and kings, what vain things are they that you embrace and cleave to! Whatsoever they be, soon must you part. Can you say of any of them, Who shall separate us? Storms may arise and scatter ships that sail smoothly together in fair weather. Thou mayest be removed, by public commotions and calamities, from thy sweet dwellings, and societies, and estates. You may even live to see and seek your parting. At last you must part, for you must die. Then, farewell parks and palaces, gardens and honors, and even crowns themselves. dearest friends, children and wife must be parted with. And what hast thou left, poor soul, who hast not Christ, but that which thou wouldst gladly part with and canst not, the condemning guilt of all thy sins?

Then

But the soul that is in Christ, when other things are pulled away, feels little or nothing: he cleaves to Christ, and these separations pain him not. Yea, when that great separatist, death, comes, that breaks all other unions, even that of the soul and body, yet so far is it from separating the believer's soul from its beloved Lord Jesus, that, on the contrary, it carries it into the nearest union with him, and the fullest enjoyment of him for

ever.

SERMON XVIII.

The Goodness of God, and the Wickedness of Man. ISAIAH lix, 1, 2.

Behold, the Lord's hand is not shortened, that it cannot save, neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear.

But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear.

OUR vain minds are naturally more fruitful in nothing, than in mistakes of God. For the most part we think

not on him, and when we do it, we fancy him according to our own affections, which are wholly perverse and crooked.

Men commonly judge it a vain thing to spend much pains and time in worshipping him; and if they are convinced of this and tied to it by the profession of his name, then they think all religion is a shell of external diligences and observances, and count it strange if this be not accepted. In the former chapter we find this, in the prophet's contest with the people about their fasting and their opinion of it. He cuts up their sacrifices, and lets them see what was within; the skin was sound and looked well, but being opened, the entrails were found rotten. And here he enters into another contest against the latent atheism of their hearts, who, after their manner of seeking God, not fiuding him and not being delivered, are ready to think that he either cannot or will not help, and rather rest on that gross mistake, than inquire into themselves for the true cause of their continuing calamities: they incline rather to think it is some indisposition in God to help, than what it truly is, a want of reformation in themselves that hinders it. It is not likely that they would say thus, or speak it out in plain terms; no, nor possibly speak it formally and distinctly within, not so much as in their thoughts; and yet they might have a confused dark conceit of this. And much of the atheism of man's heart is of this fashion; not formed into re, solved propositions, but latent, in confused notions of it, scarcely discernible by himself; at least, not searched out and discerned in his own breast. There they are, and he sees them not, not written assertions, but flying fumes, filling the soul, and hindering it from reading the characters of God that are writ upon the conscience.

The impenitency of men, in any condition and parti cularly under distress, is from the want of clear apprehensions and deep persuasions of God, of his just anger provoked by their sin, and of his sweetness and readiness to forgive and embrace a returning sinner; of his sovereign power, able to rid them out of the greatest trouble, his ear, quick enough to hear the cries, yea, the least whis. pering of an humbled heart in the lowest deep of his sor

row, and his arm, long enough to reach them, and strong enough to draw them forth. He that cometh unto God, must believe that he is, says the apostle. So, certainly he who believes that, must come; it will sweetly constrain him : he cannot but come, who is so persuaded. Were men's hearts much impressed with that belief in all their troubles, they would eye men less and God more, and without delay they would fasten upon the church's resolution, Hos. vi, 1; Come and let us return unto the Lord; for he hath torn, and he will heal us; he hath smitten, and he will bind us up. And this is the very thing that the prophet would here persuade to by his present doctrine; and having impleaded them guilty, he sets them a copy of humble confession, ver. 12. Hence the frequent complaints in the psalms, Why hidest thou thyself? I cry, but thou hearest not.

In the words of these two verses, these two things appear-a sad condition, and the true cause of it.

The condition, I think I have reason to call sad: it is God hiding his face that he will not hear. This may be either the personal estate of his children, or the public estate of his church. From a soul he hides his face, not so much in the withdrawing of sensible comforts and sweet tastes of joy, which to many are scarcely known, and to such as do know them commonly do not continue very long, but it is a suspension of that lively influence of his divine power, for raising the mind to the contemplation of him and communion with him in prayer and meditation, which yet may be, where those relishes and senses of joy are not. And the returns of it appear in beating down the power of sin, or abating and subduing it, making the heart more pure and heavenly, making it to live more by faith in Christ, to be often at the throne of grace, and to receive gracious answers, supplies of wants, and assistances against temptations. Now when there is a cessation and obstruction of these and such like workings, the face of God is hid; the soul is at a loss, seeks still and cannot find him whom it loveth. And in this condition it cannot take comfort in other things; they are too low. It is a higher and nobler desire than to be satisfied, or diverted, with the childish things

that men delight in who know not God. It is a love-sickness, which nothing can cure but the presence and love of the party loved. Yea, nothing can so much as allay the pain, and give an interval of ease, or recover a fainting fit, but some good word or look, or at least some kind message, from him. Set thee in a palace, and all delights about thee, and a crown on thy head, yet if his love has ceased on thy heart, these are all nothing without him. It was after David was advanced to his kingdom, and is in the psalm of the dedication of his royal house, that he said, Thou didst hide thy face, and I was troubled; that is, All is dark; all the shining marble, and the gold, and the azure, lose their lustre, when thou art not here dwelling with me.

And so with the church; God is the proper light, the beauty, the life of it. Deck it with all this world's splendor, with all the dresses of pompous worship, these are not its genuine beauty; and they provoke him who is its ornament, to depart. But give it the native purity and beauty of holy ministers and ordinances well regulated, yet even that is but a dead comeliness, proportion and feature without life, when God is absent.

And as for the matter of deliverances and working for her, which is here the thing in hand, none can do any thing in that, not the wisest, nor the best of men, with all their combined wit and strength, when he retires and comes not forth, doth not show himself on the behalf of his people, and work their works for them. These have, it may be, some kind of prayer possibly; they offer at extraordinaries, and yet obtain nothing, are not heard. The saddest note in all the Song of Lamentations, is that in chapter iii, 43, 44; Thou hast covered with anger, and persecuted us; thou hast slain, thou hast not pitied. Thou hast covered thyself with a cloud, that our prayer should not pass through. Still while that door stands open, there is hope and remedy for other evils; but that being shut, what can a people or a soul expect, but growing troubles, one sorrow upon the back of another? Yea, that is the great trouble, the hiding of his face, and his refusing to hear. Observe Job xxxiv, 29; When he giveth peace, who then can make trouble ? Now the other,

in the same terms, would have been, When he makes trouble, who can give peace? But instead of this, it is, When he hideth his face, who then can behold him? No peace but in beholding him, and nothing but trouble, the grand trouble, when he hides his face. And it is expressed in both cases, whether it be personal or national, whether against a nation or a man only.

This is the thing wherein the strength of other troubles lies, that which gives them weight, when they impart and signify thus much, that the face of God is hid from a soul or a people.

We ought to inquire if this be not our condition at this time. Hath he not hid his face from us? Are we not left in the dark, that we know not which way to turn us? Either we must sit still and do nothing, or, if we stir, we do but rush one upon another, as in darkness, contesting each to have the way, and yet when we have it given us, we know not well which way to go. And we think to be cleared, but it fails us: as in this chapter, ver. 9; We wait for light, but behold obscurity, for brightness, but we walk in darkness: we grope for the wall like the blind, and stumble at noon-day as in the night. Our counsels are strangely darkened, and there is no right understanding one of another. By all our debates, little or no clearing of things is attained, but our passions are more inflamed and parties are further off; the light of sound judgment gone, and with it the heat of love; instead of which, that miserable infernal heat, heat without light, mutual hatreds and revilings; both sides, verbally at least, agreeing in the general terms both of their desires and designs, and yet falling out about modes and fashions of them. And to say no more of parties, the enemies of religion on both hands, right and left, are in action and in power, and only those who love that which we conceive is the way of truth, standing as a naked prey to whether of the two shall prevail. Desires and prayers we have presented, and see as yet no appearance of an issue, but further confusions, even fasting to strife and debate. And where are there any that look like persons to stand in the gap, lifting up holy hands, without wrath or doubting? Hearts are still as unhumbled, and lives as unreformed as ever, New