And these are some of the conditions of God's special presence with you. Pleasant conditions ! their perfoiTnance is your gloiy, your rest, your blessedness; — not your bondage, not your burden. .Not one duty doth God on this account require of you, but it is also your re- ward. O blessed terms of peace and agreement! Blessed be the great Peacemaker ! cursed be the breakers of this blessed agreement ! Is this all, indeed, that is required, that we may have the special pre- sence of God with us for ever ? O how inexcusable shall we be if we neglect these terms ! — how just will be our ruin ! Behold, I have set before you life and death this day; the Hfe or death of these nations. O choose life ! seeing it may be had on siich easy, such blessed terms ; terms wherein, in doing good to others, you will also do good to your own souls ; you will give peace to the nation, and have peace and rest in your own souls.
Use 2. Look on this presence of God as your main concernment. Tnis is that which the prophet calls for in the words of the text. So the psalmist, "There are many that say. Who will show us any good? Lord, lift thou up the light of thy countenance upon us," Ps. iv. Let
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other men make Avluit inquiries they please, — look for good, for rest, for peace in what they Lest fancy; acquiesce you in this, that the light of God's countenance, a pledge of his presence with you, is that alone which you are to inquire after. I remember, since the begin- ning of these last wonderful days, how often we have thought our- selves utterly ruined: — If such alterations come, we are undone; if such men die, fall ofifj oppose, there is little hope of carrying on the work wherein we are engaged ; if such sha,kings, such divisions befall us, our ruin is at hand ; if we break with such and such foreign nations, what hope remaineth ? But, alas i Vv^e have found by experience, that our affairs have turned on none of these things ; our prospeiity hath been built on none of those princij)les. Such desertions as we feared, have happened ; such alterations, such divisions have befallen us, — we have been sometimes almost reduced to Gideon's number; such breaches with foreign nations have ensued : one party that was with us hath gone off, and asked. What will ye now do? and then another party hath gone off, and asked us. What will ye do now? And no sooner do any fall off, but instantly they expect, and foretell destiTic- tion to them that do abide; as though they were God, and not man; or as though God were bound to follow them with his presence in all their passions, in all their wanderings. It would, I confess, be more desirable unto me than life itself, to see all those at least, who stuck to the cause of God in its greatest difQculties and trials, and then when it ceased to be caiTied on in the ordinary paths of nations, united again in the same common interest, — to see their passions and preju- dices cured, and their persons returned to their former usefulness. But this is that which is the result of all this discourse ; — it is not this or that thing, or any thing whatever, but the presence of God alone with a people, that is their life, their preservation, their protection, and prosperity. If our strength had lain in any thing else in this world, our light had gone out long ago, and it had departed from us : but hence it is that we are not consumed. Now, if you are so care- ful not to lose these and those friends, this and that party of the na- tion,— not to provoke this or that people causelessly; oh, what weight ought it to have upon your hearts and souls, that you provoke not the Lord to depart from you ! that you take care for the continuance of his presence with you ! This is your life, your safety, your success, — your peace. Learn to prize it, value it.
Use 3. Whilst you have any pledge of the presence of God with you, be not greatly moved nor troubled by any dij^culties that you may meet withal; be not moved with any ten-or, but sanctify the Lord of hosts in your hearts, and make him your dread and your fear, and he shall be a refuge and a hiding-place unto you.
Some pretend to visions of God, and they prophesy your niin and
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destruction; yea, tliey have limited times thereof, to the sharne of their prognostications. Some are full of revenge, and they threaten your ruin, and talk what a catholic interest is complicating, and rising up against you. Some are troubled at your proceedings, — that they are not in such equal paths as might be desired ; as though that were a work and way of yesterday ; as though we had not been turned and driven out of old trachs and paths above ten years ago ; and as though the old paths were not so worn to the interest of a profane multitude, that it is yet impossible to keep the burden upright in them whose guidance you are intrusted with. Some say you will never be able to go through with the charge of your undertakings; as though God had never said, " The gold and silver are mine." Should these things busy or distract you? Doth the issue of the business in hand depend on the thoughts of these men? Will the end be according to their contrivances? Have these things, indeed, any influence at all into the determination of this controversy? Will not this one consideration guide your hearts and spirits, when all these waves roll all together upon you? Yea, but the whole of this affair must be ordered, and will fall out, according as the presence of God is with us, or otherwise. *' If God be with us, who can be against us?" How may you on this account triumph against all oppositions whatsoever •