Section I. — Hope assures the sovil, that God will not delay, though he luay stay. 'The vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak, and not lie ; though it tarry, wait for it, because it will surely come, it will not tarry,' Hah. ii. 3. How is this? Though it tarry, it will not tarry! How shall we reconcile this ? Very well. Though the promise tarries till the ap- pointed time, yet it will not tarry beyond it. ' When the time of the promise drew nigh, which God had sworn to Abraham, the people gi-ew and nudtiplied in Egypt,' Acts vii. 17. As the herbs and flowers, which sleep all winter in their roots under ground, when the time of spring approacheth, presently thev start forth off their beds, where they had lain so long unperceived ; thus will the promise in its season. He delays, who passeth the time appointed ; but he only stays that waits for the appointed time and then comes. ^ Every promise is dated, but with a mysterious character ; and for want of skill in God's chronology, we are prone to think God forgets us, when, indeed, we forget ourselves in being so bold to set God a time of our own, and in being angry that he comes not just then to us ; as if a man should set his watch by his own hungry stomach, rather than by the sun, and then say it is noon, and chide because his dinner is not ready. We are over-greedy of comfort, and expect the promise should keep time with our hasty desires, which, because it doth not, we are discontented : a high piece of folly ! The sun will not go the faster, by setting our watch forward ; nor the promise come the sooner, for our attending it. It is true, what one saith, though God seldom comes at our day, because we seldom reckon right, yet he never fails his own day. The apostle, 2 Thess. ii. 2, 3, exhorts the church there, that they would not be shaken in mind, or be troubled, as that the day of Christ was at hand. But what need of this exhortation to saints, who look for their greatest joy to come with the approach of that day ? Can their hearts be troubled, to hear the day of their redemption draws nigh, the day of refreshing is at hand? It was not, therefore, I conceive, the coming of that day, which was so unpleasing and so affrighting, but the time in which some seducers would have persuaded them to expect it, as if it had been at the very doors, and would presently have surprised them in their generation; which had been very sad indeed, because then it would have come before many prophecies and promises had received their accomplishment, and by that means the truth of God would have gone off the stage with a slur ; which must not be, as he tells them, ver. 3, ' For that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition.' And as that promise stays but till those intermediate truths, which have a shorter period, be fulfilled ; so all the rest but wait what God hath appointed to intervene, and they punctually shall have their delivery in their set time. Thou art, may be, bleeding under a wounded spirit, a poor, broken-hearted creature, who liest steeping in thy tears for sin. The promise tells thee, that God is nigh to revive thee, Isa. Ivii. 15 ; yet thou comest from this prayer, and that sermon, but hast no sight of him, nor canst thou hear any more news of his coming than what the promise gives thee. See that God suffers no prejudice in thy thoughts, by his stay ; but conclude that his time is not come, or else he would have been with thee ere this ; and take heed of measuring God's miles by thy own scale, for his nigh may be thy far. God could have told his people the time when he meant to come with the performance of every promise, as easily as set it down in his own purpose ; but he hath concealed it in most, as a happy advantage to our faith, whereby we may more fully express our confidence in waiting for that which we shall receive we know not when. Abraham's faith was great and strong, to follow God when he con- cealed the place he meant to lead him to, for 'he went he knew not whither,' Heb. xi. 8 : so it requires great faith to rest satisfied with the promise when the time of payment is hid. But if we consider whom we trade with, we can have no reason to be the least jealous, no, not when he stays longest, that he w^ill fail or delay us a moment longer than the set time. There are three causes why men break their times of payment.
First, Forgetfulness. Many remember not what they promise. The day comes, and it is quite out of their minds. Men seldom forget when they have to receive, but too often, when they have to pay. An extraordinary occasion must be sent to rub up the butler's memory, or else he will never think of his
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533 ^N^ TAKE THE HELMET OF SALVATION.