god's complaint against his people.
Isai. i. 2, 3. Hear, O heavens, and give ear, 0 earth : for Ihe Lord hath spoken, I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me. The ox knoweth his oumer, and the ass his master s crib : but Israel doth not know, my people doth not consider.
IT is the Lord God Almighty that now speaketh respecting us. Let every ear attend ; let every heart be humbled in the dust before him. He hath a con- troversy with us, and a complaint against us : and he summons both heaven and earth to attest the truth of his charge, and the equity of his judgment. Though he is a Sovereign, and amenable to none, yet he does frequently make his appeal to the whole creation, and constitute his creatures judges between himself and us*, hi this charge we behold, L The evil we have committed —
The charge is doubtless in the first place uttered
against the Jews —
[God had truly " nourished them, and brought them up as children." He had chosen them to himself, as his peculiar people ; he had brought them up out of Egypt with a mighty hand, and an out-stretched arm : he had fed and supported them forty years in the wilderness; he had given them a reve- lation of liis mind and will ; and he had planted them in that good land which he had promised to their fathers. In all this he had acted towards them with all the care and tenderness of
a most affectionate Parent^
But how had they requited him for all his kindness ? From the very beginning did they show themselves a rebellious and stiff-necked people*^. They were always murmuring under
a Mic. vi. 2. ^ Deut, i. 31. and xxxii. 9— ]L». ^ Dcut. ix. 24.