is seemingly absent. Gen. 28:16, "And Jacob said, Surely the
presence raises in the souls of the saints, when they are at worst! Holy joy and cheerfulness under great troubles and deep distresses, is an honor to God, a glory to Christ, and a credit to religion; it stops the mouths of sinners, and it encourages and strengthens weak saints; and therefore the Lord will be specially present with his people in their greatest troubles, etc., that they may grace their suffering condition with joy and cheerfulness. And let thus much suffice for the reasons of the point.
But before I come to the useful application, to prevent the objections, and to allay the fears and doubts and disputes that may arise in the hearts of weak Christians concerning this special presence of God, I shall briefly lay down these following PROPOSITIONS—
1. First, That Christ is many times really present, when he is seemingly absent. Gen. 28:16, "And Jacob said, Surely the Lord is in this place—and I knew it not." Choice Christians may have the presence of Christ really with them, when yet they may not be sensible of his presence, nor yet affected with it, Psalm 139. God is present everywhere—but especially with his saints; and not only then when they are apprehend him—but when they perceive no evidence of his presence. Being awakened, he perceived that God had very graciously and gloriously appeared to him; and therefore he falls admiring and extolling the singular goodness and the special kindness of God towards him: as if he had said, I thought that such strange and blessed apparitions were peculiar to the family of the faithful; I thought that God had only in this manner revealed himself in my father's house: I did not in the least think or imagine that such a divine revelation would happen to me in such a place; but now I find that that God, who is everywhere in respect of his general presence, he has, by the special testimonies of his presence, manifested himself to me also in this place.
Just so, Job, "Lo, he goes by me, and I see him not: he passes on also —but I perceive him not," [Consult these scriptures, Luke 24:32; John 20:13-15; Psalm 31:22; Cant. 3:1-5, and 5:6-8.] Job 9:11. Just so, Jonah, chapter 2:4, "Then I said, I am cast out of your sight; yet I will look again toward your holy temple." In times of sore afflictions God's children are very prone to have hard thoughts of God, and heavy thoughts of themselves. Unbelief raises fears, doubts, despondency, despair, and works a Christian many times, when he is under deep distresses, to draw very sad conclusions against his own soul, "I am cast out of your sight." But this was but an hour of temptation, and therefore he soon recollects and recovers himself again: "yet I will look again toward your holy temple." Here now faith has got the upper hand of unbelief. In the former part of the verse you have Jonah doubting and despairing, "I am cast out of your sight;" but in the latter part of the verse you have Jonah conquering and triumphing, "yet I will look again toward your holy temple."
When sense says a thing will never be, and when reason says such a thing can never be, faith gets above sense and reason, and says, "yes —but it shall be!" What do you tell me of a roaring, raging sea, of the belly of hell, of the weeds about my head, of the billows and waves passing over my head; for yet as low as I am, and as forlorn as I am, "I will yet look towards God's holy temple," I will eye God in the covenant of grace; though I am in the sea, though I am in the belly of hell—yet by faith "I will look toward your holy temple,"—toward which they were to pray, 1 Kings 8—and triumph over all those difficulties which formerly I looked upon as insuperable; I will pray and look, and look and pray; all which does clearly evidence a singular presence of God with him, even then when he peremptorily concludes that he was cast out of God's presence, out of his sight, out of his favor, out of his care, out of his heart.
The Lord is many times really present with his people when he is not sensibly present with his people: Judges 6:12,13 "When the angel of the Lord appeared to Gideon, he said—"The Lord is with you, mighty warrior." "But sir," Gideon replied, "if the Lord is with us, why has all this happened to us? Where are all his wonders that our fathers told us about when they said, 'Did not the Lord bring us up out of Egypt?' But now the Lord has abandoned us and put us into the hand of Midian." [God may sometimes appear terribly to those whom he loves entirely, Job 9:34.] God may be really present with his people, they may have his favorable presence with their inward man, when it goes very ill with their outward man. Certainly we must frame a new Bible before we can prove that he does not love us when he afflicts us, or that he has withdrawn his presence from us.
Christ had never more of the real presence of his Father than when he had least of his sensible presence, of his comfortable presence: "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" Mat. 27:46. Here is first a compellation or invocation of God twice repeated: "My God, my God." Secondly, the complaint itself, or matter complained of, concerning God's forsaking of him. Christ was forsaken of God in some sort, and he was very sensible of his Father's withdrawing, though it was but in part and for a time, "Why have you forsaken me?" This forsaking is not to be understood of his whole person—but of his human nature only, according to which and in the which he now suffered on the cross. Though the person of Christ suffered, and was forsaken—yet he was not forsaken in, or according to his whole person—but in respect of his human nature only. The godhead of Christ could not be forsaken, for then God should have forsaken himself, which is impossible. The personal union of the godhead with the manhood of Christ continued all the time of his passion and death, it was never dissolved, nor ever shall be. Yes, the godhead did uphold the manhood all the time of Christ's sufferings, so that he was