By delays, God discovers much of a man's sinful self, to his religious self; much of his worser part, to his better part; of his ignoble part, to his most noble part. When the fire is put under the pot, then the scum appears; so when God delays a poor soul, Oh! how doth the scum of pride, the scum of murmuring, the scum of quarrelling, the scum of distrust, the scum of impatience, the scum of despair, discover itself in the heart of a poor creature? I have read of a fool, who being left in a chamber, and the door locked, when he was asleep, after he wakes, and finds the door fast, and all the people gone, he cries out at the window, O myself! O myself! O myself! So when God shuts the door upon his people, when he delays them, and puts them off, ah! what cause have they to cry out of themselves, to cry out of proud self, and worldly self, and carnal self, and foolish self, and forward self, &c. We are very apt, saith Seneca, to use spectacles to behold other mens faults, rather than looking-glasses to behold our own: but now God's delays are as a looking-glass in which God gives his people to see their own faults. Oh! that baseness, that vileness, that wretchedness, that sink of filthiness, that gulf of wickedness, that God by delays discovers to be in the hearts of men. But, 5. God delays and puts off his people, to enhance, to raise the price of mercy, the price of deliverance. We usually set the highest price, the greatest esteem upon such things as we obtain with the greatest difficulty; what we dearly buy, that we highly prize; the more sighs, tears, weepings, waitings, watchings, strivings, and earnest longings, this mercy, and that deliverance, and the other favour costs us, the more highly we shall value them: when a delayed mercy comes, it tastes more like a mercy, it sticks more like a mercy, it warms more like a mercy, it works more like a mercy, and it endears the heart to God like a mercy, more than any other mer cy that a man enjoys. "This is the child (saith Hannah, after God had long delayed her) for which I prayed, and the Lord hath given me my petition which I asked of him." Delayed mercy is the cream of mercy; no mercy, so sweet, so dear, so precious to a man, as that which a man hath gained after many put-offs. Mr Glover the martyr sought the Lord earnestly and frequently for some special mercies, and the Lord delayed him long; but when he was even at the stake, then the Lord gave in the mercies to him, and then, as a man overjoyed, he cries out to his friend, He is come, he is come! But, 6. The Lord delays his people, that he may pay them home in their own coin; God sometimes loves to retaliate. The spouse puts off Christ, Cant. v. 2. "I have put off my coat, how can I put it on ?" &c. and Christ puts her off, ver. 5, 6, 7, 8. Thou hast put off God from day to day, or from month to month, yea, from year to year; and therefore, if God puts thee off from day to day from year to year, hast thou any cause to complain? Surely no. Thou hast often and long put off the motions of his Spirit, the directions of his word, the offers of his grace, the entreaties of his Son; and therefore what can be more just, than that God should delay thee for a time, and put thee off for a season, who hast delayed him, and put him off days without number? If God serves thee, as thou hast often served him, thou hast no reason to complain. But, 7. Lastly, The Lord delays his people, that heaven may be the more sweet to them at last. Here they meet with many delays, and with many put-offs; but in heaven they shall never meet with one put-off, with one delay; here many times they call and cry, and can get no answer, Lam. iii. 8-14. Here they knock, and yet the door of grace and mercy opens not to them; but in heaven they shall have mercy at the first word, at the first knock; there, whatever heart can wish, shall without delay be enjoyed. Here God seems to say sometimes, Souls, you have mistaken the door, or I am not at leisure, or others must be served before you, or come some other time, &c. But in heaven God is always at leisure, and all the sweetness, and blessedness, and happiness of that state presents itself every hour to the soul there. God hath never, God will never say to any of his saints in heaven, Come to-morrow; such language the saints sometimes hear here, but such language is no-wise suitable to a glorified condition; and - therefore seeing that the Lord never delays his people, but upon great and weighty accounts, let his people be silent before him, let them not mutter nor murmur, but be mute; and so I have done with the objections. I shall come now in the last place, to propound some helps and directions, that may contribute to the silencing and stilling of your souls under the greatest afflictions, the sharpest trials, and the saddest providences that you meet with in this world, and so close up this discourse. 1. All the afflictions that come upon the saints, they are the fruits of divine love, Rev. iii. 19. "As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten; be zealous, therefore, and repent." Heb. xii. 6. "For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth." Job v. 17. "Behol dhappy is the man whom God correcteth; therefore despise not thou the chastening of the almighty." Chap. vii. 17, 18. "What is man that thou shouldst magnify him? and that thou shouldst set thine heart upon him? and that thou shouldst visit him every morning; and try him every moment?" Isa. xlviii. 10. " Behold, I have refined thee, but not with silver; I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction." When Munster lay sick, and his friends asked him how he did, and how he felt himself? he pointed to his sores and ulcers, (whereof he was full,) and said, These are God's gems and jewels wherewith he decketh his best friends, and to me they are more precious than all the gold and silver in the world. A gentleman highly prizes his hawk, he feeds her with his own hand, he carries her upon his fist, he takes a great deal of delight and pleasure in her; and therefore he puts vervels upon her legs, and a hood upon her head; he hoodwinks her, and fetters her, because he loves her, and takes delight in her: so the Lord by afflictions hoodwinks and fetters his children, but all is, because he loves them, and takes delight and pleasure in them. There cannot be a greater evidence of God's hatred and wrath, than his refusing to correct men for their sinful courses and vanities: Hos. iv. 14, 19. Ezek. xvi. 42. "Why should you be smitten any more? you will revolt more and more," Isa. i. 5. Where God refuses to correct, there God resolves to destroy; there is no man so near the axe, so near the flames, so near hell, as he whom God will not so much as spend a rod upon. God is most angry, where he shews no anger. Jerome, writing to a sick friend, hath this expression, I account it a part of unhappiness not to know adversity; 1 judge you to be miserable, because you have not been miserable. Nothing, (saith another,) seems more unhappy to me, than he to whom no adversity hath happened. God afflicts thee, O Christian, in love; and therefore Luther cries out, Strike, Lord, Strike, Lord, and spare not. Who can seriously muse upon this, and not hold his peace, and not be silent under the most smarting rod? |