body present to find fault and quarrel with, he will quarrel with any thing that comes in his head. Job spends a whole chapter against his birth-day. "And Job cursed his day. Let the day perish wherein I was born, and the night in which it was said, There is a man child conceived. Let that day be darkness; let not God regard it from above; neither let the light shine upon it; let darkness and the shadow of death stain it; let a cloud dwell upon it; let the blackness of the day terrify it; let it not be joined to the days of the year; let it not come into the number of the months; let them curse it that curse the day."

Nor does the enmity of the heart, when stirred up by a spirit of bondage, stay itself upon men and things only; but even God himself comes in for a share. "The carnal mind is enmity against God." And this enmity is a member of the old man, which he will hold fast as long as he lives. Job multiplied words against God, and lied against his right. "I sat alone," saith Jeremiah, "because of thy hand, for thou hast filled me with indignation. Why is my pain perpetual, and my wound incurable, which refuseth to be healed? Wilt thou be altogether unto me as a liar, and as waters that fail?" "Thou hast cast off, and abhorred; thou hast been wroth with thine anointed; thou hast made void the covenant of thy servant; thou hast profaned his crown; thou hast broken down his hedges, and brought his strong holds to ruin; thou hast set up the right hand of his adversaries,

and hast made all his enemies to rejoice." Thus "the foolishness of a man perverteth his way, and his heart fretteth against the Lord." These are some of the heavy charges that are brought against the Father of all mercies; and confirms, with a witness, the truth of his own proclamation, when he proclaimed his own name; "The Lord, the Lord God, gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abundant in goodness and truth." And if he were not so I know not what would become of us.

Thus the law worketh wrath. It communicates the wrath that is revealed in it to us; it worketh the wrath of God in the soul, stirs up the wretched enmity of the heart, and fills it with anger against every thing. Such a soul fretteth against God. It envies the happiness of the righteous, and the prosperity of the wicked. This bondage fills the soul with hatred, and makes men hateful, and hating one another. The heart is filled with madness, and full of cursing and bitterness at every cross, and every thing that lies in the way, though he doth not spit it out. Such an one views God as an enemy, and one that mars his counsels, breaks his purposes, thwarts his designs, and fights against him, when, as he thinks, he aims well and means well. It fills the soul with self-pity; and such an one sits down, and considers himself as an injured man. He will cavil at the master of the household about every penny that is given to another, and is not satisfied with the penny given to him, thinking that himself deserved more. He will limit the Holy one of Israel,

and cannot allow the Lord to do as he will with his own. He will envy the happiness and state of every body; think his own lot to be the worst that ever fell to the share of man; and therefore be discontented with every thing and grateful for nothing.

And, for my part, I know of no trial so sharp, no cross so heavy, no sensations so dreadful, no exercise so severe, no dispensation so terrible, no rod that enters so deep, as to be left to struggle with legal bondage. The smiles of a gracious Father are changed into the frowns of an angry Judge; liberty, with respect to the enjoyment of it, is exchanged for bondage; happiness for misery; peace for war; familiarity for shiness; indulgence for cold indifference; tenderness for sensible neglect; attracting love into forbidding terror; a mercy-seat for a throne of judgment; and the best of friends into the appearance of an enemy. "Terrors are turned upon me," says Job, "they pursue my soul as the wind, and my welfare passeth away as a cloud. My bones are pierced in me in the night season, and my sinews take no rest. hath cast me into the mire, and I am become like dust and ashes. I cry unto thee, and thou dost not hear me; I stand up, and thou regardest me not. Thou art become cruel to me. With thy strong hand thou opposest thyself against me; my harp also is turned into mourning, and my organ into the voice of them that weep." I come now,

He

Fifthly, To the suspicion and jealousy that at

swer.

tends this spirit of bondage. The Lord our God, whose name is jealous, is a jealous God, Exodus xxxiv. 14. "How long, Lord, wilt thou be angry for ever; shall thy jealousy burn like fire?" The spirit of bondage brings a little of this ingredient with it. The spouse in the Song felt this pretty sharply; she refused to open to her beloved, and so he withdrew; she sought him, but found him not; she called him, but he gave her no anHe then went down into the garden; that is, down among the more meek, humble, and lowly souls. This she knew, and begged these young daughters to stay her with flagons, and to comfort her with apples, for she was sick of love; and desired them to tell her beloved so when they saw him. Hence her own description of her feelings at this time; "Set me as a seal upon thine heart, as a seal upon thine arm: for love is strong as death, jealousy is cruel as the grave: the coals thereof are coals of fire, which hath a most vehement flame."

It is easy to see where the penman of the Song learnt this lesson. "And the Lord was angry with Solomon, because his heart was turned from the Lord God of Israel which had appeared to him twice, and had commanded him concerning this thing, that he should not go after other gods. Wherefore the Lord said unto Solomon, Forasmuch as this thing is done of thee, I will surely rend the kingdom from thee, and give it to thy servant," who was Jeroboam. The prophet Ahijah meets

Jeroboam, and tells him that he should reign over ten tribes, because Solomon had served other gods. Moreover, God promised by him that, if Jeroboam would walk in God's statutes, as David did, God would be with him, and build him a sure house. Solomon hears of all this, and in his desperate madness fights against the very decree of God; determined to make his promise void, and his prophet a liar; for Solomon sought to kill Jeroboam, but Jeroboam fled into Egypt, 1 Kings xi. 40. Solomon, in this rage of jealousy, had quite forgotten his own proverb; "He that doth violence to the blood of any person, let him flee to the pit; let no man stay him." However, God kept him from his purpose; for Solomon was not to fly to the pit of hell as a murderer, nor to be beaten with eternal stripes. "I will for this afflict the seed of David, but not for ever." "And the Lord stirred up an adversary unto Solomon, Hadad the Edomite;" and God stirred up another adversary, Rezin, the son of Eliadah; and Jeroboam he lift up his hand against the king,

Such idolatry, and alienation of affections from God, God calls the provoking of his sons and of his daughters; and, as Solomon had provoked the Almighty to jealousy with them that were no gods, so God provokes him to jealousy by them which were no saints.

Sarah was afflicted with a little of this fire when, in her wisdom, she would further the coming of the promised seed, by giving up her bed to