few'1: and so persuaded are they, for the most part, of the happy issue of their conduct, that they will scarcely listen to any thing which may be spoken to undeceive them. But, how numerous or confident soever they may be, their state is widely different from what they apprehend.]
To them God addresses a most solemn warning —
[Sometimes, when the obstinacy of men renders them almost incorrigible, God speaks to them in a way of irony. Here he bids them go on in their own way, and get all the comfort they can ; but warns them withal what doom they must assuredly expect at his hands. Precisely similar to this is his warning to the same description of persons in the book of Ecclesiastes1 — And how often is it awfully realized in a dying hour ! When they are lying on a bed of " sickness, how much wrath and sorrow" are mixed in their cupk ! And, the very instant they depart out of the body, what " tribulation and anguish" seize hold upon them! Alas! who can conceive what it is to lie down in everlasting burnings ? Yet thus shall their lamp be extinguished ; and their sparks of created com- fort be succeeded by a fire that shall never be quenched1.]
We cannot conclude this subject better than by directing the attention of all to two important truths connected with it :
1. To believe God's word is our truest wisdom —
[What advice can be given to a disconsolate soul better than that administered in the text ? We may " offer thousands of rams, or ten thousands of rivers of oil : yea, we may give our first-born for our transgression, the fruit of our body for the sin of our soul ;" but we can never attain comfort in any other way than by an humble trust in the promises of God : we must " even against hope, believe in hopem :" our " joy and peace must come by believing." Nor is there less folly in arguing against the threatenings of God, than in questioning his promises. If God say respecting those who rest in self- righteous observances, or carnal enjoyments, that they shall lie down in sorrow, our disbelief of it will not make void his word : it will come to pass, even if the whole creation should unite to oppose it. Though men therefore may account it folly to believe the word of God, let us remember, that it is our truest wisdom ; and that without an humble affiance in it, we cannot be happy either in time or eternity.]
h This is strongly intimated in the text, " Who is, &c. ? Behold, all ye, &c."
1 Eccl. xi. 9. k Eccl. v. 17. I Job xviii. 5, G.
m Rom. iv. IS.