But the works of the Lord are “sought out” by those only, “who have pleasure therein:” and this will explain to us the true cause, why such lamentable numbers of professed believers seldom or never seek them out at all. They have no _pleasure_ in their thoughts upon the Almighty: they love Him not, serve Him not with a devoted and delighted heart; their conscience is uneasy and self-condemning, and therefore they reluctantly turn their thoughts to their great Sovereign and Judge; it is rather a pain than a pleasure to them, so to do. “Loving the world and the things of the world,” they have no taste for spiritual enjoyment of any kind: in extraordinary emergencies, when the interference of an over-ruling power is irresistibly thrust upon their notice, they do not refuse to join with their brethren in acknowledging the fact: but as for searching out His ways and dealings in their daily experience, they are decidedly disinclined and averse to it; the injunction of such a practice is repugnant to their views and feelings and desires. Nor can any, but the pious and faithful servant of God, find delight in this holy and profitable exercise: and the longer he lives, the more clearly he perceives the hand of the Almighty in every thing; in discomfiting the evil and blessing the good: he sees and admires the wonders of grace, as well as the wonders of providence, vouchsafed to others as well as himself; to the Church in all ages. He reads, in the word of truth, of the signal manner, in which the Lord has delivered His people from the foundation of the world; not only by the miraculous interposition of His omnipotent arm; but also in the ordinary course of His dealings with them. How merciful and manifold have been His ways of enlightening them when in ignorance, and converting them when in sin. How pitifully and patiently has He borne, not only with their infirmities, but with their guilt and rebellion; and graciously reclaimed them from the path of error and ruin, by the mercies of His chastising rod. Nor do the defeat and destruction of wicked men afford less decisive proof, than the deliverance of the righteous, of the greatness of the Lord’s works: the whole history of the Church shews Him to have been great in justice, as in mercy: and, we may add, in truth also. Often indeed have the promises of divine favour, and the denunciations of vengeance, been fulfilled in the most unexpected and marvellous manner; by instruments apparently altogether unequal to the momentous object designed. But “the Lord worked for His people; and there is no restraint to the Lord to save by many or by few.” {395}