se, that he must stir us, ere
we stir ourselves. 2. Above all, be afraid of a secure condition: it is
the enemy of communion with God and spiritual life. Therefore, look about
you, and apprehend more your necessity, and then give no rest and
quietness to yourself, till you have employed and engaged him, be as men
flying to lay hold on the refuge set before you. 3. It must be a time of
little access to God, and little faith, when we are all secure, and nobody
goeth about religion as their work and business. We allow ourselves in it,
therefore, we do exhort yon, _first_, To purpose this as your end to aim
at, and purpose by God's grace to take more hold of God. There is little
minding of duty, and that maketh little doing of it. Once engage your
hearts to a love and desire of more of this, come to a point of
resolution, I must know him more, and trust more in him, be more acquaint
with him. And, _secondly_, Put yourselves in the way of duty. It is God
that only can stir you up, or apply your hearts to the using of violence
to God, but ye would be found in the outward means much, and in these ways
God will meet with you, if you wait on him in them.

"For thou hast hid thy face from us." Here is the greatest plague, a
spiritual plague. The last verse was but the beginning of sorrows, "We all
do fade," &c. But lo, here the accomplishment of misery, God hiding his
face, and consuming them in the hand of their sins.

_First_, The Lord's hiding of his face, and giving up a people to melt
away in their sins, punishing with judicial blindness and security, is the
worst judgment, it filleth the cup full. This complaint goeth on still
worse, and certainly it is worse nor their fading as a leaf and exile out
of their land. It is not without reason, that great troubles and
afflictions are so expressed, "Thou didst hide thy face," as David said,
"Thou didst hide thy face, and I was troubled," importing as much, as it
is not trouble that doth trouble, but God's hiding of his face that maketh
trouble. It is in so far trouble, as it is a sign of his displeasure, and
as the frowns of his countenance are upon it, therefore, the saints,
aggravating their affliction, say, "Thou hidest thy face." You know the
face is the place wherein either kindness or unkindness appeareth. The
Lord's countenance, on face, is a refreshful sweet manifestation of
himself to a soul, it is the Lord using familiarity with a spirit, and
this made David more glad t