1. The disappointment it will occasion —
[Even now, in the midst of all their pursuits, we would ask the ungodly, Whether they have ever found any solid satis- faction in the vanities of time and sense? and has not the creature invariably proved to them " a broken cistern, that could hold no water1?" Yes assuredly, they have " spent their money for that which is not bread, and laboured for that which satisfieth notm;" or rather, as it is well expressed, " Have sought to fill their belly with the east wind11." And this is what God has repeatedly forewarned them of in his blessed word : " Let not him that is deceived trust in vanity ; for vanity shall be his recompence0." And if even now, " in the time of their sufficiency, they be in straits p," how much more, when they come into trouble, may it be asked, " What fruit have ye of these things whereof ye are now ashamed ?" Will their pleasures, their riches, or their honours, which they once sought with such avidity, then comfort them? Alas ! how little can such things do to assuage even the pains of a diseased body, and much more to pacify a guilty conscience, and to compose the mind, in the prospect of death and judgment! Truly, " miserable comforters are they all." Yet to them will God leave us in the day of our calamity, if we will persist in making them our idols during the season of our health. This he tells us in our text ; " Let the gods that thou hast made to thee, arise and save thee." It was thus that he mocked his people of old, when they had withstood all the corrections of his providence*1: and thus he has declared that he will mock us also, if we continue obstinately to withstand all the overtures of his love and mercy r.
But, even supposing that the vanities of this world were not so ineffectual for our present support as they are found to be, of what use or benefit will they be found ivhen we are standing at the judgment-seat of Christ ? Will they interpose between us and an angry God ? or will they descend with us into those gloomy mansions to which their votaries will be doomed, and there alleviate the anguish of our minds ? Will the friends, by whom we were induced to turn our back on God, confirm to us all the promises they made to us, and obtain for us that blessedness which they so confidently assured us was in no danger of being lost? Ah, the disappointment which we shall feel in that day, when no possibility remains of rectifying our error ! How shall we curse our folly for giving way to such delusions, and feel that truth which we are now so backward
1 ver. 13. m Isai. lv. 2. n Job xv. 2.
0 Job xv. 31. p Job xx. 22. <i Judg. x. 10—14.
f Prov. i. 24—31.