ON HOSEA XIV. VERSES 2, 3. 81 the rod. Oh if I might but recover this sickness, or be eased of this affliction, I would then be a new man, and redeem my mispent time. And yet many of these, like Pharaoh, when they have any respite, find out ways to shift and delude their own promises, and, like melted metal taken out of the furnace, return again unto their former hardness. So a good divine observes of the people of this land in the time of the great sweat in king Edward's days, (I wish we could find even so much in these days of calamity which we are fallen unto,) as long as the heat of the plague lasted, there was crying out, Mercy, good Lord, mercy, mercy. Then lords, and ladies, and people of the best sort, cried out to the ministers, For God's sake tell us what shall we do to avoid the wrath of God. Take these bags, pay so much to such a one whom I deceived, so much restore unto another whom in bargaining I overreached, give so much to the poor, so much to pious uses, &c. But after the sickness was over, they were just the same men as they were before. Thus in time of trouble men are apt to make many prayers, and covenants, to cry unto God, " Arise and save us," Jer. ii. 27. " Deliver us this time," Judg. x. 15. they inquire early after God, and flatter him with their lips, and own him as their God, and rock of salvation, and presently start aside like a deceitful bow. As Austin notes, that in times of calamity the very heathen would flock unto the christian churches to be safe amongst them. And when the Lord sent lions amongst the Samaritans, then they sent to inquire after the " manner of his worship," 2 Kings xvii. 25, 26. Thus many men's covenants are founded only in terrors of conscience. They throw out their sins as a merchant at sea his rich commodities in a tempest, but in a calm wish for
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