but it is God's message to tliem ; and therefore in God's name we deliver it.
But in the text the grounds of this encouragement are stated : and, if duly applied to the soul, they are sufficient to comfort the most distressed, and to invigorate the weakest. "Behold then, your God will come:" yes, that God who, notwithstanding all your fears, is, and will be, your God. Think what is implied in this relation, and then say, whether you have not in this word alone an inexhaustible fund of consolation.
He will come " with vengeance" to your enemies, and " with a recompence" to you. He sees with indignation those evil spirits that assault you, and those ungodly men that despise and persecute you, and all those indwelling lusts that harass and defile you : and he has doomed them all to destruction ; your lusts, by the operation of his grace, and your enemies, whether men or devils, by his avenging arm. But with re- spect to yourselves, there is not a tear, which he has not trea- sured up in his viald ; nor a sigh, a groan e, a purpose f, a wishg, a thought11, which he has not noted in the book of his remem- brance, in order to recompense it at the resurrection of the just.
In short, " he will come and save you." He is interested in your welfare ; and suffers you to be thus tried, and tempted, only for your good1. He knows "when your strength is gone," and will make your extremity the season of his effectual interposition k.
Notice the repetitions in this message ; for they surely were not inserted thus for nought. It is " God, even God" that will come for your relief: it is not a man, or an angel, but Jehovah himself, to whom all things are alike possible, and alike easy. Moreover, it is said, "He will come, he will come;" you need not doubt it, for it is as certain as that he himself exists. He may tarry long : but wait his leisure ; and he will come at last1.]
Infer,
1 . How anxious is God for the comfort of his people !
[He charges all his servants to exert themselves for the relief of his people's minds : and expressly sends them a mes- sage of love and mercy under their multiplied afflictions. And, lest they should put away from them the word, as not applica- ble to themselves, he describes them, not by their attainments, but by their defects ; not by their hopes, but by their fears. He describes them by the very terms which they themselves make use of to describe their own state. What marvellous condescen- sion is this ! Moreover, he sends them exactly such a message
d Ps. lvi. 8. e Ps. xxxviii. 8, 9. f 1 Kings viii. 18.
g 1 Kings xiv. 13. h Mai. iii. 16. ' 1 Pet. i. 6.
k Deut. xxxii. 36. ' Ilab. ii. 3. with 2 Chron. xv. 7.