Let us now, 1. Examine ourselves, whether there be so much tenderness of conscience in us as to close with those Scripture truths, or whether we are still in a way of consulting with flesh and blood. 2. Be humbled for former miscarriages and failings in these particulars, and for not walking accurately according to these Scripture rules. 3. Beware for the future; remember and apply these rules when we have to do with the practice of them. And that I may drive home this nail to the head, I add (beside what was said before) these reasons and motives:
First, It is a great judgment when God "mingleth a perverse spirit" in the midst of a people, Isa. 19.14. Shall we then make that a voluntary act of our own which the word mention-eth as a dreadful judgment? With this spiritual judgment is oftentimes a temporal judgment, as 2 Chron. 16.9; 20.37; 28.22; so Hos. 5.13; 7.8, compared with chap. 8.8,9, where their judgment soundeth forth their sin as by an echo. The Chaldee paraphrase, in the place last cited, saith, "The house of Israel is delivered into the hands of the people whom they loved."
Secondly, Remember what followed upon God's people mingling themselves with the heathen, Psalm 106.35, "They were mingled among the heathen, and learned their works;" Hos. 7.8, "Ephraim, he hath mixed himself among the people;" that is, by making confederacies with the heathen (as Luther expounds the place), and by seeking their help and assistance, Hos. 5.13. But what follows? "Ephraim is a cake not turned," hot and overbaken in the nether side, but cold and raw in the upper side. This will prove the fruit of such confederacies and associations to make us zealous for some earthly or human thing, but remiss and cold in the things of Christ; to be too hot on our nether side, and too raw on the upper side. Whereas not mingling ourselves with the wicked, we shall, through God's mercy, be like a cake turned; that heat and zeal which was before downward shall now be upward, heavenward, Godward. Let it also be remembered how both Ahaz, 2 Kings 16.10, and Asa himself, 2 Chron. 16.10 (though a good man), were drawn into other great sins, upon occasion of these associations with the enemies of God and his people: this sin will certainly ensnare men in other sins. It is well said by Calvin, upon Ezek. 16.26, that as we are too prone of ourselves to wickedness, so when we enter into confederacies with wicked men we are but seeking new temptations, and, as it were, a bellows to blow up our own corruptions; as wine, being mixed with water, loseth of its spirits, and white, being mixed with black, loseth much of its whiteness; so the people of God, if once mixed with wicked enemies, shall certainly lose of their purity and integrity.
Thirdly, As these unlawful confederacies draw us both into great judgments and great sins, so into great security and stupidity under these great plagues and sins, which will make the estate of such to be yet worse, Hos. 7.9. After Ephraim's mixing himself among the people, it is added, "Strangers have devoured his strength, and he knoweth it not; yea, grey hairs are here and there upon him, yet he knoweth it not:" although his confederates have distressed him, and not strengthened him, and although there may be observed in him divers signs of a decaying dying condition, yet he knows it not, nor takes it to heart. The same thing is insisted upon, ver. 11, "Ephraim also is like a silly dove without heart: they call to Egypt, they go up to Assyria." He is as void of understanding as a silly dove, whose nest being spoiled, and "her young ones taken from her" (which the Chaldee paraphrase addeth for explication's cause), yet she still returneth to those places where, and among those people by whom, she hath been so spoiled: so Israel will still be meddling with those that have done him great hurt.
Fourthly, We find that such confederacy or association, either with idolaters or known impious persons, is seldom or never recorded in the book of God without a reproof, or some greater mark of God's displeasure put upon it. If it were like the polygamy of the patriarchs, often mentioned and not reproved, it were the less marvel to hear it so much debated; but now, when God hath so purposely set so many beacons upon those rocks and shelves, that we may beware of them, O why shall we be so mad as still to run upon them? It was reproved in the time of the judges, Judg. 2.1-3. It was reproved in the time of the king's. Ahab's covenant with Benhadad, Asa's covenant with Benhadad, Ahaz's confederacy with the Assyrian, Jehoshaphat's association, first with Ahab, then with Ahaziah, Amaziah's association with those hundred thousand men of Ephraim, when God was not with them,—all these are plainly disallowed and condemned. Moreover, that reproof, Jer. 2.18, "And now, what hast thou to do in the way of Egypt, to drink the waters of Sihor? Or what hast thou to do in the way of Assyria, to drink the waters of the river?" the Chaldee hath thus: "What have ye to do to associate with Pharaoh king of Egypt? And what have ye to do to make a covenant with the Assyrian?" Again, after the captivity, Ezra 9, the Jews' mingling of themselves with the heathen is lamented.
Fifthly, The great and precious promises of God may encourage us so as we shall never say to the wicked, "A confederacy;" for, upon condition of our avoiding all such confederacies and conjunctions, God promiseth never to break his covenant with us, Judg. 2.1,2, and to receive us as his sons and daughters, 2 Cor. 6.14,16-18. [George Gillepsie]
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