And altho all creatures in
earth forsake him, yet shall not his bodily life perish till the time
appointed by God approach. For God has means to feed, preserve, and
maintain, unknown to man's reason, and contrary to the common course of
nature. He fed His people Israel in the desert forty years without the
provision of man. He preserved Jonah in the whale's belly; and
maintained and kept the bodies of the three children in the furnace of
fire. Reason and the natural man could have seen nothing in these cases
but destruction and death, and could have judged nothing but that God
had cast away the care of these, His creatures, and yet His providence
was most vigilant toward them in the extremity of their dangers, from
which He did so deliver them, and in the midst of them did so assist
them, that His glory, which is His mercy and goodness, did more appear
and shine after their troubles than it could have done if they had
fallen in them. And therefore I measure not the truth and favor of God
by having or by lacking of bodily necessities, but by the promise which
He has made to me. As He Himself is immutable, so is His word and
promise constant, which I believe, and to which I will adhere, and so
cleave, whatever can come to the body outwardly.
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