their eyes, and they were brought out with a high hand, no sooner did they see fresh perils arise, than they renewed their murmurings with augmented vehemence, and complained that they had been betrayed to their utter ruinc. Nor did even the passage of the Red Sea, and the sight of all their enemies dead upon the sea-shore, cure them of this propensity : for they were a rebellious and stiff-necked people even to the end'1.] 2. They continued it with scarcely any intermission — [For a little moment " they believed the words of God, and sang his praise e:" but "they soon forgat his works f," and provoked him at the sea, even at the Red Seag." Read their history, of which a summary is given in the psalm before us, and you will find it one continued series of murmurings and rebellions. Dissatisfied with the provision which God gave them in the wilderness, they invidiously contrasted with it the delicacies which they had enjoyed in Egypt, their flesh and fish, their leeks and onions, and expressed their doubt whether God could furnish them with such provisions as those h: and, when God had done it in such profusion that it was not possi- ble for them to consume it all, and at the same time had testi- fied his abhorrence of their inordinate desires, they, instead of humbling themselves before him, continued impenitent, and, as my text expresses it, "for all this, they sinned still1." They had not been three months in the wilderness before they even made a golden calf, and worshipped that as their deliverer. On some occasions, indeed, after signal judgments had been inflicted on them, they pretended to repent, and to turn unto God; but " their heart was not right with him, neither were they steadfast in his covenant k." In truth, " they despised the pleasant land1" which God had promised to them for an inheritance ; and, in the issue, they provoked " him to swear in his wrath that they should never enter into his restm."]
3. They were utterly irreclaimable by any dispen- sations, whether of mercy or of judgment —
[The mercies which God vouchsafed to them were innu- merable; yet, " for all this, they sinned still." The judgments also which he inflicted were most awful ; but, " for all this, they sinned still." In a word, they kept up the contest, till they all, with the exception of Caleb and Joshua, were utterly consumed.]
And can any parallel to this be found ? Yes, in- deed, it will be found in, II. The state of the Christian Church at this day —
c Exod. xiv. 11, 12. d Deut. ix. 7. e Ps. cvi. 12.
f Ps. cvi. 13. s Ps. cvi. 7. h ver. 19, 20.
1 ver. 27—32. k ver. 34—37. , Ps. cvi. 24. m Ps. xcv. 11.