prudent1. Let us then beg that our eyes may be opened, and that through the influences of the Spirit we may know the things which are freely given to us of Gods.]
3. How thankful should we be for any measure of divine knowledge !
[To be wise unto salvation is to be wise indeed. All other knowledge is as nothing in comparison of this. Blessed then are they who can say, " This I know, that, whereas I was blind, I now see1." Yes, Believers, " blessed are your eyes, which now see :" for if ignorance is destructive to the soul, knowledge, on the other hand, provided it be spiritual and practical, will surely save itu.]
1 Jam. ii. 5. Matt. xi. 25. s 1 Cor. ii. 11. Eph. i. 18.
1 John ix. 25. Matt. xiii. 16.
u Isai. liii. 11. John xvii. 3. with 1 John ii. 3, 4.
Hos. iv. 16. Israel slideth back as a backsliding heifer.
SUCH is the influence of bad example, that it is extremely difficult to withstand its attractions, even at the time that we behold its fatal effects. Israel, or the ten tribes, from their first apostasy under Jero- boam, were irreclaimably addicted to idolatry. The prophet, finding his efforts vain with respect to them, turns to Judah, and entreats that they would not tread in the steps of Israel a, who, like an untamed and refractory bullock, had entirely cast off the yoke, and refused all subjection to Jehovah.
Humiliating as this account of Israel is, it is but too just a representation of the Christian world, whose conduct is utterly unworthy of the name they bear, and from whose ways we cannot stand at too great a distance.
To impress this awful truth upon your minds, we propose to shew,
a ver. 15. At Gilgal and at Bethel, where God had formerly been worshipped, idols were now set up. The prophet, exhorting Judah not to go to those places, calls Beth-el (the house of God) Beth- aven (the house of vanity).