Hosea 6:4 O Ephraim, what shall I do to you? O Judah, what shall I do to you? for your goodness is as a morning cloud… Men's convictions die away, their resolutions prove abortive; they run well, but don't continue; begin to build, but leave their work unfinished This is a most unhappy case, as dangerous and fatal as it is common. I. THE CAUSES OF THIS WRETCHED INCONSTANCY. Is it because men have no power, or no encouragement to do otherwise? Neither can be the reason, because where there is no power at all, there is no sin, and where there is no encouragement to exert the power we have, if we are not altogether without sin, yet we seem to have such an excuse for our sins, as takes away much the greatest part of their guilt. One represents God as the author of sin; the other as wanting in goodness and love to His creatures. That so many do no more than begin well, is not from want of power; since God, the righteous Governor and Judge of the world, never requires beyond the measure of what He has given. Does God command all men to repent? The reason is that by the grace of the Gospel all shall be enabled to repent who do not wilfully refuse and resist that grace. And no one can plead in excuse for himself, when he repents of his sins, and then relapses into them, and after all his fair promises and repeated resolutions, never makes thorough work of it, that he has not sufficient motives to make him exert himself. The true causes of inconstancy are — 1. Want of seriously and distinctly considering the nature of the change upon which they are entering, the reasons for it, and the pains and time it will cost to effect it. (1) They don't consider that every sin is to be forsaken, and every duty to be practised; nor do they reflect what these particular sins and duties are, and what is meant by forsaking the one and practising the other. For want of a distinct notion of their duty, men find themselves bewildered, are at a loss how to proceed, and never want an excuse for not doing what they ought, or for doing what they ought not, when they are under strong persuasion. (2) Men don't seriously consider the reason upon which their purpose of a change ought to be founded, and therefore they miscarry. The little they do is not the effect of judgment and rational conviction, so much as of some passion accidentally raised in them. (3) Men don't consider the pains they must take, and the time that must be spent in effecting this change (Luke 14:28). The difficulties of religion are to be duly considered. It is as wrong to exaggerate the difficulties as to underestimate them. Conversion is a work of time. Men are not presently cured of the vices which have grown habitual. Habits which have been long contracted are not immediately unlearnt again, and contrary habits planted in their room. Some have talked as if the new creature were an instantaneous production, and the habits of grace were infused in a moment. And this representation has done no little mischief. 2. Another cause of men's inconstancy is their being but half resolved. And this is a very common case. They are so far from being fully determined as hardly to know which side they shall take. It is not strange that such imperfect resolutions are quickly broken. Instability of conduct is the necessary effect of irresoluteness of temper. 3. Another cause is men's not exercising a suitable caution and vigilance, in order to avoid the occasions of sin, and all those temptations that beset them, and endanger their falling back into their former way of living. If they would not fall, why do they walk in the same slippery places? 4. Another cause is their not persevering in the instrumental duties of religion, particularly the duty of secret prayer. Did they from day to day maintain their intercourse with heaven, they would be much better prepared to do the will of God upon earth, and to resist and overcome any temptation which should beset them. II. THE CERTAINTY THAT THESE INEFFECTIVE PURPOSES OF AMENDMENT, THESE MERE BEGINNINGS, WILL NOT BE ACCEPTED INSTEAD OF TRUE REPENTANCE AND HOLINESS OF LIFE. 1. The Gospel requires nothing less than repentance and true holiness. This is abundantly evident from Scripture passages. 2. Such an imperfect transient goodness is not that repentance and holiness of life upon which the Gospel insists. Is confessing sin the same as confessing and forsaking it? Can they be said to repent, who do not bring forth fruits meet for repentance? And the character of a man is to be taken from his habitual practice. He that doeth righteousness is righteous. 3. Out of regard to the perfections of His nature, and the declarations of His Holy Word, God will not dispense His saving mercy upon any other terms than those set forth in the Gospel. Evangelical repentance and obedience there must be. III. WHAT METHOD WE SHOULD TAKE IF WE WOULD NOT ONLY MAKE SOME ENTRANCE UPON THE WAYS OF RELIGION, BUT GO ON IN THEM, AND HOLD OUT TO THE END. Avoid those things which are the usual occasions of inconstancy in this most important affair. And give ourselves to frequent meditation of those great truths on which religion is founded. And often renew our good resolutions, and arm ourselves every day before we go forth into the business and temptations of the world. Bend our chief force against those sins which do most easily beset us, and most frequently overcome us. Frequently make this reflection, that while we spend our time in trifling thus with religion, life not only goes on, but goes off too, and death approaches. Let us reflect every one for himself, whether, and how far, this subject concerns us. 1. Consider that you have all the difficulty without the benefit of a thorough reformation of heart and life. 2. You can have no real satisfaction in your present course. 3. Every time you return to your sins, after you have resolved to forsake them, and begun to do it, you make your condition worse than it was before. 4. In what light will your present manner of acting appear when you come to die? IV. THE METHOD WE SHOULD TAKE IF WE WOULD NOT ONLY MAKE SOME ENTRANCE UPON THE WAYS OF RELIGION, BUT GO ON IN THEM, AND HOLD OUT TO THE END. 1. Good men are too apt to change as to their diligence and activity in the Christian life. 2. Hath the time been when the Christian was vigilant and circumspect? One would think that the advantages he must have reaped from thence should have kept him so; and yet they do not always effect it. 3. There may be the loss, as to the good man's conscience, of its former sensibility and authority. Conscience is an inward sense and feeling of good and evil. Sensibility of conscience appears not so much in discovering the nature as the degrees of moral good and evil. How careful should we be to maintain this sensibility and tenderness of conscience. 4. Hath the Christian disengaged himself to a great degree from the affections of the lower life? He is very happy herein, but let him net be secure, as if he was not liable to a change. The following, are among these affections of the lower life, which even in Christians sometimes prevail too much. (1) Admiration and esteem of worldly things. (2) Love of sensual pleasure. (3) Immoderate hopes and fears, joy and sorrow about present things. (4) Intemperate anger, or a proneness to kindle into warm resentments upon very trivial occasions. (5) A spirit of devotion is not always kept up.His indevotion appears in his disuse of religious thoughts and contemplations, in which time was that he more frequently employed himself. And also in the little pleasure which Christians take in the duties and exercises of religion. It is attended with want of desire after spiritual and eternal blessings. Two directions. 1. Fix in your minds a just and lively apprehension of the much greater peace and pleasure which attend an even and regular course of piety than the contrary. 2. Have your eye upon the first tendencies of the heart to wander from God, and immediately oppose and check them. (H. Bonar, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: O Ephraim, what shall I do unto thee? O Judah, what shall I do unto thee? for your goodness is as a morning cloud, and as the early dew it goeth away. |
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