hazard of honour ! Oh the damage of dignity ! how soon are we broken upon the soft pillow of ease ! Flies settle upon the sweetest perfumes when cold ; and so does sin on the best hearts, when they are dissolved and dispirited by prosperity. Oh how apt are the holiest of men to be proud and secure, and promise themselves more than ever God promised them — viz. , immunity from the cross. He thought that his kingdom and all prosperity was tied unto him with cords of ada- mant ; he sitting quietly at Jerusalem, and free from fear of all his enemies, 2 Sam. xi. 1 ; but Gi-od quickly confutes his carnal confidence by giving him to know that he could as easily blast the strongest oak as he could trample the smallest worm under his feet. Ver. 7, ' Thou didst hide thy face, and I was troubled.' God will quickly suspend his favour and withdraw his presence when his children begin to be proud and carnally confident. Look, as at the eclipse of the sun the whole frame of nature droops ; so when God hides his face, when he withdraws his presence, the best of saints cannot but di'oop and hang down their heads. So Jer. xvii. 5, ' Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the Lord.' Ver. 6, ' For he shall be like the heath in the desert, and shall not see when good cometh.' But,
[6.] Sixthly, Take heed of barrenness and unfruitfulness under gospel ordinances. Turn to these scriptures, Isa. v. 1-8; Mat. xxxi. 34-42; 2 Chron. xxxii. 16, to the last. Of all spiritual judgments, barren- ness is the greatest ; and when men are given up to this judgment, God withdraws ; he has no pleasure to dwell in a barren soil. What are barren grounds and barren woinbs to barren hearts? He that remains wholly barren under gospel ordinances, may well question his marriage-union with Christ, Ezek. xlvii. 11 ; Mat. xiii. 19 ; Hosea ix. 14 ; John xv. 3 ; Heb. ii. 6-8 ; Jude 12 : for, Kom. vii. 4, We are said to be ' married to Christ, that we may bring forth fruit to God.' There is a double end of marriage — viz., cohabitation and propagation ; and therefore there cannot be a greater and clearer evidence that thou art not yet taken into a married union with Christ, than a total barren- ness under gospel enjoyments. Christ's spouse is fruitful : Cant. i. 16, * Our bed is green;' chap. iv. 1, ' Behold, thou art fair, my love, behold, jthou art fair : thou hast doves' eyes within thy locks : thy hair is as a flock of goats, that appear from mount Gilead ;' ver. 2, ' Thy teeth are like a flock of sheep that are even shorn, which come up from the washing : whereof every one bears twins, and none is barren among them.' Christ hath no further delight in his people, nor will no further grace his people with his special presence, than they make con- science of weeping over their barrenness, and of bringing forth fruit to him. Cant. vii. 11-13. * Now my husband will love me, now he will be joined to me, now I have born him this son also,' Gen. xxix, 34, said Leah. So may the fruit-bearing soul reason it out with Christ: Now I know dear Jesus will love me, now I know he will delight in me, now I know he will dwell with me, now I know he will honour me with his presence, for now I bring forth fruit unto him. Barrenness under the means of grace drives God from us, and the gospel from us, and trade, and peace, and prosperity from us, and one Christian from another. Ursinus observes, that the sins and barrenness of the Protestants under
674 THE SIGNAL PRESENCE OF GOD
the gospel in king Edward's days, brought in the persecution in queen Mary's days ; and he tells us, that those who fled out of England in queen Mary's days acknowledged that that calamity befell them for their great unprofitableness under the means of grace in king Edward's days. Among other prodigies, which were about the time that Julian came to the empire, there were wild grapes appeared upon the vines, with which many wise men in that day were much affected, looking upon it as ominous. Ah, England ! England ! I look upon nothing to be so ominous to thee as the barrenness of the professors of the day ! No wonder if God leave his house, when the trees that are planted in it and about it are all barren. The nutmeg-tree makes barren all the ground about it ; so doth the spice of worldly love make the hearts of Christians barren under the means of grace. But I must hasten.
[7.] Seventhly, Take heed of pride and haughtiness of spirit:^ Hosea v. 5, ' And the pride of Israel doth testify to his face : there- fore shall Israel and Ephraim fall in their iniquity : Judah also shall fall with them;' ver. 6, ' They shall go with their flocks, and with their herds to seek the Lord, but they shall not find him, he hath withdrawn himself from them.' Pride is the great master-pock of the soul ; it will bud and blossom, it cannot be hid ; it is the leprosy of the soul, that breaks forth in the very forehead, and so testifieth to his face, Ezek. vii. 10 ; Isa. iii. 16-25. Some have called Kome, Epitomen universi, An epitome, or abridgment of the whole world : so it may be said of pride, that it is the sum of all naughtiness, a sea of sin, a complicated sin, a mother sin, a breeding sin, a sin that has all sorts of sin in the womb of it. Consult the scriptures in the margin.2 Aristotle, speaking of justice, saith. That in justice all virtues are couched, avWtj^Srjv, summarily ; so it may be truly said of pride, that in it all vices are as it were in a bundle lapped up together ; and therefore no wonder if God withdraw his presence from proud persons, 'He hath withdrawn himself from them' — Heb., * Hath snatched away himself ;' hath thrown himself out of their company, as Peter threw him- self out from the rude soldiers into a by-corner to weep bitterly, Mark xiv. 72. God will have nothing to do with proud persons, he will never dwell with them, he will never keep house with them. He that dwells in the highest heavens will never dwell in a haughty heart. ' The proud he knoweth afar off,' Isa. Ivii. 15 ; Ps. cxxxviii. 6. He won't vouchsafe to come so near such loathsome lepers ; he stands off from such as [are] odious and abominable ; he cannot abide the sight of them, yea, his very heart rises against them, Prov. xv. 25, and xvi, 5 : James iv. 6, ' God resisteth the proud,' — avrLrdaaerai, ' He sets himself in battle array against him,' as the Greek word emphatically signifies. Above all sorts of sinners, God sets himself against proud persons, as invaders of his territories and foragers or plunderers of his chief treasures. God defieth such as deify themselves. God will arm himself against them, he will never vouchsafe his gracious presence to them ; and therefore as ever you would enjoy the divine presence, arm against pride, w^atch against pride, and pray hard against pride. But,
[8.] Eighthly, Take heed of a slothful, lazy, trifling spirit in the