ftumbles at in God: one is his power, the other his willingness to help.

(1.) Unbelief objects the impoffibility of relief in deep diftreffes, Pfal. lxxviii. 19. "Can God furnitha table in the wilderness? "Can he give bread alfo? Can he provide flesh for his people?" O vile and unworthy thoughts of God! proceeding from our meafuring the immenfe and boundlefs power of God, by our own line and measure: because we fee not which way relief fhould come, we conclude, none is to be expected. But all these reasonings of unbelief are vanquished by a serious reflection upon our own experiences: God hath helped, therefore he can, Ifa. lix. 1. “His "hand is not shortened;" i. e. he hath as much power and ability as formerly.

(2.) Unbelief objects against the will of God, and questions, whether he will now be gracious, though he hath formerly been fo. But after fo many experiences of his readiness to help, what room for doubting remains? Thus Paul reasoned from the experience of what he had done, to what he could do, 2 Cor. i 10. and fo did David, 1 Sam. xvii. 36. Indeed, if a man had never experienced the goodness of God to him, it were not so heinous a fin to question his willingness to do him good? But what place is left after fuch frequent trials?

2. It gives great encouragement to faith, as it anfwers the objections of unbelief drawn from the fubject. Now these objections are of two forts alfo.

(1.) Such as are drawn, from our great unworthinefs. How (faith unbelief) can fo finful and vile a creature expect that ever God fhould do this or that for me? It is true, we find he did great things for Abraham, Ifaac, Jacob, Mofes, &c. but thefe were men of eminent holiness, men that obeyed God, and denied themselves for him, and lived more in a day to his glory, than ever I did all my days.

Well, but what fignifies all this to a foul, that, under all its fenfible vileness and unworthiness, hath tafted the goodness of God as well as they? As unworthy as I am, God hath been good to me notwithstanding? his mercy appeared firft to me, when I was worse than I am now, both in condition and difpofition; and therefore I will still expect the continuance of his goodness to me, though I deserve it not. "If when we were enemies we were re"conciled to God by the death of his Son, how much more, being "reconciled, fhall we be faved by his life?" Rom v. 10.

(2) Such as are drawn from the extremity of our present condition. If troubles or dangers grow to an height, and we fee nothing but ruin and mifery, in the eye of reason, before us; now unbelief becomes importunate and troublesome to the foul: now,

where are thy prayers, thy hopes, yea, where is now thy God? But all this is eafily put by and avoided, by confulting our experiences in former cafes. This is not the first time I have been in these ftraits, nor the first time I have had the fame doubts and defpondencies; and yet, God hath carried me through all, Pfal. Ixxvii. 7, 8, 9, &c. This is it that fuffers not a Christian to unravel all his hopes in an hour of temptation. O how useful are thefe things to the people of God?

Fifth Motive.

The recognition of former providences will minifter to your fouls continual matter of praife and thanksgiving, which is the very employment of the angels in heaven, and the fweetest part of our lives on earth.

See Pfal. Ixi. 7, 8. If God will prepare mercy and truth for David, he will prepare praises for his God, and that daily. So Pfal. lxxi. 6. By thee have I been holden up from the womb, "thou art he that took me out of my mother's bowels; (there, " mercies from the beginning are recognized.) My praife shall be "continually of thee;" (there, the natural result of those recog nitions is expreffed.)

There be five things belonging to the praise of God, and all of them have relation to his providences exercifed about us.

1. A careful obfervation of the mercies we receive from him, Ifa. xli 17, 18, 19, 20. This is fundamental to all praife: God cannot be glorified for the mercies we never noted.

2. A faithful remembrance of the favours received, Pfal. ciii. 2. "Bless the Lord, O my foul, and forget not all his benefits." Hence the Lord brands the ingratitude of his people, Pfal. cvi. 13. "They foon forgat his works."

3. A due appreciation and valuation of every providence that doth us good, i Sam. xii. 24. That providence that fed them in the wilderness with manna, was the moft remarkable providence to them; but they not valuing it at its worth, God had not that praise for it which he expected, Numb. xi. 6.

4. The excitation of all the faculties and powers of the foul in the acknowledgment of these mercies to us. Thus David, Pfal ciii. 1. "Blefs the Lord, O my foul, and all that is within me blefs "his holy name." Soul-praife is the very foul of praise: this is the very fat and marrow of that thank-offering.

5. A fuitable retribution for the mercies received. This David was careful about, Pfal. cxvi. 1. And the Lord taxes good Hezekiah for the neglect of it, 2 Chron. xxxii. 24, 25. This confifts in a full and hearty refignation of all to him, that we have received by providence from him, and in our willingness actually to part with all for him when he fhall remand it.

Thus you fee how all the ingredients to praife, have refpect to providence But more particularly I will thew you, that as all the ingredients of praife have refpect to providence, fo all the motives. and arguments obliging and engaging fouls to praise are found therein alfo. To this end confider how the mercy and goodness of God is exhibited by providence to excite our thankfulness.

1. That the goodness and mercy of God is let out upon his people in his providences about them; and this is the very rout of praife. It is not fo much the poffeffion that providence gives us of fuch or fuch comforts as the goodness and kindness of God in the difpenfing of them, that engages a gracious foul to praise, Pfal. lxiii. 3. Because thy loving-kindness is better than life, my lips "fhall praise thee." To give, maintain, and preferve our life are choice acts of providence: but to do all this in a way of grace and loving-kindness, this is far better than the gifts themselves; life is but the fhadow of death without it: this is the mercy that crowns all other mercies, Pfal. ciii. 4. It is this a fanctified foul defires God would manifeft in every providence about him, Pfal. xvii. 7. and what is our prailing of God elfe but our fhewing forth that loving-kindnefs which he fheweth forth in his providences? Pfal. xcii. 1, 2.

2. As the loving-kindness of God manifefted in providences is a motive to praise; fo the free and undeferved favours of God, difpenfed by the hand of providence, oblige the foul to praife. This was the confideration that melted David's heart into a thankful praifing frame, even the confideration of the free and undeferved favours caft in upon him by providence, 2 Sam. vii. 18. "What " am I? O Lord God: And what is my father's house, that thou "haft brought me hitherto ?" i. e. raifed me by providence from a mean condition to all this dignity: "From following the ewes to "feed Jacob his people," Pfal. lxxviii. 70, 71. O this it is that engages thankfuinefs! Gen. xxxii. 10.

3. As the freenefs of mercies, difpenfed by providence, engageth praife; fo the multitudes of mercies heaped this way upon us strongly oblige the foul to thankfulncfs. Thus David comes before the Lord encompassed with a multitude of mercies to praise him, Pfal. v. 7. We have our loads of mercies, and that every day, Pfal. lxvii. 19. O what a rich heap will the mercies of one day make, being laid together!

4. As the multitudes of mercies difpenfed by providence oblige to praife; fo the tenderness of God's mercy manifefted in his providence, leaves the foul under a ftrong obligation to thankfulnefs. We fee what tender refentments the Lord hath of all our wants, ftraits, and burdens, Pial. ciii. 13. "Like as a father pi"tieth his children, fo the Lord pitieth them that fear him." He

is full of bowels, as that word roughayxvos in James v. 1. fignifies. Yea, there are not only bowels of compaffion in our God, but the tenderness of bowels like thofe of a mother to her fucking child, Ifa. xlix. 15. He feels all our pains as if the apple of his eye were touched, Zech. ii. 8. and all this is difcovered to his people in the way of his providences with them, Pfal. cxi. 1, 2, 3, 4. O who of all the children of God hath not often found this in his providences? And who can fee it, and not be filled with thankfulnefs? All these are fo many bands clapt by providence upon the foul to oblige it to a life of praife. Hence it is that the prayers of the faints are fo full of thankfgivings upon thefe accounts: it is fweet to recount them to the Lord in prayer; to lie at his feet in an holy astonishment at his gracious condefcenfions to poor

worms.

Sixth Motive.

The due obfervation of providence will endear Jefus Chrift every day more and more to your fouls. Chrift is the channel of grace and mercy; through him are all the decurfus et recurfus gratiarum, all the ftreams of mercy that flow from God to us, and all the returns of praife from us to God, 1 Cor. iii. 21, 22. All things are ours upon no other title but our being his.

Now there be fix things in providence that are exceedingly endearing of the Lord Jefus Christ to his people: And thefe are the moft fweet and delicious parts of all our enjoyments.

1. The purchafe of all thofe mercies which providence conveys to us, is by his own blood: for not only spiritual and eternal mercies, but even all our temporal ones, are the acquifition of his blood*. Look, as fin forfeited all, fo Chrift restored all these mercies to us again by his death. Sin had fo fhut up the womb of mercy, that had not Christ made an atonement by his death, it could never have brought forth one mercy to all eternity for us. It is with him that God freely gives us all things, Rom. viii. 32. "Heaven itself, and "all things needful to bring us thither, among which is principal"ly included the tutelage and aid of Divine Providence+:" fo that whatever good we receive from the hand of providence, we must put it upon the score of Chrift's blood; and when we receive it, we muft fay, it is the price of blood: it is a mercy rifing up out of the death of Chrift: it coft him dear, though it come to me freely; it is fweet in the poffeffion, but coftly in the acquifition: now this is a most endearing confideration: did Chrift die that these mercies might live? Did he pay his invaluable blood to pur

That is, their covenant title unto them, and the fanctified use of them. Editor.
Foli Synopfis in loc.

chafe thefe comforts that I poffefs? O what tranfcendent, matchlefs love was the love of Chrift! You have known parents that have laid out all their stock of money to purchase eftates for their children; but when did you hear of any that spent the whole stock and treasure of their blood to make a purchafe for them? If the life of Chrift had not been fo afflictive and fad to him,,ours could not have been fo fweet and comfortable to us: it is through his poverty we are enriched, 2 Cor. viii. 9. Thefe fweet mercies that are born of providence every day are the fruits of the travail of his foul.

2. The fanctification of all is by our union with Chrift: it is by virtue of our union with his perfon, that we enjoy the fanctified gifts and bleffings of providence. All these are mercies additional to that great mercy, CHRIST, Matth. vi. 33. They are given with him, as in Rom. viii. 32. This is the tenure by which we hold them, I Cor. iii. 21, 22, 23. Look, what we loft in Adam, is restored again with advantage in Chrift: immediately upon the fall, that curfe, Gen. iii. 17. feized upon all the miferable posterity of Adam, and upon all their comforts, outward as well as inward; and this ftill lies heavy upon them: all that providence doth for them that are chriftless, is but to feed fo many poor condemned wretches, till the fentence they are under be executed upon them: it is indeed bountiful and open-handed to many of them, and fills them with earthly comforts; but not one fpecial fanctified mercy is to be found among all their enjoyments: thefe gifts of providence do but deceive, defile, and deftroy them through their own corruptions, and for want of union with Chrift, Prov. i. 32. "The "profperity of fools fhall deftroy them."

But when a man is once in Chrift, then all providences are fanctified and sweet, Tit. i. 15. "Unto the pure all things are pure. "A little that a righteous man hath is better than the treasures of "many wicked." Pfal. xxxvii. 16. Now Chrift becomes an head of influence as well as of dominion; and in all things he confults the good of his own members, Eph. i. 22.

3. The difpenfation of all our comforts and mercies is by his direction and appointment. It is true the angels are employed in the kingdom of providence, they move the wheels, i. e. are inftrumental in all the revolutions of this lower world; but ftill they receive directions and orders from Chrift, as you may fee in that admirable scheme of providence, Ezek. i. 25, 26, &c. Now what an endearing meditation is this! Whatever creature be inftrumental for any good to you, it is our Lord Jefus Chrift that gave the orders and commands to that creature to do it; and without it they could have done nothing for you: it is your Head in heaven that confults your peace and comfort on earth. These be the fruits of his