HOSE A.

MCXLII.

GOD CORRECTS AND RECLAIMS HIS PEOPLE.

Hos. ii. 6, 7. Behold, I will hedge up thy way with thorns, and make a wall, that she shall not find her paths. And she shall follow after her lovers, but she shall not overtake them; and she shall seek them, but shall not find them; then shall she say, I will go and return to my first husband; for then was it better with me than now.

THE

HE generality of mankind are very incompetent judges of the dispensations of Providence. Indeed, for the most part, they quite mistake their nature and tendency; and draw conclusions from them which the Scripture will by no means justify. They suppose that prosperity is a token of Divine love and approbation; and that affliction, on the contrary, is a mark of God's displeasure. But an inspired writer assures us, that "we cannot know good or evil by all that is before us." Considering, however, that we are prone to forget God in our abundance, and that the rod of correction is the means whereby thousands are turned to God, we have reason rather to esteem affliction, at least as the more needful, if not the richer, blessing of the two. tain it is that there are multitudes now in heaven, who owed their first serious impressions to some heavy chastisement; and who must for ever say with the Psalmist, "It is good for me that I have been afflicted." Nor can we doubt but that the good of mankind is one principal end for which God puts the cup of sorrow into their hands.

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A remarkable proof of this we have in the passage before us. The Jews were continually provoking God to jealousy, by depending on alliances with heathens, and worshipping their idols. God, ever slow to anger, and delighting in mercy, used all possible methods to reclaim them. He had tried what kindness would effect, and had found no success. He now determined to take the rod; and sent them word by the prophet, that he would punish them for their offences; but that the end of their punishment should be to reduce them to a happier and better state: Therefore," says he, (because you are so bent to follow your own evil ways) "behold, I will hedge up," &c.

In these words we see,

I. What means God uses to reclaim his people

Though God could effect his purposes instantly, by a mere act of his will, yet he is pleased in general to accomplish them by means suited to the end. In reclaiming his people,

1. He obstructs their ways

[In their unregenerate state they run on, like others, in the ways of sin. But when his time is come, he instructs them either by temporal calamities or by spiritual convictions.

In the common course of events he deprives them of health, fortune, friends; or perhaps by their own imprudence brings disorders or distress upon them.

These trials, however, of themselves have only a momentary effect; and therefore he accompanies them with the secret energy of his Spirit, convincing them of their guilt and danger, and making them tremble through fear of his eternal judgments. He meets them as an armed man," so that they dare no longer to "rush on upon the thick bosses of his buckler."

Thus he "hedges up their way with thorns," and makes their progress in sin very difficult and painful.]

2. He disappoints their endeavours

[God saw the Jews bent on forming alliances with Egypt and Assyria notwithstanding all his warnings to renounce them. He therefore sent them into captivity in Babylon, where they could have no communications with Egypt or Assyria; and thus " built up a wall, that they could not find their former lovers."