Balm from Gilead, Sermon 9
10. August. 7. day.
ANd seeke my face: God (in propriety of speech) hath no face, as no hands nor body; The Scripture vseth this maner of speach condescending to our infirmitie, signifying somewhat vntounto vsus in our owne language: Face (as it is giuen to God) signifieth variously; sometimes his presence, sometimes his power, sometimes his indignation and anger, which the face is a notable bewrayer of: whence Dauid, Hide thy face from my sinnes, Psalm. 51. And that of the Lord, I will set my face against them for euill, and not for good: some times it is taken for Gods fauour and grace; So prayer for fauour is an intreaty of the face of God, 1 Sa. 13.12. Intreat the face of the Lord for me, saith Jeroboam to the man of God: and so the man of God is said, to intreate the face of the Lord, &c. 1 King. 13.6. So in that prayer, Numb. 6.25. The Lord make his face to shine vponupon thee, and be gracious vntounto thee, the latter part explaneth the former: Whence Dauid, Lord lift thou vp the light of thy countenance vponupon me. Psalm. 4. Euen as when a man is angry, or displeased, hee will not looke on him with whom he is displeased, hee hideth his face, or looketh in an angry and frowning mauner, bending the brow, &c. So on the contrary, if a man be pleased he will looke vponupon a man, and that graciously hee will smile; his contenance will witnesse, that his inward complacencie outwardly: and in this latter sense it is to be taken in this place; the iniunction is to seeke Gods fauour or fauourable presence and aspect for the good they stand in need of. So that our Proposition is, Doct. That for the cure of the Land of the Pestilence our duety is diligently to seeke Gods fauour.
1 This we see is Gods prescript for the plague. Reason 1 We must seeke and seeke Gods face; according to which the precept runneth in other places (which may be our first reason) Seek ye the Lord & his strength, 1 Chron, 16.11. Psal. 25.seeke yee his face continually. Thou hast said, seeke yee my face: Thou had commanded mee to seeke thy face and fauour.
2 Reason 2 Hence shall we finde this the practise of Gods people in such cases. Hide not thy face from me, Psal. 31.16.for I am introuble: Make thy face to shine vponupon thy seruant. Lord lift thou vp the light of thy countenance vponupon me, Psal. 4. And therefore are they called, Psal. 24.the generation of them that seeke the face of the God of Iacob. Whose practise is written for our example.
3 Reason 3 There is no thing in vsus that can deserue this or any other benefit or fauour of the Lord, no strength, or wit, or art, or worth, it must bee from the Lord, and his fauour. We are not worthy: We are lesse then the least of all Gods mercies, as Iacob: therefore doth hee call all mercies. When as Daniel humbleth himselfe in prayer vntounto God, one of his passages is, Dan. 9.18.We doe not present our supplications before thee, for our righteousnesse but for thy great mercies: and therefore his prayer runneth, Cause thy face to shine vponupon thy Sanctuary which is desolate, Vers. 17.there being nothing in vsus to procure it, wee must seeke fauour.
4 Lastly, Reason 4 the face and fauour of the Lord is the Fountaine of all good: The speciall good a people in this case standeth in neede of, namely, Life. In thy fauour is life, saith the Psalmist. Life, and all the meanes of life, the giuing of life, preseruation of life, restoring of life: It is he that doth kill, and hee that doth make aliue, all out of fauor. It is his fauour, that causeth vsus to turne from our euill wayes: of his fauour that we hauehave will or deede to humble our selues, pray, and seek the Lord It is the grace of God (lapt vp in the Gospell through I sus Christ) which (appearing to Saluation) teacheth vsus (effectually and inwardly) to deny vngodlinesse and worldly lusts, and to liue a godly, righteous, and a sober life, Tit. 2.11. If God heare, it is fauour; If the Lord forgiue sinnes, it is fauour; If the Lord healeth the Land of the plagu, he dealeth fauourably with the Land; temporall life, and eternall life are in Gods fauour; Rom. 6.Eternall life is the gift of God: temporall and eternall saluation are by Gods fauour, By grace yee are saued, Ephes. 2.Good reason therefore that we should seek Gods fauour.
1 If wee must seeke Gods fauour for healing of the Land, and remoouall of the plague: then can we not deserue euen that at the hands of God: No, not those that are Gods people. Deserue the plague we doe, its remoouall wee cannot: Fauour and mercy are opposed and will not agree. Daniel in his prayer, in their desolation denieth his owne merits, his owne righteousnesse, and establisheth Gods great mercies. Which as it may helpe vsus forward in the first dutie, humbling of our selues: So it sheweth our inabilitie to merit greater matters, spirituall deliuerances from sinne, its guilt or punishment, spirituall blessing, as eternall life: he that cannot deserue the lesse, cannot descrue the greater: if temperall life be of fauour, eternall life: Which is shewed in this that the Lord prescribeth seeking, and that of his fauour, It is true the promise is made to humbling our selues, prayer, &c. righteousnesse, as the qualitie and disposition of the person to whom it is made, not as merit. Against those merit-mongers, children of pride, who tell of merrit of eternall life, who pleade condignity, and otherwise tax God of iniustice, not in regard of his couenant and gracious promises, but it worth.
2 If seeking Gods fauour bee a meanes of healing the Land of the plague, then when as the Lord shall send the pestilence vponupon a Land, there the face and fauour of GOD may be said to be valed and hid. God may be said to withdraw his fauour: consequently Gods hand being in this iudgement, now vponupon our Cittie and Land, we may be said with all in a sort without Gods fauour: what a man seeketh for effects wanting, a man hath not in regard of the effects wanting, and in this sence I am sure our consequence is true. O therefore the miserie of our Land, of our Cittie this day, and the foulenesse of those sinnes which procure this iudgement, the plague, when as withall, the soule, the face, and fatherly countenance of our Lord. The euill we suffer, and smart vnderunder, the plague, a great euill; we see it in the effects, the present effects on eueryevery side shew it: besides in explicable euils at home, it maketh vsus a strife vntounto all our neighbours round about vsus: it depriueth vsus of the fauour of men: but whats all the rest to this, that we are depriued of the fauour of our God: When wee be depriued of Gods fauour, what wonder is it if wee bee depriued of the fauour of men: seeing God hideth his face, it must necessarily bee that we be sore troubled, Psal. 30. that we be a company, as those may, going downe vntounto the pit, Psalm 143.7. The ioy that ariseth from Gods fauour, is more then theirs, whose corne and wine, and oyle encreaseth: the losse of Gods fauor a greater cause of griefe, then the losse of corne, or wine, and oyle: in Gods fauour is life, without it death; the fauour of God is better then life it selfe, the losse of Gods fauour more bitter then death. A great punishment it is for a childe to bee put out of the fauour and presence of his Father, to hauehave a charge to see his face no more; or not to see his face, a gracelesse child, a childe that hath but affection of nature will thinke it so. When as Absolom (hauing slaine his brother Amnon) fled to Geshur, and had bin there three yeares; as a man banished from the face of his father, it could not bee but a great affliction. It was so in the iudgement of Ioah, but a spectator; who therefore out of pittie, deuised a way to bring home the banished: yea, when as Absalom was come home to Hierusalem, and yet confinde, commanded to turne to his owne home, and not to see Dauid his fathers face. It was a great trouble to Absolom, so great, that hee could not beare it any longer, and therefore (after two yeares being in Hierusalem in that manner:) hee sendeth for, and enforceth Joab to come and goe for him to the King, and his message sheweth his trouble. Say wherefore am I come from Geshur? Jt had beene good for mee to hauehave beene there still; 2 Sam. 14.24.32.Now therefore let mee see the Kings face, and if there be iniquity in me, let him kill me. He compareth it with banishment, and chuseth a triall, I, death it selfe rather: Is it such a misery to loose the face of a man, and is it not greater to loose the face of God? Is it so much to be without the fauour of an earthly father: and is not more to be without the fauourable countenance of our heauenly Father? will a childe, a naturall childe, an vnnaturall rebellious childe as was Absolom, grieue so much for the lesser, and shall not wee much more for the greater? What a cause hauehave wee then of this Cittie, of this Land, of griefe? how may wee crie out and complaine as the godly woman: Our glorie is departed, our glory is departed. Who can but trauell with paine, as that wife of Phinies. 1 Sam. 4.What was the paine she suffered, or cause of ioy for a childe borne, so long as the Arke of God is taken? shee will call that sonne Icabod; the glory is departed; thats her sorrow: and whats the plague and its desolation, that it taketh away husband or wife, or childe, or friend, that we enioy all these, and what euer else, so long as Gods face is gone. We may call all these Ieabod, and crie, our glory is departed: Wee must preferre this as our greatest griefe. O that wee know, and were sufficiently sensible of this losse, what an hatred would it breede in vsus of sinne, all sinnes, the sinnes which hauehave procured this plague? It would make a man abhorre Sabboth-breaking, swearing, cursing, drunkennesse, idolatry, adultery, &c.
It would appeare, who are the bane and burthen of the Land, the rotten and accursed members of a Cittie. The light and heate of fire in Winter wee cannot be without: they were enemies to the Commonweale, that did hinder the same: much more if a man could hide from a Land, the rayes and beames of the Sunne: what are you who withdraw the face, and shine of the countenance of God; when as you cause the plague? you cause the cause of the plague: the withdrawing of Gods face, you hinder the remedy and cure of the plague, Gods fauour and face: which is to bee sought for.
3 Let it moue vsus to seeke, and to seeke Gods face, and withall to take vp all other duties required of God, as ingredients in the seeking of Gods face. It is not eueryevery seeking, and so not eueryevery seeking of Gods fauour that will finde his face. I hauehave shewed the former already, and yet will not bee sorrie to goe ouer the same againe, seeing I finde them particularly applied by Gods spirit, to the duty in hand, seeking Gods face.
Generally the man that seeketh Gods face, must put away sinnes, specially such as cause the plague. One iudgement threatned for sin, is the hiding of Gods face. Deut. 32.20I will hide my face from them, I will surely hide my face in that day, Deut. 31.18for all the euils they hauehave wrought.
As the Lord saith, hee hath done: Your iniquities hauehave seperated between you and your God, Isa. 59.2.and your sinnes hauehave hid his face from you, that hee will not heare. Isa. 64.7. Ier. 33.5.Thou hast hid thy face from vsus, and consumed vsus, because of our iniquities. If this hiding Gods face be a fruit of sinne, we must not look to finde Gods face seeking in our sinnes.
It is a truth of eueryevery sinne liued in without repentance, I finde instance in idolatrie & adulterie, as the Lord doth threaten it, so the people shall say, Are not these euils come vponupon vsus, Deut. 31.17 18.because our God is not amongst vsus. Ier. 18.17.And so J will shew them the back and not the face in the day of their calamity: idolaters may not seeke. And so for the other sinne. Ezec. 39.24According to their vncleanenesse, and according to their transgressions, hauehave I done vntounto them, and hid my face from them. And you may obserue other particulars in that 59. of Isay: this is layde downe in my Text, there is no seeking to God with sinnes, except it be for the subduing of them, or else remission. As we must put away sinne, so wee must come with required qualities: Repentance is one, and that a generall one: that hath the promise of Gods face: The Lord your God is gracious, and mercifull, and will not turne away his face from you, if you returne vntounto him. When as man turneth his backe vponupon God by sinne, the Lord turneth his face from that man: when as man returneth againe to the Lord by amendment, the Lord returneth in regard of his face to him. 2 Chro. 30.9.Hee is gracious and mercifull, and will not turne away his face if yee returne. And therefore the Churches prayer is, (and it is three times itterated in that Psalme.) Psal 80.3.8. & vlt.) Turne vsus againe, and cause thy face to shine vponupon vsus. Implying that, a requisite quality. And if God answer not in that, we cannor expect Gods fauour in any consequent merciemercy.
A particular is prayer, such as we before spake of, that hath the promise. Hee shall pray vntounto the Lord, Iob 33.26.and he will be fauourable vntounto him, and he shall see his face with ioy. Psal. 22.24.He hath not hid his face from him, but when he cried vntounto him, he heard it. Yea, the prayer that findeth Gods fauour, must hauehave hunger and thirst manifested by trouble and complaint in its want, and for its attainement. Thou diddest hide thy face, Psal. …0.and J was sore troubled. It cannot but trouble a man to lacke such a treasure: Therefore Dauid, Psal. 13.1.How long wilt thou hide thy face from mee? Psal 44.24.Wherefore hidest thou thy face? hide not thy face from thy seruant, J am in trouble. Psal. 69.17.All these are the complaints of one mourning in his prayed, and as it were vexed. A wicked man valueth not Gods fauour, seeketh it not, or coldly: an vngracious childe lightly esteemeth the face of his father: there is nothing that can trouble a gracious childe of man, or God more then the missing of Gods fauour.
2 He that seeketh Gods fauour, must remember that he doth it with his heart: hee must seeke not onelyonly with desires, and so his voyce and cries: but withall these must issue and flowe from the heart. Psal. 27.Mine heart answered: Thy face Lord will I seeke, Psa. 119.58.Psal. 27. I entreated thy fauour with mine whole heart, O be mercifull vntounto me.
3 A man must seeke Gods face with feare, not that of seruants and slaues, but of sonnes mingled with the louelove of God. Did hee not feare the Lord, and besought the face of the Lord (the Prophet of Hezechiah) and so the Lord repented him of the euill that hee had pronounced against them: Ier. 26.19.The feare of the Lord is excellent, and must not be left out.
We must not forget the chiefest, Faith in Iesus Christ: Hee is the Sonne of Gods louelove, all acceptation is in the beloued. The voice from heauen must bee heard and obeyd, which sayeth, Math. 3.This is my welbeloued Sonne in whom J am well pleased.
Lastly, wee must be patient, and perseuere in seeking, Gods face is not by and by to be found. GOD will hauehave man to chew sin, to consider what an euill it is that hideth his face: hee will hauehave a due price put vponupon it which wee doe not so much in its enioyment as want: he will beget a greater purpose and care of keeping it, and therefore will be sought with patience. I will waite vponupon the Lord, which hideth his face from the house of Iacob, Isa. 8.17.and I will looke for him: and the precept is, Seeke his face continually.
Wee are this day assembled to seeke Gods fauour in the remoueall of the plague, and curing our Land, and withall a blessing for and vponupon our Nauy, (As Gods fauour is the cause of one, so it is the fountaine of the other. It was God (saith the Psalmist) that did driue out the Heathen, and plant. Israel in; they got not the Land in possession by their owne sword, neither did their owne arme saue them, but thy right hand and thine arme; and the light of thy countenance because thou hast a fauour vntounto them. As therefore Dauid did then, wee must now, Thou art my King (O God) command deliuerance for Iacob; Psal. 44.23.4, 5.thorow thee will wee push downe our enemies, and treade them vnderunder that rise vp against vsus, for I will not trust in my bowe.) Wee would willingly obtaine, we must seeke Gods fauour in this manner, and hereby may we iudge of successe. HaueHave we put away our sinnes which hide Gods face? do we seeke it with returning, with prayer, doe we mourne in our prayer, doth our hearts answere, thy face Lord will we seeke? doe we seeke with feare and faith, and are we resolued to perseuere? Then knowe that we hauehave the promise of hearing of forgiuenesse, and of healing the Land.
In a little wrath for a moment hauehave I hidd my face from thee. Isa. 54.….A little wrath, if wee regard our deserts, and that but for a moment. That may make thee patient. When Dauid hid his face from Absolom, Hee desired to see him, and to goe forth vntounto him. It is sayd, That the soule of King Dauid longed to goe foorth to Absolom. Surely wee may as safely say it with reuerence of the Lord: His soule longeth to goe forth vntounto his Church, to shew it his face: neither is his face altogether hid from vsus as appeareth this day.
But if it bee otherwise with vsus we hauehave not the graces, we come in our sinnes to seeke the Lord, how can wee looke to finde the Lords face? In that very respect away with sinnes, and returne, and let vsus all pray, to that ende Turne vsus (O Lord) and cause thy face to shine vponupon vsus.
Thus much for the third duty, and its obiect.