2 CORINTHIANS CHAP. I, VER. 10. 165
The like you have in many places : ' Therefore will the Lord wait, that he may be gracious to you ; therefore he willbc exalted, that he may have mercy upon you : he is a God of judgment, blessed are all that wait for him,' Isa. xxx. 18. So in Lam. iii. The church still waits upon God.
How oft doth David charge himself, ' Wait, and trust in God, 0 my soul,' Ps. xlii. 5. Let us learn this upon these grounds, that God is long ere he deliver, but at last he will deliver ; and that is sufficient to force this, to wait still upon God with patience and silence.
Well, thus we see God doth deliver, ' who delivered us,' Sec. What will he do for the time present '? He hath delivered, and doth deliver, and ho will deliver. From all jointly together, you see that
Doct. GoiVa 2>cni)l(' in tJiis }rorJd sta)id in need of del ire rrn ice ahvay.
They have always troubles. When one is past, another is present. Deliverance supposeth dangers.
1. There have hern dangers, there are daiif/ers, and tJiere nill he da)if)er.i. Our life is a warfare, a temptation. We are absent from God. We are alway exposed to dangers. We live in the midst of devils and of devilish- minded men. We have corruptions in us that expose us to sin, and sin draws on judgments. We are alway in danger one way or other while we live in this world. But our comfort is, that as there have been dangers, and are dangers, and will be dangers ; so there hath been deliverance, there is deliverance, and there will be deliverance. It is a trade that God useth. It is his art. ' God knoweth how to deliver his,' as St Peter saith, 2 Peter ii. 9. He hath alway exercised it, he is excellent at it. He hath delivered his church, he doth deliver his church, and he will deliver his church ; and so every particular member, he hath, and doth, and will deliver them.
Wonderful is the intercourse that God useth with his people and their estate. Even as in nature there is a change and intercourse of day and night, of light and darkness, of morning and evening, of summer and winter, of hot and cold ; so in the life of a Chi-istian there are changes, dangers, and deliverances. There is a ' sowing in tears, and a reaping in joy,' Ps. cxxvi. 5. There is a night of afSiction, and a morning of joy and prosperity : ' Heaviness may be in the evening, but joy cometh in the morn- ing,' Ps. xxx. 5.
And thus we go on till we end our days, till we be taken to heaven, where there shall be no change, where ' all tears shall be wiped from our eyes.'
If we had spiritual eyes, eyes to see our danger, to see how full the world is of devils ! And then to consider how many dangers this weak life is subject to, how many casualties ! We cannot go out of doors, we can- not take a journey, but how many dangers are we subject to ! We are en- woned with perpetual dangers. The snares of death compass us almost everj^here, abroad and at home, in our greatest security.
But our comfort is, that God doth compass us with mercy, as it is, Ps. xxxii. 6. As dangers are round about us, so God is a ' wall of fire about us.' We have dangers about us, devils about us. We have a guard about us, we have God about us, we have angels about us, we have all his crea- tures about us. ' All things are yours,' saith the apostle, 2 Cor. iv. 15, &c.
It is God that hath delivered us, that doth deliver us. Who restrains the devils from having their wills of us ? They are enemies not only to our souls and to our salvation, but to our bodies. They are enemies to our health, as we see in Job. We live in the midst of lions ; ofttimes in the midst of enemies. Who restrains their malice ? We are preserved
IGG COMMENTARY ON
from dangers day and night. Who shuts in the doors, who watcheth over us, but ho that keeps Israel ? It is God that deUvereth us. Without his deliverance all deli\eranees were to little purpose. All shutting in were to little purpose, except he shut us in that shut Noah into the ark. He must watch over us. It is (lod that delivereth us.
]jut doth ho deliver us only outwardly '?
2. No ! He liat/i. dellrcynl, and he dalh dclirrr, l^s• spirilindlif. He hath delivered us from the power of hell and dauuiation. He doth deliver us from many sins that we should commit ; and when we have sinned, ho delivers us from despair. He delivers us from presuming, by touching our hearts with saving grief for sin. If we belong to him, one of the two ways he delivers ; either from the sin or from the danger of the sin ; cither from the committing of the sin, or from despairing for the sin, or presuming in a course of sin.