us to obey them or not, as we please : he longs to engage our most affectionate regards to him and his service : and, when all his efforts are in vain, he takes up a lamentation over us, as a father over a disobedient and incorrigible child c. And what abundant occasion has he for regret on our account ! He has commanded us to come to him, to live in a state of holy fellowship with him, and to delight ourselves in him. But how deaf are we to his entreaties, and how slow of heart to obey his voice ! It is not the ungodly alone over whom he has cause to lament, but even his own people: yes, even they, whose God he is, and whom he has redeemed with his own precious blood ; they whom he has instructed by his word and Spirit, and whom he has led by his providential care ; even they, I say, grieve him by their inattention, and provoke him to displeasure by their neglect : and so is he at times weighed down, as it were, by their misconduct, that he scarcely knows how to bear with them, or how to act towards themd.]
2. The reason of it —
[And what is it that occasions his regret? Would he gain any thing by our obedience ? or does he lose any thing by our disobedience e ? No : he knows how much we lose by our folly ; and it grieves him, that, when he is so desirous of loading us with his richest benefits, we should be so regardless of our own interest and happiness.
If we were uniformly zealous and active in the service of our God, " our peace would flow down" in a serene, unin- terrupted course, " like a river;" and " our righteousness," or prosperity of soul, would " like the waves of the sea," be exalted, irresistible, and boundless. We should find " the work of righteousness to be peace f;" we should have great6, and abundant11 peace ; and " in keeping God's commandments we should have a rich reward1." Is there not then cause for regret, that we should be such enemies to our own welfare ; and that, instead of enjoying the felicity of God's chosen, we should scarcely differ, either in comfort or holiness, from the ungodly world around us? Yes; if angels rejoice over our prosperity, they may well join with their Maker in pathetic lamentations over the greater part of the Christian Church.]
Infer —
1. How bitter will be the reflections of the ungodly in a future world !
c Matt, xxiii. 37. and Luke xix. 42.
d Amos. ii. 13. Jer. iii. 19. Hos. xi. 8. e Job xxii. 2, 3.
f Isai. xxxii. 17. s Ps. cxix. 1C5. h Ps. lxxii. 7.
1 Ps. xix. 11.