תמונות בעמוד
PDF
ePub

in the like cafe, Pfal. xliii. 5. So he fpeaks elsewhere; Wait on God, and be of good courage; fhake of floth, rouze up yourselves from under defpondencies, let not fears prevail. This is the only way for fuccefs, and it will affuredly be prevalent: Oppose this refolution tò every difcouragement, and it will give new life to faith and hope: Say, My flefh faileth, and my heart faileth ; but God is the rock of my heart, and my portion for ever, as Pfal. Ixxiii. 26. Though thy perplexed thoughts have even wearied and worn out the outward man, as in many they do, fo that flesh faileth; and though thou haft no refreshing evidence from within, from thyfelf, or thy own experience, fo that thy heart faileth; yet refolve to look unto God, there is ftrength in him, and fatisfaction in him, for the whole man; he is a rock, and a portion: This will ftrengthen things which otherwife will be ready to die: This will keep life in thy courfe, and ftir thee up to plead it with God in an acceptable feafon when he will be found. Job carried up his condition unto a fuppofition that God might flay him; that is is, add one ftroke, one rebuke unto another, until he was confumed; and fo take him out of the world in darkness and in forrow: Yet he refolved to truft, to hope, to wait on him, as knowing that he Thould not utterly mifcarry in fo doing. This frame the church expreffeth fo admirably, that nothing can be added thereunto, Lam. iii. 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26. Thou haft removed my foul far off from peace, I forgat profperity. And I faid, My ftrength and my hope is perifhed from the Lord; Remembring mine affiction and my mifery, my wormwood and my gall. My foul bath them still in remembrance, and is humbled in me. This I recall to my mind, therefore have I hope. It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not confumed, becaufe his compaffions fail not. They are new every morning: Great is thy faithfulness. The Lord is my portion faith my foul, therefore will I hope in him. The Lord is good unto them that wait for him, to the foul that feeketh him. It is good that a man should both hope, and quietly wait for the fal

vation of the Lord, We have here both the condition and the duty infifted on, with the method of the foul's actings, in reference unto the one and the other, fully expreffed. The condition is fad and bitter, the foul is in depths, far from peace and reft, ver. 14. In this ftate it is ready utterly to faint, and to give all for loft and gone, both ftrength for the prefent, and hopes for the future, ver. 18. This makes its condition full of forrow and bitterness, and its own thoughts become unto it like wormwood and gall, ver. 19, 20. But doth be ly down under the burden of all this trouble? doth he defpond, and give over? No, faith he, I call to mind, that there is forgiveness with God, grace, mercy, goodnefs, for the relief of diftreffed fouls, fuch as are in my condition, ver. 21, 22, 23. Thence the conclufion is, that as all help is to be looked for, all relief expected from him alone; fo it is good that a man fhould quietly wait, and hope for the falvation of God. This he firs up himself unto, as the beft, as the moft bleffed course for his deliverance.

2. Remember, that diligent ufe of the means, for the end aimed at, is a neceffary concomitant of, and ingredient unto waiting on God. Take in the confideration of this doctrine alfo. Do not think to be freed from your intanglements by reftlefs, heartlefs defiring that it were otherwife with you: Means are to be used, that relief may be obtained. What thofe means are, is known unto all: Mortification of fin, prayer, meditation, due attendance upon all gospel ordinances; conferring in general about fpiritual things, advifing in particular about our own ftate and condition, with fuch who, having received the tongue of the learned, are able to fpeak a word in feafon to them that are weary, are required to this purpofe. And in all these are diligence and perfeverance to be exercifed; or in vain, fhall men defire a delivery from their entanglements.

God

God the proper object of the foul's waiting in its diftreffes and depths.

We have seen what the duty is, intended in the propofition; we are nextly to confider the reafon alfo of it, why this is the great, firit, and principle duty of fouls, who in their depths have it difcovered unto them that there is forgivenefs with God; and the reafon hereof is, that which is expreffed in our fecond obfervation before-mentioned, namely,

That the proper object of a fin-diftreffed foul's waiting and expectation, is God himself as revealed in Chrift. I have, faith the Pfalmift, waited for Jehovah: It is not this or that mercy or grace, this or that help or relief; but it is Jehovah himself that I wait for.

Here then we must do two things; First, Shew in what fenfe God himself is the object of the waiting of the foul. Secondly, How it appears from hence, that waiting is so necessary a duty.

First, It is the Lord himself, Jehovah himself, that the foul waiteth for. It is not grace, mercy, or relief abfolutely confidered, but the God of all grace and help, that is the full adequate object of the foul's waiting and expectation; only herein he is not confidered abfolutely in his own nature, but as there is forgiveness with him. What is required hereunto, hath been at large before declared. It is as he is revealed in and by Jefus Chrift. As in him he hath found a ransom, and accepted the atonement for finners in his blood; as he is a God in covenant; fo he is himself the object of our waiting. And that,

1. Because all troubies, depths, entanglements arife from, (1.) The abfence of God from the foul; and (2.) From his difpleasure.

The abfence of God from the foul, by his departure, withdrawing, or hiding himself from it, is that which principally cafts the foul into its depths. Wo unto them (faith the Lord) when I depart from them, Hof. ix. 12.

And

And this wo, this forrow, doth not attend only an univerfal, a total departure of God from any; but that alfo which is gradual or partial in fome things, in fome seasons. When God withdraws his enlightning, his refreshing, his comforting prefence, as to any ways or means whereby he hath formerly communicated himfelf unto the fouls of any; then wo unto them, forrows will befal them, and they will fall into depths and entanglements. Now, this condition calls for waiting. If God be withdrawn, if he hides himself, what hath the foul to do, but to wait for his return? So faith the prophet, Ifa. viii. 17. I will wait upon the Lord that hideth his face from the house of Jacob, and I will look for him. If God hide himfelf, this is the natural and proper duty of the foul, to wait and to look for him: Other courfe of relief it cannot apply itfelf unto. What this waiting is, and wherein it doth confift, hath been declared. Patient feeking of God in the ways of his appointment if comprised in it: This the prophet expreffeth in that word, I will look for him; indeed the fame in the original with that in the pfalm, and I will earnestly look out after him with expectation of his

return unto me.

2. A fenfe of God's displeasure is another caufe of thefe depths and troubles, and of the continuance of the foul in them, notwithstanding it hath made a bleffed discovery by faith that there is with him forgiveness; this hath been fo fully manifefted through the whole preceeding difcourfe, that it need not again be insisted on. All hath respect unto fin; and the reafon of the trouble that arifeth from fin, is because of the difpleafure of God against it. What then is the natural pofture and frame of the foul towards God as difpleased? fhall he contend with him? fhall he harden himself against him? fhall he defpife his wrath and anger, and contemn his threatnings? or fhall he hide himfelf from him, and fo avoid the effects of his wrath? who knows not how ruinous and pernicious to the foul fuch courfes would be; and how many are ruined by them every

[blocks in formation]

day? Patient waiting is the foul's only referve on this account alfo. And,

Secondly, This duty in the occafion mentioned is neceffary, upon the account of the greatnefs and fovereignty of him with whom we have to do: My foul waiteth for Jehovah. Indeed waiting is a duty that.depends on the distance that is between the perfons concerned in it, namely, he that waiteth, and he that is waited on, fo the Pfalmift informs us, Pfal, cxxiii. 2 It is an action like that of fervants and handmaids towards their masters or rulers. And the greater this diftance is, the more cogent are the reafons of this duty on all occafions. And because we are practically averfe from the due performance of this duty, or at leaft quickly grow weary of it, notwithstanding our full conviction of its neceffity, I fhall a little infift on fome fuch confiderati`ons of God and ourselves, as may not only evince the neceffity of this duty, but alfo fatisfy us of its reasonableness; that by the firft we may be engaged into it, and by the latter preferved in it.

Two things we may to this purpofe confider in God, in Jehovah, whom we are to wait for. First, His Being, and the abfolute and effential properties of his nature. Secondly, Thofe attributes of his nature which respect his dealing with us; both which are fuited to beget in us affections, and a frame of fpirit complaint with the duty proposed.

Confiderations of God rendering our waiting on him reasonable and neceffary.------His glorious Being.

[ocr errors]

FIRST, Let us confider the infinite glorious Being of Jehovah, with his abfolute incommunicable effential excellencies; and then try whether it doth not become us in every condition to wait for him, and efpecially in that under confideration. This courfe God himself took with Job, to recover him from his difcontents and complaints, to reduce him, to quietnefs and waiting.

He

« הקודםהמשך »