I cannot stay to show you the several ways whereby God now com- municates direction to a people ; — how he inclines their hearts insen- sibly, yet powerfully ; fixes the bent of their spirits effectually, their hearts being in his hand as the rivers of water, which he turns as he pleaseth; supplies them with reasonings and consultations beyond the verge of their own wisdom ; proposes occasions, invitations, pro- vocations; gives them spirit and courage beyond their natural frames and tempers; enlarges them in prayer, or shuts them up; makes walls on the one hand, and open paths on the other; with innumerable such ways and means as, in his infinite -wisdom, he is pleased to make effectual for their guidance. It suffices that, in the use of means, through patience and waiting upon him, they shall be directed to that which is pleasing to him. So is he with them.
'2dly. The second use of this pillar was, to give them protection and defence in their ways; so Exod. xiv. 19, 20, 24. This protected them from the Eg}q3tians; — and from thence God troubled their enemies out of the pillar; that is, from his especial presence. This use of it is insisted on, Isa. iv. 5, (j. The cloud, that was as smoke by day, and as fire by night, was also a shadow, a place of refuge, and a covert; in one word, a protection or a defence.
And this is a second thing which is in God's special presence, — he will protect or defend them with whom he is so present. He is their dwelling-place, Ps. xc. 1, then, when in this Avorld they have none; their refuge in the time of trouble: so Isa. xxv. 4, xxvi. 1, xxxi. 4. Promises and instances to make this good abound ; — they are known to all ; the time would fail me to insist upon them. I might go over all the causes, means, and ways of the fears, dangers, ruin of such a peoi)lo, and show you how a defence is provided against them all. Are their fears from themselves, because of their folly, weakness, and di\i- sion? or from pretended friends, because of their envy and desertion? or from open enemies, because of their power, cruelty, malice, and re-
A people's prosperity. 443
venge? A defence is provided on every account. Heat, rain, tempests, storms, adversity, prosperity, — all are provided against, where God is present, Isa. xxxiL 1, 2.
And if any people in the world have experience of this truth, we have it this day. Had not the Lord been with us, who had not de- stroyed us? Enemies, friends, abroad, at home, our own follies, — all, any of them, had done the work, had not the Lord himself been with us.
Only observe, that the presence of God, as to these effects, may sometimes, in some particulars, be eclipsed, and the effects themselves for some season be entangled, though there be not an utter breach between him and his people. How often did the Israelites attempt things without his direction! how often did he break in upon them, to their woe and soitow! yet, for the main, he forsook them not, until the gi-eat work intended by them was accomplished, Neh. ix. 19. It is not every entanglement, every disappointment, every defeat, that argues God's departure, as to his special presence. It may be good for us sometimes to be in such a condition ; and then that desertion that carries into it, is from the presence of God. We" are now gTOwn to that, that if every thing immediately surmount not our imagination, say some, God is gone fro')n them; — not because it is so, but because they w^ould have it so. But he is merciful with whom we have to do, and mil not cast off his people for ever.
[2.] The people with whom God was, had the glory of Jehovah as a pledge of his j)resence with them. This appeared only at extraor- dinary seasons; — so it did at the giving of the law, Exod. xxiv. 16; so also at the setting up of the tabernacle. It differed from the cloud ; for when the cloud was upon the tabernacle, the glory of the Lord filled it. It appeared again to all the people. Lev. ix, 23. I shall not now inquire what was this visible representation of the majesty of God ; — it sufficeth, as to the purpose m hand, that when God gives his presence to a people at extraordinary seasons, he affords them extraordinary manifestations of his glory. So in Ezekiel's vision of those dreadful wheels of providence, the glory of the Lord is said to appear in the temple ; and as his especial presence departed from the temple and the city, so the glory, by several degrees, departed also, chap. X. 10, 18, 19, xi. 23.
Eminent and glorious appearances with and for a people in extra- ordinary seasons is, then, another thing that accompanies God's special providential presence with them. When they are at an utter loss in their counsels, at a stand in their motions, disappointed in their un- dertakings, deserted in their enterprises, pressed on every side above measure, or called to some extraordinary work, so that their ordinary direction and protection Avill not carry them on nor bear them up, —