Wesley Corpus

First. I am to observe what account the Scriptures give of the Jews, the ancient Church of God. I mean, with regard to their moral character; their tempers and outward behaviour. No sooner were they brought out of Egypt, than we find them “murmuring against God;” (Exod. xiv. 12;) again, when he had just brought them through the Rea Sea “with a mighty hand and stretched out arm;” (xv. 24;) and yet again, quickly after, in the wilderness of Zin : “Your mur murings,” saith Moses, “are not against us, but against the Lord.” (xvi. 8.) Nay, even while he was “giving them bread from heaven,” they were still “murmuring and tempting God;” (xvii. 2, 3;) and their amazing language at that very season was, “Is the Lord among us or not?” (xvii. 7.) The same spirit they showed, during the whole forty years that he “bore their manners in the wilderness: ” A solemn testimony whereof, “Moses spake in the ears of all the con gregation of Israel,” when God was about to take him away from their head. “They have corrupted themselves,” saith he; “their spot was not of his children; they are a perverse and crooked generation. The Lord led Jacob about; he instructed him; he kept him as the apple of his eye.” (Deut. xxxii. 5, 10.) “He made him ride on the high places of the earth, that he might eat the increase of the fields; then he forsook God which made him, and lightly esteemed the Rock of his salvation.” (Verses 13, 15.) In like manner God complains long after this: “Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth ! I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me. The ox know eth his owner, and the ass his master's crib; but Israel doth not know, my people doth not consider. Ah sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evil doers, children that are cor rupters, they have forsaken the Lord, they have provoked the Holy One of Israel.” (Isaiah i. 2-4.) “Can a maid forget her ornaments, or a bride her attire? Yet my people have forgotten me days without number.” (Jer. ii. 32.) 4.