A12190:747
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.
Well that we may abhor Idolatry the more, consider two or three direct places. Who required these things at your hands, saith God,1 when they think to please him with voluntary devised things, this will strike them dumb then, the things that God requires being so easy and so few, yet we to omit them all and to devise new things of our own: our reward shall be, Who required these things at your hands? And then again saith God, In vain they worship me teaching for my precepts the devices of men. See then the vanity of Idolaters,2 who though they would do nothing in vain, yet ⟨p. 360⟩do all their will-worship in vain. It is not only Idolatry, but obstinate Idolatry, the Romish doctrine: We would have cured Babel, but she would not be cured. 3Is this a light cause of our coming out of Babylon? do we leave them for trifles, when they stand guilty of abominable Idolatry? you may see here, if so be Ephraim out of holy affection say, what have I now any more to do with Idols? What to think and judge of those that would bring God and Idols together; if Ephraim had been of the temper that many men now are, he might have said,4 tush what need we care for Idols, Crucifixes and the like? there is not such a distance betwixt them and us, why may not both Religions stand together? This new fangled niceness is but the distempered devices of some few giddy headed men who know not what they would have. This is the wisdom of many men in our times, who reckon that there is not an eternal irreconcilable distance between light and darkness, the service of God and that of Idols. We cannot serve two masters, saith Christ.5 Yes say they we may serve two masters, Anti-christ and Christ, God and Belial. O but what saith Ephraim? What have I now any more to do with Idols? There can be no mixture you know where there is abomination. That Church Reve. 3. which was neither hot nor cold may parallel many now in our times, who are neither hot nor cold, Papists nor Protestants, but politic Atheists, who