Divine Conduct, or The Mystery of Providence

Here it prevented, and there it delivered: Here it directed, and there it corrected. In this it grieved, and in that it relieved. Here was the Poison, and there the Antidote. This Providence raised a dismal Cloud, and that dispelled it again. This straitened, and that enlarged. Here a want, and there a supply. This Relation withered, and that springing up in its room. Words cannot express the high delights ⟨image 9⟩and gratifications, a gracious heart may •ind in such employment as this.

Here it prevented, and there it delivered: Here it directed, and there it corrected. In this it grJeved, and in that it relJeved. Here was the Poison, and there the Antidote. This Providence raised a dismal Cloud, and that dispelled it again. This straitned, and that enlarged. Here a want, and there a supply. This Relation withered, and that springing up in its room. Words cannot express the high delights ⟨image 9⟩and gratifications, a gracious heart may •ind in such employment as this.

O what a world of rarities are to be found in Providence! The blind heedless world makes nothing of them: they cannot find one sweet bit, where a gracious soul would make a rich feast. Plutarch relates very exactly, how Timoleon was miraculously delivered from the conspiracy of two Murderers, by their meeting in the very nick of time a certain person, who to revenge the death of his Father, killed one of them, just as they were ready to give Timoleon the fatal blow, though he knew nothing of the business, and so Timoleon escaped the danger. And what did this wonderful work of Providence think you, yield the Relator? Why, though he were one of the most learned and ingenious among the Heathen Sages; yet all he made of it, was only this, The Spectators (saith he) wondered greatly at the Artifice and contrivance which Fortune uses. This is all he could see in it. Had a spiritual and wise Christian had the dissecting and Anatomizing of such a work of Providence, what glory would it have yielded to God! What comfort and encouragement to the Soul! The Bee makes a sweeter meal upon one single flower, than the Ox doth upon the whole Meadow, where thousands of them grow.