[1.] To chastise them for their sins, that they may be brought low, and their souls be humbled to the dust. Certainly this God expects before he will appear for us : 1 Peter v. 6, ' Humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God.' And because his people are backward to this work, he permitteth such instruments as will not spare, but lay on to the purpose: Isa. x. 5, 6, ' 0 Assyrian, the rod of mine anger, and the staff in their hand is mine inditrnation. I will send him
VeK. 126.] SEKMONS UPON PSALM CXIX. 299
against an hypocritical nation, and against the people of my wrath will I give him a charge, to take the spoil, and to take the prey, and to tread them down like the mire of the streets.' When God is angry with his people, he can easily find a rod for them ; yea, not only a rod, but a staff, which is a more heavy instrument of correction : .he can find instruments sufficiently exasperated, and full of malice, severe executioners ; and he lets them alone till they have done his work, though they manage his controversy with cruel minds, and evil and destructive intentions. Sometimes God punisheth his people with divisions among themselves ; and though they are very troublesome one to another, yet a sheep cannot w^orry a sheep, as a wolf will ; they do it to the purpose, in a most cruel and despiteful manner. Now, though he will reckon with wicked men for their violence, for trans- gressing their bounds, and going beyond his revealed will and appro- bation, Zech. i. 15, yet not till his work be done upon Mount Zion and Jerusalem : Isa. x. 12, ' When the Lord hath done his work upon Mount Zion and Jerusalem, I will punish the stout heart of the king of Assyria.' He will not cast the rod into the fire till we have felt the smart of it, and be thoroughly humbled under his mighty hand.
[2.] To exercise his people, that they may not contract rust, and languish and grow idle in heaven's way. Alas ! when we live at ease, and have nobody to trouble us, God is little owned, loved, and acknow- ledged, the throne of grace lieth neglected and unfrequented ; and therefore he permitteth enemies to keep us in breath : Ps. lix. 11, ' Slay them not, lest my people forget.' Things in conceit do not leave such an impression upon us as things in feeling. Scipio would have Carthage stand, to whet and exercise the Eoman valour. We need vigilant enemies as a guard upon us, that we may be kept aweful, serious, mindful of God, constantly in the exercise of faith and de- pendence. Wicked men have their ministry and service, to be as goads in our sides and scourges on our backs, to whip us to our duty, and make us mend our pace heavenward : Ps. xciv. 12, ' Blessed is the man whom thou chastenest, and teachest him out of thy law ;' chastened by the molestations of the wicked, for all along he com- plaineth of the delay of vengeance on the persecutors ; and in the next verse he saith, ' Until the pit be digged for the wicked ; ' as con- demned men are suffered to live till their gallows and grave be made ready : if they trouble us in the meanwhile, it is to reduce us to a sense and practice of our duty ; and that we may not securely go on in a course of vanity and sin. Till that be done, the pit is not ready for the wicked and ungodly oppressors ; they dig their own pit by their sin and oppression.
[3.] To prove his people as well as to exercise them. To i)rove their faith and their patience ; their faith, to see whether they can live by faith, and not by sense and present appearance ; whether we are persuaded that there is a just and righteous God, that is the supreme governor of the world, notwithstanding all the oppositions and confusions they groan under: Hab. ii. 3, 4, 'Because it will surely come, and will not tarry. Behold, his soul that is lifted up is not upright in him, but the just shall live by his faith;' that is, the Lord's
300 SERMONS UPON TSALM CXIX. [SeR. CXXXVIII
purpose in delaying to perform the vision is to try and discover who are the k)fty and unsound, and who can subsist and liokl out by faith on God's being, and ])rovidence, and promises, and workl to come, and so wait upon (k)d in hard times without fainting. If God should smite as soon as his enemies provoke him, faith would be of no use, and the whole world would be governed by sense. To believe the justice and mercy of God, though for the time we do not see any manifestation of it, that is the trial of faith. We know there is one that sits above and seetli all. Though the world be in an uproar, and they that work wickedness are set up, and God's servants perse- cuted, yet Ave know that God will reckon with them in due time. And secondly, to prove their patience, in bearing the present difficul- ties, and tarrying the Lord's leisure : Rev. xiii. 10, ' Here is the pa- tience and faith of the saints ;' that is, a sensible proof of it, when a powerful enemy carrieth all before him : there would be little use of such a grace but for such times. This is submission to God, when we are resolved to tarry for his season, though we know it not, and will wait as long as God will have us wait, Avhen all human probabilities are taken away, and we have nothing but God's providence to live upon.