Reason 4. Fourthly, God reserves the best things for his people till last, for the greater terror and horror, conviction and confusion of wicked and ungodhj ■/ktsovs, who now revile them, and judge them to be the unhappiest men in all the world. Oh ! but when the Lord shall in the sight of all the world gloriously own them, and put royal robes upon their backs, and golden crowns upon their heads, then, Oh ! what a shame, what covering of the face, what terror, what trembling, with Hainan, will possess the hearts of wicked men.4 The great honour and glory that God will put upon his people at last, will be to wicked men what the handwriting upon the wall was to Belshazzar, Dan. v. 1-8. Oh ! it will make their countenance to change, their thoughts to be troubled, the joints of their loins to be loosed, and their knees dashed one against another. Now that word shall be eminently made
1 Waiting is bonvm utile, a profitable good.
1 A Keuipia, de Imitat. Christi, 1. 3, c. '2(>. * Augustine in Vs. xci.
4 Ps. lviii. 11 ; Lam. iv. 2 ; Esther vi. G, et seq.
1 Peter I. 4.] a string of pearls. 437
good : ' He setteth the poor on high from affliction, and maketh him families like a flock. The righteous shall see it and rejoice, and all iniquity shall stop her mouth,' Ps. cvii. 41, 42. Oh ! what trouble of mind, what horror of conscience, what distraction and vexation, what terror and torment, what weeping and wailing, what crying and roaring, what wringing of hands, what tearing of hair, what dashing of knees, what gnashing of teeth, will there be among the wicked, when they shall see the saints in all their splendour, dignity, and glory ! ' When they shall see Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, and themselves shut out for ever,' Luke xiii. 28. Now shall the wicked lamentingly say, Lo ! these are the men that we counted fools, mad- men, and miserable. Oh but now we see that we were deceived and deluded ! Oh that we had never despised them ! Oh that we had never reproached them ! Oh that we had never trampled upon them ! Oh that we had been one with them ! Oh that we had imitated them 1 Oh that we had walked as they, and done as they, that so we might now have been as happy as they ! Oh but this cannot be ! Oh this may not be ! Oh this shall never be ! therefore Oh that we had never been born ! Oh that now we might be unborn ! Oh that we might be turned into a bird, a beast, a toad, a stone ! Oh that we were any- thing but what we are ! or, Oh that we were nothing ! Oh that now our immortal souls were mortal ! Oh that we might so die, that we may not eternally die ! but it is now too late. Oh we see that there is a reward for the righteous ! and we shall suddenly feel, that by all the contempt that we have cast upon these glorious shining saints, whose splendour and glory doth now darken the very glory of the sun, Dan. xii. 3 ; we have but treasured up wrath against the day of wrath, Rom. ii. 4-7 ; we have but added fuel to those burning coals, to those everlasting flames, in which we must now lie for ever, Ps. cxl. 10. But,
Reason 5. Fifthly, The Lord hath reserved the best things for his people till they come to heaven, that so he may save his honour and secure his glory. Would it make for the honour and glory of God, to put his children, his servants, upon doing hard things, and upon suffer- ing great things, and at last to put them off with nothing ? Surely it would not ; and therefore the Lord, to save the honour of his great name, hath reserved the best wine till last, the best and choicest favours for his people till they come to heaven, John ii. 10. The sweetest honey lies at the bottom. I cannot see how God should save his glory, if he should put his children always upon sowing, and never suffer them to reap, 2 Cor. ix. 6, 7 ; that they should still be sowing in tears, if at last they should not reap in joy, Ps. cxxvi. 4-6. Men that love but their names and honour in the world, will not be served for nought, and will God ? Will God, who is infinitely more tender of his name and honour, than any created being can be of theirs ? Isa. xlii. 8, xlviii. 11.
I have read of Alphonsus, a king of Spain, who when a knight falling into want and being arrested for debt, there was a petition to the king to succour him, Ay, said the King, if he had spent his estate in mine, or in the commonwealth's service, it were reason he should be provided for by me, or the commonwealth. Men of honour will provide for them that spend themselves in their service ; and will not God ? Will not God
438 A STRING OF PEARLS. [] PETER I. 4.
do as much, yea more, for them that spend themselves in his service ? Surely he will, Heb. xi. 16. 'But now. they desire a better country, that is, an heavenly : wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God ; for he hath prepared for them a city.' As if he had said, Had not (iikI prepared for them a city, had he not made some blessed provision for them, who left so much for him, who did so much for him, and who Buffered such great and bitter things for him, they might well have complained that they had but a bad bargain of it, and that God was a hard master; and so God should have been ashamed. Had not God made such happy and blessed provision for them who had run through so many dangers and deaths for his sake, had he not provided and laid up for them, according to his promise, and suitable to his greatness and goodness, his dignity and glory, it would have put God to the blush, to speak after the manner of men. I have read concerning Dionysius of Sicily, that being extremely delighted with a minstrel that sung well, he promised to give him a great reward, and that raised the fancy of the man, and made him play better ; but when the music was done, and the man waited for his reward, the king dismissed him empty, telling him that he should carry away as much of the promised reward as him- self did of the music, and that he had paid him sufficiently with the pleasure of the promise for the pleasure of his song. But it will not stand with the honour of the King of kings to put off his servants so poorly, whose prayers, praises, and tears, have been most sweet and delightful music to him ; no, he will do like himself at last, and that his children know. It troubled a martyr at the stake, that he was going to a place where he should ever be a-receiving wages, and do no more work. But,