vengeance to fall upon them, and therefore put away
the promises, and refused to be comforted; when the
Lord was pleased to encourage them to draw near to
him, and come and reason with him: not at the bar
of his justice; there's no reasoning with him there;
none can contend with him, or answer him, one of a
thousand; if he marks iniquity in strict justice, none
can stand before him; there's no entering the lists
with him upon the foot of justice, or at its bar: but
at the bar of mercy, at the throne of grace; there the
righteous may dispute with him from his declarations
and promises, as well as come with boldness to him;
and at the altar and sacrifice of Christ, and at the
fountain of his blood: here sinners may reason with
him from the virtue and efficacy of his blood and sa-
crifice; and from the Lord's proclamation of grace
and mercy through him; and from his promises to
forgive repenting and confessing sinners: and here
God reasons with sensible souls from his own cove-
nant promises and proclamations to forgive sin; from
the aboundings of his grace over abounding sin; from
the righteousness of Christ to justify, his blood to
cleanse from sin, and his sacrifice to atone for it; and
from the end of his coming into the world to save the
chief of sinners: saying, 
\*\\though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow;\\
\\though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool\\.
Every sin is a trans-
gression of the law, and hateful and abominable to
God; no sin is venial in itself, but deserving of the
wrath of God, and the curses of the law; all sin is
mortal, the wages of it is death: but all are not alike;
some are greater, others lesser; some are attended
with aggravating circumstances, as when the persons
that commit them have, besides the light of nature,
also the law of Moses, or the Gospel of Christ; have
had the advantage of a religious education; have sat
under a Gospel ministry, and received much specula-
tive light and knowledge; yea, have been under con-
victions of sin time after time, and yet have been ring-
leaders and encouragers of others in sin, guilty of very
enormous crimes, which in themselves are comparable
to %scarlet% and %crimson%: and perhaps reference may be
had to the sin of murder, since the persons, among
whom these dwelt, their hands were full of blood; and
may respect the crucifiers of Christ, among whom there
were some savingly convicted and converted. More-
over, they may be signified hereby on account of the
effects of them, they defile men, provoke God to
wrath, and, through the law, work wrath in their con-
sciences; and may signify, that they are sins of a deep
die, and which have such a place in their hearts and
consciences, that nothing can remove them but the
blood of Christ: and besides are open, flagrant, and
notorious to all, and especially to God; yet these,
through the grace and blood of Jesus, become as white
as wool and as snow: not that pardon of sin takes sin
out of the hearts and natures of men, nor changes the
nature of sin, or causes it to cease to be sin; but this is
to be understood of the persons of sinners, who hereby
are made so white, yea, whiter than this, \\#Ps 51:1\\ as
they are considered in Christ, washed in his blood, and
clothed with his righteousness, which is fine linen,
clean and white; God, seeing no iniquity in them, has
thus graciously dealt with them, and they being with-
out fault, spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing. It was
with respect to this Scripture that the Jews in after-
times were wont to tie a scarlet thread to the head of
the scapegoat, when he was sent into the wilderness;
though at first they fastened it to the door of the out-
ward porch, and then to the door of the inward porch,
and, if it turned white, it was a sign their sins were for-
given them, but, if not, otherwise {k}; and it is owned by
them, that it belongs to future time, the time of the
Messiah {l}.
\*Ver. 19. \\If ye be willing and obedient\\, &c.] The
Targum adds, %to my Word%: the Word made flesh, and
dwelling among them; who would have gathered the
inhabitants of Jerusalem to his ministry, to attend his
word and ordinances, but their rulers would not: \*\\ye
shall eat the good of the land\\; the land of Canaan; as
the Jews held the possession of that land, before the
times of Christ, by their obedience to the laws of God,
which were given them as a body politic, and which,
so long as they observed, they were continued in the
quiet and full enjoyment of all the blessings of it; so,
when Christ came, had they received, embraced, and
acknowledged him as the Messiah, and been obedient
to his will, though only externally, they would have
remained in their own land, and enjoyed all the good
things in it undisturbed by enemies.
\*Ver. 20. \\But if ye refuse and rebel\\, &c.] The Tar-
gum is, %and do not receive my Word%; the Messiah,
when come, neither his person, nor his doctrines and
ordinances: \*\\ye shall be devoured with the sword\\; of the
Roman armies, as they were under Titus Vespasian;
see \\#Mt 22:7 Lu 19:44\\ \*\\for the mouth of the
Lord hath spoken [it]\\; now, by Isaiah, as well as in
former times, \\#Le 26:25,33\\.
\*Ver. 21. \\How is the faithful city become a harlot\\!
&c.] The city of Jerusalem, in which were the tem-
ple, and the pure worship of God, and was in the tribe
of Judah, which ruled with God, and was very faithful
with the saints when the ten tribes revolted, and fell in
with the sin of Jeroboam; but now, in Isaiah's time,
was become like a treacherous wife to her husband,
unfaithful to the Lord, went after other lovers, com-
mitted spiritual adultery, that is, idolatry, with stocks
and stones; and in the times of Christ were a wicked
and an adulterous generation, corrupting the word and
worship of God; see \\#Mt 12:39 15:9\\ \*\\it was
full of judgment\\; strict justice was exercised privately
etween man and man, as well as in the public courts
of judicature; \*\\righteousness lodged in it\\; that is, righte-
ous men, who walked in all the commandments of the
Lord, and lived soberly, righteously, and godly; see
\\#2Pe 3:13\\ \*\\but now murderers\\: of the prophets
whom they stoned, who were sent unto them, and
of the Lord Jesus Christ, of whom they were the
betrayers and murderers; see \\#Mt 23:37 Ac 7:52\\.

{k} T. Bab. Sabbat, fol. 89. 2.
{l} Gussetius observes, that \^Uwmx\^ signifies not %oppressed%,
    but infected with leaven, and so \^Uwmx yrva\^ means, reduce
    to a right way him that is corrupt with the leaven of vice, by
    hindering him that he may not go on to hurt the fatherless.
    Comment. Ebr. p. 265.