r Job i. 22. s Jer. ii. 5. * Jer. ii. 31. u Rom. xii. 1.
x John xii. 48. y Rom. iii. 4. z 1 John ii. 1 .
a Rom. iii. 21, 22. »> Rom. iii. 25, 26. c Eph. i. 0.
Micah vi. 6 — 8. Wherewith shall I come before the Lord, and bote myself before the high God? Shall I come before him with burnt-offerings, ivith calves of a year old ? Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, or with ten thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I give my first-born for my transgres- sion, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul ? He hath shewed thee, 0 man, what is good : and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?
IN human judicatories, offenders are arraigned, witnesses examined, sentence passed, in order to the punishment of crimes. But God has raised a tribunal, to which he summons his offending creatures, in order that when their mouths are stopped, and they plead guilty before him, he may pardon their iniquity, and restore them to his favour.
We have, in the chapter before us, God bringing a charge against his people, and calling upon the hills and mountains to judge between them. He first chal- lenges them to allege any thing against him that can in any respect excuse their disobedience, or extenuate their guilt : and, when they are unable to do it, he proceeds to set forth his conduct towards them as the greatest aggravation of their guilt. He instances this in two particulars; in his exertions for them when he brought them out of Egypt into the wilderness ; and in his kindness to them just when he was bringing them out of the wilderness into Canaan ; when he overruled the evil purposes of Balaam, and constrained him to bless those whom he had been hired to curse. This having produced on some the desired effect, a repenting Jew is introduced, anxiously inquiring how he may be reconciled to his Maker, and serve him acceptably in future ? and God, instead of inexorably consigning him over to the punishment he has de- served, prescribes to him the way wherein he must walk, and wherein he shall obtain the favour he desires.
Some have understood these words as proceeding