god's appeal to self-justifying sinners.
Mai. i. 8. If ye offer the blind for sacrifice, is it not evil? and if ye offer the lame and sick, is it not evil? Offer it now unto thy governor ; will he be pleased with thee, or accept thy person ? saith the Lord of hosts.
SELF-VINDICATION is natural to fallen man : it began in paradise, as soon as ever sin entered into
the world. " The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat," was Adam's excuse, when exculpating himself at the ex- pense both of his wife and of God himselfa. Eve, too, excused herself by casting the blame of her transgres- sion upon the serpent who had beguiled herb. In all their descendants, the same propensity has shewn itself, and often with a degree of vehemence amounting to indignation and disdain. In the time of the Pro- phet Malachi it prevailed to an extraordinary degree ; or he at least records it with more than ordinary minuteness and force. He was inspired of God, to shew the Jewish people their transgressions : but to every charge which he brought against them, they replied with a degree of petulance savouring of ex- treme impiety and obduracy. When God addressed by him the priests, as despising his name, they utterly denied the charge ; and insolently asked of God him- self, "Wherein have we despised thy name?" And when he told them that they had offered polluted bread upon his altar, they challenged him to tell them when: "Wherein have we polluted theec?" When the prophet complained of them as having " wearied the Lord with their words," they immediately asked, in the same contemptuous spirit, " Wherein have we wearied himd?" Even when God graciously invited them to return to him, saying, " Return unto me, and I will return unto you ;" they deny that there was any necessity for such an invitation, saying, "Wherein shall we return6 ?" And when God tells them that thev had robbed him, they reply, with undiminished ef- frontery, " Wherein have we robbed theef?" And when God complains of all this, saying, " Your words have been stout against me ; they still persist in the same impious strain, " What have we spoken so much against thees?" In every instance God substantiates his charge, by declaring wherein they had committed the offence imputed to them : but, in the words of
a Gen. iii. 12. b Gen. iii. 13. c ver. 6, 7.
d Mai. ii. 17. e Mai. iii. 7. f Mai. iii. 8.
s Mai. iii. 13.
1268.] god's appeal to self-justifying sinners. 587
my text he does it in a way which nothing hut the most inveterate impiety could resist. He appeals to them, Whether they could deny either the conduct of which they were habitually guilty, or the construc- tion which he put upon it ? " If ye offer the blind for sacrifice, is it not evil ? and if ye offer the lame and sick, is it not evil ? Offer it now unto thy governor : will he be pleased with thee, or accept thy person ? saith the Lord of Hosts."
In opening to you these words, we shall consider,
I. The appeal of God to man —
Nothing can exceed the condescension of Almighty God, in his reasonings with sinful man. He here grounds his appeal to us,
1. On the standard which exists in our own con- sciences—
[The Jews knew that God was to be served with the best of their flocks. His express command to them was, " If there be any blemish in the firstling of thy herd or of thy flock, as if it be lame, or blind, or have any ill blemish, thou shalt not sacrifice it to the Lord thy Godh." To go in direct oppo- sition to this command, they knew to be " evil:" they knew that it would, in fact, be a pouring of contempt on God him- self; and justly did God denounce a curse on all who should so presumptuously sin against him1.