can be no trust One cannot well trust a stranger there must be some acquaintance with God Iob 22. v. 21. Acquaint thy self now with him and be at peace That 's the first What this trusting in God is Secondly Why we must repose our trust in God I will give you but these two Reasons First Because God doth call for this trust Isa. 26.4 Trust ye in the Lord for ever Psal. 62.8 Trust in him at all times Tho' you are in never such straits and fears yet remember to cast Anchor upwards Trust in God at all times The Lord would take off our confidence and trusting in all other things besides Ier. 17.5 Cursed be that man that trusts in man and maketh flesh his arm We break our Crutches because we lean too hard upon them God would have us make him our trust And the truth is trust and affiance is the chief part of the Worship we ascribe to God. Secondly We must trust in God in all our straits and dangers He is the proper object of our trust My Brethren the Creature is not a fit object of our trust as it appears thus It hath two ill qualities that we cannot repose our trust in First The Creature it deceives Secondly It fails First It deceives it is but a sugared Lie Where we think to suck Honey we only tast Wormwood And as it deceives so it fades and withers like a Rose the fuller it is blown the sooner it sheds So that we cannot make the Creature the object of our trust But God he deserves our trust he is called in Scripture a strong Tower where you may have safety Prov. 18.10 The name of the Lord is a strong Tower he is Elshaddi God Almighty Gen. 17.1 There is no condition we can be in no exigence but he can relieve he is God Almighty In particular there are two glorious Attributes in God in which we may safely repose our trust The one is his Mercy The other his Truth They are both joyned in one verse Thou wilt perform thy Truth and thy Mercy to Abraham First We may rest and stay our Souls upon Gods Mercy Psal. 13.5 I have trusted in thy mercy Though I have sinned mercy can pardon me Though I am in want mercy can relieve me Gods mercy it is infinite it is a Honey-comb for sweetness and it is a Rock for safety Secondly We may safely relie on Gods Truth or Faithfulness Remember this Truth is the object of Trust. Heaven and Earth may sooner fail than Gods Veracity Psal. 89.33 I will not suffer my faithfulness to fail Good reason then we should trust in God. Where can we pitch our Faith but upon Gods Faithfulness Thirdly The third thing is to shew you that trusting in God is the way to have the heart fixed His heart is fixed trusting in the Lord. Note two things first That it is an excellent thing to have the heart fixed Secondly It is only Faith doth fix the heart First It is a rare thing It is excellent to have the heart fixed as appears two ways First Fixing of the heart shews solid efficacy of spirit A heart unfixt it is just like a Ship without Ballast blown up and down in the water Secondly Fixing the heart fits it for holy duties He whose heart is fixed upon God he serves God with delight with chearfulness Indeed a heart unfixt is a heart unfitted for duty A shaking hand is not fit to write An unfixed heart is unfit to pray or meditate it runs after other vanities Sure then a fixed frame of heart is an excellent frame of heart You know when the Milk is settled then it turns to Cream So when the heart is settled and fixed on God it is ever in the best frame That 's the first Secondly That trusting in God doth fix the heart The heart is fixed trusting in the Lord that is 't is fixed by trusting Faith it frees the heart from those commotions which cause trembling and quivering it fixes the heart upon God as a Star is fixt in its Orb so is a Believers Soul fixt on God. Faith makes the heart cleave to God as the Needle doth cleave to the Loadstone Faith fixes the heart Such a fixed Star was Athanasius Tertullian called him an invincible Adamant he could not be stirr'd or moved away from the Truth Faith had fixed his heart on God. To make some Use of this Vse First Here you see the misery of wicked men they are unfixed they know not where to rest when troubles come they have no God to go to trust to Sinners they are like a Ship without Anchor tossed with the Storms that hath no where to put in for harbour they are like the Old World when the Flood came they had no Ark to trust to The wicked are like King Saul in an hour of danger 1 Sam. 28.15 I am sorely distressed for the Philistines make war against me and God is departed from me A flagitious sinner is like a Souldier in Battel where the Bullets flie about and he is without Armour and hath no Garrison to trust unto Beloved it is Faith makes the heart fixt in troublesom times Faith doth ingarrison the Soul in Gods Attributes and makes it like a Tower walled in with Rocks that is impregnable Use 2. Of Exhortation Oh! Let us above all things labour for this heart-fixing grace of Faith. Trusting in God doth corroborate and animate and bear up the heart in death-threatning dangers Oh get this heart-fixing grace of Faith But alas who will not say that he is resolved and he is fixt If a Storm doth arise he for his part trusts in God who will not say he trusts in God Therefore we must bring our hearts to a Scriptural Touchstone it is worth while Let us try whether our trusting in God be right or no. You shall know it thus First If our Trust be right then we commit our chief Treasure to God our Soul is the Jewel the chief Treasure and we commit this to Gods care and custody Psal. 31.5 Into thy hand I commit my Spirit we lay up all our hope in God Psal. 39.7 What wait I for Lord my hope is in thee As in time of war a man puts all his Money and Plate in a safe strong place so must we lay up all our hopes in God as a strong Tower. Secondly If we trust in God aright why then we do in all our danger flie to God. There are some when troubles arise they flie to their shifts O! but do we flie to God Psal. 143.9 Deliver me O Lord from mine enemies I will flie to thee to hide me When Satan shoots his fiery Darts of Temptation then we flie under Christs wing to shelter us even as the Dove when the Hawk pursues it it casts it self into the clefts of the Rock and there it hides So when Satan pursues us with Temptation we get into the bleeding wounds of Christ these clefts of the Rock there
and doth convey it by his Spirit So thirdly He doth maintain this peace by his daily Intercession What Saint alive doth not sometimes offend God and cause the fury of his anger to rise up in his face Now when the case is thus that we offend God and are ready to break his peace then Jesus Christ he stands up as an Intercessor and he speaks to God the Father on our behalf and it is his request that God would lay aside his anger and that he would smile upon his people again and therefore in Scripture Christ is called our Atonement to make peace and he is called our Advocate to purchase peace When we break our peace Christ he pleads our cause and makes up this peace again by his Intercession 1 Iohn c. 3. v. 7. To make some Application of this Use 1. First By way of Inference See then here to what Coast we must trade for this Pearl whither we must go for this spiritual peace that is our consolation in life and death Go to Christ for it That in me ye might have peace Saith Cyprian peace it is in Christ as sap is in the Root of the Vine as water is in the Spring That in meâ— ye might have peace saith Christ. This blessed peace that Christ gives it 's worth going to him for it is superiour to all other peace Peace in a Kingdom it is very desirable peace it is every ones Vote Peace it is the very quintessence of earthly blessings To sit quietly under our Vines and Figg-trees surely better a great deal better is the sounding of the Lute and Viol than the roaring of the Cannon See what a sweet promise God makes Isa. 2.4 He will break their Swords into Plowshares all shall be peace But what is this peace to the peace Christ gives to his People that is sacred This peace our Saviour gives it hath these two properties or these two qualifications to name no more First It is an Emboldening peace Secondly It is a Lasting peace First It is an Emboldening peace Friends that are at peace they use a kind of freedom and boldness one with another So we having peace thorow Christs Blood conveyed by his Spirit may be bold to make use of Gods Promises There is never a Promise in the Bible but a Believer may pluck a Leaf from and be at peace with God thorow Christ. We may now use a holy boldness in prayer We may come to God as Children to their Father Heb. 4.16 Let us come with boldness to the Throne of Grace God is our Father and he being at peace with us he will not deny any thing that may conduce to our real good This may make us come with boldness to the mercy Seat That 's the first It is an Emboldening peace Secondly Christs peace that he gives as it is an Emboldening peace so it is a Lasting peace Here is a peace that will hold For all Earthly peace to speak properly it is rather a truce than a peace a truce that is but for a small time and it ends Yea but this peace that Christ gives it is for ever Once in Christ and ever in Christ. Once justified and ever justified Here is a Lasting peace Isa. 54.10 The Covenant of my peace shall not be moved saith the Lord. The peace of a Believer it is but begun here in this life it is perfected in the Kingdom of Heaven Isa. 57.2 He shall enter into peace Here is a godly mans priviledge when he dies he dies in peace and as soon as ever he is dead he enters into peace he shall enter into peace that is he shall go to the Ierusalem above that City of peace Here the Saints peace it is but begun it is but in the seed there it shall be in the Flower Here it is but in its infancy there it shall be in its full growth That 's the first see to what Coast you must trade for this peace Go to Christ for it That in me ye might have peace Use 2. See what a sad condition all wicked men are in that live and die in their sins They have nothing to do with peace What! Shall they have peace that make War with Heaven persecute Christ in his Members Shall they have peace that deride and grieve the Spirit of God whose very Office it is to drop peace into the Conscience What a sinner to have peace 2 Kings 9.22 What peace so long as the Whoredoms of thy Mother Jezabel and her Witchcrafts are so many A wicked man is a worker of iniquity As a man works at his shop so he works at the trade of sin and what hath he to do with peace and how deplorable is his case What if a Foreign Enemy should come sinners would be in a storm and have no where to put in for Harbour It is a very sad thing to be in Sauls condition the Philistines upon him and God departed It is a very sad thing to have fightings without and fears within to have the Bullets shooting against the Ship and the Ship leaking within Isa. 57.21 There is no peace to the wicked saith my God And if God saith it he knows it to be true The wicked perhaps they may delude themselves and presume that though they go on in sin yet they shall have peace but to undeceive them turn to that one Scripture Deut. 29.19 And it come to pass when he heareth the words of this curse that he blesses himself in his heart saying I shall have peace though I walk in the imagination of mine heart Verse 20. The Lord will not spare him but then the anger of the Lord and his Iealousie shall smoke against that man. One may as well think to suck health out of Poison as to suck peace out of Sin. Sinners they may be quiet or rather secure for the present but as 2 Sam. 26. it will be bitterness in the latter end Guilt will sooner or later raise a storm saith Chrysostom Sin will conjure up the Winds and Storms into the Conscience I have sometimes thought it is with sin as it is with poison there are some sorts of poison that will lie a great while in the body and not work but at last it does wring and torture the bowels a fit resemblance of sin Men they drink this poison and they may be quiet a while but at last especially at death then it begins to work and then the poison begins to touch the Conscience The great God of Heaven and Earth hath set up his Standard and proclaimed open War against every impenitent sinner and it will not be long if men go on in sin before Gods Cannon Bullets will begin to flie Gods wrath may seem to be like a sleeping Lion but this Lion will awake and roar and tear his prey I will say but this I confess God may bear long with wicked men let them alone he may bear long with them in respect of punishment when
enemies are laying snares for them God is pouring Wine and Oil into his peoples wounds and his adversaries they are a pouring in Vinegar into those wounds How contrary do these act those that are of the Romish Whore are at this day plotting to the ruine of Gods people and would have the Church of God lie in a field of blood The Lord he makes light to arise to the godly the wicked they labour to make darkness and sorrow to arise to them But such as lay snares for the righteous God will rain fire upon them Psa. 11.6 Upon the wicked God shall rain fire and brimstone The wicked they strike at Christ thorow his members sides but let them know if they kick against the Rock Christ the Lord will be too hard for them at last God ordains his Arrows against the Persecutors Psal. 7. v. 13. and God never misses his mark if he hath his Arrow upon the string he will certainly shoot and he never misses his mark That 's a second Inference 3. See here the difference betwixt the wicked and the godly in all their darkness they have some light some comfort arises to them The wicked in all their outward comforts they have some darkness arises up to them conscience chides them and troubles threaten them It is like the hand-writing upon the wall Psa. 68.31 God shall wound the heads of his enemies and the hairy scalp of such a one as goeth on still in his trespasses The sinner in his light time condition in all his outward mirth he may see some clouds of darkness Gods threatning Arrows are against him and Gods Curse is against him and Gods Curse it blasts where-ever it comes An impenitent sinner he lives every day under the sentence of death and there remains for him saith the Apostle a fiery indignation Heb. 10.27 When the hardened sinner dies he will be but in a bad case he drops into the Grave and into Hell both at once God hath brewed for the impenitent sinner a deadly Cup Psal. 75.8 Observe that Scripture In the hand of the Lord there is a Cup the Wine is red it is full of mixture and the dregs thereof the wicked of the earth shall wring them out and drink them This red Wine it is the wrath of God and this Wine is full of mixture what 's that that 's the worm of Conscience and the fire of Hell Here is a mixed Cup and the wicked shall be ever drinking this Cup. God will never say Let this Cup pass away No they must be for ever drinking the dregs of this Cup of wrath My thinks this Scripture should be a damp to all their joy and mirth darkness is coming upon them 1 Sam. 28.19 It was sad news to Saul that the Devil brought saith he Tomorrow thou shalt be with me dreadful news Now men are sporting with their lusts and pleasures now they think they are in their gallantry and to morrow may be with the Devil A fourth branch of Inference Doth God cause light to spring up in his peoples darkness then see here the difference betwixt Earth and Heaven Here in this world there is a mixture of darkness with the Saints light in Heaven there shall be nothing but pure light no darkness there It is called an Inheritance of light Col. 1.12 As the Philosophers say Light is the very glory of the Creation it is the beauty of the world What was all the world without light but a dark prison Here 's the beauty of Heaven it is a place of light there is no eclipse nor dark shadows to be seen there Heaven is a bright body all over all over embroidered with light there is the Sun of Righteousness shining with the bright Orient beams of glory Rev. 21.23 the Lamb is the light thereof oh how should we long for that place of Paradice Use 2. is of Consolation For the Church and People of God. This Text is a pillar of light a breast of consolation To the upright ariseth light in darkness Doth God make light and joy and peace to arise to the righteous why then should we despair why should we despond when it is Gods great design to lighten his peoples darkness I confess things have but a bad aspect England is like the Ship in the Gospel almost covered with waves This may humble us and set our Eyes abroach with tears Yet let us not mourn as without hope This Text methinks le ts in some branches of light it gives some spark of comfort in our darkness Let me come as the Dove with an Olive branch of peace That it is some spark of light that there are many upright ones in the Land and the Text saith Light ariseth to the upright Indeed were the godly quite removed as it is the desire of some to destroy them God would soon make quick work with the Nation he would soon break up house here Gen. 19.22 Haste thee escape thither for I cannot do any thing till thou be come thither The upright that my Text speaks of God will do much for their sakes The upright they are the excellent of the Earth they are the Chariots and Horse-men of Israel they are the very flower and cream of the Creation they are the glory of Christ 2 Cor. 8.23 and for their sakes God may yet cause light to arise and his Arm may bring salvation Secondly Another spark of light in our darkness that yet God is pleased to stir up in his people is a spirit of mighty prayer they cry mightily Certainly God will not say to this City and Nation Seek ye my face in vain Prayer is the Wall and Bulwarks of the Land. It is observable when the Lord intends to pour out the Vials of his Indignation he stops the sluces of prayer shuts up the spirit of prayer Ier. 7.16 Therefore pray not thou for this people neither lift up a cry nor prayer for them neither make intercession to me for I will not hear God hath not yet said so to us The Key of Prayer oiled with tears and turned with the hand of faith unlocks Gods bowels Prayer when it is important staves off wrath from the Nation Exod. 32.10 Saith God to Moses Now therefore let me alone that my wrath may wax hot against them and that I may consume them And what did Moses do he only prayed Fervent prayer overcomes the Almighty Prayer finds God free but it leaves him bound it is as it was This his hand staves off Judgment this lets in some dawning light to this Land that God don 't wholly leave us especially remembring this that Christ Jesus praying over our prayers again presents them to his Father and perfumes them with his sweet odour which makes them go up as Incense Rev. 8.3 Thirdly Another spark arising is this when we consider Gods compassion and bowels of mercy Mercy it is Gods darling Attribute that he loves most of all to magnifie Micah 7.18 Mercy pleaseth