Hosea 14:4 I will heal their backsliding, I will love them freely: for my anger is turned away from him.… In this verse is set down an answer to that prayer, repentance, and reformation which the Church made. Where God doth give a spirit of prayer, He will answer. God answers exactly unto all that is prayed for, beginning first with the ground of all comfort, the forgiveness of sins. Backsliding is an aggravation of sin. Sins rank thus — 1. Sins of ignorance. 2. Sins of infirmity. 3. Sins against knowledge. 4. Sins against the Holy Ghost.In that God's promise is "I will heal," observe that sin is a wound and a disease. Sin, as disease, arises either from ourselves, as we have a seminary of them in our own hearts; or from the infection and contagion of others; or from Satan, who hath society with our spirits. In regard to its effects, sin is like a disease. Diseases neglected breed death; they become incurable. This is the end of sin, either to end in a good despair, or in a fruitless, barren despair. How may we know that we are sick of this sickness and disease of sin? If the soul be inflamed with revenge and anger, that soul is certainly diseased: the temper of the soul is according to the passions thereof. If a man cannot relish good diet, then we count him a sick man; so when a man cannot relish holy discourse, nor the ordinances of God. A man may know there is a deadly sickness upon the soul, when he is senseless of his wounds; and senseless of that which passeth from them. A man is desperately soul-sick when oaths, lies, and deceitful speeches pass from him, and yet he is senseless of them. Let us know and consider, that no man who lives in sins unrepented of and uncured is to be envied, be he never so great. Let there be no dallying with sin. God is the great physician of the soul. Healing implies taking away — 1. The guilt of sin, which is the venom of it, by justification. 2. The rage of sin, which is the spreading of it, by sanctification. 3. The removing of the judgment upon our estate.Sense of pardon only comes after sight, sense, weariness, and confession of sin. Let us remember this, lest we deceive our souls. ( Sibbes, Richard, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: I will heal their backsliding, I will love them freely: for mine anger is turned away from him.WEB: "I will heal their waywardness. I will love them freely; for my anger is turned away from him. |
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