pleased with the fruitfulness of his people ia grace and holiness. Now certainly, the more God is pleased with any person, the more he will be present with that person. They coromonly have most of our presence that most please us. Enoch had this testimony, before his translation, that he pleased God, or gave God content, as the original word, evTjpeaTrjKsvai, imports. Enoch eyed God at all times, in all places, and in all companies ; and this pleased God. Where- ever Enoch was, his eye was still upon God.i Enoch walked con- stantly with God ; his whole life was but one continued day of walking with God ; and this pleased God. Enoch kept himself from the corruptions and pollutions of the times, which were very great ; he was not carried away with the stream of the times ; he kept a constant counter-motion to the corrupt courses of the times ; and this pleased God. Enoch maintained and kept up a clear, choice, and standing communion with God ; and this pleased Grod. Enoch made it his business, his work, his heaven, to approve his heart to God, and his ways to God ; and this pleased God. Enoch was very serious and studious to avoid everything that might be a dishonour to God, or displeasing to God ; and this pleased God. Enoch had great, and high, and honourable thoughts of God ; and this pleased God. God was so pleased and taken with Enoch that he translates him from earth to heaven, from a gracious to a glorious presence.'^ It was a singular mercy for God to be with Enoch on earth, but it was a far more glorious mercy for Enoch to be with God in heaven. The gracious presence of God is very desirable, but the glorious presence of God is most comfortable. Enoch pleases God, and God translates Enoch. We can never have those friends near enough to us who take a pleasure and delight to please us : so here Enoch was a bright morning star, a rising sun, for virtue and holiness ; and therefore God could not satisfy himself, to speak after the manner of men, that he should live at so great a distance from him, and therefore translates him from earth to heaven. Well, my friends, the greater measures of holiness you reach to, the more you will please God ; and the more you please (lod, the more you shall be sure to enjoy of the presence of God. Consider,
[3.] Thirdly, The more holy any person is, the more like to God he is; and the nvore like to God he is, doubtless tlw ntvore he is beloved of God. It is likeness both in nature and grace that always draws the strongest love, 1 Pet i. 15, 16; Lev. xi. 44, and xix. 2, and xx. 7. Though every child is the father multiplied, the father of a second edition ; yet the father loves him best, and delights in him most who is most like him, and who in feature, spirit, and action does most resemble him to the life ; and so does the Father of spirits also ; he always loves them best who in holiness resemble him most, Heb. xii. 9. There are four remarkable things in the beloved disciple above all the rest, John xiii. 23, and xviii. 16, and xix. 26, 27, and Mark xiv. 50: (1.) That he lay nearest to Christ's bosom at the table ; (2.) That he followed
1 Heb. xi. 5 ; Gen. v. 24. The Hebrew word ■jbn/T'') from -J^n is in Hithpacl, and notes a continual walkinc; with God without ceasing.
' God took him up in a whirlwind, say the Hebrew doctors, as Elias was. He changed his place, but not his company, for he still walked with God ; as on earth, so in heaven.
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Christ closest to the high-priest's palace ; (3.) That he stood close to Christ when he was on the cross, though others had basely deserted him and turned their backs upon him ; (4.) That Christ commended the care of his virgin mother to him. Now why did Christ's desire, love, and delight run out with a stronger and a fuller tide towards John than to the rest of the disciples ? doubtless it was because John did more resemble Christ than the rest, it was because John was a more exact picture and lively representation than the others were of Christ. Now the more any man in holiness is like to Christ, the more any man in holiness resembles Christ, the more that man shall enjoy of the presence of Christ, the more that man shall lie in the bosom of Christ, The Father loves to be most with that child that is like him most : so here, as ever you would enjoy the presence of God in your greatest troubles, deepest distresses, and most deadly dangers, be sure that you keep up holiness in your hearts and lives, be sure that you grow in holiness, and flourish in holiness, and then you shall be sure of the presence of God with you in all your troubles and deep dis- tresses ; a holy God will never leave the holy Christian, And thus much for this use of exhortation.
The last use of all is a use of comfort and consolation to all the people of God, in their greatest troubles and deepest distresses. Now here consider,
(1,) First of all. That God himself hands out this as a rare comfort to his people in all their troubles, distresses, and dangers — viz.. That he luill he graciously present with them in the midst of all their sor TOios and sufferings : Gen. xxvi. 3, ' Sojourn in this land, and I will be with thee, and will bless thee ;' xxviii. 15, ' And behold I am with thee, and will keep thee in all places whither thou goest, and will bring thee again into this land; for I will not leave thee,' &c., Isa. xliii. 2 ; Ps. xci. 15 ; Josh. i. 5 ; Heb. xiii. 5 ; Exod. iii. 12. Don't talk of thy loss of friends, for I will be with thee ; nor don't talk of thy country, for I will give thee this land, which is the paradise of the world ; nor don't talk of thy poverty, for thou shalt spread abroad to the west, and to the east, and to the north, and to the south, ver. 14. Nor don't talk of thy solitariness and aloneness, ' for I will not leave thee.' Isa, xli, 10, ' Fear thou not ; for I am with thee : be not dis- mayed ; for I am thy God : I will strengthen thee ; yea, I will help thee ; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness,' Suppose a man was injuriously dealt with by this man or that, would it not be a comfort to him that a just and righteous judge stood by and was an eye-witness of all the violences that were offered to him ? Suppose a man were in exile with David, or in prison with Joseph, or in a dungeon with Jeremiah, or in the stocks with Paul and Silas, or in banishment for the testimony of Jesus, with John, yet would it not be a singular comfort to him to have the presence of a kind father, a bosom friend, a wise counsellor, an able physician with him ? 0 Christian, be thou in what place thou wilt, and with what company thou wilt, and in what condition thou wilt, yet thy loving God, thy kind father, thy bosom friend, &c. , will be still with thee, he will never leave thee, nor forsake thee ; and oh what a spring of comfort should this be to thee ! But,
WITH HIS PEOPLE IN THEIR GREATEST TROUBLES. 589