though he tolerates it in the world, he will sooner or later manifest his indignation against it. But in none does he abhor it more, than in those who profess them- selves his people : according to what is written, " You only have I known of all the families of the earth : therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities^."
To those who live in the commission of it he will not lend an ear —
[There are seasons when the most careless persons will call upon God : "In the time of their trouble they will say, Arise, and save us'':" and " they will pour out a prayer when some heavy chastening is upon them*^." Not that they desire deliverance from sin : it is trouble alone that they are anxious to get rid of; and that removed, they would return with plea- sure to their former ways. Such were the Jews in the wilder- ness : " When he slew them, then they sought him, and they returned and inquired early after God : and they remembered that God was their rock, and the high God their Redeemer. Nevertheless they did flatter him with their mouth, and they lied unto him with their tongues: for their heart was not right with him, neither were they steadfast in his covenant^." But it is in vain for such hypocrites to hope that God will hear their prayers : for the very " sacrifices of the wicked are an abomination to the Lord^:" and of this God has fully warned us. He has declared, that " though they cry, he will not hear them^ ;" yea, " though they cry in his ears, loith a loud voice^;" yea, "though they make many prayers*;" yea, though with their prayers " they fast, and offer burnt-offerings and oblations^:" so far from listening to them, he will turn a deaf ear to their petitions, and even laugh at the calamities which they either feel or fear^ He will recompense them according to their doings. In the day that he called to them, " they refused to hearken, and pulled away the shoulder, and stopped their ears, that they should not hear : and therefore, as he cried, and they would not hear; so when they cry, he will not hear™."]
Even where sin is not openly indulged, but only harboured in the heart, God will resent it in this way —
[Sin, however secret, is not hidden from him: for He sees it, under whatever form it may exist, and in the inmost recesses of the heart: " He searcheth the heart," and " weigheth the
^ Amos iii. 2. ^ jgr. ii. 27. ^ Isai. xxvi. 16».
e Ps. Ixxviii. 34 — 37. ' Prov. xxi. 27- ^ Jer. xi. 11.
h Ezek. viii. 18. » Isai. i. 12 — 15. ^ Jer. xiv. 12.
1 Prov. i. 24—32. ^ Zech. vii. 11, 13.