A12190:590
The returning backslider, or, A commentary upon the whole XIIII. chapter of the prophecy…The returning backslider, or, A commentarie upon the whole XIIII. chapter of the prophecy…
The returning backslider, or, A commentary upon the whole XIIII. chapter of the prophecy of the prophet Hosea Wherein is showed the large extent of Gods free mercy, even unto the most miserable forlorn 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 Gray's Inn, and master of Katherine Hall in Cambridge. Published by his own permission before his death.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.
London: printed by George for George Edwards, 1639
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
OUR desire of good things is not so large as God is bountiful in satisfying our desires, & going beyond them, as we see in this Chapter, their hearts were too narrow to receive all that good which God intended them. Receive us graciously, ⟨p. 278⟩this was their petition: whereunto God answers, that he would be as the dew unto them, that they should grow ac the Lillie, and cast forth their root as Lebanon: and their branches shall spread: that they should grow in all dimensions, upwards and downwards, and spread in beauty and smell, Their beauty shall be like the Olive, and their smell like Lebanon. And because he would be God-like, like himself, that is throughly and abundantly gracious and merciful, he doth not only (as we have heard) promise a blessing to Israel himself, but unto all near unto him and belonging to him: Those that are under his shadow shall return, they shall revive as the corn.
OUR desire of good things is not so large as God is bountifull in satisfying our desires, & going beyond them, as we see in this Chapter, their hearts were too narrow to receive all that good which God intended them. Receive us gratiously, ⟨p. 278⟩this was their petition: whereunto God answers, that hee would be as the dew unto them, that they should grow ac the Lillie, and cast forth their roote as Lebanon: and their branches shall spread: that they should grow in all dimensions, upwards and downwards, and spread in beauty and smell, Their beauty shall be like the Olive, and their smell like Lebanon. And because he would be God-like, like himselfe, that is throughly and abundantly gratious and mercifull, he doth not only (as we have heard) promise a blessing to Israell himselfe, but unto all neere unto him and belonging to him: Those that are under his shadow shall returne, they shall revive as the corne.
We are all too shallow to conceive either the infinite vastness of Gods justice to impenitent sinners, or his boundless mercy and goodness to his poor Church and children. Therefore God to help our weak conceit in this kind borroweth all the excellencies of nature, and makes use of them in grace. He takes out of the book of nature into his book what may instruct our souls: and therefore sets down the growing estate of a Christian by all excellent comparisons that nature will afford, many whereof we have gone over, the last we spake of was, that mercy which God superabundantly shows unto the friends and servants of the Church, Those that dwell under his shadow shall return. Now those that shall thus return, they revive in returning: for they turn to the fountain of life, to the Sun of Righteousness: