Deut. ix. 4 — 6. Speak not thou in thine heart, after that the Lord thy God hath cast them out from, before thee, saying, For my righteousness the Lord hath brought me in to possess this land: but for the wickedness of these nations the Lord doth drive them out from before thee. Not for thy righteous- ness, or for the uprightness of thine heart, dost thou go to possess their land: but for the wickedness of these nations the Lord thy God doth drive them out from before thee, and that he may perform the word which the Lord sware unto thy fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Understand, therefore, that the Lord thy God giveth thee not this good land to possess it for thy righteousness ; for thou art a stiff-necked people.
MAN is a dependent creature : he has nothing of his own : he can do nothing : he can control no event whatever ; he is altogether in the hands of God, who supports him in life, and accomplishes both in him and by him his own sovereign will and pleasure. Yet he affects wisdom, though "he is born like a wild ass's colt ;" and strength, though he is " crushed before the moth:" nay, so extraordinary is his blind- ness, that he arrogates righteousness to himself, though he is so corrupt, that he has " not so much as one imagination of the thoughts of his heart which is not evil continually." If there ever were a people that might be expected to be free from self-complacent thoughts, it must be the Israelites who were brought out of Egypt; for no people ever had such opportu- nities of discovering the evil of their hearts as they had. No persons ever received such signal mercies, as they ; nor ever betrayed such perverseness of mind, as they. Yet did Moses judge it necessary to caution even them, not to ascribe to any merits of their own the interpositions of God in their behalf, but to trace them to their proper source — the determination of God to display in and by them his own glorious perfections.
The words which I have read to you, will furnish me with a fit occasion to shew,
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