Though we believe all that befals us is well, this does not forbid our inquiring into the reasons of God’s providential dispensations, and a searching out the cause for which they come upon us. Every rod hath a voice in it, and the “man of understanding will hear it,” and “see the name of God in it,” Micah vi. 9. what God intends by it, what is his ends and design in it; for he does not afflict willingly, nor grieve the children of men, Lam. iii. 33. There is a “need be” in every dispensation that befals us: 1 Pet. i. 6. “Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season” (if need be) “ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations.” God acts with judgment in proportion to our needs; there is a conveniency and fitness, nay, there is an absolute necessity in the case; it must be that we are in heaviness and that through manifold temptations. One single trial oftentimes will not do, to empty us of self, to wean us from the world, to shew us the vanity of the creature, the sinfulness of sin, &c.; it must be repeated or others joined with it, so fast are our affections glued to the things of time and sense. Now, what this need is in us, what this intention and end is in God, the Christian will and ought to be searching out, and inquiring daily into. This was Job’s frame, (and ye have heard, as says the apostle, of the patience of Job.) Job xxxiv. 31. 32. “Surely it is meet to be said unto God I have borne chastisement, I will not offend any more. That which I see not, teach thou me; if I have done iniquity, I will do no more.” Sin lies deep, it must be searched after in the deep and secret corners of the heart; there is so much self-love and self-flattery hid there, that a man cannot judge aright of himself, or of God without divine teachings.
“ It is meet to be said unto God, I have borne chastisement.” Sirs, it is one thing to be chastised, and another thing to bear chastisement; to behave aright under it; to be patient, submissive, thankful; to have a frame of heart suited to the dispensation, whatever it is. This is to bear chastisement: and wherever this is, the language of the soul will be, “That which I see not teach thou me; I have done iniquity, I will do no more.” When an affliction is sanctified, it always begets godly fear and jealousy. A man is then most afraid of his own heart, lest that should deceive him; lest he should come out of the furnace unpurged, unrefined; lest the end of God’s visitation upon him should be unattained. And this is well consistent with our believing all that God does is well done. Once more,
A soul may say in a becoming frame, and in the exercise of suitable affections, “It is well,” and yet long, and pray, and wait from the trial. Submission to the will of God, under awful dispensations, is not inconsistent with earnest prayer for a gracious and speedy issue to these very dispensations. “It is well,” says this good woman in my text; and yet how does she plead for the life of the child, ver. 28. “Did I desire a son of my lord? Did not I say do not deceive me?” As if she had said, “I asked it not, I could scarce believe it when it was promised me; God raised my expectations himself, he encouraged my hopes, and surely he will not go back from his own word.” It was a wonderful act of faith; but the promises of God can never lie long unfulfilled: when he has prepared the heart to pray, his own ear is open to hear. He has not called himself “I am that I am,” for nothing. Abraham staggered not at the promise through unbelief, no more does the daughter of Abraham here: it is blessed pleading, “Did not I say, do not deceive me?” “May I trust? May I venture? He has given me the faithful word of God to rely on; here my faith resteth.” And a son came in due season. Now she looks to God, the author of the mercy, and applies to the prophet, who was the revealer of it. He sends Gehazi with his staff, but this will not content her, except Elisha goes himself: she knows that he was great with God; she will therefore have his prayers and presence “As the Lord liveth, and as thy soul liveth, I will not leave thee,” ver. 30. All this argues the strong desires of her heart after the return of the child’s life, though still she says, “All is well.” While, we bear chastenings, we may pray, and pray hard that God would take them off. “If it be possible,” (says innocent aggrieved nature in the man Christ,) “let this cup pass from me,” Matthew xxvi. 26. Opening our mouth against God is our sin, but it is our duty to open our mouths and our hearts to him. In the former sense, says David, “I was dumb, I opened not my mouth, because thou didst it,” Psal. xxxix. 9.; and yet, with the same breath, he adds, “Remove thy stroke away from me: I am consumed by the blow of thine hand,” ver. 10. Was a child under the direction of a parent to intimate no desire of his forbearance, should we not rather account him stubborn than submissive? In like manner, not to ask of God release from troubles, is as offensive as to mourn at them. It is the token of a proud heart and a relentless spirit. God expects other things at our hands; even of the wicked he says, “In their affliction they will seek me early;” much more shall his own people, who have known his name, and put their trust in him; who have known the advantage of prayer, and been so often set at liberty by it from all their fears. If these are silent, they cannot be sensible nor submissive. Only in all their prayers, when they are most earnest and vehement, “If it be consistent with the will of God,” and there will be no limiting him as to time or way.
These things are neither of them inconsistent with the soul’s saying, under the most awful rebukes, “All is well.”
Now, what is included in this “well” in my text, or what is this submission to the will of God? It takes in, as I apprehend, these three things:
1. A justifying God in all he does “It is well;” God cannot do amiss; he worketh all things after the counsel of his own will, to the praise of his glory. “And after all that is come upon us,” says the Church, Ezra ix. 13. “thou, our God, hast punished us less than our iniquities deserve; thou hast taken vengeance according to the desert of our sins.” When sin appears to be what it is in itself, exceeding sinful, affliction will appear light, and not till then. Wherefore, says the church, Lam. iii. 39, “wherefore, does a living man complain, for the punishment of his sins?” So long as we are out of hell, God punishes less than our iniquities deserve.
Whatever be our trial, it comes from God: he is the author, whoever be the instrument, therefore, “it is well,” He cannot do iniquity: David had not one word to say, by way of complaint, when he saw God’s hand in the affliction: yea, let him curse, for “the Lord hath bid Shimei curse David,” 2 Sam. xvi. 12. We may puzzle and distress ourselves about instruments and second causes, but no quiet no rest can we have, till we are led to the first. “He performeth the thing appointed for me;” that settles the soul, but nothing else will do it. “Be still and know that I am God,” Psal. xlvi. 10. If thy children are taken, thy substance fails, thy body is sore vexed, thy comforts, and even the presence of thy God leaves thee; yet be still, that is, do not say a word against the dispensation, do not fret, do not censure and condemn Providence. I am God, thy God in all; and a covenant God cannot do amiss. God will be glorified and exalted, that’s enough for us. This, “It is well,” implies in it, not in some things, but in all.
2. This submission implies in it, our approving of all God does; not only it is not amiss, but it is right; it is the best way, the only sure way to bring about our good. Therefore holy Job blesses God in all, chap. i. 21. “Naked came I out of my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return thither: the Lord gave and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.” He had the same great and good thought of God as ever he had; God was his God still, and the God of his mercy. He should have an expected, a desired end; that he believed still, still, because God’s thoughts were the same they ever were; that is thoughts of peace and not of evil. And this is the frame in which we find the poor saints, that were scattered up and down throughout the whole world almost, 1 Pet. i. 6. “who are kept by the power of God through salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time, wherein ye greatly rejoice,” &c. They were far from one another to avoid persecution, it was in their way: but none of these things moved them. There was joy in their expected rest in happiness at last, though there was great pain and heaviness in the way to it: the way was rough, but right; therefore they approved of it, they acquiesced in it; nay, herein “they greatly rejoiced.” Thus the saints of old took joyfully the spoiling of their goods, and were tortured, not accepting deliverance, because they knew in themselves, “that they had in heaven a better and an enduring substance,” Heb. x. 34. O that blessed knowledge! it comforts, refreshes, it fills the soul, and lifts a man above himself.
Every path which God takes is right then and the believer chooses to walk in it: His God, his Father, has marked it out, and nothing goes so against the grain, but that “all is well,” which his Father does: His will is brought to be one with God’s; the soul approves of all God does.