I. Scripture-light the most sure light ... delivered in three sermons on 2 Pet.…

If you walk abroad in the Winter time, and hear no Birds sing, and one say to you, What is the reason of this deep silence? two or three months ago, when we walked in the Fields, every Wood had its several Music; how sweetly did the Birds sing then! ⟨p. 152⟩but now they are all silent, what is the reason? You will easily answer, I, then indeed it was Summer time, then the Sun shone upon them, and •o they sang; •ut now the warming, and enlivening beams of the Sun are gone, •hey sing no more. Beloved! the Light of Gods Countenance, is o•r Spring, Desertion is our Winter; show me that Sain• that is able to sing in this Winter time: I confess, it is possible for a man to •o it, and some there are; Habakkuk was one that learned •his song of Faith; but •ow few are able to sing, and rejoice, when God hides himself. No, saith the soul, two or three months ago, the Lord shined upon me, and then I could sing indeed; but now God, and Christ is gone, and so all my songs are gone, and joys are gone; and I fear I shall never see them again, or rejoice in Christ again. It is said of Mary, That when she went to Christs Sepulchre, she wept; and though the Angel came to her, and said, Why weepest thou? yet she continued weeping: the presence of an Angel could not comfort her, Why? O! saith she, They have taken away my Lord, and I know not where they have laid him. Would it not grieve a Prince, to be disposest of, and to lose his Crown, to be made like an ordinary man? This Presence of Christ, is the Crown of a Christian; and therefore, when God had forsaken the Church▪ as we read in Lam. 5. she complained, verse 16. The Crown is fallen from my Head; Why? ver. 20. Wherefore doest thou forget us for ever, and forsake us so long a time? Ver. 22. Thou hast utterly rejected us, thou art very wroth against us. Take away the presence of Christ, and ye set a Christian among the ordinary rank of men: and must he not needs be troubled, when his Crown is thus taken from his Head? I have read of a Religious Woman, that having born Nine Children, professed, That she had rather endure all the pains of those Nine Travels at once, than endure the Misery of the loss of Gods Presence. And indeed, this Affliction of Gods forsaking a man, is so great, that if a man feel it not, I even fear it is, because he is forsaken indeed.