God in the Midst of His Church (3)

Thirdly, the more God’s church is opposed, the more it increaseth. It revives its augmentation by its diminution. The more they afflicted them the more they multiplied (Exo. 1:12). Witness the ten persecutions in the time of Nero, Dioclesian, Tragan, etc.

Sanguine showers have always made the church grow the more; the more the torch is beaten, the more it flames. Julian therefore did forebear to persecute the Christians, not out of pity, but envy, because they grew so fast. Religion is that Phenix which has always revived and flourished in the ashes of holy men. The church of God is a palm tree, with this motto, “the more weight is laid upon it, the higher it riseth.”

Fourthly, when the church of God is lowest, mercy is nearest; the sorer the pangs, the nearer the deliverance. “The earth mourneth... Lebanon is ashamed... Sharon is like a wilderness. Now will I rise, saith the LORD;... now will I lift up myself” (Isa. 33:9-10). If you go to the Thames and observe the ebbing of the water, you see that when the ebb is at the lowest, high tide is ready to come in; so when the church of God seems to be at a dead low water, the spring-tide of deliverance is nearest. When Dioclesian raged and things seemed desperate, soon after was the golden time of Constantine. It is usually darkest a little before morning.

Fifthly, though the church of God may seem sometimes to be in the wane, yet when she loses ground in one place she gains in another; as when the fire is quenched at one end of the house, it breaks out at the other. Or as the sun when it leaves our hemisphere, goes to the antipodes. At Rome there were two laurel trees; when one withered, the other flourished: an emblem of the church militant, when it seems to wither in one place, it shall revive and flourish in another. All this may comfort us concerning the church of God, and may be as physic, to kill the worm of unbelief and fear in our hearts. “God is in the midst of her, therefore will we not fear though the earth be moved.” If God be in the midst of His church, let us do two things:

1. Let us take heed of driving God from us. There are ways whereby we may drive God from the nation. As when bees are in the hive and bring their honey, you may drive them out with smoke, so sin is a smoke that will drive God out from a people. “A people that provoke Me to anger.... These are a smoke in My nose” (Isa. 65:3, 5). In particular, there are nine sins which drive God out of a land, and when He marches out, judgment marches in.

a) Idolatry. “For they served idols, whereof the LORD had said unto them, Ye shall not do this thing. Therefore the LORD was angry with Israel, and removed them out of His sight”

(2 Ki. 17:12, 18). Idolatry is a sin which breaks the marriage knot, and makes the Lord disclaim His interest in a people. “Thy people... have corrupted themselves” (Exo. 32:7). Before God called Israel His people, but when once they had defiled themselves with idolatry then God disclaims them; He does not say to Moses, My people, but thy people, as if He had quite discarded them and cut off the entail of mercy. Take heed of idolatry, yes, and of superstition too, which is a bridge leading over to it. Superstition is an intermixing our fancies and inventions with divine institutions; it is an affront offered to God, as if He were not wise enough to appoint the manner of His own worship.

b) Rapine and oppression. “I have forsaken mine house. My heritage is to me as a speckled bird” (Jer. 12:7, 9), or as a bird of prey. When God’s dove becomes a vulture, and is given to ravening and cruelty, staining her feathers with blood, God will then break up house and be gone.

c) Uncleanness. “They are all adulterers, as an oven heated by the baker” (Hos. 7:4). They who should have been temples of the Holy Ghost, are hot ovens burning in lust. “I will spread my net upon them” (verse 12); that is, I will spread the net of my judgments over them, and they shall be taken in the net.

d) Covetousness. “I will stretch out My hand upon the inhabitants of the land,... for from the least of them even unto the greatest of them every one is given to covetousness” (Jer. 6:12-13). When men shall rank of the earth, when they love the exchange better than the temple, and are more for the earthly mammon than the heavenly manna, God will take His leave and be gone. God is a Spirit, He can no more converse with an earthly people than a prince can converse with a swine.

e) Apostasy. “They are all grievous revolters.... Reprobate silver shall men call them, because the LORD hath rejected them” (Jer. 6:28, 30). This made God remove His golden candlestick from the church of Ephesus, because she had left her first love (Rev. 2:4). And if apostasy will make God depart from a people, then how can we expect He should stay long with us? Where is that zeal for God, and love to the truth, as formerly? We live in the fall of the leaf; there are many who courted the queen of religion when she had a jewel hung at her ear, but when she is in her night dress, and her jewels of preferment are pulled off, now they desert her. Lot’s wife was turned into a pillar of salt for looking back. If all who look back should have this judgment inflicted upon them, we should hardly go in the streets for meeting pillars of salt. Merchants tell us of divers ships cast away at sea; I believe there have been of late more shipwrecks at land than at sea; I mean, such as have made shipwreck of faith and a good conscience. The golden head is degenerated into iron, a more feculent and impure metal.

Sixthly, weariness of God’s ordinances. “When will the new moon be gone,... and the sabbath?” (Amos 8:5). Verse 11, “Behold,the days come saith the Lord God, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the LORD.” God has fed this nation with the finest of the wheat, even the bread of life; we have had the cream of ordinances. God has come down to us in a golden shower of blessings; the vintage of other nations has not been so good as the gleanings of England; but have not we said what a weariness is it? (Mal. 1:13). Is not our sin sermon-surfeiting? Though we have liked the dressing, we have loathed the food; we have said, “Who is this Moses? And what is this manna?” And may not we fear God is now coming to punish us for this sin? When we have lost our stomachs, God may cause the cloth to be taken away; and would not that be dismal? How sad is it for any nation, when their seers are blind! In what a condition is that people, who have husks given them instead of manna, and music instead of food! Weariness of the gospel forfeits the gospel. If God sees that sanctuary blessings bear but a low price, He will remove the market.

Weariness of the gospel forfeits the gospel.

Seventhly, perjury. “The house of Israel and the house of Judah have broken My covenant.... Therefore thus saith the LORD, Behold I will bring evil upon them, which they shall not be able to escape, and though they shall cry unto Me, I will not hearken unto them” (Jer. 11:10). When a people play fast and lose with God, breaking their solemn vows and oblations, whether sacramental or other, this is a God-provoking sin, it will make the Lord go away from a nation, and though they cry after Him, He will turn a deaf ear. God will pass by infirmity, but He will punish treachery.

Eighthly, hatred of reformation. When God calls to a people by His Word, Spirit, judgments, but they regard Him not, He will pack up and be gone. “I spake unto you, rising up early... but you heard not, therefore will I do unto this house, which is called by My name,... as I have done to Shiloh” (Jer. 7:13-14). Why, what did God to Shiloh? There the priests were slain, the ark was carried away captive; all the signs of God’s presence were removed, the vision ceased, and we never read that the ark returned to Shiloh anymore. Has not God called to us by a holy reformed people, but are there not those found among us who hate holiness, and cry down reformation? Oh, take heed that God does not do to us as He did to Shiloh: unpeople us, unchurch us, and send a flying roll of curses against us.

Thy Strength

Shall I, for fear of feeble man
Thy Spirit’s course in me restrain?
Or, undismay’d in deed and word,
Be a true witness for my Lord?

Awed by a mortal’s frown, shall I
Conceal the Word of God Most High?
How then before Thee shall I dare
To stand, or how Thy anger bear?

Give me Thy strength, Oh God of power!
Then let winds blow, or thunders roar,
Thy faithful witness will I be:
’Tis fixed! I can do all through Thee.

—CS

Rev. Thomas Watson (d. 1686) was a highly esteemed, seventeenth-century, non-conformist Puritan preacher and author.

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