Thus, if we look into the Nature of God, and his most facred Attributes, we find strong and irrefragable Arguments, why, in all our Troubles and Diftreffes, we should put our whole Truft in him; and if we now turn our Eyes upon ourselves, and confult our own Experience of his former LovingKindness to us, we fhall perceive abundant Reafon to continue the fame Affiance in him for the future. For, of the many Calamities incident to human Life, how many, through the Goodness of God, have we escaped? How many, juft hanging over our Heads, and what we faw no Poffibility of avoiding, has his watchful Providence averted from us? How many, after they had seized us, and began to press hard upon us, has he at firfst abated, and afterwards wholly removed? And how many, by his over-ruling Power, have had fo good an Effect, that we have Reason to rejoice for having been vifited by them? Have we never, by a painful and lingering Sickness, been brought to the very Brink of the Grave, and when Medicines have failed, and Physicians have pronounced our Doom, by fome unexpected Turn, been restored to our Health again? Has our good Name never been afperfed by fome foul and bafe Slanders, under which we have long lain, without being able to clear it, and has not God, by his good Providence, brought forth our Righteoufness as the Light, and our Innocence as the Noon-Day? Have we never seen Poverty coming upon us as an armed Man, when, on a sudden, God has raised up unhoped for Benefactors to relieve us, or ftruck out for us unforeseen Means of Subsistence? Have we never known the Wrath and Malice of Men fet against us, when, without any Offence of ours, they came gaping upon us, and were ready to swallow us up quick, when God has either restrained the Fierceness of their Wrath, or covered us, as it were, under under the Shadow of his Wings, until their Tyranny has been over-paft? If then we have had any such Inftances of God's Goodness to us, (as certainly we all of us have had, and, unless we have been very careless Obfervers of Providence, must have taken Notice of) from the Sense of paft Mercies, we may draw this comfortable Conclufion, that be, who hath delivered us from fo great Dangers, and doth deliver, in him we may fafely trust, that he will yet deliver us: For bis Hand, which has fo often been ftretched forth for our Help, is not fince fhortened, that it can no longer fave; neither is his Ear, which has been fo often opened to our Prayers, grown beavy, that it can no more hear. If we commit our Souls to him in Well-doing, the Experience we have already had of his watchful Care over us, will be our ftanding Conviction, that, in all Circumftances of Danger or Diftrefs, he will defend us under his Wings; under bis Feathers we shall be safe; his Faithfulness and Truth fhall be our Shield and Buckler. II. If then our Trust and Reliance on God, under all the Pains of Body, and Anxieties of Mind, under all the Frowns of Fortune, and Difficulties of Life, which have befallen us, and all the Apprehenfions of Evils, which we fear may befal us, be both our Duty, and our Remedy, it may be a Matter well worth our Enquiry, by what farther Means and Confiderations we may beget and nourish in us this happy Temper of Mind; and in order to this, 1. The firft Thing we are to do, is to diveft our Minds of all Prefumption and Self-confidence. For when, without any Regard to God's Providence, Men are bold enough to rely on themfelves and their own Abilities, and vainly imagine, that, without the Divine Help and Direction, by the Contrivance of their own Wit and Discretion, they D 3 can can compass their Defign, and make themselves Masters of their utmost Wish; it is no Wonder, that they should fo frequently miscarry; and therefore trust thou in the Lord (as the wife Man advifes) with all thine Heart, and lean not on thine own Understanding; in all thy Ways acknowledge him, and be fhall direct thy Paths; for he that trufteth in his own Heart, as he fays in another Place, is a Fool. And a Fool he is without all Controversy; for,. 2. Confidering the Situation of human Nature, it is abfolutely neceffary, that there fhould be fomething for us to lean upon, and have Recourse to, as our proper Support and Refuge. Every Man in his best Eftate is but a feeble and infirm Creature: What from the Impotence of his Mind, and the Disorder of his Paffions within; what from the Troubles and Difficulties which he meets with from without; together with the Mutability of all human Affairs, which cannot be ascertained by all the imaginable Forefight which Men are capable of; it is impoffible for us to live independent. Evils there are innumerable, from which, neither the Wisdom of the most prudent, nor the Riches of the most wealthy, nor the Forces of the moft powerful, nor even the Virtue of the most innocent, can always fecure them; and therefore Faith, and Hope, and Trust, are altogether neceffary in our prefent State; and the Man must be in a very unfafe and uneafy Condition, that is not provided with fomething to fupport and relieve him in his Neceffities. But now, if fuch a Support be neceffary, we can have it no where placed fo commodiously, as in the Hands of Almighty God; For where can we find a fafer Director of our Affairs, than an all-comprehending Wifdom? Where a better Protector against Dangers and Infults, than omnipotent Power? Where a better Provider of every Thing that we want, than that Goodness which is infinite? Since then the Neceffity of trufting in fomething, the Folly of trufting in ourselves, and the Wisdom of trufting in God is fo apparent; these are Confiderations wherewith we should frequently entertain our Thoughts: And, to give them a stronger Impreffion, we fhould always bear in Mind the Promises, that God hath made us of his Readiness both to guard us in Danger, and to relieve us in Want: Because thou haft made the Lord, which is thy Refuge, even the most High, thy Habitation, there fhall no Evil befal thee, neither shall any Plague come nigh thy Dwelling; for he fhall give his Angels Charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy Ways: They fhall bear thee up in their Hands, left thou fhouldft dafh thy Foot against a Stone. This is our Protection from Danger, and our Security from Want are the comfortable Words of our bleffed Saviour: Take no Thought for your Life, what you fhall eat, or what you shall drink; neither for your Body, what you shall put on : Is not your Life more than Meat, and your Body than Raiment ? Behold the Fowls of the Air! for they fow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into Barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them: Are ye not much better than they? And why take ye Thought for Raiment? Confider the Lillies of the Field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they fpin; and yet I fay unto you, that Solomon in all his Glory was not arrayed like one of these. Wherefore, if God cloath the Grafs of the Field, which to-day is, and to-morrow is caft into the Oven, shall be not much more cloath you, O ye of little Faith? Therefore take no Thought, faying, what shall we eat? or what shall we drink? or wherewithal fhall we be cloathed ? for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye bave Need of thefe Things. But feek ye first the King D 4 dom dom of God and his Righteousness, and then all these Things fhall be added unto you. 5. Submiffion to GOD. UBMISSION to the Will of God is of two Kinds, the Submiffion of Obedience, which confifts in a ready Compliance with his Commands in all Things, and the Submiffion of Patience, which is nothing elfe, but a quiet and chearful Suffering of whatever Afflictions he fhall think fit to lay upon us; which is the Duty we are here to enforce and recommend. Patience then is that Virtue, which qualifies us to bear all Conditions and all Events, by God's Disposal incident to us, with fuch Apprehenfions and Perfuafions of Mind, with fuch Difpofitions and Affections of Heart, and with fuch external Deportment and Practice of Life, as God and good Reafon require, viz. with a thorough Perfuafion, that nothing befals us, but either by the Permiffion or Direction of Divine Providence; a firm Belief, that all Occurrences, however contrary to our Defires, are both confiftent with God's holy Attributes, and conducive to our Good; a full Trust and Dependence on him, either for Strength to enable us to bear our Afflictions, or for a seasonable Removal or Mitigation of them; abftaining from all discontented Complaints and Murmurings against Providence; from all malicious and revengeful Thoughts against the Inftruments of our Sufferings; and from all unworthy and irregular Courses, to extricate ourselves from them; that fo, fuffering according to the Will of God, we may commit the keeping of our Souls to him in well-doing, as unto a faithful Creator. In these, and fuch-like Acts, does the Practice of this Virtue confift; and the Inducements we have to it arife, I. From the Confideration of the Nature |