Hosea 14:8 (Edward Reynolds)
Ver. 8. Ephraim shall say, JVhat have I lo do any more uith idols? I have heard him, and observed him:
1 am like a green Jir tree. From me is thy fruit found.
The conversion of Israel to God in their trouble was accompanied with a petition and a covenant; a petition imploring mercy and grace from God, and a covenant promising to him thanksgivings and obedience. And God is pleased in his answer to have a distinct respect to both these: for whereas they petition first for pardon, that God would “take away all iniquity,” he promises to “heal their backsliding” and to “love them fi-eely;” and whereas they pray for blessings, “receive us graciously,” God likewise makes promises of that in great variety, expressed by the several metaphors of fertility, answering to the name and blessings promised formerly to Ephraim. All this we have spoken of under the four preceding verses.
Now, in this 8th verse, God is pleased not only graciously to accept, but further to put tn his seal, and to confirm the covenant which they make, promising that by the assistance of his Spirit they should be enabled to do what they had undertaken. This is the greatest ground of confidence that we can have to bind ourselves in holy covenants to God, even the promise of his strength and assistance enabling us to keep covenant with him. Therefore when David had said, “I have sworn, and I will perform it, that I will keep thy righteous judgments,” there follows a little after, “Accept, I beseech thee, the freewill offerings of my mouth, O Lord, and teach me thy judgments,” Psal. cxix. 106, 108. David was confident that God would not only accept his covenant, but teach him how to keep it, and that made him the more confidently bind himself by it.
In the original the words are D’35tyS Tij? ‘S-no pnSK Ephraim, what have I to do any more with idols? which therefore some would have to be the words addressed by God to Ephraim. But there is nothing more usual in Scriptui’c than an ellipsis of the verb; and we find this very verb omitted, and yet necessary to be <; Gi -. supplied, Isa. v. 9; and in this jilace the Gr,imm jl socr. png. Chaldce paraphrast, and from him the 360,651. ^pj interpreters, with our translators,
have supplied it thus, “Ephraim shall say:” and so we understand it to be God’s confirmation of the promise which penitent Ejihraim had made, and his undertaking for him that he should indeed be enabled to perform his covenant.
“What have I to do any more with T’r«l”!’r°[>’. 5.“‘“’ idols?” It is interrogalio cum indignatio7ie, an interrogation not only importing a negative, I will not any more have to do with them, but also a vehement detestation of them and indignation against them; as that of David to Abishai,
2 Sam. xvi. 10; and that of Elisha to Jehoram, 2 Kings iii. 13; and that of the devil to Christ, Matt. viii. 2’J.
“With idols.” D’SvyS signifies likewise son-ows and grief of mind, a fit word to express Israel’s sin and repentance. What have we to do with these idols and sorrows any more? They can produce no good, they they can hear no prayers, they can work no deliveiancc, they can bring nothing but evil and anguish to us, and therefore we will not follow them or seek to them any more. Here, then, is a solemn detestation, as of all their other sins, so of that especiallv which had most dishonoured God, most wounded their own consciences,
and procured most sorrow to themselves, with God’s confirmation of it.
Next follow several promises of special mercies. 1. Of hearing and answering their prayers: “I have heard,” or answered, “him,” or, as others render it, I will hear him. 2. Of fatherly care and providence over them: “and observed him,” or fixed mine eyes upon him. I have strictly considered his condition, that I might proportion thereunto my mercies. This is a significant expression, intimating, first, vigilant care, and most intent and solicitous inspection and providence: “Behold, the eye of the Lord is upon them that fear him, upon them that hope in his mercy; to deliver their soul from death, and to keep them alive in famine,” Psal. xxxiii. 18, 19. Secondly, direction and counsel: “I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way which thou shalt go: I will guide,” or counsel, “thee with mine eye,” Psal. xxxii. 8. Thirdly, honour and exaltation: “He withdraweth not his eyes from the righteous: but with kings are they on the throne; yea, he doth establish them for ever, and they are exalted,” Job xxxvi. 7. Lastly, it is an expression for hearing prayers: God is said to have his “eyes open unto the supplications of” his servants, to hearken unto them in all that they call upon him for, 1 Kings viii. 52; and “the eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous, and his ears open unto their cry,” Psal. xxxiv. 15. The church had before professed herself to be an orphan, that stood in need of tuition and protection; and here God promises to cast his eye and to place his afi’ection u])on her, to look to her, to be her tutor and guardian, to govern her with his special providence and wisdom, to take notice of her wants and supply them, to take notice of her desires and fulfil them, to take notice of her condition, and accordingly in all respects to provide for her. 3. Of refreshment, from the heat and violence of temptations or any kind of afflictions: “I am like a green fir tree,” which, being ever green, and casting forth a large shade, affords much comfort and refreshment to the wean’ traveller. 4. Because the fir tree, though refreshing in respect of its shade, is yet unfruitful, therefore he further promises to be a root of blessings, and all kind of spiritual graces, to them: “From me is thy fruit found;” that is. From me is, or shall be, thy fruit, as jIah ii. 6, 7; 1 Pet. ii. 22; Zeph. iii. 13. The word sxo3 “found” may here seem to imply and direct us to an inquiiy after the foundation and original of the fruit here mentioned: Though all thy fruit of good works and new obedience may seem to proceed from thyself, and to be thine own, yet if thou be careful to inquire after their root, thou wilt find that they come “from S!J“”„Tto“iu’ii.u.; me,” though they grow upon thee, and J^’’’’rtrt’u“‘m’”” that thou bringest them forth only by nos hc-re cum f.- the helj), supply, and vigour of my grace u’t°f««muJ .4”’ bestowed on thee; thou doest them, but the power and strength whereby thou doest them proceeds from me.
These words then are the sum of God’s answer to the covenant of his people. They “render the calves of” their “lips;” God hears ;jXl,Ti|i’ ?««■ and accepts them: they renounce carnal pjt; m non Ucumt
„, i.. ^,. ... ut ipie facial quod
confidence in men, in horses, m idols; piomiiit. Aug. dc and when they look off and turn away calT’ioI^’ **°^ from these, then God looks on them with a fatherly eye of care, providence, counsel, and protection: “I have observed him.” They will not “say any more to the work of” their “hands, Ye are our gods,” nor any longer make lies their refuge; and God enables them to do as they have said, and affords comfort and refreshment to them, as the .shade of a fir tree to a weary traveller. Lastly, they believe and acknowledge that when they are “fatherless,” and destitute of all help, there is mercy in God to comfort and provide for
them; and this God makes good too. Mercy of protection, “I am like a green fir tree;” and mercy of bounty and benediction, “From me is thy fruit found;” by the one defencUng them against their fears, by the other enabling them to their duties. Thus does God enlarge and proportion his mercy to the uttermost extent of Israel’s prayer or promise, and when they ha%’e no help or comfort out of him, he himself becomes “all and in all” to them; making a thorough compensation for every thing which they part with for his sake, and causing them to find in him alone all that comfort and satisfaction to their desires, which in vain they sought for in other things.
The words contain these two general points: First, God’s promise, enabling Israel to perform theirs: “Ephraim shall say, AVhat have I to do any more with idols?” Secondly, God’s special regard to their prayers, “I have heard him;” to their persons, “and observed him:” illustrated by two metaphors; the one importing protection and defence, “I am like a green fir tree;” the other, grace and benediction, “From me is thy fi’uit found.”
“Ephraim shall say.” This is God’s speech and promise, setting to his seal and gracious ratification to the covenant which Israel made, ver. 2, 3, without which it would have been null and void: for as man, by believing, sets to his seal to the truth of God, John iii. 33; so God, by assisting, sets to his seal to the purpose of man: but with this great difference; man’s seal is but a subscription and confession of that which was fii’m before; for all God’s promises are “yea and Amen,” and faith does not put certainty into the promise of God, Rom. iii. 3, 4; 2 Tim. ii. 13, but into the heart of man concerning the promises, Rom. iv. 16; 2 Tim. i. 12. But God’s seal is a confii-mation of the promise of man, and a rendering stable that which otherwise would vanish away; all our sufficiency is from him, we can neither will nor do any thing further than we receive from him both “to will and to do,” Phil. ii. 13. Pharaoh made promise after promise, and broke them as fast, Exod. viii. 8, 28; ix. 28. Israel one while makes promises, and quickly starts aside like a deceitful bow, as ice which melts in the day and hardens again in the night, Psal. IxxviLi. 34 — 38; Jer. xxxiv. 15, 16; to-day they will, and to-morrow they will not; they repent to-day, and to-morrow they repent of their repenting; like the sluggard in his bed, who puts out his arm to rise, and then pulls it in again; “Yet a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep,” Prov. vi. 10. So unstable and impotent is man in all his resolutions, till God say Amen to what he purposes, and establishes the heart by his own grace, Heb. xiii. 9. ‘When the waters stood as a wall on the right hand and on the left of Israel as they passed through the Red Sea, this was a work of God’s own power; for water is unstable, and cannot keep together, nor be contained within any bounds, by its own consistency. So difficult a work is it for the mutable ^Yills and resolutions of men to be kept close to any pious and holy purposes. Hence,
Obs. 1. A penitent’s conversion and covenant of new obedience derive their stability fi-om the promise and free grace of God. They are not sufficiently provided for by any band, obligation, or covenant of our own, whereby we solemnly engage ourselves, except God be pleased by his free grace to establish and enable the heart to their performance. Israel here, in the confidence of God’s mercy, prays for pardon and blessings; and in the confidence of his grace, promises reformation and amendment of life; but all this is but like a written instmrnent or indenture, which is invalid and of no effect till the parties concerned have mutually set to their hands and seals. Till God be pleased to promise us that we shall do that which we have promised to
him, and does as it were make our own covenants for us, all will prove too weak and unstable to continue. The grace of God to the purposes of men is like oil to colours in a table or picture, which imparts to them an unfading freshness.
There is a necessary and indissoluble dependence of all second causes upon the fu’st, without whose influence and concurrence they neither live, nor move, nor have, or continue in, their being. Acts xvii. 28; Heb. i. 3. He who is the first of causes and last of ends, employs and directs the necessary, voluntary, contingent motions and activities of all second causes, to whatsoever ends he himself is pleased to preordain. And this the natural and necessary concatenation of things requires, that that which is the absolutest, supremest, fh’st, and most independent will, wisdom, and power of all others, should govern, order, and direct all other wills, powers, and wisdoms, inferior and subordinate to it, to whatsoever uses and purposes he who has the absolute dominion and sovereignty over all is pleased to appoint. It cannot be other than a marvellous diminution to the greatness of God, and a too low esteem of the absoluteness of that majesty which belongs to him, to make any counsels, decrees, purposes of his to receive their ultimate form and stamp from the previous and intercurrent causalities or conditions of the creature. This I have always looked on as the principal cause of those dangerous errors, concerning grace, free-will, and the decrees of God, wherewith the churches of Christ have been so miserably in the former ages, and in this of ours, exercised by the subtlety of Satan, and by the pride of corrupt-minded men; namely, the too low and narrow thoughts and conceptions which men have framed to themselves of God, the not ao- ,..
,.. ..., id. Aus. Enchina.
quiescmg m his sovereign ilomimon and ad Laurent, c. S5 — absolute power of disposing all things *’ which he made according to the pleasure of his own will; into which I am sure the Holy Scriptures resolve all, Matt. xi. 25, 26; Rom. ix. 18, 21; xi. 3-3, 36; Eph. i. 5, 9, 11; Psal. cxxxv.6.
Even in the sinful actions of men, God’s influence and providence have a particular hand: as actions, his influence; as sinful, his providence. 1. His influence, to the natural motion and substance of the action, though not to its wickedness; for this stands not in being or perfection, (else the Fountain of being and perfection must needs be the first cause of it,) but in defect and privation of perfection. As when a hand draws a line by a crooked rule, the line is from the hand, but its crookedness from the rule: or, as when a man goes lamely, the motion as motion is from the natural faculty, but the lameness of the motion is from the defect and viciousness of the faculty. A swearer could not utter an oath, nor a murderer reach out his hand to strike a blow, but by the force of those natural faculties which have all their being and working in and from God; but that these natural motions are by profaneness or malice directed to ends morally wicked, proceeds from the vitiosity and defect which are in the second cause, making use of God’s gifts to his own dishonour. 2. The providence of God has a notable hand in the guiding, ordering, and disposing of those actions, as sinful, to the ends of his own glory, in the declaration of his power, wisdom, and justice, to which the sins of wicked men are perforce carried on, contrary to those ends which they themselves in sinning proposed. As an artificer uses the force Dl,titb°“ii!’’cfp’17, of natural causes to artificial effects: as ifbl’^^iit’^ca’p.’’’’ a huntsman uses the natural enmity of “• Pi”*™’’- symthe dog agamst the fox or woU, to the preservation of the lambs, which otherwise would be destroyed; though the dog itself by nature is as gi-eat an enemy to the lamb as the fox: as the Pharisees were as great enemies to religion as the Sadducees, vet
cuAP. xrv’.
Paul wisely made use of their enmity amongst themselves, for his own preservation and deliverance from them both: so nothing is more usual than for God to manage and direct the sins of men to the bringing about’ of his own purposes and counsels, Gen. 1. 20;
1 Sam. ii. 25; 1 Kings ii. 2G, 27; 2 Sam. xii. 11, compared with 2 Sam. xvi. 22; Isa. x. 5 — 7; Acts iv. 28;
Psal. lxxvi. 10. But now to gracious ^’^i’cT’s’’’’ ‘’ actions, which belong not at all to na- ““‘’ turc as nature, but only as inspired and
actuated with spiritual and heavenly principles, a more singular and notable influence of God is required, not only to the substance of the action, but more especially to its rectitude and goodness; for we have no sufficiency of ourselves, not so much as to the first oflfers and beginnings of good in our thoughts,
2 Cor. iii. 5: when we are bid to “work out” our “own salvation with fear and trembling,” it must be in dependence on the power and in confidence of the aid of God; “for it is” he “which worketh in” us “both to will and to do,” Phil. ii. 12, 13: when we covenant to turn unto God, we must withal pray to him to turn us. Lam. v. 21; Jer. xxxi. 18. God commands us to turn ourselves, and to make us a new heart and a new spirit, that we may live, Ezek. xviii. 30 — 32; but withal, he tells us that it is he who gives us one heart, and one way, and a new spirit, that we may walk in his statutes, Ezek. xi. 19, 20; Jer. xxxii. 39. He gives us posse, telle, agere, prqficere; the power, to make us able; the heart, to make us willing; the act, to walk; the proficiency, to improve; the perseverance, to finish and perfect holiness. David cannot run in the way of God’s commandments till he enlarge his heart, Psal. csLx. .32. Nothing can find its way to heaven, but that which comes first from heaven, John iii. 13; we cannot give to God any thing but of his own. “Who am I,” saith David, “and what is my people, that we should be able to offer so willingly after this sort? for all things come of thee, and of thine own have we given thee,” 1 Chron. xxix. 14.. J /.
For the further understanding of this pomt, and of the sweet concord and concurrence between the will of man converted, and the effectual grace of God converting, we shall set down these few propositions: „.,„,.. „. 1. That there is in man by nature a ji. 19, 20. tt Aug. power or faculty which we call tree-will, Pdij. ubreip. 5. whereunto belongs such an indifferency rt Ub. i cap. 5. jjjy indeterminacy in the manner of working, that whether a man will a thing or not, choose it or turn from it, he in neither moves contrary to his ovm natural principles of working. A stone moving downward, moves naturally; upward, contrary to its nature, and so violently. 13ut which way soever the will moves, it moves according to the condition of its creation; when thus it chooses one part of a contradiction, it retains an inward and fundamental habitude to the other, like those gates which arc so made that they open both ways. “So that as the tongue which was wont to swear or blaspheme, does, when it is converted, by means of the same faculty of speaking, newly sanctified, utter holy and gracious speeches; so the will, which, being corrupted, did choose” evil and only evil,” being sanctified, does use the same manner of operation “in choosing that which is good: the nature imparted to it at first remaining still one and the same, but being now guided and sanctified by different ])rinciples. This we speak only with respect to the natural manner of its working; for if we speak of liberty in a moral or theological sense, it is certain, that the ctr.t! L f. iiJiior more the will of man observes the right JuiS“™’i.°.itupgTi”J order of its proper objects and last end,
Habitat in eis, cl mcntcm rcsistcnlcm repugnanteniqiicsnllii’ii,it ut ipse conflictus, ctiamsi non sit <lain»abili« quia noD pcrlicit iniquitalcm, sit miscrabilis tamen quia non habct
the more free and noble it is, the very incommuubiu highest perfection of free-will consisting aStx’^^^^or. in an immutable adherence to God as Djrt*chii»Li?i.’c the ultimate end of the creature, and all “■ ability of receding or falling from him being the deficiency, and not the perfection, of free-will. And therefore the more the will of man easts off and rejects God, the more base, servile, and enslaved. In which sense we affirm against the papists, that by nature man, since the fall of Adam, has no free-will or natural power to believe and turn to God, or to prepare himself for faith and conversion.
2. In man fallen, and thereby universally in all his faculties leavened with vicious and malignant principles, there is a native corrupt force, which puts forth itself in resisting all those powerful workings of the word and Sjiirit of grace, which oppose themselves against the body of sin, and move the will to holy resolutions: for the wisdom of the flesh cannot be subject to the law of God, Rom. viii. 7. The flesh will lust against the Spirit, as being contrarj’ thereunto. Gal. v. 17. An uncircumcised heart will always resist the Holy Spirit, Acts vii. 51. There is such a natural antipathy between the purity of the word and the impurity of the will of man, that he naturally refuses to hear, and snufis at it, and pulls away the shoulder, and hardens the heart, and stops the ear, and shuts the eyes, and sets up strong holds and high reasonings against the ways of God, and is never so well as when he can get off all sight and thoughts of God, and be as it were without God in the world, Jer. v. 3; vi. 10; xvii. 23; xix. 15; jSIal. i. 13; 2 Chron. xxxvi. 16.
3. According to the degrees and remainders of this natural corruption, so far as it is unmortified and unsubdued by the power of grace, it does pioportionably put forth itself in withstanding and warring against the Spirit of God even in the regenerate themselves.* A notable example whereof we have in Asa, of whom it is said, that he “was wroth with” Hanani ‘|the seer, and put him in a prison house,” being “in a rage with him because” he reproved him for his carnal confidence, 2 Chron. xvi. 10. And the apostle in many words both states and bewails the warring of this “law of sin” in his “members” against “the law” of his “mind,” so that when he did with the one serve the law of God, with the other he served the law of sin, and was unable to do “the good which” he “would,” and “the evil which” he “would not” he did by the strength of sin that dwelt in him, Rom. vii. 14 — 25.
4. The will of God is set forth in Scripture in a twofold point of view: 1. There ^’’^/i,’-”’^ is voluntas signi, or that will of God
whereby he requires us to work, and which he has appointed to be observed by us; his will signified in precepts and prohibitions. ’ “This is the will of God,” saith the apostle, “even your sanctification,” 1 Thess. iv. 3. So we are said to prove, to ti’y, to do, God’s will, or that which is pleasing in his sight, Matt. vii. 21; Rom. xii. 2; John viii. 29. And, 2. There is voluntas beneplaciti, the will of his purpose and counsel, according to which he himself in his own secret and unsearchable good pleasure is pleased to work; for he “worketh all things after the counsel of his own will,” Eph. i. 11. “Whatsoever the Lord pleased, that did he in heaven, and in earth, in the seas, and all deep places,” Psal. cxxxv. 6. And no second causes can do any thing else, though they never so proudly break the order of God’s revealed will, but what his “hand and counsel determined before to be done.” Acts iv. 28. The will of God’s precept and command is every day violated, resisted, and broken through by wicked
Sacera. .Hg. de Nupt. ct Concupisc. hb. 2. cap. 2. contra iilian. Polag lib. 5. cap. 7.
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men to their own destruction: “How often would I,” ‘■ and ye would not 1 ‘’ latt. xxiii. 37; Jer. xiii. 27. But the will of God’s counsel and purpose cannot be resisted or withstood by all the powers of the world; the counsel of the Lord must stand; and those very agents that work purposely to disappoint and subvert it, by those very workings of theirs bring it to pass;* and when, by their own intentions, they are enemies to it, by God’s wonderful ordering and directing they are executioners of it, Rom. ix. 19; Psal. xxxiii. 11; cxv. 3; Prov. xix. 21: Isa. xlvi. 10; Josh. xxiv. 9, 10.
5. According to this distinction of God’s will, we are to distinguish his call. Some are called volunlateiigni, by the will of bis precept, when they have the will of God made known to them, and are thereby persuaded to the obedience of it in the ministry of the gospel: in which sense our Saviour saith, “Many are called, but few chosen,” Matt. xx. 16: and to those who refused to come to him that they might have life, he yet saith, “These things I say, that ye might be saved,” John v. 34, 40. Others are called volimtatebeneplacili, ordained first to eternal life by the ft’ee love and grace of God, and then thereunto brought by the execution of that his decree and purpose in the powerful calling and translating of them from darkness into light. And this is to be called Kara -n-poBicnVjf according to purpose. Rom. viii. 28, namely, the purpose and counsel of showing mercy to whom he will show mercy, Rom. ix. 18.
6. They who are called by the mere outward call or voice of Christ in the evangelical ministi’y, may, and do, resist this call, and so perish. Chorazin, and Bethsaida, and Capernaum, were outwardly called by the most powerful ministerial means that ever the world enjoyed, both in doctrine and mu’acles; and yet our Saviour tells them that they shall be in a worse condition in the day of judgment than Tyre, Sidon, or Sodom, Matt. xi. 21, 24. So the prophet complains, “Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed?” Isa. liii. 1; which the evangelist applies to the argument of conversion, John xii. 37 — 41; for so the hand or arm of the Lord is said to be with his ministers, when, by their ministry, men turn to the Lord, Acts xi. 21. And the same prophet again, or Christ in him, complains, “All day long I have stretched forth my hands unto a disobedient and gainsaying people,” Isa. lxv. 2; Rom. s. 21: so disobedient and gainsaying, that we find them resolve sometimes directly contraiT to the call of God, Jer. ii. 25; xviii. 11, 12; xliv. 15 — 28; Matt, xxiii. 37.
7. They who are called inwardly and spiritually, with a heavenly call, vocatione altcl et secimdum propositum, with such a call as flows from the counsel and purpose of God for then- salvation, though they do resist quoad pugnani, though corruption in them strive to bear up against the grace of Christ, yet they do not resist finally and quoad eventum, to the repelling or defeating of the operation of God’s effectual grace ;J: but they are thereby framed to embrace, approve, and submit to that call, God himself working a good will
* Multa fiunt a malis contra voluntatem Dei, sed tantse est ille sapieatise tant quo virtutis, ut in “eos exitus sive fines quos bunos et justos ipse prescivit tendant omnia quae voluntatiejusvidenturadveisa. Aug. de Civ. Dei, lib. 22. c. 1. Alii obediuiit, alii ligantur; nemo leges omninotentis evadit. Id. de Agone Christiano, c. 7. Vid. Biadwardin. de Causa Dei, lib. 1. cap. 32. et Hug. de Sanct. Victor. Sum. Sentent. Tract. 1. cap. l.S. et de Sacrament, lib. 1. part. 2. cap. 19, 20. etpart. 3. cap. 5, 6, 13, 14, 15. Auselm. lib. 1. cur Deus Homo. c. 15. Lombard, lib. 1. dist. 17.
f Vocatio alta et secreta qua tit ut legi atque doctrinae accomraodemus assensum. Aug. Ep. 107. et de Praedestinat. Sanct. c. 16, 17.
1 Illud nescio quomodo dicitur, fruslra Deum misereri nisi nos velimus. Si enim Deus miseretur, etiam volumus: ad
in them, captivating their thoughts to the obedience of Christ, and disposing them to that which is pleasing in his own sight, Phil. ii. 13; 2 Cor. x. 5: Heb. xiii. 21.
And this is done by a double act.
1. An act of spiritual teaching, and irradiating the mind and judgment with heavenly light, called by the prophet the putting the law into the inward parts, and writing it in the heart, Jer. xxxi. 33; 2 Cor. iii. 3: and by our Saviour, the Father’s teaching, John vi. 45, and the Holy Spirit’s convincing of sin, lighteousness, and judgment, John xvi. 8 — 11; and by the apostle, a “demonstration of the Spii’it and of power,’’ 1 Cor. ii. 4, a spiritual revelation of wisdom out of the word to the conscience, Eph. i. 17. For though we are to condemn fanatic revelations beside the word, and without it; yet we must acknowledge spu-itual revelation, or manifestation of the Divine light and power of the word by the Holy Spirit in the minds of men convented: for the word of God being a spiritual object, does, to the saving knowledge of it, require such a spuitual quality in the faculty which must know it, that it may be able to pass a right judgment upon it; for spiritual things “are spii-ituaUy discerned,” 1 Cor. ii. 14. It is true that hypocrites, and other wicked men, may have very much notional and intellectual knowledge of the Scriptures, and those holy things therein revealed, Heb. vi. 4; 2 Pet. ii. 21; but none of that knowledge amounts to that which is called the teaching of God, and a spiritual demonstration :§ for the mysteries of the gospel were to this end revealed, that by them we might be brought to the obedience of Christ; and therefore the knowledge of them is never proportionate or commensurate to the object, till the mind be thereby conformed to Christ, till the conceptions which are framed in us touching God, and sin, and grace, and heaven, and eternal things, be suitable to those which were in the mind of Christ. 1 Cor. ii. 16. Evangelical truths are not fitted to mere intellectual, but to practical, judgment. It is such a knowledge of Christ as may fill tis with “all the fulness of God,” Eph. iii. 18, 19; a knowledge that must work communion with Christ, and conformity unto him, Phil, iii. 10; a knowledge that must produce “a good conversation,” II James iii. 13. “He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him,” 1 John ii. 4. We know not Christ tUl we know him as our chiefest good, as our choicest “treasure,” as our “unsearchable riches,” as “elect “and” precious,” as “altogether lovely,” “the chiefest among ten thousand,” and “worthy of all acceptation,” in comparison of whom all the world besides is as “dung.” The knowledge of Christ is not seeing only, but seeing and tasting, Psal. xxxiv. 8; cxix. 103. And therefore they who, in one sense, are said to have known God, Rom. i. 21, are yet a little after, ver. 28, said not to have God in their knowledge. The. philosopher well observes, That such as ■it°o^Y<ni, every man is in himself, such is the end ‘“■’^’’’“i ““’ ‘”’ to which he works, and such notions he ofcp. Aristoi. l j. has of that good which is his end. It is
eandem quippe misericordiam pertiuet ut velimus. Aug. ad Simplician. lib. 1. qu. 2. Haec gratia quae occulte humanis cordibus divina largitate tribuitur, a nullo duro corde respui-. tur. Ideo quippe tribuitur, ut cordis duritia primitus auferatur. De Praedestinat. Sanct. cap. S. et coutr. 2. Epist. Pelag. lib. 1. cap. 20.
Cibus in soranis simillimus est cibis vigilantium, quo tamen dormientes non aluntur. Aug. Confess, lib. 3. cap. 6. Sol non omnes quibus lucet etiam calefacit: sic sapientia multos quos docet non continue etiam accendit. Aliud est multas divitias scire, aliud possidere: nee notitia divitem facit, sed possessio. Bernard, in Cant. serm. 2.3.
ll Triiia-is ivtoXlov ■yvmcris tov Qiov. Basil, de Martyr, manante. Hominis sapientia pietas est. Aug. Enchirid. cap. 2. de Doctr. Christiana, lib. 2. cap. 6, 7. et lib. 1. cap. .35.
CiiAP. XIV.
impossible therefore that a wicked, debased heart can ever look on any spiritual object as its last end, or as principally desirable. If I should see a man choose a small trifle before a rich jewel, however he should profess to know the excellency and to value the richness of that jewel, yet I should conclude that he did not indeed understand its worth aright. And, therefore, to the perfect and proper knowledge of supernatural, spiritual things, there is required a special work of the grace and Spirit of Christ opening the heart, and working it to a spiritual constitution proportionable to those
truths about which it is conversant. The ^”.SniiirKrXo. Scripture every where attributes this **““■ ^lu’r D«ill°” ^’^o’’^ t° God, and his Spirit. It is he that ina. 1, 4. c. u. A eivetli “an heart to perceive, and eves quid dc Deo iiiieui- to see, and ears to hear, JJeut. xsix. Kif;™it?’.S”h’ore. 4. It is he that givcth “an heart to cMJojitntur. Hi do lifiow” him, Jer. xxiv. 7. It is he that
manifests himself to those who love him, John xiv. 21. It is he that reveals to us by his Spirit the things of God, 1 Cor. ii. 10. It is he that gives “us an understanding,” 1 John v. 20, and that opens the understanding to “understand the Scriptures,” Luke xxiv. 45; Acts xvi. 14. It is he that teaches us to call Christ our Lord, Matt. xvi. 17; 1 Cor. xii. .3; for the voice of carnal and corrupt reason is, “We will not have this man to reign over us,” Luke xix. 14. Ever)’ man naturally frames and shapes his notions of doctrinal matters to the manner of his conscience and conversation, embracing that which is consonant, and rejecting that which is dissonant, Micah ii. 11; Isa. xxx. 10, 11. To the unclean every thing is unclean, because the very “mind and conscience” of such men “is defiled,” Tit. i. lo. This, then, is the first work in effectual calling, the opening of the eye of the mind rightly to conceive of the things of God, of the guilt of sin, of the heaviness of wrath, of the peril of perishing, of the momentous import of damnation and salvation, of the things that concern its everlasting peace, of the righteousness of Christ, of the beauties of holiness, of the exceeding abundant weight of glory, of the comforts of the Holy Spirit, and the unspeakable and glorious joy shed abroad in the heart by believing. These truths the heart is so convinced of, as seriously to ponder them; they form the subject of its deepest and most solemn meditations.
2. An act spiritually inclining and effectually determining the will of man to embrace the ultimate dictate of a mind thus enlightened, and to make a most free, spontaneous, and joyful choice of spiritual good things thus rightly ai)])rehcnded, on a clear and deliberate consideration of their excellency above all other things, Phil. iii. 8. This act of choosing the Lord for our portion and chicfcst good, and of cleaving to him, we find often mentioned in the Scripture, Deut. xxx. 19; Josh. xxiv. 22; Psal. lxxxiv. 10; cxix. 30, 31, 173; Acts xi. 23; Heb. xi. 25: for when the soul of a man is so thoroughly, bj- God’s teaching, convinced of the danger and mi.sery of sin, wherein so long as a man continues, he lives only to dishonour God, and to undo himself; of the benefit of righteousness in Christ, wliorcby he is reconciled to God, and adopted into a glorious inheritance; and of the beauty of holiness, whereby he is conformed to Christ his Head, and fitted
for the inheritance; these previous acts 2l!w’”.’,1id’J?ud of heavenly teaching are always seconded a”.’“e?°o7’I“S^ with efl’ectual ojierations on the will, c’lmro’ium,”irf suitable to themselves: for the liberty of ii-.. f.c.i ui «umu. the will docs not consist in a peremptory ^cZ’j:“TJrZ^ii indifference to any object whatsoever, A,^l ?.7l’i«! ‘■”’■ (else there should be no liberty in hca-
Coopcrando pcrficit quod opcrando incipit; ut velimus sine nobis opcratur, cum vulumns nobiscum cooporatur. Auf. de Gral. ct Lib. Arbitr. c. 17. Eocliirid. cap. Z2. dc Nat. ct Grat.
ven,) but in this, that being a reasonable appetite, it is apt to be led one way or another, to choose one thing or another, according to the dictates of reason, and servato online Jinis, with subjection to that which is made to appear to be the supreme end and hap])ines3 of the soul; for every faculty is naturally subver lent to the ultimate good of that nature whereof it is a faculty, and should monstrously exorbitate from its use and end, if it should put forth itself to the destruction, or refuse to close with, that which is the happiness of the soul to which it pertains. As soon as ever, therefore, the Spirit of grace does, by such a spiritual and practical demonstration as has been described, set forth God in Clnist as the supreme and most unquestionable end and happiness of the soul, there are, consequently, suitable impressions on the will, determining it to operations conformable to such a beautiful and glorious object, and enlarging it to run to this centre, to renounce all other things, and to cleave to this alone.
And these acts upon the will are efiectcd:
1. By preventing grace, it is bended and excited to heavenly appetitions, and to the choice of such spiritual good things, the sovereign excellencies whereof have been so sweetly represented. Good is the object of the will; we cannot wdl evil under the notion oi evil; and among good things, that which is by the practical judgment resolved to be best, and that by the teaching of God himself, (who neither is deceived, nor can deceive,) becomes the object of the will’s election. And thus God, by his exciting grace, works in us ipsum velle, that very act whereby we choose Christ, and subscribe our name in the roll of his soldiers and servants, answering the call of God with a most cheerful consent.
2. By assisting and co-operating grace,* it is further enabled to put forth this good will into deed, and so to work towards its own salvation, Isa. xxvi. 12; 1 Cor. XV. 10.
3. By subsequent grace, it is carried on towards perfection, to finish what was begun, and so to proceed from the beginning of faith in vocation, to the end of faith in salvation, the Spirit of Christ working in us, as he himself did work for us to a consummatum eat, “It is finished;” saving “them to the uttermost that come unto God by him,” Phil. i. 6; Eph. iv. 13; Heb. vii. 25; xiii. 21.
And by this means the native obstinacy of the will, both in and after conversion, is subdued, so that it neither does nor can overcome the grace of God working effectually with his word. First, because of the purpose of God to show mercy where he will show mercy, which can in no wise be resisted. Secondly, because of the power of God in the effectual applying of that mercy to the souls of men, with admirable sweetness, with undeniable evidence, with ineffable persuasion, with omnipotent and invincible energy, which no hardness of heart is able to refuse, because the proper operation of it is to take away that hardness which would refuse it, and that by an act of power equal to that whereby Christ was raised from the dead, which all the world was neither able to hinder nor prevent, Eph. i. 19; Col. ii. 12; 1 Pet. i. 5. Thus we see, though wo desire, and endeavour, and purjiose, and covenant conversion and amendment of life; yet the whole progress of conversion, our promises, our covenants, our abilities, our sufficiencies to make good any thing, do all receive their stability from the grace of God.
From whence we learn. First, Not to put confidence in our own studies, vows, purposes, promises of new obedience. “All men arc liars,” no sooner left to
cap. 31. contr. 2. Episl. Pclag. lib. 2. cap. iilt. Xon inihisiitlicit quod seinel douavit nisi semper donaveiit.lVtu ul accipiam, ct cum accepero, rursus pelu, &c. Hicr. Episi.
themselves, but they become miserable rap.%tGrat.’i;?p.’ii. spectacles of weakness and mutability.
Even Adam in innocency, when he was to be supported and persevere by his own strength, though he had no sin or inward corruption to betray him, how suddenly was he thi’own down from his excellency by Satan with a poor and slender temptation! how strangely did a creature of so high and noble a constitution exchange God himself for the fruit of a tree, believe a serpent before a Maker, and was so miserably cheated, as to suppose that by casting away God’s image he should become the more like him! AMro could have thought that David, a man after God’s own heart, with one miscarrying glance of his eye should have been plunged into such a gulf of sin and misery? that so spiritual and heavenly a soul should be so suddenly overcome with so sensual a temptation? that so merciful and righteous a man should so greatly wrong a faithful servant as he did Uriah, and then make the imiocent blood of him whom he wronged a vt BeUerophoniite- mantle to palliate and to cover the wrong, ras in seipsam and USB lus fidelity to convey the letters uom. Hi. 2, et Hut. and instructions lor his own rum.’’ W ho unosiiaie. (.Quid havB thought that Lot, so soon after he had been delivered from fire and brimstone, and vexed with the filthy conversation of the Sodomites, should be himself inflamed with unnatural, incestuous lust? “Who could have suspected that Peter, who had his name from a rock, should be so soon shaken like a reed? and after so solemn a protestation not to forsake Christ, though all else should, that he should so soon be di’iven with the voice of a maid from his stedfastness, and be the first to deny him, and that with oaths and curses? Surely “every man in his best estate is altogether vanity.”
Therefore it behoves us to be always humbled in our own sight, and to be jealous, 1. Of our original impotency to the doing of any good, to the forbearing of any evil, to the repelling of any temptation by our own power. “By strength shall no man prevail,” 1 Sam. ii. 9. To be “sinners,” and to be “without strength,” are terms equivalent in the apostle, Rom. v. 6, S. Nay, even where there is a will to do good, there is a defect of power to perform it, Rom. vii. IS; our strength is not in ourselves, but “in the Lord, and in the power of his might,” and in the working of his Spirit in our inner man, Eph. vi. 10; iii. 16; Phil. iv. 13. If but a good thought arise in om- mind, or a good desire and motion stu- in our heart, or a good word drop from our lips, we have great cause to take notice of the grace of God that offered it to us, and wrought it in us, and to admire how any of the fruit of paradise could grow in so heathy a wilderness.
2. Of our natural antipathy and reluctance to holy duties; our aptness to “di-aw back unto perdition,” to refuse and thrust away the offers and motions of grace; our rebellion which arises from the “law in” the “members” “against the law of” the “mind,” Rom. vii. 23; the continual di’oppings of a corrupt heart upon any of the tender buds and sproutings of piety that are wrought within us: our aptness to be “weary” of the yoke, and to shake off the burden of Christ from our shoulders, Isa. xliii. 22; our natm-al levity and inconstancy of spirit in any holy resolutions, continuing but as “the early dew,” which presently is dried up; beginning in the Spirit and ending in the flesh, having interchangeable fits of the one and the other; like the
* ‘MoxO^Jpol ‘iv (iiaLOv ovk I^ovulv oii 0£ yap avToU otufiimvdiv oiixoioi ouTEs. Aristot. Eth. 1. 8. SToo-iajEi ai-Twu S i,”i’X’’- !<’■ h 9- <^’ Hoc habent inter caclcra boni mores, placent sibi et permanent. Levis est malilia, SKpeniutatur. Senec. Epist. 47. Maximum indicium est malae mentis, fluctuatio. Epist. 120. Vid. AtlienKUm, 1. 7. c. 19. Tertul. de Pall. c. 3.
2 X
chameleon, now of one coloui’, again of another; now hot with zeal, now cold with security; now following Moses with songs of thanksgiving for deliverance out of Egypt, and quickly after thi’ustiug Moses away, and in heart returning to Egypt again.* Such a discomposedness and natural instability there is in the spirit of man, that, like strings in an instrument, it is apt to be altered with every change of weather, nay, while you are playing on it, you must ever aad anon new screw it; like water heated, which is always tending to reduce itself to its own coldness. No longer sun, no longer light; no longer Christ, no longer grace: if his back be at any time on us, our back will immediately be turned on him; like those forgetful creatures in Seneca, who, even while they are eating, if they happen to look aside from their meat, immediately lose the remembrance of it, and go about seeking for more.
3. Of the manifold decays and abatements of the grace of God in us; our aptness to leave our “first love,” Rev. ii. 4. How did Hezekiah fall into an impolitic vain-glory ,t as soon as God left him to himself, in showing all his treasures to the ambassadors of a foreign prince, thereby kindling a desfre in him to be master of so rich a land! 2 Kings xx. 12, 13. How quickly, without continual husbandry, wUl a garden or vineyard be wasted and overgrown with weeds! How easily is a ship, even at the very shore, carried with a storm back again into the sea! How quickly will a curious watch, if it lie open, gather dust on the wheels and become out of order! Though, therefore, thou have found sweetness in religion, joy in the Holy Spirit, comfort, yea, heaven, in good duties, power against corruptions, strength against temptations, triumph over afflictions, assurance of God’s favour, vigour, life, and great enlargement of heart in the ways of godliness; yet for all this “be not high-minded, but fear.” Remember, the flower that is wide open in the morning wiieu the sun shines upon it, may be shut up in the evening before night come. If the sun had not stood ’ stUl, Joshua had not taken vengeance on the enemy, Josh. X. 13; and if the Sun of righteousness do not constantly shine on us and supply us, we shall not be able to pursue and carry on any victorious affections. T^Tiile God openeth his “hand” thou art “filled,” but if he hide his “face” thou wilt be “troubled’’ again, Psal. civ. 28, 29. Therefore take heed of resting on thine own wisdom or strength. Thou mayst after all this grieve the Spirit of God, and cause him to depart and hide himsell’ from thee; thou mayst fall from thy stedfastness, and lose thy wonted comforts; thou mayst have a dead winter on the face of thy conscience, and be brought to such a sad and disconsolate condition, as to conclude that God hath” cast “thee” out of “his” sight,” that he hath “forgotten to be gracious,” and hath “in anger shut up his tender mercies;” to roar out for anguish of spirit as one whose “bones ‘’ are “broken;” thy soul may draw “nigh unto the grave,” and thy life to the destroyers, and thou mayst find it a woeful and almost insuperable difiBculty to recover thy life and thy strength again. It was so with Job, chap. x. 16, 17; xiii. 26, 27; xvi. 9, 13; xxx. 15, 31; xxxiii. 19 — 22: it was so with David, Psal. Ii. 8; lxxvii. 2 — 4: it was so with Heman, Psal. lxxxviii., and divers others; see PiaL cii. 3, 11; Isa. liv. 6, 11; Jonah ii. 3,4. Therefore we should still remember in a calm to provide for a storm; to stir up the graces of God continually in ourselves, that they be not
t Lege imperial! interJicta vini, olei, liquamiuis exportatio, ne barbari eustu iliecti promptius invaderent fines Komanorum, Leg. 1. Cod. qua; res exportari non debeant. Et apud Chinenses, exteri in loca regni interiora non admittuntur, tantum in oris maritimis conceditur commerciura. Boterus in catalog. Imperiorum.
quenched, 2 Tim. i. 6; so to rejoice in the Lord, as withal to “work out” our “salvation with fear and trembling,” Psal. ii. 11; Phil. ii. 12, 13: never to let the grace of God puff us up, or make us forgetful of our own weakness; but, as the apostle saith of himself in regard of God’s grace, “when I am weak, then am I strong,” 2 Cor. xii. 10, so to say of ourselves in regard of our own natural corruption, when I am strong, then am I weak.
Secondly, This must not so humble us as to deject and dismay us, or make us give over the hope of holding out to the end, although our nature is so weak, our enemies so strong, our temptations so many: but we must withal be quickened by these considerations, with prayer to implore, and with faith to rely on and draw, strength from the word and grace of God; to have always the window of the soul open toward the Sun of righteousness, whereby the supplies of his grace to prevent, excite, assist, follow, establish us, and cany on ever)- good thing which he has begun for us, may be continually admitted. This is one of the most necessai7 duties for a Christian, to hold constant and fixed purposes in godliness: the Scriptiu’c frequently calls upon us for them; that “with purpose of heart “we” would cleave unto the Lord,” Acts xi. 23; that we would “continue in the grace of God,” Acts xiii. 43; that we would be “rooted and grounded in love,” Eph. iii. 1”; that we would “hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering,” Heb. x. 23; that we would be “stedfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord,” 1 Cor. sv. 58; that we would look to ourselves, that we “lose not those things which we have wrought,” 2 John 8; that we would “hold fast” and “keep” the “works” of Clu-ist “unto the end,” Rev. ii. 25, 26. And it is that which godly men are most earnestly solicitous about, and do strive after with the greatest importunity: “I am purposed that my mouth shall not transgress,” Psal. xvii. 3. “Unite my heart to fear thy name,” Psal. lxxxvi. 11. “My heart is fixed, O God, my heart is fixed: I will sing and give praise,” Psal. lvii. 7. Therefore in this case it is necessary for us to draw nigh to God, who only can ratify all our pious resolutions; who “giveth power to the faint, and to them that have no might” “increaseth strength,” Isa. xl. 29; who only can settle and establish the hearts of men, 1 Pet. v. 10. The conscience of our duty, the sense of our frailty, the power, malice, and cunning of our enemies, the obligation of our covenant, should direct the soul perpetually to God for the sup])ly of his grace, that that may in all our weaknesses be sufficient for us, and “hold” us “up” that we may be “safe,” and may never through infirmity or instability of spirit violate our own resolutions, Psal. cxix. 117.
Thirdly, This is matter of great comfort to the godly, that in the midst of so many temptations, snares, impediments, amongst which we walk, not only the safety of our souls and security of our eternal salvation, but even our present condition in this life, our conversion, our obedience, all our ])ious purjjoscs of heart, all the ])rogress which we make in a holy conversation, do not depend on the weakness and uncertainty of a human will; but upnn the infallible truth, the constant j)romise, the immutable ])urposc, the invincible jiowcr, the free love, the absolute grace, the omnipotent wisdom and working of Ciod, who doth according to his own pleasure both in heaven and earth, and worketh all thmgs after the counsel of his own will: “I am the Lord, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob arc not consumed,” Mai. iii. 6. AVe poor and weak men change with every wind, strong to-day, and weak to-morrow; fixed and resolute to-day, shaken and staggering to-morrow; running forward to-dav, and revolting as fast to-morrow; no hold to be taken of our promises, no trust to be reposed in our covenants.
Like Peter on the water, we tread securely one step, and, our faith faihng, sink the next. All our comfort is this, our strength and standing rest not on ourselves, but on the rock whereon we are built, and in the power of God, by which we are “kept through faith unto salvation,” “out of” whose “hand” none are able to “pluck” us; our very actions are wrought in us, and carried on to their end by the power of Christ, who has mercy, wisdom, and strength enough to rescue us, as from the power of hell and death, so from the danger of our own fickle and froward hearts. To see a man when he is half a mile from his enemy draw a sword to enconnter him, or take up a stone to hit him, would be but a ridiculous spectacle; for what could he do with such weapons by his ovm strength at such a distance? But if he mount a cannon, and point that level against the enemy, this we do not wonder at, though the distance be so great; because though the action be originally his, yet the effect of it proceeds from the force of the materials and instruments em- ])loyed, to wit, the powder, the bullet, the fire, and the cannon. It seemed absurd m the eye of the enemy, for little David, with a shepherd’s bag and a sling, to go against Goliath, an armed giant; and it produced in his proud heart much disdain. But when we hear David mention the name of God, in the strength and confidence whereof he came against so proud an enemy, this makes us conclude weak Da^d strong enough to encounter great Goliath, 1 Sam. xvii. 40 — 47. It is not our own strength, but the love of God, which is the foundation of our triumph over all om- enemies, Rom. viii. 35 — 39.
But here some will say. Then we may be secure; if God’s grace and power be our alone strength, then let us commit ourselves and our salvation to him, and in the mean time give over all thoughts and care of it ourselves, and live as we list; no act of ours can frustrate the counsel or the love of God. To this we answer with the apostle, “God forbid.” Though the enemies of free grace do thus argue, yet they who have indeed the grace of God in their hearts have “not so learned Christ.” For it is against the essential nature of the grace and Spirit of Christ, to sufl’er those in whom it dwells to give themselves over to security and neglect of God; for grace is a vital and active principle, and does so work in us as withal to dispose and direct us to working also. The property of grace is to fight against and to kill sin, as being most extremely contrary to it; and therefore it is a most irrational mode of arguing, to argue from the being of grace to the life of ,sin. “How shall we, that are dead to sifi, live any longer therein?” Rom. vi. 2. If we be dead to sin, this is argument enough, in the apostle’s judgment, why we should set our afl’ections on things above. Col. iii. 2, 3. The grace of God not only serves to bring salvation, but to teach us to deny “ungodliness and worldly lusLs,” and to “live soberly, righteously, and godly, ip this present world,” Tit. ii. 11, 12. fie who has decreed salvation as the end, has decreed aUo all the antecedent means to that end, to be used in a manner suitable to the condition of reasonable and voluntary agents; to whom it belongs, having their minds by grace enlightened, and their wills by grace prevented, to co-operate with the same grace in the further pursuance of their salvation. And if at any time corruption shoidd in God’s children abuse his grace and efiicacy to such presum])tuous resolutions, they would quickly rue so unreasonable and carnal a way of arguing, by the woeful sense of God’s displeasure in withdrawing the comforts of his gruco from them, which would make them ever after take hied how they again turned the grace of God into licentiousness. Certainly, the more the servants of God are assured of his assistance, the more careful they ai’e in using it to his own
THE PROPHECY OF HUSEA.
service. Who more sure of the grace of God than the apostle Paul, who gloried of it as of that which made him what he was, “By the grace of God I am what I am;” who knew that God’s “grace” was “sufficient” for him, and that nothing could “separate” him “from the love of Christ;” who knew whom he had believed, and that “the grace of our Lord was exceeding abundant” towards him? and yet who more tender and fearful of sin than he? who more set against corruption, more abundant in duty, more pressing to perfection? This is the nature of grace, to animate and actuate the faculties of the soul in God’s service, to ratify om’ covenants, and to enable us to perform them. Fourthly, As it is singular comfort to the servants of God, that their own wills and purposes are in God’s keeping, and so they cannot ruin themselves; so is it also, that all other men’s wills and resolutions are in God’s keeping too, so that they shall not be able to purpose or resolve on any evil against the church, without leave from him. So then, 1. When the rage and passions of men break out, tribe divided against tribe, brother against brother, father against child, head against body; when the band of unity which was wont to knit together this flourishing kingdom, is broken like the prophet’s staff, and therewithal the beauty of the nation miserably withered and decayed, (for these two go still together, Beauty and Bands, Zech. si. 10 — 14,) we must look on all this as God’s own work. It was he that “sent an evil sphit between Abimelech and the men of Shechem,” for the mutual punishment of their sins, Judg. ix. 23. It was he M’ho “turned” the “hearts” of the Egj’ptians “to hate his people, and to deal subtilly with his servants,” Psal. cv. 25. He sent the Assyrian against his people, giving them “a charge to take the spoil, and to take the prey, and to tread them down like the mhe of the streets,” Isa. x. 6. He appointed the sword of the king of Babylon, by his overruling direction, to go against Judah, and not against the Ammonites, Ezek. xxi. 19, 22. He, by the secret command of his providence, marked some for safety, and gave commission to kill and slay others, Ezek. ix. 4, 5. It is he who giveth “iTacob for a spoil, and Israel to the robbers,” and poureth out “upon him the strength of battle,” Isa. xlii. 24, 25. If there be “evil in a city,” in a kingdom, “the Lord hath done it,” Amos iii. 6; Isa. xlv. 1. This consideration is very useful both to humble us, when we consider that God has a controversy against the land, and that it is he with whom we have to do in these sad commotions that are in the kingdoms; and to quiet and silence us, that we may not dare to murmur at the course of his wise and righteous proceedings mth us; and to dhect us, with prayer, faith, and patience, to implore, and in his good time to expect, such an issue and close, as we are sure shall be for his own glory, and for the manifestation of his mercy towards his people, and his justice towards all that are implacable enemies to Zion.
2. In the troubles of the church this is matter of singular comfort, that however enemies may say, This and that we wUl do, hither and thither we will go; though they may combine together, and be mutually confederate, and ghd themselves, and take counsel, and speak the word, yet in all this God has the casting voice, Psal. lxxxiii. 2 — 5. There is little heed to be given to what Ephraim saith, except God say the same: without him, whatsoever is counselled, “shall come to nought;” whatsoever is decreed or spoken, “shall not stand,” Isa. viii. 9, 10. We have a lively hypotyposis or description of the swift, confident, and fiuious march of the great host of Sennacherib towards Jerusalem, with the terror and consternation of the people in every place where they came, weeping, flying, removing their habitations; and when he is advanced to Nob, from which place “the hill of Jerusalem” might be seen, he there shook his hand against “the mount of the daughter of Zion,” threatening what he would do unto it. And then when the waters were come to the very neck, and the Assp-ian was in the height of his pride and fury, God sent forth a prohibition against all their resolutions, and that huge army, which was for pi’ide and number like the thick trees of Lebanon, were suddenly cut down by “a mighty one,” to wit, by the angel of the Lord, Isa. x. 28 — 34, compared with Ezek. xxxi. 3, 10; Isa. xvii. 12 — 14; xxxvii. 36. Therefore,
3. Oui’ greatest business is to apply ourselves to God, who alone is “the Lord that healeth” us, who alone can join the two sticks of Ephraim and Judah, and make them one, Exod. xv. 26; Ezek. xxxvii. 19; that he would still the raging of the sea, and command a calm again. He can say, “Ephraim shall say” thus and thus: he has the hearts of kings, and consequently of all other men, in his hands, Prov. xxi. 1; and he can turn them, “as the rivers of water,” “whithersoever he will:” as men by art can derive waters, and divert them from one course to another, (as they did in the siege of Babylon, as historians tell us, and the Scriptures seem “J^*?? hoi’^’ioto confii-m it, Isa. xHii. 15, 16; xhv. 27, p»:<i- iit. ‘■ saUjnui 28; Jer. 1. 23; li. 36,) so he can sway, s 5,’’ei“35i6. ‘y zr’ alter, divert, overrule the purposes of ^’’^aplM’s.”’’“‘”’’ men as it pleases him; reconciling lambs and lions to one another, Isa. xi. 6; making Israel, Egypt, and Assyi’ia agree together, Isa. xix. 24, 25. He can say to Balaam, Bless, when his mind was to curse. Josh. xxiv. 9, 10; he can tiu-n the wrath of Laban into a covenant of kindness with Jacob, Gen. xxxi. 24, 44; and when Esau had the desired opportunity to execute his thi-eats against his brother, he can then turn resolutions of cruelty into kisses, Gen. xxxiii. 4; and when Saul has compassed David and his men round about, and is most likely to take them, he can even then draw him off by a necessary diversion, 1 Sam. xxiii. 26 — 28. This is the comfort of God’s people, that whatever men say, except God say it too, it shall all come to nothing. He can “restrain the wrath of man” whensoever it pleases him; and he will do it, when it has proceeded so far as to glorify’ his power, and to make way for the more notable manifestation of his goodness to his people, Psal. lxxvi. 10. And thus far of God’s answer to the covenant of Ephraim. They promised to renounce idols, and here God promises that they should renounce them. But we shall here further, from the words themselves, more particularly,
Obs. 2. In true conversion God makes our special sin to be the object of our greatest detestation: “What have I to do any more with idols?” This point has been fully opened before.
Obs. 3. It is the nature of true repentance, to break sin off, Dan. iv. 27, and not to suffer a man to continue any longer in it, Rom. vi. 1, 2: “AVhat have I to do anij more with idols?” It makes men esteem “the time past of “their” life maj’ suffice “them” to have wrought the will of the Gentiles,” 1 Pet. iv. 2, 3; and is exceeding thrifty of the time to come, so to redeem it as that God may have all: it does not linger, nor delay, nor make objections, nor raise doubts whether it be seasonable to go out of Egy])t and Sodom, or no: it uses not the sluggard’s language modo el modo, “Yet a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep; “nor Agrippa’s language,” Almost thou persuadest me; “nor Felix’s language,” ‘When I have a convenient season I will call for thee: “but” immediately “resolves, with Paul, not to confer” with fle«h and blood,” Gal. i. 16; makes haste to flee from tlic wrath to come,” while it is yet to come, Luke iiL
7. It makes no anxious nor cavilling questions, AMiat shall I do for the hundi-ed talents? how shall I maintain my life, my credit, my family? how shall I keep my friends? how shall I preserve mine interests, or sii])port mine estate? but ventures the loss of all for “hic excellency of the knowledge of Christ,” Slatt. xili. 46; Phil. iii. 7, 8; it is contented to part with a sky full of stars for one Sun of righteousness. The converts that return to Chi-ist, come like “di’omedaries,” like “doves,” like “ships;” no wings, no sails, can carry them fast enough from their former courses unto him, Isa. Ix. C — 9. Abraham “rose up early in the nvirning,” though his duty involved the sacrificing of his only son. Gen. xxii. 3. David “made haste, and d’layed not to keep” God’s “commandments,” Psal. cxix. 60. len Christ called his disciples, “they stiaightway left their nets,” their “ship, and their iather, and followed him,” Matt. iv. 20, 22. Such is the mighty power of repentance; it does not give dilatory answers; it does not say to Christ, Go away now, and come to-morrow, then I will hear thee; I am not yet old enough, or rich enough, I have not gotten yet pleasure, or honour, or profit, or preferment enough by my sins; but presently it hears and entertains him. 1 have sinned enough already to condemn, to shame, to slay me; I have spent time and strength enough already upon it, for such miserable wages as shame and death come to j therefore I will never “any more” have to do with it. This is the sweet and most ingenuous voice of repentance; “That which I see not teach thou me: if I have done iniquity, I will do no more,” Job xxxiv. 32. There is no sin more contrary to repentance than apostacy; for “godly sorrow worketh rej)cnlance to salvation,” which the soul never finds reason to repent of, 2 Cor. vii. 10, 11. Let us, therefore, “take need” of “an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God,” Heb. iii. 12; and of drawing “back unto perdition,” Heb. x. 39; of dismissing our sins, as the Jews did their servants, Jer. .wxiv. 16, and calling them back again; for Satan usually returns with seven more wicked sjjirits, and ni?l<eth “the last state” of such a man “worse than the first,” Luke xi. 26. Ground which has been a long time laid down from tillage to pasture, if afterwards it be new broken, will yield a much greater crop of corn than it did formerly when it was a common field; and so the heart which has been taken oft’ from sin, if it return to it again, will be much more fruitful than before. As lean bodies have many times the strongest a])petite, so lust, when it has been kept lean, returns wllli greater hunger to those objects which feed it. A stream which has been stopjjcd, will run more violently being once opened again. Therefore in rei)entance we must shake hands with sin for e er, and resolve never more to tamper with it. But further,
Ubs. 4. God hears and answers the prayers of penitents only: “I have heard him, and observed him.” A’hen a man resolves, I will have no more to do with sin, then, not till then, does his prayer find way to soi.-nni-er.iooi God. Impcnitcncc clogs ihc wiug oi” dcni.iixii p.inr manui votiou, and stops its passage to heaven. «r!. n. iirijon. de Tlic person must be accepted before the rii’lm’lmpir’imtii- petition: Christ Jesus is the priest that ‘i“”,’.Z “tchu/! TpoL offers, and the altar which sanctifies, all “l”.M^’r«11ifi ““Th °’”” “Prvices, 1 Pet. ii. 5; Isa. hi. 7; and ...rii.’.i ivi longe Christ will not be their advocate in hea- ‘“”’^ vcn, who refuse to have him as their king
on earth. The Scripture is on no point more express than on this. “If 1 regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me,” Psal. lxvi. 18: prayer is a •muring out of the heart; if iniquity be harboured Uiore, prayer is obstructed, and if it do break out, it will have the scent and savour of that iniquity upon it.” The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the
Lord,” Prov. xv. 8, both because it is impure in itself, and because it has no altar to sanctify it. “He that turneth away his ear from hearing the law, even his prayer shall be abomination,” Prov. xxviii. 9. Great reason that God should refuse to hear him who refuses to heal*God; that he who will not let God beseech him (as he does in his word, 2 Cor. v. 20) should not be allowed to beseech God, Prov. i. 24, 28; Isa. i. la. His ear is not heav7 that “it cannot hear,” but iniquity separates between us and him, and hides his face that “he will not hear,” Isa. lix. 1,2; Ezek. viii. 18. “God hearcth not sinners,” John ix. 31; the prevalence of prayer is this, that it is the prayer of “a righteous man,” James v. 16. And indeed no wicked man can pray in the true and proper notion of prayer. It is true, there is a kind of prayer of nature, when men cry in their distresses to the God and author of nature, for such good things as nature feels the want of, which God, in the way of his general providence and common mercies, is sometimes pleased to answer suitably to the natural desires of those that ask them. But “the prayer of faith” (which is the true notion of prayer, Rom. X. 14; James v. 15) goes not to God as the author of nature, but as the God of grace, and the Father of Christ; and puts not up mere natural, but spiritual requests to him, as to a heavenly Father, which requests proceed from the Spu-it of grace and supplication, teaching us to pray as we ought, Zech. xii. 10; Rom. viii. 26, 27; Gal. iv. 6; so that they who have not the Spu’it of Christ, enabling them to cry, “Abba, Father,” aje not able to pray a prayer of faith. Prayer, when right, has two wills concurring in it, our will put forth in desires, and God’s will respected as the rule of those desires; for we are not allowed to desire what we will ourselves of God, but we must ask “according to his will,” 1 John v. 14. Now, whensoever impenitent sinners pray for spiritual things, they ever pray contrary to one of these two wills: when they pray for mercy and pardon, they pray against God’s will, for that which God will not give; for mercy is proposed to and provided for those that forsake sin, Prov. xxviii. 13; he who chooses to hold fast sin, does by his own election forsake mercy; for “the goodness of God leadeth to repentance,” Rom. ii. 4: God’s mercy is a holy mercy, it will pardon sin ,„,^„„ „^„i„ forsaken, but it will not protect sin re- ix-umu quod i.itained. Again, when they pray for grace, f,rrrt-inuiT«.idm they pray against their own will, for that liT’i’imuULtpT’ which they themselves would not have: oi;“^’,,;;;!.™’;^™!^’’ it is impossible that a man should formal- ^’j,^”’sj;;’’’£“|,;l9i ly will the holding fast and continuing ““”’ ‘“’ ‘” in sin, (as every impenitent man does.) and with the same will should truly desire the receiving of grace, which is destructive to the continuance of sin. If a wicked man do truly will the grace of God when he prays for it, why does he refuse the same gi-ace when he hears it in the ministry of the word ottered to him? If God offer it, and he desire it, how comes it not to be received? Certainly, there is not any thing in the corrupt heart of man by nature, which can willingly close with any sanctifying grace of the Spirit of Christ. Self-denial is a concomitant in all acts of grace, and self-seeking in all acts of lust; and therefore, where there is nothing but lust, there can be no real volition of grace, which is so contrary to it.
‘This teaches us to have penitent resolutions, and spiritual aims, in all our prayers, if we would have them prevail at the throne of grace. We are now under the heavy calamity of a civil war, and verj- desirous we arc that It should be removed. We suffer, and languish, and fret, and pine away, and we complain every where of want and violence; but who set themselves to cry mightily to God, and call on their souls, as the mariners on Jonah,” What meanest thou, O sleeper? arise, call
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on thy God? “Haply we go so far, we pray, and yet receive no answer, because we “ask amiss,” James iv. 1 — 3. We are troubled that our lusts are abridged of their fuel, or that our nature is deprived of her necessaries, and for these things we pray; but till our troubles bring us to seek God more than ourselves, make us more sensible of his wrath than of our own wants, more displeased at what offends him than at what pinches and oppresses ourselves, we cannot promise ourselves an answer of peace. The mariners cried, and the tempest continued still; Jonah was to be cast over; so long as there was a fugitive from God in the ship, the storm would not cease. Never can we promise ourselves any comfortable fruit from our (irayers till the aim of them is spiritual, that God may be honoured, that his church may be cleansed and reformed, that our lives may be amended, that whatsoever forsakes God in us may be cast away. Till God’s “whole work” be “performed upon Mount Zion and on Jerusalem,” we cannot promise ourselves that he will call in his commission and charge to take the spoil and the prey, Isa. X. 12. And therefore our greatest wisdom is to consider what God calls for, to make it our prayer and endeavour that his will and counsel may be fulfilled. The more we make God our end, the sooner we shall recover our peace.
Obs. 5. Our performance of duty depends much on God’s hearing and answering our prayers. Ephraim will have no more to do with idols, because God has heard him. Prayer is the key of obedience, and the introduction to duty. The principles of duty are. Wisdom to know and order; will to desire and intend; strength to perform and persevere: and all these are the product of prayer. “If any lack wisdom, let him ask of God,” James i. 5. So Solomon, 1 Kings iii. 9. And, ‘■■ Who am I, and what is my people,” saith David, “that we should be able to offer so willingly after this sort? for all things come of thee,” 1 Chron. xxix. 14. And the apostle prays for the Ephesians, that God would “grant” them, “according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man,” Eph. iii. 16. The principles of duty are the fruits of prayer, and therefore the performance of duty much depends on the hearing and answering of prayer.
Ohs. 6. When we renounce all carnal and sinful confidences, and cast ourselves wholly upon God, engaging his eye of favour and providence to us, this will be a most sufficient protection against all the cruelties of men: “I have observed him.” One would think, when we hear a sword threatened, dashing of infants, ripping of women, the prophet should have called on them to take to them weapons to make resistance; (and certainly the use of means in such eases is necessary; the sword of the Lord does not exclude the sword of Gideon;) one would think, I say, “Take with you words,” were but a poor preparation against a destroying enemy: yet this is all that the prophet insists on; AVhen the Assyrian comes against you, do you “take with you words;” your lips shall be able to defend more than his armies can annoy. AVords uttered from a penitent heart in times of trouble to God, are stronger than all the preparations of flesh and blood, because that way which prayer and repentance go, that way goes God too. Amalek fights, and Moses speaks to God in the behalf of Israel, and the lifting up of his hands prevails more than all the strength of Israel besides, Lxod. xvii. 11, 12. One man of God that knows how to manage the cause of Israel with him, is “the chariot of Israel, and the horsemen thereof,” 2 Kings ii. 12. What huge armies did Asa and Jehoshaphat vanquish by the power of prayer! 2 Chron. xiv. 9 — 15; XX. 1 — 30. Till God forbid prayer, as he did to Jeremiah, chap. vii. 16; xi. 14, and take off the hearts of
his servants from ciying to him in behalf of a people, we have reason to hope that he will at last entertain thoughts of mercy towards them, Exod. xxxii. 10, 14; and in the mean time, when they are reduced to the condition of fatherless children, he will be then’ guai-dian, his eye of providence and tuition will observe them and take care of them. “A father of the fatherless, and a judge of the widows, is God in his holy habitation,” Psal. lxviii. 5.
Obs. 7. Whatsoever human wisdom, wealth, power, or other outward means men have wherewith to defend themselves, yet they shall never find any true and solid protection or shelter but in and from God, after sound conversion to him. “I am like a green fir tree.” The fh’ tree, Pliny saith, casts not its leaves, and so yields a perpetual shade both in winter and in summer: thus sound conversion yields comfort in all conditions of life. “God is our refuge and strength, a very present hell) in trouble. Therefore will not we fear, though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea,” Psal. xlvi. 1, 2; Hab. iii. 16 — IS. However it be, God is good to Israel, and it shall go well with the righteous; he wdl be for a sanctuary to. his people, that they need not be afraid, Isa. viii. 12 — 14. If you would have your hearts raised above all the troubles of the world, get under this fir tree, cast yourselves under this protection, get into the chamber of God’s providence and promises, and then, though the troubles of the world may strip you of all outward comforts, yet God will be all to you.
Obs. S. Though good works be ours when they are done by us, yet they come from God, who enables us to do them; we bear them, but God works and produces them in us; the duty is ours, but the efficacy and blessing is his; “From me is thy fruit found.” This falls in with what has been treated of before, and therefore I shall not now enlarge upon it.