WITH HIS PEOPLE IN THEIR GREATEST TROUBLES. 593
he gives food to the hungry, he looseth the prisoners, he opens the eyes of the bhnd, he raises them that are bowed down, he loveth the* righteous, and this is more than all the rest. Sixthly and lastly, As he loves his people with a special love, with a peculiar love, so he loves them with the greatest love, with a matchless love. ' 0 Daniel greatly beloved: ' John iii. 16, ' God so loved the world,' &c. Here is a sic without a sic^tt^ there being nothing in nature wherewith to par- allel it. This sic without a sicut signifies the greatness of Grod's love, the vehemency of his love, and the admirableness of his love. Now what an unspeakable comfort must this be to his saints, to have the presence of a loving God, to have the presence of such a loving God with them in all their troubles and deep distresses ! If the presence of a loving friend, a loving relation in our troubles and dis- tresses, be such a mercv, oh, what then is the presence of a loving God! "
[3.] Tliirdly, It is the presence of an CLctive God, who will be a defence to you, a shield to you, a sword to you, a buckler to you, a sun to you, a strong tower to you, a salvation to you. None can withstand him, none can equal him, none can out-act him, Ps. xviii. 2 ; 2 Chron. xvi. 9 ; Prov. xviii. 10 ; Jer. xxxii, 40, 41 ; Isa. xxx. 18, 19, and xxvii. 3 ; Jer. xxxi. 28.
[4.] Fourthly, It is the presence of a ivakeful God, of a watchful God, of a God that never, no never, slumbers or sleeps. God will be so far from sleeping, that he will not so much as slumber, Ps. cxxi. 3-5. The phrase is taken from watchmen, who stand on the walls in time of war to discover the approaches of enemies, and accordingly give warning. Now watchmen have been treacherous and sleepy. The capitol of Rome had been taken by the Gauls, if the geese had not been more wakeful than the watchmen of the walls. Iphicrates, the Athenian captain, visiting the guards on the walls of Corinth, found one of the watch asleep, and presently thrust him through with his sword, saying. Dead I found him, and dead I left him. Though watchmen slumber and sleep, yet that God that is present with his people doth neither ; his seven eyes are always open.
[5.] Fifthly, It is the presence of a wise God, of an omniscient God. God fills all things, he encompasseth all things, and he sustaineth all things, and therefore he must needs know all things, Ezek. iii. 9 ; Ps. xxxiii. 10, 11 ; Isa. xlvi. 10, and xl. 28 ; Rom. xi. 33 ; 2 Pet. ii. 9 ; Jonah i. 5 ; 2 Kings xiv. 6 ; Mat. xxvi. 24, 25. God can find Jonah in the bottom of the ship ; and Jeroboam's wife in her disguises ; and Judas in his treason ; and Demas in his apostasy ; and the scribes and Pharisees in their hypocrisy, 2 Tim. iv. 10 ; Mat. xxiii. ; Eev. iv. 6. The whole world is to him as a sea of glass : corpus diaphanum ; a clear transparent body. There is nothing hid from his eyes ; so that he that can but find out a place where God sees not, there let that man sin and spare not : ' All things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do,' Heb. iv. 13 : <^vyLva, ' naked,' as when the skin is pulled off, and Ter/aa^^TyXto-ziei/a, ' opened as the entrails of a sacrifice,' cut down the back. The apostle, say some, useth a metaphor taken from a sheep, whose skin is taken off, and he hanged up by the neck, with his back towards the wall, and all his
594 . THE SIGNAL PRESENCE OF GOD
entrails laid bare and exposed to open view. He alludes, say others, to the anatomising of a creature, wherein men are very cautious to find out every little vein or muscle, though they be never so close. They are naked, therefore God sees their outside ; and opened, dis- sected, quartered, and cleft asunder through the backbone, so that he sees their inside also. Opened is more than naked : naked is that which is not clothed or covered ; opened is that whose inwards are discovered and made conspicuous. Some make it a metaphor from those that lie with their faces upwards, that all passengers may see who they are. Is it such a comfort to have the presence of a wise and knowing friend with us in our greatest troubles and deepest distresses ? what a transcendent comfort must it be then to enjoy the presence of an all-seeing and an all-knowing God in all our troubles and distresses ! The eye of heaven sees all, and knows all, and writes down all thy troubles and trials, thy sorrows and sufferings, thy losses and crosses. Mat. vi. 32 ; and accordingly will an all-knowing God act for his own glory and his people's good.
[6.] Sixthly and lastly. It is the presence of a God of mercy, a God of bowels, a God of compassions, Exod. xxxiii. 7, 8 ; Jer. xxxi. 18-20 ; Hosea xi. 8, 9 ; Lam. iii. 22. ' His compassions fail not.' Mercy is as essential to God as light is to the sun, Micah vii. 18, 19, or as heat is to the fire. He delights in mercy, as the senses and faculties of the soul do in their several actions. Patience, and clemency, and mercy, and compassion, and peace are the fruits of his bowels — the offspring which the divine nature doth produce. God's compassions are fatherly compassions, Ps. ciii. 13 ; they are motherly compassions, Isa. xlix. 15 ; they are brotherly compassions, Heb. ii. 12 ; they are friendly compassions. Cant. v. 1,2. Oh, how sweet must the pre- sence of a God of mercy, a God of compassion, be to the saints in a day of trouble ! The presence of a compassionate friend in a day of distress is very desirable and comfortable ; what then is the presence of a compassionate God ! Thus you see that there is no pre- sence to the divine presence — no presence to the signal presence of God with his people in their greatest troubles and deepest distresses. But,
(7.) Seventhly and lastly. If God be signally present with his people in their greatest troubles and deepest distresses, then let them all know for their comfort, that this presence will make up the loant or OSS of all outward comforts, this presence will make up the loss of a hushand, a child, a friend, an estate, &c., 1 Sam, i. 8. Look, as all light meets in the sun, and as all water meets in the sea, so all our outward comforts meets in the God of all comfort, 2 Cor. i. 3. When Alexander asked king Porus, being then his prisoner, how he would be used ? He answered in one word, BaaiXiKm, i.e., like a king. Alexander again replying. Do you desire nothing else ? No, saith Porus, all things are in BaaiXiKm, in this one word, like a king ; so all things, all comforts are to be found in this signal presence of God with his people, in their greatest troubles and deepest distresses. Certainly the gracious presence of the Lord is infinitely better than the presence of all outward comforts, as you know one sun is more glorious and comfortable than ten thousand stars.
WITH HIS PEOPLE IN THEIR GREATEST TROUBLES. 595