fallen down, but we will build with hewn stones ; the syca- mores are cut down, but we will change them into cedars f." In their outward relation to God, also, they trusted ; as the reproof administered to them shews: " Trust ye not in lying words, saying, The temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord are weg." Because "they had Abraham to their father," they thought that no evil could befall themh.
And is not this a common evil amongst ourselves ? What is there in which we do not trust, rather than in God ? In all our concerns, whether personal or public, we lean on an arm of flesh, and find it altogether foreign to our habits to "cast all our care on God." Even in relation to our eternal interests we find it exceeding difficult to realize our dependence on God. Our own wisdom and strength and righteousness are, for the most part, the objects of our reliance, and the grounds of our ease. But the whole of this is most displeasing to God; according as it is written, " Blessed is the man that trusteth in the Lord, and whose hope the Lord is ; but cursed is the man that trusteth in man, and that maketh flesh his arm 1."]
2. Of sensual indulgence —
[To possess indulgences, or to use them, is no ground of offence; for "God has given us all things richly to enjoyk:" But to p)^ce our happiness in them, is to provoke God to jea- lousy; since he ought to be to us the one only fountain and source of bliss. The Jews, whom the prophet reproves, were greatly guilty in this particular. When both the sins which they committed, and the judgments which they suffered, were rather " calling them to mourning and to fasting and to weep- ing1," they were living in all the indulgences of the most luxurious ease: as the prophet says: "They lie upon beds of ivory, and stretch themselves upon their couches, and eat the lambs out of the flock, and the calves out of the midst of the stall; they chant to the sound of the viol, and invent to themselves instruments of music, like David ; they drink wine in bowls, and anoint themselves with the chief ointment™." Now this is the very state in which happiness is supposed to consist : it is universally spoken of as the very summit of human enjoyment ; and is held forth as an object greatly to be envied and desired. But how different are these things in God's estimation ! To all who spend their lives in such a way as this, our Lord, no less than the prophet, says, "Woe unto you that laugh now ! for ye shall weepn."
f Isai. ix. 9, 10. s Jer. vii. 4. h Matt. in. 9.
1 Jer. xvii. 5, 7. k 1 Tim. vi. 17. x Isai. xxii. 12 — 14.
m ver. 4 — 6. " Luke vi. 25. VOL. X. Q