knowing what depravity and deceitfulness there is in the human heart, he concludes that he shall now bear down all before him : the corruptions of his own heart seem to be so mortified, as to be almost extinct : the world now is as nothing in his eyes : and Satan himself, formidable as he is, now appears to be " bruised under his feet." Perhaps he has learned, as it were by wrote, to acknowledge himself weak, frail, and inwardly depraved ; but the frame of his mind is like David's, when he said, " My mountain is so strong, I shall never be moved." Thus does God allure penitents : nor is this any more than what is necessary at the first ; for their habits of sin are deeply rooted ; their attachment to the things of time and sense is very strong ; and the opposition they will afterwards meet with from the world, the flesh, and the devil, is so powerful, that they need all possible encouragement ; they need time to get strength ; they need to taste the sweet- ness of religion now, in order that when they come to endure the cross, they may be able to testify, from their own expe- rience, that religion, with all its difficulties, is an incomparably better portion than the world. This was remarkably exem- plified at the first publication of the Gospel : the three thou- sand converts " continued daily with one accord in the temple, and ate their bread with gladness and singleness of heart, praising God, and having favour with all tlie people." The favour of man they had very little reason to expect : but God saw fit to keep his infant Church for a little time from per- secution, in order that their happiness might have no alloy, and that they might grow in strength, and be able to endure it afterwards, when it should come upon them : and thus he allured them, as it were, to a steady and resolute adherence to his cause.
Further, God says, " I will bring her into the wilderness." Many able and judicious Commentators translate these words somewhat differently, " I will allure her after I have brought her into the wilderness :" and this I should suppose to be the more proper rendering of the words, because the sense is then clear ; viz. " After having afflicted her for her sins, I will comfort her on her return to me." But, if we retain the pre- sent version, we must understand the 'wilderness' to. mean, not a state of affliction, but a state of solitude and retirement: and this makes very good sense, and exactly agrees with the experience of young Christians. When God allures them in the manner we have before represented, they immediately for- sake the company of the world, and seek their God in retire- ment: they now love solitude; they now never feel themselves less alone than when alone : nor would they forego their secret intercourse with God for all the world. There are many sea- sons when they would account the presence of their very