6. This submission must be manifested by preparing ourselves to suffer yet more than we feel for the present in vow and purpose. A christian resigns up himself to the will of God, he hath no will of his own. Lord, turn me into what condition thou pleasest, as David, 2 Sam. XV. 26, 'Here I am, do to me as seems good in thine own eyes.' A believer sets his name to a blank, that God may write what he pleaseth ; this is to reserve no will of our own. Patience is a very high grace ; it doth not only consent to known articles, but refers itseh" for the future to God. It is a question which is most wortiiy, obedience or ])atience ; obedience hath a stated rule, all the articles of the covenant are absolutely set down, what God hath required ; but patience refer- eth itself for the future to God, let God write what he will ; I am thy creature, it submits to whatever future trial God will appoint. So Acts xxi. 13, the apostle Paul speaks of greater sufferings — ' I am ready, not only to be bound, but to die for the Lord Jesus.' If it were a heavier burden, even death itself, I am ready to bear it, I have given up my will to God. So Heb. xii. 4, ' You have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin ; ' intimating they should prepare themselves for greater sufferings. The persecution already borne was as nothing ; this makes the lesser suffering to be more tolerable. Eesolution for
Book I.] a treatise of self-denial, 253
the worst that can come, it is a great degree of submission, and will be a very great help, when you are resolved to bear whatever God will inflict ; alas ! otherwise we shall soon faint and murmur.
7. It is a very high degree of submission to submit to God's dis- pensation in spiritual wants and troubles. AVe should not be troubled at whatever we may want without sin, and therefore you should bear spiritual evil with a sweet submission to and acquiesceucy in the will of God. I shall instance but in three things to be borne, the want of sensible consolation, spiritual desertion, and many times God's not hearing of our prayers.
[1.] Want of suavities in religion, or of sensible consolation. These are a mere preferment in grace, and we must tarry till the Master of the feast hath bid us sit higher. All the sin is if the comforts of the Holy Ghost be despised, not if they be not enjoyed, when we have low and cheap thoughts of them ; it is not the want, but the contempt. Such things as are mere dispensations, and proposed as rewards are different from duties. To want grace, though it be God's gift, that is a sin, because the creature is under a moral obligation ; but not to want sensible comfort, because that is merely given, but not required ; and therefore when we want these things, we are to be patient. Eemem- ber, Christ himself parted with these for a while : when he was in the midst of his agonies, he said, ' Not my will, but thine be done ; ' it hath relation to the sensible consolations of the Godhead, which Christ felt by virtue of the glorious fellowship — ' Not my will, but thine be done ; ' this may be God's will to keep us from pride. Therefore when chris- tians would have those redundancies and overflowings of Christ's love at the beck of their own desires, it is a sign they have not learned to submit to God ; it argues impatiency, or conceit of merit, Kemember, in these sensible consolations there may be more of self-love, and of indulgence to our own appetite, than of obedience. We praise God best when we are contented with what he gives, and contented with what he doth, though it be with our loss. But when men cannot love God nor serve God, unless they be feasted with love and fed with these sensible consolations, it is like peevish children, that will not be quiet till pleased with some bait and sweetness ; it is not the Father's will that quiets them, but the apple, or some such external satisfaction. It is an act of obedience to submit to God's mere will.
[2.] In matter of desertion it is good to be sensible of God's with- drawments. But we should be rather troubled about the fault than the punishment, that which causeth God to withdraw the comfort of his presence, for herein God will have his sovereignty and pleasure acknowledged : Phil. ii. 13, it is said, * He giveth both to will and to do, according to his own pleasure.' I confess this is a bitter cup ; but remember, Jesus Christ himself hath been our taster. He complains of desertion : Mat. xxvii. 46, ' My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me ? ' and we do not deserve to be handled more softly than the Son of God. He complaineth of desertion, to manifest his sense of the evil; but still he saith, 'Not my will, but thine be done,' God may make use of this to humble us for our self-conceits, and for our pride and thoughts of merit, or having an obligation upon God, It is good sometimes to be left to ourselves, and stand upon our own legs, that so