Psalm xxxvii. 5. Commit thy way to the guidance of his providence with an obedience to his precept, and refer all success in it to God. If we set up our golden calf made of our own earrings-our wit-our strength-our carnal prudence, because God seems to neglect us, our doom may be the same as theirs; and the very dust of our demolished calf may be a bitter spice in our drink, as it was in their's.

4. Trust him solely, without prescribing any methods to him. Leave him to his wise choice, wait upon him because he is a God of judgment, Isaiah xxx. 18, who goes judiciously to work, and can best time the executions of his will. The wise God observes particular periods of time, for doing his great works. "Woman what have I to do with thee? mine hour is not yet come," John ii. 4-which man is no competent judge of. I will do this miracle, but the hour is not yet come wherein it will be most beautiful. God hath as much wisdom in fixing the time of the performance of his promise, as he had mercy at first to make it. How presumptuous would it not be for a shallow world, a thing worse than nothing and vanity, to prescribe rules to the Creator; much more for a single person, a little atom of dust, infinitely worse than nothing, and vanity, to do it! Since we had no hand in creating the world or ourselves, let us not presume to direct God in the government of it. "Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? declare, if thou hast understanding," Job xxxviii. 4. Would it not be a disparagement to God to stoop to thy foolish desires? Yea, would you not yourselves have a lower conceit of him, if he should degrade his wisdom, to the wrong bias of your blind reason?

5. Submit to Providence. It is God's right to govern

We must walk

the world, and dispose of his own creatures; it is his glory in heaven to do what he will, Psalm cxv. 3. Let us not by our unsubmissive carriage, deprive him of the same glory on earth; he brings to pass his will by ways the creature cannot understand. by the rule of reason which God hath given us for our guide; yet if Providence bring to pass any event contrary to our rational expectations, because it is a clear evidence of his will, we must acquiesce. As when a traveller hath two ways to come to his journey's end, the one safe, the other dangerous, reason persuades him to choose the safe way, wherein he falls among thieves; now having used his reason, which in that case was to be his director, he must acquiesce: God's providence bringeth forth an event, which he could not without violence to his reason avoid. And therefore, it is great folly when a man hath resolved the most probable way in a business, and fails in it, to torment himself, because though our consultations depend upon ourselves, yet the issues of them are solely in the hand of God, Prov. xvi. 9. It concerns us therefore, to submit to God's disposal of us and our affairs, since nothing can come to pass but by the will of God effecting it, or permitting it. If the fall of a sparrow is not without his will, Matt. x. 29, much less can the greater events which befal men, the nobler creatures, be without the same concurrence of God's pleasure.

Therefore, submit-for

1. Whatsoever God doth, he doth wisely; his acts are not sudden or rash, but acts of counsel-not taken up upon the present posture of things, but the resolves of eternity. As he is the highest wisdom, so all his acts are imbued with it, and he guides his will by counsel. "Who worketh all things after the counsel of his own

will," Eph. i. 11. If God took counsel in creating the world, much more in laying the foundation of government-much more in the act of government: for men can frame models of government, that can never reduce them into practice. Now, God being infinitely wise, and his will infinitely good, it must needs be, that goodness and wisdom are the rules whereby he directs himself in his actions in the world. And what greater motive can there be to persuade us to submission, than wisdom and goodness transacting all things? God's counsel being the firmest, as well as the wisest, it is folly both ways to resist it.

2. God discovers his mind to us by Providence. Every work of God being the result of his counsel, when we see it actually brought forth into the world, what else does it discover to us but that counsel and will of his ?

Every single providence hath a language wherein God's mind is signified, much more a train and contexture of them-"Tell John what things ye have seen and heard; how that the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, to the poor the gospel is preached," Luke vii. 22. Our Saviour informs John's disciples from acts of providence; he gives them no other answer, but turns them over to interpret and construe his works in the case. Providence, therefore, must not be resisted when God's mind in it is discovered; it is disingenuous to act against his pleasure and manifest mind;—it is the Devil's sin. Aaron, when he lost his two sons in so judicial a manner, by fire from heaven, yet held his peace, Lev. x. 1-3; because God had declared his mind positively-"I will be glorified." It is dangerous to resist the mind of God; for the word of his providence shall prosper, in spite of men and devils. "My word that goeth forth of my mouth,

shall not return unto me void; it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it," Isaiah lv. 11; and, therefore, a resisting of it, is termed a fighting against God, by Gamaliel no great friend to the church, Acts v. 38, 38, 39.

3. Murmur not at Providence. Though we do not clearly resist it, if there be a repining submission, it is a partial opposition to the will of God. We might as well murmur at God's creation, as at his providence, for the one is as arbitrary as the other. He is under no law but his righteous will: we should leave therefore the government of the world to God's wisdom, as we acknowledge the frame of it to be an act of his power. Let God govern the world according to his own wisdom and will-till all mankind can agree in one method to offer to him; and that I think will never be, though the world should last for ever. Murmur not then: whatever is done in the world is the work of a wise agent, who acts for the perfection of the whole universe; and why should I murmur at that which promotes the common happiness and perfection, that being better and more desirable than the perfection of any one particular person? Must a musician break all his strings because one is out of tune? And must God change his course because things are out of order with one man, though in regard of Divine Providence things are not out of order in themselves, for God is a God of order? This temper will hinder our prayers. With what face can we pray to that God whose wisdom we repine at? If God do exercise a providence in the world, why do we murmur? If he do not take care, why do we pray to him? It is a contradiction. It also hinders us from giving God the glory and ourselves the comfortable sight of his providence. God may have taken something from us, which is the matter of our sorrow, and given another thing to

us which might be the matter of our joy. What advantage can it be to murmur ? Can all your cries stop the motion of the heavens? Can your clamours make the clouds move faster? Can they persuade the showers from drenching us? Murmuring at any afflictive providence is the sure way to make the rod smarter in itself, and sharper to us.

4. Study Providence. It is a part of atheism not to think the acts of God in the world worth our serious thoughts. And if you would know the meaning of his administrations, grow up in the fear of God. "The secret of the Lord is with them that fear him," Psalm xxv. 14. God is highly angry with those that mind him not-" Because they regard not the operation of his hands; he shall destroy them, and not build them up,' Psalm xxviii. 5. He shall utterly root them out.

5. Ascribe the glory of every providence to God. Abraham's steward petitioned God at the beginning of his business, Gen. xxiv. 12; and he blesses God at the success of it, ver. 26, 27. We do not thank the tools which are used in making an engine, and ascribe to them what we owe to the workman's skill: man is but the instrument, God's wisdom is the artist. Let us therefore return the glory of all where it is most rightly due. All the providences of God in the world. are conformable to the declarations of his word. All former providences were ultimately in order to the bringing a mediator into the world, and for the glory of him ; then, surely, all the providences of God shall be in order to the perfecting the glory of Christ in that mystical body, whereof Christ is head, and wherein his affection and glory are so much concerned. See the proof of this by a scripture or two:-"All the paths of the Lord are mercy and truth, unto such as keep his covenant and his