" Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law1."]
2. How inestimable are the privileges of God's people !
[" They have been brought out of darkness into marvel- lous light ;" and the " things which God has hid from the wise and prudent, he has revealed unto them" Still, how- ever, there remains a veil upon their hearts, which yet they need to have removed. " They still see only as in a glass darkly ; " and must wait for a full vision, till they come to the regions of the blest above.]
1 Ps. cxix. 18.
Hos. ix. 12. Woe also to them when I depart from them!
THERE is nothing so essential to our happiness as the Divine presence. With that, we may smile at all earthly trials : without it, not all the universe can satisfy the soul. This is promised to us as the greatest good that can be vouchsafed to us in this world : and the withdrawment of it is threatened as the greatest of all evils a.
In the words before us, God, having denounced this judgment against his rebellious people, gives an awful intimation of the greatness of the calamity ; " Woe unto them, when I depart from them ! "
We propose to shew,
I. How great a calamity is the withdrawment of God's presence —
As God is pleased to distinguish both individuals and collective bodies with his favour, so under great provocations he departs from them : and this is a very dreadful calamity, by whomsoever it may be experienced : it is so,
1. To nations — [These, as we see in the Jewish history, prosper beyond the common course of events, when God takes them under his
a Jer. xxiii. 33-.