2. From the manner whereby God will do these things. Many perplexing, killing circumstances attend his dispensa- tions ; I shall instance only in one, and that is darkness and ob- scurity, whereby he holds the minds of men in uncertainty and suspense, for his own glorious ends ; such he tells us shall his day, and the works thereof be. ' And it shall come to pass in that day, that the light shall not be clear, nor dark. But it shall be one day which shall be known to the Lord, not day, nor night ; but it shall come to pass that at evening-time it shall be light ;' Zech. xiv. 6, 7. Men shall not know what
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to make of it, nor what to judge; he brings not forth his work all at once, but by degrees, and sometimes sets it back- ward, and leads it up and down, as he did his people of old in the wilderness, that none might know where they should fall or settle ; and he that believeth will not make haste. When God is doing great things, he delights to wrap them up in the clouds, to keep the minds of men in uncertainties, that he may set on work all that is in them, and try them to the utmost, whether they can live upon his care and wisdom, when they see their own care and wisdom will do no good. Men would fain come to some certainty, and com- monly by the thoughts and ways whereby they press unto it, they put all things into more uncertainty than ever, and so promote the design of God, which they so studiously endeavour to decline. Hence is that description of the presence of the Lord in his mighty works, Psal. xviii. 9. 11. * Darkness was under his feet;' men could not see his paths, &c. He hath ends of surprisal, hardening, and destruction towards some, for which they must be left unto their own spirits, and led into many snares and by-paths, for their trial, and the exercise of others, which could not be accomplished, did he not come in the clouds, and were not darkness his pa- vilion, and his secret place ; on this account is that cry of men of profane and hardened spirits, Isa. v. 19. * Let him make speed and hasten his work that we may see it, and let the counsel of the Holy One of Israel draw nigh that we may know it.' They know not what to make of what they see; of all that is yet done or accomplished, they would have the whole work out, that they might once see the end of it, and so know what to judge; they would be at a point with him, and not always kept at those perplexing un- certainties ; and this is another cause of the trouble of men's spirits, in consideration of the dispensations of God. God still keeps a cloud hanging over, and they know not when it will fall, nor what will be done in the issue of things : this makes some weary of wailing on him, and with the profane king of Israel to cry, ' This evil is of the Lord, there is no end, confusion will be the issue of all, why should I abide any longer ?
3. The lusts of men do commonly under such dispensa-
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tions, fearfully and desperately tumultuate, to the disturb- ance of the most settled and weighed spirits : Satan takes advantage to draw them out in such a season to the utmost, both in spirituals and civils. What will be the constant deportment of men of corrupt minds in such a time, our Saviour sets forth, Matt. xxiv. 8. They shall ' come in the name of Christ to deceive, and shall deceive many, and cause iniquity to abound.' In such a day Edom will appear an enemy,* and Ephraim with the son of Remaliah will join with Syria for the vexing of Judah : hence are perplexities, and swords piercing through the very souls of men. Take an instance in the days wherein we live. From the begin- ning of the contests in this nation, when God had caused your spirits to resolve, that the liberties, privileges, and rights of this nation wherewith you were intrusted, should not, by his assistance, be wrested out of your hands by violence, oppression, and injustice ; this he also put upon your hearts, to vindicate and assert the gospel of Jesus Christ, his ways and his ordinances, against all opposition, though you were but inquiring the way to Zion, with your faces thitherward. God secretly intwining the interest of Christ with yours, wrapt up with you the whole generation of them that seek his face, and prospered your affairs on that account : so that whereas causes of as clear a righteous- ness among the sons of tnen as yours, have come to nothing, yet your undertaking hath been like the sheaf of Joseph, in the midst of the nations, which hath stood up, when all the others have bowed to the ground : being then convinced that your affairs have fallen under his promises, and have come up to an acceptance before him, solely upon the ac- count of their subserviency to the interest of Christ; God hath put it into your hearts to seek the propagation of his gospel. What now by the lusts of men is the state of things? say some, there is no gospel at all : say others, if there be, you have nothing to do with it: some say, Lo here is Christ; others, Lo there: some make religion a colour for one thing ; some for another : say some, the magistrate must not support the gospel; say others, the gospel must subvert the magistrate : say some, your rule is only for men, as men, you have nothing to do with the interest of Christ