Alas ! we need not name these things. If men had learned what it is to trust in God, and depend upon him in the use of lawful means, and would rather be content to want in this world than to have anything with a cracked conscience !
I beseech you, let us examine our own hearts in this. There are many that think they trust in God when they do not. They trust their policy, they trust flesh and blood, and by consequence they trust the devil, if they trust not in God.
3. In the next place, he that trusts in God, his mind uill be quieted in some comfortable measure, tvhcn he hath used the means that are lauj'nl, and cast himself iqjon God. He will be quiet, and let God work then. WTien he hath taken pains in his calling lawfully, and desired God's blessing, if God send wealth,! so it is ; if not, he is not much troubled. He knows that all shall be for the best to them that trust in God. When he cannot have it in the use of lawful means, he is quiet. He that trusts a physician, when he hath used the direction of the physician, he is quiet. He thinks he is a wise man, an experienced physician, and now he will not trouble his mind any longer. If a man vex himself, and think all will not be well, he doth not trust his physician. And so in other professions we trust to a man's counsel, if we think him wise and honest. We follow his direction, and then we will be quiet.
Now, God is infinitely wise. When we have used lawful means, and commended the means to God ; for as he will be trusted in, so he will be sought unto, ' I will be sought to by the house of Israel for this,' Ezek. xxxvi. 37. For except we pray to him, he is not trusted. But when we have prayed to him, in the use of lawful means, let us be quiet, let us not be distracted with dividing cares about this and that, as if there were not a God in heaven that had care of us, that had a providence over things below. Certainly he hath. Do thou do thy work, and let him alone with his work. The care of duty belongs to thee. When thou hast done thy duty, rest thou quiet, or else thou honourest him not as a God, thou trustest him not, thou dost not make a God of him. It is a great dishonour to God.
A man thinks himself dishonoured when he is not trusted ; when we see
2 COEINTHIANS CHAP. I, VER. 9. 147
he hath ahvay been faithful to us, and is so reputed, and yet we call his credit in question, and will not be quiet. We should do as children do. They follow their books, and let their father take care for all provision for meat and drink, and clothes and such things. They beat not their heads about it. They know they have a father that will take care for that. If we were true children of God, and have the disposition of heavenly children, we will do so. If we trouble ourselves, and beat our heads, it is a sign that we fear that God is not our Father. Therefore I add that to other signs, a resting of oiu'selves quiet. When we are quiet, God will do more than when we vex ourselves. ' Be still, and see the salvation of the Lord,' saith Moses at the Red Sea, Exod. xiv. 13. So let us be still and quiet, and see the salvation of God. He will work wonders.
4. Again, it is a sign that we trust in God, u-hen there are no means, yet notu-itltstaiidi)iff we will not dcsjmir, but hope and trust in God. When we see nothing in the eye of flesh and blood, no means of recovery, yet we trust in God. He can work his way though we see not how ; he can make a passage for us. ^^^len God is thus honoured he works wonders. This is to make a God of him, when there is no means, to believe that he can work against means. If my life shall be for his glory and my good, he can recover my life though the physician say I am a dead man. If he have employment for me in this world, he can do it. He can work with means, or against means, or without means. And so in desperate troubles, if God see it good for me, he can deliver me though there be no means. He is the Creator of means. Do not tie him to his own creature. If all be taken away, he can make new.
5. Again, he trusts in God that labours to make God his friend continn- albj ; for he whom we trust unto we will not provoke. Certainly we will not provoke a man whom we mean to make our friend. Those that live in swearing, in defiled courses, in contempt of God and holy things, of the ordinances of God, of the day appointed to holy and religious uses, those that 'wax stubborn against God,' 1 Tim. v. 11, as the Scriptm-e speaks, do we trust him against whom we walk stubbornly ? Will a man trust him that he makes his enemy by wicked courses ? Thou makest God thy enemy, and provokest him to his face, to try whether he will pour ven- geance upon this* or no. He tells thee thou shalt not be unpunished if thou 'take his name in vain,' Exod. xx. 7 ; yet thou wilt be stubborn, and not make conscience of these things. Dost thou trust him ? No ! thou pro- vokest him. Thou mayest trust him ; but it must be to damn thee, to give thee thy reward with rebels ; thou mayest trust him for that. But for good things thou doest not, thou canst not trust him in wicked courses.