Second advent library

Vcans-r's smcoim comms. 5Itisaprophec of whatwould lipto thep00pl00fGod as apunighment for conduct main specified.shall, therefore, in explanation of our subjecgshow,I. For what the people of God are punished;II. Show how they are punished; and,III. The time they will be punished.L First, then,punishment. The text tells us that it is because"will not be reformedby me by these things, but w'walk contrary unto me; that is, unto God.we are to examine the cause of theirIthemlst. A perverse will. We should suppose that a manwho has had his will subdued by the love and Spirit ofGod, could not be in possession of a will so diametricallyopposed to the will of God. Yet history and factsshow us a man after God'sthe man.plainly that it is so. David,own heart, did perform, by his own will, that which wasstrictly forbidden in the law and commands of God.Peter, too, alter his Lord told him he wasevery whitclean, and after he boldly asserted that, if all men shouldforsake Christ, he would not, immediately and willingly,as it is implied, cursed and swore, and said he knew notI am aware that the theory of the present dayis contrary to the idea that the Christian has two wills,carnal and spiritual; but, upon this theory, I cannot accountfor the idea of Christians being punished at all,either on the principle of justice or equity. Therefore Iam constrained to believe that, in the heart of a Christian,there are two wills. Sometimes he is in subjectionto the will of God, and enjoysthe sweets of reconciliation;and again his own will andgoverns controls hisacts, and he must feel the chastising rod of his heavenlyFather ibr his wiltixl disobedience orneglect of his religiousduty. It cannot be the will of God that his people"will not be reformed by him." Here is anotheridea conveyed in our text, which shows that the heart ofa Christian is notwholly pure,-" will not be reformedby God ;" showing the same independent spirit that ourprimitive father and mother did in the fall, "to be asgods." We cannot bear the idea of being dependenton God for our reformation. Let us have the power ofdoing it ourselves, and we will not reject it; but to sayA2?