VeR. 134.] SERMONS UPON TSALM CXIX. 403
Kom. xii. 17. We ouglit not, we need not, it is God's work : Deut. xxxii. 35, * Vengeance and recompense are mine/ Nay, our very prayino- is a committing ourselves to him that judgeth righteously, 1 Peter ii, 23. In prayer we vent our zeal, and that hindereth us from venting our carnal passions. It is a resignation of our person and cause to him under unjust sufferings, not out of malice, desiring judgment and vengeance on persecutors ; that is to make God the executioner of our lusts, to establish that which we would prevent in prayer. But saints in prayer labour only to show their faith and meekness, and to leave things to the righteous judge, to do what is for his own glory, and their good.
(4.) For the other evil, impatience and despair, it is a very great evil, and contrary to fliith and hope and dependence, which the Chris- tian religion doth mainly establish ; and maketh way for the worst evils, either total apostasy from God, or atheism, or self-destruction. Now this is very incident to us when oppressions lie long upon us : 2 Kings vi. 33, ' This evil is from the Lord : why should I wait on the Lord any longer ?' So Jer. ii. 25, ' But thou saidst, There is no hope.' Desperately ! ' No ; for I have loved strangers, and after them will I go ; ' I will take my ov/n course ; there is no hope ; it is in vain to wait upon the Lord any longer. And if things do not grow to that height, yet the children of God grow weary and faint in their minds, Heb. xii. 3. Now we keep afoot some hope while we have a heart to call upon God. The suit is still depending in the court of heaven when it seems to be over on earth ; and we see there is cause to wait for God's answer. He that shall come, will come, Hab. ii. 3. God may tarry long, but will never come too late. Thus why,
2. But how is this to be asked ?
[1.] This is not to be asked in the first place, as our main blessing : Mat. vi. 33, ' First seek the kingdom of God.' If we seek our ease and temporal felicity only, that prayer is like a brutish cry : Hosea vii. 14, ' They howled upon their beds for corn and wine.' A dog will howl when he feels anything inconvenient. You will never be freed from murmuring and quarrelling at God's dispensations, and questioning his love, if this be the first thing that you seek, and so your prayers will become your snare. Besides the great dishonour to God, it argues the great disorder of your affections, that you can be content to have anything apart from God : Ps. cv. 4, ' Seek ye the Lord and his strength ; seek his face evermore.' In all conditions that must be our great request, that we may have the favour of God.
[2.] It must be asked with submission. It is not absolutely promised, nor intrinsically and indispensably necessary to our happiness, but if the Lord see it fit for his own glory and our good. We cannot take it ill if a friend refuse to lend us a sum of money which he knoweth we will lay out to our loss and detriment. God seeth it fit sometimes, for his own glory and our good, to continue us under oppression, rather than take us out of it. There are two acts of providence — re- lieving and comforting the oppressed, and punishing the oppressors. Sometimes God doth the one without the other, sometimes both to- gether. Sometimes God will only comfort the oppressed ; we cry to him in our afflictions, and God will not break the yoke, but give us a supply of strength to bear it : Ps. cxxxviii, 3, ' In the day when I
404 SERMONS UPON PSALM CXIX. [SeR. CXLIX.
cried thou answeredst me, and hast strengthened me with strength in my soul.' He giveth you strength to bear the burden, if you continue in your integrity. Sometimes God doth punish the oppressor, yet that is no relief and rejiaration to you ; you must bear it, for you are to stand to God's will, and to wait his leisure to free you from it.
[3.] Your end must be that God may be glorified, and thfit you may serve him more cheerfully. So it is in the text, ' Deliver me from the oppression of man,' then shall 'I keep thy precepts;' Ps. ix. 13, 14, ' Have mercy upon me, 0 Lord ; consider my trouble which I suffer of them that hate me, thou that liftest me up from the gates of death ; that I may show forth all thy praise in the gates of the daughter of Sion : and I will rejoice in thy salvation.' So David beggeth sal- vation in order to praise. Temporal mercy should not be loved for itself, nor sought for itself ; but as we may glorify God by it ; that is to be our end. Lord, I seek not my own interest, but thine. If you have a carnal end, you miss : James iv. 3, ' Because j'ou ask to consume it u})on your lusts/ that we may please the flesh as sweetly and quietly as we did before, live in the height of pomp and splendour, gratify our lusts without disturbance, or see our revenge ; or if a mere natural end, the mere conveniency of the outward man, we bespeak our own denial.