Objection 8: God Hath Deserted Me and Hid His Face from Me

Object. 8. “Oh! but God hath deserted me; he hath forsaken me; and he that should comfort my soul stands afar off; how can I be silent? The Lord hath hid his face from me;

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clouds are gathered about me; God hath turned

his back upon me; how can I hold my peace?”

Supposing that the desertion is real, and not

in appearance only, as sometimes it falls out,

1 answer,

1. It hath been the common lot, portion, and condition, of the choicest saints in this world, to be deserted and forsaken of God, Ps. xxx. 6, 7 y lxxvii. and lxxxviii.; Job xxiii. 8, 9; Cant. hi. 1 — 3; v. 6, 7; Isa. viii. 17; Micah vii. 7 — >9. If God deals no worse with thee than he has dealt with his bosom friends, with his choicest jewels, thou hast no reason to complain. But,

2. God’s forsaking of thee is only partial, it is not total. God may forsake his people in part, but he never wholly forsakes them; he may forsake them in respect of his quickening, and of his comforting presence but he never forsakes them in respect of his supporting presence. “My grace is sufficient for thee, for my strength is made perfect in weakness,”

2 Cor. xii. 9. “The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord, and he delighteth in his way* Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down, for the Lord upholdeth him with his hand,” Ps. xxxvii. 23, 24. God’s supporting hand of grace is still under his people, as the nurse upholds the little child. “My soul foltoweth hard after thee: thy right hand upholdeth me,” Psa. lxiii* 8. Christ has always one hand to uphold his people, and another hand to embrace them, Cant. ii. 6. The everlasting arms of God are always underneath his people, Deut. xxxiii. 27. And this the saints have always found; witness David, Heman, Asaph, Job, &c. Though the children of God are sometimes under clouds of afflictions, yet the Sun of mercy, the Sun of righteousness, is never quite out of sight. But,

3. Though God hath forsaken thee, yet his love abides and continues constant to thee. He loves thee with an everlasting love, Jer. xxxi. 3. Where he loves, he loves to the end, John xiii. 1. “But Zion said, The Lord hath forsaken me, and my Lord hath forgotten me,” Isa. xlix. 14 — 16. But was not Zion mistaken? Yes. “Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? yea, they may forget, yet will not I forget thee. Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands, thy walls are continually before me.” As persons engrave the mark, name, or picture, of those whom they dearly love upon some stone that they wear at their breasts, or upon some ring that they wear on their finger; so hath God engraven Zion upon the palms of his hands; she was still in his eye, and always dear to his heart, though she thought not so. As Joseph’s heart was full of love to his brethren, even then when he spake roughly to them, and withdrew himself from them, (for he was fain to go aside, and ease his heart by weeping,) so the heart of God is full of love to his people, even then when he seems to be most displeased with them, and to turn his back upon them. Though God’s dispensations may be changeable towards his people, yet his gracious disposition is unchangeable towards them. When God puts the blackest veil of all upon his face, yet then his heart is full of love to his people, then his bowels are yearning towards them. “Is Ephraim my dear son? is he a pleasant child? for since I spake against him, I do earnestly remember him still: therefore my bowels are troubled for him; I will surely have mercy upon him, saith the Lord,” Jer. xxxi. 20. The mother’s bowels cannot more yearn after the tender babe, than God’s do after his distressed ones. As Moses’ mother, when she had put him into the ark of bulrushes, Exod. ii., wept to see the babe weep, and, when she, was turned from him, she could not but cast a weeping eye of love towards him; so, when God turns aside from his people, yet he cannot but cast an eye of love towards them. “How shall I give thee up, O Ephraim?” &c. Hos. xi. 8. Here are four several “hows” in the text, the like not to be found in the whole book of God. I am even at a stand; justice calls for vengeance, but mercy interposes; my bowels yearn, my heart melts; oh! how shall I give thee up? Oh! I cannot give thee up, I will not give thee up. God’s love is always like himself, unchangeable; his love is everlasting; it is a love that never decays, nor waxes cold.

4. Though the Lord hath hid his face from thee, yet certainly thou hast his secret presence with thee, Ps. xxiii. 4; cxxxix. God is present when he is seemingly absent: “The Lord was in this place, and I knew it not,” saith Jacob, Gen. xxviii. 16. The sun many times shines when we do not see it, and the husband is many times in the house when the wife does not know it. God is in thy house, he is in thy heart, though thou seest him not, though thou feelest him not, though thou hearest him not. “I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee,” Heb. xiii. 5; or, as it may be rendered according to the Greek, u I will not, not leave thee, neither will I not, not forsake thee.” Art thou not now drawn out to prize God, and Christ, and his love above all the world? Yes. Art thou not now drawn out to give the Lord many a secret visit, in a corner behind the door, in some dark hole, where none can see thee, nor hear thee, but the Lord? Yes. Are there not strong breathings, pantings, and longings after a clearer vision of God, and after a fuller fruition of God? Yes. Art thou not more affected with the drawings of Christ, than thou art with the greatest afflictions that ever befel thee? Yes. Austin, upon that answer of God to Moses, u Thou canst not see my face and live,” Exod. xxxiii. 20, makes this quick and sweet reply, u Then, Lord, let me die, that I may see thy face.” Dost thou not often tell God, that there is no punishment like the punishment of loss, and no hell like that of being forsaken of God? Yes. Dost thou not find a secret power in thy soul, drawing thee forth to struggle with God, to lay hold on God, and patiently to wait on God, till he shall return unto thee, and lift up the light of his countenance upon thee? Yes. Well, then, thou mayest be confident, that thou hast a secret and blessed presence of God with thee, though God, in regard of his comforting presence, may be departed from thee; nothing below a secret presence of God with a man’s spirit, will keep him waiting and working till the Sun of righteousness shines upon him. If any vain persons should put that deriding question to thee, Where is thy God? thou mayest safely and boldly answer them, My God is here, he is nigh me, he is round about me, yea, he is in the midst of me: “The Lord thy God in the midst of thee is mighty; he will save, he will rejoice over thee with joy; he will rest in his love; he will joy over thee with singing,” Zeph. iii. 17. The bush, which was a type of the church, consumed not all the while it burned with fire, because God was in the midst of it. It is no argument, that Christ is not in the ship, because tempests and storms arise.

5. Though God be gone, yet he will return again; though your sun be now set in a cloud, yet it will rise again; though sorrow may abide for a night, yet joy comes in the morning. A christian’s mourning shall last but till morning: “He will turn again, he will have compassion upon us,” Micah vii. 19. u It was but a little that I passed from them, but I found him whom my soul loveth: I held him, and would not let him go,” &c. Cant. iii. 4. “In the multitude of my thoughts within me, thy comforts delight my soul,” Psa. xciv. 19. “For a small moment have I forsaken thee, but with great mercies will I gather thee. In a little wrath I hid my face from thee for a moment; but with everlasting kindness will I have mercy on thee, saith the Lord thy Redeemer. For the mountains shall depart, and the hills be removed, but my kindness shall not depart from thee; neither shall the covenant of my peace be removed, saitH the Lord, that hath mercy on thee,” Isa. liv. 7, 8. 10. God will not suffer his whole displeasure to rise against his people, neither will he forsake them totally or finally: the saints shall taste but some sips of the cup of God’s wrath, sinners shall drink the dregs; their storm shall end in a calm, and their winter night shall be turned into a summer’s day. There was a woman, who was thirteen years under desertion, which was so vehement, that, for the most part of her time, she was fain to keep her bed through weakness; a godly minister, who was affected with her condition, went to comfort her, and to pray with her; but when he came and offered to do it, she shrieked out, utterly refusing, and forbidding him to pray with her; for, said she, I have too many abused mercies to answer for already; yet he would not be put off, but prayed by her, and so prevailed with God on her behalf, that the next morning she was delivered from all her fears, and had such exceeding joy, that the like has “rarely been heard of; the Lord, that had been long withdrawn from her, returned at length in a way of singular mercy to her. -There was another precious woman, who was several years deserted, and hearing a godly minister preach, she of a sudden fell down, overwhelmed wTith joy, crying out, Oh! he is come whom my soul loveth! and for divers days after, she was filled with such exceeding joys, and had such gracious and singular ravishing expressions so fluently coming from her, that many came to hear the rare manifestations of God’s grace in her; the lowest of her pious expressions did exceed the highest that ever the minister had read in the book of martyrs. But,

6. God’s deserting, God’s forsaking his people, shall many ways work for their good.

God, by withdrawing from his people, will prepare and fit them for greater refreshings, manifestations, and consolations. “God hath forsaken him; persecute and take him, for there is none to deliver him.” But shall this forlorn condition work for his good? Yes: “Thou which hast showed me great and sore troubles, shalt quicken me again, and shalt bring me up again from the depths of the earth. Thou shalt increase my greatness, and comfort me on every side,” Psa. lxxi. 11. 20, 21. When Joseph’s brethren were in their greatest distress, then Joseph makes known himself most fully to them; so doth Christ, our spiritual Joseph, to his people. Hudson the martyr, deserted at the stake, went from under his chain, and having prayed earnestly, was comforted immediately, and suffered valiantly.

By God’s withdrawing from his people, he prevents his people’s withdrawing from him; and so by an affliction he prevents sin; for God to withdraw from me, is but my affliction; but for me to withdraw from God, that is my sin; and therefore it were better for me that God should withdraw a thousand times from me, than that I should once withdraw from God, Heb. x. 38, 39. ‘God therefore- forsakes us, that we may not forsake our God; God sometimes hides himself, that we may cleave the closer to him, and hang the faster upon him. As the mother hides herself from the child for a time, that the child may cleave the closer, and hang the faster npcn her all the day long, God sometimes hid himself from David, iL Thou didst hide thy face, and I was troubled,” Ps. xxx. 7. I was all but dead: well, and is that all? No; “I cried to thee, O Lord; and unto the Lord I made my supplication,” ver. 8. Now he cries, louder, and cleaves closer to God than ever. So in Ps. lxiii. 1,2, “O God, thou art my God; early will I seek thee: my soul thirsteth for thee, my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land, where no water is; to see thy power and thy glory, so as I have seen thee in the sanctuary.” Well, and how do these withdrawing of God work? Why this you may see; “My soul followeth hard after thee;” or, as the Hebrew reads it, “My soul cleaveth after thee,” ver. 8. As the husband cleaves to his wife, so doth my soul cleave to the Lord, Gen. ii. 24.

The Lord, by withdrawing from his people, will enhance and raise the price, and commend the worth, excellency, and sweetness, and usefulness of several precious promises, which otherwise would be but as dry breasts, and as useless weapons to the soul. As that, Micah vii. 19, “He will turn again, be will have compassion upon us,” &c.; and that, Isa. liv. 7, 8, and that, Heb. xiii. 5, 6, and that, Hab. ii. 3, and that, Ps. v. 12, “For thou, Lord, wilt bless the righteous; with favor wilt thou compass him” (or crown him) u as with a shield;” the Lord will compass the righteous about with his favor, as the crown compasses about the head, as the Hebrew imports; and that, Ps. cxii. 4, “Unto the upright there ariseth light in darkness; he is gracious, and full of compassion, and righteous;” and that, Jer. xxxi. 37, “Thus saith the Lord, If heaven above can be measured, and the foundations of the earth searched out beneath, I will also cast off all the seed of Israel, for all that they have done, saith the Lord.” As sure as heaven cannot be measured, nor the foundations of the earth searched by the skill or power of any mortal man; so sure and certain it is that God will not utterly cast off his people, no, not for all the evil that they have done. Now, at what a rate doth a deserted soul value these precious promises! Well, saith he, these promises are sweeter than the honey, or the honey-comb; they are more precious than gold, than fine gold, than much gold, than all the gold in the world; I prefer them before my food, before my delightful food; yea, before my necessary food, before my appointed portion, Job xxiii. 12. Deserted souls will lay up these precious promises in the cabinet of their hearts, as the choicest treasure the world affords. Deserted souls love the music of the promises; that promise,

1 Tim. i. 15, was music to Bilney the martyr; and that promise, John x. 29, was music to Urfine; and that promise, Isa. lvii. 15, was music to another; and that promise, Isa. xxxi. 3, was music to another; and that to another, Matt. xi. 28, &c. Promises that are suited to a deserted man’s condition, make the sweetest music in his ear, and are his most sovereign cordials to bear up the spirits, that God can give, or heaven afford, or the soul desire: u He made him to ride on the high places of the earth, that he might eat the fruits of the field; and he made him to suck honey out of the rock, and oil out of the flinty rock,” Deut. xxxii. 13. Ah! the honey, the oil that deserted souls suck out of such promises that speak home and close to their conditions!

By God’s hiding his face, and withdrawing himself from thee, thou wilt be enabled more feelingly, and more experimentally, to sympathize with others, and to have compassion on others that are, or may be in the dark, and forsaken of God, as now thou art:, “Remember them that are in bonds, as bound with them; and them which suffer adversity, as being yourselves also in the body,” Heb. xiii. 3. In the natural body, if one member grieve, an-d is in pain, all suffer with it; when a thorn is got into the foot, how doth the back bow, and the eyes pry, and the hands go to pluck the thorn out! None so compassionate towards deserted souls, as those who have been deserted and forsaken of God themselves. Oh! they know what an evil and a bitter thing it is to be left and forsaken of God, and therefore their bowels of compassion run out much, yea, most to such; they know that there is no affliction, no misery, no hell, to that of being forsaken of God.

But, alas! what is it to be forsaken of the world, to a man’s being forsaken of God? Were there as many worlds as there are men in the world, a man had better be forsaken by them all, than be forsaken of God. There is a great truth in that saying of Chrysostom, That the torments of a thousand hells, if there were so many, come far short of this one; namely, to be turned out of God’s presence, with, u I know you not,” Matt. vii. 23. How sadly was Eli and his daughter affected with the loss of the ark, which was but a token of God’s presence! But, oh! how much more is a christian affected and afflicted with the loss of the face and favor of God! The remembrance of which makes his heart to melt, and his bowels to yearn towards those whose sun is set in a cloud.

Hereby the Lord will teach his people to set a higher value upon his face and favor when they come to enjoy it. “It was but a little that I passed from them, but I found him whom my soul loveth: I held him, and I would not let him go,” &c. Cant. iii. 4. No man sets

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go high a value upon Christ, as he that hath lost him, and found him again. Jesus is the rising Sun, Mai. iv. 2, especially to souls that have been long clouded. Oh! how highly does he prize and value the Sun of righteousness, his returning to him, and shining upon him! “Thy loving-kindness is better than life,” or, better than lives, as the Hebrew has it, Ps. lxiii. 3. Divine favor is better than life with all its revenues, with all its appurtenances, as honors, riches, pleasures, applause, &c. Yea, it is better than many lives put together. Now, you know at what a high rate men value their lives; they will bleed, part with an estate, yea, with a limb, yea, limbs, to preserve their lives; as one cried out, Give me any deformity, any torment, any misery, so you spare my life. Now, though life be so dear and precious to a man, yet a deserted soul prizes the returnings of Divine favor upon him above life, yea, above many lives. Many men have been weary of their lives, as is evident in scripture and history; but no man was ever yet found, that was weary of the love and favor of God; no man sets so high a value upon the sun, as he that hath lain long in a dark dungeon. But,

Hereby the Lord will train up his servants

in that precious life of faith, which is the most

honorable, and the most happy life in all the

world* “For we walk by faith, and not by sight,” 2 Cor. v. 7. The life of sense, the life of reason, is a low life, a mean life; the life of faith is a noble life, a blessed life.

It is the greatest happiness in this world to live much in the exercise of faith; no man lives so free, so holy, so heavenly, so happy a life, as he that lives a life of faith. By Divine withdrawings, the soul is put upon the highest and the purest acts of faith, to cleave to God, to hang upon God; and to carry it sweetly and obediently towards God, though he frowns, though he chides, though he strikes, yea, though he kills, Job xiii. 15. Those are the most excellent and heroic acts of faith that are most abstracted from sense and reason, he that suffers his reason to usurp over his faith, will never be an excellent christian; he that goes to school to his own reason, hath a fool to his schoolmaster and he that suffers his faith to be overruled by his reason, shall never want woe. Where reason is strongest, faith usually is weakest; but now the Lord, by forsaking his people for a time, makes them skilful in the life of faith, which is the choicest and the sweetest life in this world.

7. By Divine withdrawings you are made more conformable to Christ your Head and Husband, who was under spiritual desertion as well as you. “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” Matt, xxvii. 46. There is a hidden emphasis in the Hebrew word. El signifies a strong God; Eli, Eli, my strong God, my strong God. The unity of Christ’s person was never dissolved, nor were his graces ever diminished, in the midst of this terrible storm. His faith fortified and strengthened itself upon the strength of God. “My God, my God!” yet in respect of Divine protection, and Divine solace, he was for a time forsaken of his Father. And if this be thy case, thou art herein but made conformable to thy Lord and Master; nay, thou dost but sip of that bitter cup of which Christ drank deep; thy cloud is no cloud to that which Christ was under.

Lastly, By these transient and partial forsakings, the Lord will exceedingly sweeten the clear, full, constant, and uninterrupted enjoyment of himself in heaven to all his people, Ps. lxxi. 20, 21. Onesimus departed from Philemon for a season, that he might receive him for ever, Philem. 15. So the Lord departs from his people for a time, that they may receive him for ever; he hides himself for a season, that his constant presence amongst his children in glory may be the more sweet and delightful to them.