them good. Though God has been angry with us for our sins, and justly, yet his anger has soon
ended; but in his favour is life, which goes on and continues, and on that we depend for our salvation.
Is. 64:6-12 The people of God, in affliction, confess and bewail their sins, owning themselves
unworthy of his mercy. Sin is that abominable thing which the Lord hates. Our deeds, whatever
they may seem to be, if we think to merit by them at God's hand, are as rags, and will not cover us;
filthy rags, and will but defile us. Even our few good works in which there is real excellence, as
fruits of the Spirit, are so defective and defiled as done by us, that they need to be washed in the
fountain open for sin and uncleanness. It bodes ill when prayer is kept back. To pray, is by faith to
take hold of the promises the Lord has made of his good-will to us, and to plead them; to take hold
of him, earnestly begging him not to leave us; or soliciting his return. They brought their troubles
upon themselves by their own folly. Sinners are blasted, and then carried away, by the wind of their
own iniquity; it withers and then ruins them. When they made themselves as an unclean thing, no
wonder that God loathed them. Foolish and careless as we are, poor and despised, yet still Thou
art our Father. It is the wrath of a Father we are under, who will be reconciled; and the relief our
case requires is expected only from him. They refer themselves to God. They do not say, "Lord,
rebuke us not," for that may be necessary; but, "Not in thy displeasure." They state their lamentable
condition. See what ruin sin brings upon a people; and an outward profession of holiness will be
no defence against it. God's people presume not to tell him what he shall say, but their prayer is,
Speak for the comfort and relief of thy people. How few call upon the Lord with their whole hearts,
or stir themselves to lay hold upon him! God may delay for a time to answer our prayers, but he
will, in the end, answer those who call on his name and hope in his mercy.
Chapter 65
The calling of the Gentiles, and the rejection of the Jews. (Is. 65:1-7) The Lord would preserve
a remnant. (Is. 65:8-10) Judgments upon the wicked. (Is. 65:11-16) The future happy and flourishing
state of the church. (Is. 65:17-25)
Is. 65:1-7 The Gentiles came to seek God, and find him, because they were first sought and
found of him. Often he meets some thoughtless trifler or profligate opposer, and says to him, Behold
me; and a speedy change takes place. All the gospel day, Christ waited to be gracious. The Jews
were bidden, but would not come. It is not without cause they are rejected of God. They would do
what most pleased them. They grieved, they vexed the Holy Spirit. They forsook God's temple,
and sacrificed in groves. They cared not for the distinction between clean and unclean meats, before
it was taken away by the gospel. Perhaps this is put for all forbidden pleasures, and all that is thought
to be gotten by sin, that abominable thing which the Lord hates. Christ denounced many woes
against the pride and hypocrisy of the Jews. The proof against them is plain. And let us watch
against pride and self-preference, remembering that every sin, and the most secret thoughts of man's
heart, are known and will be judged by God.