[2.] How ready he is to help in an extremity : Ps. xciv. 18, 19, ' When I said, My foot slippeth ; thy mercy, 0 Lord, held me up : in the multitude of my thoughts within me, thy comforts delight my soul.' When we are at the brink of danger, and full of perplexities and dark thoughts, then doth help appear.
[3.] To quicken us to -look after him, and to draw us to nearer com- munion with himself : Hosea v. 15, ' I will go, and return to my place, till they acknowledge their offence, and seek my face : in their aflSiction they will seek me early,' When aflSictions press hard, it puts an edge upon our affections. Surely God hath left something behind them when our affections draw to him : Dan. ix. 3, ' All this evil is come upon us, yet made we not our prayer before the Lord our God.' To be dead and stupid then is a bad sign tluat we are deserted in point of sensible comfort and duty too.
The use is to press you —
1. To believe this promise. You see how emphatically it is proposed. The flesh, that loveth its own ease, will contradict, and carnal sense will bring arguments against it ; therefore lay it up the more firmly. Surely God will not forsake his people ; he hath such tender bowels, such unchangeable love. He that made the new creature will not for- sake it. Will the dam forsake her young ones and let them perish ? Christians ! he will let all the world perish rather than his saints perish. God may hide himself, but never forsake them utterly. It is a rare case to see them utterly destitute as to outward things : Ps. xxxvii. 25, * I have been young, and now am old ; yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread.' David aged, a man of much observation, a great student of providence, yet never saw it. Ask the beasts, fowls, or fishes : Job xii. 7, 8, ' Ask now the beasts, and they shall teach thee ; and the fowls of the air, and they shall tell thee ; or speak to the earth, and it shall teach thee ; and the fishes of the sea shall declare unto thee.'
2. Apply this promise ; God will not forsake me nor mine. Let not truths be eyed only in the general, but particularly applied to thyself, thus : Lord, thou hast ever been my God, provided for me hitherto. Take these promises to live upon them, and say, ' Thy testimonies have I taken as an heritage for ever,' Ps. cxix. v. 111.
3. Improve it.
[1.] To moderate your desires of earthly things, that your conversa- tion may be without covetousness ; for the more our desires abound,
SERMON UPON HEBREWS XIII. 5. 449
the more our fears about them abound also Why should we be car- ried after them with such a greedy thirst ?
(1.) Man's happftiess lieth not in worldly abundance, but in the pre- sence of God with him, and his providence over him : Luke xii. 15, ' A man's life consisteth not in the abuhdance of the things which he pos- sesseth.' If you do not think so, you set up another god, the creature, instead of God. Sometimes God giveth abundance to his people, sometimes he keepeth them low and bare ; they do but live from hand to mouth, because God will keep the purse in his own hand, and train them to live by faith, and not by sense, and to take all their comforts immediately from him. Now, are christians any whit the worse pro- vided for ? No ; God hath ways enough to provide for his people, aud to satisfy* sober and moderate desires : 2 Cor. vi. 10, ' As sorrowful, yet alway rejoicing ; as poor, yet making many rich ; as having nothing, and yet possessing all things.' There is more mischief than you are aware of in this thought, that you are not well enough provided for, unless your supplies be ready at hand and visible ; for it is a sign you depend more upon the presence of the creature than the favour of God, and will trust God no further than you can see him ; and this is the cause of all repinings against providence, heartless dejections ; yea, apostasy, unlawful means, racking and vexing ourselves with im- moderate cares and labours. It is next to atheism and plain infidelity to ascribe to God only a common providence ; that he doth in the general furnish the world, and store it with sufficiency, leaving us to our own industry, to catch what we can catch and make it our own. No ; faith sees God near at hand, and with us ; placing him not only in the circle of the heaven, only beholding men scattered on the face of the earth, and foraging for themselves. No ; his providence and care reacheth to each single person ; he hath his eye opened, his ear bowed down, his hand stretched out, to every one that seeketh to him ; we are all at his finding In common plenty, he can punish single persons with personal scarcity, as he did the prince of Samaria ; .in general scarcity, he can furnish with personal plenty, as Elijah did the widow of Sarepta. Many allow God a general inspection, think he upholds the pillars of the earth, but perceive not that God taketh care of par- ticulars, and so resolve to live by their wits, and shift for themselves. But a good christian seeth him at home, believeth God will take care of him; and so casts himself into the arms of his providence, and looketh upon every comfort as reached out from heaven by God's im- mediate hand to him in particular.