[4.] We must pray in faith that God can and is ready to deliver from the oppression of man, and will do so in due time, when it is good for us.
(1.) God can deliver us. Though our oppressors be never so mighty and strong, God can break their power, or change their hearts, or de- termine their interests, because the omnisciency of God is a great deep. It is a great relief to the soul to consider the several ways that God hath to right us, either by changing the hearts of the persecutors and oppressors : Acts ix. 31, ' Then had the churches rest throughout all Judea, Galilee, and Samaria, and were edified ; and, walking in the fear of the Lord and the comforts of the Holy Ghost, were multiplied.' They had nothing to do but to build up one another. When was that ? When Paul was converted. He was an active instrument against the church, and God turned his heart ; then had the churches rest. Or else the Lord may do it by determining their interests that they shall show favour to his people though their hearts be not changed : Prov. xvi. 7, ' When a man's ways please the Lord, he maketh his enemies to be at peace with him.' Enemies, while enemies, may be at peace with us. Please men, and you cannot say God is your friend ; but please God, and he maketh your enemies at peace with you. There is much in the secret chain of providence : Dan. i. 9, ' Now the Lord brought Daniel into favour and tender love with the prince of the eunuchs.' What was that favour ? To wink at him for doing that which was contrary to the law of their religion. Or else he can break the yoke by some apparent ruining judgments, by which he will defeat all their advantages, either by power or law, rescuing his people out of their hands : Isa. xlix. 24, 25, ' Shall the prey be taken from the mighty, or the lawful captive delivered ? But thus saith the Lord, The captains of the mighty shall be taken away, and the prey of the terrible shall be delivered: he will contend with him that contendeth
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with thee, and will save thy children.' Whether they plead might or right, when God goetli that way to work, nothing shall let, no power shall be able to detain what God will have delivered and restored. Or it may he by some secret ways God will bring on some judgment: Job XX. 26, ' A fire not blown shall consume him ;' that is, the oppressor; a curse not invented by those he hath wronged, or any man else, but sent immediately by God. It shall come nobody knoweth how. Therefore we should not be discouraged with unlikelihoods when we go to God, who hath many ways which poor short-sighted creatures cannot foresee.
(2.) He is ready. The love which the Lord hath for his afflicted people will not suffer his justice to be long at quiet. That God is ready to help and deliver, three things will evidence : —
(1st.) It is his nature to pity and show mercy to the oppressed, and to revenge the oppressor. He pitieth the afflictions of them that suffer most justly, and far beneath their desert, from his own hand : Judges X. 16, 'And they put away the strange gods from among them, and served the Lord, and his soul was grieved for the misery of Israel ; ' and 2 Kings xiv. 26, ' For the Lord saw the exceeding bitter affliction of Israel.' How much more will he pity them that are unworthily oppressed! Isa. Ixiii. 9, ' In all their afflictions he was afflicted;' Acts vii. 34, ' I have seen the affliction of my people which is in Egypt, and have heard their groaning,' &c. And the Lord's pitiful nature doth incline him to deliver his people : ' And when the oppressed cry, 1 Avill hear them ; for I am gracious,' Exod. xxii. 21-27.
(2dly.) It is his usual practice and custom : Ps. ciii. 6, ' The Lord executeth judgment and righteousness for all that are oppressed.' If for all, surely for his people. He sits in heaven on purpose to rectify the disorders of men. So Ps. xxxiv. 19, ' Many are the troubles of the righteous, but the Lord delivereth them out of them all.' God hath a plaister for every wound ; God's people plunge themselves into trouble, and his mercy delivereth them out of it.
(3dly.) It is his office as judge of the world: Ps. xciv. 2, ' Lift up thyself, thou judge of the earth ; render a reward to the proud : shall not the judge of the earth do right ? ' Look upon him only in that notion, according to our natural conceptions, as the supreme cause and judge of all things. Again, his office as protector of his people ; he is in covenant with them, he is their sun and shield, he is the refuge of the oppressed, his people's refuge in time of trouble, Ps. ix. 9 ; when they have none else to fly to, he will be their refuge.