I.

SERM. Happiness unto them) lend a favourable. Ear to the Prayers and Petitions of those who put their Trust in him, and answer their Requests? Where do we find an earthly Father fo hard-hearted, and void of natural Affection, as to give his Chil dren a Stone, when they cry for Bread, and shall our heavenly Father be less kind and indulgent towards us his Off-spring? He that takes Care of the Birds of the Air, and provides them their Meat in due Seafon, he that waters the Lillies of the Field, will not he take Care of his Favourite Creature Man? He must be of little Faith, indeed, who can believe this.

To trust in God is therefore our Duty, and not only fo, but to trust in him alone, because Truft is an Act of Divine Worfhip; it fuppofes its Object both omnifcient and omnipotent, that he knows all our Wants, and has Power to fupply them, which are the incommunicable Attributes of God alone. And, therefore, the holy Angels, themselves, can claim no Right to our Trust: For though they are glorious Beings, and move in a fuperior Orb, yet they are but miniftering Spirits, and attend continually to execute the Will of the great Governor of the World; Rev. xix. thus we read, that when John fell down before

before the Angel (which was the Pofture SERM. of Worship in the Eastern Nations) the I. Angel restrained him from worshipping him: And I fell at his Feet to worship him, and he faid unto me, See thou do it not: I am thy Fellow-fervant, and of thy Brethren that have the Teftimony of Jefus ; And then he directs him whom to worfhip, Worship God. Truft, therefore, being an Act of Divine Worship, must be terminated in God; and, indeed, it would be the most egregious Folly, as well as Irreligion, to place our Trust in any other Being befides God: Because all other Beings are only the Means and Inftruments which God makes Use of, to bring about the wife Defigns of his Providence, There is, indeed, a civil Truft which may be placed on the Arm of Flesh, as when a Man relies on the Honefty and Fidelity of his Friend; but this is only mediately, and ought not to be terminated in him; we must not fo trust to the most faithful Friend, as to forget God, whofe Workmanship we are, and in whofe Hands are the Counfels of Princes, and he turns them wherefoever he pleases, as he turns the Rivers of Water; for the most faithful Friends may, and often do, deceive us: But God, who is Truth itself, neither

can

15.

17.

SERM. can nor will fail those who put their Trust in I. him; the most tender Mother may unlearn natural Affection, and put off the Bowels of a Parent, but God will never forget those who place themselves under Ifa. xlix. his Protection. In him there is no Variablenefs, nor fo much as Τροπῆς ἀποσκίασμα, τ Jam. i. Shadow of turning; and therefore, when we depend upon the Power, Wisdom, or Fidelity of Man, we must not do it abfolutely, but with respect to the first Caufe, and the Divine Permiffion and Affiftance and then we cannot be ; properly faid to truft in Man, as in that God, who has given thofe good Gifts unto Men, that they may be more beneficial and useful to their Brethren.

THUS I have, in fome Measure, explained the Nature of this Duty of trusting in God; which will more plainly ap pear by confidering the

III. THING remarkable in the Text, the Time when we ought more particularly to exercise this Duty of trufting in God; it is when we walk in Darkness, and have no Light, i. e. when we are in any great Peril or Danger, and have nothing else to fupport and comfort us, as, in a Day of Affliction, a Day of Temptation, a Day of Death, and a Day of Judgment;

at

at fuch Times as thefe we ought more SERM, particularly to trust in the Lord, and to stay I. ourselves upon our God; and that more especially for these two Reasons.

1. BECAUSE there is required an extraordinary Measure of God's Grace to fupport and affift us, at fuch a Time as this.

2. BECAUSE we are most apt to diftruft God, when we lie under the greatest Calamities.

First, BECAUSE there is required an extraordinary Measure of God's Grace, at fuch a Time as this, to fupport and affift us; we are never free from Afflictions and Troubles, Croffes and Difappointments, which conftantly attend us, in this Vale of Tears; but at these Times, when the Burthen of them lies most heavy upon us, then we ought, in a more particular Manner, to exercise this Duty of Truft and Dependence upon God: Thus when Daniel was caft into the Den of Lions, the three Children into the fiery Furnace, they trufted in God, and he delivered them; when our bleffed Saviour underwent the painful and ignominious Death of the Crofs, and the Wrath of God for the Sins of the whole World ; that which fupported him was his Trust

in

I.

Matt.

xxvii. 43.

SERM. in God, as you may find it objected a gainst him by his remorfelefs Adverfaries, He trufted in God, let him deliver him if be will have him. Truft is that Anchor of the Soul, which keeps it fixed and fteady, notwithstanding all the Rage and Violence of the bluftering Winds and foaming Sea.

14.

Secondly, A GOOD Man ought to exercife this Duty of trusting in God, more particularly in a Day of Affliction, because, at fuch a Time as this, he is most apt to diftruft God and his Providence. This was Pfa. Ixxiii. the Cafe of David, when he reflected on his own Sufferings, and confidered that he was plagued all the Day long, and chaftened every Morning, whilft the Wicked lived in Profperity, and were not in Trouble like other Men; from hence he rafhly and unadvisedly concludes, that he had wafhed his Hands in Innocency, and cleanfed his Heart in vain. And, that this is frequently our Cafe, every Day's Experience will inform us. For how apt are we to murmur and repine, when God fends the lightest Afflictions upon us, and to charge God foolishly? How apt are we to exprefs the Sentiments of our Minds in fuch Terms as these? What have I done to deferve this Judgment, which has befallen

me?