Ps. lxxviii. 19 — 22. They spake against God : they said, Can God furnish a table in the tvilderness ? Behold, he smote the rock, that the waters gushed out, and the streams over- flowed; can he give bread also ? can he provide flesh for his people ? Therefore the Lord heard this, and ivas wroth : so a fire tvas kindled against Jacob, and anger also came up against Israel; because they believed not in God, and, trusted not in his salvation.
HUMAN nature is the same in all ages. On a comparison of ourselves with the ancient Jews, we are ready to suppose that we are better than they. But, if we were subjected to the same trials as they, and as faithful a record were kept of all the workings of our hearts, I doubt not but that our incorrigible perverseness would be found to equal theirs.
This murmuring of theirs will lead me to shew,
I. The evil of unbelief —
Unbelief often assumes the garb of humility. But the evil of it appears,
1. From the construction which God himself has put upon it —
[He says, " They spake against God," when they ques- tioned his power to give them flesh. And this is what we do, whensoever we call in question God's power to effect any thing which our necessities require. He has declared himself* to be possessed of all power in heaven and in earth : " I am the Al- mighty Goda." But when we limit his power, we represent him as unworthy of credit; or, as St. John strongly expresses it, " We make him a liarb." We may not intend to cast this reflection upon him ; but we do it ; and, in fact, reduce him to a level with his creatures.
As for our acknowledgments of his past interpositions, these aggravate, rather than excuse, our doubts of his power ; since they are standing witnesses for him : and our doubts are enter- tained in direct opposition to their testimony. Let us not, therefore, imagine that the giving of glory to God for past favours will at all palliate our refusal of credit to him for the fu- ture: for, on the contrary, he will rather say to us, " Out of thine own mouth will I judge thee, thou calumniator of thy God."]
3 Gen, xvii. 1. b 1 John v. 10.