that feared the Lord, and that thought upon his name." They fometimes meet with the Lord there: but at other times they may mifs him very suddenly, and be obliged to fay with the church, Lam. iii. 8. When I cry and fhout, he fhutteth out my prayer." And in the 44th. verfe, "Thou haft covered thyfelf with a cloud, that our prayers fhould not pafs through." But again,

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8. In the next place, to add no more, they may miss him in the very place where they have enjoyed him; God went up from him, in the very place where he talked with him. I say, they may mifs him in the very times and places where they have enjoyed him; and they may enjoy him, but fuddenly the Lord may withdraw from them. They may mifs him in the public places, the ordinances where they have enjoyed him; they may mifs him in fecret places, in the chamber, in the field, in the fpot where they enjoyed him; God went up from bim, in the place where be talked with him.-So much fhall fuffice for the third head.

IV. The fourth thing I propofed was, To give the grounds and reasons of this difpenfation: Whence is it that the Lord's people may enjoy God, and yet may quickly mifs him, even in the very fpot where they have enjoyed him? I cannot ftand to enlarge upon this; I fhall offer fome reafons in fo many words.

1. By this the Lord fhews his fovereignty, that he is the fovereign difpenfer of his bleffings, and confers them when, upon whom, and in what manner he pleafes.

2. The Lord by this would alfo confirm his people unto their Head, Jefus Chrift, who was deferted of the Father," My God, my God," fays he, "why haft thou forfaken me ? Alas! this was a bitter cup, yet the Lord will have his people to be plunged in it, fo to fpeak, to know the bitterness of that cup of defertion.

3. It is ordered alfo, to make a difference between heaven and earth. We are but ftrangers and pilgrims here and are not to expect an uninterrrupted enjɔyment of our Lord in this world. There is an eternity.

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of the enjoyment of God a-coming, unto all the children of grace; and therefore he takes the liberty with his people now, to hide himfelf from them. Again,

4. It is ordered alfo, for fhewing unto us that the Lord may approve of his people, and accept of their fervices and duties in Jefus Chrift, even when they miss that in duty which they would be at, namely, his bleffing of them with his comfortable prefence: this is what he will give unto them as he pleases.

5. He would have them to know they are not to reft on the means; that they are not to be depended upon, but that they are to use the means, with a refpect to his command, and a regard to his authority, even though the Lord fhould deny his comfortable prefence therein.The Lord orders it alfo, it may be,

6. To chaftife their former mifbehaviours, either in feeking, or in the enjoyment of him: he will learn them to value his prefence, by abfenting himself from them.

7. Many times he does it, to quicken their endeavours after him, and to lead them unto the due acknowledgment of their fins, by which they have provoked him to depart and hide his face; as the Lord fays by his prophet, "I will go and return to my place, till they acknowledge their offence, and feek my face: in their affliction, they will feek me early." Many fuch reafons might be given, why the Lord orders matters thus.

8. I fhall give you one reafon more; (and, Sirs, we may tremble when we speak of it) the Lord may hide his face, in many of the duties of his appointment, to fhew his difpleafure against his church and people; and to fhew what vengeance may be a-coming upon them, because of their fins and provocations : and the Lord may withdraw from his own people, and hide his face from them, because of their finful acceffion to the evils of the time and place wherein they live. Ah! what ftroaks may be a-coming upon a finful generation! And alfo, for this reafon, he may hide his face from his people, that it may not be in their

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power to fland up in the gap, to hinder the ftroak to come on; and therefore he hides his face, and hardly allows them to pray. What is the language of it? It is to this effect," Pray not for this people," when I am peremptorily refolved to bring down vengeance on them; therefore he with-holds the Spirit of prayer. And he fometimes withdraws with reference to this very point, that they have not fo much as the affurance of the delay of a troak, because he is quickly to bring it on; and, perhaps, this may be one great complaint of the Lord's people, and of fome that go many a foot to his ordinances; Oh the little communion they meet with in them! It may be, the Lord is referving the comforts of a communion till the time of a wilderness want fhall come; "Behold, I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness," faith the Lord, by the prophet, "and fpeak comfortably to her," Hofea ii. 14.

V. I come now, in the last place, to make application of the whole. I fhall confine my Application to these two uses: 1. By way of Trial and Examination. And, 2. By way of Exhortation.

ift, Is it fo, that the Lord, when he allows communion and fellow fhip with him to his people, may fuddenly withdraw, and they may mifs him in the spot where they have enjoyed him? Then, O Sirs, you fhould try what you know of his prefence, and of communion and fellowship with him. It were the lefs hazard that you knew, to your experience, that of miffing him, if ye really knew what it were to find him, and what it is to enjoy him, and to have communion with him. Why, Sirs, I would have you put it to the trial, if God has been talking with you at this occafion, or at any other time.-Do you know what it is to have God talking with you; I mean, to have communion and fellowship with him? You cannot expect to have the enjoyment of glory hereafter, if it be not begun in grace here. Why, how fhall we know, say you, if we have met with the Lord? Or attained any thing of the enjoyment of him? Why, in the

1. Place,

1. Place, you may try it by this, There are fome things you will be hardly able to endure, if you have met with him. The Lord's people they cannot endure that God go away from them again; or that God fhould hide his face. Oh! it is heavy to think of the Lord's withdrawing from them: they cannot endure to think that God fhould be angry with them: they cannot endure that any thing fhould have Chrift's room in their hearts they cannot endure that any thing fhould hinder or marr that meeting with, and enjoyment of God they have they fay with the Pfalmift, "Depart from me, all ye workers of iniquity; for I will keep the commandments of my God." What will all the world be to me, fays the foul, if I have not communion and fellowship with my God?-Again, the foul cannot endure any thing that tends to marr the enjoyment of God; when he has it, when he is brought into the banquetting-house, and has the light of God's countenance, he is ready to charge all about him, with the fpoufe, that they do not provoke the Lord to depart; "I charge you,” fays fhe, "O ye daughters of Jerufalem, by the roes and by the hinds of the field, that ye ftir not up, nor awake my love till he pleafe," Song ii. 7.-What know ye of this? Again,

2. If ye know his gracious prefence, you will be one that rejoices in his prefence, and laments at his abfence. His prefence will be your chief joy; his abfence will be your chief forrow: his prefence will give you more joy than all the world can; his absence will make you more forrowful, than any thing in time can make you joyful. This is the import of that word, "Thou haft put," fays the Pfalmift," gladness in my heart, more than in the time that their corn and their wine increased," Pfal.iv.7. Again, if you be one that has had a meeting with the Lord, then, to be fùre, his absence will be a diftreffing thing to you. As you defire his prefence above all things, and count all things but lofs and dung, for the excellency of the knowledge of Jefus Chrift, and communion with God in him; fo, when you cannot win at the enjoyment of him, when you cannot get your heart brought up to love him, when you cannot get your N 2

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eyes open to fee him, you look upon yourself as a diftreffed perfon, as a broken perfon, as a miferable perfon, by reafon of the abfence of God, and the prefence of fin. A child of God looks upon himself to be, and is really, an afflicted and a broken body, by reafon of the prefence of fin, and the abfence of the Lord; and therefore he cries out, "O that I knew where I might find him!" But again,

3. If you are one that have experience of this prefence of God, and fellowship with him; then you will have fome fellowship with the faints, the excellent ones of the earth. What know, you of this? I think this is a good fign, when the heart warms towards one that is a child of grace, though he be a beggar, or in poor circumftances, or one of little wit otherwife; when your heart warms towards the picture of Chrift, when your heart warms towards one, because he has the image of Chrift; "By this we know, fays the apoftle John, that we have paffed from death unto life, because we love the brethren," 1, John iii. 1. 4. The heart warming towards these that have the image of God, it has in it fomething of heart warming towards Chrift himself. Again,

4. We may know it by the humbling effect of it. When a perfon has the image of God on him, he will be humbled; thus Job, when he had got a clear fight of himself, fays to the Lord, "I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear, but now mine eye feeth thee; wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in duft and afhes," Job xlii. 5, 6. O the presence of God makes the perfon hate fin; it humbles him to nothing, as the Lord fays by the prophet, Ifa. ii. 11. "The lofty looks of man fhall be humbled, and the haughtiness of man fhall be bowed down," when the Lord alone is exalted in the foul, when he is prefent on the throne of the heart. Again,

5. We may judge of it by this, they that have met with God and have his prefence, whether they have it fenfibly or not, they have ftill an high esteem of Chrift, even though he fhould be abfent.They have alfo an high esteem of his ordinances, even when but dry breafts; they dare not undervalue them: nay, they