and comfort me on every side." When Jo seph'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 im mediately, and suffered valiantly.

(2.) 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 upon her all the day long. God sometimes hid himself from David, Psal. xxx. 7. "Thou didst hide thy face, and I was troubled, I was all dead: well, and is that all? No, verse 8. I cried to thee, O Lord; and unto the Lord I made my supplication." Now he cries louder, and cleaves closer to God than ever; so in that Psal. Ixiii. 1, 2. "O

Christ, the Captain of our Salvation, will execute. martial law upon them that withdraw from their colours, &c.

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 thy sanctuary. Well, and how do these withdrawings of God work? Why this you may see in verse 8. "My soul followeth hard after thee; or, as the Hebrew reads it, My soul cleaveth after thee." Look as the husband cleaves to his wife, so doth my soul cleave to the Lord, Gen. ii. 24.

(3.) The Lord, by withdrawing from his people, will inhance and raise the price, and commend the worth, excellency, 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. 18, 19. "He will turn again, he will have compassion upon us, &c." and that, Isa. liv. 7, 8. but now opened; and that. Heb. xiii. 5, 6. and that Hab. ii. 3. and that, Psal. v. 12. "For thou, Lord, wilt bless the righ teous; with favour thou wilt compass him (or crown him) as with a shield:" The Lord will compass the righteous about with his fa vour, as the crown compasses about the head, as the Hebrew imports; and that, Psal. cxii. 4. "Unto the upright there ariseth light in darkness; he is gracious, and full of compas sion, 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 honeycomb; they are more precious than gold, than fine gold, than much gold, than all the gold in the world, Job xxiii. 12. I prefer them before my food, before my delightful food; yea, before my necessary food, before my appointed portion. As Alexander laid up Homer's Iliads in a cabinet embroidered with gold and pearls; so deserted souls will lay up these precious promises in the cabinet of their hearts, as the choicest treasure the world affords. Dolphins, they say love music; so do deserted souls 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. xxvi. 3. was music to another; and that to another, Matth. 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, Deut. xxxii. 13. "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." Ah the honey, the oil that deserted souls suck out of such promises that speak home and close to their conditions!

(4.) 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, Heb xiii. 2. "Remember them that are in bonds, as bound with them; and them which suffer adversity, as being yourselves also in the body. It is observed of the bees, that when one is sick, they all mourn; and of the sheep, that if one of them be faint, the rest of the flock will stand betwixt it and the sun, until it be revived: in the natural body, if one member grieve, and 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, their compassions, run out much to such, yea, most to such they know that there is no affliction, no misery, no hell, to that of being forsaken of God.

Anaxagoras seeing himself old, and forsaken of the world, laid himself down, and c

vered his head close, determining to starve himself to death with hunger. 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 be men in the world, a man had better be forsaken by them all, than to be forsaken of God. There is a great truth in that saying of Chrysostom, viz. That the torments of a thousand hells, if there were so many, come far short of this one ; to wit, to be turned out of God's presence, with, I know you not, Mat. vii. 23. The schools have long since concluded, that the pain of sense, is far greater than the pain of loss. What a grief was it to Absalom, to see the king's face clouded? and how sadly was Eli and his daughter affected with the loss of the ark, which was but a testimony of God's presence! But oh how much more is a Christian af❤ fected and afflicted with the loss of the face and favour 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.

(5.) Hereby the Lord will teach his people to set a higher price upon his face and favour, when they come to enjoy it, Cant. iii. 4. "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." No man sets so high a price upon Christ, as he that hath lost him, and found him again. Jesus in the China tongue*, signifies the ri

* Austin saith, Lord, I ami Content to suffer any pains