ither weighs them down with discouragement, or lifteth them
up with vanity and lightness of mind; but the believer's privilege is to
be unmoved in the midst of all the tossings and confusions of the times,
Psal. cxxviii. 1, 2. Ye would be as mount Zion if ye trusted in God; no
dispensation would enter into the soul to cast the balance upon you; ye
might stand upon your rock Jesus Christ, and look about the estates,
persons, affairs, and minds of men, as a troubled sea, fleeting, tossed up
and down, and ye stand and not be moved, or not greatly moved, Psal. lxii.
2. And this is to be wise indeed. If I would describe a wise man, I would
say, he "is one man," beside him no man is one with himself, but various,
inconstant, changeable. He is unwise who is unlike himself, who changeth
persons according to dispensations: wisdom is the stability of thy times,
and faith is wisdom. It establisheth as mount Zion, so as a man cometh out
still one,--in prosperity not exalted, in adversity not cast down, in every
estate content; and this is the man who is blessed indeed. This were
wisdom,--to will the same thing, and nill(294) the same thing. _Semper idem
velle, atque idem nolle._(295) I need not, says Seneca, add that
exception, that it be right which you desire, for no one thing can
universally and always please, if it be not good and right; so I say, he
were both wise and happy, who had but one grief and one joy. Should not a
believer's mind be calm and serene, seeing the true light hath shined; it
should be as the upper world, where no blasts, no storms or clouds are to
eclipse the sun, or cloud it. While our peace and tranquillity is borrowed
from outward things, certainly it must change; but a believer's peace and
tranquillity of mind, having its rise from above, from the unchangeable
word of the Lord, it needeth not to change according to the vicissitudes
of providence. He needeth not to care beforehand, because there is one who
careth for him; and what needeth both to care? He needeth not be
disquieted or troubled after, because it shall turn about to his good; all
things shall do so, Rom. viii. 28. He needeth not be anxious about future
events, because he hath all his burden cast upon another by prayer and
supplication. What needeth he then take a needless burden? Prayer will do
that which care pretends and cannot do, and that without trouble. He
needeth not be troubled when things are present, for he cannot by his
thought eith