Isaiah 64
SIBIsaiah 64:1-5
Oh that thou wouldest in some awful manner appear for the ruin of thine enemies and the relief of thy people, as in the destruction of the Egyptians and Canaanites, or as at mount Sinai!—For, whatever great things thou hast done, we believe that thou wilt still do greater, in the incarnation of thy Son, the spread of thy gospel, and the erection, preservation, and perfection, of the New Testament church.—Thou preventest, with thine unsearchable blessings, them who with pleasure receive thy favours, obey thy laws, and hold fellowship with thee in thy ordinances. And, though our sins have long provoked thee to anger, thy ways of mercy are perpetual, and therefore we hope for thy salvation
Isaiah 64:6-12
We are indeed wholly corrupted, and our best works abominable in thy sight. Our sins have brought on these wasting and captivating judgments. And very few, with fervent importunity, labour to prevent thy departure, or plead for the removal of thy consuming judgments. But, notwithstanding our unworthy carriage towards thee, do thou, our Father and Creator, sovereignly remember and spare us; moderate and shorten thy corrections, since we are thy covenant people. When Jerusalem and our other cities are laid desolate, and thy temple, in which our Fathers long worshipped thee, is burnt, and all our pleasant palaces and structures are destroyed, let thy bowels of compassion make thee hasten to our relief
REFLECTIONS UPON CHAP. LXIV.—In trouble the almighty God must be implored for our relief: and he will make himself known to all; to his people in mercy, and to his enemies in judgment. There is infinite need of his gracious descents to awaken, enlighten, pardon, purify, protect, regulate, direct, and comfort, his church. What mercy he keeps, and what stores of blessedness he has laid up, for such as cheerfully wait on him, and walk with him, in all his ordinances, laws, and dispensations of providence! He bears with unnumbered provocations, and graciously forgives them, in the best of his people. But shameful are our sinful pollutions, and greatly criminal our want of earnestness in dealing with God: nor is there a surer token of a graceless heart than neglect of, and even indulged carelessness in, prayer. But, while we are pining away in our iniquities, nothing is more fit than by faith to throw ourselves entirely upon the sovereign mercy of God. And, if the disorders and desolations of churches lie so heavy on the heart of saints, how near must they go to the heart of the Saviour