Do we not behold a weak, defenseless handful of men wonderfully and otherwise unaccountably preserved from ruin in the midst of potent, enraged and turbulent enemies who gladly would, but cannot, destroy them; when as yet no natural impediment can be assigned why they cannot? And if this puzzles us, what shall we say when we see events produced in the world for the good of God's chosen people, by those very hands and means which were intentionally employed for their ruin? These things are as much beside the intentions of their enemies, as they are above their own expectations; yet such things are no rarities in the world. Was not the envy of Joseph's brethren, the cursed plot of Haman, and the decree procured by the envy of the princes against Daniel, with many more of the same kind—all turned by a secret and strange hand of Providence to their greater advancement and benefit? Their enemies lifted them up to all that honor and preferment they had.