_Of the temptation to distrust upon the failure of ordinary means.—Of
the power of that temptation, and the reasons of its prevalency.—Of
unwarrantable attempts for relief, with the causes thereof.—Of waiting
on God, and keeping his way.—In what cases a particular mercy is to be
expected._
I have particularly insisted upon the aims of Satan in this temptation
in their variety, and also the cunning connexion and coherences of
them. I have also singled out his chief design. I am now in the last
place to present you with the suitableness and respects that the
subordinate means carry to the principal, and that proportion which may
be found in all these to the end designed by them.
The chief means in reference to the end designed, was a distrust of
providence, and the subordinate means to bring on that distrust, was
the failure of ordinary means of supply: for so he endeavoured to
improve his hunger and want in the wilderness, as a manifest neglect of
providence towards him, for which, as he tacitly suggests, there was no
ground to wait or rely upon it any further, but to betake himself to
another course. Hence note,
_Obs._ 13. _That the failure of ordinary means of help is by Satan
improved as his special engine to bring men to a distrust of
providence, and from thence to an unwarrantable attempt for their
relief in an extraordinary way._
That the failure of ordinary and usual supplies hath by the devil’s
subtlety brought a distrust of providence, and run men beyond all
hopes of help, is a thing commonly and notoriously known. When men
are afflicted, and brought unto unusual straits, and the ordinary
ways of relief are out of sight, they are soon tempted to distrust
God and man; and to conclude they are cut off, and that their ‘hope
is perished,’ and that ‘their eye shall no more see good.’ David
distressed, proclaims ‘all men liars:’ concludes that he should at
last ‘be cut off,’ Ps. cxvi. 11, xxxi. 22. Jonah, in the whale’s
belly, thought that all hope was gone, and that he was cast out of
God’s sight, chap. ii. 4. The church of Israel in captivity, ‘forgot
prosperity,’ notwithstanding the promise of deliverance after seventy
years, and thought no less than that ‘her hope and strength was
perished,’ Lam. iii. 18. And from the scriptures mentioned, we may also
see the strength and prevalency of the temptation, especially when it
is reduced to particulars. As,
(1.) First, _It is not a thing altogether of no weight that such a
temptation should prevail against such persons_; as David and Jonah,
and the whole church of Israel, that the manifold experiences that
some of them have had of God’s faithfulness in delivering, and the
seasonableness of help at times of greatest hazard, the particular
promises that all of them have had—how dismal and black soever things
have seemed—have given the fullest assurances imaginable, that what he
had spoken should certainly be performed; the gracious qualifications
of such persons as eminently holy and skilled in the duties of trust,
and in the ways of providence, and the special advantage which some of
them, as prophets, have had above others, to enable them to improve
that skill, experience, knowledge, and grace, to a firm adherence to
such special promises: that all these things should not be sufficient
to keep them off distrust, though at present the ways of deliverence
were hid from them, seems strange.
(2.) Secondly, It is wonderful _to what a height such a prevailing
temptation hath carried some of them_. David seems to be a little
outrageous, and did upon the matter call God ‘a liar,’ when he said,
‘All men are liars;’ which however that some interpret[392] as if it
had been David’s trust in God, and his confident avouchment of his
enemies’ prognostications of his ruin, to be but lies, and that this he
spake from his firm belief of the promise, ‘I believed, therefore have
I spoken;’ yet the acknowledgment of his ‘haste,’ which, compared with
Ps. xxxi. 22, is declared as his weakness, will force us to conclude
it an ingenuous confession of his distrust at the first, when he was
greatly afflicted, though he recovered himself afterwards to a belief
of the promise; and that in that distemper he plainly reflected upon
Samuel, and calls the promises of God given by him ‘a very lie.’
(3.) Thirdly, It is strange also _that present instances of God’s
providences working out unexpected deliverances should not relieve
the hearts of his saints from the power of such distrust_; that when
they see God is not unmindful of them, but doth hear them in what they
feared, they should still retain in their minds the impression of an
unbelieving apprehension; and not rather free themselves from their
expectations of future ruin by concluding, that he that hath and doth
deliver will also yet deliver. David had this thought in his heart,
that he should ‘one day perish by the hand of Saul,’ 1 Sam. xxvii. 1,
even then when God had so remarkably rescued him from Saul, and forced
Saul not only to acknowledge his sin in prosecuting him, but also to
declare his belief of the promise concerning David. See chap. xxvi. One
would have expected that this should have been such a demonstration
of the truth of what had been promised, that he should cast out all
fear; and yet, contrariwise, this pledge of God’s purpose to him is
received by a heart strongly prepossessed with misgiving thoughts, and
he continues to think that for all this Saul would one day destroy him.
(4.) Fourthly, _The pangs of this distrust are also so remarkable, that
after they have been delivered, and have found that the event hath
not answered their fears, they have in the review of their carriage
under such fears, recounted this their weakness among other remarkable
things_, thereby shewing the unreasonableness of their unbelief, and
their wonder that God should pass by so great a provocation, and
notwithstanding so unexpectedly deliver them. David in the places
before cited was upon a thankful acknowledgment of God’s love and
wonderful kindness, which be thought he could not perform without
leaving a record of his strange and unworthy distrust; as if he had
said, ‘So greatly did I sin, and so unsuitably did I behave myself,
that I then gave off, and concluded all was lost.’
To open this a little further, I shall add the reasons why Satan
strikes in with such an occasion as the want of means to tempt to
distrust, which are these:—
[1.] First, _Such a condition doth usually transport men beside
themselves_; puts them, as it were, into an ecstacy, and by a
sudden rapture of astonishment and fear, forceth them beyond their
settled thoughts and purposes. This David notes as the ground of his
inconsiderate rash speaking: ‘It was my haste,’ I was transported,
&c. Now as passion does not only make men speak what otherwise they
would not, but also to put bad interpretations upon actions and things
beyond what they will bear, and hasten men to resolves exceedingly
unreasonable; so doth this state of the heart, under an amazement and
surprise of fear, give opportunity to Satan to put men to injurious
and unrighteous thoughts of the providence of God, and by such ways to
alienate their minds from the trust which they owe him.
[2.] Secondly, _Sense is a great help to faith_. Faith then must needs
be much hazarded when sense is at a loss or contradicted, as usually it
is in straits.
That faith doth receive an advantage by sense, cannot be denied. To
believe what we see, is easier than to believe what we see not; and
that in our state of weakness and infirmity God doth so far indulge us,
that by his allowance we may take the help of our senses, is evident
by his appointment of the two sacraments, where by outward visible
signs our faith may be quickened to apprehend the spiritual benefits
offered. Thomas, resolving to suspend his belief till he were satisfied
that Christ was risen, by the utmost trial that sense could give,
determining not to credit the testimony of the rest of the disciples
till by putting his finger into his side he had made himself more
certain, Christ not only condescended to him, but also pronounceth
his approbation of his belief, accepting it, that he had believed
because he had seen. But when outward usual helps fail us, our sense,
being not able to see afar off, is wholly puzzled and overthrown.
The very disappearing of probabilities gives so great a shake to our
faith that it commonly staggers at it; and therefore was it given as
the great commendation of Abraham’s faith, that he, notwithstanding
the unlikelihood of the thing, ‘staggered not at the promise;’ noting
thereby how extraordinary it was in him at that time to keep up against
the contradiction of sense, and how usual it is with others to be
beaten off all trust by it. It is no wonder to see that faith, which
usually called sense for a supporter, to fail when it is deprived of
its crutch. And he that would a little understand what disadvantage
this might prove to a good man when sense altogether fails his
expectation, he may consider with himself in what a case Thomas might
have been if Christ had refused to let him see his side, and to thrust
his finger into the print of the nails. In all appearance, had it been
so, he had gone away confirmed in his unbelief.
[3.] Thirdly, _Though faith can act above sense, and is employed
about things not seen, yet every saint at all times doth not act his
faith so high_. Christ tells us that to believe where a man hath not
had the help of sight and sense, is noble and blessed, John xx. 29;
yet withal, he hints it to be rare and difficult: ‘he that hath not
seen, and yet hath believed,’ implies that it is but one amongst many
that doth so, and that it is the conquest of a more than ordinary
difficulty. Hence it is, that to love God when he kills, to believe
when means fail, are reckoned among the high actings of Christianity.
[4.] Fourthly, _When sense is nonplussed, and faith fails, the soul of
man is at a great loss_. Having nothing to bear it up, it must needs
sink; but having something to throw it down, besides its own propensity
downward to distrust, it hath the force of so great a disappointment
to push it forward; and such bitterness of spirit, heightened by the
malignant influence of Satan, that with a violence like the angel’s
throwing a millstone into the sea, it is cast into the bottom of
such depths of unbelief, that the knowledge of former power and
extraordinary providences cannot keep it from an absolute denial of
the like for the future. Israel in the wilderness, when they came to
the want of bread, though they acknowledged he ‘clave the rock,’ and
gave them water in the like strait, yet so far did their hearts fail
of that due trust in the power and mercy of God, which might have been
expected, that though they confessed the one, they as distrustfully
question and deny the other. ‘He clave the rock, but can he provide
flesh? can he give bread?’ [Ps. lxxviii. 20.] Strange unbelief, that
sees and acknowledgeth omnipotency in one thing, and yet denies it in
another!
[5.] Fifthly, _Providence hath been an old question_. It is an atheism
that some have been guilty of, to deny that God ordereth all affairs
relating to his children here below, who yet have not so fully
extinguished their natural impressions as to dare to deny the being of
God. That God is, they confess, but withal they think that he ‘walketh
in the circuit of heaven,’ and as to the smaller concerns of men,
neither doth good nor evil. This being an old error, to which most are
but too inclinable; and the more because such things are permitted—as
the punishment of his children, and their trials, while others have
all their heart can wish—as seem scarce consistent with that love and
care which men look for from him to his servants, they are apt enough
to renew the thoughts of that persuasion upon their minds—for which the
failure of ordinary ways of help seems to be a high probability—that
he keeps himself unconcerned, and therefore there seems to be no such
cause of reliance upon him. The psalmist so expresseth that truth,
‘Men shall say, Verily there is a God that judgeth in the earth,’ [Ps.
lviii. 11;] that it is discovered to be a special retrievement of it,
by many and signal convincing evidences, from that distrust of God and
his providences that men usually slide into upon their observation of
the many seeming failures of outward means of help.
Secondly, The other branch of the observation, _that from a distrust of
providence he endeavours to draw them to an unwarrantable attempt for
their relief_, is as clear as the former. Sarah being under a distrust
of the promise for a son, because of her age, gave her handmaid to
Abraham, that in that way, the promise seeming to fail, she might
obtain children by her, Gen. xvi. 2. David, because of the many and
violent pursuits of Saul, not only distrusted the promise, thinking he
might ‘one day perish’ by him, but resolves to provide for his own
safety by a speedy escape into the land of the Philistines, 1 Sam.
xxvii. 1; a course which, as appears by the temptations and evils he
met with there, was altogether unwarrantable. That from a distrust men
are next put upon unwarrantable attempts, is clear from the following
reasons:—
[1.] First, _The affrightment which is bred by such distrusts of
providences will not suffer men to be idle_. Fear is active, and
strongly prompts that something is to be done.
[2.] Secondly, Yet such is _the confusion of men’s minds in such a
case, that though many things are propounded, in that hurry of thoughts
they are deprived usually of a true judgment and deliberation_, so that
they are oppressed with a multitude of thoughts, as David on the like
occasion takes notice, ‘In the multitude of my thoughts within me,’
&c., [Ps. xciv. 19;] and, as he expresseth the case of seamen in a
storm, ‘they are at their wits’ end.’
[3.] Thirdly, _The despairing grievance of spirit_ makes them take
that which comes next to hand, as a drowning man that grasps a twig or
straw, though to no purpose.
[4.] Fourthly, Being once turned off their rock, and the true stay of
the promise of God for help, _whatever other course they take must
needs be unwarrantable_. If they once be out of the right way, they
must needs wander, and every step they take must of necessity be wrong.
[5.] Fifthly, _Satan is so officious in an evil thing_, that seeing any
in this condition, he will not fail to proffer his help; and in place
of God’s providence, to set some unlawful shift before them.
[6.] Sixthly, And so much the rather do men close in with such
overtures, because a _sudden fit of passionate fury doth drive them,
and out of a bitter kind of despite and crossness_—as if they meditated
a revenge against God for their disappointment—_they take up a hasty
wilful resolve to go that way that seems most agreeable to their
passion_, saying with king Joram, ‘What wait we upon the Lord any
longer for?’ [2 Kings vi. 33.] We will take such a course, let come on
us what will.
_Applic._ The service which the observation, well digested, may perform
for us, is very fully contained in an advice which David gives on the
like occasion, Ps. xxxvii. 34, which is this, ‘Wait on the Lord, and
keep his way.’ Failures of ordinary means should not fill us with
distrust, neither then should we run out of God’s way for help. He that
would practise this must have these three things which are comprehended
in it:—
[1.] First, _He must have full persuasions of the power and promise of
God_. I do not mean the bare hearsay that God hath promised to help,
and that he is able to deliver, but these truths must be wrought upon
the heart to a full assurance of them, and then we must keep our eye
upon them; for if ever we lose the sight of this, when troubles beset
us, our heart will fail us, and we shall do no otherwise than Hagar,
who, when her bottle of water was spent, and she saw no way of supply,
sat down, gave up her son and self for lost and so falls a-weeping over
her helpless condition. This was that sight of God, in regard of his
power, goodness, faithfulness, and truth, which are things invisible,
Heb. xi. 27, which kept up the heart of Moses, that it sunk not under
the pressure of his fears, when all things threatened his ruin.
[2.] Secondly, He that would thus wait upon God _had need to have
an equal balance of spirit in reference to second causes_. Despise
or neglect them he may not, when he may have them, for that were
intolerable presumption; and so to centre our hopes and expectations
upon them, as if our welfare did certainly depend upon them, is a high
affront to God’s omnipotency, and no less than a sinful idolizing of
the creature; but the engagements of our duty must keep carefully to
the first, and the consideration of an independency of an almighty
power, as to any subordinate means or causes, must help us against the
other miscarriage. When all means visible fail us, we must look to
live upon omnipotent faithfulness and goodness, which is not tied to
anything, but that without all means, and contrary to the powers of
second causes, can do what he hath promised or sees fit.
[3.] Thirdly, There is no waiting upon God, and keeping his way,
without _a particular trust in God_. To this we are not only warranted
by frequent commands, ‘Trust in the Lord, I say, trust in the Lord,’
but highly encouraged to it under the greatest assurances of help: Ps.
xxxvii. 5, ‘Trust in him, and he shall bring it to pass.’ ‘Trust in the
Lord and do good, and verily thou shalt be fed,’ ver. 3. The Lord shall
help and deliver them, because they trust in him. And this we are to
do at ‘all times,’ and in the greatest hazards, and with the highest
security: ‘I laid me down and slept; I will not be afraid of ten
thousands of people that have set themselves against me round about,’
Ps. iii. 5, 6.
_Quest._ But some, possibly, may say, Is it our duty to sit still in
such a case? When all the usual ways of supply fail us, must nothing be
attempted?
_Ans._ (1.) I answer, first, _At such times greater care and diligence
is necessary in outward things_. That what one lawful course cannot
help, another lawful course may; and as to spiritual diligence, it
should be extraordinary. We should be more earnest and frequent in
prayer, fastings, meditations, and the exercise of graces.
(2.) Secondly, While we are in the pursuit of duty, and where the
substance of it may be preserved entire, if our straits and wants
unavoidably put us out of the way, _we may be satisfied to go on,
though some circumstances be necessarily waived and hindered_. Phinehas
might kill Zimri and Cosbi upon the command of Moses, Num. xxv. 5;
and consequently in prosecution of duty, though, other circumstances
considered, it was in some respects extraordinary.
(3.) Thirdly, But let the strait be what it will, _we must not forsake
duty_; for so we go out of God’s way, and do contradict that trust and
hope which we are to keep up to God-ward.
_Quest._ But, it may be further urged, must we, when all means fail,
positively trust in God for those very things which we might expect in
an ordinary way?
_Ans._ In some cases our duty is _submission to his will_, and the
particular mercy neither positively to be expected not yet distrusted.
Thus did David behave himself when he fled from Jerusalem upon
Absalom’s rebellion; ‘Let him do what seemeth him good.’
But there are other cases wherein it is our duty to fix our trust upon
the particular mercy or help. I shall name four; and possibly a great
many more may be added. As,
[1.] First, _When mercies are expressly and particularly promised_:
as when the kingdom was promised to David; when a son was promised to
Abraham. Whatever had been the improbabilities of their obtaining the
thing promised, it was their duty positively to believe. This is indeed
not a general case.
[2.] Secondly, _When God leads us into straits by engaging us in his
service_: as when Israel followed the Lord into the wilderness, in
order to an enjoyment of a further mercy, which was the possession
of the land of Canaan. When they had no water to drink, nor food to
eat, and saw no natural possibility of supply in that wilderness, they
ought positively to have expected supplies from God in an extraordinary
way; and it is reckoned up against them as their sin that they did
not believe. This was the very case of Christ under this temptation;
the Spirit led him into the wilderness upon the prosecution of a
further design. When there was no bread there to satisfy his hunger,
he refuseth to work a miracle for his supply, but leans upon an
extraordinary providence.
[3.] Thirdly, _When the things we want are common universal blessings,
and such as we cannot subsist without_. If we have nothing to eat, and
nothing to put on, yet seeing the body cannot live without both, we
must positively expect such supplies from providence, though we see not
the way whence they should arise to us. This kind of distrust, which
reflects upon the general necessary providence of God, by which he is
engaged to preserve his creatures in their stations, ‘to clothe the
grass of the field, to feed the birds of the air,’ &c., Christ doth
severely challenge, ‘Shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little
faith?’ Mat. vi. 30. He hath little or no faith, and in that regard a
very prodigy of distrust, that will not believe for necessaries. Hence,
Hab. iii. 17, the prophet resolves upon a rejoicing confidence in God,
when neither tree, nor field, nor flock would yield any hope in an
ordinary way.
[4.] Fourthly, _When God is eminently engaged for our help, and his
honour lies at stake in that very matter_; so that whether God will
help or no, or whether he is able, is become the controversy, upon
which religion in its truth or the honour of God is to be tried; then
are we engaged to a certain belief of help. The three children upon
this ground did not only assert that ‘God was able to deliver them,’ or
that their death and martyrdom they could bear, which is all that most
martyrs are able to arise up to, but they asserted positively that ‘God
would deliver them,’ and that the fire should not burn them. They saw
evidently that the contest, whether the Lord was God, was managed at
so high a rate, that God was more concerned to vindicate his honour by
their preservation, than to vindicate their grace and patience by their
constancy and suffering, [Dan. iii.] Another instance we have in Mat.
viii. 26, where Christ rebukes his disciples for unbelief, in their
fears of shipwreck in a great storm—not that every seaman ordinarily
lies under that charge, that gives himself up to the apprehensions
of danger—the ground of which charge was this, that Christ was with
them, and consequently it had unavoidably contradicted his design,
and reflected upon his honour, if he had suffered his disciples at
that time to be drowned. Their not minding how far Christ was engaged
with them, and not supporting themselves against their fears by that
consideration, made Christ tax them for their little faith.