Hypothesis

There was a proud & very profane young man, one of ye sea-men, of a lustie, able body, which made him the more haughty; he would allway be contemning ye poore people in their sicknes, & cursing them daily with greēous execrations, and did not let to tell them, that he hoped to help to cast halfe of them over board before they came to their journey’s end, and to make merry with what they had; and if he were by any gently reproved, he would curse and swear most bitterly. But it pleased God before they came halfe seas over, to smite this young man with a greeveous disease, of which he died in a desperate manner, and so was him selfe ye first yt was throwne overbord. Thus his curses light on his own head; and it was an astonishment to all his fellows, for they noted it to be ye just hand of God upon him.

This is an example of divine providence. According to Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Divine Providence is a traditional theism that holds that God is the creator of heaven and Earth. In which all that takes place in the Earth is called Divine Providence- which is under God's sovereign guidance and control. This is a notion that no matter how bad something's going if you keep faith in God, he will in turn bless you. We see this in the highlighted text because this an example of how they came over a hardship through the grace of God. This young man condemned and curse the poor people because of their sickness, and in return died from a painful disease in which he was thrown overboard.

McCann, Hugh J. and Daniel M. Johnson, "Divine Providence", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Spring 2017 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), URL = https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/spr2017/entries/providence-divine/

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