Book I, Part 2, Chapter 2. 97

Of the twelfth Motive that obliges us to the Pursuit of Virtue, which is, the particular Care the Divine Providence takes of the Good, in order to make them happy, and the Severity with which the same Providence punishes the Wicked. — The first Privilege.

1. Of all these favors, the greatest certainly is, the care God takes of those who serve him. From this, as from their fountain, flow all the other privileges of virtue. For, though providence extends itself to all creatures, yet we see how particularly careful it is of those whom God has chosen for himself; because they, being his children, and receiving as his gift, an affection truly filial for him, he, on his part, loves them with a truly fatherly love, and his love is the measure of the care he takes for them. Yet no man can conceive how great his providence is, unless he has either had experience of it, or read the Holy Bible with much attention, and observed those passages there that treat of this matter ; for there is scarce any part of Scripture but treats on»this subject. It turns on these two points, to ask, and to promise, as the world turns on its poles. So that, whenever God on one part requires our observance of -his commandments, he promises a generous reward to those who comply, and severely threatens such as neglect to obey. This doctrine is so distributed, that almost all the moral books in it require and promise, whilst the historical verify the fulfilling of both ; giving us to understand how differently God deals with the just man and the sinner. But, considering how liberal he is, and how poor man, how ready he is to promise, and how backward man is to perform — we must needs find a great difference between what he requires and what he gives. All he requires of us is, that love and obedience which he himself has given us ; and yet in return of that little which we hold purely of his liberality, he offers us inestimable riches for this life as well as for the next. Of all which the chiefest is, the fatherly love and providence wherewith he assists those he looks on as his children, and this is Infinitely beyond whatever affection the most tender father in the world can show ; for never was there any one yet who laid up such riches for his children as God does, which is no less than the participation of his eternal glory. Never did any man undergo so much for his children as God has done, having for their sakes shed the very last drop of his blood ; nor will ever any father take so much care of them as God does, since he always has them in his sight, and assists them in all their necessities. This holy David acknowledges, when he says, Thou hast upheld me by reason of my innocence ; and hast established 13 I me in thy sight for ever (Ps. xl. 13), which is to say, you have always watched so carefully over all my actions as to keep your eyes continually fixed on me. And in another psalm he says, The eyes of the Lord are upon the just : and his ears unto their prayers. But the countenance of the Lord is against them that do evil things : to cut off the remembrance of them from the earth. Ps. xxxiii. 16, 17.

2. But because this divine providence is the greatest treasure a Christian has, and on his hopes and assurance of his being protected by it depends the increase of his confidence and joy ; it will be to our purpose here to make use of some passages of the Scripture, in proof of those immense riches wherewith God blesses the just. In Ecclesiasticus (ch. xxxiv. 19, 20) it is said, The eyes of the Lord are upon them that fear him, he is their powerful protector, and strong stay, a defence from the heat, and a cover from the sun at noon. A preservation from stumbling, and a help from falling, he raiseth up the soul, and enlighteneth the eyes, and giveth health, and life, and blessing. The royal prophet says, With the Lord shall the steps of a man be directed, and he shall like well his way. When he shall fall, he shall not be bruised, for the Lord putt eth his hand wider him. Ps. xxxvi. 23, 24. What harm can he come to who falls so soft, and is supported by the hand of God ? He says again, in another place, " Many are the afflictions of the just : but out of thern all will the Lord deliver them. The Lord keepeth all their bones, not one of them shall be broken." Ps. xxxiii. 20, 21. This providence is yet much more magnified in the gospel ; for our Saviour himself there not only tells us, that he takes care of all their bones, but of their very hairs, that not one of them may be lost (Luke xxi. 18) ; thus, to express in how extraordinary a manner he protects them ; for what is there he will not look after, who does not neglect the very hair of our heads ? If this be a declaration of his great concern for us, what the prophet Zachary (ch. ii. 8) tells us expresses it no less : " Whosoever," says he, " shall touch you, touches the apple of my eye." It were much had he said, " Whosoever shall touch you, touches me ;" but " Whosoever shall touch you, touches the apple of my eye," is still much more.

3. Nor does he only look after* us himself, but has also committed us to the care of his angels : and, therefore, David says, " He hath given his angels charge over thee : to keep thee in all thy ways. In their hands they shall bear thee up : lest thou dash thy foot against a stone." Ps. xc. 11, 12. Thus, our good angels, like elder brothers, carry the just men in their arms ; for not knowing how to walk by themselves, they have need of another to lead them. Nor are the angels content to serve them thus in this life only, but even at their death too, as appears by the poor man in the gospel, who, after he was dead, " was carried by angels into Abraham's bosom ;" Luke xvi. 22. We are told also in another psalm, " The angel of the Lord shall encamp round about them that fear him: and shall deliver them;" Ps. xxxiii. 8. Or, as St. Jerome renders it more expressive, " The angel of the Lord has pitched his camp about those that live in his fear, to preserve them ;" B. 4. c. 6. v. 15, 16, 17. What king has such a guard about bis person as this ? We see it plainly in a passage of the Book of Kings, where we read, that as the king of Syria's army was marching toward Samaria, with a design to take the prophet Elisha,.the holy man took notice of the concern his servant was in at the sight of so formidable an army, and prayed to God that he would be pleased to open the young man's eyes, and let him see that there was a much greater army ready to defend them than that of their enemies. God heard the prophet's prayer ; whereon the young man saw the whole mountain covered with horse and fiery chariots, and Elisha in the midst of them. We read of such another guard in the Canticles (ch. vii. 1), in these words : " What will you see in the Sulamite," which is the figure of the church, and of a soul in the state of grace, " but the companies of an army," which is composed of angels ? The same thing is signified by the Spouse, under another figure, in the same book (ch. hi. 7, 8), where it is said, " Behold threescore valiant ones of the most valiant of Israel, surround the bed of Solomon : all holding swords, and most expert in war : every man's sword upon his thigh, because of fears in the night." What is all this, but a lively representation made by the Holy Ghost, under these figures, of that care the divine providence has over the souls of the just? For how can a man, who is conceived in sin, who lives in a body so naturally inclined to evil, and who is surrounded with so many dangers, preserve himself for several years from commit-ting any mortal crime, did not the divine providence secure and keep him from it ?

4. This providence is so powerful, that it not only delivers us from evil and leads us to good, but what is more, very often, by a wonderful effect, draws even good out of evil, which sometimes God permits the just themselves to fall in. This happens when, repenting for their sins, they thence take occasion to become more circumspect, more humble, and more grateful to God, for the mercies he has shown them, in freeing them from the danger they were in, and in pardoning them all their faults. It is in this sense the apostle says, that all things work together unto good to them that love God; Rom. viii. 28.

If, therefore, these favors so highly deserve our admiration, how much cause have we to wonder at God's being so careful of their children, of their whole posterity, and of all that belong to them ? As himself has assured us, when he said, 1 am the Lord thy God, mighty, jealous, visiting the iniquities of the fathers upon lOO the sinner's guide.

the children, upon the third and fourth generation of them that hate me : and showing mercy unto thousands to them that love me, and keep my commandments ; Exod. xx. 5, 6. We find him as good as his word to David, whose race he would not destroy after a great many years, though several of them had deserved it for their sins ; Kings viii. 19. Another example of his care we have in Abraham, whose posterity he pardoned so often for their father's sake. This care of his went so far as to promise Abraham that he would bless his son Ismael, though he were born a slave, that he would make him increase, and multiply him exceedingly ; and that he should grow into a great nation ; Gen. xvii. 20. And all this only because he was Abraham's son. We have yet a further proof hereof, in God's conducting Abraham's servant through the whole journey, and instructing him in his duty when he went to seek a wife for Isaac ; ch. xxiv. Nor has he only been merciful to a servant for the sake of a good master, but even to wicked masters for their pious servant's sake ; ch. xxxiii. 22, 23. Thus we see he bestowed great favors on Joseph's master, though a heathen, in consideration of the virtuous young man who lived with him. What mercy can exceed this? Who will not serve such a master, who is so liberal, even so thankful to those that do him any service, and so careful of every thing which belongs to them?

§. 1. Of the Titles given to Almighty God in Holy Writ, on Account of his Providence. — 5. This divine providence producing so many different and wonderful effects, God has, therefore, a great many different names given him in the Holy Scripture ; but the most usual and most remarkable is that of Father, as his beloved Son calls him in the gospel, and he has been pleased it should be given him in several places of the Old Testament. And, therefore, David says, " As a father hath compassion on his children ; so hath the Lord compassion on them that fear him, for he knoweth our frame, he remembereth that we are dust ;" Ps. cii. 13. Another prophet, not content to call God Father, because his care is infinitely greater than that of a father, speaks thus to him : " Thou, O Lord, art our Father ; Abraham hath not known us, and Israel hath been ignorant of us" (Isa. lxiii. 16), to give us to understand, that these, being our carnal fathers, deserved not that name in comparison of God.

6. But because a mother's affection is, generally speaking, more affectionate and tender than a father's, God is pleased to call himself a Mother, nay, and more than a mother too. " Can a woman," says he, in Isaias (ch. xlix. 15, 16), "forget her infant, so as not to have pity on the son of her womb ? and if she should forget, yet will not I forget, thee. Behold, I have graven thee in my hands : thy walls are always before my eyes." Can any thing be more tender than this? or can any man be blind to such proofs of love as these are ?

7. Did we but consider it is God who speaks, he, whose truth cannot deceive, whose riches are inexhaustible, and whose power has no limits, what joy would such pleasing words as these bring us? But such is the excess of God's mercy, that, not content to compare his affection with that of common mothers, he amongst all others chooses the eagle, a creature the most remarkable for this love, and compares his tenderness to hers ; saying, by Moses, "As the eagle enticing her young to fly, and hovering over them, he spread his wings, and hath taken them and carried them on his shoulders;" Deut. xxxii. 11. The same prophet expressed this yet more lively to the people of Israel, when, on their arrival at the land of promise, he told them, "You have seen how the Lord your God has carried you through the wilderness all the way you went, as a man doth his little son, until you came to this place ;" Deut. i. 31. As he does not disdain to call himself our Father, he does us the honor to call us his children ; as a proof of which, we have in the prophet Jeremy (ch. xxxi. 20), "Ephraim is an honorable son to me, surely he is a tender child ; for since I spoke of him, I will still remember him. Therefore are my bowels troubled for him : pitying I will pity him." Every word here should be weighed with attention, as coming from God, and should force from us a tender affection for him, in return of his tender love to us.

8. It is on account of the same providence that he gives himself the name of a Shepherd, as wrell as that of a Father. And to let us see that how great his pastoral care is, he says, " I am the good Shepherd ; and I know mine, and mine know me ;" John x. 14, 15. How is it, O Lord, that thou knowest them? How doest thou look after them ? u As the Father knoweth me, and I know the Father." O blessed care ! O sovereign providence ! What greater happiness can a man enjoy than to be taken care of by the Son of God, just as his Father takes care of him ? The comparison, it is true, will not hold in all respects, because a begotten son deserves much more than one that is only adopted ; but to be in any manner whatever compared with him, is a very great honor. God acquaints us with the wonderful effects of this his providence, fully and elegantly, by the mouth of the prophet Ezekiel, saying, " Behold, I myself will seek my sheep, and will visit them. As the shepherd visiteth his flock, in the day when he shall be in the midst of his sheep that were scattered : so will I visit my sheep, and will deliver them out of all the places where they have been scattered in the cloudy and dark day. And I will bring them out from the peoples, and will gather them out of the countries, and will bring them to their own land ; and I will feed them in the mountains of Israel, by the rivers, and in all the habitations of the land : I will feed them in the most fruitful pastures, and their pastures shall be in the high mountains of Israel : there shall they rest on the green grass, and be fed in fat pastures upon the mountains of Israel. I will feed my sheep : and I will cause them to lie down, saith the Lord God. I will seek that which was lost : and that which was driven away, I will bring again : and I will bind up that which was broken, and I will strengthen that which was weak, and that which was fat and strong I will preserve : and I will feed them in judgment" (Ez. xxxiv. 11, 12, 13, 14^15, 16); that is, with great care, and with a particular providence. A little lower he adds : " I will make a covenant of peace with them, and will cause the evil beasts to cease out of the land : and they that dwell in the wilderness shall sleep secure in the forests. And I will make them a blessing round about my hill : and I will send down the rain in its season, there shall be showers of blessing (ver. 25, 26) ;" that is to say, wholesome showers, and such as shall do no hurt to the places which my flock feeds in. What greater promises can God make us, or what more tender expressions can he give us of his love ? For it is certain, that he does not speak here of a material but of a spiritual flock, composed of men, as the text itself plainly shows. It is no less certain that he does not mean fat lands, or an abundance of temporal goods, which are common to the bad as well as the good, but, like a good shepherd, he promises to assist those that are his with particular graces, on all occasions. It is what he himself has explained by Isaias (ch. xl. 11), where he says, " He shall feed his flock like a shepherd : he shall gather together the lambs with his arm, and shall take them up in his bosom, and he himself shall carry them that are with young." Is there any tenderness like this ? The divine psalm which begins thus, " The Lord is my shepherd" (Ps. xxii.), is full of these charitable offices of a shepherd which God performs to man.

9. As we call God our Shepherd, because he guides us, so we may call him our King, because he protects us ; our Master, because he instructs us ; our Physician, because he heals us ; our Foster-father, because he carries in his arms ; and our Guard, because he watches so carefully over all our actions. The holy Scripture is full of such names as these. But yet there is none expresses a more tender love, or discovers his providence more than that of Spouse, a title he often gives himself in the Canticles, and in other places of the Bible. It is by this he invites the sinner to call on him : " Thou art my father, the guide of my virginity" (Jerem. hi. 4) ; which name the apostle highly extols ; for after those words which Adam spoke to Eve, " Wherefore a man shall leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife, and they shall be two in one flesh," he goes on saying, " This is a great sacrament ; but I speak in Christ and in the church."

which is his spouse (Gen. ii. 24 ; Eph. v. 31, 32), and we may in some respect say the same of every one in the state of grace. What, then, may we not hope from him who goes by such a name, and that with so much reason ?

But what need is there of recourse to the Bible to seek for names, since there is not one that promises us any good, but may be applied to God ? For whosoever loves and seeks him, shall in him find whatever he can wish. For this reason St. Ambrose says, " We have all things in Christ, and Christ is all to us. If you want a cure for your wounds, he is a physician ; if you are in a burning fever, he is a fountain ; if you are tired with the burthen of your sins, he is justice ; if you are afraid of death, he is life in you ; if you hate darkness, he is light ; if you would go to heaven, he is the way ; if you are hungry, he is your food." L. 3. de Virg. See here how many names God has, who in himself is but one ; for though he is but one in himself, yet he is all things for us, that he may relieve all our necessities, which are infinite.

10. It would be tedious to count all the authorities of this kind in the Holy Scriptures. These I have taken notice of, for the comfort and encouragement of all that serve God; and for the gaining of such as do not; for it is certain there is no greater treasure under heaven than this. As, therefore, those persons who have served their prince upon some extraordinary occasions, and received certificates under his hand, and promises of considerable rewards for their services, are very careful to secure those authentic papers, comforting themselves, in the midst of dangers, with the hopes of obtaining the reward of their labors ; so God's servants lay up in their hearts all these divine promises, which are much more securely to be relied on than any that are made by mortal kings. In these they place their hope, these are their support in all their toils, their trust in all their dangers, and their comfort in all their miseries. To these they have recourse in all their necessities ; they inflame them with the love of so good a master and oblige them wholly to his service ; for, as he assures them, he will give himself entirely up to the procuring of their good, for he is their all. Thus we see that the main foundation of a Christian life is the practical knowledge of this truth.

11. Can there be any thing in the world more precious or valuable, or that better deserves our esteem and love? Or wdiat greater happiness can a man enjoy in this life than to have God for his father, his mother, his shepherd, his physician, his tutor, his master, his mediator, his will, his defence, and, what is yet more, for his spouse, in short, for his all ? Has the world any thing comparable to this to give to its admirers ? How much reason, then, have those who enjoy such a benefit, to rejoice, to comfort, to encourage themselves, and to glory in him above all things 7 "Be glad in the Lord," says the prophet, "and rejoice, ye just;

and glory, all ye right of heart ?" Ps. xxxi. 11. As if he said more clearly, Let others rejoice in their worldly riches and honor, others again in their birth and quality, others in their favor and esteem of their prince, others in their great employments and dignities ; but as for you, who lay claim to God for your share, do you more truly rejoice in this inheritance, which as far exceeds all other inheritances as God himself does all other things. This we may learn from the royal psalmist, when he says, " Deliver me, and rescue me out of the hand of strange children ; whose mouth hath spoken vanity ; and their right hand is the right hand of iniquity. Whose sons are as new plants in their youth ; their daughters decked out, adorned round about after the similitude of a temple : their storehouses full, flowing out of this into that. Their sheep fruitful in young, abounding in their goings forth : they have called the people happy, that hath these things : but happy is that people wThose God is the Lord." Ps. cxliii. 11, 12, 13, 15. The reason why David delivers himself thus is evident, because in God alone we possess every good thing that is to be desired. Let others value themselves as much as they please on riches, but as for me, though I am a rich and powerful king, in God alone shall be all my glory. Thus another holy prophet glorified, saying, " but I will rejoice in the Lord ; and I will joy in God my Jesus. The Lord God is my strength : aud he will make my feet like the feet of harts ; and the conqueror will lead me upon my high-places, singing psalms." Habac. iii. 18, 19. This is the treasure, this the glory, which he has prepared even here for those that serve him. This is a great reason why all men should desire to serve him, and on this will he ground the greatest complaint he can make against those who serve him not. Thus it was he complained, by the prophet Jeremy (ii. 5), of his people : " What iniquity," says he, " have your fathers found in me, that they are gone far from me, and have wTalked after vanity, and are become vain ?" and a little lowTer : " Am I become a wilderness to Israel, or a lateward springing land ?" (ver. 31) as if he said, It is plain, it is not so, since by my means they have been so successful and victorious. " Why then have my people said : We are revolted, we wTill come to thee no more ? Will a virgin forget her ornament, or a bride her stomacher ? but my people hath forgotten my days without number" (ver. 32.), who am all their ornament, their glory and their beauty. If God complained thus in the time of the old law, when his favors were so great, how much more reason has he to complain now when they are so much greater, as they are more spiritual and divine ?

§ II. What providence God uses towards the Wicked in punishment of their Sins. — 12. If the mercy of this blessed providence which the good enjoy, has no influence on us, let us at least be moved with the fear of that providence, if I may so call it, which

God uses against the wicked, and which measures sinners by their own measure, and deals with them according to their forgetfulness and contempt of the divine Majesty, forgetting those who forget him, and despising those by whom he is despised. God, to make this the plainer to us, commanded the prophet Osee (ch. i. 2) to marry an adulteress, to signify to his people the spiritual fornication they had committed, in leaving their true spouse and Lord, and ordered the child he had by his wife to be called Lo-ammi, a Hebrew word, which means " not my people," to show them that since they would not acknowledge nor serve him as God, he would not own or deal with them as his people. And that they might know him to be in earnest, he says to them, " Judge your mother, judge her ; because she is not my wife, and I am not her husband" (ch. ii. 2) ; giving them to understand, that since she had not observed the respect and duty of a good wife, neither would he show her the love and kindness of a true husband. Thus plainly God tells us he will deal with us just as we deal with him.

They, therefore, who live as if they took no notice at all of God, are abandoned by him, and left as a school without a master, a ship without a rudder, as goods without an owner, or as a flock that goes astray for want of a shepherd, which never misses falling among the wolves. And, therefore, he tells them by the prophet Zacharias (ch. xi. 9), " I will not feed you ; that which dieth, let it die, and that which is cut off, let it be cut off : and let the rest devour every one the flesh of his neighbor." What he says by Moses, in his canticle, is to the same purpose : " I will hide my face from them, and will consider what their last end shall be ;" Deuter. xxxii. 20.

13. He acquaints us more at large with this kind of providence, by the prophet Isaias speaking to his people under the figure of a vine, against which, for not yielding the fruit that was expected from it, after having been so carefully dressed and pruned, he pronounces this sentence : I will show you what I will do to my vineyard. I will take away the hedge thereof, and it shall be wasted : I will break down the wall thereof, and it shall be trodden down. And I will make it desolate ; it shall not be pruned, and it shall not be digged ; but briars and thorns shall come up : and I will command the clouds to rain no rain upon it" (Isaias v. 5, 6) ; that is to say, I will take away all those efficacious helps and succors I had given it before, and then must necessarily follow its utter ruin and destruction.

14. Do not you think this sort of providence is much to be dreaded? what greater misery can a man fall into than to be deprived of the providential care of God, to be exposed to all the accidents of the world, and to all the injuries and calamities this life lies open to ? For since, on the one hand, this world is like a tempestuous sea, a desert of so many wild beasts and thieves, since there are such numbers of misfortunes and accidents, so many and such powerful enemies to encounter with, so many snares laid for us, and so many dangers surrounding us ; and since man, on the one hand, is a creature so frail, so helpless, so blind, so impotent, so destitute of strength, and so much in need of advice, what can he do against so many strong ones, if he wants the help and assistance of God ? What can he, who is a mere dwarf, do against so many giants ? How can he, who is so blind, avoid so many snares ? Or, alone and unarmed, how can he deal with so many enemies?

15. Nor does their punishment end here. For God not only turns his eyes from the wicked, whence it follows that they fall into such sins and miseries, but does himself produce and send them these afflictions ; so that the eyes which watched for their advantage before, are now open to their ruin : as the prophet Amos (ch. ix. 4) testifies, saying, I will set my eyes upon them for evil, and not for good ; that is, I who before looked on them, in order to secure them, will do it now to punish them, according to what their sins deserve. And the prophet Osee (ch. v. 12) tells us plainly, that God says, " I will be like a moth to Ephraim, and like rottenness to the house of Juda." And because this seemed too easy a punishment, and too lingering, he immediately threatens them with another more speedy and more severe : " I will be like a lioness to Ephraim, and like a lion's whelp to the house of Juda : I, even I, will catch, and go away, and there is none that can rescue ;" ver. 14. Can any thing be more terrible than this?

16. We have as clear a proof of this kind of providence in the prophet Amos, who, after telling us, that God would put all the wicked to the sword, for their sins of covetousness, goes on and says, " They shall flee, and he that shall flee of them shall not be delivered. Though they go down even to hell, thence shall my hand bring them out : and though they climb up to heaven, thence will I bring them down. And though they be hid in the top of Carmel, I will search and take them away from thence: and though they hide themselves from my eyes in the depth of the sea, there will I command the serpent, and he shall bite them. And if they go into captivity before their enemies, there will I command the sword, and it shall kill them. And 1 will set my eyes upon them for evil, and not for good." Amos ix. 1, 2, 3, 4« These are the words of the prophet. And what man, on reading them, if he but considers, that they were spoken by God himself and does but observe what kind of providence he exercises against sinners, can without trembling see how powerful an enemy he has against him, and how closely he pursues him, having secured all the avenues, and lying continually in wait to destroy him ? What rest can a man take that reflects on this ? WThat stomach can he

THE SINGER'S GUIDE. 107 have for his food, who has the eyes of God, red with indignation and fury, fixed on him? Who has such a persecutor and such an arm stretched out against him? For if it be so great a misfortune to be deprived of God's favor and providence, what must it be to have armed this same providence against you, and to make him turn that sword on you, which was drawn in your defence ? What an unhappiness must it be to have those eyes open to your destruction, which before watched for your security ; to have that arm, which was before stretched out to hold you up, extended now to cast you down ; to have that heart, which thought of nothing for you once but of peace and love, have no other thoughts for you now but of affliction and sorrow ? What misery is it, that he who ought to shade, shield and protect you, should be changed into a moth to consume you, and into a lion to tear you in pieces ? How can that man sleep securely, who knows that God all the while stands over him, like Jeremy's rod, to punish and torment him ? What means can he use to frustrate the designs of God ? What arm can withstand his arm? Or what other providence can resist his providence ? Did any man, says Job (ch. ix. 4), ever resist him and prosper ?

17. This evi], in fine, is of such a nature, that the withdrawing of his fatherly providence from sinners is one of the severest punishments he either inflicts on, or threatens them with in this life, as he himself has declared in several places of the Holy Scripture. In one of which, he says, " my people heard not my voice : and Israel hearkened not to me" (Ps. lxxx. 12, 13) ; for which reason I will not take any notice of them, as I have done before ; "So I let them go according to the desires of their heart : they shall walk in their own inventions." Their condition must, therefore, grow each day worse and worse. He says also, by the prophet Osee (ch. iv. 6), since " thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I also will forget thy children." As there is no greater misfortune can befall a woman than to be divorced from her husband, nor a vine than to lie neglected and unpruned, so the greatest loss a soul can undergo is, to have God withdraw his hand from her. For what is a soul without God, but a vine without its pruner, a garden without a gardener, a ship without a pilot, an army without a general, a commonwealth without a ruler, and, in short, a body without life ? See here how God encompasses you on all sides, that the fear at least of being forsaken by him may work on you, though his providential love and concern do not move you ; for fear and apprehension often influence those whom favors and benefits can do no good with.