Jehovah, and with the help of that great and unscrupulous power he had to take its domination and destructiveness (2 Chron. xxviii. 16, 20). Again a typical case. The retributive justice of God is a fact of which it behoves us to be heedful. FOOTNOTES: [1] Augustine, in his _Confessions,_ makes thankful note of the manner in which in the years of his ungodliness, God had raised up obstacles in his path of sin. When sinful desires raged within him, he says, the means for gratifying them were absent; or when the desires and the means of gratifying them came together, some witness was present to deter him; and when the means were present, and no witnesses stood by to hinder him, the desire to transgress was wanting. He rightly judges that these were no mere accidents or coincidences. [2] The preventing methods of grace may deservedly pass for some of the prime instances of the Divine mercy to men in this world. For though it ought to be owned for an eminent act of grace to restore one actually fallen, yet there are not wanting arguments to persuade, that it is a greater to keep one from falling. Not to break a limb is more desirable than to have it set and healed, though never so skilfully and well. Preservation in this, as in many other cases, being better a great deal than restoration; since after all is done, it is odds but the scar will remain when the wound is cured and the danger over.--_South._ [3] Ahaz listened in sullen and incredulous silence; and the prophet resumes--"Ask thee a sign of Jehovah thy God; ask it either in the depth, or in the height above." But Ahaz, who looked on Jehovah not as his God, but only (like any of his heathen neighbours) as the god of Judæa, and as such inferior to the god of Assyria; and who had determined to apply to the king of Assyria, or perhaps had already applied to him, as a more trustworthy helper than Jehovah, in the present strait; declines to ask a sign, excusing himself by a contrary use of the words of Moses, "Thou shalt not tempt Jehovah." He refused the sign, because he knew it would confirm the still struggling voice of his conscience; and that voice he had resolved not to obey, since it bid him give up the Assyrian, and trust in Jehovah henceforth.--_Strachey._ [4] Within the space of time figuratively indicated by the time necessary for the child of the prophet to become capable of discerning between good and evil--_i.e.,_ in about three years,--Rezin and Pekah were slain, and the fact that they were but "two tails of smoking firebrands" demonstrated. (See 2 Kings xv. 27-30; xvi. 1-9.) A THREEFOLD COUNSEL. vii. 4. _Take heed, and be quiet; fear not._