scruple not to say, that to hope for heaven in an impenitent and unbelieving state, is to " make God a liarf" ]
Can you, when your self-delusions have ruined you, come back again to rectify your errors ?
[Verily, between God and the soul that perishes in its sins, there is a great gulf fixed, a gulf that never can be passed. The soul that has once passed into the eternal world has its state for ever fixed ; and the man who dies impenitent will bewail his folly in irremediable and everlasting misery. I ask then, Is it wise to continue in sin, saying, " No evil
can come upon me ? " Not that I would dissuade you
from " leaning upon God ;" but only from leaning upon him in a way which he has never authorized ; and from expecting at his hands what he has never promised, and what he cannot give without violating his most solemn declarations. Repent of sin, believe in Christ, and obey the commandments of your God ; and then let your confidence be as strong as you please. Then will I also assure you, that God shall be with you of a truth, and that to all eternity shall no evil ever come upon
you ]
f 1 John v. 10.
Micah iv. 1 — 4. In the last days it shall come to pass, that the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be established in the top of the mountains, and it shall be exalted above the hills ; and people shall flow unto it. And many nations shall come and say, Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, and to the house of the God of Jacob : and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths : for the law shall go
forth of Zion, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. And he shall judge among many people, and rebuke strong nations afar off: and they shall beat their swords into plow-shares, and their spears into pruning-hooks : nation shall not lift up a sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more. But they shall sit every man under his vine, and under his
jig-tree ; and none shall make them afraid : for the mouth of the Lord of hosts hath spoken it.
THE Prophet Micah was contemporary with Isaiah; and most probably had seen his prophecies. The prophecy before us is almost word for word the same as that in the second chapter of Isaiah, except indeed