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PSALM cxviii. v. 23.
It is the Lord's doing, and it was marvellous in our Eyes.
It is the Lord's doing, and it was marvellous in our Eyes.
THings do sometimes speake, and times call aloud; and as all Men are before hand with me, in the choice of this Text, at least in applying it to the present time, so that amasing Concurrence of Providences, which have conspired to hatch and bring forth, and perfect this extraordinary Revolution, would lead one very naturally to use these words, even tho we had no such Verse in Scripture; for we have before us a Work, that seems to our selves a Dream, and that will appear to Posterity a Fiction: a Work about which Providence has watched in so pecu∣liar a manner, that a Mind must be far gone into Atheism, that can resist so full a conviction as this offers us in favour of that Truth. And if a threed of happy steps on the one hand, and of mistaken ones on the other, can upon any occasion be made an Argument, we have it here in its utmost force.
It is the Lord's doing, not as the Heavens and Earth, as the Revo∣lutions of Day and Night, and the whole Chain of Second Causes are his Work: The whole Springs of Nature are wound up by him, so that all things are in some sort his doing: He gives also a secret Direction to all second Causes to accomplish his Eternal Pur∣poses. He knows all the foldings of our Hearts, and the compo∣sition of our Natures so well, that without putting us under a force, he can bring about whatsoever pleases him. He also on some great occasions does Violence to Nature, and puts her out of her Chan∣nel in those extraordinary Productions that are called Miracles. But besides all these, there are times in which the great Governour of Heaven and Earth will convince the World, that he is not an unconcerned Spectator of Human Affairs: But because Men are apt to be so partial to themselves, and to their own Opinions, as to look on every favourable Accident as a smile from Heaven, and that Sanguine People are as ready on the one hand to think them∣selves God's Favourites, and the special Objects of his Care, as Me∣lancholy Men on the other, in the fourness of thought that oppres∣ses them, construe every thing that succeeds not according to their