that God's charge against you is true ; and that, in refusing to come to him as the only source of all good, you have shewn yourselves proud, daring, impious, self-sufficient rebels, and have deserved to be visited with his heaviest judgments.]
2. The contemptuousness of your neglect —
[One would have supposed that, after all the mercies which God had vouchsafed to his ancient people, they could not but have borne him in constant and most affectionate remembrance. Yet had they in reality " forgotten him." Of this he complains, with just indignation : " Can a maid forget her ornaments, or a bride her attire?" No, worthless and contemptible as such vanities are, the minds of young people, and of females especially, are so set upon them, as scarcely, for any length of time, to have them absent from their minds. But, though God had given himself as " a crown of glory and a diadem of beauty to his people f," and his relation to them elevated them above all the people of the world, " yet did they forget him, days without number." And has he given to us less occasion to remember him, than to them? Yet have we forgotten him, even as they did. We have forgotten our obligations to him ; so that he receives few, if any, acknow- ledgments at our hands. We have forgotten our dependence on him; so that he hears but few and faint petitions for the bless- ings we stand in need of. We have forgotten the great account which we have to give to him; so that, to obtain an interest in Christ, is not the great labour of our lives ; nor is it our daily serious endeavour to approve ourselves to God as his devoted servants. Let any one only look back for a single week, and see how much greater interest a young female takes in the adorning of her person, than we have done in providing the ornaments of divine grace for our souls, to " prepare us for our union with our heavenly Bridegroom g." Say, then, whether God is not justly incensed against us, and whether we have not need to humble ourselves before him, for " provoking him thus to jealousy?" Behold then, whilst on God's part I repel with indignation the charges which you bring against him, I call your very consciences to witness against you, that the charges, which I have in his name exhibited against you, are not only true, but heinous in the extreme.]
Application —
1. Are there now any of you disposed to vindicate yourselves ?
[Yes : the Jews denied their criminality, whilst yet " their iniquities testified against them to their face11." And thus it is
f Isai. xxviii. 5. " Rev. xxi. 2. h Hos. v. 5.