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meas," as Plautus" expresseth the form amongst the Romans. Collige sarcinulas, dicit libertus, et exi." Take that which is yours, leave that which is mine; and get you gone out of my family.i

It denoteth, 1. A subduction of peace and comfort, with drawing the evidences of God's favour from a people. God's Church is precious and honourable in his sight; (Isa. xliii. 4) but when he casts off a people, and gives a bill of divorce, he removes from them the covenant of his peace. A rejected woman hath little sense of comfort from her husband, when he turns her out of his doors.

2. A subduction of his visible presence in his ordinances *, which are the glory of a nation: as when a man forbids any servant of his family to wait upon the woman whom he repudiates. So when the ark of God's presence was taken, the glory is said to depart from Israel.' (1 Sam. iv. 22) When the Lord said to the prophet, Thou shalt not be a reprover to them;' (Ezek. iii. 26) and to the apostle, Depart, I will send thee to the Gentiles;' (Acts xxii. 21, and xiii. 46. Acts xxviii. 28) when a people see not their signs, have not a prophet left;' (Psalm lxxiv. 9) when the glory of the Lord is upon the 'wing, and the wheel' in motion; (Ezek. x. 18) this is a dangerous evidence that God is forsaking a people: for his ordinances are his presence.

3. A subduction of gifts and graces; as God withdrew his spirit from Saul. (1 Sam. xvi. 4, and xxviii. 15) When a nation is darkened, the wisdom of the wise, and understanding of the prudent, is hid1; (Isa. xxix. 14) or the Lord, in his severe providence, is pleased to lay wise and prudent men aside, that their wisdom shall not be believed or made use of";-this is a sore degree of divine desertion. When men are left to despise the very callings and persons that are eminent for gifts, and cry down the comforts annexed unto those gifts, and the seminaries where they usually are acquired ;-these are steps of God's departings from a people.

i Juvenal.

Plaut. in Amphitruo. Acts 3. Sc. 2. Martial. 1. 10. Ep. 41, 51. Satyr. 6. Caius 1. 11. sect. 1. de Divort. et Repud. * Θεία λόγια ἀφ' ὑμῶν ἀρθήσεται, ὁ νόμος καὶ οἱ προφῆται. Basil. in Isai. 16. p. 1120. D.

xvii. 4.

1 Job

m Tunc etiam fatis aperit Cassandra futuris Ora, Dei jussu non unquam credita Teucris. Virg. Æn. 2.

4. A subduction of defence and protection: when a nation is smitten, and there is no healing, but God takes away his peace from them; (Jer. xiv. 19, and xvi. 5) and they in danger of being given into the hands of enemies, and are as a speckled bird,' a gazing-stock, and a Ludibrium,' to the birds that are round about them. (Jer. xii. 7, 9)

5. A judiciary tradition ", or leaving men to the vanity of their own minds, and the lusts of their own hearts, to a giddiness of spirit, and delusion of judgement. A sad step this of divine desertion, when men are given up to walk in their own counsels; (Psalm lxxxi. 12) and are captivated to strong delusions to believe lies. (2 Thess. ii. 11) We have seen what this judgement is for God to depart from a people. It is the unchurching of them, sending them back into Egypt again, as our prophet here expresseth it, verse 3, 6.

Let us now consider, what a fearful wo this is for God thus to leave a people. It is of all other the most comprehensive, eminently containing in it all other woes, as God's presence doth all other comforts. This the most comprehensive promise in the covenant of grace, I will be their God?' and this the most comprehensive threatening, 'I will depart, I will love them no more.' The apostle calls it 'wrath to the uttermost.' (1 Thes. ii. 16) The prophet wants words to express it, and veils it over with this black and dismal intimamation,-" Thus will I do unto thee.” (Amos iv. 12) When they scornfully asked the prophets, what burden they had from the Lord to deliver unto them, the Lord gives them this as a burden of burdens, a curse of curses," I will forsake you, saith the Lord." (Jer. xxiii. 33)

1. It cuts off our relation unto God: "Ye are not my people; I will not be your God." (Hos. i. 9) It is the unfranchising of a church, cancelling their charter, reversing and extinguishing all their privileges, making them very Gentiles, a people without God or covenant.

2. It consequently cuts off our communion with God. He

n Vid. Aug. cont. Julian. Pelag. 1. 5. c. 2. Greg. Mag. 1. 25. c. 9. • Rom. xi. 12, 15, 17. P Ut Timanthes, cum in Iphigeniæ Immolatione pinxisset tristem Chalcantem, tristiorem Ulixem, addidisset, Menelao quem summum poterat ars efficere, mororem: consumptis affectibus, non reperiens quo digne modo patris vultum posset exprimere, velavit ejus caput, et suo cuique animo dedit æstimandum. Quintilian. Instit. 1. 2. c. 13.

delights not in us, nor we in him: for though this be the greatest judgement in the world, yet there is this further misery in it, That wicked men choose it, and are well pleased to be without God. They say unto God," Depart from us." (Job xxi. 14) They are contented, that the Holy One of Israel should cease from before them. (Isa. xxx. 11)

3. It cuts off the glory and renown of a people, which stands not in their seas and rivers, in their wealth, or power, or plenty, or trade, or other outward accomplishments, but in having God nigh them.' (Deut. iv. 6) Christ is the riches of the world. (Rom. xi. 12) God's favour the honour of a people: (Isa. xliii. 4) when he forsakes them, their glory is gone.'

4. It cuts off the comfort of all our enjoyments, the pure use whereof we have from the favour of God alone; bringeth thorns and briers in our palaces; maketh our table a snare, our riches the fuel of our lusts, our quails the harbingers of our curses, our plenty nothing but the matter of our pride and our perdition. Wicked men eat their meat as swine do, mingled with mire and uncleanness; they eat in darkness and sorrow; their riches are their hurt. (Eccles. v. 13, 17) Vanity and vexation, emptiness and affliction, are the total sum of all their worldly abundance, of all the sparks which they have kindled; after which they shall lie down in sorrow. (Isa. 1. 11)

5. It seals us up under wrath and judgement, is the talent of lead which is cast on the mouth of the Ephah. (Zech. v. 8) It is the last judgement before the last of all; the very outward court or portal of hell. For when the presence and ordinances of God are gone, men are in a remediless condition, sick to death, without either physic or physician. "O," saith Saul, "I am sore distressed! the Philistines war, and God is departed." (1 Sam. xxviii. 15) Sin woundeth, Satan accuseth, law curseth, death pursueth, conscience roareth, hell flameth, and God is departed.

6. It shuts out our prayers. When God's back is turned, and his presence removed, then his ear is stopped: when he shuts us out, he shuts out our prayer likewise. They who are Lo-Ammi, are certainly Lo-Ruhamah. If no people, no mercy. There will be a time, when the worst of men who now despise it, will cry aloud for mercy; but all in vain ; God

will not hear them, because they refused to hear him. (Prov. i. 28. Jer. xi. 14. Ezek. viii. 18)

7. It shuts out the prayer of holy men for us. When God casts a people out of his sight, he will not hear a prophet for them; (Jer. vii. 16) nay, not an assembly of prophets; such as were mighty in prayers, as Moses and Samuel; (Jer. xv. 1) such as have had experience of most glorious deliverances, as Noah, Daniel, and Job. (Ezek. xiv. 14)

8. It opens an inlet for all other miseries and troubles, lets loose the sluices; and, as in Noah's flood, breaks up the fountains of the great deep. Many evils and troubles shall befal them, saith the Lord, and they shall say, "Are not these evils come upon us, because God is not amongst us ?" (Deut. xxxi. 17) When God is with a people, none can be against them to hurt them. He sweetens all their sorrows, makes their very enemies at peace; but when the glory and the wall of fire is departed, there is a free approach for all calamities; a people are then ripe for destruction.

Now to clear both the justice and goodness of God in this sore judgement, we are to understand,

1

1. That the Lord doth not in this manner forsake a nation or church, until, 1. They forsake him our mercies are from God, our miseries from ourselves. (Hos. xiii. 9. 2 Chron. xv. 2) 2. Not until all remedies have been by them rejected, and he wearied with repenting, so that he can no longer bear being pressed, as a cart full of sheaves. (2 Chron. xxxvi. 16. Jer. xv. 6. xliv. 22. Isa. xliii. 24. Amos ii. 13) 3. Nor without first giving solemn warnings, both by his messengers, and by his more moderate chastisements; as we find, Amos iii. 7, and iv. 7-12. Amos vii. 1-7.

2. That when he doth forsake a people, he doth it, 1. Unwillingly; it is his strange work; he can scarce bring his mind to resolve upon it. "How shall I give thee up, Ephraim? How shall I deliver thee, Israel ?" &c. (Hos. xi. 8) He speaks against them, and then remembers them again. (Jer. xxxi. 18) 2. Lingeringly and gradually, and, as it were, 'cum animo revertendi,' if his people would hold fast and not let him go. So he did in the deportation of the ten tribes: first in the days of Pekah, he carried the land of Napthali away into Assyria; (2 Kings xv. 29) and after, in the days of Hosea, upon violation of the conditions of service and tri

bute to the Assyrians, he carried the rest away, and removed them out of his sight. (2 Kings xvii. 6, 18) 3. Not till he have marked his own select people in the forehead, and have provided a Zoar, a Pella, some hiding-place and chambers of refuge for them; (Ezek. ix. 4. Isa. xxvi. 20. 2 Chron. xxx. 11) or at least fitted them for the external pressure of such a judgement, and comforted them with the promises belonging unto the remnant according unto the election of grace; of which we find many in this our prophet. For either "the meek of the earth shall be hid" in the day of the Lord's anger; (Zeph. ii. 3) or, though involved in the outward judgement, yet it "shall go well with them." (Isa. iii. 10)

Now from all this we learn, 1. To bless God for the glorious benefit of his presence yet amongst us now for above a hundred years; for the possession of his oracles, the ministry of his word, the seals of his covenant, the liberty of his ordinances, the mysteries of the gospel, and unsearchable riches of Christ set forth before us continually; which things the angels look into, which kings, and prophets, and righteous men have desired to see, and have not seen them. This is so great a mercy, that the scripture calls it by the name of 'Salvation' itself. (John iv. 22. Acts xxviii. 28. Heb. ii. 3)

2. To walk worthy of this glorious mercy, to adorn the doctrine of the gospel by lives answerable unto it; as those that have avouched the Lord for their God, and Christ for their King. (Phil. i. 27. Tit. ii. 10, 14) It was a pious and devout meditation of Picus Mirandula, who professed himself amazed at the studies, or rather frenzies of men, both to be wondered at and lamented: for if it be a great madness for men not to believe the gospel, the truth whereof hath been confirmed by the witness of apostles, the blood of martyrs, the power of miracles, the attestation of elements, the confession of devils;-it is certainly a greater madness, "Si de evangelii veritate non dubites, vivere tamen quasi de ejus falsitate non dubitares;" to profess to believe the torments of hell, and the joys of heaven; and yet so to live, as if we feared nothing less than hell, or desired nothing less than

9 Joan. Picus Mirandula, Ep. 1. ad Franciscum Nepotem, operum to. 2. p. 342.