Supposing that the desertion is real, and not in appearance only, as sometimes it falls out : I answer,
(1.) First, // hath been the common lot, portion, and condition of the choicest samts in this world, to be deserted and forsaken of God, Ps. xx x. 6, 7 ; Ps. lxxvii. 6, and Ixxxviii. 6 ; Job xxiii. 8, 9 ; Cant. iii. 1-4, v. 6, 7 ; Isa. viii. 17 ; Micah vii. 7-9. If God deals no worse with thee than he hath dealt with his most bosom friends, with his choicest jewels, thou hast no reason to complain. But,
(2.) Secondly, God's forsaMmg of thee is only partial, it is not total, Psa. ix. 4 ; Gen. xlix. 23, 24. God may forsake his people in part, but he never wholly forsakes them ; he may forsake them in respect of his quickening presence, and in respect of his comforting presence, but lie never forsakes them in respect of his supporting presence ; 2 Cor. xii. 9, ' My grace is sufficient for thee ; for my strength is made perfect in weakness;' Ps. xxxvii. 23, 24, ' The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord ; and he delighteth in his way. Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down : for the Lord upholdeth him with his hand.'1 God's supporting hand of grace is still under his people : Ps. lxiii. 8, ' My soul followeth hard after thee : thy right hand upholdeth me/ Christ hath always one hand to uphold his people, and another hand to embrace them, Cant. ii. 16. The everlasting arms of God are always underneath his people, Deut. xxxiii. 27. And this the saints have always found ; witness David, Pieman, Asaph, Job, &c.
Geographers write that the city of Syracuse, in Sicily, is so curiously situated that the sun is never out of sight. Though the children of God sometimes are under some clouds of afflictions, yet the Sun of mercy, the Sun of righteousness, is never quite out of sight. But,
(3.) Thirdly, Though God hath forsaken thee, yet his love abides and continues constant to thee; he loves thee with an everlasting love : Jer. xxxi. 3, ' Where he loves, he loves to the end ;' John xiii. 1 ; Isa. xlix. 14-16, ' But Zion said, The Lord hath forsaken me, and my Lord hath forgotten me.' But was not Zion mistaken ? yes, ' Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb ? yea, they may forget, yet will not I forget thee. Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands ; thy walls are continu- ally before me.'2 Look ! as persons engrave the mark, name, or picture of those whom they dearly love and entirely affect, upon some stone that they wear at their breasts, or upon some ring that they wear on their finger, so hath God engraven Zion upon the palms of his hands ; she was still in his eye, and always dear to his heart, though she thought not so. As Joseph's heart was full of love to his brethren, Gen xlii. and xliii., even then when he spake roughly to them, and withdrew himself from them, for he was fain to go aside and ease his heart by weeping ; so the heart of God is full of love to his people, even then when he
J As the nurse upholds the little child, &c.
* The very heathen hath observed that God doth not love his children with a weak affection, but with a strong masculine love. — Seneca.
Ps. XXXIX. 9.] UNDER THE SMARTING ROD. 373
seems to be most displeased with them, and to turn his back upon them. • Though God's dispensations may be changeable towards his people, yet his gracious disposition is unchangeable towards them, Mai. iii. 6. When God puts the blackest veil of all upon his face, yet then his heart is full of love to his people, then his bowels are yearning towards them : Jer. xxxi. 18-20, ' Is Ephraim my dear son ? is he a pleasant child ? for since I spake against him, I do earnestly remember him still ; therefore my bowels are troubled for him : I will surely have mercy upon him, saith the Lord.' The mother's bowels cannot more yearn after the tender babe than God doth after his distressed ones. As Moses his mother, when she had put him into the ark of bulrushes, Exod. ii., wept to see the babe weep, and when she was turned from him, she could not but cast a weeping eye of love towards him ; so when God turns aside from his people, yet he cannot but cast an eye of love towards them : Hos. xi. 1, ' How shall I give thee up, O Ephraim !' &c. Here are four several 'hows' in the text, the like not to be found in the whole book of God. I am even at a stand, justice calls for ven- geance, but mercy interposeth ; my bowels yearn, my heart melts, oh, how shall I give thee up ! oh, I cannot give thee up ! I will not give thee up ! God's love is always like himself, unchangeable ; his love is everlasting ; it is a love that never decays nor waxes cold ; it is like the stone albestos,1 of which Solinus2 writes, that being once hot, it can never be cooled again.
(4.) Fourthly, Though the Lord hath hid his face from thee, yet cer- tainly thou hast his secret presence with thee. God is present when he is seemingly absent : ' The Lord was in this place, and I knew it not,' saith Jacob, Gen. xxviii. 16. The sun many times shines when we do not see it, and the husband is many times in the house when the wife doth not know it. God [is] in thy house, he is in thy heart, though thou seest him not, thou feelest him not, though thou hearest him not : Heb. xiii. 5, ' I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee ;' or, as it may be ren- dered according to the Greek, ' I will not leave thee, neither will I not forsake thee.' Art thou not now drawn out to prize God and Christ, and his love above all the world ? Yes. Art thou not now drawn out to give the Lord many a secret visit, in a corner, behind the door, Cant. - ii. 14, in some dark hole where none can see thee nor hear thee but the Lord? Ps. xlii. 1-3, lxiii. 1-3. Yes. Are there not strong breathings, pantings, and longings after a clearer vision of God, and after a fuller fruition of God ? Yes. Art thou not more affected and afflicted with the withdrawings of Christ than thou art with the greatest afflictions that ever befell thee? Cant. v. 6. Yes. Austin, upon that answer of God to Moses, ' Thou canst not see my face and live,' Exod. xxxiii. 20, makes this quick and sweet reply, ' Then, Lord ! let me die, that I may see thy face.' Dost thou not often tell God that there is no punishment to the punishment of loss, and no hell to that of being forsaken of God? Ps. xxx. 6, 7. Yes. Dost thou not find a secret power in thy soul, drawing thee forth to struggle with God, to lay hold on God, and patiently to wait on God, till he shall return unto thee, and lift up the
2 The ' ape' of Pliny, whose grotesque ' Worke,' quaintly rendered by Golding (1587), was a favourite with the Puritans. — G.
374 THE MUTE CHRISTIAN [Ps. XXXIX. 9.