it necessary for us ; for this will often avail to humble the soul, when every thing else has been tried in vain. Hence it is generally God's last resource : he uses various other methods first, to make his people holy, and to keep them vigilant : but when they are still remiss and negligent, he departs from them, and says, " I will hide my face from them ; I will see what their end shall be ; for they are a very froward generation, children in whom is no faith " or depend- ence. Thus he dealt with his people of old : he had told them, in verse 12, that he would be to them as a moth, or as rottenness, to consume them : then, because they went to the Assyrian rather than to him for help, he told them, in the verse before my text, that " he would tear them, as a young lion teareth his prey :" and then he adds, as the sorest calamity of all, and as the only one which would produce the desired effect, that he would forsake them ; " I will go and return to my place, till they acknowledge their offence, and seek my face : in their affliction they will seek me early."
From these words we will endeavour to shew you,
I. The nature of spiritual desertion —
[They who view God's dealings with the Jews merely as a history, will lose the most important benefits which the relation of them is intended to convey. There is a striking similarity and agreement between the dispensations of Provi- dence and the dispensations of grace ; so that there can be no doubt but that the former were intended typically to represent the latter. And, in order to understand the Scriptures aright, we must interpret them according to this canon. The most sober and candid expositors have agreed in this. The deser- tion spoken of in my text literally refers to the abandoning of the Jews to the power of the Assyrians and Chaldeans, till they should be brought to repent of their sins : and the return which is there foretold as the effect of this desertion, had its accom- plishment in part under Ezra and Nehemiah ; partly also on the day of Pentecost ; but principally, we expect it to be ful- filled at a future period, when the whole nation shall " look on Him whom they pierced, and mourn." But we may with the utmost propriety take occasion from it to speak of spiritual desertion, which all the Israel of God in a greater or less degree experience. In my text, God says, " I will go and