WAITING ON GOD. 409 selves and take a view every one of his own personal provocations. And when we have done so, see what we have to say to God, what we have to complain of: let the sinner speak. Is not God holy, righteous, wise in what he hath done 1 And if he be, why do we not sub- scribe unto his ways, and submit quietly unto his will? 2. But this is not all : we are not only such sinners as to render these dispensations of God evidently holy, these judgments of his righteous, but also to manifest that they are accompanied with unspeakable patience, mercy and grace. To instance in one particular : is it the burning 'of our houses, the spoiling of our goods, the ruin of our estates alone that our sins have deserved1 If God had made the temporary fire on earth to have been to us a way of entrance into the eternal fire of hell, we had nothing of which righteously to complain. May we not then see a mixture of unspeakable patience, grace and mercy in every dispensation ? and shall we then repine against it? Is it not a better advice, " Go and sin no more, lest a worse thing befall thee?" Fora sinner out of hell not to rest in the will of God, nor to humble himself under his mighty hand, is to make him- self guilty of the especial sin of hell. Other sins de- serve hell, but this repining against God is a prominent sin. The church comes to a blessed, quieting resolution in this case, Micah, 7: 9 ; " I will bear the indignation of the Lord, because I have sinned against him ;" bear it quietly, patiently, and submit under his hand. 3. Consider, that of ourselves we are not able to make a right judgment of what is best for us, or what tends most directly to our highest good. "Surely every man walketh in a vain show ;" in the Hebrew, in an image Forgivenose. 18
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