Ver. 5. * I wait for the Lord, yea, my soul waiteth.
These words do shew the estate and disposition of the holy man after his prayer. Though he had formerly sense of mercy and pardon, yet he waits for more full and sweet apprehension thereof. In them we may observe, first, though God he exceeding gracious, yet there is matter of 7vaiting, so long as we live here on earth, for he gives not all the fulness of his blessing at once. Though he may give taste of pardon of sin in present, yet not presently deliverance out of danger. ' The light of the righteous shineth more and more unto the perfect day,' Prov. iv. 18. There is no day that is perfected in an instant ; and the reasons hereof may be,
Reason 1. First, To force tcs to search our soids, whether we be fit for blessing; whether we be thoroughly humbled, and have thoroughly repented or not. Thus dealt he with Jonas, and thus with the children of Israel for Achan's cause.
Reason. 2. Secondly, It may be a means to stir us up to more earnestness in seeking : to make us like the woman of Canaan, more earnest the more she was repelled.
Reason 3. Thirdly, He gives us occasion of waiting, to shew the truth and soundness of his graces in lis ; otherwise should we have no means to try how the grace in us would serve us in time of need.
Reason 4. Fourthly, Hereby God doth endear those favours that we want, that it may come the more luelcome to us, and ive he the more thanlifulfor it. Thus God dealt with this holy man ; and thus doth he with his church. For while we live here we are always children of hope ; not miserable, because we have a sweet taste of what we hope for, and not perfectly happy, because we want fulness. Before Christ they hoped for his coming in the flesh ; since Christ, we look for his ' second coming in glory ;' in grace we look for glory ; and when our souls are in glory, they look for the redemp- tion of the bodies, and for the day of restoring of all things, ' How long. Lord, how long ?' Rev. vi. 10. Else would this life be heaven to us ; and we should not desire or pray, * Lord, let thy kingdom come.'
Use. And for use. This should whet in us our desires and prayers for our heavenly estate ; and not make our heaven here on earth, but desire ear- nestly the full harvest, by considering how excellent the first-fruits of glory in this life are ; and ^Yith the creature, Rom. viii. 19, ' wait, and expect,
* Qu. ' hide ' ?— Ed,
180 THE saint's comforts.
and long, and groan for the time of the dissolution of all things ;' and make this a note to discern of our estate ; for it is a certain infallible token of a good frame of spirit in us, if we can long for that better life in the fulness, that we have here ; that \xc can desire to be with Christ. Further- more, note this as a difference helween the estates of the wicked and the godly. The wicked must look for worse and worse continually. His best is here, and while he hath this world ; but the godly, their worst is here, their best is to come.
THE CHURCH'S COMPLAINT AND CONFIDENCE.
THE CHURCH'S COMPLAINT AND CONFIDENCE.
NOTE.
'The Church's Comiilaint ' forms a portion of 'The Beams of Divine Light' (4to, 1639). Its separate title-page will be found Lelow.* For general title-page, see Vol. V. page 220. G.
* TH E
C H V R C H E S
Complaint and
Confidence.
In three Sermons,
By the late Reverend and Learned
Divine Riciiakd Sibs,
Doctor in Divinity, Master of Katherine Hall in
Cambridge, and sometimes Prcaclier at
(^Irayes-Iniie.
L AM. 1. 20.
Behold 0 Lord for I am in distresse, my howells are troubled, mine heart is turned within me, for I have grievously rebelled, abroad the sword hereaveth, at home there is as death.
L ON DON, Printed by G. M. for Nicholas Bourne and Rapha Harford, 1630.
THE CHURCH'S COMPLAINT AND CONFIDENCE.
But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousness are as filthy rags ; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away. And there is none that calleth upon thy name, that stirreth up himself to take hold of thee : for thou hast hid thy face from us, and hast consumed us, because of our iniquities. But now, 0 Lord, thou art our Father : we are the clay, and thou our potter ; and we are all the loork of thine hands. — Isaiah LXIV. 6-8.
The words are part of a blessed form of praj-er prescribed to the church long before they were in captivity. It begins at the 15 th verse of the former chapter, ' Look down from heaven ; behold from the habitation of thy holiness,' &c. The blessed prophet Isaiah was carried with the wings of prophetical spirit over many years, and sees the time to come, the time of the captivity ; and God by his Spirit doth direct them a prayer, and this is part of the form. For God in mercy to his people, as he foresaw before what would become of them, so he vouchsafes them comfort before- hand, and likewise he prescribes a form of prayer beforehand. It is very useful to use forms. The 102d Psalm, it is a form of pouring out the soul to God when any man is in misery, as you see in the preface. But that by the way. These verses are a part of a form prescribed for the pouring forth an afflicted soul ; ' We are all as an unclean thing, and all our right- eousness,' &c. The words they are, First, An humble confession of sin.