Ans. To this he answereth, It is true : God, to your thinking, seemeth to be gone from you. Ay, but despair not, stay your mind in peace a while ; he hath but turned away his face for a little, he will turn again, he will have compassion upon you, &c. Though he correct and humble you for a while, yet you shall have a joyful issue of all. Now, having propounded this first mercy of our justification, he cometh to,
2. The second benefit, of sauctification, and it is amplified by two degrees :
1, In this life; 2, in the life to come.
For the first he says, ' He will subdue our iniquities ;' that is, though at first we were sinful, ruled and overruled by our sins, yet now, when God cometh unto us thus in justification, working sauctification, he says he will subdue them; that is, by little and little he will master them, so that the force and power of them shall be taken away.
Secondly, He sheweth that all the sins of those whom he subdueth he will throw into the bottom of the sea. To understand which we must call to mind a history of former times, which is, that the Lord will deal with our sins as sometimes he did with the temporal enemies of his people. When Pharaoh and his army pursued them, the Lord did overthrow the chariots and horsemen of Egypt, and drowned them in the bottom of the sea; unto which the Spirit of God alludeth here, that he will, for assur- ance's sake, for ever drown all our sins ; so that, as the Lord said to Moses, ' The Egyptians whom ye have now seen, ye shall not see any more,' Exod. xiv. 13; so here the Lord saith, that our sins, which vexed us, we shall never hereafter see any more, for he will drown all our sins from out of his sight; they shall never any more either vex us or grieve him, they shall be all cast into the bottom of the sea.
Now, the reasons moving God are taken from his nature :
1, From his mercy; 2, from his truth, aided with four reasons thereof.
For the first he saith, for mercy pleaseth him, or, ' he delighteth in mercy.'
For the second, of God's truth, because above all things we are full of infidelity, and hardly believe this, therefore he strengtheneth and confirmeth it with divers other reasons.
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First, From antiquity. It is an ancient truth, even from the days of old, so that a thing of so ancient a truth must needs be believed.
Secondly, From the often repetition thereof: 'to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.' So that a truth that hath been so often repeated, must needs be true.
Thirdly, It is a truth confirmed by many witnesses, even a truth known of all our fathers ; so that must needs be true which is confirmed by such a cloud of witnesses.
Fourthly, If all this will not serve, yet he says that ' God hath sworn it.' It is as true as God's truth; so tlaat better it were that all the world should fail, than God should fail of his truth. And therefore, if we will needs keep and observe our oaths, much more must God. It stands him to defend his truth. Thus far of the opening and meaning of the words ; now let us come to the instructions rising from hence.
And first, in that we see in the coherence of the text, he cometh in, as it were in a triumph, challenging all the powers in heaven and earth, angels and devils, with admiration, crying, ' Who is a God like unto thee,' &c., we learn that,
Doct. 1. There is none so merciful as God. So the Lord speaketh, Isa. xlix. 13, ' Can a woman forget her child, and not have compassion upon the son of her womb ? Though they should forget, yet will not I forget thee,' &c. He sheweth here that all natural compassion is nothing to that great care God hath of us. So Ps. ciii. 13, 'As a father hath compassion on his children, so the Lord hath compassion on them that fear him.' So also we may see the same practised by examples. For at first when Adam had forfeited his estate, flying away out of God's presence, yet we see God cometh, and findeth him out, then forgives his sin, and lastly, comforts him in the promise of the blessed seed. Gen. iii. 15. And for the loss of a paradise upon earth, he bringeth him to a far more glorious and eternal paradise in heaven. So Saul, Acts ix. 3, et seq., going unto Damascus in fury and rage to persecute the saints, we see Christ he comes unto him, finds him out, lovingly reasons the matter with him, and for- gives him, sending him unto the means of his final conversion. Thus as of sins of nature, so of sins after regeneration, we may see the like. When David had sinned in adultery and murder, before he could half make con- fession of his sin, the Lord he meets him as it were half way, and pardon- eth his sin, putteth it quite away from his sight, imputeth not the same unto him ; so that we may justly cry out also with this prophet, ' Who is a God like unto thee ?' &c. The reasons are divers.