every way concerned; he is no where without an intereft; he made the whole world, and is in the poffeffion of all that he hath made, and no wonder if he engageth himfelf in his own poffeffions.

There is nothing too great, nothing too little for God to take care of. For that which was fit to be created, is fit to be preferved; that which was worth the making, is worth the taking care of. And forafmuch as all things have him to be their preferver now, whom they had to be their maker at firft; it is not to be doubted, but he is as much concerned now to preferve, as he was then to create them.

'Tis true, he made the earth the lowest of things to tread upon, but he made it ftill, and therefore he ftill preserves it. Nothing is below his care, tho' he be infinitely high; nothing is too mean a concernment for his goodness, tho' his happinefs need nothing at all.

And therefore God pities, where we defpife; he is concerned, where we are carelefs; God fixes his eye, and opens his ear, where a proud creature hath neither

eye to fee, nor ear to hear. The poor is

not despised in God's fight, the needy is not forgotten by God's love, he doth not flight the cause of a poor, helpless, oppreffed person. The juftice of the poor is always juftice in God's eye, altho' it be never fo feldom in man's. The righteousness of the oppreffed is right before him, whatever it be before men: And that which is a good caufe in it felf, is always good unto God, be it the cause of who it will.

Gold weighs nothing in God's fight, and whole mountains of filver with him are of no regard. For God righteously judgeth every man's right; he fees the afflictions. of the afflicted; he pities the miseries of the miserable; he hears the crying of the poor, and the fighing of the prisoner foundeth in his bowels; and therefore he forgetteth not to make returns, but whispers inward comfort in anfwer to the cries that are made unto him: He made all things, and therefore he is concerned in all.

And as he made all things, fo he is fufficient for all. It is no waking to his eye, to watch over every thing; no toil to his

power,

power, to order what he watcheth over. His eye never grows dim with seeing, nor his hand weary of working in the world. He is every where present, and therefore he cannot but fee every thing; and being every where at hand, it is no hindrance, no trouble to him, to govern and rule all as he fees fit.

He is not fnatched from one thing, by another falling in the way; he is not taken off from a former affair, by the rifing up of a latter. Former things do not make him forget what is to come; nor do the things which are to come put the former out of memory. Things that are near do not keep him from things afar off; nor do things afar off eftrange him from things that are near.

For he is not hurried from place to place; he is not fnatched from one place to another: The east doth not call him from the weft; nor doth the business of the fouth remove him from the north. For he is every where at once, and at once able to govern all things as one; and therefore no wonder at all, if all things be governed

by him. Behold (says the pfalmift) he that keepeth Ifrael, fhall neither flumber nor fleep; the Lord is thy keeper, the Lord is thy fhade upon thy right hand.

Another reason of God's general providence is this; namely, because one thing cannot be exactly governed without the government of another; and therefore, he that governs one, governs all.

Man cannot be provided for in all his needs and exigence, without the beafts which' man ftands in need of: Nor can one beast be well provided for, without another. Man cannot well live, without the ox to plough his field, and the horse to carry him about his affairs. Nor can these be fed without grafs, nor grafs grow without showers, nor showers fall where there are no clouds, nor clouds be drawn up in vapours where there is no fun: And therefore the fun muft shine, and the vapours muft afcend, and the clouds gather, and the rain fall, and the grafs grow, and the ox feed, that man may be provided for. The care of one thing infers the care of another; for what is faid of one creature may be said of another,

ther, which are one way or other useful

unto us.

But to go a little further than thus: Look up unto the timber of the house, or look down to the ftones under our feet; and these must be governed, in the government of man; thofe above may fall on his head, and knock him into his grave; and these below may hit his foot, and make him ftumble into it. A fly may choak a man, or an unwholsome blast of air may breed an incurable disease. Therefore every breath of air, every the most inconfiderable animal, the house over our heads, the stones under our feet, must be governed and ordered by that providence that orders man; which providence, as it hence appears, concerns it felf in all things.

AND fo much concerning a GENERAL providence. I come now to confider God's PARTICULAR providence, by which he ordereth the feveral affairs and actions of every individual of his creatures.

In him we live, and move, and have our being: We, and all things with us: We, and all other creatures, being the crea

tures