that when the refolved to present herself before him, fhe well knew that her life was at ftake. Had Ahafuerus been in a fretful mood, when Efther appeared, or had he taken umbrage at her coming without being called; her fate would have been worse than that of Vahti. According to the nature of the Perfian law, fhe muft have perifhed; and who would then have ventured to intercede for her people?

It was the will of God, not only to defeat the defigns of the wicked Haman, but to give the Church cause of triumph in the ruin of this implacable adverfary. But his difgrace is deferred, till he had attained the greatest honour that could be conferred on a fubject. Not only did Ahafuerus" fet his feat above all the princes," but as Haman himself boafted, Queen Efther permitted no man to enter with the king to her banquet, but himfelf. This new honour fhed a gleam of joy on his rankled heart ". But then, when he had reached the highest pinnacle of dependent greatnefs, he is hurled into the abyfs of ruin and it appears from the event, that the gallows, which he had prepared for Mordecai, was defigned by God for himself.

Although, however, Mordecai was not only faved but exalted; although Haman was brought to deftruction; there ftill feemed to be one infuperable obftacle to the preservation of the church. This was the irrevocable nature of the laws of the Medes and Perfians. But even this was providentially

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videntially ordered and overruled for the greater triumph and fecurity of the people of God. For had the law been otherwise, their deftruction would only have been prohibited. But as the king's edict could not, according to the conftitution of the empire, be exprefsly recalled; another was published, empowering the Jews not only to ftand on their defence, but to avenge themfelves on all their enemies. It was now more than two months fince the former edict had been publifhed. They had, therefore, full time to know who were their enemies, and who anxioufly waited for the day of their deftruction. Thus alfo they were feconded and fupported in the lawful means they ufed for their own prefervation, by the rulers of the different provinces °: and by the deftruction of thofe "who fought "their hurt," had a foundation laid for their fafety against any attempt of a fimilar kind, when there might be no Mordecai to manage, and no Efther to intercede for them.

From the whole it is evident, that Mordecai fpoke not in the way of mere conjecture, when he faid to the queen; "Who knoweth, whether "thou art come to the kingdom for fuch a time "as this?" There was nothing miraculous in all this concatenation of circumftances. But he, who can fuppofe that it could be wholly the effect of the operation of fecondary causes, without any special operation of the First, is on the high way to atheism.

o Efth. ix. 1.-3.

p Efth. iv. 14.

111. That

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III. That this operation is of a most particular nature, frequently appears from the feafon of it. When the LORD is about to work deliverance, he often allows matters to come to extremity; fo that no rational hope can be formed from the ordinary operation of fecondary caufes. God had determined to deliver his ancient people from the power of the Philiftines. But he would not do it. till they were reduced to a very abject state, and deprived of the ordinary means of deliverance. "In the day of battle there was neither fword nor fpear found in the hand of any of the people "that were with Saul and Jonathan: but with "Saul and with Jonathan his fon was there "found 9." The deliverance of the Jews from Babylon was an event of fuch importance, that for effecting it, God had purposed to overthrow the whole Chaldean empire. But it was delayed, till his people began to defpair of relief, and expressed themselves in this manner; "Our "bones are dried, and our hope is loft, we are cut "off for our parts ." God is pleased to work in this manner, that the operation may be more evidently his own, and that his perfections may be more fignally glorified. In consequence of such deliverances, even the heathen are made to fay; "The LORD hath done great things for them." Can his own people refufe to add, "The LORD "hath done great things for us?"

IV. The particularity of providential operation is often manifefted by the difcovery of fecret fin.

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q Sam. xiii. 22.

Ezek. xxxvii. 11.

As

As the eyes of God" are upon the ways of men, as "there is no darkness, nor fhadow of death, "where the workers of iniquity may hide them"felves;" even in the prefent life he often brings to light the hidden things of darknefs. From the Sacred Hiftory it appears, that long before the giving of the law, it was a divine ordinance, that the widow of him who died childlefs fhould be married by his brother, or by the neareft of kin. Hence the crime of Tamar was confidered as punishable with death. For the was viewed as virtually an adulterefs, being reserved for the furviving brother of Er and Onan. But, in the wonderful disposal of Providence, her condemnation is overruled as the occafion of the difcovery of Judah's fecret iniquity with her, and alfo of his being brought to a conviction and confeffion of his guilt in withholding from her his fon Shelah. When the prefented Judah's bracelets, and fignet, and flaff, he acknowledged them, faying; "She hath been more righteous than It." So remarkable are the ways in which fin is often brought to light, that even worldly men are laid under a neceffity of acknowledging the hand of God. Sometimes the tranfgreffor is most unaccountably infatuated. All the prudence difplayed in his former conduct feems at once to forfake him; fo that he acts as if he were determined to be his own accufer. At other times, the very schemes that he has devifed with the greatest art for concealing his guilt, prove the occafion of a difco

Job xxxiv. 21, 22.

t Gen. xxxviii. 26.

very.

very. This is especially the cafe with respect to murder. From the days of Cain till this hour, blood hath had a loud, a powerful cry.

In this manner did the fons of Jacob interpret the language of Providence, in the treatment they met with from their unknown brother. Till then they appear to have had no compunction for their crime, which had hitherto been buried in their own breafts. But a cluster of circumftances, in their prefent fituation, feems to have flashed conviction on their obdurate minds. They were at this time in that very land into which they had fent their brother as a flave. The ruler of it under Pharaoh accufed them of not being "true

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men;" and falfe had they been to him, and to their father. As they had formerly caft Jofeph into a pit, they had themselves been all caft into prifon. He refufed to acquit them from the charge he had brought against them, and to deliver up the hoftage he demanded, on any other condition than that of their bringing with them Benjamin, the darling of their father, and as they might imagine, the only furviving child of Rachel. Could they hear this requifition, without reflecting on their conduct towards her other fon, whom they had hated, for no other reafon than that which made them defpair of being able to bring Benjamin,-because " his father loved him

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more than all his brethren "?" They had refufed to liften to all the entreaties of Jofeph; and their own, addreffed to this ftranger, are treated

u Gen. xxxvii. 4,

with