This is done in my text to Asa and Judah by Oded ; and I desire in my sermon that it may with the same spirit, and the same success, be done by me unto you. The words 1 intend principally to insist on, having the same thing for substance three times repeated in them, the opening of the
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first clause, with the general tendency of the whole, will suf- fice as to their exposition, and the grounding of that gene- ral proposition which I shall improve. Two things are then principally to be inquired into :
First. What it is for God to be with any people.
Secondly. What it is for a people to be, or abide with, God.
And according to the analogy of these two, the following assertions of seeking the Lord, and forsaking him, will be easily understood. For though the words differ in expres- sion, yet they are all of the same way of assertion. They are three hypothetical propositions, or promissory assertions on supposition: 'if you abide with the Lord, he will be with you;' 'if you seek the Lord, he will be found of you;' ' if you forsake the Lord, he will forsake you:' the same matter is trebled, for the fuller and surer confirmation of the thing as- serted. Only whereas the last proposition supposeth a thing possible, namely, that they might forsake the Lord ; the first supposes a thing present, and therefore it is so ex- pressed, 'whilst you are with him,' because they had abode with God in their late war and trial.
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 imagining one thing, another an- other; all of them, it may be, how they should use and im- prove their peace and success to their advantage, interest, profit, or security. Or the princes and rulers, 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 unspeakable 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 vic- tory ; the Lord himself hath done it, by his presence with you. It is not of any concernment unto you, what other
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nations do, or may do, but the presence of God concerns you alone to look after. The great concernment of any people or nation, is to know, that all their prosperity is from the presence of God amongst them, and to attend to that which will give continuance thereunto. You may tire your- selves 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 concernment : ' Hear ye me, Asa, and all Judah, and Benjamin.'
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 om- nipresence of his essence. So he is naturally and necessa- rily present with all creatures, indistant from them, present with them. The ubiquity and immensity of his essence will not allow that he should be distant from any thing to which he hath given a being. ' The heavens, even the heaven of heavens cannot contain him ;' 1 King-s 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, Psal. 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 na- ture 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. 38. Qebg riv fxtr avTov, ' God was with 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 the 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