THE Possibility of Gods Forsaking a people That have been visibly near dear to him TOGETHER With the Misery of a People thus forsaken Set forth in a SERMON Preached at Weathersfield Nov. 21. 1678. Being a Day of FAST and HUMILIATION By Mr. Joseph Rowlandson Pastor of the Church of Christ there Being also his last SERMON 2 Chron. 15.2 The Lord is with you while ye be with him and if ye seek him he will be found of you but if ye forsake him he will forsake you Hos 9.12 Wo also to them when I depart from them BOSTON in NEW-ENGLAND Printed for John Ratcliffe John Griffin 1682. To the Courteous READER especially the Inhabitants of the Town of Weathersfield and Lancaster in New-England Gods forsaking of such as he hath been near to is a thing of such weight and solemnity and hath such bitter effects that it is a meet Subject especially in a dark and mourning day for Ministers to speak to and for People to hear of that the one may warn of the danger and the other avoid the judgement As Gods presence is the greatest glory to a People on this side Heaven so his absence is the greatest misery on this side hell this therefore must needs be a concerning point to such as will concern themselves in their concernments The ensuing Sermon will appear a solemn word if duely considered the subject matter is very solemn and weighty Treating of Gods being with or forsaking a people the time when it was delivered was a solemn time a day of FAST throughout the Colonies the Reverend Author that Composed and Preached it was one solemn and serious above many others and that which adds one great circumstance to its solemnity is in that it was the last word he spake to the World being but about two dayes before he left it As it is solemn so 't is seasonable and pertinent It is a time wherein we have given God just cause to forsake us a time wherein God is threatning to forsake us A time wherein God hath in some measure forsaken us already and what can be more seasonable then to shew the evils that befall a forsaken People that we may yet be awakened and return that the Lord do not forsake us utterly As for the Reverend Author there needs nothing to be said in his commendation he was known amongst the Churches in the Wilderness and known to be a workman that needed not to be ashamed That his Name which was sometimes precious amongst those that knew him may not be forgot and that being dead he may yet speak to a land that have in some measure forsook their God and are in danger of being forsaken is the ground work of the publishing this small part of his labours It is commended especially to the perusal of the Inhabitants of Lancaster and Weathersfield He was a Man well known to you the one had his Life and the other his death and both his loss you cannot easily forget his name and 't is desired that you may not forget the labour and travel he hath had amongst you the word which he Preached to you was acceptable whilst he was living and it is presumed it will be accepted with the like candor now he is dead Indeed had it been intended and fitted by himself for the Press you might have expected and found it more large and polished but as it is it is thought fit not to be lost and may be of great use and benefit to open to us the danger of forsaking God to humble us for all our coolings and declinings from God to quicken us in our return to and close walking with God and that it may attain this end is the hearts desire and prayer of him who abundantly wishes thy welfare and prosperity in Christ Jesus B. VV. Ieremiah 23.33 And when this People or the Prophet or a Priest shall ask thee saying what is the burden of the Lord thou shalt then say unto them what burden I will even forsake you saith the Lord. IN the Words there lies before us First A Question supposed to be propounded wherein there is two things 1. The Questionists this People or a Prophet or a Priest 2. The Question it self or the matter of it What is the burden of the Lord Secondly There is an Answer and a solemn Answer too which is put into his mouth by the Lord and which he is to return as the Lords Answer to the Question thou shalt then say unto them what burden I will even forsake you saith the Lord. In which Answer there is three things 1. An expression of Indignation What burden 2. An assertion by way of Answer to the question I will forsake you 3. A Seal of ratification in the last words Saith the Lord. God having before dealt with the Pastors that did destroy and scatter the flock as in the beginning of the Chapter Wo be to the Pastors that destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture ver 2 I will visit upon you the evil of your doings saith the Lord and also with the false Prophets that prophesied lies in his Name as ver 9. My heart within me is broken because of the Prophets ver 32. Behold I am against them that prophesie false dreams saith the Lord and do tell them and cause my people to err by their lies and by their lightness which sort of Prophets went without their Commission as ver 21. I have not sent these Prophets yet they ran He proceeds from the head Rulers to the people that were seduced by them for by this means their hands were strengthened in sin so as that they did not return from their wickedness as ver 14. It was a usual thing for the Prophets of the Lord to begin their Sermons the matter whereof was minatory wherein the Lord threatned them with just judgements with that Phrase the burden of the Lord as will easily appear if you consult Isai 13.1 15.1 22.1 30 6. Now they do in the words of the Text or are supposed in mockery to demand what Burden he had from the Lord for them For the opening of the words And or moreover because he here enters upon new matter this People or the prophane sort of them whom the false Prophets had secuced to which he joyns the Prophet and the Priest in hit they were alike prophane as ver 11. for both Prophet and Priest are prophane yea in my house saith the Lord and when Prophets are prophane there is wont to be a pack of them as Jer. 5.31 The Prophets prophesies falsly and the Priests bear rule by their means and my people love to have it so shall ask thee saying viz. in a deriding way not out of a holy end or desire What is the burden of the Lora or from the Lord so were the Prophesies stiled that contained in them Threatnings Judgements and Plagues 2 King 9.25 as if they had said what hast thou
any man 2. To testifie his Sanctity and severity against sin He will not spare them that have been near him if they will not spare their sin for him He is a holy God and if they will have their sins and their lusts and their wayes and their lovers he will vindicate his holiness by inflicting this judgement on them 3. To be a warning to all that enjoy his gracious presence That they see that they make much of it and that they take heed that they do not sin against him and forsake him and provoke him to forsake them also Caut. The point is to be understood of a people that are visibly and externally near and dear to him and these may be totally and finally forsaken of God and yet here it must be noted that God may exercise a deal of patience and forbearance toward such as he is about to forsake he did so with the old world he did so with the Israelites of old he did so with the seven Churches of Asia he is not wont suddenly and at once to forsake a people that have been near and dear to him but he is wont to give them warning and in patience to bear a while with their frowardness and wait to see if there be any returning to him before he doth inflict this heavy and sharp judgement Vse It serves to admonish us not to bear our selves too high upon the account of priviledges It is a great priviledge to have the Lord near us and to be near unto him and some lean upon this though they abide in their sin Micah 3.10 11. They build up Sion with blood and Jerusalem with iniquity yet will they lean upon the Lord and say is not the Lord amongst us But if our deportment be not according to our priviledges if we do not carry it thereafter by becoming an humble fruitful and holy people the Lord will bring forth this heavy burden against us we shall be rejected and forsaken of the Lord whatever our external priviledges be But the second part of the Doctrine P. 2. or the second Doctrine may be now spoken to viz. That it is the heaviest burden or the sorest of Judgements for the Lord to forsake a people There may be two things spoken to in the management of this truth 1. Arguments to evidence it 2. The Uses of it 1. If God hath threatned it as a very sore judgement then sure it is so Now when God hath been angry with a people he hath manifested the same by menacing them with his forsaking them when he hath been designed to do them a deep dispseasure upon the account of some high provocation he is wont to threaten them not by taking away this or that outward comfort from them but by taking away himself from them And that is a woe indeed a woe with a witness Hos 9.12 Yea woe also to them when I depart from them this is the wofullest day that such a people are wont to meet with 2. Gods forsaking a People is a sore judgement in that it exposes them to all judgements Sin is a great evil in that it exposes to all evil this is a great evil of punishment in that it exposes to all punishments If God be gone our guard is gone and we are as a City in the midst of Enemies whose walls are broken down Our strength to make resistance that 's Gone for God is our strength as a carcase without life is a prey to beasts of prey so are a people forsaken of their God to all their devouring enemies and to infernal and cursed spirits they are exposed to mischief and the malice of all their malignant enemies When the Lord had forsaken Jerusalem the Romans quickly made a prey of it when they were destitute of God their habitation became desolate There is no Protection to a People whom the Lord forsakes but they are perplexed on every side 3. Because the evils that are on such whom God hath forsaken they are only evils The Prophet Ezekiel sometime hath the expression Ezek. 7.5 Thus saith the Lord God an evil an only evil behold is come This is such an evil an only evil to a people An evil whilst God is present may have much good in it the Lord may sanctifie it for abundance of blessing there is hopes of this whilst the Lord continues amongst them but if he be gone it is an only evil and the evils that come upon them are such they have nothing but evil in them 4. Because no creature can then afford any help for what can creatures do when God is departed he makes the creatures useful and helpful but without him they can do us no good stand us in no stead they may say to thee as the King of Israel said to the Woman that cried Help O King He answered If the Lord done help whence shall I help thee all creatures may say if God be departed we cannot help Nay the very Devil cannot help if God be gone when God departed from Saul he sought help from the Devil 1 Sam. 28.15 Wherefore saith the Devil askest thou of me seeing the Lord is departed from thee 5. It appears to be a sore judgement by the anguish and distress that such have been in that have been sensible that God hath forsaken them Sin hath flown in the face of such and terified them Oh the blessed God is gone and if he is gone mercy is gone and Oh for such and such sins that lie upon me what shall I do what a moan have Saints themselves made in such a case as David Psal 22.1 2. My God my God Why hast thou forsaken me Why art thou so far from helping me and from the words of my roaring Oh my God I cry in the day time but thou hearest not and in the night season and am not silent Oh how Saul roared out his distress and that on this account especially that God was departed from him not so much that the Philistines were upon him had not God been gone he could have dealt well enough with them but here was the misery and the sting of the misery God was departed from him 6 It is a sore punishment in that it is a great part of the punishment of Hell The essential parts of that punishment is pain of loss and sense and the sormer some reckon the greater Vse 1. How foolish are sinners that do even bid God depart from them as we read Job 21.14 Therefore they say unto God depart from us for we desire not the knowledge of thy wayes But do they know what they say Oh sinners is this your wish if it be granted it will prove your woe for ever Happily Gods presence is now your trouble but I tell you his absence would be your torment 2. Se here what an evil it is to forsake God is it a judgement of judgements to be forsaken of God surely then it is the sin of sins to forsake him the
further mischief in thy head to declare further Woes and Threatnings to pronounce hast thou nothing else to prophesie but Mischief and Calamity What is the burden now Thou shalt then say unto them the Lord know what they would say to him and tells him what he should say by way of reply What burden a retorting by way of holy indignation ask ye indeed what burden and that in a way of derision are you of that strain and spirit I will even forsake you saith the Lord a burden heavy enough and you are like to seel it so ere long heavy enough to break your Backs to break your Church and your Common wealth and to sink your haughty Spirits when this Burden shall come upon you in its force and weight Doct. That the Lord may even forsake a People that have been near to him and he hath been near to though for the Lord thus to do is as fearful and hideous a judgement as can be inflicted on any People The Doctrine is double it hath two parts First That the Lord may do thus Secondly When he doth it is a very sad and heavy burden It may be prosecuted as two distinct points 1. P. 1. God may forsake a People that hath been near to him and that he hath been near to This may be spoken to in this order 1. What is meant by Gods forsaking a People 2. How may it appear that God may forsake even such a People as the point speaks of 3. The Reasons 4. The use 1. What doth Gods forsaking mean what is intended thereby Sol. It means Gods with drawing himself as the Prophe Hosea phraises it Hos 5.6 They shall go with their Flocks and their Herds to seek the Lord but shall not find him he hath withdrawn himself from them They shall seek him and not find him and there is a good reason he hath withdrawn himself he is gone in respect of his gracious presence We must here distinguish betwixt Gods general presence and his precious presence In respect of his general presence he is not far from any one of us for in him we live and move and have our being Act. 17.27 28. We have not only our beginning from but our being in him As the beam hath its being in the Sun Of this general presence of God we read Psal 139.7 There is no flying from it Whither shall I go from thy Spirit or whither shall I slie from thy presence In this sense God is every where as it is ver 8 9. If I ascend up into Heaven thou art there if I make my bed in Hell behold thou art there He fills Heaven and Earth and there is no hiding from him Jer. 23.24 Can any hide himself in secret places that I shall not see him saith the Lord do not I fill Heaven and Earth saith the Lord. He hath Heaven for his Throne and the Earth for his Footstool as it is Isai 66.1 This general presence of God if believingly apprehended and strongly believed might be of great use But it is not this general presence that is meant but his especial presence his favourable and gracious presence the removing whereof is that that is intended by the forsaking that the Text and Point speaks of God is said to forsake a People two waves 1. As to Affection 2. As to Action 1. As to Affection when he discontinues his love to them when he takes away his love from a people then he takes his leave of a people My mind is not toward this people Jer. 15.1 a very heavy Judgement and sad removal Be instructed O Jerusalem least my Soul depart from thee 2. As to Action when God takes away the signs of his presence 1. When he takes away merciful and gracious providences when he carries not towards them as he was wont to do but vexes them with all manner of adversity Deut. 31.17 I will forsake them and many evils and troubles shall befal them when he ceases to protect them from evils and enemies as in times past and provides not for them as he was wont to do 2. When he takes away his Ordinances and bereaves a people of the glorious things of his house or take away his spirit from accompanying them whereby the glory ceases and the ordinances are rendered in effectual for the saving good of a people 2. How may it appear the God may forsake finch a People It may appear by what God hath threatned What God hath threatned to such as the point speaks of may be inflicted on them but God hath threatned such judgements to such a people My anger shall be kindled against them and I will forsake them as near as they are to me and as dear as they have been to to me Deut 31.17 Many such threatnings are found in the Scripture against Israel who are stiled a people near unto him In that such as have been near to God and he near to them have complained of their being forsaken by God Thou hast forsaken us is one of the bitter moans on record that the Church of God did often make unto him What God hath inflicted on such may be inflicted on such again what God hath done to some he may do to others in the same state and relation for he is unchangeable Those that were once the only peculiar people of God near to God and had God near to them yet what is is their condition at this day A forsaken condition is the condition of the Off spring of Abrahaem Gods Friend a seed whom he had chosen and hath been so for above sixteen hundred years God hath been angry with them and forsaken them as they were foretold long ago How is it with the Churches of Asia that were once famous golden Candlesticks that had Epistles written to them Are they not in a forsaken condition not the face of a Church to be found amongst them In that they may do that which may deserve a forsaking therefore they may do that which may actually procure it They may do that which may deserve a forsaking they may through the corruption and unbelief of their hearts forsake God and God may in just judgement retaliate and thereupon forsake them This is spoken to in the forequoted place Deut. 31.16 17. They will forsake me and break my Covenant which I have made with them then my anger shall be kindled against them in that day and I will forfake them and hide my face from them So again 2 Chron. 15.2 But if you forsake him he will forsake you the first is supposed if you forsake him the latter is imposed he will forsake you But why doth the Lord forsake such a People The Reasons 1. To shew that he hath no need of any he hath forsaken many and may forsake many more to shew that he hath no need of any God would have all the world to take notice that though all men have need of him yet he hath no need of
evil of punishment is in being left by God and the evil of sin is in leaving God What forsake God who is our only good God who made us and possest us from our beginning God that hath been the guid of our Youth that hath been good to us and fed us all our dayes Jer. 2.19 Know therefore and see that it is an evil thing and bitter that thou hast forsaken the Lord thy God And there is an aggravation of it ver 17. Thou hast forsaken the Lord thy God When he led thee by the way As a guid to direct thee as a staffe to support thee as a convoy to guard thee as a Fathe to provide for thee that thou hast wanted nothing well may it be said how evil and bitter a thing is it that thou hast forsaken the Lord He adds in the 31. verse Oh Generation Generation of what of what you will God leaves a space that you may write what you please generation of Vipers or Monsters or any thing rather then Generation of Gods people See ye the word of the Lord behold your face in that Glass So your causless apostasies have I been a wilderness unto Israel Have you wanted any thing Oh ye degenerating crooked and wilful generation God may say to such sinners as Pharaoh to Hadad when he would be gone 1 King 11.22 But what hast thou lacked with me that thou seekest to be gone what hast thou lacked sinner that thou seekest to be gone from the Lord The sinner must answer with him nothing howbeit let me go in any wise He came to him in his distress and when his turn was answered away he packs They forsake because they will forsake 3. Wonder not that Gods Saints have been so solicitous with him not to forsake them Thus David Psal 1198. Oh forsake me not utterly He might well be solicitous in this matter for he understood what it was to be forsaken of the Lord. They press hard with the Lord whatever he doth he would not leave them nor forsake them Jer. 14.9 Leave us not And no wonder there are such moans when the Lord may have seemed to have forsaken them 4. If Gods forsaking be so sore a judgement it should make us more cautelous and wary least we pull down this judgement on our heads Men should be afraid of this heaviest of judgements more then the Child of whipping 5. Let Gods dear ones take heed of concluding against themselves that they are under this judgement They are readiest to couclude against themselves and yet really in the least danger Thus we read Isa 49.14 But Zion said the Lord hath forsaken me and my Lord hath forgotten me But why said Zion so it was from diffidence as Saints do not forsake God as others do Psal 18.21 I have not wickedly departed from my God so God will not forsake them as he forsakes others not utterly forsake them His forsaking of his is but temporary and partial But here a question may be moved what is the difference betwixt a sinner forsaken and a Saint forsaken for the Lord doth not forsake both alike 1. When God forsakes his own yet they cry after him he withdraws himself from them sometimes yet so as that he draws their hearts after him as a mother may hide away from her Child that it may seek and cry the mor earnestly after her 2 They retain good thoughts of him in his withdrawment or absence As the Spouse in the Canticles she calls him her beloved still As the faithful wife she retains good thoughts of her husband and keeps up her respect though he be gone from home but the wicked when the Lord forsakes them harhour hard thoughts of him Is this to serve the Lord and walk in his wayes what good have I got by all I have done see how he hath served me 3. They will seek him till he return again when the Lord forsakes others the will sees after vinities to make up the want of Gods presence The Adustress in her Husbands absence will seek after other leavers The true Saint will be satisfied in nothing else but the Lord till he return Moreover there is a difference in Gods forsaking the sinner and the Saint when he forsakes the wicked 〈…〉 in darkness but when he withdraws from his own he leaves some light whereby they see which way he is gone he leaves some glimmering light by which they may follow after him and find him And again when he leaves his own yet his bowels are owards them Jer. 31.20 My bowels are troubled for him I will surely have mercy upon him saith the Lord. He hath an eye towards them for much good in his forsaking them Vse 2. Of Exhortation 1. To thankfulness to God or that he hath not yet forsaken us Whatever he hath stript us off he hath not yet stript us off himself he hath not as yet forsaken us He might have done it and have done us no wrong but he hath not yet done it 2. To do our utmost that he may not forsake us And here there may be added Motives and Means 1. Consider Gods lothness to forsake us This is a thing that he is not desirous of he doth not willingly afflict us with this fort of Affliction or grieve us with this grievous stroak God hath shewed himself loth to depart from those that have departed from him but have warned them of his displeasure that they might stay him It goes near Gods heart to forsake a People that have been near to him Methinks I hear him saying thus How shall I give thee up Oh New-England thence speaking to warn us of our forsakings of him and to be instructed why least his Spirit depart from us Jer. 6.8 Be thou instructed Oh Ierusalem least my Soul depart from thee least I make thee desolate a land not inhabited You may easily stay him the matter is not so far gone but you might yet stay him were we but as loth he should forsake us as he is to forsake us he would never leave us His gradual motions from a people argue his lothness and unwillingness to leave them 2. Consider what the Lord is to us or what relation he stands in to us while he is with us He is our friend we have found him to be so and a special friend too men in the World are not willing to forego a Friend a good Friend he is as faithful skilful powerful and tender hearted a Friend as ever a people had he stuck by us when also we had been in a woe case Psal 124.1 If it had not been the Lord who was on our side may Israel now say And had not the Lord been on our side may New-England now say He is a Father and a tender-hearted Father Isai 63.16 Doubtless thou art our Father Can children be willing their Father should leave them he is a Husband Isai 54.5 For thy Maker is thy Husband a loving careful tender husband