' Even unto the Lord thy God.'
It is not enough to make a stop, and forbear the 2^^'<^ctising of our former sins ; but tve must come home, even unto the Lord our God, to be pardoned and healed of him.
The prodigal son had been never a whit the better to see his sin and misery, and to be grieved for his wicked life past, unless he had come unto his father for pardon and comfort, Luke xv. 20. And when those were pricked in their hearts at Peter's sermon, asking Peter ' what they should do ? ' he exhorted them, * To repent, every one to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ, for the remission of sins, and so they should receive the Holy Ghost,' Acts ii. 38. And when Christ invites all those who ' are weary and heavy laden to come unto him,' Mat. xi. 28, he bids them not now be fm-ther humbled and grieved for their sins, but by faith to come unto him to be healed, and so they should find rest and peace to their souls. It is not sufficient for a wounded man to be soriy for his brawling and fighting, and to say, he will fight no more ; but he must come to the sur- geon to have his wounds stopped, dressed, and healed, or else it may cost him his life. So it is not enough to be humbled and grieved for sin, and to resolve against it. We shaU relapse again, do what we can, unless we come under the wing of Christ, to be healed by his blood.
Use. Many think they have repented, and are deceived upon this false ground. They are and have been grieved for their sins and offences ; are determined to leave and forsake them, and that is all they do. They never lay hold on Christ, and come home to God.
' For thou hast fallen by thine iniquity.'
Here divers points might be insisted on.
1. That ivhere there is a falling into sin, there ivill be a falling into misery and judgment.
'This is made good in the experience of all times, ages, persons, and states. Still the more sinful any were, the more fearful judgments fell upon them ; and as soon as any man came into a sinful state, he entered into a decUning state ; as Jacob said of his son Reuben, who had defiled his bed, ' Unstable as water, thou shalt not excel ; because thou wentest up to thy
HOSEA XTV. 1, 2.] THE RETURNING BACKSLIDER. 257
father's bed,' Gen. xlix. 4. So sin still debaseth a man. So much sin, so much loss of excellency.
The use hereof is, first, against those that complain of their troubles and miseries, a^ though God and men had dealt hardly with them ; whereas their own ways, indeed, have brought all these evils upon them, Lam. iii. 39. God is a sufficient, wise, and holy disposer and orderer of all the ways of men, and rewarder of good and evil doings. God being wise and just in his disposing of all things, it must needs follow, that it shall go well with those that are good ; as the prophet speaks, ' Say unto the just, that it shall be well with them, for the reward of their works shall be given them,' Isa. iii. 10. And if it fall out otherwise than well with men, the blame must be laid on their own sin. As the church confesseth, and therefore resolveth, ' I will bear the indignation of the Lord, because I have sinned against him, until he plead my cause, and execute judgment for me ; he will bring me forth in the light, and I shall see his righteousness,' Micah vii. 9. If Adam sin, he shall find a hell in a paradise. If Paul return, and return to God, he shall find a heaven in a dungeon.
Secondbj, It should move its therefore to seek unto God hy unfeigned repent- ance, to have our sins taken aivay and pardoned; or else, however we may change our plagues, yet they shall not be taken away ; nay, we shall stiU, like Pharoah, change for the worst ; who, though he had his judgments changed, yet sin, the cause, remaining, he was never a whit the better, but the worse, for changing, until his final ruin came.
' The wages of sin is death,' Rom. vi. 23. Sin will cry till it hath its wages. "Where iniquity is, there cannot but be falhng into judgment. Therefore they are cruel to their own souls that walk in evil vvays ; for un- doubtedly God will turn their own ways upon their own heads. "We should not therefore envy any man, be he what he will, who goeth on in ill courses, seeing some judgment is owing him first or last, unless he stop the cm-rent of God's wrath by repentance. God, in much mercy, hath set up a court in our hearts to this end, that, if we judge om'selves in this inferior court, we may escape, and not be brought up into the higher. If fii'st they be judged rightly in the inferior court, then there needs no review. But otherwise, if we by repentance take not up the matter, sin must be judged somewhere, either in the tribunal of the heart and conscience, or else after- wards there must be a reckoning for it.