An exposition with practical observations continued upon the thirty-eighth, thirty-ninth, fortieth, forty-first, and forty-second,…

He hath a reserve of snow and hail in his treasury against the time of trouble, against the day of battle and war. As God can make a day of trouble comfortable to his servants; he can be a hiding place from the wind, and a covert from the tempest; as rivers of water in a dry place, and as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land (Isa. 32.2.) All which metaphors signify one and the same thing, that Christ will be comfortable to his people either immediately or by provision of means in the most troublesome times, there intended by wind and tempest, by a dry place and a weary land. And that he had been all this to his in such a day, the same prophet assures us (chap. 25.4.) Thou hast been a strength to the poor, a strength to the needy in his distress, a refuge from the storm, a shadow from the heat, when the blast of the terrible ones is as a storm against the wall. The History of the taking of Jerusalem by the Babylonians, set down by Jeremiah, tells us, that he was fully heard and answered, when he p•ayed (chap. 17.17.) Be not thou a terror to me: thou art my hope in the day of evil. Jeremiah found the Lord very favourable to him, and giving him favour in the eyes of the enemy, when ⟨p. 190⟩that evil day, the day of battle and war came upon Jerusalem. Thus sometimes God stayeth his rough wind in the day of the East-wind (Isa. 27.8.) that is, he forbeareth to show himself rough, harsh or grievous to his people, when great troubles are otherwise upon them, noted by the East-wind, which naturally is a blasting, blustering, and boisterous wind; and therefore a day of great trouble is elegantly expressed or called, a day of the East-wind. When the Psalmist had described the feigned humiliations of the people of Israel in the Wilderness, which he calls their flattering God with their lips, and lying unto him with their tongues; This was enough to provoke God to make their day of trouble terrible to them, yet (saith that Scripture) He being full of compassion, forgave their iniquity, and destroyed them not; yea many a time turned he his anger away, and did not stir up all his wrath (Psal. 78.38.) Though they all stirred him to wrath, yet he did not stir up all his wrath (when it was worst with them) that would have made it a terrible day indeed. This is the Lords way with his people in an evil day.