I would willingly illustrate this demonstration with an instance, — that the almighty, all-conquering power that is in the promise, settling all staggering upon its own basis of unbelief, might be the more evident.
I might here mention Abraham, with all the difiiculties and ap- pearing impossibilities which the promise unto him did pass through and cast to the ground, — the mercy of it at length arising out of the grave, for he received his son from the dead " in a figure," Heb. xi. 19; or I might speak of Joseph, Moses, or David; — but I shall rather choose a precedent from among the works of God in the days wherein we live, and that in a business concerning which we may set up our Ebenezer, and say. Thus far hath God been a helper.
Look upon the affair of Ireland. The engagement of the great God of revenges against murder and treachery, the interest of the Lord Christ and his kinfidom ajrainst the man of sin, furnished the undertakers with manifold promises to carry them out to a desired, a blessed issue. Take now a brief view of some mountains of oppo-
AND SINFULNESS OF STAGGERING. 231
sition that lie in the way against any success in that place ; and hear the Lord saying to every one of them, Who art thou, O great mountain ? before my people thou shalt be made a plain, Zeeh. iv. 7.
Not to mention the strivings and strugglings of two manner of people in the womb of this nation, totally obstructing for a long time the bringing forth of any deliverance for Ireland ; nor yet that mighty mountain (which some misnamed a level) that thought at once to have locked an everlasting door upon that expedition ; I shall propose some few, of many that have attended it.
(1.) The silence that hath been in heaven for half an hour, as to this business, — the great cessation of pi-ayers in the heavens of many churches, — hath been no small mountain in the way of the promise. When God will do good for Zion, he requu'es that his remem- brancers give him no rest, until he do it, Isa. Ixii. 7; and yet some- times, in the close of their supplications, gives them an answer " by terrible things," Ps. Ixv. 5. He is sometimes silent to the prayers of his people," Ps. xxviii. 1. Is not then a grant rare, when his people are silent as to prayers ? Of how many congregations in this nation may the prayers, tears, and supplications for carrying on of the work of God in Ireland, be ^vritten with the lines of emptiness ! What a silence hath been in the heaven of many churches for this last half hour ! How many that began with the Lord in that work, did never sacrifice at the altar of Jehovah-nissi, nor consider that the Lord hath sworn to have war with such Amalekites as are there " from generation to generation !" Exod. xvii. 15, 16. They have for- gotten that Ireland was the first of the nations that laid wait for the blood of God's people desiring to enter into his rest ; and therefore " theu' latter end shall be to perish for ever," Numb. xxiv. 20. Many are as angry as Jonah, not that Babylon is spared, but that it is not spared. Hath not this been held out as a mountain ? What will you now do, when such or such, these and those men, of this or that party, look upon you " as the grass upon the house-tops, which withereth afore it groweth up ; wherewith the mower fiUeth not his hand, nor he that bindeth sheaves his bosom;" — that will not so much as say, " The blessing of the Lord be upon you ; we bless you in the name of the Lord ?" But now, shall the faithlessness of men make the " faith of God of none effect ?" Shall the kingdom of Christ suffer because some of those that are his — what through carnal wisdom, what through spiritual folly — refuse to come forth " to his help agamst the mighty ?" No, doubtless ! " The Lord sees it, and it displeases him ; he sees that there is no man, and wonders that there is no intercessor," — even marvels that there are no more suppli- cations on this behalf. " Therefore his own arm brought salvation to him ; and his o^vn righteousness, it sustained him. He put on
232 THE STEADFASTNESS OF THE TROMISES,
righteousness as a breastplate, and an helmet of salvation upon his head ; and he put on the garments of vengeance for clothing, and was clad with zeal as a cloak. According to their deeds, accordingly he mil repay, fury to his adversaries, recompense to his enemies; to the islands he will re2:)ay recompense," Isa. lix. 15-18. Some men's not praying shall not hinder the promises accomplishing. They may sooner discover an idol in themselves than disappomt the living God. This was a viountain.
(2.) Our own advices and counsels have often stood in the way of the promises bringing forth. This is not a time nor jilace for nar- rations; so I shall only say to this in general, — that if the choicest and most rational advices of the army had not been overswayed by the providence of God, in all probability your affairs had been more than ten degrees backward to the condition wherein they are.