The punishment of backsliders

 For the iniquity of his covetousness was .... Isaiah 57

W. Jay.

These words remind us of the language of the apostle to the Romans: "Where sin abounded grace did much more abound."

I. THE ACCUSATORY PART.

1. The evil complained of — "The iniquity of his covetousness." Then covetousness is iniquity. So the apostle considered it, or he would not have called it "idolatry." All idolatry is not gross or corporeal. Much of it is refined and mental. It is lamentable to think that this evil so commonly prevails. You will find, by the sacred writers, that the Jews were always given to it. Is it not awful to see how this vice prevails in our country?

2. The reward of transgression. "For the iniquity of his covetousness was I wroth and smote him." Sin is the same in whomsoever it is found. The evil is not lessened when it is found in the people of God; it is even increased. They stand in nearer relation to God than others. They sin under greater obligations to God than others. They sin against a renewed nature and an enlightened con. science. Hence God is peculiarly angry, "because of the provoking of His sons and of His daughters. Hence He says, You only have I known of all the families of the earth, therefore will I punish you. For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required; and to whom men have committed much, of him they will ask the more." "Sin never hurts the believer," is an antinomian sentiment: but what saith the Scriptures? Turn back to the history of Moses and Aaron. Turn to the history of David, even when God assured him that his sin was pardoned. How wise, how merciful, are those hidings and those smitings He employs to bring His people to Himself.

3. The perverseness under this. "He went on frowardly in the way of his heart." It is said of Ahaz that, in his affliction, he sinned yet more and more against the Lord. So Jeremiah says, "Thou hast stricken them, but they have not grieved; Thou hast consumed them, but they have refused to receive correction; they have made their faces harder than a rock; they have refused to return." "Do afflictions produce no benefit?" Let us distinguish. There are many who have been afflicted, and yet have not been humbled by the dispensations of Providence, by which they have been exercised. But, you say, "Can this be, in any measure, the ease with real Christians? Will they require the rebukes of Divine Providence? Will they go on in the frowardness of their hearts?" Yes, for a while; and, sometimes, for a long while. There is Jonah — he was disobedient to the word of the Lord.

4. Here is God's knowledge of all the ways and works of men. "I have seen his ways." Therefore the speaker is authorized to say, "Be sure your sin will find you out. And now, after all that He has seen, what shall we certainly expect to hear next from Him? I have tried long enough, I have employed means long enough, I will now "avenge Me of My adversaries." But no, "I have seen his ways" — and what ways! — "and will heal him," etc.

II. THE PROMISSORY PART. Observe the extensiveness of the engagement. It takes in four things.

1. "I will heal him', All sin is a disease, and it affects the soul much in the same way as affliction affects the body; depriving it of liberty, of enjoyment, of usefulness. It is the same with backsliding.

2. "I will lead him also." Bishop Hall says, "Though God has a large family, not one of them can go alone." Ann there is none so dull, but He can teach them.

3. "I will restore comforts unto him."

4. "And I will restore comforts unto his mourners," — for he had made others to mourn as well as himself. This is always the case. The wicked are not only corrupt, but they are "children who are corrupters." But who are they of whom the Prophet here speaks? Not men of the world. They are not his mourners. They rather rejoice. They say, "Ah! so would we have it, instead of grieving over the falls of professors of religion and of the people of God. But "his mourners?" They are his ministers—they who only live when you "stand fast in the Lord." They are the humble believers in Jesus, who are "sorrowful for the solemn assembly, and to whom the reproach of it is a burden."

(W. Jay.)