2. It may be really when he is angry for sin : Isa. Ivii. 17, ' For the iniquity of his covetousness was I wroth and smote him ; I hid me and was wroth.' As the fathers of our flesh show their anger by whipping and scourging the bodies of their children, so the Father of our spirits by lashing the soul and spirits, by causing them to feel the effects of his angry indignation. Or else withdrawing the spirit of comfort, suspending all the acts and fruits of his love, so that they have not that joyful sense of communion with God as they were wont to have. Now the reasons why God's people may want the light of his countenance are these : —
[1.] God out of sovereignty will exercise us with changes here in. the world, even in the inward man ; there we have our ebbs aifd flows, that we may know earth is not heaven. He hath an eternity wherein to reveal his love, and to communicate himself to his people ; there- fore he will take a liberty as to temporal dispensations : Isa. liv. 8, ' In a little wrath I hid my face from thee, for a moment ; but with ever- lasting kindness will I have mercy on thee, saith the Lord thy Re- deemer.' He hath an everlasting love and kindness for us, therefore here in the world he will exercise us with some uncertainties ; as David concealed his love towards his son Absalom, when yet his bowels yearned towards him. Here he takes liberty to do it, because he will make it up in heaven. All your changes shall then be recompensed by an uninterrupted comfort.
[2.] To conform us to Jesus Christ. "We should not know the bitter agonies our Redeemer sustained for us unless we had some experience of it ourselves. He tasted of this cup. Mat. xxvii. 46. And though it be a bitter cup, yet it must go round; we must all pledge him in it. Conceit will not inform us so much as experience.
[3.] His justice requires it, when we surfeit of our comforts, and play the wantons with them, that he should withdraw them. We ourselves breed the mist and clouds which hide from us the shining of God's favour. We raise up those mountains of transgression that are as a wall of separation between us and God ; whence that expression, Isa. lix. 2, 'Your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you.' As the sun dissolves and dispels mists and clouds by his bright beams, so God of his free grace dissolveth these clouds : Isa. xliv. 22, ' I have blotted out thy iniqui- ties as a cloud, and thy transgressions as a thick cloud.' Now there are two sins especially which cause God to hide himself — (1.) Too free a liberty in carnal pleasures and delights ; (2.) Spiritual laziness.
YeR. 135.] SERMONS UPON PSALM CSIX. 411
(1.) Too free a liberty in carnal pleasures and delights. When we live according to the flesh, we smart for it, these mar our taste ; and when our affections run out to other comforts, we forfeit those which are better, Fs. xxx. 6, 7 ; when we begin to sleep upon a carnal pillow, to compose ourselves to rest, and lie down and dream golden dreams of earthly felicity. Carnal confidence and carnal complacency make God a stranger to us. This carnal complacency hinders a sense of God's love two ways — meritorie et effective. Not only meri- toriously, as it provokes God to withdraw when we set up an idol in our hearts, but also effectively ; as carnal delights bring on a brawn and deadness upon the heart, so that we cannot have a sense of God's love, for that requires a pure, delicate spirit. Our taste must be purged, refined, sensible of spiritual good and evil. Now this will never be except the soul be purged from carnal complacency ; for while there is so strong a relish of the flesh-pots of Egypt, we are not fit to taste the hidden manna ; but always the more dead the heart is to worldly things, the more lively to spiritual sense ever : Jude 19, 'Sensual, not having the spirit,' i.e., spiritual joys, feelings, opera- tions. When Solomon withheld not his heart from any joy, God left him. When he was trying the pleasures of the creature, and went a-whoring from God, God left him.
(2.) Spiritual laziness is another cause why God hides his face from his people. Cant. v. 6, compared with ver. 2, 3. The spouse neglected to open to Christ upon light and frivolous pretences, and then her beloved had withdrawn himself If we lie down on the bed of secu- rity, and grow lazy and negligent, then Christ withdraws.
[4. J It is necessary and useful for us sometimes that God should hide his face. Cloudy and rainy days conduce to the fruitfulness of the earth, as well as those that are fair and shining ; and the winter hath its use as well as the summer. We are apt to have cheap thoughts of spiritual comforts. Job xv. 11, apt to run riot, and to grow neglectful of God and be proud, 2 Cor. xii. 7. Paul had his buffetings to keep down his pride. We have changes even in our inward man to keep us in the better frame, the more watchful, diligent, and waiting upon God.