* Take with you words, and turn unto the Lord.'
Ohj. What need God words, he knows our hearts before we speak unto him ?
Ans. It is true : God needs no words, but we do, to stir up our heai'ts and affections ; and because he will have us take shame unto ourselves, having given us our tongues as an instrument of glorifying him, he will have our ' glory,' Ps. xvi. 9 ; Mi. 8, used in our petitions and thanksgivings. And therefore, in regard of ourselves, he will, as was said, have us take words unto ourselves, for exciting of the graces of God in us by words, blowing up of the affections, and for manifestation of the hidden man of the heart. God will be glorified by the outward, as weU as by the inward man.
* And turn to the Lord.' He repeats the exhortation of returning, to
* That is, ' from time to time,' or ' through all time.' — Ed.
HOSEA XIV. 1, 2.] THE RETURNING BACKSLIDER. 261
shew that trords must not he empty, but such as are joined tiith a jnirpose of turninfj to God. For otherwise, to turn to him with a purpose to live in any sin, is the extremity of profane impudence. To come to ask a pardon of the king, with a resolution to live still in rebellion against him, what is this but mockery, as if one should come with a dagg* to shoot him ? Such is our case, when we come to ask forgiveness, with a purpose to offend. It is the extremity of profaneness, to come to ask a pardon, to the intent that we may sin still. Therefore he repeats it again, ' Take unto you words, and turn to the Lord.' The form is —
' Take away all iniquity, and receive us graciously,' or ' do good to us : ' ' so will we render the calves of our lips ;' wherein we have,
1. Aj^etitioii: (1.) To take aicay all iniquity; (2.) To receive them graciously.
2. A re-stipidation, or promise of thankfulness back again to the Lord, ' So will we render the calves of our hps.' So that we may observe, hence —
What God uill grant us. He will have us ask of him. * Yet for all these things I will be sought unto of the house of Israel,' Ezek. xx. 31, saith God ; because he will have us acknowledge our homage and depend- ence upon him. Therefore we must ask what be hath purposed to give. ' Take away all iniquity,' &c., where there is an implication of a confession of their sins and great iniquities. ' Take away iniquity,' and ' Take away all iniquity,' that is, our manifold guilt. So, before petition, there must be a free and full confession, as was shewed before.
Now, this confession here is made to God, and to God only, saith Austin in this case. Because it is a point in controversy, it is good to hear what the ancients say. There are a cm-ious sort of men, who are busy to search into other men's lives, and are careless in amending their owti. Saith he, * What have I to do ■with men to hear me confess, when I have offended God ? We must confess to God, and to God only.'t But in some cases there may be public and private confession to men. Public, in public offences, for the satisfaction of the church, and the gloiy of God ; for preventing of scandal. Private, to ministers, for the quieting of conscience. But this is only in some cases. Men go not to the chirurgeon, as the papists would have it, for every Httle prick of their finger. No ; but yet in some cases it is good to open the matter to a minister, ' who hath the tongue of the learned,' Isa. 1. 4. But the sin is toward God, against him, he only being able to forgive sins, as the Pharisees confessed : ' None can forgive sins but God,' Mark ii. 7. The papists, therefore, herein are worse than the Pharisees.
The petition is, ' Take away iniquity,' and ' all iniquity.' "\l\Tiy all ?
First. Because where there is any true goodness in the heart, that hatred which carries the bent of the soul against one sin, is alike against all, as I shewed ; and the devil carries thousands to hell by this partial obedience, because he knows at any time where to have such. God and a purpose to sin will not stand together, nor dwell in a heart that allows itself in any sin, be it never so small. He saith. Take away all, because the Spirit of God works in a man renewed, such a disposition of sincerity to hate all alike.
Secondly, he saith, * Take away all iniquity,' because the heart, which desires to be at peace with God, desires also to be like God, who hates all sin. Therefore, saith the sanctified soul, forgive all sin. Take all away, that I may have nothing in me displeasing unto thee. I desire to join
* That is, ' small pistol.' — G. t Augustine, Conf. Introd., et alibi.— G.
262 THE RETURNING BACKSLIDER. [SeRMON II.
with the Lord ; to hate what he hateth, and as he hateth ; to carry a perfect hatred to the whole kind. ' Take away all iniquity.' Hatred is not satis- fied, but with the utter abolishing of the thing hated. Therefore it hath this extent here. * Take away all sin,' both the guilt and the reign of every sin, that none may rule in me ; nay, by little and little, purge out all.