Wiaturver intti. wefaler ve it is just in the accour fiac vr ore situere uefore God; aut a repine against the judgments of God Cuan are tendees evidenty righteous upon the accoun of EL FU atrinjate the condition of the cannet i bel, & great part of vis fury it is that they awaye repine agams that semence an pareument which they know to be most nguteous and h. F thue were now a pace. If that were now my design, & treat of the site of al professor, how easy were it to stop the mouths of al mer Goout The Molisa! But that is not my present business Israë unto particular persone, and that not with an especial design to cAviber tacto of their eins, but to hunue their souls AnCİET BERSOL may be taken to press that consideration, direnly and professel ! aim). At present let us only, when our souls are ready to be er teng.od with the thoughts of any severe dispensation of God al ou on particular pressures, troubles, miseries, occasioned thereby turn into ourselves, and take a view every one of his own personal provocations; and when we have done so, see what we have to my to God, what we have to complain of Let the man hold his ton me and let the sinner speak Is not God holy, righteous, wise, in what he hath done? and if he be, why do we not subscribe unto his ways, and submit quietly unto his will?

(2.) But this is not all We are not only such sinners as to render these dispensations of God evidently holy, these judgments of his righteous; but also to mauifest that they are accompanied with unspeakable patience, mercy, and grace. To instance in one particular: Is it the burning of our houses, the spoiling of our goods, the ruin of our estates alone, that our sins have deserved? If God hand made the temporary fire on earth to have been unto us a way of entrance into the eternal fire of hell, we had not had whereof righteously to complain. May we not, then, see a mixture of unspeakable patience, grace, and mercy, in every dispensation? and shall we, then, repine against it? Is it not better advice, "Go, and sin no

more, lest a worse thing befall thee?" For a sinner out of hell not to rest in the will of God, not to humble himself under his mighty hand, is to make himself guilty of the especial sin of hell. Other sins deserve it, but repining against God is principally, yea, only committed in it. The church comes to a blessed quieting resolution in this case, Micah vii. 9, "I will bear the indignation of the LORD, because I have sinned against him;" bear it quietly, patiently, and submit under his hand therein.

3. Consider that of ourselves we are not able to make a right judgment of what is good for us, what evil unto us, or what tends most directly unto our chiefest end. Ps. xxxix. 6, “Surely man walketh in a vain shew,"-, in an image full of false representations of things, in the midst of vain appearances, so that he knows not what to choose or do aright; and therefore spends the most of his time and strength about things that are of no use or purpose unto him: "Surely they are disquieted in vain." And hereof he gives one especial instance: "He heapeth up riches, and knoweth not who shall gather;" which is but one example of the manifold frustrations that men meet withal in the whole course of their lives, as not knowing what is good for them. We all profess to aim at one chief and principal end,-namely, the enjoyment of God in Christ as our eternal reward; and in order thereunto, to be carried on in the use of the means of faith and obedience, tending to that end. Now, if this be so, the suitableness or unsuitableness of all other things, being good or evil unto us, is to be measured by their tendency unto this end. And what know we hereof? As unto the things of this life, do we know whether it will be best for us to be rich or poor, to have houses or to be harbourless, to abound or to want, to leave wealth and inheritances unto our children, or to leave them naked unto the providence of God? Do we know what state, what condition will most further our obedience, best obviate our temptations, or call most on us to mortify our corruptions? And if we know nothing at all of these things, as indeed we do not, were it not best for us to leave them quietly unto God's disposal? I doubt not but it will appear at the last day that a world of evil in the hearts of men was stifled by the destruction of their outward concernments, more by their inward troubles; that many were delivered from temptations by it, who otherwise would have been overtaken, to their ruin, and the scandal of the gospel; that many a secret imposthume hath been lanced and cured by a stroke: for God doth not send judgments on his own for judgments' sake, for punishment's sake, but always to accomplish some blessed design of grace towards them. And there is no one soul in particular which shall rightly search itself, and consider its state and condition, but will be able to see wisdom, grace, and care towards

God" or no, whether "we are called according to his purpose." If so, all things are well in his hand, who can order them for our good and advantage. I hope many a poor soul will from hence, under all their trouble, be able to say, with him that was banished from his country, and found better entertainment elsewhere, "My friends, I had perished, if I had not perished;-had I not been undone by fire, it may be I had been ruined in eternal fire. God hath made all to work for my good."

The end of all these discourses is, to evince the reasonableness of the duty of waiting on God, which we are pressing from the psalmist. Ignorance of God and ourselves is the great principle and cause of all our disquietments; and this ariseth mostly, not from want of light and instruction, but for want of consideration and application. The notions insisted on concerning God are obvious and known unto all; so are these concerning ourselves: but by whom almost are they employed and improved as they ought? The frame of our spirits is as though we stood upon equal terms with God, and did think, with Jonah, that we might do well to be angry with what he doth. Did we rightly consider him, did we stand in awe of him as we ought, it had certainly been otherwise with us.

Influence of the promises into the soul's waiting in time of trouble-The nature of them.

HAVING, therefore, laid down these considerations from the second observation taken from the words,-namely, that Jehovah himself is the proper object of the soul's waiting in the condition described,-I shall only add one direction, how we may be enabled to perform and discharge this duty aright, which we have manifested to have been so necessary, so reasonable, so prevalent for the obtaining of relief; and this ariseth from another of the propositions laid down for the opening of these verses, not as yet spoken unto,-namely, that the word of promise is the soul's great supportment in waiting for God.

So saith the psalmist, "In his word do I hope;" that is, the word of promise. As the word in general is the adequate rule of all our obedience unto God and communion with him, so there are especial parts of it that are suited unto these especial actings of our souls towards him. Thus the word of promise, or the promise in the word, is that which our faith especially regards in our hope, trust, and waiting on God; and it is suited to answer unto the immediate actings of our souls therein. From this word of promise, therefore, that