4. In securing them against future straits. For God's disappointing
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
discouragement to them, and those of the like temper, to renew the like attempt; but if they do, it is an evidence they shall meet with the like success; it is the highest vexation to see their projects diverted, when they have lighted their match, and are ready to give fire. Men may better take notice how God loves his people, when he apprehends their adversaries in the very pinnacle of their pride, and flings them down from the mount of their hopes. It doth not only dash the present designs, but dishearten future attempts. The Egyptians, after their overthrow at the Red Sea, never attempted to disturb them in their journey in the wilderness. It was a bridle to all their enemies except Amalek, upon whose country they travelled in the wilderness, when it was the interest of state in all those nations to rout that swarm of people that must have some seat to dwell in; and every nation might justly fear to be dispossessed by them; yet we read of no league among those nations bordering upon the wilderness, such a terror did God strike into them by that relief he gave his people in their extremity at the Red Sea, whereby he provided for their future security in their whole journey. It was this melted the hearts of the Gibeonites, one of the nations of Canaan, and brought them to a submission to Joshua, as the sentiment of all their neighbours: Josh. 9:9, 'We are come, because of the name of the Lord thy God; for we have heard the fame of him, and all that he did in Egypt.' And for this and other reasons it may be, that the times before the church's last deliverance shall be sharper than any before, which our Saviour intimates, Mat. 24:21, 'For then there shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world, no, nor ever shall be.' In discoursing his disciples of the troubles at the destruction of Jerusalem, which was a type of the trouble preceding the end of the world, he adds a discourse of what shall be at the end of the world, in the last attempt of the enemies of the church; for, ver. 29, he saith, 'immediately after the tribulation of those days,' he speaks of his coming in the clouds of heaven with great power and glory. And also in the Revelation: Rev. 16:18, 'And there was a great earthquake, such as was not since men were upon the earth, so mighty an earthquake, and so great.' This, perhaps, at the pouring out of the seventh vial, may concern the Christian church
as well as the antichristian party. But the reason why it may be sharper just before that last deliverance, than it was in former ages, may be because it is the last effort the enemy shall make; the last demonstration of God's power and wisdom for, and care of his church, and justice upon his enemies in such cases; the last season for their multiplying their cries, and acting their faith for such a concern.
Use 3. Of exhortation.
If it be so, that the providence of God is chiefly designed for the good of the church,— First, Fear not the enemies of the church. It is a wrong to God. Fear of man is always attended with a forgetfulness of God: Isa. 51:12, 13,
'I, even I, am he that comforteth you: who art thou, that art afraid of a man that shalt die, and of the son of man that shalt be made as grass: and forgettest the Lord thy Maker, who hath stretched forth the heavens,' &c. It is to value the power of grass above the power of the Creator, as though that had more ability to hurt than God to help.
As if men were as strong as mountains, and God as weak as a bulrush. It is a wrong to his truth; hath he not comforted you in his promise? What creature should then deject you? It is a wrong to his mercy. Is he not the Lord thy Maker? Calvin refers this to regeneration, and not creation. Hath he not renewed you by his
Spirit? and will he not protect you by his strength? and that you may not question his power, look up to the heavens which he hath stretched out, and the foundations of the earth which he hath laid.
And is that arm which hath done such mighty works, too weak to defend that work, which is choicer in his eye than either the extended heaven or the established earth? We vilify God, and defile his glory, when our fear of man's power stifles our faith in God: Isa. 8:12, 13,
'Neither fear you their fear, nor be afraid: sanctify the Lord of Hosts himself, and let him be your fear.' Let the wicked fear the Assyrians, and engage in confederacies against them; but let your eyes be lifted up to me and my providence. God will either turn away the mouth of