Divine Conduct, Head 2 · Performance 1
The first Performance of Providence.
I.
ANd First,Providential performance in our for…mation and prot…ction in the wom… Let us consider, how well Providence hath performed the first work that ever it did for us, in our formatJon and protectJon in the womb. Certainly, this is a very glorious and admirable performance; it's that the Psalmist admires, Psal. 139. 15. My substance was not hid from thee, when I was made in secret, and curJously wrought in the lower parts of the earth. The Womb is so called upon this account, because as curious Artists, when they have some choice piece in hand, perfect it in private, and then bring it into the light for all to gaze at; so it was here. And there are two things admirable in this performance of Providence for us.
The rare structure and excellent composition of the body;Me…aphor… ab acupictoribus … ope… …. Om…ia … est dominus pondere, numero, mensur… ▪ I am wonderfully made; that word Ru…hampti—is very full. The Vulgar renders it, painted as with a needle, (i. e.) richly embroidered with nerves and veins. Oh the curious workmanship that is in that one part the eye! How hath it forced some 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 molded every part, as it is, Ver. 16. In thy Book were all my members written. Hast thou an integral perfection and sulness 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 hadst a being: Had an eye, an ear, a hand, a foot been wanting in the platform, thou hadst now been sadly sensible 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 have 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 cost bestowed upon thy very body. Thou mightest have been cast into another mould,…ther in …rtJum …cept. …here are …me …embers …at are …tical, as … liver, …are and …rain, in …ese are …laced the …atural, …tal and …nimal …irits; …ese spi…ts are …rried by … Veins, …rteries … Nerves. …he Veins carry the natural Spirits from the Liver, the Arteries the vi…l Spirits from the Heart, the Nerves the animal Spirits from the …rain: other members are officJal, as the hands and feet: the superi…r doth rule the inferiour, and the inferiour support the superiour▪ … wisdom hast thou made them all. and created a Worm or a Toad. I remember Luther tells us of two Cardinals, riding in great pomp to the Council of Constance, and 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 so bitterly, he told them, his heart was melted with this consideration, that God had not made him such a loathsome and deformed Creature; hoc est quod amarè fleo, said he: whereupon one of them cryes out, Well said the Father, Surgunt indocti, & rapJent Coelum, The unlearned will rise and take Heaven, and we with all our learning shall be cast into Hell. No part of the Common lump was so figured and polisht as man is. Galen gave Epicurus an hundred years time to imagine a more commodious scituation, configuration, or composition of any one member of a humane 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.
And yet all this is but the enamelling of the Case, or polishing the Casket wherein the rare Jewel lies. Providence hath not only built the house, but brought the Inhabitant (I mean the soul) into the possession 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 indesatigable are its Motions? How comprehensive is its Capacity? It's a Companion for Angels, nay, capable o… Espousals to Christ, and eternal Communion with God. It's the Wonder of Earth, and the Envy of Hell.
Suppose now (and why should you not suppose, what you so frequently b…hold in the world?) that Providence had so permitted and ordered it, that thy soul had entered into thy body with one or two of its faculties wounded and defective: Suppose its Vnderstanding had been crackt; what a miserable life hadst thou lived in this world? neither capable of service nor comfort. And truly, when I have considered those works of Providence, in bringing into the world in all Countreys and Ages some such spectacles of pity; some deprived of the use of reason, and differing from Beasts, in little more than shape and …igure; and others, though sound in their understandings, yet deformed or defective in their bodies, monstrous, mishapen and loathsome Creatures; I can resolve the design of this Providence, into nothing beside a demonstration of his Soveraign power; except they be designed as soils, to set off the beauty of other rare and exquisite pieces, and intended to stand before your eyes, as Monitors of Gods mercy to you, that your hearts (as oft as you beheld them) might be m…lted into thankfulness for distinguishing favour to you.
Look then (but not proudly) upon thy outside and inside, see 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 sawest this world. It preserved thee, as well as formed thee in the womb: else thou hadst been as those Embryo's Job speaks of, Job 3. 11, 12. that never saw the light. Abortives go for nothing in the world, and there are multitudes of them, some that never had a reasonable soul breathed into them; but only the rudiments, and rough draught of a body: these come not into the account of men, but perish as the Beast doth. Others that dye 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 case, as it is the case of Millions, then (supposing your salvation) yet had you been utterly unserviceable 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 uncapable of all that good which throughout your life you have either done to others, or received from others.
And if we consider the nature of that obscure life we lived in tho womb; how small an accident (had it been permitted by Providence) had extinguished our life, like a Bird in the shell? We cannot therefore but admire the tender care of Providence over us, and say with the Psalmist, Psal. 139. 13. Thou hast covered me in my Mothers womb: and not only so, but as it is, Psal. 22. 9. Thou art he that took me out of my Mothers womb. He preserved thee there to the fulness of time, and when that time was come, brought thee safely through manifold hazards, into that place in the world which he from Eternity espied for thee. Which leads us to the second performance.