John Newton on providence

When we have done our planning, his plan in our favor gradually opens, and he does more and better for us than we could either ask or imagine. I can hardly recollect a single plan of mine, of which I have not since seen reason to be satisfied, that had it taken place in season and circumstance just as I proposed, it would, humanly speaking, have proved my ruin; or, at least, it would have deprived me of the greater good the Lord had designed for me. Letters of John Newton (Banner of Truth, 1984), 188.