Whether we consider our sin or our 2^u7iishment, we have but too much reason to weep. Indecision is not so hght a sin as some imagine*^: it shews an insincerity of heart, which is most odious in itself, and most offensive to God. See in what a light the Israelites beheld it, when once a conviction of it was brought home to their minds ! and is not the sparing of inve- terate lusts as wicked as sparing the devoted Canaanites ? Does it not betray an equal want of reverence for God, of love to his name, and of zeal for his honour ? Behold then what is the duty of every one amongst us : "Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep ; let your laughter be turned into mourning, and your joy into heaviness ; humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, and he shall lift you up^." Nor does the threatened punishment afibrd us less occasion to weep : for a subjection to sin is the greatest evil that can befall us. If God should once say, " He is joined to idols ; let him alone ;" it would be a heavier judgment to us than immediate death and immediate damnation ; because we should live only to " treasure up wrath against the day of wrath," and shovild perish at last under an accumulated weight of misery to all eternity. O that the dread of such a punishment might humble us all in dust and ashes !]
2. An application to God through the medium of sacrifice —
["They sacrificed there unto the Lord;" and had re- course to the blood of sprinkling for the remission of their sin. Though their weeping was very general, and very bitter, inso- much that the name of the place, which was Shiloh, was called Bochim, or Weepers, from that circumstance, yet did they not hope to pacify their offended God with tears : they knew that an atonement was necessary ; and they sought him there- fore in his appointed way. O that ive might learn from them ! Humiliation is necessary ; but it is not sKjfficient : tears, even if we could shed rivers of them, could never wash away sin : the blood of atonement is necessary; "without shedding of blood there is no remission." We must apply to the Lord Jesus Christ, and "go to God through him." We must acknowledge our obligation to his sacrifice for all the mercy and forbearance we have already experienced ; and nmst look to it as the only means of our reconciliation with God : it is his blood, and " his blood alone, that can ever cleanse us from
our sin" And here I would particularly remind you
that the sin laid to the charge of Israel, was not of commissioii, but of omission ; not soine flagrant enormity, but a lukewarm- ness and neglect of duty : yet did they see the need of a sacri- fice to atone for that. In like manner, though we should have
^ Job xxxi. 25, 28. <" Jam. iv. 9, 10.