Note, 1. Nothing is more grievous than the disappointment of a raised
expectation, though not in the thing itself by a denial, yet in the
time of it by a delay: Hope deferred makes the heart sick and
languishing, fretful and peevish; but hope quite dashed kills the
heart, and the more high the expectation was raised the more cutting is
the frustration of it. It is therefore our wisdom not to promise
ourselves any great matters from the creature, not to feed ourselves
with any vain hopes from this world, lest we lay up matter for our own
vexation; and what we do hope for let us prepare to be disappointed in,
that, if it should prove so, it may prove the easier; and let us not be
hasty. 2. Nothing is more grateful than to enjoy that, at last, which
we have long wished and waited for: When the desire does come it puts
men into a sort of paradise, a garden of pleasure, for it is a tree of
life. It will aggravate the eternal misery of the wicked that their
hopes will be frustrated; and it will make the happiness of heaven the
more welcome to the saints that it is what they have earnestly longed
for as the crown of their hopes.