Gods Waiting to be Gracious Unto His People, Sermon
GODS WAITING TO BE GRACIOUS UNTO HIS PEOPLE.
ISAIAH 30.18.
And therefore will the Lord wait that he may be gracious unto you, and therefore will he be exalted, that he may have mercy upon you: for the Lord is a God of judgement. Blessed are all they that wait for him.
THis illative Particle Therefore must looke either backward or forward. If we shall follow it backward, we shall finde nothing but sinne and wrath: Sinne, the summe whereof ye have verses 9.10.11. a double sin; they will neither be good themselves, nor suffer others to be good.
This is a rebellious people, lying children, children that will not heare the Law of the Lord. There they refuse and resolve not to be good themselves. ver. 9.
They say to the Soers, See not: and to the Prophets, Prophecy not unto us right things: speake unto us smooth things, prophecy deceits. Get ye out of the way: turne aside out of the path: cause the holy One of Israel to cease from before us. And so they doe not only refuse to walk in the light, but extinguish it: as they will not be good themselves, so neither will they suffer others to be good: Not only rebelling against the meanes of Grace, but by all meanes suppressing them. There you have their Sin.
The wrath also threatned lies scattered from the beginning of the Chapter to the very Text, but it is epitomiz'd, ver. 13.14. and the first Character of this wrath is, that it is Irresistible, ver. 13. This iniquitie shall be to you as a breach ready to fall, swelling out in an high wall, whose breaking commeth suddenly at an instant. i. e. one might as well stand before a wall, an high wall, where no breach was suspected, and is even now falling, as be able to stand before this judgement threatned; where all the advantages of making resistance are taken away.
And as it is irresistible, so it is irrecoverable, as it could not be prevented, so neither shall it be repaired. For he shall breake it as the breaking of the potters vessell, that is broken in pieces, he shall not spare; so that there shall not be found in the bursting of it, a sheard to take fire from the hearth, or to take water withall out of the pit. If a woodden vessell were broken it might be mended againe, (though perhaps not to be so serviceable as before;) but an earthen vessell not so easily, although it were broken but into two pieces; how much lesse if into more? and yet if but into three or foure pieces, suppose it could not be made into one intire vessell againe, yet some use might be made of the severall pieces, either to lathe water withall out of the pit, or to carry a coale or two to make fire with on the hearth; but not so here: This vessell must be broken into such small shivers that there shall not be a peice fit to carry a coale of fire, or a few drops of water: so that it should remaine not only irreparable, but altogether unserviceable; such was the wrath threatned against this people.
And this sin of the people against God; and this wrath of God against this people is all the bottome we can find whereon to set this Therefore in the Text, if we look backward. Therefore will the Lord wait to be gracious, &c. sin and wrath! a strange Therefore of mercy.
If we look forward, we shall finde some firmer footing for a Therefore of this nature. Therefore will the Lord wait that he may be gracious unto you, and therefore will he be exalted, that he may have mercy upon you.
Here is a double Ground or Foundation:
The Lord will wait that he may be gracious to you: There's the Ground. And
He will be exalted, that he may have mercy upon you; or, He will have mercy upon you, that he may be exalted; there's the End. God will doe it, because he will doe it: and, God will doe it, that he may be exalted: his Will the Ground, and his Glory the End.
So that the Doctrine which the dependance or inference of the Text affords from this word Therefore is this:
Doctr. 1 The Therefores of mercy are not in the Creature, but in God himselfe. Or,
Gods will and Gods glory are the proper Therefores or Causes of mercy.
That the moving
This the finall
Cause.
But this I shall passe over at this time:
The thing that I intend to pitch upon lies in the body of the Text: as it holds out a word of Comfort and encouragement to the people of God in sad and troublesome times: For upon this sad prediction of irresistible and irreparable judgement, in the former part of the Chapter, it might be objected (and that even by Gods owne people.) Psal. 77.7.8.9.And will the Lord cast off for ever? and will he be favourable no more? Is his merciemercy clean gone for ever? doth his Promise (his Promise to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob) faile for evermore? Hath God forgotten to be gracious? will he in anger shut up his tender mercies? Selah.
For whose succour and satisfaction the Prophet replies (as it were) no; the Lord hath not forgot his Covenant, neither will he cast off his people: but though he hath resolv'd to chastise them for their great and bitter provocations, yet he knowes both how and when to deliver them that are his: and deliver them he will. Only you must give him leave to take his owne time; and it shall be the best time. He is a God of judgement. i. e. a just God, and a wise God, and therefore he will doe it, when it shall be most seasonable; he will wait the fittest opportunity, and therefore in the interim it will be both your duty and your wisdome to wait his leasure.
The Lord will wait that he may be gracious unto you, and he will be exalted, that he may have mercy upon you: for the Lord is a God of judgement. Blessed are all they that wait for him.
The words thus opened afford these
4. Observations. Observa∣tions. 4
1. God waits to be gracious to his people.
2. God is a God of judgement.
3. That; because God is a God of judgement, Gods people should wait for him.
4. There is nothing lost by waiting on God: Or, To wait on God is a blessed thing.
Blessed are all they that wait for him.
But because I studie brevitie, I will single out the scope and drift of the holy Ghost for my maine Doctrine, and make all the rest in their severall places to serve that. The first therefore of these Observations shall be my maine Doctrine, and subject of discourse scil.
aDoctrine.God waits to be gracious to his people.
The second will serve for a Ground or Reason, scil. because bReason.God is a God of judgement, therefore he waits to take the fittest time to be gracious to his people.
The third Observation will resolve into the grand Vse we are to make of this Doctrine, scil. cUse.if God wait to be gracious to his people, his people should learne to wait upon him.
The fourth and last Observation will contribute its influence by way of Motive. scil. dMotive.It is a blessed thing to wait on God. The maine Doctrine then is,
God waits to be gracious to his people.1. Doct. the subject of this discourse.
For the managing whereof we will propound and satisfie only these two Quaeres.
1. Quaeres 1. 2.In what sense God may be said to wait?
2. In what respect, or on what consideration God doth [so] wait to be gracious to his people.
To the first Quaere briefly: Answ. Waiting you must know, is improperly attributed unto God; for simply and in proper sense waiting implies three things.
1. Succession of time.
2. Waiting properly taken implyes three things.Present disability for the accomplishment of ones purposes.
3. Expectation of future, and better opportunity, as we see in Esau, The dayes of mourning for my father are at hand, Gen. 27.41.then will I slay my Brother Jacob. Dayes of mourning, there is succession of time; then will I slay my Brother, now I would, but now I cannot, here is present disability: they are at hand, there is an expectation of future opportunity.
Now none of these doe properly befall God, for
1. Psal. 60.2. and 102.27. Heb. 13.8.In God there is no succession of time; in God there is no yesterday nor to morrow: he being but one point and act of eternity in a most inconceiveable and ineffable manner.
2. In God there is no deficiency of power and ability to accomplish his designes more at one time than another; and therefore
3. There can be no need why God should expect a future or better opportunity, to morrow then to day, hereafter then now in regard of himself, for the bringing about of his purposes.
It is therefore improperly and in a borrowed sence spoken of, Waiting improperly attributed to God.and attributed to God per foreign, for
1. God being now speaking to man, he speaks after the manner of men; God doth like himselfe, but speaks like man, for the infirmity of our flesh.
2. God being to deal with man, he is fain to suite the dispensations of his power and providence according to mans capacitie. He truly is alwayes fit and able to shew mercy, but his people are not alwayes fit for and capable of mercy.
The meaning therefore of the expression is, The meaning of the expression God waits.that God will put forth his power and goodnesse for the deliverance and enlargement of his people, when in regard of all circumstances it shall be most sweet and seasonable for them; which makes way for the
Second Quaere, Quaere. 2 what those respects and considerations are for which God doth [thus] wait to be gracious to his people.
To which we answer, Answ. God doth wait to be gracious to his people in a threefold respect or consideration.
viz. in respect of his
Enemies.
People.
Name.
First in regard of the Enemie.
For these kind of mercies here mentioned and promised, The first consideration in respect whereof God waites. The Enemies.are rescues and deliverances from the oppression and tyranny of their potent and cruell enemies, viz. from the Babylonian bondage and slavery, &c.
Now even in regard of the Enemies and oppressours of his people, God many times waits, i. e. suspends and adjourns their enlargment and deliverance; and that is, till the enemies have fild up the measure of their iniquitie to the full, as we see in the case of the Israelites in Egypt. God had given them the land of the Amorites, by promise 400. yeares before he brought them into possession, what was the reason he waited so long, before he made good the promise he made to Abraham? God resolves Abraham concerning this matter, In the fourth generation they, Gen. 15.16.(viz. the seed of Abraham) shall come hither againe, not before; why? for the sinnes of the Amorites are not yet full. The Amorites sins were not yet full, and therefore the children of Israel may not yet take possession of their land; God must wait to doe it. No, nor (it seems) were the sins of the Egyptians full; for even after the Israelites deliverance was set on foot, and they expected now a speedy and finall accomplishment of Gods promise by the hands of Moses and Aaron, the work met with so many and almost desperate set-backs, that they seemed to themselves to be further off from deliverance than ever before, in so much that the people fell foule on Moses and Aaron, Exod. 5.21.The Lord look upon you and judge, because you have made our savour to be abhorred, &c. and after this, ten desperate encounters and oppositions did the work meet with; and why so? why Pharaoh's sins were not full, no more then the Amorites. As yet exaltest thou thy self? Exod. 9.19.Pharaoh's pride and obstinacy and blasphemie must yet rise higher, Yea for this very reason have I raised thee up, verse 16.
God will not execute full judgement on a people or person till they have committed full sin, and then he will doe it once for all, and doe it with a vengeance. James 1.15.Lust when it hath conceived brings forth sinne, and sinne when it is finished bringeth forth death. A Metaphor taken from a woman, who after she hath conceived, hath forty weeks to breed, and ripen her conception, and then she falls in travell, and her pains overtake her: So the sinner, &c. And therefore saith our Saviour to the cursed Scribes and Pharisees, Fill ye up the measure of your Fathers, Matth. 23.32.make up the Ephah of your wickednesse compleat; one would have wondred that Christ did not destroy them presently they were such a generation of Vipers; Lord why dost thou not command fire to come down from heaven and destroy them as Elias did? Luke 9.54.Or Shall we pull them up Lord? (as the servant askt concerning the tares;) no saith Christ, Let them alone, let them grow, Matth. 13.28.till they come to the height, and then they shall be cut down, and cast into the fire: When the Ephah is full, Zech. 5.9.10, 11.then it shrll be taken up and carried away in the wings of the wind.
The beleeving Hebrews had a long time groaned under the yokes of their oppression, their wounds did smart, and they had lookt many a long look when God should bow the heavens and come downe to their deliverance, and for want thereof they began to call either Gods love to them, Heb. 12.1.2.or rather their love to God into question: When the Apostle bespeakes them thus, verse 4. Ye have not yet resisted unto blood, as if he had said, doe you begin to faint already; alas the worst is not come, God hath greater trials for you then these; ye have hitherto resisted but unto tears and sighes, I tell you, you must suffer greater matters, you must resist to bloud. Ye have not yet resisted unto bloud. The Enemies sinnes are not yet come to the height.
It fares with Christians many times as it did with Jeremiah, they are weary of the footmen, Jer. 12.1.5.when Horsemen are yet behind, and they complain in a land of peace, when yet Jordan is to overflow her banks, they thinke to be delivered from lesser trials, when greater sufferings are behind; the Enemie hath not yet fill'd up his measure.
And therfore it is very remarkable that in all Church-Histories you shall find, that Persecution hath alwaies been a fore-runner of Deliverance; as the Israelites enlargement out of the Egyptian slavery began in the doubling of their burdens and bondage, and the neerer the Deliverance the hotter alwaies hath bin the fire of Persecution; the Reason whereof I conceive to be, partly because at such times God hath usually stirred up the Spirits of some of his faithfull Witnesses to discover and protest against the horrible impleties & villanies of the Tyrants and oppressors of his people; to the end that all that see their approching destruction may justifie God in the execution of his righteous judgements. So God stirred up the Spirit of Luther and others to protest against the pride, lust and oppression of the Pope and papall Hierarchy, whereby the rage and indignation of that Antichristian generation was then (as before and since in divers ages and places of the Christian world) kindled into slames of fiery persecution upon the Saints of God.
Partly because, as I said, they must fill up the measure of their iniquities; their pride and covetousnesse, and lasciviousnesse, and violence, and crueltie must rise to the height, before God will deliver his people from their tyranny and oppression; and so like their father the divell they rage most when they are neerest to be cast out. Revel. 52.12.And this is the first consideration in respect whereof God waits to be gratious unto his people.
Secondly, 2. Confiderations. His people.God waites in respect of his people: whether by his people we understand the mixt multitude; that fill up the roome of a visible Church, or whether we meane some choice separated ones, who are to him as a peculiar treasure: on both these God waites many times in the dispensation of his power and goodnesse in delivering his people.1. The mixt multitude, viz.
On the mixt multitude, God waits
1. For the Conversion of some; their repentance and Reformation must usher in deliverance and enlargement.
I will goe, and returne to my place, Hos. 5.15. 1. The Conversion of some.till they acknowledge their offences, and seeke my face: till they acknowledge their sins, there's their Repentance; and seeke my face, there's their Reformation; for both these God would wait; I will returne to my place, there he would expect their Conversion; and when they should repent and turn, he would arise and have mercy upon them.
Secondly, 2. The punishment of others.in case Gods expectation be disappointed herein, God sometimes doth suspend the deliverance of his people till reparations as it were be made to his abused and despised justice in some set time of judgement, wherein such a people shall beare the punishment of their iniquitie, See the threatning, Levit. 26.38.39.41.42. And the Execution of it, Jer. 29.10. Thus saith the Lord, after seventie yeeres be accomplished at Babylon, I will visit you, and performe my good word toward you.
God had warn'd and God had wooed them to Repentance and Reformation by his Servants the Prophets rising up early and sending them, but all would not doe, They mocked the messengers of God, 2 Chron. 36.16.and despised his words, and misused his Prophets, untill the wrath of the Lord arose against his people, till there was no remedie. Then he brought upon them the King of the Chaldeans, &c. and resolv'd they should doe pennance to divine Justice threescore and ten yeeres, under his iron yoke; and till that time were expired though Moses and Samuel stood before him, (scil. as Intercessours) his minde could not be toward them, Jer. 15.1. Cast them out of my sight, and let them goe forth. Away with them to the House of Correction, into Captivity they shall, and there they shall be chastised for their rebellion seventie yeers. And till those yeeres were expired not onelyonly Moses and Samuel, but mercy her selfe (it seems) could not prevaile for their return; Mercy must wait to be gracious all that while, and then behold she takes her turne, and sends out her messengers of Peace before her, with the Olive branches of good tidings in their mouths. Isal. 40.1, 2.Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God. Speake ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her that her warfare is accomplished; that her iniquitie is pardoned: that she hath received double of the Lords hand for all her sins. As if God had said, my Justice now is pacified towards this people; she hath satisfied her selfe to the full, yea she hath been too severe, Jerusalem hath received double for all her sinnes: it is the Language of Gods Compassions rolled together, and kindled into repentings, as if he had given her two blowes for one sinne, beaten her more then her sins deserved; Jerusalem her selfe would not say so; no saith she, Our God hath punisht us lesse then our iniquities deserve, Ezra 9.13.Ezra 9.13. Observe by the way contrarie expressions in Gods mouth, and Jerusalems, too much saith God, too little saith Jerusalem; and yet how sweetly and beautifully doth this kinde of contradiction become both? How well doth it become the humbled broken heart of Jerusalem to confesse, Lord thou hast punisht lesse then our iniquities deserve, if our Captivitie had beene sevenscore, yea seven hundred in stead of seventie yeeres it had not been too much? And how well doth it become the gracious tender heart of God (as their Father) to say, Nay but my childe I have beaten thee too much? if thy Captivitie had been but 35. yeeres it had been enough, I have given thee double. Who can refraine weeping to see God and Jerusalem (like the Father and his Prodigall) weeping; Luke 15.God weeping on Jerusalems necke teares of Compassion, and Jerusalem weeping at Gods feet teares of Contrition! oh beautifull Contention! Thrice happie wert thou O England if this might be all the Controversie between thy God and thee.
But (to return,) Now saith merciemercy my turn is come, and I shall be exalted; and as Justice hath doubled Jerusalems blowes and corrections, so I will double and treble her consolations; go ye and doe so; Comfort ye, comfort ye, speake comfortably to her, Give her double and treble, and multiplied mercies. This is another branch of this Consideration, why God waits to be gracious.
Secondly, 2. God waits on his own peculiar ones. For 1. The fulnesse of their sorrow.As in regard of the mixt multitude God waits; so also in respect of his owne peculiar people: as for a full measure of the enemies sins, so for a full measure of his peoples prayers and teares.
God loves to heare their prayers, and see their teares, Oh my Dove! Cant. 2.14.that dwellest in the clefts of the Rocke, let me heare thy voice, for it is sweet. Lam. 2.18.Let teares runne downe like a river, day and night: Ye that make mention of the Lord, keep not silence, give him no rest. Isai. 62.6.7.God suspends deliverance many times, that he may draw out prayers and teares from his people which are like musick in his eares, and pearls in his eyes. And then when it is full tide with Gods peoples sorrows, then it is full time with Gods mercies and compassions. Psal. 102.Thou wilt arise and have mercy upon Sion, for the time to favour her, yea the set time is come. Thou shalt or thou wilt! what is the ground of this confidence? it followes: For thy servants take pleasure in her stones, and favour the dust thereof. He knew by the strength of their pains and throws, mercy and deliverance were now come to the very point of birth, & was assured there would be strength to bring forth.
Many more particulars might be added to this account; 2. The exercise of their Graces, &c.scil. the blasting of their corruptions, the improvement, exercise and brightning of their graces, the holding them forth to the world, as wicked mens shame, Satans confutation, the world's wonder, Religions justification, Angels delight, and Gods glory. But I cannot dwell upon these things. I must hast to the third consideration.
A third consideration why God waits to be gracious is in relation to his owne Name; 3. Reason or Confideration why God waits The glory of his own Namethat he may consult and work for the honour of his Name, and this also is in reference to his people. For truly there is so much Idolatry even in their hearts, that if God deliver by means they are ready to ascribe deliverance to means, In regard whereof God is fain to suspend their rescues and salvations till the tide of second causes runne so low, that there is hardly adrop to be seen in the channel that is able to bear up their hopes and expectations, that so there may be nothing to share with God in the glory of their deliverances. Thus he would not fully and finally rescue his Israel from the oppression and opposition of Pharaoh and his Egyptians, till their inclosure between the red Sea before them, & the Armies of the Egyptians like another red Sea behind them, and an unpassable wildernesse on either fide, made them to see their deliverance impossible in the view of second causes; while there was no way of escape left open to them, unlesse they could have gone upward to heaven; and because they could not goe up to heaven, heaven came downe to them and saved them; and the end why God suspended their deliverance, till they were brought to this desperate strait and exigence, the Prophet Isaiah tells us, Isaiah 63.was that God might make himselfe an everlasting Name, ver. 12. a glorious Name, ver. 14.
And therefore would not God save his people in Babylon from the bloudy designe of Haman, till the letters were sealed with the Kings seale, the Posts dispatched away with their Commissions into all his Kingdomes, and nothing now wanting but the day wherein the cruell Babylonians might make themselves drunk with healths of Hebrew blood; all now at a desperate losse, that so the wisedome, and power, and goodnesse and faithfulnesse of God might shine forth most gloriously in that miraculous salvation.
When Gideon was to encounter the Midianites, Judges 7.2.God told him, The people that are with thee are too many for me to give the Midianites into their hand. Too many? how so? for alas they were at most but thirty thousand, when the Midianites were as the sand of the fea for multitude, ver. 12. well, twenty thousand are sent home again for milk-sops, ver. 3. and but ten thousand remains, an inconsiderable company compared with the Midianites, and yet too many, vers. 4. well (short work to make) they must be all sent back to three hundred, of whom one might have said, as Andrew of the five loaves and two fishes, What are they among so many? And why must these doe the deed? God himself gives Gideon this account of it, vers. 2. Lest Israel vaunt themselves against me, and say mine owne hand hath saved me. Lest Ifrael vaunt! Oh wonder of pride and Idolatry! what will Israel doe so vilely? yes (Brethren) it is not Pharaoh onelyonly that was ignorant of God but Israel too; There was so much pride and ignorance and Idolatry even in Gods owne Israel, that if God save them by themselves, they will attribute deliverance to themselves; Mine owne hand dath saved mee. To informe which ignorance, and to correct which pride, and to prevent which Idolatry in the hearts of his owne people God waits till there is not a second cause to be seene to come into their succour, that there being none other to whom it is possble to attribute deliverance, he alone may carry away the repute and glory of it; and so God often gives the account, I will doe thus and thus. Exod. 6.7. &c. Deut. 32.36.27.38.39.And you shall know that I am the Lord which bringeth you out of Egypt: not only Pharaoh shall know, but you shall know that I am the Lord.
And thus I have dispatcht the two Quaeres for the opening of this truth, scil. In what sence God may be said to wait; and secondly, On what considerations or respects God waits to be gracious to his people.
I come now to the Grounds, or Reasons of this truth, Grounds.exprest in the Text.
For the Lord is a God of judgement, i. e. a
Just God.
Wise God.
First, God is a just God, First, God is a just God. Psal. 9.7.8.and therefore he will wait to deliver his people from their oppressours and Tyrants in the fittest season. He hath prepared his throne for judgement. He doth but wait til the oppressor hath fill dup his measure of iniquitie, and then the justice of God will give sentence, and command execution. He will make inquisition for bloud, ver. 12. He will draw articles of inquiry as strict and as criticall as ever the inquisition of Spaine or Lambeth, as he did to Cain, Where is thy Brother? Gen. 4.9.The voice of thy Brothers bloud cryeth to me from the ground. The Hebrew reads it the voice of thy Brothers blouds, every drop of Abels bloud had a tongue to cry against Cain. So will God say to the persecutors of the Christians in the Primitive times, Where are the Christians your Brethren? the voice of their blouds cryeth in mine eares; So shall it be articled against all Antichristian Tyrants, Bonner and the rest of his bloud-sucking Brethren, Where are your Brethren the Protestants? where Cranmer and Ridley and Latimer, and the rest? the voice of their blouds cryeth in mine eares; the voice of their heart bloud, and eare bloud, and estate bloud, the bloud of their liberties and Ministery, the bloud of their families cryeth in mine eares; and God will avenge this bloud, every drop shall cost the Tyrant dear, Shall not God avenge his owne Elect? Luke 18.7.doe ye doubt it? I tell you he will avenge them speedily. The zeale of the Lord of Hosts shall perform this, the justice of the Lord of hosts shall performe this. Since it is a righteous thing with God to recompence tribulation to them that trouble you, 2 Thess. 1.6.7.and to them that are troubled rest, &c. It is a righteous thing with God; Gods Righteousnesse lyes at stake, for he hath engaged himselfe to his people for as much as this comes to, The rod of the wicked shall not rest on the back of the Righteous. Psal. 125.9.Their rod may be on the back of the Righteous, but it shall not rest; God hath said it, and shall not he make it good? A righteous man will be as good as his word, will the righteous God breake, think you? Heb. 6.10.no, God is not unrighteous to forget your worke and labour of love, &c.
Secondly, 2. God is a wise God.As he is a just God, so he is a wise God, and by vertue of that infinite light which dwelleth in his nature, he knows when mercy will be most seasonable, when deliverance will be deliverance indeed, in all respects deliverance.
He is a wise God, and therefore he knows when the enemies sinnes are full, as the husbandman knows when his corn is fully ripe. One that dwells in the Citie, or a Scholar in the Universitie perhaps doth not know, they may think it ripe, before it is ripe; but the husbandman knows exactly when it is fit for the sickle, and to this very Metaphor doth God allude: Put ye in the sickle for the harvest is ripe, the presse is full, Joel 3.13.the fats overflow, for their wickednesse is great. We may thinke their wickednesse ripe many times when tis not God only is wise enough to know that; we may guesse, but he only can infallibly determine.
He is wise and knows also when his people have smarted enough: as a wise Physician or Chirurgion knows when his Patient hath bled enough, and will not let him loose a drop of good bloud, he takes away none but that which is better out then in. He that prescribed a number of stripes to the Judges, Deut. 25.3. will not exceed himselfe, In measure when it shooteth forth wilt thou debate with it.Isai. 27.8.
And so also he is wise, he knows when his people have wept enough, and mourned enough. God hath a bag for wicked mens sinnes, Job 14.17.Mine iniquity is sealed up in a bag, saith Job, &c. And he hath a bottle for his peoples tears, Thou puttest my tears into thy bottle, Psal. 56.8.saith David; and God hath the bag and the bottle with him in heaven, and knows when they be full.
And so (lastly) God is wise, and therefore he knows when the second causes are low enough, when the straits and exigences of his people are desperrte enough to raise a Name and a praise to himselfe in their deliverance and salvation. One would have thought thirty thousand had been no considerable strength to encounter with an Army of such vastnesse and multitude as was the Hoast of the Midianites (in the place before quoted) but when twenty thousand were dismist, who would have thought there had been any room left for Israel to have arrogated any praise or glory to themselves, yet he in whose eyes all things are naked and open, Heb. 4.13.cut up through the back bone, his wisdome saw their pride would have made a calfe of their owne strength, and have danct before it when they had done, had there been but the least shadow of a victory got by their owne sword; and therefore it must be done by three hundred, happily not one for a thousand in the camp of the Midianites. One would have thought God had done enough in the ten plagues of Egypt, to have got himselfe the praise of Israels comming forth under the conduct of Moses and Aaron; but he was a God of judgement, a wise God, and saw they were not brought low enough yet to exalt him; and therefore chose the red Sea for a bridge, and the wildernesse for a passage into Canaan, that he might for ever silence the pride and idolatry of their hearts, and make himself a glorious everlasting Name.Isai. 63.12.14.
I have done with the Doctrinall part of this Observation, I come now to the Vse.