hour, according to the good pleasure of Him, ^^in whom we live, and move, and have our being." The very continuance of our lives should be regarded in this view ; so that we should never think of what we will do in the next year, or even on the morrow, without an express reference to God as the sovereign controller of all events^. Job himself erred exceedingly in this respect, when he said, *' I shall die in my nest''." The same sense of dependence on God must more especially be maintained in reference to our spiritual life. The very chief of the Apostles, no less than we, needed to preserve upon his mind a consciousness, that, without incessant vigilance and care, he might, " after having preached to others, himself become a cast-away." How- ever confident any man may be that he stands firm, it becomes him to " take heed lest he fall'^." And so far is this frame of mind from being, as religious people are apt to fancy it, an effect of legality and unbelief, it is pronounced by God himself as most pleasing to him, and beneficial to us; for " blessed is the man that feareth always '^."
It is worthy of observation, that David ostensibly acknowledged God as the author of his security ; " Thou by thy favour hast made my mountain to stand strong :" but it is evident that his confidence was not really in God, so much as in his situation and circumstances, wliich had to all appearance a stability on which he might rely. And thus it is with those amongst ourselves who have fallen into a state of carnal security : they profess to depend on God ; but their want of holy fear demonstrates, that their confidence is in something wliich they themselves possess, and which they consider as affording a just ground for the dismission of vigilance and jealous apprehension.
David's relaxation of this salutary fear was followed by]
II. His spiritual dereliction —
[To punish this undue security, God withdrew from David in some measure the protection of his providence, and the com- forts of his grace : he suffered Absalom to carry into effect his traitorous conspiracy against him ; and he left David without those heavenly consolations which under former trials he had been wont to experience : " Thou didst hide thy face from me," says David, ^' and I was troubled." Now such rebukes must be expected by all who forget their dependence upon God. '' Verily he is a God that hideth himself ;" and by the dispensations of his providence and grace he marks his indignation against the backslidings of his people. We doubt not but that his with- drawment of many temporal blessings from us is a punishment of our idolatrous attachment to them, and dependence upon them. It was for this that he sent a worm to destroy Jonah's
gourd ;
*Jam. iv. 13 — 15. *• Job xxix. 18.
* 1 Cor. X. 12. ^ Prov. xxviii. 14.