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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A12190	The returning backslider, or, A commentarie upon the whole XIIII. chapter of the prophecy of the prophet Hosea Wherein is shewed the large extent of Gods free mercy, even unto the most miserable forlorne and wretched sinners that may be, upon their humiliation and repentance. Preached by that learned and judicious divine, Dr. Sibbs, late preacher to the honourable society of Grayes Inne, and master of Katherine Hall in Cambridge. Published by his owne permission before his death.	Sibbes, Richard, 1577-1635.	1639 (1639)	STC 22500; ESTC S117394	275,564	592

so long as God hath promised to bee the Phisitian and the blood of Christ is the Plaister that healeth us The Question is not what how many Jsa 1.18 19. how grea● and of what continuance our sinnes are but how wee stand affected towards them hate them and resolve against them That sinne connot hurt us which wee fight against mourne for complaine of resolve to leave and truely hate Let us never stand then in comparisons with our sinnes which beare no proportion to the infinite skill and power of our great Phisitian and to the infinite worke of Christs all sufficient satisfaction What canst thou object o man It is Christ that iustifieth the ungodly who art thou that condemneth Rom. 8.33 34. It is he that died yea rather who is risen againe who is also at the right hand of God and also maketh intercession for us Thou canst not satisfie for the least sinne God hath laid upon him the iniquities of us all Levi. 16.21 Isa 53.5 The chastisement of our peace was upon him and with his stripes wee are healed Let us therefore bee wise for afterwards heare reade lay up and meditate for the time to come for times will come if wee belong to God that nothing will content or pacific the soule but the infinite worth and merit of an infinit and free mercy apprehended in the face of Jesus Christ When our sins are set in order before us the sinnes of our youth middle and old age our sinnes against conscience against the Law and Gospell against examples vowes Promises Resolutions and admonitions of the Spirit and servants of God When there shall bee such a terrible acouser and God shall perhaps let the wounds of conscience fly open and joyne against us when wrath shall appeare bee in some sort felt and God presented to the soule Heb. 12.29 as a consuming fire no comfort in heaven or earth appearing hell beneath seeming readie to revenge against us the quarrell of Gods Covenant O then for faith to looke through all these clouds to see mercy in wrath Heb. 12.6 love in correction life in death the sweetnesse of the promises the vertue and merit of Christs sufferings death resurrection and intercession at the right hand The sting of death removed 1 Cor. 15.55 sinne pardoned and done away and glory at hand In somme this promise made good which leads unto all this happinesse as wee shall by and by heare I will heale their backesliding I will love them freely for mine anger is turned away O this is a marvelous matter then to be perswaded of Therfore let us make a right use of these words in due season For they are Pro. 25.11 like appels of gold with pictures of silver like balme to a greene wound like delivery in a shipwracke but indeed all comparisons come farre short of this illustration as the terrour of incensed wrath in the fearefull apprehension of eternall unspeakeable miserie is beyond any other feare apprehension or joy But least this grace be abused by others for wee must not with-hold the childrens bread for feare others partake with them unto whom it belongs not let them know this much that those who turne this grace into wantonnesse and will be evill because God is thus gracious that there is no word of comfort in the whole Scripture for them who stand resolved to goe on in their sinnes presuming of mercy See what God saith in this case Deu. 29.18 19 20. Least there should bee among you a roote that beareth gall and wormewood and it come to passe when hee heareth the words of this curse that hee blesse himselfe in his heart saying I shall have peace though I walke in the imagination of mine heart to adde drunkennesse to thirst The Lord will not spare him but then the anger of the Lord and his iealousie shall smoake against that man and all the curses that are written in this booke shall lie upon him and the Lord shall blot out his name from under Heaven Psal 68.21 God will wound the hairie scalpe of such an one who goes on in his wickednesse and meanes to bee so And in the New Testament those who thus make a progresse in sin what do they They are said to treasure up unto themselves wrath Rom. 2.5 against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgement of God Therefore Gods word speakes no comfort to those who purpose to live in any sinne All the comfort can bee spoken to such is That yet they are not in hell that yet they have time to returne to this great Phisitian of the soule But take such an one in his present condition hee can have no comfort in this estate wherein there is but a step betweene him and hell So as when the rotten thred of this uncertaine life shall faile or is cut asunder downe they fall Wee have no comfort heere for them till they returne This pretious balme belongs to the wounded conscience Briefly for use then Vse Seeing that our God is a healing God as wee can admire the wisdome skill and excellencie of our Phisitian so let us much more make use of him 2 Chro. 16.12 upon all occasions Trust and cleave to him not like good Asa but not good in this who forgot himselfe and sent first to the Phisitians But let vs especially rely upon God and looke to him Isa 4.5 who can create help and must blesse all meanes whatsoever Hee is a healing God who will heale all rebellions and the most grievous sicknesses he is a Physition that is good for all turnes There are some diseases which are called the scorne of Physitions as the Goute the Ague and the like wherein in some cases they are put to a stand and know not what to doe but God is never at a losse his skill cannot be set downe he is good at all diseases to pardon all manner of sins Therefore let us goe to him for cure seeing there is neither sinne nor griefe nor terror of conscience arising thereupon which can be so great but God can cure both the sinne and the terror if we take a right course and speake peace to the soule God is a healing God arising when he comes with healing in his wings As he saith Mal 4.2 I will heale their rebellion c. And as he is a healing Physition so he puts his patients to no charge for as he saith I will heale their backesliding so he saith I will love them freely Therefore let us the more build upon this truth That free mercy is the scope of God in the new Covenant which is indeed the summe of all Godlinesse For what is the Gospell but the triumph of mercy doe but consider the scope of God in the new covenant whereof the Sacrament is a seale which is onely to shew forth the exaltation of the Grace and Mercie of God in Jesus Christ above all

or backeward for affections are planted in the soule answerable to things aimed at by it For as in the nature of things there be good and bad delightfull and hatefull hurting or pleasing so answerably God hath framed the soule to the nature of things That the soule hath affections suitable to the things it aimeth at For good things God hath planted affections in us to joyne claspe imbrace them and welcome them as Love Joy Delight and such like And for evill things he hath planted affections to avoid them That Religion is especially in the affections as indignation hatred and the like Indeed Religion is mainely in the affections whereof there is excellent use take away them and take away all Religion whatsoever A man were it not for his affections is like Mare mortuum the dead sea that never stirreth Therefore it is but a doting idle conceit of these rigid men that take away affections much like the follie of them who because they have beene drunke with wine doe therefore cut up all the vines But the way were to moderate the excesse not to cut up the vines So for the affections wee must not roote them up or cut them downe but order them aright For what doth the first Commandent require Thou shalt have no other gods but mee But a right ordering of all the affections of the soule Ioy delight trust and feare and the whole frame of them to be carried to God For the inward worship of God is nothing else but the excellent working of these affections sutably to the Law with the detestation of the contrary It is not knowledge that makes a man a good man but the affections the Divell and wicked spirits know much but they have no love joy or delight in them Therefore we must value our selves and things as we are in our will and affections for so God valueth us and we should value others thereby This well done would bring us a wondrous deale of comfort and stop our too much and rigid judging and censuring of others Ephraim shall say what have I any more to doe with Idols Now in particular we see here that Ephraim not onely leaveth Idols but there is planted in him a sound indignation against them whence we may learne Observ That it is not enough to leave sinne but we must loath sinne also A notable place to this purpose we have in the Prophecie of Isaiah what they should doe after their conversion in the case of hatred to Idolatry Isa 30.22 Yee shall defile also the covering of thy graven Images of silver and the ornament of thy molten Images of gold thou shalt cast them away as a menstruous cloth thou shalt say unto it get thee hence There is a hatred and a strong loathing indignttion against sinne when it is discovered in the pollution and vilenesse thereof which affection of hatred God hath planted to draw the soule away from any thing that is truely hurtfull to it It is not enough to leave sin for some by ends as feare of punishment shame and the like but we must loath it also The Prophet David when he professeth his love to the law Psal 119.163 how prooveth he it I hate and abhorre lying Psal 13● 21 And so againe Doe not I hate them O Lord that hate thee and am not I grieved with those that rise up against thee I hate them with perfect hatred I account them mine enemies Here is hatred and perfect hatred with abhomination Reason 1 The Reason is because God is a Spirit and lookes to the bent of our spirits seeing what we love and what we hate Iohn 4.24 therfore the strength of this consideration draweth the soule to hate and love with God as hee hates and loves and as much as may be to hate sinne as he doth Reason 2 And then againe he requireth our heart especially My sonne give me thy heart Give me thy love in that which is good and hate that which is ill What ill we leave we must hate first and what good we doe we must first love or else we shall never doe either of them acceptably to purpose What the heart doth not is not done in Religion if it hath no hand in the avoiding of ill it is not avoided if it have no hand in the doing of good it is not done before God Therefore in true conversion there must be a loathing of sinne Reason 3 Thirdly Because in all true conversion there is a new nature put in us now the New Creature which partaketh of the Divine Nature whereby we resemble God it hath an Antipathy to the greatest ill which is sinne the cause of all other evils whatsoever which maketh us opposite to God defileth the soule and hindereth our sweet communion with him A new Creature we know hath a new disposition and is opposite to the works of the flesh they are contrary to one another so that we see it cleere that we must not onely leave but loath sinne Quest. But how may we know discerne and trie this true hatred of sinne Answ Our hatred of sinne is 1. when it is universall First true hatred is universall he who hates ill truely hates it universally in the whole kinde As we see in wicked men and divels who hate God and all goodnesse so on the contrary those that are good hate all ill whatsoever whether it pleasure or displeasure them they stand not upon it they hate the very nature of all ill Those whose obedience and affections are partiall they hate some evills but not others which is not true hatred wrought by the Spirit of God for that is universall to the whole kinde 2. Implacable Then also wheresoever true hatred is it is unplacable and unappeasable there 's no true end of sound hatred but by the abolishing altogether of that thing it hates as we see the hatred of Satan to the Church and people of God is unappeasable and unquenchable nothing in the world can stay Satans hatred nor the hatred of his instruments who hate the remembrance of Gods people Therefore the very name of Calvin and Luther must be put out of their bookes to satisfie their hatred Not onely when they are dead burne their bones but abolish their memory if they can So there is the like disposition in Gods people to that which is ill A godly disposition it hateth sinne even to the death and is not quiet untill all sinne be abolished Whereupon it is never quiet in this life but desires Heaven not enduring patiently the least reliques and rags of sinne desiring that that which it so hateth might have no being at all Those who mince and cull things who are so gentle and tender towards their sinnes and corruptions in themselves and others is this that hatred which is unappeasable and never rests till it see either a through Reformation or abolishing of what it so hateth Wherin it is a

heed therefore that we have nothing to doe with them more then we must needs Converse with them in our callings we may because as an ancient father saith we be compossessors of the world and not of Religion we must goe out of the world if we will not have to doe with them sometimes in the places where we live but amity is very dangerous with such the Scripture runnes much upon it should we love them whom God hates It was Eves fault that without a calling she ventured to talke with the Serpent wee should therefore shunne conversing and parly with them as much as may be As there were railes set about mount Synai to keepe of the people from touching the Mountaine so God hath set hedges about the second Commandement to keepe us off from offending in it as it was usuall with God in this kinde As when he would keepe them farre from murder Deut. 22 6. Exo. 23.19 he forbad them to kill the damme with the young and not to seeth a kid in his mothers milke onely to restraine them from murder that abhominable sin such precepts the Jewes call the hedges of the Commandements So for Idolatry the Scripture would have us hate the garment spotted with the flesh to defile the Coverings of the Images Jud. ver 23. Isa 30.22 Eph. 5.11 to account them as a menstruous cloath c. and to have nothing to doe with the unfruitfull workes of darkenesse To hate all monuments of Idolatry As Augustine saith of monuments any monument mooves and stirs up the minde So any thing that may moove or stirre us to Idolatry wee should abhorre and keepe a farre off from it And therefore the Commandements are set downe in the highest pitch of the sinne to shew that we should avoid all the degrees under that which leads to so great a breach and that wee should hate all those steps and leadings to the sinne it selfe We should therefore beware of Popish writers and doe with them as was done with the Magicke bookes in the Acts Act. 19.19 burne them all least they corrupt our selves and others Learne we this of the Papists who hate our Bookes burne them or locke them up safe yea hate the very Names of Luther and Calvin much more their Bookes In this case it is with the soule of man That a mans spirit tasts of the Authors he is most conversant in as with water that relisheth of that soyle through which it runnes if it run through a hot soyle as baths through a sulphury soyle it talks of that So the spirit of a man tasts of those authors hee runnes through Therefore such who converse much in Popish writings unlesse Ministers who have a calling that way to confute them are in danger to be insnared by them Vse 4 And then againe if we must hate all Idolatry wee must take heed of occasions Not like some looser Christians which make no matter of crucifixes how doth the Spirit of Ephraim here agree with such a crucifix is but a teacher of lies representing onely the outside and that falsly for there is no expression in Scripture what kind of man Christ was And if there were 2 Cor. 5.16 yet the Apostle sheweth That wee must now no more know him any more after the flesh not as such a man as tall and faire c. But know him as the Mediator as King of Heaven and Earth avoiding all lewd base conceits of him people in this kinde are too bolde and runne too neere Popery A Father saith well No man is safe that is neere to danger 1 Cor. 10.14 Wee are commanded to flie from Idolatry we must not come neere the pits brinke least we fall in runne and flie from it as from a Serpent dally not with the occasions The more close Idolatries of many Christians But to leave this grosse Jdolatry to speake of something which more neerely concerneth us and which wee are prone to though we hate these grosse Jdolatries yet there be some wee are more neerely addicted to as 1. To have false conceptions of God First of all there is a pronenesse in us in our worship to conceive false conceptions and Ideas of God and so in place of worshiping God wee worship an Jdoll of our owne braine Quest It may be said How shall wee conceive of God when we worship him Answ Wee must not conceive of God as of a finite essence 1. First of all Negatively doe not dishonour God in imagining any character of an infinite incomprehensible God but conceive of him as an infinite essence And then conceive not absolutely of God but of God distinguished in three Persons 2. We must conceive of God distinguished in 3 Persons The Father Sonne and Holy Ghost or else wee conceive an Idoll For there are three Persons in one common nature and in our Prayers we must not conceive the Nature without the Persons In the third place 3. Wee must not conceive of God without Christ we must not in our Prayers conceive of God without Christ the Mediator For even as God was onely to be knowne and spoken to towards the Tabernacle so Christ is the Tabernacle now where God manifests his gratious presence and will be worshipped in him the Mediator For God considered out of Christ is a consuming fire without Christ no converse with God Let us therefore take Christ along with us when we goe to God goe to him by God in our Nature our Immanuell and so we shall conceive of God aright and not worship an Idoll of our owne braine Againe there is another thing which is a common abuse among Christians 4. It is Idolatry to transforme God like to us in affections wherein they come neere to Idolatry when they transforme God to be like themselves in their affections as it is the property of all unregenerate men to doe so Idolatry is so naturall it cannot but transforme God to be like it selfe as for instance A man that is not a gratious man in the pride of his sinnefull course thinks that God is like unto him Psal 50.21 Thou thoughtest that I was like unto thy selfe therefore I will come against thee c. As oppressors and such who grow great by ill courses they justifie this much would God let me alone if he did not approove of my courses so they make God like themselves And so the good-fellowes of the world they make God to allow all their dissolutenesse because he lets them alone So those that are fierce and cruell by nature who delight in cruelty vexation and blood they transforme God as though he delighted in such things and make him a God of blood So others transforme God to be all mercy this is to make God an Idoll and as ill as if they transformed him into this and that creature worse then the Heathens in regard of their light under the Gospell yet this is the