C

before their enemies! For the Canaanites, and all the inhabitants of the land, shall hear of it, and shall environ us round, and cut off our name from the earth: and what wilt thou do unto thy great name?" To the very last this was the confidence in which the holy prophets of God interceded for an unfaithful, an adulterous church: "O Lord, though our iniquities testify against us, do thou it for thy name's sake: for our backslidings are many, we have sinned against thee. O the hope of Israel, the saviour thereof in time of trouble, why shouldest thou be as a stranger in the land, and as a wayfaring man that turneth aside to tarry for a night? Why shouldest thou be as a man astonished, as a mighty man that cannot save? Yet thou, O Lord, art in the midst of us, and we are called by thy name; leave us not." Again, "O remember not against us former iniquities: let thy tender mercies speedily prevent us; for we are brought very low. Help us, O God of our salvation, for the glory of thy name; and deliver us, and purge away our sins, for thy name's sake. Wherefore should the heathen say, Where is their God?"-And while

Josh. vii. 8, 9.

Or, rather, "as one in a deep sleep," reading

instead

of D as the 6 appear to have read, who render it av@gwrоs

vævŵv.—Blayney.

e Jerem. xiv. 7-9.

f Psalm lxxix. 8-10.

g

on one hand the servants of God plead with him on this high ground, we find their appeal not repudiated, but on the contrary sealed, as a ground of confidence to the church in all ages, with the warrant of God's acceptance. For concerning the church in the wilderness we read, "Our fathers understood not thy wonders in Egypt, they remembered not the multitude of thy mercies, but provoked him at the sea, even at the Red sea. Nevertheless, he saved them for his name's sake, that he might make his mighty power to be known ;" and to this day the promise of Israel's restoration rests upon the same foundation: "Thus saith the Lord God, I do not this for your sakes, O house of Israel, but for mine holy name's sake, which ye have profaned among the heathen whither ye went. And I will sanctify my great name, which was profaned among the heathen, which ye have profaned in the midst of them; and the heathen shall know that I am the Lord, saith the Lord God, when I shall be sanctified in you before their eyes. Not for your sakes do I this, saith the Lord God, be it known unto you; be ashamed and confounded for your own ways, O house of Israel." " Thus we see that the ministration of condem

Ps. cvi. 7, 8. Compare Ezek. xx. 8, 9, 13, 14.

h Ezek. xxxvi. 22, 23, 32.

nation which was given to Israel of old, had for its ultimate object the glory of God in his church, and well may we add, "If the ministration of condemnation be glory, much more doth the ministration of righteousness exceed in glory:"i if "the first-fruits of his increase" was "holiness unto the Lord," if Israel after the flesh be "his servant, in whom he would be glorified," how much more shall they be "unto the praise of his glory," who are "sealed with that holy Spirit of promise, which is the earnest of our inheritance, until the redemption of the purchased possession!"'m How much more eminently to the spiritual Israel belongs the promise of the evangelical prophet: "I will bring thy seed from the east, and gather thee from the west; I will say to the north, give up; and to the south, keep not back bring my sons from far, and my daughters from the ends of the earth; even every one that is called by my name, whom I have created, whom I have formed, yea, whom I have made for my glory." Who so fit to be called "trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he might be glorified," as they which, though "in

¡2 Cor. iii. 9.

'Is. xlix. 3.

n

n The Hebrew construction as well as the sense require the relative to be carried on to the end of the verse.

time past they were not a people," yet "are now the people of God, a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people, that they should show forth the praises of Him who hath called them out of darkness into his marvellous light." If it was to manifest forth his own glory that Jehovah descended upon Mount Sinai, and displayed the terrors of his majesty to his quaking people, how much more for the manifestation of his own and his Father's glory was it, that the eternal Son of God, who is "the brightness of his father's glory," was was "found in fashion as a man, and humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross;' inasmuch as because of this perfect obedience the Son of Man was "highly exalted," and had "a name given him, which is above every name."s Thence, when the heavenly hosts descended upon earth to announce his birth, they esteemed it not a derogation from the glory of God, that the Eternal Word should be made flesh, and be born of a woman, and under the law, but they proclaimed the event to a benighted world as replete with "Glory to God in the highest ;" thence, when our blessed Lord was about by his sufferings and

1 Pet. ii. 9, 10.

t

Heb. i. 3. The "resplendency," we should rather translate the Greek term ἀπάνγασμα.

V

death to finish the work which his father had given him to do, he rejoiced that, being himself "glorified in them which his Father had given him," he had "glorified his Father on the earth;"" and in giving them the promise of the Comforter, the Spirit of truth, that should abide with his church for ever, he particularized his office to be that of "glorifying him." Thence, again, every fruit of grace, every effect of the abiding in us of that Holy Spirit, is spoken of in Scripture as having for its object the glory of God; if "our love abound in knowledge and in all judgment," if we approve things that are excellent," if we "be sincere and without offence till the day of Christ," if we "be filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ," it is all "unto the glory and praise of God;"" if we be called upon to "receive one another, as Christ also received us," it is "to the glory of God;" * if we be admonished to be "like-minded one toward another, according to Christ Jesus," it is "that we may with one mind and one mouth glorify God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ;" if we be exhorted to "be sober, and watch unto prayer," or to "have fervent charity among ourselves," or to "use hospitality one to