A PEOPLE S PROSPEEITY. 437
of tliy sacrifices: but thou hast made me to sei-ve with th}^ sms, thou hast wearied me with thine iniquities/' What, then, shall be done Avith this people? — depart from them, destroy them, let them die? No, verse 25, " I, even I, am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake, and will not remember thy sins." So also, chap. Ivii. 1 7, " For the iniquity of his covetousness was I Avroth, and smote him : I hid me, and was wroth, and he went on frowardly in the way of his heart." Surely now God will utterly consume them, root and branch, as persons incorrigible and irrecoverable. No; the case is quite othenvise, verses 18, 19, "I have seen his ways, and will heal him ; I will lead him also, and restore comforts unto him : " I will pity him, pardon him, save, sanctify him, and fill him with consolation. Go now to Ezekiel, chap, xxxiii. 18, " When the righteous turneth from his righteousness," — what then? God will heal him, and restore comforts unto him, as it was in the places before mentioned ? No, no ; "He shall die," — he shall be cut off. What is the reason of this diversity? Why, in the first place, God speaks of his dealings unto their souls as to his covenant of grace, and all the mercies of it; — in this last, as to his dealings with their- persons, and their outward concernments in the dispensations of his providence. And the not heeding hereof hath made some pronounce, inconsiderately, the covenant of grace to be merely conditional, because they find many mercies and privileges spoken of under such a notion; — not considering that all those pro- posals belong to the law of outward providence, and not to the nature of the covenant of promise estabhshed in the blood of Christ. And unless this be allowed, nothing can be more contrary to my text than that promise, and such as that which we have, Isa. liv. 9, where provision is made for God's abiding Avith his people, notwithstanding all their backshdings and provocations; which he will so far heal as that he may not forsake them. And this is first to be observed, that we do not, in the consideration of God's presence and Avithdrawings as to providential dispensations, cast any reflection on the stability and un- changeableness of the covenant of grace. David hath fully stated this busmess, 2 Sam. xxiii. 5 ; saith he, "Although my house be not so Avith God; yet he hath made Avith me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things, and sure : for this is all my salvation, and all my desire, although he make it not to groAv." David had a promise for the I^rosperity of his house; he had also an engagement of the sure mer- cies of the covenant. The diflferent tenor of these engagements, as to their success and establishment, he gives us this account of :— the covenant is absolute and unchangeable ; that is, ordered in all thino-s, and sure;— the prosperity of his house depends on another laAv and rule, that is subject to alteration.
2. Observe the nature of this dependence of God's presence on
438 god's presence
our abiding with him. It doth not depend upon it, as the effect upon its proper cause, as though it were procured by it, merited by it ; — ■ we enjoy not the least morsel of bread on any such account, much less such eminent privileges as attend God's special providential presence. We deserve nothing at the hand of God ; and, therefore, if he should take us in the midst of the choicest obedience, and fill us with the fiercest of miseries, he does us no wrong; — and, therefore, the Lord does so deal sometimes with his ; and that not only with particular persons, as in the case of Job, but also with his people in general, as Ps. xliv. 17-19, " All this is come upon us; yet have we not forgotten thee, neither have we dealt falsely in thy covenant. Our heart is not turned back, neither have our steps declined from thy way; though thou hast sore broken us in the place of dragons, and covered us with the shadow of death." Though he requires our duty at our hands, yet he is not tied to any such lyresent reiuard. This is all, — it ordinarily depends upon it as a consequent upon an ante- cedent, which allows an interposition of grace and mercy ; as Neh. ix. 1 7, Nevertheless, thou being merciful, " forsook est them not." So, elsewhere, that good man prays, " Remember me for good, and spare me, according to the midtitude of thy mercies." For the glory of his righteousness, and of his ways in the world, God hath ordered that his people shall walk with him, when he abides eminently and con- spicuously in a special manner with them.
8. Observe, that our abiding with God, even in national adminis- trations, is the j)roper effect of his presence with us in covenant dis- pensations; so that all, in the issue, is of mere mercy and grace: though the condition seems to be imposed on us, yet it is from him alone that we have strength for its perfomiance. It is in this, and such like cases, as David said it was with them at their dedicating their silver and gold for the building of the temple : Ta au, sx tSjv guv, — " Of thine own, Lord, have we given unto thee." We do but return him his own, we give him but the fi'uits of his own grace; and without it we can make no return whatever.