Deut. ix. 7. Remember, and forget not, how thou provokedst the Lord thy God to wrath in the wilderness.
THERE is no sin more deeply rooted in the heart of man than pride : nor is there any thing which will not serve as a foundation for it to prefer its claims. Even an excess of impiety will afford to some an occasion of glorying ; and a precedence in rebellion against God, give them a title to praise amongst those whom they have out-stripped in the career of wickedness. It may well be expected, then, that suc- cess in any lawful enterprise should very generally be thought to give a man a legitimate ground for self- applause. Yet, doubtless, if ever there were a people less entitled to self-admiration than others, it was the people of Israel, who were a stiff-necked people from the very first moment that God took them under his peculiar care. And, if ever there were a matter that entirely precluded all ground of glorying, surely it was the establishing of that people in the land of Canaan. Their fathers had all provoked God to de- stroy them in the wilderness : and they themselves were also a rebellious generation : so that they at least might be expected to acknowledge themselves indebted to the sovereign grace of God for all the blessings of the promised land. But behold, God, who knew what was in man, was constrained to cau- tion them against the enormous evil of ascribing to their own superior goodness all the interpositions of God in their behalf : "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. 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. Remember, and forget not how thou