5. Again, He that will trust God with the greatest matters, will trust God u-ith his vaijsfor direction. He will not trust his ov/n wit and wisdom, but God. God shall be wise for him. He will follow God's directions, and whatsoever is contrary to God's direction he will not do. He will acknow- ledge God in all his ways. Prov. iii. 5, * Acknowledge God in all thy ways,' acknowledge him to be thy guide, thy defender, thy light, to direct thee ; acknowledge him to be able and willing to give thee success ; acknowledge God in all thy ways and consultations ; and when we have especially any great matters in hand, oh, I beseech you, let us learn to acknowledge God. What is it to acknowledge him ? To go to him for direction and protection in doing our duty, that we seek to him for strength and for success ; this is to acknowledge God in our ways. What makes men so unfortunate and successless in their consultations ? Because they arc so faithless ; they do not acknowledge God in their ways, but trust too much to seeming things and appearance of things ; they are carried too much with that. Though things seem to go never so well, yet let nothing make us give over to acknowledge God ; nay, when things are never so ill, let us acknowledge God, for God can set all straight and at rights again. Alas ! what a small matter is it for him that rules heaven and earth, and turns this great wheel of all things, to turn the lesser wheels to order lesser businesses, and bring them to a happy issue and conclusion ! It is but a little matter with his command, seeing he rules all things. It is but trusting in him and praying to him, and then using the means with dependence upon him. Let us therefore acknowledge God this way, by committing our ways and affairs to him. We need knowledge and strength, and a comfortable issue for all that is necessary in our affairs ; let us acknowledge God, and fetch all these from him.
6. Well, the last thing that we have any use of trusting God withal is, uhen we are chjinr/, to trust our souls, to commit them to God, and yield them up to him, our depositum, to lay it with him. He that hath inured himself to trust God all his life, and to live by faith, he will be able at length with some comfort to die by faith. He that hath trusted God all his life with all things that God hath trusted him, he can easily trust God with his soul ; and he that hath not inured himself to trust God in this life, undoubtedly he will never trust God with his soul when he dies. It is but a forced trust.
Thus you see in all the passages of our lives we must learn to trust God,
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and to make use of God, for God is so abundant that lie is never drawn dry. He joys when he is made use of. It is an honour to him. Let us try ourselves by that I have said, whether we truly trust God or no. Let us not deceive our own souls, but labour to trust God for all things. Let it be our daily practice in the use of means. Look to the course that he prescribes us, and then look up to him for strength and blessing and success. This ought to be the life of a Christian, Ocnlus ad avium, as they say of the governor of a ship. He hath his hand to the stern, and his eye to the pole-star, to be directed by that. So the life of a Chi-istian. He must have his hand to the stern, he must be doing that that God prescribes him, and he must have his eye to the star, to be guided in his course by God's direction. He that hath not this knows not what it is to trust in God.
How shall we bring our souls to this so necessary a duty ? Indeed, it is a very hard matter. We know what it is to live by our wits, by our wealth, by our lands ; but what it is to live by faith in depending upon God, few souls are acquainted with that.
Therefore, in the first place, learn to know God. You see here, we must trust in his name. We know men by their names. God and his name are all one. His name is himself, and himself is his name. Therefore, let us learn to know God as he hath discovered himself : know him in his works, but especially in his word ; know him by that work, as he hath dis- covered himself in his word. Let us know his promises, and have them in store for all assays * whatsoever ; promises for grace and for direction in this world. God will not ' fail us, nor forsake us,'- John xiv. 18. He will be in all extremities with us, ' in the fii'e and in the water,' Isa. xliii. 2 ; and the promises of issue, 'All things shall work for good to them that love God,' Rom, viii. 28 ; and the promise of his Spirit, ' He will give his Holy Spirit to them that ask him,' Luke xi. 13. Besides particular promises, a world of them in Scripture, let us know God in these promises ; they are our inheritance, our portion. And if we should go to God, and not be acquainted with these, he will ask us upon what ground ? How shall we be able to go to God ? But when we have his promise, we may say boldly with the psalmist, ' Lord, remember thy promise, wherein thou hast caused thy servant to trust.' We may put God in remembrance : not that he forgets, but he will have us mindful of what he promiseth, and put him in mind. And it is an evidence to our souls that he will grant any thing, when we have faith to put him in mind of his promise : ' Lord, remember thy promise, wherein thou hast caused thy servant to trust.' Lord, thou canst not deny thy word, and thy truth, and thyself, and thy promise, and thy name by which thou hast made thyself known. Thus we should know God in his word ; as it is Ps. ix. 10, ' They that know thy name will trust in thee, 0 Lord.' We never trust a man till we know him ; and those that are not good, we say they are better known than trusted ; but the more we know God, the more we shall trust him.