is this ! We do not like the way which God has prescribed for us to walk in, and we will go to heaven in our own way. This conduct we may attempt to justify; but God has stamped upon it its true character, as daring and impious presumption.]
To form a just estimate of their conduct, let us consider,
II. Wherein it issued —
They hoped, no doubt, that they should gain the victory: but their efforts terminated,
1. In painful disappointment —
[They found their enemies, as Moses had foretold, pre- pared for the encounter : and no sooner did they make the attack, than their courage failed them, and they fled ; yea their enemies chased them " like enraged bees," and destroyed them even unto Hormah. This is precisely what they had reason to expect ; and what must be expected by all who will pre- sumptuously advance in their own strength. In fact, this is the very thing of which all who depend on their own arm complain. They will not go forward in dependence on the Lord, and in obedience to his commands ; but will trust in their own fancied sufficiency to work out their salvation : the consequence is, that, after all their endeavours to mortify sin, and to lead a heavenly life, they cannot do the things which
are required of them Hence the general complaint,
that they who preach the Gospel require of men more than they can perform. But in whom is the fault ? Not in those who enforce plainly the commands of God, but in those who, rejecting the offers of God's all-sufficient grace, attempt to gain the victory by an arm of flesh.]
2. In fruitless sorrow —
[The fugitive hosts " returned and wept before the Lord : but the Lord would not hearken to their voice, nor give ear unto them3." Now they regretted their former disobedience, and prayed that the sentence denounced against them might be reversed. If God would but try them once more, they would do whatsoever he should command. But their doom was sealed : yea, in this very defeat, it had already been begun to be executed. Many were slain ; and God had decreed that every one of them, except Caleb and Joshua, should die in the wilderness. Like Esau therefore, " they found no place of repentance, though they sought it carefully with tears V
What an affecting representation is this of the final issue of disobedience to the world at large ! When once their doom is sealed, how bitterly will they regret their past folly and wicked-
3 Deut. i. 45. b Heb. xii. 17-