3. In fitting them by the extremity for a holy reception of the mercy
did barely by an arm of power, but what he did by a vastness of affection, and as a God of truth and firmness in his covenant.
3. In fitting them by the extremity for a holy reception of the mercy intended.
God keeps up the distress of his church to expel self-confidence.
Trust in earthly things are the great checks of God's kindness. We hardly forsake this temper till we are forsaken by all those things we confide in. Times of extremity make us more humble; and humility, like the plough, fits us for the seed of mercy. The gardener's digging up the clods is but to prepare the earth for the receiving and nourishing some excellent plants he intends to put into its womb.
There is a certain set time for God's great actions. He lets the powers of darkness have their hour, and God will take his hour: Ps. 102:13,
'Thou shalt arise and have mercy upon Sion: for the time to favour her, yea, the set time, is come.' He hath a set time for the discovery of his mercy, and he will not stay a jot beyond it. What is this time? ver.
9, &c. When they 'eat ashes like bread, and mingle their drink with weeping;' when they are most humble, and when the servants of God have more affection to the church; when their humble and ardent affections are strong, even to the ruin and rubbish of it; when they have a mighty desire and longing for the reparation of it, as the Jews in captivity had for the very dust of the temple: ver. 14, 'For thy servants take pleasure in her stones, and favour the dust thereof.' For there notes it to be a reason why the set time was judged by them to be come. That is God's set time when the church is most believing, most humble, most affectionate to God's interest in it, and most sincere. Without faith we are not fit to desire mercy, without humility we are not fit to receive it, without affection we are not fit to value it, without sincerity we are not fit to improve it. Times of extremity contribute to the growth and exercise of those qualifications.
4. In securing them against future straits. For God's disappointing enemies when they think themselves sure of all, is the highest