god's care for his people.
Isai. xlvi. 3 — 5. Hearken unto me, 0 house of Jacob, and all the remnant of the house of Israel, which are borne by me from the belli), which are carried from the womb : and even to your old age I am he ; and even to hoar hairs ivill I carry you: I have made, and I will bear; even I to ill carry, and will deliver you. To ivhom will you liken me ?
THAT men who know nothing of the One true God should form to themselves idols to represent imaginary gods, is not so much to be wondered at : because every child of man feels himself dependent
945.] god's care for his people. 225
on some superior Being, though of the nature or character of that being he has no distinct conception. But that persons who have been instructed in the knowledge of Jehovah, and been themselves eye- witnesses of his mighty works, should have any disposition to renounce him, and to place their de- pendence on idols of wood and stone, is utterly unaccountable, on any other principle than that of man's total depravity, and radical alienation of heart from God. But such is the fact : man is prone to idolatry: his " carnal mind is enmity against God:" and from the time of the departure of the Israelites out of Egypt to the time of their captivity in Babylon, not all the judgments or mercies with which they were visited from time to time could keep them from indulging their favourite propensity. One would have thought that the very things which they had seen, even the deportation of the Babylonish idols by the hands of their enemies, should have been sufficient to convince them, that nothing formed by mortal hands could save a man. The prophet, in Jehovah's name, here appeals to them respecting this: See, says he, what helpless things those idols are! " Bel boweth down, Nebo stoopeth : their idols (unable to move themselves) were upon the beasts, and upon the cattle ; your carriages were heavy loaden with them; they zvere a burthen to the weary beast ; and are themselves gone into captivity*" ' But how different from them am I ! ' says Jehovah : ' They are carried by their votaries, yea, and by their enemies too, incapable of resistance or of motion : whereas / carry my people : I have carried them from the very womb ; and I " will carry them to hoar hairs," even to the latest hour of their lives.'
That we may enter more fully into this description which Jehovah gives of himself, let us consider,
I. What he has done for his people —
Jehovah addresses his people here as his children : and brings to their minds what he had done for that
a vcr. l, 2.