You will say, That's hardest to walk with God; Indeed we may walk with God, and keep on in communion with him notwithstanding outward afflictions, but when the Lord seems to withdraw himself, and when there is both outward and inward too, that's hard: For outward afflictions, I will give you one notable Scripture for a child of God, following hard after God though God seem to withdraw himself from the soul, in the 63. Psal. where by the title of the Psalm you shall find that David was in the wilderness of Judah, and that was when Saul did persecute him for his life: Saul persecuted David and followed him, and David was fain to skulk up and down in the wilderness of Judah from place to place, and yet mark, O God, thou art my God, (for all that) 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: And then in the 8. verse, My ⟨p. 334⟩soul followeth hard after thee; though Lord thou seemest to withdraw thy self from me in regard of these outward administrations, yet my soul followeth hard after thee (saith David) notwithstanding. If times of affliction, when God seems to withdraw himself by his afflictions, yet our souls should follow hard after God: Doth God seem to go from us as if he would not walk with us? Oh run after him: As a poor child if the mother seems to go away from it, and gets over a stile before it, the child cries and runs after: So it was with David, when the Lord did seem by those administrations of his to be going away from him, saith he, My soul follows hard after him. And this is an excellent frame of spirit, that the more the Lord seems to be gone from a Christian, the more hard doth the soul follow after God, nothing can satisfy such a one but God himself; and therefore he saith, Lord, my soul thirsteth after Thee in a dry land, he doth not say after water, but after Thee. So in any affliction, if thou canst say this, Lord, it is not so much the deliverance from an affliction that my soul thirsteth after, but Oh Lord! thou knowest my soul thirsts after thee, and may the affliction be but made up in thy self it is sufficient, I never find my soul following more earnestly after thee than now in the time of my affliction.
You will say, That's hardest to walk with God; Indeed we may walk with God, and keep on in communion with him notwithstanding outward afflictions, but when the Lord seems to withdraw himself, and when there is both outward and inward too, that's hard: For outward afflictions, I will give you one notable Scripture for a child of God, following hard after God though God seeme to withdraw himself from the soul, in the 63. Psal. where by the title of the Psalm you shall find that David was in the wilderness of Judah, and that was when Saul did persecute him for his life: Saul persecuted David and followed him, and David was fain to sculk up and down in the wilderness of Judah from place to place, and yet mark, O God, thou art my God, (for all that) 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: And then in the 8. verse, My ⟨p. 334⟩soul followeth hard after thee; though Lord thou seem'st to withdraw thy self from me in regard of these outward administrations, yet my soul followeth hard after thee (saith David) notwithstanding. If times of affliction, when God seems to withdraw himself by his afflictions, yet our souls should follow hard after God: Doth God seem to go from us as if he would not walk with us? Oh run after him: As a poor child if the mother seems to go away from it, and gets over a stile before it, the child cries and runs after: So it was with David, when the Lord did seem by those administrations of his to be going away from him, saith he, My soul follows hard after him. And this is an excellent frame of spirit, that the more the Lord seems to be gone from a Christian, the more hard doth the soul follow after God, nothing can satisfie such a one but God himself; and therefore he saith, Lord, my soul thirsteth after Thee in a dry land, he doth not say after water, but after Thee. So in any affliction, if thou canst say this, Lord, it is not so much the deliverance from an affliction that my soul thirsteth after, but Oh Lord! thou knowest my soul thirsts after thee, and may the affliction be but made up in thy self it is sufficient, I never find my soul following more earnestly after thee than now in the time of my affliction.
