[2.] The weaned child can do nothing for itself, but is provided for by the care of another ; so should we look upon ourselves as a most feeble and impotent child, able to do nothing of ourselves ; but after we have weaned ourselves from our natural affections and desires, wholly be sensible of our necessities, emptiness, and weakness to shift for ourselves, leaving all to God : Ps. xl. 17, ' I am poor and needy, but the Lord thinketh upon me.' We may be despised of the world and contemned of the world, but that doth not make us loathsome to God. Yea, the lower we are brought, the more is his care engaged for us. The empty, the destitute, who have not the dug to live upon, are devolved upon the Lord, that he may take care of them.
[3.] Though the weaned child have not what it would have, or what it naturally most desireth, the milk of the breast, yet it is contented with what the mother giveth ; it rests upon her love and provision. So are we to be content with what providence alloweth us : Heb. xiii. 5, ' Let your conversation be without covetousness, and be content with such things as ye have ; ' and Phil' iv. 11, *I have learned, in whatso- ever state I am, therewith to be content.' Whatever pleaseth our heavenly Father should please us. The child that is put from the breast to an harder diet is yet contented at last. The children of princes know not what the swelling of pride, the honour of the world meaneth. The child doth not prescribe what it will eat, drink, or put on. They are io no care for enlarging possessions, heaping up riches, aspiring after dignities and honours, but meekly take what is provided for them.
[4.] The child, when he has lost the food which nature providetli for it, is not solicitous, but wholly referreth itself to the mother, hangeth upon the mother. So for everything whatsoever should we depend upon God, refer ourselves to God, and expect all things from him : Ps. Ixii. 5, ' My soul, wait thou upon God ; my expectation is from him.' With such a simplicity of submission should we rest and depend upon God. Let us take heed of being overwise and provident for ourselves, but trust our Father which is in heaven, and refer our* selves to his wise and holy government.
Thus you see here is a perfect emblem —
442 SERMONS UPON PSALM CXXXI, [SeR. IV.
(1.) Of self-denial ; for the child is weaned, taken off from what it most affects. So we must not look to be satisfied in our childish will ;md appetite; we must be weaned, and put from the breast to an liarder diet.
(2.) Of humility, or a sense of our impotency and nothingness ; for the child cannot shift for itself, so neither can we. We are weak and witless all of us, as are little children, and know not what is good for us, nor how to provide it, but are merely cast upon the care of another.
(3.) Contentedness and resignation to the will of God, who is our provider. The more impotent, the more entitled to God's care.
(4.) Of dependence and quiet recumbency on God in any state or condition whatsoever ; for we must cast the whole care of affairs upon him. Oh, happy we if we could thus be children !
But now let us come to the doctrine.
Doct. That an absolute resignation of ourselves to the will of God -doth well become an humble and a trusting soul.
I shall show — (1.) What this resignation is ; (2.) Why it argueth both humihty and trust.
First, What is this resignation of ourselves to the will of God ? I shall show you — (1.) The nature; (2.) The grounds; (3.) The oppo- sites of it.
1. The nature. It is a plenary submission of our will to the will ■of God for all events that concern us and ours.
This resignation hath too branches —
[1.] An indifferency of mind with respect to future events, leaving them to be disposed according to the will and wisdom of God, for his own glory and our good. This you will find often commended to us in scripture by the practice of the saints and of our Lord Christ : John xii. 27, 28, 'Now is my soul troubled, what shall I say ? Father, save me from this hour ; but for this cause came I to this hour. Father glorify thy name.' We learn of Christ that, when we are in great per- plexity, and know not the event, we should absolutely submit it to his will, with a respect to his glory; that God will determine and cast the matter so as may be most for his glory and for our good. For Christ consulted not with his own ease, but God's glory ; as he respected not the innocent inclination of his human nature, but the glory of his Father. So should we be content that God be advanced, though it be with our loss and bitter cost ; as natural things will act against their particular inclination for a general good ; fire will descend, water ascend, to avoid a vacuity, and to preserve a, continuity in nature. Another instance of such a resignation is in David : 2 Sam. xv. 25, 26, ' Carry back the ark of God into the city : if I shall find favour in the eyes of the Lord, he will bring me again, and show me both it and his habita- tion. But if he say, I have no delight in thee ; let him do unto me as seemeth good unto him.' He sweetly and meekly submitteth to God's pleasure, wholly denying himself and his own will, and resigneth up his person, crown, and estate, as it shall seem good in his eyes. So in the three children: Daniel iii. 17, 18, 'Our God is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace. But if not,' &c. So Esther, when she referred the case to God : 'If I perish, I perish,' chap. iv. 16.