perplexity some noble man rides by seeing his distresse pitties him and comes in with power and sets him free from such violence and beates and smites those who molested him giving them according to their deserts So it is the poore Church is a traveller to Heaven beset with enemies of all sorts who thinke to riffle her and leave her poore naked destitute and wounded but then the Lord comes riding in his excellency to her help and rescues his Church Thus he rights a wronged world and thus he shewes his righteousnesse 2. God by delivering his people by terrible things doth it in righteousnesse because he doth therby avenge himselfe on the wronging world It is a righteous thing with God to recompence tribulation to them that trouble you It is indeede a very righteous thing for God to bring troubles on them 1. It is a righteous thing to bring vengance on them for their wronging himselfe for they fight against him who warre against the Church they persecute him who persecute it they rage against him who rage against his people and God will avenge the wrong done unto him by those who attempt to roote out such who keepe up his honour in the world It is a righteous thing therfore to trouble such And 2. so it is to take vengance on them for the wrong which they do unto his people The wicked and him that loveth violence his soule hates The Lord will be avenged on unmercifull men There shall be judgement without mercie on those that will shew no mercie And therfore it is just with God to render tribulation to those who have injured and unmercifully used his Church and people Thus it is evident that the Churches deliverance is in righteousnesse the righteousnesse both of his word of promise and of his word of threatning and the righteousnesse of his justice both in righting a wronged world and in revenging himselfe on a wronging world is therby made manifest This truth serves 1. To vindicate Gods justice 2. To terrifie the Churches adversaries 3. To encourage all Gods faithfull people First let it serve to vindicate the Lords justice from any aspersions Men are ready when things fall out otherwise then they would have them to charge God foolishly when they see terrible things falling out in the world as terrible attempts terrible massacres terrible impoverishing of a nation terrible executions of wrath they are ready to say that they see not how God should be just in punishing them by these things more then others who deserves in their apprehensions as much yea more then they but such murmurers should consider that God doth all in righteousnesse he can and will do no other then that which is righteous It becomes every holy man seeing things falling out otherwise then he would to conclude with the Church I will beare the indignation of the Lord because I have sinned against him If God cull thee out to scare thee from thy sinnes by terrible things say thou when these things happen that God is righteous and will deliver his people by terrible things in righteousnesse for he brings terrible things upon the world to keepe the inhabitants therof from sinning When thy judgements saith the Prophet are on the earth the inhabitants therof will learne righteousnesse And the Lord doth so therby to worke also the world to an awfull reverence of him and to stirre up his owne therby to a greater fervency and importunity in praying to him for deliverance and therfore never charge God with any kinde of injustice in his saving and defending his people or in ruinating his adversaries by terrible things and by terrible meanes but say as the Psalmist I know oh Lord that thy judgements are right and that thou hast in faithfullnesse afflicted me Secondly Gods delivering his Church and people by terrible things in righteousnes sheweth unto us what the adversaries are to expect namely no more and that is enough but that God should deale with them in righteousnesse and recompence them according to their deedes This Babylon of Caldea found she spoiled peeled robbed and subjected the nations and God sent spoilers accordingly unto her who dealt with her as she had dealt with others the Prophet gives the reason for the Lord God of recompences shall surely requite The westerne Romish Babylon must shall find the like God will bring upon her slayers and destroyers and such who will undoubtedly reward her as she hath served the Saints Yea all enemies shall be recompenced according to their dealings with the Church for God will deliver it by terrible things in righteousnesse They may for a while plot and project and attempt and some times seeme to thrive but their plotting will in the end ruine themselves For the Lord will be knowne by the Iudgment which he executeth and that judgment is no more but this the wicked is snared in the workes of his owne hands Adversaries of the Church must looke for no other then to eate the bread of their owne baking and to drinke of their owne brewing Their terriblenesse to the Church shall be measured out in a full cup to them in that which is terrible unto them for God is righteous and in his due time he will deliver his Church by terrible things in righteousnesse Thirdly Gods delivering his Church or people by terrible things in righteousnesse should incourage all the followers after righteousnesse such who seeke the Lord and delight to walke and be found in a way of righteousnesse and holinesse All things to the outward appearance may seeme to worke ruine and goe crosse but they shall undoubtedly worke in the end to the ruine of adversaries for God will deliver but in righteousnesse The Lord remembers the righteous cause of his servants and though it may be a while oppressed yet it shall never be suppressed and destroyed for he will againe bring on the cause of religion and will maintaine in the world a people serving him in despite of hell and of Rome which he will destroy in righteousnesse And though your owne Persons may be tooke away yet still be incouraged to keepe faith and a good conscience because the Lord will preserve a seede of worshippers and will repaire the losse of his Church by a more plentifull increase of terror to the adversary and of comfort to all those who are faithfull in the land And therefore let us all from this point be incouraged 1. To waite contentedly on God till he worke for his people in righteousnesse so the Church did In the way of thy judgments have we waited for thee Looke for him as coming to rescue and deliver for he will doe so when we are fully fitted for it 2. Be encouraged also to cry the more earnestly to God to come and save his people in righteousnesse so did the Church Oh that thou wouldest rend the heavens that thou wouldest come downe that the
mountaines might flow downe at thy presence c. to make thy name knowne to thine adversaries that the nations may tremble at thy presence when thou didest terrible things which we looked not for c. 3. Be incouraged to take notice of every particular act of Gods helping any wayes in righteousnesse it is an excellent meanes to gaine comfort in discomfortable times Thou meetest him that rejoyceth and worketh righteousnesse those that remember thee in thy wayes 4. Let us all be encouraged to put our selves into such a condition that we may be ready to be delivered in righteousnesse when God will save and preserve us and that is in few words study righteousnesse seeke righteousnesse thirst after righteousnesse desire to be found in a way of righteousnesse The more we looke after and apply our selves to the righteousnesse of sanctification or holinesse the fitter shall we be to be saved and delivered in righteousnesse Let it be your prime and principall care not to be found in your owne righteousnesse for that is very odious but in Christs Labour to be found in him and when God comes to deliver in righteousnesse he will espy your consciences sprinkled by the blood of Christ and thereby purged from dead workes he will discerne that your hearts are quickned by the spirit of Christ the spirit of righteousnesse and that your lifes are conformable to the life of Christ who is the sonne of righteousnesse and finding you thus he will deliver you among his faithfull people in righteousnesse though he smites terribly the adversaries of his Saints for by terrible things in righteousnesse he answers us the God of our salvation And so much for the second observation The third is this The deliverance of the Church by terrible things is Gods answering his people Gods answering implyes some things done by the people of God and some things done by him 1. It implyes that his people prayed unto him for deliverance and that he gives a gracious audience and full-fillance of their prayer I will looke as it is in the Prophet to the Lord I will waite for the God of my salvation my God shall heare me the Church speakes in prayer and God heares her in granting her prayers 2. It implyes that his people expects mercies from him and Gods answering them is his affording helpe his reall contributing succour unto them They looked unto him saith the Psalmist and were lightned and their faces were not ashamed this poore man cryed and the Lord heard him and saved him out of all his troubles his people expects mercy and his answer is the fulfilling of their expectation I will saith Habbakuk stand upon my watch and set me upon the tower and will watch to see what he will say unto me So then Gods deliverance of his people is an answering their prayers and an answering their expectations They pray for deliverance and he gives it they expect it from him and answerably it comes to passe Gods delivering of Israel out of Aegypt was an answering of their prayers I have heard saith God their cry by reason of their taskemasters for I know their sorrowes and I am come downe to deliver them When he delivered them at the red sea it was an answer to the prayer of his servant Moses The Lord said then unto him why cryest thou to me When he gave Israell victory over Amaleck he then answered the prayer of Moses on the mount while Joshua and Israell fought in the valley His deliverance of his people from Jabin from the Midianites yea from all their other enemies at any time all was an answering of their prayers and expectations They prayed in faith for deliverance and they waited in faith untill God had given a full deliverance and so deliverance was but Gods answering his people Because God usually giveth not unto his Church and People deliverance till they have sought and sued to him earnestly for it Thus saith the Lord God I will yet for this be inquired of by the house of Israell to do it for them though he knowes that his Church doth need deliverance yet he will have his Church to be apprehensive and sensible of that her need for he will have from it the honour of his mercie towards it and of his providence and care over it as also of his wisdome power and justice in confounding all its adversaries by terrible things This point teaches 1. To pray for deliverance that God with it may answer us And 2. To observe Gods severall answers unto his people by giving unto them the deliverances prayed for First If deliverance be Gods answering his people then surely it concernes all the people of God to put up prayers for deliverance Prayer must preceed deliverance and deliverance is the returne of prayer in a gracious answer of it We must be praying men and men expecting deliverance as an issue and consequent of prayer and that our prayers may be answered we are to put up no other then such which God will answer as namely 1. Let our prayers be prayers of faith coming from a beleeving heart Aske and doubt not beleeve the promises of deliverance and confidently rely on Gods word to be accomplished and from assurance that God will fullfill his word put up prayers Both the cloud of promises and the cloud of witnesses persons families kingdomes Churches which from time to time have beene delivered and the consideration that the Lords hand is not shortned should prevaile with us not to doubt but to pray for deliverance in faith not doubting but that God will answer us 2. Let our prayers be in humility A broken and a contrite heart God will not despise He heares the prayers of the humble destitute Pray for deliverance in humilitie and it shall be granted as an answer to an humble prayer Humble your selves under the mighty hand of God that hee may exalt you in due time 3. Let our prayers be importunately earnest without fainting I have saith the Psalmist waited long and sought the Lord oh my Lord saith he I cry in the day time but thou hearest not and in the night season I am not silent The Lord sometimes delayes deliverance to make us importunately wrastle with him in prayer for it and so it may be the answer of our earnest prayers 4. Let our prayers be sanctifiedly performed with hearts which are departed from iniquity If I saith the Psalmist regard iniquity in my heart the Lord will not heare me Sinne causeth him hide his face that he will not heare If we pray for deliverance let us pray lifting up pure hands from an holy heart and then God will give deliverance as an answer to our prayers which are thus prayers of faithfull humble importunate sanctified petitioners Secondly if the deliverance of the Church by terrible things be Gods answering it then let us observe Gods severall answers unto his people in his
not And therefore how is God said to be the confidence of the ends of the earth To this we must answer according to a double acception of these words the ends of the earth They may be taken either collectively or else distributively 1. If we take these words collectively for all nations in all places then two things may be answered to the question 1. Though many nations as yet know not God yet in those nations there is sufficient meanes given from God to let them know that he only should be their trust and confidence In all nations there are such demonstrations of Gods power such declarations of his goodnes that he hath not left himself without witnes and that he only is to be depended on for all their good and to be trusted and confided in Two scriptures proves this We saith Saint Paul preach to you that you should turne to the living God which made heaven and earth and the sea and all things that are therein who in times past suffered all nations to walke in their owne wayes notwithstanding he left not himselfe without witnesse in that he did good and gave us raine from heaven And fruitfull seasons filling our hearts with food and gladnesse We see that God vouchsafed to all nations common outward temporall mercies that very heathens if they would but observe and take notice of it might thence have sufficient proofe and witnesse that he only is to be trusted in And so likewise Gods severity and judgements in smiting nations as yet not knowing him these are proofes that such nations ought to know that God only is to be confided in The wrath of God saith the Apostle is revealed from heaven against all ungodlinesse and unrighteousnesse of men who hold the truth in unrighteousnesse because that which may be known of God is manifest in them for God hath shewed it to them for the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are cleerely seene being understood by the things which are made even his eternall power and Godhead so that they are without excuse So then though many nations do not actually make God their confidence yet God hath witnessed to them that he is or should be their onely trust and confidence 2. Though many nations do not as yet make God their confidence yet all nations shall one day do so and so for the present it is prophetically true that God is the confidence of all the ends of the earth David in spirit foresaw the great honour and glory which God should have in all nations and therefore he being a prophet and knowing what God would do in these later dayes he seeing this before spake of the universall adoration of God in all nations and of their taking him for their only God in a confidentiall reposing themselves on him And because of the certainty of the fulfillance of all this in due time therefore David speakes of it as if it were already come to passe and here he calleth God the confidence of all the ends of the earth and of those who are a farre off upon the sea This is not only implyed in this title here ascribed to God but David hath so much in another place Aske of me and I will give thee the heathen for thine inheritance and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession And againe All the ends of the world shall remember themselves and turne to the Lord and all the kindred of the nations shall worship before him And againe He shall have dominion from sea to sea and from the river to the end of the earth all Kings shall fall downe before him all nations shall serve him Take then the words as prophetically spoken of the time when God shall by terrible things shake the nations being the desire of his people and then it will appeare that he hath bin the Saviour of his from all their troubles and oppressions and then all nations will come in and choose him for their God and Lord one nation after another till all have made him their confidence and so in time these words shall be fully accomplished that God is the confidence of all the world of all the ends of the earth If the words were handled in this sense according to this exposition they would affoord much instruction touching the expectations which we are to have of the conversion of the nations of the world and concerning directions to pray for it that the arme of the Lord may be revealed to all people according to that of David God be mercifull unto us and blesse us and cause his face to shine on us that thy way may be known on earth thy saving health among all nations It is a blessing and mercy from God on his Church that for the present it knows him but it will be a new glimps of the light of his countenance on it when the nations come thoroughly to understand and praise him aright with it as their only confidence We should expect this and pray for it and desire the Lord to remove all impediments of it which for the present are very great For every valley must be filled and every mountaine and hill must be brought low the crooked must be made straight and the rough wayes made smooth People of lower and higher ranke in all places must be filled with grace after they are brought into a state of humiliation and whatsoever is crooked among them must be made straight brought to the rule be squared by the word and the wayes which are rough or offensive shall be smoothed just offences truly scrupling offences shall all be tooke away and then after this all flesh shall see the salvation of God all nations shall then come to know that Christ is the Saviour and salvation which God hath set out to the world There being no other name under heaven by which men can saved These things might be prosecuted with much instruction and comfort to all Gods people but I chuse to leave the Propheticall handling these words to the ages to come who shall experimentally finde the things now spoken of to be very true Let it suffice us to know that these words are prophetically true God is the confidence of all nations because he will be so when all nations shall come to acknowledge him for their God And so wee may safely understand the words collectively which so understood they are a full answer to the question 2. If we take the words distributively for the severall countryes of the world in parts and therein more particularly for the severall inhabitants for the particular persons dwelling in the earth and on the sea yet then the doubt remaines still How God can be said to be the cōfidence of every particular man in the earth It seemes otherwise experience teacheth us that there are very few who trust God and confide in him how then is this true that he is the
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
such who betake them to his appointed meanes It is a delusion to thinke to come to heaven without walking in the way to it it is as if men expected to reape an harvest and yet never sowed a graine of seede So likewise he never trusts God for outwards who doth not apply himselfe to an industrious way of obteining them why looke yee said Jacob to his sonnes one upon another I have heard that there is corne in Aegypt get yee downe thither and buy for us from thence A confidentiall man will be industrious in the use of meanes 4. He who makes God his confidence will not put forth his hands unto unlawfull means for his helpe David relied on God for the Kingdome of Saul but would not use unlawfull meanes to obteine it Such never trusted God who resolve to steale oppresse defraud lie and flatter and use wicked meanes to gain a penny They trust not God who take a pension from Mammon Nor they who when they misse a thing or when any thing is amisse with them will consult with witches and wizards as once Saul did with the witch of Endor and Abaziah sent to the God of Eknon 5. He who makes God his confidence will be undaunted in any condition Confidence in God makes the heart invincible It is true an holy confiding man when evill comes cannot but see it and be thereof sensible and troubled at it but though he be troubled on all sides as the Apostle speakes yet he is not in despaire though he be sometimes afraid yet with David he can say in this will I be confident in this he is confident that God is his refuge his present helpe in trouble his preserver from the hurt of evill Though I walke saith David thorow the valley of the shadow of death I will feare no evill for thou art with me He may suspect his confidence whose heart in troubles is wholy spiritles and comfortles drooping and dwining away as Naballs did he may feare he is not yet resolved to commit freely his soule into the hands of God who is a faithfull creatour The confiding man will not be heartlesse though an universall death and desolation befall the land because he knowes that by death he shall be translated hence to see the goodnesse of the Lord I had fainted saith David unlesse I had beleived to see the goodnesse of the Lord in the land of the living Thus every one good and bad may try whether they have made the Lord their confidence 2. There are also some signes which may helpe all Gods truly faithfull people to gaine assurance that they have undoubtedly made him their confidence Many of those I know complain of unbeleeving and despairing hearts that they cannot confide and trust in God as they should To whom for comfort I answer that true beleevers may know that they have really made God their confidence if ever the Lord please to bring them to one of these temptations 1. When the promises made by God seeme to be delayed and there is no appearance of their fulfillance then all such who have not made God their confidence will cease expecting and beleeving the word of promise like that prophane man this evill is of the Lord what should I waite for the Lord any longer But if notwithstanding Gods delayes the heart keepe still to the word of truth and is still confident that in time it will be fulfilled it undoubtedly is then an heart confiding in God A waiting heart is a confiding heart So the Prophet I will waite on the Lord and looke upon him A Merchant who rests on his factor for the returne of some commodity which he promised finding that his factour deferres yet will account him faithfull knowing that he on weightier considerations for his Masters greater profit uses not to returne commodities so soone as he expected So the soule which rests on God for the accomplishment of such and such promises will yet wait on him as faithful though they be not presently or so soone performed as wee desire because it is perswaded that God delayes for some further advantage to the soule to humble it or to exalt it more or to make his blessings more acceptable when they come A soule confiding in the delay and unlikelines of the performance of promises that God can and will fulfill his word when it shall be for the best is a soule which hath made God its confidence 2. If the Lord suffers you to be mocked by prophane men if at any time they aske wher is the promise of his comming and what advantage hath piety in these times can your God save you out of the hands of murthering destroying men will you still retaine your integrity do not the most religious suffer as much if not worse then others Now at this time if notwithstanding all these scornes and disheartnings you are willing still to keepe close to God and to passe through good report and evill report and are content to be yet more vile before these men for Gods sake and in Gods cause you have undoubtedly made God your confidence Gods people thus proved that they had done so as it is in the Psalmes All this is come upon us yet have we not forgotten thee neither have we dealt falsely in thy Covenant 3. If ever the Lord bring you into a state that he seemes to be an enemy by visiting the soule wounding the spirit giving it as it were a sight of hell as if he would have no mercy yet in this case you shall know that ye have made God your confidence if you still will waite on God boldly and trustingly reasoning with him as the Psalmist did hath God forgotten to be gracious will he shut up his loving kindnesse in displeasure A soule in the lack of mercy being willing to stay it selfe on God because he will shew mercy being resolved however to dye at the foote of majesty to be crusht by his scepter this is a soul which confides in God And the Lord who knowes the anguish and distresse of this confiding spirit will heale and restore it to strength and comfort It shall be established when all the careles ones of the world shall be terribly shaken and shattered in all their hopes Consider what the Prophet writes Why sayest thou O Jacob and speakest O Israell my way is hid from the Lord and my judgement is passed over from my God c. He giveth power to the faint and to them that have no might he increaseth strength even the youths shall faint and be weary and the young men shall utterly fall but they that waite upon the Lord shall renew their strength they shall mount up with winges as Eagles they shall runne and not be weary and they shall walke and not be faint Thus may every one try and experimentally find whither God is to them as he is to others the only confidence For