An Exposition of Hosea 4-7, Biblical commentary 2 · Chapter 7 · Verse 2
VER. 2.
And they conſidered not in their hearts, that I remembred all their wickedneſſe: now their own doings have beſet them about, they are before my face.
THey conſidered not in their hearts] In the original it is, They ſay not to their hearts. foreignThis phraſe in other Scriptures is uſed for ſaying in their hearts: Jer. 5.24. Neither ſay they IN their hearts, Let us fear God which giveth rain. And in Eccleſ. 1.16. Conſidering, is, communing with our own hearts; I ſpoke or conſulted with my heart. From this phraſe of ſpeaking thus to our hearts, we may obſerve:
1It is a good thing to be often ſpeaking to our own hearts, thus: Oh my ſoul, how is it with thee? what caſe art thou in? how ſtand things between God and thee? what terms ſtandeſt thou in for eternity? canſt thou look upon Gods face with comfort and not be afraid? what guilt is there in thy conſcience? canſt thou behold eternity and rejoyce in the thoughts of it? Such meditations and queſtionings as theſe would be very profitable for the ſoul; Many people can talk abroad in company of theſe things, but where is the man that ſets apart time to queſtion with his ſoul about theſe? Pſ. 4.4. Stand in awe, and ſin not, commune with your own hearts upon your bed, and be ſtill: There are in the ſoul many times boiſterous diſtempers, but then we ſhould cauſe a ſilence and a calm in our hearts, bid them be ſtill; there are great diſtemper… in that familie where the husband and the wife go two or three daies together and ſpeak not one to another; ſo there is no leſs diſtemper in that ſoul which can go two or three daies without queſtioning it ſelf and examining its condition:ſimile But what is it they ſhould ſpeak? This,
That I remember their iniquities: the old Latine carries it thus, leſt they ſhould conſider: do not you think that God remembers the ſins of your forefathers only, that they were vile and wicked; no, but I alſo remember the ſins that are preſent before me. But according to the reading of the words in your books is moſt agreeable to the Original; therefore Luther ſaith,Luther that theſe words are a reproof of their ſecurity then which no evil being worſe: the Princes they feel not the judgment yet the principal actors in the wickedneſs, the common people they ſuffer much, and yet though they ſuffer yet attribute their ſufferings to any thing rather than to their ſins to be the cauſes of them: the obſervations.
That God doth remember the wickedneſs of people though long ſince Obſ. 1 committed, as we may ſee in Amalek, God remembers this their wickedneſs many hundred yeers after, 1 Sam. 15.2. I remember the prank which Amalek played to you when you came out of Egypt. Amos, 8.7. The Lord hath ſworn by the excellency of Jacob, ſurely I will never forget any of their works: nay they are not only remembred, but recorded, the ſin of Judah is written with a pen of iron, & with the point of a diamond, Jer. 17.1. every oath, every lye, yea and every vain thought which thou haſt committed, and continueſt in under an impenitent condition, know, that thy ſins are remembred; and that thou mayeſt be ſure of it, ſee what the text ſaith, Job, 14.17.Job 4.17. My tranſgreſſion is ſealed up in a bag, opened.and thou ſeweſt up my iniquity. They are ſealed in a bag; as the Clark of Aſſizes ſeals up the inditements of men, and at the Aſſizes brings his bag and takes them out; even ſo will God; as God hath his time to ſeal up mens tranſgreſſiōs in his bag, ſo he wil have his time to take them out to reckon with ſinners for them, and then wo to them, Deut. 32.34. Is not this laid up in ſtore with me, and ſealed up among my treaſures? It is ſealed up to be remembred though perhaps committed fourty or fifty yeers ago, and it is thy ſin if thou doſt not remember them, when and where they were committed, and if thou wilt not, know, that God hath his time to make thee know them.
Wicked men will not conſider that God doth remember their ſins. Obſ. 2 In Pſal. 94.7. they commit horrible wickedneſſes, daring ſins, yet they force themſelves not to beleeve that God doth remember them, and take notice of them, yet they ſay, The Lord ſhall not ſee it, neither ſhall the God of Jacob remember it. The Jews tell us, that when Jeroboams hand was dried up, the falſe Prophets told him that this was but by chance, and ſo kept him from thinking of God that had ſmitten him. Did men conſider that it is God that remembers them, it would work humiliation in them, and ſtop them in their ſins; were the danger that ſin brings men into, alwaies in their eye, they would think it a great madneſs to ſin againſt God, and folly too; Uſe Joſhua thought it ſo, Is the iniquity of Peor a ſmal thing in your eyes, that you ſhould ad more to them? Didſt thou know that God remembers the ſins of thy youth and thy elder age, thou wouldſt fear, that upon the next ſin thou committeſt God might bring upon thee all the reſt of the ſins which thou haſt committed; as a man that hath uſed his body to drink poyſon,ſimile. at the firſt and ſecond time he may do well, but at laſt he is overcome, and deſtroies himſelf: ſo the next ſin which thou committeſt,Note though it be a leſs ſin than formerly thou haſt committed, this ſin may ſet all the reſt on working: as ſuppoſe there be many barrels of Gunpouder in a room, and there lies but a thimbleful by it,…imile and a ſpark falls into that and ſo fires all the reſt; ſo thy former ſins are as the barrels of Gunpouder, the next ſin thou committeſt, eſpecially if a ſin againſt knowledg, may be the thimbleful which ſets all the reſt on work to pull down judgment upon thee. There is no argument ſo powerful to keep men from their ſins as the conſideration that God ſees them, and knows them all, and will remember them.
Obſ. 3 When God doth puniſh for ſin, he manifeſts that he remembers ſin: 1 King. 17.18. the woman of Zarephath falls out with the Prophet ſaying, What have I to do with thee, Oh thou man of God, art thou come unto me to call my ſin into remembrance, and to ſlay my ſon? Gods hand being upon her, brought her ſin into remembrance. How doth the conſciences of men dictate this unto them in their afflictions, this croſs is for ſuch a ſin, this miſery for ſuch a baſe luſt that thou wouldeſt have fulfilled at ſuch a time, God now puts thee in mind of ſuch an act of uncleanneſs, ſuch a time thou were cruel and hardhearted; this is cleer in Joſephs brethren, whoſe ſin was committed twenty two yeers before this trouble came upon them; you that have committed many ſins a long time ago and think they are forgotten, 'tis no ſuch matter, if the guilt of them be taken away by Chriſt, know that there will come a time in which thou ſhalt be put in mind of them; as a man that gets a ſurfet in his youth and younger age,ſimile or gets many a bruiſe and rub which then he undergoes wel enough and never complains of them, but when he grows old or hath an infirm body, then againſt every rain and change of weather it will appear and he will complain: but this is the Saints priviledg, that God never ſo remembers their ſins, as to condemn them for their ſins. It follows.
I remember all their wickedneſs, now their own d…ings have beſe… them about, they are before my face.
Their wickedneſs.] Luther ſaith their ſtudied wickedneſs,Septuag. Luther their contrived iniquities have beſet them round about, or their doing have compaſſed them round:Expoſ. Theſe words have reference to theſe ſimilitudes; as Officers beſet Malefactors, who ſhift up and down and play leaſt in ſight, but at the laſt are found and beſet. Juſt thus their ſins had beſet them, that they could no way eſcape; or as Soldiers beleaguer a Town and will not let any in the Town get out; ſo men by their ſins are beſiged, and brought into ſuch a condition that there is no way for comfort to come at them, or for them to avoid the judgments which are coming upon them; mens ſins are like unto thoſe ſix men in Ezek. 9.2. And behold ſix men came from the way of the higher Gate, to beſet the Gates of the City. And know, Oh thou bold ſinner, that God hath his time to beſet thee with thy ſins and his judgments,Applic. to awaken thy conſcience by ſetting thy ſin… in order before thee; and this is the great reaſon why men cry out in the horror of their conſciences, becauſe they are beſet with their ſins: what a ſad condition were this City in if beleaguerd with an hundred thouſand men? Every mans ſins are worſe and endanger a man more than millions of enemies can do; man ſhall need no other enemy than his own iniquity, thine own iniquity ſhall find thee out, it ſhall find thee as in a ſnare, Prov. 5.21. For the waies of man are before the eyes of the Lord, and he pondereth all his goings: that is, I ſo remember their ſins as if they were all preſent before me, committed at this very inſtant; ſo that thou art to conſider that God doth not only remember thy ſins, but they are before Gods face, ſo that God never can look about him but they are preſent before his face: thou haſt committed a ſin and perhaps art troubled for it, but after a while thou forgetteſt it and the trouble is blown over; but God looks upon it as now preſently committed: for as there is no beginning of eternity, ſo there is no ſucceſſion of it. If thou wert to go to the Lords table thou wouldeſt not go in a drunken fit,Note wel or immediately after an act of uncleanneſs; but God at that very inſtant looks upon thee as drunken, unclean, and filthy, though the act may be paſt many yeers before.