An exposition with practical observations continued upon the thirty-fifth, thirty-sixth, and thirty-seventh chapters of…

Some read the words in the Present Tense, or time, He showeth them their transgressions, when they exceed or prevail: As if the meaning were, God doth not suffer the sins of righteous persons to grow too potent and prevalent upon them, but takes them in time, and •ips their sins in the bud, when he sees they begin to ⟨p. 227⟩grow strong upon them, least if let alone, they might be foiled by them, and so fall into open scandal, or be hardly with-drawn from them. It is no easy thing to master and mortify a lust, when once it hath got head, and therefore it is a very gracious work of God, to show a man his sin convincingly, and humble him for it, when he perceives it rising in strength. This is a pious sense and profitable. We read it in the past time, When they have exceeded.

Some read the words in the Present Tense, or time, He sheweth them their transgressions, when they exceed or prevail: As if the meaning were, God doth not suffer the sins of righteous perfons to grow too potent and prevalent upon them, but takes them in time, and •ips their sins in the bud, when he sees they begin to ⟨p. 227⟩grow strong upon them, least if let alone, they might be foyled by them, and so fall into open scandal, or be hardly with-drawn from them. It is no easie thing to master and mortifie a lust, when once it hath got head, and therefore it is a very gracious work of God, to shew a man his sin convincingly, and humble him for it, when he perceives it rising in strength. This is a pious sense and profitable. We read it in the past time, When they have exceeded.

That is, when these righteous persons have exceeded much in their transgressions. As much as to say, when they have sinned exceedingly, or when their sins are many and great, when (according to the Hebrew) they are waxen mighty, then the Lord sees it high time to deal with them.