had joined himself with that wicked king, Ahaziah,✅ to build ships at Ezion-geber to go to Tarshish, God prevente the design by breaking the ships in a storm, 2 Chron. xx. 37.-Sometimes by laying some strong afflictions on the body, to prevent a worse evil. And this is the meaning of Hos. ii. 6, I will hedge up her way with thorns." Paul had a thorn in his flesh, a messenger of Satan sent to buffet him; and this affliction, whatever it was, was ordained to prevent pride in him, 2 Cor. xiii. 7.-Sometimes sin is prevented in the saints, by the better information of their minds by the sacred oracles of God. Thus when sinful motions began to rise in David's mind, from the prosperity of the wicked and his own afflicted state, and grew to that height, that he began to think all he had done in the way of religion was little better than lost labor, he is set aright again and the temptation dissolved by going into the sanctuary, where God showed him how to take new measures of persons and things; to judge of them by their ends and issues, not their present appearances, Psal. Ixxiii. 12, 13, 17. And sometimes the providence of God prevents the sins of his people, by removing them out of the way of temptation by death. "The righteous is taken away from the evil to come," the evil of sin as well as sufferings. When the Lord sees his people low-spirited, and not able to grapple with the strong trials and temptations that are drawing on, it is, with respect to them, a providence to be disbanded by death and set out of harm's way.

Now consider and admire the providence of God, O ye saints, who has had more care of your souls, than ever ye had of them! How was the heart of David melted under a preventing providence, 1 Sam. xxv. 34. He blesses the Lord, the instrument, and the counsel by which his soul was preserved from sin. Do but seriously bethink yourselves of a few particulars about this case. Remember how your corrupt natures have often impetuously hurried you on towards sin, so that all the inherent grace you had, could not withstand its force, if Providence had not prevented it in some such method as you have heard. You found yourselves but feathers in the wind of temptation. Consider how near you have

been brought to the brink of sin, and yet saved by á merciful hand of Providence! May you not say with the Psalmist, "My feet were almost gone, my steps had well nigh slipt?"-Remember how many have been suffered to fall by the hand of temptation, to the reproach of religion and the wounding of their own conscience to that degree, that they have never recovered their former peace again, but lived in the world devoid of comfort to their dying day. Consider too how woful your case had been, if the Lord had not mercifully saved you from many thousand temptations that have assaulted you. You cannot estimate the mercies you possess by means of such providences. Are your names sweet and your consciences peaceful, two mercies as dear to you as your: two eyes? Why surely, you owe them, if not wholly, yet in great measure, to the aids and assistances Providence has given you all along the way you have passed through the dangerous tempting world to this day.

Walk suitably therefore to this obligation of Providence also; and see that you thankfully own it. Do not impute your escapes from sin to accidents, or to your own watchfulness or wisdom. See that you tempt not Providence, on the other hand, by an irregular reliance upon its care over you, without taking all due care of yourselves."Keep yourselves in the love of God," Jude 21; "Keep your hearts with all diligence," Prov. iv. 23. Though Providence keep you, yet it is in the way of your duty.

IX. In the next place I will show you, that Providence has been no less careful for your bodies than it has for your souls, and with how great tenderness it has carried them in its arms through innumerable hazards and dangers.

To display the glory of this Providence before you, let us take into consideration the perils into which the best of men sometimes fall, and the ways and means by which Providence preserves them in those dangers.

There are manifold hazards into which we are often cast in this world; and how great a wonder is it that our lives have not been extinguished in some of them! For have not some of us fallen, and that often, into very dangerous sicknesses and diseases, in which we have

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approached to the very brink of the grave, and have said, with Hezekiah, "I said in the cutting off of my days I shall go to the gates of the grave: I am deprived of the residue of my years?" Have we not often had the sentence of death in ourselves? O what a wonder is it that so crazy a body should be preserved for so many years, and survive so many dangers! Many of you have seen wonders of salvation in the deep where the hand of God has been signally stretched forth for your rescue and deliverTo see men who have spent so many years on the seas, where your lives have continually hung in suspense before you, attain to your years-O what cause have you to adore your great Preserver! Many thousands of your companions are gone down, and yet you here to praise the Lord among the living. You have bordered nearer to eternity all your days than others, and have often been in imminent perils; surely such and so many salvations call aloud upon you for most thankful acknow ledgments. What innumerable hazards and accidents has God carried us all through! I think I may safely say, that our mercies of this kind are more in number than the hairs of our heads. Many thousands of these dangers we never saw, nor were made sensible of; but though we saw them not, our God did, and brought us out of danger before he brought us into fear. Some have been evident to us, and those so remakable, that we can. not think or speak of them to this day, but our souls are affected with those mercies.

I would now press home the sense of providences upon you, in order to a suitable return to the God of your mer cies for them. To this purpose I desire you seriously to weigh the following particulars. Consider what you owe to Providence for the protection, by which your life has been preserved to this day, with the usefulness and comfort thereof. Look abroad in the world, and you may daily see some in every place, who are objects of pity, bereaved by sad accidents of all the comforts of life; whilst, in the mean time, Providence has tenderly preserved you, "keeping all your bones, so that none of them are broken," Psal. xxxiv. 20. Is the elegant and comely structure of thy body not spoiled, thy members

not distorted, and made so many seats of torment, the usefulness of any part not destroyed? Why, this is because Providence has never quitted his hold of thee since thou camest out of the womb, but, with a watchful eye and tender hand, has guarded thee in every place, and kept thee as his charge.-Consider how every member, which has been so tenderly kept, has nevertheless been an instrument of sin against the Lord; and that not only in the days of your unregeneracy, when "ye yielded your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin,' but since you gave them up in covenant to the Lord, as instruments dedicated to his service. And yet how tender has Providence been over them! You have often provoked him to afflict you in every part, and lay penal evil upon every member that has been instrumental in moral evil; but O, how great have his compassions been towards you, and how admirable his patience!-Consider what is the aim of Providence in all the tender care it has manifested for you. Why does it protect you so assiduously, and suffer no evil to befall you? Is it not that you should employ your bodies for God, and cheerfully apply yourselves to the service he has called you to? Doubtless this is the end and level of these mercies; for else to what purpose are they afforded you? Your bodies are a part of Christ's purchase, as well as your souls, 1 Cor. vi. 19. They are committed to the charge and tutelage of angels, Heb. i. 14, who have performed many services for them. They are dedicated by yourselves to the Lord, and that on the highest account, Rom. xii. 1. They have already been the subjects of manifold mercies in this world, Psal. xxxv. 10, and shall partake of singular glory and happiness in the world to come, Phil. iii. 21. And shall they not be employed, yea, cheerfully worn out in his service? How reasonable is it that they should be so! Why are they so tenderly preserved by God, if they must not be used for God?..

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X. You have heard of many great things performed for you by divine Providence, in the former particulars but there is an eminent favor it bestows on the saints, which has not yet been considered, and indeed is too little at tended to by us, and that is, the aid and assistance it

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gives the people of God in the great work of mortificaAC99YAN YOL. 350g y′′e to vzenícho The mortification of our sinful affections and passions, is the onewhalf of our sanctification; Dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God," Rom. vi. 11. It is the great evidence of our interest in Christ; Gale v. Rom. vis 15,9 It is our safety in the hour of temptation; the corruptions in the world are through lust; 2 Pet. i. 4. Our fitness for service depends much upon it, 2 Tim. ii. 21; John xv. 2. How great a service to our souls therefore muste that be, by which this blessed work is carried on upon them!

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Now there are two means or instruments employed in this work. The Spirit who effects it internally, and Providence which assists it externally. The Spirit indeed. is the principal agent, upon whose operation the success of this work depends and all the providences in the world can never effect it without him. But these are secondary and subordinate means, which, by the blessing of the Spirit upon them, have a great hand in the work. The most wise God orders the dispensations of Providence ma blessed subordination to the work of his Spirit. There is a sweet harmony betwixt them in their distinct workings. They all meet in that one blessed issue which God has, by the counsel of his will, directed themilto, Ephacia 1; Rom. viii. 28. Hence it is, that the Spirit is said to be in, and to order the motions of the wheels of Providence. Ezek. i. 20; and so they move together by consent. Now one great part of the Spirit's internal work being to destroy sin in the people of God, see how conformable to his design, external providences are ordered in the following particulars4 brs violg islozita të 8. There is, in all the regenerate, a strong propensity and inclination to sin, and in that lies a principal part of the power of sind Of this Paul sadly complains, " But I see another lawrind my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin, which is in my members," Rom. vii. 23 and every believer daily finds it to his grief, Oit is hard to forbear those things that grieve God! God has made a hedge about us, and fenced us against sin by his laws; Div. No. XIX. 2 C