hast deceived me, and I was deceived1." Alas! what a root of bit- terness is an impatient spirit ! and how greatly does it aggra- vate the calamities under which we suffer ! Surely we should leave times and seasons, whether of trial or consolation, unto God, and say, "Though he slay me, yet will I trust in hims."]
2. From unbelief —
[This is the great source of all our disquietude. If we truly believe that God ordered every thing with infallible wisdom, and unbounded goodness, and an inviolable fidelity, we could never be put into such a consternation as is expressed in our text. We should rather lie as clay in Ins hands ; and leave him to fashion us according to his will, and to put us into as many successive furnaces as he sees fit, and to accom- plish his own purposes in his own way. We should have it fixed as an immutable principle in our minds, that though " clouds and darkness may be round about him, justice and judgment are the basis of his throne : " and under the influence of this faith, we should adopt the language of the Prophet Habak- kuk, and say, " Although the fig-tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines ; the labour of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat ; the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stall ; yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation*."]
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 will 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 towards 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; but it opened at God's command, and made for his people a passage on dry ground ; and then closed again to overwhelm their enemies. Their necessities in the wilderness were such as no human power or wisdom could supply : but this also only tended in the same manner to
r Jer. xx. 7. s Job xiii. 15. * Hab. iii. 17, 18.