Hosea 6
In this chapter we have,
I. Israel’s true repentance, ver. 1 — 3.
II. A sad complaint of the feigned repentance of many in Israel, ver. 4.
III. A further upbraiding of Israel for its unkind dealing with God, ver. 5 — 11.
I. Israel’s true repentance, manifested in their resolution to return to him who had smitten them, their confidence in his mercy, and their blessing themselves in their happy condition now they were returned.
Ver. 1. Come, and let us return unto the Lord: for he hath torn, and he uilt heal us; he hath smitten, and he will bind us up.
These words are an excitation of the mind, not the body, to return to God; they also show the mighty spirit which came on this people at this time, as if they had said, AA’ell, our princes have deceived us, and our prophets have deluded us and led us aside; we have been false in our worship, wrong in our practices, and have incurred the displeasure of God: but now, “come, and let us return,” we are resolved to fall down and humble ourselves before him: “he hath smitten us, and he will bind us up.” The Septuagint, and also Jerome, understand these words to refer to the practice of surgeons, who are wont to put deep and long tents into sores which they desire not merely to skin, but thoroughly to heal. So that here are marked Israel’s dangerous disease, and their great corruptions, and that in their afflictions; and God’s design not to let them die of the disease, or perish under his hand in the curing, but to heal them, and that thoroughly. A woman whose breasts are sore mtist have them thorough-AX EXPOSITIOX OF
Chap. XJ.
ly tented before they be healed, and she bids the surgeon to make her cure complete, though it be long and painful. So saith God, This people are verj- sorely wounded, and their cure will be very long and tedious, sore and painful, yet I will heal them. And the people saith, seeing it is thus, “Come, and let us return;” it matters not, though our healing cost us dear and be painful, it is enough that God will heal us. Let our disease be never so grievous, “come, and let us return.” A man that has a mortal wound about him, what pain would he not be willing to endure were he certain of being cured! This people conceived themselves so wounded, that if God had not undertaken to relieve them they must have perished; but in that God had undertaken the cure, they were confident they should be healed.
Obs. 1. AMicn God’s time of -mercy is come, he puts a mighty spirit of seeking into men. God’s time was come for Israel’s deliverance, and now Godputs an active, stirring spirit into them; therefore they say, “Come, let us return:” before, their spirits were heavy and dull, like men in a lethargy; but now, their minds are quickened for God, and they say, like those in Isa. ii. 3, “Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob;” and, as in Isa. xliv. 5, they wilhngly and cheerfully call themselves by the name of Jacob, and subscribe with their hand unto the Lord, and surname themselves by the name of Israel. As a ship whose sails arc filled with a full and strong wind, they go on gallantly against all opposition: there is a spirit infused into them, such as Epaphras desires with fervent prayers for the Colossians, chap. iv. 12, “that ye may stand perfect and complete in all the will of God.” Now w’ill effectual and thorough reformation take place. At the time of antichrist’s destruction, God has promised to put such a spirit into the hearts of the people, that all his tjTanny shall not be able to stand before them: God will breathe upon the spirits of men, and they shall rise up powerful in his might.
Now, considering God’s power, let not us despair concerning the great works which are doing in our times. Let men be never so base and perfidious, when God’s time is come he wiD speak the word for deliverance. What a miserable, senseless condition was the world in a little before Luther’s time! But when he came, what a spirit was raised in the people! And what a spirit has there been excited amongst us, and that suddenly, when we were in such bondage, and, although born free, likely to be slaves and vassals subjected to the wills of some twenty or thirty men! And what a spirit did God raise in our brethren of Scotland, when he was about to do them good, and to break the neck of the yoke of their tjTanny! Oh then what a cursed thing it is for any to quench, keep under, or resist such a spirit as this when it arises within them!
06.9. 2. A joint turning to God is very honourable to God. “Come, and let us return.” It is much honour t ) God when but one soul is turned to him, but when many are converted there is much glory, a multitude of praises then offered up to God; as in Kev. v. 11, “And the number of them which stood round about the throne was ten thousand times ton thousand, and thousands of thousands.” And so Kev. xix. 6, “The voice of a multitude, sajing. Alleluia, for the Lord God omnipotent reigncth.”
06s. .3. Times of mercy are times of union. Oh it is very sad when men will go every one their own way; but when men join together, saying. Come, and let us set about the Lord’s work, eery one encouraging each other, then there is hope the times of mercy arc nigh that ])coplc. But our misery is the divisions and the rendings asunder that are amongst us. God is much
displeased at this, and it certainly is one great hinderance to the entrance of mercy, that, notwithstanding God has us in the fire and threatens even our consuming, yet we will not join and unite together.
06i-. 4. True penitent hearts seek to get others to join with them. Oh how glad are they to see any coming on with them to seek the Lord! and how careful are they to give encouraging examples, to persuade them with all gentleness, saying, Come, let us go up to the house of the Lord, we have found the Lord very gracious to us; O come, he is good still, yea, and good to you, if you will come to him! If the husband have found God good to him, he will persuade the wife, the child, the servant, to come to Christ. Thus much of their resolution to return: the reason follows:
“For he hath torn, and he will heal us.” Hence,
Obs. 5. In times of the gieatest sufferings a truly penitent heart retains good thoughts of God. God has torn, and wounded, and smitten us; what then? sh.-Ul we run away from God, and think hardly of him? No, think well of him and bless his name, even when you receive the hardest measure from God. This the people of God in former times have done: in all their miseries how careful were Nehemiah, Ezra, and Daniel to acquit and justify God! yea, the chmch in the time of her desertion retains Christ as a King, and calls him so, Psal. xliv. And as they dare not entertain hard thoughts of God, so neither of his cause nor his people. Many are like bad servants, who while they have eveiy thing fitting, can give their master’s family a good report; but let them be crossed, and go away in discontent, hbw vilely do they speak of it! or as stm-dy beggars, who whilst they find relief and succour, can give good words; but let them be sent away empty, and then what terms are sufficiently abusive? so when things go well with the cause of God and his people, they will be on God’s side. Oh take heed of being sorry that you have been so far engaged in it; this is a base and vile spirit. See how low the church was in affliction, Psal. xliv. 12 — 16, “by reason of the enemy and avenger:” yet in ver. 17, although “All this is come upon us,” what then? is not God good, and his cause good that we maintain? No, God forbid such a thought should enter into us: Although “all this” evil “be come upon us, yet,” she saith, “have we not forgotten thee, neither have we dealt falsely in thy covenant.” Oh let us lay up this truth as a mighty comfort and stay to us in these times, and a good incitement to prayer; for mark, in the 23rd verse, “Awake, why sleepest thou, O Lord? arise, cast us not off for ever.” Those can pray to purpose, who in the sorest afflictions can manifest the most fear of God, and exercise notwithstanding the most love toward him and his ways.
06.?. 6. A penitent heart is not a discouraged heart. It is a heart that sinks not down in discouragements, saying, (as some do,) We arc a lost people and undone, there is no hope, we had been better never have ventured as f;»r as we have. It dares not draw conclusions from what has been, to what is, and what will be; this It regards as too presumptuous. David in the cave can trust in God, and hide himself under God’s wing, Psal. lvii. 1. So long as there is a God in heaven, such a soul will expect help from him, will expect mercy notwithstanding his severity and justice; the severity of justice in God cannot keep him from waiting for and expecting what God has promised: if the soul can but get over this difficulty, the deep gulf of God’s justice, it will easily surmount all the dreadfulness of man’s displeasure. A repenting heart is a purified, and therefore not a discomaged, but a sustained heart; while men of unclean and unholy minds are always jealous of God, and of his dealings toward them: oh let it appear that we are not thus, by the cleanness of our lives and the purity of our conversations. Carnal hearts are
not discouraged when they have carnal helps to underprop them, and shall we be afraid of any difficulty who have God for our help? Remarkable is 1 Sam. iv. 9, ■nith regard to the speech made by the Philistines. On the coming of the ark into the camp of Israel, they were put into great fear; yet how do they encourage themselves! “Be strong, and quit yourselves like men, O ye Philistines, that ye be not servants to the Hebrews, as they have been to you: quit yourselves like men, and fight.” So say I, Let us be courageous in these times, and fight for our liberties, our laws, and our religion: did we but spend that strength in returning to God which we do in discouraging thoughts, oh how soon would help come for us out of the sanctuary! Now though we must not be discouraged when helps and means foU, yet, like the prophet, our confidence must be mingled with deep humilitj’ for oiu’ sins which cause these breaches, Hab. iii. 15 — 18. “We should improve our humiliation as they did, Judg. xx., who, though in a good cause, a cause which God approved of, yet lost forty thousand men in the prosecution of it. TSTiat did they then? leave it off, and run away? No, but summoned fresh com’age and resolution, fasted and prayed, and humbled themselves before the God of their fathers, and then prospered. Oh let us be humbled, that we may not be discouraged!
And as we must not be discouraged, so must we not falsely encom-age oiu’selves: as they said, “The bricks are fallen down, but we can build with hewn stone;” so say not, This army is lost, but we can raise another quickly. Let us only encourage om’selves in the Lord our God, but take heed of resting too much in the goodness of our cause. 1 Sam. iv. 3, the people said, ‘• Let us fetch the ark of the covenant of the Lord out of Shiloh unto us, that, when it cometh among us, it may save us out of the hand of our enemies:” they thought the bare having of that among them would deliver them. Know that it is not the goodness of our cause that can bear us up, and carry us through difficulties, if we do not turn to the Lord.
Now, that your spirits may not sink under these troubles, let me give you a few props to lean upon.
1. If we have been faithful in our work, we may have this testimony, that what is our duty as creatures, is performed by us; and Icnow, though there were many weaknesses in our performances, yet we have to deal with a God who loves sincerity in infii’mities.
2. If we sufier, God suffers more. This should mightily encourage us in sufferings, when God is contented to be our partner.
3. God sees further than we, and knows what is best for us. A^Hicn the wars ih-st began we promised ourselves a present end of them, and we thought it would be best; but God saw otherwise; and now we are sensible that if we had obtained peace at the fii’st we should not have known what to have done with it, it would even have undone us by this time.
4. Tilings are not more difficult now to God than they were at the first; God knows as well how to deliver in the greatest straits, as if none at all existed.
0. God usually w’orks by contraries, bringing light out of darkness; saving Israel in the Red Sea, when in the greatest danger of drowning.
6. God will be seen in the mount. God has his time, his set time, to appear for his people, and before that time come he will not show himself. The soul is very prone in miseiy to run into a double extreme, either of presumption or despair; presumption, that puts the evil day far off; and unbelief, that puts the good day far off: therefore take heed of both these.
But could we have the encouragement of this people, coiJd we say that we have retm-ned, it were something.
Now for this, know, that if the consideration of God’s
healing mercy is more prevailing with us to turn than any misery whatsoever, if we ai-e willing and desii’ous to turn, the other may be made good, that God is willing to heal and bind us up. Can we but make out the first part of our turning, I dare affirm the second, of God’s healing; though the means employed may be very painful, the Lord may put a deep tent into us to eat out our putrified flesh, yet we ought more earnestly to desire a thorough and sound healing, than an easy and perhaps transient cure.
Obs. 7. AVhen God intends good to a people, he gives them intimations of his love. How did this people luiow that God would heal them, and that he would bind them up? Thus they argued it, from God’s goodness, from his name, and from his covenant. Oh would God but put into our thoughts to consider the mercy of God to us in the covenant.
But I fear this would be presumption in me, may some say.
I answer, No, if thy believing and resting upon the promise sanctifies the heart, and does not make it secure; if thy laying hold upon the promise more breaks the heart, renders it more humble and submissive, it is a right supporting the heart upon the promise, and not presumption.
06s. 8. Apprehension of mercy causes the heart to turn. iSIany say, God will not be gracious, mercy is past, there is no hope, therefore we will give over waiting. No, but let us seek him stM, and wait longer for mercy to come.
Obs. 9. The saints make their healings not a fruit of their retm-ning, but of God’s mercy. JIany poor souls think that they must not believe till they are so far Immbled, and so much broken. This is an eiTor; we should exercise our faith more upon God’s healing than our returning, and this will cause us to be humbled; humiliation will soon follow. Good works are a good nurse to faith; but if we make works the mother of faith, that faith is not right, it rests not on Scriptural grounds.
Ver. 2. After tico days icill he revive us: in the third day he will raise us up, and we shall live in his sight.
God’s works are comments on his word; and I have often had occasion to notice this in explaining this prophecy: as Christ said of that scripture, Luke iv. 21, “This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears;” so may I now say of this scripture, how literally has God fulfilled it in us! In the last discourse you heard of God’s wounding and of his healing; how has he graciously healed us, and literally fulfilled these words towards us! ‘• After two days he will revive us.” But two days after our humiliation he revived us, and the third day we lived in his sight; and if we follow on to know the Lord we shall know more of bis counsel, and though the darkness of the night be not yet over, yet the morning is prepared.
But may we conclude, as this people, that God will revive us, and that we shall live in his sight? If we can prove om- turning unto God, and our returning from sin, the other may be made good, that he will revive us in our sorrows.
The scope of these two verses is to express afiu-ther confidence of repenting, believing Israel in God’s goodness: before he smote them, and now he would revive them. But before this reviving comes perhaps we may be as dead men, yea, lie a day, that is, a certain time, as dead men, forsaken and forgotten of God; yea, we may lie the second day also, that is, a second time wherein we expected help the enemy may triumph over us; yet “we shall live in his sight,” that is, all shall see, that the eve of God was on us for good: he will revive us, and God shall be in our sight as we shall be in Iiis;
glorious things is he about to make known to us; though it be night now, yet know his mercy is coming, even as the morning follows the dark night. This is the sum of these words.
Yet, for the further opening of them, know that interpreters arc greatly perplexed to discover what is meant by “two davs’;” some think it spoken of the Jewish captivity; othei’s, of the second coming of Christ, the Messias.
The meaning of the words “after two days,” appears to be, that although God do not come presently, yet, “after two days,” he will come; mercy, though it stays long, yet will come. Two days in Scripture signifies a short time; as Numb. ix. 22, “Wiether it were two days, or a month, or a year, that the cloud staid upon the tabernacle.” Mercer quotes 11. Abrah. Ezia; Fil. as saying, that wounds and gashes in a man’s body pain and smart more at two days’ end than at first; so God may let us lie in the smartof pain and sorrow two days, but in the third day mercy shall follow.
Interpreters generally conceive these words to have reference also to the two days that Christ lay in the grave; and Luther saith that this is the scripture which Paul refers to in 1 Cor. xv. 4, that Christ “rose again the third day according to the Scriptures:” what scripture? why this, “the third day he wdl raise us up, and we shall live in his sight;” and though the text notes the confidence which repenting Israel had in God’s mercy towards them, yet it refers also to Christ, as if they should say. Our straits and miseries may be great, and we may lie in them a while, as did Christ, but he was raised the third day, and so shall we. Calvin saith, that God gave a famous and memorable example of Israel’s mercy after their captivity by Chj-ist’s rising from the grave; and this may well be meant of Christ, as that scripture shows, Hos. xi. 1, “Wien Israel was a child, then I loved him, and called my son out of Egypt:” who would have thought that this had reference to Christ, had not the Scriptures applied it to him, in Matt. ii. 11, 15, “And departed into Egypt: and was there until the death of Herod: that it might be fulfilled which was sjjoken of the Lord by the ])rophet, saying. Out of Egypt have I called my son?” How darkly was Christ shadowed out in the Old Testament! as by Jonas in the whale’s belly thiee days. Oh what cause have we who live in gospel-times, when Christ is manifested so clearly, to bless God! what dark and mystical intimations had they of Christ in those days, when this, and that of Jonas’in the whale’s belly, were some of the clearest!
When at any time God would comfort his people in distress, what docs he do? he reveals a prophecy of the Messiah to come; as in Isa. vii. 14; ix. 6; and Zcch. ix. 9: and so Iiere, God having smitten, wounded, and torn them, comes and heals them, promising them that they shall revive and live in his sight.
hut here now Luther makes an objection, If these words had reference to Christ they should run thus, IJr shall live in his sight, not ue; and he answers it himself, that it denotes the efficacy of his resurrection, not only for himself, but for many others.
1. “We shall live in his sight;” VJsS before his face, that is, his favour shall be towards us for mercy. As the turning the face away shows anger, so the turning of God’s face towards us signifies favour.
2. AVe shall see his face with comfort, and rejoice in the sight of it.
3. We shall eve his face in acts of obedience, and he will eye our duties with acceptance.
4. It implies security in his presence. As in the presence of a king his very presence is our security and safety; so, “we shall live in his sight,” that is, we shall be safe in his presence. The observations from hence are,
Uba. 1. God’s own people may not only be smitten
and wounded by God, but may lie for dead in their own eyes, and in the eyes of all about them, for a time: see it in the case of Heman, Psal. lxxxviii. 10, 14, “Wilt thou show wonders to the dead? shall the dead arise and praise thee? Lord, why castest thou ofi” my soul? why nidest thou thy face from me?” And in Ezek. xxxvii. 3, we read of dry bones which should be made to live; and Itev. xi., the witnesses shall be slain and lie dead in the streets, the beast shall overcome them; the generality of those that stand for Christ shall be slain by the beast, and overcome by his power.
The reason of this may be, because God can work about his glory by contrary means. When God fetches out his glory from the afflictions of his people, it costs him not so much nor so dear as when he brings it out of sin: now if God’s glory be so dear to him, that he will suffer sin to be in the world, thereby to fetch his glory out of it, why should we be unwilUng that God should suffer afflictions to be upon us, seeing by them he procures glory to himself? “In the greatness of thine excellency thou hast overthrown them that rose up against thee,” E.xod. xv. 7. How should God manifest his glorious power in raising them u]), were they never brought low? In heaven God will so manifest his glory to us that we shall not need such dark shadows to give it prominence.
If this be so, take heed of chawing darker conclusions from God’s dealings than they will bear, as to say. The Lord has forsaken us, and God will have mercy no more upon us; he has forgotten to be gracious, he has left his cause and tmTied his back upon his inheritance. We should labour to be well informed in the grounds upon which his cause stands and is maintained, and which may uphold us in the maintenance of it; for know that God may put thee to the trial, and if thou art not thoroughly grounded thou wilt apostatize.
Obs. 2. God leaves his people in that dead condition for a time; the first day they may look for help, and it may not come; and the second day he may let them lie, and that after then- seeking of him. This jieople said, “Come, and let us return unto the Lord;” yet what do they add? “After two days he will revive us;” it must be some time first. God is a great God, and his creature must wait. There is much grace exercised in an afflicted condition, when the soul quietly submits to God, and patiently tarries the Lord’s leisure, let his dealing be never so hard towards it. God sometimes answers his people’s prayers presently when they seek him, so that it may not only be said, in the evening, but, in the morning hast thou heard me; not only this day, but the next also. See 1 Kings xviii. 38, 44, where Ehjah prays, and the Lord heard him presently; but he prays again, and then the Lord defei-s: in vcr. 38, he prays for fire to come down to consume the sacrifice, and it did so; but in ver. 44, of the same chapter, he prays again for rain, and sec in what a posture he prays; yet he obtained his petition with much difficulty, he sent his senant seven times, and at the seventh it was but a little cloud; at first God heard him jiresently, but he prays again, and then mercy comes slowly and with difficulty; yet God wa.s not angry with Elijah. So Daniel prays, and was heard presently; but the people jiray, and pray earnestly, yet they were not answered.
Oh, therefore, let us take heed of an impatient and froward spirit in trouble, of being wcaiy of well-doing, and of growing careless in holy services, because an immediate answer comes not; this as much as any thing shows the rottenness of our spirits, and is as evident a sign of a hypocrite as any we have in Scrijiture.
Obs. 3. The time of God’s reviving his people is neither long in God’s nor in the saints account. It is but “two days;”” the third day he will raise us up, and
we shall live.” “As birds flying, so will the Lord of hosts defend Jerusalem,” Isa. xxxi. 5. He has promised not to contend for ever: and in 1 Pet. i. 6, “Though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations;” in the original it is. If now, if need be; so that there is great need of aftlictions before God sends them. So 2 Cor. iv. IT, afflictions are “for a moment,” for a very little time. Faith lifts up the soul on Pisgah, and enabling it to realize the valley of Achor, the door of hope, as lying between it and mount Zion, creates patience in midst of the greatest sufferings. It is a sign of a distempered spu’it to complain of the length of an affliction; a gracious heart desires more its sanctification than its removal; we might have been swallowed up in the gulf of eternal misery. “Yet once, it is a little while, and I will shake the heavens, and the earth, and the sea, and the di-y land; and I will shake all nations, and the Desire of all nations shall come,” Hag. ii. 6, 7; but Christ came not until five or six huncb-ed years afterwards. Our impatience makes affliction seem long.
06s. 4. Faith realizes God“s reviving mercies in the saddest condition. AMien their help is gone, in the mount of man’s extremity will God be seen. AVe should reason thus. Because God’s people are in great extremity, it is a sign that God will arise and help them; and not despair. As before the morning light is the thickest darkness, so let us never be discouraged at the increase of afflictions, for they show the time then hastens on for deliverance. And this faith makes present and shows to the soul life in death, favour in frowns, love in strokes. Faith discerns a great difference between the strokes of God on the saints and upon the wicked; as Isa. xxvi. 14, compared with ver. 19, “They are dead, they shall not live; they are deceased, they shall not rise.” “Vllien God strikes wicked men, theii’ wounds forei-un death here, and eternal death hereafter; when he smites them in their cause, in their names, or estates, it is to undo them. But now, mark the 19th verse, “Thy dead men shall live, together with my dead body shall they arise.” Some think that these words denote the glorious security of the church, that though men and means fail, yet faith can see delilerance in the womb of an infinite wisdom, power, and faithfulness: faith revives other graces when seeming dead, and puts life into them, much more into our dead conditions. It ,... ..., ... is reported of the crystal, that it possesses
bus preiiosis n- such virtue, that Its very touch quickens if.sc.i~it(.°Gum-i.’’ other stones, and imparts to them lustre ‘“”■ and beauty. It is true of faith, that it
removes present evils, and approximates distant good. Psal. xci. 7, “A thousand shall fall at thy side, and ten thousand at thy right hand; but it shall not come nigh thee:” this is a very strange speech, that a man may be in a place where a thousand shall fall by him, and ten thousand at his right hand, and y et he not be touched by the disease. By faith the soul enjoys this security. Psal. Ix. 6, “God hath spoken in his holiness; I will rejoice, I will divide Shechcm, and mete out the valley of Succoth:” the thing was not yet done, yet they rejoiced in it as present. Faith enables a dead and barren womb to conceive and bring forth, it raises up a dead son out of the ashes; Abraham bids his servants to stay at the bottom of the hill, and expect his coming; oh strong was his faith in this thing!
How unbeseeming are our spirits, and how is our faith manifested to be weak and poor, when a mercy promised is within sight, ready to be fulfilled, and yet we are impatient and froward if it come not just as we desire; when we are full of such despairing conclusions against ourselves or the cause of God. saying, Alas, all is now gone, we are left desperate, God has forsaken his cause! O let us take heed of pleasing ourselves
with such carnal arguments and objections, for they mightily provoke and dishonour God, and hinder much good which else we might enjoy.
But were I worthy, I could think that then I might entertain some hopes.
In this case, exercise faith upon Christ even in thine unworthiness; and though thou mayst die and not see the harvest, nor reap the fruit of thy prayers, yet know, the generations to come shall, and this may comfort thee. So Jacob’s speech when he lay a dying, “Behold, I die; but God shall do much more for you.” The cause may be trodden down for a while, and God may hide himself, but know, that he will keep with thee his covenant which he never yet broke; so long as Christ is thine and thou art his, God’s covenanted faithfulness is also thine. What if those that stand for Christ and his cause be sometimes beaten, must they therefore give over? No, but venture still: and, if our sins hinder not, though we may lie dead to-day, and to-morrow, yet the third day we may live in his sight.
Obs. 5. Mercies after two days’ death, are reviving mercies. “After two days will he revive us.” Promises in times of afflictions are sweet indeed; oh, then, how much more deliverance! Such mercies are resurrection mercies, which God sends after killing afflictions. And such mercies has the Lord given us at this very day; the Lord has revived us when almost dead, therefore would we give God the glory, and render to him due and seasonable praise for such seasonable mercies. Let us observe these ndes.
1. Look back to the former base unbelief of your hearts, and chide them, upbraid them with this now, O vile heart of mine! did not I begin to say, Alas, I am undone, all is lost, my hopes are now abortive? was not I sorry that ever I was so engaged as I am, were it to do again I would be better advised? did not I think the neutrals, those who “came not to the help of the Lord against the mighty,” far better off than I, and wish myself in their condition? How lias the Lord been dishonoured by me! what secret repinings and grudging thoughts have I had even against God himself, because of the various dispensations of his providence! Say now, O base, vile, unbelieving heart, how has the Lord confuted thee, and made thee to see thy shame and ignorance, in believing sense rather than faith!
2. Has God bestowed reviving mercies on you? then be willing to give God the glory of them, and resign them up to him on this ground, because they have been forfeited by your unbelief. An unbelieving heart forfeits all mercies before it has them: true, God gives many precious ones to sad, froward, discontented spirits; but you cannot receive them with the same comfort as others, because they are forfeited, and though God through hirs bounty suffers you to enjoy them, yet you are in fear continually lest God should exact his forfeiture. O believe your mercies in the promise through all the difflcidties.
3. Kemember the covenants which you made to God in the times of your trouble, and keep them. It is a provoking sin to break covenant with God, God comjilains of it against Israel: ““When he slew them, then they sought him: and they returned and inquired early after God. Nevertheless they did flatter him with their mouth, and they lied unto him with their tongues: for their heart was not right with him, neither were they stedfast in his covenant,” Psal. lxxviii. 34, 36, 37. Oh how usual is it with men in any misery to covenant largely with God, and presently to forget what they have done! this is a sign of a false heart, therefore take heed of it. Lay more weight upon the covenants which you make, if ever you mean to give God real praise for any mercy.
4. Consider how much better it is to give God the
Chap. TI.
glorj- of a mercy willingly, than force him to extort it and happy are they who by faith can discern it afar oft”,
from 3’ou in lrrath: God is better pleased with active praise, than passive, for his mercies. Consider, glory he will have. O oblige hira not then to force what is so due to him from you. If you give not God the glorjof the mercies you possess, he in wTath may take them from you: and had not God given us this reviving mercy, it might have been our case to have been forced to give God his glory in a passive manner.
5. AVhatever God calls for now from you, be willing to give up to him freely. AVhatsoever we would have
and are thereby stirred up to turn to God. AAHien God sends such thoughts as these into the soul end settles them. on the mind, I am now in a veiy good condition, well, and in health for the present, but where may I be within two days? I enjoy peace, and have ever)’ thing that heart can desire, both for necessity and delight, but within a short time where may I and these be? these are thoughts calculated to strike awe into the soul of the sinner. But, on the contrary, to believers verv comfortable and full of sweetness: I
gladly given for such a mercy in our misery, had God I am in great and extreme miseiy, but after tno days it
indented with us for it, let us be ready and willing give him now the mercy is come; had we known our danger, and the miseries which would have flowed in upon us had not mercy prevented, and God said. What are )0U content to do, to suffer, to part with, that you may be delivered out of this danger, and possess the contrary mercy? Seeing then God has given us such a mercy without this indenting, make this an ai’gument to give freely unto God that which he now requires. You have been, perhaps, in bodily fears, and danger of death by some sickness; now, if God had called for your estates, would you not have given them to him? Do that now which you would then have done.
6. Lay up against unbelief for time to come. Has God remembered us in our low estate? let us say with David, ““We will trust in him so long as we live;” we will never determine, as formerly, either against ourselves or the cause of God; we will never more entertain hard thoughts of him, but are resolved to do what belongs to us as creatures, and leave the success of the business to God. Ajijily this any way, and it will be verj’ useful. Has God helped thee in any soul-trouble? revived thee in the depths of sorrow, when he had hid himself from thee? lay up such passages of God toward thee against all the risings of unbelief; resolve upon this, that thy soul shall rely on him for help whatsoever becomes of thee: this is to give God the glory of reviving mercies. Thus, in Psal. xviii. 1, 2, David appropriates God to himself, and gathers from that strength and support. He was at this time in such great straits by reason of Saul’s persecution, that he gave up all for lost; “I shall one day perish by the hands of Saul.” “AH men are liars,” he exclaimed; the prophets of God, Gad and Nathan, are liars; they tell me that I shall be king, that I shall sway the sceptre in Israel, but I am more like to be killed and betrayed, sunounded as I am by deceitful and bloodthirsty men. Soon, however, he recalls his words, and confesses that he spake unadvisedly with his lips: “In my haste I said. All men are liars.” And here in this 18th Psalm, where he praises God for that mercy which formerly he would not believe, he addresses him by eight titles, all of them calculated to strengthen his faith: “My rock, my fortress, my deliverer; my God, my strength in whom I will trust; my buckler, the horn of my salvation, my high tower:” from all these titles of God, as his God, he derives encouragement and support. In all the Scripture I know not so short a text so full of matter for the strengthening of faith as this is; and it is faith’s special work to realize God as ours in all these relations. Oh how beautiful would our praises for revi%ing mercies show, could we but exercise our faith thus upon all these titles of God as our God!
Obs. 6. The real sight of deliverance strongly inclines the soul to turn to God. The people made this use of approaching mercy: What! will God after two days deliver and revive us? Come then, and let us return unto him; let us not any longer stand out, but come in, that he may revive us and raise us up. AVlien the soul sees mercy coming, it beholds God outbidding all other temptations, and overpowering all difficulties;
will pass away, then, oh where shall I be? in heaven, in joy and blessedness, for evermore at rest with my Saviour! This made Paid overlook all his afflictions; 2 Cor. iv. 17, It is true 1 am under great afflictions, but they are but light, and but for a moment; and v.-hat shall I have then? An eternal weight of glory. Therefore Christians shoidd not be always poring over their afflictions, but look up to mercy, and review their comforts as well as their discouragements; consider, that within two days God will raise us up again, and this will mightily raise our spirits and quell the tumults in our hearts. As we should be sensible of God’s hand to be humbled for our sins which have caused him to afflict us, yet should we take care that we do not destroy ourselves by our fears.
dbs. 7. The apprehension of the death and resun-ection of Christ is a special help to faith in affliction. Many things may aid, but the consideration of Christ’s resurrection most of all: when the soul shall exercise faith thus; I am thus and thus aftlicted and in miser)-, so was Christ, and much more: though he were the Son of God, the first begotten of the Father, and so blessed for ever; yet he was delivered up into his enemies’ hands, scorned, persecuted, spat upon, nay, crucified, and put to a shameful death. My condition for the present is not so, but if it should be so it is no more than Christ’s was; in this his great soiTOW all his friends forsook him, a thing which much aggravates their miser)- who are in straits; and doubts and fears oppressed his followers, insomuch that the two disciples which went to Emmaus said, “But we trusted that it had been he which should have redeemed Israel.” To what a low condition did God thus bring Christ! and yet this was the greatest work that ever was done, and the most glorious to God. Was the church ever in a lower condition than Christ himself was? yet Christ was raised and delivered out of all; yea, this was a special end of his deep abasement, to be a comfort and a pattei-n to his churches in like trials: and seeing this is held forth to us in a clearer way than it was to the Jews under the law, we should make more use of it than they did. A’as Christ so low that the wrath of God was upon him for satisfaction even to death? this surely was a deep and hon’iblc pit. And is there any hope that ever he should be raised from it? Yea, then was God’s time to show his power, and to declare him to be his Son. And now God thus speaks to his people in all their straits: Did my power raise my Son in such a low estate? it is able also to raise you. As the apostle argues in 1 Cor. xv.. If Christ be not risen, the dead are not raised, &c.; so from thence I also infer, that the church must rise because Christ is risen. If the church does not rise, Christ is not risen; and if so, “then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain:” therefore raise up your saddened spirits on this ground, Christ is risen, and I also shall rise with him. It was wont to be the salutation of the Christians in ancient times, Chrislus resiirrexit, Christ is risen: so the saint’, though brought very low, may conclude that yet that power which raised the Head, will, in his time, raie the bodv and make it “lorious with himself.
“And we shall live m his sight.” As Israel was re-THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA.
penting, so it was believing Israel also; and as theiibelieving furthered theii- repentance, so their repentance furthered their faith; they were confident that they should live in his sight. Hence,
Ohs. 8. AVhen God grants mercies, he would have his people to be of lively spirits. The meaning of the Spu’it in this text is, that however the saints may seem as dead when the -ndcked prevail over them, yet, when God gives rest and life, they shall be lively and full of spirit: God loves not to see his people sad and dejected, when, in reality, they have cause for the greatest joy.
Obs. 9. When God is reconciled to a people, his face is towards them. He looks then upon them and loves them: Rev. xxii. 4, “And they shall see his face.” God deals not with us as David did with his son, 2 Sam. xiv. 2i, “And the king said. Let him turn to his own house, and let him not see my face.” But if God be once reconciled, all the frowns in his face are turned into smiles, he is all lovely towards his saints.
Now how incongruous a thing is it, that when God smiles we should lower! And as God smiles when we humble ourselves, so should we look cheerfully on our childi’en and servants on their submission.
Obs. 10. God’s people account their life to be in God’s favour-. Hj’pocrites desire only the enjojinent of mercies, and if they obtain that they are contented, though they enjoy not the presence of God at all in them: but with the saints it is otherwise; although they have precious mercies, and yet God not present in them, they content not them; if they have health and not God’s presence in it, if they have peace and not theu- peace with God, it satisfies not them; this is their cry. Lord, “let me see thy countenance, let me hear thy voice; for sweet is thy voice, and thy countenance is comely,” Cant. ii. 14.
Obs. 11. The Lord’s mercies to his people are settled mercies. He not only gives them the prospect, but the real possession, of mercy. We are revived and raised. Yea, but we may die again. No, “we shall live in his sight,” we shall live before him. Mercies to the saints are not the fi’uit of God’s patience, for then they would not be settled mercies; but they come from the covenant of grace, and so are called, “the sure mercies of David,” Isa. Iv. 3.
Obs. 12. Faith raises the soul high. “He will revive us,” and “he will raise us up.” Is that all? No, but “we shall live in his sight.” It is a proof of a very carnal heart, to be contented with low mercies, to be put off with any thing: it pleases God well, when his people will not be put off with small mercies. Though it is trxie, we must be thanWul for the least mercy, and content with it in opposition to murmuring, yet we must not rest therewithal satisfied; but if thy faith be true, it will expect more; and if it hath got a promise from God, it will improve it to the utmost extent that the promise will bear; and when it hath one promise fulfilled, it will look out for the answering of another. We do not approve of such a craving disposition in a beggar, but God is much delighted with it in his people.
06s. 13. The eye of God on his people is their comfort. The saints have much comfort from God’s eye; whereas it is the greatest terror to the hypocrites, that God sees them, that they are continually in his sight; “If one know them, they are in the terrors of the shadow of death,” Job xxiv. 17. It is no wonder that they would fain hide themselves ft-om his presence, “for the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous, and his ears are open unto their prayers: but the face of the Lord is against them that do’evil,” 1 Pet. iii. 12. The saints account it theu- privilege that God sees them; and it is a very good sign of sincerity, when the soul can look up to the clear beams of the Sun of righteousness without fear or apprehension; as the eagle, when she would
prove her young, holds them up in the sight of the sun, to try if they can endure with steady, undazzled gaze its effulgent brightness.
Obs. 14. It is the great care of the saints to walk as in God’s sight. Psal. xvi. 8, 9, “I have set the Lord always before me: because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved:” I will not fear, I have set him before me; “therefore my heart is glad, my glory rejoiceth: my flesh also shall rest in hope.” This text is spoken chiefly of Christ; and if Christ must be kept irom falling by setting the Lord always before him, much more must we. Not that he was in danger of falling as we are, but this is to be understood as Heb. v. 8, which speaks of obedience learned by sufferings; looking at God helped him to obey, and to stand in obeying; as the apostle saith, 2 Cor. ii. 1”, What we speak, it is as in the sight of God in Christ; that is, AMiat we say, it is in the power and efficacy of Christ. But how comes this to pass, that they thus preach? why as in the sight of God? AVe thus preach, his power enables.
Obs. 15. The eye of God upon his people is their safety and security. “The eyes of the Lord are over the righteous,” 1 Pet. iii. 12. As a child thinks itself safe if it be in the parent’s presence, so the saints should look upon themselves as very secure in the sight of God. A philosopher in danger of ship’m-eck in a staiTy night, could say, Surely I shall not perish, there are so many eyes of Providence over me. Could a philosopher speak thus, and may not a Christian say much more, that he shall not perish, seeing God’s providential eye is over him?
Ver. 3. Then shall we know, if we follozo on lo know the Lord: his going forth is prepared as the morning; and he shall come im’to us as the rain, as the latter and former rain unto the earth.
This scripture is very full, and pregnant with sweetness, and the interpretation unattended with difficulty.
“Then shall we know, if we follow on to know.” “If” is not in the original, which runs thus, nsmj nytJInjrnS And we shall know, and we shall follow on to know. The word signifies to follow one as eagerly as a man which persecutes another, and persecutes him as Paul did the saints, with full purpose of mind: when men thus follow on to know, God wUl reveal himself more. Luther applies these words to Chi’ist. and the gospel revelation of him, setting men’s minds on fire by the truth so clearly tbscovered, and inflaming them with such love to it that they follow on to know it. But although these words have reference to Christ, yet, primarily, they are to be understood of God’s delivering his people out of captivity. Then they shall know. “What shall they know? ‘I’hat they shall live in his sight. WTien God delivers them, then they shall know,
1. God’s faithfulness in his covenant made to our fathers: we know very little of it now, but the time is coming when we shall know it clearly.
2. The works of God’s wisdom, all working for his people’s good in their lustre and beauty.
3. The excellency of God’s power, how it overrules all tilings, and how it is exerted for the saints’ good.
4. The mercy of God acting every way for their best advantage: we are now in great misery, and our troubles increase, and we cannot see how mercy is working for good; but then we shall know.
5. The mind of God: we are now in much darkness, not only with respect to outward troubles, but to soultrials; we know very little of God now at the best, but then we shall know him clearly.
6. The vanity of all worldly pomp and glory, and the folly of all carnal confidence: men are now ready-to call the proud happy, and bless the workers of iniquitj-, and run to king Jareb; but then we shall
know that God is able to deliver his people out of all straits.
7. That it is not in vain for the iioople of God to seek him, even then, when all human helj)s and hopes fail; then they shall know that there is a power and efficacy in prayer, as God’s ordinance, to help them in difficulties.
8. The meaning of many prophecies which are now very dark and obscure, and yet contain much sweetness for the churches of God: and whether this will be worth knowing, let discerning men judge.
9. The glorious purposes and decrees which God has had from all eternity for our good: God has glorious purposes, although we for the present know them not, but we shall know them; there is a time that all these things, and much more than these, shall be revealed.
“We shall know, if we follow on to know the Lord.” “If” is not in the original, but put in to fill up the sense; but if we take the words literally, “we shall know, if we follow on,” then the sense runs thus. Does God reveal himself to his jieople? and do his jieople lay hold of the ojiportunity? if so, they shall know more. But if you take the words without the “if,” thus. You know, and follow on to know; the meaning is. That when God begins to show mercy he will go on to show mercy; so that these words are a motive to turn to God, or an expression of their confidence in God. God was now in the dark, his presence clouded towards them, and the enemies scoffed and mocked at them, saying, “Where is now your God?” The people answer, Ve shall know our God again, and he ill discover himself to our comfort, but to your shame. The observations are,
Obs. 1. True penitents tuni to God that they may know God. As there must be some knowledge before tiu-ning to God, so we turn to God that we may know him more; and the desire of knowing him should not be so much to deliver from hell, as to be fitted thereby to do him more and better service. If the hypocrite have but so much service and knowledge as to manage thereby to attain his own ends, he is satisfied; but a gracious heart dares not rest in such content.
Obs. 2. No man can turn to God, but as God’s fiice is towards him. AVe cannot turn to God except God turn first to us: “When he giveth quietness, who then can make trouble?” Job xxxiv. 29.
Obs. ;5. ‘When God comes to his people in mercy, he reveals to them much of himself; and according to the <legrecs of his coming to them, arc the manifestations of himself unto them, either more or less; he gives them something in this life, an earnest at the beginning, and at death the full ])ayment, the perfect enjoyment of all promised good. Faith can see a glory in God, even in the darkest seasons; but in the times’ of light, then it can see abundance of mercy.
Therefore it is Christian wisdom to take notice of the mercies we enjoy, else we cannot glorify God’s name. Oh how much of the faithfulness, power, wisdom, goodness, and mercy of God in turning the counsels, plots, and devices of the wicked to our good, we might have known, had we but been diligent observers of his ])royidence! Those who see not the glory of God now shining brightly in the world, have very little light in themselves, but must needs be very dark, or strangely negligent in the observation of the good things they enjoy from God. Of John, who saw the future blessed estate of the church, the temple of God, the ark of tlic testament was kept in the holy of holies, Uev. xi. 10, when none of the peo])le could see it, it is said that he should prophesy again, Kev. x. 1 1; not that he should arise again and iirophesy, but the time is coming that the Revelation shall be as clearly understood as if John had written a new revelation. Just so in Isa. xxx. 26, a scripture i)arallel to the text, the Lord promises, when he binds the breach of the people, and heals the stroke
of their wound, “the light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun;” knowledge shall wonderfully increase, there shall be very glorious manife-stations of God to his people. And that jjassage in Isaiah shows plainly that our present text refers to that time in which God will exalt his church, and make it glorious in the eyes of all beholders.
Obs. 4. The knowledge of God is a very comfortable thing to the saints. I’hey speak here triumi)hantly, “Then shall we know, if we follow on to know;” any thing of God makes gracious hearts to spring with joy and gladness. It is the happiness of the saints in heaven to know God, and to have the sight of God: and so it is here; “This is eternal life, to know thee, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent;” not only to know him, but to know him as he ap])ears for his church’s deliverance. How many are now in heaven blessing God that ever their eyes beheld these days! Xay, certainly, should God but let our forefathers out of then- graves to see what a tuin things here have taken, and how their prayers have been answered, they would be as men astonished. If it be so comfortable to see and know God in this life, what will it be in heaven, where nothing shall intervene to darken this sight of God!
Obn. 5. The more men turn to God, the more they shall know of him; yea, this we may be sure of, whatever else we here enjoy. “All this evil is come upon us; yet made we not our prayer before the Lord our God, that we might turn from our iniquities, and understand thy truth,” Dan. ix. 13: if we understand thy truth and turn from our iniquities, we shall knowmore of the truth. “The pure in heart shall see God,” Matt. y. 8. Oh the sweet light which pui’Lfied minds enjoy! to these God reveals his secrets, and acquaints them with the mystery of his covenant, Psal. xxv. H. The great rabbles of the world are ignorant of these tilings, they are mysteries unto them; and this is the reason of it, because they turn not unto God, neither labour to know God.
Obs. 6. Those that know something of God desire to know more. He that is learned covets after more knowledge. None, truly, but the ignorant, are enemies to learning; those that never knew the worth of it, are they that cry it down; therefore those who are contented with little, nay, and think their little sometimes too much, are of poor, mean, and base spirits, far from following on to know the Lord.
Ob.’!. 7. A gracious heart puts forth strong endeavours in the use of means to increase in the knowledge of God. He will let no time escape, neglect no opportunity, in which knowledge may be increased, Dan. ix. 13. This was Solomon’s prayer, 1 Kings iii. 9, “Give, therefore, thy servant an understanding heart;” in the Hebrew it is, yizv aS Give thy servant a hearing heart. Though God had discovered himself wonderfully, yet he desires that God would further manifest himself to him. Therefore they are very foolish that think they know enough of God, and are contented with what they know; it is a great blessing of God to have a hearing car and an understanding heart. Therefore what a fond opinion is it, and what a sluggish spirit does it manifest, to be satisfied with the knowledge of former times! ‘W’liat! say they, shall we be vliser than our forefathers? We are, indeed, to bless God for the knowledge of our forefathers, and say, as Master Grcenham did, “I bless God for what our forefathers knew;” but also add with him, “I bless God also that he has kept back some of his counsels to communicate to this generation.” It is an argument of a poor spirit to rest satisfied with small measures of knowledge; the light three or four hundi’ed years ago was dim, and in these days our light is poor and weak to that which shall be revealed, especially with respect to the worship and
THE PROPHECY OF HOSE-.
order of God’s house. Therefore had not we need to ‘■ follow on to know the Lord?” Therefore God forbid that any should scorn at the new lights which God discovers, but rather let us be humbled for our ignorance, and now begin to follow on earnestly and perseveringly to know the Lord. No new truth indeed in respect of the word is revealed, but with regard to the manifestation of them to us they may be said to be new.
Obs. 8. It is a blessed thing to take notice of GodV revealing himself Oh how happy a thing had it been for many of us, if, when God first began to stir our hearts, we had followed on to know the Lord! How sad it is for many to look back to former days! what glorious and sweet manifestations had they then of God’s love! but, through worldly cares and sluggishness of spirit, all is lost: they are now in the dark, and cannot speak of God to edification: whereas many who are younger, and have kept their communion with God, know more of God, and are able to speak more sweetly of his goodness, than they. And you who thus know God in your youth, bless him that he has brought you to this light, and make much of it; for as Christ said to Nathanael, John i. 50, “Because I said unto thee, I saw thee under the fig tree, believest thou? thou shalt see greater things than these;” so do you bless God for what you do know, and God will reveal more.
Obi: 9. Those who “follow on to know the Lord,” shall know more of him. “The diligent hand maketh rich.” It matters not though thy parts be weak, thy abilities mean, thy failings many, if Christ be thy Teacher it matters not, thy weaknesses shall not liindcr his instructions; Christ teaches the weak as well as the strong, nay, accounts it his glory to teach such; nay, the Father himself is not ashamed to instruct them. Christ gives thanks to his Father, that he has revealed these things to babes and sucklings. Christ is a meek, gentle, lowly Teacher, very mild and loling, he will neither upbraid his followers with their weakness, nor discourage them in their dulness. Christ speaks to poor, weak, bui’dened sinners; “Come unto me, all ye that are weary and hea’V)- laden;” who then will he discouraged? No, to thy soul he will give wisdom liberally, and infuse into thee the principles of saving knowledge. Col. i. 10, “That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God.” Great are the treasures of knowledge which a diligent Christian may obtain. “Continue,” or draw out, “thy loving-kindness unto them that know thee,” Psal. xxxvi. 10. Thou hast some glimmering knowledge of God, some spark of Divine light; bless God for it, and follow on perseveringly to know the Lord, and then thou shalt know more. It is a heavy curse that is denounced on those women in Timothy, that are “ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth,” 2 Tim. iii. 7.
But many a poor soul may here object, If this be so, I fear it is my condition, that the means aggravate the sins that I commit, and leave me inexcusable.
To answer thee. If thou art not one who follows divers lusts, and make them thy practice, thou art not among those who are “ever learning, but never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.” If thou foUowest on to know God, God will follow thee on with mercy.
06s. 10. One mercy makes way for another; a less prepares for a greater! God beholds all things at once with one view of his providential eye, and it is his happiness so to do; but the saints cannot do this, they must know a little now, and more at another time. And do not our times make good this text? The Lord will grant one deliverance now, and another reviving the next day, and all to usher in a greater. The Lord first smote us, and within two days did he revive us, and
the third day we lived in his sight; and since that deliverance we have followed on to know the Lord, and God has revealed himself more in his power, wisdom, and faithfulness; and, if it be not our fault, we may know more of his workings. Oh that we had hearts to follow on the Lord in repenting, believing, and turning to him! he would follow us with mercies, and all the good that we can wish for, one after another. God makes wicked men to know more wrath, and the di’ops of his anger here are but the beginning of the deluge of miseries which are their portion; they sink, and sink, and their sinking must be to all eternity. Oh the difference which there is between God’s dealing with the saints and with the wicked! though the saints may be under a cloud for the present, )et they shall know the Lord, the sun will appear again; the Lord will follow on his ■pork, though we neglect ours, and glorious shall be the issue, ^^’ere it not a glorious thing, if a man had lived from the beginning to this day, and might live to the end of the world, to see what God did in former times, what God doth now, and what he will do to the end of the world for his poor churches? The saints shall live to all eternity to see these glorious things. God did glorious things in the first six thousand years, and surely the next six thousand shall be still more glorious, but in eternity God will do most of all: then the saints of God, those which “follow on to know the Lord,” shall be put into the real possession of all those glorious things which God has been doing from all eternity.
“His going forth is prepared as the morning.” Jerome conceived these words to be meant of Christ; he shall come as the morning, being called the “Sun of righteousness,” and “the Morning-star;” and he conceives that it may have reference to the title of the 22nd Psalm, “A Psalm of David, to the chief JIusician upon Aijeleth Shahar;” that is, the morning hind; to wit, Christ, who was sent forth as the morning hind, and hunted in his infancy and m his life, as the hind is pursued by the hounds.
But if we take the words simply as they lie before us, they appear an expression of Israel’s confidence in God after a night of trouble. The word psj “prepared,” signifies also decreed, it is decreed upon as the morning and the evening, as the day follows the night by a decree. Children, when they see the sun going down, will often cry, because they think he will never rise again; so the wicked in their straits cry out, We are undone, this darkness will never be over; yea, and such is the baseness of our unbelieving hearts, we think when the clouds of sorrow begin to arise, and blackness to cover the sun of our prosperity, mercy will never break through, light will no more appear. But more particularly,
Obs. 11. Times of afflictions are night times. This is implied here: we may have a long time of sorrow and misery, a dark tempest may overtake us, yet know, that a morning will come. They are called night times for three reasons.
1. Because of their uncomfortableness. Darkness is very terrible. Drexelius tells us of a young man, very fearful of darkness, who, on God striking him with a dangerous sickness, insomuch that he could not sleep, tumbling up and down in his bed, uttered these words, If this darkness be so terrible, what is eternal darkness! and this proved the means of his conversion. Well, therefore, may affliction times be called night times, times of darkness.
2. They are times that often put an end both to public and private service. The night is the time in which the brute creatures, which in the day time keep close, come forth for their prey. Therefore the apostle’s exhortation is seasonable, Let us work while it is called to-day, before the night cometh, when no man can work.
3. Night times ai’e times of danger. Many of our
ClIAP. VI.
brethren can testify to this in these times. When is the time that wicked men prey upon the saints, and the wild beasts go out to devour, but in the dark? so, when do men meditate upon terror and create fears to themselves, but in the night of their afflictions and sorrows?
Obs. 12. The time of deliverance is the morninp, the morning after the sad and dark night. As light is comfortable in the morning after a sad, dark, and stormy night; so is deliverance after trouble. The morning is very desirable, as appears, Psal. cxxx. 6, “My soul waiteth for the Lord more than they that watch for the morning: I say, more than they that watch for the morning.” God’s mercies after afflictions arc veiy sweet, as the light approaching in the morning is to the labouring man going forth to his work. AVhen God has work for men to do, he ex])ects that they should go forth to it, and show themselves in it. As the sun when it rises begins to show itself in its brightness and glorj-, so ought every Christian to shine in the work and service of God after deliverance. In a sickness, or when some strait is upon thee, thou art hindered in God’s service, and in thy work; well, then, when God bestows on thee the morning of a deliverance, go forth and manifest thy zeal for him, be not ashamed of his cause in the bright noon-day of mercy.
Oli-i. 13. The church has no afflictions unfollowedby a morning. The morning will come, either to churches in special, or persons in particular; and we hope this time is coming to us; therefore let dominion be given to the Lord in the morning; yea, and let dominion be given to the righteous in the morning, and this seems to be the meaning of Rev. ii. 26, 28, “To him that overcometh, will I give the morning-star.” There may be great contentions, grievous miseries, in this night of afflictions; but be encouraged, to him that overcoraeth will I give this morning-star of comfort and deliverance.
Obs. 14. It is God’s presence which constitutes the saint.s’ morning. As the stars may impart some light, and yet the biightness of all combined cannot form the light of day, but when the sun appears there is day forthwith; so God may make some comfort arise to a soul from secondary and inferior means, but it is ho himself alone who, by the shining of his face, and the smiles of his countenance, causes morning.
Obs. 15. God’s mercies to his people arc prepared and decreed. They are set and detennined, “Thy going forth is prepared as the morning:” the word I’ showed you in the original signifies decreed. Jcr. xxxiii. 20, “Thus saith the Lord; If ye can break my covenant of the day, and my covenant of the night, and that there should not be day and night in their season; then may also my covenant be broken with David my servant.” Here we have both the text and the note from it; as is the covenant of God’s decree with day and night, morning and evening, called a covenant because It is sure and certain, so also is the covenant which God has made to Christ and to his church firm and sure; and it is a ground of strong consolation to the saints to consider, that mercies which they want arc set and decreed mercies, and therefore they may wait for them with patience.
Obs. IG. The saints in the night of their affliction can comfort themselves in this, that the morning is coming. It is night yet, but the morning will come, it is ai)])roaching: the assurance that the morning is dawning upholds the saints’ spirits in the night of their sorrows. The tempest-tossed mariner in the gloom of night, the weary traveller in his dark and lonesome journey, comfort themselves with this, that the morning light is coming. It is far better to be in darkness, and expect the dawn, than to be in the li?ht. and to know or fear
that darkness Is coming, and light will never return more.
Obs. 17. The saints’ night is darkest a little before their deliverance; as a little before the dawning of the day the darkness is most dense and terrible. So it was in Egypt a little before Israel’s deliverance, and their return out of captivity. And this should mightily encourage us, in these times, not to be disheartened though our miseries should increase, for the darker and the bigger the cloud is, it will the sooner break; therefore wait with ])atience.
Obs. 18. God’s mode of deliverance is gradual. As the day breaks by degrees, so the saints shine gradually in their lives, answerable to the light which God imparts. We would have instantaneous deliverance; light, and perfect noon-day forthwith; but this is not God’s mode of dealing with his people. A child knows not that it Ls day till it be verj- light indeed; but the wise can discern the first streaks in the horizon. Oh that we were so wise to discern God’s dealings in the workings of providence towards us!
“And he shall come unto us as the rain.” God so glories in this part of his creation, that he wonders when men do not fear him who is the giver of rain: “Neither say they in their heart. Let us fear the Lord our God, that giveth rain,” Jer. v. 24; there is so much of my glory in this very one creatm-e, that men’s hearts must be verj’ hard that will not praise me for it. And God is elsewhere styled, “the Father of rain.” The mention of it here refers to that countrj- in which the projjhet .spake; to Canaan, where they had rain, not so frequently as we have, but twice a year especially, viz. at seed-time, to soften the ground, and a little before harvest, to fill up the com in the ear. The apostle James seems to allude to this, chap. v. 7, “The husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the eaith, and hath long patience for it, until he receive the early and latter rain:” so should we, for God’s time of delivering his people, his interpositions shall be as seasonable as the former and latter rain. The observations from these words arc,
Obs. 19. AMiat the rain is to the com, God’s blessing is to his people. AVe dejiend as much upon God for blessing and mercy, as the seed upon the rain for growth and increase; without the rain the com will be but as “the parched i)laces in the wilderness,” which is the curse branded upon the wicked, Jer. xvii. 5, 6. Hence we may see what poor creatures we are, depending upon such a thing as the rain is in itself, and learn from that to consider how entirely we depend on the infinite God for all the blessings we enjoy.
Obs. 20. The church should increase under the rain of God’s blessing. As the earth is not unthankful for the rain, but sends forth corn, grass, and flowers; so should we always, after the receiving of mercies, return unto God in duties. AVe would think it strange if the earth, after all the cost man has bestowed upon it, and after the sweet and seasonable showers of rain, should be barren and fruitless. O man, condemn thyself: the word is comjiared to rain; and how many times have the sweet showers and ih-oppings of the word lighted upon thee, and yet thou hast remained barren and unfruitful! Deut. xxxii. 2.
Obs. 21. God’s mercies to his people are both seasonable and suitable: “as the latter and former rain vinto the earth.” The Lord comes to wicked men in a way of general providence; but to the saints as rain in seed-time and harvest, with much fulness. How should this teach us our duty to wait with patience upon God, as the husbandman for the appointed weeks of harvest! James v. 7. If mercies always came when we would have them, tliev would prove judgments to usj that which in itself is a mercy, coming untimely, proves an affliction; God sent his ‘jjcople Israel a ting, but he
proved a heavy judgment to them. It is God’s mercy unto you to defer his gifts till the full time. We exclaim,’ Our troubles are great, and continue long; we had thought to have seen a period to these times, our wars at an end, and peace settled in our kingdom; and now we see, if they had indeed ended when we desired, what a misfortune it would have been to us. How many that observe God”s dealings can say, that if such a mercv had come when they wished for it, it had ruined them! therefore God’s time is the best time. Hence we find that the saints have often blessed God when he has crossed them in their desires, and has denied them the tiling which they so importunately asked. The Lord has sent us the former rain seasonably, at the beginning of the summer, to prepare the earth for fruit; but now there are scorching heats in the kingdom, heats of displeasure in the countr)-, in the city, nay, abiost in every family. Let us then now with patience wait, and the latter rain in its season will assm’edly come.
Is God so seasonable in his mercies towards us? Let us be seasonable and suitable in our duty; let us bring forth fruit unto God in due season, as the godly man in the 1st Psalm is said to do; for in this consists the excellency of service. Therefore it is no other but a temptation of Satan, that, when men are called to pm-sue their necessary avocations, then stii-s them up to jn-ayer or hearing: these are not the motions of the Spirit, for they are seasonable; for God never puts the soul upon extremes, the performing of two conti’ary duties at one and the same time. It is an excellent sign of a gracious heart, to account a season for service, a mercy; and the lack of opportunity, a miser)-. Certainly it is a great judgment of God upon a man, to be unserviceable in a season of service. Jude, ver. 12, describing the corruptions of the gospel by life and docti-ine, in his time, saith, they were “trees whose fi-uit withereth, without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots;” trees corrupt even m the time of autumn, when then- fruit should come in abundantly. Thus it is with many men, when God expects the most fi’uit from them, they show themselves most con-upt and vile. These mightily provoke God. And how many such have we amongst us at this day, who, when God calls them to ser’ice, manifest the rottenness which is in their spuits! Many when they are in a poor condition think, Oh had I such a man’s estate, what a deal of good woidd I do with it! had I such parts and abOities as some have, and as much time, and as many opportunities afforded me, how would I lay them out for God! O foolish hearts, who, when they can do nothing, would do most, and when they may do most, do nothing at all.
Obs. 22. God’s mercies to his people are varied according to their necessities. “The latter and the former rain.” Toward the seed-time they wanted rain, and God sends it them. Now, as God may call us to a variety of services, according to the variety of mercies, let not us content oui’selves in that we have done something, employed our heads, or hands, or purses; but willingly devote eveiy power and adopt eveiy expedient to subserve his cause. God has employed thee this day in one service, he has another for thee to do the next: be willing and ready to be set on work, and bless God that he deigns to employ thee in his service.
Obs. 23. “^Tien God has begun in metcy with his people, he will go on. If God should give only the former rain, the seed would not fructify and increase ‘without the latter rain: faith will believe that God will not lose the glorj- of former mercies, for want of succeeding ones: faith believes that God will never begin a work, and leave it incomplete. Let not us then begin to obey God, and then leave off and lose all that we have done; let us consider that the vows of God are upon us, the many prayers we have put up, and let us
not now lose the return of them. How many in the days of their youth followed on to know God, and found the sweetness of the word to be as the fonner and the latter ram unto them! Do not now lose all which you got in your youth, by denjing him service in yom- age.
Obs. 24. God’s mercies to his people procure much good. They are not empty shells, there is in them all they profess to contain, all God promises to give.
06s. 25. The deliverances of God’s people come from heaven. They spring not out of the earth; if ever God’s people are delivered, there must be a Divine, Almighty power put forth, else it will never be a deliverance iii mercy.
Obs. 26. God’s people’s deliverances cannot be hindered. ^Tiy? Because they come fi-bm above. They are as the light of the sun, and as the rain that comes upon the earth: who can hinder the sun from shining, the rain from faDing? who can interrupt night and day? so, who can hinder the rain of mercy fi’om falling on a people prepared for it?
Obs. 27. We should make a spiritual use of God’s works in his creatm-es. “We see after the coldest winter there comes a summer, after a drought gi’eat rain: let not us, in the times of cold and dark afflictions sent by God, conclude that mercy is quite gone, that God has shut up his loving-kindness in forgetfulness; no, but let us rest assured that there will be a return of mercy which shaE revive us.
Ver. 4. O Ephraim, what shall I do unto thee? 0 Judah, what shall I do mito thee? for your goodness is as a morning cloud, and as the earbj dew it goelh away.
Luther interprets these words as a further expression of mercy to this people Lsrael, and not in the light of a reproof; as if the Lord had said to them, O Israel, my people, I have been very good and gracious to you in the land of Egypt, delivered you from the tp-anny and oppression you were under there, and I have been with you in the wilderness, and I have brought you into the land of Canaan; but what are these? all temporal mercies; I have gi’eater than these to bestow upon you in gospel times. But to this interjn-etation this objection will arise:
VTiat shall we understand by the nest words, “y-our goodness is as a morning cloud?” how can this be said? Luther to this answers thus, “Your goodness;” that is, the goodness of God, which is yours by covenant, and by purchase procured for you; this mercy of God shall refresh your parched souls, as the morning cloud does the earth after a long drought.
But the words “goeth away,” and their goodness being but “as a morning cloud,” taken together, the sense leads us to interpret it as a breaking off from the discourse about the promise of mercy, to a convincing of Ephraim and Judah of formality in their attempts at reformation; they all passed off, as the morning cloud which vanishes away, and as the early dew that comes to nothing.
Jerome thinks that it is God’s mercies towards them which thus pass away; he would not leave them quite without hope, they should have some mercy, but it should not abide nor stay with them. But the genuine sense of the words. I conceive to be, an upbraiding of the formality that generally prevailed in their pursuit of reformation: therefore, ‘” O Ephi-aim, what shall I do unto thee?” As if the Lord should say, You put me to a stand, you even nonplus me in this thing; what, therefore, shall I do unto thee?
Here in general we may observe the change of the prophet’s voice: in the beginning of the chapter it is all mercy, and then’ repentance sweetly join in with the mercy promised them; but now he begins to upbraid
them for their h)-pccrisy, incorriglblcness, and inconstancy in the ways of uod: a very good pattern for ministers who have to deal with varieties of people.
“O Ephraim, what shall I do unto thee? O Judah, what shall I do mito thee? “To ojjcn these words more particularly: the expression ‘•’ what shall I do unto thee?” implies either compassion or expostulation.
I. Compassion; as if he should say, O Ephraim, it is in my heart to do thee good, but nothing will work upon thee, therefore, “O Ephi”aim, what shall I do unto thee? ‘■ Like that expression in Isa. v. 4, “Wiat could have been done more to my vineyard, that I have not done in it?” were there any other further course to be taken, any thing else to do, I would do it? Now from this sense of God’s compassionating them, we may,
06*. 1. That God grieves not willingly the children of men: he is even forced to it: at the very time they are grieved by afflictions, God is troubled for their miseries. Can any tell me, men or angels, nay, I appeal to yourselves, can you tell me what I should do more to you than I have done? If you can, I would do it. God expostulates with them; he comes not suddenly upon them, punishment is the last measure he adopts with his people.
And so it should be with us to those under us, as our children or servants; all means of prevailing must be tried before correction; exhort, advise, reprove, and pray for them: have you first taken this course? else you can have little comfort in correcting them. This is God’s way, though you perhaps see it not. He here meets an “objection which repining Israel might seem to make: AVe are believers, to us the promises belong; why might not the Lord bring mercy to us without using such means as smiting, wounding, killing, and parching? No, saith God, I could not otherwise bring about mine own ends. Oh, therefore, let us check such thoughts. God brings us low by afflictions; he could do it by mercies, but then the end which he aims at would not be so fully accomplished.
Obs’. 2. AVe should not think much to lose our pains with others. God has taken pains and been at cost with this people, and he has lost all; and God seems here to mourn over it: I have used this admonition, and that counsel, yet still you continue h)-poeritical; “O what shall I do imto thee?” yet God does not leave them or gi’ow weary of his pains, he persists still in the means likely to do them good. In this should the saints imitate God: if this course prevail not, try a second; if it succeed not, adopt a third, perhaps that may, and success will amply repay all the pains. And thus much for the words in the sense of compassion: but now,
II. Expostulation, to humble them, or to convince them of their sin. Hence,
Obs. 3. It is a special means to humble men, to lead them to consider what measures have been adopted for their good. AVould we be seriously affected with sin, and humbled for sin? then let us go alone and call our souls to account, whether means have not been used sufficient to do us good: consider what means they have been, judgments, national, domestic, and I personal; mercies, reproofs out of the w ord, admonitions from friends, terrors and checks of conscience: I when they have thus passed in review before you, I charge conscience to speak to thee the truth, and when I it doth, give it leave to upbraid thee thus; What I so unprofitable, so stout and stubboni, so froward and impatient, so unthankful and so unbelieving, notwithstanding all this? This would be a means singularly calculated to show the soul its real condition. But, alas! most men put off and shun such a course as this; the devil knows its efficacy, and he strives mightily to lead the soul off from it to such excuses as these, Had I the
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means others have, I shoidd be more fruitful: I was reproved, but it was done too openly; had it been in private and with more love, by such a one and in such a place, it would have done more good. Infinite are the false pretences of an ungodly heart, and the cunning devices of Satan’s subtlety in the soul; but w hen the Lord comes truly to humble the soul, that soul will charge itself home throughly for its sins, in all their cucumstances and all their aggravations.
Obs. 4. Such is the perverseness of men’s hearts, that God many times seems to be in a strait what to with them. “AMiat .shall I do unto thee?” God was here even at a stand, he was fain to consult with himself about them. See in other scriptures how God expresses this; Exod. xxxiii. 5, “Therefore now put off thy ornaments from thee, that I may know what to do unto thee: “and Deut. xxxii. 5,” They have corrupted themselves, their spot is not the spot of his children: they arc a perverse and a crooked generation.” The words in the original refer to the manner of -.^^..^j. .^.^ wrestlers, who wave up and down, that if ““” “the one thinks to have the other here, he is winded the other way: so this people eluded God’s dealings. Therefore, Acts ii. 40, we are commanded to” save ourselves from this untoward generation,” aKoXiag, crooked or per-erse, so that none can do them good. God“s ministers are often put to a stand with such, like those in Christ’s time, whom neither John nor Christ himself could please; when John came, they exclaimed against his rigour and harshness; and when Christ came, mild and gentle, of him they said, he was “a wine-bibber, and a friend of publicans and sinners.”
But it may be objected, God knew not what to do; how is this? could not God have put forth his almighty power and turned their hearts, and that immediately? how then is it said, God knew not what to do?
To this I answer, that God was not bound to do this, for God had used all means to prevail with Ephraim and Judah, which the most loving and compassionate friend could have employed. Suppose a man were in such a condition, that, for his cure, all the doctors of physic in the countrj- where he lived were gathered together, and consulted, but theii- prescriptions availed nothing; would not this set forth in aggravated colours the danger of the disease, and the difficulty of the cure? .11 this is in God, and much more, and it is put forth for the good of souls; I have put forth more power, wisdom, love, and mercy than man can do. Now shall this be an aggravation in respect of the creature, and not of the Creator? All means to do you good have been put forth excepting my almighty power, and yet the work is not done.
Obs. 5. The condition of people is sad, when no means will do them good. Then that fearful judgment may be pronounced upon them, Jer. li. 30, “Kcprobate silver shall men call them, because the Lord hath rejected them.” Ezek. xxiv. 13, “Because I have purged thee, and thou wast not purged, thou shalt not be ])urged from thy filthiness any more, till I have caused my fury to rest upon thee.”
Obs. 6.’ It goes very near the heart of God, to see those that are nigh unto him perverse in their ways. AVhat ‘. for Judah to forsake me? It is sad to find crosses and untowardness in Ephraim; but to meet with them in Judah, where my ordinances arc in a special manner, and they so near unto me, and I so tender of them! It is strange to behold of what knotty, crabbed spirits God’s own people sometimes are! A piece of wood may be sound, yet full of knots and very tough. AVhat goes nearer a man than to find crossness in his wife, his children, or friend? from a stranger it matters not so much. Even so God is more affected by the unkindness of his l)co))le than the wickednesses of the ungodly.
Obs. 7. It is not enough to worship God better than
THE PROPHF.CY OF IIOSEA.
others, if we be of perverse spirits. This was the sin of Judah, because they had the ordinances in a purer way, and worshipped God better than Ephraim, they thought they might continue in this their sin. Oh that this were not England’s sin at this day! let us be humbled for it, that we may escape their judgment.
““Your goodness.” The word asneni properly signifies piety and godliness, but in a more extended sense, kindness, mercy, and goodness. But why jjour goodness? Yours, because either of God’s goodness toward them, or the goodness, the holiness, which was in them, 1. God’s goodness towards them, which is sometimes by imputation called ours, as in Kom. xi. 31, “That through your mercy they also may obtain mercy;” by that mercy which God bestowed on you, you may encourage the Gentiles to come in. 2. Their goodness; either to their bretlu’cn, or their piety and holiness, both these were “as a morning cloud, and as the early dew that goeth away.” If the first signification of them be taken, then the sense runs thus:
God’s goodness to them was as the morning cloud; that is, they, by their sin, had driven away God’s mercy and goodness from them, even as the wind carries the dust before it: God W’as apparently about to bestow mercies, and they, by their sins, put them all away from them. Bernard saith, that the wind of their unthankfulness drove away the floods, much more the dews, of mercy fi-om them. Now God forbid that this should be our condition: the clouds of mercy are over us, and the dews of mercy are upon us; now should we, by our sins, diuve these away from us, how woeful will be om- case! Therefore let us not only pray to have the dews, but also the clouds to shower down rivers of mercy. Though I do not think this to be the principal scope of the words, yet it may afi’ord us useful meditation; but the words seem properly to signify their own goodness, which may be taken for,
I. IVIercy and compassion towards one another; because, in the 6th verse, God calls upon them so oernestly for mercy, notwithstanding all their shows and promises of reformation; these were all but hypocritical, like those in Jer. xxxiv. 15, 16, of whom God saith, “And ye were now turned, and had done right in my sight, in proclaiming liberty every man to his neighbour;” but they had polluted his name again, by causing those servants formerly set at liberty to return, and bringing them into subjection: so people who are for a time pitiful and very merciful, afterwards often grow cruel and hard-hearted.
Let us take heed of so evil a disposition. MTien together we sometimes can join in love and unity, pitying each other, and bearing with each other’s infirmities, bearing Christian admonition patiently; but these good words and fair shoM’s often vanish and come to nothing. Where are those refreshing showers of love and friendship which you were wont to water each other with in your Christian societies? In the room of these there now grow nothing amongst us but the lusts of pride, passions, and sad dissensions, which parch and dry up all those good seeds of love and gentleness.
I desire to press this the more, because the Scripture is pleased to make use of this expression of the dew to ex]n’ess the sweetness of a Christian spirit, Psal. cxxxiii. 1, 3, “Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!” How pleasant is it? It is “as the dew of Hermon, and as the dew that descended upon the mountain of Zion:” as that refreshed the grass, so this affection of mercy and love the saints. He compares it not to a dew that dried up presently, but to a dew which descended down; and “there the Lord commanded the blessing, even life for evermore.’’ There. “Where? Even in the communion of his saints. This is spoken particularly of church fellowship. Oh, then, take heed that your mercy and bounty in relieving
your brethren and persecuted saints, be not as the dew “that goeth away.” The Lord has not made his mercy, no, not his mercy in dewing the earth, “as a morning cloud” that vanishes away and comes to nothing. Oh let not our mercy and love be mere shows and proffers, devoid of truth and reality! they should truly come like showers upon those who have been parched with the burning rage and malice of the adversary. The Lord expects more from us now with regard to this duty than at other times; we must not only pity and give good words, saying, Alas, my brother; and alas, my sister, I would I could help )’ou, the Lord pity and relieve you; you must not only do thus, but relieve them with your money and provisions. Is it not with too many of us as it was with those in James ii. 15, who say to a brother, “Depart in peace, be ye larmcd and filled,” but give them not wherewithal to do it? what good does this passing cloud do them? But perhaps you will say, that your sympathies have not been thus evanescent; you have bedewed the saints in their need, you have given something; bvit still it may have been but a poor pittance, and that out of your abundance: know, that this is not suflicient, your dew must be constant, and proceed on in degrees of mercy; yea, we should rejoice that God gives us an opportunity, and do what we do, not forcedly or repiningly, but with a willing mind. Thus much of the words in this signification of mercy.
II. General goodness and piety; and in this sense there is much of the mind of God in the words, they are as full of marrow and sweetness as can be desired. Now in that God should express godliness and piety by such a word as mercy,
Obs. 8. The necessity of this grace of love and brotherly kindness. Though by nature men are passionate and rugged, grace will mollify them; of covetous men it will make li,xral and ft-ce-hearted, for grace is part of the Divine nature. Nothing is so communicative as God, the highest good; and according to the height of any creature is its communicativeness. As the sim, being sublime and excellent, is most communicative; so a gracious man: has he parts? they are not for himself, but for the church. Has he an estate? he distributes and communicates of it to the saints; and according as grace arises in the soul, will communicativeness arise. A true Christian is not close-handed.
Obs. 9. The excellency of this grace of mercy. AATien we wish to express the whole of any thing by a part, we do not select an inferior part, but some of its great characteristics; as by prayer many times is expressed the whole worship of God, “Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved,” Kom. X. 13.
“As a morning cloud, and as the early dew.” In these words God charges this people with three things whereby their notorious hypocrisy was expressed.
1. Their vacuity and emptiness; their words were empty sounds, they W’ere “clouds without water,” as Jude expresses it, ver. 12. It is the high commendation of Christians to be full of God, of Christ, and full of grace and knowledge; of which Ephraim had a show, but it was but a show.
2. Their falseness and dissembling; they had a heart and a heart, that is, they were double-minded toward God, they dealt treacherously with him.
3. Their inconstancy and “fickleness. As often the clouds, all black and lowering, portend rain, but in a short time are dispersed by the wind, and the sky becomes again perfectly clear; even thus it was in their goochiess, though they made glorious shows in their reformation, yet were they all empty, false, and inconstant. Thus it was in the general in the reformation of the land, things were reformed but by halves, and in their particidar turnings it was but as the morning
cloud; many times there were great appearances of reformation, but they were like the early dew which presently goeth away. The ten tribes and Judah made such beginnings in reformation, and setting up the worship of God, that if God were truly worshipped by any people in the world it would be by these; they would set God up high in their thoughts, high in their practices; and this was ver)- burdensome to tlic Spirit of God; therefore he saith, ‘• What shall I do unto thee, O Ephraim? What shall I do unto thee, O Judah?”
AVe find glorious shows of reformation come to nothing, as ajjpears in many instances. 2 Kings ix., x., Jehu made great shows: when Joram asked him, “Is it peace, Jehu?” he answered, “AVhat peace, so long as the whoredoms of thy mother Jezebel and her witchcrafts are so many?” And, in the 10th chapter, what a slaughter doth he make of the priests of Baal! “WeU, what was the result of all this? read but on in the chapter, ver. 29, 31, and it is said, “Howbeit from the sins of Jeroboam the son of Xebat, who made Israel to sin, Jehu departed not.” What a cloud of hopes was there in Ahab’s time! 1 Kings xviii. 39, all the people cried, “The Lord, he is the God; the Lord, he is the God;” upon the miracle which waswTOught by Elijah’s prayer, ■wnen the fire came down and consumed the saci-itice: but this all vanished in the people, and respecting Ahab himself the text saith, he “(lid sell himself to work wickedness in the sight of the Lord,” and “did verj’ abominably in following idols,” so that “there was none like unto him,” 1 Kings xxi. 25, 26. Wlicn the prophet comes to him after he had killed Xal)al, and tells Iiim of his sin, he falls down and humbles liiraself, insomuch that God himself takes notice of it, and, upon it, pronounces a transmission of his punishment, that he would not “bring the evil in his days, but ui his son’s days.” God bids the prophet see how he humbled himself, and that not in a show, as if his heart were not touched and affected, but he did truly humble himself in his kind. But now, did no reformation follow upon this? No, none at all. It is very hard to bring great men to reform themselves; where have we such an example since Theodosius’the emperor, who although guilty of rash effusion of blood, yet, coming on a sabbath to the place of public worship, would have received the sacrament: Ambrose, seeing him approaching, goes and meet him at the door, and tlms addresses him. How dare those bloody hands of yoius, which have shed so much innocent blood, lay hold of the body and blood of Christ? AMiich speech so startled him that he went away, and was humbled for his sin, and afterwards came and made his public confession, and then was admitted to communion. Whence we may see, that kings, yea, emperors, have been kept back from the sacrament. But did this humiliation of Ahab come to nothing? If we look but into the 22nd chapter, we shall find him of a proud, liaugbt)- spirit, resolved upon his own will, contraiy to the will of God; he would go up to Ramoth-gilcad, and when Jehoshaphat asked him, “Is there not here a projihet of the Lord besides, that we might inquire of him?’’ lie said,” There is yet one man; but I hate him;” and this was after his humiliation. And is it not thus with us? Many times, when Judgments are upon us, how penitent and humbled are we! but if the rod be removed we grow proud and stubborn forthwith. So in Judah, how did that young king Joash begin! 2 Chron. xxiv. 4, he “was minded to repair the house of the Lord,” and gave commandment to the priests and the Levites to gather money for the purpose with haste, and, although a very young prince, was so zealous, that he blamed the high priest for his inactivity; and, ver. 10, it is said, “all the princes and all the people rejoiced, and brought in, and cast into the chest.” What did this produce? surely some glorious effect. Mark now the 1 7th verse:” After
the death of Jehoiada came the princes of Judah, and made obeisance to the king.” And what then? •’ Then the king hearkened unto them;” they then began to get him on their side, verj- likely by sinful compliances and flattering speeches, for the text saith, that he “hearkened unto them. And they left the house of the Lord God of their fathers, and served groves and idols;” they forsook llieir religion, and then “wrath came upon them:” while they kc])t the truth, it preser■ed them; but turning from the rule, what outrages do they commit, and what did they suffer! Ver. 21, 22, they conspu-e against Zcchariah and stone him; the blood of a prophet’s son is now nothing to them, and the king forgets the faithful services of Jehoiada the father, and consents to his death: oh to what a height of sin is this young zealous prince come! How many sad examples have we in these our days like this of Joash! now many are there who in their youth promised well, but the fair hopes prove to be but “as a morning cloud,” their timely beginnings end in apostacy! Another example we have in Amaziah, 2 Chron. xxv. 2. Amaziah, in the Gth verse, had hired a hundred thousand of Israel to go with him to the war, and for their hire had given them a hundred talents of silver. But there came a man of God to him, saying, that he must not use them. “And Amaziah said to the man of God, But what shall we do for the hundred talents which I have given to the army of Israel? And the man of God answered. The Lord is able to give thee much more than this.” He had no security for it, but only God’s word, and that from the mouth of a man; what then? Amaziah obeyed presently, and separated the allies out of Israel; but yet, ver. H, ‘• it came to pass, after that Amaziah was come from the slaughter of the Edomites, that he brought the gods of the children of Seir, and set them up to be his gods, and bowed down himself before them, and burnt incense unto them.” Thereupon, ver. 15, God sends him another prophet; and now see how the spirit of the man is changed. In the former verses the man of God comes to him and crosses his design, and yet he hearkens unto him, and obeys the command of God in that which entailed present and certain loss; but here, when the prophet reasons with as much mildness and love as possible, “WHiy hast thou sought after the gods of the people, which could not deliver their own people out of thine hand?” they could not rescue or save their people from thee, and wilt thou serve them? yet in the IGtli verse mark the answer: “The king said unto him. Art thou made of the king’s counsel? forbear; why shouldest thou be smitten?” Dost thou know what is our design in this? The prophet forbeai-s, but what follows? ‘’I know that God hath detennincd to destroy thee, because thou hast done this, and hast not hearkened unto my counsel.” The truth is, when we see men unruly, stubborn, and wilfully rejecting counsel, especiallv after some good workings and stuTing=, it is a fearful sign that God purposes to destroy them. As that wicked king at one time could call the prophet his father, yet afterward be enraged against him; so some may be friends to the saints at one time, and at another their bitter enemies.
And as the Scripture is full of such examples, so also are ecclesiastical histories. AVhen Domitian, a most cruel persecutor of the Christians, came to the crown, he could not endure blood to be shed, no, not even in sacrifices. Of Nero also it is reported, that for five yeai-s he was so ])iliful and full of mercy, that when they came to him to sign the sentence for the execution of a malefactor, he exclaimed, Oh that I had never learned to write! And vet where had the commonwealth of llonie, or the church °’i“^SlIir”’ of God, a more desperate enemy or cruel persecutor? God grant this may never be our case. What had we at the first, in the beginning of the par-THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA.
liament, how did they’ show themselves, and what great things did they perform! stood against arbitrary governnaent, impeached great ones, executed justice on some peers! What a mighty spirit was raised in the countries to second and stand by the parliament! Now where is the man that ever thought such a party of lords and commons would be found to join with a company of papists, atheists, malignants, and Irish rebels, against the cause of God and the gospel, and every thing that is truly good? Oh most horrid apostacy, that this morning cloud, which in the beginning shone so gloriously, should thus vanish and come to nothing! And private men, though perhaps not so bad as some in public stations, yet how cold and flat-spuited are they! private interest and their own selfish ends ruling in them more than the prosperity of the public; nay, so we can gain our own ends, though with loss to the public, we care not. Oh what shall God do with us, who are such an untoward people? Change but the. name, and this scripture is oiu’s; O Eng-. u a o oominc. yyy a -^-hat shall I do unto thee? “Your spii’its for reformation are down, you care not for a deliverance, but are willing to crouch under your burdens; but let me tell yon, should these beginnings of reformation prove to be as the ‘• morning cloud and early dew,” we will be the most miserable people in the world, and procm-e to ourselves and posterity the gi’eatest curse that ever befell a nation; yea, the generations that are yet unborn may, if we neglect this great opportunity, ciu’se our times. Therefore, be encouraged to venture in this work, and still own the cause, for God will own it; and never leave it, that so the work may be finished, and we may say with the saints, “Lo, this is our God; we have waited for him,” and he hath heard us. “O’e should consider that it is a mercy the Lord has made use of such false-spirited men to benefit his people; and seeing the Lord is gone so far in the work, let us entreat him that he would follow it on, and not only bedew us, but even wet us to the root. There is a very remarkable promise in chap. xiv. 5 of this prophecy, “I will be as the dew unto Israel: he shall grow as the lily:” they shall have the dew, and be like the lily: but the lily is a poor, weak, fading thing; but, saith God, he shall “cast forth his roots as Lebanon,” my mercy shall be perfected towards them. The Lord grant this promise may be made good to us. And thus much of their reformation in the general, as it concerned the public state and church.
Now touching the partieidar reformation of themselves, and their hv-pocrisy in it: the observation from thence is,
Obs. 10. For any to make good beginnings, and let them fall again, is grievous to God, and dangerous to themselves. Psal. lxxviii. 36, 37, “Nevertheless they did flatter him with their mouth, and they lied unto him with their tongues. For then- heart was not right with him, neither were they stedfast in his covenant.” “What then? Ver. 58, 59, “They provoked him to anger with then- high places, and moved him to jealousy with their graven images.” God then “greatly abhorred Israel;” they were as “a deceitful bow,” hyjiocritical in all their ways, which the Spirit of God cannot endui-e, for these reasons:
1. The Spirit of God is a holy Spirit; but this is a slight, fickle, vain, and imsound spirit.
2. The Spirit of God is imchangeable, and constant in all its motions; but this spirit is altogether changeable. It is ‘said of God, that there is no shadow of change in him; and in such a heart as this is there is no shadow of constancy.
3. Such men as these stifle the very conceptions of the Spirit of God in them. It is accounted murder in a woman to stifle the conception in her womb, or in any v.ay to hinder it; now if this be such a vile thing, is it
not much more to stifle the conception and fii’st breathings of the Spu’it in the soul? Oh take heed of this!
4. There can be no trust reposed in such men as these; they are fit for no employment, neither God nor man can confide in them, or use them for any service, yea, we ourselves cannot endure to have to deal with such, they are so fickle and wavering.
5. They manifest by this, that there is no fear of God before their eyes; for were the fear of the great God in them, it would overawe them so that they durst not act thus.
6. This is a great pollution of the name of God. Jer. xxxiv. 16, when they had professed to set their servants fi-ee, they called them to servitude again, and in this, God saith, they polluted his great name.
v. This is an argument that the things of God and matters of religion are looked upon by you as things indifi’erent; when thou hast a mind to them thou canst use them, or thou canst lot them alone; and this greatly dishonours the Spii’it of God.
8. This shows that such people never, even at the first, had any sound principles in them; far from the life of Christ, which is said to be a stedfast life, and the life of every saint should be like unto his, “their heart was not right with him, neither were they stedfast in his covenant.”
Now, as it is grievous to God and to his Spirit, so it is very dangerous to ourselves. For,
1. Ve lose many an opportunity, many a soul-stirring, which at om- first awaking we have had. TVTien the soul is fii’st convinced, oh the many stu-rings and good motions which are in it! any thing would then take impression upon the heart; but when we go back, a callous insensibility begins to overspread the heart.
2. The inconstant can nelcr grow to any eminency of grace and godliness, even though there be ti’uth at the bottom. It is said of Reuben, Gen. xlix. 4, “Unstable as water, thou shalt not excel.” Men that do but very little, yet that still progress in godliness, though their parts be weak, and their performances mean and imperfect, may attain to something; but those who at the first do a great deal, run very fast in their youth, and afterward grow cold again, are very bad: the cooling after heating is very dangerous, as to the body, so more to the soul.
3. This hardens the heart very much. ^Vhen the spirit is cooled after a heating, it is like water which, being hot and cold again, is more cold than it was befoi-e; or like iron heated and quenched, is harder than before.
4. This aggravates all other sinning. What! wilt thou sin thus, after God has appeared thus?
5. This spoils the acceptableness of all our other services, be they never so specious. As a man that has a child lunatic, in his fits and moods he is very senseless and sottish, but in his lucida iiitenaUa he comes to himself and speaks sensibly and well; now if a man should see him at this time he would think he ailed nothing: so there are many who seem to be eminent Christians for the present, but let a temptation present itself, or lust within stir, and they are overcome.
6. There is nothing will more damp the heart when it comes before God in duty. God may say to thee, O soul, how darest thou come before me in such a duty as this, when thou knowest thou art guilty of breach of promise, and falsifying covenant with me? This will be an eating corrosive on thy spii’it. God may say to thee, How canst thou expect that I should be constant in my mercies toward thee, when thou art so inconstant in thy duty to me? This inconstancy toward God, brings wavering in faith, and unsettledness in our confidence God-ward; the one makes way for the other; inconstancy in duty, and wavering in believing.
How should this stir us up to look to our own hearts.
seeing they are so fickle and deceitful! Let us watch over and daily suspect them. John ii. 23, 24, it is said of the people, that many believed in Christ, because of the miracles which he wrought; yet Christ would not commit himself unto them. So Deut. v. 29, there is a people that made large promises to God, that they would walk in all the statutes and ordinances of their God. Now, saith God, this people say well, they are good words, but “Oil that there were sueli an heart in them!” God regards no work you do, except he find it rooted in you. “If ye continue in my w ord, then are ye my disciples indeed,” John viii. 31: no true disciple of Christ without abiding in Christ. “All flesh is grass,” Jsa. si. G; that is, whatsoever is done by fleshly prineij)lc3, every duty, though never so fair in outward ap- ])earanee, if it come from a principle of flesh, is but as the grass; and as the grass withereth and its flower fadeth, so wLU these specious outside duties vanish away. Therefore look to your heart, and above all keepings, keep it vei-j- diligently; for if the root be sound, the branches will be so too, and the fruit thereof good and profitable.
Obs. 11. It is a very dangerous thing to let beginnings die. Therefore, would you be preserved from such an evil as this, of fickleness and inconstancy, take my counsel in these particulars.
1. Rest not in sudden flashes and stin-ings of spirit. Perhaps at a sermon some truth or other that nearly concerns thee, is pressed home upon thy conscience, and it begins to stir the heart and warm the affections; r.ow, do not think the work is now over, or that the hazard of miscarrj’ing to all eternity is jiassed; no, thou must rise higher and go further than this, or else thou art undone for ever. This is that rock upon which many poor souls split to theu- everlasting destniction, therefore look to your hearts in time.
2. Labour to get your hearts off from all earthly engagements. That man can never stand constant toward God who is entangled with the snares and cares of this world. He whose heart is constantly fixed upon God, though he docs but little in the way of duty, in comparison of many a mere professor, yet shall hold out, when the most glorious hypocrite in the world shall fill to the ground.
3. Take heed of secret sins. They will undo thee if loved and maintained: one moth mav spoil the garment; one leak drown the ship; a penknife stab and kill a man as well as a sword; so one sin may damn the soul: nay, there is more danger of a secret sin causing the miscarrying of the soul, than open profaneness, because not so obvious to the reproofs of the word; therefore take heed that secret sinnings eat not out good beginnings.
4. Often examine how things stand with your hearts. Say, O my soul, how is it with thee? how’stand matters between God and thee? Come, my soul, there was a time that there was such and such good motions in thee, what is now become of them? at the first thou wert very forward and active for God, such a chamber, such a closet, can witness the intercourse God and thou hadst; thou didst then walk close with God and his fear was in thee. This, if observed, would be a special help to keep the heart ui)riglit: but I fear many a minister may say of his pco])le, as Paul did to the Galatians, AVhere is now tnc blessedness which you spake of? Gal. iv. 1-5.
5. Never trust your hearts after spiritual comforts and revivings. When in any ordinances thou hast met with God’s ijrcsence, and he has shone u])on thee in love, and thou hast got a smile from Jesus Christ, have a care of your hearts, and ex])ect and prepare for temptations. Many, when they have Mithin good desires and hopeful beginnings, think that the work is past and the danger is over; and then comes a temptation
of Satan, and encounters with them, and they are basely foiled, and lose their peace. Great consolations usually ])recede great temptations. In Matt. iii. 17, God testifies that Jesus Christ is his beloved Son, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well ])leased;” and in the verv next chapter tells us how he was led “into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil.” Often, too, after the greatest mercies follow the greatest miseries: see how well Christ knows this; John xii. 12, he comes riding in pomp to Jerusalem, and the people magnified him, crying out, “Hosanna to the Son of David;” yet, ver. 27, he cries out, “Father, save me from this hour.”
C. After good desires and motions of the Spirit humble yourselves. Make yourselves base and vile in your own eyes, that so you may grow downward in the root: it is very dangerous when beginnings run U])- wards presently, but when they show us our sins and unworthiness then they work kindly. If there be no moisture at the root of the tree, though there be never so many blossoms, they will die, vanish, and come to nothing; so if your joys and secret raptures of soul are not moistened in the tears of soiTow and humiliation, they will blow off and be shaken down by the next temptation; but when the inward workings of joy in the heart operate as well to humiliation as consolation, when they work both ways, then will not your goodness be as the early dew that goeth away, and as the morning cloud which soon vanisheth. In Psal. ex. 3, it is projihesied that in the times of the gospel Christ’s people shall be willing in the day of his power; Christ’s power shall be put forth upon his people to subdue their wills to the will of God; so that if we find this effect of Christ’s power in us, then may we be sure that our goodness shall not be evanescent.
7. Rest not in stirrings and beginnings, except you find that they tend to unite you to Christ. As soon as your hearts begin to work, you should stop a little and ask yourselves what of Jesus Christ is there in these motions; Have I more of his righteousness, wisdom, and love than I had before? Only such stin-ings of heart as bring Christ into the soul will hold and stand fast. That is very observable which we read concerning the manna, Exod. xvi. 14, that the dew which was upon the ground passed away, but the manna abode still: so the good affections and desires which are in many are even like the dew, which, as soon as the sun is up, is gone presently: now if you would not have the efficacy of them gone, try what manna there is left behind, what of Christ is sti’engthened. Is your faith propjjed, your love inflamed, your humility increased? then it is something. The Israelites could not feed on the dew, but the manna was their nourishment. So, how is it with you when the fervour of your spirits has abated? can you then feed upon Christ, this spmtual manna? Look what word of promise then takes up its abode in your hearts, and how youi- hearts are affected with it: such as find tlic promise remaining when the dew is gone, and that these promises are a-s sweet now as they were when first the affections were excited, such a soul will hold out, and his righteousness shall not be as the morning cloud or early dew that passcth away.
Ver. 5. Therefore hare I hetced them by the prophets; I have n/ain them bu the words of vvj mouth: and thij judgments are as the light that goeth forth,
“Therefore have I hewed them by the prophets.” We would think there were little connexion in these words, yet there is a verj- fit one. “Therefore,” that is, because they are so fickle and inconstant, therefore have I caused my prophets to deal sharply with t”liem to cut them to the neart. I would not have dealt thus with them, but that I have no other means left, seeing
THE PROPHECY OF HOSE.l. they are so vain, so slight in their spirits: and this resource I try, that, if possible, they might be brought to see with what a God they have to deal. The apostle, in Titus i. 13, gives command to “rebuke them sharply, that they may be sound in the faith;” sharply, that is, cuttingly, rebuke them cuttingly. My prophets have been as an axe. as an axe that cuts hard, knotty wood, or as the instruments of carvers in stone, which cut hard, rough things. “I have slain them by the words of my mouth.” The Sept. refer these words to the prophets, and render them, .iid rovro dirtdipiaa tovq trpo- ^i)rae i’/iwi,” aTrhriii’a avToig iv pfjiiari oro/ia-og nov’ Therefore have I hewed your prophets; I have slain them by the word of my mouth. And Jerome saith, they relate to the time of Elijah, 1 Kings xviii. 40, who slew many of Baal’s prophets; and to Jehu’s time, who did the same, 2 Kings x. 25. Thus they interpret it; and in this you have an objection of the people answered, who might plead thus: True, we have been led aside and have not worshipped God as we should do, but it is our priests and our prophets who have seduced us; we did but as we were taught, and if we have gone astray, our prophets and our priests have misled us. Nay, saith God, you cannot plead so, for you have seen my hand out against the prophets sufficiently, I have cut them off. Though I conceive not this to be the meaning of these words, yet from this sense this useful observation may be drawn:
Obs. 1. “When God comes against false prophets, he looks especially that people should not do as they have been taught by them. In Ezek. xiii. 9, a woeful judgment is denounced against the false prophets, for prophesying peace when God’s purposes were set against Jerusalem for destruction. Their judgment was, that they should not come into the assemblies of his people; and, my hand shall be against them; and mark, “ye shall know that I am the Lord.” They shall then know more particularly that I am the Lord God, when my hand is thus out against them. It is a powerful means to convince a people, when they see the hand of God out against their false teachers; and if so, how should the people of England be convinced of the evil of that way they so admu-e and extol, when the hand of God is so heavy upon its superstitious time-servers and maintainers!
But there are some, as Parens and others, who refer the word to the good prophets; and so in a twofold sense they are said to be slain.
1. Li then- charge. I have sent them, saith God, to deliver my message to this people, and they have flown in their faces and killed them, and I account it as if I had done it, because I set to the work: and this was spoken at the time when the prophets were grossly abused, when Zechariah the prophet delivered his message to king Joash, and was slain for it, 2 Chron. xxiv. 21; as saith Acts vii. 52, “Which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted?” But now here is their encouragement against all the ill usage and the hardships which they meet with in their work; I look upon it, saith God, as if I did it myself: therefore certainly God will not let them go unrewarded. 1 Sam. xxii. 23, David saith to Abiathar, “Abide thou with me, fear not: for he that seeketh my. life seeketh thy life: but with me thou shall be in safeguard.” David was the occasion of the death of Abiathar’s father, and therefore especially cared for him; and shall not God much more? So that, have you a friend, a brother, or a father, slain for, or in, the cause of God, shall not God take his part? yea, he will. Ahimelech was slain accidentally for the cause of David, and yet would David deal well with Abiathar: but, saith God, thy friend was slain, standing for me, and owning my cause; he shall lose nothing by it, for I will deal well w ith thee, and preserve thee alive for his sake.
2. In their ministry. It has been so heavy that it has even killed them, I have so burdened them with work that I have even slain them; so that this people cannot say, they have not been warned, or that they have had no prophets among them, or that their prophets have been idle, that they have had no work to do: and certainly it is a good death for a minister to die preaching. Parens makes much use of this, and saith. How much more honourable cirdonStemKi. to die in doing God’s work, than by committing sinful acts of intemperance, uncleanness. Sec.! Men cannot spend then- strength better than in God’s service. Oh let that people who have such ministers look to it, that they bring forth fruit answerable in some proportion to the cost bestowed on them. And if you understand the passage thus, then God seems to speak grievingly. Oh what shall I do with this people? What means have been used, what losses have I sustained by them! I have spent many choice servants among them, the lives and strengths of such spirits have been spent upon them of whom the world was not worthy. Oh what shall I do unto such a people? Surely a people enjoying such a ministry had need look to their profession. May not this be said of many congregations in London? Has not God sent many choice spirits among you to do you good? and have they effected the end for which they were sent? If not, woe to you! A^’hen God spends the lives of his choicest and most precious servants, if he have not a considerable value and return in people’s fruitfulness, it will mightily provoke and incense him against them: God highly esteems the lives and strengths of his ministers, they are valued more than to be spent and wasted upon unfruitful people, who neither care for them nor their ministry.
But to come more particularly, and according to the genuine sense of the words, this slaying refers itself to the people. Now the word slays in these two respects:
1. In its denouncing of judgment upon men; for what the word threatens it is said to do: Jer. xviii. 7, 9, “At what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to pluck up, and to pull down, and to destroy it;” “And at what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a Idngdom, to build and to plant it;” we should look upon both as performed.
2. In its operation, it has a mighty efficacy to lead impenitent sinners to ruin; it is as a two-edged sword, which does execution every way: Isa. xi. 3, it makes men “of quick understanding in the fear of God:” and God is said to consume antichrist by the breath of his nostrils, and by the word of his mouth; yea, the word is of such a force, that sometimes it brings death in a literal sense to those who withstand and oppose it. Ezek. xi. 2, Pelatiah gives wicked counsel in the city, and the prophet is commanded to prophesy against him; and in the 13th verse we read, that when the prophet prophesied Pelatiah died: thus God often makes the word so powerful in the mouths of his servants that it presently strikes men dead. Gualter observes from hence, that the power of the word appears in this, that it awakens, convinces, and terrifies the consciences of men, so that they go home and become self-murderers; and the truth is, ft is often nothing else but the word working powerfully to their ruin and destruction.
Or the words may be taken hyperbolically. As men that are oppressed and in misery exclaim. Ye kUl me, I am not able to endure it, you will be the death of me! the prophets came so close to them, that they cried out, Oh they will kill us, we are not able to suffer them! Luther saith, that by these words, “I have slain them by the words of my mouth,” is meant the law; by the law thou hast slain them; and by the word “prophets” he ‘-aith is meant, that part of doctrine which is necessary
to be preached, to prevent the abuse of the doctrine of the gospel, which othei-wise men would be ready to pervert: and he further adds, that those who deny the use of the law were not fit even to he suffered to exist. I mention this of Luth.er the rather, because those who deny the obligation of the law, urge so strongly his authoritv to countenance their error.
“Thy judgments are as the light.” That is, passively: Thv thrcatcnings upon them, or the execution of those thrcatenings ujjon them, shall break out as the light; though they have slain my prophets, and think thereby to free themselves from those judgments which they threatened against them. No, saith God, for all this I will make known my thrcatenings which they have denounced against them. When the prophet Jeremiah had delivered the message of God to the princes and the priests, they laid hold on him, and said, He should surely die, jer. xxvi. 8. Now see what the prophe t saith in the 14th and 15th verses, “As for me, behold, I am in your hand: do with me as seemeth good and meet unto you. But know ye for certain, that u ye ])ut me to death, ye shall surely bring innocent blood upon yourselves, and upon this city, and upon the inhabitant.s thereof: for ot a truth the Lord hath sent me unto you to sjieak all these words in your ears.” You think, perhaps, that when the minister is gone his words are no more: no, they shall lie upon you, and shall break out so manifestly that they shall clearly convince you. Though formerly they pleaded for themselves, as they in Isa. lviii., yet let them entertain never so good a conceit of themselves, I will discover them to be but base hj-pocrites; I will show you such clear demonstrations ot the ways of righteousness in which you should have walked, that all shall discern what you are, and it shall appear as clear as the light wherein you have strayed from the rule.
Again, the words may he taken actively; and then the sense is, My power shall so appear upon them, that their righteousness and holiness shall appear as the light. And then, though my judgments were smart and tedious at the first, yet you shall not repent it; you shall see so much good resulting, as will make you amends for all. Or thus, I have sent my prophets among this people for this very end and pui-pose, to make this people a righteous people, and that they may manifest this as clearly as the light. Thus you have the meaning of the words; the observations follow.
Obx. 2. Inconstancy in religion provokes God’s anger. The wavercrs and unstable in religion requu-e to have cutting truths preached to them; “Therefore have I hewed them,” saith God, “by the prophet-s:” and as God’s ministers must deal thus with their people, so must every man in particidar who loves his own soul; and if so be thy soul be precious in thy eves, thou wilt willingly deal sharply with thyself, and say, O wretched heart that I have, to let such stirrings die, such motions of the Spirit come to nothing I Dost thou know whom thou hast to deal withal, the great and infinite God? and for what thou hast to deal with him, for nothing less than eternity? and hast thou stirrings of heart about this? and dost thou let them die? this provokes God.
Obi. 3. Many men’s hearts are like knotty timber and rough stones. “I have hewed them.” The longer men continue in their sins, the knottier they are. As timber which has lain long soaking in the water is tough and hardened; so men’s spirits that are soaked in their evil ways, oh how untoward are they, and how hard a thing is it to fasten any thing that is good upon them! So that when we see men’s spirits tough, stubborn, and hard to be wTought ujion, let us think of this text, “I have hewed them by the prophets.”
That this is s])oken of a people, whose goodness was as a morning cloud, and the early dew which passeth away:
Ob.i. 4. Although the goodness of many be but as the dew, yet is their evil bard and settled The goodness of many is like the softness of a plum, soon crushed; but their wickedness is like the stone in the plum, hard and inflexible: so that you may here see, grace and truth consist not in good motions, stimngs, and desires, lor these may be where the heart is not melting, soft, nor tender; the heart is not changed, for were the heart kindly wrought upon, it would kindly yield to the power of the word, and, when it comes against their sins, would take hart with it.
Obs. 5. God’s ministers are hewers. “I have hewed them by the ])ro))hcts.” Elsewhere they are called God’s workmen, and here hewers, and that in these two respects; either to prepare them for God’s building, or to cast them into the file; these are God’s ends in sending his ministers, his hewers: now they hew all, good and bad, to take them off from their own rootings, and make them as beams in God’s building, or to be as an axe laid to the root of then- souls. It is recorded of Solomon’s temple, that, “when it was in building, there was neither hammer, nor axe, nor any tool of iron heard in the house;” the materials being prepared, fitted, and squared beforehand: so those which will be members of God’s temple hereafter, must be hewed and fitted for it here; therefore John is said to be one sent to make rough things plain, to level great mountains, mountains of sins, crabbed and rugged spirits. By this you may see what a hard task the minister’s labour is, and why Jeremiah resolved that he would speak no more in the name of the Lord to the people. The work of a minister is more laborious than the work of a carjjcnter, as C’hrysostom expresses it; for, saith he, when th3 car])enter has wrought hard all day, he goes home, and on his return in the morning finds matters as he left them; but we hew and take pains, and leave our people, but on our return find them worse than before.
Obs. 6. “Mien the ministers of the gospel meet with such rough, cross, and untoward spirits, they must deal with them accordingly.
“I have hewed them by the prophets;” my prophets have done their work upon them. God seems to speak to the prophets, to bid them sharjien their tools, make their instruments keen, preach suitably unto them, saving some with fear, as the apostle Jude speaks, ver. 23. I wonder what they can say to this scripture, who cry out against ministers for preaching the law, when the text saith plainly, “and others save with fear.” Therefore let those that are the ministei-s of the word have a care that they sharpen their tools by the word, putting an edge upon them, that so they may encounter successfully the greatest oppositions.
04.«. 7. Mien the ministers hew, God hews. “I have hewed them,” saith God, whereas it was the prophets that did it. Is the word shai-p, and does it come close at any time? then look to God as the cause. Is the tool shai-p, and does it cut? then look to the hand that directed the stroke, and know that if God hew thee, he will have his will upon thee, he will accomplish the end he aims at. AAlien God hews thee, if thou dost not work under his hand to make something of for use, he will throw thee into the fire: as a workman in anger throws away the piece he is at work upon into the fire; so saith God, This man or this woman are good for nothing, I will throw them into the fire. Take heed, you who have stu-rings and motions unto good, and yet have your secret lusts, beloved bosom corruptions, know that God may cut you down for the fire; and thou mayst already in his pur])ose be thus cut down, though thou livest under the ordinances in the bosom of the church. As the fig tree was cut down, yet had leaves for a while, green and flourishing; so know, it is ])ossiblc for a man to make a glorious profession, and perform maily duties, and yet to be but a vessel of
wrath, one cut down in wrath by the stroke of the word. This cutting down is lilie to that which we find in Lulve xiv. 24, “For I say unto you, That none of those men which were bidden shall taste of my supper;” and vet these men had their stirrings and motions. Oh! the consideration of this should make sinners to tremble, that it is possible for men, yea, for men professing godliness, to be cut down by the word of -vn-ath, and that, while they are living and well. Now God may be said to cut a man down for vengeance, when he in judgment determines and secretly resolves against him, that no means nor mercies shall do him good ;and now, woe indeed to that man against whom God is thus resolved and determined! But that none may be discouraged and disheartened by this, but the rather awakened, know, that so long as God still strives with thee, and is yet working upon thee by his word and Spirit, he has not yet determined against thee, thou art not past hope of cure; therefore improve the seasons, and do not abuse this that hath been said; let it support you against despair, but not encourage you to presume. Obs. 8. God’s ministers are God’s tools; and as tools by working are worn out, so are God’s ministers. But when the work goes on, the labourer thinks not much though the tools are worn: so God, when he sees people come in and accept of mercy, is content to bear the loss of the wearing of his tools. And as men reckon not only for the work done, but also for the wearing of the tools, and the more precious the tool is, the more account is made of it; so will God, also, not only reckon for the lives of his servants, but also for their strength, and the weakening of their- bodies by their manifold labours. Therefore people had need to look to it, that their fruit correspond with what God expends on them; for know, that God sets a high price upon the lives of his choice servants, and he will have a valuable consideration for them, either in you or upon you; and v.oe be to you if God forces the price of such blood as theirs is in your ruin!
Oils. 9. God’s ministers are God’s mouth to his people. “I have slain them by the words of my mouth.” ‘• If thou take forth the precious from the vUe, thou shall be as my mouth,” Jer. xv. 19. And look, what is tlu’eatened by them, is threatened by God; and the promises which they open and press upon a soul in distress, is done by God himself, and it is to be looked upon as God speaking to thee in particular.
Obs. 10. The word of God is of great power, and full of efficacy. “I have slain them by the words of mv mouth.” The word is like a two-edged sword, ■n’hich smites every way and doth execution: every time men hear the word, it is for life or for death. Deut. xxxii. 46, 47, “Set yom* hearts unto all the words which I testify among you this day; for it is not a vain thing for you; because it is your life:” it is your life which lies upon it, therefore look ye to it. So in Rev. xi. 5, ‘• And if any man will hurt them, fire proceedeth out of then’ mouth, and devoureth their enemies: though the witnesses be as olive branches, yet if any wrong them they must be killed by devouring fire.
But if the word be of such efficacy, of a slaying nature, why should we hear it?
We are bound to hear the wcwd as our duty: and when we come, we should present our lusts before the edge of the word: were sin thus presented before it, it woidd only slay the sin, and not the person. When the word comes, it wUl slay the one, either your sins, or your souls; therefore, if you would have your souls saved, put your sins to death. The upright need not fear coming to the word; but such as are resolved to keep their sins, the word will slay both them and their sins.
Obs. 11. God’s judgments lie concealed while men go on prosperously in sin. They see them not; they
sin, and judgment appears not; and, therefore, they take liberty and imbolden themselves in their sins.
Obs. 12. When judgments do come, they break out. “Thy judgments shall break forth.” Judgments were working their ruin before, they did not sleep: when judgments come, they break out upon sinners: as mighty waters, being stopped in their course, when they work over the interruption, run the faster.
Obs. 13. God has his time to punish sins openly; as they sin secretly in the dark, God will punish openly in the light, to make them ashamed.
Obs. 14. God will have his time to con■ince men by his judgments; then their fllthiness shall be punished.
Now God’s judgments may be said to break forth as the light, to convince men, in three ways:
1. AVhen the thing threatened in the word comes to pass.
2. “WTxen the judgment inflicted is suitable to the sin committed.
3. “WTien it is executed by a remarkable hand upon the sinner, then that judgment breaks forth upon a man as the light.
06s. 15. God’s judgments are gradual. They break forth as the light, not all at once, there is the morning light and the mid-day; as mercies to the saints are gradual, so are judgments upon the wicked. There is much to be learned by this breaking out of judgment as the light. Isa. xxvi. 9, “AVhen thy judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness.” Micah vi. 9, “The man of wisdom shall see thy name: hear ye the rod, and who hath appointed it.” Prov. xxviii. 5, “EvU men understand not judgment: but they that seek the Lord understand all things;” they shall learn much. Examine your hearts by this, and see what you have learned by these judgments that are broken out upon us so manifestly, that the greatest atheist in the world may learn, that “the Lord, he is the God,” as the people cried out in 1 Kings xviii. 39.
Obs. 16. When God sends a ministry to a people, it is to discover his way and worship. The Lord makes their righteousness to appear and break forth as the light; he will have his way and worship appear as clearly as the light, his way shall not be hidden from them.
Obs. 17. The more powerful the ministry is, the more terrible shall judgments be, if despised. Your consciences shall echo upon this ground in your ears, “The Lord is righteous in all his ways,” justly am I punished. Oh the sad cries of many in their sicknesses and on their death-beds! How many times have I been warned by the word! but I sHghted warnings, I regarded them not, warnings have been no warnings to me, therefore justly am tin misery.
Oh that the consideration of this might be more prevalent and work more upon us, than ever God’s quickness in his judgments has wrought towards those that stand out against a quick, searching ministry.
Ver. 6. For I desired mercy, and not sacrifice; and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings.
This scripture having much of the mind of God in it, and much difficidty in the understanding of it, I read no further at this time. Here we have a reason of God’s severe expression in the former verse, where it was said that God had hewed them by the prophets, and slain them by the words of his mouth. Why was God so severe against them? Because he would not be put off with their sacrifices. They bolstered up themselves with these, objecting against the prophet when he pressed them to mercy and to the knowledge of God, Why, are not we abundant in serving of God? burnt-offerings are not neglected by us, and why should
AN EXPOSITION Oi
Cu.vr. VI.
not we he accepted? No, saith God, “I desired mercy, and not sacrifice;” never tell me of” your sacrifices and burnt-offerings, so long as there is no mercy’ among you. “Therefore have I hewed them by the ])ro])hets, and slain them by the words of my mouth;” you are so attached to these outward things, that I must hew you off from them. This sentence is quoted twice by Christ himself in the New Testament, Matt. i.. 13’; xii. 7, which, as it does not occur in any other place, notes its great importance.
“For I desired mercy.” •iiisn signifies to desire or to will a thing with great complacency or delight; as if God should say, Mercy is a tiling so pleasing to me, that I desire it at my heart. God’s great mercy in reconciling the world unto himself by Jesus Cfirist, is more worth than all the sacrifices in the world; but this is not the mercy meant in the text. Ileb. x. 5, 6, “Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me: in burnt-offerings and sacrifices for sin thou hast had no jileasure.” There is no mercy like this, the mercy of God in his Son Jesus ^, Christ. But the mercy here spoken of
is the mercy of man, and the word for mercy here, is, in the original, the same as is used for goodness in the 4th verse. The meaning then is, I desire mercy; that is, not the mercy of God, but mercy to man, mercy to ourselves; and so Christ interprets it. Matt. xii. 7, “If ye had known what this mcancfh, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice, ye would not have condemned the guiltless.” As if Christ should say, God in some cases would have men provide for themselves, though they thereby neglect the sti’iet observance of the sabbath: “I w ill have mercy,” as to ourselves, so to others, mercy to men, either to their bodies, or to their souls; mercy to the body eveiT one will grant, but it ought to be es])ecially to the soul, as we may gather from Christ’s other quotation of these words. Matt. ix. 13, “Go ye and learn what that meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice: for I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.” This word “mercy” is a synecdoche comprehending all the duties of the second table under one. “I will have mercy, and not sacrifice:” by “sacrifice” is meant, sjTiecdochically, all instituted ordinances and worship, all the affirmative precepts of the second and fourth commandments, all ordinances then commanded them, or that ever should be enjoined; and this a])pears from Christ’s applying the text, in Matt. xii. 7, to the sanctification of the sabbath: and in Matt. ix. 13, Christ quotes it in reference to an ordinance, (whether true or not, human or Divine, matters not,) the separation of the Jews from publicans and .sinners; and tells them, that in a ca.se of mercy they might cat with them, thereby gaining an opportunity to do good to their souls: so that from those two you see a clear wan-ant for the interpretation of this text.
Now, in the further clearing of it, I shall answer some questions, satisfy some objections, and raise certain observations.
I. I shall answer some questions. And,
1. What is an instituted ordinance? There are natural onlinanccs, and instituted duties. Now what is the difference between them?
For the unfolding of this, know, that by natural duties we understand such duties as we owe to God as God, to men as men, which, if there had been no law to bind us to the performance of, yet would they have been fulfilled by us, being engraven on the heart Sy the finger of God himself. Such duties, for instance, as the first commandment binds us to, to have no other gods but the Lord, to fear this God and him alone, to love him before all and above all, to trust in him for help at all times: these arc duties to be done as unto a God; nature itself dictates the performance of them.
Then there are duties to be ))crformed unto men, as honouring of parents, speaking the truth, not deceiving one another; these duties are radicated in the heart, that were there no law of God to bind men, yet it were in men’s hearts to do them. Now these duties must not yield to mercy. But by instituted duties, I mean those which, if God had not revealed, had not been duties, neither woidd men have been bound to their performance: as, for instance, the sacrifices under the law. by bullocks and goats; sacrifices of such a kind, were they not revealed by some jirophet to be in accordance witft the mind of God, had not been obligatory. So our church ordinances of sacramenjs, Christian admonition, and the like, are such as flow from God’s prerogative, and not necessarily from his nature. Natural duties, then, refer to attributes in God’s nature and character; instituted, to the expression of his will.
2. But how did God say here, “Mercy, and not sacrifice?” Did not God require sacrifice as well as mercy?
Yea, God did require sacrifice as well as mercy; but we must understand this with these limitations:
1. I will have sacrifice, but not without the spirit. Sacrifices without the spirit joined with them are nothing worth. ATien spiritual worship is joined with their outward sacrifices, then they are acce|)ted. Instituted worshi]) separated from natural worship is not regarded.
2. Not sacrifices to make atonement for their sins. The people thought by their sacrifices to make atonement for their lives, though never so vile and base; but, saith God, I will not have it thus, I will have it only typical, in relation to Christ. But they left out Christ in them: therefore, saith God in this sense, “I will have mercy, and not sacrifice.”
3. Not sacrifice; that is, of your own. They had many sacrifices of their own, whicK God neither required, nor would accept of from them. “I will have mercy, and not sacrifice.”
4. Not sacrifices; that is, such as are injuriously gotten. The Jews were a very oppressing, grinding people; they would be much in sacrifices, but it was out of the rights of the poor; they would oppress and grind the poor, and then think to atone for all by their sacrifices: in this case, “I will have mercy, and not sacrifice.”
5. Not sacrifices; that is, com))aratively, mercy rather than sacrifice. This negative, in Scripture, is often used to mark inferiority, as in Prov. viii. 10, “Receive instruction, and not silver; and knowledge rather than fine gold.” “Receive instruction, not silver;” that is, rather than silver. God’s requiring of knowledge does not forbid men seeking estates, but it shows us rather, that knowledge is to be chosen in preference. So Paul is sent to ])reach the gospel, and not to baptize; that is, rather than to baptize, for Paul did baptize in some places. So saith God here, “I will have mercy, and not sacrifice;” that is. Let me have both; but if both cannot be had, let me have mercy of the two, I do so much delight in it, that if I cannot have mercy and sacrifice together, I prefer mercy.
3. Why should God require mercy rather than sacrifice?
Because mercy is good in itself, but sacrifice is good only in reference to something else; the good of sacrifices consists only in their reference to Jesus Christ.
Mercy is good in itself, but sacrifice is only good because commanded by God’s prerogative, God’s command constitutes its goodness.
Mercy is jiarl of God’s image in man, but sacrifice is not; and by how much God’s image in man surpasses any other excellency, by so much does mercy excel sacrifice.
.’Ml instituted worship was made for man, not man for it; but for natural worship man was made, and not it for man, therefore must it needs be more excellent. Christ’s reasoning warrants this, “The sabbath was made
ViK. 6.
for man, not man for the sabbath.” Now this cannot be said of natural -norship, of the duties of fearing God, loving of God, trusting in God.
There is more self-denial in a duty of mercy than in any sacrifice. To do good to the poor, and that in obedience to God’s command, argues more self-denial than the offering up to God of sacrifices.
Mercy is asterniE vcritalis, an eternal, everlasting dutv; it was always, and shall be so, and the habit of it shall continue to all eternity. Though in heaven there be no objects to be delivered out of misery, yet this disjjosition of mercy remains even there.
Sacrifice is a typical duty for the obtaining of the pardon of sin, but mercy is a moral duty. Now, that which is a moral duty, is better than that which is but to further us in the obtaining of pardon for a moral offence, committed against the gi-eat God.
Because sacrifices are but to further us in natural duties. To what end servo sacraments, and why do I partake of them, but to strengthen my faith, increase my love, and to further my appetite in hearing God’s mind? Why do I hear the word of God, but that it may turn me unto God? Now the end is better than the means for the attaining of the end; therefore upon these grounds God may be said to desire mercy rather thati sacrifice.
4. What are these cases in which God will have mercy, and not sacrifices?
The principal are these ten.
1. If a beast should be in danger of losing its life by any casualty upon the Lord’s day, God allows us to forbear all church ordinances at that time, rather than let the beast perish; but because this liberty is allowed by God to men in this case, yet you must not think that a beast is better than all God’s ordinances.
2. In the case of the poor; and that I conceive to be the principal scope of the words in the text. These people wronged, oppressed, and tyrannized over the poor, and then thought to make amends to God by their sacrifices and ofi’erings. Men must not lay out so much of their estates either in superfluities, or for the maintenance of God’s true worship, as to hinder them in their benevolence and charity to the poor; no ordinance of God should hinder us in showing mercy to the least member of Jesus Christ. Although those which arc next us ought to be first relieved, yet know, it is a shame that others should be neglected and forgotten; yea, it is a reproach to the ways of God, that profane men should be more liberal to the poor, that more hungry bellies shoidd be fed and naked backs clothed by them, than by those who profess religion, and would seem to honour God most. Do not think this will be sufficient to excuse you before God, when the cry of the poor shall come up before him, that you have been at such and such charges for the ordinances and worship of God: no, in this case God will have mercy.
3. Mercy to parents, to relieve parents in their necessity, is a case in which God will have mercy, and not sacrifice. If Providence so order that our parents should stand in need of our help, and we are able to aid them, it is our duty to do it, though by this means we are deprived of God’s ordinances. You oughtratherto regard the relief of parents than the observation of the sabbath, if the case requu’e it. You may be ready to think thus, Had not I better let my parents alone? I must obey the command of Christ, who saith, latt. x. 37, “He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me.” But there is in this matter a mistake. “Is not worthy of me,” only means, if ycvu- parents should counsel, advise, persuade, entice, or command you to the practice of evil, or to the omission of any good, or the breach of any command; and upon your refusal they should be angiy with you, that you will not obey them, but follow the command of God, and not go out of
God’s way; in this case father and mother are to be forsaken for” Christ and the gospel, but in no case if they stand in need of your help; as is enjoined in Mark vii. 11, “But ye say, If a man shall say to his father or mother. It “is Corban, that is to say, a gift, by whatsoever thou mightest be profited b“y me; he shall be free.” Now Corban signifies a gift consecrated to God; and the Jews thought that if they could apply the word Corban of any thing, they were exempted ii-om all duty to their parents in that respect: It is ti-ue, I had an estate, but 1 have consecrated it to God, and church services; and though I owe duty and respect to you, as my parents, yet more to God, as my Creator. This is most vile and abominable, and reproved by Christ himself. Possidonus, in the Life of Austin, reports, that he condemned parents who gave their estates away to monasteries, and pious uses, as they thought, and neglected then’ eliildren: so for children to neglect and shght parents in the time of their necessity, and think to excuse it with the plea of having given it to the church, and being now unable to do any thing more, this will not suffice. This was the old way of papists, to get people to give to their mother the church. I find a tratlition cited by some of the Jews, as used by them; when they fell out and were thoroughly angry one with another, they would tell him he should never have any benefit in any thing which they had, and this they called Corban. In ^Iatt. xv. 5, it is called “a gift,” the gift of the altar. Therefore some of the heathens forbade this oath Corban; and yet this was the oath that these did swear by. And by some it is used in a similar manner even at this day, as thus; when any that we are related to have thoroughly angered us, we are wont to say. Well, you shall never be a penny the better for me: this is no other than this oath Corban which they used to swear by in this place.
4. Where the good of souls is concerned. And this is Christ’s case, !Matt. ix. 13, “Go ye and learn what that meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice: for I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.” Though men ought to prize ordinances, and to highly esteem God’s worship, yet if it should so happen that instituted worship and mercy to souls come together, and interfere with each other, and both cannot be done, the former may be reverently omitted, and the work of mercy to the soul attended to before it. Vi’e are ready to think that nothing must give way to instituted worship, but certainly immortal souls are of more worth than ordinances. Paul was of such a disposition, that he could wish himself out of heaven and become an anathema for his brethren, that souls might be saved.
5. In case of human societies, and for the quiet state of kingdoms, and yet this without prejudice to God’s ordinances. God has allowed to men the art of navigation: we read, Solomon sent ships to Tarshish to fctcil gold; and were it not for this text, I could not see any waiTant for the estrangement from ordinances attendant on it: when men shall be three or four years out, perhaps, and never hear sermons nor receive sacraments: and yet it is lawful upon this gi’ound, that God will have the peace of states and quiet of kingdoms preserved and maintained, he will rather dispense with men in the use of his own ordinances, for the prosperity of civil states: therefore Solomon is not reproved for sending ships to Ophir for gold.
6. In the case of church societies, when the people of God are scattered and cannot meet together, God is content in such cases his people should be without ordinances, and yet incur no sin: as is clear in the ease of the children of Israel all the time the chm-ch was in the wilderness, even for forty years together they wanted cu’cumcision; but when they came to the borders of Canaan, and were about to enjoy any settlement, then they were circumcised again, and had the passover.
which before they could not partake of. So that in some cases, and upon some grounds, the people of God may be without ordinances, and that for a long time, and yet incur no sin; and upon this ground in the text, “I will have mercy, and not sacrifice.” Therefore this may be the rea-son’ of those words which Christ spake to ills disciples, “I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now:” so’may we .say, Christ has many truths to reveal which people are not yet able to beai’, therefore he withholds the revelation of them at present.
7. In respect to our bodies: and this is Christ’s case in Matt. xii. 7, “If ye had known what this meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice, ye would not have condemned the guiltless.” God’s cai-e of the bodies of men is such, that he will rather have men do the one than the other, he will rather have mercy than the duty. Chiist pleads not here for the disciples, that this was not a breach of the sabbath; but the case was such that their bodies required it, it was a case of mercy, and now God would rather have the mercy than the duty. A servant perhaps thinks much to stay at home, to tend a child or look to the house, upon the Lord’s day; he objects, Why should I not go to the chui-ch? Is not my soul of greater worth and price than this chUd, or this house? Now these ])eople go upon a good principle, yet err in their application of it: as, for instance, a father commands his child to do two services for him, the one to wait on him at table, the other to clean his shoes. To wait upon his father at table he is willing to do, because it is creditable; but the other he grumbles at, and is discontented. Now in which does he show most obedience? Surely in fulfillmg the meanest command. So God requu-es of us two sorts of duties, one the more honourable, the other more mean, yet perhaps the meaner, a work of mercy. God is wonderfully careful of our bodies, and would have us also careful of the bodies of others. JSIen ought not to macerate their bodies. God does not require weak, sickly bodies to spend whole nights in fasting and prayer; God in this case will have mercy, and not sacrifice.
8. With regard to our own estates. But here some may say, AVhat! may we regard our own particular estates Ijefore the service of God? Yea, in some cases we may, as thus: Suppose we were in the assembly at public ordinances, and there should be a fire in the town, or thieves breaking into a house, we might lawfully leave the ordinances to quench the fire, or to apprehend the thieves and save our goods. Numb. ix. 10, if a man were in a journey, and in the mean time the passover were to be delivered, he might go on in his journey, and do his business, and yet incur no sin. So may we, if in a journey or on special business, if not undertaken in slight or contempt of the ordinance, we may go on without sin; God will have mercy.
9. In the times of persecution, God allows his people to discontinue some ordinances; as is clear in Acts viii. 1. There was at that time a great persecution against the church which was at Jerusalem, so that the church was scattered and could not assemble to enjoy church-fellowsliip, and yet it was no sin to them: it had been an unjust charge if any had come and said, What! do you prize your lives so highly, and fear the loss of them more than the ordinances of God? AVill you not unite in church-fellowship and constant assembling of yourselves together, because you think you shall suffer by it? No; in such a case, God will have mercy, and not sacrifice.
10. In the case of some eminent service for God. As in the cxse of Nehemiah; he being the king’s cupbearer must attend to it; and when he was to go up to Jerusalem, a,sked the king’s leave; and when he had finished his work he returns to the king again to serve in his place: though he wanted the ordinances in the
king’s court, which he might have enjoyed at Jerusalem, yet, that he might be more serviceable in the church’s cause, he is contented to deny liimsclf in his own comforts. These are the cases, with others of the like nature, in which God will have mercy, and not sacrifice.
II. I shall satisfy some objections that may be made against this.
1. But men’s hearts are deceitful, and they may pretend cases of mercy when there is no such thing in hand.
Know, though in such a case thou couldst not do it, yet do not thou judge another man that may or can do it. The rule is dafiicult, it is true, yet do not thou enly another man’s grace, to whom God lias given power to manage his business with Christian wisdom. Thou thinkcst that if thou wert in such places and hadst such terajitations as others have, thou shouldst miscarry, and aim at self in them; yet do not thou judge another man that may do it in sincerity, do not thou judge another man’s duty through thy weakness. God’s servants in this world are as his stewards: now we know that a steward has not every jiarticular enjoined him by his lord, but only general rules given to order particulars according to prudence, faithfulness, and zeal; for the exercise of these three graces are required in a steward, prudence and wisdom, faithfulness and trust, care and zeal. So does God give general rides for the ordering of a Christian life; and these general rules being observed, particular cases are to be ordered in prudence, faithfulness, and zeal; wisdom to judge, faithfulness in doing, zeal to keep up life and spu-it in action; and where there is a miscariying through fiailty, God win have mercy.
2. But it may be asked. Can any duty of the second be more excellent than the duties of the first table; of the one, God being the object; of the other, man?
The duties of the fii-st table are to be imderstood, either for the substantial and internal duties of the heart, or some superadded duties materially connected with them; then there are duties of the second table, some more substantial, some superadded: now if we compare the infernal and substantial duties with the superadded duties, there the substantial are above them, and to bo jircferred before them, they having God for their immediate object; yet in some cases God is pleased to indulge with men so far, that he will let the duties of the second table, duties of mercy towards men, take precedence even of the more substantial duties of the fii-st table; so in the duties of the second table to men, some, which are but circumstantial and not so necessary, God allows should be done, when others more fundamental shall lie still omitted, yet without sin.
3. But if God’s ordinances are duties, can they be omitted at any time, and that without sin? Ai-e they duties or not duties?
For answer. Take notice, there are two sorts of precepts, negative and affirmative; a negative binds semper, el ad semper, always and at all times; but an affiimativc binds only semper, but not ad semper, always, but not at all seasons; at one time we may omit a thousand actions which are to be done, but we cannot do many actions at one and the same time: therefore, for affii-mative duties, if they be done in theii- season, God accepts of them as done continually; as for that command. Pray continually, if it be done in its season, God looks upon it as done continually, and always done. If Providence should so order it, that another duty require to be done at this instant, the duty which I was going to perform ceases then to be a dutv to me at this time. If two good things come together, but one can be done at a time, so that the other is not a duty at that time to you, which othenvise is a duty; else if
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this were not, man would be necessitated to sin, and all the gi’ace, and mercy, and assistance of God could not help, if two affii’mative precepts were thus obligatory at the same time; therefore this must be remembered for a truth, that when two affirmative precepts come together, the one- is a duty to be performed, the other not.
But what say j-ou to the case t)f Daniel? when he knew that the “writing was signed, he went into his house and prayed more earnestly, Dan. vi. 1 0. IMight not he have saved his life according to this rule, “I will have mercy, and not sacrifice?” yet his was a sacrifice that he tendered up to God, it was more than a prayer.
Daniel was then called to manifest Jehovah to be the true God, for he was forbid at the time, by a decree, to pray to any God, or ask a petition of any man save of the king, dm-ing thirty days. Now, had he done this, he had denied the true God, and acknowledged Darius to be God. The thing he had to profess was higher than the sacrifice, it was a duty of the first commandment, a manifestation of God to be the true God; and the case standing thus, who is the God that must be prayed unto? Daniel resolves it, saying, I will pray to no God but the trae God. And surely, in such a case, profession is to be made whatever becomes of mercy; yea, in a lesser case of sacrifice than this, if profession of faith is involved, it is turned from a duty of the second table to a duty of the first, and must be done as a duty of the first: as thus, Suppose a man be forbid to do a duty Mhich formei’ly he has constantly performed, and esteemed lawful, and his forbearing of it shall be to them a testimony of his denial of that truth which he formerly held; in such a case he is called to suifer the hardest things imaginable, )’ea, to sacrifice life itself, if necessary, rather than to omit that duty, or to do the least thing which, to the enemies of the truth, may interpretatively be a sign of denial. The doing of such a duty against such a command is a witnessing to the truth, and not offering up of sacrifice. It is not always that a man is called to this; but if it ever come to this case, interpretatively to deny a truth of God, then must we suffer rather than obey in such a thing, though never so small. And this was the case of the primitive times, they W’Ould rather suflfer the loss of life, estates, and all, than do that which interpretatively should be a profession of the denial of any of the least truths of God. Tertullian reports of a soldier, who, when all the rest of his fellows carried bays on theii’ hats, in testimony of their worship of a false god, can’ied a sprig in his hand, and on being asked the reason, answered, I am a Christian; this manifested him to be so, and he at the last suffered death rather than yield. How many among us would think this a small matter, and had it been their case would have done it! yet this man, regarding it as a note of distinction, chose rather to lose his life than comply; and this act of his was approved of, as lawful, by learned and godly men. If we lived in the times of our forefathers, when the question was. Who is a Christian, or who is not? and this by way of distinction, the case would then be different, changed from a sacrifice to a precept and duty of the first commandment. There was a time that the saints would not assemble together because of the persecution. Acts -vdii. 1; but at another time they would not forsake joining together, whatever became of them: when their assembling was made a note of distinction, who was a saint, who not; who held for such a truth, who would not; in this case, for them not to have as- -sembled together had been a great sin in them, and interpretatively a denial of the truth.
4. But if God will have mercy in case of outward things, saving our estates and preservation of our persons rather than his own ordinances, is not this to prefer the body to the soul? &c.
The preservation of a man’s outward estate and condition is to be considered in a threefold respect.
1. As it is in itself: and when a man shall love his estate only in reference to itself, certainly it is sin to regard it before sacrifice.
2. As it enables us to do service for God and ombrethren: and this is in a higher respect than the other, of loving our estates for ourselves.
3. As a duty in such and such cases, that so I may be made more serviceable for God, and for his people. Now in this case it is an act of religion; the saving of our estates, as well as praying or hearing of a sermon, in this case is an act of sacrifice, for I do it in obedience to God, for religious ends; though the thing itself be an outward act, yet thus done it is an act of religion, for by this I manifest both my love to God and religion.
5. But is not a man bound to part with much of his estate, yea, and to suffer much, for the enjojTiient of the ordinances?
Yea, certainly, very much: we ought both to give and to suffer much for the enjojTnent of ordinances; yea, we should choose rather to live in a poor condition, so we may enjoy the ordinances in their purity, than to be in a rich condition and want the ordinances; we are to be liberal ourselves, and careful in exciting others to be so, even tiU it come to the case of unmercifulness, and then God will have mercy, and not sacrifice. But when may it be said to come to a case of unmercifulness, in which God will have mercy, and not sacrifice?
1. “When a subsistence is so denied, that the subject would be destroyed; in this case God will rather have mercy than instituted worship performed to him.
2. When a greater opportunity is denied to do good to om- own souls and brethren, than this is of enjojTUent of the ordinances; then surely God will have mercy, and not sacrifice. It is impossible to give particular rules in every thing; this is left to the sanctified prudence of the saints.
6. But is not this the justifying of, and consenting with, those that took up innovations, and read the service book?
I answer. No; this Scripture gives no warrant for any such, for there is a great diflerence between the yielding to that which may pollute and defile the ordinances, and to forbear an ordinance: wo must not do any tiling to pollute an ordinance, though it were to save our lives; but the forbearing of an ordinance, and that for a long time, may be done, and yet without sin.
7. But is it not a greater mercy to enjoy ordinances than estates? we think it a great mercy, yea, and we have many mercies in the enjoyment of them, and though we suffer many hard things, meanwhile we enjov communion with God and Jesus Christ in them.
Certainly the mercy is very great, and much communion is to be had with God m his own ordinances rightly administered, and happy are those souls which find this effect by the ordinances and communion with God:
But yet know, that the maintenance of the subject is to be more regarded than the comfort of it, though it be spiritual. But now have a care of turning what I have said into poison; do not ye say that you may now do any thing for the preservation of the subject; we must not do the least thing by which an ordinance may be polluted and defiled.
To be serviceable in public use is more than to enjoy ordinances; as for a minister to preach Jesus Christ to a people, is a greater mercy than his particular good can be; and this has been” the judgment of all the churches, yea, it has been the practice of the chui-ches to send forth men to preach the gospel, and to open the things of the kingdom to them, when they could not enjoy the ordinance of the sacrament: Paul would
have been content to have been anathema for his brethren; the being of public use to the churches was a greater good to him, and more in his esteem, than his own private gain. Thus far of the objections; ten observations follow answerable to these.
Obs. 1. Carnal hearts which make little conscience of their duties, and are very cruel in their dealings towards men, yet may be contented to submit to instituted worship. This very scripture, “I will have mercy, and not sacrifice,” is a secret rebuke to such people. Such were those in Jer. vii. 4, who cried, “The temple of the Lord, The temple of the Lord;” and yet were very wicked in their dealings. Those hypocrites in Isa. lviii. could be content to submit to instituted worship, frequent in solemn duties of fasting and prayer, yet were such as did smite with the fist, oppress, and grind the poor. In Ezek. xxiv. 21, the sanctuary was accounted their strength, the excellency of their strength, and that which their eyes did pity, and yet were they very wicked; and, in the 25th verse, their minds were on it, their hearts did love it, yet they themselves were carnal.
Because men may be exercised in instituted worship without any power of godliness, the outward act of performance is a very easy work to flesh and blood, there is little difficulty in it.
Because it has the most show of the power of godliness; they seem to be as sincere as any in their worship, there is a great show in the flesh, in the outward man; whereas God’s worship is inward, soul worship, which carnal hearts cannot endure, nor do they desire it, it is outside woi’ship which they prize. Now God forbid that any should have low conceits of ordinances, because wicked men join in them.
Obs. 2. C’anial men thhik to satisfy their consciences by joining in outward ordinances. Thus did they in this place think to put ofl’ God and their o«’n consciences, by living in the external acts of worship, while they continued in the love of known sin. ‘Miat a deal of stir had the prophet to convince these hypocrites of this their wickedness!
06s. 3. God and men’s consciences will not be put ofl’. God will despise both it and them. The heathen gods would not bo put off with such outsides, in the judgment even of the heathen themselves. Plato saith. What a vile thing is it to think, that the gods will be put off with gifts! No, these are despised by them, they look that the soul should be just. And Seneca, It is not fat sacrifices, but inward performances, that God regards.
Obs. i. The Lord has a high esteem of mercy; and it appears in this, that he will have it preferred before .sacrifice, and this is called, a “sacrifice acceptable,” and a sweet savour in God’s nostrils, Phil. iv. 18. Chrysostom saith, that he had rather work a work of mercy than a miracle: and surely that must needs be high in God’s eyes and esteem, which he pays so dear for.
O Christians! imitate God in this, let your esteems of mercy be raised higher than ever before, from this that you have heard concerning its excellency. The works of mercy are glorious lorks, there is more in such than in those acts of religion which men think are more sjjiritual. I s)ieak the more of this, because it is a scandal which is laid upon godly men by the men of the world, that they are miserable and close-handed; now in this we should labour to convince the world by the practice of mercy.
Obs. 5. It is the Christian’s skill, when two duties come together, which to choose. This is a snare in which many Christians are caught and foiled; they think both must be done at the same time, whereas the one is the duty, the other not.
06«. 6. Though the object of an action be spiritual, yet it is not a sufficient ground to prefer it before another action, whose object may be but natural. The ordinances of God have God for their object, and the enjoying of communion with him; yet in the jierforraance of other actions which may be only natural, I may show more obedience to God than in oflering up of sacrifice.
06s. 7. If God’s own worship may be forborne in case of mercy, how much more men’s institutions and inventions! Oh what a vile spirit is there in those men who will not suffer their superstitious vanities to give place to mercy! men must be undone in their bodies and estates, rather than their wills be disobeyed I The prelatical faction have themselves confessed, that the cross, the surplice, and the rest of that trash, were their own institutions; yet ministers must be silenced, bodies imprisoned, families starved, and thousands of souls destroyed, rather than their wills should not be fulfilled. Oh “the intolerable pride of these men! had they been God’s institutions, yet might they have been forborne. AVhat did these men’s actions say but this. Let Christ never be revealed to thousands and millions of souls, rather than these ceremonies shall be omitted or neglected?
06,?. 8. God will have mercy rather than disputing about sacrifice. Suppose there be a truth in that which is disputed about, yet God in this case will have mercy rather than sacrifice, rather than mercy shall be neglected he will have sacrifice omitted. AVe have ordinances and plenty of preaching, but the Lord knows how soon we may be depi’ived of them; let us not then dispute and wrangle away our mercy.
But must we not inquire after truth, and at this time also?
God forbid we should deny or speak against any which shall search into, or inquire after, truth, yea, at this time, when a case of mercy requires it; but, when young converts are taken off from fundamental truths, and led into eiTors, and souls hindered from coming in to Christ, in this case we should abstain from contending.
But young converts must abstain from all appearance of evil, and labour to come to the knowledge of Christ’s will in every point.
True, they must, but this must be done orderly, they must first be establisRed and grounded in fundamentals, and then they have liberty to do this; that rule is perpetual and holds in this case, Rom. xiv. 1, “Him that is weak in the faith receive ye, but not to doubtful disputations.” Now let no man say, the point was a case of indifferency: some would eat herbs out of conscience, others would forbear; now certainly it is a sin to do that out of conscience which God neither regards nor commands: the thing itself here was indifferent, yet in this ease they must not receive them to doubtful disputations; now, if not to doubtful disputations, then surely not to disputation to hold up error, and to insnare and betray young beginners in godliness. In Acts XV. 24, “certain” are spoken of, “which went out” from the apostles, and “troubled” the disciples “with words subverting their souls.” The words in the original signify, as if a man I’us’ttxulwJt. had been ))acking up wares to send beyond the seas, and one should come and scatter and undo all again which was jiackcd up; or as soldiers, who having packed up their artillery, their bag and baggage, are forced to undo it all suddenly again: so did these false teachers unvesscl, scatter, and bring them all into confusion, labouring to subvert them from the faith.
06.S’. 9. Mercy must be preferred before our own wills and lusts. ‘God is contented, that we may perform our duties to our brethren, to forbear his own ordinances; and shall we stand upon our wills and humours? () proud spirit, that cxaltelh thyself against
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the Lord; we must be content to deny ourselves very far for the public good, and for our brethren’s sake, since God is pleased to liear with men so far, as for a time to bo without that honour, which he should have from men in their acknowledgment of him in public service.
Obs. 10. Men must be contented to forbear their institutions with those who cannot yield in their consciences to them. But let there be peace and quiet maintained by us; we should indulge and bear each with other in such cases, of mercy especially; there should not be the urging of lesser things upon tender consciences with such severity as to undo them, though they be God’s ordinances.
But if this be so, then what hinders but men may do what they list?
No. What has been said has been limited only to instituted worship, and so, punish them they may, but not to their ruin; nay, in these controversies in which men are so divided, some thinking this course, others thinking another, to be agreeable to Christ’s ordinance, things ought not so to be urged, as to undo the other party that opposes; certainly such a practice as this is contrary to the rule of mercy in this text. Is it not cruelty to insist, that men must unsatisfy themselves presently, and lay down their opinions upon such a day as shall be appointed them.
But you will say. It is sufficient that learned and godly men hold this opinion, they find sufficient to satisfy them, and we may mistake.
To this I answer, that those who are ignorant in any respect, must understand the grounds on which men hold their opinions. If their reasons satisfy you, then it is something; but to say, I must hold such and such things because others do, and I ignorant of their grounds, this is folly; for as we must not have an implicit faith, so we must not have an implicit judgment, to hold an opinion because others hold it; And thus I have given you the mind of God in this sci’ipture, so far as God has revealed it to me for the present.
It follows,
“And the knowledge of God more than burnt-offerings.” For the understanding of these words, I thall fu’st answer some questions, and then give you the observations.
1. AMiat knowledge of God is here meant? Certainly not a knowledge barely notional, but such
as is joined with faith and obedience, a practical knowledge, which brings the heart to love and embrace the truth: Isa. liii. 11, “By his knowledge shall my righteous senant justify many.”
2. AVhy is the knowledge of God joined to mercy here? was it not full enough before, “mercy, and not sacrifice?”
Because as God accepts not mercy without sacrifice, neither does he regard knowledge without mercy. Tilen are here in the extremes on both sides: some are very merciful, as the papists, but withal very ignorant of the knowledge of God and his ways; that, as the apostle saith of love. If I should give all my goods to the poor, and my body to be burnt, it were nothing; so, if we be never so merciful, and ignorant, it availeth nothing. Others have much knowledge, yet ate very rugged and hard-hearted. Now when mercy and knowledge are thus separated, God regards them not; but when they meet together, then are they well-pleasing in his sight.
3. Why is knowledge only named here, whereas there are many duties of the first table, as well as this?
Because both of the excellency and necessity of the knowledge of God; the knowledge of God has an influence on all the duties of God’s worship.
Because many are very much exercised in instituted worship, yet very ignorant in the knowledge of God. It was so then, and is so now in our davs: manv who
contend for ordinances and Christ’s government in his church, are yet very ignorant of Christ’s redeeming the world, the way of (3od in reconciling himself and sinners together; ignorant of the attributes of God, and theu- working for his people’s good: therefore he requires the knowledge of himself to be in men principally.
4. Whj- is the knowledge of God put after mercy, it being better than mercy?
The knowledge of God is not set after mercy because mercy is to be preferred before knowledge, but because mercy is more apparent, most convincing to men: now when people are convinced of one duty, they are the sooner convinced of another; conscience will easily convince them of what is God’s mind.
5. But why is it said burnt-oiferings, rather than peace-off’erings and sin-offerings, which we read of?
Because these have more respect unto God than other offerings, as has been shown to you at other times, with the differences between burnt-ofi’erings and other offerings: as if the Holy Ghost should say, I require mercy and not sacrifice, and the inward worship of God, faith and knowledge, rather than any natural worship. The notes from hence are these:
Obs. 11. The duties of the first and second table are to be joined together. IMcrcy and sacrifice, knowledge of God and burnt-offerings, when in their place, are acceptable, therefore let us take heed of separating that which God has joined.
06s. 12. The knowledge of God is a most excellent thing. This is that which sanctifies God’s name, and manifests him to be very glorious in the world. Paul accounted all things but loss and dung in comparison of the excellency of this knowdedge of Christ. Instruct then yom- children and servants in this knowledge, else how can God have his glory from them? How few are there which glorify God as God! and the reason is, because of the ignorance which is in their minds, Eph. iv. 18.
Obs. 13. Men may be very diligent in instituted worship, and yet very ignorant. None so acted in their instituted worship as these people, yet none so ignorant as they.
That you are forward in instituted worship is your commendation, but take heed this be not your sin, to be ignorant of fundamental things. It is the great design of the devil to set up the man of sin, to keep men in darkness and ignorance. jNIany who think themselves, and would be thought to be, opposers of antichrist, even by their very questioning of fundamentals of religion, and disputings about their newopinions, raise him up; the devil is wont to darken the truth of Christ and religion, by casting a veil over it: therefore, you that are guilty of this distemper, take heed, though you have light in some things, that a veil be not drawn over those things w-hich do more nearly concern you, and are of greater consequence.
Obs. H. Soul-worship must be jn-eferred before all other worship. We must not give God a carrion sei’vice, a carcass without a soul. Strong are the expressions in Scripture which are used against such outside, formal worship. Isa. i. 11 — 13, God professes of them, that he regards them not, he is full of them, his soul loathes them, they are iniquity, and a trouble to him, they are looked upon as a burden to him, such as God will hide his eyes from, and when they make many prayers he w-ill not hear them. In this one scripture we have fourteen expressions against outside, formal duties, beside the four which we find in Isa. lxvi. 3. Thus you have the mind of God in this short but full sentence.
Now God forbid that what hath been said out of this scripture should be sinfully abused to carnal indulgence.
CllAP. VI.
Ver. 7. But they like men have transgressed the covenant: there have they dealt treacherously against me.
Here is an argument, that mercy in the former verse is to be understood in a large sense; why? because it is the very substance of the covenant; they have been hard-hearted, cruel, and unmerciful, and thereby have transgressed the covenant. I am merciful in the covenant, and my grace is free and full to sinners there; but they have transgressed the covenant by being cruel and unmerciful: “But they like men have transgressed the covenant.”
“Like men;” that is, like Adam; these men have sinned after the similitude of Adam’s transgression. Rom. V. 14, speaks of those who “had not sinned after the similitude of Adam’s transgression:” but these, as they have old Adam in them, so they have dealt with me as he did; and as he for his sin was cast out of Paradise, so these men have deserved to be cast out of the good land. But Vatablus, and Tremelius, and others, read the words thus, They have broken my covenant as a man, they thought that I had been as their fellow creature; as they made it their practice to break covenants with men, so they thought to do with God: so they have transgressed my covenant. This sense may be admitted; and hence it would be seasonable to observe, that the cause of breach of covenant with God is, because we consider not that it is with God that we make our covenants.
But’ the words are more usually read, as in ouj books, “But they like men have transgressed the covenant;” that is, not as I, who, like a God, have kept covenant; but they, like such men as themsehes, i. e. weak, inconstant, frail, inifaithful creatures, have transgressed. Job xxxi. 33.
But may not this seem to be an excusing or diminution of their sin to say, “They like men,” implying the common frailty of human nature, “have transgressed?”
No; it is rather an aggi-avation of their sin. Therefore the word here translated “men,” is
used for man in his corrupt estate, for
weak, frail men; and so distinct from that which signifies generous and strenuous men: and
so the comparison is not only between
God and man, but between the several degrees of men.
Or thus. They have transgressed my covenant like men; that is, not like my people. Saints that are of my church, they have not transgressed my covenant so. Theii- ways have been the ways of ordinary men, and as such they have transgi-essed my covenant. The two last senses are principally meant here.
“My covenant.” The covenant of God we usually divide into two parts; but the Scripture, to me, seems to hold forth a threefold covenant: the one of works, that which was made with Adam in Paradise. The second, that which was made with Abraham, the covenant of grace; the tenor of which is this, I will be thy God, and the God of thy seed after thee. Then the covenant made with them on Blount Sinai. Now the covenant here cannot be meant immediately of the covenant of works, nor of the covenant of grace, for this covenant here referred to is one especially made with them, and therefore must be understood of that at Mount Sinai, made many hundred years after the others; yet mediately it has reference to that of works, and of gi’ace.
And were this knot rightly understood and untied, the Antinomians and we might easily be reconciled.; for we grant that believers are delivered from the law in respect of the power of it, as condemning; from its rigour, but not from its duties; for the things commanded in the law were duties before the law was
given, the law was written in the hearts of the saints from the begimiing. But the opening of this point would require a whole exercise, and I shall reserve it to some other time.
Now, then, the covenant which they transgressed was the covenant at large, but especially that covenant which God made with them when they came into the land of Canaan.
“They transgressed;” the word is may they went over; the covenant was betwixt them and their sins, and they went over it to their sins, the bank was not high enough to keep them and their sins asunder.
“There;” they transgressed the covenant ce” there, in that good land of Canaan into which God had brought them, and given them possession: so the Chaldee.
Again, “There” they transgressed the covenant, there where God had hewed them by his prophets, and thought to work them to good.
Lastly, “There,” that is, in the covenant itself, and that in those things wherein they thought they kept the covenant, and thought they honoured me most; in those things they broke the covenant.
“Have they dealt treacherously.” The Sept. renders it KarK^fov)i<!i fiov, they have despised me; they have forsaken me, and chosen other lovers; even as a woman leaves her own husband to whom she was engaged, and goes to other men. It denotes the heart’s joining to some other rather than God, so as to be willing to leave the Lord, and, either out of affection to some other, or for private advantage, to forsake God and his cause, nay, to promote and further that which is against God. The notes from the words are these:
Obs. 1. It is God’s goodness that he enters into covenant with such poor creatures as we are. It is made an aggravation of their sin here, that they falsified the covenant. The love of God in entering into covenant with such mean, worthless creatm-cs, should constrain dut)’ from us in the most difficult precepts, and that with willingness.
04s. 2. God is constant in his covenant with men. This is in opjjosition to their unfaithfulness; they deal falsely with God in the covenant, but God is constant in his covenant, he confirms it with the strength of a giant. Dan. ix. 27, “And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week.” The word there -fm signifies, he confirms the covenant like a giant, or a mighty strong man: they, as weak men, break covenant with me, but I with sti-ength confirm my covenant: therefore David saith, 2 Sam. xxiii. 5, “Yet he hath made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things, and sure.”
Obs. 3. Man’s nature is veiy weak and unsettled. “They like men have transgi-esscd the covenant.” AVe must not lay too much upon men, for when most unfaithful they act but like men. Oh what folly is it in men to forsake the eternal God and run to the creature! Vt’e trust our servants in our businesses, and shall we not trust God much more? The word saith, ‘■ All men are liars;” nay, “every man at his best state is vanity.” Psal. lxii. 9, “Surely men of low degree are vanity, and men of high degree are a lie: to ^’^ ‘a’d in the balance, they are altogether lighter than vanity.”
Obs. 4. The apprehension of our obligations should keep us within covenant. Oh never let be said, that our sins are so strong that they break covenant to attain their desires. It is a sign of a most vile, wTetched sjjirit, so to desire sin, as to break over this bond of the covenant. Think of this, all you that are so easily overtaken with sin; when a temptation to any sin comes, say thus, Such a sin I would have, and my desires are afier it, but did I never covenant against it? and what! shall 1 be so wicked as to break mv covenant for it?
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Obs. 5. Breach of covenant is a most grievous aggravation of sin; it provokes God highly against that people or person. “There have they dealt treacherously against me.” Deut. xxix. 24, 2.5, “Even all nations shall say, Wierefore hath the Lord done thus unto this land? what meaneth the heat of this great anger? Then men shall say. Because they have forsaken the covenant of the Lord God of their fathers, which he made with them when he brought them forth out of the land of Egypt.” ‘Miat cause have we to bless God that he hath not destroyed us for breach of covenant with him! Why should not our condition be the condition of this people here in Deuteronomy?. Had God turned his hand and let our enemies prevail, this might have been oiu’ case.
Obs. 6. God expects that of his people which every one cannot do. They must not plead they are flesh and blood as other men, God would have you more than men: you must remember that you are saints and members of Clu’ist, and therefore must live as the redeemed of the Lord. In 1 Cor. iii. 3, ‘’Are ye not carnal, and walk as men?” the apostle rebukes the Corinthians for this; God looked that they should walk beyond other men, and that which the apostle makes the ground of his reproof, they make then’ excuse. Jesus Christ descended from on high, to this end, to purchase a peculiar people to himself, that might yield him honour in the world, beyond that which he has from other men. We should live as those which have the Divine nature in them; we should beware of passion and anger, even as God is slow to anger. How far are those f;om doing any eminent thing for God, who cannot deny themselves in their wills and passions, and have not even common humanity!
Obi. 7. Our keeping covenant with God is the effect of his grace; we have not that power of ourselves; therefore let us bless God for this mercy.
Obs. 8. ;Ien may do many services and yet be covenant-breakers. It is possible for a man to have committed the sin against the Holy Ghost, and yet be a professor of Ciuist and the gospel: therefore we had need look to our hearts.
Obs. 9. AVe may be covenant-breakers even in those things in which we seem to be most religious. But may this be in the duties of God’s worship? Yea, it may be, thus; when men shall think to cover any sin they live in, by their performing of duties, this is treacherous dealingand playing false in the covenant.
Obs. 10. The sins of saints which break covenant are sins of a double dye; other men’s sins are rebellions against God, but theirs are treacheries.
Obs. 11. The want of the right knowledge of God is the main cause of breach of covenant. Dan. xi. 32, “And such as do wickedly against the covenant shall he corrupt by flatteries: but the people that do know then’ God shall be strong, and do exploits.” Vilio shall be corrupted by flatteries; those that know God? No, they shall be strong, and do great exploits; such shall be employed by him in his work.
Obs. 12. There can be no keeping covenant with God, where there is unmercifulness to men: let there be never such professions and expressions of religion in woi-ds, if there be cruelty and unmercifulness, there can be no keeping of covenant with God, Heb. iii. 10.
Obs. 13. The consideration that it is with God that we break covenant, is a humbling consideration. Against me who am their God, who have protected them from dangers, delivered them in straits, against me have they thus sinned. As, if a man shoidd carefully bring up a poor child, and this child, when he came to years, should abuse and wrong him, woidd not this be ingratitude and unkindness indeed? so the consideration of what a God it is that we break covenant with, wonderfully aggravates our unkindness.
Ver. 8. Gilead is a city of them that work iniquity, and is polluted with blood.
We read in Numb, xxxii. 1, of the land of Gilead, which Keuben and the half tribe of Manasseh possessed, on the other side of the river; in it were divers cities of refuge, which were the cities of the Levites; one of them, the most famous, which gave name to the whole country, was Gilead: which thing is usual among us at this day; whole counties receiving their names from some eminent place in them, as Northampton, Northamptonshire; Leicester, Leicestershire. This city of Gilead, in which were the priests, should have been holier than the rest, but it was polluted, and from thence the rest of the places of the kingdom.
“That work iniquity.” The words are ps ‘Sjrs and signify, “that work iniquity,” or vain things, with energy and effectually, as Pagnine saith SyS means, agere cum energia et eff’eclu.
•’ And is polluted with blood,” one nspy supplanted or overturned with blood; the Levites who dwelt there have undone the city. How many cities arc supplanted and overturned by the priests which live in them, by their cruelties, by their subterfuges, and subtle excuses for sin and wickedness! They supplanted these cities of refuge, which were for those who had shed blood at unawares, they flying to them being secure; and that they did in these four ways:
1. By taking those in which were wilful murderers, whereas the city was for the shelter of those who had killed any unawares; now these men would judge wilful murder to be but manslaughter, as we call it. And I wish our lungdom be not deeply guilty of this sin, even by this very distinction, when men in then- passions shall make nothing of killing a man, and it is but accounted manslaughter; certainly God will never account it so, but even wilful miu:der.
2. By refusing to take in those whom of right they should, except they had good store of money to give them. When some that were poor appUed for admittance, they would refuse or delay them, and by that means they were often taken by the pursuer of blood; for these priests were to judge of it.
3. By casting those out which were in, and could not be a source of gain to them: often they delivered such to the avenger of blood, when they should have protected them.
4. By their cruelty to those that would not join with them in their false worship. Perhaps they might some of them be men of tender consciences, and could not join with them in their superstitious worship; now these priests, perhaps, would complain of them to the magistrate, that they were troublesome persons and bred divisions, and by this means they got them out of the cities of refuge. And has not this been our case of late? Thus they supplanted these cities of refuge. The observations are,
Obs. 1. That through man’s wickedness the best ordinances of God are corrupted. These cities of refuge were for special use, ordinances of God set apart for the saving, and they made them a means and instrument for the shedding, of blood. The sacrament is an ordinance set apart by God for union and communion; and what more prevents this than its abuse? men’s coming unprepared separates tender consciences from joining with them. So likewise in civil ordinances for men’s outward good, how have they been perverted! where have they tp’annized more, and used more cruelty and injustice, than in the very courts for the administration of justice? and such as should have seen equity performed, were the greatest instniments of oppression and mischief.
Obs. 2. We must not always judge of places from
Cha:’. I.
former circumstances. Gilead was a city famous for God’s worship, yet now how defiled n ith blood! So Home, how famous was it for the worship of God! yet now it is become the very filth of abomination.
Obs. 3. Places set apart for God’s worship, if corrupted, become the worst of all. Gilead a city of refuge, yet where was there ever such a defiled, and con-upted place? So in our universities and colleges, what superstitions and vanities have abounded! even like Augeys’ stable, a place of filthiness and vileness. And this is no new thing, for Gregory Xazianzen reports of Athens, that it was the most full of superstitions, and acknowledges it a great mercy that God preserved liira and Basil from those infections.
06s. 4. To be a worker of iniquity is most abominable. “Gilead is a city of them that work iniquity.” God’s people sometimes are overtaken by sin, but they are never workers of iniquity; for the Scrij)ture tells us, that he which works iniquity is of the devil.
Obs. 5. The clergy, if wicked, are the worst of all. No men can work out or bring to jjass their own ends as they can. The priests were in Gilead, and they were the men who wrought the mischief. And have not our times sealed to this truth? ‘Who have been so vile and wicked as our corrupted clergy? but how has God broken the plots, and crossed the designs, of these vermin!
Obs. 6. A wicked clergy overwhelms whole nations. These were they which overturned this city of Gilead: and thus would they have done to us, had not God, in his infinite wisdom and mercy, prevented their hellish ])lots.
Obs. 7. False worship and tyranny are joined together. AATierever you see tyranny there conclude there is false worship: therefore we had need to pray hard for the ordinances in theii’ purity, that we may not have false religion, and consequent tyranny. Luther tells us, that the devil is a liar and a murderer; so that where there is a lie in God’s religion, there is murdering.
Obs. 8. There are none so cruel as wicked clergymen; SO they may have their wills and lusts satisfied, though it cost the blood of thousands of souls, they care not.
Obs. 9. Cruelty in the clergy is the worst of all; for it is required of them to be men of peace: but who are the great incendiaries of our times, and fomenters of these wars, but the vile, wicked clergy?
Ver. 9. y/nrf as troops of robbers wait for a man, so the company of priests murder in the way by consent: for they commit letcd/sess.
This verse has much of the former in it.
“Troops of robbers.” The kingdom of Israel had their troopers robbing and spoiling up and down; and who were these robbers, but their jiriests? their priests were turned robbing troopers. And have not we this text literally fulfilled at this day in our kingdom? The gown is east off and the armour put on, and now they are turned troopers. They were before murderers of Kouls, and now they are turned murderers of men’s souls and bodies both; so that we might send their gowns after them, and say. as Joseph’s brethren said to their father Jacob, Do not you know this? is not this your son Joseph’s coat?
“Murder in the way.” They stood in the way to rob; how was this? in what way did they rob? Jerome i)utting this question to a Jew, his answer was. That at the time of the passover, and the pentecost, the people used to come to Jerusalem, and as they were going in their journey, these priests would stand in the way and slay them: they were the least suspected of any; Gilead was a city which should have defended them from robbers, and they were turned robbers themselves. The notes are these:
Obs. 1. Wickedministers arc most outrageous again<: those that leave them, and cannot join with them in their suj)crslitious and false worship. The priests were so.
Obs. 2. A’ieked men, especially wicked ])riests, wait to do mischief; how much more should God’s ])eo])!c wait for ojjportunities to do service for God, and for hLs people!
04s. 3. Many people are nearest undoing when the think themselves most secure. It was the ease of thc-si; poor travellers here; they thought themselves most safe and secure, and then were they slain and murdered by these wicked, robbing priests.
Obs. 4. A’icked men abuse the esteem which others have of them. These priests were the least suspected, and reputed harmless, innocent men. as at tliip dav; and in other things, as in theft, many servants who are trusted by their masters, abuse their masters’ confidence, and so are the more false.
06s. 5. Judges are least called to an account for their wrongs, and therefore are the more bold to sin. These priests were to judge of murder done by others; now instead of judging others’ murders, they murdered themselves; now who should judge of theii- murders? There follows,
“By consent:” the word is nc2tf taken by Luther and others for the city Shechem, which stood near Jericho; and he saith, that Christ, in the parable of the man which fell among thieves between Jericho and Jerusalem, had respect to this place of Hosea. But I shall interpret it as in our translation, because I find it in another scripture signif)-ing “consent:” “Then will I turn to the people a pure language, that they may all call u])on the name of the Lord, to serve him with one consent,” Zeph. iii. 9. The word is re:™ with one shoulder, and is a metaphor taken from oxen yoked together.
^Vhen God’s people join together in a work, it should be a shame for any to withdraw from them. Thus these priests murdered by consent, they set to their shoulder in this wicked work, the one was not ignorant of what the other did. The note hence is,
06s. 6. Wicked men can join together in wickedness, how much more should the saints join together for God! AVhat shall we say to those differences which are made amongst us? It is not long since we were under antichrist’s yoke; and were we not galled and pinched? Then why will you not take Christ’s yoke on you, which is easy and light?
“They commit lewdness.” icy ntil They studied
wickedness, they plotted for it.
Obs. 1. None so jilot wickedness as clergymen. Gilead is that wicked city of robbers; there the priests consulted together and plotted their wickednesses.
Obs. 8. Plotted wickedness is the most vile. Exod. xxviii. 6, the ephod was to be made of” cunning work,” of a work which had much thought in it; so it is in the original. That work is oprf!n«S’ii”So. very good which has much thought and consideration in it; and that sin is wicked, with an aggi-avation, which is thought of and meditated upon; then it is lewdness. Think of this, all you that do plot and think of your sins before you do commit them: in those sins there is lewdness.
Luther renders the original here, “they do whatsoever they think,” which may also be the force of the word “lewdness;” he saith that they had a proverb in Germany, that the monks were so wicked that there was nothing so bad which they could think of, but they would dare to do it. None so bold in sin, or dare to venture themselves so far, as wicked clergmen. Many men are vile and wicked enough, but they want capacity and confidence to vend and utter it; but these wicked priests could do it, calumniate and reproach without fear, these have impudent, bold faces; and concerning such I say no more but this,” The Lord rebuke them.’’
Ver. 10. / have seen an horrible thing in the house of Israel: there is the whoredom of Epliruim, Israel is llejiled.
The Lord proceeds further in his complaint against Israel.
“I have seen an horrible thing.” n’inyr a thing that may make the hairs of our head to stand on end; the Seventy translate it by ^pn-wf il, a word of something similar import, signifying, a storm in the sea. This word sometimes signifies the devil, as in Lev. xvii. 7, “They shall no more offer their sacrifices dtj?cS unto devils, after v.hom they have gone a whoring.”
Tremelius, in” his comment, observes, that the letters are more than ordinary in this word here, to increase its signification; as if he had said, It is a horrible thing, a very horrible thing! What is this horrible thing? It was this, Ephraim had defiled himself. AVlience,
Obs. 1. Idolatry is a very horrible sin. To worship a false god, and that for politic ends, as they did here, is a mo’st horrible thing; to preserve their estates and their liberties, they feU from the true worship of God to worship at Dan and Beth-el. Jer. ii. 11, 12, “Hath a nation changed their gods, which are yet no gods? but my people have changed their glory for that which doth not profit. Be astonished, O ye heavens, at tins, and be horribly afraid, be ye very desolate, saith the Lord:” and chap, xviii. 13, “The virgin of Israel hath done a very horrible thing:” and chap. xHv. 4, “Oh, do not this abominable thing that I hate.” God does not put an aggravation upon this sin beyond what is in it. It is usual with men, if any thing be done against them, to make it very horrible w-ith circumstances and aggravations; but God never docs so. A notable example we have of man’s aggravating an offence, Dan. iii. 14, “Nebuchadnezzar spake and said unto them, Is it true, O Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, do not ye serve my gods, nor worship the golden image which I have set up?” “Is it true?” rn:!n of Ocsouiio, the words in the original are, VCXisX deirphJoSiari. solations have these made, not to obey me! This is the manner of proud hearts, but not God’s, he never speaks more against a sin, or punishes men more for sin, than it deserves. We can look upon God’s judgments as horrible, but where is the man that looks upon sin as horrible? It may be you tremble at gross sins, but where is the man that trembles at false worship? The apparitions of the devil are very horrible to us; and sin is here expressed by the same words as the devil.
Obs. 2. Though we may seem to colour sin over, yet God sees it. “I have seen an horrible thing in the house of Israel.”
Obs. 3. Idolatry is a provoking sin, but especially in the house of Israel. “I have seen an horrible thing in the house of Israel.”
“There is the whoredom of Ephraim, Israel is defiled.” Ephraim was the tribe of Jeroboam, and by Ephraim is to be understood the court and the nobles; there, saith God, did I see this abominable thing. AVhcre the common people are generally wicked in a nation, it is a sign of much evU; if the gentry are profane, it is much worse; but if the nobility and those at the court are idolaters, it is night indeed. If Ephraim be vile, it is no marvel if Israel be defiled.
Ver. 11. Also, 0 Judah, he hath set an harvest for thee, ichen I returned the captivity of my people.
These words are something difficult; I shall show the meaning of them, thus: Judah has wrapped up herself in the same off’ence, in the same transgression received from Ephraim, the ten tribes, and it has grown up to a harvest of judgment, which has its set, appointed time.
But when? ““When I returned the captivity of my people.” This refers to the time mentioned in 2 Chron. xxvJii. G, where you find these three things: 1. The harvest set for Judah. 2. The captivity of Judah. 3. The return of their captivity. The harvest was set when “Pekah, the son of Remaliah, slew in Judah an hundred and twenty thousand in one day; because they had forsaken the Lord God of their fathers.” What a harvest was here set! and the text saith, they “were all valiant men.”
But what was it that provoked the Lord thus against them? Because they had forsaken the Lord, the God of their fathers. God’s judgments in Scripture, cutting down a people, are compared to a harvest; Joel iii. 13, “Put ye in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe.” But where was this captivity? In 2 Chron. sxviii. 8, “And the children of Israel carried away captive of their brethi-en two hundred thousand, women, sons, and daughters.” But when was their return? In the 9th verse, the prophet comes to them, and in the 11th tells them, they must deliver up their captives which they had taken from their brethren: these were brethren, as is clear, yet behold their rage! yet, in the loth verse, see how this affected them; they clothed, fed, and restored all their captives again presently. See the mighty power of the word to still the rage of the stoutest spirits. Oh that it might do so with us at this time, as it did here with this people! this would be a kindly work indeed. So that by this you may see what the harvest in the text is.
The notes from hence are,
Obs. 1. The sins of a people are seeds for a harvest of judgment, as their good actions are for a harvest of mercy.
Obs. 2. God has a fixed time for judgment; and though you have a time, yet know it is fixed; therefore sow as fast as you can, there will come a harvest ere long.
Obs. 3. In the time of God’s judgments, he remembers mercy for his people. He has set a time for the return of their captivity.
Thus you have, I conceive, the genuine sense of these words. There are some that read them thus: Judah, since you are guilty also, you shall not enjoy your peace nor your lands in quiet, till God retiu-n your captivity; Israel shall not enjoy their harvest, but Judah shall.
Now that which makes me think this is not the meaning, is this, because the Lord still goes on to threaten Judah; I have “set an harvest for thee.”
Some others interpret it thus: When God was about to turn away then- captivity, Judah did so harden Israel in their way, that it was the cause of my hardening my heart against them, and not retiu-ning their captivity. Israel might think thus. Though we are bad, and in many things amiss, yet Judah, who are a people nearer to God than we, is also defiled.
Obs. 4. Many are ripened for judgment by the example of others, especially of great professors, and chiefly of professing and reforming churches, that have the name of pure worship in them. Let such be very wary what they practise, especially in a time of reformation, lest they harden others in their corruption.