The Silent Soul, Objections · Objection 10
The tenth and laſt Objection is this, Sir, In this my affliction I have ſought to the Lord for this & that mercy, and still God delaies mee, and puts mee off; I have ſeveral times thought that mercy had been near, that deliverance had been at the door, but now I ſee it is afar off, how can I then hold my peace? how can I bee ſilent under ſuch delaies and diſappointments? To this Objection, I ſhall give you theſe Anſwers.
Firſt, The Lord doth not alwaies time his Anſwers to the ſwiftneſs of his peoples expectations; hee that is the God of our mercies, is the Lord of our times; God hath delayed long his deareſt Saints; times belonging to him, asPſal. 70. 5 Pſal. 6. 13 Pſal. 13, 1, 2 Pſal. 94. 3, 4 Zech. 1. 12 well as iſſue, Hab. 1. 2. O Lord, how long ſhall I cry, and thou wilt not hear? even cry out unto thee for violence, and thou wilt not help? Job 19. 7. Behold I cry out of violence, but I have no anſwer, I cry, but there is no judgement. Pſal. 69. 3. I am weary of crying, my throat is dry, mine eyes fail while I wait for my God. Pſal. 40. 17. Make no t…rying, O my God! Though God had promiſed him a Crown, a Kingdome, yet hee puts him off from day to day, and for all his haſte hee muſt ſtay for it till the ſet time is come. Paul was delayed2 Cor. 1. 8, 9 Pſal. 105. 17, 18, 19 ſo long, till hee even deſpaired of life, and had the ſentence of death in himſelf. And Joſeph was delayed ſo long, till the Irons entred into his ſoul. So hee delayed long the giving in of comfort to Mr. Glover, though hee had ſought him frequently, earneſtly, and denied himſelf to the death for Chriſt. Auguſtine being under convictions, a ſhowre of tears came from him, and caſting himſelf on the ground under a Fig-tree, hee cries out, O Lord! how long? how long ſhall I ſay to morrow, to morrow? why not to day Lord? why not to day? Though Abigail made haſte to prevent Davids fury, and Rahab made haſte to hang out her ſcarlet threed, yet God doth not alwaies make haſte to hear and ſave his deareſt children; and therefore hold thy peace, hee deals no worſe with thee, than hee hath done by his deareſt Jewels.
Secondly, Though the Lord doth defer and delay you for a time, yet hee will come, and mercy and deliverance ſhall certainlyDeut. 32. 36. foreign. Exod. 12. 17, 41, 42 51 come; hee will not alwaies forget the cry of the poor. Heb. 10. 37, For yet a little little while, and hee that ſhall come, will come, and will not tarry. Hab. 2. 3. The viſion is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it ſhall ſpeak, and not lye: though it tarry, wait for it. God will come, and mercy will come; though for the preſent thy Sun bee ſet, and thy God ſeems to neglect thee, yet thy Sun will riſe again, and thy God will anſwer all thy prayers, and ſupply all thy neceſſities. Pſal. 71. 20, 21. Thou which haſt ſhewed mee great and ſore troubles, ſhalt quicken mee again, and ſhalt bring mee up again from the depths of the earth. Thou ſhalt encreaſe my greatneſs, and comfort mee on every ſide, Three Martyrs being brought to the ſtake, and all bound, one of them ſlips from under his chain (to admiration) and falls down upon the ground, and wraſtled earneſtly with God, for the ſenſe of his love, and God gave it in to him then, and ſo hee came and embraced the ſtake, and died chearfully a glorious Martyr. God delaies him, till hee was at the ſtake, and till hee was bound, and then ſweetly lets out himſelf to him.
Thirdly, Though God do delay thee, yet hee doth not forget thee, hee remembers thee ſtill, thou artIſa. 49. 14, 15, 16 Jer. 31. 20. Pſal. 77. 9, 10 Iſa. 54. 7, 8, 9, 10 Iſa. 62. 3, 4, 5 ſtill in his eye, and alwaies upon his heart; hee can as ſoon forget himſelf, as forget his people; the Bride ſhall ſooner forget her ornaments, and the Mother ſhall ſooner forget her ſucking childe, and the Wife ſhall ſooner forget her Husband, than the Lord ſhall forget his people. Though Sabin…s in Seneca could never in all his life time remember thoſe three names of Homer, Ulyſſes and Achilles, yet God alwaies knows and remembers his people by name. Gen. 8. 1. ch. 19. 29. & 30. 31. 1 Sam. 1. 9. Jonah▪ 4. 10, 11, &c. therefore bee ſilent, hold thy peace, thy God hath not forgotten thee, though for the preſent hee hath delayed thee.
Fourthly, Gods time is alwaies the beſt time, God alwaies takes the beſt and fitteſt ſeaſons to do us good, Iſa. 49. 8. Thus ſaith the Lord, in an acceptable time have I heard th…e, and in a day of ſalvation have I helped thee. I could have heard thee before, and have help'd thee before, but I have taken the moſt acceptable time to do both. To ſet God his time, is to limit him, it is to exalt our ſelves above him, as ifPſal. 78. 41 wee were wiſer than God; though wee are not wiſe enough to improve the times and ſeaſons which God hath ſet us to ſerve and honour him in, yet wee are apt to think that wee are wiſe enough to ſet God his time, when to hear, and when to ſave, and when to deliver; to circumſcribe God to our time, and to make our ſelves Lords of time, what is this but to deveſtAct. 1. 7. ch. 17. 26 God of his royalty and ſoveraignty of appointing times? it is but juſt and equal that that God that hath made time, and that hath the ſole power to appoint and diſpoſe of time, that hee ſhould take his own time to do his people good; wee are many times humorous, prepoſterous and haſty, and now wee muſt have mercy or wee dye, deliverance or wee are undone, but our impatience will never help us to a mercy, one hour, one moment before the time that God hath ſet; the beſt God will alwaies take the beſt time to hand out mercies to his people… there is no mercy ſo fair, ſo ripe, ſo lovely, ſo beautiful, as that which God gives out in his own time, therefore hold thy peace, though God delaies thee, yet bee ſilent, for there is no poſſibility of wringing a mercy out of Gods hand, till the mercy bee ripe for us, and wee ripe for the mercy, Eccleſ. 3. 11.
Fifthly, The Lord in this life will certainly recompence, and make his children amends for allPſa. 90. 15 Pſal. 70. 20, 21. & the firſt and laſt chapters of Job compared. the delaies and put offs that hee exerciſes them with in this world. As hee did Abraham in giving him ſuch a Son as Iſaac was; and Hannah, in giving her a Samuel; hee delayed Joſeph long, but at length hee changes his Iron fetters into chains of gold, his rags into royal Robes, his ſtocks into a Chariot, his priſon into a palace, his bed of thorns into a bed of down, his reproach into honour, and his thirty years of ſuffering into eighty years reigning in much grandeur and glory: ſo God delayed David long, but when2 Sam. 1 his ſuffering hours were out, hee is anointed, and the Crown of Iſrael is ſet upon his head, and hee is made very victorious, very famous and glorious for forty years together. Well Chriſtians, God will certainly pay you intereſt upon intereſt for all the delaies that you meet with; and therefore hold your peace. But
Sixthly and laſtly, The Lord never delaies the giving in of this mercy, or that deliverance, or th' other favour, but upon great and weighty reaſons; and therefore hold thy peace.