strength and importunity; he puts them off, that they may put on
vexing, and fretting, the Lord will not own them, but reckon them as
bastards, and no sons, Heb. 12:8
[2.] Secondly, That they may have the greater experience of his
power, grace, love, and mercy in the close. Christ loved Martha, and
her sister, and Lazarus, yet he defers his coming for several days, and
Lazarus must die, be put in the grave, and lie there till he stinks. And
why so, but that they might have the greater experience of his power,
grace, and love towards them? John 11:3, 5, 6, 17.
[3.] Thirdly, To sharpen his children's appetite, and to put a greater
edge upon their desires; to make them cry out as a woman in travail,
or as a man that is in danger of drowning, Cant. 3:1–4; Isa. 26:8, 9,
16. God delays, that his people may set upon him with greater
strength and importunity; he puts them off, that they may put on
with more life and vigour; God seems to be cold, that he may make
us the more hot; he seems to be slack that he may make us the more
earnest; he seems to be backward, that he may make us the more
forward in pressing upon him. The father delays the child, that he
may make him the more eager, and so doth God his, that he may
make them the more divinely violent. When Balaam had once put off
Balak, 'he sent again,' saith the text, 'certain princes more, and more
honourable than they,' Num. 22:15. Balaam's put-offs did but make
Balak the more importunate, it did but increase and whet his desires.
This is that that God aims at by all his put-offs, to make his children
more earnest, to whet up their spirits, and that they may send up
more and yet more honourable prayers after him, that they may cry
more earnestly, strive more mightily, and wrestle more
importunately with God, and that they may take heaven with a more
sacred violence. Anglers draw back the hook, that the fish may be the
more forward to bite; and God sometimes seems to draw back, but it
is only that we may press the more on. And therefore, as anglers,
when they have long waited, and perceive that the fish do not so
much as nibble at the bait, yet do they not impatiently throw away
the rod, or break the hook and line, but pull up, and look upon the
bait and mend it, and so throw it in again, and then the fish bites: so
when a Christian prays, and prays, and yet catches nothing, God
seems to be silent, and heaven seems to be shut against him; yet let
him not cast off prayer, but mend his prayer; pray more believingly,
pray more affectionately, and pray more fervently, and then the fish
will bite, then mercy will come, and comfort will come, and
deliverance will come. But,
[4.] Fourthly, God delays and puts off his people many times, that lie
may make a fuller discovery of themselves to themselves. Few
Christians see themselves and understand themselves. 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? Ezek. 24:6. I have read of a fool, who being
left in a chamber, and the door locked when he was asleep; after he
awakes, and finds the door fast and all the people gone, he cries out
at the window, O myself, 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 froward
self, &c.? We are very apt, saith Seneca, utimur perspicillis magis
quam speculis, to use spectacles to behold other men's 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,
Ps. 73:11, 12. 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.] Fifthly, 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 that we obtain
with greatest difficulty. What we dearly buy, that we highly prize,
Acts 21:8, Cant. 3:4. 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, works
more like a mercy, and it endears the heart to God more like a mercy
than any other mercy that a man enjoys.
This is the child, said Hannah,—after God had long delayed her,—for
which I prayed, and the Lord hath given me my petition which I
asked of him, 1 Sam. 1:27. 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] Sixthly, The Lord delays his people, that he may pay them home
in his own coin. God sometimes loves to retaliate, Prov. 1:23, 33. The
spouse puts off Christ: Cant. 5:3, 'I have put off my coat, how can I
put it on?' &c.; and Christ puts her off, ver. 5–8. Thou hast put off
God from day to day, from month to month, yea, from year to year;
and therefore, if God put thee off from day to day, or 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 off him days
without number? If God serves thee as thou hast often served him,
thou hast no reason to complain. But,
[7.] Seventhly, and 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; here they knock and bounce, 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 enjoined.2 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 noway 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.
Directions
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.) First, All the afflictions that come upon the saints, they are the
fruits of divine love. Rev. 3:19, 'As many as I love, I rebuke and
chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent;' Heb. 12:6, 'For whom the
Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he
receiveth;' Job 5:17, 'Behold! happy is the man whom God correcteth;
therefore despise not thou the chastening of the Almighty;' chap.
7:17, 18, 'What is man, that thou shouldest magnify him? and that
thou shouldest set thine heart upon him? And that thou shouldest
visit him every morning, and try him every moment?' Isa. 48:10,
'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. 'Why should you be smitten any more? you will revolt
more and more,' Isa. 1:5. 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
unhappinesss not to know adversity; I judge you to be miserable,