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SERMON X.

AND HE SAID UNTO HIM, IF THY PRESENCE GO NOT WITH ME, CARRY US NOT UP HENCE.-EXOD. xxxiii. 15.

THUS did Moses signify his distress for himself, and his people, when God threatened to withdraw his presence from them in the wilderness. The prophet knew it was impossible for them to go through the dangers and difficulties of their passage to Canaan, unless the God who had brought them out of Egypt should still be with them to guide and protect them. No less hazardous is the situation of every Christian in this world, than theirs was in their way to Canaan. We are all upon a journey, as they were, to the promised rest; and we are beset with such difficulties, dangers and temptations, that there can be no hope of arriving at it in safety, unless God shall conduct and defend us in our progress. So that we may each of us take up the words of Moses, and say, if thy presence go not with me, carry me not up hence. Miserable is the condition of those, who either do not know how necessary the presence of God is to every man, or who have neither assurance nor sense of its effects towards their preservation.

I shall therefore shew you, in discoursing on the words I have chosen, that his presence always has been with his church, and that it extends to every individual.

That the presence of God was with the church of the Hebrews, must be plain to every one who reads their history and while to us this presence is an object of faith, to them it was visible, in the cloud and the pillar of fire which attended their camp, and the glory which was seen on Mount Sinai. But the presence of God was as manifest by its effects. He divided the sea for them; he confounded the host of Egypt which pursued them; he furnished them with water from the rock, and bread from heaven; he healed them when they were bitten with serpents; their clothes did not wear out, nor their shoes wax old upon their feet; their enemies were terrified and driven out before them; vengeance was executed upon those who tempted and seduced them; and when they were about to be settled in the promised land, all the wonders God had wrought were set before them, as inducements to gratitude, and obligations to obedience.

If we look to the history of the Christian church: that also was propagated in a wonderful manner, by the power of its preachers, and the fortitude of its martyrs: whom God invested with such wisdom as overpowered the disputers of this world, and prevailed against the kingdoms of the earth; which were at length converted from the power of Satan unto God. The universal monarchy established in the Roman Empire was really aiding and assisting toward the spreading of the Gospel, while it seemed to persecute and resist it; and at last the Christian religion was received as the religion of the empire.

We are apt to admire the works of God when he interposes for the deliverance and preservation of his people; but his providence is equally to be admired,

in the corrections and punishments which he sends upon them for their disobedience. For why does God choose any people, but to make them wise and holy, and lead them to eternal happiness by the ways of truth and righteousness? If they forget their profession, and disgrace it by their manners, they are corrected in mercy, for the preservation of God's truth, and the reformation of the society, which he has separated from the world. In the 105th psalm the prophet celebrates the mercies of God, in redeeming the people from Egypt, and feeding them in the wilderness; but in the 106th psalm, the same mercy is farther celebrated for the mighty acts of his judgments in visiting them for their sins: how he sent leanness into their soul for their lusting after the food of Egypt; how he destroyed Dathan and Abiram, and sent a fire and a pestilence upon the murmuring congregation: how he overthrew them in the wilderness for their idolatry in worshipping the golden calf, and their unbelief in not receiving the good report which was brought of the land of Canaan; how he sent a plague upon those who had joined themselves unto Baal Peor, and after their settlement in Canaan, when they defiled themselves with the works of idolatry, he gave them into the hands of the heathen, and they that hated them were lords over them then their enemies oppressed them, and they were brought into subjection under their hand. These are the works of God's Providence toward his church; he delivers it from the power of the world; he punishes it for disobedience, and humbles it to effect its reformation.

If we were to examine the history of the several nations of Christendom, since they were taken into

the church; we should find, that his providence has acted by the same rules, for the preservation of his truth and the reformation of his people.

But now I mean to prove that his providence extends to particular persons, as well as to nations and the church at large: for every person is a church and nation to himself, and no concerns can be so near to him as his own; therefore it would be of small profit to him to hear that God's presence attends the church; unless it can also be shewn, that it extends to single persons. And this it certainly does, and must from the reason of the thing: for why doth God's presence attend the church, but for the benefit of the individuals of which it consists?

His care is upon the whole for the sake of the parts; and the salvation of single men is the object of all his mighty works and of all the means of grace: he willeth not the death of any one sinner, but is desirous that all should return and be saved: therefore his attention is as truly upon individuals as upon societies. And the same rules are observed in both cases. In regard to churches and nations, Providence acts for deliverance or punishment as occasion requires; with regard to single people, the measure of God's interposition is according to the state of a man's soul. When a man is mindful of him, and careful of his duty, he gives a blessing to his affairs and undertakings. When success begets confidence and too much reliance upon this world, some loss or disappointment is sent upon him to rectify his mistake; when he falls into wilful sin, some sorrow or sickness brings him to self-examination, and he finds the cause of his visitation. When our Lord said to the man whom he had raised from the palsy, Go and sin no more lest a worse thing come unto thee; all these

inferences may be drawn from that short admonition: first, that his sickness was a visitation for his sin: it did not happen by chance: secondly, that he knew what sin in particular was the cause of his suffering; because he could not otherwise have profited by the admonition; for it is not to be supposed, that our Saviour, when he said, sin no more, meant, that he should be perfect and without sin; it being impossible for man in this life to attain to a sinless state : thirdly, it was implied, that he should pray for the grace of God; without which, though a man knows his sin, he will not be able to forsake it: fourthly, that if the afflictions sent upon a sinner do not reform him, something worse is to be expected; whence it is reasonable to think, no man ever was consigned to extreme punishment or total ruin, till he had slighted the lesser warnings of Providence. In some cases, the goodness of God operates in a striking manner, by delivering us from some sudden and imminent danger, to remind us of our continual dependance upon him. him. We look back with terror for a while, and wonder how it was possible for us to escape with life under such circumstances; but when we have rightly considered the thing, we see the hand of God, and feel the obligation we are under, of dedicating to his service the life which he has preserved to us.

All these things worketh God oftentimes with men ; and he is now working the same with many every day. As his presence was with the Israelites in the wilderness, and his power acted for their preservation and correction, so it is now with us. Not a single circumstance befel them, which, at some stage of our journey through life, does not happen to us. He gives us meat and drink; though not from a rock.

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