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A Sermon,

DELIVERED BY THE REV. DR. THORPE,

AT BELGRAVE CHAPEL, BELGRAVE SQUARE, SUNDAY MORNING, DECEMBER 1, 1833.

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Hosea, xiv. 2.-"Take with you words, and turn to the Lord say unto him, Take away all iniquity, and receive us graciously: so will we render the calves of our lips." THE prophet Hosea was one of the earliest of the Lord's prophets; he delivered his prediction even before the prophet Isaiah; he lived before the period of the captivity of the ten tribes, and he survived to witness and to deplore that event. The general scope of his prophecies is to denounce sin, and the judgment of GOD against a people which refused to be reformed. In the chapter before us, however, we find him entering upon a new and unaccustomed strain -we find him, on behalf of GOD, addressing the most attractive invitations to the people of Israel to turn unto the Lord; and the most encouraging assurances that if they turned back to Him they should find acceptance and blessing.

The words of our text, were originally addressed to the Israelites, but they are in all their parts strictly applicable to us. The Israelites were GOD's professing people; they had their religion of GOD, and the various rites and ceremonies of that religion established amongst them. In this respect we are similarly circumstanced; we are the professing people of GOD, and we have the various advantages which religion can furnish largely and richly bestowed upon us. We learn from this address of the prophet, and also from the general strain of his Book, that being God's professing people, does not necessarily ensure our safety. We have abun

dant evidence of this furnished to us in our own cases; for when we look around us we see that the professing people of GOD, a large proportion of them at least, furnish no evidence of their being the genuine sincere servants of GOD. Take the dictates of the religion which we profess, take its principles, and compare the professions and the conduct of a large proportion of those around us who bear the name of Christian, and you will see that it does not follow because they bear that name, and are GOD'S professing people, that the principles of his religion have taken root in their minds; that the dictates of it influence their hearts or regulate their lives. Look at some parts of what the word of GOD sets forth to

us.

You will find us directed in the religion of our Saviour "in all things, by prayer and supplication, to make our requests known unto GOD." You will find, again, another injunction of our Saviour:-" Search the Scripture." Now how many who call themselves Christians habitually neglect these two important duties, habitually violate these important precepts of the religion of our Saviour? They live without prayer, for the most part, and almost the only book which they habitually neglect is that sacred word of Him, who, when he has given it to us, accompanies it by an injunction that we should search it. Again, we find the sabbaths of God,

urged upon us to be kept holy. We find the Divine Being calling upon us to make Christ our Saviour all and all in our religion; we find him calling on us to fear himself and to worship him; we find him directing that no corrupt communication should go out of our mouths. But look around on those who call themselves the people of God in these lands, and you will see that a large number of them habitually neglect and violate these precepts. And thus it appears at once that our being God's professing.The first verse of the chapter reads people does not insure our safety, because it does not insure that we are influenced by the principles and precepts of His religion.

Now the command and promise of GOD is to this effect-" Turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways, for wherefore will ye die, O house of Israel?" Here is a command of GoD implying a promise, a command to us to turn to him, with this specific promise implied, that turning to him our souls shall live. It appears from the statement of the Word of God, and even from this passage, if you look at the first verse of it, that God has connected sin and death together.

Hence, my brethren, arises the necessity of the Christian ministers doing, what the prophet by the command of GOD did in this passage the necessity of his calling upon those who are the professing people of GOD to return to GOD from whom they have departed, to repent and come back to the being against whom they have revolted. Our encouragement to do this is furnished by God's gracious declaration, and by God's gracious promises. God's gracious declaration which constitutes our encouragement is this:-"As I live, saith the Lord GOD, I have no pleasure in the death of a sinner: but rather that the sinner should turn unto me and live." Here is a solemn statement of the Divine Being a statement perfectly in unison with that character of himself which he has revealed. We might well expect to hear from a Being who has told us that he is a GOD of mercy, and of all grace-who has set himself before us, in his word, as a GOD of love a declaration to this effect," that he desires not the death of a sinner, but that he should turn to him and live."

thus:-" O Israel, return unto the Lord thy GOD; for thou hast fallen by thine iniquity." The other passages which we have quoted, in which GoD calls upon us to turn to him that we may escape death, and this in which he teaches us that we have fallen by our iniquity, all impart to us distinctly that God has linked together sin and death; a death not consisting merely in the dissolution of our mortal frame, but some awful evil which reaches to the soul and extends throughout the countless ages of eternity. Mark the language of the first verse of this chapter:-" Thou hast fallen," saith the Almighty, "by thine iniquity." Fallen from what? From communion with GOD, from the favour of GOD, unto his displeasure and under the curse of his violated law. You will see illustrated in a striking manner the situation into which sin has brought us all, if you look at what occurred in Paradise. Immediately on the first appearance of sin, GoD came and expelled our first parents from the garden of Eden. He thus deprived them of what they had before enjoyed-communion with him, and access to his presence; He sent them into a place of positive suffering, that is, the world, which had become accursed by their sin; He sent them forth that they might in

the sweat of their brow obtain subsistence for the support of life; He sent them forth into a world which, unbidden, spontaneously, and of its own accord, brought forth briars and thorns, but which required culture and tillage to bring forth necessary subsistence for the human frame; He sent them forth into this world where they were subject to death, and to all the previous wretchedness and misery which are always found connected with death. You see, therefore, the condition into which the bodies of men were thrown by sin; and this strikingly shows to us the condition into which also our immortal souls are drawn by it, or at least, into which the souls of all are liable to be drawn in consequence of our departure from GOD. The expression, also, which the Prophet here uses to mark sin, deserves particular notice; he calls it iniquity"Thou hast fallen by thine iniquity." The mode in which the scriptures set sin before us, if we are disposed to carry it to ourselves, is very different from the view we take of it; we use diminishing expressions to conceal from ourselves its exceeding great sinfulness, whereas the scriptures, taking away all palliations and disguises from it, presents it before us as a fearful and destructive evil; and here the prophet calls it " iniquity."

My brethren, the lessons which we are taught by these considerations are of essential importance, no one ever values the provisions of the gospel until he has been taught these lessons respecting sin; and it is in proportion as we feel them, with regard to ourselves individually-it is in proportion as we feel that sin is a fatal evil, that it has proved fatal to us, that it must eventually prove destructive to us—it is in proportion, I say, as this lesson is fixed in our minds,

and it is in proportion as we keep it clearly before our eyes, that we value the Divine mercy, and that we have recourse to our adorable Re-` deemer, that we cleave to him, as we are instructed to do in his Gospel, with full purpose of heart, and cleave to him to the very end, that at last after all our failures and defeats, and all our multiplied transgressions, we may appear, through him, acceptable before our GoD and Judge.

Now this passage teaches us how we are to come back: “Take with you words and turn to the Lord." What an important thing is it, amidst our ignorance, and the various conflicting opinions upon religion which abound in the world, that we have such specific instruction upon this subject in the word of God? How dark and ignorant are we on all the things that belong to our peace! What multiplied and fatal errors upon religion have always prevailed amongst mankind! “Wherewith shall I come before GOD?" has been the continual inquiry of the alarmed soul in every age, and one has given this instruction, and another has given an opposite instruction; but here, in the Word of God, we have, on the highest authority, the best and most interesting instructions furnished to us: "Take with you words," says the prophet, " and turn,”—that is, come in prayer to God. Now this very instruction, irrespective of every thing else which the Bible sets forth on the subject, shews us that we are to come to GOD, not on the ground of something we can bring to Him, but on the ground of that which He furnishes to us himself. The prophet directs us to come in supplication, that is, to come and acknowledge that we have nothing, and with an entreaty to him that he will furnish us with that which we

require. You will see that this is the very thing that the prayer points out. But even, irrespective of the nature of the prayer, the instruction of the prophet, that we should merely come with a prayer, teaches us that we have nothing, and that we are to depend for every thing on GOD.

Not only does he tell us, the manner in which we are to approach, that is, in prayer, but he also, under the direction of GOD, by whose inspiration he wrote, gives us the very prayer we are to offer he puts the very words into our mouth in which we are to present our supplications before the Most High. Oh, surely, that must be an acceptable prayer which God himself has indited! That prayer must ascend into the ear of GOD with acceptance which he has himself furnished us with. He knows our necessities, He knows the plea we should offer, He knows the persuasive arguments we should bring, and, in His compassion, and mercy, and wisdom, He has furnished us with it all in this blessed passage.

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Let us now attend to the prayer with which we are furnished here: Say unto him, Take away all iniquity, and receive us graciously." Here is the sum and substance of every acceptable prayer that has ever been offered to GoD; here is the sum and substance of all we can say to the Being whom we have offended. In whatever situation of extremity you may be found in whatever conjuncture of evil and wretchedness-here is the prayer we must bring to our GOD, as to the substance of it: "Take away all iniquity, and receive us graciously."

Now here are two things which this prayer presents to us. It, first of all, teaches in what character we are to draw nigh to GOD-who they are that are warranted to come to the Fa

ther of mercy and God of all grace— sinners. That is implied in the very first petition: "Take away all iniquity." That is a petition only suited to miserable transgressors; that is a petition, then, suitable to us all, for we are all, whether we be conscious of it or not, miserable transgressors. We are to come to our GOD, therefore, to have our iniquity taken away; we are not to come concealing, or attempting to conceal or palliate our offences; we are not to wait until we have ourselves purged ourselves from our evil and removed the stain of it, and then come to GOD; but we are to come to GOD, confessing our sin, feeling its evil, deploring our ignorance; we are to come thus to our God and beseech him, while he looks at it and sees it in all its deformity, and in all its vileness, to beseech Him to take it away.

Now mark the second thing-" Receive us graciously." Here we have our Saviour presented to us. When the prophet offered up this supplication, he had his eye carried forward in vision to that blessed period when our adorable Redeemer was to descend from heaven and perform His great sacrifice. It is in Him that the grace of God is manifested, and it is through Him that it is dispersed to us miserable sinners. When the prophet, therefore, instructs us to pray-" Receive us graciously," he, as it were, calls on us to look forward to the atoning sacrifice which was afterwards to be offered up on Calvary: he calls on us to look to "Him who is the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world,” the gift of God's grace and compassion to us. "Look on the face of thine anointed," is implied in these words, and receive us graciously; receive us, not as we deserve, look not upon us as we are in ourselves, wretched, and

worthless, and guilty—but receive us through Him, who is our substitute Redeemer, "receive us graciously."

My brethren, this is a prayer which the real Christian ever offers up, and the more he is impressed with religion, the more he is influenced by it; and the more habitually he is regulated by it, the more deeply sensible is he that this is the only supplication, as to substance, which can bring him nigh acceptance and peace with GOD. He comes, day by day, acknowledging his iniquity, and entreating of GOD to remove it; and day by day, to the closing hour of his life, he casts himself on the free mercy and compassion of his GOD and Saviour, through Jesus his Redeemer, who died upon the cross. "Take away all iniquity, and receive us graciously."

tual praise of our lips. You will see a correspondent passage in the thirteenth of Hebrews and in the fifteenth verse: "By him," that is, by Jesus Christ, "let us," saith the apostle, "offer the sacrifice of praise to GOD continually, that is," saith he, “the fruit of our lips." The prophet calls it here, in allusion to the sacrifices which were offered up on the Jewish altar, "the calves of our lips," but here the apostle calls it "the fruit of our lips," giving thanks to his name. "So shall we render thee praise," the prophet says. Yes, it is from the grateful heart that praise ascends from the Christian heart, under a sense of the penalty that has been remitted, under a sense of the mercy he has received, under a sense of the daily pardon that is vouchsafed to him, that he offers up his praises and thanksgivings in the courts of the Lord's house, and privately in the recesses of his own dwelling, to the GoD and Father of our Lord Jesus

Now there is, also, in the latter part of the text, and in the succeeding verse, presented to us a kind of supplement to this prayer. The part we have examined contains the peti-Christ: "so shall we render thee the tion; the part to which we are now to calves," or "the fruits of our lips." come contains the promises of the In the next verse, the prophet says, servant, or, as it were, the vows "Asshur shall not save us; we will which he offers to the most High, and not ride upon horses." The besetting which he is determined to pay. The evil of the Israelites was their trustprayer runs thus: "Take away all ing to the neighbouring heathen iniquity, and receive us graciously: nations for help, and forming associaso, will we render the calves of our tions and unions with them. Asshur, lips." And then it says, "Asshur or the neighbouring nation of Assyria, shall not save us; we will not ride was one of the countries to which the upon horses: neither will we say any Israelites, contrary to God's commore to the work of our hands, Ye mand, always had recourse in their are our gods for in thee the father- necessity. Egypt, again, was another less findeth mercy." Now you will of the countries on which they relied immediately understand the import of in their distress. And they say, with these promises, as they respect the reference to that, "neither will we Israelites; and you will also see their ride on horses." It was one of God's bearing on ourselves: so will we commands to the Israelites, that they render thee the calves of our lips;" should not use the various warlike that is, instead of bringing animals in engines and means which the neighsacrifice to the altar to show our gra- bouring nations used to defend themtitude, we will render thee the habi- selves; and among other directions

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