concurrance like broken cisternes or as the brookes of Tema affoording no comfort but soone dryed up The Lord can do with them as he did with the Aegyptian chariots if he take off the wheeles they stand The Apostle tells us that in him we live and move and have our being the Saints considering this make God their confidence Not any creature can hurt or helpe unlesse God concurre A sword may be drawen and strike but it wounds not unlesse God doth give it a commission and put strength into it The Psalmist tells us that God turnes the edge of the sword It may smite but if God blunts its edge there will be no harme Nothing likewise helpes without him cloathes could not warme freinds could not helpe or workes could not prospet unlesse the Lord give a blessing Consider your wayes saith the Lord yee have sowne much and bring in little yee cate but yee have not enough yee drinke but yee are not filled with drinke yee cloath yee but their is no warme and he that earneth wages earneth wages to put it into a bag with holes yee have looked for much and loe it came to little and when yee brought it home I did blow upon it The heavens over you is stayed from dew and the earth is stayed from her fruits Creatures are no further beneficiall to us then it pleases God to concurre Paul plants Apollos waters but yet God gives the increase The Saints knowing this do therefore see that they have a sufficient ground to make God their confidence 4. Gods people know that he is able to do alone whatsoever any secondary cause doth God can do that thing either with it or without it And this makes them confide in God only The streames depends on the fountaine but the fountaine it selfe can send out its waters some other way by some other channells The creatures depends on God the great creatour and if he but speake a word it is done what he wills he can worke without his creatures for his people and will do so if he see cause and therefore his people see reason to confide in him 5. Gods people know that he hath ingaged himselfe by promise to those that trust in him he is their father and careth for them and though a parent forsake their child yet he will not his people When my father and my mother forsake me then the Lord will take me up Indeed Godâ—â—eople may see there are many improbabilityes of their safety yet seeing God hath promised they see no cause to distrust Abraham knew that he had a dead body yet beleeved because his God was the living God Sarah had a barren wombe yet God was able to make it fruitfull He can turne a wildernesse into a fruitefull feild Though your hearts should be naughty unbelieving misgiving yet hope in Gods promises consider his infinite ability and his undoubted fidelity in keeping promise with his servants and you cannot chuse but trust in him and make him your confidence Upon these grounds or for these reasons Gods people make him their confidence Fourthly this title that God is the confidence of all his people should make us trie our selves whether we are such to whom he is the only confidence And here we will shew 1. Such signes whereby every one good and bad may know it and 2. Such whereby they who are truely Gods people may certainly finde that they do so in some peculiar acts or other 1. The trialls whereby every on may guesse at their owne condition in this respect are these 1. He who truely maketh God his confidence will above all things desire Gods favour and will part with any thing for it No man would be pulled from the hornes of the Altar which while he holdes he is in safety we cannot perswade a company of naked men to forsake the fort wherein they are safe and to commit themselves to the open feild they will desire to keepe where they have confidence thus the man who maketh God his confidence will do any thing for him and part with any thing for his favour Moses forsakes all the treasures in Aegypt and the glory in it for God It is a signe that a man maketh God his confidence when he renounces his sinnes and lusts and is content to be disgraced nicknamed and to suffer the losse of all things gladly for God It is signe that he seeth more in God then others and more in God then he can lose he findes that Christ is all in all But surely they as yet have not made God their confidence who sell God for the world as Demas Christ or the cause of Christ for gaine as did Judas who are content to let gospell conscience goodnesse and all go so they can thereby please such on whom they depend They never trusted God who prizes their sinnes lusts and sinnefull pleasures before him neither will they make him their confidence if troubles should come 2. He truely maketh God his confidence who maketh him an universall confidence and trusteth in him in all things and for all things He comitteth his whole wayes to him his whole person his whole businesse his whole managing he trusts in him in all places at all times in health and sicknes for provision and protection in times of trouble and any danger for Children and for a blessing in every thing He trusts on him for earth as well as for heaven for grace as well as for glory But that man hath not made God his confidence who doth not trust him in all things Some will not trust him with their temporalls they dare not beleive in him to provide for them and theirs after them they depend not on him for their outward estate others will trust him for temporalls but not for spiritualls they are loth to rest on him only for full salvation and pardon They would have something of their owne to justifie them before God And this is all the trouble of many but God will be the sole confidence of his people trust in him for with him there is plentifull redemption He who trusts in God will make him his universall confidence 3. He who makes God his confidence will be industrious in the use of the meanes which brings a blessing on him and which God hath appointed Thus he who confides in God for salvation will diligently search after the means of salvation hearkning and listning after the word of salvation he who confides in him for wordly things will be industrious in an honest calling They trust not God who sit still nor they who set themselves into no good way He trusts not God for salvation who saith if God hath predestinated me to life I shall be saved though I betake my selfe into no such wayes as the Preacher speakes of he considers not that God hath predestinated as well to the meanes as to the end and to the end by the meanes and that he saves only
they have happy successe in their undertakings yet looke through all on God as the donor and giver of it and as the worker of all their workes for them and in them A man who though he hath bread and sits downe therto yet knowing that he is not fed by bread alone but by Gods blessing by the word that proceedeth out of Gods mouth therfore he trusts in God and though he watcheth and buildeth yet still he lookes to God acknowledging that except the Lord keepe the city the watchmen waketh but in vaine and except the Lord build the house he labours in vain who buildeth it and if he plow and tills his ground yet confesses that it is God who gives him knowledge unto it and that blesseth his labours and therefore whilest he is about his ordinary imployments yet he hopes and trusts in God even in plowing there is hope the man who doth thus is one undoubtedly who maketh God his confidence and so also this is seene 2. When men make God their confidence though they have no apparent meanes of effecting what they are about or intend Gideon saw no way wherby God would give deliverance by him from the Midianites yet he trusted on God and relyed on him David going out against the Philistine onely with a staffe and a sling yet trusted in God The Lord that kept me out of the paw of the Lion and out of the paw of the Beare he will deliver me out of the hand of this Philistine The Apostles and Disciples which went on Christs message without money and change of raiment yet trusted on God for provision and lacked nothing And so when men trust on God for a blessing on their callings labour though they see no likelihood of their thriving therin and so when a man in the use of spirituall meanes still trusts God he will make use of the ordinances he is attentive to the word he reades meditates prayes comes to the Sacrament and it may be he finds little comfort in all his soule is nothing more quickned nor at all setled by them and yet out of conscience to Gods commandements he useth these depending not on them but trusting to God that at last he shall have comfort settlement and peace by them though for the present he find none 3. When a man hath all meanes in appearance contrary to him every thing seemes to work against him yet he doth put his trust in God that God will still make good his promise shewing himselfe gracious and being still the preserver of his people This is trusting in God and making him our confidence here beyond all hope is a beleeving in hope against hope against all that is seene Thus when a man seeth all the world band together against the Church when Kings Rulers Nobles great mighty powerful wise and subtill ones yea people of all sorts combine and conspire to root out Christian profession and to bring a licentious Libertinisme and Atheisme into the world when he shall see the Church in distresses and perplexities as it were besieged on all sides yet then to trust in God and to bee able to see as Elisha moe for the Church then against it this is a making God our confidence it is a relying and trusting on him So when in great penury in the want of food and sustenance one yet relies on God it is a great degree of confidence Thus Eliah trusted to God for his feeding by Ravens and afterward for his food from the meale in the barrell and the oyle in the widdowes cruse It was a great degree of confidence in the Prophet Habbakuk that though the fig-tree should not blossome nor fruit should be in the vine the labour of the Olive should faile and the field should yeeld no meate the flocks should bee cut off from the fold and there should be no herd in the stalls yet he saith he would rejoyce in the Lord and would joy in the God of his salvation It is an high degree of confidence still to rely on God in the want of means and so it is to relie on him in the contrariety of meanes so David trusted in God when he seemed to be abandoned of all if he hath a favour to me said he I shall see both the Arke and this place And so in spiritualls when all seemes contrary yet then trust in God the Law perhaps thunders out death against the soule of a poore sinner the Gospell yeelds no comfort godly conference addes nothing holy exercises leaves him still as it found him comfortlesse and troubled yea perhaps more troubled because we have used them yet it still doth trust in God looking beyond sense peeping within the vaile and perceiving that God will at last speake peace and though hee slay yet with Iob it will still trust in him this is a very great exaltation of God and making him our confidence These and many like cases may be ours when the meanes appointed to do us good seeme to worke contrary and yet in conclusion they will do us good it is our duety how ever they worke to trust to God making him our confidence A man having a faithfull freind whom he knowes to be trusty and reall in any thing which he undertakes for him though he perceives that things go untowardly crosse in his freinds managing some affaires for him yet he relyes on him and is confident that he will do all to his advantage at the last or as when a man hath a faithfull counseller to follow his cause and plead it he sees perhaps his counseller much crossed and thwarted yet knowing him to be cordiall and wise and sollicitous in his undertaking and very carefull to take any occasion and to make use of any thing offered to promote his good he will depend on him for solliciting his cause to the utmost such a thing is our trusting in God though in a farre more eminent way we trust him as a freind to manage all for us and though we apprehend that things prove otherwise then wee expected yet wee still depend on God knowing that he will at last cause all things to work for our best We trust him also as our counsellour who will thoroughly plead the cause of his people and though they seeme a while to suffer yet he will at last give peace to the land and disquiet the inhabitants of Babylon In these respects God is said to be the confidence of his people in all places Thirdly the reasons or grounds why Gods people so confide in him or why God is thus their confidence are these two to name no more 1. His people in all places in all estates in all conditions desire to glorifie him above all and this they do most by confiding and trusting in him For. 1. They glorifie his providence while they thus rely depend and stay themselves on him Their trusting in him sheweth that they are a people at his
disposall to do with them as he sees fit either to bring them into straites or to inlarge them to make them vessells of honour and comfort or to be made broken vessells a people for misery and destruction This trusting in God exceedingly gloryfies his providence and soveraignty over them Confidence in him is a gracious submission to be ordered and desposed of as he sees fit It is a yeelding that he may be gloryfied thorough us whether he breake us or build us wound us or heale us save us or destroy us make us glorious or miserable Confidence in him ever implyes in it an humble acknowledgment that we are but as clay in the hands of the potter to be disposed of as will best sute with his glory 2. Confidence in God giveth unto him the glory of his truth or the glory of his promises it manifests our acknowledging of his faithfulnesse and our depending upon the word of his truth It is a great glory to God that we account him faithfull a God keeping promise with his people and this is done when we confide in him David prayed Let thy mercy come also unto me oh Lord even thy salvation according to thy word and he professes that his soule fainteth for his salvation but I hope saith he in thy word And againe uphold me according to thy word that I may live and let me not bee ashamed of my hope Thus God hath the glory of his truth when we confide in him 3. Confidence in God gives him the glory of his goodnesse it is a reall acknowledgement that the Lord is good and doth good and that we therefore depend upon him as children do on their parents for all our maintenance 4. This our confidence in God giveth unto him the glory of his Godhead Wee then glorifie him when we make him the master of our affections as when we love and feare and joy in him and the like but when we hope and confide in God we then gloryfie him above the glory which we give unto him by our other affections For though in them all the principall stream runs to Godward yet there are rivelets and by currants of these affections permitted to runne to other things As for example we love God and gloryfie him by our love when he only and cheifely is loved by us but yet our love also runnes out to other things to his children for his sake and to our neighbours and to men and to other things subordinately And so we gloryfie God when he is primely and principally our feare and dread but yet he alloweth us to feare the magistrates who beare the image of his majesty and to feare our parents and to feare and reverence others And so we gloryfie him when he is cheifely and principally our delight and joy and when our soules cheare up themselves in his word but yet he alloweth us to joy in other things we may joy and delight in his saints on the earth and in outward mercies blessings and deliverances we may take pleasure in the creatures moderately I might speake the like of all other affections But now in confiding and hoping in God we only gloryfie him The whole streame of our hope is to runne to Godward and to him only When we make him our confidence we trust not in any thing else but surrendring up to him all our hopes we then make him fully and wholy our God and we thereby give him the sole interest and command in our affections and so we hereby gloryfie him Thus the people of God being every way desirous to do so they therefore make him their confidence for confiding in him honoreth him as God 2. Gods people make him their confidence because they see in God an all sufficiency to supply their defects to comfort them in distresses to releive them in their wants and to furnish them with all things which they can desire and would have The sight of this alsufficiency in God to do all this is wrought in them from one or from all these considerations which are the ground of hope and confidence as 1. They know that God himselfe is very powerfull able to helpe and save and therfore they confide in him they know that he is able to give all what they need both in spirituals and temporalls He made and framed all and all is at his disposall and he can dispose of all for their good This the Prophet acknowledges that he made heaven and gives rain and showers and every comfort Art not thou he oh Lord our God therfore we will waite on thee Lord thou hast made all these things Gods people know that he hath power to save deliver them out of trouble and yet though he do not they wil trust in him because he can do it and none else Shadrach Meseck and Abednego said so Our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the fiery furnace he will free us out of thy hand oh King that we will not serve thy Gods nor worship the image which thou hast set up A man who hath a strong and powerfull convoy for his safety thorough the dangerous country he travells in will be the more confident knowing that he who conducts him is of power to raise the country for his defence so a Christian in his travell to heaven hath cause to conâ—ide in God for his convoy thither seeing he knowes that God himselfe is powerfull and likewise able to raise the country to call in all the creatures both of heaven and earth for his safe conduct and to make all worke together for his best 2. His people know that Gods only care provides for them and all the world seeing he hath taken on him the care of all things The eyes of all waite on thee and thou givest them their meate in due season thou openest thy hand and satisfies the desires of every living thing and therefore they make him their confidence knowing that they have no cause to distrust him God takes care for oxen much more for his servants he hath besides his generall care in providing for all creatures a speciall care over those of his owne family He himselfe tells some men that they are worse then infidells because they provide not for their owne he himselfe therefore will both thinke on and releive his owne in due time he provides both for their bodies and for their soules and he who gives to the body now a few crummes will never deny unto the soule the crown prepared for it When Gods people do seriously thinke on this they see that they have just ground to confide and trust in God 3. Gods people know that he is so powerfull that though for our good he often imploys instruments and creatures or secondary causes bestowing on them strength and ability to worke for their good yet that these can worke nothing except he concurre with them they are without his