“Lord, in trouble have they visited thee, they poured out a prayer when thy chastening was upon them,” verse 16.
The prophet means, that such as in the time of quietness did not rightly regard God nor his judgments, were compelled, by sharp corrections, to seek God; yea, by cries and dolorous complaints to visit him. True it is, that such obedience deserves small praise before men; for who can praise, or accept that in good part, which comes as it were of mere compulsion? And yet it is rare, that any of God's children do give unfeigned obedience, until the hand of God turn them. For if quietness and prosperity make them not utterly to forget their duty, both towards God and man, as David for a season, yet it makes them careless, insolent, and in many things unmindful of those things that God chiefly craves of them; which imperfection being espied, and the danger that thereof might ensue, our heavenly Father visits the sins of his children, but with the rod of his mercy, by which they are moved to return to their God, to accuse their former [pg 047] negligence, and to promise better obedience in all times hereafter; as David confessed, saying, “Before I fell in affliction I went astray, but now will I keep thy statutes.”
But yet, for the better understanding of the prophet's mind, we may consider how God doth visit man, and how man doth visit God; and what difference there is betwixt the visitation of God upon the reprobate, and his visitation upon the chosen.
God sometimes visits the reprobate in his hot displeasure, pouring upon them his plagues for their long rebellion; as we have heard before, that he visited the proud, and destroyed their memory. At other times God is said to visit his people, being in affliction, to whom he sends comfort or promise of deliverance, as he visited the seed of Abraham, when oppressed in Egypt. And Zacharias said, that God had visited his people, and sent unto them hope of deliverance, when John the Baptist was born. But of none of these visitations our prophet here speaks, but of that only which we have already touched; namely, when God layeth his correction upon his own children, to call them from the venomous breasts of this corrupt world, that they suck not in over great abundance the poison thereof; and he doth, as it were, wean them from their mother's breasts, that they may learn to receive other nourishment. True it is, that this weaning (or speaning, as we term it) from worldly pleasure, is a thing strange to the flesh. And yet it is a thing so necessary to God's children, that, unless they are weaned from the pleasures of the world, they can never feed upon that delectable milk of God's eternal verity; for the corruption of the one either hinders the other from being received, or else so troubles the whole powers of man, that the soul can never so digest the truth of God as he ought to do.
Although this appears hard, yet it is most evident; for what can we receive from the world, but that which is in the world? What that is, the apostle John teaches; saying, “Whatsoever is in the world, is either the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, or the pride of life.” (1 John ii.) Now, seeing that these are not of the Father, but of the world, how can it be, that our souls can feed upon chastity, temperance, and humility, so long as our stomachs are replenished with the corruption of these vices?
Now so it is, that flesh can never willingly refuse these fore-named, but rather still delights itself in every one of them; yea, in them all, as the examples are but too evident.
It behoves therefore, that God himself shall violently pull his children from these venomous breasts, that when they lack the liquor and poison of the world, they may visit him, and learn to be nourished of him. Oh if the eyes of worldly princes should be opened, that [pg 048] they might see with what humour and liquor their souls are fed, while their whole delight consists in pride, ambition, and the lusts of the corrupt flesh! We understand then how God doth visit men, as well by his severe judgments, as by his merciful visitation of deliverance from troubles, or by bringing trouble upon his chosen for their humiliation; and now it remains to understand how man visits God. Man doth visit God, when he appears in his presence, be it for the hearing of his word, or for the participation of his sacraments; as the people of Israel, besides the observation of their sabbaths and daily oblations, were commanded thrice a-year to present themselves before the presence of the tabernacle; and as we do, and us often as we present ourselves to the hearing of the word. For there is the footstool, yea, there is the face and throne of God himself, wheresoever the gospel of Jesus Christ is truly preached, and his sacraments rightly ministered.
But men may on this sort visit God hypocritically; for they may come for the fashion, they may hear with deaf ears; yea, they may understand, and yet never determine with themselves to obey that which God requires: and let such men be assured, that He who searches the secrets of hearts will be avenged of all such; for nothing can be more odious to God, than to mock him in his own presence. Let every man therefore examine himself, with what mind, and what purpose, he comes to hear the word of God; yea, with what ear he hears it, and what testimony his heart gives unto him, when God commands virtue, and forbids impiety.
Repinest thou when God requires obedience? Thou hearest to thine own condemnation. Mockest thou at God's threatenings? Thou shalt feel the weight and truth of them, albeit too late, when flesh and blood cannot deliver thee from his hand. But the visitation, whereof our prophet speaks, is only proper to the sons of God, who, in the time when God takes from them the pleasures of the world, or shows his angry countenance unto them, have recourse unto him, and, confessing their former negligence, with troubled hearts, cry for his mercy. This visitation is not proper to all the afflicted, but appertains only to God's children: for the reprobates can never have access to God's mercy in time of their tribulation, and that because they abuse his long patience, as well as the manifold benefits they receive from his hands; for as the same prophet heretofore saith, “Let the wicked obtain mercy, yet shall he never learn wisdom, but in the land of righteousness,” that is, where the true knowledge of God abounds, “he will do wickedly.” Which is a crime above all others abominable; for to what end is it that God erects his throne among us, but that we should fear him? Why does he reveal his holy will unto us, but that we should obey it? Why does he deliver us from trouble, but that we should be witnesses unto the world, that he is gracious and merciful?
Now, when men hearing their duty, and knowing what God requires of them, do malapertly fight against all equity and justice, what I pray you, do they else, but make manifest war against God? Yea, when they have received from God such deliverance, that they [pg 050] cannot deny but that God himself hath in his great mercy visited them, and yet they continue wicked as before; what deserve they but effectually to be given over unto a reprobate sense, that they may headlong run to ruin, both of body and soul? It is almost incredible that a man should be so enraged against God, that neither his plagues, nor yet his mercy showed, should move him to repentance; but because the Scriptures bear witness of the one and the other, let us cease to marvel, and let us firmly believe, that such things as have been, are even at present before our eyes, albeit many, blinded by affection, cannot see them.