and various judgements and dealings of God with us These you have described at the 10.11 and 12. verses of the chap. of my text when the judgements of God are in the earth they will not learn righteousnesse neither the righteousnesse of God in the world nor righteousnesse for themselves That will not behold the Majesty of the Lord breaking forth the glory of his judgements in the world That when his hand is lified up they will not see they will not they will not denoting even an utter obstinacy and obduratenesse of spirit hardening their faces against the mighty God I might give many Scriptures to discover the wretched condition of such need I more then what is said of them v 14. They are dead they shall not live Though yet living yet but as dead men in Gods account they are deceased they shall not rise rise no more but visited destroyed and all their memory perish Are there not multitudes multitudes to be found much to be feared even given up to such a deep sleep such a sencelesse stupid obduration of heart while God is powring forth his vials upon them What heart in any measure affected with the honour of the great God can choose but be astonished and tremble to hear and observe their Atheisticall darings of God braving it out against him and too many alas of the gallantry of our Nation as they stile themselves men as to a present discerning resolved upon the pleasures of sin for a season and will venture for eternity that give not themselves the leasure to consider where they are to reflect upon themselves but passe from one dark delight to another to stifle naturall conscience and to drown themselves in their lusts that the fear of an avenging God may not seize upon them Ah oh fearlesse souls seek ye out of the book of the Lord and read Isa 34.16 what vials of wrath are there stored up and are now began to be powred forth now the indignation of the Lord is upon all nations now he is come forth of his place to Punish the inhabitants of the earth ver the last of the Chap. of my text When no place for your excesse of riot what will you do in the day of Gods visitation what will you plead to the dreadfull God oh fall down at his feet and visit him while he is visiting you least he tear you peices and there be none to deliver These are yet so far from having any thing to do with the duty of the text that t is but a derision with them this the first thing utterly repugnant to the lesson in hand 2. It meets with our misapplying the judgements and dispensations of God when the enemies of God and his people shall seem to lean upon the Lord Is not the Lord amongst us Micha 3.11 Yea many that fear God have sure been too busie here too busie with the sanctuary of God with the secrets of his counsell the depths of his walkings towards us If we would serve providence intentionally and regularly it must be in Gods way sutable to his revealed will but when God walks in the waters there we cannot follow him we can onely stand still and admire him and wait upon him Though the depths of providence are to be wisely considered of God I say to be admired in them yet not to be too busie in unwarrantable pryings into and determinings of his counsell and so misapplying his glorious dispensations Thus we should attend upon the Lord with lesse distraction we should be more steady in our waies then we are yea we should more comfortably wait upon our God then we do This the second 3. It meets with our murmurings against the strange and various dispensations of God our repinings reasonings aestuations of spirit against his secret wayes some of a higher nature to be joyned with the former rank of men growing up to an Atheisticall accusing the very righteousnesse of God in his permissive ordering providence in the great revolutions that we have been under But I leave such to what I have said before I shall speak to these lesser mixtures of these murmurings even with those that fear God Murmuring hath like a secret canker even eat out of the spirits of many this submissive contented waiting upon God how rife and abounding these are our own mouths accuse us one to another This is a very great distemper of spirit amongst us oh what intemperate to say no more repinings reasonings impatient frettings against the present dispensations of God towards us and truly these do not terminate upon men but break through men and ere you are aware fall foule upon God himself See Exod 16.8 Give me leave I beseech you a little to argue with you What if there are strange turnings of things upside down the Lord staining the pride of all the glory of the Nation whose glorious beauty is as a fading flower Isa 28.1 What if the wayes of God be full of straits in the hands of men cannot be traced by you yea more what if you say you cannot reconcile the exact righteousnesse of God to the crooked paths of men will you thence fret and murmure and charge God foolishly Let me be bold to tell you you do no better by the impatient complaints you are still powring forth let me ask you Is not every dispensation regular as to God and wisely ordered by his counsell why then do you not submit with contentation of spirit unto the Lord laying your mouths in the dust justifying him with silence but thus countend with God for the Judge of all the world cannot but do justly Yet further I shall be more close with you what 's become of your tears and prayers that you mingled and breathed up to heaven in the dayes of your hardship what 's become of the frequent renewings your strength in the Lord Yea what 's become of the magnified experiences of the presence of a gratious God with you crying let this God be our God even unto death must all these be cancelled and remembred no more be all lost and mispent because the Lord walks not in such wayes that you would prescribe him answers not your expectations Yea what lookings back unto Aegypt and wishing our selves there again because we are kept so long in the wildernesse and meet with so many diversions we expected not Lastly what 's become of your ancient zeal for the Lord Christ his Gospel ordinances and people which was so fresh and lively when you first vowed and professed your selves to be the Lords people what faintings and flaggings to be found with such whose zeal for the Lord of hosts was used to warm the hearts and affections of others even to a giving up of the work of the Lord Is this to wait upon our God to have our expectations lively and pure upon him truly t is no more nor lesse then to live upon God no longer not to wait upon him any longer because
THE SAINTS POSTURE IN DARK TIMES Shewing what peaceable spirits they should have under dark and unexpected dispensations SET FORTH In a SERMON Preached in the Cathedrall in Gloucester on the 17 th of March 1649. Being the Lords day and the time of the publick Assize By A. PALMER M.A. Isa 30.18 Blessed are all they that wait for him LONDON Printed for Tho Vnderhill at the Blew Anker in Pauls Church-yard neer the little North-doore 1650. Viro multis nominibus colende JOHANNI WILDE Capitali Scacarii Baroni Judici sanè aequissimo Concionem hanc De Deo expectando Gratitudinis officii impensè Debiti pignus humilitèr devotè D. D. D. A. Palmer TO MY CHRISTIAN FRIENDS AND READERS SPECIALLY of the County of Gloucester SOme of you the ear-witnesses of what is here with a little enlargement presented to your view were pleased in a serious judgement to protest my obligation to publish these notes as they might be usefull towards the quieting and composing the spirits of the godly in the complaining times we live in upon this account you have them Now on the contrary some may fall a judging me for this attempt but I shall not insist upon the preventing their objections If God have the least glory and any soul helpt forward in his blessed wayes by what he hath here taught me t will with men abundantly bear down what ever prejudice or misprision can raise Onely if any will say What make I among the Prophets Let him answer himself that grace is free and boundlesse and then I shall only beg this prayer from him that To whom much it forgiven he may love much The Lord keep all his people waiting for him and guide them in strait paths which is the main import of this weak discourse and the prayer of Yours in the Lord Jesus A.P. Bourton on the water 26. Marc 1650. THE SAINTS POSTURE IN DARK TIMES ISAIAH Chap. 26. ver 8. Yea in the way of thy judgements O Lord have we waited for thee c. THis Evangelicall Prophet having in the former Chapter declared the great and blessed deliverances both spirituall temporall of Jesus Christ to his people the glorious propagation of the Gospel ver 6. of that chapter His removing the face of the covering and the vail from off all people v 7. The taking away the rebuke of his people from off the face of the earth v 8. His band resling upon the mountain of his people and his enemies troden down under him v 10. At this chap he hath composed a song for the Saints and people of God magnifying the strength protection and presence of the Lord Jesus Christ ascribing all the glory unto him set forth indeed in a most sweet and admirable holy eloquence as any Scripture we meet with In this letter these deliverances for which this song and exaltation of the Lord is calculated may refer either to that burden of the Moabites described so full of woes Chap 15. and 16. or to that famous deliverance by the hand of Cyrus and so this song may be conceived to be one of those which the Babylonians so sharply taunted them with in the captivitie Sing us one of your songs of Zion Psal 137. this the chief of those Songs But as all that was typicall of Jesus Christ and the Gospel-times so this is a song for any people saved by the Lord when the times of Christs refreshings are neer and so it may be more then conjectured that the consummation of that glorious rest of the Saints set forth Rev 22.14 Blessed are they that have right to the tree of life and may enter in through the gates to the City may refer to the two first verses of this chapter and Song 1. Here then briefly you have the Church set forth in a very glorious metaphor As a strong City God appointing salvation fâ—… bulwarks ver 1. 2. The Citizens the Saints entring into it described by a most excellent character The righteous nation keeping truth ver 2. 3. Their most choice and glorious priviledge at the 3d verse Kept in perfect peace 4. Their lifting up of the name of the Lord as their everlasting strength v 4. the rock of ages as the originall 5. The strange revolutions and turnings of things upside down v 5 6. He bringeth down them that dwell on high and the lofty City and the poore the feet of the poore shall tread iâ— down At the 7 th their adoring the righteousnesse of God in all his wayes and dispensations we have severall readings of that Scripture The way of the just is uprightnesse Via justo rectitudines as the most proper and genuine that is The way of God to the just is uprightnesse and thou weighest the path of the just thou makest it to appear to be an exact regular way of righteousnesse And under all the varieties of his righteous dispensations they waited upon him in them Yea in the way of thy judgements have we waited for thee c. In which words you have them minding themselves of that blessed posture and frame of spirit the Lord put them into under all his various dealings We waited for thee which with the context may be thus analysed Thine and our enemies charge thy wayes to be anxious implicate and irregular and thence break forth and murmure yea blaspheme But to us whose minds were stayed on thee Complanas viam thou clearest up all thy wayes as beautifull and regular and we have waited upon thee for thee in them Whence this plain and I hope seasonable observation That when God walks in strange and various dispensarions towards his people and towards his enemies his people are to wait upon him to wait for him In the handling of which I shall first open the duty shewing the excellency of this frame of spirit lay down the grounds and reasons of the point and so bring it down to the dispensations we live under Now to make up this frame of spirit you have these choice ingredients 1. It is a posture of relyance and rowling upon God making him alone our rock our salvation our defence our refuge as you have David sweetly giving forth this part of it Psal 62. A renouncing of all other refuges whatsoever no calling to Aegypt or Assyria for aid and succour but strengthening themselves in the rock of ages and thence reasoning themselves into an assured safetie therefore we shall not be greatly moved v 2. of that Psalm and we shall not be moved v. 6. not moved at all as Davids faith there gets ground upon God This is the venture and resolved recumbency upon the All sufficiencie of Jehovah given forth in so many clear and stedfast promises wherein he stands recorded the unchangeable rock of his people a refuge from the storme a shadow from the heat when the blast of the terrible ones is against the wall v 4. of the former Chapter and as excellently given forth in that bottome
promise The eternall God is thy refuge and underneath the everlasting arms Deut. 33.27 Now while the great God is fulfilling those upon the face of the earth in the beginnings of revenges upon his enemies Deut. 32.42 his right hand teaching him terrible things and appearing the God of his people under all his various dispensations his people shall trust in him at all times Psal 64.8 they shall still gather in their spirits and answer all their fears with this we will wait upon him who is our Rock mighty and able to save This is the first ingredient in this frame of spirit t is to have our minds stayed upon God 2. T is a posture of expectation Psal 62.5 My soul wait thou upon God for my expectation is from him A watching for God Psal 130.6 A standing still to see the salvation of the Lord. Not running before the Lord not prescribing unto him or limiting him unto our wayes or seasons laying aside our own counsels and inventions and waiting for the counsell of the most wise God having our eyes fixed and our expectation clear and pure upon him Though he tarry yet to wait for him Hab. 2.3 This the second ingredient to make up this frame of spirit to have our expectation clear upon God 3. T is a posture of submitting unto the Lord putting our monthes in the dust yeelding unto him even when he writes bitter things against us when he puts a cup of trembling into our hands humbling our selves under his mighty hand Deut. 33.3 Yea he loved the people And all his Saints are in thy hand and they sate down at thy feet At the feet of God submitting to the teachings of God and the outward dispensations of God Jerome reads we waited Sustinuimus te we have sustained God we have yeelded unto thee we have nothing to plead against thee out lives our all are in thy hand And therfore glorifie thy greatnesse upon us as is good in thine own eyes This the third thing a submission unto God in his various dispensation 4. Not only a submission but higher t is a posture of contentation thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose minde is staied on thee ver 3. A composed contentednesse with all the wayes of God that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that tranquillity and clearness of spirit which gives a man the possession of his own soul A spirit freed from reasonings frettings complainings and contendings with God but fetcht down and subdued by the mighty working of God to be contented with all his various dispensations and changes how crosse soever to our contrivements This the 4 th thing A contentednesse under Gods dispensations 5. Yea farther Fifthly T is a posture of admiration so Isa 25.1 Thou art my God I will exalt thee I will praise thee for thou hast done wonderfull things All the wayes of God are full of wonders and he delights to have them sought out of all that fear him to be admired in them So Psal 65. Praise waiteth for thee in Zion his people wait to praise and admire him in all his dealings towards them I might instance in more particulars but these take in the main of the duty Every grace of the spirit having its peculiar acting to make up this harmony of a waiting posture Take them then together Thus to relye to expect to submit to to be contented to admire and magnifie the wise and holy God in all his dark and various dispensations is a covenant frame of spirit whereby God entitles himself to any soul to any people t is in a word to have the Lord for our God Now having opened the duty it self the next thing is to clear the point and the grounds of it That his people are thus to wait upon him to exercise these graces when God is in a way of various and secret dispensations towards them I might shew you the people of God frequent in this blessed posture when God was making bare his arm unto them A Scripture or two to clear it See 2 Chron. 20.12 O our God wilt thou not judge them for we have no might against this great company that cometh against us neither know we what to do what then why our eyes are upon thee we wait upon thee Thus when God walked in such hidden paths to his people and brought them into such sad depths Lament 3.26 we know not what to do the Prophet at last in the name of the Church resolves all their lamentations complaints and sinkings into this posture of spirit It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the Lord. In how many Psalms have you David in behalf of himself and the Church working his heart into this posture Psal 62.1 Truly my soul waiteth upon God or notwithstanding as the originall abruptly breaking forth from the reasonings of his own spirit and the apprehensions of the depths he was in Be it so notwithstanding my soul waiteth upon God it shall trust and hope and submit and be contented with all his wayes First the wayes of God are secret wayes Reas 1. therefore his people are to wait upon him in them A way full of depths See sa 40.12 Who hath measured the waters or weighed the mountains in a balance So who hath taught him in the path of his judgements that is who is of his counsell who can search them out He walks in the waters and his paths are in the Sea and his footsteps are not known Psal 77. Thy judgements are a great depth Psal 36.6 As in the Psalms so you have many full and excellent Scriptures speak to this in the book of Job Touching the Almighty who can find him out Why doest thoustrive against him for he giveth no account of his matters Job 33.13 And this puts Paul himself to his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 11.33 sometimes he walks as tous antipodes to his promises although no providence but is reconcileable to a promise t is hard to reconcile providences and promises when he walks in such depths of wisdom and judgement that his people cannot discern him he leaves no footsteps behinde him And in such wayes he delights to walk in that his people may wait for him in them This the first Gods way in his dispensations is a secret way therefore to wait upon him in them 2. The way of God though it be a secret way full of involutions as to us yet it is an exact regular way of righteousnesse mercy and truth Deut. 32.4 His works are perfect and all his wayes are judgement When Jeremy would plead with God as to his judgment first he layes down this as most unquestionable that God was righteous in them all Jer 12.1 His walkings may seem to us as crosse paths thwarting one with another yet take them together and they are all rectitudines all conspiring to a most regular wise and holy end Though he walks in a cloud as to us yet he
shines in the light of his own righteousnesse let men finde out to themselves what crooked paths they please as you may see Isa 49.13 Yet God puts on righteousnesse as a breast-plate and can use a crooked tool to bring about a regular work God with-drawing his light he is not bound to give and so he leaves the creature to his own wayes and he orders a glorious end out of them man through reasonings darknesse unbelief of his heart sees it not yet still his wayes are deliberately ordered therefore his people to wait upon him in them that 's the second ground 3. When God gives great mercies when his hand is open and ready to poure them forth he puts his people in a waiting posture for such mercies See Isa 30.18 Therefore will the Lord wait that he may be gracious unto you and therefore will he be exalted that he may have mercy upon you for the Lord is a God of judgement Blessed are all they that wait for him So you have the Church moving him to be gracious upon this account Isa 33.2 O Lord be gracious unto us we have waited for thee yea the most glorious promise that our eyes are upon hath in its fulfilling respect unto thy posture Isa 49.23 And kings shal be thy nursing fathers and their queens thy nursing mothers they shall bow down to thee with their face towards the earth and lick up the dust of thy feet and thou shalt know that I am the Lord for they shall not be ashamed that wait for me It may be more then guest what designe God hath towards his people by the posture they are in He raiseth up the spirits of his people to an expectation of the mercy he gives This might be abundantly discovered by the experiences of Gods people had I time to shew it 4. God reveals great secrets to those who wait upon him and for him this another speciall ground of the point There is nothing but I will make known to my servants the Prophets As the eye of the handmaid c. Psal 123. The servant that waits closely and diligently on his master knows much of his masters minde and secrets So the soul that waits closely upon God knows much of the minde of God Many a precious secret hath a soul that truly waits for him Abrabam was an humble man that had much converse with God and he revealed that great secret of destroying Sodome and Gomorrah unto him 1. He reveals directing secrets unto his people in the 2 Chron. 18. good Micaiah who waited humbly and closely upon God had a secret revealed unto him that Ahab if he went up to Ramoth Gilead he should fall and perish in it When there were foure hundred of the most eminent formall prophets of the land advised him to go up and God would deliver it into the Kings hand ver 10. So in that solemne waiting upon God Chap. 20. of that book when they were enquiring a right way of God Jahaziel hid a secret that the people should go up and prosper for God was with them When his people are in great straits and brought into lowe depths then they wait for him and are guided by his counsell As their eyes upon him so his eye upon them also to guide them in all their wayes 2. He reveals strengthning refreshing secrets to those that wait for him Psal 27.14 Wait on the Lord and he shall strengthen thine heart So another choice Scripture to this Isa 40. last But they that wait on the Lord shall renew their strength they shall mount up with wings as eagles they shall run and not be weary and they shall walk and not be faint To omit many curious glosses of some of the Fathers upon this Scripture this I take to be the import of it the Eagles do loose their feathers and renew them and so are said repuerascere to wax young again so the people of God under many faintings and finkings of spirit when God walks in a cloud towards them they renew their strength by waiting upon God when weary and fainting by inward distresses of spirit and the inundations and oppressions of enemies Then the Lord comes in with a refreshing secret to bear up their spirits in waiting upon him Thus David Psal 130.1 Out of the depths have I cryed unto thee O Lord. But what relieved him in these depths he would wait upon his God I wait for the Lord my soul doth wait my soul waiteth for the Lord ver 5 6. as he is there working and composing his spirit to that quieted posture In a word that infinite good God that reveals the greatest secret that ever was in heaven to his freinds the secret of the Covenant of his grace Psal 25.14 and Joh. 15.15 I have called you freinds for all that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you He I say that reveals that secret to a soul will not deny any directing strengthning refreshing secret that is fit for that soul to receive This is the 4th ground God reveals great secrets to those that wait for him 5. It is of blessed example to all that fear God it puts an excellency and beauty upon godlinesse This use David makes of it Psal 52.9 I will wait on thy name for it is good before thy Saints It is good and comely before the Saints of God to wait upon to trust to expect to submit to be contented with Gods wayes that 's the 5th thing the people of God encourage one another in keeping close unto God by waiting on him 6. The Lords stay is not long to those who wait for him See ver 20 of the Chap of my text Come my people enter thou into thy chambers and shut thy doors about thee hide thy self but for a little moment c. So Isa 54.7 8. for a small moment c. And in a little wrath c. The ready way to keep God off is to murmure against his absence but quietly to wait for him is to bring him down with great mercies and everlasting kindnesses as that Scripture This the last ground I shall propose to back the Argument I am upon his stay in no condition or strait to his people is long therefore to wait for him Thus have I endeavoured to lay before you the nature extent and excellency of this frame of spirit of waiting upon God with the grounds and reasons of the duty Now I shall endeavour to meet with such evils that oppose this frame of spirit and to draw forth such seasonable lessons as may help in the practice of that duty 1. Appli 1. If such a pretious duty be incumbent upon all the people of God thus to wait upon him under his various dispensations it then meets with foure great and abounding evils too rife among us 1. Neglecting the dispensations of God 2. Misapplying them 3. Murmuring against them 4. Our prescribings to God 1. Neglecting regardlesly slighting the strange
we cannot discern nor finde out the depths of his wayes Were the inside of our murmurings opened they would be discovered to have all these mixtures in them oh what have we lost by these repinings how are they gone up like a cloud and eclipse the light and beauty of the wayes of God from us yea how are they like to keep us in the wildernesse we being now at the waters of Marah and that none of us who came out of Aegypt should ever see the Canaan we expect We are now indeed just in the condition as the people of God set forth in Psal 106. all those wildernesse provocations to be charged on us soon forgetting the works of God and not waiting for his counsell v. 13 14. Provoking him with our inventions v. 29. Going ill with Moses for our sakes v. 32. Thus we have followed our own counsels and inventions and have not waited for the counsell of the Lord. And this leads me to the 4 th evil which is to be reprooved our prescribings to God the next thing How busie hath every one been and now is to prescribe to God in his dealings towards us even to mend every dispensation of God it had been better thus or t were better thus Is not this to limit the holy one of Israel to prescribe to him Oh how full of these inventions are we As if we were to sit in counsell with the great God or as if God were to give an account of his wayes to us plainly every one almost hath a Church and State in this head and if his way take not all 's lost Thus what do we but even call into question the government and soveraignty of God in the world we would be instructors of God or indeed God's to our selves And now let me demand of you as in the presence of God the discerner of all our hearts whether all these evils may not in a great measure be charged upon us this day and are not as a cloud witnesses against us and then tell me is not this the way to kindle the wrath of the Lord against his people and to provoke him to abhor his own inheritance v. 40. of Psal 106. Oh in a word Is this to have our trust our expectation our submission our contentation our admiration towards our most wise and gracious God Is this all the fruit of his owning us his inheritance and our owning and attesting him in the face of all the world to be our God for ever Surely the Lord looked for other things at our hands Thus I have endeavoured to set before you the evils that eat out the heart and life of this grace and duty of waiting upon God and shall leave you to the searching and proving your own hearts and wayes and to bring them to the great refiner Jesus Christ that they may be purged away And indeed were all of us as busie about the depths of our own hearts as we are about depths that are beyond and above us we should see more of the glory of God in all his dispensations then we do the Lord would more delight in us to reveal himself unto us That which remains then will be an Exhortation Exhort backt with some few directions that may help us in the excercise and framing our spirits to the gracious posture of waiting upon him Let us as hath been shewed be convinced of all the evils that oppose it that they bring a great deformity upon a Christian and consider what a lustre and beauty this grace adorns our profession with how sutable to the soveraginty of the Lord and to the experiences we have had of him and so laying our selves humbly and composedly at his footstool quietly waiting that he may be gracious unto us I shall humbly offer some brief directions and so leave it to the Lord to work it upon your spirits 1. What ever the wayes of men appear to you to be look beyond them stay not in them hence issueth much of our disquietnesse that we look not beyond Instruments but lifting up our eyes upon him let us fall a justifying the righteous God what ever the paths of men are True and righteous are thy judgements is the hallelujah of heaven when the vials are powring forth and so it should be the return of the Saints on earth let men do what they will they do nothing but in Gods hand though their ends do run crosse unto his this the first 2. Let us not alwayes go about to bring down God to us I mean the heights and depths of God to our reasonings this is it that looseth us before we are aware and makes us at such losse with God t is safer to say with David Such knowledge is too wonderfull for me I cannot attain it Beware of being too busie with the sanctuary of God t is the way to make him walk at a greater distance from us 3. Let us be still a casting either way as to events and be contented that God may glorifie himself upon us as is his own pleasure So David 2 Sam. 15.26 If thus or thus here am I as that Scripture is excellently opened by * Mr. Vines one whose praise is in the Gospel if he make us an ark of safetie honour glory and praise waiteth for him but if he shall come with a full winde and scatter the wheat and the chaffe together over the face of the earth there we are we shall be ready to justifie God in all he shall bring upon us 4. To be humble and diligent in enquiring a right way of God now things are difficult before us and full of straits we had need closely to wait upon him for directing strengthning secrets that we may keep his way The truth is the distance that the godly keep at and the severall wayes we pursue do sufficiently witnes against us that we have not been a waiting people else we should sure have had such communications of the counsell of the Lord that should have kept us at least in love and peace there would be no such waters of Marah troubling and over flowing our spirits the divisions of Reuben would not be so great oh that the Lord by me would set something home upon your spirits that might quicken you to this diligent enquiring a right way of God that we go not into crooked paths not to go aside from the revealed rule but waiting upon God we may still keep his way Psal 37.34 5. To consider the absolute soveraignty and independencie of God this will keep down our spirits from rising up against him you have David on whose spirit the beauty of this grace shines forth almost in every Psalm much in this contemplation when he was at a losse God hath spoken once twice have I heard it that all power belongs unto God Psal 62.11 Be still and know that I am God I was dumbe I opened not my mouth because thou didst it He had heard
and considered so that all power belonged unto God therefore still dumbe not opening his mouth not a word to say against Gods dispensations so mightily was he over-awed with the soveraignty of the Lord. 6. To be much in contemplation of the wisdome of God there is the light and glory of his wisdom even in a chaos and confusion of things as we apprehend them could we discern the severall motions and concamerations their severall orderings and their end in which they center see 1 Sam. 2.3 Talk no more so exceeding proudly let not arrogancie come out of your mouth for the Lord is a God of knowledge and by him actions are weighed How hastie and inconsiderate soever men may be in their transactions yet by him those very actions are wisely weighed 7. To concentre and gather in all our wandring discussions into this period that the Almighty soveraignty and wisdom of the Lord are both engaged to work in a way of mercy goodness and love for his people to all that thus wait upon him may we reason thus what a people in covenant with God and have hard thoughts of him and be reasoning against his methods of providence weigh that Scripture Ezek. 14. v last You shall know that I have not done without cause all that I have done in it Oh could we thus wait as a people in covenant we should at last discover that God hath not done without cause all that is done upon us that he had weighty reasons for all his various and unexpected dispensations towards us all in order to the fulfilling of excellent promises upon us And now to close all in a word or two what a lustre and excellency would this grace the exercise of it derive upon all that fear God And at what a deplorable distance doth the want of it set us at with our God that we know not what to do we fear a snare where ever we tread Oh there is nothing in the world but this will bring down the Lord to delight and dwell with us to make us his inheritance to go before us in the wildernesse we are in till we shall be at his feet in this posture and willing to follow him where ever he shall lead us The spirits of those in the Nation who have owned the Lord for their God do cast different aspects some for great and glorious things ready for a new Jerusalem even full of expectation to sing the song of the chapter of the text We have a strong City and God is appointing salvation for bulwarks others and t is sad to mention you in such distinct characters that we are like to passe through another fire to it if ever at all we have it I dare not calculate the secret dispensations we lye under but as to the symptomes that are at present upon us surely the holy God will some way or other purge out in some measure the self seekings heart burnings animosities murmurings reasoning he will bring us into strait paths and raise up our spirits quietly to wait for the mercies he will give forth as hath been shewed What ever the Lord hath to do upon us now he is come out of his place surely to bring about a work a strange work Isa 28.21 I say what ever it be t will be our wisedome to have our loal girt and our lamps burning Which is the waiting posture held forth by our blessed Lord in the Gospel strengthned in the Lord and shining in the beautie of holines that we may enter Arighteous nation keeping truth with our minds stayed upon him making him our everlasting strength having quietly and contentedly waited for him and then we shall sing Lo this is our God we 〈◊〉 waited for him and he will save us This is the Lord we have waited for him we will rejoyce and be glad in his salvation Isa 25.9 FINIS