Use 1. This should teach us, in the first place, to be humbled, in that we are so miserable, naughty servants, doing so little work, nay, nothing as we
HOSEA XIV. 4, 5.] THE RETURNING BACKSLIDER. 321
should, yet should have so good wages. But * God loves us freely,' &c. It should rather humble us the more than puff us up in pride, in regard that there was nothing in us which might deserve anything at God's hand, 1 Cor. iv. 7 ; Eph. ii. 9.
Use 2. And hence also it foUoweth that if he loved us from everlasting with a free love, John xvii. 23, 24, in a sort as he loved Christ, that there- fore the ejects of his love toivards lis shall never fail, as the apostle sheweth, ' The gifts and caUing of God ai'e without repentance,' Rom. xi. 29. Faith and repentance, being fruits of his love wTought in us, shall hold out. There- fore the weakness of these graces, as they shall not hinder our salvation, no more should they discourage us, or hinder the comfort of our profes- sion ; because tfiat faith and repentance which we have is not any work of ours, but the work of God's free love in us. Therefore they shall be continued and accepted. For om* perseverance doth not stand in this, that we have strength in ourselves to continue faithful to God, but because he, out of his free love, continueth faithful to us, and wall never fail nor forsake them whom he hath once taken into his everlasting favour, on whom he hath set his everlasting free love, as the apostle speaks of Christ, ' "Who also shah confirm you unto the end, that ye may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.' But upon what ground ? ' God is faithful, by whom we were called unto the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord,' 1 Cor. i. 8, 9. So that if any of the elect should fall away, God should be un- faithful. The case in perseverance is not how faithful we are, but how faith- ful God is, who ' guides us here with his counsel in all things, and after- wards receiveth us into glory,' Ps. kxiii. 24. So in another place, after the apostle had prayed, ' Now the very God of peace sanctify you wholly ; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be presei-ved blame- less unto the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ,' What maketh the ground of this his prayer ? ' Faithful is he that caUeth you, who also will do it,' 1 Thess. V. 23, 24.
Use 3. If, then, we would have God to manifest his free love to us, let us strive to be obedient to his commandments, and stir up om* hearts by all means to love him who hath so freely loved us.
Quest. Now, how should we manifest our love toward God ?
Am. Fu'st, in lovin(j his icord, as Ps. xix. and Ps. cxix. Secondly, in loving his peojjle, 1 John v. 1, 2. Thirdly, in lonrjing for and loving his second coming. Rev. xxii. 20.
Now foUoweth the reason of the discovery of this free love shewed now in time to them.
' For mine anger is turned away from him.'
Here is the thii-d branch of God's answer to their petition, ' Mine anger is tamed away from him,' which is included and implied in the former, ' I will heal their backsliding.' How could he do this if he were angrj' ? No; he saith, ' I wiU love them fi-eely,' which argues that his anger was ap- peased. God knoweth that variety of words and expressions are all little enough to raise up and comfort a doubting, wounded, galled soul, which, when it is tcruched with a sense of sin and of his displeasure, cannot hear words enough of comfort. This God knows well enough, and therefore he adds expression upon expression, ' I will heal their backsliding, I wiU love them freely, for mine anger is turned away from him.' The soul which is touched with the sense of wrath, and defiled with the stains of sin's dread- ful impressions, receives all this cheerfully, and more too. Therefore, in such cases we must take in good part the largeness of God's expressions,
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322 THE KKTUENING BACKSLIDEK. [SeRMON VI.
' For mine anger is turned away from him,' To unfold the words, therefore,
Anger is the inward displeasure which God hath against sin, and his pur- pose to punish it, accompanied with threatenings upon his purpose, and execution upon his threatenings. The point to be observed in the first place is,
Tliat there is anger in God against sin.
We need not stand to prove the point, it is so manifest to every man. The Scripture is copious in it. If we consider either judgments executed upon sinners, threatenings against sin, or the saint's complaining of it, as Ps. Ixxiv. 1, Job xlii. 7, Ps. vi. 1, Ps. xc. 11, Ps. xxxviii. 1, 3, Isa. Ixiii. 6, with many the like places, prove that there is anger in God against sin. "We will rather see the reason of it.
Because there is an antipathy betwixt him and sin, which is contrary to his pure nature. Sin, as it opposeth God, so it is contrary unto him ; and, indeed, sin would turn him out of his sovereignty. For what doth a man, when he sins wittingly and willingly, but turn God out of his government, and causes the devil to take up God's room in the heart ? When a man gives way to sin, then the devil rules, and he thinks his own lusts better than God's will, and his own carnal reason in contriving of sin above God's wisdom in his word ; therefore, he is a proud rebel. Sin is such a kind of thing, that it labours to take away God ; for it not only puts him out of that part of his throne, man's heart, but for the time a man sins, he could wish there were no God to take vengeance of him. Can you wonder, therefore, that God is so opposite to that which is so opposite to his prero- gative royal as sin is ?