One Hundred and Ninety Sermons on Psalm 119

1. There is a real desertion and a seeming. Christ may be out of sight, and yet you not out of mind. When the dam is abroad for meat, the young brood in the Nest are not forgotten nor forsaken. The child cries as if the Mother was gone, but she is but hidden, or about other business. Isa. 49. 14, 15. Zion said, The Lord hath forsaken me, and my God hath forgotten me. In the misgivings of our hearts, we think God hath cast off all care, and all thought of us. But God's affectionate answer showeth, that all this was but a fond surmise. Can a woman forget her sucking-child, &c.? So Psal. 31. 22. I said in my haste, I am cut off before thine eyes: nevertheless thou heardest the voice of my supplications, when I cried unto thee. We are never more in Gods heart many times, than when we think he hath quite cast us off. Surely when the heart is drawn after him, he is not wholly gone. We often mistake Gods dispensations, when he is preparing for us more ample relief, and emptying us of all carnal dependence, we judg that that's a forsaking; as Psal. 94. 18. When I said, My foot slippeth, thy mercy, O Lord, held me up. ⟨p. 49⟩Sometimes in point of comfort we are at a loss, and filled with distractions and troubles, and all is, that God may come in for our relief. So in point of grace, 2 Cor. 1. When I am weak, then I am strong. There is also a real desertion; for God grants his people are forsaken sometimes, Though I have forsaken you for a little moment, Isa. 54. 7, 8. And Christ, that could not be mistaken, complaineth of it; and the Saints feel it to their bitter cost.

1. There is a real desertion and a seeming. Christ may be out of sight, and yet you not out of mind. When the dam is abroad for meat, the young brood in the Nest are not forgotten nor forsaken. The child cryes as if the Mother was gone, but she is but hidden, or about other business.