there were no promising evidence of it but rather the contrary 2. Another is saints when stript and emptied of all things do not give over waiting on God because he is not only able if he will to do their turn when all refuge fails them but his owning his people in difficulties is a special part of his glory which he will not give to any other little do we understand the intricacies of Divine Providence little know we wherefore he blasts probabilities and defeats all the expectations of his people but whatever else be in it it is for this chiefly that Himself may be seen to be their Deliverer and none other Therefore he does with them as he did with Gideon's army when he brought them to three hundred and with these three hundred with Trumpets and lamps in pitchers defeat the Midianites Judges 7. That their Delivery might be seen of him And if this were well seen it would give the people of God a comfortable look of God's laying by all second Causes stripping them naked of all helps making Dispensations threaten ruine they would say our Masters feet are behind these this is but a dark hour before the dawning So doth David reason in that forecited Psalm 142.4 5. When he looked on the right and left hand and there was no man that would know him refuge failed him no man cared for his soul What follows I cryed unto thee O Lord I said thou art my refuge and my portion in the land of the living And Psal 94.18 When I said my foot slips thy mercy O Lord held me up When there was nothing betwixt him and ruine but Gods Mercy he found that a present help But 3. The Children of God when stripped of all things but God have ground to wait on God and do wait on him not only because he is able to deliver them and delights to lay by other things that he may be seen in their delivery but whereas guilt is a great impediment and stares the waiter on God in the face that he knows not how to expect good from God till that be removed and taken out of the way yet he waits on God on this account that there is hope in Israel concerning that thing that his guilt shall be no impediment to his delivery or any good thing he wants and is needful for him if he do with it as the Psalmist doth here verse 3 4. If he take with it be humbled for it lay claim to pardoning Mercy in the right method he may notwithstanding say I wait for the Lord There are two notable grounds of encouragement which as they would not be abused so being rightly improven are very useful to waiters on God One is that right taking with guilt and repentance for it after much incorrigibleness is attainable when we have called our selves for any thing we can see in our selves or expect from means reprobat silver yet the Lord can humble and tame that uncircumcised heart Jer. 32.19 He can turn Ephraim who has resisted many means and hath been as a bullock unaccustomed to the yoke Another is that which I am upon guilt taken with and acknowledged needs not hinder a man to wait on God These places that I cited the last day proves it as Isai 8.17 I will wait upon the Lord that hides his face from the house of Jacob and I will look for him Though he be a God that is provocked to withdraw and hide his face yet I will wait on him look for him And Micah 6.7 8. When the Church is low yet she will look to the Lord and will wait for him and wait for the God of his salvation believing her God will hear her and on that ground bids the enemy boast at leisure She answers that Objection concerning guilt that she will bear the indignation of the Lord because she hath sinned she will take with guilt and stoop to his correcting hand till he plead her cause and execute Judgment for her she looks over the mountain of her guilt when she hath taken with it and waits for the Lord. So ye see what is first imported in this waiting for God that the eyes of the waiting man must be taken off all things and set on God only and that these who would wait on God would lay their account to be more and more stript of all things till they be left on God and being so they have good ground to wait on God and the waiter on God taking with guilt and pleading for mercy may in that humble posture wait still for God I proceed to the second thing imported in this waiting on God and that is The waiting man left on God and seeing an all-sufficiency in God to do his turn in the faith of that he so waits for God That is to wait for the Lord when the confidence of Gods help encourages the waiting man in waiting on God to stick closs by the way of God that he will not have a comfort but in his way he will not have a delivery but that which comes with Divine approbation He will not purchase a Delivery of Out-gate with the price of the least sin Why he waits for God in his way Troubles and delays are a great temptation to shake off tenderness the pressure and continuance of the least of troubles are ill counsellors in a waiting posture they will bid run to the leest row to the best shore take any course for an out-gate But he who is a waiter on God indeed his tenderness grows as his trouble grows and as his delays are protracted he studies to be the more tender I shall not insist on this but 1. It is certain a waiter for God should be and in so far as he waits rightly on God he is and will be a tender man as the Word is Psal 37.34 Wait on the Lord and keep his way a waiter on God hath his Ears nailed to the Posts of Divine Direction so that neither to the right nor left hand dare he move but as he hath a warrand from God So Heb. 11.35 There were folks that were tortured not accepting deliverance that they might obtain a better resurrection mark it they were not tortured because deliverance was not granted but because deliverance could not be accepted on sinful Terms when offered The greatness of their trouble did not diminish their tenderness whatever it did augment it if at any time they found tenderness necessary they found it especially when their trouble was great 2. Ye shall mark that as true waiting requires tenderness so tenderness is attainable that is through Grace it is attainable That a Saint waiting on God in his way in a tender frame may attain to go through difficulties without sinning against God It is true temptations to sin will go thick and threefold when a Saint is put to wait for God in continued troubles and meets with temptations delays difficulties and pressures which as I said
by the vanity of what thou seeks after is proclaiming that thy happiness is elsewhere And as I said to them that are put to toil and kept low though they had the things that others have they will not satisfy without God So I repeat it to them that have many things to enjoy and have no satisfaction in them and yet will not sift their minds to see if that be in God which they seek and miss in Creatures they shall never have satisfaction that 's in him only which will satisfy and hold in thy mind from running out on many things And to press this further I shall give you a third word from that which is supposed here that is that change as a man will in time he will find any change still insignificant The weary Shepherds in the night might long for the day but they behoved not to be careless in the day when it came otherways some mischance might befall the Flock These Travellers in those Desarts might think the day sweet in comparison of the dark night and yet they might be set on by Arabian Robbers in the day as well as in the night The Centinel Pardiu's when they were relieved from off the Watch by night knew not but they might lose their life in Battel in the day So that for as eager as men are for changes in time change as men will in time they will find any change they meet with in time still insignificant and this is worth our consideration as Solomon says Eccles 6.10 That which hath been is known already to be man Change as we will we will not get out of time and so will not be free of vanity if we seek an happiness in time let a man shift as he will in time if he carry himself with him he will carry his Cross with him he will carry his unmortified mind though he were in a Paradise of Pleasure that will create a Cross to him Why He is but still in time and there will be dissatisfaction attending any change to that man that seeks a happiness in time I shall say no more of this but were it well studied it would cut short many of our anxious expectations it would bring us to that which Solomon hath Eccles 2.20 though I will not say to Solomons sense that he went about to cause his heart despair of all the labour which he took under the Sun it would make a man â—â—ne hope of satisfaction in any change or lot and discover unto him that he will never find it if it be not in God and therefore whatever his case be and whatever he do as to duty to be better he would labour to find his present condition an out-gate he would think with himself it is but time and change as I will I may be worse and therefore it 's my best if I can to clout up my present condition with the least dissatisfaction may be win at and he that doth so hath made a good bargain Why Shift as he will while he is in time he will find Wormood in his Cup and a Worm at the root of his Gourd which will marr his satisfaction So much to be gathered from that which is alluded to here I shall in the next place having spoken to the substance of the matter on the fifth Verse except what relates to the measure of his affection in waiting give you what the Psalmist proposes here in three words and go briefly through them if the Lord will And 1. See here that the Children of God can never be sure enough that they have that blest measure of patience and affection in waiting for God that they are free of passion haste bitterness and fretfulness upon the one hand and carelessness indifferency and stupidity on the other and yet have their affections engaged and set on that they are waiting for It is not easie I say to win to this and folks can never be sure enough that they are in such a temper and therefore the Psalmist having said v. 5. that he waits for God his soul waits he repeats it again in this vers as a thing that he would be sure of The ground of this is that it 's hard to keep off one of these extreams I named before in waiting for God either a man is ready to turn passionate furious and fretful or if he fall off that extream he is ready to give way to loitering to fall lazy stupid and careless The man that in waiting is not hasty and yet not careless that is affectionate and yet not stupid is a rare man and therefore they that took upon the Saints waiting for God as an easie task they that sleep in or slip in it without difficulty they would look well to it that any waiting they have be not a cheat The Psalmist here finds it needful to look again and again and make it sure that he is waiting A 2d Note I give you from that proposed here that the affection of the patient man in waiting for God should be in some sort suitable to the excellency of the thing he waits for and suitable to his need of it The Psalmist contents not himself to say he is waiting and that his soul is waiting that his affection in waiting is not asleep but he asserts that his affection is screwed up in waiting so that his affection in waiting for God doth far transcend these that wait for the morning and he bides by it and repeats it Ye know how David speaks of his waiting Psal 119.82 Mine eyes fail for thy word saying when wilt thou comfort me He looks out for God as one looks out for a person that they expect home while he became bleared and failed and he looks upon that as having a pathetick cry to God saying O when wilt thou comfort me And Psal 123.2 Behold as the eyes of servants look unto the hands of their Masters c. How greedily and eagerly these slaves looked for favour of them whom they served so our eyes say they wait on the Lord our God untill he have mercy on us I say no more of this but if God be infinitly excellent and if that which he brings with him be infinitly excellent above all other objects of out expectation a creeping affection in waiting for God is but a proclaimed contempt of God Thou thinks thou honours God by making many addresses to him but where is thy suitable affection to him and that which thou waits for from him Mal. 1.7 tells thee that thou offers polluted bread upon his altar and says his table is contemptible A man that waits not for God at all speaks out what is in his heart and that he is a beast and worse than a beast but thou that pretends to wait for God and hast no suitable affection to him in thy waiting proclaims thy contempt of him thou waits for him but thou would wait with more affection for the poorest triffle thou
pardoning mercy sets hearts on work to fear God and to tenderness in the study of holiness then ye may see how many of the Children of God do cut the throat of all their endeavours after holiness and to walk tenderly through their not closing with pardoning Mercy I suppose some have the Conscience a sad Monitor unto them a sad Wan-rest within doors for want of tenderness and some would fain be at serving and worshipping of God and yet they cannot win at it but look if thou leaves not thy encouragement behind thy hand in not closing with pardoning Mercy and by so doing not only cuts thy self short of the Joy of the Lord which is thy strength but provocks God to blast thy study of holiness that thou would put in his room or in the room of his pardoning Mercy But thou that would be keeped fresh and green in thy pursuit of holiness here is thy method that thou must follow first wrap thy self in the bosom of pardoning Mercy and then try thy work and thou shalt find it more delightsome and go better with thee than when thou leaves this encouragement behind thee lay thy self in his bosom for pardon and O! but that will make thee fear him much and love him much that woman Luke 7 that bad much forgiven her loved much and had abundance of tears to wash Christ's feet her closing with pardon did so melt her heart and so would it thine closing with pardoning Mercy would heal palsie hands and feet and make thee work walk and run it would kindle that love that is strong as death and that jealousie that is cruel as the grave the coals whereof are coals of fire that have a vehement flame and bring it to that that many waters cannot quench or the floods drown or contemn all that would compet with it I dare not offer to insist the day being shortened but as on the one hand they who fall asleep on pardoning Mercy as the bride of Christ may some times take a nap but wakens and sets to her feet again would know they make not a right use of pardoning Mercy but sin grievously and if they sleep on they evidence that they cheat themselves in that matter and these that love not holiness proclaim they were never partakers of it so upon the other hand thou that loves holiness but cannot win at it close better with pardoning Mercy as that which will strenthen and encourage thee and by waiting on the Lord in this way thou shalt renew thy strength mount up with wings as eagles run and not be weary walk and not be faint Now to our God be praise and glory through Jesus Christ SERMON XIX Psalm 130. Verse 5. I wait for the Lord my soul doth wait and in his word do I hope 6 My soul waiteth for the Lord more than they that watch for the morning I say more than they that watch for the morning YE heard when I entred upon this Psalm that the first six Verses contain the wrestling and the exercise the Psalmist was under as the last two Verses contain his victory and issue and his improvement of it For his wrestling and exercise it consists as ye heard of three branches ye have him wrestling with the difficulties and plunging perplexities in his case these he expresses under the Metaphor of depths and his wrestling with them is by fervent wrestling and crying to God in Prayer verses 1 2. 2. Ye have him wrestling with the Conscience and sense of guilt that obstructed his audience put back his Prayers and offered to crush his hopes and with that he wrestles in the 3 and 4. Verses by taking with the dreadful desert of sin by laying hold on God's pardoning Mercy and carrying alongst with him God's end in letting out pardoning Mercy to sinners even that he may be feared and of this subject I have been speaking at great length and I must exhort and intreat that though a close be put to Preaching on it that yet ye may not give over the minding of that Doctrine it is that which will be your great Pasport pardoning Mercy if ye obtain it when ye come to grapple with the King of Terrors and go through the dark valley of the shadow of death Now in the two Verses read ye have the Psalmist in the third place wrestling with delays of answers to his Prayers or the delays of the out-gate prayed for and these he wrestles with by confident patient affection at waiting on God I wait for the Lord my soul doth wait and in his word do I hope c. And this purpose also we have cause to look unto because it gives an account of a Christians constant exercise in time he that would be a Christian indeed it is not enough that he pray in difficulties that he take with the desert of sin and look to pardoning Mercy when Conscience challenges him but when he hath done all that he must persevere in so doing and wrestle with the delays of answers to his Prayer he must give a proof of the patience as well as of the Faith of the Saints he must be a follower of these who through Faith and Patience inherit the Promises There is a general Remark which will make way to the purpose contained in the words which I shall insist on a little that is That perseverance and constant waiting on God in his way is the great task of Saints and the Touchstone of their sincerity in all other exercises and duties This tryes how well breathed the Saints are and what is their integrity in other exercises that they are at sometimes even that they be constant bide by it wait on God and persevere in waiting on him in his way notwithstanding they meet with delays And that I may unfold this General to you ye shall with me take a threefold look of this perseverance 1. Look upon it in general as it is opposed to Apostacy backsliding giving up with the ways of Religion 2. Which will deduce this General more fully and particularly ye shall take a look of this perseverance as it imports a constant Tenor and course in waiting on God and seeking of God in opposition to folks phrases fairds and hot fits at some times wherein they are but fleeting And 3. Which will lead me to the particular in the Text look on it as it is opposed to wearying sitting up or falling by from employing God and waiting on him if they be delayed especially in sad dispensations and exigences they meet with For the first of these Perseverance in general as it is opposed to apostasie back-sliding and giving up with the ways of God and godliness I shall not dwell much on that Doctrine The necessity of it appears in the Promises made unto it Mat. 24.13 It is he that endures unto the end shall be saved and Rev. 2. and 3. Chapters it is always to the overcomer that the Promise is made though I
make us say with that wicked King 2 King 6.33 This evil is of the Lord why should I wait on the Lord any longer And readily the man that will not wait on God hath that which he had with it v. 31. God do so to me and more also if the head of Eâ—â—sha the son of Shaphat shall stand on him this day The godly man resolves to be like the infirm man at the Pool Joh. 5.57 There will he lyâ— were it never so long till the water be troubled and some put him in or till Christ by his immediat hand cure him This was the Psalmists way here after he is put to cry out of the deeps and to wrestle with guilt meeting him in the teeth and to cry for pardoning mercie and no relief appears he resolves during the delay to wait on God I wait for the Lord my soul doth wait and in his word do I hope My soul waits for the Lord more c. And Psal 62. after he hath said Truly my soul waiteth on God from him comes my salvation v. 1. he presseth it over again v. 5. O my soul wait thou only upon God for my expectation is from him he will wait and better wait and continue in waiting Now the prosecution of this would lead me to the particulars in the Text wherein these four or five things are clear 1. The Psalmists exercise I wait 2. The object of his exercise of waiting I wait for the Lord. 3. His affection in waiting My soul doth wait 4. His support in his waiting My soul doth wait and in his word do I hope 5. The great measure of his affection in waiting My soul waits for the Lord more than they that watch for the morning I say more c. These are the particulars in the Text in the prosecution whereof we may have sundry things for laying open this exercise of waiting on God I shall now speak a few words and close I shall not touch on this that duty is ours and event is Gods a man having done his duty may if he could win up to the use of his allowance sleep very sound under cross events but it is our unhappy temper that we would still be at the Throne and have the guiding of things we are like the ill Scholar that 's busier at his neighbours Lesson than his own But to pass this consider four short words and I have done 1. Waiâ—ing on God is a blest mean appointed of God in order to an out-gate out of all difficulties Isai 30.18 Blest are all they that wait on him A man by waiting on God and brooking delays with faith patience affection and submission may find an out gate without a delivery 2. Waiting on God in the case of delays and persevering in waiting is commendable on this account that we can do no where else so well as to ly still at his door a man that wearies to wait on God would look what he will do next ere he give it over When Christ ask'd Peter Will ye also leave me He answers To whom shall we go We had need to seek a better Master ere we quite thee and that we cannot find thou hast the words of eternal life What will a man do next if he wait not on God David is fasht with waiting and dependence and he will go down to the Land of the Philistines and the History tells what befell him there he is forced to lie he is likely to be brought in a snare by fighting against the people of God and his interest and in Ziglag in hazard of being destroyed by the Amalekites a man may well get an ill Conscience by apostacy and declining he is never a step nearer delivery so that go the world as it will waiting on God is the best of it And 3. When we weary of waiting on God because of outward dispensations we bewray too much affection to the things of time thou art in a difficulty thou wearies because of the calamity that lies on and thou gets not an out-gate but it were better for thee to mourn over thy inordinat affection to the things of time that makes thee weary and that would make way for thy out-gate and lighten thy burden 4. Remember that even a delivery from any difficulty out of Gods way without waiting on God is a plague When a man comes not under a signal plague till he come under this that as the word is Mal. 3.15 he tempts God and is delivered And therefore rather abhor such an issue that is a plague than lust after it SERMON XXI Psalm 130. Verse 5. I wait for the Lord my soul doth wait and c. IN these words as ye heard the last day is contained the 3d Branch of the Psalmists exercise after that he hath wrestled with difficulties by crying to God out of the depths and wrestled with the conscience of guilt by taking with it and fleeing to pardoning mercy on right terms he is put now to wrestle with delays of comfort and an out-gate and this he wrestles with by confident affectionat meek and patient waiting on God I spoke to the general Doctrine of this Verse The task of perseverance and constancy in the way of God and followed it out a little in opposition to apostacy and back-sliding and more particularly to these brashy hot fits that folk have at some times which are followed with as great cools and in opposition to delays or wearying and sitting up from employing God when folks meet with delays which is in the Text which ye may remember I divided in these five 1. The Psalmists exercise I wait 2. The object of his exercise of waiting I wait for the Lord. 3. His affection in waiting My soul doth wait 4. His support in his waiting My soul doth wait and in his word do I hope 5. The great measure of his affection in waiting My soul waits for the Lord more than they that watch for the morning I say more than they that watch for the morning For the first of these that he is waiting this if I should follow forth in all that might be said of it I should take in that Confidence and affection the Psalmist hath in waiting which will occur in their proper places to be spoken to when I proceed in the words of the Text here I shall pass not only a general of the Psalmists reflecting on what he hath been doing and his giving an account of it which I purpose to take in afterward but I shall handle waiting on God here only in these two 1. Somewhat Supposed That he is put to wait 2. Somewhat proposed That when he is put to wait he doth wait For the first somewhat supposed that he is put to wait which affords us this Observation that the Saints even in their serious and sincere seeking of God in difficulties may be exercised with delays of comfort and an out-gate when a godly man is here crying
on and not be hasty under delays I shall offer four considerations to perswade you to it And the 1. which relates to what I spoke before of Faith is that ye would remember that delayed success is not denyed success so long as the Word speaks good news That the needy shall not always be forgotten that the expectation of the poor shall not perish for ever Psal 9.18 There is no cause why our hearts should envy sinners but that our hearts should be in the fear of the Lord all the day long For surely there is an end and our expectation shall not be cut off Prov. 23.17 So long as the Word speaks thus we are to bless our selves in it that delayed success is not denyed success and that therefore all that God hath promised were it never so long betwixt the promise and the performance will certainly come to pass as is marked in the Book of Joshua 23.14 That of all the good things which the Lord had promised to that people and many a time there seemed to be an utter impossibility of the performance of it not one thing had failed but all did come to pass A man that hath good things laid up for him in the Scripture though he be put to wait for them he needs not make a cheap Market of them they will be found forth-coming to him And Isai 60 22. The Lord will hasten it in his time which is alway the best time the Lord will afford mercy and grace to help not when we will but in the time of need Heb 4. ult He will make out his mercies in the time when they will be found double mercies for their seasonableness Psal 94.18 When I said My foot slippeth thy mercy O Lord held me up And as he will thus in due time make out all that he hath promised so in the mean time he will not deny support to them that wait on him it may be he let temptations such as are common to men ly on But 1 Cor. 10.13 He is faithful and will not suffer them to be tempted above what they are able to bear but will with the temptation make a way to escape that they may be able to bear it It may be when they are crying for a good account of a messenger of Satan sent to buffet them that he remove it not but he will make out that My grace is sufficient for you my strength is made perfect in weakness 2 Cor. 12.9 That then is one Consideration to perswade you to waâ—t on That delayed success is not denyed success 2. This may press and perswade to on-waiting that if we be doing our duty we may very safely trust the love and wisdom of God with the time of doing us good There are three things which I have had occasion sometimes to hint at to you that I shall now resume in reference to this We may and ought to wait 1. Because God never comes out of time look things never so desperat-like to make up all that was looked for men may come out of season but God never comes out of season although it were come to that that there were nothing but dry bones in a Valley he can make these dry bones to live Ezek 37. Although there were no Witnesses left And O but it 's sad to see a decay of a faithful Ministry and few laying it to heart many going off the Stage and few coming in their room though they were killed after three days and an half they shall rise again and ascend up to Heaven in a Cloud and their enemies shall behold them Rev. 11.11 When thou hast said thy strength and thy hope is perished from the Lord it is as easie for him to make all things well as when thou hast all probabilities that things shall be well 2. We may safely remit the proofs of Gods love to himself if we consider he never delays so long but we may be getting good of delays It 's true thou may be ready to tyre fag and weary and look on thy continued trial as a lot thou wilt get no good of and thereupon turn idle or ly down and die but the longest trial if improven shall yield the peaceable fruit of righteousness to them that are exercised thereby Heb. 12.11 If we were thrifty we might be getting good of every moments delay 3. We may and ought to wait and submit to the wisdom and love of God and trust him for good under our delays on this account that he never delays so long but he is able to give a satisfactory account of his delays Thou wilt say Why doth he delay so long from comâ—ng to comfort or give an out-gate But he can convince thee with satisfying reasons that his delays were needful When as it is Hab. 2.3 sense says The vision tarries he can make thy faith say Tarry for it because it will surely come and not tarry he can make thy self say he doth not tarry even when thy sense says he doth tarry This for the second Consideration for perswading you to wait on God under delays and not to be hasty 3. A third Consideration to perswade to waiting in opposition to making haste is That they that are sweet to wait would look if they be busie at work and at the work they are called to This is a needful diversion which I would offer to such folk were they busie in making use of long and feeding storms they would make less dinn in waiting for an issue of them but they would be ready to say rather Alas let him tarry never so long he will come ere I be ready for him ere I have reaped the blessed fruit of the dispensations of his providence that I am under And therefore a wearier and a hasty person under delays doth proclaim that he is an idle person not about his work for not only as ye know work is a mean to take away langour but in particular the thrifty improvement of a hard lot would make folk wonder that God should come to them at all 4. To perswade you to wait and that ye would not be hasty if none of the former Considerations will press you to it remember the Soveraignty of God and that ye are his Creatures when thou wearies to wait consider what thou art a bit of nothing a dependent bit of beeing to be made or not made formed or marred at his pleasure if he hath given thee a back why may he not lay on a burden and continue it on so long as pleases him Wherefore serves thy beeing in the world but to be at his disposing and to be what seems good to him This Argument prevailed with Job that was put otherways to it than any of us he was stripped in an instant of all that he had and sitting down on the dust he says Chap. 1.21 Naked came I out of the womb and naked shall I return God gave and God hath taken blessed be the Name
wait on him It is beyond all peradventure that a waiting people on God in difficult times are a blest people Their lot may seem accursed but their waiting on God proves that the curse is taken out of it Blest is the man and woman that wearies not that frets not under difficult lots Why because they are at their duty Thrice blest are they as I may if the Lord will handle in the progress that love their duty for it self with an eye to Divine approbation whatever may be the issue of it But I shall add three Evidences of Blessedness that attends waiting on God 1. A waiter on God is blest because by waiting he keeps more than trouble can take from him ye have a very Emphatick word for this Luke 21.19 In your patience possess ye your souls Sharp Tryals long continued may dispossess you of all other things liberty wealth reputation or whatever is dear to you but says he if ye continue patient ye shall have this blessing ye shall possess your selves an impatient man is a sort of mad-man he is not at himself he possesses not himself because that Time or Instruments in Time have done him a prejudice he will do himself a worse because they have taken this or that away from him he will cast a sweet frame and mind away after it and that is to do himself a worse turn than the world can do to him in so doing he casts more away than the World can take from him So on that account the waiter on God is blessed even on that because of the sweet frame he is keeped in Cast the waiter on God where you will still he will fall on his feet and on that account Blest are all they that wait on God But again 2. Blessed is the waiter on God upon the account that the through-bearing that attends waiting on God will attend him till he get a good issue O! to see the desperat shifts that impatient fretful thoughts will put folk to in difficulties they go like mad-men as the Word is Isai 51.20 They are like wild bulls in a net full of the fury of the Lord O! how do they dash themselves on snares and run themselves on Rocks to their ruine The foul slips of fretful bodies are many though they be dear to God that temper will bring them halting home But would ye see the Blessedness of the waiter on God read at your leisure Isai 40.29 He gives power to the faint and to them that have no might he increaseth strength He desires none of your furniture to serve him with in a waiting posture and in the by if ye think ye have much furniture he will empty you and ye must be in a fainting posture ere he give power and be having no might ere he increase strength and then even the youths Bahurim selected ones shall faint and be weary and the young men shall utterly fail but they that wait on the Lord shall renew their strength they shall mount up with wings as eagles they shall run and not be weary they shall walk and not be faint one would think yoke youths with the faint and them that have no might it were easie to determine who would carry the Prize But here the faint the feckless waiting on God carry it when the youths are laid by How many a great Spirit hath Tryals broken When thou art a weak feeble body and yet has keeped up thine heart and held on the way How many a gallant have got a dash when thou a crasy crauling creature are kept to the fore and made to renew thy strength through waiting on God And 3. Reverencing Providence that I have been detained on this Subject They are necessarly blessed who are waiters on God on the account of the out-gate The waiter on God shall have an out-gate from all his difficulties Jam. 5.11 Ye have heard of the Patience of Job and have seen the end of the Lord that the Lord is very pitiful and of tender Mercy I dare assure you that Song abides waiters on God which ye have Isai 25.9 It shall be said in that day Lo this is our God and we have waited for him and he will save us This is the Lord we have waited for him we will be glad and rejoyce in his salvation It is not a God wrapped up in a Promise it is not a God covered with a cloud of whom the World said Where is their God Mic. 7.10 But lo there he is whom we waited for and the additional word is We will be glad and rejoice in his salvation It shall be seen and said then Blest are they that wait for the Lord Canst thou not then wait and watch for one hour when thou knowest not but in the hour that thou gives over he may come Therefore wait on the account of the blessed out-gate Psal 40.1 I waited patiently on the Lord and he inclined his ear unto me and heard my cry he brought me also out of a horrible pit and miry clay and set my foot on a rock and establisht my goings and he hath put a new song in my mouth even praise unto our God A new Song is the result of waiting on God Believers and the Church may hing their harps on the Willows and they may weep when they remember Zion and say How can we sing the Lord's song in a strange Land Psal 137. But a new Song in Gods good time shall be put in the mouths of all that are waiters on God And if I might insist to add a word further I would lead you to uncipher that Text I cited before Isai 8.9 Therefore will the Lord wait that he may be gracious unto you I shall not determine the scope of the place but the time comes when his waiting shall be seen to be gracious that waiters on him shall be convinced he took the fittest opportunity to manifest himself gracious and if such had come sooner there should no such Grace have been seen in it Flesh under difficulties thinks that he waits to be cruel but look again and thou will find he waits to be gracious and not only so but he will be exalted that he may have mercy on his on-waiters he will make it out that if he be an exalted God he will be a merciful God and so as his people that wait on him shall acknowledge him to be an exalted God in that and shall sing Who is a God like unto thee glorious in holiness fearful in praises doing wonders And whereas thou may think there is little regard to be had to thy fighting pingling life in waiting on him he will make it out that he is a God of Judgment pondering their condition he hath to do with as Physitians consider the condition of their Patients and weigh their Doses conform and will not add a grain more than what is needful so will he deal with them that wait on him he will be seen to
seasonable mixtures sweet reserves and exceptions in the lots of saints And as there are mixtures in their lots so in their frames wherein we will find confidence seasoned with deep humility as in Abraham Gen. 18.27 I have taken upon me to speak to the Lord who am but dust and ashes Gloriation seasoned with the sense of being nothing 2 Cor. 12.11 In nothing am I behind the very chiefest Apostles though I be nothing Nearness to God seasoned with a sight of their own pollution Isai 6.5 Wo is me I am undone because I am a man of unclean lips c. For mine eyes have seen the King the Lord of hosts Job 42.5 I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear but now mine eye seeth thee wherefore I abhore my self in dust and ashes Thus ye see what a sweet mixture the frame and way of the saints is made up of when right and this in the Text is to be adverted That patience in our waiting be seasoned with affection lest our waiting turn to indifferency There are many pretend to be waiters but what wait they for Their heart is not affected with it Affection must still be keeped on foot and meek and patient must our waiting for God be Therefore look to it Let not folk deceive themselves in thinking that they have this patience and waiting that I have been speaking of when they have nothing but a coldrife indifferency stupidity loitering and lying by in that waiting What Mercies do folk want but they pretend to wait for them from God and yet their Conscience will bear them witness their heart was never affected with the want of them nor drawn forth after the enjoying of them they cannot say Their soul doth wait As upon the one hand true patience must temper the edge of right affection that it over-reach not or run it self out of breath So on the other hand it would be adverted that while patience is tempering affection affection be not feeding on the breasts of security carelesness indifferency stupidity that with these Virgines Mat. 25. While they are waiting for the coming of the Lord they do not fall asleep or slumbering that 's an abuse of patience in waiting when it is suffered to degenerat in stupidity and indifferency In a word that ye may know what is meant by the Saints soul-waiting for God I shall give it to you in what is represented in the people of God in the Captivity upon the one hand we find a Command is sent unto them Jer. 29.5 To build houses in Babylon and dwell in them to plant vineyards and eat the fruit of them take wives and beget sons and daughters that they might be increased and not diminished and to seek the good of the place whither they were carried captives and pray for the peace thereof that is that they should be as careful as they might without sin to make their captivity tollerable that was to wait for God when their cankered haste and fretfulness was done away And yet on the other hand compare that with Psal 137.1 By the rivers of Babel we sat down yea we wept when we remembred Sion we hanged our harps on the willows in the midst thereof when they required of us mirth we said how shall we sing the Lords song in a strange land if I forget thee O Jerusalem c. A soul-waiting affection is aloft in them although they made their distresses as tolerable as they might without sin and were warranded so to do yet they would not suffer their patience to degener in indifferency they would not suffer their affection to fall asleep and forget that which their Captivity had deprived them of and therefore the people of God in difficulties waiting for God they would still have somthing of that frame Lam. 1.7 Jerusalem remembred in the day of her affliction and of her miseries all her pleasant things that she had in the days of old before the people fell into the hand of the enemy Wait for God there is good reason for it Be patient and meek Why not But O! in your waiting let it be seen that affection is aloft when thou art ready bitterly to resent God's depriving thee of mercies or detaining them from thee guard against that let bitterness be banisht but guard also against stupidity and senselesness that they come not in the room of it but let thy soul be waiting But I proceed to a 2d Observation from this Head and that is a general which I deferred to speak to when the last day I spoke to this waiting and it now comes in seasonably The Psalmist not only gives an account what he is doing but how he is doing Though he be delayed and mercies be keeped back yet he dare avow he is waiting for the Lord yea that his waiting for God is of the right stamp that his soul is waiting that in his waiting he keeps off both the extreams of passion and haste and of careless stupidity and indifferency The Observation then is that it is not only a commendable thing in Saints to be able to give an account of what they are doing especially in sad times but it is comfortable to themselves when they are able to give an account of what they are doing and that they are in the way of their duty it is so to the Psalmist here that he can say he waits and his soul waits for God This Point I shall speak to in these four because it is and will be your work if ye be serious 1. That work is our great business 2. That work acceptable to God in a low condition is attainable 3. That as it is attainable so a man may know he hath attained it 4. That it is comfortable to him when he knoweth it and dare avow that he is acceptably employed A little to these four as time will permit And first I say work and duty is our main business when our lots are saddest One would think it had been a more seasonable and a more near concerning Question for the Psalmist to be now looking what God is doing when he had been crying out of the deeps taking â—ith guilt pleading for pardon but he looks to what he himself is doing we would alway as I hinted before fain be at the Throne and have the guiding of the world or have God taking our advice what he should do in it and how much of folks time and spirit who are serious is taken up in scanning of providence but O! fix this that duty is ours event is Gods duty is our task and we should leave it to God to make of us and duty what pleases him yea more it is one of the great ends why sad times and lots passes over us that we may give a proof what we think of duty when it wants present success whether we will take duty for a reward to it self whether a man will bless God go the world as it will that he is
And Job 23.10 when he cannot get a sight of God on the right or left hand yet saith he He knows the way that I take when he trys me I shall come forth like gold c. What I would say from this is to leave a check at their door whom the dispensations of providence dings from all their confidence if God delay the Psalmist he will avow that he waits but so silly are we that there is nothing the storm blows against but we are ready to question it whereas if we see it be fair before the wind we question it not at all so silly spirits are we and so full of byasses O! lament this and know that duty is knowable and avowable in the saddest of dispensations for the Psalmist can say I wait for the Lord my soul doth wait And 4. As duty is attainable and knowable so it is very comfortable to a man to know it It 's good news to this tost Psalmist that he dare say I wait my soul doth wait it 's good news for the present Read often believe and improve that word Eccles 8.12 Though a sinner do evil an hundred times and his days be prolonged yet surely I know that it shall be well with them that fear God because he feareth before God The very present reward the Eccho of a good Conscience is sweet and comfortable that the people of God can say Our hearts are not turned back nor our steps declined from thy way though thou hast sore broken us in the place of dragons and covered us with the shadow of death Psal 44.18 O! How sweet an Eccho hath that in a mans bosome and a man that in a sad condition will not be made up in the testimony of a good Conscience it is righteousness with God to smite him with a rod dipped in his own guilt Look to it and make it your study to have this ground of comfort when others fail It 's good when a man can say I am sore broken yet my heart is not turned back I am in the deeps yet my soul waits I cannot win at him yet my feet have held his steps his way have I kept and not declined and as this is sweet and comfortable for the present so will it be found for the time to come when the waiter on God in duty shall be made to say and sing as it is Isa 25.9 Lo this is our God we have waited for him and he will save us we will be glad and rejoyce in his salvation I shall say no more but when all costs are reckoned it shall be found that a doer of duty waiting for God shall be no loser but a great gainer and it shall never be grief of heart to him that he made it his work to wait on him in his way when others declined As I closed the last day with that word Blessed are all they that wait for him so do I this day whatever he do to them whatever delays or difficulties they meet with they shall find that it will be found a rich mercy to be found waiting for God and upon God in their duty keeping his way and not declining therefrom I say no more but the Lord bless his Word that ye have been hearing for Christs sake SERMON XXV Psalm 130. Verse 5. And in his Word do I hope I Told you that as the two former Verses speak to one of the excellent Priviledges of the godly man to wit the remission of sins So the 5 and 6. speak to a most necessary though a most difficult task of the godly man to wait for God that godly men give a proof of their subjection to him and faith in him by their waiting for him notwithstanding they meet with so many delays and disappointments Somewhat hath been spoken to three principal Heads of Doctrine in these Verses 1. The Psalmists exercise he is a waiting man he is put to wait and he doth wait where ye heard that if God delay the Saints and put them to wait it is their duty to wait not only not to be hasty but if they hing on they would look their waiting be not poisoned with freâ—fulness passion and bitterness but seasoned and adorned with meekness and patience I spoke 2. to the object of his exercise I wait for the Lord where ye heard that the eyes of the waiâ—ing man must be taken off all things and set on God not only when all second causes forsake him but when these things that seemed to promise relief seem to be against him he must notwithstanding wait on God and keep his way and have all his expectation in God or God himself must be his expectation and he will be no loser by this if God himself be his great expectation he will easily make up the want of all other things In the third place I spoke to his affection in waiting my soul doth wait where beside that general that we should be able to give an account what we are doing in difficulties when we are exercised with delays Ye heard that true waiting lyes in the midst betwixt bitterness passion haste fretfulness on the one hand and stupidity and indifferency on the other hand The right waiter for God as he is not fretful and passionat so neither is he sleeping and careless he so waits as his soul doth wait his affections are aloft prizing and looking out for these things he is waiting for Now in the 4. place I proceed to consider his support in waiting What made him thus wait affectionatly confidently and patiently He Answers and in his word do I hope He hoped in the word of God and therefore he waits for God It 's not to great purpose to trouble you here with an exact distinction betwixt Faith and Hope Faith looks to the promise and gives a present subsistence to the thing promised as the word is Heb. 11.1 Faith is the substance of things hoped for the evidence of things not seen Hope looks to the performance of the good things promised Faith closes with the promise as true and is comforted in that which is contained in it Hope looks out till God come and make out what Faith sees and closes with in the word of promise In this place Faith and Hope may be taken promiscuously or indifferently in his word do I hope that is I wait till God make out to me that he hath promised in his Word or take it a little more distinctly in his word do I hope It will import that having closed by Faith with the good things in the word of promise he looks out for the accomplishment of them so that he hath not only Faith bene believing and closing with the Word but he hath hope looking out till God make his Word good to him I might here take notice of this that waiting on God though a man had no other evidence is ground of hope when a man is in a difficulty and sore put at and
merciful bowels to deal about them according to their ability and as there is cause and a cruel unmerciful disposition is a shrewd token that such an one has not obtained mercy But more of this afterward 5. And Lastly The Objects of this Mercy are described to be tender walkers according to the Rule and Pattern set before them Gal. 6.16 As many as walk according to this rule peace be on them and mercy Their tender walk puts them not without Mercies mister The more tender they are in their walk they see the more need of mercy and this keeps them under the drop of mercy So much for the Object of this Mercy that is with God and for the characters of them to whom it is exprest which would be looked to by all of you who would be partakers of it I proceed now in the 3d place to speak to the properties of this Mercy which will help to unfold the nature of it a little more distinctly and among all the Properties that might be assigned to it a little briefly to these five 1. This would be fixed that the mercy of God is a real mercy Ye will get fair weather and complemental mercy enough in the World mercy professed where it is not and where it kythes not in any effect ye will get mercy enough like that Jam. 2.15 When a brother or sister is naked or destitute of daily food men that will say to them depart in peace be ye warmed and filled but they give them nothing needful for the body The whole world as one says are like Histrionicks counterfeit masked persons and in nothing more than in their pretences and professions of mercy but the mercy of God is a real mercy a mercy that folk may lippen to if ye enquire for it in the inward affection what can be required but it is adduced to express it Isai 23.15 It is exprest by sounding of the bowels Jer. 31.20 By bowels being troubled or moved Hos 11.8 By the turning of the heart within and repentings kindled together All these expressions are to point out how cordial and real the Lord is as to the inward affection of mercy and for the Effects of it men want rather eyes to discern them than the mercies themselves Even his own people are straitned in their own bowels how to keep the proofs of mercy when his heart is enlarged to bestow them and yet they never want a proof of his mercy while they have a room in the Hospital of his Heart and Faith to believe that they are in the Hospital of his Compassion that is an evident proof how real his mercy is 2. As his mercy is real so the Scripture tells it is that wherein he delights Mic. 7.18 He retains not his anger for ever Why Because he delights in mercy No but he delights in himself and in all his Attributes and in the manifestation of them in the World but in a peculiar manner in his mercy upon divers accounts He may be said to delight in it partly on the account of the frequency of his merciful dispensations and manifestations in acts of mercy For works of Judgment towards his people are his Work his strange Work and his Act his strange Act. Isai 28.21 But the earth is full of the goodness of the Lord Psal 35.5 All the paths of the Lord are mercy and truth to such as keep his covenant c. Psal 25.10 Again he delights in mercy because there is nothing flows from him but that which may invite not hinder sinners from coming to him being objects of his mercy It is true he willeth the death of sinners for sin to glorifie his Justice Yet Ezek. 18.23 He hath no pleasure at all in the death of him that dieth but rather that he should return from his ways and live Nothing flows from him to seclude any from his mercy that will not seclude themselves even when he strikes it is to drive to his mercy when he afflicts the language is Turn you and live why will ye die O house of Israel Again he delights in mercy because all the good he doth to his people he doth it not grudgingly Many a good turn among men is as ye speak spilt in the doing But the good that he does to his people he does it with his whole heart and soul Jer. 32.41 He acts mercy toward his people to speak so as one in his own Element and as going about a work that is kindly to him if I may so word it And lastly he delights in mercy because to speak after the manner of men he hath no pleasure that his people should ever raise any cloud betwixt his mercy and them the people of God cannot do themselves a greater wrong nor him a greater unkindness if ye understand it aright than by their provocations to incapacitat him to manifest his mercy towards them But mistake not this for he hath a Soveraignty in his grace even when they in a manner necessitat him to keep up the acts of his mercy and to afflict them hence when they go onfrowardly in the way of their own heart his tender mercy will make a stepping-stone of impediments that are put in its way Isai 57.17 Because he delights in mercy he will come over all these impediments to do them a good turn freely And that is a 3d property of this mercy it is a free mercy it is a mercy bestowed without money and without price But this as I told you the last day is comprehended under the notion of Grace that is imported in the Goodness of God in that it is freely given And therefore Exod. 33.19 cited Rom. 9.15 He will have mercy on whom he will have mercy compassion c. And it 's not in him that wills nor in him that runs but in God that shews mercy There is no place for disputing here Why he will have mercy on such and such and not on others it is an act of his royal prerogative in grace that none can hinder for who can hinder him to do with his own what he will A 4th Property of this mercy with God is That it is an eternal mercy I do not mean that any creature that gets not an Interest in the mercy of God in this life may look to be partaker of it after this life that was the Opinion of Origen that Devils and damned men and women should at length share in the mercy of God Either thou must grip mercy here or thou hast done with it eternally But to them that close with mercy here it is an everlasting mercy Hence is that over-word of the 136. Psalm His mercy endureth for ever and Psal 103.17 His mercy is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear him from election to their eternal glorification so David finds that his tender mercies and loving kindnesses have been for ever of old And the Church Lam. 3.23 finds It is of the
of sin the Scriptures speaks clearly to it as in that patern of prayer Mat. 6.12 Forgive us our debts as we also forgive our debtors so Eph. 4.32 Forgiving one another even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you and Col. 3.13 Forgive one another if any man have a quarrel against any even as Christ forgave you so also do ye But private persons forgiving of sins is the forgiving the injuries done by mens sinning to them rules anent which I may meet with ere I have done with this Theme But though a privat person is bound to forgive injuries done against them It is still with a reservation of God's interest and the sinner must count to God notwithstanding from all which to resume it 's clear whatsoever hand man hath in forgiving sin God is the principal Creditor whose Law is violat whose Majesty is offended whose Justice must be satisfied and therefore it 's his property and prerogative to forgive sins and louse from the obligation to wrath that sin deserves In making use of this I shall not digress to deal with Papists who in receiving pardons from their Priests use not a judgment of discretion whether the persons pardoning them be acting according to their Instructions and according to their own principles for if they did they might be easily nonplus'd They put the power to give indulgences intirely in their Pope and assert that their Priests are Commission at by him to dispense them but they can only have a humane Faith concerning that Commission For beside that the Popes Power to do so is upon many accounts questionable They ask how we know the Scripture to be the word of God we might ask them how they know the Pope who must give these Indulgences to be the Pope That he is a Christian and hath gotten Baptism For according to their own principles the Pope is no Pope except he be Baptized Now they cannot certainly know their Pope is baptized that being one of their grounds that Baptism is not administred except the intention of the Priest go along Now they cannot be certain that the Priest who baptized the present Pope hath had an intention to baptize him while he went about that Action therefore they cannot be certain of any pardon this present Pope shall give them nor can they have any thing but a humane Faith as to the pardon of their sins But the Judgment of God is visible upon them for not receiving the truth inlove God hath been provocked to give them up to strong delusions to believe lies and shall I add further It 's a plague and a snare to prophane men that walk in the imagination of their own heart adding drunkenness to thirst that they have this woful shift get them a a Priest and let them have an Absolution and then they are as ready to take in a new swack of sin as ever they were this is the woful cheat that follows theit way if folk walked like a principle of Conscience they were to be pitied but when profligat men run that way they drive their carnal interest or have a sleeping God to their Conscience under all their abominations But passing this and leaving particular Inferences till the afternoon I shall give you these three words 1. If God be the only pardoner of sin they make a very blind block that pardon themselves for all their faults that is who can commit all sorts of iniquities and cast them over their thumb when they have done Thou that does so shall know that God only is the pardoner of sin ere long and that thy pardon will not stand 2. It leaves a sad check on all them that satisfie themselves with the plaudites of the world Why they are good folk cryed up and commended of their neighbours if they have done wrong they will confess it make reparation or restitution but what is all that if God pardon thee not though thou should get never so many to hugg thee or assoil thee so long as God the only pardoner of iniquity doth not assoil thee And 3. It leaves a sad check also on them that care not to displease God to please Men and O! what snares to men are these that give themselves to be pleasures of men with displeasing of God They make no bonds of any sins if they can please them they are obliged to But thou that dost so will find thou hast made an ill bargain when the reckoning comes for they cannot forgive thy sin when thou stands before God neither will thou get men for thy Intercessors God only is the pardoner of iniquity and therefore they make a very foolish bargain who to please any stand not to displease God SERMON X. Psalm 130. Verse 4. But there is forgivenness with thee IN handling of this great Point the Remission of sins which is in effect the great Article of the New Covenant Jer. 31.34 I will forgive their iniquity and I will remember their sin no more After that I had spoken in the first place to that which is pardoned or pardonable sin I entered in the morning to speak to the Author of pardon that forgivenness is with God whatever hand Ministers or privat persons may have in pardoning the one in carrying the word of Reconciliation and pardon the other in forgiving sins so far as they are injuries done to themselves yet God is still the principal Creditor and pardon from him is still to be looked after from which as I told you not only Papists who ly down and sleep on the pillow of mens pardon without considering whether they act according to their Commission come to be reproved but these Self-absolvers and these who rest on the applause of others and these who to please men stand not to displease God are found to be culpable Now before I leave this Head I would draw somewhat from it for incouragement of these who are in earnest about the pardon of sin and here that there is forgivenness with God it should and will affect sensible sinners as a wonder he will not only be a matchless God to them but upon the account that he passes by iniquity and pardons transgression Mic. 7.18 But it will be a wonder to them that there should be a pardon for iniquity that pardoning mercy should be with him whose holy justice is so great who is of purer eyes than that he can behold iniquity who hath no pleasure in wickedness and who hateth all the workers of iniquity that such a holy and just God should pardon sin that his Holiness and Justice should combine so sweetly with mercy to the sinner is a wonder of wonders yea further this may heighten the wonder that pardoning mercy gives access to them who are secluded by the Covenant of works that when as it is verse 3. If he should mark iniquity none could stand yet as verse 4. there should be forgivenness with him That as it is deduced Rom. 3.20 22. When
by the deeds of the law no flesh can be justified in his sight for by the law is the knowledge of sin now the righteousness of God without the Law is manifested being witnessed by the Law and by the Prophets even the righteousness of God which is by the faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe without difference That there should be a righteousness by the faith of Christ closing with him for pardon O! what a wonder is that and how good news should that be to sinners how should it quicken up and revive any that are ready to sink under the burden of the sense of sin That when they look upon a holy and just God that hates sin with a perfect hatred they may also look upon him as one who will pardon That when they look to the Law and Covenant of Works their expectations are to be limited thereby because there is a Righteousness without the Law manifested to be had by Faith in Christ 3. But because sensible souls may readily think how can this be And may be afraid to lean their weight on a Pardon they have so much Guilt and the Conscience iâ— alarmed with it and pardoning mercy is an Act of free Grace whereupon they know not that they may venture Therefore to enforce this that God is a pardoner of Iniquity I shall not anticipat what may come to be spoken to this afterwards but the sensible Sinner would consider 1. That the pardon of Sin is an Act of Royal Prerogative in free Grace It 's an act of Princes Royal Prerogative to pardon Criminals in many cases and shall we deny that to God which we give to Creatures Seing He is above all Law who can hinder him to have Mercy on whom he will have mercy to do with his own what he will and pardon whom he will Salvation belongs to him as his Prerogative Royal. 2. Sensible sinners would consider that satisfaction is payed to Justice for their Sins though he freely pardons which will come in afterward only here such would remember that thoughts of the Holiness and Justice of God needs not afright the sensible Sinner why Justice is fully satisfied That fire that brunt continually on the Altar and was not quenched by these Sacrifices under the Law is now quenched the burning fire of the Justice of God is now satisfied and hence God in pardoning sins is not only Merciful but Just therefore Rom. 3.26 Upon Christ the Redeemer his being set forth as the propitiation through Faith in his Blood it follows to declare his Righteousness that he might be just and the justifier of him that believeth in Jesus without reflection upon his Justice and hence the Apostle 1 Joh. 1.9 says If we confess our sins he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness not only upon the account of his fidelity that he will keep his promise but upon the account of the Paction past betwixt him and the Mediator and upon the account of the Satisfaction and Price payed by the Mediator upon that account he is faithful and just to pardon sin And hence 3ly Things being thus when sensible sinners come to Christ or to God through him for pardon and yet are filled with doubts and fears they would conclude that there hesitation results not on the uncertainty of their pardon for the holy and just God will not break bargain with his Son but partly it results on our ignorance of that Righteousness which is by the Covenant of Grace we know no Righteousness by the Covenant of Works but that which is inherent and the Ignorance of that Righteousness which is by the Covenant of Grace is the groâ—â—â—d of our hesitation and of many doubts and fears partly it results on a proud competition whether thy abounding sin or his superabounding grace should carry it Rom. 5.20 Where sin abounded grace did much more super-abound and therefore thou that comes to Christ for pardon and yet will not settle upon it thou would say upon the matter that thy abounding sin should carry it not his Super-abounding Grace So much for the second head proposed to be spoken to concerning the Author of Pardon The 3d. Thing I proposed to be spoken to was anent the nature of the pardon of Sin what this pardon of Sin Imports or Is And this when I have spoken to it at this time will give the rise to several other Questions which will come in in their own place and may be useful for you I shall not detain you upon the signification and importance of these Words and Phrases that expresses pardon in Scripture that may come in afterward that word Mat. 6.12 Forgive us our Debts signifies the dismissing of one accused and a loosing of one bound for Debt both concurr here as sins are a Debt they are forgiven and they are a Bond tying the Conscience to answer at the Tribunal of God they are remitted and loosed and considering sins as accusations as they that are in a Court accused a pardon remitts assollzies them So the pardoned man may say as Rom 8.33 Who shall lay any thing to the charge of Gods Elect it is God that Justifies c. The word rendered pardon or forgivenness Col. 2.13 Having forgiven you all trespasses hints at the freedom of the grace of God in pardoning of Sin It 's the Publicans Word Luk. 18.13 God God be merciful to me a sinner the word in the Original expresses pardon with an eye to the propitiation Pauls word also I obtained mercy 1 Tim. 1.13 which also is a word made use of in the new Testament or Covenant Heb 8.12 Intimats the yearning of the bowels of God relative to the miserable state of the pardoned sinner expressed in pardoning That word Psal 32.2 Rom. 4.8 not imputing of sin or iniquitie is borrowed from Merchants that in casting up accompts pass some Debts And that word Psal 32.1 Of covering sin imports that as sin is a loathsome thing so the pardoning of Sin takes sin out of the sight of Gods vindictive Justice Now all these expressions put together might give some general hint what pardon of sin is when God out of his free grace out of the yearning bowels of his mercy compassion accepts of the propitiation made by Jesus Christ and upon that accompt remitts the sinners obligation to wrath by pardoning sin dismisses him from the accusation laid against him looses him of his Bonds puts his Debts out of his Books and covereth the loathsomness of his Sin But to follow out this a little more distinctly what this pardon is I shall take up both negatively what it is not and then positively what it is For an error here is an error in the first digestion or concoction that will not be gotten well helped in the second For the first of these negatively what the pardon of sin is not and for clearing of this
2 Sam. 23.5 Although my house be not so with God there is his abasing of himself in the sense of sin and shortcoming in duty Yet he hath made with me an everlasting covenant ordered in all things and sure he runs to the Remedy held forth in the everlasting Covenant and that is it which Paul subjoins to that which I cited in the morning Philip. 3.3 When a man hath no confidence in the flesh when all beside Christ is flesh to him and consequently that which he dare not have any confidence in Then the next step is not only to close with but to rejoice in Jesus Christ That I may make something of this I shall speak a short word to wicked men and insist a little longer in speaking to convinced sinners 1. For wicked men that which I am upon may serve to discover to them a great mistake they are afraid to grow acquaint with themselves O! how dow they think of casting up their accounts These black Libels and dreadful Dittays that are lying in process against them that were their ruine and would undo them if they should look thereaway they would never have a day to do well they would turn desperat and I would willingly know what it will avail them not to look over their Accompts will they resolve never to repent or will they get them shifted out of the way will their forgetting of their faults mend them will not the iniquity of a man's heels soon or syne compass him about Will not their sin find them out as is said Num. 32.23 But shall I add thou art in a great mistake that thinks the searching out of thy sin will undo thee I confess if thou do it in earnest thou must not continue in a course of sin as thou hast done but it is thy advantage to search out sin and repent if thou can say If thou Lord mark iniquity who can stand Thou shall have reason to say But forgiveness is with thee Wilt thou consider what rich advantage is in taking with thy guilt and being humbled for it that it is a man's safety to be thus lost it is an argument whereon he may plead for mercy when he finds himself undone without it It is thy ignorance of the rich advantage that is on the back of Self-judging that makes thee voluntarly continue a stranger to it But 2. For these who are convinced of sin and sensible of it who can say They have no confidence in the flesh and yet dare not say They rejoyce in Christ Jesus I would have such looking upon it as their great mistake that keeps them from resting on Christ and rejoycing in him and it makes all their other exercise to be but wind though ye had so much sorrow for sin as to sink you in the pit if ye add not There is forgiveness with thee if Christ be not the end of all your Exercises they will miscarry and leave you sinking in sin and misery And had I many to speak to that are making conscience of Repentance of sin and yet come not up to close with the Remedy of pardoning mercy in Christ I would point out several things that would be adverted to by such as are in such a frame and I shall pitch on five or six of them 1. Thou that art under convictions of sin and does not close with pardoning mercy thou evidence a mistake of that mercy thou considers not that thy necessity and impossibility to stand without it is a claim unto it thou considers not that it is the design of the Gospel to rescue the lost whose feet are sinking thou considers not that then thou begins to be beautiful when thou becomes loathsom in thine own eyes and that thou begins to be saved when thou art put to cry Save Master I perish and so in standing a-loof from pardoning mercy thou mistakes the design of the Gospel 2. In this standing a loof thou discovers thy ignorance of Gods Design in giving thee the sense of thy condition what a posture art thou in Thou art one that sees thy self abominable monstâ—ously vile the chief of sinners But may I say who told thee who shewed thee that thou was so and made it out to thee Has there not been a day when thy condition and frame was as bad and thou saw no such thing which says that it hath been Christ who by his spirit convinceth the world of sin that has opened thine eyeâ— discovered to thee thy vileness through sin But thou may think though he hath done it yet it is to be the Narrative of a sad sentence against thee and to send thee to the gate But if thou abuse not Mercy there is another thing in it if he hath opened thy mouth wide he will not fill it with an empty spoon but with good things if he hath made his Law to have a work upon thee it is not to drive thee from him but that the Law may be a school-master to bring to Christ So then it is the ignorance of God's design in giving thee the sense of sin that makes thee under convictions stand a loof from Mercy 3. In this aversion and unwillingness to come unto pardoning Mercy I would have you to consider a great reflection upon the Truth and Faithfulness of God 1 Joh. 5.10 He that believeth not God hath made him a liar because be believeth not the record that God gave of his Son I wish that I had many to speak unto that have to do with these things but I cannot pass it being the Applicatory part of the Doctrine Hast thou any sense of sin art thou afraid of wrath because of it what makes thee afraid is it not the Authority and Veracity of God speaking in his Law when thy Conscience is wakened and thou sees how faulty thou art and the Law leaves thee under the curse it afrights thee and there is good cause but how comes it that when thou hast believed God speaking in his Law unto thee thou does not believe him speaking in the Promise seing it is the same God that speaks in both is not this to make God a liar and hast thou not a witness against thy self while the Faith of his threatnings troubles thee and yet the Faith of his Promises doth not encourage and comfort thee But 4. In this unwillingness to close with pardoning Mercy read corrupt and ill principles man by nature is ignorant of a Gospel-righteousness he knows nothing of Pardoning Mercy through a Mediator but if the Covenant of Works be once broken it is everlastingly broken and hence the sensible sinner being ignorant of the New Covenant of Grace he chooses rather to ly mourning under the ruines of that first Covenant than to look up to a better and this ignorance of Gods righteousness is a thing which the Saints ought rather to mourn for than to foster But 5. In this standing a-back of sensible sinners from pardoning Mercy and in not
out of the Depths when he has not only been looking upon his trouble but sensible of sin and following a right method for pardon of sin on right Terms carefully and diligently going about his duty he is put to this I wait for the Lord. The Lord indeed hath made many rich and precious Promises relative to every pressure his people can be under there is not a distress or difficulty they can be in but there is a Promise for it yet he hath reserved the timing of the accomplishment and performing of them in his own hand Isai 60. ult and it is not for us to know the times and the seasons which the Father hath put in his own power hence it comes to pass that though the Lord in fulfilling his Promises never misses his own time yet seldom doth he come at our time we by reason of our corruption and weakness are often put to cry How long Lord how long Psal 6.3 How long wilt thou forget me how long wilt thou hide thy face Psal 13.1 And as it is Jer. 8.20 The harvest is past the Summer is ended and we are not saved All which complaints do not import that God keeps not his time but that he comes not at our time in performing his Promises and yet further this is to be taken along with us during our being exercised with delays that though God put us to wait he doth not that meerly on the account of his Soveraignty though he might do so but for the exercise profit and advantage of his people and to clear and make out this I shall instance it in four ends the Lord hath before him in delaying the fulfilling of Promises till his own time 1. Hereby the Lord trys whether we will believe the thing he hath promised though it be delayed it is not the tryal of Faith when we see rich and precious Promises meeting with sad times and cases to close with them providing God will let us see them presently accomplished when we would but here is the tryal of Faith if we will wait till Gods time come Rom. 8.25 After the Apostle hath pleaded that hope seen is not hope for what a man seeth why doth he yet hope for he adds but if we wait for that we see not then do we with patience wait for it If we hope to get the thing promised though we see it not then it will kythe in our patient waiting for it 2. The Lord by delaying his people searches them whether there be any latent and hidden dross in them or not It is not the first heat of the furnace that will try what is in the Saints neither is it so much the greatness of the Tryal as the lengthning of it that will sift them and discover what is in them When men at first ingage in Tryal and have the Promises before them and their blood hot their whole spirit will go along with them but stay till their blood cool till Temptation seek and soak in till disappointment give them a dash after dash and till year after year and day after day says the matter is hopeless and that will bring out that which folks did not believe was within who would have believed the corruption and weakness that kythed in David if the lengthning of his trouble had not discovered it all men are liars saith he I shall now one day perish by the hand of Saul There is nothing better for me than that I should speedily escape into the land of the Philistines 1 Sam. 27.1 3. The Lord delays his people that when they have studied Faith and Patience and have resolved upon it as their duty to give God his own time for performing his Promises they may have access to the blessed Fruit that comes in at that door Rom. 5.3 We glory in tribulation knowing that tribulation worketh patience patience experience c. There are two remarkable things in that Text one is That the blessing of God on cankering fretting irritating Tribulation can make it a mean in his hand to bring forth Patience That which puts folk out of tune he cannot only make it fit on their back till they stand unholden but through his blessing on it he can work them up to patience by it And another is that till a person study Patience under Tribulation he stops the door on all the good he might get by it or meet with under it it is but tint labour till he win to patience but when Tribulation hath wrought Patience Patience worketh Experience And 4. To add no more The Lord delays his people that he may wean them from Time and these things they are given to dote upon in time Although in time they be trysted with many needful encouragements with Meats in their journey in passing through the Wilderness yet he will have them to know that their home is not here that their Rest is not in time therefore he so trains on his people in Time as they find no place for satisfaction in it but that they must feed on hunger and thirst and so go on seeking for that Rest that abides them beyond Time That is one of the great Lessons that God inculcats on his people by delays even to wean them more from Time and to make them fall in love with Eternity Well then seing it is so Take four words of Inference from it and I shall leave it And 1. The godly that are seeking God sincerely and seriously would hence be Cautioned not to judge of their sincerity and diligence by their present success comfort or out-gate here is a man crying to God out of the depths verse 1 2. Taking with guilt verse 3. gripping to pardoning Mercy on right terms verse 4. And yet here he is put to wait in opposition to delays It is a groundless Temptation to measure divine approbation by present success here we see folk may be acceptably employed and yet meet with delays but this may occur afterward and therefore I here pass it 2. Hence ye shall gather that if the Lord delay a man in the posture that this holy man was in crying serious in Prayer in taking with guilt in pleading for pardon what wonder he delay others who under difficulties are not so exercised much more these who are at no such exercise are not to think it strange though they meet with such delays What wonder the Babylonish Captivity last for seventy years when at the close of it it might be said as Dan. 9.12 All this evil is come upon us yet made we not our prayer before the Lord our God that we might turn from our iniquities and understand thy truth The carriage of the visible Church is such as it justifies God in bringing on trouble Ezek 14.22 He tells his people when the remnant should be brought forth and they should see their ways and doings they should be comforted concerning all the evil that he had brought upon Jerusalem and should know that
would be at or expect And I shall add that as waiting for God would be with much affection with affection suitable to his excellency so it would be suitable to thy need of him and these things thou waits for from him Thou sayest God is thy excellency Jerusalem is thy chief joy the joy of the Lord is thy strength but is thy affections suitable to thy need of him and his consolations when if thy comfort be suspended if thou can win at comfort in any other thing thou waits not for him and his consolation 3ly I shall add that when affection is indeed aloft for God there is no hazard no want of accommodation that would pinch men so sore as the want of God will pinch a man that is set to enjoy God The Psalmist whose affection is aloft he waits more for God than they that watch for the morning I shall not dip upon this it is a mercy not to get leave to sleep till folk be out of an ill condition when folks get no rest to the soles of their feet out of God And I wish them who want him more disquietness nor many loiterers have till they get to their feet and seek for their Husband and find him and I wish them no ill while I pray for this to them And I shall add raised affection for God Who knows what a prognostick it might be of a sweet and comfortable out-gate and that such a souls song should be with the Psalmist here Let Israel hope c. Affectionat waiting for God getting to the feet to run after him O! What a cloud might that be like an hand-breadth at first that will cover the Sky and at length bring abundance of rain But want of affection leaves folk in a woful condition to rot to dead And I shall add if affection should be put out thus for God and if want of God to an affectionat waiter be a distress that pinsheth him above any hazard they are in who are put to wait for the morning Then certainly the enjoyment of God according to the measure that a man doth enjoy him should make him drink and forget his misery and remember his poverty no more And the man that enjoys God Though the fig-tree do not blossom and though there be no fruit in the vine and the labour of the olive fail no meat in the fields no flock in the folds no herd in the stall Hab. 3.17 Though the earth be removed and the mountains carried into the midst of the sea c. Psal 46.2 He will be as far above the men of the world in their enjoyments as his affection while he wanted God was above their resentments I shall go no further God bless his word unto you SERMON XXXI Psalm 130. Verse 7. Let Israel hope in the Lord for with the Lord there is mercy and with him there is plenteous redemption Verse 8 And he shall redeem Israel from all his iniquities YE may remember in the first six verses of this Psalm we have the Psalmists wrestling which as we shewed you before hath three Branches He hath been wrestling with difficulties and plunging perplexities in his case which are represented under the notion of depths in the first and second Verse he hath been wrestling with the Conscience and sense of Guilt putting back his Prayers and offering to crush his hopes and so interposing to obstruct his success and access verse 3 4. and in the 5 and 6. he hath been wrestling with delays either of comfort or an out-gate or both and notwithstanding of all his hard exercise in crying to God by Prayer in his trouble and perplexity in taking with the dreadful desert of guilt and claiming to pardoning mercy and forgiveness he doth therewith wrestle by patience and hope He waited on God and that affectionatly and his patience in waiting was supported by hope in God grounded on the Word of God Now in these two verses read ye have the second part of the Psalm containing the Psalmists delivery or victory His delivery or victory is not expresly asserted but it is very sweetly implyed in his improvement of the exercise he hath been under and holding forth the good he hath gotten when it is well with him the issue he hath gotten he doth not conceal it nor only speak it out but he improves and layes it out for the good of God's Israel when he hath got a sweet sight of the good of waiting and hoping in God he conveens them all as it were to come and write after his Copy and encourages them to hope in God upon the account of mercy and pardon and plenteous redemption and redeeming Israel from all his iniquities So the words contain first an Exhortation to Israel in the beginning of the 7. verse Let Israel hope c. 2. They contain motives and encouragements pressing the exhortation by way of arguments that this counsel should be hearkned unto and these motives or encouragements are taken partly in the first place from what is in God In the end of the 7. verse Let Israel hope c. for with the Lord there is mercy c. There is mercy and power and authority in God to bring redemption to his people from all their sins and miseries And the 2. Argument is taken from this that God will let out that mercy and redemption that is in him for the good of his people Not only is there mercy and power with God if he please to let it out to redeem but it is expresly asserted that he will redeem his people verse 8. He shall redeem Israel from all his iniquities a promise which howsoever it be made out to Israel in all ages yet it is signally to be erified to the Jews in their Conversion in the latter days for the Apostle Rom. 11.26 adduces this promise out of Isai 59.20 As it is written there shall come out of Zion the Deliverer and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob That is that shall redeem Israel as was hinted from all his iniquities To return to the Exhortation Let Israel hope in the Lord I have been would he say assaying to hope in the Lord and have found the good of it for when I was waiting for God I was supported by hope in his Word and now I have gotten so good an account of my hope that I dare recommend it from mine own experience to all and I have such a kindness to Israel that any experience I have gotten by waiting for God and hoping in his Word I will not hoord it up I will be no hookster of it but recommend it to them as a common-good Therefore let Israel hope in the Lord. That I may get somewhat digged out of the Treasure here I shall reduce the grounds of Observations to be gathered from this Exhortation to four general Heads 1. I shall touch upon what is implyed and held out in the general scope of these words 2. I shall speak to the
a promise that Israel shall be delivered and relieved of the famine he will go in sackcloth in hopes of performance but let it come to that that one harlot contends with another about the eating of her son have at Elisha's head he will not wait for the Lord any longer but Israel in his hope must stoop low his anchor of hope must have a long cable If I may so word it to reach the bottomless Sea of hopelesness Israel must not lose hope when it comes to that Ezek. 37. That she is like dry bones in a valley and the question is Let these bones liâ—e yet they did live And Psal 141.7 Our bones are scattered at the graves mouth as when one cutteth and cleaveth wood upon the Earth we are like the Spales of Trees about the Hewer hand then Israel is low yet verse 8. Mine eyes are unto thee says he O God the Lord in thee is my trust Nay Israels hope must not be quite when natural hope is gonâ— Abraham Rom. 4.18 Against hope believed in hope he had hope when his hope is contradicted by another hope And Jon 2.4 I said I am cast out of thy sight yet will I look again towards thy holy temple And I shall add but this one word Israel must not quite hope for growing trouble Mic. 4.10 When the Daughter of Zion is in pain like a woman in travail and thinks she is low enough already within the City she must go forth of the City and dwell in the field yea the Lord will not have her to quite hope though she go even to Babylon for there shall she be delivered there the Lord shall redeem her from the hand of her enemies Thus ye see how ye are called what ever your condition be to cherish hope and to let your hope be seen in all the Gospel fruits of hope in repentance for sin in taking encouragement for duty though ye should have the storm in your teeth for so doing God bless his word to you SERMON XXXIV Psalm 130. Verse 7. Let Israel hope in the Lord for c. WE are here upon a very useful Counsel a counsel dictated by the Holy Spirit of God and communicat by a man that had tryed the good and ill both of having and wanting it ye have heard how the Psalmist being delivered is communicative of his experience to others ye have heard also as ye will have constant need of Hope so there is a constant warrand for it And ye have heard further that whatever be the opinion of others yet whosoever have most tryed Faith and Hope they will commend them most and be most free in recommending them to those that have most use for them I entered in the morning to consider the persons to whom hope in God is recommended Let Israel hope in the Lord. Whether that Nation while it stood a Church or the Israel of God The Gospel Church or the true members thereof I closed with this That go things as they will Israel is a society that still may hope many may think that there is no hope for them in God That they are fallen down and shall no more rise up but Israel are never a hopeless society I proceed now to the 2d thing I mentioned in this Head to wit That Hope in God is the common allowance of all the people of God not only taking Israel collectively but distributively one by one they are allowed to hope in God yea which will further clear the ground of the Doctrine although many that were true Israelits did indeed come short of the Psalmist and therefore though he might hope it might be thought they should stand aâ— back yet he is free to encourage any how mean and low soever they be provided they be of Israel to hope in God I confess this Point is to be understood with much caution and warriness There are general Promises made to the Church that every particular Believer may not apply but with many restrictions There are also Promises made to some saints on particular accounts to which every one may not claim but if we consider the great bullâ— of the Promises which are the ground of hope and the main scope of all the Promises the Scripture takes in one and other as to sexes the Promise is deduced 2 Cor. 6.18 I will be a father unto you and ye shall be my sons and daughters c. where the weaker and stronger and sexes are equally taken in also as to the Degrees of grace if it be true it takes in all Psal 115.13 He will bless them that fear the Lord both small and great the small as well as the great are taken in to the share of Blessings The precious Oyntment poured upon Aarons head stays not about his shoulders or the principal parts of his Body but goes down to the skirts of his Garments to the meanest and lowest Members Psal 133.2 And hence it is that a Promise made to a great Joshua 1.5 in order to a great employment to possess the people in the Land of Canaan I will not fail thee nor forsake thee though one would have thought that that was a peculiar allowance to a Joshua that might grip to that in so great an undertaking yet Heb. 13.5 None of the persecuted Hebrews are secluded from it Let your conversations be without coveâ—tousness and be content with such things as ye have for he hath said I will never leave thee nor forsake thee he that said that to the great Captain of his People Joshua said it to the meanest believing Hebrew I might deduce this more distinctly and shew that the weak Lambs are so far from being excluded that there is a Promise that they shall be carried in his bosom when the stronger shall get leave to walk on foot and because the heavy with young will be put hardly to it he will gently lead them Isai 40.11 These that are sensible of their eminent worthlesness that are but dead things in their own eyes and that think the crumbs that fall from the Childrens Table too much for them they may think to find in God a magnifying of mercy for eminent worthlesness in stooping to them and being gracious and merciful to them yea these that have little or nothing of their own if they be sensible of it and lying at the Fountain for supply they may look for the more of him the less they had of their own the weaker they be his strength shall be the more perfected in weakness the more ignorant they be and as beasts before him they may look to have the wonderful Counseller taking the conduct and guiding of them and as it is 1 Cor. 12.13 These Members of the Body which we think to be less honourable upon them we bestow more abundant honour and our uncomly parts have more abundant comliness so the meanest member providing that it be a member may look for more of him than if they had much in
Lords mercies that they are not consumed because his compassions fails not And David sings Psal 23.6 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life It is an everlasting and eternal mercy There is a 5th property I intended to have spoken to and that is the fulness and riches of this mercy but because I am to speak a little more to that I shall leave it and the Use of the whole Doctrine to the afternoon God bless his word unto you SERMON XL. Psalm 130. Verse 7. For with the Lord there is mercy c. WHen some time is spent in speaking of the Mercy of God we are very far from sowing pillows to the Armholes or from making Kercheffs to the heads of the secure although I confess many do break their necks upon this blessed refuge of God's mercy and it will be their double condemnation that the mercy and goodness of God that should have led them to repentance was an occasion of their hardning in mischief Consider but the Scriptures design in speaking of that mercy that is with God that it is partly to leave Rebels and Wanderers without excuse when mercy is in their offer and they will have none of it And partly and especially to be the great cordial of the miserable man who when he is under all pressures that are ready to sink him hath this for his refuge that with God there is mercy as in Psal 13. who when he is troubled with soul-perplexities and desertion with apprehensions of being cut off and that his enemies should insult over him hath this for his cordial vers 5. But I have trusted in thy mercy and the sweet result of that is added My heart shall rejoice in thy salvation and vers 6. I will sing unto the Lord because he hath dealt bountifully with me that will be the sweet issue of the misterful mans trusting in Gods mercy Now ye have heard somewhat of the nature of this mercy in general somewhat of the peculiar objects of it and under what names and notions mercy is holden out and ensured to the godly man I have also spoken somewhat of the properties of this mercy that it is a real mercy that wherein God delights and that it is free and eternal and before I come to the use I am to speak a little to the fifth A 5th property then of mercy with God is that it is a rich full and infinite mercy a mercy to reach all the miseries and needs of his people as to the riches and fulness of his mercy the Scripture very plenteously speaks of it it is said of God that he is rich in mercy Eph. 2.4 He is said to be plentiful in mercy and full of compassion Psal 86.5 His mercies are manifold mercies Neh. 9.19 So they are called great mercies Neh. 9.31 Psal 119.156 Isa 54 7. And Dan. 9.18 It 's great mercy that Ushers in a supplication we do not present our supplications before thee for our own righteousness but for thy great mercies It is said further that he hath not only tender mercies that are very compassionat and condescending but he hath a multitude of tender mercies Psal 51.1 Psal 69.16 He is said to have abundant mercies in that 1 Pet. 1.3 He hath mercies in such abundance that they are infinitly above the mercies of man when David had it in his choice whether he would have three years famine or three moneths fleeing before the enemy or three days pestilence 2 Sam. 24.14 Let us now fall saih he into the hand of the Lord for his mercies are great and let us not fall into the hand of man And to add no more it is said of Gods mercies Psal 103.4 That he crowns us with his tender mercies c. That is partly he surrounds his people with proofs of love on every hand as a Crown compasseth the head that they cannot turn them about but mercy compasseth them about as with a shield as it is Psal 5.12 And partly his mercies put respect and honour on his people as if they set a Crown on every Saints head and made them Kings and Priests unto God as David says Psal 18.35 Thy gentleness hath made me great Thus I have let you see how copiously the Scripture speaks of the fulness and richness of this mercy and that I may let you see it in some particular evidences and instances consider 1. That the mercy of God toward his people is a mercy to pity them when no eye pities them when they are the object of contempt and abhorrency as Ezek. 16 when they are cast out into the open field lying polluted in their blood having no eye to pity them then it is a time of love and he saith to them Live and he spreads his skirt over them that is rich mercy to take the refuse of the earth and make them the objects of his special mercy 2. His mercy is full and rich in giving a vent to it self even when he is letting out severity his mercy manifests it self even when he lifts up his hand and is striking in inviting them whom he strikes to turn that they die not as Job 10. when he is destroying him as he apprehended after he hath enumerat some common providences about him he says vers 13. These things thou hast hid in thy heart I know that this is with thee I know there is some other thing in thy heart than what I can read in thy dealing 3. The riches and fulness of this mercy appears in pitying and passing by the peevishness and waywardness of his people especially when they take with it and be moan it in that they have been as a bullock unaccustomed to the yoke Isai 57.17 For the iniquity of his covetousness was I wroth and smote him I hid me and was wroth and he went on in the way of his heart and what follows I have seen his way and will heal him and will restore comfort unto him and to his mourners I am God and not man I am a merciful God I 'le misken my petted people and heal them I 'le not prosecute this quarrel 4. The riches and fulness of his mercy appears in his fetching an Argument from his stroaks to pity his people a stroak extorted out of his hand to pity his people a stroak inflicted in justice mercy will make it an Argument to pity the afflicted Jer. 31.20 Is Ephraim my dear son Is he a pleasant child For since I spake against him I do earnestly remember him still my chiding and contending with him hath wakened my bowels towards him I will surely have mercy on him 5. The fulness and riches of this mercy appears in this that he considers tenderly the consequences of his pleading if he quarrel with them mercy tells him he may soon get the victory but that will lose him his people therefore he will forbear Isai 57.16 I will not contend for ever nor will I be always