572 god's presence
(3dly.) It is to commit your affairs to the Lord with sub- mission to his will, as to their issue and accomplishment. Trust respects protection, but it prescribes not, as to par- ticular events. It is to commit our affairs to God with thoughts of his infinite wisdom, sovereignty, and goodness; with resolutions thereupon, that the product of his will is that which will be good, be best for us, though it should not at all fall in with our present desires. It is true, the psalmist says : ' Commit your ways unto the Lord ; trust also in him; he shall bring it to pass;' Psal. xxxvii. 5. And so he shall, and will in all such cases, as that there particularly insisted on by the psalmist, wherein his own glory is parti- cularly engaged. But this prescribes not as to all cases, that we should cry, * Give me this child, or I die.' The rule is known ; abide in this frame, and we shall have that we desire, or that which is better for us : but I must not abide in these things. See Psal. xxxvii. 3 — 5. Ixxiii. 23—26.
And these are some of those ways wherewith we abide with God, as to our trusting of him in reference to special protection.
[3.] A third thing I should fix upon is, a people's uni- versal owning of God's concernments in the world. His presence with them is, his owning their concernments ; and certainly he expects that they abide with him in the owning of his. God's concernment in the world is his people, as invested with the privileges purchased for them by Christ; Deut. xxxii. 9. The Lord's portion is his people. This is that which the Lord has particularly kept to himself; the vineyard that he has chosen out of all the forests of the world ; the handful that he hath taken to himself, his sons, and daughters, his family ; these he expects that you should abide by, if you would have him abide by you : yea, it is most certain, as your respect and regard shall be to them and their interest, as his people ; so will his respect, and regard be to you, and your interest, as the people of this nation. But I have formerly spoken hereof unto you, and therefore, though it be a matter of the greatest importance, I shall not farther insist upon it.
And these are some of the conditions of God's special presence with you. Pleasant conditions ! their performance
A people's prosperity. 573
is youi' glory, 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 reward. 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 presence 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 life or death of these nations. O choose life, seeing it may be had on such 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 con- cernment. This is that which the prophet calls for in the words of the text. So the psalmist : 'There are many that say. Who will shew us any good ? Lord, lift thou up the light of thy countenance upon us ;' Psal. iv. Let other men make what inquiries they please, look for good, for rest, for peace in what they best 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 beginning of these last wonderful days, how often we have thought ourselves utterly ruined : if such alterations come, we are undone; if such men die, fall off, oppose, there is little hope of carrying on the work wherein we are engaged ; if such shakings, such divisions befall us, our ruin is at hand. If we break with such and such foreign nations, what hope remaineth ? But, alas ! we have found by experience, that our affairs have turned on none of these things ; our prosperity hath been built on none of those principles : 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 have 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 foretel destruction to them that do abide; as though they were God, and not man ; or as though God