they present to God, provoke him to say, " Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hateth ; they are a trouble unto me ; I am weary to bear themp?" Is not such a con- tempt of his Gospel most painful to him, and most destructive to usi?
See then the grounds of complaint which God has against us ; and say whether the assiduity of harvestmen in loading their carts with the sheaves does not too much resemble us, who are thus incessantly loading God with our iniquities, till he can bear no more ? Yea, we help and encourage each other in the work, as if we were afraid that we could not otherwise heap up upon him a sufficient load.]
The manner in which this complaint is made, calls us especially to consider,
II. What reason we have to be deeply concerned about our state —
Wherever we see in Scripture the word, " Behold," we may be sure that there is something worthy of our most solemn attention. And well may that word be prefixed to the declaration in the text, since an accumulating of such a load of guilt is a " treasuring up of a proportionable weight of wrath r." Let three things then be considered by all who are thus offend- ing God :
1. God is able to vindicate the honour of his in- jured majesty —
[Survey the universe, and ask, Whether he who formed it out of nothing, be not able to avenge himself on such worms as we are ? If that be not sufficient, cast an eye into the bottomless abyss of hell, and ask, ' Who formed it ? and, On what occasion ? and, Who are the inhabitants of those dreary mansions V Or, if you choose rather to see what notices of his power and wrath you can find on earth, ask of the antedilu- vians, and they shall tell thee ; or of the cities of the plain, and they shall warn thee ; or of the Jews, who are scattered over the face of the whole earth, as living monuments of his indignation. As God said to his people of old, " Go to my place, which was in Shiloh, and see what I did to it, for the wickedness of my people Israel s ;" so would I refer you to all these instances, that you may know what a God " you have to
p Isai. i. 14.
<J Matt. xxi. 37—41. Heb. ii. 3. and x. 28, 20
r Rom. ii. 5. s Jer. vii. 12.
1185. J god's complaint against us. 19o
do with ;" and that " him who walketh in pride he is able to abase1." If any doubt yet remain upon your mind, go and provide an answer to that question which Job put to his contentious friends ; " God is wise in heart, and mighty in strength; who hath hardened himself against him, and pro- spered"."]
2. As he is able, so is he determined, to avenge himself —
[God has warned us plainly, that " the wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the people that forget Godx." But Shis is not all. He is like a man bearing with indignities for a time, under a pleasing expectation, that the vengeance which he shall shortly execute upon his enemy shall be signal and complete. See with what firm determination he prepares himself for his vindictive work, " whetting his sword, bending his bow, and making ready the instruments of death y;" and swearing most solemnly by his own life and perfections, that " as soon as he has whet his sword, he will render vengeance to his enemies, making his arrows drunk with their blood, and causing his sword to devour their flesh V' See with what pleasure he looks forward to that period, when, like a man who has thoroughly avenged himself, his wrath shall be pacified by the entire destruction of his foe! " I have set the point of my sword against them, that their heart may faint, and their ruins be multiplied: Ah! it is made bright, it is wrapt up for the slaughter*" " Mine anger shall soon be accomplished on them, and I will cause my fury to rest upon them, and 1 will be com- forted1':" " So will I make my fury towards them to rest, and my jealousy shall depart from them, and I will be quiet, and be no more angry c." Farther, see what delight he expresses when the time for vengeance is arrived ! " Ah ! I will ease me of mine adversaries, and avenge me of mine enemies d :" " I will see what their end shall be ; for they are a very froward generation, children in whom is no faith e."