in respect of the Lords Presence Jer 44.17 18. Then we had plenty of victuals and were Well and saw ro evil but since wanted all things have been consumed by the sword and by the famine They take notice of outward plenty and outward scarcity of abundance and plenty respecting things of this life but as to the Lords Presence with them not a word spoken of that As mens hearts upon serious consideration of the Lords nearness to or removal from them are affected or not affected therewith so is the Lord answerably abiding with or leaving of a People The Lord is farre gone when there is no enquiry whether he be gone or no. Oh what cause of awakening upon this account What is the stirring Enquiry of men in these dayes What is the solemn Enquiry that passeth from man to man from Plantation to Plantation from Generation to Generation Is this the Enquiry of the old and gray-headed Oh is the Lord with us as he was wont to be Is this the demand of the Rising Generation Have we as much of the Presence of God as our fathers before us had Do we live as near are we as much acquainted with God Is the same Spirit poured out upon us that was on them 2. When the Lord takes away the chief Instruments and Means of his Presence and gracious Blessing to a People When men have a minde to depart and remove their dwelling they will send away their Plate and such things as are of greatest worth and price with them so here Is not the Lord packing up the chief Goods he hath and removing them away when he takes away Props and Pillars this declares that he hath left the house and cares not much though it tumbles down Isa 3.1 3 8. When Ordinances are gone and they that should dispense them gone this is a sign that God himself is gone 2 Chron. 15.2 A Generall when he gives order to remove his Standard it is an evidence that he himself is resolved to go thence so it is here As such are pledges of the Lords Presence so their removal especially when there are not others of the like grace and holiness to stand up and fill their places declare that the Lord is upon his departure It went full ill with Israel when Joshua and the Elders that out-lived Joshua were gathered to their fathers It was a true and weighty speech of one viz. That the Deaths of godly Elders oft proves Deaths-day of Religion or at least the day of Deaths wound to Religion It s both a sign and an occasion of degeneracy and so of the Lords Spirit departing from a people There is a special hand of Gods Providence exercised in the decease of his Worthies It is either in great wrath or in great mercy If it awaken not to a Spirit of Mourning and Supplication unfeigned and universal Repentance it s a sure sign it s in wrath and speaks nothing but woe to that people Isa 57.1 The righteous perisheth and no man layeth it to heart and merciful men are taken away none considering that the righteous is taken away from the evil to come When the Kings special Favourites are dismissed from Court it s a token the King intends to remove from that place where his Majesty was wont to reside So when God dismisseth his righteous ones it is a sign that he himself will be gone ere long 3. When outward prosperity is unsanctified When the abounding of temporal blessings is accompanied with the abounding of sin Though prosperity in it self be of that nature that it is hand to judge of love or hatred presence on absence of God with or from a people thereby yet as it is attended or accompanied so it is evidential though not in it self yet in the effects and concomitants and consequents of it when prosperity falls on a people that have learned to want as well as to abound when creatures are means to convey divine favour from God and hearty obedience unto God then they are signs of the Lords presence with a people Joel 2.26 But when men have prosperity outward riches and know not what to do with them besides making gods of them this is a sign that the Lords gracious presence is not among a people when men lose Religion in the world and what they get in temporals they lose in Spirituals Psal 106.15 Outward prosperity is a worm at the root of godliness so that Religion dies when the World thrives Dent. 28.47 32.15 There is sometimes a palpable difference as to Holiness between a low under state and a flourishing thriving condition for the former see Zeph. 3.11 for the latter see Hos 13.6 Oh consider the time was when less of the world but was there not more of Heaven less Trading Buying Selling but more Praying more watching over our own hearts more close walking less plenty and less iniquity men lay aside old Prayer are almost afraid to put up the New-England Prayer Lord keep me poor and keep me humble In a word if I were to point out a people from whom God is going by one sure Character it should be this Such people as can make up that they want in God with the prefence of the Creature can stop the crannies and fill empty places of the Heart with Creatures and Creature-comforts they have not so much as they were wont to have yet can fill up the room of God with worldly delights though God be absent yet if they can get more of the world that serves turn Jer. 2.13 Hence mens hearts say How shall I live without my State Honour Peace Friendship but not How shall I live without God 4. When a Spirit of Division and Contention in matters of Gods Worship is the Spirit of the Times and thence Religion turns into Faction that is an evidence that the Lord is a leaving of a people The Lord cares not to dwell in a shaking tottering house long A Spirit of Love and Unity is an evidence of the Lords presence God is love and where love rules God dwells 1 Joh. 4.16 where Brethren live together in unity there the Lord commands the blessing even life for evermore Psal 133.1 3. Unity keeps God amongst a people 2 Cor. 13.11 but when Societies crack in pieces room is made for God himself to be gone What father loves to dwell among fighting and quarrelling children His voice to such is I 'le be gone untill you agree When a House is a-fire what wise man will continue therein Again a Spirit of Contention is an evidence of Gods anger and displeasure against a people Lam. 4.16 and speaks ruine each to other Judg. 9.20 23. Numb 21.28 29. especially when a blessing is taken away from the means of healing Jer. 14.18 Hence this evil follows upon such division that Religion is turned into Faction Godliness lyes in Parties and Siding and in this and that particular Apprehension As Jehu destroyed the house of Ahab and the Worshippers
of Baal out of a factious Spirit and thence measured all Religion according to his own factious Spirit 2 Kings 10.15 16. And thus it was in Christs time there was a division touching matters of Religion some for one way and some for another and thus contending about Circumstances they lost the Substance In a word when men become most irreligious in their Religion I cannot speak it nor you hear it with grief of heart enough Religion is the occasion of our Contentions and breach of Peace 5. When the Lord withholds the essicacious and victorious operations of his Spirit from his own Ordinances that though men have them plentifully dispensed yet they are but as a dead letter they are the words and breath of men onely without life to their Souls for as on the contrary no surer pledge of the Lords presence with a people then when the Spirit accompanies the Ordinances and makes them effectual for the good of Souls when the Lord is at the heels of the Messenger and striketh home to the heart of poor creatures that see God himself in Ordinances 1 Cor. 14.25 this is a sign the Lord is with them so when they are continued to men but the Spirit is not in them they have them but no God in them when the Lord absents himself from those set meetings for people to meet him in now its undeniable the Lord is leaving such a people But when is this you will say that the essicacy and overcoming power of the Spirit is withheld from Ordinances Answ This is matter of great weight and therefore I shall a little stay upon it and shew you when it is in these specialties 1. When mens hearts are not stirred and quickned and warmed by them when the Word is lodged onely in the Porch and never cometh into the House Men get something to talk of and hold up a Profession in the world and bear up the Name of Religion withall but their Hearts are not wrought upon There are not suitable Impressions upon mens Hearts to the Notions that men have in their Heads for the Word comes in power when it passes through all outsides and enters into the heart Psal 45.5 Heb. 4.12 A discerner of thoughts and intents of the heart makes the heart naked so è contra when the Word is without power and virtue on the Souls of men when God is not in it when the Word is light without heat or life as the Sun under a Cloud it warms not the Earth Saints are wont to say of the Word By that I have been quickened Psal 119. But when the Word is like a cold fire that men sit by and finde no warmth surely the Spirit of God is not there for the Spirit quickeneth 1 Cor. 3.6 Joh. 6.63 If Christ speak then there 's life 2. When Ordinances are onely occasions and means of disquiet and of disrest unto men but have no surther efficacy upon them but to cause them to go with galled and condemned Consciences some have not so much as this live and die in Security having not one awakened thought all their dayes But not many that live under the dispensation of the Gospel but the Word is to them at sometimes as Rev. 11.9 a Word that did torment them that dwell on the Earth Though they live under means of grace and the Eternal Spirit is wrestling with them yet they are so shut up under unbelief and so in league and love with lust that the Word doth but torment them There is a generation of Christless sinners that fret with indignation and vexation that they cannot enjoy pleasures and follow lusts with quiet and peace and if they would speak out what is in their heart they would say to Christ as the Devils Mat. 8.29 Art thou come to torment us or as it was with those that heard Steven they were cut to the heart and gnashed on him with their teeth Acts 7.54 Men that are in love with lusts they cannot endure that God should come near them they are not able to bear the strokes whereby he would break their stiff Spirit but grudge against the Lord himself and fall out with the Word that would convince them Rom. 2.8 Hence in the secret of their hearts they could be glad to hear no more such Awakening Heart-searching Soul-rowsing Truths They say to God Depart from us Job 21.14 They pronounce that Sentence upon themselves which the Lord will pronounce at the last day A sad thing when a poor creature is Damned above-ground 3. When the Word of God doth blinde and harden men in their sins and vain hopes but not convert and save them from their sins Then God is with his Word when he doth not suffer poor creatures to escape from him when he will not let them alone but plucks them by the hair of the head as it were out of the fire when he makes the Devil deliver many sinful redeemed Souls then the Lord is with them indeed but when it is otherwise the Lord is not in his Word Mat. 13.15 Men come into the world and know not wherefore and go out and know not whither though they have many Advantages yet they stand it out to the very last they have been put into sad plunges in their own Spiâ—its but have got over them and so go to Hell insensibly When God is in his Ordinances then it shall be said This and that man was born there Psal 87.5 but When few newbarn Christians this is a symptome God is not in his Word As when the Seed is sown and rots under the clods but never springs up there is no blessing but a secret curse on it Oh consider of this Are Conversions frequent amongst us Is God pulling men out of this rueful state If the Lord deny this to his Ordinances it s because he is not in them Oh fearful wrath to have them and be hardened by them and the abuse of them to answer for another day To have them and yet to be plagued more then Sodom and Gomorrah that never heard of them in that day of Eternal Judgement 4. When Ordinances are unprofitable and empty things void of Spiritual advantage when men use them but as bad bargains they lose rather then gain by them as it was with them of old Mal. 3.14 What profit c. Hence take up that quarrelling Complaint Isa 58.3 Wherefore have we fasted and thou seest not c. When God is in them then they bring on to more fellowship with God and Christ Jesus then those that live under them are growing up in the fear of the Lord as David Zech. 12.8 as the Angel of the Lord before them vigorous and active Christians as it was with the Thessalonians 2 Thess 1.3 When the Sun ariseth with healing under his wings then they grow up as Calves in the stall Mal. 4.2 As a watered garden Isa 58.11 And this will be proportionable in root as well as branches not all head
children all ungodly most ordinarily if a man turn with all his heart his children turn too sooner or later more or fewer of them 2. Be very careful in the due performance of Family-duties towards them that are under your charge This is the Lords great Command Deut. 6.7 and Abrahams special Commendation Gen. 18.19 the want of this the Lord punishes with rejecting such children 1 Sam. 3.15 But what are these Duties 1. Oversight of the wayes of the Family that they yield outward Obedience to God and particularly in Sanctifying the Sabbath You shall finde Religion lives and dies as men are exact or remiss in observing the Sabbath And it is observeable that the very words of the fourth Commandment doth expresly binde all Masters of Families which is not to be found in any other Commandment Thou and thy Son and thy Daughter Exod. 20.10 the Lord speaks by name to Family-governours as if it were to make them Overseers of sanctifying the Sabbath 2. To instruct them in matters of Religion that they may not onely profess it but feel the power of it in life and conversation Thus were Parents commanded of old Deut. 6.7 Prov. 22.6 2 Tim. 3.15 3. A careful Endeavour that they may profit by the Publick Ministry When Ministers work in Publick is done the Family work begins for this see Christs example Mark 4.13 4. A declaration of the admirable works of God for his people Josh 4.6 21. Psal 22.31 78.4 5. By giving them a good Example Precept without Patterns will do little good you must lead them to Christ by Examples as well as Counsel you must set your selves first and speak by Lives as well as words you must live Religion as well as talk Religion Josh 24.15 This is rather to be attended because Families are the Seminaries of Church and Common-wealth Keep the Lord with you in Families and keep him then in all Societies let him go thence and he will quickly go from the rest Here begins all Apostacy and degeneration the ruine of Churches and Country springs from thence Ruine Families and ruine all So on the other hand keep God there and keep him every-where The Generation to come will reap the fruit of Family-Education such Children as you bring up such Parents will they be when you are gone to their Children and such Children shall they have who are Parents in the next Generation You then that are Governours of Families are the very making or marring of the world Psa 144.12 Unless Posterity be polished hewn and squared by Domestical Discipline they are never fit to be stones in Gods building Are not some Parents worse then that rich Glutton who being in Hell desired concerning his fathers house that they might be forewarned and therefore desired Abraham to send Lazarus to his brethren to testifie to them that they come not to the place of torment Luke 16.27 28 But you will not admonish them you will not teach them Moses and the Prophets you will not shew them the danger hanging over their heads you will not lead a good Example before them while you live Oh! you may fear that your Children one day will curse you and wish that they had been the Children of Indians rather 3. Keep as much of God as you were wont to do in your own Hearts and Conversations Suffer not the Lord to go away in any degree or measure out of your hearts In a word keep up the life and power of godliness in your own Souls The Lord never takes away his visible presence from the succeeding Generation unless he take away his secret inward presence from former Generations The second Generation seldome or ever prove totall Apostates but the first are deep secret Heart-revolters Heart-sins in the first grow up into Life-sins in the second if you decline at all they will decline altogether The loss of the first love is enough to remove the Candlestick Rev. 2.4 5. You complain against the Pride Profaneness of young ones and alas that there is such cause Oh but who is there amongst you that cries out of the secret sins of their own hearts Those sins of a second growth of Profaneness in some Worldliness in many Deadness and Formality in all Ah! who is it that looks on the hard heartedness impenitency of this second Generation and sayes that now the Lord is punishing my hard heartedness upon my Childe he is whipping me on his back Men Brethren and Fathers You had once another Spirit had you not A right New-England Spirit Oh! should I knock at your breast and ask Is the old Zeal Love Heavenly-mindedness that was in this Heart twenty thirty years ago is it there still Are you the same men you were Are you not strangely changed Have you as much of God as you had Hath not the World got something Wife and Children something Trials and Temptations of a New Place or hard beginnings got something Oh! have you not lived to see much of your former life and godliness laid in the grave Have you the same Hearts you had Are your worst dayes now as good as your best then so it is with growing Saints that live much with God Or rather is not the contrary true that you are grown old and grown cold cold indeed cold at heart Aged in years and decayed in power of godliness But why do I complain Let me perswade Oh recover recover strength for your own Souls sake and for the sake of the Generation that is to come after you How can you hope that you should ever finde much of the Lords Presence if you that once had it lose it and see it no more If in your time Profession and Lukewarmness go hand in hand together then in those that come after you Profession and Profaneness shall go hand in hand together If you keep your Religion and Forms with their buts they that succeed will be Professors with their buts You are Christians Ay! but old but dead but lifeless They shall be Professors but vicious but jeering but scoffing but drinking Companions What hopes that the next Generation will ever enjoy much of the Presence of Gods grace and power of godliness if you see it dead and buried before you go to your graves I remember what the Prophet Elijah said to Elisha if he could see when he was taken up in the fiery Chariot it should be so but if not it should not be so 2 Kings 2.10 I allude to it thus If the Rising Generation could see you going to Heaven with a great measure of Zeal Life Spiritualness then there might be some hopes that they that are left behinde might enjoy a double portion of your Spirit but if they see your Life lost Love cooled Godliness decayed how can it be 4. Lay out Faith and Prayer for them to the utmost There is no help in Earth but there is help in Heaven Plead with God and plead hard Believe and believe strongly Pray more
of doors Deut. 31.17 Mine anger shall be kindled and I will forsake them many evils shall befall them so that they will say in that day Are not these evils come vpon us because our God is not amongst us There is no help in Heaven for us if God leave us This is the bitterness and venome of all Gods Judgements As every affliction is sweetened with Gods presence so the Lords dereliction imbitters every affliction this reacheth the heart Psal 42.10 yea if God leave a people then they are sure to be given up to utter ruine If the Soul leave the Body it becometh loathsome and must be buried so it is here To see a Soul forsaken of God is a doleful sight a flood of vengeance then breaks in and there is no bank to keep it out for if God leave all Creatures leave too so that men shall finde no succour or favour elswhere Then delivered into hands of Enemies 2 Kings 21.14 Psal 21.11 yea then men will be a terrour to themselves 1 Sam. 28.15 In a word to be cast out of Gods presence is the beginning of Hell Matth. 25.41 Moreover there are special Reasons why the Lords Presence should be desired to succeeding Generations which shall be but mentioned First from the less to the greater we desire other blessings for Children much more should we desire this you desire to leave an Inheritance to your Childre Prov. 13.22 15.14 there is much more reason to desire that they might inherit the Lords blessing Secondly Because they have as much need of the Lords Presence as their fathers their fathers could not live and glorifie God in their generation had not the Lord been with them no more can those that succeed them there is like ground to desire for the one as for the other in respect of need that one hath as well as other 1. In respect of the weightiness of the work the work of one Generation is no less then of another which is to serve God and advance the Interest of Religion 2. In respect of Instruments that carry on the work Alas poor feeble creatures little children and what can children do in Family-affairs 1 Kings 3.7 3. In respect of Adversaries difficulties No age but alwayes there is much to hinder the work of God within are the same corruptions Pride Unbelief and without are the same or worse enemies nay later ages are and will be worse then former 2 Tim. 3.1 Thirdly Because this is the Generation-work of every one to pray and labour that the Lords Presence may be with succeeding Generations Fourthly Such as do not thus will incurre the brand of Apostates and be cast off from God for ever for casting off God 2 Chron. 15.2 Fifthly It makes much for the glory of God that the gracious Presence of the Lord should be continued from fathers unto children therefore this is much to be desired and prayed for But to apply this Vse I. Hence take notice what bottom and foundation it is that we stand on all good is wrapped up in this The Lords being with us Can we say that we are safe because of former mercies The Lord hath been with us in dayes of old hath blessed our fathers and are we therefore secure No verily he that hath been with them may leave us he that hath been a Saviour in former Generations may become a wayfaring man as a man astonied that cannot save Jer. 14.8 9. If we forsake him he will forsake us notwithstanding all former engagements It is not what God hath done heretofore that will make us a happy people at present it 's the wisdome of a people to discern the Lords dispensation Psal 107.43 and an heavy sad Judgement it is not to discern the Lords departing Hos 2. Are you like to have good dayes Are things like to go well in your time Is Truth and Peace like to be in your dayes If the Lord be with you as he was with your fathers then it will be otherwise not Oh therefore learn to know the footsteps of God in your own Souls for the Lord draws near by his Spirit and departs first by the Spirits departing therefore consider of this have you as much of God as your fathers had Vse II. What are we to think of them that never prayed such a prayer as this is Verily they bear little love to the place or people where they live that never made this request Many pray for a good Harvest outward temporal mercies but not for the Lords Presence yea some there are that are not sensible of the Lords departing from them but if they have outward Comforts all is well others care not for Gods Presence Job 21.14 A miserable frame this is for They that are far from the Lord shall perish Psal 73.26 Vse III. Take notice of the Presence of God how he doth come or go approach near or draw off from us If this be the great thing to be desired then it is the duty of all to observe what grounds of hopes what of fears respecting the Lords being with us as in dayes of old Much of the Lords Presence hath been shewed unto this people in these Ends of the Earth Deut. 32.2 10 11. We may truly say with the Church Psal 44.1 2. We have heard with our ears O God our fathers have told us what works thou didst in their dayes in times of old how thou didst c. It stands all to consider both such of former Generations that are yet surviving and those of this other Generation that are succeeding in the room of their fathers What is God with us as in times past God was with them and is he with us as he was with them Let us view the footsteps of God and mark whether the Lord be with us as in dayes of old And for that end I shall spread before you some Signs of the Lords leaving a People And the first is this First Sign When the Lord gives up a people to a slight spirit not minding the Lords Presence whether with them or farre off from them Surely the Lord cannot be very near unto that people that are not sensible of it The presence of Gods grace is a very evident sensible thing and therefore if men feel not this nor mourn not for the want of it it is a symptome the Lord is withdrawn Hence the Lord warns his people Jer. 6.8 Be instructed O Jerusalem lest my soul depart from thee if unsensible and unmindful I will be gone further and further from you Jer. 26. when people are left to a regardless heart respecting the tokens of the Lords displeasure against them Hos 7.9 Gray hairs are here and there upon them and they know it not feel other things leave them but not the Lord. It is not with them as it was wont to be in respect of Trade the fruits of the Earth c. this they take notice of but take no notice how it is with them