Divine Conduct, Head 2 · Performance 9
The Ninth Performance of Providence.
IX.
THus you see what care Providence hath had over your souls,Providen…ial pre…entions of bodily …angers. in preventing the spiritual dangers and miserJes that else would have befallen you in the way of temptatJons: in the next place I will shew you, that it hath been no less careful for your bodJes, Psal. 17. 8. Thou keep…st me as …he apple …f thine eye. The eye …ath five Tunicks … guard it …gainst danger. (1.) Ara…i…a tunica, …ike a Spiders web. (2.) Retiformis, like a net. (3.) Uvea, like a ber…y. (4.) Cornea, like an horn. (5.) Adnata tunica, the cover or lid of the eye; here is guard upon guard, resembling the various wayes Providence hath to secure us from ruine.and with how great tenderness it hath carrJed them in its arms through innumerable hazards▪ and dangers also. He is called the keeper of Israel that never slumbereth nor sleepeth, Psal. 121. 4. the preserve of men, Job. 7. 20. To display the glory of this Providence before you, let us take into consideration, The perils into which the best of men sometimes fall, and the way 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. 11. 26. And how great a wonder is it, that our life hath 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 HezekJah, See Job 33. 18, 19, 20, 21. & 28.Isa. 38. 10. I said in the cutting off of my dayes, I shall go to the gates of the grave: I am deprived of the residue of my years. Have we not often had the sentence of death in our selves? and our bodies at that time been like a leaky Ship in a storm (as One aptly resembles it) that hath taken in water on every side,Mr. T. Goo… win in his Aggravation of sin against mercy, p. 30. till it was ready to sink? Yet hath God preserved, careened, and lanched 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 to hand in continual use for forty or fifty years,The Eye is but a small part of the body, yet Physicians reckon no less than thirty diseases incident to it. Nascuntur in …o leucoma, glaucoma, lippitudo, xerophthalmJa, sicus, lithJasis, epiphora & trignita id genus vitJa. and still to remain whole, notwithstanding many knocks and falls it hath had. If you enjoy health or recover out of sicknesses, it is because he puts none of these diseases upon thee, or because he is the Lord thy PhysicJan, Exod. 125. 26.
(2.) And how many deadly dangers hath his hand rescued some of you from, in those years of confusion and publick 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 remarque upon, Psal. 140. 7. O God the Lord, the strength of my salvatJon; thou hast covered my head in the day of Battel.
Beza being in France in the first Civil War, and there tossed up and down for two and twenty 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 deliverance. This is elegantly expressed in Psal… 107. 23, 24▪ 25, 26, 27. (which I have*See my Seaman's Companion, p. 41. elsewhere opened at large) concerning which, you may say in a proper sense, what the Psalmist doth metaphorically, Psal. 124. 1. & 4. If it had not been the Lord who was on our side, then the waters had overwhelmed us, the stream had gone over our soul. To see men that have spent so many years upon the Seas, (where your lives have continually hanged in suspense before you) attain to your years, when you could neither be reckon'd 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 praose the Lord among the Living. You have bordered nearer to Eternity all you… dayes than others, and often been in eminent perils upon the Seas, surely such, and so many Salvations call aloud upon you for most thankful acknowledgements.
(4.) To conclude, how innumerable hazards and accidents, (the least of which hath cut off others) hath God carried us all through! I think I may safely say, your privative 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, Clark's Lives, p. 262.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 eminent 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 easie to multiply Examples in this kind, Histories abounding with them; but I think there are few of us, but are furnisht out of our own experience abundantly; so that I shall rather chuse 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. Look 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,The learned Alsted sets himself to enumerate the manifold hazards through which the life of man is carrJed in the hand of Providence, in Theol. Catechet. p. 191, 192, &c. and pJously concludes in these words, Denique, qu…d ab innumeris malis, quae ab omnibus creaturis omni tempore tibi impendent, mirabiliter libera…is; in his omnibus inquam, quae s…imus …rebro evenire solita, ac proinde it a se habent, ut nobis quoque possint evenire, solam Dei providentiam debes suspicere & praedicare. whilst in the mean time Providence hath tenderly preserved you, keeping all your bones, so that not one of them is broken, Psal. 34. 20. Is not the Elegant and Comely Structure of thy Body spoiled, thy members d… storted, or made so many seats of Torment, the usefulness of any part deprived? why, this is because Providence never quitted its hand 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 dayes of your unregeneracy, when ye yJelded your members as Instruments of unrighteous…ess unto sin, (as the Apostle speaks in Rom. 6. 13.) but even 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 O how great have his compassions been towards you, and his patience admirable!
(3.) 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 imploy your bodies for God, and cheerfully apply your selves 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 Christs purchase, as well as your souls, 1 Cor. 6. 19. They are committed to the charge and Tutelage of Angels, Heb. 1. 14. who have performed many services for them. They are dedicated by your selves to the Lord, and that upon the highest account, Rom. 12. 1. They have already been the subjects of manifold mercies in this world, Psal. 35. 10. and shall partake of singula… glory and happiness in the world to come, Phil. 3. 21. And shall they not then 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?