Secondly, The other branch is, that God may delay so long till they be disheartened, and give it over as a hopeless business. David saitli his eyes failed for the word. When a man is disappointed of the things he looketh for, then his eyes are said to fail. So the captive Jews complained, Lam. iv. 17, ' As for us, our eyes have yet failed for our vain help : in our watching, we have waited for a nation that could not save us.'
1. God may delay so long, till his enemies wax high and proud, as if above the reach of all evil, and God had forgotten them, or approved their ways ■ Ps. 1. 21, 'I keep silence, and thou thoughtest I was altogether like thyself.' So long till all their fears are over : Job xxi. 9, ' Their houses are safe from fear, neither is the rod of God upon them.' And their oppressions are multiplied : Ps. x. 5, 6, ' His ways are always grievous, for he hath said in his heart, I shall not be moved.'
2. God may delay so long, till a land be wasted by sundry successive common judgments that light upon good and bad, Jer. xii. 4. After the complaint of the prosperity of the wicked, the prophet subjoineth, * How long shall the land mourn, and the herbs of the field wither ? ' When they relent not, the land may fare the worse for them ; and the godly, among the rest, suffer in these general calamities. God may plague the nation with dearth and famine, plague and pestilence, war and sword, fire and burning ; and all this while no ceasing of their iniquities or oppressions.
3. God may delay so long till his people be strangely perplexed, and know not what to make of his providence. They wonder how his justice can endure it : Jer. xii. 1, ' Eighteous art thou, 0 Lord, when I plead with thee ; yet let me talk with thee of thy judgments ; where- ibre doth the way of the wicked prosper ? wherefore are all they happy that deal very treacherously ? ' Hab. i. 12, 13, ' Art thou not from ever- lasting, 0 Lord my God, mine holy one ? We shall not die. 0 Lord, thou hast ordained them for judgment, and 0 mighty God, thou hast established them for correction. Thou art of purer eyes than to behold evil, and canst not look on iniquity : wherefore lookest thou upon them that deal treacherously, and boldest thy tongue when the wicked devoureth the man that is more righteous than he ? ' They cannot reconcile his attributes and providences. We that are short-sighted, and short-spirited creatures, see not God's reasons; yea, God may delay so long, till their hearts faint, and their eyes fail, as in these two verses ; till their faith and patience be quite spent, and they have left looking for it : Luke xviii. 8, ' Sliall he find faith on the earth ? ' God loveth to show his people their infirmity, and to weaken all their courage, before he will do anything for them.
4. God may delay so long in some cases, that there is no hope that God will do anything for them in this life ; but all reasons for patience
.368 SERMONS UPON PSALM CXIX. [SeR. XO.
are only taken from the general judgment : James v. 7, 8, ' Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord ; and stablish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh/ They are put off till then, till the general harvest and restitution of all things ; and in the mean time they must he content to sow in tears, that they may reap the fruit of their labours and sufferings at that time, and have their cause judged at his tribunal. He useth the similitude of an husbandman : ' Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it, until he receive the early and latter rain.' In some cases there may be no hope of our release till then, as the husbandman hath no profit by his seed until the harvest. Secondly, I shall speak of this failing of the eyes.
1. Certainly the failing of the eyes is a fault, because it argueth the limiting of God, which is a great sin: Ps. Ixxviii, 41, ' They limited the holy one of Israel.' They limit God to times, means, instruments, present likelihood, and when these fail, their hearts fail. God cannot endure that his people, who ought wholly to depend upon him, and submit to him, should prescribe to him how or when he should help, as if they had a power of God, or could set bounds to his wisdom, mercy, omnipotency : all which are, as if he could do no more than what they conceive probable, or should act when they conceive fitting ; and if he doth not then, that he never will, or can do it. They pre- scribe to his wisdom, control his power, question his love and truth.
2. As it is a fault, so it is a punishment. Though David here saith, ' Mine eyes fail with waiting,' for that salvation and mercy which thou hast promised in the word, yet it is the usual judgment of the wicked, one of the curses of the law. It is said, Deut. xxviii. 32, ' Thy sons and daughters shall be given to another people, and thine eyes shall fail, in looking and longing for them all the day lon^.' They should look and long for some help, for the rescuing of their children, even till their eyes did fail in waiting, but all in vain : so Job xi. 20, ' The eyes of the wicked shall fail them, they shall not escape, but their hope shall be as the giving up of the ghost.' They may look for good, but never get the sight of it. Again, Deut. xxviii. *61S, ' The Lord shall give thee trembling of heart and failing of eyes.' But though failing of eyes be a curse of the law, yet Christ became a curse for us. It is said in his name, Ps. Ixix. 3 (for that psalm be- lougeth to Christ), ' Mine eyes fail in waiting for my God.' And so it is altered to us ; it is a correction to humble us, and fit us for better things.