it shall burn unto the lowest hell, and shall consume the earth with her increase, and set on fire the foundations of the mountains. I will heap mischiefs upon them, and will spend mine arrows upon them." To the same effect the Prophet Nahum also speaks: "God is jealous; and the Lord revengeth: the Lord revengeth, and is furious; the Lord will take vengeance on his adversaries; and he reserveth wrath for his enemies."] Nor is this unworthy of his character [On account of his own inconceivable excellency he deserves to stand without a rival in our affections. On account of what he has also done for us in creation, in providence, and in grace, especially in the gift of his only dear Son to die for us; and, I may add, on account of the relation in which he stands as "the Husband of his Church," he has additional claims to our supreme regard: and if he see that we are in any respect suffering any thing to stand in competition with him, he may well be jealous. In truth, he could not, consistently with his own perfections, dispense with these obligations, even for a moment. "He cannot give his glory to another" he would cease to be God, if he could suffer his own inalienable rights to be withheld from him, and not express his indignation against the idolatrous offender. It is his very "name" and nature to be jealous as to those who love him, he is a God of love and mercy; so is he, of necessity, to those who alienate their affections from him, "a jealous God, and a consuming fire."] From this view of his character, let us proceed to notice, II. Our duty, as arising from it We must not act in any way inconsistent with the relation which we bear to him. We must not suffer, 1. Any alienation of our affections from him— [We are bound to love him with all our heart, and all our mind, and all our soul, and all our strength. Nothing is to be loved by us but in subordination to him, and for his sake. If any thing under heaven be permitted to share our regards with him, we are guilty of idolatry. Nothing is excepted, when the Apostle says, "Set your affections on things above, and not on things on the earth." We must take care, therefore, not only not to love any thing above him, but to "hate even father and mother, and our own lives also," in comparison of him.] 2. Any abatement in our attentions to him— b Deut. xxxii. 21-23. f Deut. iv. 23, 24. c Nah. i. 2. g Col. iii. 5. d Isai. liv. 5. e Isai. xlii. 8. h Col. iii. 2. [God speaks of our espousals to him as a season of peculiar love. And at that season we are, for the most part, delighted with every thing that may bring us into nearer communion with him, and express the feelings of our heart towards him. Then the reading of his word, and secret prayer, and an attendance on the public ordinances of religion are to us sources of the sublimest joy. But if we become cold in these respects, and the ardour of our love abate, can we suppose that he will be pleased with us? Will he not say to us, as to the Church at Ephesus, "I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first lovek?" Surely, if an earthly husband will not endure a declension in his wife's regards, much less will the God of heaven and earth endure a diminution of ours.] 3. Any unnecessary intercourse with things which have a tendency to draw us from him— [This is particularly marked in the preceding context. God requires his people not to form alliance with their heathen neighbours, nor to accept invitations to their idolatrous feasts: he commands them to "destroy their altars, and break down their images, and cut down their groves," and to forbear even the mention of the gods whom they worshipped. He knew how soon " evil communications would corrupt good manners:" and therefore he forbade any unnecessary intercourse with the heathen. And has he not given a similar injunction to us also? Has he not declared, that, as soon may "light and darkness have communion with each other, or Christ with Belial, as a believer with an unbeliever;" and that, therefore, we must come out from the ungodly world, and be separate, and not touch the unclean thing, if we would have him for "a father unto us, and act as becomes his sons and daughters1?” This is a gracious and merciful warning, similar to what an affectionate husband would give his wife in relation to the society of one who was seeking to seduce her. And we must carefully attend to it; and be no more "of the world, than Christ himself was of the world." We must endeavour to "keep our garments clean" amidst the pollutions that are around us, and "hate even the garment spotted by the flesh"." We must not be contented with avoiding evil, but must "abstain even from the appearance of it."] ADDRESS 1. Those who think it an easy matter to serve God[Though a woman may without any great difficulty perform her duties to an affectionate husband, where the bias of i Jer. ii. 2. m Rev. iii. 4. Rev. ii. 4. 1 2 Cor. vi. 14-18. • 1 Thess. v. 22. her natural affections is on the side of duty, it is not so easy to execute all that our God requires: for there we stem the current of nature, instead of being carried forward by it. Hence, when the whole people of Israel were so ready to bind themselves to serve their God, Joshua warned them, that they could not do it without divine aid P. So let me say to you, that, if you will indeed give yourselves to the Lord, and take him as your portion, you must not engage in your own strength; but must look unto your "God, who alone can work in you either to will or to do."] 2. Those who are unconscious of having given occasion to God to be jealous of them [Look, not merely at your acts, but at the dispositions of your mind, and then judge. He says, "Give me thy heart." Now see whether your affections have not strayed; yea, whether you have not been like the wild ass in the wilderness, whom none can overtake or keep from her mate, till the time for parturition has nearly arrived? This is an humiliating, but a just, image of our conduct; and if we will not acknowledge it, and humble ourselves under a sense of it, "God will surely plead with us" to our confusion 1.] 3. Those who are ashamed of their past ways [Amongst men, the unfaithfulness of a wife may have been such as to preclude a possibility of her restoration to the station she once held: but no departures, however grievous, shall prevent our restoration to the divine favour, if, with sincerity of heart, we humble ourselves before him. In the name of God himself, I am commanded to proclaim this, and to invite the most abandoned of you all to return to him. Return, then, unto him, and so your iniquity shall not be your ruin"."] 66 P Josh. xxiv. 18, 19. s Jer. iii. 1. a Jer. ii. 23, 24. r Jer. ii. 35. u Ezek. xviii. 30. CXIV. THE THREE YEARLY FEASTS AT JERUSALEM. Exod. xxxiv. 23, 24. Thrice in the year shall all your menchildren appear before the Lord God, the God of Israel. For I will cast out the nations before thee, and enlarge thy borders: neither shall any man desire thy land, when thou shalt go up to appear before the Lord thy God, thrice in the year. BESIDES the weight of evidence arising from the accomplishment of prophecy, and the working of miracles, to prove the divine origin of the Mosaic dispensation, there is a great abundance of internal evidence in the dispensation itself, that corroborates and confirms our conclusions respecting it. What impostor that ever lived would have been weak enough to put his religion to such a test as this which we have now read? No one would have done it even for a few years, whilst he himself might be at hand to execute his own plans; much less would any man transmit such an ordinance to posterity, when one single instance of failure would be sufficient to subvert his whole religion. But, not to dwell on this, we will, I. Draw your attention to the institution itself It was, that all the males should go up to Jerusalem thrice in the year, from every quarter of the land, to keep a feast there unto the Lord. Now consider, 1. Of what nature this appointment was— [It was partly political, and partly religious. As a political ordinance, it was intended to cement the people together, and to keep them united in love. Had they had no common centre of union, no appointed means of communion, the different tribes might in process of time have forgotten their relation to each other, and have sought their own separate interests, instead of acting in concert with each other for the good of the whole. But by this expedient, all who had the greatest influence among them were brought frequently into the closest fellowship with each other, and, on their return to their respective homes, diffused the same brotherly affection through the land. As a religious ordinance, it was of singular importance, not only for the preserving of the people from idolatry, (to which they were always prone,) but for the impressing of their minds with a love to vital godliness. The times appointed for their assembling at Jerusalem were at the feast of unleavened bread, to commemorate their deliverance from Egypt and from the sword of the destroying angel; at the feast of Pentecost, to commemorate no less a mercy, the giving of the law; and at the feast of tabernacles, or of in-gathering (as it was called), to commemorate their living in tents in the wilderness, and to render thanks for the fruits of the earth which they had gathered in. Thus at the returning seasons of spring, of a See Deut. xvi. 1-16. summer, and of autumn, they were required to commemorate the mercies which had been vouchsafed to their nation, and with joy and gratitude to acknowledge their obligations to Jehovah b What a blessed tendency had such seasons to keep alive in their minds a sense of their high privileges, and to spread a savour of true religion through every family in the land!] 2. What care God took to guard against the objections to which it was liable [It would of necessity occur to all, that, by their observance of this ordinance, their land on every side would be exposed to the incursions of their enemies, who would not fail to take advantage of their absence, and to retaliate upon them the injuries they had sustained. In this view it should seem, that they would be highly criminal in leaving the women, the children, the aged, and the sick, in such a defenceless state, and that it would be more advisable to depute some from every quarter to represent the rest. But God would not be served by deputy: he commanded all to keep the feasts at the place prescribed: and, to remove all apprehensions about their perty or their families, he pledged himself to protect their frontier, and so to overrule the minds of their enemies, that they should not even "desire" to invade their land at any of those seasons. They had seen how able he was to turn the minds of their enemies in Egypt, who had just before sent, yea even "thrust," them out of the land, laden with spoil; and he engaged that, to the remotest period of their existence as a nation, he would interpose for them with equal effect, if only they would trust their concerns to him, and serve him in his appointed way.] pro We indeed have nothing to do with the institution before us: nor do we much admire the formal custom (which seems to have arisen from it) of attending at the Lord's supper on the three great festivals of our Church, while we live in the neglect of that ordinance all the year besides. Nevertheless the institution is far from being uninteresting to us; as will be seen, while we, II. Suggest some observations founded upon it— Much might we speak respecting the providence of God, who so miraculously wrought upon the minds of their enemies, that no infidel could ever adduce b They were ordered to rejoice before the Lord, and to make freewill offerings to him: "None were to come empty." Mark especially, Deut. xvi. 10, 15, 16. |