merits !" God had shewn himself " great and terrible" in the judgments he had executed upon them ; and to all who shall continue to offend him he will prove " a consuming fired." Yet " to those who should love him, and obey his command- ments," he would shew mercy, according to the full extent of his covenant which he had made with them in Horeb. It must however be remembered, that the attainment of this character was necessary to justify their claim on him for any one of these mercies : nor did he ever venture to implore these blessings for his people on any other condition than that which God had imposed, and which it became his Divine majesty to require.]
3. The particulars of the prayer which he presented before him —
[Here we notice his humble confession, and his penitential acknowledgment. In his confession, he reiterates the same idea, in a great diversity of terms: " We have sinned, and have com- mitted iniquity, and have done wickedly, and have rebelled." He goes on to recapitulate particulars : " We have rebelled, even by departing from thy precepts, and from thy judgments ; neither have we hearkened unto thy servants the prophets, which spake in thy name to our kings, our princes, and our fathers, and to all the people of the land." Now, in this he shewed how deeply he laid to heart the iniquities of the nation. Had his sense of it been light, a single expression of it would have sufficed : but it is of the very nature of deep contrition to abase ourselves, and to feel as if no words could ever express the enormity of our guilt. In like manner, whilst he fully justifies God in all the judgments he had inflicted, he takes to himself all imaginable shame, as the proper portion to every individual of his nation, from the highest to the lowest. And, this also he repeats e, as from the fullest conviction of his soul.]
4. The grounds on which alone he ventured to hope for mercy —
[It was from God's mercy alone that he could entertain a hope. In himself, or in his people, he could find nothing wherein to ground a plea: but in God he saw every thing that could justify an assurance of acceptance for all who should come to him aright. " To God belonged mercy and forgive- ness," as being essential to his nature, and the very delight of his soulf. And, though the greatness of their guilt might seem to preclude them from a hope of mercy, and the severity of God's judgments might appear to indicate that he was im- placably offended with them, he particularly declares, that on neither of these grounds had they any reason to despond ; for
d Deut. iv. 24. e ver. 7, 8. f Mic. vii. 18.