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
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
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