execution of either there may be long delays: but neither the one nor the other shall fail. The sins of the impenitent "are laid up in store with him, and sealed up among his treasures :" and how secure soever the ungodly may imagine themselves, they shall give up their account to him, " to whom be- longeth vengeance and recompence :" yes, they may stand fast in their own apprehension; but "their feet shall slide in due time: for the day of their calamity is at hand ; and the things that shall come upon them make haste a ; " or, to use the energetic language of St. Peter, " their judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth notV In like manner are mercies reserved for his chosen people: and though he may, for wise and gracious purposes, suffer them to be reduced to the greatest extremities, as he did his people in Babylon0, yet will he interpose effectually for them in due season, " re- penting himself for them, when he sees that their power is gone, and that there is none shut up or left."
In confirmation of this truth I propose to shew,
I. To what a state God's people may be reduced —
God's ways and thoughts are far different from ours. We should be ready to suppose that he would preserve his people from any great calamities, and interpose for their deliverance at the very com- mencement of their trials. But this is not the way in which he proceeds. He permits his people to be severely tried,
1. By temporal afflictions —
[To these is the primary reference in the textd
And the whole of God's dispensations towards his people, in Egypt and the wilderness, evince the truth of it. Nor is it the wicked only whom he permits to be visited with severe afflictions : the righteous in every age have drunk deep of the cup of sorrow winch has been put into their hands e : God has seen it " needful that they should be in heaviness through manifold temptations f ; "
a ver. 34, 35. b 2 Pet. ii. 3. c See Mic. iv. 10,
d Compare Judg. ii. 14, 15, 18. with 2 Kings xiv. 26. e Heb. xi. 37, 38. Acts viii. 3, 4. f 1 Pet. i. 6.
236.1 0UR EXTREMITY IS GOD's OPPORTUNITY. 511
and has taught them to regard their lot, not as a mark of his displeasure, but rather as a token of his loveg.]
2. By spiritual trouble —
[Many, previous to their finding peace with God, are brought into the deepest distress on account of their iniquities,
and from an apprehension of God's heavy displeasure h
And many too after that they have obtained mercy, may yet be greatly tried by reason of the hidings of God's face 1, and the
delays of his promised blessings k Greater distress than
this cannot be imagined ; yet was it the lot of him who was " the man after God's own heart."]
But let us contemplate, II. The seasonable interpositions which they may hope for —
" God will judge his people, and repent himself for his servants," when he sees them reduced to such a state as this.
He has done this in instances without number —
[The whole history of the Bible is replete with instances : yea, on numberless occasions have his interpositions been so signal, that his most inveterate enemies have been constrained to acknowledge his hand, and his most unbelieving people to sing his praise. The hundred and seventh Psalm is in fact an epitome of God's dealings with his people from the be- ginning of the world to this present moment And
there is not any one amongst ourselves, who, if he have been at all observant of the ways of Providence, must not acknow- ledge, that he has both seen in others, and experienced in himself, many merciful interpositions in the hour of need.]