Happily the same authority that points out the source of these questions, shews us also,
III. How they should be answered —
Would we know what God vjill do, we should attentively consider what he hath done. We should mark his wonders of old, and observe all the diver- sified exercises of his perfections towards his people from the beginning of the world, and especially to- wards the Israelites whom he redeemed from the land of Egypt :
1 . How mighty his power !
[When the moment for the deliverance of his people was arrived, not all the power of Egypt could detain them. Dif- ficulties indeed were multiplied, but only for the purpose of displaying more gloriously his power in their behalf. The Red Sea obstructed their flight j but it opened at God's command, and made for his people a passage on dry foot ; and then closed again to overwhelm their enemies. Their necessities in the wil- derness were such as no human power or wisdom could supply: but this also only tended in the same manner to proclaim His might, who for the space of forty years fed them with bread from heaven, and with water out of the stony rock, and caused their garments never to decay. Be it so then, that our difficulties are great, yea, and insuperable by human power : then will God magnify towards us his power so much the more, and shew, that still, as in former times, he " makes the depths of the sea (not a place for his people to be drowned in, but) a way for the ransomed to pass over"."]
2. How rich his mercy !
[Truly it was " not for their righteousness that he brought them out; for they were a stiff-necked people^" from the very beginning : and '* many a time would he have consumed them for their iniquities, but for his own name's sake, that it should not be dishonoured among the heathen." See their murmurings, their idolatries, their innumerable provocations, and then say. Whether God's grace be not sovereign, and his mercy infinite ? And, if such surmises as those suggested in our text arise in our minds respecting him, let us remember, that he is the same God now as in former ages, and that now, as well as in former times, the very chief of sinners, if truly penitent, shall be accepted of him ; and that " where sin has abounded, his grace shall much more abound"."]
3. How mysterious his ways !
[In " Isai. li. 10. * Rom. v. 20.