and repentance too of the very kind that is here required. I pray you therefore, brethren, not to rest satisfied with a few faint acknowledgments of your guilt ; but to abase yourselves before God, even as holy Job did, in dust and ashes ]
2. There may possibly be others, also, who doubt its efficacy —
[You may perhaps have sought the Lord for some time, and not yet have obtained an answer of peace. But does this discourage you? Think, I pray you, how long God sought after you, and followed you with his invitations and entreaties to return unto him. Think, I say, of this ; and then you will acknowledge, that, if you cried to him for a hundred years, and yet obtained an answer only at the last hour, you would have no reason to complain. But God has gracious designs in delaying the manifestations of his favour towards you. He desires to humble you the more deeply before him, and to prepare you more fully for the due reception of his favour. St. Peter says, " Humble yourselves under his mighty hand, and he will exalt you in due timem." And who is the best judge what " the due time" is ? Surely you may well leave this matter to Him who cannot err ; and who, " having given you his dear Son, will surely with him also freely give you all things"." You yourselves do not give to your child a thing the instant that he cries for it, but judge of the fittest season wherein to give it. Wait, then, the Lord's leisure; assured, that " the vision, though delayed, shall not tarry" beyond the period which you yourselves, if you saw things as clearly as God does, would be the foremost to assign for it0.]
m 1 Pet. v. 6. n Rom. viii. 32. u Hab. ii. 3.