Thus we have our idols which we are prone to follow, not- withstanding all the troubles or convictions that are sent to wean us from them. Perhaps the world is the object of our affections ; and we weary ourselves in the pursuit of its honours or emoluments. God therefore secretly blasts our endeavours, as he did those of his people of olda; and thus shuts us up as it were, unto himself, that we may seek him as our portion. Perhaps our great idol is self-righteousness : we desire to " establish a righteousness of our own," instead of relying simply on the righteousness of Christ. God therefore leaves us to our own feeble efforts, that, by our repeated violations of our own vows and covenants, we may be constrained to look from ourselves unto the Lord Jesus Christ. Thus, if we persist in breaking through " the hedge" he will interpose " a wall;" that " when we follow after our lovers, we may not overtake them, and when we seek them, we may not be able to find them." If smaller difficulties will not answer his end, he will send greater, till he has accomplished his whole will concerning us.]
These interpositions, however, operate in a rational way ; as will be seen by considering, II. What effects he produces on their minds —
Where calamities are sent without grace to sanctify them, they only harden those whom they ought to reclaim. But when the grace of God co-operates with his providence, it works in his people,
1. A sense of their guilt in having departed from him —
[They could once sin without any fear or remorse : at most, they only viewed sin as an opposition to God's will: but, when the Spirit of God has opened their eyes, they see it as an act of spiritual adultery ; and they begin to feel as a woman would, who, after having departed from a kind and loving " husband," was just returning to a sense of her duty. How would she blush at the remembrance of her conduct! how would she be ready to doubt whether her husband would ever receive her again, and whether it were possible for her ever again to be the object of his affections! Thus a soul rendered truly sensible of its obligations to God the " hus- band" of his people, feels a proportionate degree of shame in having departed from him, of shame mixed with self- lothing and self-abhorrence b.]
2. A consciousness of their folly in having lost his favour —
a Hag, i. 6, 9. b Jer. iii. 25.
b2