20 FIRST SERMON In the promise or re- stipulation we have first their covenant, wherein they promise two things ; 1. Thanksgiving for the hearing and answering of their prayers ; 2. A special care for the amendment of their lives : and, secondly, the ground of their con- fidence so to pray, and of their resolution so to pro- mise, "Because in thee the fatherless findeth mercy." My meditations will be confined within the first of these the prayer of the church in their fears and sufferings ; wherein I shall begin, in the prophet's order, . with their prayer against sin, " Take away all iniquity." The word signifies, 1. To expiate, and make atone- ment by a sacrifice. So the scape -goat (which was- a sign of Christ our sacrifice as risen and living again) is said to carry the sins of the people into the wilder- ness, Lev. xvi. 22. Thereby signifying Christ's . taking our sins from us, John i. 29. Heb. ix, 28. 2. To forgive, which in the court of mercy is the taking of sin away, Psal. xxxii. 1. 5. 3. To remove or take away by destroying. So it is used, Hos. i. 6. Job xxxii. 22. and is sometimes used to express burning, 2 Sam. v. 21. Nahum i. 5. sin is said to be destroyed, Rom. vi. 6. to be subdued, Mic. vii. 19. to be purged away with the spirit of judgment and burning, Isa.. iv. 4. The meaning then is; Take away all our sins from us, lay them upon Christ our sacrifice ; for his merit pardon them, by his grace destroy and subdue them, that so the root of judgments being removed, they likewise may therewithal be removed too. From hence the observation , which I shall insist upon is this : When God threateneth judgments, we in our con- version unto him should pray against sins. Our eye of sorrow should be more upon that which disho- nours him, than upon that which afflicts ourselves
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