Before I enter upon the opening of the words themselves, I cannot pass by the earnest preface of the prophet, " Hear ye me, O Asa." He saw the people, upon their success, taken up with many thoughts, thinking of many businesses, full of many contrivances, — one ima- gining one thing, another another; all of them, it may be, how they should use and improve their peace and success to their advantage, interest, profit, or security. Or the princes and rulei^, as it is pro- bable and usual in such cases, might be considering how to carry on their victory, how to make the best advantage of it, in their dealing with neighbouring princes and nations, in making peace or war. In the midst of these thoughts the prophet meets them, and diverts them, with all earnestness, to things quite of another nature, and of unspeakably greater importance and concernment to them. " Hear ye me," saith he; it is not your own counsel nor your own valour that hath brought about this great work, this mighty victory; the Lord hims(>lf hath done it, by liis presence with you. It is not of any concernment unto you what other nations do, or may do ; but the presence of God concerns you alone to look after.
Observation. The great concernment of any j^eople or nation is, to knoiu that all their prosperity is from the presence of God amongst them, and to attend to that which will give continuance thereunto.
A people's prosperity. 433
You may tire yourselves in the imaginations and contrivances of your own hearts, and lay out your thoughts and time about things that will not profit nor advantage you ; — this is your interest, this is your con- cernment, " Hear ye me, Asa, and all Judah and Benjamin." Of this proposition afterwards.
For the words themselves, the first thing proposed to be inquired into for their explanation is this,- — -
First, What is it for God to be with a people?
God may be said to be with men, or present with them, in sundry respects.
1. He may be said to be with them in respect of the omnipresence of his essence. So he is naturally and necessarily present with all creatures, — indistant from them, present with them. The ubiquity and immensity of his essence will not allow that he should be dis- tant from any thing to which he hath given a being. " The heaven, even the heaven of heavens, cannot contain him," 1 Kings viii. 27. Doth he not fill heaven and earth? Is he a God at hand only, and not afar off, as to the ends of the earth? This presence of God with all things David emphatically declares, Ps. cxxxix. 7-12. But it is not that that is here intended ; — that is universal, to all creatures, — natural and necessary; this, especial, to some, — voluntary, and of mercy ; — that, of nature and essence ; this, of will and operation.
2. God may be said to be with one in respect of personal union. So he was with, and only with, the man Jesus Christ, Acts x. 88, 0SOJ YiV iJAT K-jTou, " God was wltli him;" that is, in personal union, the human nature being taken into subsistence with the Son of God.
3. God is present or with any in respect of tJie covenant of grace. He is with them to be their God in covenant; — the tenor whereof is, that he will not leave them, nor shall they forsake him; he will be for them, and they shall be for him, and not for another. He is with them for all the ends of mercy, love, kindness, pardon, salvation, that are proposed and exhibited in it. But neither is this the pre- sence of God here intended, though this be something that flows from it and does attend it. For, —
(1.) That presence of God with his people hath not such a condi- tional establishment as this here mentioned. It stands on other terms and better security than that here proposed; it hath received an eternal ratification in the blood of Christ, is founded in the immu- table purpose of grace, and is not left to the conditionality here ex- pressed, as we shall see afterward.
(2.) The presence here mentioned respects the whole body of the people, all Judah and Benjamin, in their national state and consi- deration, unto whom, as such, the effectual covenant of grace was never extended ; for they were not all Israel who were of Israel.
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434 god's presence
(o.) The presence here promised respects immediately the peculiar end, of blessing the wJiole people with success in their wars and under- takings;— so the occasion of the words and the context, with regard to the following discourse, do undeniably evince. It is not, then, this presence of God only that is intended ; though, as it will afterward appear, it is not to be separated from it.
4. There is a presence of God in respect oi j^"^^ evidential dispensa- tions. And this is twofold : —
(1.) General ; — ordering, disposing^ guiding, ruling all things, ac- cording to his own wisdom, by his ovm power, unto his OAvn glory. Thus he is also present with all the world ; he disposes of all the atiairs of all the sons of men as he pleaseth ;— sets Up one, and pulls down another; changes times, seasons, kingdoms, bounds of nations, as seems good to him. The help that is given to any, he doth it him- self. The shields of the earth belong unto God ; he works deliverance in the earth, even among them that know him not. And the evils, desolations, and destruction, that the earth is full of, are but the effects of his wrath and indignation, revealing itself against the ungodliness of men. He is thus present with every person in the world; holds his breath and all his ways in his hand; disposes of his life, death, and all his concernments, as he please th. He is present in all nations, to set them ujd, pluck them down, alter, turn, change, weaken, estab- lish, strengthen, enlarge their bounds, as he sees good ; and the day is coming when all his works will praise him. Neither is this here intended; — it is necessary, and belongs to God, as God, and cannot be promised to any ; it is a branch of God's natural dominion, that every creature be ruled and disjDOsed of, agi-eeably to its nature, unto the end whereunto it is appointed.