THE FOURTH SERMON.* HOSEA XIV. 3, 4. Asshur shall not save us; we will not ride upon horses; neither will we say any more to the work of our hands, Ye are our gods; for in thee the fatherless findeth mercy. I will heal their backsliding, I will love them freely; for mine anger is turned away from him. SECT. 1. THERE remaineth the second point formerly mentioned, from the promise or covenant, which Israel here makes, which I will briefly touch, and so proceed unto the fourth verse; and that is this : That true repentance and conversion taketh off the heart from all carnal confidence, either in domestical preparations of our own, "We will not ride upon horses" or in foreign aid from any confederates, especially enemies of God and his church, though otherwise never so potent; Asshur shall not save us. Or lastly, in any superstitious and corrupt worship which sends us to God the wrong way, " We will not say any more to the work of our hands, Ye are our gods;" and causeth the soul, in all conditions, be they never so desperate, so desolate, so incurable, to rely only upon God. It is very much in the nature of man fallen, to affect an absoluteness, and a self-sufficiency, to seek the good that he desireth within himself, and to derive from himself the strength, whereby he would repel any evil which he feareth. This staying within itself, reflecting upon its own power and Folio-edition, p. 539. a Sua potestate delectati, velut bonum suum sibi ipsi essent, è superiore communi omnium beatifico bono, ad propria defluxerunt, &c. Aug. de Civ. Dei, 1. 2. c. 1.-Cum causa miseriæ malorum Angelorum quæritur, ea merito occurrit, quod ab illo, qui summè est, aversi, ad seipsos conversi sunt; qui non summè sunt, et lb. c. 6. 1. de vera Relig. c. 13. de Gen. ad Lit. 1. 11. c. 14. et 23. Aquin. part. 1. qu. 63. art. 3. It seems there was no wisdom, and, by consequence, affecting an independency upon any superior virtue in being and working, making itself the first cause and the last end of its own motions, -is, by divines, conceived to have been the first sin by which the creature fell from God; and it was the first temptation by which Satan prevailed to draw man from God too. For since, next unto God, every reasonable created being is nearest unto itself, we cannot conceive how it should turn from God, and not, in the next step, turn unto itself; and, by consequence, whatsoever it was, in a regular dependence to have derived from God, being fallen from him, it doth, by an irregular dependence, seek for from itself. Hence it is, that men of power are apt to deify their own strength, and to frame opinions of absoluteness to themselves, and to deride the thoughts of any power above them, as Pharaoh, and Goliath, and Nebuchadnezzar, and Sennacherib. And men of wisdom to deify their own reason, and to deride any thing that is above or against their own conceptions; as Tyrus, and the Pharisees, and the philosophers". And men of morality and virtue, to deify their own righteousness, to rely on their own merits and performances, and to deride righteousness imputed and precarious, as the Jews, and Paul before his conversion. So natural is it for a sinful creature, who seeketh only himself, and maketh himself the last end, to seek only unto himself, and to make himself the first cause and mover towards that end. But because God will not give his glory to another, nor suffer any creature to encroach upon his prerogative, or to sit down in his throne; he hath therefore always blasted the policies and attempts of such, as aspired unto such an absoluteness and independency, making them know in the end, "that they are but men', and that the Most High ruleth over all:" and that it is an enterprise more full of folly than it is other way for angels to sin, but by reflex of their understanding upon themselves; which being held with admiration of their own sublimity and honour, the memory of their subordination to God, and their dependency on him, was drowned in this conceit; whereupon their adoration, love, and imitation of God, could not choose but be also interrupted. Hook, 1. 1. sect. 4. b Exod. v. 2. c 1 Sam. xvii. 8, 10, 44. Isai. x. 8, 9, 10, 11, 13, 14. John vii. 48, 49, 52. Acts iv. 11. Isai, xlix. 7. liii. 3. 1 Cor. i. 22, 23. 1 Psalm ix. 19, 20. d Dan. iii. 15. i Rom. x. 5. 2 Kings xviii. 33, 34, 35. 8 Luke xvi. 14. h Acts xvii. 18, 32. k Rom. vii. 9. Phil. iii. 6, 9. of pride, for any creature to work its own safety and felicity out of itself. And as men usually are most vigilant upon their immediate interests, and most jealous and active against all encroachments thereupon; so we shall ever find, that God doth single out no men to be so notable monuments of his justice, and their own ruin and folly, as those who have vied with him in the points of power, wisdom, and other divine prerogatives, aspiring unto that absoluteness, self-sufficiency, self-interest, and independency which belongeth only unto him. And as he hath, by the destruction of Pharaoh, Sennacherib, Herod, and divers others, taught us the madness of this ambition; so doth he, by our own daily preservation, teach us the same. For if God have appointed that we should go out of ourselves unto a thing below for a vital subsistence, to bread for food, to house for harbour, to clothes for warmth, &c., much more hath he appointed, that we should go out of ourselves for a blessed and happy subsistence; by how much the more is required unto blessedness than unto life, and by how much the greater is our impotency unto the greatest and highest end. SECT 2. Yet so desperate is the aversion of sinful man from God, that when he is convinced of his impotency, and driven off from self-dependence, and reduced unto such extremities, as should in reason lead him back unto God; yet when he hath "no horses of his own" to ride upon, no means of his own to escape evil,-yet still he will betake himself unto creatures like himself, though they be enemies unto God, and enemies unto him too for God's sake (for so was the Assyrian unto Israel); yet if Ephraim see his sickness, and Judah his wound, Ephraim will go to the Assyrian and King Jareb for help": If he must beg, he would rather do it of an enemy than a God; yea, though he dissuade him from it, and threaten him for it. Ahaz would not believe, though a sign were offered him; nor be persuaded to trust in God to deliver him from Rezin and Pekah, though he promise him to do it; but under pretence of not tempting God in the use of means, will weary God with his provocation, and rob God to pay the Assyrian, "who was not a help, but a distress unto him". Hos. v. 13. vii. 8, 13. xxx. 5. » 2 Kings xvi. 5, 8, 17, 18. 2 Chron. xxviii. 20, 21. Isai. SECT. 3. Well; God is many times pleased to waylay human counsels, even in this case too, and so to strip them not only of their own provisions, but of their foreign succours and supplies, as that they have no refuge left but unto him. Their horses fail them, their Assyrians fail them P. Their hope hath nothing either sub ratione boni,' as really good to comfort them at home; or 'sub ratione auxilii,' as matter of help and aid to support them from abroad. They are brought, as Israel, intó a wilderness, where they are constrained to go to God, because they have no second causes to help them. And yet even here, wicked men will make a shift to keep off from God, when they have nothing in the world to trust unto. This is the formal and intimate malignity of sin, to decline God, and to be impatient of him in his own way. If wicked men be necessitated to implore help from God, they will invent ways of their own to do it. If horses fail, and Asshur fail, and Israel must go to God whether he will or no,-it shall not be to the God that made him, but to a god of his own making; and when they have most need of their glory, they will "change it into that which cannot profit." So foolish was Jeroboam, as, by two calves at Dan and Bethel, to think his kingdom should be established, and by that means rooted out his own family, and at last ruined the kingdom. So foolish was Ahaz, as to seek help of those gods, which were the ruin of him and all Israel. Such a strong antipathy and averseness there is in the soul of natural men unto God, as that when they are in distress, they go to him last of all; they never think of him, so long as their own strength, and their foreign confederacies hold out. And when at last they are driven to him, they know not how to hold communion with him in his own way, but frame carnal and superstitious ways of worship to themselves; and so, in their very seeking unto him, do provoke him to forsake them; and the very things whereon they lean, go up into their hand to pierce it ". SECT. 4. Now then, the proper work of true repentance be • Fidentiam pariunt, Tò owτýplov égyùs kal Bońßela. Vid. Arist. Rhet. 1. 2. c. 5. P Hos. vii. 11, 12. viii. 9, 10. Ex arbitrio, non ex imperio. Tert, contr. Psychich. c. 13. vide de Præscript. c. 6. xii. 28, 29. xiv. 10, 15, 29. 2 Kings xvii. 21, 23. * 2 Chron. xxviii. 23. u Isai. xv. 2. xvi. 12. 1 r Jer. ii. 11. $ 1 Kings Hos. viii. 4, 5. x. 5, 8, 18. Kings xviii. 26. ing to turn a man the right way unto God, it taketh a man off from all this carnal and superstitious confidence, and directeth the soul, in the greatest difficulties, to cast itself with comfort and confidence upon God alone. So it is prophesied of the remnant of God's people, that is, the penitent part of them (for the remnant are those that came up "with weeping and supplication, seeking the Lord their God, and asking the way to Sion, with their faces thitherward ",") that they should "no more again stay themselves upon him that smote them, but should stay upon the Lord, the Holy One of Israel in truth, and should return unto the mighty God '. They resolve the Lord shall save them, and not the Assyrian. So say the godly in the Psalmist, "A horse is a vain thing for safety, neither shall he deliver any by his great strength," &c. "Our soul waiteth for the Lord; he is our help and shield." They will not say any more, "We will fly upon horses, we will ride upon the swift"." Lastly, "At that day," saith the prophet, speaking of the penitent remnant and gleanings of Jacob, "shall a man look to his Maker, and his eyes shall have respect to the Holy One of Israel; and he shall not look to the altars, the work of his hands, neither shall respect that which his fingers have made, the groves or the images ". And again, "Truly, in vain, is salvation hoped for from the hills, and from the multitude of mountains;" that is, from the idols, whom they had set up and worshipped in high places; "Truly in the Lord our God is the salvation of Israel." They will not say any more to the work of their hands, Ye are our gods. b " SECT. 5. So then, the plain duties of the text are these: 1. To trust in God, who is all-sufficient to help, who is Jehovah, the fountain of being, and can give being to any promise, to any mercy which he intends for his people; cannot only work, but command; not only command, but create deliverance, and fetch it out of darkness and desolation. He hath 'everlasting strength; there is no time, no case, no condition, wherein his help is not at hand, whenever he shall command it a. Jer. iii. 23. z Psalm xxxiii. 17, 20. Isai, xxvi. 4. * Jer. xxxi. 7, 9. 1. 4. 5. a Isai. xxx. 16. y Isai. x. 20, 21. b Isai. xvii. 7, 8. |