[2.] The bodies of God's people and their temporal lives are exposed to a great deal of hazard and danger from evil men, who are ready to molest and trouble us, sometimes upon one pretence, and sometimes upon another. They that indeed would go to heaven, and have a serious sense of the world to come upon their hearts, they are a differ- ent party from the world, and therefore tlie world hates them, John xvii. 14 ; and Eom. xii. 2, ' Be not conformed to this world.' It was never yet so well with the world but they were forced to stand upon their defence ; and usually, as to any visible interest, they are the weakest when their enemies are mighty and strong ; and therefore
168 SERMONS UPON PSALM CXIX. [SeR. CXXV.
they had need of a hidiiii^-place to run to, and a shiekl to defend them, to run to the covert and defence of God's providence.
3. Observe the difference between these two notions, hiding-phace and shield. Sometimes God is said to be our strength and oursliield, Ps. xxviii. 7. He furnisheth us Avithin and without ; he strengthens and fortifies the heart, then shiekls us and kee])s ofF dangers. And sometimes again he is said to be a sun and a shiekl, I's. Ixxxiv. 11. We have positive and privative blessings, or a sun to give us light, and a shield to give us strength. He promiseth to be both ; but usually he so attempereth his providence, that where he is more a sun there he is less a shield ; that is to say, the more sparingly he vouch- safeth the knowledge of heavenly comforts, the more powerfully doth he assist his people in their weakness by his providence. As the Jews that were conversant about the shadows of the law, and lived under the darkness of that pedagogy, God was less a sun to them than he is to us ; but yet they knew more of his powerful providence, of his tem- poral protection. Now here it is a hiding-place and a shiekl ; what is the difference between these ? God is a hiding-place to keep us out of danger, and a shield to keep us in danger. Either we shall be kept from trouble, that dangers shall not overtake us ; or, if they do over- take us, they shall not hurt us ; they shall only serve for this use, to make us sensible of God's defence, and to increase our thanksgiving for our protection: for God hides us, and as a shield interposeth liim- self between us and the strokes of our adversaries, those fiery darts Avhich are flung at us. Well, then, they imply, either God will kee}) us from seeing the evil, or fortify us that the evil shall not hurt us. One of these notions was not enough to express the fulness of God's protection : a hiding-place, that is a fixed thing ; but a shield and buckler, we may constantly carry it about witli us wherever we go, and make use of God's power and love against all conflicts whenever we are assaulted. Again, on the other side," a shield were not enough to express it, for that only respects actual assaults ; but God saves us from many dangers which we are not aware of, prevents troubles which we never thought of. Vs. xxi. 3.
4. Let us view these notions apart, and see what they contain for our comfort.
First, Let us look upon God as a hiding-place. Men in great .straits, when they are not able to make defence against pursuing enemies, they run to their hiding-place, as we shall see the Israelites did from the Philistines : 1 Sam. xiii. G, ' When the men of Israel saw that they were distressed, they hid themselves in caves, in thickets, in rocks, in high places, and in pits ; ' and so God's children, when they are too weak for their enemies, seek a safe and sure hiding-place : Prov. xxii. 3, 'A wise man foreseeth the evil, and hidetli himself.' Certainly there is a hiding-place for the saints, if we had but skill to find it out ; and where is it but in God ? Ps. xxxii. 7, ' Lord, thou art my hiding-place, thou shalt preserve me from trouble.' I do not delight to squeeze a metaphor, and to make it yield what it intends not ; yet these four things are offered plainly in this notion of a hiding- place — there is secrecy, and ca})acity to receive, and safety, and comfort.
1. Secrecy. It is not a fortress wherein a man does profess himself
VeR. 114] SERMONS UPOX PSALM CXIX. 169
to be, and to stand out assaults, but it is a hiding-place : Ps. xxvii. 5, ' In the time of trouble he shall hide me in his pavilion : in the secret of his tabernacle shall he hide me ; he shall set me upon a rock.' God's protection of his people is a secret hidden mystery, as every thing is to a carnal man. The person hidden is seen abroad every day following his business, serving his generation, doing that work Avhich God hath given him to do ; yet he is hidden while he is seen, by the secret power and love of God dispensing of all things for his comfort and protection ; the man is kept safe by ways which the world knows not of. So Ps. xxxi. 20, ' Thou shalt hide him in the secret of thy presence from the })ride of man.' There is a secret power of God by which they are upheld and maintained by one means or other, which they see not and cannot find out.