LET'S TAKE A BREAK FROM THE NICENE POSTS
The end of our meeting here this day is to bemoan, if God would help us, the withdrawing of God from among us, and to beg his returning unto us. It is not about any particular or any small occasion; but it is about the greatest concern of the glory of God and our own souls that we can ever be engaged or concerned in this world. Whether our spirits are suited and prepared to meet the Lord in such a work or no, we may do well to consider. Something I shall offer, if God bring it to mind, that may be of use unto us on the present occasion, from Isa. viii. 17, —
“And I will wait upon the Lord, that hideth his face from the house of Jacob, and I will look for him.”
You may remember that my way is, upon these occasions, to speak some plain words unto you, that are not only of your special but of your present concern. I shall not, therefore, open the context here, but only tell you (which you will see by reading the chapter at any time) it was a time of great sin, of great darkness, of great danger; and yet there was a promise of Christ, that kept life in the church in the midst of all.
For the opening of the words, I would inquire into these four or five things:— 1. Whom it is that God hideth his face from; 2. What it is for God to hide his face; 3. How we may know when God hideth his face; 4. What are the reasons why God hideth his face; 5. How we may distinguish between God’s hiding his face and God’s departing; and, lastly, What is our duty in such a state and case, when God doth hide his face: “I will wait upon the Lord, who hideth his face from the house of Jacob, and I will look for him.”
I shall speak very plainly, and I fear somewhat briefer than I intended, by reason of my infirmities, unto these things.
First, Whom is it that the Lord hideth his face from? It is from “the house of Jacob.” God never hideth his face from the world, because his face never shines upon them. The face of God’s providence alters towards the world. It is sometimes filled with more frowns and anger than at other times, and he works great alterations accordingly; but the face of God’s grace, that neither shines upon nor can be said to be hid from the world.
God hides his face from “the house of Jacob.” And two things are considerable herein:— 1. That it is the true church of God that is intended; 2. That it is the church of God in some special state and condition that is intended, that is “Jacob.”
1. It is the true church of God that is intended. Jacob is he that received the promises, with whom God made a covenant, to whom God engaged his truth: Mic. vii. 20, “Thou wilt perform the truth to Jacob, and the mercy to Abraham, which thou hast sworn unto our fathers from the days of old.” Jacob being he that God had entered into covenant withal, took into covenant with himself, “the house of Jacob” are those, that are in covenant with God.
2. There is a twofold circumstance of the church comprised in this term, “Jacob:” — (1.) That it is in a low, poor, afflicted condition. So was Jacob all his days He was a man of sorrow, a man of affliction, a man of temptation. “Few and evil were the days of his pilgrimage.” And the church is nowhere called “Jacob” but with reference unto its low estate: Isa. xli. 14, “Fear not, thou worm Jacob, and ye men of Israel,” saith he. When the church is as a contemptible worm, when there are but few that belong unto it, then it is called “Jacob.” The church in a low, tempted, oppressed, sorrowful and mean condition, is “the house of Jacob.” (2.) It is in a wrestling condition. This was the character of Jacob above all the patriarchs, — he was the great wrestler with God; and he got nothing but by wrestling through great difficulties. You all know so that know the story of Jacob from first to last. So that the church is called “the house of Jacob when it is in a wrestling condition, contending with God and man for the blessing. And many repulses he had, and came off lame at last, with the unjointing of his bones.
Brethren, you see who it is that in here intended, — the true church of God, in a low, weak, distressed condition; and there are some at least among them eminently wrestling with God and eminently wrestling with men for the great blessing of Jesus Christ and the gospel. Pray take notice that God can, and sometimes doth, hide himself from the church in this state and condition. Now, a man would think, now if ever is the time for God to shine upon the house of Jacob. But there may be such things found in the church, when it is in a low, wrestling condition, that God is compelled to hide his face from them.
Thus we have stated the subject. I desire to know whether it falls upon us or no? whether we are this “house of Jacob,” whose condition is low, that, through infinite, free grace, God hath taken into covenant with himself? I do not speak absolutely in reference to ourselves, but to our brethren in the world, whose condition is low, distressed, tempted, oppressed. And yet there are remaining those that wrestle with God. If this be so, then the subject is rightly stated, and we are concerned in the text.
Secondly, Our second inquiry is, What it is for God to “hide his face”? To know that, we must inquire what it is for the face of God to shine upon any. You may observe that the shining of God’s face upon any is, in Scripture, comprehensive of all mercies and of all blessings whatsoever. I will mention but one place, Num. vi. 24–26, the blessing of God when he put his name upon the people: “The Lord bless thee, and keep thee: the Lord make his face shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee: the Lord lift up his countenance upon thee, and give thee peace.” Grace, preservation, and peace, they are the sum of all we receive from God in this world. And how cloth this come? “The Lord cause his face to shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee: the Lord lift up the light of his countenance upon thee, and give thee peace: the Lord cause his face to shine and bless thee.” In a word, there the shining of God’s face is, where the grace and favour of God in Christ Jesus evidences and communicates itself to the church and the souls of men. The grace and favour of God evidencing and communicating itself unto the souls of men is the shining of God’s face and the lifting up of God’s countenance.
And there are four things that do always accompany the shining of God’s face upon any people or upon any person. The peculiar way of the communication and evidence of the grace and favour; which is the shining of his face, hath these four effects:—
1. It gives them light and guidance. “In thy light,” saith the psalmist, Ps. xxxvi. 9, “we shall see light,” — in the light of God’s countenance. When the face of God shines upon men, they are not at a loss to find their way. It is as the sun unto our natural occasions. Let a man be in his way, let him know it never so well, while the sun shines upon him, how pleasantly doth he travel! Though he be in the same way, if the sun go down and darkness come, what a loss is the man at! I know not what you have done, but I know what some others have done; — they have found sometimes pleasantness, plainness, satisfaction, in the same ways that afterwards they have been ready to stumble in, and could scarce find how to take one step before another. The sun was gone down! While God’s face shines upon us, we shall not be at a loss nor in the dark about any of our ways.
2. Where God’s face shines there is the communication of spiritual strength; for, as I told you, this face of God is his grace and favour, which is the fountain of all our spiritual life, of all spiritual strength, of all spiritual vigour. I need not stay to prove these things, which you know are acknowledged. All our spiritual life is from the fountain of God’s grace and favour; and the shining of the face of God is the actual communication, of spiritual strength from that grace and favour. Whenever God’s face shines, — and let us please ourselves with any other apprehension, — We shall have spiritual life, strength, vigour, quickening, as to all duties, as to all occasions, as to all trials and sufferings, whatsoever, we are called unto.
3. The shining of God’s face is, in a peculiar manner, the cause of spiritual joy and refreshment; for by the shining of God’s countenance he doth give in pledges unto our hearts that he is our reconciled God and Father. Spiritual joy is a most peculiar effect and an infallible evidence of the shining of God’s face. Wherever it is, there God’s face shines; and where it is not, there God hides his face.
4. And lastly, Deliverance from trouble is an effect of the shining of God’s face: “Cause thy face to shine, and we shall be saved.” Such is the prayer of the psalmist.
These four effects do constantly accompany the lifting up of God’s countenance, and the shining of his face upon us Wherefore the hiding of God’s face must respect these effects, — light and guidance, spiritual strength, joy, and deliverance.
1. The hiding of God’s face respects light and guidance: Hos. v. 6, “They shall go with their flocks and with their herds to seek the Lord; but they shall not find him.” Why? “He hath withdrawn himself from them.” God hath hid himself. For God to hide himself, and for God to hide his face, are the same: Isa. xlv. 15, “Verily thou art a God that hidest thyself.” And when God withdraws and hides himself, men cannot find their way. They went with their flocks and with their herds to find the way to God, — with their church-assemblies, with all their concerns, — and could not find the way to God. When God hides his face, we shall be left under darkness as unto our churches, ways, and walking.
Pray, brethren, let us now inquire whether it is so with us or no. Consider these few things in the fear of the Lord:—
(1.) Do you see the beauty and the glory of the ways of God? Do you see the glorious goings of God in the sanctuary, as may be you have seen them? Do you see a desirableness and a beauty in the ways of God’s worship in the church? Or, are these things grown unto you a very common thing? You are in a good way; hut is not the sun gone down? You are in the same path as formerly; but are your hearts so delighted, so refreshed? Do we really see a beauty and a glory in the ways and worship of the house of God? I am afraid we can scarce say so. And if it be so, it is through the want of the light of God’s countenance. We are in the same way still, but darkness is round about us; we see not the beauty and glory of the ways and worship of God. Our very walking, our very actings, the very course we most of us take in the ways of the church, do manifest the hiding of God’s face, — that God hath so far withdrawn the light of his countenance from us that we do not see a glory in the same way that once we saw before.
(2.) Are we not at a great loss as unto the ways themselves, and in the least difficulty we cannot find our way, but we are bewildered? Every trivial exception, that hath been answered a hundred times, will turn us out of the way, and keep us from the discharge of our duty, and from what God calls us unto. God hideth his face and leaves us much in the dark. When we would go about our duty, we do not find our way. All things have not been plain and clear.
(3.) Are we not in the dark as to the way of love, — the life, the soul, the cement of church-communion, — without which the best of us, as unto any church-order, are but as “sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal”? Whatever sweet or pleasant noise we make by our way or walk, without the exercise of love, we are as “sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal.” Is there not darkness come upon all professors herein? Is there that love among professors in general that either hath been or ought to be? Is there that love among churches, one church to another? They are scarce concerned in one another. I did little think ever to have lived to see the day wherein the churches of Christ should have so little concern in one another as they have. There is not that love among ourselves which there ought to be. Do not the paths of love mourn because none walk in them? Doth joy arise in our hearts and pleasantness in our countenances when we behold the faces one of another?
Why, then, do some complain that none visit, none confirm, none help, none relieve, none seek after their spiritual or outward condition? Who among us seeks to make himself an example of love? Is there a duty wherein men may exercise and show their gifts and parts? — there is a pretty readiness for it. Is there any thing wherein men may act severity of spirit? — they will be prepared for that. Who among us endeavours, in meekness, in condescension, in self-denial, in being little in his own eyes, to make himself an example of love? And all our church order and relation is a thing of no value without it. One person who is filled with love, which is a charitable grace, it will make him have low thoughts of himself, condescend greatly to others, forego temptation to provocations, and let go all these things. And who among us endeavours to make himself an example hereof? One such person would bring more honour and glory to Christ, and make a more glorious representation of him in the world, than a thousand of us do at this kind of rate of walking. The ways of God are the same, the worship of God the same, the saints of God the same also, — a company of poor tempted sinners: but we have not the same light, we have not the same guidance, we have not the same love; we live upon gifts, and not upon grace. God doth hide his face from us in this thing.
2. When God hides his face, there will be a decay as to spiritual strength, as to the flourishing and vigour of grace. I have spoken so much and so often to you upon this head, in this place, in our inquiry wherefore the Lord doth harden the hearts of his people from his fear, and in conference among ourselves, that I shall say no more 520to it, to manifest that we have this evidence of God’s hiding his face, that there is a decay of spiritual strength as to the flourishing of grace among us. And truly, brethren, I am verily persuaded that if God do not give us an understanding of it by his word, he will give us an understanding of it by his sword, by his judgments, that will follow us till we are consumed.
3. When God hides his face, there will be a decay of spiritual joys. Spiritual joys are the immediate effect of the shining of God’s countenance, the most proper pledge of it unto our hearts. And how is it with us, brethren? Pray remember my design, which is to speak familiarly unto you, and so bear with my manner of speaking at this time. How is it with us, brethren, as to this matter of spiritual joy? It is a thing that was purchased by the blood of Christ. It is more worth than all this world, and it is that without which we shall never greatly honour God, in this world or when we go out of it.
I cannot toll how to judge any of your hearts, nor what stock you have of this spiritual joy, but I will give you two or three outward signs, and one or two inward trials, whereby we may know whether there be not a decay among us in spiritual joy; and (which is the worst part of the story) we are content that so it should be.
(1.) This is certain, that carnal joys and spiritual joys are inconsistent; that where carnal joy is predominant, let men pretend what they will, and speak with the tongue of men and angels, there is no spiritual joy. By carnal joy I understand the prevalent satisfaction of the minds of men in present enjoyments, whether in relations, or in outward state and condition, or in the succeeding of their affairs. Where there is a predominant satisfaction in these things, there is no spiritual joy. “Many say, Who will show us any good? Lord, lift thou up the light of thy countenance upon us. Thou hast put gladness in my heart, more than in the time that their corn and their wine increased.” These things are absolutely opposed. The gladness of heart arising from the shining of God’s countenance is absolutely opposed unto that good which men find in the increase of their corn, and wine, and oil. A predominancy of carnal joy in present satisfaction as to things here below is inconsistent with spiritual joy.
(2.) Earthly cares prevailing are inconsistent with heavenly joys. God hath brought many of us into that state and condition that it may be we will say we are free upon that account: ‘We have nothing here to rejoice in; we are poor; we are low, disconsolate, afflicted.’ Well, then, but have we not, on the other side, earthly cares and desires prevalent in us? We are not rich, but we would be rich; we are not healthy, but we would be healthy and strong; we have not provision for our lusts, but we would have it. Where there is this frame of spirit there is no spiritual joy.
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