Now this was the sure way to succeed in prayer. Nothing so secures the interposition of God in our behalf, as the magni- fying of him in our hearts : " Them that honour him, he will honour." If we limit his mercies, he will limit his gifts. If we doubt his power or willingness to help, he will withhold such
a ver. 11, 21. ^ ver. 12. <= ver. 19. ^ ver. 20.
e ver. 7. f ver. 19. s ver. 15. '^ ver. 26.
' ver. 26. ^ ver. 15, 16. ' ver. 4. m ver. 17, 25.
displays of his mercy as he would otherwise have vouchsafed". On the other hand, if we be steadfast in believing expectations of his mercy, we shall have such discoveries of his glory as an unbelieving heart has no conception of". We should never forget, that there is nothing too great to ask of God. We never can " open our mouth so wide, but he will fill itP;" nor can we ever be more enlarged in our petitions towards him, than he will be in his communications towards us^.]
But the petition in our text is still more deserving of attention —
II. As suited to us —
Imminent as David's dangers were, they were not to be compared with those to which we are exposed —
[David's enemies might be eluded, intimidated, vanquished : but those with which the soul of every sinner is encompassed can never be eluded, never be overcome.
Sin is a deadly foe, that seeks to destroy every child of man. It lies in wait for us, to allure, to deceive, to ruin us. It clothes itself in specious array : it comes with a friendly aspect : it bids us fear no harm : it tells us, " We shall have peace, though we yield to its f^^scinations^" But it is no sooner committed, than it is registered in the book of God's remembrance, and will come forth at a future period as a swift witness against all whom it has deceived. From man it may be hidden : and even by those who have committed it, it may be forgotten : but " it hunts the wicked man to overthrow him^;" and though it do not immediately seize the sinner as its prey, " it will be sure to find him out^" and, like a millstone about his neck, to sink him into everlasting perdition".
The latv of God also follows with its curses all who have transgressed its commands^. It is inexorable. It is a creditor that cannot be satisfied, or appeased. It will take the sinner by the throat, saying, " Pay me that thou owest:" and, when we cannot discharge our debt, " it will listen to no entreaties, but will cast us into prison, till we have paid the uttermost farthing." God himself appealed to his people of old respect- ing this : " My words, and my statutes, which I commanded my servants the prophets, did they not take hold of your fathers ? And they returned, and said. Like as the Lord of Hosts thought to do unto us, according to our ways, and according to our doings, so hath he dealt with us^." Of the
n Matt. xiii. 58. ° John xi. 40. p Ps. Ixxxi. 10.
1 2 Cor. vi. 11 — 13. ■■ Deut. xxix. 19. ^ pg. gxl. 11.
t Numb, xxxii. 23. " Jam. i 14, 15. ^ Gal. iii. 10. y Zech. i. G.
555.^ THE sinner's hope. 257
six hundred thousand men who came out of Egypt, how many entered into Canaan? None, except Joshua and Caleb; who " had followed the Lord fully." Against all the rest a sentence of death was denounced in the very first year of their sojourn- ing in the wilderness: and at the close of the forty years a minute inquiry was instituted; and not one was found alive''. So it will be found in the last day, that of all the threatenings in the book of God not one has fallen to the ground ; and that, of all who mourned not over their transgressions of the law, not one escaped the vengeance of his God. God has said, *' Their foot shall slide in due time^:" he has declared that " they shall all be turned into hell, even all the nations that forget him^:" that "he will rain upon them snares, fire and brimstone, and an horrible tempest ; and that this shall be the portion of their cup"^ :" he has declared it, I say ; and, whether we will believe it or not, his law shall be thus honoured, and his justice shall be thus magnified, on every impenitent trans- gressor: for already is he " whetting his sword for the execution of his vengeance upon them ; and soon will he make his arrows drunk with their blood '^." " The soul that sinneth, it shall die®."