2dli/. Another thing wherein we are to be with God, is by trust- ing in him for protection. " 0 trust in the LoRD for ever, for in the Lord Jehovah there is everlasting strength. This man made the LoRD his refuge. He that trusteth in the Lord shall be as mount Zion, that shall never be removed. Commit your ways to the Lord, roll your burden on him; stand still and see his salvation." What glo- rious things are spoken of this trusting to the Lord for protection you all know. It were endless to insist on commands and promises to this i^ui-pose ; and to single out one or two were but to Vv'eaken the cause in hand, seeing hereunto the whole Scriptures bear witness. I shall only show you what it is so to do, in some few particulars.
(1st.) lb is to strengthen and encourage your hearts in difficult affairs, a comfortable issue whereof you cannot on visible causes con- jecture, on the account of God's engagement for your good. To omit the instances of Asa, Jehoshaphat, and many others, take that signal one of David in his gTeat distress at Ziklag, 1 Sam. xxx. You knov/ the story: — his habitation was burnt and spoiled, his wives and
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children captivcd, his people consulting to stone him, so that he was greatly distressed; the enemy numerous and without his reach; — all means of relieving his condition, and bringing it to a comfortable issue, far removed. But what course did he now take? did he de- spond? did he give over? did he rest on his own counsel and strength? No, saith the Holy Ghost ; " but David encouraged himself in the Lord his God." Have you any affair that lies before you that is good and honest, but yet dreadful, difficult, entangled? Your hearts are ready to faint whenever you think of it; — it is almost beyond yoi;r imaginations to contrive a comfortable issue. In such a season, if you will be with God, he will be with you ; — if you so trust him as to encourage your hearts on the account of his wisdom, goodness, power, that he can find out and bring about a comfortable, glorious end, — this is to trust him for protection. Ps. xlvi. is this doctrine delivered to the full.
(^dly.) To trust God for protection, is to wait under discourage- ments and disappointments for a desired issue of the affairs we com- mit to him. " He that believeth will not make haste," Isa. xxviii. 10. This the Lord pleads for, Hab. ii. 3, 4. Men will have their desires precisely accomplished this year, this month, this week, or they will wait no longer. These, says God, are proud men ; their hearts are lifted up in them ; they trust not to me for protection. Men love to trust God (as tbey profess) for what they have in their hands, in possession, or what lies in an easy view; place their desires afar off, carry their accomplishment behind the clouds out of their sight, interpose diffi- culties and perplexities, — their hearts are instantly sick, — they cannot wait for God ; they do not trust him, — nor ever did. Would you have the presence of God with you? Learn to wait quietly for the salva- tion you expect from him. Then, indeed, is he glorified, when he is trusted in a storm, when he is waited for under long perjilexities and distresses. Want of this ruined the Israelites in the wilderness. Their work was long, their difficulties and entanglements many; — they would have had an immediate end of tlieir troubles. What ! more difficulties! more hardships! nay, then, let us choose a cap- tain, and go do\vn again into Egypt. We know the worst of tliat; where this will end we know not. Tliis laid their carcases in the wil- derness, and deprived them of enjoying the good laml.
(ocllij.) It is to commit your affairs to the Lord with submission to his will, as to their issue and accomplishment. Trust respects protection, l)ut it proscribes not as to particular events. It is to com- mit our affairs to God with thoughts of his infinite wisdom, sove- reignty, and goodness, with resolutions thereupon that the product of his will is that which will be good, be best for us, though it sluudd not at all fall in with our present desires. It is true, the Psalmist
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says, " Commit thy way unto the Lord ; trust also in him, and he shall bring it to pass," Ps. xxxvii. 5. And so he shall and will, in all such cases as that there particularly insisted on by the Psalmist, wherein his own glory is particularly engaged. But this prescribes not, as to all cases, that we should cry, " Give me this child, or I die." The rule is known; abide in this frame, and we shall have that we desire, or that which is better for us. But I must not abide in these things. See Ps. xxxvii. 3-5, Ixxiii. 23-26".
And these are some of those ways wherewith we abide with God, as to our trusting of him in reference to special protection.
2dly. A third thing I should fix upon is, a peoples universal oiun- ing of God's concerwinents in the ^uorld. His presence with them is, his ovNOiing their concernments ; and certainly he expects that they abide "vvith him in the owning of his. God's concernment in the world is his people, as invested with the privileges purchased for them by Christ. Deut. xxxii. 9, " The Lord's portion is his people." This is that which the Lord has particularly kept to himself; the vineyard that he has chosen out of all the forests of the world; the handful that he hath taken to himself, — his sons and daughters, — his family. These he expects that you should abide by, if you would have him abide by you ; yea, it is most certain, as your respect and regard shall be to them and their interest as his people, so will his respect and regard be to you and your interest as the people of this nation. But I have formerly spoken hereof unto you, and therefore, though it be a matter of the greatest importance, I shall not farther insist upon it.