Divine Conduct, or The Mystery of Providence

First Demand.

How comes it to pass, that so many signal mercies and deliverances have befallen the people of God, above the power, and against the course of natural causes: to make way for which, there hath been a sensible suspension and stop put to the course of nature? It is most evident, that no natural effect can exceed the power of its natural cause. Nothing can give to another, more than it ⟨p. 16⟩hath in it self. And it is as clear, that whatsoever acts naturally, acts necessarily: Fire burns adultimum sui posse to the uttermost of its power: Waters overflow, and drown all that they can. Lions and other rapacious and cruel •easts, especially when hungry, tear and devour their prey: And for Arbitrary and rational Agents, they also act according to the principles and Laws of their natures. A wicked man when his heart is fully set in him, and his will stands in a full bent of resolution, will certainly (if he have power in his hand, and opportunity to execute his conceived mischief) give it vent, and perpetrate the wicked devices of his heart: for having once conceived mischief, and travailing in pain with it (according to the course of nature) he must bring it forth, as it is Psal. 7. 14. But if any of these inanimate, brutal, or rational agents, when there is no natural obstacle or remora, have their power suspended, and that when the effect is near the birth, and the design at the very article of execution, so that though they would, yet cannot hurt; to what think you is this to be assigned and referred? Yet so it hath often been seen, where Gods interest hath been immediately concerned in the danger and evil of the event. The Sea divided it self in its own Channel, and made a wall of water,¹ on each side, to give Gods distressed Israel a safe passage, and that not in a calm, but when the Waves thereof roared; *as it is