(1.) First then, in reference to the things that God is doing, both as to their greatness, and theirmanner of doing; whose consideration fills men with thoughts, that grieve their spirits in the midst of their bodies : would you have your hearts quieted in this respect ? take my second Ob- servation for your direction : the only way to extricate and deliver our spirits from under such perplexities and entan- glements, is to draw nigh to God in Christ, for the discovery of his will. So did Daniel here in my text : I fear this is too much neglected. You take counsel with your own hearts, you advise with one another, hearken unto men under a repute of wisdom ; and all this doth but increase your trouble, you do but more and more entangle and disquiet your own spirits. God stands by and says, ' I am wise also ;' and little notice is taken of him : we think we are grown wise ourselves, and do not remember we never pros- pered but only when we went unto God, and told him plainly we knew not what to do. Public fastings are neg- lected, despised, spoken against ; and when appointed, practised according as men's hearts are principled to such a duty, coldly, deadly, unacceptably. Life, heat, warmth is gone, and shall not blood and all go after ? The Lord pre- vent it. Private meetings are used, to shew ourselves wise in the debate of things, with a form of godly words ; some- times for strife, tumult, division, disorder. And shall we think there is much closet inquiring after God, when all other actings of that principle, which should carry out
THE ^IAGISTRATe's POWER. 497
thereunto, are opposed and slighted ? when we do sometimes wait upon God, do not many seem to ask amiss, to spend it on their lusts, not waiting on him, poor, hungry, empty, to know his will, to receive direction from him ; but rather going full, fixed, resolved, settled on thoughts, perhaps pre- judices of our own, almost taking upon us to prescribe unto the Almighty, and to impose our poor, low, carnal thoughts upon his wisdom and care of his church ? Oh where is that holy, and that humble frame, wherewith at first we followed our God into the wilderness, where we have been fed, and clothed, preserved and protected for so many years ? Hence is it that the works of God are become strange and terrible, and dark unto us : and of necessity, some of us, many of us, must shut up all with disappointment and sorrow. We fill our souls boldly, confidently, with cross and contrary appre- hensions of the intendments of God, and of the mediums whereby he will accomplish his ends ; and do not consider, that this is not a frame of men, who had given up themselves to the all-sufficiency of God. Some perhaps will say, this belongs not unto them, they have waited upon God, and they do know his mind, and what are the things he will do, and are not blind also, nor in the dark as other men. But if it be so, what means this ' bleating of sheep and oxen in mine ears?' Yea, what means that roaring and foaming of unquiet waves, which we hear and see : hard speeches, pas- sionate reproaches, sharp revilings of their brethren, in boundless confidence, endless enmity, causing evil surmises, biting, tearing, devouring terms and expressions, casting out the names of men upright in their generations, saying, the Lord be praised? When the Lord discovers his mind and will, it settleth the heart, composeth the mind, fills the soul with reverence and godly fear, conforms the heart imto it- self, fills it with peace, love, meekness, gentleness. And shall we be thought to have received the mind, the will of God, when our hearts, words, ways, are full of contrary qualities ? Let it be called what it will, I shall not desire to share in that, which would bring my heart into such a frame. Well then, beloved, take this for your first direction : Be more abundant with God in faith and prayer, deal with him in public and private, take counsel of him, bend your hearts through his grace to your old frame, when it was your joy
VOL. XV. 2 K
498 Christ's kingdom and
to meet in this place, which now I fear to many is their burden : seek the Lord and his face, ' seek him while he may be found.' And hereby,
[1.] You will empty your hearts of many perplexing con- trivances of your own, and you will find faith in this com- munion with God, by little and little working out, killing, slaying these prejudices and presumptions which you may be strong in, that are not according to the will of God; so you be sure to come not to have your own lusts and carnal conceptions answered, but to have the will of God fulfilled. When men come unto the Lord to have theiv own visions ful- filled, it is righteous with God to answer them according to those visions, and confirm them in them, to their own dis- turbance, and the disturbance of others.
[2.J You shall certainly have peace in your own hearts in the all-sufiiciency of God. This he will give in upon your spirits, that whatever he doth, all his ways shall be to you mercy, truth, faithfulness, and peace ; yea, the discoveries which you shall have of his own fulness, sweetness, suit- ableness, and the excellency of things which are not seen, will work your hearts to such a frame, that you shall attend to the things here below, merely upon the account of duty, with the greatest calmness, and quietness of mind ima- ginable.