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Use 3 Thirdly, If God be every where present, hence you may see a ground for his particular providence. It seems something strange to men, that every small thing should be disposed of by him;¹ we think indeed that great things are: but for the least things, therein we are apt to make a doubt, and can hardly believe it. But this point in hand is a great confirmation of this truth. If an horse stumble by the way, we think it a common accident; if a fly fall into a mans eye, or if a tile fall off from the house, or an axe head, we look upon them as common accidents; but if we consider that he is present there, it is then an easy matter for us to believe, that God doth disposed all these: when the axe head falls off, it is in his hand, as before it was in the hand of the workman. If he be present with every small creature, with every fly, with every sparrow and stone, with every motion of the creature, then all the actions that befall us, they are all his works. In him we live, move, and have our being: that is, he is present with every creature. Therefore it is no difficulty to ⟨p. 155⟩believe, that he guides the smallest thing. If an enemy hurt us, we are to think, that he is but as a staff in Gods hand, as it is said of Nebuchadnezzar. Every accident is but as a cup, as Christ saith of the cup that was brought to him by others, Shall not I drink of the cup, which my Father gives me? So we may say of every affliction. The tongues of men are but scourges in his hand, he can rule them as he pleaseth: and so we should think of every action. And indeed the more we think of his particular providence, the more we conceive of his infiniteness. For why do we think men to be present, but because they see and hear? Because they do something? If the body be there, and the soul gone, we say, that the man is absent: it is the action that makes them present. Therefore the Schoolmen say, that the Angels are said to be present here or there, because they work there. Therefore, I say, the more that we can see Gods hand in every action, the more we acknowledge his presence. Therefore we should labour to be abundant in considering the Omnipresence of God upon all occasions: as if a man be out of the way, and one come and tells him that he is so, we should be ready to say, that GOD sent him.

Vse 3 Thirdly, If God be every where present, hence you may see a ground for his particular providence. It seemes something strange to men, that every small thing should be disposed of by him;