He invites us to look to hime, and to come unto himf, and to ask of him whatsoever we will, with an assurance that we shall not be disappointed of our hopeg. There is no limitation or exception, provided only the things we desire be agreeable to his holy will. If we plead with him in earnest, there is no sin that shall not be forgiven11, no corruption that shall not be mortified1, no want that shall not be supplied k. He engages, that, to whatever temptation we may be exposed, his grace shall be sufficient for us1.]
But their obstinacy was incorrigible —
[The Jews, with but few exceptions, " would not hearken to his voice." His precepts, his promises, his threatenings, were alike disregarded by them. " They would none of him ;" but said to his messengers whom he sent to reclaim them, " Make
the Holy One of Israel to cease from before us"
And is it not thus with us ? Is not his authority trampled on by us? and are not both his mercies and judgments almost universally despised ? We will have other objects of our affec- tions in preference to him We will not open our mouths
in prayer, though we know that nothing is to be obtained with- out it The language of our hearts and actions is, " We
will not have this man to reign over us m " Notwith- standing all that he has done to "redeem" us from death and hell, we will not take upon ourselves his light and easy yoke.]
While we thus imitate the perverseness of the Jews, let us tremble for fear of,
II. The judgments inflicted on account of it —
Consider,
1, What a loss they sustained —
[He would have preserved them in Canaan, and loaded them with all imaginable blessings, even as he had done in
former times11
But this was a very faint shadow of what he would do for us. What victory would he have given us over all our spiritual
enemies! What a fulness of consolation and joy also
would he have bestowed upon us, in the communications of his grace, and the manifestations of his love ! Surely his Spirit, as " a Spirit of adoption," should have " witnessed with our spirits that we were his," and should have " sealed us unto the day of redemption " ]
2. What misery they incurred —
e Isai. xlv. 22. and lv. 1 — 3. f Matt. xi. 28.
g John xiv. 13, 14. and xv. 7. h Isai. i. 18.
1 Mic. vii. 19. k Phil. iv. 19. ' 2 Cor. xii. 8, 9.
m Luke xix. 14. u Deut. xxxii. 29.