Divine Conduct, or The Mystery of Providence

(2.) Let them be as intensively full as may be. Let not your thoughts swim like feathers upon the surface of the waters, but sink like lead to the bottom. The works of the Lord are great, sought out of them that have pleasur• therein, Psal. 111. 2. Not that I think it feasible to sound the depth of Providence by our short line, Psal. 77. 19. Thy way is in the sea, and thy path in the great waters, and thy footsteps are not known; but it's our ⟨p. 129⟩duty to dive as far as we can; and to admire the depth, when we cannot touch the bottom. It is in our viewing Providences, as it was with Elijah's servant, when he looked out for rain, 1 Kings 18. 44. he went out once and viewed the Heavens, and saw nothing; but the• Prophet bids him go again and again, •and look upon the face of Heaven seven times; and when he had done so, what now, saith the Prophet? O now, saith he, I see a cloud rising like a mans hand; and then, keeping his eye upon it intent, he sees the whole face of Heaven covered with clouds. So you may look upon some Providences once and again, and see little or nothing in them; but look seven times, (i. e.) meditate often upon it, and you shall see its increasing glory, like that increasing cloud.

There are divers things to be distinctly pondered, and valued in one single Providence, before you can judge the amount and worth of it: as (1.) The seasonableness of mercy may give it a very great value. When it shall be timed so opportunely, and •all out in such a nick, as may make it a thousand fold more considerable to you than the same mercy would have been at another time. Thus when our wants are suffered to grow to an extremity, and all visible hopes ail, then to have relief given in, wonderfully enhances the price of such a mercy,