but of professors, "Of the rock that begat us we have been unmindful, and forgotten God that formed us, therefore, when the Lord saw it he abhorred us, because of the provoking of his sons' and of his daughters," Deut. xxxii. 18, 19. Oh our wretched ingratitude, rebellion, and covenant-breaking, our sins have reached to heaven; therefore our judgments are unparalleled. We may say as Dan. ix. 12, "Under the whole heaven hath not been done, as hath been done upon us." It is well if we have not reason to add also ver. 13, "That all this evil is come upon us, yet made we not our prayer,* before the Lord our God, that we might turn from our iniquities and understand thy truth." It is true, we have prayed, but it is well if we have so prayed. Is not the accursed thing to be found amongst us to this day? We have been long in the fire, but are we cleansed? Alas, alas, may not that sad complaint and charge be brought against us, Jer. vi. 2830, "They are grievous revolters, walking with slanders, brass and iron, they are all corrupters, the bellows are burnt, the lead is consumed of the fire; the founder melteth in vain, for the wicked are not plucked away, reprobate silver shall men call them because the Lord hath rejected them." O that this were not our case, and that character also given of the same professing people, Jer. ix. 3-7. But I shall leave Christians to this heart-searching work, beseeching, requiring and charging all persons to deal faithfully with their own souls; find out the Achan that troubles the camp, and stone it; cast lots to find the Jonah that raiseth this tempest, cast it overboard, confess, bewail, reform, supplicate pardon of sin, and who knows but we shall have a calm ? 4. Endeavour to impress your hearts with a sense * Heb. intreated the face. of the evil of God's departure from us: otherwise you will not think it worth the while to spend time in lamenting after him. Come to a heart, a house, a society, a congregation, or the nation, and make inquiry, is God there? If it be answered, no, he is gone wholly or partially, what is then left that is good? Surely if God go, all good goes, and all evil comes, 2 Chron. xv. 3-6. "Now for a long season Israel had been without the true God, and without a teaching priest, and without law," whether this was under Jeroboam, and his successors, or at some other time, “and in those times there was no peace to him that went out, nor to him that came in, but great vexations were upon all the inhabitants of the countries for God did vex them with all adversity." Mark it, when God goes, all evil comes. They were without the true, pure, public worship of God, and without a standing ministry, to teach publicly, plainly, and powerfully, but had in their places, false prophets, lying Rabbies, or graceless loiterers, and it may be the people loved to have it so. No wonder if they had civil discords, foreign invasions, ecclesiastical dissentions, all things going to wreck; setting up one ruler against another, so joining in parties and factions; using barbarous cruelties, embroiling all in sad contentions, and imbruing their hands in one anothers blood. When God goes he breaks down the hedge of his protecting providence, so that the boar out of the wood wastes his vineyard; * then it is eaten up, trodden down, it shall not be pruned nor digged, but there come up briars and thorns; † yea, he commands the clouds that they rain no rain upon it; what then will become of it? Surely the inclosed vineyard of the church soon becomes a wild common of barbarous infidels. When God removes his candles, darkness comes, * Psal. lxxx. 12, 13. † Isa. v. 6, 7. but when he removes candlesticks also, * Mahomet fills up the room. The famous Asiatic churches are a dreadful instance. If the sun sets, night comes on: if the king be absent, what court can be kept? if Christ stay not, where is the church? if God should leave his glorious mansion in heaven, it would instantly become a dark dungeon of hell: yea, if God depart from a people as a friend, he comes against them as a dreadful foe; if he go away he tears as a lion, † he consumes as a moth: if he hide his face, he comes in wrath, and fury to slay them, Jer. xxxiii. 5. Saul was in a woful plight when God was departed from him, and the Philistines were upon him.‡ Yes, if God depart the devil comes. When the good spirit went from Saul, an evil spirit from the Lord troubled and tormented him, 1 Sam. xvi. 14, 23. Satan was from God, as framing his nature, and commissioning him to punish Saul, but his wickedness and malignity in his designs and actings were from himself. O how glad is the devil to take up that room which God leaves! truly then saith the Lord, Hos. ix. 12, "Woe also to them, when I depart from them;" there is a woe of sinning, and suffering which attends God's departure. Whither will not men run when God forsakes them? If the hand withdraw, the staff falls; if the glass without foot be not held up, it falls, and breaks, and the liquor spills; the very best man is no more daily, than as the Lord makes him; Samson, David, and Peter, will fall if God go; much more they that have no hold of God, or God of them in a covenant way, they will not stop till they reach the height of sin and fall into the depth of hell! Hos. ix. 17, "My God will cast them away, because they did not hearken to him." Hos. vii. 13, "Woe unto them, for +1 Sam. xxviii. 15. * Rev. ii. 5. † Hos. v. 14. they have fled from me, yea destruction to them, because they have transgressed against me: yea, everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power," 2 Thess. i. 9. Were we kindly affected with all this, we should lament after the Lord. We have reason to tremble, lest it prove our case, and removing his ordinances is a great step to all this; but if we knew what it meant, we should with old Eli have "trembling hearts for the ark of God, 1 Sam. iv. 13. 5. Study the advantages and benefit of having God present with us: as fear of evil is one motive to avoid it, so a desire of the contrary good, adds wings in seeking earnestly for it. When God goes, all good goes. So when God returns or continues with a people, they enjoy all good, inward and outward. The people that have God with them, have a strong guard to defend them, a wise guide to direct them, rich grace to supply them, high honour to advance them, full rest to content them, an abundant reward in the enjoyment of him; they have enough, they need no more. "Happy is the people whose God is the Lord." * Luther's Psalm, that song upon Alamoth, Psalm xlvi, is admirable for this; for when the church can say, "God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble," ver. 1, she builds great confidence and comfort on this solid foundation; ver. 2, "Therefore will not we fear though the earth be removed," &c. Yea, she stands upon this impregnable rock, triumphing over all dangers and enemies, with this word repeated, ver. 7, 11, "The Lord of hosts is with us, the God of Jacob is our refuge:" and "if God be for us who can be against us?" Who would not follow after such a God with prayers, tears, groans, and hearty lamentations, that he would return to us and continue with us? Oh! who would not have a hand in bringing back the King, such a King as by his presence can make us truly and eternally happy? See what it is to have God with us, Isa. xlii. 13-16. Yea, it becomes every one to study the usefulness of God's ordinances, that their hearts may be engaged to, and enlarged in lamenting after the ordinances of God? Both these are larger subjects than I can prosecute, to explain the advantages coming to a people by the presence of the ordinances of God, or the God of ordinances. You must look on the ordinances as fruits and tokens of God's special favour, for all have not the ordinances of God, Psal. cxlvii. 19, 20, "He sheweth his word unto Jacob, his statutes and his judgments, unto Israel : he hath not dealt so with any nation; and as for his judgments, they have not known them." That this sunshine of gospel light is on one place, when not on another, proceeds from a discriminating providence, which sent ambassadors, for the gospel to be brought to it. Surely that is preventing kindness: but when it hath left some impressions on the hearts of men, some myrrh upon the handles of the lock,* such should, yea will lament after him, when he is gone, as the church did: for such have tasted how good the Lord is, and look on the ordinances as their heritage and highest * Psalm. cxliv. ult. privilege. O that you knew what helps ordinances are, to promote God's work in our hearts, in creating and increasing faith, repentance, love, and new obedience ; this is that clear crystal-glass through which we may see the face of God, and be transformed into his image ;† that glass in which we may see the face of our souls, and be humbled and ashamed: here you may have your doubts resolved, fears dispersed, hearts satisfied, ‡ James i. 24. • Song v. 5. + 2 Cor. iii. 18. |