world, who set themselves against the saints, can avert or avoid, avoid or abide. That God is a mighty God the Scriptures do abundantly evidence, and it appears also in the epithet, that is added unto El-, which is Gibbor, importing that he is a God of prevailing might. By Daniel he is called El-Elim, ' the mighty of mighties.' Now what folly and madness is it for dust and ashes, for crawling worms, to make head against a mighty God ; yea, an Almighty God, who can curse them, and crush them with a word of his mouth : 2 Chron. xxxii. 7, ' Be strong and courageous, be not afraid nor dismayed for the king of Assyria, nor for all the multitude that is with him, for there be more with us than with him ;' ver. 8, ' With him is an arm of flesh, but with us is the Lord our God, to help us, and to fight our battles ;' Gen, xlix. 25 ; Num. xxiv. 4, 16; Kuth i. 20, 21. The king of Assyria was at that time the greatest monarch in the world, and the most formidable enemy the church had, yet the divine presence was a sovereign antidote to expel all base slavish fears that might arise in any of their hearts concerning his greatness, power, or multitude. What was that great multitude that was with the king of Assyria, to that innumerable company of angels that was with Hezekiah ? i And what was an arm of flesh to God's supreme sovereignty, that had this proud prince in chains, and that put a hook in his nose, and a bridle in his lips, and cut ofi" his great army by the hand of an angel in one night, and left him to fall by the sword of his own sons ? The Lord of hosts can crush the greatest armies in the world into atoms at pleasure. When the emperor Heraclius sent ambassadors to Chosroes, king of Persia, to desire peace of him, he received this threatening answer : I will not spare you, till I have made you curse your crucified God, and adore the sun. He was afterwards, like another Sennacherib, deposed and murdered by his own siroes.^ When the divine presence is armed against the great ones of the world they must certainly fall. In Dioclesian's time, under whom was the last and worst of the ten persecutions, though then Christian religion was more desperately op- posed than ever, yet such was the presence of God with his people in those times, that religion prospered and prevailed more than ever ; so that Dioclesian himself, observing that the more he sought to blot out the name of Christ it became the more legible, and to block up the way of Christ it became the more passable ; and whatever d Christ he thought to root out, it rooted the deeper and rose the higher,, thereupon he resolved to engage himself no further, but retired to a private life, [Ruffinus,] This is a good copy for the persecutors of the day to write after, 0 sirs ! what folly and madness is it for weakness to engage against strength, the creature against the Creator, an arm of flesh against the Eock of Ages ! What is the chaff to the whirlwind, stubble and straw to the devouring flames ? No more are all the enemies of Zion to the great and glorious G^d,. that is signally present with his people in their greatest troubles and deepest distresses, &c., Acts V. 38-40 •, Ps. Ixxvi. 12, and ex. 5, 6 ; Rev. vi. 14-16. There was not one of those persecuting emperors that carried on the ten
^ 2 Kings vi. 17 ;: Ps. xxxiv. 7, &c., and xci. II ; Heb.xii. 22, and i. 14 ; Isa. xxivii. 29, 36-38.
" Diac. Cedren. [Chosroes II. or Khosru, Qtrery, ' siroes' a misprint for ' sons'? — G,
550 THE SIGNAL PRESENCE OF GOD
bloody persecutions against the saints, but came to miserable ends ; yea, histories tell us of three and forty persecuting emperors that fell by the hand of revenging justice ; first or last the presence of God with his people will undo all the persecutors in the world. But,
[4.] Fourthly, Will the Lord be signally present with his people in their greatest troubles, deepest distresses, and most deadly dangers ? Then from hence you may see the Lord's singular love and admirable kindness to his people in gracing them with his presence in their greatest troubles, Isa. xliii. 2, 4. That is a friend indeed that will stick close to a man in the day of his troubles, as Job's friend did stick close to him in the day of his troubles, and as Jonathan did stick close to David in his greatest dangers, and as the primitive Christians did stick close one to another, though with the hazard of their lives, and to the amzement of their enemies. Job ii. 11-13; 1 Sam. xx. 30-33. * Behold,' said they, ' how the Christians love one another,' and stand by one another. The people of God, in their greatest troubles, are a people of his special love. When they are in distress, he lays them in his very bosom, and his ' banner over them is love,' Cant. ii. 4. The love of God to his people is engraven upon the most afEictive dispen- sation they are under. When he smartly rebukes them, even then he dearly loves them, Eev. iii. 19. ' Hear ye the rod,' Mic. vi. 9. Oh, the rod speaks love. Many of the saints have read much of the Lord's love, written in letters of their own blood. They have read love in prisons, and love in flames, and love in banishment, and love in the cruellest torments their enemies could invent. When a Christian's wounds are bleeding, then God comes in with a healing plaster, Mai. iv. 2. When a Christian is in a storm, then the presence of the Lord makes all calm and quiet within, Mat. viii. 26. The presence of the Lord with his people in their troubles and distresses speaks out the reality of his love, the cordialness of his love, the greatness of his love, and the transcendency of his love. The truth and strength of rela- tions' love one to another doth best appear by their presence one with another, when either of them are in the iron furnace, or in bonds, or in great straits or wants, or deep distresses. The parents shew most of their love to their sick and weak children by their daily pre- sence with them ; and the husband shews most of his dear and tender love by keeping his wife company when she is in greatest straits and dangers. So here. But,