sang, " Who is like unto thee, O God, glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders ?" should we not labour, that more elevated songs of praise should be poured forth to him on account of that infinitely greater deliverance reserved for them ? I call upon you, then, to unite in this blessed work. I call upon you to anticipate the event with confidence, and to help it forward with zeal.]
2. If such be the feelings of a Jew, in the mere anticipation of those promised mercies, what should ours be, who are in the actual possession of them ?
[Thanks be to God ! we are in possession of them. We know what it is to have " our iniquities forgiven, and our sins covered :" yea, we know what it is to " have peace with God, and to rejoice in the hope of the glory of God." Greatly as God has been provoked by us, we know that " his anger is turned away from us, and that he has comforted us." True it is, that, at the period before referred to, these blessings will be enjoyed in a far higher degree ; for, " the light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun seven- fold, as the light of seven days, in the day that the Lord bindeth up the breach of his people, and healeth the stroke of their woundp." But still our privileges are exceeding great: and we should contemplate them, not with indifference or with some transient emotions of joy: no; we should feel ourselves altogether overwhelmed with a sense of God's goodness to us ; and, in the spirit of our minds at least, if not in the audible expressions, we should be saying day and night, " O God, who is like unto thee ? " I must say, that, if this be not our state, we are far from appreciating God's mercy to us as we ought. And I call on all of you so to meditate on his kindness to you, that your present sense of it maybe a foretaste of heaven, and your songs of thanksgiving be a recital of those which you shall sing for ever in the realms of bliss.
I know, indeed, that the trembling sinner feels it difficult to view God in this endearing light. But I would ask of any one, what evidence would you wish for of God's disposition to for- give sin ? Can you have greater evidence of it than in God's promised return to his outcast people, even to that people who imbrued their hands in the blood of his only dear Son, and have for so many hundreds of years cast all possible odium upon his name ? I say then, Hear the Jew speaking in my text, and adopt his language in reference to yourselves. And know, that, as God will return to the Jewish people in due season, so shall " mercy rejoice over judgment," in reference
p Isai. xxx. 26.
121 7. J god's mercy, as reserved for the jews. 347
to you: and, as they shall yet become most distinguished mo- numents of his mercy and truth, so shall mercy and truth abound towards you, and God be glorified in you for ever and ever. If there be here any one who is ready to suppose that the magnitude and long-continuance of his sins preclude a pos- sibility of obtaining mercy, I would say to him, Though thou hadst upon thine own individual soul all the sins that ever were committed by the whole Jewish nation, if thou hadst even mur- dered the Son of God himself, and persisted in thy hatred of him eighteen hundred years; yet, on thy desiring to obtain mercy, thou shouldst find God all that he is represented to thee in the text. Let this saying sink down into your ears ; and trembling as you are, your sorrows shall all be turned into joy.]