GOD'S WITHDRAWING HIS PRESENCE, THE
CORRECTION OF HIS CHURCH.

O Lord, why hast thou made us to err from thy ways, and hardened our hearts from thy fear? Return for thy servants' sake, the tribes of thine inheritance.-Isa. Ixiii. 17.

THESE are words that carry a great deal of dread in them: tremendous words, methinks, as any in the book of God. And according as our concernment shall be found in them, they require very sad thoughts of heart. It is come now to the last, this is the last cast; if we miss in pursuing this great inquiry, we are undone for ever: O Lord, why hast thou caused us to err from thy ways? Why hast thou hardened our hearts from thy fear;' God is in this matter whereof we have been complaining.

It is the true church of God that speaks these words. This is plain in the acting of faith as to the great interest and privilege of adoption, in the verse foregoing, where they say, 'Doubtless thou art our Father:' however things are with us, doubtless thou art our Father.' When all other evidences fail, faith will secretly maintain the soul with a persuasion of its relation unto God; as you see by the church in this place. They were 'all as an unclean thing,' and their ' holiness all faded away as a leaf;' Isa. lxiv. 6. And yet faith maintains a sense of a relation to God; and therefore they cry, Doubtless thou art our Father, though Abraham be ignorant of us, and Israel acknowledge us not: O Lord, thou art our Father, our Redeemer; thy name is from everlasting. And I am persuaded some of you have found it so, that faith hath maintained an interest in a relation to God, when all particular evidences have failed. So it is in

This sermon was preached ona solemn day of fasting and prayer, March 21, 1675. For which occasion the Doctor had prepared another discourse, but by a special reason which then occurred, had his thoughts directed to this subject.

our head, Jesus Christ, when he cried, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?' When all particular evidences fail, he can still say, My God, my God.' So is it here with this miserable and distressed church and people of God; all is lost and gone, and yet faith cries, 'Doubtless thou art our Father.' And if in the matters of this day, God would help us to maintain, and not let go our interest in him as our Father by faith, we should have a bottom and foundation to stand upon. If it be so with us as hath been confessed to God, and I fear it is worse, we shall be at a loss for our particular evidences, at one time or other; but yet it will be a great advantage when faith can maintain its station, and we be enabled to say, 'Though Abraham be ignorant of us, and Israel will not own us,' such vile creatures; and though our righteousnesses are as filthy rags,' and our holiness fadeth away as a leaf,' and our adversaries have trodden upon us, ' yet doubtless thou art our Father.' The Lord help us to say thus when we depart, and we shall yet have a foundation of hope.

I would observe here the condition of the church at that time. It was a state of affliction and oppression; of oppression on the one hand, and of deep conviction of sin on the other. It is well when they go together.

First, It was a time of distress and oppression; as is declared, ver. 18. Our adversaries have trodden down thy sanctuary.' The adversary had grievously oppressed them: but that which the church was most concerned in, was, that they had trodden down the sanctuary, disturbed the holy assemblies, and broken up the worship of God. And it is well, brethren, if under all oppression and distresses that may befall us, we do really find our principal concern is for the treading down God's sanctuary. Whatever else lay upon them, this was that they complained of; 'Our adversaries have trodden down thy sanctuary.'

Secondly, It was also a time of deep conviction of sin with them. As the prayer is continued unto the end of the next chapter, you may see what a deep conviction of sin was fallen upon them, in ver. 6, 7. Behold we are all as an unclean thing, all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags, we all do fade as a leaf, and our iniquities like the wind have taken us away. And there is none that calleth upon thy name,

that stirreth up himself to take hold on thee: thou hast hid thy face from us, and melted us down because of our iniquities.'

Well then, suppose it be a state of great oppression, and a state of great conviction of sin: what is the course that we should take? We may turn ourselves this way and that way; but the church, you see, is come to this, to issue all in an inquiry after, and a sense of God's displeasure, manifesting itself by spiritual judgments. And this, in truth, brethren, if I understand any thing of the state and condition, of my own soul, and yours, and of the generality of the churches of God in the world, is that which we are in particular called to, and where we are to issue all this business: namely, to inquire into God's displeasure, and the reason of it, manifesting itself in spiritual judgments. thou caused us to err from thy ways? hardened our hearts from thy fear?'

O Lord, why hast And why hast thou

It is but a little I shall speak to you at this time: God, I hope, will give us other seasons to pursue the same design; my present distemper, and other occasions, will not suffer me now to enlarge; however, I will lay a foundation (if God help me) by opening the words unto you.

I. What is it to err from the ways of God?

II. What is it to have our hearts hardened from the fear of God?

III. What ways are there, whereby God may cause us to err from his ways, and harden our hearts from his fear?

IV. What may be the reasons why the Lord should deal thus severely with a poor people, after they have walked with him, it may be, many years, that at length they should be brought to this complaint: Lord, why hast thou caused us to err from thy ways, and hardened our hearts from thy fear?' And then,

V. What is to be done for relief in this condition? What course is to be taken?

These are the things that should be first spoken to from the text; and then we should come to the last clause: Return for thy servants' sake,' &c. I shall proceed as far as I am able.

I. What is it to err from the ways of God?

The ways of God are either God's ways towards us, or

our ways towards him, that are of his appointment. God's ways towards us are the ways of his providence. Our ways towards God are the ways of obedience and holiness. We may err in both.

I think in that place of the Hebrews, They have always erred in heart, and have not known my ways,' God principally intends his ways towards them; they did not know the ways of his providential workings, how mightily he had wrought for them. But the ways that God hath appointed for us to walk in towards him, are these here intended. Now we may err from thence two ways: 1. In the inward principle; 2. In the outward order.

1. We may err in the inward principle. When the principle of spiritual life in our hearts decays, when we' fade as a leaf,' and wither, then is this our case.

2. We err as to outward order, when we fail in the performance of duty in our walking, and in the course of our obedience and holiness that God hath called us unto. These for the most part go together. But from the text, and the whole context, I judge the first here to be principally intended; a failing in the principle, in our hearts, and in a lively power of walking in the ways of God, and of living unto him. So that to err from the ways of God, is to have our hearts weakened, spiritually disenabled, often turned aside from the vigorous, effectual, powerful walking with God, which we are called unto.

II. What is it to have our hearts hardened from the fear of God?

There is a twofold hardening from God's fear: 1. There is a total hardening; and, 2. A partial hardening.

1. There is a total hardening, like that mentioned, Isa. vi. 10. Make the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and convert, and be healed.' This was a total hardening that came upon the Jews when they rejected Christ. That is not the hardening here intended: those that are given up to a total hardness will not thus humble themselves before God, nor plead with God. Blessed be God that he hath not given us up to a total hardening, that we should utterly and wickedly depart from his ways.

2. There is a partial hardening, mentioned by the apostle, Heb. iii. 13. Take heed, 'lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin;' lest there come a hardness upon you that may be to your disadvantage. And it is this partial hardening that is here intended: and wherein it consists, I shall speak a little afterward. It is this partial hardening that is intended in the text: 'Thou hast hardened our hearts from thy fear.'

III. How is God said to cause us to err from his ways, and to harden our hearts from his fear?

God is said to do it these several ways:

1. God is said to do that (and it is not an uncommon form of speech in Scripture) whose contrary he doth not do, when it might be expected, as it were, from him. If there be a prophet that doth prophesy so and so, I the Lord have deceived that prophet,' Ezek. xiv. 9. that is, I have not kept him from being deceived, but suffered him to follow the imaginations of his own heart, whereby he should be deceived. God may be said to cause us to err from his ways, and to harden our hearts from his fear merely negatively, in that he hath not kept us up to his ways, nor kept our hearts humble and soft in them.

Again, God hardens men judicially, in a way of punishment. This is a total hardening, of which we spoke before. And there are these acts of it, which I think are as evident in the times wherein we live, as the judgments of God have been in the plague, or burning of the city, inundations, or any thing else. Spiritual judgments of God in hardening the hearts of men judicially and penally to their destruction, are as visible to every considering person, as any of God's

outward judgments whatsoever. This will appear if we

consider the following things wherein it consists.

(1.) The first thing God doth, when he hardens men's hearts penally, is to give them up to their own lusts. It is directly expressed, Rom. i. 24. 'Wherefore God gave them up to their hearts' lusts.' When God leaves men, and gives them up to pursue their own lusts with delight and greediness, then he is hardening them. And this is a visible judgment of God at this day: he takes off shame, fear, all restraint and disadvantages, and gives men up to their hearts' lusts.

(2.) The second thing is, that God in penal hardening,