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
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
most undoubtedly leave and forsake you unless you do to the utmost of what you can do to keep him amongst you The Lord is resolved on it he will not abide with you except you do besiege him with your prayers tears cries and groars not to be gone Solomon did no more then need required when he cried to him Be with us Verily the Lord will not thrust himself upon such a Generation as do but little care for his Presence If you are of an indifferent spirit at a kinde of disway in your own thoughts as it were the Lord will soon resolve the case Psa 132.11.12 And therefore take the Counsel the Lord gives Jer. 6.8 Be instructed lest my soul depart from you Make no other account but the Lord will take away his Presence and leave you desolate except you rowse up out of your Security and be more in earnest with him then you have been hitherto Those endeavours that you have put forth will not keep God amongst you If you seek him with all your heart and soul you may finde him Deut. 4. and after the same manner that he is sound he is kept amongst a people and therefore I may make use of those words Who is on the Lords side who Who is bent to keep the Presence of God with them as he was with their fathers who Ah! how will you ever be able to stand before God men or your own Consciences another day when it shall be charged upon you that it was because of your sloth and negligence supine security that God is gone from the midst of you Mot. 2. There is no little Expectation concerning you You are a Generation of great hopes and great fears The Lord expects much from you that you will do much for the glory of his Name Isa 63.8 He said Surely they are children that will not lie he hath been expecting a long time Luke 13.7 and your predecessors those that have been before you all their expectations under God himself are in you they hope you will stand up in their stead and bear up the Cause of Religion when they are gone And so also you are a Generation of great fears some they have a holy fear concerning you such a fear as was sometimes in the heart of Job towards his Children Chap. 1. lest you should sin against God lest you should forget God and the things of God yea the Lord is pleased to express himself so as if he had some fears concerning the rising and succeeding Generation of a professing people Psal 78.5 And some they have a sinful fear Satan and all wicked men they are affraid what you will do they are affraid lest you should strengthen what your fathers have done before you And I pray take notice what you have in your hands it is to promove or interrupt the glory of Religion you will be instrumentall above what your fathers have been either to the advantage or disadvantage of Religion the Name of Christ will either gain or lose much by you If two Generations be for God and the wayes of God this will be for the honour of Gods Name and therefore it is that the Lord is so delighted in his Name I am the God of Abraham Isaac and Jacob the God of three Generations it 's greatly for the glory of God when Truth hath the advantage of a double Generation so on the contrary Religion will suffer exceedingly if you desert it If it be said 1 Chron 28.1 that the very children pulled down what their fathers builded this will cast dishonour upon the way they walked in Judg. 2.17 and the Lord complains of wrong and reproach cast upon him when men turn away from him to wayes of sin Jer. 2.5 I may allude to the words of Paul spoken in another case 1 Cor. 9.15 It were better for me to die then that any should make my glory void it were better for you to die then that Gods Name should suffer by you as it will suffer if you keep not the Lords Presence with you Oh take heed what you do take heed how you sad the heart of God and godly men and how you glad the heart of Satan and the wicked Mot. 3. Consider that it is the turn of your Generation to stand up for God and what can you do for him if he be not with you Elders are gathered away both in Church and Common-wealth their work is done as to many of them already and the Gospel and Ordinances are to be transmitted into your hands the Affairs of Christs Kingdome will be upon your shoulders Your fathers before you served God in their Generation Judg. 2.7 Acts 13.36 they lived and died in the faith of the Gospel and the profession thereof and now you come to act your part the Lords voice to you is Look you now to it I trusted your fathers and gave them my Laws and Statutes and they were faithful to their death and now they rest from their labours and their works follow them and now I put the like upon you that I did upon them Oh how will you manage this betrustment without the Lords Presence Consider 1. The greatness of your Generation work 't is too heavy for the shoulders of any Angel in heaven to bear Look at personal concerns look at publick concerns it s not work for men for our selves but for God 2. The dayes wherein you live are backsliding times evil dayes 2 Tim. 3.1 times of great degeneracy and Apostacy Alas little humble walking now little self-denial little holiness Oh how weighty and difficult is their work that are now called out to stand up for Christ It is difficult at any time Onus humeris Angelicis formidandum as Chrysostom saith concerning the work of the Ministry A burthen that the shoulders of Angels might shake to come under but especially in such times wherein we are fallen How hard is it to keep up an House when it 's falling down to keep the Ship from sinking when the leak that is sprung hath almost filled it with water 3. The hands that help they are but few and those that hinder are many what can be done at such a time as this if the Lords presence be not with us Mot. 4. You have many special Engagements to hold God with you he is your fathers God and not willing to leave you The holy Ghost gives counsel not to forsake our fathers friend Prov. 27.9 much less your fathers God It 's an heart-endearing consideration that God was the God of Relations this helps to sweeten the presence of God to us as men in other things they will not part with what was their Progenitors Oh this was my fathers and I will not part with it so here Exod. 15.2 he is a God left commended and bequeathed to you by your fathers Those that knew how good he was left this with you as their most weighty Counsel that whatever you did you would make choice of the Lord to be your God 1 Chro. 28.9 1 Kin. 2.3 4. 3. You have the pattern and example of those that were before you to encourage hereunto what is it not well with them did they not live in peace and die in comfort Peace and truth was in their dayes they never repented of their choice they made verily their holiness will be a dreadful witness against you when the Lord shall say as Jer. 22.15 16. But Gods Presence was life to them we may well say as Ruth 1.16 Intreat me not to leave thee or to return from following after thee whither thou goest I will go thy people shall be my people and thy God my God 4. The cost and care that Predecessors have been at that so they might leave God with children is to be seriously thought of they may say of the Gospel and Ordinances thereof as 2 Sam. 23.17 They purchased them with hazard of their lives as sometimes Jacob gave Joseph a blessing that he took out of the hand of the Amorites with his sword and bowe Gen. 48.22 Mot. 5. What will become of you if God be not with you what a condition will you then be in if God leave you and cast you out of his sight Jer. 16.12 13. 1. Your sins will be worse then the sins of others 2 Kin. 21.11 2. You will not be one whit better in respect of any Spiritual advantage that you have sprung from those that had the Lord to be their God Ezek. 16.2 3 4 5. Isa 57.3 4. 3. The want of Gods Presence will bring a curse upon all blessings and make your condition more miserable then the worst In this life nothing but plagues woes miseries Hos 3.3 Deut. 31.17 yea enemies that shall prey on you will pretend they do it justly Jer. 50.7 Ordinances Sabbaths Sermons shall blinde harden and seal you up in sin Oh! to be prayed heard wept down to Hell how dreadful is that You shall be plagued above others Amos 3.2 Gods hand will follow you Judg. 2.15 and at last you shall die in sin Ezek. 18.9 10. and be cast off for ever 1 Chron. 29.9 Jer. 16.12 13. and go to Hell though the children of Abraham Luk. 16.24 your godly Parents will be so far from helping you that they will rejoyce and bless God for executing Justice upon you to all Eternity neither your fathers nor the God of your fathers will own you But oh let it be our prayer and care that the Lord our God may be with us as he was with our fathers let him not leave us nor forsake us REader The Author had intended another Sermon by way of Direction to those of the Rising Generation to shew them what course they must take that so the Lords gracious Presence may be successively continued But here God took him 〈◊〉 serving his Generation who are by reason of the Authors death deprived of the bâ—â—â—fit of those Meditations
and speed better the Lord will suffer himself to be Commanded in this case Isa 45.11 you have very good hold of God in the Word Deut. 30.6 and when you pray you must pray feelingly i. e. with a heart sensible of their sins Let the sins of the Rising Generation be the burthen of the first Generation their Unbelief the matter of their Complaint before the Lord. Many complain their Children have not such Priviledges as they ought I pray God grant that they may all have what the Lord hath appointed for them But alas where is the man that complains that his Childe wants saving knowledge of Jesus Christ Oh where is the Parent that sayes in bitterness of Soul My Childe hath a hard Heart and a proud Will an unteachable Spirit Civil he is but alas that 's all the Religion I can see Oh that there were more of those Complaints in secret before the Lord I verily believe the Lord will awaken a Spirit of Prayer before he gives us any sure pledges of his abiding with us in all sorts of men amongst us See how David prayes for Solomon 1 Chron. 29.19 and this will fetch blessings Win it in Heaven and wear it in Earth Monica Austin's Mother after she had cried and wept to a godly Minister for her then ungodly Son was answered by that good man Fieri nequit ut filius tantarum lachrymarum pereat It cannot be that a Childe of so many Prayers and Tears should perish And it is observeable That before the Lord give out any special Generation-mercy he humbles he prepares his people for that mercy by deep humiliation he usually layes them exceeding low as in first Conversion with respect to personal mercies so with respect to Generation-mercy The continuance of the Lords Presence Generation after Generation is a very signal mercy and God the Lord will humble his people in order to this mercy and this humiliation will cause you to sanctifie Gods Name though he should take away his Presence Ezek. 3.12 Secondly He brings a sentence of death on the mercy that to the eye of Sense and Reason there is no likelihood that ever it should come to pass nay it grows more unlikely every day then other as with Israel in Egypt Exod. 5. Isaac must be bound laid on the Altar the knife at his throat that so Faith might receive him as it were from the dead Truly this makes me hope that the Lords Presence may yet continue with his people in our Generations because that mercy seems to be a dead mercy There is no likelihood that it should be so the knife is at Isaac's throat Faith can fetch Isaac from the Altar Isa 26.19 When Churches are dead and the Members of Churches are dead yet then the Covenant lives the Promise lives Oh look to the Lord in that word Isa 65.22 to the end and 62.9 5. If you would have God to be with you and yours after you then see that you each one in your respective places are with and for the Lord You have the duty and encouragement laid before you 2 Chron. 15.2 A professing People they alwayes break with God first before he breaks with them 'T is the very end of the Lords works and dispensations to you that so you might be for him Isa 43.21 Quest But you will say What is this to be with the Lord How shall we be so with or for the Lord as that we may be sure he will still be with and for us Ans Work and work for God in your several capacities Parents Husbands Wives if you do not work for him you are not with him Mark 13.34 He gave to every man his work and therefore it is that their working with God is said to be a being with God Hos 9.8 The watchmen of Ephraim was with my God i.e. they did the work of God and so walking with God as you may see by that of David 1 Kings 4. and of Hezekiah 2 King 18.6 7. 2. Be for the special interest of God Mat. 12.30 He that is not with me is against me Zech. 9.7 He that remaineth shall be for our God i.e. for his Glory for his Christ for his Cause Labour therefore for a Publick Spirit let all your own interest give way to his Oh let nothing be dear in comparison of Christ and his interest Acts 20.24 To be of a private Spirit is not to be for God 3. In a special manner see that you are for his Institutions This is called the Kingdome of God Acts 1.3 If for Christ then for his Kingdome That man is not for God or Christ that is not for Ordinances These are called the Name of Christ Acts 15.14 16. He that is not for building Gods Tabernacle would not indeed that God should have a Name amongst men Remember what you said when you came into the Church Isa 44.5 I am the Lords especially see that you be for those Institutions and Ordinances that are ordained by Christ to bring the Rising Generation into a professed subjection unto the Gospel of Christ Oh take heed how we turn them out of Gods Inheritance lest you bring a curse upon your Souls and their Souls after you 1 Sam. 28.19 When God takes them into his Covenant he saith he will be a God to them Gen. 17. Take heed how you deny them any part in the Lord lest thereby they turn to serve other gods Josh 22.24 25. Where the Lord will enlarge Covenant-mercy Oh tremble to straighten it or bound it to the Precepts of men we and our poor Children after us have need enough of all the grace of the Covenant let us not despise it or cast them out our selves from it If that be the Lords word that the children of his servants shall continue and their seed be established before him Psal 102.28 Labour not to make that Promise of no effect Most certain it is that the Lords Presence is to be sought and enjoyed in Gods Wayes and in them only Will the Lord abide with a Generation that have nothing to do with a Church-state Ordinances Ministry and the visible outward Administrations of the things of his House I know he may for a while But will he long No verily if they must have nothing to do with these God will have nothing to do with them 6. Maintain a Spirit of Love towards God and towards one another If you love he will not leave you Be not like Ephesus that lost their first love but repent and do your first works Rev. 2.3 Love is a uniting grace and will not let the person beloved go This keeps God in Heaven because nothing but love is there for where that is he will be 1 Joh. 4.18 Joh. 14.23 If ever the Lord leave you or yours after you it will be because he is not loved and if it be asked why did the Lord so soon forsake his people after that he had done so much for them the Lord will