Divine Conduct, or The Mystery of Providence

And thus I have finished the Second General Head; but before I pass from this, I cannot but make a pause, and desire you with me, to stand in an holy amazement, and wonder at the dealings of God with such poor worms as we are! Surely God deals familiarly with men! his condescensions to his own clay are astonishing! All that I shall note at present about it, shall be under these three heads, wherein I find the matter of my present meditations summed up by the Psalmist, Psal. 144. 3. Lord what is man, that thou t•kest knowledge of him? or the son of man, that ⟨p. 118⟩thou makest account of him? And in this Scripture you have represented,

The immense and transcendent goodness of God, who is infinitely above us and all our thoughts, Job 11. 7, 8, 9. Canst thou by searching, find out God? canst thou find out the Almighty unto perfection? It is as high as Heaven; what canst thou do? deeper than Hell; what canst thou know? The measure thereof is longer than the Earth, and broader than the Sea. 2 Chron. 2. 6. The Heaven and Heaven of Heavens cannot contain him. Exod. 15. 11. He is glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders. When the Scripture speaks of him comparatively, see how it expresses his greatness, Isa. 40. 15, 16, 17. Behold the Nations are as the drop of a bucket, and are counted as the small dust of the balance: behold he taketh up the Isles as a very little thing. And Lebanon is not sufficient to burn, nor the Beasts thereof sufficient for a burnt-offering. All Nations before him are as nothing, and they are accounted to him less than nothing and vanity. When the holiest men have adderest themselves to him, see with what humility and deep adoration they have spoken of him and to him!