n 2 Cor. vii. 1. with Acts xv. 9.
god's name the sinner's plea.
Jer. xiv. 7. 0 Lord, though our iniquities testify against us, do thou it for thy names sake.
PRAYER is both our duty and our privilege : and God often suffers trials to come upon his people, in order to stir them up to prayer, and to manifest him- self to them in a more conspicuous manner as " a God that heareth prayer." On some occasions, indeed, he has forbidden his people to intercede with him ; as when he said to Moses, " Let me alone, that my wrath may wax hot against these idolaters, and that I may consume them." But, in such cases, the
prohibition has not been considered as absolute, but rather in a qualified sense ; as intimating only, that any petitions offered under those particular circum- stances could scarcely be expected to prevail ; yet as implying a permission to the person to make the at- tempt. Certainly Moses understood it thus ; for he, notwithstanding the prohibition, besought the Lord for Israel, and enforced his petitions with the most powerful pleas ; and never ceased from urging his requests, till he obtained an answer of peace a. The Prophet Jeremiah, in like manner, was repeatedly forbidden to intercede for Judah and Jerusalem : " Pray not thou for this people, neither lift up cry nor prayer for them, neither make intercession to me : for I will not hear thee V Yet the prophet could not forbear ; but urged his pleas with all imaginable ten- derness and compassion0. He acknowledged, that the sins which had provoked God to anger were great and undeniable : but though he could find no excuse for Israel, he could find a plea in the very character of God: and therefore he entreated him to do, for Ms own sake, what he could not venture to ask for theirs.
In respect of outward circumstances, we at this day do not resemble the Jews ; yet, as sinners, we need to make the same acknowledgments, and to offer the same pleas, as are recorded in our text.
Let us then, with a more immediate application of the passage to our own case, consider,
I. The sinner's acknowledgment —
The prophet's confession is precisely such as befits
the world at large —
[Verily, their iniquities do " testify against them, even to their faced." Their whole lives shew that they have not the fear of God before their eyes. It is impossible to see their conduct, and not feel the force of this melancholy truth e. If it be said, that " they cannot serve the Lord ;" I reply, " They will not frame their doings to turn unto the LorclV There
a Exod. xxxii. 10 — 14. b Jer. vii. 16. and xi. 14.
c ver. 7 — 9. d Hos. vii. 10.
e Ps. xxxvi. 1. f Hos. v. 4, 5.
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is much which they might do, and yet will not do. They might abstain from many things which they wilfully commit ; and might perform many duties which they wilfully neglect. They might put themselves into the way of receiving good to their souls, by reading the Scriptures, and other religious books, in private ; by a more diligent attendance on public ordinances ; and by conversation with persons capable of instructing them in the things of God. But their contempt of all religious advantages, and the determined preference given by them to the things of time and sense, clearly prove the language of their hearts to be, " Depart from us ; for we desire not the knowledge of thy ways."]
With too great reason, also, may it be adopted, even by the best of men —
[There is doubtless an immense difference between the godly and the world at large: for whilst the world are willing slaves of sin and Satan, the godly resist to the uttermost their spiritual enemies, and maintain, on the whole, a successful warfare against them. But though " the Spirit in them lusts against the flesh, the flesh still lusts and fights against the Spirit ; so that they neither do, nor can do, the things that they would C I would ask of all, Whether their consciences do not bear testimony, that yet there is much amiss within them; and that they have yet much to deplore, in respect of commission, and especially in sins of omission and defect ? Who amongst us have not reason to confess, that, on some occasions, through impatience or inadvertence, they have been betrayed into tempers which were unbecoming their holy profession ? And who, through weakness and infirmity, have not given way to sloth and negligence in the secret exercises of the closet ? And who, if they compare their very best duties with the holy requirements of the Law, and the boundless obligations of the Gospel, have not reason to blush and be confounded before God ? Verily, the very best amongst us may well say with the prophet, " Our transgressions are multiplied before thee, and our sins testify against us : for our transgressions are with us ; and, as for our iniquities, we know themh."]