From the text thus explained, we may learn,
1. What is the great antidote to the troubles of life— .
[Certainly the Israelites, when doomed to perish in the wil- derness, were in a very pitiable condition. But, if they could only attain this great object, they declared that their sorrows would all be turned into joy^. So, whatever our troubles be, their sting will be altogether taken away, if they prevail to bring us to the footstool of our God, and to the enjoyment of the light of his countenance. The trials which God sends are for this very end ; to purge away our dross, and to purify us as gold, that we may be vessels of honour, meet for our Master's use. Let U8 then not be so anxious to get rid of our afflictions, as. to, obtain from God a sanctified use of them, in brighter manifesta- tip.ns of him, and richer communications from him, and a more entire conformity to him^. Let us but get even a small measure of these benefits, and " our consolations shall abound far above all that our afflictions have abounded''" ]
2. What we are to aim at, in our pursuit of holiness —
[It is not anyone grace, or any particular set of graces,, that we should seek after, but an entire conformity to the image, of our God. Now his beauty, as we have seen, consists not in any, one perfection, but in an union of all perfections, however . opposite to each other. So must there be in us, not such graces
only
" I John iii, 3. » Eph. iv. 13. ^Eph. iii. 18, 1 9. " ver. 15. * 2 Cor. i. 5.
899.] god's beauty imparted to his people. ^}^
only as are suited to the natural temperament of our minds, but an assemblage of all graces, how^ever different from each other ; every one being blended with, and tempered by, its opposite, and all together brought, as occasion may require, into united exer- cise. God is compared to " light ;" which is an union of raj^s, exceedingly diverse from each other, and all in simultaneous motion. Now as some may think that the brighter coloured rays, as the red, the orange, the yellow, would make a better light if divested of those which bear a more sombre aspect, as the blue, the violet, and the indigo ; so many imagine, that God would be more lovely, if justice were separated from his attributes, and mercy were to shine unalloyed by that more formidable perfection. But as neither can light part with any of its rays, nor God with any of his perfections, so neither must the Christian dispense with any grace whatever : if he rejoice, it must be with trem- bling : if he walk in faith, he must be also in the fear of the Lord all the day long. If he be bold, he must also be meek and lowly of heart, and resemble him, who " was led as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so opened he not his mouth." This union of opposite graces it is which constitutes the beauty of holiness : as David, after tHe most exalted strains of adoration, says, " O worship the Lord in the beauty of hol'mess ; fear before him all the earth '^."
Let me earnestly intreat the professors of religion to be atten- tive to this matter. Nothing is more common than for persons of this description to value themselves on account of some parti- cular grace or set of graces, when they are offensive, and, I had almost said, odious, in the eyes both of God and man, for want of those graces which ought to temper, and to moderate, the actinsis of their mind. Distortion in the human frame is ndt more disgusting, than such distorted piety as this. Even with- out any particular blemish in the human frame, it is not any one feature that constitutes beauty ; but a regular and harmonious set of features : so it is not faith, or fear, or zeal, or prudence, or any other separate grace, that will assimilate us to the Deity, but every grace in its proper measure, and its combined exercise ; or rather every grace borrowing from its opposite its chief lustre, and all harmoniously exercised for the glory of God.