god's mercy to his people.
Jer. 1. 20. In those days, and in that time, saith the Lord, the iniquity of Israel shall be sought for, and there shall be none; and the sins ofJudah, and they shall not be found: for I will pardon them ivhom I reserve.
THE promises of God in his word are said to be " exceeding great and precious a:" and, in truth, they are so great, that we are apt to feel a jealousy re- specting them, as though they were not sufficiently guarded : they are apt to appear to us too free, too full, too unqualified, too fixed. Hence we would clog them with limitations and conditions : we would confine them to objects in whom should be found some antecedent worthiness, and suspend the per- formance of them upon the faithfulness of man. I mean not, by this observation, to say, that great cau- tion is not to be used in the application of them to individual persons ; for I well know, that men may easily deceive themselves respecting their own per- sonal interest in them : but I mean to say, that God's blessings are his own ; that he has a right to confer
a 2 Pet. i. 4. x )>
them on whomsoever he will ; and that he both does, and will, bestow them according to his own sovereign will and pleasure, without respect to any previous goodness in man, or any dependence on mans strength for the performance of conditions previously imposed upon him. See to whom the promise in my text is made. It is made to the Jewish people, in their present dispersion. For, if we suppose it to have been in part accomplished by the two tribes renouncing idolatry upon their return from Babylon, yet it can be only in part that it can have been ful- filled at that time ; because it is evident that, since the return of the Jews from Babylon, "their sins have been found," and visited too, in wrathful indig- nation, for many hundreds of years. At a period, however, that is fast approaching, God's elect among them shall be restored to his favour, and be made partakers of everlasting felicity in his immediate presence.
In considering these words, I shall notice, I. The extent of God's mercy to his chosen people —
God's people are constantly represented as a rem- nant—
[Such they have been in all ages of the world ; and at different periods they have been " a very small remnant :" but, whether more or less numerous, they are, as the Apostle calls them, " a remnant according to the election of graceV It is, in fact, for the sake of God's elect that are yet unborn, that the wickedness of many who are now living is endured. God says, respecting many a corrupt and worthless plant, " Destroy it not, for a blessing is in itc."]
For them, however, God designs the richest
mercy —
[When he returns unto them in mercy, which, at his ap- pointed period, he will do, he will vouchsafe to them blessings far beyond any that he conferred upon his people of old. To those who approached him with their sacrifices, he dispensed a pardon for some sins only, and that only till the time should come for a renewal of the same sacrifices : but to his remnant who believe in Christ, and seek acceptance through his all-
b Rom. xi. 5. c Isai. i. 9. and lxv. 8.
1087.] god's mercy TO HIS PEOPLE. 309
atoning sacrifice, he imparts a full and perfect remission of all sin ; so that, whatever iniquity they may have committed in their unconverted state, it shall be altogether and for ever cancelled : "it shall be blotted out, even as a morning cloud," which passes over the earth, and is seen no more ; and it shall be " cast behind God's backd," never to be seen again ; and " into the very depths of the seae," from whence it shall never be recovered. In a word, he covenants ivith them to " remember their sins no more ;" so that, whoever may " search for them, they shall be found no more" for everf. God will henceforth view them, not as they are in themselves, but as they are in Christ, " without spot or blemishg." Clothed in his perfect righteousness, they are presented faultless before God, and they are so regarded by God himself to their exceeding joy V]