d Jam. iv. 8. e Ps. cxlviii. 14.
f 1 John i. 3. e Jer. xxx. 21.
god's interest in his people. Ps. lxxiv. 22. Arise, 0 God ! plead thine own cause.
NO one can have ever heard or read the account given us of Abraham's intercession for Sodom, with- out being struck with the condescension of God in suffering a poor sinful worm so to urge his requests as to make every fresh concession an occasion of still larger demands. Yet, methinks, the petition offered in my text is incomparably more bold than perhaps any other that was ever offered by fallen man.
In unfolding this petition, I will shew you, I. That there is an identity of interests between God and his people —
This the psalm before us clearly proves —
[Great was the distress of God's people at the time it was written: they appear to have been forsaken of their God, and delivered over into the hands of their enemies. But the writer speaks, throughout the psalm, as if their cause was God's ; and calls upon God to take it up altogether as his own: " O God, why hast thou cast us off for ever? why doth thine anger smoke against the sheep of thy pasture ? Remember thy con- gregation, which thou hast purchased of old ; the rod of thine inheritance, which thou hast redeemed; this Mount Zion, wherein thou hast dwelt*/" " Have respect unto the Covenant^." " Arise, O God ! plead thine own cause." Who would imagine that this is the address of a sinner imploring mercy for himself and for his people ? Yet such it is : and this clearly proves that God considers his people's cause as his own, and their interests as identified with his.]
The whole Scriptures also speak to the same
effect —
[When the people murmured against Moses, he warned them that their murmuring was not against him, but against God himself0. When the people of Israel desired to have no longer a judge, like Samuel, but a king, like other nations around them, Samuel told them, that it was not him that they had rejected, but God d. The Prophet Zechariah con- firms this, in terms peculiarly strong and energetic, when he represents God as saying to his oppressed people, " He that toucheth you, toucheth the apple of mine eyee." Our blessed Lord and Saviour speaks to the same effect ; and so identifies himself with his people, that, whether they be benefited or injured, he considers it as cfone to himself. Is any poor ser- vant of his clothed or fed or visited, Christ says, " In doing it to him, ye did it to MEf." On the other hand, is any one of them oppressed, Christ feels the stroke as inflicted on himself: " Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou MEg?"]
This being clear, I proceed to shew,
II. Whence this identity arises —
It arises,
1. From the relation in which they stand to God — [In the psalm before us this is strongly marked. The Jewish nation being " his sheep," " his congregation," " his inheritance," was a reason why he should consider " their cause as his own." The whole people of Israel were accounted by God as " his portion and inheritance," and the more religious
a ver. 1, 2. *> ver. 20. c Exod. xvi. 8.
d 1 Sam. viii. 7. e Zech. ii. 8. f Matt. xxv. 40.
s Acts. ix. 4.
628.] god's interest in his people. 25
part of them as " his peculiar treasure" and " his jewels." Yea, he accounted himself as their Father, and them as his children. Now, is there a parent in the universe who, if his child were injured, would not account the injury as done to himself? We wonder not, then, that God should regard his children's cause as identified with his own.]
2. From the union which subsists between them
and the Lord Jesus Christ —
[They have been " bought with the precious blood of Christ," who therefore considers them as " his ownh." And how near their union with him is, may be seen by the images under which it is described. He is " the foundation" on which they stand1, and consequently one with the superstructure built upon him. He is " the Husband" of his Church, and therefore one with his spouse k. But the union is far closer than this : for " He is the vine, and they are the branches," vitally united to him, and deriving all their sap and nourish- ment from him1. But neither does that come up to the full idea of our union with him: for " we are members of his body, even of his flesh and of his bones™," yea, and are also " one Spirit with him11," he being " the very life that liveth in us0." In fact, there is no union with which it can be compared, but that which exists between the Father and Christp: and hence St. Paul calls the collective members of his body by the very name of Christ: " As the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christq ;" that is, so also is the Church of Christ, which is so identified with him, that it may well bear his very name. How can it be, then, but that he should make our cause his own ?]