king of desires ; it will make you not only willing to die, but even long to die, and to cry out, ' Oh that I had the wings of a dove, to fly away, and be at rest ! ' At death you shall have an eternal jubilee, and be freed from all incumbrances. Now sin shall be no more, nor trouble shall be no more, nor pain nor ailments shall be no more. Now you shall have your quietus est, now ' the wicked shall cease from troubling, and no^y the weary shall be at rest,' Job iii. 17, now ' all tears shall be wiped from your eyes/ Eev. vii. 17, now death shall be the way to bliss, the gate of life, and the portal to paradise. It was well said of one, so far as we tremble at death, so far we want love. It is sad, when the contract is made between Christ and a Christian, to see a Christian afraid of the making up the marriage. Lord, saith one, [Austin,] I will die that I may enjoy thee ; I will not live, but I will die, I desire to die, that I may see Christ ; and refuse to live, that I may live with Christ. The broken rings,l contracts, and espousals contents not the true lover, but he longs for the marriage day. It is no credit to your heavenly Father for you to be loath to go home. The Turks tell us that surely Christians do not believe heaven to be such a glorious place as they talk of ; for if they did, they would not be so unwilling to go thither. The world may- well think that the child hath but cold welcome at his father's house, that he lingers so much by the way, and that he does not look and long to be at home. Such children bring an ill report upon their father's house, upon the holy land ; but I know you have not so learned Christ, I know you long with Paul, ' to be dissolved, and to be with Christ,' Phil, i, 23 ; and with old Simeon, to cry out, ' Lord, let thy servant depart in peace,' Luke ii. 29, That God whom you have long sought and served will make your passage into that other world safe, sweet, and easy. Now to the everlasting arms of divine pro- tection, and to the constant guidance and leadings of the Spirit, and to the rich influences of Christ's sovereign grace, and to the lively hopes of the inheritance of the saints in light, he commends you, who is, dear sister, yours in the strongest bonds,
* An old English betrothal custom. — G,
THE SIGNAL PRESENCE OF GOD WITH HIS PEOPLE,
IN THEIE GREATEST TROUBLES, DEEPEST DISTRESSES, AND MOST DEADLY DANGERS.
* Notwithstanding the Lord stood with me, and strengthened me ; that by me the preaching might he fully knoivn, and that all the Gentiles might hear : and I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion:— 2 Tim. iv. 17. i
In my text you have three things that are most remarkable : —
First, You have Paul's commemoration of that singular experience that he had of the favourable presence of Christ with him, and of his strengthening of him, ' Nothwithstanding the Lord stood with me,' or Trapiarr), ' by me, and assisted me,' Acts xxiii. 11 ; though I was deserted by men, yet I was aided and assisted by Christ, 2 Tim. iv. 16 ; though all men left me to shift for myself, yet the Lord stood by me, and strengthened me with wisdom, prudence, courage, and constancy, in the want of all outward encouragements, and in the face of all outward discouragements, 2 Tim. i. 15.
Secondly, Here is the end for which the Lord stood by him, assisted, strengthened, and delivered him, viz., that he might preach the gospel to the nations, Rom. xi. 13 ; Phil. iv. 22, that he might have more time, and further opportunity, to spread abroad the everlasting gospel among the Gentiles, whose apostle he was. Rome, at this time, was the queen of the world, and in its most flourishing condition ; people from all parts of the world flocked to Rome. Now when they should hear and see Paul's prudence, courage, constancy, and boldness, in professing of Christ, and in preaching and professing the gospel, even before that grand tyrant, that monster of mankind, Nero, they could not but be wrought upon, and the fame of the glorious gospel could not but by this means be spread all the world over.
Thirdly, Here is the greatness of the danger from which he was delivered, viz., ' from the mouth of the lion.' Some authors [Calvin, Estius, &c.] do conceive these words, ' and I was delivered from the mouth of the lion,' to be a proverbial speech, noting some eminent,
' Preached in March and April 167.5.
THE SIGNAL PRESENCE OF GOD WITH HIS PEOPLE. 457
present, devouring danger ; ' I was delivered from the extremest hazard of death,' even as a man rescued out of a lion's mouth, and pulled from between his teeth. Others i more genuinely and properly, by ' the mouth of the lion,' do understand Nero's rage and cruelty, who, for his potency in preying on the flock of Christ, is here fitly compared to a lion, which devoured and destroyed the flock of Christ. This cruel lion Nero put a world of Christians to death, and made a bloody decree, that whosoever confessed himself a Christian, he should, without any more ado, be put to death as a convicted enemy of mankind. Tertullian calleth him the dedicator of the condemna- tion of Christians. 2 This bloody monster, Nero, raised the first bloody persecution. To pick a quarrel with the Christians he set the city of Kome on fire, and then charged it upon the Christians, under which pretence he exposed them to the fury of the people, who cruelly tormented them as if they had been common burners and destroyers of cities, and the deadly enemies of mankind ; yea, Nero himself caused them to be apprehended and clad in wild beasts' skins and torn in pieces with dogs ; others were crucified ; some he made bonfires of to light him in his night-sports. To be short, such horrid cruelty he used towards them as caused many of their enemies to pity them. But God found out this bloody persecutor at last, for being adjudged by the senate an enemy to mankind, he was condemned to be whipped to death, for the prevention whereof he cut his own throat.
The words being thus briefly opened, the main point I shall insist upon is this — viz.,
That when the people of God are in their greatest troubles, deepest distresses, and most deadly dangers, then the Lord will be most favour- ably, most signally, and most eminenly present ivith them.
The schoolmen say that God is five ways present — (1.) In the humanity of Christ, by hypostatical union ; (2.) In the saints, by knowledge and love ; (3.) In the church, by his essence and direction; (4.) In heaven, by his majesty and glory; (5.) In hell, by his vin- dictive justice.
Hemingius saith, There is a fourfold presence of God : — (1.) There is a presence of power in all men, even in the reprobates ; (2.) A presence of grace, only in the elect; (3.) A presence of glory, in the angels, and saints departed ; (4.) A hypostatical presence of the Father with the Son. But, if you please, you may take notice that there is a sixfold presence of the Lord : —