3. A consistency with his own conduct —
[" Thou hast forgiven this people from Egypt even until now : and wilt thou abandon them at last ? O let it not be so : pardon, I beseech thee, yet again and again their iniquity, according unto the greatness of thine unbounded mercy p."
This plea, if used with men, would have had no weight : it would have operated rather to prevent the repetition of mer- cies which had been so abused. But, with God, it availeth much: and in our minds too it is a most encouraging conside- ration. We may look back and see how God has borne with all our frowardness from our youth up to the present moment ; and may take occasion from his past forbearance to supplicate the continuance of it: " Remember, O Lord, thy tender mer- cies, and thy loving-kindnesses ; for they have been ever of oldq." Yes ; we should " account the long-suffering of God to be sal- vation r," and the goodness he has already exercised towards us as a motive and encouragement to repentance s.]
Such was the prayer of Moses, a prayer peculiarly
n ver. 17, 18. which refers to Exod. xxxiv. 6, 7.
0 That clause, " by no means clearing the guilty," may, both in Exod. xxxiv. 7. and hi this place, be rendered " clearing, I will not clear," i. e. not make desolate. The word "guilty" is not in the original. In that sense it will be exactly parallel with Jer. xxx. 11. But the sense affixed to it in the Translation is probably the right, though the other is better suited to the purpose for which it is here adduced.
p ver. 19. i Ps. xxv. 6. r 2 Pet. hi. 15. s Rom. ii. 4.