[Yes, truly: such conduct cannot but "grieve" and "vex his Holy Spirit :" and he might well swear concerning the greater part of us, as he did respecting the Jews, that " we shall never enter into his rest." And what if he should do so? What if, instead of being to us a " Saviour," he should become our " enemy ;" and all " his love and pity should be turned to wrath and fiery indignation? Can we bear the thought? Reflect, I pray you, my Brethren, what " an evil and bitter thing it will be to fall into the hands of the Living God." Yet can we expect no other, than that he should be thus incensed, when we are multiplying our rebellions against him, and " trampling under foot his dear Son, and doing despite to his Spirit of grace." He has told us, that " we shall reap according as we sow : if we will sow to the flesh, we must of the flesh reap corruption : but if we will sow to the Spirit, we shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting."]
Isai. lxiii. 9. In all their affliction he was afflicted, and the angel of his presence saved them : in his love and in his pity he redeemed them; and he bare them, and carried them all the days of old.
AMONGST those who have the Gospel fully opened to them, the history of the Jews must of ne- cessity be familiar. Yet, however familiar it be to our minds, we need to have it frequently brought to our remembrance, since it exhibits with unrivalled clearness the dispensations of God's providence, and shadows forth with most astonishing exactness the wonders of his grace. The words which we have just read may be considered as a kind of summary of that history : in them are recorded God's tender compas- sion towards his people, whilst they were groaning under the yoke of Pharaoh — the means he used for their deliverance, by sending an angel, the Angel of the Covenant, his only dear Son, to bring them forth from Egypt — the success of those means in their complete redemption — and his continued care over them during the whole period of their sojourning in the wilderness. We might, not unprofitably, enter into a particular consideration of all these events, and