Eden, and this desert as the garden of the Lordm." We look for such a season both among Jews and Gentiles : and may we not expect it also amongst ourselves ? Yes surely : if we were all, ministers and people, to unite our efforts for this end, God would be with us; our labour should not be in vain": children should be born to God in this our Jerusalem, which is the mother of us all0;" her children should be numerous as the piles of grass p;" yea, " the birth of her womb should be as the dew of the morning0-." May God give us to see such a season of revival in the midst of us, and throughout our whole land, for Christ's sake !]
m Isai. li. 3. » Isai. lv. 11. ° Gal. iv. 26, 27.
p Ps. Ixxii. 16. i Ps. ex. 3.
god's controversy with his people.
Micah vi. 2, 3. Hear ye, O mountains, the Lord's controversy, and ye strong foundations of the earth : for the Lord hath a controversy with his people, and he will plead with Israel.
0 my people, ivhat have I done unto thee ? and wherein have
1 wearied thee ? testify against me.
WHENEVER we call on men to serve the Lord, they have some excuses to offer, either for the de- ferring of their duty, or for the neglecting of it alto- gether. They will complain that the things required of them are too strict ; that, by reason of the weak- ness of human nature, they are impracticable ; or, at all events, that, under their present circumstances, it were better to postpone the observance of them. In these excuses, they do not intend directly to reflect on God : but, in reality, they do cast the blame of their iniquities on him : on him, I say, as a Lawgiver, that he has required too much of us ; or on him as a Creator, in that he has formed us incapable of obeying his will : or on him as a Governor, who, in his pro- vidence, has assigned us a lot which does not admit of our fulfilling his commands. On these grounds God has a controversy with us ; and appeals to the whole creation that he is greatly wronged by us. The whole process of his appeal is here stated.
We have here,
1212.1 god's controversy with his people. 317
I. The court summoned —
[Sometimes God makes his appeal both to heaven and earth : " Hear, O heavens ! and give ear, O earth ; for the Lord speaketha." At other times he calls to the earth alone, as in the passage before us : " Hear ye, O mountains, and ye strong foundations of the earth!" But what amazing condescension is here, that he should summon his own creatures, to sit, as it were, in judgment upon him ! He has a right to do whatso- ever he shall please : and to presume to question any thing that he does, is the height of impiety. Has not " a potter power over the clay, to make of the same lump a vessel unto honour or unto dishonour," as he shall see fit ? Or has the " clay any right to say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thusb?" If the Maker choose to mar the vessel the very instant he has formed it, he has a perfect right to do so : nor would the vessel have any reason to complain. So has God exactly the same right over usc. He has not injured us, be- cause he did not make us of the highest rank of created intel- ligences : nor would he have done us any injury, if he had made us devoid of reason, like the beasts ? If, when he endued us with reason, he had again bereaved us of it ; or if he were at this moment to deprive us of all the advantages we enjoy ; We should have no ground of accusation against him : he has " a right to do what he will with his ownd ;" nor is he called to " give an account to us of any of his matters e." But when we arraign his conduct, he is willing to have his cause tried before a tribunal of his own creatures, and to place sinners themselves upon the seat of judgment. His permission, yea, his entreaty, to them is, " Judge, I pray you, betwixt me and my vineyard f."]