfect towards him :" His providences proclaim him to be a God hearing prayers.

The fecond general head.

Having proved, That the concernments of the faints in this world are certainly conducted by the wisdom and care of a fpecial providence; my next work is to thew you, In what affairs and concerns of theirs the providence of God doth more efpecially appear; or what are the most remarkable performances of providence for them in this world.

And here I am not led, directly by my text, to speak of the moft internal and spiritual performances of providence, immediately relating to the fouls of his people; though they all relate to their fouls mediately and eventually; but of the more visible and external performances of providence for them: And it is not to be fuppofed I should touch all these neither; they are more than the fands; but that which I aim at is to difcourfe to you some more fpecial and more obfervable performances of providence for you. And we shall begin at the beginning.

The firft performance of providence.

I. And, Firft, Let us confider how well providence hath performed the firft work that ever it did for us in our formation and protection in the womb. Certainly this is a very glorious and admirable performance; it is what the Pfalmift admires, Pfal. cxxxix. 15. My fubftance was not hid from thee when I was made in se"cret, and curiously wrought in the lower parts of the earth.” The womb is fo called upon this account, because as curious artists, when they have fome choice piece in hand, perfect it in private, and then bring it into the light for all to gaze at; fo it was here. And there are two things admirable in this performance of providence for us.

*

1. The rare ftructure and excellent compofition of the body; I am wonderfully made; that word nop is very full. The vulgar renders it, painted as with a needle, i. e. richly embroidered with

A metaphor from those that work in curious needle-work. The Lord hath made all things in number, weight, and measure.

nerves and veins. O the curious workmanship that is in that one part, the eye! how hath it forced fome to acknowledge a God upon the examination of it! Providence, when it went about this work, had its model or pattern before it, according to which it moulded every part, as it is, ver. 16. "In thy book were all my "members written." Haft thou an integral perfection and fulness of members? It is because he wrote them all in his book, or limned out thy body, according to that exact model which he drew of thee in his own gracious purpose, before thou hadft a being: had an eye, an ear, a hand, a foot been wanting in the platform, thou hadft now been fadly fenfible of the defect: this world had been but a dungeon to thee, without those windows: thou hadst lived, as many do, an object of pity to others: If thou haft low thoughts of this mercy, ask the blind, the deaf, the lame, and the dumb, the value and worth of those mercies, and they will tell thee. There is a world of coft bestowed upon thy very body. Thou mighteft have been caft into another mould, and created a worm or a toad. I remember Luther* tells us of two cardinals, riding in great pomp to the council of Constance, aud by the way they heard a man in the fields bitterly weeping and wailing: when they came to him, they found him intently viewing an ugly toad; and, asking him why he wept fo bitterly? he told them his heart was melted with this confideration, that God had not made him fuch a loathfome and deformed creature, Hoc eft quod amare fleo, faid he. Whereupon one of them cries out, Well faid the father, Surgunt indocti,

rapient cælum, the unlearned will rife and take heaven, and we, with all our learning, shall be caft into hell. No part of the common lump was fo figured and polished as man is. Galent gave Epicurus an hundred years time to imagine a more commodious fituation, configuration, or compofition of any one member of a human body. And if all the angels had studied to this day, they could not have cast the body of man into a more curious mould.

2. And yet all this is but the enamelling of the cafe, or polishing the casket wherein the rare jewel lies. Providence hath not only built the house, but brought the inhabitant (I mean the foul) into the poffeffion of it. A glorious piece it is, that bears the very image of God upon it, being all in all, and all in every part. How noble are its faculties and affections! How nimble, various, and

Luther in tertium precept.

†There are fome members that are radical, as the liver, heart, and brain; in these are placed the natural, vital, and animal spirits; these spirits are carried by the veins, arteries and nerves. The veins carry the natural spirits from the liver, the arteries the vital spirits from the heart; the nerves the animal spirits from the brain. Other members are official, as the hands and feet; the fuperior rule the inferior, and the inferior support the fuperior. In wisdom baft thou made them all.

indefatigable are its motions! How comprehensive is its capacity! It is a companion for angels, nay, capable of efpoufals to Chrift, and eternal communion with God. It is the wonder of earth, and the envy of hell.

Suppose now (and why should you not fuppose what you so frequently behold in the world?) that providence had fo permitted and ordered it, that thy foul had entered into thy body with one, or two of its faculties wounded and defective: fuppofe its underftanding had been cracked, what a miferable life hadft thou lived in this world? neither capable of fervice nor comfort. And, truly, when I have confidered those works of providence, in bringing into the world, in all countries, and ages, fome fuch fpectacles of pity; fome deprived of the use of reafon, and differing from beasts in little more than fhape and figure; and others, though found in their understandings, yet deformed or defective in their bodies, monftrous, mifhapen, and loathfome creatures; I can refolve the defign of this providence into nothing befide a demonftration of his Sovereign power; except they be defigned as foils, to set off the beauty of other rare and exquifite pieces, and intended to stand before your eyes, as monitors of God's mercy to you, that your hearts (as oft as you beheld them) might be melted into thankfulness for fo diftinguishing a favour to you.

Look then (but not proudly) upon thy out-fide and in-fide; fee and admire what providence hath done for thee, and how well it hath performed the first service that ever it did for thee in this world. And yet, this was not all it did for thee before thou faweft this world: it preferved thee as well as formed thee in the womb; else thou hadst been as those embryo's Job speaks of, Job iii. 16. « that never faw the light." Abortives go for nothing in the world; and there are multitudes of them, fome that never had a reasonable foul breathed into them; but only the rudiments and rough draught of the body: these come not into the account of men, but perifh as the beaft doth. Others that die in, or shortly after they come out of the womb; and though their life was but for a moment, yet that moment entails an eternity upon them. And had this been your cafe, as it is the cafe of millions, then (fuppofing your falvation) yet had you been utterly unferviceable to God in the world: none had been the better for you, nor you the better for any in the world: you had been utterly incapable for all that good, which, throughout your life, you have either done to others, or received from others.

And if we confider the nature of that obscure, life we lived in the womb; how fmall an accident (had it been permitted by providence) had extinguifhed our life, like a bird in the fhell: we cannot therefore but admire the tender care of providence over

us, and fay with the Pfalmift, Pfal. cxxxix. 13. "Thou haft co"vered me in my mother's womb :" and not only fo, but as it is, Pfal. xxii. 9. "Thou art he that took me out of my mother's "womb." He preferved thee there to the fulness of time; and, when that time was come, brought thee fafely through manifold hazards, into that place in the world, which he from eternity espied for thee. Which leads us to the fecond performance.

The fecond performance of providence.

II. The fecond great performance of providence, for the people of God, respects the place and time in which it ordered their nativity to fall. And, truly, this is no fmall concernment to every one of us; but of vaft confequence, either to our good or evil, though it be little minded by moft men. I am perfuaded, the thoughts of few Chriftians penetrate deep enough into this providence; but flide too flightly and fuperficially over an abyfs of much mercy, rich and manifold mercy, wrapt up in this gracious performance of providence for them.

Ah, friends! Can you think it an indifferent thing, into what part of the world the womb of nature had caft you out? Is there no odds, upon what spot of the creation, or what age of the world your lot had fallen? It may be, you have not seriously bethought yourselves about this matter. And because this point is fo feldom touched, I will therefore dive a little more particularly and diftinctly into it, and endeavour to warm your affections with a reprefentation of the many and rich benefits you owe to this one performance of providence for you.

And we will confider it under a double respect or relation, as it refpects your prefent comfort in this world, and as it relates to your eternal happiness in the world to come.

1. This performance of providence for you doth very much concern your prefent comfort in this world. All the rooms in this great houfe are not alike pleafant and commodious for the inhabitants of it. You read, Pfal. lxxiv. 20. of "the dark places of "the earth which are full of the habitations of cruelty;" and many fuch difmal places are found in the habitable earth. What a vaft tract of the world lies as a waste wilderness!

Suppofe your mothers had brought you forth in America, among the javage Indians, who herd together, as brute beasts; are fcorched with heat, and ftarved with cold; being naked, deftitute, and defenceless. How poor, miferable, and unprovided of earthly comforts and accommodation, are many millions of the inhabitants of this world? What mercies do you enjoy, in respect of the amenity, fertility, temperature, and civility of the place of your VOL. IV. 3 A

habitation? What is it but a garden enclofed out of a wilderness? I may, without partiality or vanity, fay, God hath (even upon temporal accounts) provided you with one of the healthfulleft, pleafanteft, and, in all refpects, the beft furnished room in all the great house of this world. Hear what our own Chronicler faith of it; It is the fortunate ifland, the paradife of pleasure, the garden of God; whofe vallies are like Eden, whofe hills are as Lebanon, whofe fprings are as Pifgah, whofe rivers are as Jordan, whose wall is the occan, and whofe defence is the Lord Jehovah.'

You are here provided of neceffary and comfortable accommodations for your bodies, that a great part of the world are unacquainted with. It is not with the poorest amongst us, as it is faid to be with the poor Ruffians, whofe poverty pinches and bites with fuch sharp teeth, that their poor cry at the doors, Give me, and cut me; give me, and kill me.'

Say not, The barbarous nations in this excel you; that they poffefs the mines of filver and gold, which, it may be, you think enough to falve all other inconveniencies of life. Alas poor creatures! better had it been for them, if their country had brought forth briers and thorns, instead of gold, filver, and precious ftones; for this hath been the occasion of ruining all their other comforts in this world: this hath invited their cruel, avaricious enemies among them, under whofe fervitude they groan, and die without mercy and thousands of them have chofen death, rather than life on the terms they enjoyed it. And why might not your lot have fallen there as well as where it is? Are not they made of the fame clay, and endowed with as good a nature as yourselves? O what a diftinction hath divine mercy made where nature made none! Confider, ungrateful man! thou mighteft have fallen into fome of thofe regions, where a tainted air frequently cloys the jaws of death: where the inhabitants differ very little from the beafts in the manner of their living: but God hath provided for thee, and given the poorest among us far better accommodations of life, than the greatest among them are ordinarily provided with. O what hath providence done for you!

But all that I have faid is very inconfiderable in comparison with the spiritual mercies and advantages you here enjoy for your fouls. O this is fuch an advantageous caft of providence for you as obliges you to a thankful acknowledgment of it to all eternity. For let us here make but a few fuppofitions in the cafe before us, and the glory of providence will fhine, like a fun-beam full in your faces.

(1.) Suppofe it had been your lot to have fallen into any of thofe

Speed's Chron.