M.AllEING IN1IflTY. 5h 2. But may not this Judge be entreated to pass by what he knows, and deal favorably with the sinner 1 May not an intercessor be obtained, to plead in behalf of the guilty soul /. Eli determines this matter, I Samuel, 2 : 25, "If any one man sin against another, the judge shall judge him ; but if a man sin against the Lord, who shall entreat for him 1" There is not, saith Job; between us one that might argue the case in pleading for me, and so make up the matter, " laying his hand upon us both." Job, 9 : 33. We now consider a sinner purely un- der the administration of the law, which knows nothing of a Mediator. In that case, who shall take upon him to intercede for the sinner 1 Besides that all creatures in heaven and earth are engaged in the contest of God against sinners ; and besides the greatness and terror of his Majesty, that will certainly deter all, or any of them, fromundertaking any such work ; what is the re- quest that, in this case, must be put up to God 1 Is it not that he would cease to be holy, cease to be righ- teous, relinquish his throne, deny himself and his so- vereignty, that a rebel, a traitor, his cursed enemy may live and escape his justice 1 Is this request reasonable'? Is he fit to intercede for sinners that would make it1 Would he not, by so doing, prove himself to be the greatest of them 1 The sinner cannot then expect any door of escape to be opened to him. An the world is against him ; and the case must be tried out nakedly, between God and him. But, 3. It may he, the rule of the law whereby the sinner is to be tried is not so strict, but that in the case of such sins as he is guilty of, it may admit of a favorable interpretation: or that the good he has done may be laid in the balance against his evil, and so some relief be obtained. But the matter is quite otherwise ; there is no good action of a sinner, though it were perfectly good, that can lie in the balanee with, or compensate
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