was perfect through my comeliness which I had put upon thee, saith the Lord God. But thou didst trust in thine own beauty, and playedst the harlot because of thy renown." All manner of corruptions at length overspread the land, and provoked God, who was jealous for his own honour, to give them up to the desolations and miseries which they had so justly merited.] But to us also, as well as to them, all this may be applied —
[View us as men: how helpless were we in our early infancy! yet through the goodness of God, who has been a father to us, we have been placed in situations of ease and ho- nour, far beyond what, if left to ourselves without his paternal care, we could ever have obtained. God, having formed us for himself, has given us many rich endowments, such as were necessary for the filling of the situation to which he has ad- vanced us. But what use have we made of all his gifts ? Have we improved them in obedience to his will, and for the promo- tion of his glory ? Have not our various talents, of mental energy, of bodily strength, of worldly property, been employed solely for our own personal gratification, without any regard for Him to whom they properly belonged, and for whose honour they should have been employed ? Verily there has not been any idol, however base, to whose service we have not devoted these things, rather than to the service of our God.
View us as Christians also, and the same wickedness may justly be laid to our charge. In our natural state we were altogether guilty and polluted, yea, helpless and hopeless. But the advantages which Almighty God has conferred upon us have been exceeding great: all the ordinances of his wor- ship, all the offers of his grace, all the hopes of his glory, have been vouchsafed to us from time to time, in order to convince us of his love, and to stimulate us to an unreserved surrender of ourselves to him. But these things, instead of having been improved aright, have actually been made the means and occa- sions of our departure from him. We have rested in the ordi- nances, without any concern whether we enjoyed God in them or not: his offers of mercy have been brought to justify the idea, that we might sin against him with impunity: and the prospects of the eternal world have been considered as little affected by our present conduct. " This has been our way from our youth ;" and it is equally prevalent in every class of the community.
"Would an earthly husband be satisfied with such conduct in his wife ? What wonder then is it if our heavenly Husband regard these our adulteries with grief and wrathful indignation?] But if, on the one hand, these things shew the greatness of our depravity, they serve, on the other hand, most strikingly to illustrate,